Day 6–Back to the Magic, Hollywood Studios.

We decided to get the boat down to Hollywood Studios this morning,  we have often walked and it’s a pleasant stroll,  but we don’t seem to have much stamina on this holiday.  It’s been very hot and very busy and we are struggling a little.  Anyway,  we walk down and catch the boat,   and make our way over to the studios.

We have a fastpass for Star tours,  so that’s our first stop.  When we get there the standby line is only 10 minutes so I consider doing the standby line instead,  but we decide to use the fastpass and we walk straight in.   I like this ride,  it’s not so bumpy that I feel ill but you definitely get the movement effects.    When we get off the ride, there is something strange going on with the standby line.  I didn’t stick around to find out exactly what was up, but there seemed to be rope across it, and there was a massive queue for the Fastpass line.

When we came out of the ride,  the Anna and Elsa parade was just about to start, and most of the front of the park had restricted walkways and we just couldn’t actually move anywhere.  We found a seat but then the CM told us it would be 20 minutes before the parade reached us,  which hwe didn’t’ fancy so we walked down towards the main street, and we were able to see a glimpse of the parade between the crowds.   This was ‘good enough’ really as it wasn’t very exciting.

Anna and Elsa did a little bit on the stage,  and then we thought we’d head to the new Frozen area.  We made two big mistakes.  Firstly, I read the map wrong and so we headed in the wrong direction,  and secondly (well it was sort of the same mistake),  we headed right into the path of the parade again,  so we were trapped whilst it went past again.  For such a little parade, it really blocks up this area of the park for a long time.

We eventually manage to get past the parade,   and I realise I’m reading the map wrong,   and we are on completely the wrong side of the park,   so we decide to go on Muppets 3d instead.   This has a new preshow with characters out of the new film in it,    but unfortunately , the actual show hasn’t changed at all.

After the show, Molly wasn’t a look in the Muppets shop as she fancies buying a puppet (but they don’t appear to sell any).  I hadn’t noticed before that one area of the shop is themed like a hotel.

We walked around the back of the park towards the Singing in the Rain umbrella,  

this is quite near the theatre where they are doing the Frozen sing-a-long,  there as a massive queue for this,   and I think they were giving out tickets with return times on them, but we weren’t bothered so we walked past.   We did find the Frozen Summer Fun area,  there was quite a long queue to ice skate, and you had to wear hockey boots and a helmet,  so the girls decided they didn’t want to skate (I can’t say I blame them really),   we did pop into the shop and I was distinctly underwhelmed,   there was some merchandise but really nothing very special,  and I don’t think I saw any Anna or Elsa dresses either.

We came out of the shop, and Molly met the green army man.  This was a character without a queue,  not something you see often in Orlando,  and it was as poorly organised as they are in Paris,   you needed to be quite pushy if you wanted a photograph.

It was now time for our Great Movie ride fastpass.   I wasn’t sure if this was a good use of a fastpass but when we got there the queue was right outside the building,  so I was pleased we had them.   We went in very quickly,  I don’t think I saw any of the movie in the waiting room, whereas we can normally watch them two or three times over.  As it was busy,  I was hoping we might get to see the elusive Cowboy scene,  but once again we got the Gangster   I’m starting to think the Cowboy is a myth…

We survived our encounter with the gangster and were soon following the yellow brick road.

When we came out of the ride,  we were all peckish but we couldn’t decide what we wanted.   We’ve been having big lunches, and then we’ve been too full for nice cakes and snacks,  so after a ludicrously long discussion we decided to get pretzels from the cart right in front of our noses.   We had a normal salty pretzel, and a cream cheese pretzel which turned out to be quite sweet.   They were both nice, but I really liked the cream cheese one,   we then walked down to the candy store and all chose something nice.  Molly had a chocolate covered marshmallow, Katie and I had the carrot cake cookie (highly recommended), and Phil had a normal cookie.

We had a few minutes to wait for our fastpass,   so we went up to the Disney Junior area and bought a Mickey for a friend’s grandson.    He is rather lovely,  I’m not sure if the grandson is going to receive him

It was time for the most elusive fastpass of the day,  Toy Story Mania,   this is a cute ride but it gets crazy queues,  however,   as I’d booked our fastpass months before,   we were able to walk straight in.    I was officially hopeless, and got a paltry 88,000.  Katie was the winner in our car with over 150,000.

The girls really wanted to go into the Animation studio next, and draw a character.   This first couple of times we did this, it was really quiet,  but now there are crazy queues and there is no tickets or fast passes,  you just have to wait.   

We went in and Molly decided to meet the Incredibles characters first,     so we didn’t get straight in line,    and then when we did join the line we didn’t get into the next show,  so we probably waited over an hour in the end to do the class.   The lady in front of us had got in line, while her kids went to see the characters, and was very unhappy when the CM told her they would have to go to the back of the line,  as everyone has to wait.   I might have been sympathetic,  except we had been told we were the last people getting into the show,  so if her family were allowed in, then we would have had to wait another half an hour.   Consequently,  I was much less sympathetic as I felt we’d been in this pavilion forever and I can’t draw to save my life, so it’s not my favourite attraction.

we did eventually get in, but we had to sit at the front with boards on our knees,  which doesn’t help my frankly appalling drawing abilities at all.  we drew grumpy,   he would have been grumpy if he’d seen his portrait!

When we’d finished the class,  we were all completely and utterly exhausted,  The consensus was that we needed to go home,   so we headed out of the park and back to the Boardwalk on the boat. Just as we got to the dock, the heavens opened and it absolutely poured, but it had stopped raining by the time we had boarded.   We;’ve been very lucky with the rain,  it has rained quite a few times but so far we have been inside or under cover and not been drenched yet.

We spent a few hours relaxing (this involves a device for all the girls,   and snoring for Phil).   We made some tea in our room,   and then decided to head back into the park to see the fireworks.  We got the boat back to the park,  it was quite busy presumably because of the fireworks/fantasmic and extra magic hours.

It was about 7.30 when we went for the boat,   and about 8 as we entered the park.  Much of the park was closed, even though it was extra magic hours,  but we were able to get back into the Animation class.  I do feel like I spent most of the day either queuing to get into this class,  or actually drawing.   This time we drew Rapunzel,  and my efforts were frankly pathetic,  however the girls were quite good,  and the instructor picked Molly’s out at the end and put it up on the screen which pleased her no end.

we exited the animation area, and everyone had to leave the pixar place for the fireworks. To be honest,  considering it was extra magic hours there didn’t seem to be much open.  I think you would have struggled to stay busy until midnight unless you did Rock n Roller coaster, and Tower of Terror repeatedly.  Ort there was the dance party under the hat, which really wasn’t my thing.  It was also completely clogging up the park so it was hard to get anywhere.

We decided to go over to Star Tours as that was still open,   and we all enjoy it.   We had another ride, this time waiting in the standby line which looked very long but moved quickly.

We came out of Star Tours into complete chaos,  there was very little open,  all the people from the first fantasmic were coming out into the street,  noone really sure where they could or couldn’t walk/stand etc,  and since they are new fireworks very few people knew what would be a good spot to stand in.  We saw benches outside of Hollywood and Vine but wasn’t sure if the trees would block the view.   We knew we wanted to do to fantasmic after the fireworks so we headed in that directnio, and ended up watching from the Starring Rolls courtyard.   There was a screen we could see with the stage show on, and we had a pretty good view of the fireworks.

 

They are fairly impressive fireworks,  I’m not sure what I expected but this is a full show and goes well with the music.   I still don’t know where is a good/bad place to stand but the Starring Rolls was ok although we couldn’t see the actual stage.

Just as the fireworks ended,   we headed straight down to Fantasmic.    There was a massive queue for the fastpass line but we were in the standby line which walked straight in,  however, we took a very long route around about before we finally made it to the stadium.   It was incredibly busy and people were pushing and weaving in and out to get to the front.   I’ve no idea why as when we finally got to the stadium there were plenty of seats,   it was busy but it wasn’t full.

I noticed they were selling Glow with the Show hats,  and someone in front of us had one.   There were very few in the stadium.   They did look quite good,  but you would need many more to get a good effect.  It’s a hard sell though,  as you can’t see your own hat ,  so you are relying on others to also buy them in order for everyone to get the benefit in the show.

Fantasmic was, well fantasmic,   except I was pooped,  and it was still really hot and sticky so I just felt like a big sweat ball (sorry if that’s too much information),  so really I wasn’t in the mood.   The kids enjoyed it though, although Molly said it was scary than she remembered.  It is quite scary for a kids show.    

After the show, we exited with the masses,  walked miles back stage and then ended up right back by the entrance to the show.   I was hoping we’d exit right at the exit of the park (which has happened before),  but no, we had to walk though the park (past the shops….) to get out.   Onto the boat,  and 4 very exhausted people made it into bed just before midnight.