Day 2, Part 9: HS After Hours Part 3!
We last left off heading out of Oga’s.
It was about 10:30 by the time we left, and we were getting hungry so decided to head back to TSL where they had a bunch of food carts set up. This is one BIG improvement from the last time I did this event. Last time there were only like 4 food carts open in the entire park, and only one had popcorn. This evening there were so many carts open, and each one we saw had popcorn and ice cream. TSL alone had two carts set up!
We ended up grabbing some popcorn, coke, and Mickey ice cream bars because who doesn't love eating ice cream outside when it's 30 degrees?!
We took our goodies to the tables at Woody’s Lunchbox to enjoy, I was surprised how crowded it was back there, it was hard to find an open table! TSL stayed busy all night long, definitely not the empty park feel we’ve experienced at past After Hours events. It wasn't daytime crowded of course, but it was just always full of people.
I was still able to get some "empty park" pictures though! Just had to be patient and wait for a break in the crowd flow!
After eating it was time to get back to the rides!
We made our way back to MF:SR, and were shocked at the stream of people heading in, it seemed busier than it does often during the day!
Fortunately, the line kept moving so the wait was minimal, but we did run into the rudest people here. After the preshow room when you go into the “jetbridge” and get back into a line with your group, there were multiple groups coming from behind shoving people aside to get ahead of them. So ridiculous, they even shoved my mom aside and I was livid, like who pushes an older woman!??! These jerks apparently. And to make it somehow worse, these weren’t kids or teens who might not know any better, these were like 40 year olds.
To make matters worse, they got just in front of us before we got to the CM, so we ended up having to ride with that horrible group, and if they hadn’t shoved in front of us we would have been pilots too. Ugh.
After MF:SR we headed over to MMRR. Again there were a ton of people streaming in here, but the wait was still very short. Again, oddly enough, there were groups of very pushy people here. In the preshow room, since it wasn’t packed, everyone mostly stood a bit further away from each other than normal, like 18”-24”. Well, just before the preshow started this group came in and pushed in front of my mom and I so they were actually touching us, and then the teenage son proceeds to sit down and sits right on my feet! Like what on earth was going on this night?!?! There was SO much space for them to stand elsewhere!
Fortunately the people behind us were far enough back we could shift back again, but seriously, some very rude people there this evening.
And then, I swear this was just not our night, we get to the load zone, and almost every group there is a group of two, and every single one is assigned their own row. But for some reason, the CM decided to assigned two other adults in our row, and they were a bit larger, so it made for a super uncomfortable fit. When we got to the Daisy dancing scene where you can look in the mirror at every other car, each row only had two people but ours, and everyone in our row looked super uncomfortable!
On the way out of the ride, we ran into the couple we had sat with at Oga’s and had a quick chat and learned that Rise had been down ALL NIGHT! No wonder the crowds seemed so much larger this evening!
After those two unfortunate ride experiences, we decided to give up on rides and go find more characters to meet. We had seen the White Rabbit earlier around Muppets, so made our way over there to find him.
Sure enough, he was hanging out just before the entrance to Galaxys Edge, and there was no one meeting him!
We had a great meet, and again since there was no one around, he spent a lot of time interacting with us.
After the meet we headed towards Muppets Courtyard to get some pictures since we didn’t know if it would be gone before our next trip. (Spoiler – it closed during our next trip…we’re always there when something closes!)
I had to point out the “It’s Rat Pizza” to my mom since she never noticed it before.
It was around midnight at this point, so only 30 minutes left of the event, so I asked mom what she wanted to do, and her answer was Slinky! So we made our way back to TSL.
The line for Slinky was practically non-existent at that point, we waited maybe two minutes. After the first ride, we saw the line was even shorter, so we decided to ride again! And finally, after that second ride, the line was EMPTY, so of course we ran around to get on one last time!
It was 12:20 after the last ride and mom was done with rollercoasters for the day, so we decided to grab some more popcorn and soda to enjoy (and bring home), and then made our way towards the exit.
On the way out we of course had to stop for a photopass picture!
We then made our way to the boat dock, and lucked out since there was a boat waiting! We squeezed on (seriously it was packed), and soon after we were off. We decided to get off at the Swan/Dolphin since it would be much faster walking to the Boardwalk than having to wait for the stop at the YC/BC before the Boardwalk stop.
Once back in the room, we relaxed with some wine, chocolate, and popcorn before calling it a night!
Next up: The Crowds Brave the Rain!
