For some variety, the fourth day of our trip was spent at Disney's Hollywood Studios (formerly Disney-MGM Studios). This park really focuses on shows, but it also has two adult thrill rides (including Tower of Terror) and the brand new Toy Story Midway Mania. It turns out, Benji doesn't really like the shows and kept asking all day for the roller coaster and Magic Kingdom.
Unfortunately the only real ride he could go on was also the one with the insanely long line. Toy Story opened earlier this year and has some pretty neat technology so it definitely had the longest line anywhere in the four parks. When we arrived, Fast Passes were all the way out to 4:20 and the line said it was 50 minutes. Now, if we were there during the summer every ride would have one or two hour lines, but we're totally spoiled and balk at 20-30 minute lines. Still, we hopped in to wait it out for the new ride (unfortunately, the wait was actually 80 minutes — I think it broke down while we were in line).
The queue area for Toy Story has a lot of detail and is fun to look at. There are giant toys everywhere and they're actually the toys as they would have appeared years ago. Chutes and Ladders on the ceiling doesn't look like Benji's current edition — very retro. Toward the end of the line is the highlight of the queue — the animatronic Mr. Potato Head. He sings and moves and his eyes blink. He's supposed to be able to take off his own ear, but that apparently wasn't working the day we were there (and I had read earlier that they were having trouble with that part of the technology). The ride itself takes you around to many different stations where you play carnival midway games with 3-D glasses and a shooter. For example, you pop balloons at one station and "throw" rings around the aliens from Toy Story at another. I was surprised at how quickly the car moved from one station to the next, but that made it a bit more of a thrill ride for Benji. With our Fast Passes, we were able to take advantage of a loophole and got Benji on the ride three times total — once by waiting in line, once with Daddy's pass, and once with Mommy's pass.
With the rest of our time at the Studios, Benji spent a long time in the Animation walk through attraction. You see, there were computers to play with there, including his favorite computer coloring book. Daddy and Benji hung out there while Mommy took a ride on Tower of Terror. I thought they might go to the Little Mermaid show, but apparently Benji got angry when Daddy tried to leave the computers.
In the evening we took the boat over to EPCOT for our dinner reservations at Restaurant Marrakesh. The food was pretty good and there was a belly dancer during the meal. Matthew, however, didn't feel very good that evening and didn't really enjoy this restaurant. So, he headed back to the hotel after dinner and Mommy and Benji took a "romantic" stroll around the World Showcase lagoon. He behaved really well and held my hand as we walked in the moonlight. On the other end of the lagoon is the Norway pavilion where we rode the Maelstrom ride. It's not very exciting by my standards, but there's a little hill on the boat ride similar to the little hill in Pirates of the Caribbean and Benji quite enjoyed it. So we rode another time and then stepped out of the ride to be greeted by the fireworks show.
Benji's favorite part of the Toy Story queue was at the very beginning — Candy Land.
Because the lines weren't as long as they would have been, he even got to walk on the game board!
Notice the retro Chutes and Ladders on the ceiling.
Got to have those 3D glasses. Notice the shooting mechanism on the left. This one has you pull a string rather than push a button.
So much detailed theming, even in the loading area.
High fives for Mickey. We eventually met Mickey at all four parks.
Celebrity sighting — WALL-E!
All tuckered out sleeping on the boat ride.
At then end of our evening, Benji was happy to pose with Spaceship Earth all lit up for the night.
i sincerely do not know what you are doing here. are you lost? were you
looking for your delicate calico cat, and did you follow her up two flights of stairs
to this room? she is not here. she was here, yes. we gave her a warm bowl of milk, we talked with her about campaign finance reform for a time, and then she bid us good day. i believe she was
going to the post office two blocks down, but i don't quite recall.
for surely you did
not find your way from prinsiana, the least traveled site on
the internet. if you did, though, perhaps you are looking for humor. perhaps you are looking for profundity. perhaps you are looking for answers.
i'm sorry, but you shall go naught-for-three.
