Follow that Dream! - Day 25 , August 25th 2016 -Celebration to a Firework Spectacular

[walt4it]

Welcome back, and in posting terms I'm flying - I need to!

Day 24 is a click here away

The whole index is here.

For reasons that will only become clear the Bruce song of the day is 100% deserving of the day. This is the song that opened his gig that night . A beautiful song and just fits the mood of our day perfectly.

Please click to listen and read - a song performed as we were watching the fireworks that night


Our FP plan for today was...

Disney's Hollywood Studios
Star Tours 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster 6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM



Welcome to day 25 and thanks of reading so far...


Thursday 25th August

We had a quite start today. A Pool morning with the sun out and a bit of time to just do stuff that I usually avoid on holiday- we lay out in the sun.

As always , I grew bored and then decided to pop out to Publix to get some food for the evening and also to get a subway/ Taco Bell for lunch. I brought it back to 3 people who were still enjoying the pool and doing nothing thing!



Having enjoyed lunch in Villa and now finding a Taco Bell option that was rather good, we aimed to do something that has escaped us on many a recent trip. It was a place we saw on our very first visit and a place we always hold in our hearts as a place to visit, we have just not got here.

We took a drive to Celebration and just soaked up what was there. My notes read as follows
604 golf park / Imagination realty 506/ 508/ 504 /502 They mean nothing now yet today they meant a lot - see the final moments of today for what they actually told us!

We just went to explore and then found ice cream. Our memories of Celebration stem from night time snowing experiences, the beauty of the place is lost in the dark, in the daytime we just recognised what a place this was.
We lingered we admired and we actually looked across the lake and thought it would be great if we could do this every single day. We were just entranced by the place.

We snapped out of it, as the local school was letting out and we recognised the same parental talk being delivered that is usually at home - can I have an ice cream ? NO. Where is your lunch box? …. And the rest of a conversation that I know every parent has with every child. It was a stark reminder of impending home. I was about to type , not in a bad way, but it simply was. We were just days away from our end and to hear school conversations just brought a stark reminder that reality was close at hand.

Time for more Theme park then to just take our mind off all that stuff and the madness that will follow. We tore ourselves away and headed to a building site...

Hollywood Studios – we parked in Music 55 at 4.25

As we approached the gate we saw Genie and Alladin signing and photographing , we furtled through back check and were met with a closed queue :angry:– we had missed a ‘flash ‘ character meet by seconds, and just look at how happy they looked about it!

we were momentarily disappointed , but then Scanned our magic Bands and were in earlier than expected so we sought out some of the only things left undone in the park.

Voyage of the Little Mermaid first and amazing just how moist you get! I’m sure she felt the same.

We toured the Star Wars launchbay bit but found that Chewbacca had a long queue, so merely looked around a place that we once loved in its guise as the animation classes- I will avoid having that rant!

Although I feel I should. Such a waste of a space that was once magical.

For old times sake, Jake had a one person queue so we got a photo

and then went to say a final goodbye to The Writers Stop- now confirmed to be closing in just the next couple of weeks. This was a real goodbye, we loved this place as it offered a little piece of calm and so few people knew about it. Will forever be missed and remembered.

As we headed to Star tours – we became fully aware as to how much work was going on already in the Park improvements.


Star tours itself was brilliant once again and again a different film and this one was epic!
From there we walked back to Rock’n’Roller to use our fast pass and rode front row .

The boys went for a pin trade so we just sat on Hollywood Boulevard and watched people passing by - we also decided on our food options for Saturday night in MK. Tried to use the MDE app to book but it kept bumping me out.

At 7.30 we used our final fp on Tower of Terror with these pics taken.

We then proceeded to the fp station and watched the person in front of us snag the final fp's of the day for tower of terror - talk about frustrating.

This was exacerbated when we then queued for a photopass pic and the photographer then had to move on.

We consoled ourselves with a picture from another photographer and a single rider rock and roller - in the queue both Alison and I got a mention on the board and after Joes earlier one it once again left josh with that feeling that he was missing out. We found it hilarious as no matter how much he keeps trying his name never appears!

We readied ourselves for fireworks and also massively grumped about having to give up a Fantasmic show to do so.

Poor timings tonight as the fireworks start halfway through Fantasmic and they both finish at the same time!,
This brought a predicted rammy in getting out.
Anyway, the fireworks were more than you would ever expect the lasers and sounds transforming a 180 degree visual show into a 360 degree spectacular that immersed your senses into something that was totally unique. It was incredible to watch.

As we were home earlier than recent nights we made a quick spaghetti bolognaise and had a late meal.

We then hot tubbed and then caught up online- Setlist fm in particular as Springsteen was playing in New York tonight,
We then made the mistake of looking at the price of some of the homes in Celebration – that we had seen today- incredible homes = eye watering numbers!


Day 26 is here

[Taffy1959]

I just love the Tower of Terror photo, it sums up perfectly just how much fun you're having.

Looking forward to the next instalment

[Jake71]

I could do with some of that lounging by the pool in the sun, sounds like a perfect start to your day. We are big fans of Kilwins in Celebration, it's so nice to sit beside the lake to eat it. I have to agree with the eye watering price tags on some of the gorgeous homes, we can dream though. Fab photos from your evening, although a shame you missed out on the genie and Aladdin.

[jemima2]

The boys are looking so grown up. It happens so suddenly! My older boy is 10 and his passport pics the other day shocked me 😔 we love hollywood studios but am worried about it for our trip in May ...looks like we will miss toy story land !

[mick]

We always try and fit in a Kilwins

Joan

[collybird]

I don't know how you guys always look so calm and collected in your ride photos!

[walt4it]

Originally Posted by Taffy1959

I just love the Tower of Terror photo, it sums up perfectly just how much fun you're having.

Looking forward to the next instalment

See more...

The next bit has to be with you in the next couple of days - otherwise I'm stuffed on my promise to finish before the next one starts!

Really love your description of ToT Pic as you have just summed up exactly how we were feeling

Thank you

Originally Posted by Jake71

I could do with some of that lounging by the pool in the sun, sounds like a perfect start to your day. We are big fans of Kilwins in Celebration, it's so nice to sit beside the lake to eat it. I have to agree with the eye watering price tags on some of the gorgeous homes, we can dream though. Fab photos from your evening, although a shame you missed out on the genie and Aladdin.

See more...

Those house required a serious rethink of the retirement plan I am longing for the lounging and the experience of this whole thing again - I'm a week away and will finish this report too.

Originally Posted by jemima2

The boys are looking so grown up. It happens so suddenly! My older boy is 10 and his passport pics the other day shocked me 😔 we love hollywood studios but am worried about it for our trip in May ...looks like we will miss toy story land !

See more...

Just wait 'till the new one Josh has grown so much this year, I'm even thinking Alison will be able to stand behind him
Have a pre trippy tear jerker of photos from the very first trips, coming this week.
Where did the time go?

Your HS for next trip will now have no Movie ride either, after the D23 announcement this weekend

Invest FP's and time in AK rather than the building site!

You must be excited by your countdown by now

[Loopylooloo]

We missed seeing Celebration again this year, we just never get round to it! Looks so lovely though.
We really enjoyed Star wars fireworks, think they are the best disney have at the moment.

[mossyflossy]

Celebration is special. But without the lottery you just have to remember that there are cheaper places to live out there. And feeling your pain about the animation studio etc.

[walt4it]

Originally Posted by mick

We always try and fit in a Kilwins

Joan

See more...

Will be on our list for the next trip

Originally Posted by collybird

I don't know how you guys always look so calm and collected in your ride photos!

See more...

practice and I do have to admit it fills in a bit of queue time discussing what we are going to do

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

We missed seeing Celebration again this year, we just never get round to it! Looks so lovely though.
We really enjoyed Star wars fireworks, think they are the best disney have at the moment.

See more...

We had not been to Celebration for rather a long time, it was such a pleasant surprise and great to see just how good it remains.