It's Tuesday morning, and it's Christmas in Hollywood!
Well, it's actually December 7th, but the weather sure felt like a good old, down home Wisconsin Christmas. We bundle up in the hats and jackets from yesterday and make our way over to Disney's Hollywood Studios. This seems to be the only park we consistently make rope drop at. At every other park, we usually only miss it by about 10 or 15 minutes, but Hollywood Studios is the exception.
Maybe it's because the park is so close to where we usually stay. Maybe it's because the parking lot is so close to the park and the bag check is smooth and easy to get through. Maybe it's because we really like the theming of the golden age of Hollywood, and how the morning light seems to make everything come alive. Or maybe it's because if you miss rope drop, you're looking at a 30 wait to get a FastPass for mid-afternoon (at the earliest) for Toy Story Mania.
Whatever the reason, we're generally always there, right near the front, watching the opening show with the director casting us all as extras in his next big picture.
We had met up with some other friends from back home on this morning - Jason, Rachel and her 12 year old son Austin. Jason and I grabbed everyone's tickets and joined the herd to go get TSM FastPasses. Everyone else was going to hang back, not get trampled, and meet us down by Tower of Terror. This was Jason's first visit to WDW as well, so I had to give him a few pointers on the
TSM FastPass Dash. (Basically, treat it like running with the bulls in Pamplona. Except the bulls will be nicer to you if you decided to stop and clog up the streets)
By the time we got our FastPasses and started heading for Sunset Blvd, the FP line was past One Man's Dream. Oh yeah, I remember now why we get to DHS for Rope Drop...
The best part about them opening Toy Story Mania? The end of Sunset Blvd down by Tower of Terror and Rock N Roller Coaster is virtually a ghost town first thing in the morning. By the time we got down there with the FastPasses, ToT was still only a 5 minute wait.
And it was only 5 minutes because we stopped for a few pictures. We walked right into the Library, milled around for a few minutes and the preshow started.
Don't worry, this is his "I'll protect you Grandma" face.
After ToT, we decided to ditch - sorry,
leave - the kids with Grandma & Grandpa while we road Rock N Roller coaster. (See what I did there - I used "road" instead of "rode". Not only because they're homonyms, but because the ride is
street themed. Honestly, I don't know where I come up with these gems! They just come to me!)
Maybe it was the awesome grammar jokes that convinced her to marry me?
Since there were 3 of us, I let Bambi and Kaylene get the front seat while I sat behind them with someone from the single rider line. I was telling her how excited I was to ride in a super stretch limo and go see Aerosmith in concert. After a few minutes I came to the conclusion that she didn't speak English because all she did was nod along and give me crooked half smiles.
Whatever, the ride totally rocked!
We met up with the family and started heading back to
Pixar Place to use our Fast Passes, but stopped for a few pictures along the way.
Kayden had a really cool idea to make a hidden Mickey with their heads. Evan didn't really know what he wanted, so he crouched down too. If you tilt your computer monitor a little to the left and squint, you can see the Mickey.
We continued up to the hat and found a few old friends...
Silly Hat Pictures©
Bambi printed and framed this one for me for Christmas. I have it in my office, so it's the first thing I look at every morning when I get to work.
Gettin' ready for some shootin'!
I rode with Evan. He's getting better - usually he struggles to break 5 digits.
And, as is tradition, once we exited TSM and compared scores, we crossed the street to the Buzz & Woody meet & greet. The line was just out the door, and we were told it would be at 45 minute wait. That's longer than we would usually wait, but Evan was all decked out in his Woody costume and Kayden wanted to meet these guys. Luckily, the queue gives you some things to do while you wait.
Unfortunately, it was getting very close to lunch time and the kids were getting hungrier and crankier the longer we waited. That all vanished when it was finally out turn.
Woody loved Evan's outfit, so he got a BIG hug.
Which turned into a
BIGGER hug...
Which in turn morphed into an even
BIGGER-ER hug...
He finally let Evan come up for air and a few group pictures.
We got our autographs, said our goodbyes, and headed out the door in search of food.
Coming up next: Old Friends, New Friends, Fast Cars and Strawberry hugs
But before you go, it has been brought to my attention that we have a very special guest lurking on this tread...Everybody give a hearty welcome to the co-start of this Trip Report, Kaylene!
