We were downstairs to get a bus to Hollywood Studios early this morning. The kids discovered right away that there are tv's in the bus shelters--and, they're showing Disney Channel, of course!
We didn't wait long at all, and the Hollywood Studios bus came! Woohoo, we're on the bus!
We got to the park well before official opening and were able to get right in!
The Monsters University plant monsters are currently greeting folks outside the entrance.
The new RFID scanners are really cool! You just hold up your Key Card to the World until the Mickey silhouette lights up, then place your finger on the scanner until it lights up...then you're clear to go in!
Shannon and Jeremy took off running (literally, and they may have been reprimanded for running in the park) to get FASTPASSes for Rock 'n' Rollercoaster, and Dawn took the girls and Reece to get in line for Toy Story Mania.
Caeden and I went to get him signed up for the 11am Jedi Training. Just as we finished, Shannon and Jeremy met us and we walked over to find Dawn and the rest at Toy Story. It has such a great entrance and queue line! It really feels like you're in Andy's room.
Since we were there super early, very few people were in line! (This is a big deal, because this is the quickest line to get to a 90-minute wait and stay there for the rest of the day.) We carefully planned the order and times for today--our only day in this park--because we wanted to get everything in!
Sylv, ready with her 3-D glasses!
After TSM, we walked across the park to use our Rock 'n' Rollercoaster FASTPASSes. As you can see on the clock in the left side of this photo, it was only 9:05 and we'd done a lot before the park hours officially started! It was worth getting up early to get a head start on the fun!
The guitar at Rock 'n' Roller Coaster is bigger than the building--so cool! Although I didn't get any other pictures of this attraction, for some reason. Sometimes I'm just too busy soaking things in!
Rock 'n' Rollercoaster is a really fast and wild roller coaster. It was the first coaster ever for both Sylvia and Caeden. Much of it is in the dark; it goes upside down and has lots of curves and turns. It was crazy! Poor Sylvia did not enjoy it; she cried through most of it. I think it was too big a coaster to try for her first. I think everyone else enjoyed it a lot though. It stars the band Aerosmith, and the story of it is cool--like you're riding in the band's stretch limo as it goes wild. Fun stuff.
Next we hit Star Tours--twice in a row. We all love this one!
After Star Tours, it was time for Caeden to go to Jedi Training. Jeremy and I went with him, and everyone else went back to do Toy Story Mania again and caught the Muppets show too.
I think Jedi Training was probably the thing Caeden was most excited about, and it turned out to be an awesome experience! So glad we were able to do it.
The younglings were to show up with their receipt (We didn't pay extra; the receipt just showed that he'd signed up for this particular time slot.) half an hour before the training. A cast member organized all 14 kids by height, talked to them about Star Wars, about the training, and tried to get them focused.
He also asked them trivia questions about Star Wars. When he asked if any of the students had a parent who could do a good Wookie call like Chewbacca, Caeden and I immediately outed Jeremy. He does a great Chewy call! He had to demonstrate for all the people there and did a great job! ;)
After the students were all lined up, robes were brought out for each of them.
We all walked outside when it was time for the training to begin. The kids waited under a big umbrella while parents found places to take photos around the training platform.
Here's a long video of most of the performance:
The Jedi Master came out to greet the audience and welcome the youngling students.
He placed them and "training" lightsabers were distributed to each.
The Jedi Master taught the students how to use the light sabers.
The Jedi Master sensed a disturbance in the force, and Darth Vader appeared.
He threatened the children and try to persuade them to turn to the dark side.
Each child fought Darth Vader individually, with guidance from the Jedi Master! We didn't realize this was part of it and were surprised at how bravely each child fought/performed!
Caeden fighting Darth Vader:
After the youngling students defeated Darth Vader, Yoda declared them all Padawans and the Jedi Master presented each of them with a certificate!
Someone was pretty psyched about the whole thing!!!! I have to admit, it was pretty awesome!!
Meanwhile, Sylvie and Dawn were competing in Toy Story Midway Mania.
Then, making their way back across the park to meet us.
I love the icon of Hollywood Studios that stands in the middle of the park--Sorcerer Mickey's hat!
So, we all met up outside Tower of Terror. That is one scary ride, but it was GREAT!
Annah wanted me to go on the ride with her, and she said she was scared by the whole Twilight Zone story and the ghost people trapped in a broken elevator, but I know I was grabbing her arm through the whole ride! It is freaky when that thing stops and starts and goes up and down and back up and...ack!!!
We were glad to sit for a while for the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. The sets for this thing are a-maz-ing! Looks just like the movies.
The stunts were very cool, and this guy on the ladder kept going back and forth--very funny!
There was lot of fire and exploding stuff--always cool.
After Indy, we hurried to another awesome stunt show--Lights, Motor, Action! It was getting pretty hot at this point, and we had to climb a lot of stairs to get a seat in the huge stadium. We were very glad to sit and watch this amazing show.
Lightning McQueen was there!
BIG explosions! These two shows were neat in that they show how these stunts are filmed and some of the techniques used to keep the stunts safer while making them look incredible.
The producers brought a little kid out to drive this car with a remote control and kept telling him how expensive and dangerous this car was. Then after he started driving it, the car started going around in circles and we could see that there was a driver on the outside of the car that we hadn't been able to see before because the car hadn't turned that side toward us! Haha--tricky!
These guys do some serious stunts--big on the WOW factor!! Here's a video taste of the show:
After the show, we walked through the park. We had late lunch reservations at 2pm (So we could make it to all the shows we wanted to see!) and we were pretty hungry.
We had lunch at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater. It's like an old drive-in, and they show clips from ridiculous retro sci-fi movies while you eat! And, the tables are cars!!
What a neat atmosphere! I thought the food was great too! And we had some good laughs at how horrible the old sci-fi movies (like Attack of the 50-Foot Woman!) and commercials were.
We decided to go on The Great Movie Ride before leaving the park for a while. I'd never been on it, so I was just completely enthralled the whole time.
There are many scenes from some of the most famous American movies of all time throughout this ride. (As in most Disney dark rides, it is hard to get good pictures since you're moving.)
Singin' In the Rain
Mary Poppins
Clint Eastwood
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Casablanca--(Which I've never seen! Must remedy that soon.)
And, okay, don't laugh, but the Wizard of Oz scenes took my breath away and made me tear up. It's one of my very favorites and such a treasured movie. It was a very cool feeling to be right in the middle of it!
Yep, awesome.
We left the park for the afternoon/evening. Back at the resort, there was swimming. The pool area was beautiful! (Okay, we didn't take these photos, as none of us took our cameras or phones down to the pool, but I wanted the memory and record of the place.)
The kids raved about the water slide!
I didn't make it down to the pool, but they told me over and over again how awesome it was that there was a stoplight at the top of the slide because it's so long you can't see the end of it from the top to know when it's okay to go, so there's a sensor at the bottom that signals the light! (And they told me in a run-on sentence just like that too!)
Jeremy made friends with the hot tubs late at night. He pulled a groin muscle helping kids at wrestling camp last week, so it'll be good for him to get some hot tub therapy here!
We had a quick supper of sandwiches and fruits and veggies before heading back to Hollywood Studios.
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