Day 2 - Hollywood Studios

Well, we chose to go to Hollywood Studios today. The weather forecast looked like it might be a little overcast and rainy, so we thought we'd do more indoor stuff here. We did not go to Hollywood Studios a couple of years ago when we were here, so this was our first time since little kids! I had forgotten a lot of it, but did remember going to a Honey I Shrunk the Kids area and having my picture taken with Antee. I was pumped to see that he's still there and I got the "20 years later shot". I think last time I was riding him:). I didn't want to push the little kids off this time...

One of our favorite parts of the studios was a new ride called "Rock N' Roller Coaster with Aerosmith". You walk into the area under a suspended car on train tracks. There is a huge red guitar as you walk in - probably two or three stories tall. We stood in line for some time, but one thing we have discovered about Disney is that they put as much time into their lines as they do their rides. There is always something to look at, watch, touch, or do as you wait. Those Disney folks... so smart! So we got into the last holding area before boarding the coaster. We entered what looked like a studio where Aerosmith was finishing up an album... they "saw" us there, then invited us to their concert. They left in their limo, and we had another car coming that would take us an alternate way to bypass the NYC traffic. We climbed into this car-type roller coaster, heard a lot of noise, then a 3-2-1 and it shot us from 0-60mph in 3 seconds I think. It was an indoor coaster that went upside down, sharp turns, steep drops.... it was awesome:) I really enjoy roller coasters. I don't like ones with sudden drops though... and I usually get a little nauseated after a couple of hours on them. Disney is nice though because there is so much to do, you can take your time with everything.

We also went to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. It was a little cheesy, but the stunts were pretty cool. This picture of Indy is right before he falls in a pit. I wish I could post the video I took of the escape scene where he and the girl jump on an airplane, then he has to fight this big guy who winds up getting shredded by the airplane propeller. It's pretty amazing how they do all of the stunts. We also went on a back studios tour that showed us how they did some of the shots from the movie Pearl Harbor. It all looks funny watching it, but when it's played back on video with editing, it is very convincing.

The craziest part of our day was at the "Lights, Motors, Action: Extreme Stunt Show". It was a awesome stunt show with car chases, jumps, and effects. They showed many car chase and motorcycle chase scenes. The last part we saw was this scene where a guy gets top secret information, jumps on his motorcycle, and is chased around the city. He took this one jump off a ramp and when coming down the other side, he hit and flew off his bike, hitting the ground and skidding for awhile. We all sat there watching, waiting for him to move, and the "film crew" halted things... all part of the act, we thought. Nope, he really wrecked and they shut the show down. The ambulance came while we were exiting, and we saw Mercy Flight overhead as we walked away. Nuts. We did just check online and it says the guy is ok... but still! That was crazy. And I got it all on video, kinda crazy.

We also saw a stage show of Beauty and the Beast, my favorite Disney movie. It had the general plot and all the best songs from the movie. It was very large scale on stage... not quite the Broadway show I've seen, but still pretty impressive. They also do the whole thing in 30 minutes, which impressive as well.

To end the night, we saw Fantasma, a lights, water, and stunt type show. It has Mickey from Fantasia, having a great dream where when he raised his arms this and that way, the water would shoot up around him in different colors. They also projected scenes from different movies onto the water.. which made some amazing affects. Then began his nightmare and the witch from Snow White took over and summoned all of the other Disney villains who had a hey dey with Mickey's dream. At the climax, there was a huge real-life dragon that appeared. Mickey eventually slayed the dragon and peace was restored to his dream. Then a cruise boat with all of your favorite Disney characters came along. Overall, a very impressive display. Very larger than life.