The Ump Me, Do You Need A Wee Tour 2024 – Day Three Thursday 17th October

I slept solidly until 2am and then again until 4am. When I woke again at 7.30 there were questions about what the plan for today was. Sure, I’d had a plan in place for months but the weather looked like scuppering that as it was looking too chilly for the planned visit to Typhoon Lagoon.

The preference seemed to be Hollywood Studios so with it already being too late to be getting there, never mind trying to plan a day that wouldn’t involve riding Star Tours and watching the Muppets (RIP) seventeen times I had work to do.

There was no choice but to buy Multipass again, so I did before showering and getting dressed. I did OK with the first LL, securing Rock n Rollercoaster, Star Tours and Alien Swirling Saucers.

We were out of the house by 8.30 and in the park just after 9am. Not bad. My heart sank seeing huge queues at the entrance but I was hopeful that was driven by incompetence rather than attendance.

Our first LL wasn’t until 12.30 so I was on the app trying to find a tolerable standby wait. Toy Story Mania promised a twenty-minute wait so off we went.

We entered the queue full of excitement about the day ahead, with Freddie particularly looking forward to Rock n Rollercoaster.

After about five minutes of queueing a cast member entered the area and shouted that currently, of the the three tracks available, two were down and the new estimated wait time was 70 minutes, but the other tracks may come up at any time.

A lot of folks left so we figured we’d give it a bit of a wait and see what happened.

After about 15 minutes Freddie was clearly desperate for a wee. I took him out, and asked a cast member could I rejoin our party afterwards. They said of course so all was well and it was easy to find everyone as they had not moved.

We were now trapped in the quandry of having committed almost an hour to the ride that leaving would inevitably see everything open back up and us kick ourselves. We were indeed just about to give up and we were looking for the easiest way out of the queue when things began to move. After 30 minutes in the same spot we were seated on the ride in about five, having waited, spookily for 70 minutes. All the tracks were now open though.

For the second day running the first ride of the day had let us down with its wait time. I have to admit that during that long wait and reflecting on yesterday’s experience of lots of rides being down, I was getting a bit fed up and sulky about our Disney experience so far.

I rode with Rebecca and won convincingly of course.

We had obviously missed our next LL slot at Star Tours as we didn’t get off Toy Story Mania until 11.15. That ride had availability all day so I just moved that to later and we headed in the direction of Sunset Boulevard. It was time for lunch, having had no breakfast, before our next ride.

We mobile ordered at Rosa’s Canteen.

The usual array of hot dogs, burgers and nuggets with some universally disappointing dessert options.

With that tucked away it was time for Rock n Rollercoaster and we set up child swap at the entrance, meaning that Freddie could ride it twice, with Tom who sat out with Dougie.

As we waited for the few minutes our LL afforded us, Freddie was that lovely mix of fear and excitement. He literally could not stand still.

He loved it despite what his face was saying on the photo.

We walked over to Star Tours whilst he and Tom rode again.

It was my turn to sit out with a now-sleeping Dougie.

I did some LL faffing on the app and got us a LL for Frozen sing a long at 3.

With Star Tours done Louise and I went for a drink at the Tap House whilst everyone else went to do Tower of Terror which looked to have an inoffensive standby wait.

I got some of the sweet and spicy almonds which were about three times more addictive than crack.

We all met at Frozen at 2.45 and were immediately annoyed that the LL time of 3 p.m. was for a 3.30 show. So we wandered down to the Star Wars Launch Bay for a look around.

Dougie was awake again.

The boys met Chewbacca with Dougie really not sure how he felt about that.

Now, it was actually time for Frozen!

We wondered if it would hold Dougie’s interest, but he loved it.

We made our way over to Galaxy’s Edge now, stopping off on the way to watch The Muppets. I am nothing if not prescient with all things Disney. In my notes for this day I wrote that this was half empty and had no wait all day and wondered if its days were numbered. At this point, I am going to start invoicing Bob Iger for consultancy.

We walked right through Galaxy’s Edge, having a look at various stuff…

and we stopped for what I think qualifies as a coffee.

Freddie was delighted with his coke.

We were soon out the other side and where we needed to be for our next LL on Alien Saucers.

Everyone enjoyed that one and with no options available beyond what we already had booked, we had an hour to kill before our next LL on Smuggler’s Run. Knowing we would have to do some queuing at this point we decided to go and do standby for Smuggler’s and then ride it again with our LL.

The posted wait time said 45 minutes. Dougie was measured, a lot, and got on by a whisker.

As we got to about 20 minutes into the queue, Freddie started his now familiar dance indicating he needed a wee. With no real way out we knew we were in trouble. We either abandoned our wait or maybe there was another way.

Rebecca downed the contents of a water bottle in their backpack and we devised a cunning plan. The queue was quite slow moving, so at the agreed time, I knelt down pretending to tie my shoelace, holding up the queue behind us and Tom and Rebecca crowded around Freddie whilst he did what he needed to do in that bottle. It worked a treat, with even a wet wipe available to wash his hands afterwards. The bottle was jettisoned at the next bin. Luckily at six years old, it takes about five seconds to have a wee, not the hour or so it can at my age.

Dougie had no clue what was going on either time we rode but he loved it all the same. Riding it twice like that did give me at least a fighting chance of trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

It was about 7pm now and time to go.

We walked out and back to the car and headed for Sickies on the 192, which was in the plan and staying there despite us changing things for today.

It took about 20 minutes to get there.

We were told there would be a 30 minute wait for a table but we were seated in 10.

We shared the Spare Parts to start.

Weirdly I was craving a salad. My body does this as a reaction to abuse from time to time, so I had the Avocado Salad, as did Rebecca.

Louise had a chicken fajita salad.

Tom had the Hot Beef Sandwich, also known as the “CVS have a cream for that”.

The boys had Mini Corn Dogs and Tots and a Cheeseburger.

Everything was delicious. The service was great even though a good number of the servers were giving off Wentworh Detention Centre vibes.

With several shakes, wines and drinks it was $170 including a good tip.

We were all exhausted, but not too tired to enjoy another tour of CVS on our way back to the villa for some bite cream and moisturiser. We were home by 9.30, again having to endure several pockets of really crap traffic even at this time.

Till the next time……