Day 5 – Disney Hollywood Studios

August 29, 2008 · Filed Under Uncategorized 

At this stage we have the early morning routine sorted and to be perfectly honest it does make for the best way to see the parks during the busy season. They are not crowded at all, can get onto whatever ride you want without major lines forming. All in all a good thing!

The Sorcerer's Hat is the icon of Disney's Hol...Image via Wikipedia

Today is Disney Hollywood Studios or MGM Studios as it used to be known. We like this park! First things first, this is where Playhouse Disney Live on Stage is, if you have a young child you’ll know what this means Mickey Mouse clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins etc! This is the  must see show for our 4 year old, we could miss anything else but not this. So once in the park, check out the show times and arrange everything else around it! We decided on the 9:40 show (it lasts for 22 minutes) which gave us enough time to pop down to Rock n Roller Coaster.

 

Rock n Roller Coaster is the second fastest ride in WDW, Test Track being the faster. Description of the site from Disney is “Aerosmith’s having a backstage party across town and you’re invited. Ready to brave the LA freeways? Zoom from 0-60 mph with the force of a supersonic F-14, take in high-speed loops and turns synchronized to a specially recorded Aerosmith soundtrack and zip through Tinseltown in the biggest, loudest limo you’ve ever seen. ” It’s brilliant! Fantastic ride and even better it has a single rider line which means you can skip the line even at the busiest times you’ll wait no more than 10 mins to get on. Another tip, when you get into the preshow room go stand beside the door on the left, that is the exit into the “loading” area.

Time came to get back to PlayHouse Disney, no FastPasses for this so you need to ensure you line up reasonably early, 10-15 minutes before start should be enough, it takes quite a large crowd. During the show you get Mickey and Friends, Handy Manny and his Tools, My Friends Tigger and Pooh and last but by no means least Little Einsteins. You are sitting on the floor so be prepared, although there are a small number of benches at the sides away from the stage. This is a good laugh, good story with singing and dancing for all! 22 minutes of pure fun.

As a side note, Handy Manny does a Character photo op outside at the character location.

We next headed up to Star Tours, this is a Star Wars themed ride, nice, getting a tad old, needs some updating but enjoyable. If into STAR WARS try to get to Studios on a Star Wars weekend. All things Star Wars, autographs, characters, even Storm Troopers gaurding the entrance when you arrive.

Toy Story Mania is new ride, added as the Pixar story becomes more and more part of Disney. This ride is a moving target shooting game, where you are “firing” your shooter at 3-d targets. A great game, lasts 5 minutes and loads of fun. Make sure to Fast Pass it as soon as you can as the queues get very very long for this one.

Muppet Vision 3d is another great show, always go to see it! Has Kermit, Miss Piggy and all my favourites. Al’s Toy Barn is close by which is the spot to catch Woody & Buzz for photos

Lunch time called, we just happened to be walking past Hollywood & Vine and were feeling rather warm so a cool air-con lunch sounded like a plan. So on the off chance there were seats available we checked! There was. Excellent! We’ve found this to be quite true of most places that they do actually have seats available, maybe with a little wait. We had not planned on this one so we wandered in and found that it was actually a character dining at lunch (breakfast too but not dinner) and it was Little Einsteins and Jo Jo! Our 4 year went nuts!! He loved it! It may be $25/adult, $15/child but so so worth it.

On our way out we went back to Rock n’ Roller Coaster and also the The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror This is 13 storeys of scare factor, you are seating in a “phantom” elevator which shoots up 13 storeys and then drops all the way down and back up again. When you enter this park you can hear screams, they are from here and they are live, no recordings needed. This ride has gotten much better over the years, its typically 3 drops can be 4 but each drop will be of different distance and each experience is different.

Love this park, we did more and we will be back on another day on this holiday, but now time for some pool time, dinner and then some “relaxation” time in Downtown Disney or more commonly referred to as “retail” therapy…

 

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