Frontierland

Earlier this month, Disney announced that Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Belle Riverboat would closing in early July to make way for a Cars themed area. Today Jenn, Susan, and I went into Magic Kingdom to experience them one last time. 

We took the train from Main Street to Frontierland, then I went to the new DVC lounge to get on the wait list while Susan and Jenn looked in the shops. After a brief wait we went in to enjoy the AC and free soda and snacks.

While Susan waited in the lounge, Jenn and I went over to Tom Sawyer Island and walked around. I was disappointed that Injun Joe's cave was closed.

From the island we could see Big Thunder Mountain, which closed at the beginning of January for a year long refurbishment. After that we rejoined Susan for a ride on the riverboat. I then took the train around the park while Susan and Jenn walked out through the Emporium.

Meanwhile over near Fort Wilderness, the Lakeside Lodge continues to get taller. It looks like it will top out a nine floors at its tallest.

Portland

After the book convention, Jennifer stayed with a friend in the Portland area for a week. They visited bookstores and went by University of Portland so Jenn could say hi to some of her professors. 

On Saturday Bryan drove over from Bend to join her for the friend's birthday. On Sunday they hung out in Portland. They visited the Voodoo Doughnut in Milwaukie and Powell's Books.

They had lunch at the Pietro's Pizza in Milwaukie, which had recently moved to a new location. Then he dropped her off at PDX for her flight home and drove back to Bend. 

Ferryboats

At the end of May I started training to drive the ferryboats at Magic Kingdom, and today, after two weeks, I completed it. 

Last weekend, Jennifer did an event with another author at her Barnes & Noble. Thursday night she flew out to Portland for a book convention. 

Bryan, meanwhile, spent last week on the Big Island of Hawaii, attending a friend’s wedding. He enjoyed the Kona coast and seeing Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Seattle

This weekend Susan and Jennifer flew to Seattle for another book convention. Before it started, they checked out downtown.

They stayed at the Westin downtown. Because it was a Marriott, they got upgraded to a suite. Bryan came up from Bend to visit.

After the convention, they checked out a new VooDoo Doughnuts and visited friends in the Seattle area. They flew home last night.

MuppetVision

Earlier this year, Disney announced they would be closing MuppetVision at Hollywood Studios in early June to make way for a Monsters Inc. area. Susan and I had loved this 3D movie when we saw it on our first visit over 30 years ago, so when Jenn and I visited the park last week I made sure to watch it again before it closed. 

I ate lunch at PizzeRizzo, across from MuppetVision, which will also be closing soon for the Monsters Inc land. We’ve eaten there several times over the last decade, and at Pizza Planet before that, even though the pizza was never great.

This weekend, Susan and Jennifer drove down to Fort Lauderdale for a book convention.

Epic Universe - Ministry of Magic

After Super Mario World we entered the final area of Epic Universe,The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. Like the Harry Potter lands at other Universal parks, this one was very well themed with lots of eye catching details. It is set in Paris.

Besides shops and restaurants, it has one ride and one show. The ride didn’t open til 3 pm and required a virtual queue time, which we failed to secure during the drops at 11 and 3, so we decided to go watch the show. It was based on the Fantastic Beasts movies, and was cute and had impressive effects, but not as repeatable as something with songs and dancing or acrobatics. 

We went back into Celestial Park for dinner and a ride on the carousel, then tried and failed to get a virtual queue at 6. We were disappointed, but at least we were able to travel through the floo network and see inside the Ministry of Magic show building. It was impressive.

After that we walked around a bit and looked through some stores and bought a few things. The portals and Celestial Park look nice at night. A lightning storm had shut all the outdoor rides down around 6 pm. We waited a bit hoping they would come back up but finally gave up around 8, an hour before the park closed.

Epic Universe - Super Mario World

We left Dark Universe and headed next to Super Mario World. This area was similar to what we experienced a few years ago at Universal Hollywood, but expanded. Since we had ridden the Mario-Kart ride then, we decided to skip it and instead lined up for a ride Hollywood didn’t have, Yoshi’s Adventure. 

Yoshi’s is a cute simple family ride. Similar to the skytrain in IOA’s Suess Landing, guests travel above the land and see colorful creatures along the way. Universal could use a few more like it. It was our shortest wait of the day. 

We then headed into the Donkey Kong section of Super Mario Brothers. We wanted to try the Mine Cart coaster, but it had an hour wait and had recently stopped loading, so we headed back to Celestial Park.