Adrian Mateljan

Monday 25th May 2009 - Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Day two was Memorial Day in the US, so we were expecting the parks to be busier (and they were). Once again we headed off early for “Magic Hour” - this time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I had planned out the day this time (with the help of a guide lent to me by one of my colleagues at work - thanks Alison!) - so there would be no missing anything of interest!

First up - the “Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster(R) Starring Aerosmith”. This was our first proper roller coaster for the week, and having seen the upside down car on the guitar strings outside - it wasn’t without a little bit of trepidation. The queue was already long enough for us to experience the mechanisms in place to keep us entertained while waiting, but being our first stop, we didn’t have to wait long. Lou became a little unsettled when she saw one of the cars before us literally take off - but then it was too late and we were buckled in for the ride. And what a ride it was! The launch at the start was probably the scariest part, as you are very quickly brought from a standing start up to full roller coaster speed (it reminded my of the coaster at Disney’s California Adventure in this respect) - but the ride is pretty much in almost complete darkness - so I can only say it felt like we were twisting and turning in on ourself, but who really knows? We came out exhilarated. It was awesome fun. The only negative? It felt very short!

Next we went past “Toy Story Midway Mania!” to pick up our fast pass tickets (and did we need them!) and then headed over to “Star Tours”. It all seemed very familiar - and it was - it was the same ride that we had done in Disneyland. After Lou was finished being distracted by a real life squirrel, we made our way through the Streets of America and ended up outside of the “Studio Backlot Tour”, waiting for it to open (first photo below).

The “Studio Backlot Tour” was fun and interesting and was broken up into two parts. The first part was a demonstration of special effects similiar to those used in the “Pearl Harbor” movie. The second photo below shows someone about to be drenched as if on a ship, while the third shows incoming torpedoes and explosions. They eventually ended up reordering the filmed scenes, splicing in additional footage and showing us the finished product!

The second part of the “Studio Backlot Tour” involves being driven around the backlot itself - checking out old props, hearing about the history of Disney, the parks, viewing the costume and engineering workshops etc and ends up with another special effects demonstration. This time it involved a semi trailer which you can see on fire in photo four and drenched in photo five. Unfortunately, still photos (especially from my iPhone) do not really do the effects justice. Photo six and seven are the Streets of America and the Monsters Inc photo opportunity respectively, as seen from the tour. Apparently they use the Streets of America for filming (it is life size) - remodelling it as necessary. The skyscrapers in the background is just a painted wall.

Next we used our fast passes to get into “Toy Story Midway Mania!”. This ended up being the longest fast pass queue we were in for the entire week. It is basically a target practice game with the Toy Story crew - but that description does not do it any justice at all. The target practice is all in 3D and you have a set time at each station before being whisked away to the next. All the while you can see your score - and compare it to your partner’s. Lou got an early lead, but in the end I prevailed quite comfortably. This was immense fun and I can fully understand the wait times. Unfortunately, this was one of the most boring queues.

From “Toy Story Midway Mania!” we raced across to see the “Indiana Jones(TM) Epic Stunt Spectactular!” where more special effects were the order of the day as they demonstrated scenes similiar to those in the various Indiana Jones movies. You can see Indiana making his entrance in photo eight (complete with falling styrofoam “rocks”), being chased by a styrofoam “boulder” in photo nine and re-enacting the plane scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark in photo ten. The bit where the Nazi boxer gets hit by the spinning propeller was particularly memorable (he disappeared *very* quickly down a trap door). Again, the photos do not do the event justice - nor do they capture the fight scenes, explosions or audience participation.

We had lunch at the “Hollywood Brown Derby” as the “50’s Prime Time Cafe” which was Lou’s original choice was booked out. Note to self - grapefruit cake tastes, surprise surprise, like grapefruit - which I don’t like!

We then rushed over to see the “Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show” (photo eleven.) Sitting in a huge stadium, we got to see the action unfold, complete with information about the vehicles, drivers, stunts and various special effects tricks used. Photo twelve shows the “ballet chase” - the red car is the “good guy” being chased. Photo thirteen shows the chase going across the ramp - the red car is already across and went over backwards, or did he? Turns out they had two red cars and this one literally drives facing out of the rear of the car! If you take a close look at photo fourteen, you can see a guy falling from the top of the building.

Photo fifteen shows the jetski getting involved (why not?) while photo sixteen shows one of the chasing motorcyclists on fire - after having slid through the fire across the tarmac - all planned of course. Its quite comical really - the guy involved dresses up in all kinds of cooling and flame retardant gear before being doused in something flammable so that he lights up instantly. It is all very controlled though - do not try this as home!

Photo seventeen shows the final explosion while photo eighteen shows the cast at the end. Note there are three red cars - the one on the right has a driver strapped on to the side so that the car can appear to drive without a driver. This was used to great effect when they asked a twelve year old from the audience to remote control drive their shiny red car (obviously, he wasn’t really driving it at all - but not before a couple of close shaves and some panicking.)

On our way out of the stadium I caught a glimpse of the old Mickey Mouse One plane (photo nineteen). We started to get down to the less popular attractions - “The Great Movie Ride” was interesting, but nothing special and the “Journey Into Narnia: Prince Caspian” added nothing if you have seen the film. With that, we called it a day and made our way to the exit. We caught a brief glimpse of the Block Party Bash parade (photo twenty) on our way out.

In the end, we missed a few popular items for various reasons. The “Twilight Zone(TM) Tower of Terror” and “Jim Henson’s Muppet*Vision 3-D” as we had done them previously at Disney’s California Adventure. “Voyage of the Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast - Live on Stage” because Lou simply wasn’t interested in seeing them. The only real disappointment was missing “Fantasmic!” - which wasn’t on that night, presumably because it was Memorial Day.

We headed into Downtown Disney for the afternoon/evening. Photos twenty one and twenty two show various Lego monstrosities outside of the LEGO(R) Imagination Centre, while photos twenty three and twenty four show some of Downtown Disney itself. We ended up going to see Terminator Salvation at the AMC Theatres (review to follow) and finished the day with a meal at Fulton’s Crab House. Unfortunately this was our worst value for money meal on our stay - being one of the more expensive places we dined at and lacking in both quality and quantity. As a comparison, we got better quality and quantity at the Hollywood Brown Derby - the most expensive restaurant at Disney’s Holywood Studios - for slightly less cost.

After a successful day, Lou let me plan out the next day’s adventure at Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. But you will have to wait for the next installment for that! Until then, bye!

Adrian

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Diary, Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.