DAY 15 - 26TH DECEMBER - HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
There is nothing better waking up and realising you are still at Disney World and are not even half way through your holiday. How can we follow up Christmas Day, which was still imprinted in the memory banks. Today was supposed to be another day off, but by early morning we kinda looked at each other and thought hey we are Annual Pass Holders, we can come and go as we please. We had done 3 of the parks already and the one we were really looking forward to was Hollywood Studios. It was all about the STAR WARS, and we are Star Wars crazy.
It was a humid overcast day, and was most likely to rain at some point. We hopped on the Pop Bus and arrived just after lunch to check out the park and get a feel for it. There was no real agenda today, just a casual walk around to soak it all up.
It was not that crowded, so far the crowd size had been no problems. After taking this picture we went straight into the shop on the right to see what Star Wars goodies could be found. Plenty of good things for the girls but the guys was a bit of a let down. Pretty average clothing, and most of it was for Rogue One, which we had not seen yet , and I did not want to buy things in case the movie was bad. (Turns out we did see it and did not like it at all.)
We headed back towards the main stage in front of the Chinese Theatre. One of the Star Wars shows was on. We had a quick glimpse but we were holding out on this one. We were waiting for the Guided Tour to start selling tickets and would see it all then. India wanted to watch the show but we explained we would have a better view on the tour and she understood and was excited about the tour.
Onward's and to the left we headed down past Jedi Training and off for a quick look in Tatooine Traders. Oh so much goodies to look at. Uh Oh i thought, we are in trouble, my little child brain saying oh i want that and that and oh how are we going to get this all home. Hmmmmm lets get out of here to stop the impulse buying.
So let's head over to Launch Bay for more impulse buying haha.
So we entered a line which we thought was Launch Bay but turns out it was for the Star Wars Theatre show. Woops lets walk out of this one, so back through the line. Noticed this piece of gold walking out. The Revenge of the Jedi poster. Nerd out time...... Yes it was originally called Revenge of the Jedi, posters and a movie trailer was made with this title. A little later George thought hang on, revenge is not in a Jedi's vocabulary so better change it ... to Return.
End of nerd.... sorry.
So we finally walked into Launch Bay, and the knees went weak and my eyes did not know where to look. Where do I look, what oh dear take a breath.
Hmmm yes, taking mental notes in my brain. Oversized figure, check..... come back for it. Oh dear how will i get it home. Ahh worry about it later.
They alot of things we already had back home, then we found the name tags you could purchase, and well hell yes we want 3 please.
Select your tag design and your name, which can be written in the Star Wars Language.
Oh this was awesome, a big man child in heaven. We were all in heaven.
With our tags done it was time to attach them to our bags and tops. Once again we were asked where we got our bags from and once again I was sad to tell them sorry you cant get the stormtrooper bag here, that was from back home in Australia.
Off we went back against the crowd to explore more of Launch Bay, from the Art work to the props etc. Then more magic was found with the little Cantina, with a few Jawa walking around.
They were getting mobbed the poor little fellas. We stood back and looked around a little bit more. About to walk off all of a sudden a Jawa started to approach us at light speed. I quickly shouted out Utinni, and the response was gold.
The little fella scared India a bit, was very funny. Then the fun began. India took a few pics and had lots of hugs. We had nothing to trade but said we would be back again with some goodies. It was then the Jawa was more interested in something else hanging off the back of Bec. She turned around and off with the bag the Jawa went. He had taken her BB8 backpack to show the other Jawa and then finally came back.
There were lots of laughs, and he didn't want to give it back. I think he held on to it for a good 5 minutes. Seeing as he liked the bag so much I showed him my Stormtrooper backpack, and this next pic was the response.
He ducked down with fear and was shaking his head. Wooops I forgot they did not like The Empire. This was a great character experience that was pretty random and unplanned. A good 10 minutes had gone and he was still interacting with us.
Even when we made our way to check out the bar, guess who showed up about 1 minute later.
Yes back again to entertain us once more. I asked do you come here often, nice place. Plenty of nods and hugs again for everyone. Truly what a great day this was turning out to be. It was time to say goodbye but we knew we were coming back here many more times.
All the time we had spent in Launch Bay we had missed the rain. It was a little wet outside but still very warm. We made our way down towards Tower of Terror, along the way we had to of course pick up the Tie Fighter Popcorn Bucket, mmmmm popcorn goodness in a TIE FIGHTER, AWESOME.
After a quick look around down this end of the park it started to get a little more wet.
Nothing a good old cheap Poncho can fix. We had brought along about 20 from home and this was the first time on the trip they had came out. Well it was only India as it wasn't raining that hard but it didn't look like it was going to stop.
The Tower of Terror looked pretty cool, although yes this was a ride Daddy was not going on. Bec would be riding this Solo another day. For now we had spent a fair bit of time looking around. Some great little shops in Hollywood Studios but we will get to that later. Back to the bus stop in the rain for the short trip back to Pop Century.
The Star Wars Fireworks could be seen from Pop Century every night. It was hard to not look at it all the time as we Bec and I didn't want to spoil the show for when we saw it. Made for some great pictures though. Nothing better than finishing the day off with some magical colour in the sky.
. Santa came to Pop Century with some goodies, mostly for India. A new camera, woo , now she could snap away with her own little camera. I will post a few of her pics , she takes very good pictures for a 7 yr old.
