Day 3: Disney Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom
Never been to Hollywood Studios before and my first impression was that it’s very very incoherent. I’m not sure what it was like before they added Toy Story and Star Wars but as of now it just feels like a very weird park that they dumped spillover stuff into . To start off I went to Toy Story Land , when it comes to the land overall , I wasn’t that impressed . I don’t think they pull off the supposed feel of making you feel miniature and a toy in Andy’s Backyard . To be fair I don’t expect them to pull that off , but more so the “giant objects” just don’t come off convincing to me . Anyways as for the rides , I think Slinky Dog Dash is really good for the type of coaster it is . Nothing really special about the other rides in this land; they're not terrible but nothing special .
Next up was doing Muppetvision, and I will say at this point of my trip was very much tired of “3D” but it was still pretty charming and their use of animatronics /character actors etc. made it at least somewhat better than some other 3D shows I sat through . Rock n Roller Coaster was fun, but after riding so many coasters it just kinda got lost in the bunch for me , I do think I enjoyed it more than its Universal counterpart when I rode that in 2019 though . Tower of Terror , I enjoyed it quite a bit. I love the interior and queue segments , I love the theming, the ride itself is probably the only drop tower I've been willing to ride and it reminded me how I fear heights/falls more than any rollercoaster. Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway was good , I think their use of projection mapping and the ride concept made for a ride I hadn't experienced before. I actually have to say I really love the trackless ride system, I think it has a lot of potential on what can be done especially mixed with other effects. I also found the preshow to the loading station pretty cute.
Finally I did the Star Wars stuff, Star Tours was neat, at least in the sense it gives folks a bit of the stuff not present in Batuu with the original trilogy stuff, I understand it’s a bit superfluous and likely will be replaced long term but it was nice that it’s there. When it comes to Batuu proper, I’m gonna say I actually found myself really impressed, it is probably the best themed land outside of the Harry Potter lands. I tried blue milk and actually found it to be pretty pleasant, like drinking the milk after eating froot loops, I didn’t try the green milk which I heard is the one that doesn't taste too great. I had lunch at the cantina and wasn’t all too impressed by the chicken , mac and cheese etc. I had, they were definitely nothing special or interesting. I do think the land could use some ambient music and a bit more kinetic energy around the land but overall I liked it, but that’s as someone with no strong attachments to Star Wars.
As for the rides, I also enjoyed Smuggler’s Run more than I expected to, I was a single rider and was an engineer as a result but actually was pretty fine with that role. I will say one thing, while I enjoyed it more than I expected I still don't think this is a type of ride folks really wanna be doing at theme parks, me and one of the gunners were basically the only ones in the “crew” I was in who actually did much of the interactivity stuff, even the pilots missed various cues at points. Rise of the Resistance, Firstly I woke up at like 6:30 to get a reservation for this ride, clicked on “book a reservation” at 7am on the dot, got boarding group 77, had to wait until 2pm to get on the ride. Basically by technicality the longest I waited for a ride this whole trip and ridiculously so considering this was a trip, and park day where basically every single park was supremely empty. Though admittedly Batuu , Magic Kingdom and HHN were the most crowded I saw these parks this whole week. Anyways, with that out of the way I can say, pretty dang impressed by this ride, it’s almost the best dark ride I’ve ever ridden to be honest. I can start by saying, while I had grown tired of tons of pre-shows, Rise has genuinely impressive pre-shows that actively add to the experience and story. The ride itself, again, I really liked the trackless ride system and think it can allow for the blending of some really great stuff during a ride. Generally just liked the use of animatronics, setpieces, etc. on this ride, again not that huge a Star Wars fan but I feel this ride knocks it out of the park.
Afterwards I went over to Magic Kingdom, and I really don't have much to say about it. I've been to this park at least a dozen times in my life. I suppose this was my first time riding seven dwarfs, but that’s simply okay, I think slinky dog was the better kiddie coaster, and while seven dwarfs ride clearly has its role and place, it still just made me think of how thunder mountain was just a few walks away. Haunted Mansion, Pirates, and various other dark rides, boat rides and omnimovers at magic kingdom are still some of my favorites and why this park is still super solid. I also went on Splash Mountain for what I guess will likely be the last time, which is funny to think about cause the ride seemed to be having at least some issues, there were various times on the ride there was a backup of logs and there was a wait on ride for the party ahead to continue. Ultimately, a good park, but legitimately nothing has changed since I went in 2014 as far as I can tell.
Day 4: Halloween Horror Nights
To be honest, I really wanted to do much more on this day, but I bungled the timing of things. I decided today I would go to the parks later since I would mostly be there for HHN, headed in around 4, decided to get a snack at Big Fire. I got the fondue appetizer and it was pretty good, i didn’t get an entrée since I was saving room for HHN food but in hindsight I wish I had tried more . By the time I got out of Big Fire , USF was already closing in order to prepare for HHN , and I was silly to not realize that would happen . A shame since that was the park with a few more rides for me to try still , anyways I rode Spider-Man again to pass the time and then a storm came in . I’ll be honest, the heavy raining literally put a damper on this experience . I went to HHN from the opening and only really did 3 houses and two-ish scare zones because my shoes got wet and only lasted about 3-4 hours before I just was too miserable to continue . Add on the 30 minute wait to get pizza fries ( which were really good mind you ) and having to deal with some family stuff for pick up and I didn't have much more time than to do those 3.
I’ll also reveal here that this was my first time ever really going to this type of Halloween event let alone HHN and that this was a very spur of the moment decision . I have not done any research on what would show up , where anything would be , what houses were the most hyped etc. Any reading up on HHN on enthusiast sites also just made my eyes glaze over . I also could tell while doing the event that a lot about this year and my night wasn’t the “ideal” between the rain and the “plexiglass/vinyl” stuff that had to be done for covid. I’ll be upfront and say despite some worries , nothing really scared me , a likely mix of the aforementioned things but I also think I'm just not the “getting scared” type (at least not in person) when I think about it. With that in mind I have to say I do kinda get why folks can get really into these events , and the houses I went to seem very well done and overall the event made me really wish I had the chance to go to it across multiple nights.
To go into specifics , The three houses I tried were Legendary Truth , The Haunting of Hill House and Revenge of the Tooth Fairy. I’ve taken a look at how certain houses have been received and it seems I did two of the more well liked houses and then one of the repeats from past years ? Legendary Truth was pretty interesting. It was definitely not what I expected from a Halloween setting, though like I've seen mentioned places it would have helped if there was some sort of queue video or primer of what it was about and some of the lore . But yea the set pieces seem really good and I enjoyed the setting .
I don’t really remember much about the tooth fairy house , it was okay , I didn’t really follow the story too much , it’s another one where it became clear you’re supposed to really look into this stuff before you go to know the lore . But again maybe I was just pretty distracted cause my shoes were wet and that area leading up to the house didn’t help .
The Haunting of Hill House , it was one you could immediately tell was an “IP” cause the level of quality of this house seemed high . I enjoyed it decently , and while not an actual scare , the most foreboding I felt in any of this was just the parts of this house that were genuinely just allowed to be super dark . A lot of the set pieces and costumes for this one just seemed really good to me .
Went through the Crypt TV and Seek and Destroy scare zones ,The Crypt TV scare zone was really cool with what they had on show , there were a good few things I stopped by just to see . The Seek and Destroy zone , I kinda couldn’t grok well , like I initially thought it was like Hunger Games or something ? I think a zone like that could work if there's some real high tension but especially that first night it just felt like a bunch of sci fi cops walking around swinging weapons around . Overall I can say I enjoyed what little I was able to experience , the food was good, I wish I had time to get more offerings, it seems like a well produced event . I pretty much was at least convinced HHN is something I would want to plan a trip around next time , most likely including staying at the resort so I don’t have to worry about how long I stay out .