CeruleanMoon
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- May 3, 2017
Hollywood Studios - Monday, April 23, 2018
TP crowd prediction: 6
Actual: 3
Total Miles Walked: 6.4
Weather: 80’s, overcast
TP crowd prediction: 6
Actual: 3
Total Miles Walked: 6.4
Weather: 80’s, overcast
Before leaving Animal Kingdom the day before, we had stopped at guest services to pick up some celebration buttons. We got Quinn a “First Visit” button for him to wear on our HS and Epcot days, I got one that said, “First visit in 27 years!” and Matt got one that said “First visit to Epcot.”
My grandmother, a teenaged me and my two little sisters at MGM, April 1990.
Quinn and I put on our buttons that morning for our HS day! Back in the 90’s, I might have told you that MGM was my favorite park. Many of my favorite rides were there, such as the Great Movie Ride and Catastrophe Canyon. I also had fond memories of going to the 50’s Cafe with my best friend from high school and I remember how she got “yelled” at for spilling her soda. Unfortunately, almost every single attraction that I recalled from this park is gone now (except for Indy!) so basically visiting HS was like seeing a brand new park for me! I was disappointed that Quinn would never get to see the Great Movie Ride, but I made sure to get fastpasses for the Indy show. That was the one thing Quinn had asked for that day.
The backlot tour, April 1990. I’m sorry Quinn will never get to see it. I hear they have Catastrophe Canyon in Disneyland Paris though. Maybe a new trip to put on our bucket list??
We decided not to rope drop this park. Quinn had considered doing Jedi training, but he wasn’t quite interested enough so we decide to skip it. We also considered ropedropping Toy Story since there were no fastpasses available while the construction was going on, but we weren’t in the mood for that either, so Instead we took it slow and arrived at the park around 10 am.
There was a big crowd of people at the security gate, divided into what seemed like at least twenty lines! We picked one. You know how when you go to the grocery store you assess the lines and carefully choose the one that appears fastest and shortest, only to have the line next to you speed up? Well, that’s what happened to us. We got stuck waiting for security for possibly 30 minutes and when our line finally got to the front, I turned around and to my shock, the entire area was deserted. We were - quite literally - the slowest and very last line to enter the park!
Here we are, bringing up the rear of the 10 o’clock crowd.
Our first fastpass was for Star Tours at 10:15 and since it was already 10:30, we decided to head there right away.
Well, we made a quick stop to snap a photo here. We’re all fans of Indy!
Star Tours didn’t have much of a line and with our fastpasses, the line moved so quickly that I barely had time to snap any photos!
So have one instead from 1990. That’s my grandmother waving with my sister in her stroller right by the AT-AT’s foot.
I did manage to get a few inside.
I wouldn’t trust anybody getting off at a gate arriving from Mustafar!
Right before getting on the ride, I bowed out and let Quinn and Matt go on alone. I still remember quite vividly just how sick and miserable I felt after riding Star Tours in 1990. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to actually throwing up after a ride.
A CM directed me to a bench outside the exit gates, where I was joined by another woman from Europe who’d left something behind on the ride and was waiting to get back in to retrieve it. We started chatting with a CM and she asked him how often people got sick on Star Tours. He said, “Whew, maybe 20 times already in the last two weeks that I’ve been here? It happens all the time!” Then the lady starting sharing a rather gross story of someone getting sick on this ride while she was on it in Disneyland Paris. Ugh. So glad I sat this one out!
Quinn and Matt got off and Quinn said he loved the ride! Said they had crashed on Hoth. I think it was one of his favorites this entire trip. No sick issues for him thankfully!
We browsed the Star Wars gift shop a bit next, and I bought a nice keychain of the Millennium Falcon. It’s surprisingly heavy.
Outside, we found a photopass photographer taking pics of people riding landspeeders, so of course we had to stop and do that!
Matt’s going for a leisurely Sunday drive on his speeder.
I’m speeding through the forests of Endor on mine!
We spotted Goofy doing a meet and greet outside, and soon after Chip and Dale walked by escorted by their handlers. I held out my hand and one of them gave me a high five!
We discovered the under construction entrance to Galaxy’s Edge, the new Star Wars land coming next year.
Looks like it’s going to be amazing! From one of the nearby highways, we were able to see the mountains under scaffolding. They looked almost done!
Still a year away though!
Even though it felt like we’d just arrived, it was already time for lunch! We had reservations for our first table service meal of the trip at 11:30 am. Can you guess where?
I’d never eaten here before, so I was looking forward to trying it!
They took us right in without any wait.
We got a car in the last row in the back. I got to drive!
The atmosphere of this place is really cool and very well done. It feels a little weird not being able to face your dining partners though.
Quinn and I are lactose intolerant. I bring lactase enzyme tablets with me and normally we just wing it, since with the tablets we can manage little bits of dairy like pizza or a grilled cheese. This time, I decided to mention it the the server when she asked about allergies. She gave us a whole menu dedicated to allergy free offerings! I was pretty impressed. Quinn got the allergy free hamburger and I ordered the turkey sandwich from the regular menu. I think Matt got a burger too.
I knew this place was famous for its milkshakes, so imagine how tickled pink we were to discover they make dairy-free milkshakes! Quinn has only had a milkshake once in his life and it was shortly before he was diagnosed, so it made him sick anyway. This could be a real treat! I knew that if we ordered it now though, Quinn would drink it all up and not touch his hamburger, so I told him that maybe we’d get one for dessert. He got a root beer instead.
Something must have been going on in the kitchen because a looong time went by and our order didn’t arrive. We started recognizing the same movie clips being played again, and noticed that people that had arrived after us were eating. Our server seemed nervous so I think she knew that something was holding things up. She came by and apologized several times.
Finally our order arrived! A few seconds later she came back with a dairy-free milkshake for Quinn “on the house!” I thought that was very nice. It was an Oreo milkshake (a flavor he had expressed an interest in) and I got to taste some. It was delicious! Quinn was shocked when I told him later that it was made with tofu (he thinks tofu is gross.)
Tofu is scaaary, like the movies they play here.
Shortly after this, I noticed that they had made a mistake in my order. My sandwich was supposed to come with some kind of avocado spread but instead it had arrived plain. As in plain Jane, no mayo no nothing plain. Turkey and tomatoes and bread plain. I was so hungry though, that I didn’t even notice at first until I’d already eaten half of it! I decided not to bring it up, especially since our server had been so nice already with the milkshake, and I didn’t want her to think we were trying to mooch more freebies off of them.
By the time we got out of Sci-Fi, it was 1 pm. I had originally made a FP for Indy at 1pm, but then moved it on the off chance that we didn’t finish lunch on time. So glad I did!
At this point we decided to split up. Matt wanted to go on Tower of Terror, which Quinn and I had no interest in, so we headed to the Walt Disney Presents building where I’d heard, (care of the Dis!) that Starlord and baby Groot could be found.
Had to stop here on our way past. So long Great Movie Ride, how we barely knew ye.
The Walt exhibit was more crowded than I would have expected. Quinn wasn’t too interested, so we mostly breezed through on our way to the meet and greet. I don’t know what they do on days when the park is really crowded, because the meet and greet waiting area was very small and the little room filled up moments after we arrived. Right outside the waiting area is where the exhibit is, so I imagine they wouldn’t want people to start backing up in there. I wonder what they do when the line fills ups and more people arrive?
Disney does a good job hiding the characters from sight while people are waiting. I assume it is to keep people from taking pictures and to add to the mystique of the whole thing. Once I heard Starlord yell out, “Dude!” but that was it. Finally it was our turn!
Quinn’s not up on meet and greet etiquette, so he just stood there chatting with Starlord with his back turned to the camera while the photopass guy took pictures. They barely give you a chance to get situated before they start snapping away! I tried to get Quinn’s attention to get him to turn around, but he wasn’t paying any attention to me. Finally Starlord said, “Hey there, make like a planet and rotate,” and that got him to turn around.
Quinn’s head makes a good armrest if you are the right height.
Baby Groot was adorable of course. He can move his head and blink his eyes and of course say, “I am Groot!” At one point Starlord said, “What did I tell you about talking about our secret missions in public!”
“I am Groot!”
“Now that’s just disgusting!”
Starlord was pretty good at staying in character.
To be continued...