Florida Trip - Disney's Hollywood Studios

This is one of the best places to be. There's a lot of joy to be had at all the parks we've already reviewed but this one has a LOT of neat stuff in it to look at and do. Lot!

Star Tours - did this four times, in part because Kara got mad when it ended and we had to vacate the ship. The easiest way to make her happy was to go again. Simulator ride that moves with the events on the video screen. The queuing area first takes you past the slightly damaged looking ship you'll be riding, with R2-D2 already installed as navigator. From a nearby platform, C3P0 tries to verbally straighten him out as always. Further in, more droids are on display and in for repair. After queuing and watching a brief and funny travel video (the same generic sort of thing you'd see for an airline but with Star Wars characters involved), you enter the seating area of the ship and strap yourselves in. The droid captain (a physical prop) opens the shutter between us and the cockpit and we can see out the forward screen (a video screen) just like him. Another side monitor provides us with other information during the flight... the flight that is our pilot's first flight! Upon launch, he almost immediately takes a wrong turn down a maintenance shaft, dodging vehicles and armatures until he finds a porthole and gets us out of the starbase. 'I meant to do that,' the pilot insists, 'a little shortcut.' He engages hyperspace and we're on our way to the moon of Endor...until the pilot flies right past it and into a shower of comets! Carefully (?) he tries to fly through a massive icy comet and manages to do so with minimal damage to the ship (hopefully). Now we can get back to our trip, except we're caught in the tractor beam of a star destroyer! We manage to break free from that, only to be caught in a space battle between Tie Fighters and X Wings! We regroup with the X Wings in order to take on the Death Star! As we drop behind an X Wing to do the trench run, the pilot confesses 'I always wanted to do this!' We watch as the ship before us deposits bombs in the correct vent and escape the distruction of the Death Star. We hyperspace back to the starbase and the pilot manages to not kill us as we land. But it's close. Fun time.

MuppetVision 3-D - movie. Saw it three times (not enough!). The queuing area is FILLED with fun Muppet posters and references and jokes. The main queuing area has more of this as well as screens playing a 'pre-show' video involving Sam the American Eagle trying to prepare us for the show. Gonzo and Scooter (Richard Hunt in what I think was his last appearance as Scooter) try to help but aren't much. Sam is proud to announce that Mickey Mouse is here but is gobsmacked when Rizzo the Rat appears in mouse ears pretending to be Mickey. When questioned, Rizzo goes 'They're tourists. Whadda they know?' (which would get laughs from the crowd each time.) The theatre looks like an auditorium redecorated to look like the Muppet Theatre. It's not quite...red enough to look like the place on the show, but it works. As you get comfortable and put your 3-D glasses on, the curtain on the balcony near Stage Left opens to reveal Statler and Waldorf (this is where they should be according to the show and they are animatronics). They put on their glasses and start joking. The movie starts with Gonzo and a cheap 3D effect which Kermit (last Jim Henson as Kermit) promises is the last of those (he's wrong). This is to be a good show and he promises a little musical number from Miss Piggy (who interrupts, displeased at his use of the word 'little') as well as Sam, who promises a Salute to all Nations, but mostly America. The Swedish Chef is also introduced as the projectionist (turn around, he's there as an animatronic!). Kermit takes us to Muppet Labs where Bunsen and Beaker create the world's first 3-D effect, a computer generated character. He goes a bit rogue and they try to vacuum him up, but only remove Muppet Labs instead (fans in the theatre add to the effect of the vacuum, we'll also get water squirting and bubbles from the ceiling). Kermit takes us to Piggy's number. As it starts, Statler and Waldorf put in their two cents. Piggy tries to sing but keeps getting distracted by Bean Bunny's (a character from the late 80's Jim Henson Hour that never really caught on) attempts to add 3-D action disrupt. Finally she calls off the song, much to Bean's dismay, as this means he won't have any use for his last prop. As Piggy takes it from him, he reveals it was attached to a water skiboat and she is dragged away. Saddened by his failure, Bean interacts with the CGI effect, Waldo (I think), and decides to run away. Gonzo manages to catch him leaving but doesn't understand in time that Bean doesn't plan to return. The hunt for Bean begins! Sweetums is amongst those searching (at one point he hits a paddle ball out into the crowd ala House of Wax) and walks from one side of the screen to the other...and then out into the crowd! Bean, as it happens, is in the balcony box across the way from Statler and Waldorf. Discovered, he expresses his desire to help and is put in charge of the fireworks for Sam's finale. Is Sam ready? Yes, he notes, his 3 hour extravagantza is ready to go. 'You've got a minute and a half,' Kermit notes. Eep! Wooden soldiers dressed in the uniforms of different countries dance and march. Some play musical instruments and get caught up in them. It tries to end with Piggy as the Statue of Liberty, but Waldo zips off the Statue part of her costume, leaving her upset again. The fireworks go wrong and the penguin orchestra (animatronics in a pit before the stage) takes fire. They fire their cannon at the Chef and the film snaps! The Chef returns fire with his blunderbuss, but at Waldo, who plays innocent (despite it really being his fault overall). He mocks the Chef's inaccurate fire but panics when the Chef reveals he also has a cannon! Waldo is blown up with the theatre. The film restarts with Kermit on the back of a fire truck ladder (which extends into the audience with the 3-D). Luckily no one got hurt and the theatre only took minor damage. Waldo reveals his disguise, as Mickey Mouse!, but is caught in the vacuum and captured. Come back soon! As you leave, Statler and Waldorf continue to snipe. 'Dya think we've got time to go to the bathroom before the next show?' 'No you old fool; we're bolted to the seats!' Exiting the theatre, there are five Muppet related posters and the nearby area is filled with Muppet jokes and art and a water fountain as you approach the theatre. The gift shop doesn't have enough Muppet stuff for sale but this is so great. I promised there would be tears when I first saw it and all I can say is at least I didn't bawl like a child. Walked around with a lump in my throat for about an hour after. So awesome.

Homey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure - playground where everything is oversized as if you shrunk. Lots of padding. Fun.

Toy Story Midway Mania! - best of the 'shooter' rides we went on. Queue area is all old toys and board game designs. You've got a pull string type gun on your car you use to shoot with. The targets are video screens as opposed to the physical targets the other games provide. This allows for an easier aim because the screens animate your weapon fire, whether it be cream pies or baseballs or darts or what have you, each screen was different in that regard. Each area is active for a brief period of time. Luckily, if the ride has to pause, the screens remain active for target practice but no points can be accumulated (so there's no cheating). Fun. Worth the wait.

Walt Disney: One Man's Dream - Moppy and I walked through this sorta fast. Lots of interesting information about Walt and his projects that I didn't have time to fully digest. Costumes from shows, models of the worlds within the theme parks, the set-up of an animation camera, lots of interesting things to see here.

The Magic of Disney Animation - short movie followed by some cute games and characters taking pictures and the setup of an animator's studio, with a live animator working in it! After that are Walt's Oscars and a gift shop selling mostly art. Artists sit and draw and you can buy their work. Isn't cheap obviously but a lot of it is on display and is fun, well drawn art.

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror - aka the ride that took my hat. It was a $5 Brewers hat that I can easily replace so it was no big deal. You walk through a hotel that appears to be from the 40s and probably not cleaned since then. Once you make it to the library, the old tv springs to life and there's the opening to the original Twilight Zone tv show! And Rod Serling! He tells us a story of people that rode in the elevator of this very building. When weird weather hit the building, a lightning strike did something odd to the people and they disappeared. We exit into the basement and cue up to ride that very elevator, if we dare! Once you reach the front of the line, we take seats in the elevator car and strap in tight. It's going to be a bumpy ride! The elevator rises and the doors open onto what would be a normal floor for this hotel. Lightning crackles and the people from the story appear in the hallway! Lightning crackles to the car and the doors close. We travel up another floor and when the doors open, the elevator car moves into the hallway. This is no hotel floor but a set of weird designs and panels. At the end of the hallway, lights twinkle, form into a straight line, and then disappear. We have entered the Twilight Zone! The elevator car shoots up and down, out of control. At the first hop, I raised off my seat, panicked, and grabbed for the hand holds that I had yet to locate. I came up with a handful of Moppy and Amy leg instead. This is also where my hat dislodged. Most of the rides have a canvas bag you can tuck things into but I couldn't find that either. I ended up sitting on my hat but hadn't expected to get that much air. At the first rise, it slid from under my leg to the floor. I couldn't locate it to step on it and the movement of the car meant that my focus was not on my hat. Oh, did I mention that when they fire the car up, they open the elevator doors to the outside so you can see how high up you are? Screaming comes naturally. I found the hand holds under the lip of the seat in time for the big raise at the end where they don't stop you suddenly but let you coast up, as if control has been completely lost. You float up a bit before dropping. At this point I saw my hat fly up and away, out the elevator doors. We crash to a (safe) halt on the ground floor and can stagger out to the gift shop. Great ride, scary as all hell. I passed on another round in order to see Muppets for a third time. I did have an interest in riding it again but wanted to see Muppets more.

Whew!