Let's do something different this time -Day 3- Hollywood Studios, Applebees - Saturday 4th June 2016

[Fuellady]

Let's do something different this time - Hollywood Studios, Applebees

Saturday 4th June 2016

So this is where my notes stop folks, from now on in it’s all from photos and memory (and my memory is shocking!) As such, each days report will probably be quite short and maybe a bit lacking in detail. Anyway, I’ll give it a bash…..

After planning using the Busy Day Guide, Hollywood Studios was our park of choice today. It had been my favourite park on our last visit so I was interested to see how the well documented closures had affected it. We were up and about around 8am and had toast again for breakfast at the villa, as we did most days.

Another lovely sunny day again today, and we pulled up to park just after 10am, parking in Film 27. Admire my fantastic photography skills here… I can’t even take a photo without getting my shadow in it!

There were extra security checks going on randomly and Neil got picked. But soon we were in and while we were getting park maps and putting on sun cream, Eilidh was already in need of a bit of shade. It was a really hot day today, and Eilidh was struggling with it already. She’s really not a fan of the heat at all, she loves a rainy day!

These were our fastpasses for today.

We just had time to stop for a few Photopass pics on the way in before heading to our first one, Tower of Terror. These are the first photos we have had taken here without the hat. I know it wasn’t loved by many, but it had always been there since we started visiting and I have to say I missed it a bit.

Despite our Fastpass time for Tower of Terror fast approaching its finish time, we somehow managed to stop for Photopass pics here as well…

Then it was time for the main event. My very favourite ride in all of Walt Disney World. It was straight on for us, barely manage to pause to take any snaps as we were quickly ushered into the stretching room. Check out these cobwebs…

Scared faces (not!)

And of course, our ride pic…

Here, have a close up… see that look on Neils face? That’s because he got his arm caught on the side of the ride so when dropped it jammed his arm in and was really sore… he had a bruise for days.

We went for a stroll up the street after that, popping into some of the shops to catch some air con and have a nosey around. I bought some earrings which I absolutely love and wear every day.

I love this photo, it’s the detail that goes into these parks that makes it special…

It was now time for our next Fastpass… Voyage of the Little Mermaid which we hadn’t seen for quite a few years now. It was good, I enjoyed it despite being at the very end of a row, so close to the door that I practically wasn’t in the theatre at all! Not sure that the rest of my party were all that enamoured with the show, but they were at least glad of a sit down in the coolness for a while.

We got a few more Photopass pics… I was determined to make good use of it! And watched a bit of this parade.

We hopped onto the Great Movie Ride now, the girls were keen to ride it. Neil and I not so much, but we went on anyway. It was quite a fast moving queue and we were on and off in no time, ready for lunch now.

Starring Rolls was our eatery of choice for lunch and we all really enjoyed our choices. It was quite busy here, being right on lunchtime, but we managed to grab a table with a bit of shade and settled down to eat.

After lunch we wandered down to One Mans Dream, something nice and sedate to let our lunch settle. I really love this, I wish I could have time to spend hours reading every one of the quotes and information boards and looking at all of the displays. Unfortunately, my family don’t share my love of this attraction and race around it at a rate of knots leaving me dragging behind trying to soak in as much of the information as possible. Shannon used to share my passion for this exhibit but not so much this year. I took some photos as I was ushered along…

Look, there’s a tiny Neil in this photo, standing under the tree, waiting impatiently for me!

We went for a wander again, along by where the Streets of America had been. I felt sad that this had gone as it was an area I had always meant to spend more time in and explore a bit and now I would never get the chance. Before heading along to Toy Story Midway Mania for our last Fastpass of the day, we ended up here, outside the Chinese Theatre again where the Photopass photographer took some really cool photos for us.

Here we are reflected in Neils sunglasses…

So next stop was one of our favourite rides, one that we all enjoy and look forward to. Despite having a Fastpass, this was a really slow moving queue, it must have taken us a good 20 minutes from entering to getting on the ride.

It was well worth the wait though, as for the first time ever, I beat Neil.

We were finished here now, so we headed back home to spend a bit of time by our pool before going out for dinner. I took this photo of a cloud because it looks like Britain… well, the top part of it anyway…

After a while we were ready to go out to eat. We weren’t venturing far tonight, just up the road to Berry Town Center to Applebees. This was one of our favourite restaurants on our last 2 trips here so we were hoping it didn’t disappoint tonight.

We were soon settled at a table, with some drinks and our beloved mozzarella sticks.

As with Chilis yesterday, we found that the menu had changed quite a bit in the year and a half since we had last eaten here. Now, I know that we can’t expect restaurants to keep the same menu year in, year out but it’s just a little disappointing when you remember how great the food was here and now there weren’t so many things that we wanted to try.

Neil had steak, which he said had no taste and I had the ribs which were just fine, not amazing. Not sure what the girls had as I haven’t got any photos of their meals. Possibly because they had either steak or ribs as well! We shared a portion of sweet potato fries to try as well but they were really greasy. So all in all, not the best meal we’ve ever had.

The evening was finished up with a bit of relaxing back at the villa. We were all looking forward to our visit to Celebration tomorrow, one of our “something differents” for this holiday.

Thank you for reading

[Cinderella]

Great family pictures!

[Redrach1903]

Aww lovely first Disney day! I love DHS too! Tower of Terror is the best ride everrrr!

Love that photo of you girls in Neil's sunglasses

Boo to another menu change! Hate that! xx

[MACEY88]

Applebee's is usually a bit hit and miss, quite reasonable price wise, but not the best for sure, nice reports by the way.

[floridasarah]

Lots of lovely photos. Looks like a great day. I totally got the cloud photo.

[waiting4disney]

Sounds like a good day. We aren't fans of applebees. I think it might be hit and miss.

[Floridaagogo]

Bit tight on the meat in the sandwiches 😜

[Fuellady]

Originally Posted by Cinderella

Great family pictures!

See more...

Thank you! I love the black & white one, defo one for a frame

Originally Posted by Redrach1903

Aww lovely first Disney day! I love DHS too! Tower of Terror is the best ride everrrr!

Love that photo of you girls in Neil's sunglasses

Boo to another menu change! Hate that! xx

See more...

Love love love Tower of Terror That photo is so cool, I just wish that Neil had had his haircut by then and not the day after!

I know, what is it with the menus this year... nearly every restaurant we went to the things we were looking forward to most weren't on the menu

Originally Posted by MACEY88

Applebee's is usually a bit hit and miss, quite reasonable price wise, but not the best for sure, nice reports by the way.

See more...

Thank you for reading. We kind of fell out of love with Applebees a bit this year. I wouldn't rule it out for the future, but it wouldn't be a definite either. Still, there's lots of other nice places to eat

[Fuellady]

Originally Posted by floridasarah

Lots of lovely photos. Looks like a great day. I totally got the cloud photo.

See more...

Aw thanks, I never manage to take any cool photos. I just looked up and there it was... GB floating above me!

Originally Posted by waiting4disney

Sounds like a good day. We aren't fans of applebees. I think it might be hit and miss.

See more...

This was the first year that Applebees wasn't good for us. I could never understand it when others didn't like it. I think you're right though, hit or miss definitely.

Originally Posted by Floridaagogo

Bit tight on the meat in the sandwiches 😜

See more...

Haha, yup, bit skimpy! Honestly, they were so good though

[mick]

A good day at HS we used to enjoy Applebee's but the last two visits have been very poor so we have knocked it off our list now

Joan