Beryl, Breakdowns, Beauty and the Bates family - Day 5

[Nimbus]

Previously...
Pre-Trip
Day One - The Journey There
Day Two - Around the World at Epcot
Day Three - Swimming and Shopping
Day Four - Soggy at Seaworld

Day Five - Tuesday 29th May 2012 - Hollywood Studios

The day before had been rainy – very rainy at times - and today was forecast to be much the same. Beryl was still raging through Florida. Therefore the decision was made to visit a park with more indoor attractions than Seaworld and Hollywood Studios was at the top of the list.

After a swift breakfast in the hotel of eggs, waffles, toast and coffee we clambered aboard the 8 o'clock bus and whizzed over to Disney. Again, I don't think the bus was busy - however my notes for today are very brief so I have no idea.

The hotel shuttle bus only took us to Epcot, so today we had to sample the delights of Disney transportation. Remember folks, anyone can use the Disney buses! Here was the bus arriving to take us to our park:



On the bus, some very stirring music - especially for about 8:45 in the morning - was played over the speakers as we took the quick 10 to 15 minute trip to the entrance of this place:



Oops, I missed off the "Studios" bit.

It was a little busy getting through the turnstiles and, getting there just after 9, we'd missed "rope drop". Not that there's a rope drop ceremony at HS any more. Once inside the park we immediately started the usual fast walk towards Pixar Place and Toy Story Midway Mania ("Keep up everyone! No stopping for character meets").

The standby queue for Toy Story Mania was already long so we got a fastpass for a return of about 10:30am or 11am or something. By the time we were done, the initial rush had died down a little and now Pixar Place was merely "busy":



Note the very short queue for the fastpass machines. I love the plastic monkeys hung across the alleyway.

We considered queuing up to see Buzz and Woody but the queue was about 40 mins (I think) so decided against it. Instead, we left the Pixar area noticing as we went that they still seem to be building the place:



As Star Tours had recently been refurbished, I was eager to do this next. The wait time was posted as 10 minutes but actually it was a walk on; it just took that time to walk down the empty queue. This is a brilliant update to a classic ride. The 3D is good and the various random missions you go on are great fun. In fact, we liked it so much we did it again! I sort of wanted to go on it a third time, but the others vetoed that idea. Boo!

Again, like with Wild Arctic the day before, the experience when sat at the back of the simulator was noticeably better than when sat at the front. The seats seemed to move about more and the ride was more exciting. So, I recommend getting a seat at the back, if you can.

After resisting the urge to build my own lightsaber, the Muppet Vision 4D show was next on the agenda. But it seemed like a long way down a very long road...



Actually, it wasn’t as long as it looked.

We ambled past the Miss Piggy fountain outside which brought back memories of the first time we visited DHS when it was still MGM Studios. We have a "nice" picture of Michelle standing by the fountain whilst wearing her yellow poncho and trying to look happy in the rain. Anyway, we nipped in to see the Muppet Vision show and only had a short wait.

When we came out, it had started to rain! Every time we visit Hollywood Studios it rains. In 2010 when we last visited, it chucked it down just before the parade (which meant it had to be cancelled) and yet there had been glorious sunshine for weeks beforehand!

As it was raining, we decided now would be a good time to get a coffee. We wanted to go to the "hidden" Writer's Stop cafe but went the wrong way down that long road until we eventually doubled back and found the right place. Years ago, this used to be Ellen's “Buy the Book” cafe back when we first visited WDW but they've since dropped the whole Ellen DeGeneres link. It's not actually listed on the park map, which means it's often not very busy.

We ordered some strong, warm coffees and a Mickey cookie:



That chocolatey cookie was huge! Enough for all three of us and absolutely delicious. We sat on the comfy sofa in here and relaxed for a while whilst it rained outside.

Unfortunately, it kept on raining and by now it was time to use our Toy Story Mania fastpass. Dashing through the raindrops, we grabbed another fastpass to ride TSM later in the afternoon and then joined the short fastpass queue. We were soon on and shooting hoops at those cute, three-eyed aliens. Shock, horror – I think Michelle got the highest score!

It was still raining and therefore we wanted to do an indoor attraction. We strolled over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show but we’d just missed one show and would have had to wait a while for the next one. Instead, we went to see the Magic of Disney Animation attraction.

I don’t think we’d seen the presentation you get for this in quite a while because I don’t remember Mushu starring in it. It was actually quite entertaining. Afterwards, we met and had our picture taken with a variety of characters. Sadly, Lotso the strawberry-smelling bear had been replaced with another bear:



We like Winnie the Pooh but you can see him in all the other parks.

And look – we got a photo of all of us together with Sorcerer Mickey without having to buy some Photopass pictures:



We could’ve had far more photos featuring all of us but I prefer to keep out of the picture.

We also decided to do the Animation Academy. We were the last ones in and so sat at the front rather than at the desks. This “academy” shows you how to draw one of the Disney characters and is great fun. For this session we drew Rapunzel from the Tangled movie. Here’s my attempt:



Not too bad, I guess. We’d never done this before and I’d highly recommend it if you’ve got 20-30 minutes to spare. Hannah also really enjoyed it.

Displayed on the way out were a number of cells and pictures from the various Disney animated movies and one or two Oscars won by Disney over the years:



Exiting this, we tried the nearby Voyage of the Little Mermaid again. We still had a reasonable wait for the next show but at least we were dry. Well, until they sprayed us with water as the show goes “under de sea”. Thanks for that, Disney.



By now it was well past lunchtime. Travelling down Sunset Boulevard, we joined the masses and ate at Rosie’s All-American Cafe. I think we bought a couple of portions of chicken strips and fries and shared those between us. Thankfully, it had stopped raining by now because there was no indoor seating.

Now full, we walked the short distance to see the Beauty and the Beast show. Excellent as always.

It was now nearly time for the Pixar parade so we wandered back up Sunset Boulevard to the area near the big sorcerer’s hat to get our place (not at the front because we were only 20 minutes early). Whilst waiting Hannah looked at the pins at a little kiosk whilst Michelle went to the restroom.

A moment later, some music started blaring away. At first, I thought it was just some pre-entertainment to get us in the mood for the parade. But then I started seeing characters and floats moving past. The parade was 15 minutes early (and must have started earlier than that to get this far down the route) and Michelle was still “powdering her nose”.

Thankfully, she did return only a minute or two later and so didn’t miss much. It seemed strange that we never heard any announcement informing us that the parade was starting early.



Urgh, a fat caterpillar!



Eek, a rat!



Very colourful – just a pity we missed the very beginning.

After this we trundled along to go on the Great Movie Ride, as did quite a few other people who’d just watched the parade. Perhaps, not the greatest of decisions on our part.



We queued quite a while for this. We must have watched that clip of old films in the movie theatre part of the queue about a dozen times. Michelle thinks this is a classic ride but personally I’m not fussed. Perhaps if the CM at the front of ride kept coming up with bad jokes and puns like they do on the Jungle Cruise, it would be better?

Once we’d ridden the movies, it was time to go and see something else we haven’t seen in a while – the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular! Woohoo!



Well, it was good but I’m not sure I’d call it “spectacular”. I think they had to curtail things a little because, guess what? It had started raining heavily again.

I think around now it was time for our second go on Toy Story Midway Mania so we dashed through the rain to see that. It was as good the second time as it was the first. I may have won this time, but only just.

It was now getting late and time for dinner. We went to the ABC Commissary and it was almost empty except for one family with a boy who was running around everywhere. I think I had the Chicken bleu sandwich, Michelle had the fried fish and Hannah probably had the cheeseburger. Maybe.

During most of the afternoon, Hannah had been asking to do the Animation Academy again. She’s the boss (plus it would get us out of the rain) so off we scurried back to the Animation Courtyard. This time we drew Eeyore, Michelle’s favourite.

Hannah also got to meet Pinocchio to get his autograph:



Now, after looking through the shops a little, it was time to leave. The rain had stopped again as we wandered down the main avenue near the entrance/exit to the park:



Of course, we then had to get a Disney bus back to Epcot to catch our shuttle bus back to the Homewood Suites. Again, the bus was on time and only half full. We were back at the hotel just after 9pm where we could finally take off our ponchos and let them dry out.

In spite of the rain, today had actually turned out to be a superb day. When we’d come out of the Muppet Vision show and saw it raining our hearts sank a little, but Hollywood Studios was a good choice as there was plenty of attractions undercover.

The weather forecast for tomorrow was somewhat more promising…

Food Score: 6/10. Not bad, although it was mostly the standard counter service fare again.

Favourite Attraction: Animation Academy, followed by Star Tours (for me) or Toy Story Mania (for the others)

Next…
Day Six - Manic Magic Kingdom

[caramelapple]

Great day, shame about the rain though.

[orlandosgr8]

Sounds like you made the most of your day despite the rain.

[Disney Kate]

Another great day despite the weather, the Star Tours ride was closed when we went before so can't wait to go on that.

Looking forward to reading more

[RachelM]

A good day even though it was raining.

[anniebee65]

You certainly toughed it out and ended up having a great day. DHS was a great choice

[disney owl]

shame about the rain, glad it didn't spoil your day

[Milner]

Great day apart from the rain.

[Gill635]

Brilliant day, thanks for sharing

xx

[JoJo88]

You picked the perfect park for the rain, managing to dodge most of it (or so it seemed)