PW23 Trip/Race Recap
Thursday
Timestamp has us walking through Seuss Landing just before 8a, and in line for Flight of the Hippogriff soon after. The morning breeze was perfect during the ride and again, we got beautiful views of the rest of the park. Then we went for a ride on the Hogwarts Express (10min wait time!). Shared a compartment and were seated by the doors, but still a good view of everything passing by (the poor dad in the family we were sharing with kept getting chastised, in a good way, for not knowing where certain rides were). Got to King’s Cross, and turned around to ride right back
. Still 10 min wait and again sharing a compartment. Then some last shots of Hogsmeade and a SR repeat of Forbidden Journey. Yesterday we were in seats 1&2 and each in seat 4 this time; we both agreed that 4 made for a much more exciting ride; good to know for the future.
And River Adventure was open today! I was excited but L was a little leery. Back story: summer of ‘22, we had gone to Six Flags NJ and ridden Congo Rapids (similar to Bilge Rat Barges). Out of the 6 of us, L and another friend were the only ones to get completely soaked, and the 2 of them spent a good 30-45 min in the bathroom trying to dry out while the rest of us rode other rides… I convinced L that this was not going to be that bad, it was only a little drop at the end. Well, we ended up in the front row, with L on the far right seat (only realizing as we pulled away that we should have swapped seats). The ride itself was a lot of fun, but of course L got pretty wet (I’m sure the boats all around could hear her yelling at me
). I felt a little guilty, but she was a good sport about it, and I made up for it by paying for a stint in the “Personnel Dryer”. Those are genius, and video of her in the dryer got sent back to the others from the Six Flags trip.
Finished with IOA, we headed to USF (now knowing that it’d be faster to cut in front of Hard Rock instead of going all the way around the lagoon). Caught the end of Sing It, then watched Marilyn and the Diamond Bellas. Continued the shows theme with Bourne Stuntacular, which was stunning, as advertised, then backtracked to Springfield to ride the Simpsons Ride with a quick picture with Poppy the troll along the way. Got lucky and funneled into a very short side line and then were quickly off to MIB. Saw some people down in the “office area” while in queue, and wonder if that was a VIP experience thing. My aim was lousy, but managed to hit the red button so leapfrogged into top scorer for our car. We kept getting spun around, though, as the opposite car had great aim.
Then, it was back again to Diagon Alley. We spent another good ~3 hours here, exploring Gringotts Exchange, watching Tales of Beedle the Bard, L casting more spells, venturing down Knockturn Alley, and an SR repeat of Escape. Pooped, we finally ended up in the Leaky Cauldron around 4p for some cottage pie and more Butterbeer (frozen and ice cream this time). Finally, a visit to the Knight Bus (again, the TMs for both the shrunken head and the conductor were excellent), then headed out from Universal just before 5. Overall, I enjoyed USF and IOA, but we’re clearly not the target audience as neither of us are big coaster/thrill riders. The entertainment was on point and we definitely really soaked up both HP areas, so it was a great time, but at the end of the day, I’ve still mostly drunk the Disney punch.
Stopped back at Surfside to pick up our bags before Lyfting to the Expo (yikes, this was the worst ride ever, with the driver totally ignoring the app’s directions and trying to get us to a resort instead of ESPN). Thankfully, we ended up telling him where to go using our own phone maps and arrived a little after 7. Grabbed our bibs, some quick photo ops, our shirts, and were back out 30 min later to board a bus to Wilderness Lodge for our 8:20 reservation (and one of the highlights of the trip) at Storybook Dining at Artist Point! I did a lot of stalking of the Dining Reservation site throughout February and we lucked out at almost the last minute in grabbing a Thursday night slot.
L was looking forward to the Evil Queen, and I was very much excited about meeting Dopey (had also worn my shirt and brought my medal to show him). L got the Wishing Apple Punch (Crisp Apple, White Cranberry and Sprite; complete with glow cube) and I got The Antidote (Bacardí Superior Rum, Hickory Smoke, Lime Juice and Ginger Beer; said I was a sucker for lime cocktails) and they were both good choices. Appetizers were good, if a bit small (as noted by reviews online), and we split the Stroganoff and Prime Rib. Both were very yummy, and the prime rib was cooked well. Desserts were also very good, though sweet, and we were quite stuffed. It was also lovely getting to chat with the guest at the next table who was dining alone with her baby before the rest of her family arrived the next day, and would also be running the challenge. And of course the best part, getting photos with the stars of the show: Dopey and Grumpy (and Snow and the Evil Queen). It was just about 10p when we were done. Explored the Wilderness Lodge lobby (it really is gorgeous) before Ubering to our slightly less upscale home for the next two nights: AsMo. Stopped by the front desk to pick up a “First Visit” pin for L, and were in our Buzz Lightyear room just before 11p.
At least each scheduled run was done (just forgot an extra mile on Friday). Have sorely neglected cross and strength training since MW taper, need to get back on that. Snow still on the 200m track for Wed workout, but at least it wasn't icy. Realized that I really have no idea what 5k pace is, but probably was running too fast because cannot imagine sustaining those paces for 3 miles. Chickened out on Friday and Saturday and decided not to brave single digit to negative double digit feels like temperatures.
.
. Planning to take it easy this week before ramping back up for April's half (toying with trying to sub-2 it).
No idea how far away that is from Orlando, but am sure that would NOT have been a fun start to the trip.
hrs in Hogsmeade, we continued counterclockwise through the park. I had wanted to ride Jurassic River Adventure since it had been closed at USH, but no luck, it was closed here too 
. So we went to the Raptor Encounter. Wow, both the trainer and raptor TMs were amazing 
! It was great watching the parties ahead of us and even more fun experiencing it ourselves. Was also tickled at how the line TMs kept making it very clear to people joining that it was for a meet-and-greet, and not the line for Velociraptor. Continued on to single rider Kong and got the leftmost 2 seats in the last row, which may have been some of the best? Then wandered through Toon Lagoon to Super Hero Island. The line to meet Captain America was short, so we took some pictures (where I learned he and Spiderman were from Brooklyn and Queens, respectively), then rode Spider Man (how many kids walking through the queue have no idea what those CRT monitors are?) Circled back around to Seuss Landing and the Trolley Ride, getting a relaxing view of the rest of the park just before dusk.
After the parade, we booked it to ET (one of my must-do’s). It was a little hard to find amidst the construction and almost nobody was there. After returning to earth, we headed to Diagon Alley. Picked up a guava caipirinha at the Brazil booth along the way (I’m a sucker for lime cocktails); it was strong, but kinda had a weird aftertaste. Caught a glimpse of Kreacher on Grimmauld Place then got in a ~50 min line for Escape from Gringotts. USF was closing down as we left, with TMs all along the way guiding us to the exit. Got back to the room ~9:15p and crashed pretty quickly with plans to early entry IOA the next morning.
. Rode through the blustery day in the Hundred Acre Wood, then headed off to meet Ariel and travel Under the Sea. Throughout the day, meet/greet lines tended to be longer than ride lines, but still nothing untenable. I think we grabbed some popcorn at this point? (Had brought back the bucket from Jan). Finished Fantasyland with a visit to Belle’s Enchanted Tales (apologies to the older couple whom I totally misinformed on what it was; and apparently middle-aged me is shorter than teenage Belle...) and Princess FairyTale Hall (Cinderella & Elena; surprised this meet/greet was not Photopass).
Probably not the best idea, but then got in the unshaded line for HM during the hottest part of the day. Thankfully it moved pretty quickly, and we brought our hitchhiker along to Frontierland. Tried to get a Dole Whip to enjoy during the parade, but the line was quite long so nixed that idea. Grabbed a spot right in front of Country Bears, with a nice sightline of the castle in the background. Then backtracked to Aloha Isle and headed to BTTM with frozen treats in hand (Dole Whips ARE Disney for me, and L really liked them, so win:win). Chatted briefly with another guest in line who had done her first rD race that morning and had the Tron preview wristband. She mentioned it had been humid (yay for missing that, but I still have FOMO about missing the Jasmine shirt/medal), and that Tron had definitely lived up to expectations. Picked up another popcorn refill as we left Big Thunder, waving to the scaffolded former Splash Mountain. Continued to Pirates (still think DL’s is better), catching the Mickey Cavalcade as we walked back through Adventureland (somehow getting spit on by the camel every time we passed by Carpets) for L to pick up some orange soft serve at Sunshine Terrace (successful conversion haha! She ended up getting 2 more Dole Whips before the weekend was out).
