"Is something supposed to happen?" - Mary Poppins
As we stood in line for the Backlot Tour, the young male CM tried his best to liven up what was a very low key group of people in line. He attempted some general humor, but didn't get much response. He then turned his attention to Adam, who not surprisingly was not paying attention. The conversation went like this-
CM: "What grade are you in?"
-Daisy pokes Adam-
Adam: "Huh? What?"
CM: "What grade are you in?"
Adam: "Ummm"
CM: "Did you forget?"
Adam: "Fourth grade."
Adam then turned away and went back to looking at the movie paraphernalia.
It was then time for us to move forward and as the CM opened the rope to let us through he tried again with Adam.
"So what grade are you in?"
"Huh? What?"
Poor CM probably not the best conversation of his day.
The first part of the tour was some sort of water effect stunt, however we were informed that because of the weather they couldn't perform the stunt. Apparently just the mere possibility of rain is enough to shut this part down?
They did talk us through the stunt and showed us the big wave of water that apparently soaks a lucky audience volunteer on most days.
We were then ushered out through an outside walkway, and out to the tram loading area.
Now the reason that the Backlot Tour was on our must do list, despite the multitude of poor reviews for it, was because we had really enjoyed the backlot tour at Universal Hollywood in 2006. I think this resulted in our expectations for DHS' tour to high.
After getting seated on the tram we were given a warning about the left side, where Adam and I were sitting, getting wet. The tram pulled out and the tour began. Our guide was rather difficult to understand through out our tour. She started off spending a great deal of time talking about the water tower with Mickey Ears on it. I think that was to distract us from the fact that we weren't moving very far away from where we started.
We drove through the costume repair building, which was interesting, but you couldn't see in very well at all, and there was no action taking place inside.
We saw the organ from POTC 2 in the prop warehouse.
As we drove past the Lights! Motors! Actions! show area the drivers were warming up and practicing some of their stunts.
We were still within sight of the building we loaded the tram from, but as we drove around the corner our tram driver took us through a gate into a restricted area and we got caught in the middle of a special effects sequence being filmed.
A massive amount of water splashed towards us, but none of us got wet, though it did drip off the roof of the tram some. After the scene was finished we drove around the back of the set and said just how unreal it was.
Now at this point I thought the tour was just starting and that we were going to be heading out farther away from the buildings and see some film sets or something. However that was not what happened. After the fire and water stunt we were taken almost directly back to the loading area. We did see a few movie set items on the way back.
Stepping off the tram we were all a little stunned and looking at each other thinking "That was it?" We walked through the dump shop in silence. Really I can't believe that Disney has the gall to even present that as a backlot tour. In my notes next to the tour I wrote "super lame." It was pitiful in comparison to Universal and as Aunt Pat said "Why bother?"
Now I'm scared though. You are a real life editor
and I have very bad grammar and spelling skills!
