Chapter 8: WDW Day 2 Part 4
We decided to first go on Test Track so off to Future World we go. A few minutes before 12:40pm we entered Test Track. The posted wait time was 45mins but we didn’t wait that entire time.
We designed our vehicles but I honestly forget which one was whose:
There was a momentary stop in our vehicle for a tiny bit thankfully it was at the beginning but after the seatbelt check. It was a few minutes before 1:10pm when we exited the ride. I’ve got to say I love Test Track. I do miss the old test dummies theme TBH and the video for the old version I liked a lot. However, I do like being able to design your own car. That’s fun.
Next up we decided to go on Soarin’ which had the new video. So off to the Land pavilion we go. It was 1:20pm when we made it to the entrance of Soarin’. The wait time was listed as 40mins and we waited 22mins. Soarin’ is a fun ride but honestly I’m not the biggest fan of the new movie. I think it’s because of the CGI which didn’t seem to be as prevalent in the old film. We were in the right spot (middle row) for optics but I have heard if on the sides then images get distorted. It’s still a good ride though.
After Soarin’ we decided to do Living with the Land. I’ve heard good things about the ride but I believe it was not open back in 2011 so this was the first time we had ridden it. It was 1:55pm when we got to the entrance of the ride and it was posted as a 5min wait. It was a walk on for us. I was surprised by how much I liked the ride. It’s great for educational purposes and can be a good break for your feet for a few minutes. After Living with the Land we decided to go on Circle of Life: An Environmental Fable. I hadn’t seen this show before. It was just before 2:15pm that we got to Circle of Life but we did have to wait until the next show which was in a little over 10mins from then. This was an alright show but it gave a few minutes of rest and in a/c. This show, however, is now permanently closed as of February 2018.
So once we were done we headed for our FP which was Mission: SPACE. This ride had undergone a refurb to adjust the Green Mission and redo the films.
Just before entering I snapped a quick photo:
I do think they did a good job with the design of the outside of the ride.
We did the Green side as a FP because I can’t handle the motions that the Orange side would do. We had a bit of a stop before the ride would go and it was after they had closed the pod. I’m not really claustrophobia but just sitting there in that tight space without knowing what was actually causing the delay gave butterflies in my stomach. The Green side is alright. I would go on it again I just wouldn’t want to wait too too long for it.
Once we got done Aaron wanted to go on it again but this time on the Orange side. Aaron definitely prefers the Orange side.
While waiting for Aaron to get out (I believe he rode the Orange side twice) I took photos of the Universe of Energy pavilion:
This pavilion and the ride inside had just been closed permanently on August 13th, 2017 to make way for a Guardians of the Galaxy ride.
Ellen’s Energy Adventure, the ride inside the pavilion that had to close, was a ride I didn’t fully appreciate until I realized it would close just before our trip. Luckily YouTube allows us to watch rides and shows that have since closed down though it’s not exactly the same thing as being there of course. I’d like to get a “Stupid Judy” shirt sometime.
It was time for our next FP which was Spaceship Earth. Normally I wouldn’t get a FP for this but I do know it can get long lines at times. Based on the tiering I just opted for this knowing that if need be I could try and modify it later on. It was about 3:55pm when we entered the FP line. There weren’t too many people waiting so the FP didn’t help us all that much.
I snapped a quick photo of this before we got inside:
There was a wait that we were confused what was taking so long to get on the ride until Aaron, who is tall, could see it was assistance needed to get a guest out of the ride vehicle. I mention this because sometimes people do say ride malfunction when sometimes I think it could really just be guest assistance. I really enjoy this ride but sadly we only went on it once the entire trip. I do wish we had gone on it at least one more time. It’s a unique ride in my opinion with some education mixed in.
Once we got done we decided to try some offerings from Food & Wine Festival so off to World Showcase we go. We first stopped at the Hawaii pavilion around 4:35pm and got two pork sliders which cost $9.50 for two (inclusive of tax). I forgot to take a picture of our samplings from Food & Wine Festival so all my photos will be from Google.
Here is a photo courtesy of easyWDW(.com):
We found these very good just messy. A fork is helpful to get the pork that has fallen off.
Once we got done with that it was time for our FP. I had chosen Frozen Ever After (FEA) because this was a new to us ride and one that still gets quite a long wait for it. We walked over to the Norway pavilion. We entered the line just after 4:50pm and waited just about 7mins to get onto the ride.
Being a dark ride it’s not the best for video or for photos but I did get this one quick photo that was not blurry:
Here is our PhotoPass photo taken just after 5:00pm:
Gah look at my bored face in the back! I swear if I had known when the photo was going to be taken I would have paid better attention to my face lol. If you look at the kid in orange—that is me usually in rides due to my sensitive ears though I save my noise reducing headphones until the fireworks items. It was loud in there TBH. The ride is a cute ride. I wouldn’t wait too too long for it. I wish there had been a bit more of a story in there. I know it was going through scenes of the movie but for me it didn’t translate as well to that. It seemed more rushed I suppose is the way I would describe it.
Once we got done we decided to try some more offerings from Food & Wine Festival. We got two bratwursts from the Germany kiosk at about 5:10pm. The bratwurst was $10.50 for two (inclusive of tax).
Here is a photo courtesy of easyWDW(.com):
We found it was fairly good though I do wish the bun was larger though lol.
After eating the bratwurst we walked past the America Gardens Theater where Eat to the Beat concert was going on. We listened for a few minutes then continued on walking.