Hollywood Studios take two

Last July we made our first trip to Hollywood Studios.Six of us had never been there before. I had been there about 30 years ago when it was called MGM. We made our second trip three days ago on Wednesday, which also was the day of Paul's parents' 48th anniversary. I am sure that not many celebrate their 48th anniversary at Hollywood Studios. They love their grandchildren very much! We are very thankful that both sets of grandparents have been married for 40+ years. We left our resort about 8:25 to make sure we were there before the park opened at 9 am to make sure we got Nadia and Ian a spot in Jedi Training Academy. It was a very close call because those staying in a Disney resort were allowed to enter the park at 8:00 that day, and they claimed almost all of the 240 spots for the day. We got two of the last six spots. and this meant their "show" wasn't until 8pm. Paul said this was the highlight of the day for him, and Nadia and Ian both said it was one of their two most favorite parts of the day. I was surprised that both picked the same two things as their favorites - the Star Wars ride (Star Tours) and the Jedi Training Academy. They rode Star Tours three times that day - twice with Paul and I and once with Paul and Pop Pop.

Although it was hotter than it usually is here in May (it's been averaging 12 degrees higher than normal over the past week), I was very thankful that it didn't rain like it did last year. We skipped a couple of things that we did last year (Great Movie Ride and the show about Walt Disney), and one attraction isn't there any more that we did last year (the Pirate one). Nadia and Ian both rode the Tower of Terror last year with Paul and I, but this year only Nadia and Paul did it because Ian thought it was too scary. Thanks to fast passes we didn't really have any waits longer than 5 minutes the whole day. If we had gotten a picture of the kids with Buzz and Woody we would have had to wait for that. We did a few things this year that we didn't do last year: the "Honey I shrunk the kids" playground, the Indiana Jones stunt show, and the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show. Paul and I also rode the roller coaster for the first time. We loved it! It's indoors like Space Mountain, but it's definitely more "intense" than Space Mountain. Quite a few rides and shows we did both years: Disney Jr show, Beauty and the Beast show, Toy Story Mania ride, Little Mermaid show, Frozen singalong, Muppet 3D movie, the Star Tours ride, and the Fantasmic show at 9pm. We left after that show. Oliver was asleep in the stroller on the way back to the parking lot, and he slept through the transfer in and out of the van and into his bed.

This year we didn't spend as much effort or time trying to get pictures with characters as we did last year, but Nadia and Ian did meet several characters. Nadia did Sophia and Jake like last year, and Ian met Jake and the Incredibles again like last year. They both met Mike and Sulley for the first time. Oliver and Ian posed with Mater and Lightning McQueen again. When they saw Baymax and Hiro (from Big Hero 6) were there, they asked to get their pictures taken with them, but the line was one hour long, and we weren't interested in waiting that long for a picture. Nadia also had her picture taken in front of Cinderella's carriage while holding a glass slipper. She enjoyed learning a little Spanish from the girl from Argentina who was standing next to us in that line. We brought some water bottles and our lunches into the park, and we bought our dinner. Ian's kid's meal was very reasonably priced for how much food they gave him, but in general the food prices at Disney are very high. All in all we had a great day at Hollywood Studios!