Friday, Jan 1st
Hi Everyone,
We are back from our day at Hollywood Studios. Apparently, I'm not taking my own advice and not staying away from the parks. We were there most of the day today. The reason was the crowds weren't too bad today. It rained most of the morning and the temperartures were on the chilly side. That really helped keep crowds at bay.
Here's a look at a very quiet Hollywood Blvd when we arrived today
We were able to get fastpassed for TSM today at 1:00PM. The return time was 7:20PM. Once we got fastpasses we decided we'd spend the day at DHS. We did various activities like see Lightning McQueen and Tow Mator, Mike and Sulley, rode Star Tours, The Great Movie Ride, and saw Muppets 4-D. We ate at the Sci-Fi Dine In as a walk-up. We only waited 5 minutes for a table. We also saw the Osborne Lights.
Anna with Lightning McQueen and Tow Mator
Mike and Sulley from Monster's Inc.
We also managed to do a little shopping. One of my favorite shops in Hollywood Studios is this Christmas shop near Muppet Square
at 4:00PM a band took over the stage in front of the Scorcerer Mickey's hat. They were a rock n' roll band who got the crowd excited for the new year.
Later in the afternoon we dined at the Sci-Fi Dine-In. It was a quick meal because we didn't each much during the day. I had a Ruben while Kim had a chicken sandwich. The food was very good, but certainly nothing to write home about. It was basic fare. Our total bill for the 3 of us was $54. The 20% Tables of Wonderland was not accepted today because it's a holiday. Our waiter was really good. He was very attentive and very kind. He even made a mickey out of ketchup for Anna.
As I mentioned earlier. We were able to walk-up and get a table. The restaurant didn't appear full. The Sci-Fi is not my first choice for dining in DHS, but since it had tables we decided to give it a try.
After dinner we walked around the corner to see the Osborne Lights. Surprisingly, the Streets of America were not crowded at all. It was a bit chilly, but it was a great night to view the lights.
After we viewed the lights it was time for our Toy Story fastpass. We entered the TSM fastpass queue at 7:24 and didn't make it to our ride vehicle until 7:50. That's 26 minutes and really too long to wait when you have a fastpass. The standby line was 80 minutes, but even so fastpasses should move quicker than 26 minutes. Disney markets their fastpass system for little to no wait, but it didn't work that way for us during this attraction.
I ended up with a score of 226,000. The high score for the day was 354,000. An amazing score. It makes 226,000 look meager. What a great ride though.
Here's Anna in the TSM queue while we waited in line
After our ride on TSM we decided to head out for the day. Before we left we stopped in Sid's of Hollywood near the exit. Anna wanted to answer the 5 questions on the board. We walked into the store and the Cast Member asked Anna the 5 questions. She answered them all right and received this certificate.
We arrived back at the Animal Kingdom Lodge in time for evening desserts and drinks.
Tomorrow we are not sure what we are going to do. We've talked about going to the Magic Kingdom or going over to Winter Summerland for miniature golf. We don't have any solid plans....yet!
More to come!
