In the past, the Studios had always been one of, if not solely, my favorite parts of Disney World. I don't know if it was just the vacation fatigue setting in, or because I had been to the "real" Hollywood (yuck!) but the appeal was somewhat lacking on this visit.
We decided to walk over, since it was mere minutes from our room at the Boardwalk and probably the most direct route, since in order to take the boats available, we would have needed to walk to the other side of the hotel. I'm lazy, but smart lazy. The heck if I'm going to add extra walking in order to do it!
The walk was nice, I had my cane/walking stick and we waved at all the people on the assorted watercraft. It is kind of funny how friendly everyone is within the "World."
We made it to the Studios within minutes of opening and we were pretty hungry. Rather than racing to the rides, we decided to stop into "Starring Rolls" and grab some pastries for breakfast. They were enjoyable and certainly served their purposes.
After we ate, we went over to "The Great Movie Ride." Since Lauren and I are both movie buffs, we figured this would be a good way to start our day. Having the cane and preying on people's assumptions once again paid off, as, without saying a word, we were ushered up the side of the queue and allowed to board much more quickly than our non-cane wielding counterparts. Also, we were boarded right up front, behind our driver/host, so perhaps my cane investment was well worth the pittance I paid for it!
The ride is a true classic, and while I do not wish for them to remove any of the classic scenes--after all, a classic is a classic forever--I would like to see some new, post 1990 movies added. However, it is still a must-see attraction at the Studios.
As we exited, we made our way over to Sunset Boulevard, since that is the home of the "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster," however, along the way, we saw that it was nearly time for the Beauty and the Beast stage show. Lauren loves Belle and Beauty and the Beast and I thought this might be a good place to take a bit of a break. She wasn't feeling too well and the bits of the show that she did see, was not impressed.
I thought it was pretty good but that was neither here nor there. I guess after the Aladdin show in DCA, anything is kind of anti-climactic.
I only hoped that the "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster" would live up to the hype. I really didn't need to worry.
I love the "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster." It introduced me to the music of Aerosmith and the first time I rode it with my dad, he said that the initial take-off was very very close to the take-off of a fighter jet from an aircraft carrier. That's a pretty good endorsement. It also happened to be the first upside-down loop I had ever ridden. Overall, just a great ride. The queue, while basically utilitarian, has some really cool old concert posters once the line enters the "recording studio."
In addition to the amusing elements designed by Disney, Lauren and I found great entertainment in the T-shirt of the boy in front of us in line. Apparently, this young man had been to something called "Deer Camp." I have absolutely no idea what "deer camp" is, but suffice it to say that there were many jokes about being "fawn-dled." Ahh, people. So oblivious sometimes!
The coaster was great, like always, despite the fact that they wouldn't let me video it--despite the fact that my brother had done it in the past. They were pretty rude about making me put it away too. I can totally understand that there are rules and I try to abide by them, but bad attitudes are unnecessary.
We grabbed Fastpasses to come back later and headed down to visit the Muppets. Now, you may be asking why we didn't check in to the Hollywood Tower of Terror while we were already right next to it. Well, long story short, it makes Lauren deathly sick, so there would be no Tower for us on this trip. No big deal.
Yes, I know that we have a "Muppetvision 4-D" in Anaheim and that to save time, we were mostly ignoring rides that are bi-coastal, but the whole Muppet plaza area is really cool! Being big Muppet aficianados, I figured that we would get a kick out of the area. I was correct.
While the two shows are virtually identical, Lauren's opinion was that she liked the exterior of Florida's version better, but preferred our interior.
Another major coup for Florida was their Muppet shop. Whereas DCA has a little stand outside of the attraction, which in recent years has began just stocking generic Disney merchandise, there is a whole room dedicated to the Muppets here. Not only was there neat things to buy (we each got a Muppet shirt) but the store was themed to the "Happiness Hotel," from "The Great Muppet Caper," while the entry was the bus station from "The Muppets Take Manhattan." It was all very very cool.
As we further explored the area, we found that Al's Toy Barn lay right on the outskirts and who was there, but old friends, Buzz and Woody.
We had to stop by for some photos.
After visiting our friends, we began to feel a bit peckish. and realized that it was time for lunch. Having just seen Buzz and Woody, eating at Pizza Planet seemed apropos, but after the unfortunate Pizza-fari incident, the concept of eating more "pizza" was not the most appealing to me. However, I was a good sport and we headed in for lunch.
It was swamped. Turns out, that particular day was the finals for some sort of cheerleading or dance competition, and all of the girls seemed to swarm upon Pizza Planet. I thought pizza was a strict no-no for these types. Oh well. The line was quite long, but we decided to stick it out and were eventually served. While eating, we actually saw the team from Lauren's college, but she declined my suggestion to go over and make new friends.
Sidenote: This was not the first time that the cheer/dancers messed with us this particular day. We had really been looking forward to the Indiana Jones stunt show, since as cast members on the Indiana Jones RIDE in Disneyland, we frequently have to deal with confused guests. The stupid competition had taken over the venue for the whole day, causing us to call an audible on our plans for the following days. End of sidenote.
Following lunch we had only a small window of time until the "Stars and Motorcars" parade was to begin. I really wanted to see this, as it was set to "retire" within a few weeks of our departure, to make way for the "Block Party Blast," being imported from DCA, I wanted to take advantage of my last chance to see this parade.
We grabbed great spots for photos and just sort of plopped ourselves down. It's amazing how many great seats there are for parades, when the park is designed for them. Much easier to get seating than in our own Disneyland.
The parade did not disappoint. Tons of characters, cool cars and a very relaxed, classic-type parade. No show stops, nothing fancy. I highly approved.
Following the parade, since we happened to be sitting right there, and with an hour or so to kill before our early early dinner seating at the "Sci-Fi Dine In" we decided to check out, "Sounds Dangerous," featuring the magnificent Drew Carey. Essentially, it was an exercise in audio tricks, but it was actually kind of neat. Basically, you are in a huge dark room wearing headphones and are listening as Carey records a hidden camera show and the camera fails. While not necessarily something that needs to be done on each trip, it was a fun diversion.
At this point it was almost time to check in at the Sci-Fi, so we made our way down there. Again, as we were waiting to be seated a family walked up and tried to be seated. This time they were more rude than the people at Le Cellier, so it was nice to see them rebuffed. People, do your research before your vacation! Don't let this happen to you!
The interior of this restaurant is a blast. Sitting in classic cars, watching horrible B-movies is just so unique and fun! Lauren and I both like "Mystery Science Theater 3000," so many of the titles were familiar but again, seeing them on the big screen was great. The food was good, despite many of the negative reviews that I had read online. Lauren had ribs, I had the burger and the piece de resistance was the cheesecake dessert. It was drizzled with caramel and covered in caramel corn and other assorted candy. That was worth the price of admission alone!
It was getting near closing time for the park, so we decided to try and get on the "Backlot Tour," only to discover that we had missed the final trip. It was getting a bit chilly so we decided to check out "Walt Disney: One Man's Dream" to fill some of our time before we wanted to get in line for Fantasmic!
The exhibit is quite well done, filled with artifacts from Walt's life and career. Even being a big Disney buff, I saw things that I had never seen before.
The exhibit blended interactive and non-interactive together quite nicely, and the crown jewel was the film about Walt.
It was very informative and touching as well. You can't help but wonder how vastly different everything would have been, had he lived longer.
It was very informative and touching as well. You can't help but wonder how vastly different everything would have been, had he lived longer.
We decided that it was about time to head over to the Hollywood Hills ampitheater to get our seats for Fantasmic! We found some pretty good ones, slightly off-center and about 2/3 of the way back, so we settled in to see the show.
Unfortunately, nature had other plans for that particular evening. What she had planned was the single most violent rainstorm that I had ever experienced. Thunderbolts and lightning! (Very very frightening!) We, along with a few other hardy souls sat in our seats until they finally cancelled the show officially. We were drenched to the core, but still laughing about it. After all, I'm dryable.
We were planning to take the "Friend-Ship" home to the Boardwalk, but the line was at least 3 boatfulls long and so we decided just to slog it out in the rain. A lot of people looked at us like we were crazy, but most just laughed along, like the gentleman in the elevator with us at the Boardwalk, who informed us that he had cancelled his dinner reservations at a different resort, rather than brave the storm.
Wimp.
When we finally got to the room, we drew a hot bath, tossed our clothes into the washer and dryer to get them all clean and toasty and began to decide what our amended plans were to be for the following day.
