Greetings all!
Today we went to:
Yup, that's right. The newly monikkered Disney's Hollywood Studios!
Whilst we waited for a bus at CBR we demonstrated which building we were in:
Once again we were in plenty of time for rope drop. We queued up waiting for the crowd to yell 'Lights, Camera, Action!'
And off we went! The crowd surged up towards the back of the park. Thousands of people - one mind. To get to Toy Story Midway Mania. Cast Members shepherded the crowd in one direction - it was all very well organised. By the time we got to Toy Story the fastpass machines were going crazy - each machine had a really long queue.
We bypassed this and headed to the ride itself:
The standby wait time said 30 mins, but in truth we only queued for about 20 minutes. The queue was fast moving and the theming was such fun we didn't really mind:
The ride was such fun - kind of like Buzz Lightyear with 3D glasses and a pop gun. I scred 64,000 but of course Simon was the winner with over 100,000! We all really enjoyed it but we agreed that we wouldn't queue 2 hours to go on it!
Then Si and Kate went off to do scary things. Sarah and I went on the Great Movie Ride. She never got onto it in 2006 so she was looking forward to it. I think she really enjoyed it - I did too! Last time I'd had the gangster hitchiker but this time it was the Western version - a woman too! I love this ride anyway - it's all about films!
We had half an hour to spare before meeting the others so we decided to go and see The Little Mermaid. Now, this was risky for us - we'd seen it in 2006 when our Ariel seemed decidedly......bored.
This show was much better - and lots more fun! Ariel had a great singing voice and we really enjoyed it!
After that it was time to meet Kate and Simon under the sorcerers hat. While we were waiting Donald Duck appeared! We jumped straight in the queue to meet him:
What a gentleman! Soon the others appeared. Kate had met her own Prince Charming:
And Simon had met up with Wall-E:
Then it was time for Star Tours! Another Fave ride of ours - you might say Simon quite likes it!! With only a five minute ride we were very happy! We've done Star Tours so many times and we all still love it soooo much!
Of course, after the ride - comes the shop:
While Simon felt his wallet twitching, the girls managed to find some silly headgear! I bought a little baby Ewok to go with the big Ewok I bought last time! The big Ewok is called Chubb-Chubb. The little Ewok is called Baby Chubb-Chubb! Imaginative eh? Simon bought himself a beautiful limited edition Star Wars watch.
We headed towards Muppetvision 3D but our ears caught the sound of a rock group.
They were called Mulch, Sweat and Shears and were obviously supposed to be gardeners! They were well rocking! Of course, Sarah thought they were great and was bopping along. Once again, this caught the attention of the singer who came over to see the girls:
Not only this, they were invited to play some 'air guitar' with the band. The singers gave them blow up guitars and they all rocked out to Aerosmith. Sarah was in seventh heaven:
Afterwards, they were allowed to keep their guitars! How great is that? The singer said to them - 'You're so polite - you're not from America - right?'
Both the girls were thrilled with their daily dose of magic!
We finally got to see the Muppets - this was as good as I remembered! Sarah bought herself a Beaker T-shirt in the shop afterwards.
Do you know - there is a distinct lack of Peter Pan merchandise in Walt Disney World? We do. How, you ask? Because we searched every blinking shop in WDW for something PP for Sarah's friend. There was slim pickings. Tinkerbell you find in abundance but not the boy who wouldn't grow up. We actually found this in The Muppets Shop:
This was almost the sum total of PP merchandise in WDW. Sarah was almost so incensed that she wanted to write an angry letter. Almost.
I met a friendly snowman:
Soon it was time for our ADR at the Sci-fi Dine in Theater. This was great! We all had a lot of fun watching the clips and the food was delicious. It was a quiet haven from the bustling park:
We ate very well. Too well.
After lunch we stumbled across a Toy Story character spot. Well, with Sarah's obsession with Buzz we couldn't pass this up. There were lots of scenes to pose in on the way to meet the characters. A chance to look silly - Kate and Sarah were there!:
We finally met the big guys. Oh look! Revenge on Kate for her bunny ears on Test Track!
After this, us girls decided that we couldn't hack the pace so we went back to CBR for a break. Simon was more manly and decided to stay in the park and shop!
Back at CBR housekeeping was in our room so we lazed on a hammock for a bit - comfy bliss! Kate and I went for a swim later then we jumped on a bus and headed back to DHS.
We were there early so we had a wander through a few shops and then met Simon under the hat. He was weighed down by shopping bags so I guess he'd had a good afternoon!
Off we headed to Fantasmic - my first experience of this! We had about a 40 minutes wait and the theatre go sooo busy. But it was worth it! It was so exciting with all the characters and fireworks and projections!
It was very busy getting out of the studios but we didn't have to wait too long for a bus. Back at CBR Simon and I went to OPR for takeaway pizza.
I had to wait for Simon to move all his many purchases before I could get into bed!
Here's a DHS shot to leave you with. Don't have nightmares:
Coming up: A lazy day and the Return to the California Grill - Oh yes!
but it's part insomnia and part the fact that I work with guys who are overseas and I have to be awake to be at their beck and call...
My sister has motion sickness but can handle Soarin' and Test track! Love Epcot.
and this
Toy story was crazy! A good fun ride but not worth all the madness! We were glad we did it though! 
) as in 2006! It was a wonderful evening and we were in the more private Wine Room. Of course, we ended the evening watching Wishes from the viewing platform.
Just caught up...TWO bits to read. Lovely the both of them.
California Grill so much. The first time Si and I went there I couldn't believe how amazing it was and how brilliant the staff were. O'hana for dinner is definitely on our list for next time - and we'd probably do breakfast there again.
