Day 2, Part 2.
Hollywood Studios is my least favorite park. The end.
Hah, kidding! It's not the end, but it is my least favorite park, which is odd because it has my two favorite rides. Anyway, where do I begin with DHS? It was never a huge favorite to begin with. It's got a strange feel to it, it seems more cluttered than planned out, and it's a little on the bland side. And this is all before they shut down half the park. If I were a vacationer with non-park hopping passes and I used one of my days for DHS, I think I'd be really annoyed. This is a park with great potential that's currently stuck in the unfortunate transition phase. Still, I intended to stay at this park beyond my typical one to two hour visit of previous trips. I was going to grab this park by the neck and squeeze the ever living value right out of it.
But first, a problem that presented itself at DHS and continued for the rest of my stay at Disney: "Random" security searches. I'm leaving that random in quotations, because I'm not sure the fine security folks at Disney know what the word happens to mean. This was the first time I've experienced these things. On all previous trips, these searches were non-existent. For those not in the know, there are some new fancy areas at the no-bag screening where a "random" security search can take place. They pull you aside, have you empty your pockets, walk through a metal detector, and then wave the magic wand that doesn't grant wishes around your body and then move you along. This isn't security. I'm sorry, it just isn't. The wand would randomly beep around my shirt or my shirts, but no further follow-up took place. So, (completely) in theory, I could still have had a weapon or some kind of device but would have been waved through regardless. Again, this is NOT security. This is the illusion of security. They pull aside people and do this half-baked search in view of everyone else so they can maintain the illusion of safety while having a minimum impact on moving people through the gates. Can you tell I'm frustrated by this? I'm frustrated by this. See, if it was just once or even twice, I could pass this off as a random event and I wouldn't have even thought about the further implications. The problem is, this happened EVERY time I entered a park after this. It didn't matter what park, nor if I was re-entering, or what time of day. I was pulled aside for a "random" screening every time with the same results. Empty your pockets. Step through the metal detector. Step on the mat so they can wand you. Beep, beep. No follow up on the beeps. Thank you for participating in our "random" screening. I have some very un-Disney words for this process. It would eventually alter my plans. But that's for later.
Back to non-frustrating things.
I had fast passes selected for my two favorite rides: Tower of Terror, and Rock N' Rollercoaster. The question became how to fill the other time. I was early for my fast passes, so I started exploring. It was time to try new things.
How about a show? Getting into the Beauty and the Beast show was easy enough. Seats were fairly simple to come by. It was a nice, shaded area (yay!), and I got to see something I probably would have avoided otherwise.
I don't know if the performers are singing or lip syncing along to a soundtrack, but whoever was singing for Belle had a very slight accent that almost sounded north eastern, but only on certain parts of certain words. I could feel the accent like a tingle in the back of my head. She also had a very nasally singing voice that was almost jarring when compared to the talking voice. Or, I'm just a weirdo who notices these things for no apparent reason.
This was the first Gaston to actually look the part, and not just be a quasi-athletic dude wearing a muscle suit. Good on you, my friend, for fitting into the roll. It's much easier to buy into this guy being a pompous, arrogant, meat head when he's not wearing fake muscles. It worked.
Very colorful, and quite entertaining. The legs on Cogsworth were goofy looking and mesmorizing. I don't know why that stood out.
It was a more entertaining show than I had expected. I think I've seen Beauty and the Beast twice, once upon release, and maybe once again a few years later, but the songs and the story were easily familiar and recognizable, and the performances were quite good. It's definitely a good way to spend some time in the park and slip into a little shade as well.
The time for fun was now, though. As you can see, stand by times were in the ridiculous range. Thankfully, I had a Fast Pass specifically for this ride. It's a good one, and a definite can't miss for me.
I'm in there somewhere, right behind Flat Stanley it looks like. I love this ride. It's got a great build up with all of the Twilight Zone visuals, and it's just an overall fun time. I'd ride it multiple times a day if the wait times weren't so long.
After finishing the Tower of Terror, I still had about an hour to kill until Rock N Roller Coaster. So, time to do a little walking. Maybe there was a nugget of something interesting tucked away in the rest of the park to take some time. Perhaps a new, hidden gem.
There was this whole thing, which I kind of breezed by. Character meets are fun, but I don't really get the same mental charge out of the idea of a Star Wars meet and greet. Which, quite honestly, is a little odd in retrospect. I have familiarity with most Disney movies, but it's kind of a basic recognition of stuff. I know my Star Wars. I've seen each movie (awful prequels included) many, many, many multiple times. It should be an obvious choice to do a character meet, but it's not appealing.
Anyway, after more walking and finding more dead ends of areas closed down for future construction, it was time to rock. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, this would be that much better without Aerosmith. Regardless, this coaster is awesome. It's fast, it's fun, it does a loop, it's visually interesting even though part of it takes place in the dark. It's a solid rollercoaster experience. I wish it was a little longer and a little loopier, but I'll still ride it every time. It's just too good to pass on. The single rider line makes it pretty easy to hop back on fairly quickly too, so bonus points there.
With my two rides out of the way, the habitual urge to leave the park started to kick in, but I still wanted to try and get a little more park time in. How about another show?
Expectations on this one? Hmmm to meh.
Reality of the show? Fun! There were a lot of really cool visual elements, a blend of live action, puppetry, and animation, and a condensed version of the story that made it familiar but fun over the course of about twenty minutes. Sure, they cut out some of the fun songs, but it works in the end. I have yet to see an Ariel that actually looks even remotely close to Ariel though.
With that done and a bit more walking, my time at DHS came to a close. It's still not a favorite, but I have a bit more respect for it after trying out some of the things I normally would have passed on. I'm looking forward to the Star Wars expansion because I'm a Star Wars guy, but until then, it's still a bit lacking. Maybe the future will change that.
On to dinner...
