Chapter 4 - Disney! Disney! Disney!
August 8, 2008
Loading up the car now!!
Oh, and Happy Eight Day! "
Say 8! Say 8!"
7:35am - On I-4! Woo hoo!
Question...why do people slow down *below* the speed limit when they see a cop?

Idiots.
9:00am(ish) - We're here!!
Disney's Hollywood Studios!
9:20am(ish) - We're
in line for Toy Story Mania! I got our FastPasses to use later. FastPass return times are already out to 5:30pm!
9:32am - About
halfway through the Toy Story Mania line. I love the
theming of this and the music is incredible. I *have* to get this ride audio! Be sure to take note of
Scary Head Girl (on the Tinkertoy container).
Mr. Potato Head is way cool but watch out for
monkeys! Oh, and check out how "
employee only" areas are labeled "
Andy's Toys Only"
10:35am -
145,800 on Toy Story Mania...1st try! (And a respectable score for Hannah, too.) I *love* this ride!!

Blows Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin away. And
I look incredibly cool on it, too.
We make our way down to
Rock n Roller Coaster/Tower of Terror corner and collect FastPasses for ToT. We start thinking about lunch and this is where my lack of preparation kicked in. I didn't really research Counter Service dining in DHS (other than knowing where Pizza Planet is and the pizza there is not that good). Sooo...I whip out the trusty cell phone and call up Disney Dining (yes, have that saved as a contact!) and the earliest ADR for 50s Prime Time Cafe is 2:40pm and nothing available for Sci-Fi Drive-In. Bummer. But, then the CM says she can get 2 tables for 2 at 11:05am. Ok, that's fine, because we're hungry and if we get there early enough, just maybe.... After lunch we'll go see Voyage of the Little Mermaid and then Muppet 3D!
We kill some time in shops along the way. Hannah spies some
Camp Rock gear (gee, what a surprise!) We get to 50s Prime Time and there's a huge line and for a split second I'm thinking, Hunh? What the... all that for some lunch? Then I quickly realize it's for the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. he he
We go inside and
wait in the living room until our name is called. And, sure enough, getting there early we get
a table for 4. Excellente! Uncle Tim serves us and reprimands us all to wash our hands (and later gets on me for slurping my root beer float)
After we finish our meal and head for VotLM, we see it's *pouring* rain. Great. We wait for a let up and work our way from awning to awning toward VotLM. As we're standing in the pre-ride area, I notice my leg is really starting to act up and I begin to wonder if I did more than wrench my back bowling the other night. There's now a tingling feeling in my feet. Oh brother. Then the doors open and we make our way to our seats and I get to sit next to my kiddo and watch her enjoy the magic for the first time

Next time, though, I think we'll sit further back...the first few rows are too close to the stage and you have to look up a bit too much.
I head down to RnRC/ToT corner and get FPs for RnRC and then head back to the girls and we go for the
Great Movie Ride. We get to see all the movie trailers at least twice,
Casablanca being my favorite. I think our favorite part this time was the
Wizard of Oz scene, because we'd just seen it a month or so ago at the Louisville Palace.
We stop for a restroom break and get some popcorn and I sit and rest my leg a bit while some High School Musical show goes on behind us at the Sorcerer's Hat. The crowd doesn't seem to be very big to watch the show but it is rather hot and humid.
Next it was to a visit to Muppet Labs to experience their new
MuppetVision 3D! We missed just about the entire pre-show so we'll have to come back later and try again. It's just as good as the show itself!
2:45pm - In line for Star Tours to kill time before RnRC and ToT. Been HAVNFN all day even with that 5 min downpour after lunch and my gimpy leg.
Oh sweet...we got some pixie dust while in line! A CM let us into the FastPass line...saved us some Star Tours agony. That ride really needs to be updated (or replaced) but the French family next to us enjoyed it.
3:45pm - I'm the Wait Time Guy for ToT!!

Meaning I'm wearing a card badge so Disney can monitor wait times for ToT. Should I jump into the FastPass line and freak them out? lol.
4:37pm - Wait time = 38min. Annoyance factor from some spanish-speaking little ***** who screamed like &#$@#$^* idiots the whole ride? Off the scale. I feel bad for kiddo and her friend soooo....
We're off to ride it again with our FPs (oh, *expired* FPs no less. ha ha ha ha!) Ah..not a problem. CM was even saying 4:35 or earlier..."expired" FPs are not a concern.
Yes, 2nd time around was *much* better! We even had a Bellman we had from our trip two years ago. He was quite recognizable. A rather morose fellow who encouraged us that if we needed anything, to just simply....scream!
5:24pm - RnRC was a smash hit! Take note that the queuing has changed since 2006. FP line enters the building on the side and bypasses the themed pre-ride area. That kind of stinks because I enjoyed seeing the old(er) musical equipment while walking through the line. I think there's a Single Rider entrance next to the FP entrance. Waiting a few min to get more FPs for RnRC then off to TSM FP line!
I love how my eyes water every time I ride RnRC (everyone made the same comment. lol) And I always seem to get hungry for a Donut....
6:22pm -
165,000 on my 2nd try on Toy Story Mania! Kiddo got 108,900. woo hoo. But it has gotten muggy...m-u-g-g-y!
6:52pm - What better way to be HAVNFN than by...
Singin' in the Rain!
This is one of those neat things to know about because a gazillion people walk by that umbrella every day and 99.999% wouldn't give it a second look. But all it takes is some goofball Disney nut, you know...like me! ... to do something like that and soon enough there's a line of 20 people waiting to do the same thing!
And even though it's not a little house in Magic Kingdom (one of her few memories of Disney from when she was 3 was playing around some little houses in the MK where Mickey's Toontown is now),
Missy got such a kick out of these houses.
7:27pm - Just saw Muppet3D again and caught most of the pre-show this time!. It stormed while we were in there and cleared up as we came out. Bonus!
8:48pm - Just survived Tower of Terror again (just want to add in again that Disney just does a world-class job at theming its attractions.
Take this lamp at the Tower of Terror, for example...well, wish I could! ha ha) and now we're in FP line for Rock n Roller Coaster but, uh, looks to be about 15-20 min for this! Fantasmic isn't pulling crowds off the lines like I thought...maybe because there's a 2nd show tonight. It's all good.
9:17pm - Hannah's psyched. She got to sit in the same seat on Rock n Roller Coaster as Kevin Jonas (first row, left side) ugh...lol
We walked around some shops for a bit and then headed out of the park before the first Fantasmic show let out. Was a very busy and HAVNFN-filled day!
10:25pm - And that's a wrap! Just checked into the hotel and going to lay back on the king-sized bed and go 'Ahhhhhhhh'
Oh, need to send the girls down for their little surprise... he he. timmy ROCKS!
P.S. Sorry for any rotated-left pics...haven't been able to edit them on Photobucket yet...a limitation of the resolution of my HDTV (yes, I need a new 1080p TV but Disney matters more now. ha ha ha!)
P.P.S. OH! Forgot to mention something else we saw. At one point, a guy was pushing a stroller down the street and a "cop" stopped him and made him push the stroller thru a series of cones down the yellow centerline. The guy barely clipped one of the cones (and everyone around was

) and the "cop" made out like he was going to give the guy a citation but let him off with a warning.
I

Disney!!