Disney Trip 2016 - Hollywood Studios!

This is the 3rd post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

Even though we were in the Disney bubble, and enjoying ourselves quite a bit. I was still keeping an eye on what Hurricane Matthew was doing. I'd check the weather channel app at least several times a day. I truly hoped that we could continue to enjoy our vacation while staying safe.

We headed off to Hollywood Studios and made it right after they opened. Emily got to walk the red carpet because she was in her Elsa dress. I sadly didn't get any pictures because she was being shy and wanted me to hold her hand.

Every single time I go to Hollywood Studios I get turned around and lost. Mostly because of the way the park is laid

First thing we did was Toy Story Mania. Last trip, we were in line for over an hour. It's a fun ride but not worth an hour's wait. This time, we only waited about ten minutes. It was fun and Emily ended up beating me!

After that, we headed over to Star Tours. The waits were still short so we rode it twice in a row. We did have a fastpass the first time. The Jedi Academy show was also going on, but Emily did not want to watch it. Despite loving Darth Vader at home, and having just bought a Kylo Ren tsum tsum, she was afraid to be anywhere near any Sith Lords.

So we left the Star Wars area and headed to Hollywood and Vine for our lunch reservation. We don't have cable at home anymore, but Emily still watches the Disney Junior shows on our streaming devices. Last trip, Sofia the First was just starting to do meet and greets and Doc McStuffins wasn't doing them at all. So Emily had requested that we do the Disney Junior character meal, even though she thought she was too old to go to the Disney Junior show that they have at this park.

We got there before our 11 am reservation time but got seated

right away. The buffet ended up being a combination of breakfast and lunch because they were doing the changeover, so that was yummy. Emily was excited to see all the characters and we both got filled up.

After we were done eating, we headed back to the resort to take a break. We watched TV and Emily changed into her Star Wars dress because she was getting too hot in her Elsa costume. After a bit of rest, we headed back to Hollywood Studios.

We went to the Frozen Sing-A-Long show, which was really fun. And then we met Olaf, which was one of Emily's favorite meet and greets we had this trip. He was really cute!

Then we had to go to the Muppet 3D show, which was awesome as usual. Both Emily and I love that show. From there, we went on the Great Movie Ride, which was interesting.

Now when Emily was 4, almost 5, she wasn't scared of the Great Movie Ride at all. Not even the

scene when the Alien comes down. But this time, she was freaked right out. What scared her was when the gangster took over our car. She was seriously afraid this girl was going to shoot us, even though I kept telling her it wasn't real.

But we made it through and she was fine. Great Movie Ride is one of my favorites so I was a mean mom and made her go on it. Especially since she had liked it just fine when she was much smaller!

We had done everything we wanted to and the sun was starting to set. So we headed over to find a spot to see Fantasmic! I had never seen this show because events always conspired against me. On my honeymoon, we were seated in the arena and were being rained on. Because of the weather, they canceled the show that night.

On our last trip, Hollywood Studios was our last park day and Emily was just worn out. So even though I had a fastpass for Fantasmic, we didn't see it because she was too tired.

So I was determined to see it this trip! I planned our Hollywood Studios day earlier in the week and I

watched the weather like a hawk. It paid off this time! While we were waiting for the show to start, the Star Wars fireworks went off behind us. We couldn't really see anything beyond the higher shooting fireworks but it helped pass the time.

The show was worth the wait and went off without a hitch, even though it did start sprinkling in the middle. But's partly a water show, with barges floating around for the different scenes. I admit that I got tears in my eyes at the finale when Sorcerer Mickey shows up.

Unfortunately, we were about halfway down and all the way over because of having fastpasses. So it took forever to get out and back to the bus stop. Each resort has a queuing area at the bus stops. At the end of the night, the lines can be long, but nothing like it was once we finally got there.

Our resort's line was much, much longer than the other lines. And boy howdy, people were starting to get mad. Emily was tired and cranky, but she's a kid and she whined less than some of the adults in line.

What had happened was the Art of Animation bus that was at our queue had broken down. Since the park had been closing, tons of people were trying to get back to the resort which resulted in long lines. We did have to wait a while, but they ended up bringing a bunch of buses in from other parks to get everyone back.

Finally we got back to our resort and then our room, and we pretty much both passed out right away!

Next up - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

Disney Trip 2013 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

This is the 7th post of my Disney Trip report – click for  post #1, post #2, post #3, post #4, post #5, and post #6!

Even though I had had a long night before, we got up early for our last park today. We were heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We had to sit down reservations so Todd decided that we were going to rent a stroller in hopes Emily would nap there instead of going back to the room for nap time.

My in-laws met us in the lobby at 8:30 am and we took the bus to the park together. Emily was a little cranky today but was excited to have a stroller. The first thing we did was we went to see Pluto and Goofy. Emily decided that she didn’t really want pictures anymore just autographs. These two were the last we needed for because of the disappeared Chef Mickey’s pictures and we were able to convince her to take a picture.

From there, we went to Star Tours with my in laws. Emily hasn’t seen Star Wars yet because I’m paranoid

that she’s not going to like it. But she’s see the Lego Star Wars games and has a limited understanding of what Star Wars is.

I love Star Tours and was excited to ride it since I haven’t been since they upgraded it. Emily was a little unsure, especially since this was the wildest ride we had been on. She said she didn’t like it when we got out and we headed over to see the Muppets show.

The Muppets was good and Emily enjoyed herself, especially playing with the 3D glasses while we waited. Once we got out of the show, we went to meet Phineas and Ferb. They were really awesome and I got in the picture too because Emily was being shy. I also got a picture of myself with a Ducky MoMo statuesince I’m planning on making a Ducky MoMo costume for Dragon Con next year.

It was more characters after that. We went into the Animation Building to meet Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope. Emily wanted both Todd and I to come up with her so we did. That’s how we got our only full family pictures the entire vacation!

It was nearing the time of our first reservation so we headed over to Hollywood and Vine. Our reservation was at 11 when they started serving lunch. It was also a character meal with some of the Disney Junior characters. We were a bit early and got checked in. The cast member checking us in had chalk that she was giving to the kids, so Emily had

fun drawing on the ground. The characters also kept coming up to the windows and waved at the kids
waiting

Finally we were seated and June from the Little Einsteins came over right away. Emily was happy to get her

to autograph her book but wanted no part in the pictures. So Todd got his picture with June. Same thing with Jake, so I got my picture taken with him.

Oso came around next and Todd took one picture with me and Oso standing behind Emily’s chair. I was sad that it didn’t turn out because it was really blurry. I got in the picture with Handy Manny too, I actually photobombed the picture because I had been coming back from the buffet.

The food was excellent and the chef came out and advised me which foods were dangerous to me with my shellfish and tree nut allergy. Todd agreed the meal was very good though surmised it was partly because the food was fresh.

After we ate, we headed over to get in line to meet Sofia the First. She is the newest character available for meet and greets so the line was long. Todd left us since he didn’t care about meeting Sofia to go ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. We waited probably a half hour for Sophia. A couple of times she had to take a break – the cast members with her always said that she needed to go back and check on her winged horse, Minimus.

Emily got a kick out of that and still talks about how Minimus was just backstage.

Again Emily didn’t want to be in the picture by herself so I got in it with her. Sofia was very sweet and well worth the wait. I got Emily in her stroller and we went over to Star Tours where we were going to meet up with Todd. Emily didn’t nap or even get sleepy as I rolled her over there so I got us a snack to eat while we were waiting.

Once Todd joined us, Emily decided that she wanted to brave Star Tours again. This time she loved it and wanted to ride it again. Since there was very little waiting we rode it again. She wanted to keep riding it but there were other things we wanted to do.

I had Fastpass + for the Disney Junior Show and the Toy Story Mania ride. But they were both a little later in the afternoon. Even though the Toy Story Mania standby wait time was listed at two hours, we decided to get in line.

The queue had all kinds of different toys large sized and a giant Mr. Potato Head who sang songs and told jokes. Once we got past Mr. Potato Head the line moved pretty fast. The ride itself was a lot of fun. You put on 3D glasses and then get spun around to different scenes were you get to shoot at targets and earn points. It was fun and Emily really enjoyed it.

After that, we met up with my in-laws and we all decided to go to the next showing of the Disney Junior show. It had all of Emily’s favorite characters from her favorite shows in puppet form. There was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. The show was really cute and things would fall from the sky like bubbles and tissue paper gold doubloons.

There was time left so we all decided to go ride on the Great Movie Ride. I was little afraid that some of the scenes, like the one from Alien, would scare Emily but she loved the ride. I’m a big movie nut and have a degree in Broadcasting, so it’s one of my favorites.

From there decided to go to where we had dinner reservations early since our reservations were pretty late. We ate at 50’s Prime Time Café. We were seated pretty quickly and had a nice meal. Emily was excited because I got her a special class with a light up Ariel and our server also gave her a light up Tinkerbelle.

Once we were done, it was after 7 pm and we had been in the park for about 10 hours. Emily was getting tired and we were driving home the next day so we opted to skip the fireworks show and head back to the resort.

Up next post - Departure Day and Final Thoughts