Beyond The Parks: Relaxing In The “Outside World” – Day 4
Marc and I got up early and headed to Hollywood Studios to be there at park opening. This is where staying onsite vs offsite is a huge advantage. All the Disney Resorts get to enter the parks 30 minutes early. While 30 minutes may not seem like much, it is a nice perk, as if you are at the front of the line, you can get at least a couple of rides out of the way before the general public gets in. The trick to staying offsite and entering at park opening is still to get there about 45 minutes before the official opening time. That way you can be toward the front of that line because when the park opened at 9:00 the line was extremely long. Yes, you are still waiting in line, but I would rather wait in line before the park opens, than waste time once it does. This is also a very busy week. It’s known as Jersey Week because most of the state of New Jersey gets part of the week off of school on election week, and a lot of people from there choose to come to Disney. Also, since Veterans Day falls on a Saturday this year, the observed day is Friday so that added to the crowds.
Once we got in the park, we headed straight to Toy Story Land as Marc wanted to ride Toy Story Midway Mania. The wait time was already posted as a 40-minute wait, but we only waited 13 minutes before getting on the ride. Pro-tip: Disney often inflates the wait times, especially first thing in the morning, as it makes people much happier to get on a ride quicker than listed, instead of waiting way longer than the posted wait time. And once the masses enter the park the wait time will quickly make it up to that time. When we exited the ride the wait time was up to 55 minutes.
Next, we headed to one of Joffrey’s Coffee Stands to get coffee and then checked out the Christmas decorations. (click on the thumbnails for full-sized pictures)
I was starting to get hungry, so I picked up a Ronto Wrap from Rontos Roasters, and we went to Baseline Taphouse to have a beer and people watch, before heading back to the resort to relax for the afternoon.
This evening we had reservations for the Medieval Times Dinner Show. This was something we had never done before. It was a four-course meal served Medieval style, meaning there was no silverware. You drank your soup from your bowl and ate the rest of the meal with your fingers.
We were seated in colored sections, where we cheered for our respective knights as they battled it out in a medieval joust. It was a lot of fun. I can’t believe we never took the boys here when they were little…they would have loved it. When I sent them a picture of it, Brendan and Riley accused us of child abuse for never taking them. (click on the thumbnails for full-sized pictures)
After we got back to the condo, Mom and Dad stayed back to relax, while Marc and I went back to Hollywood Studios to see the Christmas decorations all lit up.
We also watched the two shows projected on the Chinese Theatre before heading back to the resort to call it a night.
Disney Movie Magic (click on thumbnails for full-sized pictures)
Wonderful World of Animation (click on thumbnails for full-sized pictures)
