Orlando - March/April 2022 (done)
- Thread starter davidm
- Start date
davidm
Strata Poster
Wednesday 6th April - Epcot
A bit more of a relaxed day today; I had always pencilled in a day at Epcot to "drink myself around the world" but that was originally
planned to be Thursday as I'd reserved multiple days at Hollywood Studios just to make sure I could get all the Star Wars stuff done. Since
I felt like I had managed that, I was able to switch my park reservation (still faffy but I had no problem switching it even though the
website said Epcot was fully booked, honestly who knows what is going on?) to Epcot.
Gotta say, the front half of Epcot is a right mess at the moment though, with all the demolishing of Innovations there's huge amounts of the
place walled off and pretty ugly with it all too it is.
There were a couple of new things for me to see here though, so I ignored everything at headed to the back of the park for a relatively new
addition, and new to me as I've not done it in Paris either.
Was a pretty long line (over an hour) but I wasn't in much of a rush and read my book util the queue got inside. I knew very little about this
ride other than it was another trackless jobbie - don't think I'd even seen a POV of it from here or Paris - but I was pretty impressed. Fair
amount of practical stuff as well as well done screens - was better than the Railroad thing at Hollywood Studios I thought anyway.
There was some "garden festival" thing going on, which meant as well as the extra food&beverage options available there was a lot of Disney
trimmed bushes around.
I did the Frozen thing too, odd one that since all the ride system was old (and looked old) and they had just plastered a load of screens around the
ride instead of the Norwegian stuff that was there before. Didn't think it really worked, but then I'm not a "Frozen demographic" either.
Test Track had been down the last time I was here (nearly 10 years ago if you recall) so had a SRQ lap on that ; was fun.
And I still think Mission:Space is a very clever ride. Sad to see that the Gary Sinese preshow film has been replaced as it always me smile
watching him obviously reading his autocue.
Quick lap on this but can't say anything about it due to the NDA. [/jk]
Soarin' was an odd experience ; every time I'd been here before it had massive queues and I'd only ever FastPass'd it - they even built a
extra theatre for it I think because it was so popular. Anyway the standby line said 40m (which I thought was low) but I'd have been on in
10 minutes if the CM had not miscounted his batching (I volunteered to wait for the next show even though I was not the last to be batched,
maths is hard sometimes).
So it looks like I'm the only one riding
Quick trip to see Nemo and the manatees, I like manatees but they make me sad.
I did that Figment thing too, still very rubbish, must be on its last legs that thing, Eric Idle still looks middle aged in it for crying out
loud.
Anyway it had rolled around to acceptable time to have a beer ; the setup was similar to that at Seaworld in that there were various extra
little food&drink places all set up around the place, but no lanyard-option today so it was all individual $$$ purchases.
What they did do that Seaworld didn't was have "beer flight" options - so 3 small beers instead of one large one, unfortunately the cardboard
tray thing that they served the beer flight in was suboptimal which lead to a small-spillage most times
And have you even been to Epcot if you haven't had a Kirin and taken this picture?
Did not hang around for the evening show, they don't do much for me. But that was a nice, less-hectic day, perhaps mostly because I did not
have to use the awful-app very much?
A bit more of a relaxed day today; I had always pencilled in a day at Epcot to "drink myself around the world" but that was originally
planned to be Thursday as I'd reserved multiple days at Hollywood Studios just to make sure I could get all the Star Wars stuff done. Since
I felt like I had managed that, I was able to switch my park reservation (still faffy but I had no problem switching it even though the
website said Epcot was fully booked, honestly who knows what is going on?) to Epcot.
Gotta say, the front half of Epcot is a right mess at the moment though, with all the demolishing of Innovations there's huge amounts of the
place walled off and pretty ugly with it all too it is.
There were a couple of new things for me to see here though, so I ignored everything at headed to the back of the park for a relatively new
addition, and new to me as I've not done it in Paris either.
Was a pretty long line (over an hour) but I wasn't in much of a rush and read my book util the queue got inside. I knew very little about this
ride other than it was another trackless jobbie - don't think I'd even seen a POV of it from here or Paris - but I was pretty impressed. Fair
amount of practical stuff as well as well done screens - was better than the Railroad thing at Hollywood Studios I thought anyway.
There was some "garden festival" thing going on, which meant as well as the extra food&beverage options available there was a lot of Disney
trimmed bushes around.
I did the Frozen thing too, odd one that since all the ride system was old (and looked old) and they had just plastered a load of screens around the
ride instead of the Norwegian stuff that was there before. Didn't think it really worked, but then I'm not a "Frozen demographic" either.
Test Track had been down the last time I was here (nearly 10 years ago if you recall) so had a SRQ lap on that ; was fun.
And I still think Mission:Space is a very clever ride. Sad to see that the Gary Sinese preshow film has been replaced as it always me smile
watching him obviously reading his autocue.
Quick lap on this but can't say anything about it due to the NDA. [/jk]
Soarin' was an odd experience ; every time I'd been here before it had massive queues and I'd only ever FastPass'd it - they even built a
extra theatre for it I think because it was so popular. Anyway the standby line said 40m (which I thought was low) but I'd have been on in
10 minutes if the CM had not miscounted his batching (I volunteered to wait for the next show even though I was not the last to be batched,
maths is hard sometimes).
So it looks like I'm the only one riding
Quick trip to see Nemo and the manatees, I like manatees but they make me sad.
I did that Figment thing too, still very rubbish, must be on its last legs that thing, Eric Idle still looks middle aged in it for crying out
loud.
Anyway it had rolled around to acceptable time to have a beer ; the setup was similar to that at Seaworld in that there were various extra
little food&drink places all set up around the place, but no lanyard-option today so it was all individual $$$ purchases.
What they did do that Seaworld didn't was have "beer flight" options - so 3 small beers instead of one large one, unfortunately the cardboard
tray thing that they served the beer flight in was suboptimal which lead to a small-spillage most times
And have you even been to Epcot if you haven't had a Kirin and taken this picture?
Did not hang around for the evening show, they don't do much for me. But that was a nice, less-hectic day, perhaps mostly because I did not
have to use the awful-app very much?
davidm
Strata Poster
Thursday 7th April - Epcot
So given I had been at Epcot the day before, I had initially planned to head back to Busch for some more lovely Gwaziness today, but on
checking the weather forecast first thing it was all "big thunderstorms" so I rapidly changed my plan and still having the Epcot booking
for today, headed back there for more of the same.
I had not done the big ball thing yesterday so headed into Spaceship Earth first - I recall that this has been updated the last time I was here
but was again looking rather dated and tired. Still quite cool how they wrapped the ride up inside the big ball though.
Greetings from the future....?
More Disney bush
Did a few of the other things that I had not done the day before, the Mexico boat ride thing (failed to take any pics)
China thing
And bush
Had a look around the Germany thing, not a lot going on
Watched some Japanese drummers - they were good
Could tell that the rain was incoming, so thought I'd be clever by getting inside for a while, so watched the American thing
My timing was off though as the rain hadn't quite hit by then, so got into the (still large - like 1hr+) line for the Rat ride again, thinking
I could wait out the rain in that. Only my timing was very off as there is one uncovered bit of the Ratatouille queue line and I managed to
spend about 15 minutes in that bit in the pouring rain. Was pretty soaked and then got to spend the rest of the queue line shivering.
Rat ride was good again though and when I came out (still raining lots) the queue had got down to very little (crucially skipping the exposed
part of the line), so I did it again.
There was a brief respite in the rain, but I checked the radar forecast and it was only a gap so quickly concocted a plan.
That corner of Epcot is right by one of the resort areas, so you can walk between Epcot and the resort. So I headed off into the resort area
(the Boardwalk area) and found the bar there.
and stayed there for a good few hours, had some food as well as the beer and got a few chapters of the book read.
While the rain poured down outside. It wasn't as bad as Saturday's rain, but it was pretty close.
Eventually the rain stopped, headed back into the park to complete the lap of the world.
Did the Canada thing (was a new film to me - used to be a Martin Short thing, was more scenic tourism this time)
And a final flight from one of the festival bars I'd missed the day before
Took a lap on the monorail just to see the sights - hi @CanobieFan
Did not see @CanobieFan - but did see a few different angles on things
This is what I was interested see though - this is the mess in the front park of Epcot that I was whingeing about yesterday, just ugh.
Anyway that was that from Epcot, headed back to Disney Springs and relocated to the themed bar there (themed after Indiana Jones' pilot for some
random reason) - the bar was OK though.
And at least served their flights in something more substantial than Epcot's cardboard trays
Margarita to finish the day off, I don't just drink beer you know!
So given I had been at Epcot the day before, I had initially planned to head back to Busch for some more lovely Gwaziness today, but on
checking the weather forecast first thing it was all "big thunderstorms" so I rapidly changed my plan and still having the Epcot booking
for today, headed back there for more of the same.
I had not done the big ball thing yesterday so headed into Spaceship Earth first - I recall that this has been updated the last time I was here
but was again looking rather dated and tired. Still quite cool how they wrapped the ride up inside the big ball though.
Greetings from the future....?
More Disney bush
Did a few of the other things that I had not done the day before, the Mexico boat ride thing (failed to take any pics)
China thing
And bush
Had a look around the Germany thing, not a lot going on
Watched some Japanese drummers - they were good
Could tell that the rain was incoming, so thought I'd be clever by getting inside for a while, so watched the American thing
My timing was off though as the rain hadn't quite hit by then, so got into the (still large - like 1hr+) line for the Rat ride again, thinking
I could wait out the rain in that. Only my timing was very off as there is one uncovered bit of the Ratatouille queue line and I managed to
spend about 15 minutes in that bit in the pouring rain. Was pretty soaked and then got to spend the rest of the queue line shivering.
Rat ride was good again though and when I came out (still raining lots) the queue had got down to very little (crucially skipping the exposed
part of the line), so I did it again.
There was a brief respite in the rain, but I checked the radar forecast and it was only a gap so quickly concocted a plan.
That corner of Epcot is right by one of the resort areas, so you can walk between Epcot and the resort. So I headed off into the resort area
(the Boardwalk area) and found the bar there.
and stayed there for a good few hours, had some food as well as the beer and got a few chapters of the book read.
While the rain poured down outside. It wasn't as bad as Saturday's rain, but it was pretty close.
Eventually the rain stopped, headed back into the park to complete the lap of the world.
Did the Canada thing (was a new film to me - used to be a Martin Short thing, was more scenic tourism this time)
And a final flight from one of the festival bars I'd missed the day before
Took a lap on the monorail just to see the sights - hi @CanobieFan
Did not see @CanobieFan - but did see a few different angles on things
This is what I was interested see though - this is the mess in the front park of Epcot that I was whingeing about yesterday, just ugh.
Anyway that was that from Epcot, headed back to Disney Springs and relocated to the themed bar there (themed after Indiana Jones' pilot for some
random reason) - the bar was OK though.
And at least served their flights in something more substantial than Epcot's cardboard trays
Margarita to finish the day off, I don't just drink beer you know!
CanobieFan
Strata Poster
I got banished from Epcot pretty much as soon as we reopened from Covid. All the 30+ year guys took it over and I got pushed to Contemporary #VacationStation
davidm
Strata Poster
Friday 8th April - Busch Gardens (Again!)
Right, the plan for yesterday is back on again today now that he rain has gone. It's my last full day and I wanted to try to get something
out of Disney Springs in the evening so I did not plan to spend the full day at Busch but headed off there first thing.
The idea was really just to get some more Gwazi-rides in and a couple of (maybe last?) laps on Kumba. I did ride a few other things,
Shiekra and Tigris again just because they were both walk-on as I walked past and you can't go to BGT and not have a lap on Montu can you?
Gwazi was running all day this time and I rode it a couple of times at park opening with a 5min and 10min wait - lovely, but after the second
time the line had got up to 60m so I did the other stuff then. It was noticeably slower first thing I thought, was riding with a British dad
at one point and telling him they need to ride it later in the day "what do you mean it goes FASTER????" was his response, hope he did ride
it again later as he was loving his morning ride.
Anyway just a bit of a photo-dump now - one advantage of going on a Friday was that the food&drink festival was on which meant that they
opened up the little "park" area to the side of Gwazi which meant you could get around the side of the ride a bit for a few different angles
than you can get from the midway. (Also tip : if the park isn't open then the Sesame Place area is where to go too)
Not conducive to lapping the ride
Lines for this were posted at 80mins so skipped it, pah
RIP?
I'd got a few rides in during the day on Gwazi, but wanted to make it the last ride of the day (and of the trip) so endured the longest
wait for it that I'd had (mid afternoon).
Basically if the Gwazi Q is back to here, its an hour
But that last ride was a disaster - I can laugh about it now (and am) but at the time I was right pissed off. I was sat towards the back in
the back seat of the car, and the young lady in front of me had somewhat spectacular hair - something that I did not notice until part way
down the first drop where she let that hair fly free. So I spent the majority of the lap batting away this mass of hair/extensions/I dunno
from my face as we zoomed around. To make it worse she was kinda slumping in her seat and leaning backwards too, the sunglasses that were
perched on her head and no one had thought to secure were also coming loose and threatening my personal space.
But what can you do - obviously she could have not sat in the front seat of a car or secured her hairstyle/sunglasses but I should also
have spotted the potential problem and not sat behind her (no-one was in the other seat). Oh well, hope she enjoyed her ride, I didn't. Ha ha ha.
Eventually found a Iron Gwazi mug I liked (not in the ride-exit shop but back at the main entrance) and called it a day. Traffic back to
Orlando was a pain too - pah.
And Disney Springs that evening was a bust too - really busy, eateries all packed so I only had a burger from one of the food-truck places
and even the prospect of a beer and a final margarita didn't improve my spirits (it was a bit cold and windy so I did not hang around
shivering for too long).
Not sure I'd bother with staying near Disney Springs again - it mostly pissed me off this trip whereas in the past I'd quite got on with the
place. I think maybe its just got too big now with the expansion a few years ago - definitely more "family-shopping-mall" than "nighttime
entertainment area" which is what I had always thought of it as. Hmmm.
Right that's almost it for this report, semi-successful day (after all I got a handful of Gwazi-rides in, despite the hair issues )
Right, the plan for yesterday is back on again today now that he rain has gone. It's my last full day and I wanted to try to get something
out of Disney Springs in the evening so I did not plan to spend the full day at Busch but headed off there first thing.
The idea was really just to get some more Gwazi-rides in and a couple of (maybe last?) laps on Kumba. I did ride a few other things,
Shiekra and Tigris again just because they were both walk-on as I walked past and you can't go to BGT and not have a lap on Montu can you?
Gwazi was running all day this time and I rode it a couple of times at park opening with a 5min and 10min wait - lovely, but after the second
time the line had got up to 60m so I did the other stuff then. It was noticeably slower first thing I thought, was riding with a British dad
at one point and telling him they need to ride it later in the day "what do you mean it goes FASTER????" was his response, hope he did ride
it again later as he was loving his morning ride.
Anyway just a bit of a photo-dump now - one advantage of going on a Friday was that the food&drink festival was on which meant that they
opened up the little "park" area to the side of Gwazi which meant you could get around the side of the ride a bit for a few different angles
than you can get from the midway. (Also tip : if the park isn't open then the Sesame Place area is where to go too)
Not conducive to lapping the ride
Lines for this were posted at 80mins so skipped it, pah
RIP?
I'd got a few rides in during the day on Gwazi, but wanted to make it the last ride of the day (and of the trip) so endured the longest
wait for it that I'd had (mid afternoon).
Basically if the Gwazi Q is back to here, its an hour
But that last ride was a disaster - I can laugh about it now (and am) but at the time I was right pissed off. I was sat towards the back in
the back seat of the car, and the young lady in front of me had somewhat spectacular hair - something that I did not notice until part way
down the first drop where she let that hair fly free. So I spent the majority of the lap batting away this mass of hair/extensions/I dunno
from my face as we zoomed around. To make it worse she was kinda slumping in her seat and leaning backwards too, the sunglasses that were
perched on her head and no one had thought to secure were also coming loose and threatening my personal space.
But what can you do - obviously she could have not sat in the front seat of a car or secured her hairstyle/sunglasses but I should also
have spotted the potential problem and not sat behind her (no-one was in the other seat). Oh well, hope she enjoyed her ride, I didn't. Ha ha ha.
Eventually found a Iron Gwazi mug I liked (not in the ride-exit shop but back at the main entrance) and called it a day. Traffic back to
Orlando was a pain too - pah.
And Disney Springs that evening was a bust too - really busy, eateries all packed so I only had a burger from one of the food-truck places
and even the prospect of a beer and a final margarita didn't improve my spirits (it was a bit cold and windy so I did not hang around
shivering for too long).
Not sure I'd bother with staying near Disney Springs again - it mostly pissed me off this trip whereas in the past I'd quite got on with the
place. I think maybe its just got too big now with the expansion a few years ago - definitely more "family-shopping-mall" than "nighttime
entertainment area" which is what I had always thought of it as. Hmmm.
Right that's almost it for this report, semi-successful day (after all I got a handful of Gwazi-rides in, despite the hair issues
)
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davidm
Strata Poster
Saturday 9th April - Bye Bye
OK then last morning. Flight home is late afternoon, so I only have a few hours to kill. Late breakfast and packing my bags does a lot of
that and I figure I'd go and see if I could ride the balloon thing across the road in Disney Springs - always fancied a go on that but I don't
think I'd ever seen it actually running with passengers when I'd been here - usually closed for winds.
Star Wars lego - not desperately impressive
Strange boat-cars that drive around the lake, that's OK I don't need to do that
Cool bar from the other night
And yes, the balloon is down "for winds"
Wander round the tat-shops for a bit, theres some really awful tat for sale
And even Disney Springs is not immune to the construction walls
These things are odd, I think the idea is that they are themed-shade structures, but they look really out of place and ugly I reckon.
This is the beer-place I did not like the look of the other day, housed in the defunct NBA-experience (on the site of the old DreamQuest
place)
OOooh but what's that? Balloon is up?
Probably just testing though?
Oh it looks "open" - wow.
So get a ticket, fill in a waiver (!?!) on an iPad and I'm first in-line. "First trip of the day!" I say to the guy, "First trip in four days"
is his response "because of winds".
Up we go then!
Getting all a bit bioreconstruct now
Yeah OK I liked that.
It ran again straight away, but that trip (and mine for that matter) was getting a bit blown around, so I think they closed it again after
two rides. Ha.
Right back to the hotel to pick up my stuff and head off to the airport
Covid does not exist in Florida you may have noticed, apart from at the airport.
No draft beer at my gate, but the bottle was OK.
And that was that, flight back was even quieter than the one out so plenty of room (not that I can sleep on planes), stupid Manchester
airport had us sitting on the plane waiting for the gate for 45 minutes after landing, but apart from that home by 730am the next day.
--
So despite the whingeing I may have done in this thread, a really good trip. Great just to get away again, Orlando is pretty basic these days
but there's always a lot of stuff to do. Parks were busier than I expected, especially the Disney ones - thought Universal copes with the
crowds better than Disney, perhaps with more-attractions-per-park there? The Disney app-of-awfulness has to change, not such the
infrastructure (the app itself and the scanning point that you swipe your magicband/ticket at) as they all worked well, but the way the
Genie+/LightningLane stuff works - I reckon they'll revamp that again in a couple of years, perhaps make it so you can only pick up the
Genie+ bookings at the park (like the old FastPass) while still selling the one-off Lightning Lanes?
Not going to give you a map at the end this time as its pretty dull, but;
Final Score
Universal Islands of Adventure
Jurassic World VelociCoaster
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
Incredible Hulk
Flight of the Hippogriff - skipped, did not need the cred
Pteranodon Flyers - perpetual spite
Universal Studios
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit
Revenge of the Mummy - down due to maintenance
Woody Woodpecker's Nuthouse Coaster - skipped, did not need the cred
Busch Gardens Tampa
Iron Gwazi
Tigris
Kumba
Montu
Cheetah Hunt
Scorpion
SandSerpent
SheiKra
Cobra's Curse
Air Grover - skipped, did not need the cred
Seaworld Orlando
Ice Breaker
Journey to Atlantis
Kraken
Mako
Manta
Super Grover's Box Car Derby - skipped, did not need the cred
Fun Spot America (Orlando)
White Lightning
Freedom Flyer
Sea Serpent - skipped, did not need the cred
Fun Spot America (Kissimmee)
Kiddie Coaster
Mine Blower
Hurricane
Galaxy Spin
Animal Kingdom
Expedition Everest - down due to maintenance
Magic Kingdom
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Space Mountain
Barnstormer - skipped, did not need the cred
Hollywood Studios
Slinky Dog Dash
Rock'n'Roller Coaster
Epcot
Guardians of the Galaxy : Cosmic Rewind - ha ha, no just a lame joke.
That's a (lowly for 2 weeks!) 30 coasters with +10.
Minimal tat purchased (plus a Jaws T-Shirt);
OK then last morning. Flight home is late afternoon, so I only have a few hours to kill. Late breakfast and packing my bags does a lot of
that and I figure I'd go and see if I could ride the balloon thing across the road in Disney Springs - always fancied a go on that but I don't
think I'd ever seen it actually running with passengers when I'd been here - usually closed for winds.
Star Wars lego - not desperately impressive
Strange boat-cars that drive around the lake, that's OK I don't need to do that
Cool bar from the other night
And yes, the balloon is down "for winds"
Wander round the tat-shops for a bit, theres some really awful tat for sale
And even Disney Springs is not immune to the construction walls
These things are odd, I think the idea is that they are themed-shade structures, but they look really out of place and ugly I reckon.
This is the beer-place I did not like the look of the other day, housed in the defunct NBA-experience (on the site of the old DreamQuest
place)
OOooh but what's that? Balloon is up?
Probably just testing though?
Oh it looks "open" - wow.
So get a ticket, fill in a waiver (!?!) on an iPad and I'm first in-line. "First trip of the day!" I say to the guy, "First trip in four days"
is his response "because of winds".
Up we go then!
Getting all a bit bioreconstruct now
Yeah OK I liked that.
It ran again straight away, but that trip (and mine for that matter) was getting a bit blown around, so I think they closed it again after
two rides. Ha.
Right back to the hotel to pick up my stuff and head off to the airport
Covid does not exist in Florida you may have noticed, apart from at the airport.
No draft beer at my gate, but the bottle was OK.
And that was that, flight back was even quieter than the one out so plenty of room (not that I can sleep on planes), stupid Manchester
airport had us sitting on the plane waiting for the gate for 45 minutes after landing, but apart from that home by 730am the next day.
--
So despite the whingeing I may have done in this thread, a really good trip. Great just to get away again, Orlando is pretty basic these days
but there's always a lot of stuff to do. Parks were busier than I expected, especially the Disney ones - thought Universal copes with the
crowds better than Disney, perhaps with more-attractions-per-park there? The Disney app-of-awfulness has to change, not such the
infrastructure (the app itself and the scanning point that you swipe your magicband/ticket at) as they all worked well, but the way the
Genie+/LightningLane stuff works - I reckon they'll revamp that again in a couple of years, perhaps make it so you can only pick up the
Genie+ bookings at the park (like the old FastPass) while still selling the one-off Lightning Lanes?
Not going to give you a map at the end this time as its pretty dull, but;
Final Score
Universal Islands of Adventure
Jurassic World VelociCoaster
Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
Incredible Hulk
Universal Studios
Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts
Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit
Busch Gardens Tampa
Iron Gwazi
Tigris
Kumba
Montu
Cheetah Hunt
Scorpion
SandSerpent
SheiKra
Cobra's Curse
Seaworld Orlando
Ice Breaker
Journey to Atlantis
Kraken
Mako
Manta
Fun Spot America (Orlando)
White Lightning
Freedom Flyer
Fun Spot America (Kissimmee)
Kiddie Coaster
Mine Blower
Hurricane
Galaxy Spin
Animal Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Space Mountain
Hollywood Studios
Slinky Dog Dash
Rock'n'Roller Coaster
Epcot
That's a (lowly for 2 weeks!) 30 coasters with +10.
Minimal tat purchased (plus a Jaws T-Shirt);
Last edited:
LiveForTheLaunch
CF Legend
Man, your report really has me missing Florida. It seems like so much has changed in the 8 years since I have been there and there is so much to look forward to whenever I can get there next! Great photos, and what I especially like is that you indulge in some libations throughout the day! I much prefer relaxing with a drink to regroup rather than running around parks like a maniac all day.
I much prefer relaxing with a drink to regroup rather than running around parks like a maniac all day.