Lets just do everything... Sept 2015 TR WDW, USO, HHN, CBBR - updated 31/10 Day 6

[BagOLaughs]

We left off when Martin and I had just entered Hollywood Studios and had got a 4th FP+ for rock and rollin' coaster at about 5pm. Our dining reservation was at 4:15 so we had a bit of time to kill before then. We hadn't planned on doing any rides as I'd got FP+'s for another day for Hollywood Studios.

We had a bit of a wonder around the Chinese theatre as there some characters out greeting. We saw Minnie is a cute pink dress.



And also Max was out greeting. I've never seen his costume before so that was a new one for me.



The queue was quite long for the great movie ride so we skipped this one for now.



We did however walk over to the streets of America where Mulch, Sweat and Shears were performing. I do enjoy their show so we sat and watched them for the rest of their show. I'll be sad when they leave Hollywood Studios as I think there are really good entertainment.



In the background you'll probably notice some construction walls as Disney were in the process of putting up the Osborne festival of lights which I hear will also the last year for this. I've never seen it but I have watched the YouTube videos and it looks amazing!



A couple of photos below of the streets of America. The one thing I've not mentioned yet was the amount of construction in all four of the parks was crazy. There were scrims and walls up all over the place. This is one of the reasons we decided to stay in a Universal hotel this year as opposed to Disney. I just can't justify spending all that money for Disney if we're going to spend 14 days looking at construction walls.



The other street of america and more lights being put up.



I took the picture of Martin in front of the Coke bottle as we always do. Its a running joke because Martin drinks the most amount of Coke I've ever seen a human drink. Its amazing and disgusting at the same time. I don't know why he isn't the size of a house.



We had a little look around Pixar place and enjoyed the theming.



These money are acting out a scene which is so familiar... lol



Next up Star Wars!

 

[BagOLaughs]

I don't have any pictures but we went on Muppets 3D just to get out of the heat. While in the waiting room I was looking through the map and saw the new Star Wars shop. We eventually found the shop (its in the exit building to the old tram tour) and as soon as we walked in I saw this. I was smitten. We can't have pets because we rent but I could have a furby or a chubacca furby!



We couldn't find any of the remote controlled BB-8's. I knew they were sold out but I wanted to look just in case. We did find a cute POP! model. I really hope the movie is going to be good because this robot character alone is amazing!



I had my photo taken with a Jawa model because I love Jawa's!



After this photo was taken I turned around and realised there was a massive Sandcrawler on the wall. How awesome!



Finally it was time for our dining reservation. This was the reservation I'd been looking forward to the most! We checked in (I double checked we were going to be in on the type of table I wanted. We were, so I was happy about that) and after a short wait, probably about 5 - 10 minutes we were in!

In where you ask...

in here!



I'd been so excited about eating here! It was a last minute reservation I nabbed about 3 days before we took off. I was just casually checking what was available and there it was! It wasn't at a great time but I couldn't let it pass me by. I mean look at the car tables. They are adorable!

I ordered a vanilla milkshake and Martin a coke.



The milkshake was amazing, so thick and creamy. Our waitress also bought us water which I was really grateful for because the milkshake was so rich. Another fuzzy selfie!



And a photo towards the screen. That section of video with the hotdog jumping into the roll always makes me think of Grease.



Martin had the ruben sandwich with chips which he really enjoyed.



I had the smoked turkey with the cucumber salad. We both really enjoyed our food. The flavour of the meats were really good and my cumber salad was just what the doctor ordered. Refreshing with a delightful sweet but slightly sour dressing.



Neither of us finished our meals and our waitress did offer to wrap it up for us but the idea of carrying a bag of leftovers around the park for the rest of the evening didn't really make sense. I felt a bit bad but there was no way I was going to be able to finish this meal. I did however finish all of my milkshake. yum!

We paid our bill and left. We both loved this restaurant and we can now totally understand why it gets booked up so quickly. The food and drink were top notch and the ambiance was also amazing. The little bench seats were just perfect for having a little cuddle while chatting about the retro shows on the screen. We would definitely come here again next time we are in Hollywood Studios.

Coming up - a visit to see my friend Steven.

 

[BagOLaughs]

Day 3 - Chillin' with my mate Steven

After food our FP+ was still about 45 minutes away so we decided to jump on board the great movie ride. It only had a 10 minute wait. Before we boarded the tram I said to Martin wouldn't it be great if we got the cowboy scene as every time I've ridden this ride I've always got the gangster scene. He didn't have a clue what I was talking about as he's only see the gangster scene and didn't even know there was a cowboy version too.

Low and behold my wish came true and we got an in focus cowgirl! woo! but an out of focus host... haha.



My camera is pretty good (for the point and click it is) and it can do good night time shots. However it can't do moving night time shots very well! and so most of these photos are pretty rubbish. Ohhh... fire!



A very fuzzy Martin on the set of his favourite movie.



Space suits! I wonder where we could be...



Ahhhh! A terrible, completely out of focus with too much motion blur to make anything out... picture of an Xenomorph. I love this part of the ride, even if the Ripley animatronic looks awful... I love the aliens.



And from one creepy animatronic to another... Toto I don't think we're in Florida any more! Seriously the munchkin animatronics are scarier than its a small world.



Thank god the witch shows up to scare them all off! That is until they come back out again! run away!



The great movie ride is a great way to get off your feet for a bit and I like the inclusion of the Turner movie guy. My only gripe is I can't really hear what our tour guide or cowgirl were saying over the speakers. It wasn't clear at all.

It was finally time for our FP+ and for me to see my mate Steven.



Mr Tyler invited us to one of his performances! How exciting however we had to get through all the LA traffic, our limo driver was nuts!



I love this coaster. Love it love it love it. Its a combination of silky smooth LSM launch, great visual gags while riding and the best Aerosmith music to listen to while riding. I'm a big Aerosmith fan so I'll sing all the way round with a massive smile on my face. Martin also loves this ride as we have a very similar music taste.

To finish it off a picture in front of the massive guitar. Wooh!



Next up - one mans dream, star tours and one huge ice cream!

 

[BagOLaughs]

Day 3 - One man's dream and a huge ice cream!

We popped across to the FP+ kiosks to see what other FP+ were left. We decided to get one for Fantasmic because there weren't any good selections (we would later be very grateful for this choice.)

I needed a bit of a break so we decided to potter around One Man's Dream. I enjoy seeing the vintage toys.



Especially the really creepy plush toys like the Donald on the right of this photo. I would have been really scared of having that thing next to me in bed as a child.



I took my time looking at all the inner workings of the president. (that sounds odd doesn't it). To think this was done in the 60's, all with pneumatics, for a worlds fair is truly mind boggling. Even with modern servo motors 50 years later we still can't truly replicate human movement in animatronics.



Hey my little cute model, I recognise you. My home park Disneyland Paris's castle. In my opinion really is the most beautiful castle of them all and the landscaping around the castle just adds to the beauty.



California adventure, one day I will visit you!



And a model of mystic manor... another ride that I MUST go on! Even watching the youtube video's blows my mind.



For the 1st time we both watched the movie at the end of the exhibition because it was air conditioned and I wanted to have a rest for a bit. The movie was really nice and I'd not see the sections of the movie that have interviews with Walt himself. It was nice to get some insight into what we was like.

After the movie we ended up by Star Tours. The queue was only 5 minutes so we jumped on. We were all set to visit the moon of Endor until Darth Vader stopped our ship and told us we had a rebel spy onboard! We then took a trip through Hoth narrowly avoiding a collapsing ATAT walker. After launching into hyper drive again we got attacked by droids and then had a thrilling chase through Coruscant traffic. Eventually we landed safely and all became part of the rebel cause. I love Star Tours. I loved the origional version as a child and the new films have only improved this ride. I really hope DLP gets its update soon becuase that old video is really showing its age.



We headed back towards the Hollywood section of the park because it was getting close to Fantastic time. I had a mooch in the shop and saw these amazing halloween candy apples. I've never purchased one because I'm not a big fan of apples covered with toffee but I do like to look at them.



I also like to watch them being made.



It was getting really busy on the entrance to the Fantasmic stadium so we decided to head on up. But not before Martin got this...



Would you like some ice cream with your whipped cream? Haha. I did tell you at the beginning Martin LOVES ice cream!

We scanned our cards and got a green light for Fantasmic. Once we got to the stadium it was packed! It seems they've got 70% FP seating and only 30% for non FP... which seems very odd but as I said before I sure was glad we got our FP+ when we did. We entered 30 minutes before the show started and they'd already started announcing there was no sitting space left for non FP+. Eik!

Next up - Fantasmic!

 

[BagOLaughs]

Day 3 - Fantasmic!

We were sat all the way to the left of the stadium. Two sections over from the very edge. However we still had a good view. There were a few flashes in the sky of lightning but I guess it was too far away or not striking the ground because the show went on, yey! Only one little whine from me... it was hot as all heck in that stadium and it was quite uncomfortable! But the show made up for it.

Mickey!



I love Mickey mouse. Especially when he has a sparkly jacket on, so cute!



I love Fantasmic. I really do, I've seen the Tokyo DisneySea version and I still prefer this version, but the one thing I do not like is the screen heavy first 3rd of the show. In the first 5 - 10 minutes I might as well just be at home watching a poorly edited video on my TV because it is just projections onto water. However just before half way is when it does get good and we get more action rather than videos.

Like the lion king bit. which is fun! and very hard to photograph... haha



Then a spooky evil queen in another beautiful sparkly gown.



The eyes of this Jafar snake always show up really well in photos.



Finally my favourite bit of the show. The dragon!!! I love this bit.



Spooky...



Of course Mickey wins and all his friends come out to celebrate on boats.



Hello everyone!



And the last photo to finish off the night... Sorcerer Mickey! In all his sparkly glory.



And that was it. We got swept away in the tide of people leaving the stadium and heading towards the exit. Strangely enough there wasn't much of a queue to get on the car park tram once we got to the entrance and we back back at the car within about 15 minutes after exiting the stadium.

It had started to rain as we exited the car park and it was a bit stressful trying to make sure we were going the right lane as it was very busy on the roads but once we were on the I4 it was an easy journey back.

We got back into the hotel at about 9:45pm and we both felt really awake still. Martin looked at me and I looked at Martin... we both knew what the other was thinking. Where we crazy? Maybe? But lets do it anyway! We had a quick wash, got our stuff together and headed back out of the hotel room... where were we going? you may be asking...

Well it was Friday 18th September and there is only one thing worth doing at 10pm at night... can you guess what what is?

We were going to experience our 1st ever Halloween Horror night.

to be continued... if we ever get out alive... mwhahahahaha!

 

[mls02]

What kind of Milkshake did you get? Does anyone know can you make a reservation and just have desert or stop in mid afternoon for a milkshake?

 

[mls02]

What kind of Milkshake did you get? Does anyone know can you make a reservation and just have desert or stop in mid afternoon for a milkshake?

 

[samsteele]

What kind of Milkshake did you get? Does anyone know can you make a reservation and just have desert or stop in mid afternoon for a milkshake?

Yes - you can make an ADR and just order a milkshake, dessert or an appie. I don't know what Bagolaughs had, but I usually get the Oreo milkshake & its pretty good.

 

[BagOLaughs]

What kind of Milkshake did you get? Does anyone know can you make a reservation and just have desert or stop in mid afternoon for a milkshake?

I had a vanilla shake, it's in the sentence above the picture

It was scrumptious. Having a dessert would be fun but I'd personally go for a whole meal. That way you get to spend more time in the amazing surroundings! Best ADR we did.

Yes - you can make an ADR and just order a milkshake, dessert or an appie. I don't know what Bagolaughs had, but I usually get the Oreo milkshake & its pretty good.

Oreo sounds yummy! I think the special flavour was peanut butter when I was there. I can't remember seeing oreo but then again I really love vanilla so I may have just picked vanilla over oreo.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Can't wait to hear about it!

 

[fantasmicfantastic]

As always, Fantasmic looks, well, Fantastic

I can't wait to hear about your first HHN

 

[BagOLaughs]

Can't wait to hear about it!

Hey ScarletBegonias, HHN was a really fun night and I'm really excited to type it up soon!

As always, Fantasmic looks, well, Fantastic

I can't wait to hear about your first HHN

I can't wait to tell you all about my first HHN, spoiler... I loved it! And yes I totally am 100% with you Fantasmic! was Fantastic!

 

[MyTalula]

Great job!! Loving reading along. Really loving all the pictures too!!

 

[schumigirl]

Tuning in for your HHN report.......I think we were just about leaving HHN opening night when you were going in........lol.......we were whooped by 10pm!!! But we blame it on our first day jet lag.........

Glad to hear you loved it........we adore horror nights, one of the many highlights of our trip!!!

 

[BagOLaughs]

Great job!! Loving reading along. Really loving all the pictures too!!

Thank you. Its always nice to hear that the trip report is being read and enjoyed. I hope you'll enjoy the future updates too.

Tuning in for your HHN report.......I think we were just about leaving HHN opening night when you were going in........lol.......we were whooped by 10pm!!! But we blame it on our first day jet lag.........

Glad to hear you loved it........we adore horror nights, one of the many highlights of our trip!!!

I had the same thought, haha. We might have passed each other by, you never know. For some reason we were really awake this day... the jet lag seemed to hit later in the week. Probably running on excitement fumes from being in Orlando. haha

I hope to have the HHN update soon! Its just been crazy hectic and I've been bushed in the evenings.

 

[BagOLaughs]

Day 3 - the horror... the horror!

Well this is it friends and neighbours... the night I'd been so excited for. As I said in the previous post, we hadn't actually planned on attending this night but we were feeling so awake after returning back from Hollywood Studios we decided to go for it! We hopped on the bus and I tried walking though security at city walk. The guard asked for my ID... errrrr... like a dope I'd forgotten it in the room but I wasn't planning on drinking anyway. The guard said it was OK but I probably wouldn't get served... that was not a problem, pfew! A few minutes later we were standing here...



At this point I was really starting to get nervous... I've been to plenty of Halloween Horror night type events in the UK at Thorpe park and Alton Towers (UK theme parks) and I've loved it but what if I found this too intense? What if I didn't like it??? Oh well only one way to find out...



Martin was just excited to be there. He pointed out that in the 7 years we've been together we've never actually done a Halloween event together (I've always done them with my mates) so he was giggling... trying to figure out how I'd react.

Another security check and a ticket scan and we where in!



Ahhhhhh... I was in love already! We walked through the first scare zone which was steam punk style fairy tale character... I found it a bit meh... it was visually interesting but the characters weren't very scary.

However in comparison the next scare zone with the asylum patients was epic! The flaming band stand was really really cool... I mean hot.



The scare actors in this area were top notch too. (she's on the right)



The little shows at the different stages were a fun little distraction.



We walked over to where the Simpsons was and into another scare zone... Martin snapped this crazy picture.



Creepy!

For me he struck another pose...



Clowns with chainsaws... I'm sure some would find this terrifying.



During all our walk around the scare zones we didn't actually have anyone go after us and I started to relax a bit more... Even though its creepy it so much fun and the atmosphere was really fun on this night.

coming up more photos.

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Ohhh creepy!! I'd totally pee my pants here. LOL. I love/hate scary stuff. I generally keep my eyes SHUT!

 

[BagOLaughs]

Day 3 - Creepy, spooky fun!

We walked from the clown area through the Evil Roots area. This was my favourite scare zone although. It wasn't jump scary but the atmosphere in that area was great. And the costumes were great.

I got some awesome photos through the fog... creepy fingers.



The photo below is my phone wallpaper at the moment.



Martin tried to take a photo in the fog but it didn't really work out... haha



Now it was time for our 1st maze. We didn't have the express pass because we had 5 nights in which to do all that there was to do so we just chose the mazes that had small queues each evening. First up was Run live which had a 25 minute queue. The theme of this maze was putting you into the shoes of a contestant that has to try to not be killed by professional killers, all while be televised. (a bit like Running Man, but without Arnie) The queue line was fun as there was a big TV screen showing each of the "killers". It was so 80's it was brilliant.



The maze itself was pretty meh I think. I don't really remember much about it other than a room with a guy creating sparks against the wall. However Martin was laughing his butt off!

You see, I'm a really jumpy person. Even if I know something is going to make me jump and I prepare myself, I'll still jump regardless. Its not just scary mazes that make me jump. I'll jump at anything... Martin loves to watch me playing PS4 games because even non scary games will make me jump if something unexpected appears on screen... Lara Croft... Lara Croft is almost unplayable for me because stuff jumps out on screen. Anyway... this was an OK maze.

We decided to do one last maze (it was about midnight at this point) and American Werewolf in London only had a 15 minute wait.



This maze WAS AMAZING! I MEAN AMAZING! The theming, the set pieces, the scares. I remember so much from this maze. All of the wolfs got me... even the ones I saw jump out at the people in front of us. I also remember walking into the cinema scene and seeing a girl who I knew was real, as we got close to her I was laughing and saying I know you're real... she rushed at me and I screamed so loud and jumped a mile in the air! Also there is a final scene where the wolf is eating something on the ground. I looked down, and trying to be coy said awwww its so cute, then it jumped up at us and started barking and again I screamed so loud and jumped up! haha!!! So much fun!

I love being scared... it was so much fun! In the queue exit was this fella, it was nice to see a reference to Jaws which will probably be gone soon.



And with that we were bushed. It was 12:45 and we headed back to the hotel. Tomorrow we were going to go shopping! woop!

All in all our first taste of Halloween Horror Nights was epic! I cannot tell you how much we both enjoyed it!!

 

[BagOLaughs]

Day 4

Well it was Saturday and typically we don't do theme parks on Saturdays because they get too busy for us (remember I'm allergic to queuing) haha.

We decided to set out for our favourite place to shop. The premier outlet mall!

We had a look in the Swarovski store as I got some really good deals last time we where there.. but alas nothing to be found. I did however purchase some stuff from the Disney outlet store including a super cheap magnet of the tikki room, two adventureland themed bowls, a mug as a gift for my friend and a new hoody. We popped into the sweet shop they have there becuase they always have funny stuff to take pictures of.

UMMMMM, so many sour patch kids...



The name of this cereal.. ha!

#

Across the pond indeed... We have the best chocolate. Sorry but we do



I took these photos for my mum as she loves to use this sticker pack on facebook messenger.



So cute!



We had so lunch in the food hall. I had Chinese orange chicken which was good and Martin had Taco Bell. Then we drove back towards the hotel but not before stopping in to...



Yey! We have to go to Walmart, its an American staple right? haha. For some reason I loved taking pictures of the birthday frosting stuff.



We have Chips Ahoy but not the quantity of flavours you have.



These bad boys I did buy. I can totally understand why birthday flavour is on everything.. they tasted amazing!



We did purchase some healthy good too don't worry. I got some yoghurts and blueberries for my breakfasts. Some fruit to eat as I'm a bit paranoid about ensuring I eat enough fruit and veg while I'm on holiday. When you eat out every day for every meal you tend to miss out on fruit and veg.

And some Pop tarts!!! I love all the different flavour pop tarts you can get in America. We only have two flavours, strawberry and chocolate. Thats it!! This time I got cinnamon rolls, red velvet and blue raspberry. YUM!

Next up - More HHN!

 

[ScarletBegonias]

Oh I love Pop Tarts... can't have them any more because of my Celiac Disease, but I miss them so much!!!