15 Dec 2016
[07:25 EST+1]
We were in Disney's Hollywood Studios today or, maybe they should just out and out rename it to Disney's Star Wars land due to the amount of Star Wars stuff they have there now.
It's been 6 years since we were last here and in that time three things have gone - backlot tour, Lights camera action and the backstage area around where Osborne Lights used to be.
So far all there is to replace it are a couple of character activities. A few times a day a line of Storm Troopers (based on Episode 7) walk through the main street and do a little bit on stage.
We saw them multiple times during the day, each from a different area.
Then there's a small 'show' where characters from the series are on stage. Biggest issue with this is that the stage faces North and therefore during the shows everyone is looking into the sun. That was quite an issue today as the clouds were few and the sun was very strong initially.
New and old characters appear
Plus there's a short 'making of' type film in an auditorium and the Jedi training school. Plus the original Star Tours ride which I was never keen on because, as simulators go, it wasn't one of the better ones.
Whilst one stage show was on, we took the opportunity to dart into the Movie Show ride - this is a ride through the movies type thing which will appeal to the older visitor as the newest movie referenced there (Alien) is nearly 40 years old now! Still, it looks good and they've changed the format of the ride a little to mix things up.
One good thing today, was that I finally managed to make use of our fastpass+ tickets. You have to download an app onto the phone and scan the tickets into the app to register them (I had to do this on the web site in the end). From then onward, you can use them to book some spaces at rides in the park before you get there. You are only allowed three such bookings a day, so I opted for Hollywood Tower of Terror ride (between 1:25 and 2:25), the Indy Action Show (4:25) and the Toy Story Mania ride (5:25 to 6:25). The last was a good scoop as we've only ever managed to do this ride once before. It's a 3D target shoot but the biggest issue is that it's a slow loader so the walk in queues are always slow. Hence the normal fastpass would run out before we would normally arrive. However, doing it from the apartment before we left meant that we got in 30 minutes before the park closed.
I did the Tower of Terror ride twice - it's such a good ride this. Multiple elevator rises and falls in the semi dark. Lots of screams by all (ahem) and best of all, the ride is randomised so you never know what's going to happen.
Linda has never done this ride, so I used her fastpass too to get on a second time.
From there we wandered around a little, saw some more Star Wars stuff.
Then made our way over to the Indiana Jones adventure show - this is a live action show following the making of three scenes from Raiders of the Lost Ark. We always try and catch this if we can, despite it being the same each time. It just looks great.
By now it was getting dark and the decorations were on. Not a patch on the Osborne Lights of old, but still pretty good.
It was at this time that Linda decided to get my light-up ears which she'd been promising to do for a while. Here they are getting turned on for the first time...
After doing the Toy Story Mania ride (I got 145,000 points, half that of the top score for the day). We headed back to near the Tower of Terror where Linda had spotted a Mint Baileys type drink that she wanted to try. It was hot chocolate based I think. She seemed to enjoy it!
The last event (other than Fantasmic which we make an effort to avoid now - the wait time is just too long and we've seen it before a couple of times) was a lights and laser show in the main square. We arrived here late so had poor visibility in general, still it looked quite busy.
The park rapidly emptied out at that point as essentially the park was closing, leaving just the people at Fantasmic still to exit. So we took the time to get some night photos of the place.
From there it was a short drive back to the Lake area and we got some food from a place right outside out resort area.
Garlic fries - yum!
FULL PHOTO ALBUM : https://goo.gl/photos/8xj2mRMemRL6wTmw9