Saturday, February 14, 2009

Disney World Hollywood Studios visit 2

Our 11th and final day at Disney World was a return to Hollywood Studios to revisit a few favorites and see the "Toy Story Midway Mania" attraction which was too busy the last time. We arrived shortly after the park opened and went directly to Toy Story only to find the wait was already 70 minutes. We got FastPasses but the scheduled return time was 6 hours hence, after we would be gone for a concert in Orlando tonight, so we got in line. Then they announced the ride was closed due to malfunction.

We went to a favorite of ours, "Twilight Zone Hotel of Terror," for our third ride, and managed to get this photo from one of the open doors at the top. The elevator car you ride in randomly rises and falls, but the descent is faster than than the acceleration of gravity (9.8 meters/second/second) because a cable pulls your elevator car down, which causes your body to jump up against the seat belt.



Next was the live musical performance "Beauty and the Beast" which recounts the plot of the movie in song, dance, and acting. The players were spectacular and the costumes brilliant-colored, making for an enjoyable performance. Here are the two main characters...



...and the prince after he is released from the "beast" curse.



We returned to see if Toy Story had been repaired and it was, so we waited the predicted 90 minutes, which actually extended to over 2 hours! The toy theme dominates the waiting line area and includes a talking Mr. Potato head...



This innovative, interactive ride conveys you in a car with both riders having a cannon-like gun that shoots blobs of imaginary paint at targets worth varying point totals. As the car delivers you to a succession of arcades, you compete with everyone else to score the highest total, and your own computer screen shows the results...



Ellen clobbered me in point total, but I had better accuracy. Still, we were nowhere near the highest point totals on record.

We also repeated the "Voyage of Little Mermaid," another live musical production augmented with dancing puppeteers and movie clips as well as rain falling from the ceiling twice to get you in the mood. The "Great Movie Ride" again took us "into" a variety of movies including "Mary Poppins," "Casablanca," "Wizard of Oz," and "Alien." The "Muppet 3-D Vision" was another favorite we repeated...



To see my other Disney World posts, click "Disney" in the sidebar to the right under "Labels."

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