Part One: Magic in the Magic Kingdom
Part Two: Animal Kingdom: I LOVE TODAY
Part Three: Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow

Hollywood Studios isn’t my favorite out of the parks, but I do enjoy it. They have Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith, after all, and well, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster is awesome.

We started off that day with our bus luck back to not being so good. While waiting for the Hollywood Studios bus, approximately 42,000 Magic Kingdom buses came. And if I’m not mistaken, we had to take another trip through Port Orleans Riverside before finally heading toward the park. Fortunately, we weren’t trying to ride Toy Story Midway Mania, so it wasn’t that big of a deal not to get to the park right at opening.[1. Don’t get me wrong, we love TSMM, but we don’t always have to ride it, and I don’t always feel like the hassle to get a Fast Pass for it is worth our time.]

But anyway, we headed over to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. Here is a somewhat embarrassing confession. Tower of Terror? It really does terrify me. I can only ride it every few years or so. The set up is so freaking scary. And the ride itself is different every time. So sometimes I get on and love it, other times I hate it like burning. Adam grabbed himself a Fast Pass for Tower of Terror, then we hit Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster first thing. THAT’S how you start off a morning, let me tell you. The cast member there kept making the funniest quips and comments. And of course, the ride was awesome.

Adam and I spent a lot of time just walking around Hollywood Studios and looking at stuff. We did ride Star Tours, and it was completely different this time. We usually end up going through the Death Star, but not this time![2. Star Tours is programmed so it’s almost impossible to get the same ride twice. It’s really cool and not scary like Tower of Terror!] We also did the Backlot Tour (but there were no actors for the beginning part so it wasn’t as fun–I don’t think they use actors in the winter, which is smart. I’ve gotten to “star” in that part twice).

I think my favorite part of the Backlot Tour is the big room with all the old props. It has a much cooler name but it’s eluding me now. It’s SO cool to see those things that have been in actual Disney movies. And I also love the museum at the end with more props:

these are from the movie Titanic

We also rode the Great Movie Ride, which I love, in all its cheesy glory.

We ate lunch at the ABC Commissary. THAT was a mess and a half. I usually like it there, but there were some *difficulties* and the shrimp was actually pretty gross. But this lemon meringue cupcake made things kinda worth it:

We made our way to the Magic of Disney Animation building a couple of times. I like it in there. It has character meetings, pretty art work, and exhibits and displays from their latest films and some classic films. There’s also a great art store.

I have a zillion photos of that sign but I just adore it. It never gets old for me.

We ran into some adorable movie characters:

Venellope liked my ponytail. I like my tee-shirt. This is the awesome one I got when I was at Epcot. It’s my favorite.

I like to do the Animation Academy if we get a chance, and we did this time. I got to draw Agent P from Phineas & Ferb:

I don’t think I did too badly. What do you think? It really is cool how simple they make it. And you have to follow directions because the pencils don’t have erasers!

I hope to take Aidan in there when we go in June. I also REALLY hope Ralph and Venellope are there when we go in June because that would make Aidan’s trip!

We FINALLY went through One Man’s Dream after walking past it for years and years, and it was really cool. It’s a museum full of really awesome Disneyana, and then we get to watch a movie about Walt Disney.

{ While we were in Hollywood Studios, Adam got a call from his agent to give him the good news that a YA novel he’d submitted was going to be acquired by Simon & Schuster. AWESOME right? Considering we’d had this tradition of him getting BAD book news at Disney World. What a way to break that curse, huh? 🙂 }

After Animation Academy, we were about ready to go. But then the Disney Channel Rocks show rolled right up and well, why not? I still think the High School Musical show was better, but that’s probably because I’m more familiar with that than a lot of the Disney Channel stuff they have now.

those leggings, though

Then they did the big mistake of asking people to join them. OF COURSE I DID.

I was the only adult who went up there. Did I feel silly? Yes. Would I do it again?

All in all, we had a pretty low key day at Hollywood Studios. It’s not a park full of “must-dos” for us, so we just go with the flow. Good times. 🙂

There’s only one day left of my trip report, and I’ll talk about our last day at Magic Kingdom, when we had some very special folks spend the day with us!

Till next time!

Part One: Magic in the Magic Kingdom
Part Two: Animal Kingdom: I LOVE TODAY

Day three of our Disney trip took us to Epcot. We got to the bus stop just in time to see the Epcot bus sitting there, so we hopped right on. Finally! Good bus luck! Of course, the bus took us all the way through the OTHER Port Orleans resort as well, but we still got to Epcot at 9am. But then I picked the worst line ever to stand in. It was so slow but the people we were behind–a dad and his two boys–I swear to you that they were George Bluth with young Michael and Gob. “Michael” and “Gob” just kept beating up on each other. “Gob” would not leave “Michael” alone and they were roughhousing pretty good until “George” finally caught them and made them stop. Entertaining. But not enough for me to stay in the horrid line. We moved over and were in the park within three minutes.

As always, the first pavilion we headed toward was The Land so we could get Fast Passes for Soarin’. But because we’d gotten there so early, Soarin’ only had a ten minute posted wait time. (For that ride, the wait is ALWAYS longer than the posted wait time, by the way.) We got in line behind a French family. Adam enjoyed listening to them talk in French.

Soarin’ was GREAT. It’s one of my favorite rides in the park and I cannot wait to take my mom on it. It’s so relaxing and pretty and the music is lovely as well. I can’t even describe it–it’s definitely something you’ll have to experience for yourself if you get to Disneyland or Disney World.

After Soarin’, we got on Living With The Land. It’s not an exciting ride, but I love going through the greenhouses and seeing all the food they have growing. A lot of it they use in the restaurants right on property!

By then, it was time for Soarin’ again; our Fast Pass window had opened up. We were next to an older lady who was terrified of heights and her commentary throughout the entire ride was almost better than the attraction! “Oh my goodness, oh my, why would anyone ever… oh my goodness.” Her hands were literally dripping with sweat. When I asked her if she liked it, she said she loved it. People are so interesting.

We headed over to the more thrilling rides. Adam and I did single rider on Test Track and both of us got on within five minutes or so. I like single rider because of the fast lines, and most of the people I end up with are nice. But this time I was with a family who clearly didn’t want anyone joining them and it was kind of awkward. I liked the ride anyway. Not as much as I liked the old version, though. I do like the quieter queues but the actual ride re-imaging is not as cool as the original was. I am not sure how Aidan will feel about the changes when we go in June.

Adam didn’t want to do Mission Space (green, always green for me), so I got on single rider for that. This time I got to stand in line by a mom and her daughter from Canada and they were super nice. I rode with I think a three generation group–a mom, a daughter, and a grandma, and the little girl kept yelling out “I’m the NAVIGATOR!”

Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to do orange again, but I did it in 2005 before you had a choice, and well…. let me tell you. It is HARD CORE. Just don’t eat anything before you go on. Or you’ll be tasting it for the rest of the day.

Sadly, Captain EO was closed, so I didn’t get to see any of Hooter’s antics this time. Maybe in June.

They were starting to decorate for the Flower and Garden Festival, and we got to see some sneak peeks!

Then we headed out into the “wild”… OK, just to World Showcase. Adam was hungry and I was curious about the Fish & Chips. Which were expensive but FREAKING DELICIOUS. So good that the birds hanging around the seating area were pretty loud with their begging.

We walked around World Showcase, and did some shopping in the UK, where I got the most awesome Yellow Submarine shirt (you’ll see it in the Hollywood Studios post) and a Doctor Who shirt. Because DISNEY SELLS DOCTOR WHO SHIRTS HOW FREAKING AWESOME IS THAT I LOVE WHEN MY FANDOMS COLLIDE. Anyway, yeah. We made our way through World Showcase, going from UK to Mexico.

More Flower and Garden stuff:

And then a pretty princess:

And then some pretty scenes:

And SHOPPING! I got CDs and incense and a lucky kitty cat and Super Mario Bros. socks and and and …..

Then I got a front row seat to see the Chinese Acrobats, which I’ve never been lucky enough to do in the past!

After that, we walked through the countries, stopping at the America Pavilion because AMERICA WAS HAPPENING. I also had some work to do, so we hung out at the Pavilion while I did that. At some point, I tried on a Viking hat and sword and bought a little white polar bear too. Probably after I got off of Maelstrom. That ride is always fun, especially when I’m on with people who have never ridden it before. Their reactions are always so funny. I remember one year, a college-aged girl went “What’s it even about?” after it was over. Truly, I don’t know. But it’s a neat ride anyway.

We made our way back to The Land for dinner, but on the way ended up in the new Oz section that had games and cute things.

While hanging out in the Oz garden, we ended up chatting with two girls who I decided I liked immediately: Lindsey and Harley. They were so fun. I hope I get to see them again when I go in June.

After hanging with them for a while, Adam headed to our favorite restaurant at Disney World: The Garden Grill. Good, good food, awesome characters, and the server remembered us from last year! Her name’s Lisa and she is from CT–I hope she’s there in June and that we get her again. ANYWAY, we had a BLAST there!

After eating, we walked around a bit more. But the sun had gone down and it was getting chilly. We didn’t stick around for the fireworks because we’d seen them a million times. We did ride Spaceship Earth because that’s what you do when you go to Epcot.

See ya next time, Epcot! The next post will be about our fun day at Hollywood Studios, where I got to dance (again), we drew Agent P, and we got to meet some folks from the movie Wreck-It Ralph!! 🙂