Day 3 – Hollywood Studios
Monday May 16th
Slept a little later than normal, and watched the space shuttle launch on tv. Had decided against heading out to Titusville as local news had reported over 500,000 people expecting to do the same!
Spent the morning resting around the villa, swimming and playing in the games room, including a few snacks at lunchtime.
About to do a back flip into the pool
After lunch headed to Studios and as we had heard Star Tours was running we grabbed some fastpasses for the early evening.
Headed to Beauty and the Beast show and got some really decent seats for a chance, centre and 3 rows back. Emma spellbound with the theatrics of all it – am sure this girl is going to be an actress or similar.
Ready for the show
After the show we went to watch Disney Rocks in front of the sorcerer’s hat. Lots of energy, but most of the numbers went over my head. At least with High School Musical I’d heard many of them a dozen or more times with Emma playing the movies over and over again. Still, seemed to entertain the younger kids in the audience, so I guess it’s meeting the need for this kind of thing.
Time for ice cream next – massive waffle cones that seemed to melt like crazy as soon as they came into contact with a hint of sunlight…all we could do to eat it before it was no longer recognizable as ice cream.
All cleaned up we went to American Idol. Shouldn’t love this, but I do…it’s really well produced, and many of the people who volunteer can actually sing ok. 2 out of 3 in this show could anyway…the other guy, well…back to singing in the shower. The winner was fairly clear – 14 year old girl called Jasmine who had a great voice – the crowd favourite by a mile, too.
After Idol we went to Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground for the children to climb, run around and let off steam…which they did to great effect. Really great place with lots of detail that it’s easy to miss.
Finally, time for FPs for Star Tours. Wow…just wow. So much better than the original in every way. Queuing area was a bit of a blur with the FPs but everything about the ride itself is much better quality – the C-3PO animatronic, the animation, and even the motion seemed less jerky. Apparently there are multiple sequences for the ride…we’ll have to confirm that later in the trip. No pictures as it’s still officially a pre-open at the moment, but we’ll definitely get some more later in the holiday.
Left Studios and headed to Red Lobster for dinner. Got talking to server who turned out to be Star Wars geek and had done the ride 9 times a couple of days before!
Lovely meal with more shrimp than I could count, and good value for about $50 + tip. After this we went to play mini golf at Winter Summerland near Blizzard Beach…which Helen won thanks to a couple of stunning hole-in-1 shots. Back home after and straight to bed for all…nice full day.
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom
Setting the Scene and Index
Monday May 16th
Slept a little later than normal, and watched the space shuttle launch on tv. Had decided against heading out to Titusville as local news had reported over 500,000 people expecting to do the same!
Spent the morning resting around the villa, swimming and playing in the games room, including a few snacks at lunchtime.
About to do a back flip into the pool
After lunch headed to Studios and as we had heard Star Tours was running we grabbed some fastpasses for the early evening.
Headed to Beauty and the Beast show and got some really decent seats for a chance, centre and 3 rows back. Emma spellbound with the theatrics of all it – am sure this girl is going to be an actress or similar.
Ready for the show
After the show we went to watch Disney Rocks in front of the sorcerer’s hat. Lots of energy, but most of the numbers went over my head. At least with High School Musical I’d heard many of them a dozen or more times with Emma playing the movies over and over again. Still, seemed to entertain the younger kids in the audience, so I guess it’s meeting the need for this kind of thing.
Time for ice cream next – massive waffle cones that seemed to melt like crazy as soon as they came into contact with a hint of sunlight…all we could do to eat it before it was no longer recognizable as ice cream.
All cleaned up we went to American Idol. Shouldn’t love this, but I do…it’s really well produced, and many of the people who volunteer can actually sing ok. 2 out of 3 in this show could anyway…the other guy, well…back to singing in the shower. The winner was fairly clear – 14 year old girl called Jasmine who had a great voice – the crowd favourite by a mile, too.
After Idol we went to Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground for the children to climb, run around and let off steam…which they did to great effect. Really great place with lots of detail that it’s easy to miss.
Finally, time for FPs for Star Tours. Wow…just wow. So much better than the original in every way. Queuing area was a bit of a blur with the FPs but everything about the ride itself is much better quality – the C-3PO animatronic, the animation, and even the motion seemed less jerky. Apparently there are multiple sequences for the ride…we’ll have to confirm that later in the trip. No pictures as it’s still officially a pre-open at the moment, but we’ll definitely get some more later in the holiday.
Left Studios and headed to Red Lobster for dinner. Got talking to server who turned out to be Star Wars geek and had done the ride 9 times a couple of days before!
Lovely meal with more shrimp than I could count, and good value for about $50 + tip. After this we went to play mini golf at Winter Summerland near Blizzard Beach…which Helen won thanks to a couple of stunning hole-in-1 shots. Back home after and straight to bed for all…nice full day.
Day 4 - Magic Kingdom
Setting the Scene and Index
