Smugglers Run

On Saturday, Jenn went to Tampa for the Lightning’s home opener. She and her friends went early so they could watch the afternoon practice and get jerseys signed by some of the players. The Bolts beat the Washington Capitals, 3-1. Bryan meanwhile spent another evening with friends at Universal’s Hollywood Horror Nights.

This morning, I got to do a backstage tour of the Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Hollywood Studios with other cast members from MK watercraft and monorails. Besides showing us how the ride works, our guides pointed out some details in the queue and in the area surrounding it. 

We got to sample some blue milk in Olga’s Cantina, then finished the tour with a ride on Smugglers Run, which I hadn’t done since they updated it at the beginning of summer. 

After the tour I went back into the park to look around. The Tower of Terror is surrounded by scaffolding while its exterior is refurbished, and Echo Lake is still drained. I couldn’t see much at the Monsteropolis Courtyard except a lot of scaffolding, and while I wouldn’t have minded checking out the new Animation building, it didn’t open until 10, and I didn’t want to hang out that long. 

On the way home I stopped to take a photo of a new building going up backstage in Adventureland. Rumor is it will be for parade support.

Animal Kingdom

Yesterday morning I picked my mom, sister, and niece at the Grand Floridian and took them to Animal Kingdom for early entry. We met some of my brother’s family and headed to Pandora to ride Flight of Passage and the Navi River ride. From there we went to Africa for the Safari Ride and the Gorilla trail.

I waited with my mom while the rest went to ride Expedition Everest, then we took the Wildlife Express back to Conservation Station, where recently they had removed Rafiki’s Planet Watch, the Animation Academy, and the petting zoo to add a Bluey meet and greet and a kangaroo and wallaby habitat. 

Susan and the kids joined us for lunch at Tusker House, a character buffet. We saw Mickey and friends in safari outfits, and the food was pretty good. Luckily we got a cast discount to help with the cost. Following lunch Susan and the kids said goodbye and my mom, sister, and niece watched the Lion King show. We then watched the bird show, went on the raft ride, and walked the Tiger trail. 

We watched the Nemo show, and I grabbed some photos of the Tropical Americas progress before we watched the Zootopia movie in the Tree of Life. At that point my brother's family said goodbye and my mom, sister, niece, and I went to the Nomad Lounge for a drink to finish the day.They flew back to California this morning.

Grand Floridian

 

While Susan and I were visiting Kennedy Space Center, the kids hung out at the beach and hotel pool. Bryan and I drove back home Sunday evening; Susan and Jenn stayed another night and came home Monday morning.

Monday evening after work I met Susan at Magic Kingdom so we could get some of my brother’s family in to watch the fireworks and night parade. Like usual, Disney had put up Halloween decorations in early August and started holding Mickey’s Not So Scary parties. Last week they erected a big crane in Frontierland to work on the new Cars attraction. 

They’ve also been working on expanding the area where we park launches when not in use the last month, making it safer to tie them up. This had led to some disruptions in our boat service, although it’s been pretty well worked out the last few weeks. 

From Magic Kingdom we took the boat to the Grand Floridian, where my mom, sister, and niece were staying. We had dinner with them at the quick serve restaurant, Gasparilla Island, which we had not been to before. Their room looked over the main pool. 

Yesterday morning Susan got my sister and niece into Epcot, and in the afternoon brought my mom out to ride my boat. After work we had dinner and drinks at the pool bar.

Kennedy Space Center

 

Yesterday Susan and I visited Kennedy Space Center for the first time in almost 25 years. My mom and some of the family of my sister and brother went as well. I wanted to get there at opening but we ended up waiting for others, so it was almost 10 am before we got in the gates.

We made the mistake of checking out the Heroes & Legends exhibit first, which was interesting but took a while, so by the time we got to the bus tour line it was 10:45 and the line to get on the bus was two hours long. We decided to check out an IMAX movie instead. I think the IMAX movies used to be an additional charge, but now they are included with admission. They play several different ones throughout the day. 

After the IMAX movie we grabbed some lunch then checked out the exhibit on the Space Shuttle Atlantis. Like most of the presentations, guests move through several rooms with media displays about the subject, then into a large room with the main attraction and several minor displays. In this case it was the shuttle Atlantis suspended in the room. 

Several of my relatives left at that point, and Susan and I got in line for the bus tour. The wait was about an hour at that point, and by the time we boarded it was after 2, so we only got a partial tour. Our bus drove out past the huge Vehicle Assembly Building to the building holding an exhibit on the Apollo program and a Saturn rocket. 

The presentation here was much more impressive here than the one we saw in Houston a few years ago. By the time we got back to the main complex, it was after 4, so even though we hadn’t seen everything, we started back to the hotel. Next time we will make sure we enter before opening, and do the bus tour first.

Cocoa Beach

This week the snack and dining coupons Susan and I get from Disney expired, so Monday after work we went to Disney Springs to use some up. We ate at D-Luxe Burger, the only restaurant at Springs that takes the holiday coupons, then walked around a bit. On our way out we stopped at a kiosk to use our snack coupons on a bunch of ice cream sandwiches to eat later. 

Thursday night we went to the Grand Floridian for dinner at Citricos. We ate here a few years ago with Bryan, but it had been remodeled along with the rest of the Grand Floridian lobby last year, and the menu changed. It was good, but we wouldn’t have wanted to pay full price. 

Friday morning we returned to the Grand Floridian for breakfast at 1900 Park Fare. We had never eaten here, although Jennifer has with friends. It’s a character buffet, so pretty pricey if not using a coupon or if you don’t care about seeing characters. Cinderella, Aladdin, Tiana, and Mirabel from Encanto came by while we were eating.

Yesterday morning we drove out with the kids to Cocoa Beach for my mom’s 90th birthday celebration. My brother and sister and their families were there as well. We ate lunch at a restaurant at the pier, then hung out in the afternoon. 

We stayed at the La Quinta next to the pier. It was okay. We had mom’s birthday dinner at a restaurant downtown.

Aquatica

Yesterday, while Jennifer and Susan signed and sold books at the book convention, I spent a few hours at Sea World’s water park, Aquatica. Admission for it is included with our Sea World annual passes, and they gave me a $10 credit I used to buy lunch. There were several places to eat, but some were closed due to the low crowds. 

It’s a fairly nice park, but not as cool as the Disney water parks. It has several towers with slides coming off them, plus the usual kids splash area and wave pools. There is a small lazy river, although it was closed, as were a few of the slides. It also has a faster than usual lazy river which was a little different. 

A unique feature of the park is a dolphin habitat. A couple of slides run through the tank.

Yesterday evening, Bryan and I went to dinner at Boatwright’s at the Riverside Resort. Susan and Jenn went to Disney Springs and had dinner at T-Rex Cafe with friends from the book convention. 

Today they returned to the Hilton for another day of signing and selling books. I went by after work this evening to help them load up.

Book Events

This morning I helped Jennifer and Susan set up for a book convention at the Hilton next to Disney Springs.

Some of Jennifer’s friends came in early to enjoy some park time. On Wednesday Jennifer went to Epic Universe with them. They checked out the Dark Universe area and rode Mario Carts and ate at Pizza Moon in Celestial Park. 

Yesterday morning Susan and I got her friends into Hollywood Studios. The Animation Courtyard is now open, although the attractions aren’t opening until next week. We had breakfast at Hollywood & Vine, a character buffet where Mickey and friends were appearing in Halloween outfits.

Echo Lake was drained while the Dockside Diner is refurbished. After breakfast the girls went to Galaxy’s Edge to build lightsabers.

Last night Jennifer drove to St Petersburg to do an event at a local bookstore with another author.