Chapter 37: Hip-Hooray for Hollywood!
We stayed in the
Animation Courtyard just talking for a little while; then I think the girls (and DSis) wanted to look around the little open-air gift shop outside of
VOLM. They could not resist the tempting display of princess costumes and related merchandise sparkling in the sun! The princesses are nothing if not sparkly! Tricia browsed the pin displays and there may have been a purchase or two; I cannot recall. What I do remember about that afternoon was that I had an overwhelming feeling of lighthearted contentment, so
completely different from the mood of the previous day.
Im sure that this was primarily because we were having such fun with my sister and her family, but I also believe that a huge weight had been lifted off my mind once Aunt Rae relented and decided to utilize the wheelchair. Its funny how you dont even realize how much something is worrying you until that stress is removed.
I literally felt I could breathe more easily knowing that she was off her swollen ankles and less likely to fall. My only concern was that we had to keep an eye on Billy
every so often he would try to sit on her lap! Hes so big; he would squish her flat! We encouraged him to help Ed push her chair and that seemed to make him happy.
Naturally, because AR was now off her feet, we could move about the park much more quickly, too, so I had less anxiety about missing the various show times.
The Studios are always tricky for me, planning-wise, because of the general layout of the place and show times that usually necessitate criss-crossing the park. (Perhaps that is why our family had not seen B&TB or Indiana Jones during the past few visits.) However, between having a very tired Aunt Rae and my non-thrill-riding young nieces in the group, it seemed that this would be the perfect day to catch up on some shows.
So far, our afternoon had been going along swimmingly
so we decided to pay a visit to
the Little Mermaid! We had a bit of a wait since we hadnt fast-passed, but oh my goodness, were my nieces excited! Ariel is like
a superstar to them! But, as much as they wanted to see her, they had wanted to wait until they could do this with their cousins! (Wasnt that sweet?) Eventually we all crowded into the little holding area designed to look like a boathouse and the girls (and Billy!) bounced around with excitement. He could feel their energy and was waving his arms about and stimming loudly.
Eeeee-EEEEE-aaahhhh! Eeeee-EEEEEEE! Ha ha ha ha ha!!
(Kids are always excitedly bouncing and jumping around at WDW and its somewhat easier for Billy to blend in here. LOL! No one thinks his Tigger-ish behavior is at all unusual at Disney! Little do they know; hes always like this!)
The show was short, but so much fun! The
Under the Sea number is done really well with the black light and brightly colored puppetry, and its one of my all-time favorite Disney songs. Apparently I wasnt the only one who felt like that, because most of the audience was singing along, too!
Sorry, my settings were a bit off...
Marilyn had been mildly concerned that the rather large and rather evil
Ursula would frighten the girls, but they seemed pretty okay
I think I saw Josie (2yr) hiding her face a bit. Theyve seen the movie dozens of times, though, so they know that Prince Eric defeats her in the end. (The Imagineers did make her a bit loud and overwhelming, though!) Of course, theres nothing like bubbles floating down from the ceiling to make everything all better!
We exited the show and AR got back into her chariot as Ed referred to it, and we tried to decide what we wanted to do next. Okay, Ill admit that I still had the imprint of my original OP in my minds eye. After all, I had spent months developing it, so it was still pretty fresh in my memory.
All we needed to do was to reverse the Studios in the morning and relax at resort in the evening to get a late start and stay at Studios as long as we were able! Having the
Times Guide helped us to plug in the afternoon show times.
Oh my, look! We could take a leisurely walk across back to Echo Lake and still be in time for the last (5:30)
Indiana Jones show!
Marilyn and I were in
no rush to get seats close to the stage. We were both looking to hang back a bit so we would not be so close to the fiery explosions. Sitting more toward the left side of the theater was also part of the defensive plan! (The really big explosions are on the right side of the stage as you face it.) We were also ready with Billys
earplugs. It also worked out well for AR. We parked her chair and she did not have too many steps to navigate since we were sitting further back. Good thing, too, she was ambulating very poorly, but she did not want to sit in her wheelchair in the handicapped section. That was all right; after all, that was the deal we had made.
We hadnt seen this show since our 2nd (?) visit to the World, so I wasnt quite sure if Billy would remember it. They havent changed it one bit
.
The earplugs were
lifesavers; I dont think Billy would have enjoyed it much without them. He did hide his face in Ed's shirt when the fire was at its most intense
but otherwise he did fine. I think perhaps it was because he was a bit more familiar with the Indiana Jones story (and the theme music) this time around. We had the Indy
DVD collection at home now, so he could relate the show to the movies.
As for me, Ill be good for another few visits until I need to see this one again!
As you can tell from some of the pictures, the sun had slowly disappeared while we were enjoying the 30-minute show, and so it was now time to find a place to get some dinner for the kids. I dont think we adults were terribly hungry, but it had been difficult getting them to eat a full meal with all the singing, dancing, and character excitement they had at lunch! We knew that we wanted to see
MuppetVision 3D right after dinner, so we headed off toward the
Streets of America Set.
Throughout the past week, holiday decorations
had been appearing in ever-increasing numbers around the resort and in the parks, and
the Spectacle of Lights display looked to be completely assembled and ready to be lit
.. during
the following week! What a bummer, the kids would have loved that!
Oh well, what can you do?!
You can
get pizza, thats what! Now, I will say that in all our previous visits to the Studios, I had deliberately avoided
Toy Story Pizza Planet because I did not want the kids to get sidetracked in the arcade and waste valuable touring time! Billy, especially, would be drawn to the lights and sounds of the many games and I feared it would be particularly difficult to get him out of there and back into the park. Marilyn wasnt so much concerned for her kids, rather, she feared my BIL John would get sucked into the video game vortex and wouldnt want to leave!
The kids were clamoring for pizza, however, and since its one of the few foods my rigid and picky Billy will eat, it seemed to be the obvious and most convenient place to eat. We decided, though, that the best compromise would be to procure tables outside so the kids (and John) would not be visually tempted and/or distracted by the arcade.
Well, what could I remember about the food here? Not much, really! Ummm, pizzas and salads, right? For me, what was notable about my first visit to Pizza Planet was that I had a rare
DISer encounter here! As I was waiting on line, a pleasant woman noticed my
lime green baggallini with my
LGMH tag and my lime green
Crocs and said something to the effect of, You must be on the DIS!
It was
whgrn! (Also from Jersey!) Hi, Wendy!
We spoke only briefly and Im so sorry that I didnt get the opportunity to get a picture of us. It would have been great, especially since she turned out eventually to be one of my TR readers! Yeah! So glad we got to bump trips together!
Otherwise, dinner was uneventful. Oh, except for the brief moment that Marilyn and John were getting their food or in the restroom, or something and
baby Josie took off like a shot! (Like all 2 yr olds, she sometimes does this.) The older girls had been walking atop a low wall around some kind of planter-thingy
despite having been told to stop
.and little Josie decided she was going to do it, too! All of a sudden, I saw her scramble up onto the concrete wall and try to stand up! I called out, but Ed was quicker and he got to her in a flash and scooped her up. Then with a sharp word or two to the other kids, he got them all back to the tables so they could eat.
Here are the guilty parties:
After pizza, it was time for some foolishness! Off we went to see our wonderful friends,
the muppets!
Here's the whole gang, ready for some 3D!!
Loved, loved, loved it as usual! The kids wanted to go around the building and go back for a second show (just for the halibut) but we could tell by their slowly-escalating noise and activity level that they were getting tired and that we should begin to wrap up the evening. But first, we had to stop in the muppets' gift shop to look at muppet
stuff!
What better way to punctuate our day at the Studios than with a trip to
Graumans Chinese Theater (or a reasonable facsimile of the same!) Off to the
Great Movie Ride!
There was a pretty decent line here, but we enjoyed all the props in the queue and it did not start to slow until we were in the red velvet-hung room where the MGM movie clips were shown. I recall going all the way through once and the clips started over again. Perhaps we were about halfway through them again when we boarded.
Very enjoyable, especially for Aunt Rae, and who couldnt love the Wizard of Oz scene? I think the
Margaret Hamilton AA (Wicked Witch of the West) is scary-realistic, dont you?
Afterwards, we took a long lovely stroll past The Hat and down Hollywood Boulevard. We may have stopped at the Villians store on the way out, because that is one of DSis favorites. Then we used up a few snack credits on some ridiculously rich chocolate fudge in the shop nearby and bagged it up for later.
We stopped, briefly, at the service station, above, to return ARs wheelchair and from there it was a slow march out the gate and toward our respective bus stops: WL for us and CBR for them. The kids hugged and carried on as though they were saying goodbye forever! This was to be our last meet of the week and Im so glad that we were able to blend our trips and make some memories!
I was reflecting on this as we slowly made our way down the hall and toward our red and green villa doors. Aunt Rae was pleased to finally be able to let herself in (!) and so she and Tricia entered through the Studio side, while Ed, Billy, and me went in through the other. We flipped on the light switch and Billy had his sneakers off in a flash. But even before he could flop down onto the sofa, I heard Tricia and Aunt Rae calling excitedly from next door.
Mom! Dad! shouted Tricia as she popped her head into the living room. Come in here, quick!
To be continued
.
Kathy
Kathy
(Ariel and Jessica must have kept him in line.)
Im doing it again! 
.
)
Kathy!
