Florida 2020- Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run

Our pandemic trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios ended up being the most bizarre, fortuitous, and short trip to theme park that I have ever experienced.

Originally, we hadn’t even planned on visiting Disney during our Florida house-hunting trip, but we quickly found a house that we liked ( which fell through during the inspection) and we shifted gears towards not only visiting the parks, but buying annual passes. Several years ago we purchased WDW annual passes by simply upgrading our day tickets. This time, Dan bought us day passes to Disney’s Hollywood Studios park, so we could visit and decide on dishing out the mega-bucks for year passes.

Since it is pandemic times, we had to not only purchase tickets in advance, but we had to make park reservations the day before. This was the same process as our trip to SeaWorld Orlando a month earlier. The parks have shorter hours and there is no park hopping

We arrived just before park opening and joined the crush of other visitors.

Generally, I felt safe visiting theme parks during the pandemic, but there were two main areas where safety measures seemed insufficient. The first was at park entry. Since the parks are open limited hours with no hopping, everyone arrives at park opening, and there is no way to maintain social distance at the entry gates. I’m not sure how to remedy this, as everyone wants to arrive at the same time to get a full-day out the parks. Somehow, they need to figure out how to control the bottleneck at the entry, especially at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where the entry is narrow.

The other issue is not specifically a theme park issue, but one of the awareness of others. Most of the other guests were good about distancing, but sometimes in the queues excitement takes over, and people feel the impulse to bunch-up. Disney has plenty of signs reminding guests to stay apart, but it didn’t always happen. This was also really bad at the airports, especially when queuing for boarding the planes and going through security.

This was our first visit since 2016 and our first experience at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. The star attraction is “Rise of the Resistance” and the only way to ride it is to get in the virtual queue. In September, the virtual queue had two releases of slots; first thing in the morning and again in the afternoon. Park guests can enter one virtual queue a day in efforts to give access to as many guests as possible. We tried for the morning queue and missed out. All of the morning slots were gone within minutes.

Luckily, the other e-ticket attraction, “Smuggler’s Run”, where guests have the opportunity to fly the Millennium Falcon, had a normal stand-by queue. We rushed over to Galaxy’s Edge to get in line.

Honestly, it was a blur as we tried to find the end of the queue for “Smuggler’s Run”. We snapped a bunch of pictures and tried to absorb the overwhelming land which is Galaxy’s Edge. It’s full of rich details and is enormous. We did not see it all.

Luckily, there were plenty of cast members to direct us to the proper queues. Due to covid, there are more queues than normal, as every store and restaurant also has queues to enter. I have to admit that this somehow took away from the experience, but I also appreciate the safety measures that allow us to enjoy the parks during the pandemic.

The end of the queue ( approximately an hour wait at about fifteen minutes past park opening) was near a stage with Storm Troopers. Due to covid, all of the characters must keep a distance. This didn’t mean that they didn’t interact. I even had a Stormtrooper yell at me to keep moving when I didn’t notice a gap in the queue in front of me!

Much like all of the extra queues, the general lack of characters or atmosphere was also a departure from the Disney magic. We only saw the Storm Troopers, where it felt like there should be many more characters inhabiting the land. I think this must be due to Covid restrictions. However, it was a bit of a let-down for our first trip to Galaxy’s Edge. The land was stunning, but the vibe was terrible. I never quite felt immersed in the experience and never felt like I was transported outside of Orlando.

Here are some pictures of the queue. Like most modern attractions, the queue was constantly offering new perspectives and details to enjoy. I’m not a huge Star Wars fan, but my husband was very excited over everything, especially the Millennium Falcon.

And finally we made it on the Millennium Falcon!

Due to Covid, we had the entire ride vehicle to ourselves. This was cool, because we had a private ride, and not so cool, because the story of the ride has interactive elements with different tasks for all six passengers. The ride will of course run without all six people, but it breaks with the storytelling to have less, making it also feel less immersive. “Smuggler’s Run” is a state-of-the-art motion simulator ride. I’m not sure that I would say it was completely unique, as it takes from ideas of other simulator rides, but it was very well executed. I was a bit overwhelmed by my interactive tasks, when all I wanted to do was really look around at everything. I think the next time I ride it will actually be a better experience.

When we got off the “Smuggler’s Run”, we were thirsty and dazzled by the collectible Galaxy Edge themed coke bottles. At the price point, I think this is something you only splurge on once, but it’s a clever bit of theming. I read that they were showing up as weapons in airport screenings, so we didn’t bother to keep it as a souvenir.

At this point, our trip took a turn when my stepson called and we decided to head back to our rental house, so that my husband could play on the x-box with him. My step-kids live in Sweden, so these weekend calls and bonding time take priority.

Before leaving the park, we made the decision to upgrade to Annual Passes and went to guest relations. By the time we walked to guest relations, it had started pouring with rain. The kind of rain that soaks you to your underwear. Due to covid, the guest relations cast members were standing outside under enormous umbrellas to help guests.

The friendly GR employee informed us that they had temporarily suspended new annual pass sales. We were so disappointed, especially as just the day before, the website listed them for sale. It was raining so heavily that we could hardly see, so we decided to leave and come back later to make use of our day pass.

We went home and I decided to call the WDW help line to ask about the annual passes. I was hoping that guest relations was misinformed and that there might be some way to purchase the annual passes. After a nearly two hour wait, a very kind cast member informed me that there was no way possible to purchase an annual pass, however, since they could see that we only went on one attraction prior to leaving, they offered to refund our tickets. I was a bit disappointed to both not have annual passes and to miss out on the remainder of the day in the park, but we accepted the refund, effectively having a Disney experience for the price of parking.

I appreciate Disney’s offer, especially since I had not even asked for a refund. We are hoping to visit in 2021 with the kids. We want to truly experience Galaxy’s Edge as a family and we will probably even splurge on the themed Coke bottles again!

Florida 2020: Kissimmee Airbnb

We returned from my August birthday trip to Florida and got the crazy idea to look for a second home in Orlando. The idea quickly picked up steam, and within a few weeks, we returned to Orlando for a two-week trip. This time our focus was not on vacationing. We kept our regular work schedules and during the weekends/evenings, we looked at homes with our realtor.

The Tampa International Airport has become a new favorite, so we opted to fly into Tampa, rather than Orlando. The airport experience was still great with low crowds and stringent covid precautions. A hiccup came from our timing. We screwed up and had to drive during rush hour, which took about three hours, especially due to a heavy summer rainstorm.

The traffic was so terrible, that we stopped off at a Burger King for dinner. I thought this covid sign was hilarious. I know marketing is playing with the whole idea of “Kings,” but thrones are usually a bathroom reference, not for tables.

As we were trying to simulate “real life” in Florida, we decided to rent a house on Airbnb. I’m not a fan of house rentals. Generally, I find them to be a bit creepy. Being in a stranger’s home feels to personal, even if the home is strictly a rental property. I also worry that the cleanliness standards might not be to my liking. Dan was really keen to have a private pool, which I can’t deny, was awesome. A rental home also seemed like the safer bet during Covid and it gave us room to spread out while we had to work. I used the desk in the master bedroom, while Dan worked from the dining table.

Our rental was a bit off-the-beaten path in the suburbs of Kissimmee. We were surrounded by actual people living in the neighborhood, rather than other renters. At our last home in Big Bear Lake, California, we were the only full-timers in a neighborhood full of rentals! It was a quiet neighborhood that was about 15-20 minutes from restaurants and grocery stores, maybe 25-30 min from Disney. It suited our needs, but I wouldn’t want to stay here for a theme park vacation. It’s a little too far from the action.

We were in a subdivision called Orchid Edge on a street called Violet Lane. Lovely.

We only had written communication with our host, but she was quick to respond. We were given a code to enter the property and the house had everything we needed to make our stay comfortable. The house was clean, well-appointed, and fun. Also, it had speedy internet, which was very important for us!

A few of the special touches included a mini pool table/air hockey combo, two slot machines, and a bubble swing. The swing had a crack in the plastic, so I very gingerly sat on it for a quick picture. I think it’s a bit of a liability issue, but a cute touch nevertheless. I imagine kids loving it.

I got a kick out of the eclectic book collection, including a Swedish offering!

The kitchen had all of the gear that we needed and we cooked a majority of our meals at “home.” Dan even made a full-english breakfast! We learned that Florida has quite a huge British community and it is easy to find British import products in the stores. We might need to start making regular trips to Orlando for our Cadbury and Heinz fixes.

I love doing laundry.

Seriously. Zero sarcasm.

I get a huge amount of satisfaction from clean clothes and folded laundry. A two-week trip means we need the ability to do the wash and having a laundry room was a big bonus.

In addition to our master, the home had two additional bedrooms with a shared bathroom. One room had a queen bed, and the other was set up for kids with a twin over full bunk. The house would be perfect for two small families traveling together, with privacy for two sets of parents and a room for three kids.

Our master had a slider for direct pool access, a walk-in closet, and en suite bathroom. It was tastefully decorated in shades of purple.

The pool was definitely the best part of the house. It had beautiful lake views and we even saw neighbors fishing in the lake. A family of birds ( cranes?) visited daily and the patio was filled with adorable lizards. We used the pool nearly every day of our trip, sometimes more than once a day.

Our rental on Violet Lane was perfect for these two weeks, but I’m still a hotel girl. I like the escape from reality and spoiling that happens at hotels. I don’t want to cook or clean on vacation!

We nearly purchased our own rental property, but the deal fell through after the inspection. Honestly, I’m relieved that we set the idea aside, but I hope that we have many Florida vacations in our near future.

Florida 2020: Sea World Orlando

Although our original trip had not included plans to go to a theme park, we couldn’t resist. We used the concierge at our hotel to purchase one-day tickets to SeaWorld Orlando. I have been to SeaWorld San Diego many times, but this was my first time visiting the Orlando park. Dan had not visited since he was a child. We were both so excited.

We arrived for the 10am park opening and the heat was already intense.

Due to Covid, we had to make reservations a day in advance. Masks were mandatory at all times, except when eating or drinking. This wasn’t a huge deal, except for it was definitely hot and we were sweating buckets. Cast members walked around the park to enforce the masks and social distancing. All of the queues had spacing markers and the arena shows had sections blocked-off to promote distancing. When the show ended, we were dismissed from the area row by row. At the front entrance, our temperature was taken, which couldn’t have been easier, as we just had to keep walking through a screening tent. The process didn’t even make us slow down. We observed employees spraying the rides vehicles with sanitizer between guests and loading attractions in a spaced-out manner.

As a former theme park employee, I was very interested to see how SeaWorld would handle Covid. This was my first theme park visit in 2020. I was impressed. I felt safe at SeaWorld and felt like the employees were knocking it out of the park- pun intended.

We snapped some pictures at the entrance, including my obligatory flamingo shot.

Our first ride a coaster called Manta. Rays of all sorts are my favorite sea animals and I hopped in the queue without realizing that it was a flying type of coaster, where you ride belly down. I had never done this type of coaster and it was terrifying. I would have cried, but I was too stunned by the intensity. Besides being one of the scariest rides that I’ve ever experienced, it was uncomfortable as the blood rushed forward in my head from the positioning of the ride. I can’t imagine getting stuck on Manta during a malfunction. Never again will I ride Manta. I did appreciate the gorgeous aquariums in the queue. I also think the theming of a flying style coaster is appropriate to the how Manta Rays physically look and glide through the water.

Somehow, I agreed to ride a second coaster immediately following Manta. The queues were virtually empty, so we wanted to take advantage of the low crowds. Kraken is an older coaster and bit of a rough ride, but not terrifying like Manta. I could handle it.

Next we hopped on Journey to Atlantis, a hybrid ride that combines flume/coaster/dark ride elements. I rode this many years ago at the San Diego park and I’m here to report that it has not aged well. The story is loose and it didn’t help that many show elements were broken. Dan had not previous ridden it and was caught out when it switches from a flume to a coaster, which is a great trick, but otherwise this attraction needs an overhaul. We got soaking wet and did the dumbest thing possible; we headed to the Antartica to visit the penguins.

It was so, so, so cold.

I wanted to see the other Antarctic animals, like the Polar Bears, but our teeth were chattering. We needed to be outside in the furnace. The day was heating up and we were soaked to our underwear, so we decided to leave the park and go swimming at our hotel. Our plan was to return in the evening.

A few shots as we exited the park.

We really needed to take the midday break. I think we would have needed the break, even if we hadn’t been wearing masks, but the masks definitely didn’t make it easier. We returned around 6pm and went straight to the Sea Lions Tonite show. Sea Lions Tonite is a SeaWorld classic, featuring groan-worthy comedy and cute animals. It was always one of my favorites. The current iteration pokes fun at the other SeaWorld shows and attractions, unfortunately, it didn’t do much to give information on the animals. The complete lack of an educational element was disappointing.

Next, we went to the shark exhibit. I love the immersive tunnel. I always think of the Jaws film where the shark breaks through the tunnel and the tourist run screaming. The experience is always serene, unlike the film.

After visiting the sharks, I had to brave Mako, the tallest and fastest coaster in the park. I actually loved Mako. It was smooth and thrilling, without being utterly terrifying like Manta. We rode it twice. The first drop is incredibly steep and my mask nearly flew off!

The best ride in the park, which we rode four times, was Infinity Falls. Infinity Falls is a rafting ride with a surprising elevator element followed by an enormous drop. It’s crazy and dizzying with both show elements, and tons of water. We got soaked, so wet that Dan splurged on pricy souvenir towels. I could have ridden this all day, it was so much fun and a perfect way to cool down in the steamy Florida humidity.

We capped the day off with fireworks. Many of the other parks have eliminated fireworks due to covid crowd concerns, but we felt that SeaWorld handled it well and we felt properly spaced from other guests. It was magical and made us feel like we were having a normal summer.

We had a great time at SeaWorld and even discussed getting annual passes as they are currently such a good deal. I wish we had more time to spend seeing the animals. I’m curious to see how they have changed the Shamu Show as part of their shift to animal education, rather than showing tricks. Having worked for a zoo, I know that SeaWorld is making efforts to change with the times, and I also know that both education and conservation are a big part of their mission.