Now I am fully caught up to the events of January that I wish to share. There isn't much news in the way of restaurants new to me, instead, more than one spot was revisited. Some interesting places are scheduled to open in my county throughout 2024 so I have that to look forward to. The most interesting experience will be discussed first: after almost two full years, I was finally able to ride the indoor roller coaster Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot on Wednesday.
In recent years, how Disney has done lines and queues for its most popular new rides is not “customer-friendly.” Until recently, there were only two times a day where you had to rush to the Disney World app on your phone and hope you are blessed by the gods & were able to join a virtual queue, and you have to arrive at the ride within a certain window of time. See what I mean about “customer-friendly”? Recently, with this there was a new option but that required paying for Lightning Lane (their new and vastly inferior version of FastPass) and then ANOTHER fee to ensure I'd be able to get on. While I waited to get on, I used Lightning Lane on one of the few attractions that were operative and hadn't run out of virtual passes for the day: getting to ride on Soarin' Over California one more time was neat but boy is Disney just not the same when it comes to treating their customers right.
That is a crying shame especially in this case, as Cosmic Rewind is a great attraction. I'll be vague and there's always YouTube & Wikipedia for those that do want details... it's like Space Mountain, only more modern and quite wild. Expect to hear a popular song from the past on the ride; it rotates between a half-dozen songs you expect on Star Lord's mixtape. This whole rigmarole will have to be done again at the Magic Kingdom for the purpose of riding the new TRON attraction... one where opinion is sharply divided on its quality or lack thereof. It may be one that disappoints, which would sting.
The rest of my time at Epcot was spent walking around, admiring the new garden they have where the old Fountain of Nations used to be, and looking at the art available during The Festival of the Arts that is now a yearly tradition at the start of the year. Also, as I walked back to the car to head home, what a surprise it was to see a Fisker Ocean electric SUV in the parking lot; it was so new that temporary paper tags were on it instead of license plates. It was smaller than expected yet still was appealing to my eye. That's the company which in a previous iteration a decade ago had the great-looking but questionable-in operation Fisker Karma, which was a plug-in hybrid and totally flopped. At least I was lucky to see one in person at a Publix grocery store parking lot, of all places.
Otherwise, not too much else to say, except that there were two theatrical releases seen this month. I'll mention the second first: I.S.S. The reviews were mixed yet the premise of a thriller on the International Space Station still intrigued. Sadly, the movie was totally “meh” & forgettable so while not terrible, it could never even be called good. In contrast, Disney released 2020's Soul to cinemas as they weren't able to at the time due to COVID. That's a great film between the animation, the story, the characters, the music... while it should have been seen by me on Disney+ before, the first time experience being at a cinema was grand.
Who knows when I will return next. Like last February was, next month should be rather eventful.
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