Friday 22nd May

[08:34]

It's Star Wars day at Hollywood Studios !

[22:35]

We left earlier than normal and was at Hollywood Studios by 10am. There were a variety of guests and photo shoots planned throughout the day - together with a Star Wars themed parade in the afternoon.

First stop was to collect Fast passes on Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roll Rollercoaster. We then did the 'behind the movies' ride. Before returning to those rides to complete them.

It was parade time as we returned to the main street, so we waited there to watch it. The parade was delayed a little by a sudden downpour.

The parade was quite good - there were a few special guests associated with the films or Clone wars.

Once the parade had finished, we decided to have a look at the new Toy Story Mania ride. We'd not managed to get on it at Christmas as the line was too long. Checking the fast path, it was already seven hours ahead! The line wait said 50 minutes, so we decided to have a go on the standby line. Besides, within a few minutes of waiting (undercover) it had started to rain outside.

The wait ended up being just over the hour - not too bad considering the state of the weather outside - heavy rain showers almost the whole hour. The ride itself is very good - a sort of 3D version of the Buzz Lightyear ride in WDW crossed with some mad shooting game from Wii Play!

As we emerged back into daylight, we walked up to the Back Lot area. There were supposed to be 'evil' characters here for photo shoots, but with the rain they were nowhere to be seen. We decided to do the Back Lot tour so queued up. About 5 minutes later the tour was closed as the rain was joined by thunder and a significant amount of lightning. We found a place to sit out the storm for a while.

There must have been a LOT of rain as the drain cover we were sitting next to started to shake and spurt water out from around its edges as the water pressure increased beyond the limit of the drain.

The storm lasted at least 30 minutes. It also cleared the park somewhat as by the time we started to move again the streets seemed a lot clearer.

We dropped in on the merchandise / photo op. areas to get some photos.

Which was all good fun and killed some more time before our meal in Momma Melrose. The food was OK, but the whole meal took over 90 minutes to get served - waaaay to long for what it was. No big tip there!

One last trip to Tower of Terror and Rock'n'Roll - both under 20 minutes wait combined - then it was off home.