jamieguffey
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 2, 2009
Day 2 - Disney Hollywood Studios - Sunday 8/23/09
Our first real touring day started off great. Getting in the park early was super cool and the character breakfast entrance was clearly marked and easy to find. Hollywood and Vine was again EXACTLY as described. The food was good not great and we got to see all of the characters. As expected Noah was shy and not interested with this first encounter.
At this point, I made a little mistake. The plan was to get settled at breakfast and then run out for rope drop to get the Toy Story mania FP. Had I worked the plan everything would have been right on again. Unfortunately, I forgot the advice I had received from so many of you! I could see out the window from the restaurant that they had let allowed people to push up to the rope at Hollywood and Vine. I said out loud that I should go and my wife agreed. But Goliath was at the table and JOJO wasn't far behind so I decided to wait for a bit. BZZZT wrong answer! No matter how many times I read that I should RUN as fast as possible to get that FP I never imagined what I found. 15 minutes after the rope dropped the standy wait was an hour and the line for FP's Was all the way down to the Little Mermaid. By the time I reached the machine (20 minutes later) the return time was 12:00 or so. There were 6 different cast members dedicated to helping people through the FP process?
Luckily, this mistake didn't ruin the day it just set the plan back about an hour and a half. We followed the touring plan otherwise and when we arrived for our TSM return time there were still FP's available (albeit for a 7:00 return time). So I was able to pick up more. I have to say the ride is definitely all it's cracked up to be. The first time they shot back at me and the 3D object came flying back at me with a puff of wind I jumped like I really had been shot! I rode with Sophie and she really didn't get it. I can't say it came as a surprise she really isn't into any games at home either. She is a Princess already!
The kids loved Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney. Everyone loved Lights Motors Action (even though the whole we are making a movie theme was a bit cheesy). We decided to skip American Idol even though it was tops on Mommy and Daddy's list of to do's and headed back to the room for lunch break.
A swim and some food is a great way to recharge a battery! But as we found later in the week, turning off the lights and taking a nap is much better. Since we were behind schedule we didn't get back to the park until around 6. We did Beauty and the Beast and Muppetvision (Mommy's Favorite) which took us up to the return time for TSM. This is where we made a small mistake it was getting close to 8pm and we certainly could have made it to the 8:30pm showing of Fantasmic but we decided to wait for the 10:00pm show. Looking back we should have hit Fantasmic at 8:30pm and then did TS before we left. As it was Mommy and Sophie decided to let Noah and I double dip TSM while they shopped and had a snack. We got through two rides of TSM and headed down to Fantasmic. Unfortunately, it was barely 9pm and we had an hour before the show. The good news is we found a spot close to the entrance and the wait was bearable.
I had heard mixed reviews on Fantasmic but for our family it was GREAT! Noah talked about it for days. In my opinion, the definitive storyline made it the best of the evening shows.
Another late night dip in the pool capped a great day!
Our first real touring day started off great. Getting in the park early was super cool and the character breakfast entrance was clearly marked and easy to find. Hollywood and Vine was again EXACTLY as described. The food was good not great and we got to see all of the characters. As expected Noah was shy and not interested with this first encounter.
At this point, I made a little mistake. The plan was to get settled at breakfast and then run out for rope drop to get the Toy Story mania FP. Had I worked the plan everything would have been right on again. Unfortunately, I forgot the advice I had received from so many of you! I could see out the window from the restaurant that they had let allowed people to push up to the rope at Hollywood and Vine. I said out loud that I should go and my wife agreed. But Goliath was at the table and JOJO wasn't far behind so I decided to wait for a bit. BZZZT wrong answer! No matter how many times I read that I should RUN as fast as possible to get that FP I never imagined what I found. 15 minutes after the rope dropped the standy wait was an hour and the line for FP's Was all the way down to the Little Mermaid. By the time I reached the machine (20 minutes later) the return time was 12:00 or so. There were 6 different cast members dedicated to helping people through the FP process?
Luckily, this mistake didn't ruin the day it just set the plan back about an hour and a half. We followed the touring plan otherwise and when we arrived for our TSM return time there were still FP's available (albeit for a 7:00 return time). So I was able to pick up more. I have to say the ride is definitely all it's cracked up to be. The first time they shot back at me and the 3D object came flying back at me with a puff of wind I jumped like I really had been shot! I rode with Sophie and she really didn't get it. I can't say it came as a surprise she really isn't into any games at home either. She is a Princess already!
The kids loved Little Mermaid and Playhouse Disney. Everyone loved Lights Motors Action (even though the whole we are making a movie theme was a bit cheesy). We decided to skip American Idol even though it was tops on Mommy and Daddy's list of to do's and headed back to the room for lunch break.
A swim and some food is a great way to recharge a battery! But as we found later in the week, turning off the lights and taking a nap is much better. Since we were behind schedule we didn't get back to the park until around 6. We did Beauty and the Beast and Muppetvision (Mommy's Favorite) which took us up to the return time for TSM. This is where we made a small mistake it was getting close to 8pm and we certainly could have made it to the 8:30pm showing of Fantasmic but we decided to wait for the 10:00pm show. Looking back we should have hit Fantasmic at 8:30pm and then did TS before we left. As it was Mommy and Sophie decided to let Noah and I double dip TSM while they shopped and had a snack. We got through two rides of TSM and headed down to Fantasmic. Unfortunately, it was barely 9pm and we had an hour before the show. The good news is we found a spot close to the entrance and the wait was bearable.
I had heard mixed reviews on Fantasmic but for our family it was GREAT! Noah talked about it for days. In my opinion, the definitive storyline made it the best of the evening shows.
Another late night dip in the pool capped a great day!