Overview of Days 3 and 4:
These days were mostly to re-ride favorites and catch a few things that we’d missed during out first two days. We did NOT rope drop either day. On Wednesday night (Day 3) we went to HS After Hours (trip report here: Mini Trip Report: Hollywood Studios After Hours), so we wanted to be well-rested for that and to let everyone sleep in the morning afterward.
Crowd levels continued to be low on Wednesday (USF CL2; IOA CL3), but creeped higher on Thursday (CL6 for both parks).
Day 3:
We started the morning with breakfast at The Kitchen. We’d had a late dinner at Cowfish the night before, so no one was super hungry. As a result, we decided to skip the buffet and order a la carte. Everything was very good. I do wish we’d had the appetite for the buffet, but we would not have been able to eat enough to make it worth the price.
As we left for the park, the water taxi was just pulling up, so we rode that over, continuing the low key start to our day. We started at USF. We did the Mummy first and even DD9 was willing to ride. She actually enjoyed it, but didn’t want to ride it again during our trip. DH and DD then did Simpsons, while I did MiB with the boys. Then we all rode Gringotts, even DD9 who also enjoyed this one. We also caught some of the Tales of Beetle the Bard.
We took the HE over the IOA. DH took the younger two over to FJ and Hippogriff, and DS11 and I went over to ride VC. About 10 minutes into our wait, DS11 decided his stomach was bothering him, so we got out of line. As it turned out, we wouldn’t make it back to VC on this trip (it had a fair amount of downtime and very long waits the next day), so that was a little disappointing. I think I needed a second ride to really take it in because it was so much to experience all at once the first time.
We all headed over to the JP area, and grabbed some food at Thunder Falls Terrace. The kids really liked the turkey legs, but after watching people get soaked standing on the terrace overlooking JRA, they did not want to ride it (even thought I tried to explain that the people standing there got wetter than the people on the ride). I took an IPA to go from TFT and we went over the JP play area. That place is incredible. The kids explored for a really long time. And despite not wanting to get wet on JRA, they had a water fight in the play area and ended up wetter then if they’d ridden a water ride. The VC line was pretty long at this point, so we decided that it was time to go back to the hotel for mandatory nap time, and then head over to WDW for HS After Hours.
Day 4:
We slept in and grabbed donuts for breakfast at the market at HRH, before taking the water taxi over to the parks. We started the day at IOA. We split up, with some doing Hulk and some doing Stormforce. None of our kids wanted to do Dr. Doom, but there is an arcade right there so we purchased them them game credits and let them play at the arcade while DH and I rode (it was a walk on with EP). I really liked Dr. Doom. I think it may be less intense than ToT, and you get a great view of the parks. We would have happily done this again, but didn’t feel comfortable leaving the kids unattended in the arcade. We grabbed the kids and wandered toward JP. No one really wanted to do Spiderman or Kong again, so JRA was up next. This time, we were in the second row and we all got pretty wet. But DD9 who was really nervous about riding really liked it. VC was down, so we ate at Desert Kabobs for lunch and then took the HE over to USF.
Once we arrived at USF, we went to get ice cream at Florean Fortescue’s (delish!). We ate our ice cream while wandering toward New York, seeing the Beat Builders and Blues Brothers. DS11 wanted to take a break, so we walked him to the exit, and then the rest of us went to the Bourne Stuntacular.
The Bourne show lived up to the hype. Really fantastic. You literally could not tell where the live actors and real props ended and the screen began. There was a technical issue during the show, so they needed to stop the show momentarily. While we were waiting, a TM talked to the audience and provided some interesting details on how everything at the show works, but the delay came right in the middle of a big stunt, so it really disrupted the flow. But we still really enjoyed it. We let the kids play a few carnival games over in the Simpsons area and then went back to the hotel for a break.
After our break, we went back to IOA . I think VC had reopened, but when DS11 and I got there, the line was massive, so we decided not to wait. Instead, we all did FJ and Hippogriff, and caught some of the Triwizard show (we saw part of it on another day too; we also saw some of the Frog choir on another day). We then had dinner at the 3B. The younger two were too tired to stay after dinner, so DH took them back to the hotel. DS11 and I jumped in line for Hagrid’s at about 7:45. The listed wait was 90 minutes, but I think it took less than an hour. Hagrid’s at night was awesome and a great last ride of the trip!