The House of Mouse, continued

Ready for fun at Hollywood Studios!

Day 6 was Hollywood Studios day! This was one of the days we'd originally planned to spend at the Magic Kingdom, but we swapped out due to weather. It ended up being the right decision.

Though we arrived at the park entrance about 10 minutes before opening, I was surprised to see that they were already admitting visitors to the park. Just to be safe, we trekked immediately back to Toy Story Mania to pick up FastPasses. (And, boy, was I glad. Our time window wasn't until noon, and when we did go back to ride, they'd already given out all the FastPasses for the day. If we hadn't gotten them first thing, we would have missed it!)

As happy as a nerd on Nerdmas morning

Once that was done, we knew exactly where we were headed - Star Tours. Hubs is a HUGE Star Wars fan, and Clay and I had been watching the Star Tours video on the Disney World website for months. We walked right on - no waiting - and enjoyed a great ride! The ride reminded me a little bit of Soarin' in Epcot. It combines motion and a wide screen to fool you into believing you are flying your craft through space and over alien worlds. Really, really cool. We liked it so much that we rode a second time, back-to-back.

After that, we explored the park a little. We had our pictures made with Mater and Lightning McQueen, and then we noticed the sky getting really overcast. To dodge the rain, we settled in for a theatre showing of Muppet-Vision 3-D. (This film was fun, but again, not as good as Mickey's Philharmagic. That thing is hard to beat!)

The Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie
Set Adventure was seriously awsome.

When we came out of the theatre, Clay wanted to blow off some steam. We stopped by the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure, which was completely enchanting. You're in a giant backyard,with huge blades of grass, a leaky hose, and an ant as big as a horse! Clay loved this playground as much as he loved the Boneyard at Animal Kingdom, and we stayed there for quite a while. We crawled through tunnels and slid down slides and dodged sprays of water. My only gripe? No benches or places for parents to sit!

At around this time, we were getting hungry for lunch. There was also spotty rain, so we figured it would be a good time to head inside. We'd heard that Pizza Planet served some of the best pizza in all of the Disney parks, so we headed over. While the pizza was good, the place was packed and, with all of the video games around, it was also really LOUD. We ate our pizza and got out of there!

After lunch, we headed over to Toy Story Mania to cash in our FastPasses. I loved this ride even more than the Buzz Lightyear attraction in Tomorrowland. I was really glad we'd planned ahead, or we would have missed it!

Mater and McQueen

They were only showing Lights, Motors, Action! once that day - early in the afternoon, - so we filed in and got a seat. You'll want to get there at least a good 15-20 minutes early, because it takes time to get into the stadium and get seated. Clay loved the live action show. We saw guys falling off buildings, cars jumping over obstacles and bursting through flames, all kinds of neat stunts. Lightning McQueen even made an appearance!

By this time, we were losing steam. We headed over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show, but the line was long. Unsure we'd be able to get in, we split up. Hubs and Clay went back to the gift shop at the end of Star Tours, and I took a quick look inside The Magic of Disney Animation exhibit. I didn't stay for the film, but I loved all the models of the parks, the peeks inside the animatronic characters, and the information about Walt Disney's life. I'd recommend this attraction to anyone.

Honey, I shrunk the parents!

It was late afternoon, and it was beginning to rain in earnest. We headed back to the hotel for our usual midday break. When we awoke from our nap, it was pouring. We decided to stay in for dinner. We visited one of the restaurants at our resort, Pepper Market, for dinner. Since we were in the mood for Mexican, we had quesadillas, and hubs and I each had a big margarita. I finished up with churros dipped in chocolate sauce, and we turned in early.