Jared
06-08-2009, 08:53 PM
Sorry I haven’t posted another installment in a few days. Told you these things take time! That’s why I refused to promise a complete report. But I have a light day at the ballpark, so this is the perfect time to reflect and reminisce on what was an excellent Disney vacation.
Justin and I slept much better today. Not a surprise, really. A day of touring has a way of knocking you out. We woke up around 8:40 a.m. or so actually feeling rested, which at Disney is an impressive feat. Normally, we’d be up earlier, but we really weren’t in a rush to get anywhere. We’ve seen all the attractions before. The parks will be there when we’re ready.
We walked through the Epcot gates around 9:30 and made a beeline for Soarin’, expecting to immediately obtain FASTPASSes and move on. Surprisingly, the posted wait time was just 30 minutes, which should demonstrate how uncrowded the park was today. I’ve seen waits of way over an hour at this time before, so this was a pleasant bonus. I can’t even remember the last time I rode Soarin’ standby, so I was actually excited to the games on those screens. Unfortunately, they were not operating, so Justin and I stood 30 minutes in what is undoubtedly the absolute worst queue area for any significant attraction in Disney history. Honestly, it’s embarrassing. I know they would argue that the exposed plumbing simply adds to the theming, and it is all intentional. Nice try. Good thing the ride is so awesome. Even sitting in the third row with the feet hanging down, Soarin’ is still a fantastic experience every time, and it is my absolute favorite attraction in Epcot.
On the way out, we grabbed FASTPASSes to return later and moved on to Spaceship Earth. This was always my favorite Epcot attraction until Soarin’, but that was with Jeremy Irons’ narration. Unfortunately, I think the so-called upgrade actually made the ride worse. The Judi Dench script is considerably dumbed down and geared for children, without the subtleties and intricacies of Irons’ spiel. I always feel like Dench is talking down to me. It really hurts the ride. Yes, the Animatronic work in the first half of the attraction is probably a bit better, but not considerably. It’s not a substantial enough improvement to justify the absolutely pathetic finale. The decent used to be my favorite part of the entire experience. It was dramatic, emotional and uplifting. The beautiful score coupled with Irons’ beautiful voice made for a moving conclusion to a fantastic ride. Instead, we have these silly screens that add nothing. Talk about an upgrade on the cheap. The whole thing is cheesy and useless, lacking any semblance of the tone of the rest of the attraction. Spaceship Earth used to be geared for adults. Now it’s not really for anyone. I still ride it every trip because I love the first half so much, but I long for Jeremy Irons’ return.
All that said, the new Project Tomorrow is actually quite cool, especially compared to the old Global Neighborhood, and we always spend a few minutes fiddling around with the games before exiting. I really like the driving game. It’s silly but fun, so Justin and I played for about 20 minutes and continued onward.
The wait at Test Track was unreasonable, and we couldn’t obtain FASTPASSes for a while longer, so we decided to take advantage of the single rider queue. This is a feature more attractions should employ, especially ones like Soarin’ and Splash Mountain, on which I always see empty seats because of the ride vehicle configuration. Despite a posted standby wait time of about an hour, Justin and I were in the briefing room and settled in our cars within 10-to-15 minutes of entering the line. True, it would have been more fun to ride together, so I understand the downside of the singles line, but it sure beat waiting in that loud and obnoxious queue. I’ve always thought Test Track has a bad reputation around here. It’s probably my next-favorite Epcot attraction after Soarin’ and Spaceship Earth, but all I see on the boards are people constantly bashing it. No, it is not a true thrill ride. And yes, some of the stuff at the beginning is rather uneventful, albeit rather interesting. But the feeling of zooming around that loop outside is unbelievably exhilierating. You think it will never slow down, and you feel like you are flying. It’s short, but the final segment of Test Track makes it all worthwhile for me.
Despite my protestations, Justin really wanted to ride Mission: SPACE, and I couldn’t bring myself to deny one of his few wishes. There was virtually no wait, as there never seems to be, and were loaded in our spinning chambers of death within 15 minutes. I’ve suffered through this attraction multiple times and dislike it more with each ride. The feeling of blasting off was incredibly cool the first two tries, but now it is no longer worth it. I always leave feeling a little unstable. Not fully nauseous, necessarily, but not quite right, either. Disney rides shouldn’t make me feel like taking a dive into the fish tanks at The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Nevertheless, I somehow survived our traumatic journey to Mars feeling pretty wobbly. Justin was happy, so I guess it was worth it. On the way out, they were hawking some interactive game, so we decided to play. It was actually pretty fun! It was essentially nothing more than a glorified video game, but we enjoyed it. We also played the other video game on the other end of the postshow. I know people probably consider these minor diversions wastes of time, but we enjoyed them.
Our FASTPASS return time had come up for Soarin’, so we swung past Test Track on the way to snag FASTPASSes for later. We happily crossed Future World toward The Land pavilion for our second flight of the day. I was shocked to see the posted standby wait time at just 55 minutes. Are the lines at Soarin’ finally dying down, or was the park just empty today? I had never seen such a short wait here at the middle of the day since the ride opened. With FASTPASS, we zoomed to the loading area, and a nice Cast Member honored our request to sit in B-1, so we had a perfect view. Sitting in the front row really does enhance the experience, and it is worth waiting an extra ride cycle to do so. Most CMs are very accommodating. I’ve only been turned down once.
NEXT POST
Justin and I slept much better today. Not a surprise, really. A day of touring has a way of knocking you out. We woke up around 8:40 a.m. or so actually feeling rested, which at Disney is an impressive feat. Normally, we’d be up earlier, but we really weren’t in a rush to get anywhere. We’ve seen all the attractions before. The parks will be there when we’re ready.
We walked through the Epcot gates around 9:30 and made a beeline for Soarin’, expecting to immediately obtain FASTPASSes and move on. Surprisingly, the posted wait time was just 30 minutes, which should demonstrate how uncrowded the park was today. I’ve seen waits of way over an hour at this time before, so this was a pleasant bonus. I can’t even remember the last time I rode Soarin’ standby, so I was actually excited to the games on those screens. Unfortunately, they were not operating, so Justin and I stood 30 minutes in what is undoubtedly the absolute worst queue area for any significant attraction in Disney history. Honestly, it’s embarrassing. I know they would argue that the exposed plumbing simply adds to the theming, and it is all intentional. Nice try. Good thing the ride is so awesome. Even sitting in the third row with the feet hanging down, Soarin’ is still a fantastic experience every time, and it is my absolute favorite attraction in Epcot.
On the way out, we grabbed FASTPASSes to return later and moved on to Spaceship Earth. This was always my favorite Epcot attraction until Soarin’, but that was with Jeremy Irons’ narration. Unfortunately, I think the so-called upgrade actually made the ride worse. The Judi Dench script is considerably dumbed down and geared for children, without the subtleties and intricacies of Irons’ spiel. I always feel like Dench is talking down to me. It really hurts the ride. Yes, the Animatronic work in the first half of the attraction is probably a bit better, but not considerably. It’s not a substantial enough improvement to justify the absolutely pathetic finale. The decent used to be my favorite part of the entire experience. It was dramatic, emotional and uplifting. The beautiful score coupled with Irons’ beautiful voice made for a moving conclusion to a fantastic ride. Instead, we have these silly screens that add nothing. Talk about an upgrade on the cheap. The whole thing is cheesy and useless, lacking any semblance of the tone of the rest of the attraction. Spaceship Earth used to be geared for adults. Now it’s not really for anyone. I still ride it every trip because I love the first half so much, but I long for Jeremy Irons’ return.
All that said, the new Project Tomorrow is actually quite cool, especially compared to the old Global Neighborhood, and we always spend a few minutes fiddling around with the games before exiting. I really like the driving game. It’s silly but fun, so Justin and I played for about 20 minutes and continued onward.
The wait at Test Track was unreasonable, and we couldn’t obtain FASTPASSes for a while longer, so we decided to take advantage of the single rider queue. This is a feature more attractions should employ, especially ones like Soarin’ and Splash Mountain, on which I always see empty seats because of the ride vehicle configuration. Despite a posted standby wait time of about an hour, Justin and I were in the briefing room and settled in our cars within 10-to-15 minutes of entering the line. True, it would have been more fun to ride together, so I understand the downside of the singles line, but it sure beat waiting in that loud and obnoxious queue. I’ve always thought Test Track has a bad reputation around here. It’s probably my next-favorite Epcot attraction after Soarin’ and Spaceship Earth, but all I see on the boards are people constantly bashing it. No, it is not a true thrill ride. And yes, some of the stuff at the beginning is rather uneventful, albeit rather interesting. But the feeling of zooming around that loop outside is unbelievably exhilierating. You think it will never slow down, and you feel like you are flying. It’s short, but the final segment of Test Track makes it all worthwhile for me.
Despite my protestations, Justin really wanted to ride Mission: SPACE, and I couldn’t bring myself to deny one of his few wishes. There was virtually no wait, as there never seems to be, and were loaded in our spinning chambers of death within 15 minutes. I’ve suffered through this attraction multiple times and dislike it more with each ride. The feeling of blasting off was incredibly cool the first two tries, but now it is no longer worth it. I always leave feeling a little unstable. Not fully nauseous, necessarily, but not quite right, either. Disney rides shouldn’t make me feel like taking a dive into the fish tanks at The Seas with Nemo & Friends. Nevertheless, I somehow survived our traumatic journey to Mars feeling pretty wobbly. Justin was happy, so I guess it was worth it. On the way out, they were hawking some interactive game, so we decided to play. It was actually pretty fun! It was essentially nothing more than a glorified video game, but we enjoyed it. We also played the other video game on the other end of the postshow. I know people probably consider these minor diversions wastes of time, but we enjoyed them.
Our FASTPASS return time had come up for Soarin’, so we swung past Test Track on the way to snag FASTPASSes for later. We happily crossed Future World toward The Land pavilion for our second flight of the day. I was shocked to see the posted standby wait time at just 55 minutes. Are the lines at Soarin’ finally dying down, or was the park just empty today? I had never seen such a short wait here at the middle of the day since the ride opened. With FASTPASS, we zoomed to the loading area, and a nice Cast Member honored our request to sit in B-1, so we had a perfect view. Sitting in the front row really does enhance the experience, and it is worth waiting an extra ride cycle to do so. Most CMs are very accommodating. I’ve only been turned down once.
NEXT POST