toofpikk
Mega Poster
So last year I was fortunate enough to have a business trip out to Orlando near the end of the year. One of my friends from my stint at working at Europa Park was on the CRP, so I spent all my free time with him, catching up, talking about our previous doomed road trip, and theme-parking. During my short free time there, I managed to visit all the Disney theme parks, both the universal parks, and Sea world. I managed to do most of my bucket list rides, including completing the universal parks, seven dwarves mine train, and Mako & Pipeline. I did not, however, manage to ride a significant amount of Disney's E-tickets, including Tron, Guardians, Ratatouille, Test Track, or anything Avatar.
Haunted by this, my mind had been locked on working out how I could make a return trip economically viable. That was until I found myself in the incredibly fortunate position of being gifted several thousand soon-to-expire air miles, and a desperately needed gap in my career; my head started whirring like crazy. You can kind of see the process here.
So what was the thought? Well, 7 years ago, whilst sitting in our air-conditioned room in 38c heat, me and my old room mate used to construct pipe dreams of the ultimate theme park road trips. Having failed to complete our European one due to a broken down car 2 years ago, rather than focusing solely on Florida parks where I wouldn't be experiencing that much which was new to me, why not turn my focus to have another stab at one of these long-ago concieved biblical pilgrimages? I texted my old pal, and within an hour, I got the thumbs up, as he was Canadian he would essentially treat the trip like the most drawn out drive home in history; and I started spreadsheeting every concievable detail you could possibly comprehend that would be required to have an informed trip. Distances from park to park, crowd calendars, the cost of fuel in each area, where the cheapest but reasonable motels were, where I could spend air miles on hotels instead, which cultural hubs I thought were worth visiting... Charlie Kelly does a fantastic job at summing up my composure when it came to getting everything booked for this trip:
So what was the final plan?
This, grotesque, glorious masterpiece:
June 20th: Fly from Heathrow to Charlotte, transfer from Charlotte to Orlando, spend the evening in EPCOT, drive to Tampa
21st: Busch Gardens Tampa, drive up to Valdosta
22nd: Drive to Six Flags Over Georgia, evening at Fun Spot Atlanta, stay in Atlanta
23rd: Drive up to Nashville, spend the evening on the strip
24th: Drive to Holiday World, stay right by Kentucky Kingdom
25th: Kentucky Kingdom, then onto camping in the Daniel Boone National Forest
26th: Drive to Dollywood, stay in Asheville
27th: Drive to Carowinds, stay in Greensboro
28th: Drive to Williamsburg, spend the evening in the Old Town
29th: Busch Gardens Williamsburg, drive up to Richmond
30th: Kings Dominion, drive to Washington DC
July 1st: Spend the morning in Washington DC, drive to Knoebels for the afternoon, then drive to Hershey
2nd: Hershey Park, then drive to Philadelphia
3rd: Drive to Six Flags Great Adventure
And then another 6 weeks later, I found myself at Heathrow airport boarding the plane.
After a rather long flight to Charlotte sat next to a young family with a very screamy child, I experienced the horrendous stress of 90 minute transfers State side. I strongly DO NOT recommend this. Security is such an arguous process and then having to re-check haul luggage made turn rounds scarily tight. Alas, after another 3 hours, and about 4 hours sleep to the 16 hours I'd been awake, I touched down in Orlando, and was scooped up by my pal so we could spend the evening saying goodbye to his colleagues around Epcot.
As usual! I will keep the written content of my park reports slim, and try my best to let the pictures do the talking.
EPCOT really was serving itself as a flying visit. My previous experience with the park was not the best, firmly ranking it my least favourite of the Disney properties I've experienced. Inaccurate queue times, aging rides everywhere, the most mundane in breadth of attractions... As sucky as a top tier park can get. This time, however, with the emotion bolted on of my road trip partner saying goodbye to his colleagues of a year and a workplace he gushed about enjoying so much added some charm to the visit.
A quick go round on Spaceship Earth, a drink and a snack and a chinwag with some friends I knew who were also on park, and then a sneaky little smuggling through Ratatouille.
First time I've done this ride. I get the complaints but also I actually really liked it.
And then to seal the park visit off, a Zen ride on Guardians.
Yup, my group of 4 were the only people in the entire ride station.
Guardians is an absolutely wicked coaster. Not as intense as I was expecting but it does have some really quirky moments and was buckets of fun.
As my mate said his final goodbyes, I took a quick reflection on EPCOT. It's a very pretty park. But I don't think I'd ever enjoy the process of feeling like you've got the most out of your day with all the loopholes Disney now throws at it's patrons. Visiting with park staff, however, was very fun.
A 90 minute drive down the road in a Jeep absolutely filled to the brim with stuff, we made our way to Tampa, and a late hotel check in, before my mate realised he left his wallet in his apartment back at Disney... 3 hours later, he comes back into the hotel room and I realised my passport was also back at his old room.
Bollocks.
Was this an omen of another cursed theme park trip? God, I hope not..
Haunted by this, my mind had been locked on working out how I could make a return trip economically viable. That was until I found myself in the incredibly fortunate position of being gifted several thousand soon-to-expire air miles, and a desperately needed gap in my career; my head started whirring like crazy. You can kind of see the process here.
So what was the thought? Well, 7 years ago, whilst sitting in our air-conditioned room in 38c heat, me and my old room mate used to construct pipe dreams of the ultimate theme park road trips. Having failed to complete our European one due to a broken down car 2 years ago, rather than focusing solely on Florida parks where I wouldn't be experiencing that much which was new to me, why not turn my focus to have another stab at one of these long-ago concieved biblical pilgrimages? I texted my old pal, and within an hour, I got the thumbs up, as he was Canadian he would essentially treat the trip like the most drawn out drive home in history; and I started spreadsheeting every concievable detail you could possibly comprehend that would be required to have an informed trip. Distances from park to park, crowd calendars, the cost of fuel in each area, where the cheapest but reasonable motels were, where I could spend air miles on hotels instead, which cultural hubs I thought were worth visiting... Charlie Kelly does a fantastic job at summing up my composure when it came to getting everything booked for this trip:
So what was the final plan?
This, grotesque, glorious masterpiece:
June 20th: Fly from Heathrow to Charlotte, transfer from Charlotte to Orlando, spend the evening in EPCOT, drive to Tampa
21st: Busch Gardens Tampa, drive up to Valdosta
22nd: Drive to Six Flags Over Georgia, evening at Fun Spot Atlanta, stay in Atlanta
23rd: Drive up to Nashville, spend the evening on the strip
24th: Drive to Holiday World, stay right by Kentucky Kingdom
25th: Kentucky Kingdom, then onto camping in the Daniel Boone National Forest
26th: Drive to Dollywood, stay in Asheville
27th: Drive to Carowinds, stay in Greensboro
28th: Drive to Williamsburg, spend the evening in the Old Town
29th: Busch Gardens Williamsburg, drive up to Richmond
30th: Kings Dominion, drive to Washington DC
July 1st: Spend the morning in Washington DC, drive to Knoebels for the afternoon, then drive to Hershey
2nd: Hershey Park, then drive to Philadelphia
3rd: Drive to Six Flags Great Adventure
And then another 6 weeks later, I found myself at Heathrow airport boarding the plane.
After a rather long flight to Charlotte sat next to a young family with a very screamy child, I experienced the horrendous stress of 90 minute transfers State side. I strongly DO NOT recommend this. Security is such an arguous process and then having to re-check haul luggage made turn rounds scarily tight. Alas, after another 3 hours, and about 4 hours sleep to the 16 hours I'd been awake, I touched down in Orlando, and was scooped up by my pal so we could spend the evening saying goodbye to his colleagues around Epcot.
As usual! I will keep the written content of my park reports slim, and try my best to let the pictures do the talking.
EPCOT really was serving itself as a flying visit. My previous experience with the park was not the best, firmly ranking it my least favourite of the Disney properties I've experienced. Inaccurate queue times, aging rides everywhere, the most mundane in breadth of attractions... As sucky as a top tier park can get. This time, however, with the emotion bolted on of my road trip partner saying goodbye to his colleagues of a year and a workplace he gushed about enjoying so much added some charm to the visit.
A quick go round on Spaceship Earth, a drink and a snack and a chinwag with some friends I knew who were also on park, and then a sneaky little smuggling through Ratatouille.
First time I've done this ride. I get the complaints but also I actually really liked it.
And then to seal the park visit off, a Zen ride on Guardians.
Yup, my group of 4 were the only people in the entire ride station.
Guardians is an absolutely wicked coaster. Not as intense as I was expecting but it does have some really quirky moments and was buckets of fun.
As my mate said his final goodbyes, I took a quick reflection on EPCOT. It's a very pretty park. But I don't think I'd ever enjoy the process of feeling like you've got the most out of your day with all the loopholes Disney now throws at it's patrons. Visiting with park staff, however, was very fun.
A 90 minute drive down the road in a Jeep absolutely filled to the brim with stuff, we made our way to Tampa, and a late hotel check in, before my mate realised he left his wallet in his apartment back at Disney... 3 hours later, he comes back into the hotel room and I realised my passport was also back at his old room.
Bollocks.
Was this an omen of another cursed theme park trip? God, I hope not..