Ok, so admittedly Hollywood Studios is our least favorite park as a whole - funny how that is, yet some of our favorite rides are at DHS!
But we were super excited to go to DHS on this trip because we were getting to ride the Toy Story Midway Mania ride for the very first time! DD Heidi is a Toy Story fanatic!
Armed with our front of the line passes - thanks to a mother with replaced hips, and a DD with a broken arm (see original TR for deets), we went straight to TSMM. This in and of itself is a feat for me, as my inner self was screaming "we can't do the park out of order!!!!!" Luckily for my inner self - the Streetmosphere performers were just starting on Hollywood Boulevard and that halted our jaunt across the park!
We laughed and enjoyed the performers so much - they interacted with my teen sons and my daughters alike - it was nice to watch as it included everyone! Of course my DH was more interested in the cars they had than anything!
We had our photos taken in front of the "big hat" as the girls called it!
We continued on our way toward Toy Story (yes, skipping many things completely out of order) only to discover the line was out the door and down the street.... Even for those with disability passes! And the fast passes were already out for the day! Wow! We decided to go to the backlot tour and do that since that was one of our favorites. As luck would have it... or unlucky luck would have it... it started to rain, and I mean rain! Break out the ponchos! We stood under cover by the backlot tour for quite some time waiting on the rain to somewhat slow down to a tolerable drizzle. The backlot tour kept operating in the rain so we jumped in line and waited it out.
Our next stop was Muppet Vision 3D (because it was inside!) and of course everyone loved it! My daughters wanted to do it again and again, but DH's tummy was growling and I was getting "the look!" You know the one that men get in Disney World that says "look I know you have our entire day planned and everything, but you have to include feeding me!" look...
We stopped off at Pizza Planet, where everyone was waiting on the now drizzle to stop, and it was packed. But we managed to get a table, and the food was actually really good! We used our QS meal on our
Disney Dining plan, and then headed finally to Toy Story Midway Mania! This time the line was much shorter, and we were able to get right on with a minimal wait. It was worth it any wait honestly!
We did the Great Movie Ride, and the Voyage of the Little Mermaid... my daughters were in awe of being "under the sea!" I wanted to do the Magic of Disney Animation, but I had two teen boys that were giving me their own looks! You know the one that says "mom, if you don't let us do a big kid ride we are going to die!" We headed over toward Star Tours because my sons were begging to do it, plus we had dinner res's at Hollywood and Vine. We figured by the time we finished the Star Tours we would eat dinner and head to the Sunset Boulevard area of DHS.
Dinner at Hollywood and Vine was ok, not really anything to write home about, but it wasn't terrible either. I think next time we would like to try either '50s Prime Time cafe or even the Sci-Fi Dine In... but like I said it was ok. At least the rain stopped while we ate dinner!
At this point Nana had had about enough of the park and needed to get some rest, she headed toward the buses and the boys were finally excited to get to the rides they were dying to ride.
First Stop - Tower of Terror!
And boy was it a ride! We love this ride, well almost all of us love the ride....
Little DD Amanda was NOT happy when we got off this ride. Literally as soon as the dropping stopped she was crying out "get me out of here." She is usually the fearless one - but not this time! Everyone in our elevator car did the "awwwww poor baby" for her, I comforted her as best I could until we could get off. Once off she jumped in her brother Nick's arms and that was it, she wasn't letting go!
She was quite grateful she wasn't tall enough for the Rock n' Roller Coaster, so child swapping it was! Which wasn't so bad, since the crowds were minimal due to the rain earlier in the day. My two boys and DD Heidi rode it 4 times each as DH and I swapped a few times. This partially made up for all the "boring" things the boys endured earlier in the day. Although don't let their "boring" comments fool you they were laughing and enjoying Muppet Vision 3D and Toy Story Midway Mania with the rest of us!
At this point we headed to Fantasmic to be seated... We got there about 40 min. before the show started, which allowed for pretty decent seats in the theatre. It started to lightly drizzle again, so the ponchos were back on. With it being so late, we decided to have a snack (popcorn and icecream) and the girls used some of their money to buy light up mickey ears. The boys rode Tower of Terror another time (or two) while we waited, and then joined us a the last moment before the show started. I have to say Fantasmic is my absolute favorite of the nighttime Disney shows!
All in all, despite rain, a few long lines, and some closed attractions we had a great day! Time for one last picture on the way out, and we are heading to our room to sleep!
Next year we hope to catch Indiana Jones and Lights, Motors, Action! as well as the Pixar Parade (hopefully there isn't as much rain in April 2013!)
Next Up.... Animal Kingdom!
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It is too small now and the chip and dale one will be by next summer. If you have a Kmart the have some chip and dale shirts there and they were on sale. I got her a new one for next year.
