Disney 2013: Day 10 – Flex Day

When I first planned this trip, I thought that this flex day was going to be spent at Universal Studios. On our last trip, we didn’t get through both parks in two days and I was worried that this might be the case again. We had much better luck this time around and visited both parks on both days. That left the flex day open for us to add even more new experiences to our trip.

While we had done some of the Agent P World Showcase Adventures on our Epcot day, I completely forgot that the France adventure allows you to obtain a special pressed penny that you can’t make just by walking up to the machine. We got to Epcot right when the park opened and started off the day with our FastPass at Soarin’. From there, we went to the Imagination pavilion since we didn’t make it here earlier in our trip. We followed up the ride with a visit to the returned Captain EO 3D movie. I’m not sure why, but the 3D didn’t work for me at all during the movie. While it was great to travel down memory lane, I think we’d skip this movie if it were still there on our next trip. From there, FastPasses at Test Track awaited.

At this point, the World Showcase had opened and we made our way to France to foil the evil plans of Dr. Doofenshmirtz. We completed the adventure without getting the part of the mission that gives you the special pressed penny. That was a huge bummer and we didn’t have time to try it again because it was now time for our lunch reservation at Chefs De France.

This meal came close to becoming a disaster. Cassidy went to pick something up outside the restaurant and smashed her head on the menu sign when getting up. Once we were at our table, Cass discovered that she had lost one of the decorations from her MagicBand. As much as I love the MagicBands, those MagicBandits do a good job of describing the person at Disney that came up with them. They are only connected to your band by one peg in a hole and they’re going to get lost with all of the climbing into rides and moving around the parks that you do. Both Jenne and Cass lost one during the trip and that’s ridiculous.

What ended up saving the meal was a little bit of Disney Magic that is no longer available. That Magic was a visit from Chef Remy. This was a very cool part of the meal. Remy looked awesome and the person pushing his cart around the restaurant was very funny. One person called Remy “Ratatouille” and was told, “That is not his name, that’s a meal in France. You’re from America and we do not call you ‘Mac and Cheese’” The food was yummy and the service was great. It’s a shame that there will not be any more Remy meet and greets. Remy is getting his own ride, but you have to go overseas to check it out. It looks like it is going to use technology similar to what SeaWorld used for their Antarctica ride. I’d love to see Disney put that technology into one of the Florida parks. An Avatar ride with that technology would get me to ride even though I could care less about the movies.

After lunch, we split up for a little while. Jenne made her way to the Disney Lost & Found to see if they had the camera that she had lost (we think on Soarin’) earlier in the trip. When she called to find out about the Lost & Found, they made no mention of the time limit in place in order to claim items. Once she got there, they weren’t much of a help for her which put a bit of a damper on things. The Disney Magic does not extend to that part of the park.

Meanwhile, Cass and I were calling an audible and changing plans slightly. We had originally planned on starting at Epcot, going to Animal Kingdom to finish some Wilderness Explorer stuff, and then finish at the Magic Kingdom, but that didn’t flow so well. We decided to cut Animal Kingdom from the equation and spend a little more time in the other two parks. That gave us time to stop by Canada and see O’ Canada with the awesome Martin Short. When we got to the waiting area and saw that it was 15 minutes until the next show, I wanted to leave, but Cassidy convinced me to wait and I’m glad that I did. This film is funny and does a good job of showing the diversity of Canada. Cass enjoyed it and I enjoyed it so it was time well spent.

On our way out of the park we grabbed some Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bars and relaxed for a little while with our snacks. There was some browsing to be done in the Art of Disney store on the way out. There are so many amazing things in that store. If I had a huge house and tons of money, so much of it would be mine, but I’ve got neither the space nor the funds to have my own little Disney art museum.

We hopped on the monorail for the trip to the Magic Kingdom and met a nice family during the ride. The son was a little older than Cass, but was in the middle of his first trip to Disney World. He was having a blast just riding the monorail and taking in the whole experience. I remember being the exact same way 30 or so years ago.

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom and made our way directly to the Fire House on Main Street. We picked up two packs of Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom cards and started on our first adventure. This game is a lot of fun and is a perfect way to spend part of the day in the park. We started with an adventure on Main Street, then fought the forces of evil in Liberty Square, again defended the Crystal of the Magic Kingdom in Adventureland, and conquered our final rapscallion in Fantasyland. Along the way, we had two different people stop to talk with us and give us some of their extra cards since we were brand new to the game. This is something to try at least once during your next trip to the parks. A single adventure only takes 15-20 minutes depending on how busy the portal locations are.

Jenne had arrived at the park during our fourth and final adventure. She took advantage of that time to take a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean since Cass was suddenly terrified of the ride and wasn’t going on. She was lucky that she went on when she did because the ride wasn’t running properly when she was on it and was shut down for most of the rest of the day. From there, she made her way to Fantasyland to meet up with us. We made another stop at the Rapunzel themed bathrooms on our way over to Adventureland.

There’s another game to be played in Adventureland and this one was right up Jenne’s alley since it was pirate themed. This thing was extremely cool. You start off at The Crow’s Nest where you begin your adventure. This was designed for use with MagicBands, but there are cards that you can get which will also work (just like Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom). You are given one of 5 adventures, you take the corresponding map, and then head off to the first destination that you are given. Once you find that location, you tap your MagicBands to the icon that you’re looking for and a recording will start. There will also be something cool that happens such as a cannon firing or a ship appearing that corresponds to the location that you are at. You get your next clue and then continue on to the next location. Each adventure has 4 or 5 locations that must be found before you discover that adventure’s treasure. Unfortunately, we only had time for three of the five missions before we had to call it a day.

We stopped at the Art of Disney store on the way out with the intention of purchasing two statues to be shipped home. They had the Roger and Jessica Rabbit statue that I wanted, but didn’t have the Jack and Sally NBC statue that Jenne wanted. After what seemed like forever, we had the statue purchased and ready to ship home. Once that was finished, we had to hustle over to the Contemporary for our reservation at Chef Mickey’s.

Chef Mickey’s is fun and it’s a great way to meet the Fab 5 all at once, but it’s not a culinary delight. It’s a buffet, so there’s plenty to choose from, but not much of it is any good. Cassidy had a blast waving her napkin around and dancing with the characters. They all come right over to your table which is a pleasant change from waiting in line. It also made the whole autograph book thing a lot easier since some of the characters had a tough time holding the book while they were signing it.

The Contemporary is my kind of hotel. They had a bank of 6 pressed penny machines in the lobby and I grabbed a bunch for my collection. We experienced more Disney Magic while waiting for the monorail back to the parking l…Transportation and Ticket Center. One of the Cast Members manning the monorail platform had a little LED light that he used to do some quick little magic tricks for Cassidy that brought a huge smile to her face.

We returned to the hotel, but Cass and I weren’t ready to call it a night yet. We made our way back to the main hotel building and spent some time in the arcade. They had a bunch of cool games in there including a Pac-Man air hockey game that was awesome. Much fun was had and Cassidy ended up with some cool prizes when all was said and done. Midnight pounced upon us quickly and we had some credits left, so Cass made a plan to show Jenne her favorite game the next morning after we finished breakfast. This game was a more fun version of Spider Stomp. There were three colored buttons to step on and also three colored button to hit. It’s one of those games where it wants you to move so quickly by the end of it that you’re tripping over yourself and hilarity ensues.

This was an awesome day to end our trip. 4 new experiences for our list and a chill day to send us home on a relaxed note.

Disney 2013: Day 9 – Universal Studios

 The weather report for our final two days in Florida was not looking very good. You know that there’s a good chance that it’ll rain for an hour or two on any given day that time of year, but they were calling for heavy rain for a majority of the day for both Tuesday and Wednesday. We were pretty well prepared to deal with the rain, but we weren’t looking forward to it.

A light drizzle started when we got to the front gate of Universal Studios 15-20 minutes before park opening. That turned into a heavy drizzle right before the park opened. Jenne and Cass ponchoed up and we were ready to go.

Since we skipped it the previous day, we made a beeline to the back of the park so that we could ride MEN IN BLACK Alien Attack before it got busy. We stuffed our belongings into lockers and dashed off to the ride.

We got to enter through the Express line which was a little disappointing because we ended up missing all of the cool theming inside of the ride building. It did get us on the ride quickly though which allowed us to make a second trip before the free time on our lockers ran out.

On the way off of the ride, we decided to sign up for the Universal Photo Connect which took longer than it should have and did cause me to run out of time on  my locker. I showed the employee manning the lockers my receipt and figured that my $60 purchase would get me out of the $3 that I’d have to pay for the locker. I was correct. Signing up for the Photo Connect deal ended up being one of the best things that we did during our trip. I had no clue that the service even existed. We ended up getting some great pictures and had fun doing so. I would highly recommend it for anyone making a trip to Universal Orlando.

Next up was Springfield which I was ridiculously excited about. I’ve been a big Simpsons fan since the days of the Tracy Ulman shorts. This addition to the park did not disappoint. I already was a fan of The Simpsons Ride and now the whole area is tied together nicely.

The Kang and Kodos’ Twirl ‘n’ Hurl ride was a nice way for them to add another Simpsons ride and add another kiddie ride (which is something Universal is a little lacking on). It’s a simple spinner with an added feature of having to move your spaceship up and down to “attack” the citizens of Springfield.

In addition to the new ride, you’ve got a food court disguised as Krusty Burger and Cletus’ Chicken Shack with an additional room themed as Moe’s Tavern. You can have a drink at Duff Gardens or grab a taco at Bumblebee Man’s Tacos food truck. This area isn’t too shabby for a park that people love to bash for being “just warehouses and soundstages.”

At this point, I noticed that the Hollywood Rip Rock RideIt Coaster was up and running and I made my way over there while Jenne and Cass got a snack. I was a line for a little while before they stopped loading cars and were running the coaster in test mode. I decided to bail and it turned out to be a good decision since the ride was shut down around 5 minutes later. I met up with Jenne and Cass in line to meet Donkey and Shrek after they had already met Optimus Prime. Donkey does all of the talking in this interaction and he was very funny while we were there.

The Transformers meet and greet is right across the way from the Shrek meet and greet. Every time a Transformer comes out, warning lights go on and sirens blare. That led to Donkey shouting, “Shut up Transformers! Nobody cares!” When it was our turn to have our picture taken, we had the following exchange:

Donkey: Hi Cassidy, what’s your mom’s name?
Cass: Jennifer.
Donkey: Well, hello Jennifer. What’s your dad’s name?
Cass: Michael.
Donkey: Hi Stinky.

When it came time to smile, instead of “cheese,” Donkey told us to say “Red Sox stink.” Yes, it’s definitely not Disney fairy dust, but it definitely suits the character and was a very entertaining time. The next big thing is going to be costume characters that are able to communicate with guests and this one is pretty good. Disney has a certain mouse that also talks now and I think you’ll see more and more characters like this in the years to come.

The siren that had annoyed Donkey announced the arrival of Bumblebee, so we hopped in line for that meet and greet. These characters look amazing. We didn’t get to see Megatron, but we did see Optimus Prime and Bumblebee and they look great. Cassidy immediately fell in love with Bumblebee when we rode Transformers, so this was another awesome moment for her on the trip.

Now it was time to visit Woody Woodpecker’s KidZone. We spent way too much time here on our last trip waiting for and then watching the A Day in the Park with Barney show. Never, ever again. We did stop so that Jenne and Cass could get their picture taken with SpongeBob and then we made a beeline to one of Cass’ absolute favorite rides: Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster. This is a fun kiddie coaster that lets Cass put her hands up and act like a daredevil. Yes, she’s been on Everest twice, but she can’t put on her brave face for that ride yet. On this ride, she’s got swagger. There was no line so we rode it three straight times before moving on.

Our last stop in this area is the only other thing worth checking out if you don’t have a toddler and that’s the E.T. Adventure. I feel like this ride was already dated the first time that I rode it back in the 90s. Now that it’s 2013, this ride feels really old. It’s a classic dark ride, but it’s got a cheesiness factor to it that keeps it from being a classic ride. If this was in any other part of the park, it probably would have been bulldozed a long time ago along with King Kong, Jaws, and (soon) Disaster. I think I ride it each time that I go because I think it might be the last time I get to do so before it disappears. They did add a cool photo opportunity in the gift shop at the end of the ride. This is the last we saw of Cass before she rode off in the moonlight with E.T.

Once Cass came back down to Earth, we started to make our way back towards the front of the park to re-ride some of the things that we did the previous day. That’s when I noticed that Hollywood Rip Rock RideIt was running again. We made a beeline over there and I was second to hop into the single rider line. It took another 5 minutes or so, but once the ride started up, I was on the second car out of the station.

This ride has some great moments, but the fact that it slows down 4 times during the ride at spots where the cars can be stopped if there’s an emergency kind of kills the thrill. The start of the ride where you go straight up and then crest the first hill is awesome. The loop with a corkscrew at the top is very cool. The drop down through a building facade in the New York section of the park is nice as well. What’s not nice is that this is almost like 4 mini-coasters. (What’s also not nice is that the ride breaks down frequently or is just shut down because of weather and that’s when people aren’t getting stuck on the first lift.)

Now it was time to hit up some of our favorite rides a second time. We started with Minion Mayhem and it was just as funny the second time around. We decided to skip a second ride on Shrek since it was getting late quickly and another ride on Transformers seemed like the thing to do. On the way off of the ride, we figured that a Bumblebee souvenir for Cassidy would be pretty appropriate. She picked out an awesome baseball cap that she wore proudly for the rest of the trip.

Since the wait time for Minion Mayhem was kind of high (20 minutes if I remember correctly), we only had time for those two rides before it was time for lunch (if you consider 1:40 time for lunch). We decided to check out Krusty Burger since it was new and seemed like it would be very cool. While it was very cool, it was also VERY expensive and not very delicious or filling.

Part of the reason why it was so expensive was that we went for all of the bells and whistles. I ordered a Flaming Moe which is really just an apple juice with dry ice bubbling through it. Jenne got a Buzz Cola which was a mistake because we didn’t notice that it was a diet cola and most of it was still in the cup when we were done eating. Other than that, the potions were small and the cheese on the burgers was kind of nasty. As much as I love The Simpsons, I don’t think I’ll be eating here again unless they drop the prices once the newness wears off.

The day was quickly coming to a close and we still wanted to check out some rides back in the other park, so we said goodbye to the Studios and headed back over to Islands of Adventure. It wasn’t until later that I realized that we completely missed Revenge of the Mummy (a decent ride, but nothing special), Disaster!, (wanted to ride it one more time before it closed), and Twister…Ride It Out (Jenne loves the movie and tornadoes in general). No big losses, but it would have been nice to have seen everything. I think we had more fun heading back over to the other park though.

We zipped around the park quickly focusing on our favorite rides and any photo opportunities that we saw. We sped through Seuss Landing with Hogsmeade as our destination. We finally got to see the show in Olivander’s Wand Shop. This also led to Cassidy adding another wand to her collection. She went in wanting one of the character wands, but ended up buying one of the other wands which I think was a lot cooler looking. I took one more ride on Forbidden Journey and was pleasantly surprised to exit the ride and find out that Cassidy wanted to ride Flight of the Hippogryph. It’s another kiddie coaster, but it’s a step up on the thrill meter from Woody Woodpecker. Cass loved this one as well and wanted to ride it again, but at this point we were pressed for time.

We zipped through Jurassic Park with a brief stop at the cool automated picture opportunity they have there. I kind of wish we had taken the time for a few more pictures since there was no line. You scan your Photo Connect pass and get a countdown to when the picture will be taken. You are posing in front of a car, but a ton of other cool stuff is added to the picture as you can see to the right. I was tempted to hop on the River Adventure again so that I could have a ride picture, but I didn’t feel like getting wet and didn’t want to hold us up at all.

We zipped through Toon Lagoon as well so that we could take another ride on Spider-Man. They have a cool photo opportunity in the line for Spidey if you’ve got a Photo Connect lanyard. You end up walking right by it and they won’t pull you out of line if you aren’t wearing your lanyard. Once that was done, we called it a day at Universal. We did some shopping at the big store near the entrance to the park and got sidetracked by a survey on the way out of the park. This was a thorough survey that took a while. I expected at least a $10 gift card or something like that, but we got nothing.

Our dinner reservation for the evening was at the Coral Reef restaurant in Epcot (another first time experience), so we made plans to meet up with friends in Epcot to hang out for a little while and catch up. Since it had been three years since our last trip to Florida, we tried to pack a lot into this trip which didn’t leave as much time to visit. Hopefully it won’t be as long before our next trip and we’ll be able to have more non-park time for visiting.

Dinner at Coral Reef was awesome. Thanks to having an adorable, little girl with us, we were able to get a table right next to the tank. Having all of the fish swim right past you while you eat was really relaxing. It probably wouldn’t be relaxing for the fish if they knew what the people outside were eating.

We had a great meal that ended after the park was over so we made our way home and called it a night. Cass was passed out, so I got to work off my dinner by carrying her from our table in the restaurant to our car which must have been at least a half mile walk, if not more.

Disney 2013: Day 4 - Epcot

Welcome to the fourth day of our trip. Epcot is a park that I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with. As a kid, I absolutely loved EPCOT Center and I guess I was in the minority. I loved the educational nature of the pavilions and it didn’t matter that Mickey wasn’t in EPCOT because Figment was. It was a huge shock when I first returned to Epcot as an adult in 2001. Journey Into YOUR Imagination was an abomination. There was no Figment and the ride was terrible. Horizons was closed and World of Motion had been replaced with Test Track. Innoventions was terrible with no real theme. The only real improvement to me was that they had added Ellen DeGeneres to the Universe of Energy pavilion. It was still really long at 40 minutes, but now it was a little more entertaining.

Over the years there were more changes and it was to transform EPCOT Center from an education theme park to Epcot, just another Disney park. These aren’t necessarily bad changes, but the park has completely lost any educational value that it used to have outside of the World Showcase and even that has been Disney-fied. The final nail in the coffin was the closing of the Wonder of Life pavilion. Unlike Horizons and World of Motion that closed for new attractions, the unused Wonders of Life pavilion still sits there unused and neglected. I was lucky to catch Cranium Command, The Making of Me, and Body Wars a few more times as an adult and wish there was still something in the park that was still like these attractions.

Enough of my old man ramblings, let’s get back to the current trip. We got to Epcot right when they were starting to let people into the park which was great timing. Our first FastPass for the day was Soarin’ Over California at 10, so we weren’t in any rush. We started off the day at Spaceship Earth because you just have to. Everyone else can rush to the thrill rides. We still had plenty of time before we had to head to Soarin’ so we went next door to The Seas with Nemo & Friends. It’s not The Living Seas any longer because none of the main attractions here are alive. The Nemo ride is great and if you’ve already seen the Finding Nemo show at Animal Kingdom, will get Big Blue World stuck in your head again. The real gem of this pavilion though is Turtle Talk with Crush. Cass asked a question this time around, “What’s the biggest wave you’ve ridden?” which led to a lengthy conversation between her and Crush. Due to FastPass timing, we had to do what the majority of Epcot visitors do and skip looking at the fish. Cass and I did get to look at the manatees for a little while Jenne ran to the bathroom, but we’d make up for this later in the week.

The Land was next. While I do love Soarin’, it’s a shame that they couldn’t relocate Food Rocks to somewhere else in the pavilion. Maybe replace The Circle of Life? Cass loves The Lion King, but didn’t want to watch the boring movie about recycling and conservation. Since they’re getting rid of everything else educational, maybe it’s time to replace this film with something else. We used our FastPasses for Soarin’ and waited about 5 minutes. The ride was fun as always, but I wouldn’t mind if they were to update this film as it is looking a little worn. Also, I don’t think that I’ve ever experienced this ride from the front row. I can’t remember for sure. Next trip, we’ll just ask to wait for the front row of the next flight. After pressing some pennies, we made sure to ride Living with the Land because it’s one of the few classics remaining. Sure, it’s had some tweaks here and there, but I love the nice relaxing boat ride through the greenhouse.

We made our way back towards the middle of Future World for our next FastPass, the Epcot Character Spot. The wait time wasn’t high yet at 11 since everyone else was still riding the park’s three thrill rides, but I’m still glad that we had the FastPasses. It turned what was advertised as a 15 minute wait time into about a 5 minute wait time. It can take a while to get through this attraction so any help that you can get is greatly appreciated. We got to see Mickey, Pluto and Minnie. The characters went on break right before we got to Minnie who was in the back snacking on some cheesecake, so it extended our time in the attraction for a little longer than usual. Once we were done, we hopped in line for Chip and Dale who have been relocated outside of the Character Spot after the latest renovation.

This brought an end to our time in Future World for now, but we’d be back later. Since we had lunch reservations in the World Showcase, we figured that we’d make our way there and visit the country pavilions on the way. Now that Epcot is all about rides, I’m not sure how kids react to the World Showcase. I remember enjoying it as a kid, but I don’t think that we spent a ton of time there. Disney is aware of that and has added something that makes kids love the World Showcase. What started as the Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure is now Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure.

We did one or two missions of Kim Possible on our last trip, but that wasn’t enough to really get a feel for the experience. Since this was rebranded as a Phineas and Ferb attraction, I’m counting this as a new experience. There are three locations in the World Showcase where you can sign up to be a secret agent and help OWCA (Organization Without a Cool Acronym for those won don’t watch P&F) thwart the evil schemes of Dr. Doofenshmirtz. When you sign up, you are given your Field Operative Notification Equipment (or FONE) which is what you use to play the game. You are given a mission by Major Monogram and Karl the Intern from OWCA in one of seven World Showcase pavilions that you have chosen. You’ll view humorous clips on your FONE and get clues leading you to specific areas in the pavilion. The coolest part of this attraction is how all kinds of little things are hidden in the pavilions. You wouldn’t ever notice them if you weren’t playing the game, but they’re extremely awesome once you see them in action. Each mission takes 20-30 minutes depending on how quickly you decipher the clues. I can honestly say that I’ve never had more fun in the World Showcase. You use your brain to figure out some of the clues, you get exercise, you learn about the countries, and you have a ton of fun. This is a huge addition to the park experience, especially if you have kids. (I saw a few adults on missions without any kids in sight.)

We saved Mexico and Norway from Dr. Doofenshmirtz before it was time for lunch (with a ride on the Gran Fiesta Tour thrown in there as well). We finished our second mission and then got to Biergarten in Germany just in time for our lunch reservation. We love this place and come here every trip. The food is delicious, you sit at a long table with other people, and there’s an Oompah band. I love that this is a buffet because there’s always so many delicious things to eat. I know that I’d have a hard time deciding on just one thing if I had to pick from a menu. We shared a table with two couples. One was local and not very talkative while the other were taking a Disney vacation without their kids for a change and were as awesome couple to share a table with. Cass was happy once the band came out since she had been looking forward to dancing for the whole meal. Ziggy zaggy ziggy zaggy! Oi oi oi!

Once we were finished with lunch, we picked up a new FONE and took a Mickey Premium Ice Cream Bar break. After a ride on the Maelstrom, we saved China and Germany from various –inators. We were a little delayed between China and Germany due to the bridge opening for the inferno barges. I wouldn’t have minded as much if it was the opening for the lighted globe, but the barges are nothing to look at. I hope that I never get stuck at the bridge opening again. I’d rather wait in line 30 minutes for a ride because at least then there’s a payoff for your time spent. All we got was to witness the worst of Disney tourists as everyone rushed the bridge as it was about to open back up. You would have thought that they were giving away unlimited FastPasses on the other side.

After finishing our Germany mission, we hopped on the boat back to Mexico so that we could return to Future World. We had FastPasses from 5-6 for Test Track and were looking forward to seeing what they did with the ride refurbishment. The previous version was looking pretty shoddy on our last trip with many of the effects not working. Once they stopped having the other car full of crash test dummies crash right before you “hit the wall” this ride was ruined anyway.

We got into the car design area pretty quickly thanks to our FastPasses. Cassidy was in charge of designing the car so we ended up in a big, pink speed machine that did really well in the metrics that are measured during the ride. I like the look of the new ride a lot. It’s still basically the same ride, but they’ve managed to improve the overall experience which is great. The biggest addition to this ride is the experience once you are done racing around the track. You can check how your the car you designed rates against all of the other cars designed that day and you can race your car against other people. My favorite thing was the automated photo opportunities that they have set up. You tap your MagicBand, pick what you want your picture to look like, and then get in line. When it is your turn, you tap your MagicBand again and proceed to the picture area. The camera takes three pictures which are emailed to you. You end up with great pictures unless some neglectful parent allows their child to climb into the car while your pictures are being taken.

Our next stop was Innoventions East. My main reason for going there was the two new pressed penny machines that had been placed, one in each side of Innoventions, but we ended up having a great time. We beat up on things for a little while at the Test the Limits Lab. I skipped The Sum of All Thrills this time around in the interest of time. I enjoyed it last time, but Universal’s Kuka Arm attraction is a much better experience. We did check out StormStruck which was a lot of fun. You watch a 4-D video of homes getting wrecked by a storm and then are asked to make choices to improve the durability of the house. Another storm comes through and you get to see how your choices improved things (if you chose correctly).

Across the way in Innoventions West we found some great attractions as well. We played Where’s the Fire? which is a fun game that teaches fire safety. Next up was The Great Piggy Bank Adventure which was also a lot of fun. We skipped the Videogame Playground because we didn’t come to Disney to play videogames. I really wish that they’d get rid of this, but it’s one giant commercial for all of the Disney videogames out there. We had a great time and I got a bunch of new pressed pennies so I’m a huge fan of Innoventions now. I’m bummed that you can’t ride the Segways any longer without paying for the tour, but everything else we saw were big improvements over three years ago.

At this point it was getting close to 7 PM and not only was Innoventions closing, but we had a 7:30 reservation at Teppan Edo that we had to make. We had to skip O’ Canada for now, but I know that I’d visit with Martin Short before the end of this trip. While we didn’t have time for the movie, we did have time to pose for some fun pictures.

We once again got to Teppan Edo right on time. We made the most of every single minute on this trip. No waiting around and wasting time. Teppan Edo is another restaurant that we try and visit on every trip. Teppanyaki cooking is always fun, but they take it up a notch at Disney. I had steak and scallops and loved every bite. While we were eating, Cassidy noticed that a girl we had met at a Wilderness Explorer activity the previous day was at the other table in our room. They chatted for a bit when we were done eating. Dinner seemed to go a little slower than we planned and we didn’t get out of there until 8:50. We had already planned not to watch Illuminations and that plan was reaffirmed by the fact that Cass is going through a phase where fireworks explosions really bother her. The booms started right around France and then paused right around the United Kingdom as the globe took center stage. There were more booms on the way out, but by then we were far enough away that it didn’t bother Cass. We beat the crowd out of the park and called it a night.

One thing that I’ve got to say about this trip: We didn’t do any of the parades or nighttime shows without a FastPass. On past trips, we lost hours and hours just claiming spots for these shows. What a waste! By skipping all of these things on this trip, we had so much extra time for other things. We also didn’t have to deal with the ridiculous crowds getting out of the parks after these show. It might sound sacrilegious, but this approached really worked for us this trip.

I also wanted to mention that I’m finally very happy with the status of Epcot. It was in a state of flux for a while, but they’ve done a good job of making the park kid friendly while also putting some of the educational experiences back into the park. It’s still not the park that I loved in my youth, but it’s the best it has been since then. Now they just need to bring back the original Journey Into Imagination along with the Figment meet and greet and I’ll be completely happy.