This post was written by Greg, with photos and comments by Maria.
Today we decided to go to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). We got up, had breakfast, took our ibuprofen (Maria and I were both very sore by this point), and caught the 8:45 bus to the park.
This hat is new since we came here on our honeymoon. It's pretty cool!
There are fun shrubbery statues all over the park. This was my favorite.
Our research told us to head straight for the new "Toy Story Midway Mania" ride first thing. And sure enough, even though the park had just opened, there was already a huge line. In all the other parks this was the first time we'd encountered a ride this popular. We got some Fast Passes and then waffled a bit on what to do or where to go next. Ultimately we decided to wait in line. We figured if it was this popular we might want to go twice, so let's brave the line once since the Fast Passes were already moving quickly to the end of the day. It was one of the longer lines we stood in (it said 30 minutes), but it was worth it, since the entire line is full of lots of eye candy and a pass by a slightly interactive carnival barker Mr. Potato Head that is completely skipped by the Fast Pass line.
Mr. Potato Head was entertaining. He even took out his ear occasionally and offered to switch it with bystanders.
The scenery was awesome throughout the line. Here the boys are in front of Candy Land.
The ride itself was a lot of fun. It's essentially an old target shoot-out gallery, except you are in a car that moves to a new spot and you play a 30-second or so shooting game trying to hit as many targets as you can before being spun around and shipped off to another game further down the ride. The whole time you wear 3D glasses and certain elements are slightly interactive like bursts of air when popping balloons. It keeps track of your score through the entire ride and at the end Dad was the winner of the family. We all had a lot of fun on the ride and were excited to come back again later with our Fast Passes and try to get better scores.
Here's a slightly fuzzy picture that shows what the cars and guns looked like. It was so fun!
We crossed the park over to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This ride had been revised a few years ago to make each trip random. The elevator raises and drops differently each time so you can never anticipate what's going to happen. We pretty much walked right on to the ride when we got there. Spencer ended up not liking it very much, but Colin was surprised that he did. This was twice now (Everest the other one) where Colin ended up liking a "scary" ride, and Spencer didn't. It was a change from the previous trips to theme parks where Spencer enjoyed the faster-paced rides and Colin was too scared to go on them.
The entrance to the ride
Greg, Spencer and Colin trying to look scared. Is that a ghost behind them?
Next to the Tower was the new "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith." Looking ahead as we planned our trip, this was never a ride any of us were looking forward to. We decided since it was right there we'd go in. Neither of the boys were too excited about the ride, so when we got to the loading area to get into the coaster, we had an attendant escort them to the end of the ride where they would meet us when we were done. The ride's theme is taking a super-fast moving limo with Aerosmith from the recording studio to a concert. The unique thing about the coaster is rather than slowly rising up a hill before descending, the coaster shoots off immediately. It was a thrilling ride, but once was enough for me. We met the kids at the other end with Spencer upset because he'd decided he wanted to ride while waiting for us but at that point it was too late to do it again because it was time to go back to Toy Story for a second round with our Fast Passes. (He also decided that maybe he didn't want to try, after all, since it had upside-down loops.)
Greg and Maria after the ride
It would be awesome if this giant guitar were actually playable!
So we crossed the park for the second time to revisit the Toy Story ride. It was fun yet again, though the firing mechanism requires you to pull a string repeatedly which starts hurting your arm after doing it a while. I was trying to be more careful in my shooting which ended up hurting my score and I did worse the second time around.
We ran across these Army Men from Toy Story, and the boys got to play a game of Hide and Seek with them. They were hilarious!
After the ride, we crossed the park yet again to go to the 11:30 Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. We were stopped at entrance by some cast members who asked if our boys would like to participate in the 12:45 show. They said if we came back to that show a little early, we'd get special seats right up front, and they'd bring our boys onto the stage to start the show yelling "Lights! Cameras! Action!" Afterwards they might even get to greet Indy personally. We couldn't refuse an opportunity like that so we left with some certificates for the next show and wandered off to find something else to do until then. The boys were really cute and rehearsed their lines often over the next hour.
Here are the boys getting their certificates and being coached on what to do.
We passed some souvenir stands next to the Indy show and Spencer bought an Indy dress-up set. It came with a hat, whip, gun, holster, bag of jewels, and a machete. I'm not sure how we'll be packing that home, but it's a cool package. Thank goodness for the option to send souvenirs to the front gate for later!
Colin showing off his fancy moves.
We went to ride on Star Tours next. I love the entrance to Star Tours in the Hollywood Studios. There's a large replica of an AT-AT that you walk under to enter the building, next to an Endor-like forest. The line wasn't very long for this attraction so we went through to the end quickly. It's actually disappointing moving quickly through the line because you miss a lot of great Star Wars atmosphere on the way and pre-show set up for the ride. The boys really enjoyed the ride, but it does feel like it's showing its age, especially since it was made well before the last three movies. Just this week Star Tours 2 was announced, so I'm guessing the ride will be shutting down soon for a makeover.
Under the AT-AT on the way to Star Tours
The post-ride store was one of our favorites so far on our trip. It had a lot of cool Star Wars merchandise especially a lot of Disney/Star Wars crossover stuff. I found my favorite Souvenir so far this trip here which makes me laugh every time I look at it:
These Disney Star Wars figures were awesome!!!
Here's Spencer as Boba Fett with a blaster.
After we were done there, we went next door to a restaurant and had some lunch. We didn't want to stray too far since we wanted to be sure to be on time for the Indy show.
When we were done eating we went back to the Indy show, arriving about 15 minutes early. We were led right up front next to a box where all the production people sit who control the show. There was some confusion as another family was already sitting in the spot where we were supposed to be. I'm not sure if they got mixed up, or if they double-booked the opening, but luckily the row behind them was open. They told us our two boys and their boy would all go down to open the show.
Our boys with their "official certificates" showing them as junior directors.
When the show started, they called a bunch of people from the audience to act as extras and had them introduce themselves while having fun with them. Once that was all over they called our boys and our neighbor out. They introduced themselves, with Spencer stumbling over the question "What's your name and how old are you?" by answering "I'm Spencer and I'm from Fort Worth, Texas." The crowd chuckled, and he added "I mean, seven!" Hopefully he didn't get too embarrassed. After that they yelled the line they'd been rehearsing and the show started.
The boys up front, being junior directors
The stunt show is a lot of fun. They make it clear that since this is a stunt show, the man playing Indy is his stuntman, and not actually Harrison Ford. So even though he would never get mistaken as the real Indy, he still looked the part and we were glad he eventually came out after the show so we could get a picture with the kids.
The Indiana Jones stuntman - what an amazing show!
The kids with the people who do stunts for Indiana and Marion
After Indy we went to one of my favorite attractions, "Muppet*Vision 3D." Sadly, like "Star Tours" this particular show is also showing its age. It's still a lot of fun, but it looks old and the 3D didn't seem to work very well. I still love how the whole theater seems to get torn apart by the end of the show. The pre-show that occurs on monitors before entering the theater was quite funny. I didn't remember any of it, so at least that part felt new. We were also disappointed that the post-show store did not actually contain very much Muppet merchandise. As a big Muppet fan, I'm saddened that even though Disney owns the Muppets they really have yet to ever do anything great with them in or out of the theme parks.
Coming up to the Muppet area
The obligatory family picture by the Muppet fountain
Some fun Muppet figures up above the doors
Even though the contents of the store were disappointing, the front of it is very cool!
After Muppets, we went to the "Honey I Shrunk The Kids Movie Set Adventure" play area. It's a large playground area where everything is oversized so it feels like you are the size of an ant. It's cute, but mainly meant for kids. They boys liked it.
Walking by some building facades on the way to the playground. This backpack went everywhere with us - it was a lifesaver! It was very handy that it rolled.
The entrance to the playground
The boys climbing a big spiderweb
Play-Doh and a leaky hose
This dog's nose would whiffle out air every few seconds.
From there we headed to the "Studio Backlot Tour." It started with a show where they have some volunteers come out and shoot some scenes on a boat which, with the magic of quick editing, looked like a sea battle. From there we loaded into trams and toured the "back lot" which is pretty much nothing; it's a few windows showing some costume areas, and some random vehicles and props lining the route. There was a quick disaster canyon portion, and then we circled around and were dropped off into an AFI prop & costume display exhibit at the end. It was a fairly disappointing ride. I remember quite liking the Universal Studios tour--at least the one in California--and this was quite underwhelming by comparison.
The "battle scene"
The "canyon disaster"
It was getting time for the afternoon bus by now, so we made our way to the front of the park via several more shops on the way out.
This Disney Villains store was neat. I love the cat display there. Throughout our trip, I loved all the extra touches that Disney has, like the extra props or statues even where they don't necessarily need them.
Greg trying on a Jack Skellington Mickey-ears hat
When we got back to the resort, we weren't completely tired out like some of the days, so we checked out some clubs at the activity center and went to their miniature golf course. Maria won the front 9, but tired out and went to rest inside in air conditioning while the rest of us played the back 9. Spencer got several hole-in-ones! By the time we were done, we were all pretty tired. So we took the clubs back, went back to our hotel room and crashed for the rest of the day.
Like father, like son! I thought it was cute to see both Greg and Spencer concentrating on a shot in this photo.
That building in the middle is the one we were staying in. The lazy river is down where those trees are underneath.
Spencer graciously let Colin try on his Indiana Jones stuff.
Today we decided to go to Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM). We got up, had breakfast, took our ibuprofen (Maria and I were both very sore by this point), and caught the 8:45 bus to the park.
This hat is new since we came here on our honeymoon. It's pretty cool!
There are fun shrubbery statues all over the park. This was my favorite.
Our research told us to head straight for the new "Toy Story Midway Mania" ride first thing. And sure enough, even though the park had just opened, there was already a huge line. In all the other parks this was the first time we'd encountered a ride this popular. We got some Fast Passes and then waffled a bit on what to do or where to go next. Ultimately we decided to wait in line. We figured if it was this popular we might want to go twice, so let's brave the line once since the Fast Passes were already moving quickly to the end of the day. It was one of the longer lines we stood in (it said 30 minutes), but it was worth it, since the entire line is full of lots of eye candy and a pass by a slightly interactive carnival barker Mr. Potato Head that is completely skipped by the Fast Pass line.
Mr. Potato Head was entertaining. He even took out his ear occasionally and offered to switch it with bystanders.
The scenery was awesome throughout the line. Here the boys are in front of Candy Land.
The ride itself was a lot of fun. It's essentially an old target shoot-out gallery, except you are in a car that moves to a new spot and you play a 30-second or so shooting game trying to hit as many targets as you can before being spun around and shipped off to another game further down the ride. The whole time you wear 3D glasses and certain elements are slightly interactive like bursts of air when popping balloons. It keeps track of your score through the entire ride and at the end Dad was the winner of the family. We all had a lot of fun on the ride and were excited to come back again later with our Fast Passes and try to get better scores.
Here's a slightly fuzzy picture that shows what the cars and guns looked like. It was so fun!
We crossed the park over to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This ride had been revised a few years ago to make each trip random. The elevator raises and drops differently each time so you can never anticipate what's going to happen. We pretty much walked right on to the ride when we got there. Spencer ended up not liking it very much, but Colin was surprised that he did. This was twice now (Everest the other one) where Colin ended up liking a "scary" ride, and Spencer didn't. It was a change from the previous trips to theme parks where Spencer enjoyed the faster-paced rides and Colin was too scared to go on them.
The entrance to the ride
Greg, Spencer and Colin trying to look scared. Is that a ghost behind them?
Next to the Tower was the new "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith." Looking ahead as we planned our trip, this was never a ride any of us were looking forward to. We decided since it was right there we'd go in. Neither of the boys were too excited about the ride, so when we got to the loading area to get into the coaster, we had an attendant escort them to the end of the ride where they would meet us when we were done. The ride's theme is taking a super-fast moving limo with Aerosmith from the recording studio to a concert. The unique thing about the coaster is rather than slowly rising up a hill before descending, the coaster shoots off immediately. It was a thrilling ride, but once was enough for me. We met the kids at the other end with Spencer upset because he'd decided he wanted to ride while waiting for us but at that point it was too late to do it again because it was time to go back to Toy Story for a second round with our Fast Passes. (He also decided that maybe he didn't want to try, after all, since it had upside-down loops.)
Greg and Maria after the ride
It would be awesome if this giant guitar were actually playable!
So we crossed the park for the second time to revisit the Toy Story ride. It was fun yet again, though the firing mechanism requires you to pull a string repeatedly which starts hurting your arm after doing it a while. I was trying to be more careful in my shooting which ended up hurting my score and I did worse the second time around.
We ran across these Army Men from Toy Story, and the boys got to play a game of Hide and Seek with them. They were hilarious!
After the ride, we crossed the park yet again to go to the 11:30 Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. We were stopped at entrance by some cast members who asked if our boys would like to participate in the 12:45 show. They said if we came back to that show a little early, we'd get special seats right up front, and they'd bring our boys onto the stage to start the show yelling "Lights! Cameras! Action!" Afterwards they might even get to greet Indy personally. We couldn't refuse an opportunity like that so we left with some certificates for the next show and wandered off to find something else to do until then. The boys were really cute and rehearsed their lines often over the next hour.
Here are the boys getting their certificates and being coached on what to do.
We passed some souvenir stands next to the Indy show and Spencer bought an Indy dress-up set. It came with a hat, whip, gun, holster, bag of jewels, and a machete. I'm not sure how we'll be packing that home, but it's a cool package. Thank goodness for the option to send souvenirs to the front gate for later!
Colin showing off his fancy moves.
We went to ride on Star Tours next. I love the entrance to Star Tours in the Hollywood Studios. There's a large replica of an AT-AT that you walk under to enter the building, next to an Endor-like forest. The line wasn't very long for this attraction so we went through to the end quickly. It's actually disappointing moving quickly through the line because you miss a lot of great Star Wars atmosphere on the way and pre-show set up for the ride. The boys really enjoyed the ride, but it does feel like it's showing its age, especially since it was made well before the last three movies. Just this week Star Tours 2 was announced, so I'm guessing the ride will be shutting down soon for a makeover.
Under the AT-AT on the way to Star Tours
The post-ride store was one of our favorites so far on our trip. It had a lot of cool Star Wars merchandise especially a lot of Disney/Star Wars crossover stuff. I found my favorite Souvenir so far this trip here which makes me laugh every time I look at it:
These Disney Star Wars figures were awesome!!!
Here's Spencer as Boba Fett with a blaster.
After we were done there, we went next door to a restaurant and had some lunch. We didn't want to stray too far since we wanted to be sure to be on time for the Indy show.
When we were done eating we went back to the Indy show, arriving about 15 minutes early. We were led right up front next to a box where all the production people sit who control the show. There was some confusion as another family was already sitting in the spot where we were supposed to be. I'm not sure if they got mixed up, or if they double-booked the opening, but luckily the row behind them was open. They told us our two boys and their boy would all go down to open the show.
Our boys with their "official certificates" showing them as junior directors.
When the show started, they called a bunch of people from the audience to act as extras and had them introduce themselves while having fun with them. Once that was all over they called our boys and our neighbor out. They introduced themselves, with Spencer stumbling over the question "What's your name and how old are you?" by answering "I'm Spencer and I'm from Fort Worth, Texas." The crowd chuckled, and he added "I mean, seven!" Hopefully he didn't get too embarrassed. After that they yelled the line they'd been rehearsing and the show started.
The boys up front, being junior directors
The stunt show is a lot of fun. They make it clear that since this is a stunt show, the man playing Indy is his stuntman, and not actually Harrison Ford. So even though he would never get mistaken as the real Indy, he still looked the part and we were glad he eventually came out after the show so we could get a picture with the kids.
The Indiana Jones stuntman - what an amazing show!
The kids with the people who do stunts for Indiana and Marion
After Indy we went to one of my favorite attractions, "Muppet*Vision 3D." Sadly, like "Star Tours" this particular show is also showing its age. It's still a lot of fun, but it looks old and the 3D didn't seem to work very well. I still love how the whole theater seems to get torn apart by the end of the show. The pre-show that occurs on monitors before entering the theater was quite funny. I didn't remember any of it, so at least that part felt new. We were also disappointed that the post-show store did not actually contain very much Muppet merchandise. As a big Muppet fan, I'm saddened that even though Disney owns the Muppets they really have yet to ever do anything great with them in or out of the theme parks.
Coming up to the Muppet area
The obligatory family picture by the Muppet fountain
Some fun Muppet figures up above the doors
Even though the contents of the store were disappointing, the front of it is very cool!
After Muppets, we went to the "Honey I Shrunk The Kids Movie Set Adventure" play area. It's a large playground area where everything is oversized so it feels like you are the size of an ant. It's cute, but mainly meant for kids. They boys liked it.
Walking by some building facades on the way to the playground. This backpack went everywhere with us - it was a lifesaver! It was very handy that it rolled.
The entrance to the playground
The boys climbing a big spiderweb
Play-Doh and a leaky hose
This dog's nose would whiffle out air every few seconds.
From there we headed to the "Studio Backlot Tour." It started with a show where they have some volunteers come out and shoot some scenes on a boat which, with the magic of quick editing, looked like a sea battle. From there we loaded into trams and toured the "back lot" which is pretty much nothing; it's a few windows showing some costume areas, and some random vehicles and props lining the route. There was a quick disaster canyon portion, and then we circled around and were dropped off into an AFI prop & costume display exhibit at the end. It was a fairly disappointing ride. I remember quite liking the Universal Studios tour--at least the one in California--and this was quite underwhelming by comparison.
The "battle scene"
The "canyon disaster"
It was getting time for the afternoon bus by now, so we made our way to the front of the park via several more shops on the way out.
This Disney Villains store was neat. I love the cat display there. Throughout our trip, I loved all the extra touches that Disney has, like the extra props or statues even where they don't necessarily need them.
Greg trying on a Jack Skellington Mickey-ears hat
When we got back to the resort, we weren't completely tired out like some of the days, so we checked out some clubs at the activity center and went to their miniature golf course. Maria won the front 9, but tired out and went to rest inside in air conditioning while the rest of us played the back 9. Spencer got several hole-in-ones! By the time we were done, we were all pretty tired. So we took the clubs back, went back to our hotel room and crashed for the rest of the day.
Like father, like son! I thought it was cute to see both Greg and Spencer concentrating on a shot in this photo.
That building in the middle is the one we were staying in. The lazy river is down where those trees are underneath.
Spencer graciously let Colin try on his Indiana Jones stuff.
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