Solo Trip Day 2
I was up bright and early the next day at 6:30 AM and ready for the day. I headed to Hollywood Studios for the morning. I arrived during early park hours and went right to Tower of Terror. It was a 13 minute wait which of course meant it was a walk on. Most people run back to Toy Story Land or over to Star Wars so I knew I would be able to walk on Tower of Terror. I rode it once and then decided to ride it again since the park was just opening and it was still a walk on. Maybe two times in a row is a little too much for my stomach, but I still enjoyed it! After Tower I got some coffee and a snack and headed back to Toy Story Land.
Love my Joffrey’s coffee!
Here’s a little tip if you are a coffee drinker. There is a Joffrey’s stand right outside the ride exit for Tower of Terror. The line at this Joffrey’s is always shorter because it is tucked back out of view. If you try to get coffee at park opening I would go to this cart. The other cart back by Toy Story Land or the Starbucks will have a huge line in the morning.
This Joffrey’s coffee cart is the place to be in the mornings at Hollywood Studios! No Line!
The weather was beautiful and I enjoyed walking along Sunset Boulevard sipping my coffee. On the way to Toy Story Land I ran into Daisy as she was watering her flowers. I love this location to see characters interacting with guests at a distance!
I made a rookie mistake the morning of this trip. On the bus on the way to Hollywood Studios I purchased Genie + and an individual lightening lane for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. I booked Slinky Dog for (what I thought was) 8:55AM. I went straight to Slinky Dog to use my lightening lane and the cast member told me I was 12 hours early. Ugh. I didn’t even look at the time of day. I booked it for 8:55PM. Make sure you look at the AM/PM! I definitely wasn’t planning to be there that late since I was flying home so I cancelled it. I should have known since Slinky Dog Dash is one of the first lightening lanes that will sell out at Hollywood Studios.
I was able to ride: Alien Swirling Saucers, Rise of the Resistance and finally Slinky Dog Dash by the time the morning was over. It was a good morning! These weeks are full of Spring breakers so the parks are packed! By mid day Hollywood Studios gets too busy for me. So for lunch I did my favorite Disney thing. I rode the Skyliner over to Disney’s Riviera Resort and ate lunch at their quick service restaurant. I would recommend this to everyone. Primo Piatto’s (Riviera’s quick service restaurant) food is wonderful. I had the Croque Monsieur which is a ham and cheese sandwich with so much cheese you will be in heaven. The coffee shop in the lobby is also wonderful so I picked up a coffee to have with my lunch.
A relaxing Skyliner ride to Disney’s Riviera Resort
Cinnamon Cold Brew from Le Petit Cafe in the lobby of Disney’s Riviera Resort
The Croque Monsieur sandwich from Primo Piatto at Disney’s Riviera Resort
Currently park hopping is not allowed until 2:00 at Disney World so I took my time and enjoyed my lunch and then took the Skyliner over to Epcot to see some more of the topiaries and to ride Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind one more time. The second hiccup of the day happened at Guardians. The ride was down. I don’t usually plan days when I go the Disney because these are the kinds of things that happen and if you have your day really planned out it can get you very frustrated. I sat at Guardians for about a half an hour before I had to leave to get to Magic Kingdom. I went to a blue umbrella which is where the guest services is and got my ILL refunded since I wouldn’t be able to ride. And as my luck would have it about as soon as they refunded my lightening lane the ride opened back up! I did a little souvenir shopping for me and my son and then took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom.
I didn’t get to spend much time at the Magic Kingdom this trip. My goal there was to ride all the rides with taller height requirements because when my son is with me I don’t get to ride those rides. As it turns out my body doesn’t actually like those rides too much. I rode Space Mountain first and felt like I was getting a chiropractic adjustment! And not in a good way. That ride really whips you around! I had rode Big Thunder Mountain on the first day of my trip and didn’t love how that whipped me around either. After Space Mountain I rode the Little Mermaid ride and then headed over to Haunted Mansion where the third hiccup of the day happened. While waiting in line the ride broke, however they didn’t tell us this and we just stood there for a good half and hour. Rides break at Disney, a lot. There are a lot of moving parts to the rides and sometimes things stop working. This is another reason why I say not to plan your day too much.
After I was finally able to get on the Haunted Mansion it was almost 6:00 PM. I wanted to get on a few more rides but I still needed to eat dinner and get back to the hotel. My Uber was to pick me up at 7:30 to take me to the airport. Between grabbing dinner, riding the monorail and walking back to the hotel it was 7:15. I still needed to repack my bag and change into pants for the airplane ride. And of course my Uber driver was going to get there early… argh! I was rushing around like crazy only to get to the airport super early. TSA at the Orlando airport can be a nightmare and that’s what I planned for but it was empty.
See you next time Orlando!
I flew Frontier for this trip. They are a budget airline and are super strict about bag sizes. I had a regular sized backpack which is allowed as a personal item and you are allowed one personal item per person. When I flew out of RDU no one checked mine or any of the people around me bag size. At Orlando when we arrived at the gate to board the plane the women working there made every single person shove their bag into the bag sizer. I get it they have rules but that was nuts. It took us forever to board the plane because of that. So make sure your bags aren’t over the size limit because you never know if they will check it!
Overall it was a nice trip! I enjoyed being able to go at my own pace. When I do this again I will definetly take a later flight on the morning I leave. Getting up at 3AM just wasn’t nice to my body and I was too tired to stay up and take full advantage of the parks that day. I hope you learned a few things from my mistakes on day two! As always thank you for your support and if you know anyone looking to book a trip to Disney World please send them over to me! I’d love to help!