The newest ride at Disney is Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, a roller coaster that opened at Epcot earlier this year. To manage the demand, they're not doing the conventional "show up and stand in line" thing; instead, you have to join a "virtual queue" using their mobile app. The queue only opens up a couple of times a day, one being at 7:00 am. We were warned ahead of time about the narrow window to sneak through here: by 7:00 and say, 5 seconds, you can reasonably expect that the entire queue until past lunchtime will be completely full.
So we woke early and pooled together no less than six different phones, all of us set to push the "join queue" button literally the instant the clock struck 7:00. We did get in, but even as fast as we were, we were still group 69 (nice) to register for the day -- we would wind up getting on the ride about 3 hours after Epcot opened, around 12:30.
But before that, we went to the also new(ish) Remy's Adventure ride back in the France section of the park. This ride was a wonderful surprise. In a way, it's nothing you haven't seen before if you've ridden a theme park ride built in the last 10 years or so. A small car moves your group from "room" to "room," where different scene snippets are projected on a large screen, with programmed motions meant to make you feel like you're there. But this Ratatouille-themed ride was especially clever in how it pulled from the theme park ride bag of tricks -- when and why it lurched you backward, blasted you with heat, squirted you with water, and so forth. Highly recommended.
We didn't have enough time to wait out the long line for the Frozen themed ride in the Norway section, but for me, Epcot is more about the food, drinks, and shopping anyway. (Which is why kids don't like it as much, I'm sure.) We ambled along, picking up crepes, cider, saki, and souvenirs until our number was called for the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.
It's a good coaster. In many ways, it's the modern version of Space Mountain -- it's mostly a dark coaster, but it does what all modern rides seem to do, using large screens to project a story. The pre-show experience is fun too, lifting a signature element from the now-defunct Star Trek Experience that used to be in Las Vegas and deploying it to great effect. The ride also features most of the Guardians cast members -- including, surprisingly, Glenn Close. (But excluding, also surprisingly, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel; Rocket and Groot are voiced by not-quite-sound-alikes.)
We rode Test Track, which has gotten a major upgrade since I last rode it. They're definitely trying to expand Epcot to be a more plausible destination for thrill ride fans. We had lunch at a buffet in the German pavilion, enjoying too much beer and too much food (see above). We meandered more. There were other little moments too -- looking for Mulan in the China pavilion, watching an ibis unexpectedly lunge for a small lizard hiding in the grass and gobbling it up in one bite, knowing that $100 for an Infinity Gauntlet and stones wasn't for us (but trying it on anyway). Whatever is going on in this picture:
But ultimately -- our feet being tired from 10 miles of walking every day, plus knowing we'd be hitting Universal next -- we decided to call it early for once. (Even though the temptation to park hop to Hollywood Studios for more Star Wars was quietly whispering.)
In all, the Disney section of the trip was a blast, as expected. But there were still two more days of fun ahead.
No comments:
Post a Comment