Disney World 2017 - Day 3 - Hollywood Studios

For our first day at Disney, we started early to take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours at Hollywood Studios. Each day, one of the four parks is open an hour early, or an hour late, for guests staying in Disney resorts. We knew that taking advantage of these extra hours would give us the best chance of hitting some of the bigger rides before the lines got long, so we were up at 6 AM to give us enough time to get the kids up and dressed, slather everyone in suntan lotion, and get out of the room by 7:15 or so.

We caught a bus to Hollywood Studios and made it through the bag checks and security just in time for the park opening at 8 AM.

Following our game plan, we immediately headed to the north end of the park and jumped into the quickly forming line for the Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. The line seemed to already be long enough to spill outside of the building, but that was because it had just opened and people were just starting to file into the actual queue.

The line quickly filed into the building, and we probably waited only 10 or 15 minutes to make our way to the front and onto the ride. Prior to the trip, I thought that Ben and Emma might not be up for a bigger roller coaster like this one, but after they had warmed up with the rides at Legoland, they were ready and raring to go.

Aerosmith was awesome! First of all, it's a launch coaster, so there is no big hill. Instead it launches you from a standstill to 58 mph in under 3 seconds. Second, the whole ride is indoors and in the dark, so it is difficult to tell which way you are going and what is coming next. I believe this is the only ride that inverts you at Disney, and it sends you upside down a total of three times.

Did we have fun? I'll let this picture answer that question.

Aerosmith Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

Once we were done with Aerosmith, we had a decision to make. We were right next to Tower of Terror, another ride we wanted to experience but did not have a FastPass for, but we also knew that we wanted to sign the kids up for the Jedi Training experience, and had been told that it sold out quickly after the park opened to the general public at 9 AM and that we might need to line up early and spend half of our Extra Magic Hour waiting to ensure that we got a slot.

In the end, we decided to go for Tower of Terror and hope that we could still sign up for the Jedi Training afterwards.

Emma was excited for "Tower," but Ben seemed less sure about it. "Tower" is a Twilight Zone themed drop ride where everyone is seated in an "elevator car" that moves down a track, and then is raised up in the air and dropped several stories before bouncing back up and dropping back down, over and over. There are some very cool effects and film clips shown on a screen in front of you and the whole ride is very cool.

The Tower of Terror.

Despite some trepidation, both Ben and Emma enjoyed the ride a lot.

We left Tower of Terror and hurried across the park to sign up for the Jedi Training, as it was now shortly after 9 AM. When we got to the sign up area, I expected to see a big line, but instead there were just a few people milling about. I was worried that maybe we missed the sign up window completely, but as it turned out we were able to walk right up to a cast member and sign the kids up with no wait!

The Jedi Training has shows throughout the day, but on the advice of our travel agent, we signed up for a 2:10 show as we knew it would work right into one of our later FastPasses.

Next we decided to check out the Star Wars Launch Bay area, where we could meet BB-8, Kyle Ren, and Chewbacca.

Kylo Ren was pretty cool as he sounds just like in the movie, and he doesn't shake hands or hug you like most park characters would, but "interrogates" you on the whereabouts of BB-8 and the information he is transporting. Chewbacca on the other hand was happy to see all of us and even gave Mariah a big Wookie hug. He especially seemed to like Emma's t-shirt, which had a picture of Chewie and said "I love my hair!" 

The whole Launch Bay area was full of cool Star Wars props (or, at the least, very good replicas), art, costumes, etc. Ben was in HEAVEN! He was pouring over everything and pointing out which lightsaber had been used in what movie by which character, and on and on.

The kids were also excited to meet a Jawa and both were thrilled to find the "Holo-Chess" table seen onboard the Millennium Falcon in the first Star Wars movie.

Ben finds Nirvana among the lightsabers.

Refreshments at the Cantina

Ready to play some Dejarik.

We finished up at the Launch Bay and walked over to Toy Story Mania for our first fast passes of the day, getting there right at the start of our window at 9:50 AM. Toy Story Mania is billed as a "midway-style, 4-D shootin' game." It is very similar to the Ninjago ride we were on the previous day in Legoland. You sit in a car that moves down a track and spins around in circles stopping so that you face different 3-D movie screens along the way, but instead of waving your hands over sensors in the cars to "shoot," each person has a mounted "gun" that you fire by pulling back on a string and then releasing it.

This ride is AWESOME! The 3-D effect is well done and there are tons of things to shoot at. The guns seem very responsive and accurate and you really feel like you are hitting what you are aiming for. A neat detail is that the "ammo" you are shooting changes depending on the theme of the shooting gallery you are currently at, so on some screens you are shooting balls, while others had darts to pop balloons, or paintballs, or plungers.

Getting ready to ride Toy Story Mania

We all had a great time on the ride and comparing our scores and accuracy afterwards.

As we left Toy Story Mania, we saw some people walking around that were dressed up to look just like the plastic army men that everyone used to play with as kids, and are featured in Toy Story. We saw that some of them were signing autographs, so Ben and Emma got out their books and got their first autograph from Sarge.

Ben asks if "Sarge" will sign his Autograph Book.

At this point, we started getting a little hungry, so we got some snacks to tide us over until our late lunch. Ben and I shared a Mickey Mouse shaped pretzel and Emma and Mariah shared popcorn. Mariah made one of the best decisions of the trip and paid a few extra bucks to get a souvenir popcorn bucket that let us get refills at any park for only $1.50, instead of the $7 or so they would normally charge for a bag of popcorn. This let us get a cheap snack all week if we needed something to munch on, but didn't have time for a full meal.

As we left the Pixar themed area, we stopped in and checked out Walt Disney: One Man's Dream, a cool museum that told the story of Walt's life and how he started Disney and grew it to the great heights it has reached. I think Ben enjoyed this attraction the most, as he previously read a biography of Walt Disney and recognized many things in the museum from the book.

After leaving the museum, we walked back through the center of the park and were surprised to find a procession of Storm Troopers being led down the street by Captain Phasma, accompanied by a Star Wars march booming from speakers all around. The column of troopers eventually made their way onto a stage where all park guests present were warned by Captain Phasma that we should obey the First Order and turn in any resistance spies that we might find. Ben was particularly impressed that at a few key moments when the Storm Troopers were ordered to fire, that flares shot from their blasters.

As we continued heading towards our next destination, we saw a line to meet Goofy. Since the line wasn't too long, we waited for a few minutes and the kids got their second signature of the day. We were particularly tickled when Goofy used Ben's head as a good place to set the autograph books when signing them.

Goofing with Goofy.

As we continued across the park, we ran into another Star Wars stage show in progress in the middle of the park. This one featured appearances from a bunch of different characters, each with a few lines of dialog as they walked around the stage. We found a decent spot and held the kids up so they could check out the action.

Star Wars everywhere in Hollywood Studios.

We still had a few minutes before it was time to line up for our next FastPass, which was for a Frozen sing-along show, so we ducked out of the hot sun for a few minutes into a building that had multiple video game consoles running the Disney Infinity game. Even though Ben and Emma have this game at home, they will never pass up a chance to get in some screen time and were happy to play Disney infinity for a bit and soak up the air conditioning.

At the appointed time, we made out way to For the First Time in Forever: a "Frozen" Sing-Along Celebration, which turned out to be a really great show. It starts with Princess Ana greeting the audience and introducing two "historians" of their fictitious land, who then proceed to recap the story of the movie Frozen until Queen Elsa finally shows up at the end. As the historians get to the scenes in the movie with songs, they play the scene on a movie screen with the lyrics shown, so that everyone can sing along. The two actors playing the historians were super funny, and had us in stitches. The performers really appeared to be having a great time on stage and seemed to be ad-libbing many little jokes in with the main script. The finale was a live rendition of Let it Go, and when it appeared to actually start snowing inside the theater, it brought the house down. Emma's reaction in this picture says it all:

Emma's smile when it started snowing during the Frozen sing-along was worth the price of admission alone.

We had a little bit of time to kill before our Jedi Training, and it was getting pretty hot, so we decided some Mickey Mouse ice cream treats would hit the spot.

Nothing beats the heat like an ice cream treat!

Refreshed, we reported for Jedi training duty. Ben and Emma were given Jedi robes, and assigned to a group and given some instructions. We then marched across the park to a stage near the Star Tours ride.

Ben and Emily, ready for Jedi Training.

When they reached the stage, four Jedi came out and introduced themselves and explained that they had come to this place to visit a temple to complete their training. The storyline is between a Master Jedi and one of his Padawan trainees, who is a bit of a goof and a rogue. The kids are separated into their two groups, one on an upper stage and one a lower stage, and then they run through some lightsaber training, learning a sequence of attacks and blocks, just "in case" they might happen to need it later.

Training in the ways of the lightsaber.

At this point, the temple is opened and who should come out, but Darth Vader and the Seventh Sister! Yeah, I've never heard of her either, but she's apparently from the Star Wars: Rebels cartoon and the kids knew who she was, at least.

Darth Vader and the Seventh Sister make an intimidating duo.

Vader and the Sister split up and each take a group, and then one by one the kids each step up and fight them. Ben and Emma were both in the group that fought the Seventh Sister and they did great! After the kids weakened the two Sith, they all join together and use the force to push them back into the temple.

Just when you think it's over though, Kylo Ren shows up.

He faces off with the cocky, young apprentice character and once again the kids all have to join together to help the jedi use the force to defeat Kylo Ren.

During this whole processes both Ben and Emma looked hot and bored. I was worried that maybe we should have done the show earlier in the day or later in the afternoon, and that they were miserable. Once the show was over and we collected our Jedi though, they both were gushing about how cool it was and what it was like to fight the Sith, so those worries were thankfully unfounded.

We found a shady spot to sit and forced them to take a quick water break and then went right to Star Tours. The Star Tours ride is ostensibly a space tourist ride set in the Star Wars universe. It's the type of ride where you get in a closed little car and are shown a 3D movie while the "spaceship" shakes and jiggles around, trying to make you think that it's actually moving somewhere. Typically, I get nauseous on this kind of ride as my brain is screaming "shenanigans!" since the motion of the car never really matches the action on the screen. Ben and Emma, though, LOVE this type of ride and this one was no exception. Everyone else had a blast, and I somehow held on to my biscuits, but was left pretty nauseous by the end. If the ride had been even a minute longer, I might have been in trouble!

Just finished our tour of the galaxy in Star Tours.

Like so many rides, Star Tours exits through a gift shop, of course, but it was okay this time because Ben had been dying to build a lightsaber, so he and I did that while Emma and Mariah shopped around and got a stuffed Ewok. The lightsaber build station has a ton of different little pieces that you can choose from to build your custom saber, with the assistance of a helpful cast member. Ben carefully weighed each choice as he built the saber. Later, he would tell Mariah and I which pieces matched up with which character's lightsabers. This kid knows his Star Wars!

Once we left the gift shop, we had only few steps to get to our next stop, our late lunch at the the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant. We checked in and then sat down outside to wait, as we were a bit early. While we waited, we noticed that just a few feet away there was a short line to meet Chip 'n Dale. The kids were getting excited by their growing collection of signatures and would say to each other, "Two more! Cha-Ching!"

Eating at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater was SUPER cool! I think this might have been my favorite place to eat of the whole trip. If you haven't surmised by the name, it appears to be a drive in theater, and all of the tables are made to look like old cars. While you eat, they play clips from terrible looking old B-movies and other commercials and clips on the theater screen. The whole atmosphere is just awesome and tons of fun.

Lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater.

The view from our car.

Ben and Emma loved being in the front seat for once.

While at lunch/dinner, I used the Disney app to get a FastPass for the Great Movie Ride at 4:50. We finished up eating just in time to walk right up to the FastPass line and get on the ride. It is a slow moving tram ride that takes you through scenes from a number of famous movies, such as Singin' in the Rain, Mary Poppins, The Wizard of Oz, Alien, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and more. They use animatronic figures, live actors, projections, and special effects to recreate the scenes and the results are really neat. Even though the kids hadn't seen all the movies they showcased, they both seemed to really enjoy the ride.

Traveling through Munchkin Land.

Follow the Yellow Brick Road.

After that, we walked over to last showing of the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. We had gone back and forth about when to see this show, but for me it was one of the "must-see" attractions, so I was really glad that we were able to fit it in. The kids haven't seen any of the Indiana Jones movies yet, but they had a good time watching the stuntmen recreate famous scenes and stunts from Raiders of the Lost Ark. The scale of the show is pretty impressive, with huge sets and lots of action.

The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular.

At this point, we felt like we had hit all the rides and shows that were on our list, and anything else was just gravy. I had seen on the Disney app that there was a Muppet movie playing without any long lines, so we headed over to watch the Muppet Vision 3D movie. It was great fun; full of classic Muppets humor and gags, and some pretty good 3D effects too. 

After leaving the Muppet Vision movie, we got halfway across the park when Emma realized she'd lost her MagicBand somewhere. We retraced our steps, checking places we stopped, gift shops, and the Muppet theater, but couldn't find the band. We headed to the guest services desk at at the front of the park to see if it had been turned in, but no luck. They told us that we could get it replaced back at our hotel that evening if it hadn't turned up. 

I don't remember exactly when, but at some point I managed to snag one more FastPass for Toy Story Mania, so we did that a second time. Everyone improved their scores over our first try, and it was just as fun the second time. The ride actually broke down on us very close to the end, but it was back up and running in only a couple of minutes.

It was now 8:30 PM and we walked back to the center of the park and found a really good spot for the Star Wars Galactic Spectacular Projection and Fireworks show, with around half an hour to wait. I got some snacks for us to munch on while we waited.

Spectacular is definitely the right word for this show. They project an amazing montage of clips from the movies on the replica of Mann's Chinese theater, which houses the Great Movie Ride, while fireworks light up the sky and those thrilling  John Williams themes boom from the speakers. It was really awesome, and while a video is a poor substitute to being there, in this case it's still worth checking out.

Naturally, as soon as the show was over, every one of the thousands of people assembled started making their way out of the park. We were all exhausted at this point, but before we left, I wanted to get the pictures from the kids' Jedi Training added to our Memory Maker account.

Since I purchased Disney's Memory Maker package, we normally just scan a MagicBand at each ride or with a park photographer, and the pictures are magically added to our account, and can be seen on the Disney Experience app within minutes. It is a really awesome service and I can't recommend it enough. For the Jedi Training though, they had two photographers snap hundreds of pictures of all of the kids present and then they hand out each parent a card with a code on it at the end. You can use the code to add the event to your Memory Maker account, but that means we would have ALL of the pictures added. We were told that if we went to the photo store, we could get help to just select the pictures of our kids and have only those added.

We found the photo store and stood in line for what seemed like forever. I figured that we would have waited in line for the bus anyway, so might as well get it done now. The kids sat down on the floor to rest their tired feet, and found our first Hidden Mickey in the spots of a statue of a dalmation outside of the shop.

After an eternity passed, we finally got the photos added to our account. Hindsight being 20/20, I really wish that I'd saved that part for another time.

I was hoping that due to the amount of time that had elapsed, the lines for the busses would have died down, but they were still very long. We joined the line for the bus back to our hotel at 10:20 PM. Emma fell asleep in my arms, while standing in the line. We got on bus at 10:42 and made it back to the hotel around 11.

We split up, and while I waited in line at the front desk to get Emma a new Magic Band, Mariah took the kids back to the room and tossed them into the two showers to try to quickly wash off all of the suntan lotion and sweat of the day. The kids passed out within minutes of their heads hitting the pillows.

Mariah and I set our alarms for 6 AM, ready to do it all over again for our next day at Animal Kingdom...

Disney World 2017 - Day 2 - Legoland

On day two of our trip, we woke up shortly before 8 am and packed up our things to check out of the hotel to head to Legoland. The Hampton Inn we stayed at had a very nice breakfast area set up. This was not just coffee and cold bagels, but they had juice, pastries, eggs, Canadian bacon, a waffle making station, fresh fruit, and more. We ate a quick breakfast and got on our way around 9:30 or so.

It took only a few minutes to drive to Legoland and by the time we parked and made our way to the gates, it was just after the Park opened at 10 am.

Ready for an amazing day!

As recommended by our excellent travel agent, Karen, we headed straight to the back of the park to work our way to the front, and thereby avoid the heaviest crowds (if you want to follow along, you can find a map of the park here). This was easier said than done, as every corner we turned brought something new and interesting to look at. Anywhere you go in Legoland, there is something really cool made out of Lego bricks to look at.

On our way, we saw the first signs that it was a Star Wars weekend at Legoland, as we ran into Boba Fett and Zam Wesell. Emma wasn't interested in posing with them, but Ben wanted me to join him for the photo op. Who am I to say no?

We made it three-quarters of the way to the back when we broke down and rode our first ride, Project X, a mouse-trap style roller coaster. Emma, usually the most fearless one, was nervous while waiting in the short line, but both kids loved it. 

Next, we hit a couple of nearby rides that we had heard usually had long lines due to the slower nature of the rides: the Boating School and the Driving School. The kids had fun on both rides as the boats and cars are not on rails, so they can actually be steered by the person at the wheel. I think the boat ride was the better of the two as the Driving School ride seemed to be very short, given how slow the cars went. I don't think either one was able to make a single lap of the track.

Then we headed over to the Flying School roller coaster, a steel hanging coaster where the track is above you and your feet are hanging in thin air. Again, due to the early time, there was almost no line for this ride yet, so we only waited a few minutes before it was our turn. Ben and Emily loved it so much that we got right back in line and rode it a second time right away.

The Flying School roller coaster was at the very back of the park, excluding the water park that we were skipping, so we now started working our way to the front again. After a quick water break, we tried Rescue Academy, a fun, firefighting activity. Four teams competed by climbing onto Lego fire trucks and propelling them down a short track by pumping large handles up and down. Then we all jumped out and Ben and Emily aimed fire hoses at a "burning" building while Mariah and I operated more hand pumps to pump the water. Then it was back on the truck to race back to the finish line. 

After saving the day, we next headed over to Coastersaurus, a wooden coaster with some nice hills. This one had a little bit of a line but was still probably less than a 20 minute wait. It is a nice ride and was a big hit with both kids.

Across the way from Coastersaurus is Safari Trek, so we decided to give that a shot. This was probably our longest line of the whole trip, maybe 30 minutes or so, and it was a long wait for not much ride. It is a slow, short safari ride, in some little self-propelled cars on a track. During the ride you get to look at some very nice animal models, most of which you can see from outside the ride without having to wait in a line. Oh well.

We then backtracked a little bit to head to Ninjago world. This area had some cool Lego statues, dragons and scaled up ninja mini-figs that Ben was able to easily name. It also had a bit of a play area where kids can do some ninja training, like a rock climbing wall.

Ninja Training in Ninjago Land

There is one ride in the area, the creatively named "Lego Ninjago: The Ride," an extremely cool 4-D moving, shooting ride. It seats four people per car, which moves down a track, spinning around in different directions as you move past multiple 3-D movie screens. Each person wears a pair of 3-D glasses and can thrust their hand out over some sensors in front of them which will then shoot out a fireball that appears on the movie screens. As you move from screen to screen, there are ninjas and monsters jumping around everywhere for you to attack. The ride has smoke and water spray effects timed with the action on-screen, and it keeps score for each player. Ben got the high score for our team with 176,000 points.

By the time we finished the Ninjago ride, it was around 1 o'clock in the afternoon, so we decided to eat lunch at the nearby Lego City Burger Kitchen. This was probably a mistake, as the place was slam-packed, probably due to its central location in the park. Although it took a long time to order, and then just as long to get the food, it was very good and everyone enjoyed it. 

After lunch, we decided to head over to the Imagination Zone. This area had some areas with piles of Lego bricks for the kids to play and build in and a room set up with a dozen or so video game consoles where the kids could play Lego video games (Ben was immediately drawn to this room, but we told him "no way," and that he could play video games at home). They also had a larger build room with several ramps and rails in it. Kids could go up to a counter and either get some wheels, or a block that let you attach a Lego creation to the rail so that your bricks could "fly" down the sloped railing. Ben took advantage of this to try out a few flying creations. The only downside was that they had a very limited set of bricks to build with in this room, mainly larger blocks, so you couldn't really built anything detailed.

Ben building a creation to fly down the railings in the background.

The coolest part of the Imagination Zone, though, was the display of Star Wars models, built by a local Lego club. These ranged from a huge AT-AT to some table-sized battle scenes and were very cool to look at.

Our next stop after leaving the Imagination Zone was the Kid Power Tower: a cool ride where you sit in pairs around a tall tower and work in teams to pull a rope which raises your seat in the air. The more you pull on the rope the higher your seats go, up to maybe 30 feet or so, and then when you let go of the rope, you gently drop back down. I rode with Emma and she had great fun going up and down, over and over again.

Next up, we stopped in a cool, two level, climbing and play area where the kids on the top floor could shoot foam balls out of air powered guns as the kids on the lower floor, who could put the balls into cannons that would shoot them up in the air. This was a great spot to get some shade from the hot Florida sun, and let the kids run and climb around for a bit.

After this, we headed across the park to the Lego Kingdoms area, where Merlin's Challenge, an old carnival style ride which spins riders in a circle.

We next tried to ride the Dragon roller coaster, but after 5 minutes or so the long line had not moved an inch. We decided to skip it for the moment, as it was starting to get late in the afternoon and the park closes at 6 pm.

So we bailed on the Dragon and instead the kids rode the Royal Joust, a ride where they got to ride around a jousting arena on Lego horses.

Ready to joust!

This turned out to be a stroke of luck for us, because while the kids and I waited in line, Mariah waited outside and was approached by an park employee who, completely unprompted, gave her a free fast-pass to the Dragon roller coaster! After the kids were done jousting, we headed back over to the Dragon. The line was moving now, but the wait was up to 45 minutes. Our fast passes let us jump straight to the front of the ride and we were seated in less than 5 minutes.

I love Emma's face in this one. She is in roller coaster heaven!

The Dragon was actually a cool little roller coaster, as it weaves it's way slowly through the castle first, where you get to see some scenes with knights and dragons before it exits the castle and turns into a more traditional coaster.

Next we walked over to Miniland USA, a huge area in the middle of the park where they have intricately built models of famous landmarks. These cityscapes were mind blowing in their creativity and attention to detail. The kids excitedly ran from one place to another yelling out all the little hidden things they would see. Because it was Star Wars weekend, there were even tiny little R2-D2 robots hidden all over the different sets that the kids took great joy in finding and showing to us. One could easily spend hours in this area discovering all of the little scenes and hidden easter eggs found all over the models.

They had also built a number of special Star Wars dioramas and life size statues. Ben was in heaven here, calling out every scene, character, what movie it was from, etc.

Ben gets "force choked" by Darth Maul.

Closing time was coming fast, so we made our way to the two-story Grand Carousel. All of the horses are, of course, fashioned to look like Lego horses. The kids wanted to ride on the top level, but it was already full by the time we made our way on. This didn't seem to dampen Ben and Emma's enjoyment of the ride though.

It was now 10 minutes to park close. so we rushed to get one more ride in and tried a cool looking, weird spinning horse thing called Mia's Wild Adventure, I think. It's kinda hard to explain. Behold this strange monstrosity:

So everyone sits in a circle on these horses facing outwards. The ride starts to slide back and forth on a curved, vertical track. Then, once you are moving pretty good, the whole thing starts spinning around while it is still moving back and forth on the track. It moves very much like an old school scrambler, but while traveling in an arc. It was lots of fun, but made me a bit nauseous by the end. Both kids loved it of course, and listed it as their #2 favorite ride, when asked later.

The park was now closed, but the stores were still open, so we stopped by the biggest store at the front of the part to let the kids pick out a souvenir. This took a while as there were, understandably, a TON of Lego sets in the store.

We finally said our goodbyes to Legoland and got back on the road, making the 45 minute drive back up to Orlando and finding hotel in Disney World, the Art of Animation resort.

This place was really awesome! The huge lobby is covered in some very cool artwork from different Disney and Pixar movies, they have a huge pool, and the different buildings are themed after different movies.

Our room was in one of the Cars themed buildings and Ben and Emma were excited to see all sorts of familiar sights and faces from the Cars movies, including "life-size" replicas of the characters from the movie.

The lobby of the Art of Animation Resort.

The Big pool at the resort. They have underwater speakers
so you can hear Disney music playing while you swim! 

The Cozy Cone sign spins and lights up, just like in the movie.

Hangin' with Mater.

We ordered room service pizza for dinner and ate sometime after 9 pm, then got the kids in bed around 10.

It was a long, crazy, hot, exiting, tiring, fun day, and it was only just the beginning...