DAY 5
December 8th, 2015 - Tuesday
Hollywood Studios!
After relaxing at the resort for a while, we were headed back for the night. Destination: Hollywood Studios! This time with FastPasses at the ready! We bee-lined it over to my favorite, and met up with a Photopass photographer who was loads of fun!
Then Debby found her a place to chill while Mark and I went and rode a couple things. First up, we were off to get our backstage passes!
Mark looks like he's sleeping!
He was actually hollering and having a BLAST... basically the total opposite of this photo! The camera just got him mid-blink!
Then we checked in for our stay on the 13th floor...
Mark LOVED this one. (I can't say I blame him, ToT is my favorite in HS, too!) It's just too bad we were behind some hand-raisers, so his face is obscured...
But if you look closely, you can see that he's having a GREAT time!
After this we made our way across the park for our final FP, Star Tours! For the first time ever, I actually caught some of the little Darth Vader show thingy happening just outside, so I was happy to hang out and watch that for a bit. Also very close to Star Tours, I spotted a Face Painting kiosk (not in it's usual place), so I stopped in for a touch up. My nap had smeared my holly just a bit!
We took our intergalactic journey (and we got the scene featuring the new film, YAY), then made our way back towards the front-ish of the park for our dinner ADR. We were a bit early, so we stopped for some more PP photos!
The photographer was a young blonde kid named Troy. After he took his pics, I handed him my phone and asked him to take one so that I could go ahead and put it on Facebook to update our family on our adventures. Much like that morning, I guess when I handed him the camera, it was in Selfie mode, and he turned it on and was like "AHH!" and then just seemed really confused and freaked out (in a funny way), and we laughed about it. He snapped the pic for me, and off we went!
We were still a bit early, so we got to Hollywood & Vine and found plenty of available bench space, so we just grabbed a spot to sit and let Mark and Debby rest their tootsies for a while as we waited to be called. I took out my phone so I could post the photo we'd just taken to FB, and suddenly erupted into fits of laughter. Like, nearly-in-tears-laughter. Mark and Debby thought I'd finally lost it, I think, but I couldn't breath, so I just handed them the phone so they could see. Then they were laughing just as hard. Why?
I'm dying all over again trying to put this picture into this report.
Oh, Troy. You rascal.
Finally our names were called and we were led into Minnie's Holiday Dining experience, and immediately met this goofy guy!
Nobody was waiting immediately behind us at that moment, so Goofy took a little extra time and played with us a bit. It was AWESOME.
We were seated not to far from this area so we could watch Goofy interacting with other with other people. In between visitors to our table, we ran and filled our plates from the buffet...
As usual, the full food write-up and pics are over on my Dining Report
HERE!
Oh, you want to see photos of the afore-mentioned table visitors? Of course you do!
Seriously, ya'll... SO. MUCH. FUN!!!
I had booked this as part of the Fantasmic Dining Package, so after dinner we headed to the Hollywood Hills theater and were lead to our seats. The show started, and I tried to grab some pics, but my shots of this show NEVER turn out well! Here's the best of my attempts...
After the show, Mark and Debby were ready to call it a night. I had two things in mind that I still wanted to do, so we said good night, they headed towards the bus stops, and I headed to the Dark Side. That's right, my destination was the Star Wars Launch Bay!
I got there, and the character meets were my #1 priority, and I had just enough time to do one, maybe both of them. Chewbacca had a 5 minute wait, and Darth Vader a 20 minute wait, so I made the obvious choice:
The funny thing was the closer I got, the more NERVOUS I got! See?
Yep. Queue selfie!
Finally it was my turn. DUDE. It was intimidating as %&$#!!! Even the handler and the photographer and every CM in there were sooo in-character. Very somber and serious. Like, I felt like I wasn't allowed to smile! As you can probably tell, I was kinda trying not to...
So then I pretty much BOLTED out of the room. I learned that apparently I'm way too much of a delicate flower for the Dark Side!
I zipped over to the entrance for Chewbacca's line and asked if I had time, and the CM said "Sure!" and let me in. Score!
He was funny. When I walked up to him, he just silently loomed, leaning forward and staring down at me. I don't know if he was confused by my face paint, or what.
After my furry meet & greet, I wanted to linger and look at some of the exhibits, but I was concerned about time, so I made my way to the exit. However, along the way, I did bump into a wandering Jawa...
When I got to the doors, the courtyard in front of me was completely clear, so I went wide open on the ECV and flew down the ramp and was on my way. The BEST part was that as I passed through the door, behind me I heard the CM standing there say: "Hey, look! A land speeder!"
It was pretty amazeballs.
And where was I headed in such a big dang hurry, you might ask? Well... It was my last opportunity to catch once final glimpse, so I had to take it...
Yep. I was determined to squeeze in just a little more Osborne lights time before the park closed on me!
Yes, that was the massive crowd still there at 5 mins until park closing...
So so so crazy!
But I was a happy girl, none-the-less.
Once I had made up for lost time, and had my fill, I decided to go ahead and start slowly making my way out of the park and to the bus stops. Along the way, I did snap a photo of the Hollywood Studios Christmas tree, just outside their turnstiles...
And then it was back to AoA and nursing my half-dead little
scooter along back to my room, and I was very much ready for a shower and bed. I super very happy with the way the day had went, but tomorrow was going to be a long one, so it was totally ni-ni time for Billie!
Up Next: Magic Kingdom!