More Adventures in WDW: June, November and December Trip Reports

[jenseib]

I am so surpised that Disney chose Lotso for meet and greets too. He is definitely not the most loved character. I don't even know if my DD would go see him, because she though he was scary in the movie.

 

[meeko_33785]

I never noticed that area with the tribute to the animator's. Thanks for sharing that and I'll be sure and look for it next year.

Great pictures of the Lotso queue. I thought that area was adorable. We had a really good time with Lotso when we met him. He was a lot of fun (although I missed Dug )

I agree that Tangled should have been called Rapunzel but I read they were hoping by changing the name it would appeal more to boys Regardless of the name, I'm hoping it's a good movie

The animator's handprints are really easy to miss. They're just on your right a little ways before you go through the door. Hope you get to find them on your next trip.

Lotso was cute, but I have to agree that I miss Dug. I'm still hoping that he'll come back to the parks someday. I think that he'd made a fantastic living character like Remy or Crush- especially if he could talk.

My favorite thing about Lotso is his eyebrows! They are so cute.

I'm looking forward to Tangled, I have high hopes for it!

Hopefully Tangled lives up to the hype. None of the trailers and clips have gotten me that excitied about it, but it is a Disney fairy tale with Alan Menken songs so I'll probably like it once I see it.

I am so surpised that Disney chose Lotso for meet and greets too. He is definitely not the most loved character. I don't even know if my DD would go see him, because she though he was scary in the movie.

I have to say I've never seen any character get nearly as much hate from fans than Lotso. You'd never know it from the meet-and-greet though. Everyone who met him thought he was adorable. Not sure if that makes it sweet or creepy though since he's such a nasty, manipulative guy in the film.

 

[meeko_33785]

While I was still waiting on Buzz and Goofy to get back from the Tower of Terror, I spent some time looking around the little Art of Snow White gallery near the exit to the Animation Building. I had meant to check this out last time I was there, but I had to rush through it to get to an ADR and forgot about it.

Shortly after, Buzz and Goofy showed up. Buzz wanted to check out the Toy Story 3 exhibit so we spent a little time back there. Goofy didn’t seem too interested, so I suggested Buzz that we could come back to the Animation Building later in the day and do some more rides with Goofy now. I had intended to come back to the Animation Building to see the Incredibles characters since they didn't start making appearences until later in the day so it worked out. After discussing our options attraction-wise, we decided on the Studio Backlot Tour and headed in that direction.

One last look at the Magic of Disney Animation- complete with Lotso and Toy Story 3 posters and banners- for now.

It had been a number of years since Buzz and I did the Backlot Tour, and I had been meaning to go back. It seemed like a good choice for a first-timer like Goofy, plus the prospect of Catastrophe Canyon sounded like fun to him.

We only had to wait to be let into the next Water Effects presentation which was only 5 minutes or so. Part of me is still surprised that the Effects presentation at the beginning is still so heavily tied to Pearl Harbor since the film wasn’t exactly a hit, but since rumors keep going around that they’ll eventually just take out the whole tour and expand PIXAR Place into where it is now, I guess it would make sense why it wouldn’t get too much TLC.

Next, it was on to one of my favorite parts of the tour, the Prop Shop. I always like seeing the movie props here. There’s even a number of props from old part attractions here as well. Recognize the giant bunny? He had a “big” role in Honey I Blew Up the Baby.

I’m not sure if these were actually used in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit, but I’m pretty sure that they were a part of the former Roger Rabbit area where the Monsters Inc. meet-and-greet is now.

The main set here and the golden pigeon statue are from The Lottery, a short film staring Bette Midler that used to be shown on the tour years ago. Other props include a model of Mulan’s horse that was a part of the Hong Kong Disneyland preview center that was in EPCOT’s China pavilion, more Roger Rabbit props and a giant sneaker from Honey I Blew Up the Baby. I wish we could have spent more time in here checking out all of the many, many props here, but we had to keep up and follow the line to where we boarded our tram for the next part of the tour.

Once we were in the tram there were many more props and sets to see along the way, like Herbie here.

A plane from Pearl Harbor.

The Earful Tower.

A quick trip through costuming.

Walt Disney’s plane, N234MM (aka “Number 234 Mickey Mouse”). After passing the “Mickey Mouse”, our tram brought us into Catastrophe Canyon which added a little bit of thrill to the tour before returning to see more sets and props.

One of the stunt Herbies from the Lights, Motors Action show.

A look at the LMA set from the tram. It really does have some beautiful architecture.

A look of the New York street and skyline before the end of the tour.


The tour itself wasn’t too much different since the last time Buzz and I had been on it. The only real change was that the narration was no longer done by a live CM but was completely pre-recorded. This was ok, but I kind of missed having a live CM working there. All in all, it was fun to revisit the tour and get to see a bunch of movie props and sets, but it really doesn’t compare to what the tour used to be. Additional sets like the Residential Street, the larger boneyard of movie vehicles and getting a behind-the-scenes look at real films and TV shows in the making really made the attraction what it was. Goofy also said that he thought that it was interesting, but it wasn’t one of his favorite attractions for the day. By the time the ride was over, our Fastpasses for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster were ready so we skipped on the Villains exhibit at the Tour’s end and headed straight to Sunset Boulevard.



Next chapter: Will Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster be enough thrills for Goofy?

 

[Jennifer48]

I completely agree with you about the Prop Shop and the tour itself. I wish you could take more time in the Prop Shop but you don't want to hold up the line behind you. I remember the first time I went on the tour (2000) and they had the "houses" from Golden Girls and Adventures in Wonderland. I thought that was so cool! Now I don't even go on the ride anymore.

 

[dawnbu40]

Nice pictures! I too miss the original backlot tour. It felt more like a "movie studio" when the tram actually took you around.

 

[wdwgirl03]

OK that is strange about the family not letting their kid meet Lotso because he's a girl's color. You know we enjoyed meeting Lotso too.

I kind of agree about them changing the name for Tangled. But I think it looks like it could be fun. The animation looks awesome.

 

[meeko_33785]

I completely agree with you about the Prop Shop and the tour itself. I wish you could take more time in the Prop Shop but you don't want to hold up the line behind you. I remember the first time I went on the tour (2000) and they had the "houses" from Golden Girls and Adventures in Wonderland. I thought that was so cool! Now I don't even go on the ride anymore.

I still think the loss of Residential Street was such a shame. It made the tour so much better plus it was so perfect for the Osborne Lights. As cool as they are now, it was neat getting to walk down the street and see all the houses all covered in lights. Wish they had thought of a better place to put that stunt show.

Nice pictures! I too miss the original backlot tour. It felt more like a "movie studio" when the tram actually took you around.

Yeah, it really feels like it's just a theme park ride now. It's still ok, but it doesn't have anywhere near the same energy.

OK that is strange about the family not letting their kid meet Lotso because he's a girl's color. You know we enjoyed meeting Lotso too.

I kind of agree about them changing the name for Tangled. But I think it looks like it could be fun. The animation looks awesome.

That had to be the weirdest overheard comment of the trip. I still can't believe it.

The animation does look good. I want to be optimistic about it since it's getting good buzz from the media, but I'm still not sure based on what I've seen. Here's hoping that it turns out to be wonderful.

 

[jenseib]

I completely agree with you about the Prop Shop and the tour itself. I wish you could take more time in the Prop Shop but you don't want to hold up the line behind you. I remember the first time I went on the tour (2000) and they had the "houses" from Golden Girls and Adventures in Wonderland. I thought that was so cool! Now I don't even go on the ride anymore.

I remember the Golden Girls house too. I am no longer a fan of the Backlot tour either. Last time I rode it (2008) Catastrophe Canyon was not working, and they ended up detouring our tram. We got stuck on a big rock when they tried to make a turn out to the outer rim, and several guest got off and had to push the rock away. Then we rolled aroudn theouteer rim of the park and the CM was making up stuff as we went, like that was supposed to happen, but he cracked himself up. He said, "there's one of the parks popcorn carts" and then laughed and said "I'm really reaching for things to point out now". It was not a fun ride, but kind of funny at the same time. But my DD was sick back at the hotle with DH, and this was my one last ride before heading back to be with them, and it took forever. (and I wasn't a heartless mom leaving a sick DD, DH spend the morning at the park and I stayed with DD while she slept, and then when he came back, I went over for 2 hours. Several hours stuck in a room with a sick child is not too fun, BTW. LOL)

 

[meeko_33785]

I remember the Golden Girls house too. I am no longer a fan of the Backlot tour either. Last time I rode it (2008) Catastrophe Canyon was not working, and they ended up detouring our tram. We got stuck on a big rock when they tried to make a turn out to the outer rim, and several guest got off and had to push the rock away. Then we rolled aroudn theouteer rim of the park and the CM was making up stuff as we went, like that was supposed to happen, but he cracked himself up. He said, "there's one of the parks popcorn carts" and then laughed and said "I'm really reaching for things to point out now". It was not a fun ride, but kind of funny at the same time. But my DD was sick back at the hotle with DH, and this was my one last ride before heading back to be with them, and it took forever. (and I wasn't a heartless mom leaving a sick DD, DH spend the morning at the park and I stayed with DD while she slept, and then when he came back, I went over for 2 hours. Several hours stuck in a room with a sick child is not too fun, BTW. LOL)

What a terrible experience. I'm sure it was even worse being stuck and thinking about your sick DD back at the hotel.

 

[meeko_33785]

As some of you who have been reading this Trip Report from the beginning may recall, I had mentioned early on that we were looking into a family trip in October for the Food and Wine Festival. Well, October is almost over and, unfortunately, the trip never materialized. It proved to be a little too difficult to be able to synchronize all four of our schedules this month to be able to all get back to Disney, so we’ve decided to concentrate on a Family Christmas trip instead. We will probably get to work planning that in November once we all have time to do so.


Since we are not taking a trip in October, Buzz and I are also going to be looking into the possibility of either a day trip or a one-night trip to Disney sometime in November since we do still have one day left on the tickets that we bought for the June trip that we were planning on using fore the Food and Wine Festival. We’ll just have to wait and see if we have some free days in November to do that. If we can’t, we’ll just use it for one of our days at Christmas.


On a slightly off-topic note, Buzz and I recently went on our first trip to Universal Orlando. We didn’t make it over to Islands of Adventure to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (honestly, Buzz and I really never got into the books or the movies so we weren’t that interested in it), but we did spend a day at Universal Studios and had a blast. I’m considering writing up a trip report for our day at the park on the Universal Trip Report board, but I’ll probably post a few thoughts and photos over here sometime as well if anyone’s interested.


That’s about it for right now. I’ll be getting to work on the next chapter of the June trip report pretty soon.

 

[Jennifer48]

Please post some snipets of your Universal trip here. I really want to try to make it down to WWoHP at some point, maybe when the crowds die down.

Sorry to hear your October trip didn't happen but Christmas sounds fabulous!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Ohhh, a Christmas trip sounds awesome! I'm starting to get kind of depressed because originally we were going to go in December. Don't get me wrong, I am so glad my sisters and I went in August but I just love Disney around the holidays. Hope it all works out!

Yay for finally making it over to Universal but too bad you didn't make it to Harry Potter.

 

[dawnbu40]

A family Christmas trip sounds wonderful!

I hope you post about your visit to Universal! I'd like to hear your thoughts!

 

[meeko_33785]

Please post some snipets of your Universal trip here. I really want to try to make it down to WWoHP at some point, maybe when the crowds die down.

Sorry to hear your October trip didn't happen but Christmas sounds fabulous!

Alright then, I'll be sure to do some sort of mini trip report of our day at Universal then, maybe once I get the June report finished since I only a few chapters left.

I'm not too disappointed about missing out on October. It would have been just too difficult to try to make it happen, so I'm glad we'll just try and make our Christmas really wonderful.

Ohhh, a Christmas trip sounds awesome! I'm starting to get kind of depressed because originally we were going to go in December. Don't get me wrong, I am so glad my sisters and I went in August but I just love Disney around the holidays. Hope it all works out!

Yay for finally making it over to Universal but too bad you didn't make it to Harry Potter.

Thanks, I'm hoping it does too. Christmas at Disney is always a nice- so festive and so much less hot than the summertime.

I'm sure I'll get to Harry Potter one of these days- hopefully pretty soon if I can manage it.

A family Christmas trip sounds wonderful!

I hope you post about your visit to Universal! I'd like to hear your thoughts!

Yes it does. I can't wait.

I'm pretty sure that I will be doing some sort of post about Universal then. Glad to know that you all are interested.

 

[jenseib]

I would love to hear about Universal as well.

 

[meeko_33785]

I would love to hear about Universal as well.

Awesome. I'll be sure to get something up about Universal once I can finish up the June TR. Only three chapters to go until it's (finally) done.

 

[meeko_33785]

After the Backlot Tour, Buzz, Goofy and I quickly made our way to Sunset Boulevard. We were ready to finally hit the Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.

As we made our way to the FastPass entrance, Goofy noticed that there was a Single Riders line and said that he might have to give it a try later. As usual, we didn’t have too bad of a wait at all with FastPass and were making our way into the pre-show with Aerosmith in no time. I’m not sure exactly what Goofy was expecting about the attraction. I think that he thought it would be a little lighter on the thrills like Space Mountain. We tried to explain to him that this one was more intense, but I’m not sure he believed us completely until he saw the limos take off at the first hill. I thought the ride was fantastic. It’s such a great thrill and I love all the theming and sets that give the ride an extra punch. After the ride, I asked Goofy what he thought of it, and he said he wasn’t sure and would have to go on it again. He went ahead and got in the Single Riders line to give it another go while Buzz and I headed back to the Magic of Disney Animation.

I think all of Disney’s themed weather vanes have started to become another of my favorite photo opertunities in the parks.

Sorcerer Mickey watching the crowds.

While Buzz wanted to explore the Toy Story 3 gallery some more, my main goal for this trip to the Animation building was to find Mr. Incredible and Frozone since I have never been able to get a photo of the two of them doing meet-and-greets together. When I got there Mr. and Mrs. Incredible were out, so I waited around until Mrs. Incredible switched out with Frozone.

Toy Story 3! I asked Buzz if he was interested in meeting Lotso since he had a short line, but he seemed hesitant since he hadn’t seen the movie yet. He already knew that there was something shifty about that bear.

After a little while, Mrs. Incredible went on a break and Frozone Mr. Incredible came back out. These two were a bunch of fun, being wise guys and doing their best superhero poses- even getting me into the act. I’m not sure I’d make nearly as good of a superhero as them, though.

After the Animation building, Buzz and I headed over to see One Man’s Dream. While we were there, we got a call from Goofy that said that he wanted to ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster a few more times and that afterwards, we could meet up and do something else. Sounded like the ride really was a hit with Goofy, just like I knew that it would be.

Walt’s miniature replica of Granny’s Cabin from the film So Dear To My Heart. I just managed to see this movie for the first time within the last year, so it was neat to be able to see the miniature cabin again to compare it to the version from the movie.

Walt himself. We decided to skip the movie and just headed back towards Sunset Boulevard to meet up with Goofy when he was done.

On the way, we ran into a few of the Citizens of Hollywood and watched them do some of their Schick. Movie Star Victoria Throckmorton spotted my camera in the crowd and posed for a picture.

After the previous shot was taken she asked “Did you get the hat?” I hesitated for a moment and without missing a beat she shrieked “Get the hat!!!!” I tried my best to try and get as much of it as I good into the shot to appease her. That feather seemed to go on forever!

Melvin Macheezmo, one of the Citizens presiding over the opening ceremonies earlier that day, was assisting Ms. Throckmorton address her adoring public.

At one point, Melvin displeased her, and as punishment he made him lie on the hot pavement.

These two really knew how to work a crowd.

I’ve been trying to get this shot for a while, and somehow I cannot get it to look as good as I would like. This is my best take on it so far though, I think. After I got the shot, I moved on to Sunset Boulevard where Buzz and I stumbled on some more of the Citizens of Hollywood.


Next chapter: Movie stars, Muppets and Singin’ in the Rain

 

[Dr_Finkelstein]

Hi Meeko!

All back now and finally getting caught up! Great photos as always - sounds like a fun day so far!

Shame about the fireworks getting rained off the day before, but at least you had seen them already.

Can't believe parent's wouldn't want their son to meet Lotso cause he was pink! My 2 couldn't wait to meet him - though they had seen the movie, and he did try and play up a bit to his reputation, but in a fun way! lol!

Di x

PS, my trippie is started, the link is in my siggie, so if you get a chance you could take a wee look.

 

[meeko_33785]

Hi Meeko!

All back now and finally getting caught up! Great photos as always - sounds like a fun day so far!

Shame about the fireworks getting rained off the day before, but at least you had seen them already.

Can't believe parent's wouldn't want their son to meet Lotso cause he was pink! My 2 couldn't wait to meet him - though they had seen the movie, and he did try and play up a bit to his reputation, but in a fun way! lol!

Di x

PS, my trippie is started, the link is in my siggie, so if you get a chance you could take a wee look.

Hi! Welcome back! I've been looking for your TR since I knew you must have been back by now, but I haven't been on the DIS much lately and must hav missed the beginning. I'll be sure to check it out.

 

[Jennifer48]

Disney weathervanes, great idea! I liked LL's idea about light fixtures, now I'm going to have to look for weathervanes!

I love the streetmosphere at DHS! Its my fave!