Questions...And Then Disney Hollywood Studios

Welcome to my blog, Kerry.  You are my newest Follower and I THANK YOU very much for being interested in reading about our adventures as fulltime RVer's.  I appreciate it and hope you will be entertained.

I got a couple of questions about Walt Disney World over the past couple of days, so before starting a regular post I thought I'd give a bit of information.  Disney World consists of 4 major theme parks and 2 water parks.  There are a lot of other smaller venues that can be entertaining (miniature golf, boat rentals, Downtown Disney shopping, etc) but the 6 "big ticket" parks are the features.

The Magic Kingdom is the original park and it opened in 1971.  It is the east coast version of Disneyland in Anaheim, California.  Although we totally enjoy WDW's Magic Kingdom, if just comparing those 2 parks, we do prefer Disneyland.

Epcot was the second park to open and that was in 1982.  Here at WDW this is our favorite park.  It is where we spend a lot of time because we almost always come back here in the evenings to eat dinner at a restaurant along the World Showcase.

The Disney Hollywood Studios opened in 1989.  Originally it was the MGM-Disney Studios but that changed several years after it's opening.  This is a nice park to visit but probably the one we spend the least amount of time in.

The newest park to open is the Animal Kingdom, which opened in 1998.  We like it a lot because of the interesting exhibits and the animals that can be viewed here.  It also has some fun rides.

Parades?   The Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and the Animal Kingdom all have parades daily....sometimes a few times a day.  During this trip we have not seen a parade at Epcot, although they have a lot of free entertainment to enjoy throughout the entire place.  The question was raised as to whether or not the Main Street Electrical Parade was still going?  Sorry, it has been discontinued.  They have a parade at the Magic Kingdom at night that has lit up "floats" and people singing (aren't they always?) but it isn't the Electrical Parade that was so popular.  Most of the parades at all the parks are held in the daylight hours and it can be very hot waiting for them to start and then standing through them. 

So...what did we do today?   We went over to the Hollywood Studios for about 5 hours.  This is a beautiful park and you enter onto Hollywood Boulevard, which is designed to look like the Hollywood of the 1930's and 1940's.  There are a lot of shops along Hollywood Blvd. and also down Sunset Boulevard to the right.

There are also some nice restaurants here at the movie studios.   A couple of them are on the left of this photo.  Play 'N Dine at Hollywood & Vine and the 50's Prime Time Cafe are our favorites.  We are only eating a quick service meal for lunch, so we will skip these restaurants this time.

Bruce, Cyndi and Dennis wanted to go on the Aerosmth Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.  No thanks...not for me.  I looked around in some of the nearby shops to kill some time while they did that ride.  Bruce loves this ride and he doesn't mind going 90 mph in the dark and doing a loop or a corkscrew.  Good for him!  They told me it was awesome and so much better than Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom.   While I waited, I spyed this man waiting for his family.  He was wearing his Mickey Ears and had the Mickey tatoo on his arm.  A real believer it seems.

We went over to the newest attraction in this park, Toy Story Mania.  We saw this last June when we were here and it was fun.  This is a 3-D ride through an indoor shooting gallery.  On the way over there we saw this green man.  He is supposed to be one of the toy soldiers from the Toy Story movies.  He was all too pleased to pose for a photo.

There is a pre-show line area where Disney keeps you entertained as you wait in line for your turn to ride in a moving "car" passing through the different shooting gallery rooms.   Mr. Potato Head holds court among all the larger-than-life toys around the room.  He was funny and sort of like a stand-up comedian.   Bruce was wearing his 3-D glasses for us to see.

This is a very popular ride and getting there early in your touring day is a must.  You can also pick up a Fast Pass for a later entry that will save you about an hour in line around 3:00.  We're going to go back to the Hollywood Studios again tomorrow for a final visit to that park.  It is early entry for hotel/campground guests so you can get a jump on the crowds with the popular rides.   Tonight we are going to Epcot for another dinner....this one in Morocco.  They have belly dancers and music sometimes.  Maybe we can be there for showtime.  I'll let you know.

Until next time.....so long for now!