2017 Holiday - Day 2 - Hollywood Studios

The jet lag kicked in around 4.30 or so and so I got up at 5am and sat on the balcony. It was humid already, but nice to sit and listen the peace and quiet. It's not often it's like that round here! We can hear both the Hollywood Studios and EPCOT fireworks from our room as the hotel is situated on the Boardwalk area between them both.

We had a light breakfast in the Club Lounge (pretty good oatmeal for me, Raisin Bran for Clare and Matthew went for fruit and toast) before heading off to walk to Hollywood Studios and get there for the Extra Magic Hour 8am opening. It's a pleasant walk - perhaps a mile or so - and ambles round the Boardwalk and then along a small pond before arriving at the park.

We got through the security and gate quite quickly and then headed for an old favourite Toy Story Mania. We joined the Standby line and got in after about 25 minutes wait. Now they have the extra tracks there, it wasn't as bad as it used to be. Matthew won the first round, taking 136k points to my 122k points. Suffice to say this please him greatly...

Clare and Matthew then decided to head for Rock n Roller Coaster. Those who know me, know of my deep loathing of thrill rides, but I was looking forward to spending some time wandering the park - looking in the shops and watching one of the street shows (if I was lucky enough to catch one). The published wait time for the coaster was about 45 minutes, so I headed to The Trolley Car Cafe (which is a Starbucks in disguise) for a coffee and then walked around the Sunset Boulevard area looking the the shops and watching the world go by.

The guys appeared about half an hour later and headed to Sweet Spells for a cookie before off to Tower of Terror using their Fast Pass. I sat in a shady spot and rested my eyes until they came out about 20 minutes later. Matthew stopped for an enormous donut from the stall close by, then we headed to Sweet Spells where he picked up a raspberry slushie. He declared both to be excellent.

We had a wander round the park and looked at some of the construction going on. The new Star Wars land, that will open in 2019 looks like it's going to be pretty cool!

It was then back to Toy Story Mania using our Fast Pass. I narrowly defeated young Matthew this time. He'd led by about 20k points through most of the games, until the final one where he blamed cramp in his arm, allowing t to nudge ahead or both him and Clare (by a mere 100 points!) to take victory with 131k.

We then legged it to Sci Fi Dine In for our lunch reservation. This is a restaurant themed like an old 50's outdoor cinema - where cars would park to watch the film (think of that scene in Grease and you'll get the image!). The tables are convertible cars and you can watch the 'feature' on the big screen ahead of you. Another test for gluten-free passed. They had an excellent allergy menu, and I chose a vanilla milkshake with a turkey and bacon wrap and fries. Clare and Matthew had burgers. There was a bit of a wait, because my food has to be prepared freshly, but the food was good. The 'feaure' on the screen (that showed old adverts, trailers and cartoons from the era) wasn't long enough and looped back round again whilst we were there. It's also very dark in there! Can't really see what you are eating!

Back out into the Florida sunshine it was off to Star Tours for Clare and Matthew whilst I watched a group of kids go through Jedi training. It was similar to what Matthew did back in 2011, but had been updated to include both Darth Vader and Kylo Ren (effectively doubling the number of kids that could take part). It was little more chaotic, but fun nonetheless.

We then went to Star Wars Launch Bay which was a highlight for me. There was a short movie from people at Lucasfilm (Katherine Kennedy, Dave Filoni, etc) about what Star Wars meant to them before heading into an exhibition of props and models from the movie. Clare and Matthew stopped for a drink in the Cantina:

Back out once more for a walk to the entrance and a chance encounter with Donald Duck (in original Sailor costume) before watching the March of the First Order parade. It was short, but fun, and we stood in the right spot to be 'harassed' by a stormtrooper

But we soon blew them away with our Jedi powers!

We then strolled back to the resort. Matthew and Clare hit the pool, but by now it was too warm and humid for yours truly. I hit the arcade! A decent version of Pirate of the Caribbean pinball was there (bit of a sticky left flipper though) and I managed to get a decent score of 46m on one go. I shall ook to better that over the course of the holiday!

A light dinner in the lounge (chicken skewers and rice), before Clare and I strolled into EPCOT to look round the Food and Wine festival. A number of stalls caught our eye, and we shall be back another night!