Day 4 –
Hollywood Studios day…the
one day we know we need to play the Toy Story FASTPASS process well, or we
would not be riding it all, or more than once.
When we went 18 months ago, we didn’t know what we were walking into,
and hence, never got on Toy Story Mania once – we were shut out due to the 2
hour waits.
Being at the Dolphin helped,
as it was simply a 15 minute walk from the lobby to the gates of Hollywood
Studios. We made the pleasant walk
(walkway was near barren – I guess everyone takes the bus or ferry from the
Boardwalk area hotels – which is odd, as we took the ferry back that night, and
it took longer than walking) and were at the gate 15 minutes before they open –
which was good, as they let folks in before 9am (I am guessing to avoid a crush
of people rushing to Toy Story or Aerosmith.
Once in the park (seems by
Monday I had figured out we could use just my thumb print for all the tickets)
we bolted for Toy Story. Plan was to
pull a Fastpass before riding, and then quickly ride in the standby line. Plan worked well, as we got 4 Fastpasses and
were able to get on in the standby line within 20 minutes. Time we got off, the standby wait had already
built to 60 minutes. In essence, we
guaranteed at least two rides on the most popular attraction in all of Disney
(2 more than the last visit).
And I must give credit to
Josh and his blog/service at easywdw.com – I read extensively, used his pointers
and it made the entire trip that much easier better (my hunch is the days of
that being free are numbered – but its great while it lasts)
Anyway, the Fastpass return
time (the hour window Disney gives you to come back and ride it by skipping the
standby lines was) was between 10:20 and 11:20 – which meant we had time to get
over to Tower of Terror and possibly Aerosmith before. However, we were able to pull another set of
fastpasses before heading over, as the window had opened. So now, we were guaranteed 3 times.
We tooled around Hollywood
Studios a bit, had lunch and then grabbed a carrot cake cupcake sandwich thingy
at the Writers Stop (meh, nothing special) before heading back over to ride Toy
Story again. After that, we headed over
to Star Wars and were able to pull yet another Toy Story fastpass before we
headed back to the hotel for pooltime.
The fastpass return time was not until after 5pm, so we had a good 4
hours to chill back at the hotel.
Connor and I headed down to
the pool – while Carter and Bridget napped.
We figured it would be about a 45-60 minute nap – but Carter went down
for a good 2-2.5 hours. Carter and
Bridget hence missed the bucket of Corona’s and the root beer at the pool.
Connor and I headed back to
the room, everyone got cleaned up and we walked back to Hollywood Studios to
ride Toy Story yet again – and pull one final fastpass. All in all, we rode in 4 times, and never
had to wait at all except for the first 20 minute line of the day. Mission accomplished – and I will say, that
it is pretty fun ride – hopefully that type of technology is in the future for
Buzz Lightyear over at Magic Kingdom, as after riding Toy Story Mania, Buzz
seems a wee bit dated.
We jumped back on Tower of
Terror a couple of times, and I tried to get in the single rider line of
Aerosmith – only to get stuck in a slow moving line, and had to vacate the ride
as not to miss that last Toy Story Mania ride.
Dinner was at Pizza Planet - and I must say, while I think the theming could have been better - the pizza is pretty damn good - exceeded our expectations. Its a nice hand tossed depth.
We waited in line to catch
the 2nd Fantasmic showing of the day, and I must say, I was very
underwhelmed. I guess I was expecting
more lights, fireworks and action- rather than the majority of it being movie
clips shown on spraying water. A neat
show, just not what I expected.
While the park had 1AM hours
that night, Connor was done and I didn’t care to attempt the Aerosmith line one
last time. We headed on out – choosing the
Ferry (mistake – as it probably took twice as long than if we had walked). It was onto Day 5 and the long –awaited Tigger
breakfast at Crystal Palace within Magic Kingdom.
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| Pizza Planet - nothing more to say. While I give them credit for trying to bring the famous movie place to life, I can say they could have done more, or done it better. Theming is a bit soft. |
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| Yes, the green martian men are there... |
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| As are the claw machines. |
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| Some even filled with the green martians... |
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| Outside. |
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| On our way to Tower of Terror late in the day... |
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| While I got made fun of by Bridget for buying it, the $2 canister of powdered Tang came in handy. I love Tang, and figured the kids would to. It made plenty of cheap drinks throughout the weak and we ended up throwing half the canister away when we left. $2 for and endless supply of Tang - beats $2.50 for 20 ounces of anything at the parks. (OK, its not that good, but it did the job). |
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| Taking a break - Connor still chugging the Tang ;) |
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| Checking out Toy Story Mania while in line. |
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| This stuff went on all week...ropes, chains, bars. Apparently, they are crack/cocaine to kids...it was not stop touching, climbing, pulling, feeling, etc... |
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| Riding Toy Story Mania. |
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| Riding Toy Story Mania.
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| More Toy Story Mania... |
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| Ran into Pooh. |
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| At Hollywood Studios. |
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