Vacation Part 9 - Hollywood Studios

When I planned our trip, I planned for a day to rest and relax at the hotel in between days at the parks. So after enjoying a slightly slower paced day (breakfast at Chef Mickey's, a drive to the coast to let the kids sleep and bit, and a dip in the pool), we headed to Disney's Hollywood Studios on Friday. It was a warm day and I was glad that many of the attractions at HS are indoors. It was pretty obvious that Hollywood Studios draws a slightly older crowd than the Magic Kingdom, but there was still plenty to keep us entertained. I think we could have easily spent two days here.
One of the first characters we saw upon entering HS. He was actually on his way to his greeting spot and a line hadn't even formed yet. Chloe ran right up to him and he stopped to give her a hug. Chloe says this one is Chip. I could never tell these two chipmunks apart!

And here she is with both Chip and Dale. They were so silly and they motioned how much they liked Chloe's Minnie Mouse hat.

As soon as we were finished greeting Chip and Dale, we ran straight back to get our Fast Passes for Toy Story Mania. This toy soldier was patrolling the area and Chloe had to get her picture with him.

And so did Joe! Look at those tough guys!

The first show we saw was the Playhouse Disney show. It featured four popular shows from the Playhouse Disney line up: Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh. The show featured large puppet characters from each show. It was in a large air conditioned room and you sat on the floor. I wasn't too certain about sitting on the floor at first, but it actually turned out to be a great thing because the kids could get up and dance around during certain parts of the show. Both of the kids really enjoyed the show and the puppets!

After the Playhouse Disney show, we waited in a short line to see Leo and Annie from Little Einsteins. Quincy and June had been there earlier, but I guess the four characters must alternate. As you can see Caleb was fascinated with Leo's glasses.

All of us with Leo and Annie. Again, the characters were so great with the kids.

Anyone who knows Chloe well knows that she loves loves loves The Incredibles movie. She has wanted to meet them for months! We had to ask a staff member where we could meet them because the map was not real clear. We watched a short show about character creation and when we were finished, we got to meet Frozone. Chloe likes Frozone just fine, but she really wanted to meet the Incredibles. So I asked the employee with Frozone when they would be coming out and he said they would be there in about five minutes. So we had a seat and waited ...

And then we saw them walk up the stairs. Chloe was beside herself with excitement and ran toward them. Mrs. Incredible reached down and took Chloe's hand as they walked to their greeting area. I am tearing up now thinking about how sweet it was. And it meant the world to Chloe! Just look at Chloe's face to see how excited she was to meet her!

All of us with the Incredibles. My only disappointment was that there was not a Photopass photographer there. It would have been nice to have some more pictures. Thankfully the employee there snapped a couple pictures for us. Each character had a "handler"/non-character employee with them that was usually more than willing to take some pictures, so that was really nice!

Chloe chatting with Mr. Incredible while Mrs. Incredible gave us her autograph. Chloe had a great time meeting them, but was disappointed that Dash and Violet weren't there. We told her that they were at school since it was a Friday :-)

There was a hall featuring posters for upcoming movies in the same building as we met The Incredibles at. Joe was trying to stand like Woody in front of the Toy Story 3 poster and Chloe decided to mimic him in this picture! Funny funny!!

Caleb and I in front of the same poster. Can't really tell from the poster what the movie storyline will be. And for anyone who's curios, we also saw a poster for a Cars 2 movie that will be coming out in the future.

In the same building, there were also character greetings with Sorcerer Mickey and the characters from the movie Up. We distracted Chloe from those characters so we could see more of the park!

These two took a little catnap and Joe and I were each able to enjoy the Star Wars ride, one at a time, of course! Actually both kids were feeling pretty rotten by this time, so it was good to see them nap. They both came down with the flu while we were on vacation. Thanks to Motrin and Tylenol (dye-free of course!!), they did great! These two are real troopers!

Joe standing on one of the set streets. I'm not sure what city this is. Anyone else know??

Another "city" scene. Again, I have no idea what city this is supposed to be.

We went to see this really cool stunt show in the afternoon. It was outside and it was hot but it was a great show. It was a little noisy at times, but thankfully I had thought ahead and brought along earplugs for Chloe. She did great. There is a huge blast of fire at the end of the show that is loud, bright, and hot, and that scared her a bit, but for the most part she liked it. The show was very fast and full of action. We learned a lot about how some of the special effects are done for movies and it was really cool. Up above is a picture of Herbie, the Love Bug.

Waiting in line at Toy Story Mania. There were a few things I really wanted to do at HS and one of them was to ride Toy Story Mania. I had heard great things about it and had also heard that it was a good idea to get Fast Passes as early as possible. One of the first things we did upon entering was park was head back to the ride to get our Fast Passes. I think we got them around 10:30. Our return time was 5:15, yes that's right, 5:15 that evening!! We were a little disappointed and weren't really sure if we would be there that late since the kids weren't feeling great. But we stuck it out and returned at 5:15 to jump in the Fast Pass line. We waited maybe 15 minutes. There were lots of things to look at while in line, so it made the time go by very quickly. I'm so glad we were able to go on it! It was soooo much fun!! It is a 4-D arcade style ride and you "shoot" all different things like plates, etc. Chloe talks about it on a pretty regular basis. We asked the employees about the fast pass and they said they had actually run out by 1:00 that afternoon. And crowds were pretty light at the park that day. So, if you want to ride Toy Story Mania, get your fast pass as soon as you get to the park!!

Chloe strapped to the rocket as we waited to meet Woody and Buzz Lightyear.

"Popping" out of the suitcase.

Getting to meet Woody and Buzz. Chloe said this was one of her favorite parts of the trip. She actually chose to meet them instead of getting dinner in the park that evening! Here's a little warning for you, that Woody is a bit of a flirt!!

In general, the lines to meet characters at Hollywood Studios were much shorter than they were at the Magic Kingdom. There were tons of characters to meet and the longest we waited to see any of them was probably 10 to 15 minutes and was to see Woody and Buzz.

By the time we boarded the bus to get back to the hotel, Chloe was feeling pretty good, as you can see in the picture! That's my little Pirate Princess!