Hollywood Studios - More fun than a yoyo!

After our less than awesome trip to the Animal Kingdom and a yummy stop into the Rain Forest Café’ we started to talk about which park we would visit next AND how we would get in! We had seen a sign outside of the Animal Kingdom that said that the Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios were “Filled To Capacity”. I had never experienced that in all of my 100+ visits to Walt Disney World! Luckily in the hour it took us to eat, all parks are open! We hop in the car and scoot over to the Hollywood Studios! Once inside we make a bee line toward the Tower of Terror and the Rockin’ Roller Coaster. Fast passes were all gone and the wait times were 80 and 120 minutes. UGH. We took a stroll around. It was starting to warm up a bit, you know what that means! We headed over to get some ice cream from Gertie! There were street performers all over the place, it was pretty cool, despite not getting to ride our favorite rides. We hit the Backlot Tour, always a fun favorite. The highlight of that being when a family cut through the queue and got admonished by a man from the UK (United Kingdom, not the University of Kentucky)! The sun was starting to set, out jackets went back on and we went to catch the first performance of Fantasmic! I had seen this show many times but never got there early enough to watch from anywhere other than the standing room only section. Not this time! We landed 3rd row center! How awesome is that?? The show is filled with music, fireworks and water effects and lasts about 25 minutes. A must see! When the show was over it was dark and we were getting chilled so we went on a search for hot cocoa. A very polite young man named Orlando, who by the way is from Orlando, FL, served us some yummy hot cocoa and gingerbread boys! My daughter had a hard time getting the wrapper from her cookie and I thought that by the time she got it unwrapped it would be a gingerbread MAN. With cocoa and cookies in hand we went to enjoy the Obsourne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights! As though it were planned, as soon as we arrived the music started and the lights danced to the rhythm of the music! Florida snow flurries danced through the air, just as the name promises, it was quite spectacular! The only other thing that we missed out on was a visit to our favorite eatery, the 50’s Prime Time Café’! We made ourselves a promise that we would stop in for dinner the next time we visit! It was time for us to jump to the Magic Kingdom for some fire works!

The Animal Kingdom (with a million other guests!)

After a Disney World drought of 8 long months I just had to get my Disney fix. Just like any other person looking for a fix, I failed to use my good judgment as to WHEN to get that fix! So, on December 28, 2011 (along with my youngest daughter), headed to Walt Disney World. After years of being a loyal pass holder, I really should have known better!

We pulled into the parking lot of the Animal Kingdom, knowing that with the Florida temps dropping into the 50's the animals would be frisky and enjoying a break from our usual warm temps. Holy moly, we had no idea what we were about to get into! We walked back to hop on the Kilimanjaro Safari, which is the largest of all Disney attractions! The stand by line time was matched by the fast pass return time so we decided to do standby, it was only a one hour wait and the queue line winds through lots of fun places so we hopped in line. It turns out that the stand by wait was 1 hour and 56 minutes but we finally found ourselves sitting in a truck with our new found friends from line and off we went! No disappointment here (aside from the really long wait). The Okapis were plentiful and the giraffes were close enough to touch, but we know better than to touch! Our tour was stopped, briefly, by three amazing Rhinos who decided to block the road for about 5 minutes! Before long we were on our way again with some fantastic photos! The male and female lions were almost posing as the male gave the female a lick on the head! Sadly, the driver moved on all too quickly and a great photo op was missed. :-( The elephants were awesome and for the first time one of the Hippos was sunning on the water's edge, pretty cool! Too soon, the ride was over and our hostess was bidding us kwheri, which is Swahili for goodbye.

Soon after we left the park and enjoyed some food at the Rain Forest Cafe', which is located just outside of the park entrance! But really, what were we thinking? Visiting Disney between Christmas and New Year's???