After a late landing flight, a long wait to get through US immigration at Orlando and a pretty rubbishy night we were up and about early ready to get ourselves to Hollywood Studios. In 2011, we started with this park and got round it pretty quickly. Today, however, it was a different story.
We are staying at Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort and were at the bus stop nice and early to wait for the bus (7:55 to be precise). We watched an Epcot and Magic Kingdom bus stop and leave empty (never seen a Magic Kingdon bus leave empty!). Eventually a bus turned up at 8:20. And loads of people got on it. In fact, as the bus toured the other bus stops at the resort it got fuller and fuller until it was so full it had to skip the last stop. This, plus the time spent loading a disability scooter, meant we didn't get to Hollywood Studios until just before 9:00am. And it was heaving at the gate... We rushed through the park as quickly as we could to get to Toy Story Mania, but the Fast Passes had pretty much gone for the day already (4pm onwards were available) so we joined the regular queue. The board said 60 minutes wait, but it was more like 75. Cracking ride, though, and well worth the wait, but it put us massively behind in our plan.
Next stop was the Jack Sparrow presentation, which we only waited about 10 minutes for. It was OK, some special effects in a big room and a cool 3D life size Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp), but it was nothing to write home about.
We managed to get to 50's Prime Time Cafe for our reservation at 11:20am and got straight to a table. No wait (which was brilliant as we were starving). The service was great as always, and the food most pleasant. I had the meat loaf, Mrs B had the sampler dish (which had fried chicken, pot roast and meatloaf) and Master B had a hot dog from the kids menu. Malted milkshakes all round and a chocolate brownie loaded with extras to die for made this a fabulous lunch.
We debated between courses what to do next. We decided to go Indiana Jones Stunt Show. We'd seen it before, but enjoyed it very much. I was a little worried it wouldn't stand up well to a second viewing, but it did and was fabulous. It's a firm favourite of ours.
Next up was Muppets 3D show. We filed into the theatre only to be told it was broken and to come back later. Lots of grumbling from many people, including ourselves! However, after a short 'pit stop' we were walking past the Muppets and saw it had re-opened. We went back in. The pre-movie video int he waiting areas was pretty funny and well worth catching. The main feature iteself was fun, although if you aren't a big Muppets fan, it probably isn't worth doing. The 3D is great, but pretty standard stuff these days.
Finally, we rode Star Tours. Is this the only ride where we want a queue? It really is a great queuing area and we had to wait about 20 minutes, but they were a fun 20 minutes (unlike Toy Story which was BORING!). The ride itself is a real cracker. I'm not one for roller coasters or anything too 'hardcore' but this is just enough action to be thrilling, but not to make me feel sick! We visited Hoth and Coruscant on our journey. Despite having ridden the ride loads the last time we were here, Coruscant was new to us, which was fun. Master B bought an enormous toy replica of the Star Tours spaceship. Which will be fun to pack.
By then it was 3:30pm. We were all knackered, after a long days travelling the day before and a busier-than-anticipated park. It was much busier than the same time in 2011. Possibly because the weather was so warm (90F) or possibly we were just unlucky, but we will definitely go back again this trip.
Once we had got back to the hotel, we hit the pool for a bit, then got something to eat. We did go down to the bonfire after our food to toast some marshmallows which was good fun and kept Master B amused for a few minutes! But everyone is tuckered out now. Time for a bit of kip and see what tomorrow brings...
Beer consumed: Samuel Adams Octoberfest - king of the Octoberfest beer for me!
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