Disney's Hollywood Studios

American Idol Experience
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First up today we attended a “character” breakfast at the Ohana restaurant at the Polynesian Resort. While a hot breakfast was brought to our table – including Mickey Mouse head shaped waffles – a number of Disney characters made their way around the restaurant. We were lucky enough to have “encounters” with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo and Stich. It was entertaining to see them interacting with the guests and miming everything cause they don’t talk.

Donald and Daisy Duck
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We then boarded the bus and headed for a day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – along with the masses of people who came out with the warmer weather. I actually managed to walk around today without a jumper for a short period – which seems amazing that just two days ago it was a maximum of 8 degrees. Average temperatures are now predicted for the remainder of our stay with a comfortable 23 expected tomorrow – yay!

Lights, Camera – Action!

Andrea and Lilo
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Up first we entered the American Idol Experience where we participated in the audience as three visitors to the park competed for a front-of-line audition ticket for the real American Idol. There were two sisters and a guy competing. The sisters were ok – but the guy was the winner as he had age and looks on his side and not a bad set of vocal chords on him either.

It was then on to Star Tours simulator – a star wars themed experience. Here we boarded a shuttle where our learner pilot flew haphazardly through the stars, in and out asteroid fields, and down through the surface of the Deathstar, before finding his way to our ship and coming in for a rough landing in the landing bay. I was very happy to exit this ride! As we were leaving we were drawn back to the centre court area by music and found that the High School Musical 3 production was in full swing. These young dancers were bouncing all over the place and singing up a storm. After this finished we headed off to finish off the attractions in the first area of the park, but found two of them were closed for maintenance.

Mickey and Joe
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With the first area finished we headed to the second and walked into the Muppet 3D Vision – which turned out to be exactly the same show we had seen before at Disneyland in California.  It was then time to find a quick bite to eat - I tried a pulled pork sandwich and Joe a chicken caeser wrap. The sandwich was most un-appetising to look at, and even more to eat. With not much time to spare, we headed with the hoards to the stunt arena and climbed way up into the stands to find an empty spot. The Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme stunt show took you through what was involved in filming a car stunt sequence, using specially modified vehicles. These vehicles included one where the steering had been turned around so that the car would appear to be going in reverse, but the driver was actually facing that direction. There was also another a car where the driver was mounted below window level on the back of the car so that the car appeared to be being driven by a remote control. The sequences were entertaining with synchronised near misses, flames leaping into the air and men falling off buildings and skidding through oil slicks.

Mickey's Magical Hat
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I imagine it would have been a great time to wander the park while this stunt show was on as the majority of people would have been in the stands. These all then flooded out at the end of the show and it took patience to make you way out. We had hoped to try the Toy Story Midway Mania attraction at this point, but all the Fast Pass tickets had been allotted for the day and the standby line waiting time was 90mins. No Way Jose!

We moved down into Mickey Avenue and in here we entered the Journey into Narnia: Prince Caspian attraction. This 15min movie was not very exciting and just told the story of the latest Narnia movie that has been released. Then we walked through the exhibition outlining Walt Disney’s life and career. It was interesting to see how he started out as a cartoonist and then developed ideas for how to bring his sketches to life using tiered cameras bringing depth to his compositions.

The crowds and Disney's Hollywood Studios
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We then wandered over to the Sunset Boulevard area of the park where the two fast paced rides are located. With me being a scardy-cat, I told Joe to go ahead into the single-rider line for the Rock’n’Roller Coaster. This line was a lot shorter than the standby line and Joe was back within about 20mins and feeling energised from the ride. The Tower of Terror ride had a queue that was way too long and no single-rider line so we gave this one a big miss.

Star Tours Exhibit
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It was time to line up to snag a seat for the Fantasmic Finale show of the night. With limited space in the arena, this was required 90mins before the show to ensure you got a seat. It was a long 90mins, as the cold metal benches and the obnoxious Americans yelling down four rows to talk to their mates/family pushed the friendship. The show finally started at 6.30pm and it was worth waiting for. A curtain of water/mist was used to project laser animations of Disney characters and stories onto. Every now and then when the wind shifted we could feel the brush of water on our cheeks.

Stunt Show
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During breaks in the lasers, Mickey appeared on the mountainous set fighting dragons, pirates and other bad guys. Of course at the end of the day, Mickey reigned supreme. At one point a large steamboat appeared from the back of the set and on board was the full complement of life-size Disney characters jumping around the decks and waving to their loving public. The show finished up with a colourful fireworks extravaganza.

At the end of the day it didn’t feel as though we had seen or done as much as we wanted to with the long queues to the attractions, but we were still happy with what we had seen and headed back to the bus station. As we neared our stop, we tried to short-cut across the road and I tripped over the bright yellow gutter and tumbled onto the ground. Luckily no major injuries, but the nearby security officer was keen for me to be put in a wheelchair. My right knee was aching real bad, but I sucked it up and kept walking/limping. Once on the bus I checked the damage and I had lost a large scrape of skin and definitely strained a muscle or two. As soon as we got back to our room I put ice on it to reduce the swelling. I am sure to have a nasty bruise for a few days.