Thursday, August, 7.
Hollywood Studios has two big rides that my dad and I wanted to go on — “Aerosmith Rock ‘N Roller Coaster” and “Tower of Terror” — but that my mom and brother didn’t want to. We decided to split up for the day and meet up back at the Sorcerer’s Hat later.
We walked down Sunset Boulevard and I saw some of the Streetmosphere actors doing a skit. We didn’t see the whole thing, but I remember they were talking about pick-up lines, and it was kind of funny.
We got our Fast Pass for “Aerosmith”, since the wait for both rides was over an hour, and then we decided to go see “The Great Movie Ride” while we waited. We walked back through the shops rather than down the street, since it was already pretty hot, which turned out to be a good idea because I happened to see the red Power Ranger’s suit in a glass case. And not just any red ranger — the mighty freakin’ morphin’ one! We then, of course, had to look for the others, and we found the yellow ranger suit as well. I didn’t see any others, so that might be all they had. Pretty cool nonetheless.
“The Great Movie Ride” had a super long line-up, though in one room they had a movie screen playing old movie previews, which was cool. I’m not sure how long the film was, but we left the room just after it started repeating.
The ride recreates scenes from classic movies, but it was pretty dark, so I didn’t get many good pictures. They had Gene Kelly in “Singin’ In The Rain”, Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in “Mary Poppins”, that guy who Micky Dolenz always imitates whose name escapes me, Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Indiana Jones, Tarzan, “Casablanca”, “The Wizard of Oz”, and several others.
While we were in the gangster scene, we stopped for a red light. While our tour guide waited for the light to change, there was a shootout, and a thug named Mugsy hijacked our car and kicked the tour guide out. My brother and mom went on the ride later and they told us that they had a cowboy take over their ride and then blow up the bank, so that’s pretty cool that they change it up like that. Back on our ride, Mugsy shot at the stop light (“no more red light!”) and off we went, to the wild west.
In the “Indiana Jones” scene, the gangster spots a giant jewel and decides to steal it. Unfortunately, the greedy Abu — I mean, Mugsy — disappears in a poof of smoke for attempting to steal the jewel, and our tour guide appears and joins us once again.
Next, we went to “Muppet Vision 3D”, since it still wasn’t time to use our Fast Pass. The movie opened with the two old guys sitting up in a balcony above the theatre and making comments, which was a nice effect, because we were seeing real live muppets in their natural habitat. I don’t remember too much about the show, so it wasn’t all that special, but still something nice to see. At one point, the little bunny muppet was hiding somewhere in the theatre and the muppets on the screen were asking us to point out where he was. I was looking around everywhere whilst all the little kids were pointing at the other balcony, the most obvious place.
After that, we walked around for a bit, I believe we went to go see what time the car stunt show was on. We never ended up seeing the show, since the show times didn’t work out with the rest our schedule that day, plus my mom and brother had already seen it. We happened to see the Power Rangers outside the stunt show arena, but of course, these were fake “Thunder Rangers” or something like that. Pfft. My dad made some comment saying that they were, in fact, the actual Power Rangers but I replied with “those can’t be the real Power Rangers, they’re in Angel Grove, duh”.
Finally, it was just about time to use our Fast Pass. We headed to “Tower of Terror” first and waited until it was whatever time our Fast Pass for “Aerosmith” said and got our new Fast Passes, then headed back to “Aerosmith” to wait. Pretty clever, huh? That way we got on the ride faster than if we got another Fast Pass after the ride. (Okay, okay, so I read it on the internets. Still worked out.)
The opposite of “It’s A Small World”, this was a ride I could stand working at. Aerosmith all day? Pretty sweet. And not just “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion” on repeat. They played like “Blind Man” and “Deuces Are Wild”. Like, whoa! Plus, I read that they have sixty hours of music? Nice!
After a considerable wait, even with a Fast Pass, we were led into a room where we saw a recording studio and — gasp! — Aerosmith themselves! Of course, it was only a video, but still, a nice touch. They were ushered off to a show, but not before inviting everyone in the room to take a “super stretch limo” to join them. After that, we went into another room and there were two riders there who had already been on the ride (probably many times before) who talked to my dad for a bit. I don’t remember what they said, I think they were talking about losing a backpack on the ride, then my dad asked about wearing glasses and they said it would be fine, because “if anything, they’ll be stuck to your face”.
As with “Test Track”, here was another ride that people had died on in the past. And with this one, it was actually on the ride, not afterward, and it happened more than once. Later when we met back up with the other half of our family, my dad mentioned that he was worried about going on “Tower of Terror” because he didn’t know what to expect. I, on the other hand “was fully prepared to die on the ‘Aerosmith’ ride”. Which, I mean, if you’re gonna die on a ride, you might as well be listening to “Sweet Emotion”, right?
The scariest part of the ride was the very beginning. It’s pitch black and you go really fast right away (zero to sixty in 2.8 seconds or something). I screamed. The whole ride is indoors, in the dark, with flashing lights and beams and a general concert-like atmosphere. You’re also listening to an Aerosmith song the entire time, which I remember reading was through headphones, but I don’t remember wearing any, but I must have. You go upside down a few times, but I don’t remember any big drops. It was just really awesome, the setting, the ride, and everything.
It was then time to meet up with my mom and brother at the Sorcerer’s Hat and we both ended up getting there at the same time. We told them to go on the “Great Movie Ride” while we went on the “Tower of Terror” since we figured they’d both take about the same time, and then we’d meet up again.
Being on “Tower of Terror” made me rather nervous, even though I knew what was going to happen — I just didn’t know when. You go into an elevator, which has seats that you’re strapped into. The elevator takes you up to “the fifth dimension” which had stars and stuff and was pretty cool. I don’t remember where the ride took us, probably to a few other floors, but whenever the ride was in the elevator shaft, I got really nervous (although, maybe it was just excitement).
Finally, we dropped. I think we only did it three our four times. Apparently, it’s a random number, and I think we were unlucky and got one of the lower ones. Either way, it was pretty cool. At the time, I picked “Tower” as my favourite ride, but thinking back, it was probably actually “Aerosmith”. Had we dropped a few more times, it would have been much better. On this ride, I screamed every time we went down, but there were a few people who also screamed when we went up. What’s up with that? (Ha ha, up! I could work on “Jungle Cruise”!)
We ended up waiting awhile at the Hat, since the line for “The Great Movie Ride” was still pretty long. We had lunch at the Buzz Lightyear pizza place, and ended up having to eat outside since all the indoor tables were occupied and my brother and I seriously suck at table sniping.
Then we all went on the “Studio Backlot Tour” together. I didn’t enjoy it that much, mainly because it was really really hot by this time. At one point during the tour, we take a tram around the “backlot”. The tour guide tells us that there’s a big set that a movie crew has been using for the past week, so it’s been closed off, but she becomes confused when the driver takes us in anyway. While we are driving through, the “rain effect” starts (“huh? that shouldn’t be happening…”) and then the scene is flooded. When the tram starts rocking back and forth, I finally realize that this was all supposed to happen — there was no “movie crew” at all. If there was ever a time to say it, it’s now: boy, dumbass me.
Hollywood Studios definitely had the best rides — of course, I’m biased, because I have good taste in music. We ended up leaving a little early, because even with our really nice frozen lemonades, it was way too hot. I would really love to go to Disney again and spend the whole day there, looking for Hidden Mickeys (none of which I found) and other magical little thing, but only when the weather is nicer.