I had heard a lot about the Star Tours ride which was recently redone and reopened the weekend before we went there, so we made that our first stop. There was only 5 minute wait time. This was a simulation ride and I honestly didn't feel it was up to the expectations but it was ok. I felt The Simpsons ride was much better than this one. The Indiana Jones show was just next door so we wanted to see it but it had scheduled times so we had to wait until 11:30 am. We were told to arrive at least 30 minutes before the show since it gets pretty packed. In either case, we had 1.5 hours to kill, so we headed straight to Toy Story Mania ride. This ride has also been redone and extremely popular and it turns out that the wait time was 60 minutes already and the fastpass return time was already 3 pm. Wow...really? They didn't kid around when they said fastpass run out quickly. We couldn't wait in line for an hour so we got the fastpass for this ride and went to see The Voyage of Mermaid show. It's a really nice 17 minutes show with some really nice affects.
Luckily, we were just first few people in line to get the picture with Mickey before the line gets too crowded. We attended The Magic of Animation where they had presenation showing how the Disney characters are created. One of the examples they showed was of Mushu from Mulan. For publicity, they also showed the trailer of new movie Cars2. They were also teaching how to create Disney characters but we had to leave to catch the Indiana Jones show. We went to the show 30 minutes before it started and it was packed pretty quickly, but we got good seats. It was great 30 minutes show, had great action, included audience participation, and funny at times.
After that, we headed to The Great Movie Ride which was a really nice small car ride taking you through the good old famous movie sets. It's worth going on this ride. Then headed for the Lights, Motors, Action! Stunt Show which only had two show times in the entire day, so we wanted to catch the first one. This was one of the best stunt shows ever and for all car lovers, you have to see this!! There was action, fire, car and bike chase, put everything together and you have a great show!! It was a lot of fun for the half an hour the show lasted. Must Watch! After this, we headed to The Backlot Tour which was about 22-minutes long. Actually I was expecting this to be something like Universal Studios' studio tour (from California) but it was nothing like that. It was a bit disappointing. The only good thing about this tour was the catastrophe canyon tour which was like 2 min long. Don't plan this in your agenda if you haven't seen other shows I mentioned above.
Well after this ride, it was already time for the parade at 3 pm which was Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun Parade. It was about 15 minutes long and then it was time for our fastpass return for Toy Story Mania ride. This was a 4D ride and it was super fun. It's like you play a video game but only it's in 3D, sorry 4D. I loved it. This ride comes in the category along with Men In Black ride and Buzz Lightyear's ranger spin but only 10 times better. After the ride, we sat down to eat lunch at around 3:30 pm. To be honest, our lunch times were never consistent because we used to eat few things here and there and didn't really get hungry till late afternoon. We had quick bite in 15-20 minutes and then decided to go back to the Toy Story ride since we both loved it so much. Only this time, the wait time in line was 70 minutes since fastpasses ran out in the morning. Luckily we got through the line in half an hour because there were 2 of us and they usually need party of 2 in order to fill the entire station of 4. That's another story.
Next we caught the Beauty and the Beast in the evening which was really nice half an hour musical show. It had really good performances. Right after the show ended, one of the guys from the audience proposed to his girlfriend on the stage which was very sweet. It was her birthday and she said Yes! We still had little bit time before the night show Fantasmic, so we headed to see the Muppet 3D show which was nice 15 minutes long. It's said to be a kids show but I think people of all ages would enjoy it since it's 3D. After that we headed straight to Fantasmic show location. There was still 2 hours left but the lines had already started forming. They open the gate 90 minutes before the show and there was already a huge crowd. This was one show that was packed like crazy from left to right, top to bottom. It was a huge stadium and there must be thousands of people present. The show was 25 minutes long and one of the best shows I have seen. It was different from other fireworks shows since this one involved combination of water affects and fireworks. If you sit in front rows, you will get wet and if you sit in middle rows, you will get splash.
The show finished around 9:25 pm and we left about 30 seconds - 1 min before the actual show ended. The reason being is that we had to catch the Disney bus to go back to TTC and make sure to get there before 10 pm to catch our hotel shuttle. We didn't want to get in rush hour with the other people when the show ended so that's why we left just little bit early. Still we hit the crowd b/c there were already people who had started leaving. Me and my brother made a run to get out of the park and to get to the stop to catch the Disney bus. Luckily bus came 2-3 minutes after we got to the stop and even though the bus driver was driving terribly slow, we made it to TTC in just 15 minutes to catch our hotel shuttle. Pheww....that was close!
What a day!! I loved this park for its share of rides and amazing shows! I didn't go to 2 rides at this place where one was Tower of Terror and some roller coaster ride inside the building, but I didn't really care for those. Just a quick tip for those planning on coming to Hollywood studios is that make Toy Story Mania your first stop. In fact, get a fast pass for the ride and also go stand in line because I am sure you will want to go on it again where fast pass will help you get through faster. For all the shows, get to the location at least 30-40 minutes before the show time to get good seats because once the place is opened up, the stadium gets full except for fantasmic show where you need to arrive at least 80-90 minutes before the show. Tomorrow is Friday and our 4th park choice is Islands of Adventure. We wanted to cover this park before the long weekend rush hour hits and we hit the crowd just on Friday :(, but more on that in the next post. Till then, see ya :)
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