We pick things up from Part One, where we got reacquainted with what to expect from the rope drop opening experience from the main entrance given the current state of construction and the introduction of the Disney Skyliner. With Test Track down for refurbishment until late February, the only rope drop priority in Future World is Soarin’, which we also experienced in the last part with just a short wait. We’re now heading to Living with the Land.

While not historically a priority, the boat ride typically posts a peak wait of 50 minutes around noon, with an average wait of an even 30 minutes around lunch time. From Part One, you might remember that all of the Living with the Land’s FastPass+ inventory was gone for the entire rest of the day day around 10am, which means the maximum number of people with priority access will be returning to the greenhouse boat ride during the majority of the day, in turn reducing the number of standby riders who are able to ride per hour.

Continue reading “Epcot Rope Drop Touring After Soarin’ with Test Track Closed for Refurbishment”

Disney made some changes to the operating schedule at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for dates in March today. The changes are highlighted in green:

On March 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th, they moved the Studios’ close to 8:30pm from 8pm. That also pushes evening Extra Magic Hours to 8:30pm to 10:30pm from 8pm to 10pm on March 1st. We will assuredly see a plethora of operating schedule changes for February and March as we move through February, so the random 30-minute extensions during the first week in March may be some sort of clerical move on Disney’s part. I don’t see any reason to make the extensions now, or why March 3rd would be excluded. The reasoning may become clearer at some future date.

It’s also apparently possible that your return window for Rise of the Resistance will be one hour instead of two:

Continue reading “Minor Schedule Changes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and a Potential Reduction in the Rise of the Resistance Return Window”

The Festival of the Arts returns in 2020 for a 5.5-week run from January 17th through February 24th.

The Festival has quickly become a favorite of many, particularly those who thought Flower and Garden’s three-month spring run, Food and Wine’s 76-day fall extravaganza, and Festival of the Holidays’ month-long merriment were cut a little short.

Continue reading “Review: The Best Food and Drinks at Epcot Festival of the Arts Plus Every Item Reviewed”

We’ll take a moment away from Disney’s Hollywood Studios to catch up on some theme park touring at Epcot. In the last two posts, we took a look at most of the construction and other projects that are happening around Epcot with a look at Future World West and Future World East. Here at 7:45am on Saturday, January 25th, 2020, it seems like I basically have the place to myself.

At the moment, Test Track is closed for refurbishment for another month or so. According to DisneyWorld.com, they have the ride reopening on February 26th, but the first date with actual operating hours is February 27th. The correct reopening date should be February 27th, but we’ll see if Disney changes the date printed on their website.

Continue reading “Rope Dropping Soarin’ at Disney World’s Epcot with Test Track Closed for Refurbishment”

After focusing on the other side of Epcot in our last update, we move over to Future World East to see what’s happening over here.

Test Track is scheduled to reopen on February 26th or 27th. Until then, Epcot operates with just three Tier 1 FastPass+ attractions – Frozen Ever After, Soarin’, and Epcot Forever. We’ll discuss more about how that affects wait times and FastPass+ availability as we go about our day touring the Park in the next series. When the ride reopens late next month, it’s unlikely that we’ll notice too many changes, but hopefully work has gone into making the attraction as reliable as possible moving forward. Some effects will probably be restored and we can expect a nice overall refresh. Test Track is historically down about 15% of the time at Park open, which is awfully high when it’s the most popular ride in the Park. That’s one major reason why it’s the top FastPass+ priority at Epcot when the attraction is available. Holding a FastPass+ means that you’ll be able to experience the attraction with priority access when the ride is available. Holding FastPass+ for Test Track also means you can start your day with a different, lower-priority attraction, which makes for a less-stressful morning.

Continue reading “Epcot Future World East Construction Update Plus Festival of the Arts”