July 14, 2012
Disneys Hollywood Studios
"Hooray for Hollywood!" (Hollywood Blvd. Area Music)
While planning our trip, this was one of the days that I was looking most forward to, which actually surprised me since I have always had a love/hate thing for Hollywood Studios. Okay
not actually hate because I enjoy the park but I would have to say out of the four parks, it's always been my least favorite. The layout has always seemed a little confusing to me. Its the one park that no matter how many times weve been I still need a map to navigate my way around. However, I have come to realize that over the years, I have grown to really like this park. A lot. There are so many great attractions! Toy Story Mania, Beauty and The Beast, Tower of Terror and Fantasmic just to name a few. We were hoping to experience a lot of new attractions this trip as well and I was so excited!
The day started like most others, we woke up bright and early. No sleeping in on Saturday for us! We had EMH at Hollywood Studios to get to and as everyone knows its imperative to get to the park as early as possible if you have any chance of riding Toy Story Mania without waiting forever. It didnt take long before we were up, showered and dressed for the day. Well
.Nick was dragging a little. You know how I said that my opinion had completely changed about this park over the years. Unfortunately, Nicks hasnt. However, he did realize the importance of the Toy Story Mania Dash so it didnt take too much persuasion to lure him to breakfast.
Oh
how I love early mornings at Pop Century. Its so quiet and peaceful. Whats even better is the food court. There is hardly anyone there. There is space to move around and we can grab what we want easily without bumping into anyone. Best of all, there are so many tables to choose from.
Anyway, after enjoying our muffins, fruit, coffee and juice it was time to make our way to the bus stop.
A short bus ride later
.we had arrived!
My attempts at the Hollywood studios sign as we were waiting to go in.
It was at this point that I began to look around and started to freak out a little. There were a lot of people waiting to go in. I started having flashbacks to our early morning at Magic Kingdom and arriving to see the huge line for Space Mountain. The over planner in me kept thinking
if there were that many people waiting for SM, imagine the people for TSM. Our original plan was to ride stand-by and then Noah and I were going to head over to ride ToT and RNRC while DH and Nick went over to Star Tours. But, at the last minute we decided that Nick and DH would get a fastpass instead while Noah and I made our way over to Sunset Blvd. It sounded like a good plan.
Unfortunately I would regret the decision a few minutes later.
When we finally made it through the turnstiles, I handed our tickets to DH and Nick and they began their mad dash. While Noah and I followed behind
.a little bit slower taking pictures along the way.
When we turned off on Sunset Blvd I asked Noah where he wanted to head first, Tower of Terror (a favorite of both of ours) or RNRC which would be new for us. He sounded a little bit hesitant to ride RNRC first but told me he would think about it on the way there.
Aww
.we love Fantasmic! Definitely a favorite of ours! We were hoping to see it later that evening.
After talking about it for a few minutes, we decided to head here first-
Except
...as we were approaching the ride a CM was standing in front telling everyone there would be a delayed opening.
Huh? We finally got up the nerve to ride this ride after 5 trips and theres a delayed opening? I was definitely disappointed but Noah actually looked a little relieved.
So, we turned around and made our way to Tower of Terror instead.
Although, DH has made it very clear he would never ride. He did want me to at least get some pictures of the inside for him to see.
As we inched our way closer to the elevator we were both so excited to ride again. The first time we rode was at night and it was very cool to look out at the park all lit up. However, the ride itself wasnt really that scary or at least not as bad as we thought it would be. But
.this time
.wow! So scary but so much fun!!
After our amazing ride on ToT, we decided to head back over to RNRC to see if it had opened up yet.
Nope.
This was when I started really regretting having DH grab fastpasses for TSM because if he hadnt we would have been able to get one for RNRC. Plus, it didnt help that when I texted him about what had happened , he texted me back that we could have easily went through the stand-by line on Toy Story, that everyone was in the fastpass line.
We decided to meet up at the Sorcerer Hat since our fastpasses wouldnt be ready for a little while.
A look around
.
As Noah and I sat on the bench waiting for DH and Nick to find us, Noah spotted Goofy and Pluto being led out for a meet and greet. He immediately asked for his autograph book which actually surprised me since we have met them many, many times before. But, he was insistent because he hadnt gotten their autographs nor had a picture taken with them this trip. Pretty good logic if I do say so myself. So, we made our way over to wait in line. There were only a few other people in front of us so we didn't have long to wait. As it was just about ready to be our turn, I spotted DH and Nick making their way over and I motioned for Nick to join us. At first he resisted but then quickly changed his mind. After all, Goofy is his favorite character!
Soon
we were up!
I was sad that the sun seemed to block out Pluto a little bit in my picture. But, happy the photo pass pictures turned out better. Here are the pictures from the calendar I ordered from Disney.
Aww
it was great seeing Goofy and Pluto again. Okay
.maybe it wasnt such a bad thing that RNRC had a delayed opening. This go with the flow thing was starting to work for us.
Up Next- Watch out for the Alien and Visiting Oz
)
I really wish we would have though since we are storing them in a jar. I think I may end up checking ebay to see if I can get one.
Even still Disney is Disney so there are good times to be had...
Seriously
though it was really good.
