Hello. I am back..ready to start Day 6...
It did not start out a good day. As soon as I woke up I felt the dread of a cold starting to storm its way into my system. I was hoping that it was just some allergies but I could tell from how it felt that this was more than that. Ugh, this happens too frequently on these trips. The plethora of germs freely available for the taking at Disney combined with constantly moving between 90+ degree heat and blasting AC might have something to do with it. Anyway, there is nothing to do but to forge ahead. Today is our Disney Hollywood Studios day. If not for the fact that I had seen too many horror stories of Toy Story Midway Mania outrageous wait times and Fast Passes running out before noon we may have taken our time to get there. I didn't want to rush to get anyone up early because we had 7:50 PM Dinner reservations at Narcossee's where I planned to also watch wishes while eating and I didn't want everyone to run out of steam by then. As it turns out my wife and kids were ready to go on their own somewhat early (for us) and we made it to the park only 10 minutes after opening. Even though the initial surge of people would already be there at TSMM we headed there first. I figured we would grab a FP and come back later. When we go there though there was a big line of people at the FP machines but the standby line was only 20 minutes. Good deal, we jumped on the standby line and figured we would grab FP on the way out.
I am glad we hit the standby line at least once because if you only go through the FP line you will miss out on a lot of the theming they have set up in the queuing area for the ride including the piece de resistance, Mr Potato Head.
He is quite impressive for pre-ride entertainment purposes. You should see him at least once if you can avoid a horrific wait time on the standby line. I took other pictures of the waiting area and though none of them really reach out and grab me I will post some to give you an idea of what it looks like.
This was our first experience at TSMM but I was ready to do battle. I had downloaded the game on my iphone a few weeks before the trip and I was prepared to score some big points (or so I thought). As it turns out the iphone app is not quite the ultimate training tool for this ride that I had hoped. My wife pasted me. I still thought it was a great ride and had to admit that it is better than Buzz since that is the obvious comparison. When we got out, the FP line had died down so I immediately went over and got FP. The return time was before 1PM, not bad. The standby line wait time was now 40 min. My wife wanted to go around again. Beating me brings so much joy to her life. OK, sure I we can. I would love to redeem myself and serve up a little revenge. That first attempt was just a practice round to warm up. Now it's "go time". When we got in the line it was actually not any longer than our first go around on this so the 40 min posted was actually less than that. Got to love it when that happens. We also had some extra entertainment this time around in line. Mr Potato Head was playing around and he took his ear out and in the process of returning it missed the hole and it dropped to the floor. It's all fun and games until someone loses and ear. Here is a pic Mr Head missing his appendage.
Eventually a CM came to perform the operation to re-attach the ear. I was worried because the ear was not on ice and you never know if these things will take but the operation was a complete success. The CM got a well deserved round of applause and all was right with Mr Potato Head once more.
When we eventually made it around the second time I was again trounced by my wife. What's going on here? This is not supposed to happen. She is scoring 140-150K and I am well below at a paltry 110-115K. I was pulling that string back at a mad pace too. I think I need a new strategy on this.
After my wife was done showing me who is boss we were not sure what to do next. We were near the backlot tour so we decided to give it a go. We have been through this attraction before on a previous trip but not in the past couple trips. We went though the opening act and I came to the conclusion that they can lose this whole part of the attraction and I would be ok with it. I was wishing there was a way to bypass it and head straight to the tour. This is where they grab some audience members and act out a scene with special effects. There is nothing here to wow you though unless you are the people on stage or know them. Otherwise it is a whole lot of people watching some bad acting and fairly unimpressive special effects by today's standards. Well, I suppose the acting can be humorous if you get the right people but that has not been the case for us. It may be hit or miss but is has been a miss for us. Anyway, we took the tram tour next and I changed my mind about the getting rid of the opening act. I now think they can lose the entire attraction and I wouldn't shed any tears. Either that or they should rework it to make it more interesting. OK, I suppose the climax at the end with the water scene adds some excitement but the rest was pretty much a snoozer. Perhaps it was my declining health that factored in to my mindset I am not sure. This attraction had little to captivate me though and probably won't be on top of our list as a repeat for future trips. Sorry, for anyone who likes the tour. Just my opinion from this go around. Here is the water scene.
After we got of the tram we did enjoy the area you walk through on your way out where they have figures of various villains. This was probably our favorite part of the attraction. Especially the Darths since my son goes gaga over Star Wars. My attempt at capturing Darth Vader was not good. It is really dark in there and he is not helping the cause with his all black attire. I did like the Darth Maul pic though.
While walking out of the Backlot tour building we saw a sign for Monsters Inc meet and greet. My wife is not going to let us pass this by so we hopped on line. If you end up on line here, check out the bulletin board while waiting. It is a lot of fun.
Since this is too small for you to read I will give an example:
Top Ten Rules of Comedy
1. Punchline does not mean hit the child.
2. Don't howl at your own jokes.
3. Tentacles funny. Razor sharp claws not funny.
4. Multiple heads should speak one at a time.
5. No claws for tickling.
6. Scared kids don't laugh.
7. Try not to hurt the audience.
8. Always keep sharp spikes in!
9. You won't get a laugh if you don't take a bath.
10. Never let them see you slobber.
I got a kick out of this especially #9. There is lots of other funny stuff on this board. If you are there, look it over.
We made it through and got our pictures. Note that they don't do autographs.
After this the family was getting a little hungry. We headed to studio catering but it was still too early to be open so instead we went to watch Muppet Vision 3D. I have always liked the muppets from way, way back from when I was a young lad. I have seen some people who say this is getting old for them but I always get a kick out of it.
These 2 guys are a crack up.
After the movie, we can now go get some food. We headed to ABC commissary. My goodness I have seen some bad reviews on this place. I am not going to say that the place is one of Disney's best but it was actually not that bad. In the past we have ordered a Cuban SW and it was pretty good. We were disappointed to see that it was no longer there but I had curry chicken and it was actually very good. We also had fish and chips and burger meals. OK, the burger is not the best so I can understand lousy reviews based on that but the fish and chips went over well with the family. While eating my wife said we should not stay too long today. I have no issue with that since this is my least fav park and I am feeling worse as the day is progressing. My son was starting to feel run down also so taking it easy today seemed like a great idea. While eating we called SIL and they had arrived but they were headed off to TSMM and we had our FP already that were not due yet so we decided we would continue our separate ways.
One attraction that is a must for my son is Star Tours. So this was next up after lunch. The queue area is great on this attraction but if you want pictures go on the right side. We were on the left and all the best photo ops seemed to be on the other side. I snapped a quick pic when there was a break in the other line. It is not the best but I had to rush it a little.
When we got off Star Tours we of course had to stop in the dump out shop. This is a dangerous store since my son is crazy about all things Star Wars. My daughter decided she wanted a little stuffed Ewok. I have a suspicion that my son influenced this decision but I owed her since I got the Yeti for my son the previous day so we brought in yet another new member of our family. He ended up to be a free spirit though and as you will see he decided that being part of our clan was not the life for him. So if you want to get an Ewok keep an eye on him.
Our FP time for TSMM was now ready so we headed back so that I could finally show my wife that I actually have some skills.
Once again our scores were in the same ranges and I was a beaten man. I had to give it up to the my wife. It was obvious. I just don't have what it takes to compete with her on this. On the way out we grabbed one more FP but we were not sure we were going to be around long enough to use it since the return time was after 6PM.
Continued in next post.....
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I can't recall whether you said but are your pics taken without a flash inside the attractions?
The Contemporary shot is awesome. Fave shot of the Wishes bunch is the 3rd. Very nice, but again, all of them are. I can just hear the music looking at the EWP pics!
