Our third day at Disney, we chose to spend at Hollywood Studios. It happened to be the Fourth of July so I had looked and reviewed and thought hard about it, but we decided to spend the Fourth at Hollywood Studios. Mainly based on the fact that they normally don't have any fireworks, so being that they were doing some on the Fourth...we kinda thought it might be cool for that. I know Magic Kingdom and Epcot did special fireworks for the 4th, but they typically have nightly fireworks too, so this was one place we could add to our fireworks viewing. And it was AWESOME! Safe to say, the best fireworks show ever! But, more on that later....
We all sported our red, white, and blue clothing on this holiday. This was taken (from a tripod and after several 'takes') before leaving our hotel that morning...
We made it to Hollywood Studios, as usual, just as they were opening the gates.
I knew from talking to other people that the biggest attraction for our aged kids would be Toy Story Mania. So we bypassed the center of Hollywood Studios, well.... after these photo Pass pictures anyway...
(notice the foliage in the above picture - its Sorcerer Mickey and the broomsticks from Fantasia)
And we went straight to the Pixar Studio alley to get a Fast Pass for the ride. The line when we got there to ride it was "only" 20 minutes. So we decided to go ahead and ride it, waiting through the line, and then save our Fast Passes for the next time we wanted to ride and the line was longer. If you don't know how Fast Passes work, basically its that you insert your ticket into the little machines outside of the ride and it gives you another Fast Pass ticket for each ticket you insert (we had four, obviously), which tells you a return time. So, the ones, in this instance, that we got at 9:20 told us we could come back at 11:00-12:00pm. Then we you come back, bw 11-12p, you get to skip to the front of the line with your Fast Pass. And somewhere around that same time frame is when you are eligible to get another Fast Pass. So, in other words, you can run around the park first thing and get Fast Passes all at one time...they do make you wait an hour or so in between. However, the cool thing is if you miss your 11-12pm window, you can really use your Fast Pass for that ride at any point later than 11am. So you can theoretically come back at 7pm and ride with a Fast Pass. Not all rides/shows have Fast Pass options, just the more popular ones. Its such a cool feature that the Disney parks do. And we got pretty good at using our time well and getting the right Fast Passes at the right time and maximizing our time so we rarely had to wait in lines longer than 20 min.
Anyway, so we headed to Toy Story Mania, got our Fast Passes, then rode it once without using the Fast Pass. This is one you HAVE to get right away b/c I've heard they will run out of Fast Passes before noon! Its *THAT* popular.
The girls, as expected LOVED this ride, as did we. You ride in these little cars, with 3D glasses on and go to different screens where you shoot at different targets. It sounds simple and all, but it is really a lot of fun. The 3D adds to it, the swinging you around as you go from target to target is fun, and they even have some 4D effects (air bursting at you and such), that it makes it a super fun ride. They even have a Wii game that we are considering getting after having so much fun with it.
After Toy Story Mania, we darted across the street to meet Buzz and Woody. The line was sort of long, but it was inside and in the shade and all, so it wasn't a hard wait. And really, it only took about 20 minutes to get through. Plus, there were all these fun photo props on the way...
We felt a little special, b/c for most of his autographs, Buzz just did a stamp. Guess his gloved hands are kinda difficult to use. But for us, and our picture frames, he himself actually signed it. :)
In between stops, we kept running into Army Men (from Toy Story). Brenna LOVED these guys. Maybe moreso than any other characters. She kept wanting to take pictures with them and of them.
And here's one hiding...they were pretty funny. :)
After Buzz and Woody, we left Pixar Studios and went back towards the front of the park. This might be our only day at HollyWood Studios, so I wanted to be sure to catch all the shows. So we headed towards the Disney Jr show and that's when we saw the Little Einsteins. Actually we saw Leo and Annie first...
But then just after we took our photo, they left on a 'break' and June and Quincy replaced them. So we got right back in line (it was a quick one here) and saw them too!
Handy Manny was right there too, but the girls wanted to pass him up. Not interested in seeing him, I guess since they don't really watch that show.
So, then we made it over to the Disney Jr show, where you all sit on the floor and all the Disney Jr characters (here, it was puppets, as Brooke quickly pointed out) do a little show. Characters including Mickey Mouse and friends, Little Einsteins, Handy Manny, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It was a cute show, but just ok. The girls enjoyed it but it wasn't one of our favorites either. If you are going, make sure to sit near the back. Up close isn't necessarily better in this instance and then you can always have your kids stand up (if they are in the back) to be able to see better.
We wanted to come back to this area to do the Little Mermaid show, but it was getting close to lunchtime and we had missed our 'early' lunchtime schedule already. So we headed back to the front of the park scoping out places to eat.
Snagging, yet another picture.... (and no, Brad isn't quite really THAT sweaty. He had just doused himself with water ;)
Then we quickly remembered.... Pizza Planet!!! Which, ironically enough, is on the opposite side of the park from Pixar Studios, but whatever. So we went over there and by this time it was near 12pm so there was not a seat to be found. Our experience here might have been better if we could've sat down right away instead of wandering for a while, flirting with the idea of having to eat outside (it was hot!), but then finally finding a free table and snatching it up quickly. The pizzas were good, but if you are going here, make sure to go earlier than the normal lunch crowd so you can sit!
We stopped to take this Photo Pass picture, however, we did not ride the Tower of Terror or the Rock N Roller Coaster. Brooke was not tall enough for either one, and we're not big on riding rides by ourselves. However, I have heard that the Rock N Roller Coaster is super fun...if you are into that sort of thing anyway. ;)
As we were walking to Pizza Planet, we saw Phineas and Ferb nearby. We thought we might go see them (Brooke really likes them) after lunch, but the line was sooooo long and not in the shade. So after getting in line, waiting about 5 minutes, Brooke decided they weren't worth it. ;) From there we headed to the Muppet 3D show. We wanted to be sure to catch the parade at 3pm (why do they always have the parades in the heat of the day? Makes no sense for anyone I tell you...), but we had just enough time to see the Muppet show. It was kinda funny...probably would've been better for the girls if they were really into Muppets, but they're not, so. It was ok.
And another Photo Pass picture stop...
We scoped out our parade seats next. For any big parades, you have to get a spot about an hour before hand (and for the ones at Magic Kingdom, that's an "at LEAST an hour before hand). So we found a semi shaded spot with a bench! (woo hoo! That's hard to come by waiting for a parade!) and sat and waited.
We learned from DisneyLand that even if you have a spot, you will be moved if you aren't forceful enough with your spot. So while we snagged up the bench, we were sure that someone would come and stand right in front of us. For this reason, for any parades or fireworks or anything, we always sat where we wanted to wait (in the shade, on a bench, etc), but then put the stroller just in front of us so no one would come and steal that spot in front of us, which would likely be where we would stand up and move to just as the parade started. People are vicious sometimes I tell ya!
Anyway, the girls loved this parade. This was the same Pixar Parade one we saw at DisneyLand that they cracked up at! They love the Monsters Inc guys for some reason (they are funny!) and the Toy Story characters as well.
After the parade, we wanted to cool off a bit, so we headed for the Beauty and the Beast show, thinking it would be inside, as most shows are. Wrong! While its not totally outside, it is in this outdoor amphitheater kinda place, with a covering over it. So, while you are shaded, there is no AC. We did still cool off a bit, just being out of the sun and drinking up our water and such though. And the show was AWESOME! This is one of those, that being home a week later, my kids are still talking about. Of course, they love musicals, so to see one of their favorite princesses in the real Disney musical was exciting for them. And the characters were great and with good voices and everything. Definitely a must see. :)
After that we were going to go straight to the Little Mermaid show, but Brenna conked out.
So we let her nap a bit, I had already secured a Fast Pass for Little Mermaid so we just had a little ice cream snack, sat and enjoyed the breeze a bit and let her sleep (esp since we knew we'd be out late this night). We woke her up, though, and went in and saw the Little Mermaid show, which was also totally fantastic. The girls LOVED this one too! And like I said, they really enjoy musicals, so this kinda thing is right up their alley. ;) This one was in the AC (though we really weren't too hot at this point anymore...it might be a better one to do in the afternoon though) and had some cool special effects (like bubbles blowing on you, etc...).
After Little Mermaid, we walked through the Beyond the Animation thing. Which, honestly, was kinda dumb. But it dumped us off where there were a lot of different characters, including..... my favorite - Sorcerer Mickey! Love him. :)
We also passed by Jafaar (from Alladin), but this was the one other character the girls had zero interest in being next to. ;)
We saw Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee (but missed pictures with them by a few minutes), Winnie the Pooh (who we knew we'd see later), and Pinnochio!
After seeing all those guys, since we were close by, we used our Fast Passes to ride Toy Story Mania again. Super fun I tell ya! :) Though, honestly, when we went back, while it was nice to skip ahead in line...the wait was still "only" about 25 minutes, so not too bad. And this time, for once, Brenna actually wanted to ride with ME!
We had to check out the Toy Story store, where Brenna tried on Woody's hat.
She also wanted to take her picture with like 5 other army men, but we had to keep pulling her away! Haha.
We walked around looking for a common place to eat before the fireworks. It wasn't easy this time around. Seemed like a lot of the restaurants nearby weren't kid-friendly food. Or at least for *our* kids. So Brenna and I ending up finding us a place on the curb to wait out for the fireworks while Brad and Brooke hiked around finding us some hot dogs. And you know, what's more American than sitting at DisneyWorld, under the Sorcerer hat, eating hot dogs, listening to a rock n roll concert, waiting for the fireworks to start? Nothing I tell you. Can't beat it.
I should mention, here, there was a Fantasmic show going on about this time (just before the fireworks and just after too I think?), but we decided to skip it. A couple reasons, but mainly b/c we had seen a/the? Fantasmic show at DisneyLand and weren't impressed. Its basically the story (its a show, with characters) of Mickey fighting off the evil villains from Disney stories in his dreams or something like that... So you see a lot of the characters, but its a bit scary, lots of fighting, and overall kinda dark. There is a happy ending of course,...my girls just weren't impressed in California. So we skipped it here.
Now, if you have a few minutes (or 11..) sit back and watch the fireworks show. Brad taped most of it anyway...from 1/2 the way in to the end probably. Its really great. Of course, there's always the 'you had to be there' kinda thing. But to envision it better, underneath the Sorcerer's hat was a stage where they were doing the live concert you can hear playing on the video. The 'theme' was rock n roll across the country. So every once in a while you can hear the singer say something like...'now we're going to take it down to Texas'...or whatever. It was a really cool spin on the 4th of July typical fireworks. And like I said, totally awesome. :) Here's a couple of still shots...
But you really should, when you have a chance, watch the video (below) too!
Up next......Animal Kingdom!
No comments:
Post a Comment