Hollywood Studios and Epcot
April 23, 2018
On Monday we ventured to our first Disney park. We awoke early and arrived at Hollywood Studios early. We still needed to get our tickets validated before the fun could begin. Silly me I forgot my phone and we had to ride back on the tram to the parking lot. First ride of the day. The park was actually pretty crowded for how early we had arrived. We somehow managed just the same.
Disney now has a security system. This was new to me as the last time I was at the parks, you simply showed your ticket. This made the time to get in slow down. We still got in quickly and before to long the gates were open and we were heading towards the Parks center. Right now, Hollywood Studio's has a limited number of attractions. This is in part due to the building of the new Star Wars area predicted to be coming within the next year. I would really like to see that when it comes.
Can you see the crowds....wow there are a lot of people here today.
In the meantime, we did find a few things to occupy ourselves with.
Like....Meeting OLAF from the movie Frozen.
And right next door...we got to meet Minnie Mouse...
She was looking very pretty in her pink ball gown and sassy rose gold
shoes.
Then we got to meet Mickey. He was dressed as the Sorcerous. and for what ever reason, this made me cry.
Sorcerous Mickey is my absolute favorite....We got some extra hugs...
Stefanie with Mickey....
Aimee with Mickey...
Aimee had her Mickey leggings on and she showed these off.
Right After our meet and greet with Olaf, Minnie and Mickey, we wondered over to see the Muppets.
I simply love the fountain outside of the Muppet theater.
The Muppets were one of my favorite growing up. I seem to change my favorite character on a weekly basics.
I was shocked to look down and see a real life animal in this fountain. Hello Mr. Duck
While waiting for Stef, we got a change to see our friends from last evening. Hi Chip and Dale...
Then it was on to Muppet Vision 3-D. This constant at Hollywood Studios is always fun. I have visited this three times over my lifetime but it is always a great experience.
The three of us seemed to get amazing seats the entire vacation despite the crowds. I think we scored front row seating to almost every show we attended. Muppet Vision was no different.
The show is actually a movie with a few animatronics throughout. As members of the audience you are assisting the Muppet team in preparing for the show. Of course there is always something that has to go wrong and in this case there is an escape firecracker who multiples and goes crazy and then the bunny runs off, Piggy sings of course and the final performance is a mess because of the firecrackers that shoot off everywhere.
Lots of fun.
The future entrance to Star Wars. Missing from Hollywood Studios from the last trip is the Great Movie Ride and the Backlot tours. Make way for new I guess.
We saw Goofy on our way to Star tours.
After the Muppets we headed over to Star Tours as we had a fast pass. If you are unaware of what a fast pass is and are heading to Disney you need to learn ASAP. These fast passes saved us a ton of time in waiting. The fast pass allows you to enter into a line that cuts the wait time into just minutes. We had claimed of three fast passes before we arrived and about a month earlier. (You may want to do this too because they go quick for some of the popular rides.) Once you have used the three fast passes you can use more throughout the day. You just have to complete the last fastpass before you can claim another one. When we were in the Magic Kingdom we used like three in the afternoon and scored one ride after another. Check it out at my Disney Experience.
Onward.....Star tours.
So the last time I was here it was Darth Vader we were attacking. This time it was another star wars villain. (I have not see the last few made in the series.) This ride is so much fun. It is a simulated ride where you and your party are flying and racing through the skies. Totally a great time.
The great thing about waiting in line at Disney is they keep you entertained while you wait. Check out the droids in our wait line.
Very COOL...
Up next we squeezed into the last five minutes before the doors shut of the Frozen Sing-along.
Our late arrival to the show provided us with pretty close to front row seats. SCORE!!!!
Frozen sing-along was the condensed version of the movie with songs along the way. Of course we had to all sing "Let it go" with Elsa.
Everything is SO MAGICAL. It even snowed in the theater. We exited Frozen just in time to watch a show on the center stage. This was a Star Wars themed show.
I haven't seen the most recent movie, but this is the BAD guy...Or gal in this case.
It was a short performance with some fireworks and lights. Very cool!
Up next...we made our way towards the old Theater and around the corner toward MORE Star Wars stuff.
We entered into Star Wars Launch Bay.
This is a museum of sorts with displays of all the movies.
We watched a film on the new Star Wars land expected to open later this year, and then we got in line to meet some of the Star Wars Characters....
I am not well versed on the Star Wars lingo. My Star Wars days were LONG ago, but I did know who Chebacca was and excited to wait in line to meet him.....
These were some of the longest lines we waited in, but at least we had some cool stuff to look at while we waited.
Imagine that you can get Star Wars wines.
I got a BIG wookie hug.....
He was so incredibly real looking. I was taken back by his moving jaw and teeth. For some reason, I just get tooo excited about this stuff. (When I meet the characters) I get all emotional and silly. It is like meeting a movie star.
After we met Chewy, we got to meet Kylo Ren. He is one of the newer characters. I did see this movie. DONT LOOK IF YOU WANT TO KEEP THE SURPRISE!!!
(He is Hans and Leia's son gone evil)
He was more scary then Darth Vader....I was a little frightened.
He reported he was going to convert us to the Dark Side.....
After everything Star Wars we made our way to Hollywood Blvd. Here we saw some street performers and had a few laughs...
Up next was the roller coaster. Aimee and I were a NO go for the Tower of Terror, but Stefanie went on just before we headed to the Rock n Roller Coaster...
I had been a little anxious about this ride. BUT it was amazing. Tons of fun!
We headed back towards the front gate just in time for another Star Wars show. (These were the pictures I could not upload to my computer, so they are not edited to better enhance the characters)
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I added Stefanie pictures too.
After the Star Wars show, we headed to the exit. We still had Epcot to hit up and we were hungry.
We took the boat to Epcot and stopped at the Boardwalk along the way. This was the first time I had ever been to the boardwalk. It was very nice.
They had predicted rain and we did end up with a few drops. Not to bad though.
We stopped at a pizza shop on the boardwalk and had some lunch. Yummy (but expensive) pizza.
We entered one of the pastry shops.
Just look at those yummys...I passed on the pastry's and had some of the most delicious ice cream ever.
Our bellies full, we got back on the boat and made our way to The United Kingdom, one of the first countries in Epcot. (If you take the boat this docks in the back end of Epcot.)
Once we arrived at Epcot, we did a search for Alice (From Alice in Wonderland) she usually is seen in the gardens, but since there was rain she was not around. Bummer.....
Love these mugs....Off with her head. I have some glassware (I found at the thrift store) that has similar classic Alice and Wonderland designs. LOVE it.
During the April-May season Epcot hosts the Flower and Garden shows. Shrubbery is made to look like Disney Characters all throughout the park. We came up upon Peter Pan and Capt. Hook.
Pretty cool this is all made of plants.
A view over the lake. On the far side, you can see Mexico.
After a quick run through of The United Kingdom, we headed towards (Can you guess?)
yes, its France.
Belle and The Beast arrived fully flowered for this section of The Worlds.
Another view across the lake.
Up next is Morocco....
and Japan
and then on to America.
Everyone was feeling hot and tired by then, so we decided to stay for the All American Adventure show.
Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin were the hosts of the American story...
The show takes you through the development of the country. The Boston Tea Party, the declaration of Independence.
The Anamatronics were insane. George Washington's crossing the Delaware
It discussed Slavery...and freedom
The breaking of families during the Civil War.
The Native people.
And the Industrial revolution, inventions and Women's rights.
The expansion of National Parks.
Talk about War....
Women at home working.
Finally a finale of Fireworks on the torch of Lady Liberty.
The show was interesting, a cool place to relax and offered at least one of our party of three a time for a nap. (I will not mention who....)
Italy was next and look who was there to greet us?
We rushed through several of the countries. I would like someday to just spend some time in each exploring.
UP next was Germany.....
Snow White and her seven Dwarfs were dancing in flowers there.
We glanced at a show being preformed along the route.
The Outpost. Which is not really a country at all, had Simba and Rafique in plants and flowers.
across the way was Timba and Samone.
Onward to China....
We caught the tail end of a acrobatic performance in this land.
Norway was next, and within Norway is the Frozen ride.
We waited for this 5 minute ride forever wishing we had fastpasses for it.
I just loved this roof....
Of course Elsa and Anna were featured here.
The very last country we made it to was Mexico. (We missed Canada all together, we all decided it was okay, since we have actually been to the real Canada.)
The Three Amigos were the flower for Mexico....
We were officially out of the World showcase and I suggested that we head towards Soaring and Figments Imagination ride.
The Gardens were AMAZING....
Daisy said hello with our old friends Chip and Dale.
and some more great Flower shots.
On to Figment Imagination....
After this ride, we all needed a break. We spent some time in the shade and made a plan for the rest of the day. Test track was on the list and one of my personal favorites. We scored fast passes and made a plan for Mission Space, Soaring and Crush turtle talk. Mission Space appeared to be down, and Turtle talk was taken off the list. (We still needed to get back to Hollywood Studios and get our car before it got to late.)
We actually had a short line for Soaring.
Which is totally awesome...Made a bee line to Test track for our fast passes. We ended up meeting a family from Utica NY. So nice and they actually rode with us in out fast car....
Awesome....
When we entered Test Track it was light outside...after it was getting dark.
We did a quick hop on to Spaceship Earth. There was no line at all..and made our way out through the hands on center where we made pictures of ourselves in space in the FUTURE.
Wow what an amazing fun filled day. We were all super tired and still needed to get back to Hollywood Studios to retrieve the car. Lucky there were not many people (like us, the bus driver and two others) heading that way so we had our choice of seats. Ahha...we were all beat. Bed NOW...we have another fun filled day tomorrow. TTFN
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