Disney World Trip - Hollywood Studios

I don't know how long ago MGM became Hollywood Studios? I still called it MGM all day... either way it was fun.

This was the first park we went to on an actual weekend day (Saturday) and we noticed the difference. Even in the off season Disney is busy on the weekend. However, it still wasn't that bad. My biggest piece of advise is when you get to the park immediately go to the Toy Story ride and get a fast pass. This ride was the most popular and it they ran out of fast passes really quickly. The rest of the day there was a 90 minute wait, I can just imagine how long it gets on a busy day. After you get your Toy Story pass head on over to Tower of Terror, second most popular.

This was my first and ONLY Tower of Terror experience. Every other time I've gone to Disney I sat this ride out while others enjoyed it. But it's LJ's favorite ride so I told him I'd try it. I. Hated. It. I absolutely hate the feeling of falling. Like hate it with a passion. It's just not fun for me. But I did try it once, for LJ. Now I'm done. Everyone else I know seems to love it, I'll just keep on sitting this one out, thank you very much!

 We both enjoyed the Indiana Jones Stunt show. I didn't remember how involved it was. They do quite a lot of stunts. While there LJ read on his Disney ap that they've actually had multiple stunt people die while working this show. I think I'm so used to stunts in movies it's easy to forget that they are still dangerous.

 I just like this picture, great punch:

We also took in the new show "American Idol Experience". This is where Disney guests can try out to be in the show in the early morning and then later come back and perform in front of a live audience. LJ and I were in the audience and we listened to three contestants and then voted for our favorite. They had 'judges' just like the original show - one nice guy, one ditzy woman and one mean guy. Each show during the day produces a finalist. All the finalists compete in the last show of the night to be a winner. The winner gets a 'golden ticket' which lets them jump to the front of the line for any real American Idol casting call. I think it's pretty smart of Disney. After all, I'm sure they're always on the look out for new talent. I wouldn't be surprised if someone sifts through the tapes every day looking for kid singers/actors to talk to about other Disney opportunities.
LJ and I were a little disappointed though... of the three we saw sing there was one girl that was clearly the best, but she sang and older song so all the little kids voted for the girl who sang a Taylor Swift song. We felt bad for the girl who was good enough to actually make the show.

While walking around we noticed a sign saying that they were holding 'dress rehearsal' for the new Jack Sparrow Experience. It's called an experience because it's not a ride per say but not like a staged show. It doesn't officially open until tomorrow (Dec 6th) but they were testing it out so we got to get a sneak peek. :) These pictures are really dark, but you can at least get a feel for it. They usher you into a room and then there are a bunch of special effects that occur all around you.

They make it look like Jack is on the boat talking to you. That boat is 3D (though of course Jack is not). It's pretty neat...but I wouldn't wait more than 30 mins for it. It's only a couple minutes long and you don't get to ride anything. Fun addition to the park though.

I wont go through every ride, but I will share this beautiful picture of LJ and I waiting in line at the Star Wars ride. They've updated this one to include more characters. Something tells me this might be because they now own Star Wars and have the rights to all the characters.

 I'm sure this isn't new, but I'd never seen the little show outside the Star Wars ride. We just happened upon the end of it, but it was pretty cool to see people in the full costumes. (yes, I'm a nerd) Darth Vader was out earlier but I didn't get my camera out soon enough. :)

We both enjoyed our lunches.

I loved my meal. Different Cheeses with Bread, Fruit and Chocolate covered Strawberries?  I might start packing myself this meal to take to work!

LJ got a hotdog with truffle oil macaroni and cheese on top. Sounded to me like something they sell from a food truck.

After lunch we did the back lot tour. This is where they drive you around the back area tell you about different old sets and such and you get to see the grave yard of old props. It was weird to see some Star Wars stuff just chillin there.

But to me the BEST part was when you get to drive by the area where they make costumes. I know this is just one of many places Disney sews costumes but the seamstress in me totally geeked out. I wanted to jump off the train and take my time looking through the windows. Costumes are my favorite thing to sew, so making them for a living sounds like heaven to me.

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Of course we had to stop by the Great Movie Ride. Too bad we couldn't get the whole building in the picture.

We also visited the Magic of Disney Animation (obviously that one was for me, not LJ). At they end they have a fake video game..recognize it?

We ended up leaving the park around dinner time. Originally we had planned on staying for the Fantasmic show at the end of the night, but it started to drizzle. Since we'd already done everything we were interested in and the Fantasmic show wasn't for a couple of hours we decided it wasn't worth staying in the rain. I will say this, it was HILARIOUS to see people reactions when it started to drizzle. No joke, we saw people take off running like there was fire to escape. Then others saw them running and took off too. People are such sheep. They were all racing to get to an indoor ride to get out of the rain while LJ and I calmly walked out of the park. It felt a little surreal. Over all it was a lot of fun, and definitely the right park to go to on Saturday. I'm sure Magic Kingdom was packed, I know the bus line for it that morning was really long. A lot of the things to do at Hollywood Studios are shows that seat a lot of people, so it's  good park to go to on a weekend day.