The Fairest Trip Report Of All: 4/4

Trip report time! I’m covering my April 2022 trip for the Tower of Terror 10 Miler. Read all the posts in this report here. Onward!

Hey, y’know how on the first full day I was all proud of myself for waking up early and beating the crowds? My comeuppance arrives here, on the last day of the trip: I should have gotten up 10 minutes earlier. By the time I costumed myself, packed the remainder of my things, stowed said things at departure bag check, and queued up for the Skyliner, I could tell I was a bit behind for Early Entry at the Studios.

Now, the good news is that the Skyliner line was just a few minutes, and even the Caribbean Beach transitional line was manageable. But you know how it is with the Studios these days: if you’re not way early, you’re late. Plus I got pulled at security because the machines have decided they don’t like my battery pack anymore.

The other good news is that I was still through the gates only a few minutes past the start of Early Entry. Unfortunately that’s no help if you want to ride Rise of the Resistance with minimal wait. I started heading over to try anyway, before realizing… there really wasn’t any reason to.

Is Rise a great ride? Absolutely! But I’ve experienced it several times now and don’t necessarily need to prioritize it over having an otherwise chill and productive Disney day. Rather than drop 2 hours on it, I decided to head over to Tower of Terror instead.

This proved to be a wise call, as Tower of Terror has been undergoing maintenance of late, only operating 1 elevator at a time. Despite this, I was able to leverage my Early Entry time and get into a library within 10 minutes. I held up my medal like a dork for the ride photo, but then how could you not?

There was still Early Entry time on the clock, and since I was in the neighborhood anyway I hopped into the single ride line at Rock ‘n Roller Coaster. The regular queue was already spilling outdoors, but in the single rider line I had only to wait for the next available recording studio.

This time around I did NOT attempt The Shocker in my ride photo, but Disney lost it. People from a different car or train popped up in my PhotoPass instead. (I wish there was a way to indicate “this isn’t me” and remove those!) A bit of a bummer as I had a lovely conversation with the family around me and would’ve enjoyed the memento. Incidentally, I find lost and misattributed photo mishaps occur most frequently on RnRC, so if you really want your photo, be sure to tap your MagicBand after the ride.

Early Entry was now over, and queues were already filling up to no small degree. Star Tours, traditionally a mid- to low-priority attraction, still showed a mere 10 minute wait. Normally I might hold it until later in the day, but in the current crowd climate I was willing to bet it was going to get worse fast. I rode with a short wait and was vindicated by the 45 minutes posted upon leaving.

By the bye, did they get rid the Rebel Spy element of Star Tours, or is that just not part of it when Kylo’s the one to stop your starspeeder at the beginning? I attempted to make myself the obvious choice in the accepted fashion (holding still, looking straight ahead, etc.), but it turned out the point was moot.

It was now late morning and I was getting a bit peckish; from the Star Tours line I mobiled ordered some Ronto Roasters breakfast, which I picked up after the ride. I got some coffee with it, and as I knew the Cast Members were unlikely to let me take it into any single rider lines, I looked around for something to do while I sipped.

Are you familiar with the Legacy Lightsabers? As far as I can tell they’re film replicas of Star Wars characters’ actual weapons, and an alternative to the build-your-own workshop. I from what I’ve heard from fans they aren’t worth the money by comparison. But there was a line to see them, so I figured, what the hell – let’s take a look!

The CM working the counter wasn’t at all perturbed when I said I was there to window shop, not buy, although I did promise not to take up too much of her time – and didn’t. She presented a few lightsabers for a closer look. Leia’s was my favorite!

This was sufficient time to have finished my coffee, and thus unencumbered I walked on into the Smuggler’s Run single rider line. I had my assignment in the Falcon about 10 minutes later; in fact, I would’ve been in even faster if I hadn’t let a handful of couples hoping to ride together go ahead of me.

This worked out in my favor, as I was able to snag a gunner position instead of the consolation prize that is being engineer. Still haven’t figured out how one is supposed to actually aim on this thing, but we got both containers of coaxium and that’s what counts.

On the way out of Batuu, I caught a showing of MuppetVision 3D, because it is amazing and somehow completely timeless and also the preshow is somehow as good or better than the actual show.

At this point it was but 10am and the park was already kinda nuts. Rather than braving any lines, I decided to instead go spend some money. I still had some Disney Visa dollars to burn, and in honor of my race I determined it was finally time to spring for a pair of the Hollywood Tower Hotel Minnie ears.

As far as I can tell you can only get them, subject to availability, at the Tower of Terror gift shop. I whizzed past the 120+ minute line and entered the gift shop from the back for a successful transaction. The Joffrey’s coffee cart back there, I noticed, was once again overrun. Not even 10:30am yet, either. A paltry 90 minutes into official park hours. Yowza.

I know it wasn’t yet 10:30am because the next thing I did was squeeze myself into the 10:30am showing of Frozen Ever After. Entering the line about 5 minutes ahead of time, we were threatened with a capacity show, but I’m pretty sure everyone who showed up before start time made it in. For some reason there were a bunch of single seats on the ends of rows, so I had no problem finding a space.

I’ve documented my completely unexpected love for the Frozen singalong before – this show was far and away the BEST ONE YET. The Royal Storytellers were ABSOLUTELY KILLING IT. I kinda got a vibe like they were trying out some new material, and the jokes slayed. They even managed to make the part where Kristoff shows up hilarious, and normally I find the bits with the actual movie characters boring at best and cringy at worst.

Seriously, if you haven’t seen the Frozen singalong, make a point to try it next trip. Even if you’re not super into Frozen, if you have a passing understanding of the plot and a sense of humor, you will LOVE IT. That’s a FROA guarantee!

If I thought the Studios were crowded earlier, now began the late morning rush and subsequent crush of people. I waited too long to approach the Indy Stunt show, and even standing room was filled 15 minutes before showtime.

Instead I went for another round of the Vacation Fun cartoon in the Mickey Shorts Theater. It’s tough to utilize the Potatoland photo op on your own, but I made it work!

I then skipped into One Man’s Dream to charge my phone in the theater lobby at the back; I found a bunch of outlets there in January. (In retrospect, what I should’ve done is saved my Disney Springs trip for this day, but whatever. It all worked out.)

Since I was there already, I figured I may as well watch the mini biopic that runs in the theater, so I did. Always good to hear from Julie Andrews, who I trust has promised to live forever.

That was quite enough Studios for me. I picked up the Skyliner to Epcot, and found myself scanning into the International Gateway at exactly 2pm.

The first order of business? Snacks! I hadn’t yet been by the Flower & Garden Festival food booths over by Test Track, and I was able to hit them up for some sustenance. As I previously mentioned, F&G food reviews are still to come, but suffice it to say you NEED the fried cinnamon roll bites. You can slap a FROA guarantee on those too.

After snacks, I clearly needed a drink. I hied myself across the bridge into World Showcase and slipped inside the Mexico pyramid. One short wait later, and I was in La Cava del Tequila ordering a fancy-pants Lily margarita. It’s expensive – I mean, even by WDW standards – BUT it does come with a La Cava plastic glass to take home. Plus I managed to speak some Spanish without freezing or stuttering, which is a win for me!

I took my drink outside for a round of Mariachi Cobre, not to mention a very important meeting with a very important caballero.

Then I began to wander. I meandered with no real purpose except to poke around, not truly stopping until Canada. There I gave the new movie a chance again; it’s growing on me. Not that I ever didn’t like it, I just wish Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara had been given more jokes. The best comedy went to the CM who opened the film: “Welcome to Canada. Or as we say in Canada, welcome to Canada.”

Alas and alack, it was getting late in the day. An airplane was calling my name. Not quite yet, though: I had time for one more Mariachi Cobre show. Only after that wrapped did I grab a Skyliner gondola back to Pop Century.

What is it about the last day of WDW that makes it the best? For all that it was a bit of a weird trip, I didn’t want to go. 🙁 At least the CMs sent me off with The Twist.

I entertained myself with one last lap around the Pop gift shop before finally calling an Uber to the airport. My flight left an hour late but given the horror stories about delayed planes from others, I honestly can’t complain too much.

And that’s a wrap on this trip report? Well, not quite – I have a couple more food posts – but the bulk of it is done. As always, my sincere thanks if you read this far. I hope you enjoyed reading it at least almost as much as I enjoyed writing it. See ya for the next one in November. We’re gonna Wine and Dine!

Don’t forget, you can follow FRoA on Twitter @fairestrunofall and on Instagram @fairestrunofall. If you have any questions or thoughts, leave a comment or email fairestrunofall@gmail.com. See ya real soon!