Disney & Beyond June 2011 Day 7 - Hollywood Studios

[Ariel's Mum]

1 July 2011

CAST

Me - Lynn 46 - holiday organiser. Looking forward to everything especially time together;
DH - Philip 48 - leaves it all to me. Looking forward to spending time at the Gulf coast;
DS - Luke 12 - loves everything about Florida. Looking forward most to Sea World;
DD - Rachel 11 - takes forever to get moving. Looking forward most to getting there and being warm.

Day 6

Today was our re-scheduled Hollywood Studios day. As Rachel wouldn’t ride, Tower of Terror or Rock-n-Rollercoaster, we decided last night to go our separate ways in the park….

We were up and out of the villa for 7.55am. We stopped of at the local McDonalds for breakfast. We decided against the drive through thinking it would be quicker to pop in and get take out. Wrong decision. There was only one person serving and her till seemed to be malfunctioning, as did the coffee machine and the second till she tried. Eventually, we gave our order, repeating difficult words like hash-browns, egg mcmuffin, OJ, and coffee……. Philip and the kids took the food out to the car whilst I waited for the drinks. Finally the drinks were served and I joined the others in the car.

Luke told me that there was someone trying to get my attention in the car next to us…. I rolled down my window and the driver told me I had dropped some money. I thanked him and opened the car door as he drove off. I picked up $24 - basically the amount we had been given in our McDonalds change. We drove off and I was thinking how nice it was of the man in the car to alert me to the cash. A few minutes later I realised Philip had taken the change in the restaurant so the money couldn’t have been ours.

Now I’m a worrier, so on the drive from McDonalds to HS, I kept imagining that I would lose all our money now as I had “taken” someone else’s change. I thought through the options of taking it back to McDonalds, handing it in to the local police etc. In the end I settled on donating it to charity as it seemed the likelihood of the money being claimed was slim. (I once handed a £10 note into our local police station only to have it returned to me some months later unclaimed.)

Once the decision was taken I felt much lighter and was able to get on with my day.

Anyway we arrived at the parking lot around 8.45. We parked near the top of the row (very unusual) so we were quickly out of the car and straight on to a waiting tram. We were fairly quickly through the bag check and through the turnstiles. Once inside the park Rachel and I said goodbye to the boys who were heading to Rock-n-Rollercoaster whilst we were going to Toy Story Mania. I took Rachel’s arm and marched her through the shops on the left side of Hollywood Boulevard. This was a dibb tip This meant that by the time we got out of the shops we were in the second or third row of people by the rope drop. Quite a result.

My next tip was one I had learned for our 2008 trip and that was not to follow the crowds but to head round the back of the hat and down the stairs which would get us to TSM ahead of the crowds. So as soon as the rope was dropped I grabbed Rachels arm and quickly marched her round the back of the sorcerer’s hat. Quite a few people had the same idea as me but the vast majority were oblivious to our shortcut. The fools, I thought. Mmmmm, maybe not so much them being foolish as I. We were greeted by several cheery cast members grinning and waving their large Mickey hands showing us that the stairs were roped off for the time being. We were directed back into the large crown and instead of gaining us valuable time I had lost a few minutes. Maybe I should have checked this before hand.

We decided against waiting for a fast pass as the queue was already massive despite it being only a few minutes past 9. When we reached the stand by queue it already showed a 30 minute wait time, it changed to 45 minutes within a couple of minutes. But in reality we waited only about 15 minutes.











After TSM, I suggested we should meet Buzz and Woody at the character meet and greet but Rachel wasn’t in the mood, so instead we wandered over to the new Star Tours 3D ride. We took a quick photo by the Little Mermaid fountain en route.



I was really looking forward to trying the revamped Star Tours and expected it to be really busy. I was surprised that we only had about 10 minutes wait. Rachel and I both really enjoyed the new show. The 3D is very cleverly done but not in your face (if you know what I mean ).

Here are a few pics.









After Star Tours, we had a brief restroom break, applied some sunscreen and then wandered over to Animation Courtyard. I really wanted to see Sorcerer Mickey. This was something I had been looking forward to since reading about it on the Dibb. As it was still fairly early in the morning, there was hardly any queue and Rachel and I met Mickey very quickly…..





I have to say I did feel like a big kid being so excited at this meeting - but it was really was one of those feel good moments

Cont in next post…

[Ariel's Mum]

After playing in the Animation Studio for a while we set off to watch the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. As Rachel has long red hair, she has always been fascinated by Ariel and for most of the time Ariel has been Rachel’s favourite princess. So I loved the fact that she was as keen to see this again as I was. It’s a very well done show and Ariel was, as always, fantastic.

When we exited, the Disney Channel Rocks show was playing in front of the Sorcerer’s hat, we watched for a while before heading to see Beauty and the Beast. Now this is my all time favourite show at Disney. I love, love, love it. The cast are always fabulous and really put their all into singing, dancing and acting. I remember taking Rachel and her friend to go see the touring Disney show at the Kings Theatre in Glasgow and really there was no comparison between that and this significantly shorter one in Hollywood Studios. It’s one of those “must do” things at Disney.

By the time the show finished it was almost time for us the meet Philip and Luke for our lunch-time ADR at Prime Time Diner. We were a few minutes early so took our time wandering over. They were there before us and sitting, with not so cheery faces, waiting on us. It will come as no surprise to read that they were feeling poorly. Luke had a headache and felt sick, Philip also felt a bit sick. Now those of you who read my trippie from Animal kingdom a few days ago will remember that they also felt sick that day. The reason for the nausea then was their 4 rides on Expedition Everest. The reason for the nausea now - two rides on Rock-n-Roller Coaster followed by two on Tower of Terror. No wonder they felt iffy - do they never learn. Those 4 rides were all they had done in the 3 and a half hours since we had left them….

As we were still a bit early for our ADR, we sat outside for a while. 20 minutes later we checked into the Prime Time Diner. Now I have read good reports about this place, particularly about the themeing and the enthusiasm of the servers. BUT we have never eaten here - mainly because we have always eaten in the Sci Fi Diner as we all love the themeing in there and it’s been a tradition to dine there whenever we visit Hollywood Studios. This year we decided to break with tradition and I’m so glad we did.



Our server was Lazy Bob. After introducing himself, he put the cutlery and napkins down and told Rachel to set the table. I wasn’t quite sure what her reaction would be but she just giggled and did what she was told. Bob played his role fantastically throughout the meal, telling us stories about our cousins and making all 4 of us laugh. We ordered 4 drinks and a portion of onion rings to share whilst we browsed the menu.

Here are some pics of inside Prime Time...








To eat we had: Fish sandwich (Philip), Chargrilled chicken sandwich (me); Kids chicken tenders (Rachel) and Chicken noodle soup with a side of fries (Luke). All 4 of us loved the food. We decided to splash on deserts. Luke had chocolate brownie; Rachel had ice cream and Philip had cheesecake. I had a little off each plate















The bill came to $96 including tip. We all really enjoyed the food, atmosphere and fun in this restaurant and will return!

We waddled out of the restaurant and over to the Indian Jones Stunt show. The skies didn’t look that great - they were a very dark grey and we were fairly certain rain was heading our way. Anyway, once inside the theatre we got good seats near the sound and lights technicians. Luke operates the lights for school productions so was almost more excited about seeing the equipment than seeing the special effects in the show.

By the time the casting director came out looking for extras the rain had started. Rachel was desperate to have a volunteer as an extra so was disappointed to realise you have to be 18 L We tried to convince Philip to volunteer he was having none of it. Extras’ recruited and sent off to costume and Indie drops onto the stage. A few minutes later, the first scene is over and the Director comes on stage to tell us that the show is cancelled due to rain. Not what we wanted to hear. We’ve been unlucky with rain this week.

It was around 3pm by this time so we decide to head home. We knew we had another day in Hollywood Studios later in the holiday. Once back in the villa Rachel and I played in the pool for a while, Luke watched TV; and Philip read. In the evening we had dinner in the villa, watched a few episodes of Medium and then headed to bed at 9.40 pm.

Tomorrow back to EPCOT.

[Guest]

Fabulous day - I love Hollywood Studios! Great picture of you and Rachel with Mickey - I always get all excited when I meet the mouse too!

[MFras23]

Fantastic day. Those desserts look so yummy!

[Tartan Tigger]

Great day!

[Milner]

Excellent day food looks nice.

[ThumperThistle]

Great day and photos.

[Ms Finkelstein]

Sounds like you had a great day, just a shame about the rain at the end. The food looks yummy!

You need to get those boys sorted though Lynn , all this feeling unwell just won't do lol!

Di x

[Nesbits]

What a great day for you all, and what a good idea to split up. I love 50's PT Diner, looking forward to the rest, don't disappoint us all now!

[summersun]

great day