Day 5 - Hollywood Studios and Back to the Magic Kingdom

Day 5:
Today started out at 8:30am and we all had breakfast in the room. We got down to the bus stop about 10am, but the buses were running really slowly and we didn't actually get to Disney Hollywood Studios until around 11:30ish (which kinda sucked, but oh well. :) We went straight to the thing Gabe wanted most, the Tower of Terror (a haunted hotel based on a Twilight Zone theme, complete with intro by what appear to be Rod Serling that describes how the hotel had an entire elevator and wing mysteriously disappear one night.) There was a bit of a line, but it twisted around in the shade, so it wasn't too bade. Unlike the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom, this ride took the 'scary' bits a little more seriously. Gabe didn't like the ride experience much. There were lots of ups and downs (the tower is basically an elevator ride where you get scared during a weird up-and-down rollercoaster-type thing) and it scared him a bit, but I think he was just soaking in the experience and that saying he didn't like it was really his way of saying 'wow, that was intense!'. We explained that it was -supposed- to be a bit intense and about the concept of a "thrill ride" and he thought it was a pretty interesting idea that people would go to entire parks where almost every ride there was made to make you feel that way.

We went to Pixar Place next. The place was a -bit- like actually being at Pixar Studios in Emeryville, but on a smaller scale. We hit the Toy Story Mania! ride next. There was an extremely long line, but it was inside and cool and in Hollywood Studios, there is an awfully lot of concrete to radiate out the Orlando heat. The interior was designed with huge toys all around, as though created by toys (or maybe by a small boy for use with his toys) and definitely made you feel very small and 'in character'. At the far end, a huge animatronic Mr. Potatohead stood and told jokes and generally acted as a barker at a carnival, which was what this ride was supposed to be like. He was entertaining. After like an hour in a line, we finally got to the ride. The whole thing turned out to be a neat interactive 3D shooter game made to look like the midway at a carnival. Everybody got a 'gun' mounted on their cars that 'fired' darts/balls/etc. at shooting gallery-type screens that kept track of your score. I eventually figured out how to shoot really fast and ended up with 130,000 points, which I thought was pretty good, until I saw that the high score was over 350,000, for the -day-. Hehe.

After that experience we were dying of starvation and wanted to go to the "Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater", but it was full, so instead we went next door to the "ABC Commissary" and had some fish and chips and a coke (ugh, my diet! :) We went to "Star Tours" next. Gabe was a little worried during the ride, but eventually loved it. Again, there was a bit of a long line. We -just- missed having almost no line; there was a "Jedi Academy" show going right outside that was packed with people, but I had to go to the bathroom. Unfortunately, by the time I got back , the Jedi show was done and all those people had gone directly into the Star Tours ride and the line was like 5 times as long. Ugh. The ride takes place (in a full-motion flight simulator) on a pretend flight to Endor for a tour, but our Pilot, "Rex", got us lost from the start. Went on a wild ride, ending up in some battles and flying through some asteroids and even right next to the Death Star itself. In the gift shop, Gabe built his own two-ended light saber and we are having it delivered to the hotel for free tomorrow so we don't have to carry it around all day.

By that time we were getting a little tired of Hollywood Studios. It's a great place and all, but just doesn't have the appeal for us, Gabe included, as some of the other places. It was hotter, the lines were longer, and the rides a bit more grown-up. So, we left there and got on a bus to go to the Magic Kingdom.

It was about 3:30pm and Gabe wanted to get a trip through Haunted Mansion and I wanted to hit the Pirates of the Carribean ride before we met up with Jason and Markay later that day. So we took a bus to the Transportation Center where we switched to the monorail. Ever since I was a kid and visited Disney, I'd wanted to ride the monorail; and it was cool! The views are excellent (and very unique) and the ride is very smooth and quiet. We went -through- the Contemporary Resort and got to see inside there, which actually looked a lot nicer than I'd expected.

Once we got to the Magic Kingdom and went inside, we saw Chip and Dale signing autographs and giving pictures, so we stopped to get Gabe his first autograph. While Gabe and Lisa stood in line, I shot some interesting shots around the area. We eventually got some good pix and signatures from C&D and headed in. We went to Cinderella's Castle to take some photos and then went to the Haunted Mansion, at Gabe's insistence. (As I recall, when I was a kid and visited the Haunted Mansion, I went through a few times in a row because it I thought it was cool too! :) We went next to the Pirates of Caribbean ride. Gabe wasn't sure he would like it. The beginning has a definite haunted house vibe and of course the entire beginning sequence as you roll past the skeletons of dead pirates to the droning piratical voice from the heavens going "Dead men tell no tales!" over and over again, so it was easy to see how he'd get the wrong idea. Once in side though and he that it was awesome. We spent a lot of time in gift shop there, but got some neat things for Gabe.

After we left there, we went to Ye Olde Christmas Shop because we got caught in thunderstorm while heading back to the bus. While in the Christmas ornament store we found cool ornaments and got a couple to commemorate our trip, but were stuck without any way to get back without getting soaked. While we were milling around all the breakable ornaments, Gabe busted one accidentally. It wasn't any big deal, but he was exhausted and got a little upset (everyone sort of went "ohhh!" real loud and I think he was a bit embarrassed) so he got a big choked up over it. I told him it was really okay and accidents happen, but he was -exhausted-. Finally everything was okay, we decided to just make a break for the buses and if that meant get wet, so be it (we needed to get back), so we packed up all our stuff into store bags (our electronic stuff needed to be protected from the rain) and walked out in a light (cool) rain. We were pretty wet when we got to the bus stop. We hit the bus and headed back to the hotel.

We called Jason and Markay when we got back to our hotel. They were -just- then leaving Busch Gardens (it was about 8pm). We ordered pizza from a local joint, thinking it would be there by the time everyone got to the hotel (they were about an hour away), but it was late and there was a huge ordeal to get a missing cheese pizza that went on throughout the night until we finally got it at, no kidding, around 12:30am. But we had a lot of things to eat that -did- make it and we finally got everything and ate and hung out for several hours. Everyone just sort of hung out together, kids included, and we had a great time. Around 11pm we went down to the pool and stayed until almost 1am! Needless to say, we are all exhausted!

Overall, it was a truly excellent day. We went to -two- Disney theme parks, got to hang out with my brother and sis-in-law and their family, and wore everyone out with fun activities all day long. I think we might just sleep in tomorrow!

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....