Thursday was going to be our day at Hollywood Studios. This was the one day we wanted to be at rope drop because we'd heard that you really need to bust a move to get the kids signed up for the Jedi Training Academy. We were the park entrance about 45 minutes before opening and were the second group in our queue for entry. The cast members were abundantly clear about the "no running" rule; thankfully our boys are champion speed walkers. (Challenge them to a walking race sometime. They'll beat you.)
We made it to the Jedi Academy sign ups less than 10 minutes after the park opened and the boys had the noon session. We estimated that all of the spots were probably gone within another 5-10 minutes! (And, yes, we did take a little karmic satisfaction when a runner was turned away because he had sprinted ahead and left his kids behind. Your kids have to be at the sign up.)
We had FastPasses for Rock-n-Roller Coaster later in the day, but Brady really wanted to do the Tower of Terror also. We hurried across the park to get in line before the crowds built up.
Rudy had left his hat on a ride the day before, so he and James went to the gift shop where Rudy could take advantage of a morning-only coupon to get a new hat. He found this great cap on sale; it has icons for each of the parks and was a bargain at $10!
There was no wait for Tower of Terror. It was a pretty good ride - spooky Twilight Zone theming without being completely terrifying. Well, except for the drop. That was pretty terrifying! We met up with James and Rudy as we were coming out and Brady talked James into riding the Tower also. Rudy agreed to walk over and check out Rock-n-Roller Coaster.
Brady getting ready for ride #1 on the Tower of Terror:
Rudy and I talked to the roller coaster attendant, who told him that if he'd done Big Thunder Mountain and Test Track that this ride would be no problem. Still not convinced, we talked to the cast member at the souvenir booth outside of the ride. She told him that Fast Track and Rock-n-Roller Coaster are the two fastest rides at WDW; if he'd done one, he could do the other. By the time James and Brady met up with us, Rudy was ready to ride. It was still early in the day, so we were able to get on with only a very short wait. Rudy was a nervous wreck. The whole ride is pitch black. James said he was almost afraid to look over at Rudy when we pulled back into the gates, because he wasn't sure what he'd see. What he found was a huge grin and, "That was AWESOME!" We have a roller coaster convert!
We had time for one more ride before we had to move on. I rode with Rudy the second time and he screamed "FUN FUN FUN FUN" the whole ride. Brady, of course, loved every second of it and was even more thrilled that we could all ride together.
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Rudy was so excited to ride again that he couldn't even hold still for the picture!
We didn't have time to ride again before the Jedi Training Academy. Rudy wasn't too sure about this either; he's not a huge fan of performing on stage. We talked him into it...and he loved it...
They had to go through "training" first and then each student had to fight against Darth Vader. It was all a little cheesy, but how often do you get to fight the Dark Side?
The Jedi graduates:
After seeing Rudy's bargain on the hat, Brady wanted to check out the bargains. After lunch, we took a pass through the gift shop again and Brady locked onto a hat. James and I first tried to talk him out of it, and then relented. Once we saw it on his head the rest of the week, we realized it's very Brady. He got a ton of compliments on the hat the rest of the week. (Notice the propeller?)
We did ride Rock-n-Roller Coaster TWO more times.
The kids loved the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular. They've always enjoyed any sort of stage show, so one with fire and action was even better!
Brady's favorite character is Goofy, so we had to get pictures with Santa Goofy!
We didn't take a ton of pictures for parts of the day, but we squeezed in:
Pizza and cupcakes at Cosmic Rays (yum!)
Toy Story Mania (fun, but an awful lot of hype kind of left us underwhelmed)
Star Tours (a little queasy)
Star Tours:
Toy Story Mania:
As we were walking in to the Studio Backlot Tour, the cast member said they were looking for one more volunteer. Brady and Rudy both pointed at James and voluntold him.
James was thrilled:
Getting ready for his big role...
And, his big movie debut...
On the tour. We had actually seen Flight of the Navigator, so the boys liked seeing the spaceship.
Poor Brady didn't have any idea what was coming in the earthquake/flood...
We were feeling a little panicked about getting all of the evening activities done. I had made dinner reservations at the exact time as the evening light show, and we also wanted to see the Osborne lights. Thankfully, we had some magical Disney luck and they added a second showing of Fantasmic. We ate at Mama Melroses and got our dessert to go. The kids and I took a quick pass through the lights while James paid the bill and then we hustled over to Fantasmic.
Fantasmic couldn't top the night shows at Magic Kingdom, but it was unique. There were huge sprays of water with images projected on them. Impossible to photograph, though!
The last Fantasmic showing was at the same time that the park "closed." After the show, all of the rides and restaurants were closed, but we were still able to walk back to Streets of America to see the lights. It was much less crowded, so we could better see it too!
Rudy really liked the lights!
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