After a solid night’s sleep, it was time to hit Hollywood
Studios (HS) for rope drop (RD). A word about Shades of Green (SoG) bus
service, and the negative comments it often gets. The schedule IS somewhat more
limited than other resorts. Although
they DO have shuttles to the Ticket and Transportation Center (TTC) every 20
min, direct busses to AK and HS (as well as the 2 water parks) only run once
per hour. The busses themselves are every bit as nice as the WDW busses, and as
SoG is a small resort, and doesn’t share busses with anyone else, I find them
to be typically less crowded. I did miss
the first SoG bus to HS, but I took one to the TTC, hopped onto a WDW bus, and
made it to HS 30 min before RD.
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| Main Gate of the Disney Hollywood Studios |
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| Looking down Hollywood Blvd from inside the entrance |
They’ve been playing around with various opening procedures
for the parks, and the variant that I had was that the turnstiles opened at
8:45 (as did the full park grounds), attractions did not open until 9:00
(“official” park opening time).
Toy Story Midway Mania (TSMM) is NOT a “must do” for me;
it’s a fun ride, but in my opinion it’s very over-hyped, and the ridiculous
stampede to the attraction first thing in the AM is just not worth it. So, instead, I made my way quickly down
Hollywood Blvd, turned right on Sunset Blvd, and headed straight for the
Rockin’ Rollercoaster.
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| Rockin' Roller Coaster |
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| Aerosmith's Studio preshow for Rockin' Roller Coaster |
I arrived right at 9:00, and was the 6th person
in line (the above picture was taken later in the day when it was markedly more
crowded). Enjoyed the preshow in a half empty room and was on the first “limo”
to launch for the day. From there I went to the Tower of Terror…
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| The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror |
…and the line queue was so empty I was able to take a number
of unobstructed pictures of the lobby area.
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| The Hollywood Tower Lobby |
There was a short line in the “basement” waiting for the
elevator, but as I was a “single” and the were trying to fill rows, I even got
to bypass most of that.
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| The service elevator - your entrance to the Twilight Zone... |
My next priority was to ride Star Tours (I hadn’t seen it
since it reopened in 3D), but I figured that if I was going to ride Toy Story,
I should probably walk past and see if there were any FPs left. It was about
9:45 when I got there, there was NO line for FPs, and the return time was for
2:30 – reasonable. The standby line was already at 60 min.
I wandered through the Streets of America, and along the way
got my first ever carrot cake cookie from Writers’ Stop. OMG! If asked what my
favorite dessert/snack at WDW is, this wins the prize.
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| The Streets of America - New York |
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| The Streets of America - San Francisco |
Got to Star Tours and there was a posted 20 min wait; it
seemed reasonable enough so I got in it. In reality, I was boarding in about 10
minutes.
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| Entrance to Star Tours |
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| The At-At outside of Star Tours |
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| R2-D2 on a Star-Speeder in the Queue for Star Tours |
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| C3PO in the Queue for Star Tours |
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| A Star-Speeder Diagram |
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| Tatooine Traders - for all of your Star Wars needs |
The extended refurbishment time was definitely worth the
wait; the new version is truly excellent and elevates the technology from the
1980s to the 21st century.
My goal on this visit
was to catch all of the things I missed on my last visit back in March ’11, and
near the top were the four main shows (2 stunt shows, Little Mermaid, and
Beauty and the Beast), so much of my day was selecting show times and then
fitting other things in between. I had about an hour to “kill” before the first
showing of “Beauty and the Beast”, so I strolled over to the Magic of Disney
Animation to see how it had changed since the last time I saw it 10+ years ago.
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| Entrance to the Magic of Disney Animation |
I was happy to see that there were still two animators
working on cells.
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| An Animator working on Mickey |
My biggest surprise was that Sorcerer Mickey was doing
pictures, AND there was only a very short line.
Not only is Mickey my favorite Disney character, “The Sorcerer’s
Apprentice” is my favorite Mickey film, so I pretty much “had” to stop and get
a picture.
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| Mickey and me! |
There is really way more in the “campus” to effectively see
in less than an hour, so I quickly strolled through the galleries and exhibits
and then made my way back to Sunset Blvd and the Beauty and the Beast Theater.
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| Entrance to the Beauty and the Beast Theater |
It’s quite a large theater, and for a low crowd day, I was
surprised to see how full it was 20 min before show time. “Singles” luck was
with me again and I was able to find a spot right on the aisle, about 7 rows
back from the stage.
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| Beast |
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| "No one fights like Gaston..." |
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| "Be our guest, be our guest..." |
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| Final Bows |
It was a very “pretty” show, and entertaining, but it was
not as grand a production as I was expecting based on what I had heard/read
about it. I was also a bit disappointed that Belle and Gaston were the only two
“live” singers; all of the rest was lip-synched to a prerecorded track.
Upon leaving “Beast”, I had just enough time to make it to
the far side of Echo
Lake, grab a beer from
the “Oasis” and get into the “Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular” show.
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| Entrance to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular |
I had seen this show once before, 12 years ago, but had forgotten
virtually all of the details, so it was kind of like seeing it for the first
time.
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| Escaping the ball |
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| Falling from the roof |
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| Hand-to-hand fighting |
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| The finale - explosions, fire, gun fire, fighting, running - who could ask for more? |
I really enjoyed this show; the stunts were exciting, and the
script well written. I would have to say
that this was by far my favorite of the four live shows at HS (not counting
Disney Jr. – which I had NO intent on seeing).
Once again, timing
was perfect for me; I left the Indy theater and went straight to Momma Melrose
for my lunch ADR.
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| Momma Melrose - my favorite DHS restaurant |
Momma Melrose
is a favorite of mine, and a trip to HS would just not be complete without a
meal there.
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| The fun decor at Momma Melrose - reminds me of a place in Queens I used to go to with my parents... |
I had the Italian meat “flatbread” (in my opinion, by far
the best pizza anywhere in WDW except for Via Napoli in Epcot) and a couple of
glasses of a nice Volpolicella. I left absolutely STUFFED (two people could
easily share a flatbread for lunch).
Next stop was Muppetvision 3D,
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| Muppetvision 3D |
The show is brilliant from the waiting area to the end of
the film; one of my favorites. But I do
have to confess to a bit of sleepiness after a whole pizza and two glasses of
wine…
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| The pre-show waiting area for Muppervision 3D |
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| Not everyone likes the show... |
It was about 30 minutes until my Toy Story FP return time,
so I thought I would go over early, and if there was a “reasonable” standby
line, I would ride once standby and then a second time with my FP. I found a very “unreasonable” 70 min wait, so
I went to the near-by “One Man’s Dream” exhibit (one of my favorite HS
attractions) and spent a half hour or so looking around at the exhibits.
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| Walt Disney's office as it was in the 1950s |
Then, it was on to Toy Story Midway Mania.
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| Pixar Place, across the street from Toy Story Mania |
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| Toy Story Mania - the most "in demand" attraction in Walt Disney World |
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| Toy Story Mania - the theming really IS amazing from the minute you walk through the door |
With FP in hand, I was on Toy Story in less than 10 minutes;
it really IS a fun ride, but certainly NOT worth waiting more than 20 minutes
for (or enduring the AM stampede to get there first). Keeping my eye on the
next (and final) showtime for “Lights, Motors, Action” – a “must see” for me on
this trip as I had never seen it before – I determined that I would have time
to do the Back Lot Tour first. I had not done this in 10+ years, and knew it
had been considerably truncated from its original form, so I was interested in
seeing “what was left” it. It was entertaining, and even educational – but not
necessarily one of the highlights of the day.
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| Staging a water-dump stunt |
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| Battle at Sea |
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| The props room - props from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" |
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| Catastrophe Canyon |
The tour conveniently ends right near the entrance to the
“Lights, Motors, Action” amphitheater, so it was easy to walk right in and get
a seat.
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| Entrance to Lights, Motors, Action |
The very large theater was almost 2/3 full, and I was not as
lucky getting a close seat, but I’ve heard the horror stories of getting out
again after the show, so I chose a strategically placed seat for an easy
exit. Overall, I was underwhelmed by the
show; there was a LOT of “dead” time between
stunt sequences, and the whole thing seemed pre-packaged and artificial. No
doubt there was some excellent driving, but after a while watching cars
skidding through turns and turning donuts became dull. For me the highlight was
the appearance of Lightning McQueen from “Cars”.
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| The Lights, Motors, Action Set |
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| Lightning MacQueen arrives at Lights Motors, Action |
The only thing left on my “must do this trip” list was “The
Voyage of the Little Mermaid”, so I walked through the Echo Lake
area...
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| Across Echo Lake at Hollywood and Vine and 50s Prime Time Cafe |
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| Gertie the Dinosaur |
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| The Dockside Diner |
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| The Sorcerer's Hat - icon of Disney Hollywood Studios |
...back over to the Animation Courtyard, and more or less walked right into the theater. It’s a very pleasant show with some nice effects and puppetry – and of course the music.
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| The Marquee of The Voyage of the Little Mermaid |
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| "I want to be, part of this world..." |
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| Ursula the Sea Whitch |
Unlike “Beauty and the Beast” where at least the two
principals were singing “live”, I’m not certain if anyone was in this show (if they were, they had VERY concealed
mics).
By this time I had ridden all of the “headliners” and
completed everything on my “must do” list and was feeling a bit tired and
waiting for it to get dark (I had never been at HS after dark before), so I
walked over to the Hollywood Brown Derby to see if they had a bar where I could
relax and have a drink.
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| The Hollywood Brown Derby |
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| Interior of the Hollywood Brown Derby |
I was told no, but was directed to the Tune-in Lounge, next
to the 50s Prime Time Café – so over I went. It’s a very nice little lounge
with a vintage seating area and a very retro bar.
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| Looking across Echo Lake from 50s Prime Time Cafe |
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| The sitting area of the Tune-In Lounge |
By the time I had finished a couple of margaritas night had
fallen, so I completed one final circle of most of the park, taking pictures
along the way.
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| Tune-In Lounge and 50s Prime Time Cafe after dark |
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| Gertie after dark |
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| Hollywood and Vine after dark |
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| The Dockside Diner after dark |
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| Magic of Disney Animation after dark |
It was close to closing time, so I thought a perfect capstone to a very complete day would be The Great Movie Ride – once the“flagship” attraction of the Studios.
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| An exact replica of Grommen's Chinese Theater marks th entrance to The Great Movie Ride |
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| Munchkinland sequence in The Great Movie Ride |
Although it doesn’t get a lot of love from many fans, being
a classic movie buff, I have always really enjoyed it (although with the MGM
connection broken, I think it would be great to re-imagineer the ride featuring
all Disney films…). For the last half
hour of park operations I strolled back down Hollywood Blvd, going in and out
of shops, and waiting for the exodus to thin out a bit.
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| The Sunset on the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Blvds |
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| Hollywood Blvd after dark |
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| Looking down Hollywood Blvd towards exit |
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| The Disney Hollywood Studios Gates after dark |
After exiting the park, I took the short walk to the
boat dock for a relaxing trip to the Boardwalk for dinner at Kouzzina and some
evening exploring along the Boardwalk... but that will be the topic of my next post.
