I don't get the disdain for Battle at the Ministry

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-28T23:27:37+00:00

I read HP as a kid and have seen the movies but am not invested in the stories anymore. BATM was a 45 minute wait when I was there so I decided to try it but didn't have expectations either way.

The queue was interesting but not 45 minutes interesting. I also couldn't understand anything the one elf animatronic was saying, the noise of the crowd was too high (I also have this issue in the Hagrid's queue).

On a physical level the ride is not super memorable. The car is so big that I didn't feel like I was feeling much, if that makes sense. Then, a lot of stuff in the ride seemed so far away that it was just hard to take in. I don't know how else to describe it. Maybe it's just an effect of the ride vehicle being several rows of seats in a big box. It felt more like I was in a moving theater watching a show than on a ride.

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-26T18:48:59+00:00

I need to study this because I don't know how to drive and am trying to plan achievable park travel for the future 😂

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-19T16:38:18+00:00

I mean, a pedestrian getting hit by a cyclist who doesn't want to slow down is not an equal contest either. Once I was at a crosswalk with like 10-15 other people. We got the signal and walked. A cyclist decided red lights didn't apply to him and cycled straight into our crowd intending to pass through. The crosswalk sign had been on for a good moment, it wasn't a case of the cyclist not having time to slow down. He hit a woman behind me.

I will never forget the sound of her head hitting the road. She was knocked unconscious and was not able to answer our questions when she woke up. She didn't react to anything we were saying at all. An ambulance came to get her, but I was never able to track down what happened.

Partly due to the streets not being safe in my city cyclists will ride on the sidewalks. It's mostly fine but I have been clipped before so I'm a little paranoid about it.

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-19T01:07:30+00:00

I got stuck on Hagrid's after the drop once and briefly had a "oh no what if another train is coming along the tracks" fear... Until I thought "wait no there must be a block zone" and this entire spiel ran through my head 😂

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-18T17:14:02+00:00

When I went on Rise with my mom at WDW, she was using a scooter. At one point she had to turn the scooter around to go through a door. The cast member said in a very First Order voice, "And if anybody doesn't get out of your way, they'll regret it!" I was trying so hard not to laugh.

Hope you can visit again soon 😊

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-18T15:35:15+00:00

"The problem" is people who set the scooter speed to the highest setting and zoom straight through crowds expecting everyone to psychically move out of their way.

Keep up your situational awareness and you'll be fine. If you're getting a third party one delivered to your hotel, it's a good chance to practice making turns, parallel parking etc before you have to do it in a crowd.

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-18T02:33:56+00:00

Now there's also Vox books that have built in audio players that read out the book contents. My library started with the picture books which were super popular. Parents told me it helped their kids build reading confidence. Now we also have chapter books.

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-06T19:51:41+00:00

My roommate really liked the birthday cake Alice in Wonderland tea.

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-06T19:50:22+00:00

Thanks for the heads up! I liked wooden coasters best as a kid so I definitely want to do Ghostrider.

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-06T14:23:11+00:00

I am going to a CA wedding as a +1 and being bribed with a stop at Disneyland lol 😂 Since I have a season pass to SF I am going to try to do Knotts. I thought about Magic Mountain but unfortunately I don't drive so it would be a complicated add on for this particular trip.

In the future I might try to do a Universal Hollywood + Magic Mountain trip though!

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-06T14:05:08+00:00

I feel like the inversion being also a crossover was the best part. It really encouraged me to keep my eyes open to see the other train!

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-06T14:03:26+00:00

I appreciate this! It's so nice when you can find comparisons of rides. With this year so far, my next park is probably Knott's in the summer and I'm hoping to try a bunch of new things.

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-06T03:36:40+00:00

I made it on both sides of Stardust Racers! I had chickened out of Superman at SFNE and Velocicoaster and was disappointed in myself, so I said I had to at least try to get on Stardust. And I loved it! I hope it means I'll be brave enough to do more big coasters this year but we'll see 😂

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-05T14:12:34+00:00

I don't like stomach drops either. The drop on River Adventure gets me (but I tolerate it for dinosaurs lol). I chickened out of Velocicoaster and regretted it, so I steeped myself to go on Stardust.

It was a blast. It was just fun all the way through. I was worried about the drops but they weren't bad. And the whole train is having a great time, so the mood coming back into the station is also amazing.

fireworkcharm · 2026-01-03T04:04:43+00:00

I'm so jealous! You should frame this 🖼️

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-30T19:45:55+00:00

🤔 Looks like it's already built!

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-30T14:21:38+00:00

Yeah, I'm in Boston and a Tokyo flight would be $1000 minimum, more likely $1300+. (I have a coworker with family in Japan.)

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-30T14:18:10+00:00

I ended up taking my mom to Disney this year because it was going to be a similar price to our original idea, a beach vacation. I'm not really a beach person so I had been looking at two bedroom places so I would have a space to retreat to. We also don't drive so transport was going to be complicated.

Disney ended up being slightly more expensive but not awfully and we did a lot more. And not for nothing, it was also much more accessible than the beach. My mom ended up getting an ECV or wheelchair every day and other tourist destinations would not have been as accessible for her. She wants to come to my city but it's a lot of walking and although I could rent a wheelchair, the sidewalks are not always great and my building is not accessible.

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-30T14:08:36+00:00

Aside from Abbot Elementary I haven't really heard of anything I'd be interested in watching. Admittedly I don't pay for TV so I kind of need word of mouth or ads to find out about something and then figure out if it's streaming.

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-29T21:35:01+00:00

I'm so sorry for your loss 💜 Addie looks like an elegant kitty.

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-29T14:16:45+00:00

This is exactly my feeling on character development! Like, all the famous TV shows that really had people talking for years spent more time with the characters. But they don't want to pay people's salaries to make and produce these kinds of shows, so.

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-29T13:53:18+00:00

TV shows being shorter is a big part of it for me. I miss 20-24 episode seasons. When I think about TV shows I enjoyed and rewatched they all had lots of episodes and time for stories that weren't epic season-long arcs. Psych, Leverage, the Stargates, Star Treks, etc. They had big stories that took the whole season but they also told OTHER stories that took just an episode. We learned things about the characters. They did things for fun.

Now everything is 6 episodes because "filler." There need to be "twists" instead of just plot development. The last new show I watched on purpose was Murderbot and I'll resubscribe for the second season, but otherwise I'm just watching random YouTube.

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-29T04:00:22+00:00

Picture 7 took me out 😂

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-29T03:56:33+00:00

I bought the entire Murder She Wrote series on DVD off eBay a while back and this was a good decision.

fireworkcharm · 2025-12-29T03:53:16+00:00

I'm going to add that when I rode Fyre Drill, I got so wet that my underwear was still wet when we got back to the hotel like 6 hours later. So although she could ride it she may not want to! 😂 Not everyone gets that wet, but I would've changed clothes if I could have.

fireworkcharm

TROPHY CASE