An Unexpected Journey –Chapter 7
Tuesday September 4th
We decided for an early start today as we thought there would be plenty to get through and keep us occupied in Hollywood Studios so got sorted and headed out in the jeep. It then suddenly dawned on me - today was our last park day and we are going home in just TWO days!
I felt like we had been robbed of a few days as, I’m not sure whether flying mid-week kinda skews your logic and timescales a bit making it feel like the time goes quicker than it does, but it really didn’t seem like we had been here almost a fortnight!
Anyways, we decided to try and make the most of the time we had left.
We got to Hollywood Studios for about 10.30am and headed straight for the Great Movie Ride. I remember this ride being there from the ‘MGM Studios’ days but I really like it. It doesn’t quite have the technological wow factor of other newer attractions but does have a real feel of movie nostalgia about it.
Checking the show timetables we then high-tailed it over to the Indiana Jones Stunt show. Again, a show I’ve seen a good few times before and a very grand spectacle of a show with big sets and stunts but nothing has really been added or changed since the first time I saw it when I was 17. Maybe time for a re-vamp or, dare I say it, even a replacement. And don’t think that’s not hard for me to say as I am a massive Indy fan…
After watching Indy save the day again we then checked out the updated Star Tours ride. I was a big Star Wars fan as a kid (maybe an understatement) and always enjoyed this ride so was looking forward to seeing what had changed. Queue was about 25 mins but we eventually boarded our spaceship and headed off to a galaxy far.. far… away.
Ride was very good (was it always in 3D or was that a new feature?) and Muppets 3D was next. That’s another show that has again been around for a long time but, for me, it still felt current and as good as other 3D shows out there. Funny how some attractions date and others don’t…
We just missed the early Lights Action Motors Stunt Show so quickly headed down for Toy Story Mania – our first ‘first’ of the day (as we ran out of time last visit) and it was a barrel of fun! Lunch stop was next and then it was off on to the Backlot Tour which was as enjoyable as it had always been but, again, maybe could do with dragging in to the 21st Century a little.
After taking in some liquid refreshments and watching some of the street entertainment we caught the late Lights Action Motor show which is always loud, chaotic but very impressive – they had even manages to squeeze in a cameo Lightning McQueen appearance – which was nice.
Now we had never done the Fantasmic show but had heard really good things about it so it was on our ‘firsts’ list. The time was about 5.30pm and we had done about all we wanted to do, and to be honest were quite tired so didn’t know what to do. After a bit of family discussion we decided to hang around and did what we could to pass the time. We headed in to the stadium pretty early and had about an hour to wait before the show started.
About 8pm some Disney cast members started the pre-show entertainment – which passed the time – and at 8.30pm it kicked off. It was all going well, the presentation was very impressive and we were glad we had stayed….
UNTIL….
About half way through the performance the heavens suddenly opened – and I’m not just talking a shower here it was full on torrential tropical storm type rain. They were taking no chances and announce the cancellation of the show very quickly. There was then a mass exodus of the park as some headed for shelter and some just decided to get home as quick as possible. We did the latter and arrived back at the jeep looking like drowned rats.
Good job we hadn’t been pulled over by the cops on the way back as I’m sure they would have been put off their doughnuts to see us all sitting in the jeep in our underwear…..
Bit of a shame as following a long 3 hour wait we never got to see the full Fantasmic spectacle – C’est la vie…
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