Friday morning rolled around and we tossed our stuff together for an odd sort of Disney day. Being that Bambi's parents live so close to Disney World, it's very rare that we go without them. But grandma had to work on Friday, and grandpa had a few job sites to visit that morning, so he would catch up with us later in the day.
So after a bite to eat, we tepidly strapped into the coolant dripping abomination and set off down I-4 East.
We pulled into the Hollywood Studio's parking lot and encountered our first bit of Disney
UN-magic.
There are two ways to get into DHS's parking lot, but you circle the outside and eventually both paths converge. The path we were on was a two-way road, but some people decided to drive in the left hand lane and make it a two-lane one-way road. As we approached the spot where the two paths converged, we met several cars trying to turn down our path to leave the park (probably after dropping off guests or something.) Well, the people that were driving the wrong way in that lane caused quite a mess. The parking attendant was able to sort it out, but only by allowing those people to cut off us law abiding citizens and proceed to parking.
That in itself wasn't too bad, but it was what happened next that really got my goat. The parking lot attendant then held up our path and allowed the other line to proceed to be parked. So we waited, while he held his hand up to us and waved the others in.
And waited.
And waited.
And waited.
I looked behind us and saw scores of other cars waiting, so it wasn't just us.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally, I had enough. I gave a little honk to get his attention, then one of these ->
as a
what about us?
I can't really describe the look on his face. Probably a mix of surprise that we actually wanted to go park and annoyance that I had the nerve to tell him that. He did finally let us go through, but our day was not starting out very magically.
We parked, gathered our stuff, and walked right past the parking lot tram. We were still close enough that it wasn't that long of a walk, and we've found that people that walk have a different bag check area than those that take the tram. So rather than be caught up in the middle of a herd of people trying to get their bags checked, we strolled up, waited for 3 people ahead us us, and were in the park before everyone even got off the tram.
I'm not going to blame the parking lot guy for making us miss rope drop - we didn't get an early enough start to catch it anyway. But we did head down to Toy Story Midway Mania for FastPasses.
However, we altered our usual touring plan for DHS and didn't head straight for Tower of Terror. Instead, we headed to a galaxy, far, far away.
Star Tours had just reopened a few weeks ago and we wanted to try it out. The standby wait was about 20 minutes, so we hoped in line. (I apologize for the lack of pictures of the attraction. I took some when we came back on a later day) It seemed to move pretty well and we soon had our 3D glasses and were getting settled into our Star Speeder 1000 where C-3PO (with some help from R2-D2) was our surprise pilot.
The ride was awesome - the new digital 3D effects were fantastic and random story line kept it fresh (we did hope right back on after our first ride). After successfully delivering our rebel spy for the 2nd time, we decided to turn left after the gift shop to check out Lightening McQueen's newly redesigned digs at Radiator Springs.
By now we had close to 30 minutes to kill, but our next line was already forming, so we stepped in.
The new Phineas and Ferb meet & greet location is modeled after a -
wait for it - movie set! Phineas and Ferb were shooting a movie at Disney's Hollywood Studios! (Just like Lights Camera Action! and The Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. Come on guys, I know it's
Hollywood Studios, but can't we think of something else?)
The set was their backyard, and everyone once in a while, a little Agent P would pop up from behind the fence for a look around.
While we waited, we were entertained by music from Danville's radio station, playing all of Phineas & Ferb's hits. Then finally, it was time for everyone's favorite step-bothers to shoot the big musical number!
I think we were the 3rd or 4th family in line, so we got to watch some of the other things they had going on. While P&F were meeting with a family the "director" of the movie would cast extras to be in the movie. He pulled people out of line and dressed them up in grass skirts for the "Backyard Beach" scene. Nice job by Disney to keep the line more than just a line.
But finally, it was our time. Madison, to no one's surprise, started dancing.
Evan, however, was a little more reluctant to shake what his mamma gave him.
Which isn't to say he didn't have fun, he just doesn't dance quite a much as Madison. But then again, who does?
We said our good bye to Phineas & Ferb and headed over to one of Evan's favorite places - the Super Soaker at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. This boy would stand under that thing all day if you let him.
Soon after we meet up the Grandpa, found the key under the mat and got in line for MuppetVision 3D.
It's nice to see Statler & Waldorf dressed in their "Florida Retirement Community" finest.
Umm...I guess I don't know.
The next picture on my camera was of Lord Vader, so it's a safe bet that we rode Star Tours again.
Lunch was at Pizza Planet, and since it was only 11am it was still nice enough to sit outside and eat.
And what's the perfect compliment to lunch at Pizza Planet? Toy Story Midway Mania!
(It's a little known fact that if you look though 3D glasses at normal, everyday 3D objects, they appear in 9D. It's so little known, in fact, that only Evan knows it.)
Scores: (By the way, these kids are getting good. I can remember when they could barely crack 1,000!)
Drat. Out of picture space. Keep reading in the next post...
Smart kid. 
Hmmm...I'm starting to get an idea here. Something about that bull whip and the Kardashians. I'm still putting it together, but I think you know where I'm going with this...
