Cary’s Adventures in the Magic Kingdom: Part 4: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

HOLLYWOOD LOGONext day we went to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I didn’t enjoy this park as much as I thought I would, though.  It was unusually crowded and hard to get around.  But there were still a lot of fun things to do so let’s take a look.

Greeting us as we came in was this cool stage with the giant Sorcerer Mickey’s hat behind it. They had posters and banners all over the place advertising the Frozen Summer Fun, which means they capitalized on the popularity of Frozen without actually having to build anything new.  So they had Frozen concerts and a Frozen fireworks show, and you could even get Olaf cupcakes at the restaurants.  They looked good since they were carrot cake, but they also looked like they had WAY too much icing on them so I didn’t get one.  Anyway, here’s a picture of the stage.

HAT

The first ride we went on was Toy Story Mania. It was a shooter ride similar to the Buzz Lightyear one at Magic Kingdom, but I wasn’t as impressed with this one. You had to pull a cord to shoot the guns, which was annoying.  Why can’t they just use a trigger?  Plus, even though it was a ride, you just shot at flat TV screens.  And it was all in 3-D, which doesn’t do me any good since I’ve been blind in my left eye since birth.  Honestly I’d rather just play a few rounds of Point Blank, which was basically what this ride was.  At least the line had neat things to look at, like this Mr. Potato Head acting as a carnival barker.

POTATO

I was also disappointed with Star Tours because now it’s in 3-D, too. It used to not be that way.  The cool thing is they updated the ride video and randomized the locations so you’ll never get the same ride twice.  There was one 3-D attraction I was willing to sit through, though, and that’s MuppetVision 3-D.  As a big fan of the Muppets, I had to go see it again.  I took a picture of the big Kermit balloon high in the sky.

BALLOON

I also liked how they did the outside of the gift shop in the Muppet area.

MUPPETGIFT

I was disappointed that they took out the Disney Animation tour that I loved going on when I was younger. Now it’s just a self-guided tour thing.  The Great Movie Ride was the same as always, but some of the braver members of the family did go on Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster.  And if you go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, whatever you do, do NOT go eat at Pizza Planet.  Sure it may look cool with the Toy Story setting and arcade games, but it was so crowded we couldn’t even find a seat!  We had to eat standing up!

There were a couple of attractions that were about to close for good, so they could have room to build a rumored new Star Wars area. They were going to close mere days after we were there, so we took the opportunity to see them one last time.  One was the Indiana Jones Stunt Show.  Take a last look at the stage; you may not ever see it again!

INDIANA

The other thing that was closing was the Backlot Studio Tour, but that was in need of an update anyway. I like how they slapped eyes on the planes so that it seemed like they updated it for the new Planes movies.  I wanted to take pictures of the Flight of the Navigator and Herbie the Love Bug props, but they were on the other side of the bus so I couldn’t take pictures of them very well.

PLANES

The last thing we did that night was pretty cool, though. It was called FantasMic, and it was a light and water fireworks show starring Mickey vs. Disney villains.  Most of the show was projected images over sprays of water, which looked cool but was hard to take a picture of.  The finale had Mickey and pals riding a steamboat.  I liked how Mickey’s costume in this part was all black and white.  You should’ve seen Pluto; too, he was really getting down!  If you go to this show, make sure to get there at least an hour before it starts, as it fills up fast!

STEAMBOAT

And that’s all we did at Hollywood Studios. Tomorrow we’ll look at another movie studio theme park: Universal!  –Cary

One Response to “Cary’s Adventures in the Magic Kingdom: Part 4: Disney’s Hollywood Studios”

  1. The Indiana Jones show looks neat. Too bad you had to eat standing up. Was the pizza good at least?

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