It's Gonna Be Hot! Hot! Hot! - Aug 2011: Day 5 – More Disney Dealings – This Time Studios Stylee

[Siddex]

Day 5 – More Disney Dealings – This Time Studios Stylee
(Friday 26th August 2011)

No morning dramas to report, the jet lag seems to have worn off for everyone and alarms roused the troops at 7.30AM. Florida seems to be the only place you can get away with setting early morning alarms whilst on holiday.

Everyone was up, watered, fed and dressed by 8.30AM to leave on time. The chosen park today was Hollywood Studios (I have now found that I can call it this quite easily and do not revert to calling it MGM).


Today’s park of choice.

We entered the park at 9.05AM, after the usual routine of parking, tramming, security and ticket entry. We joined the throngs of people heading towards Toy Story Mania. I joined the rapidly growing queue of people waiting for fastpasses and managed to secure a set for 1PM to 2PM. At that rate they would have run out by about 10AM!

We all then headed over to Tower Of Terror and I could not persuade the others to ride this, so I went alone. This is my favourite ride but no-one else in my family will go on it. So I rode alone and joined the others afterwards after securing some more fast passes for Rock N Roller Coaster. I am not sure how we managed to get these fast passes so soon after the TSM ones, my notes are not that specific!

We then did Star Tours but Ella ducked out (accompanied by Maria) in one of the pre-show areas and we met them in the shop exit area after about 20 minutes. We then spent about the next 30 minutes in the shop whilst James made a serious dent in his holiday funds on Disney Racers and then tried to persuade Ella to start collecting them as well.


I believe Ella is embracing the scene and props more than James!

Next up was Muppets 3D, this was Ella’s choice as she had not managed to do a ride all morning. I loved this and found it very entertaining! It was only a 5 minute wait as well which was a bonus.

We then rode the backlot tour, which only had a 10 minute wait. Ella was not keen because of the fire part, but a bit of friendly persuasion (basically we forced her on!) meant we all rode it together without anyone having to take a sharp exit out. Well Catastrophe Canyon was conquered without too many tears. Ella’s not anyone else’s! And we soldiered on.


Worried about the ‘fiya’!

I think Ella was having one of those days you read about in the guides today. You know the ones where they say let the little ones dictate the pace as the heat, jet lag, etc may get on top of them! Anyway no chance, we soldiered on regardless!

I did let the kids refuel in Pizza Planet for an unauthorised lunch stop, which cost me the princely sum of $52 and more importantly about an hour of ‘theme park time’. The menu selections and scores are below:

Mark - Chicken Caesar Salad 5/10
Maria - Chicken Caesar Salad 3/10
Grams - Veggie Pizza 1/10
James - Meatball Sub 8/10
Ella - Kids Pizza 10/10

As mentioned above this meal was $52 and scored 27/50, another low Disney score – it would have been even lower but Ella awarded another 10!


After a quick refuel …..


... we are all smiles again!

We all headed back over to TSM as our fast pass window was now active, we all rode this and loved this once again. We rode this during its ‘soft opening’ time in 2008.

After this James and I went over to RnR to ride that with our fast passes (which had expired), we were going to ride again as we had 4 fast passes but our first ride took over 20 minutes. So we had to curtail any plans for a second go and went to meet the others.

We took up a decent position for the 3PM parade at 2.30PM, the only trouble was it was in the blazing sunshine (and blazing it was today!). As we were near Mickey’s Sorcerers hat I volunteered to hold our position armed with the buggy, whilst the others waited in the shade. I will do anything to keep my family group happy. So I wilted for the next 30 minutes and drunk about 2 litres of water, which tested my bladder control to the full.

I saw the parade approaching and was then joined by Ella, the others had decided to watch it from afar and namely the shade. Ella could not see properly so wanted to go on my shoulders. So I hoisted her up and proceeded to sweat out the 2 litres of water in about 15 minutes. The parade was OK, better than the Block Party Bash (or whatever it was called), but we were not overwhelmed by it.


Using a small child as a sunhat in the blazing sunshine is an idea that looks like it might catch on.


After the parade I took on some more much needed fluids and we were off once again. We then did the great movie ride (which had been missed on the last trip) and I think I enjoyed this so much more as it was nice and cool inside. It was OK and this turned out to be our last ride of the day as we left the park after at about 4.00PM.

We went back to the villa for a couple of hours for a swim and a general chill out. I took this chance to wring my clothes out from the day!

After a suitable amount of chilling had been done we set off at 7.00PM in search of food. Our chosen restaurant for this evening was the Outback Steakhouse at Formosa Gardens (a mere 10 minute drive away). The parking lot and restaurants were pretty busy here and we checked in and were in line for a 30 minute wait.

Soon enough we were seated (after 15 minutes), we had a Bloomin’ Onion to start with, as I had read many reports of these things and it did not disappoint – very tasty. Indiviudally we had:

Mark - 9oz Sirlion Steak 9/10
Maria - Alice Springs Chicken 9/10
Grams - Fish (that’s all I have!) 8/10
James - Half Rack Ribs 9/10
Ella - Kids Burger 10/10

It’s another 10 from Ella! This meal was $82 in total (an absolute bargain). I think the price must have been low as the alcohol lovers must have refrained tonight!

Outback scored a grand total of 45/ 50! That’s gonna be hard to beat and it was a very good (inexpensive!) meal.

Would it surprise you to know that it was really hot again today! Some members of the party thought it was hotter than others today as they had slowly baked in the heat and then to top it off had acquired some extra baggage on their shoulders!

Day 6 here

[ladeh]

Aww Ella is very funny keep scoring 10/10 at least tou know she is very happy! lovely pictures 2day!

[Bellestar]

Good report, we are Outback fans, always good value and service

[loobz]

up to date now with your TR - we were there at the same time so I'm now going to have to look at my notes (never did get round to writing that TR) to compare with yours about the weather!

[macadoo]

Loving your trip reports . We go the exact same dates this year...im guessing it's gonna be HOT

[Twentyyears]

Can't beat an outback, loving the report.

[disney owl]

our meal sounds hard to beat

[orlandosgr8]

A fun day at Hollywood Studios and it sounds like Outback was a successful place to eat. We loved going to Outback, but since we found Longhorn Steakhouse we don't eat there so much.

[madhatter3]

Firstly i must apologise, i have been calling Ella. Ellie( Emma has a friend called ellie).

sounds like you all had fun, although hot, you coped really well.

sounds a lovely meal you all had.
great photos.

[mouselover22]

Great day. Well look on the bright side you must of had a nice tan

I remember those days when me and hubby would spend all day at a park and then watch the evening show. I'm sure this year with our children will be a completely different experience!