We were kind of late getting to the park, arriving about an hour before lunch. We did get in a Great Movie Ride, though. We also left pretty early, about 7:30. We could have stayed until 10, on Extra Magic Hours. We were all pretty tired, though. This just did not seem like a trip for our long park hours, like the old days.
The weather was perfect. It was not too hot, not too cold, and not a cloud in the sky. It was a gorgeous blue sky day.
We were snacking on stuff like ice cream and shakes, and water and pop all day. We really liked a shake we had at the boat place. You know, the boar place, next to the lake at the studios. We had lunch at The 50s Prime Time Cafe, and dinner at Olivia's (back at Old Key West).
We rode on GMR, ToT, RnRC, Star Tours, and Toy Story Mania. We also took in Muppets Vision 4D, Sounds Dangerous was closed, and the tram tour ended at 5, just five minutes before we got there. We did not do either Stunt Show. We also ended up missing Fantasmic! completely this trip, which is a shame, because it is such a great show.
Wow. Toy Story Mania is a great ride! Nick especially liked it. It is basically a 3D carnival adventure. You are wearing the polarized stereoscopic glasses, and riding in a regular ride vehicle, expect that there are a pair of guns mounted in the front. You travel from carnival booth to carnival booth around a midway, and are presented at each place with a 3D scene. The gun adapts to each scene, letting you throw rings around coke bottles, or baseballs at plates, or darts at balloons. The guns reminded us of the guns in the old virtual POTC in DQ. There was definitely some good physics modeling, including gravity and different behaviors for different projectiles. It is a neat ride, with Toy Story quality graphics, and the characters from Toy Story are your hosts. This was a lot of fun, but we will have to avoid it unless we can Fast Pas it, or wait until the crowds wear off. We did it at the end of the day, so there were no FP options. the crowd here was enormous, it was about a 90 minute wait, from what I recall.
The animatronic figure of Mr. Potato Head in the Toy Story queue may be similar tech to the Laugh Floor, but not as sophisticated by any means. The kids in the queue could mess him up by yelling at him, so I think he is programmed to react to certain crowd actions. It was interesting, if not as fascinating as the Laugh Floor.
The Tower Of Terror was a great ride next to a woman who had never done it. She seemed surprised. But, she survived. This is a scary ride every time, but you feel like you did something when it is over. There is a lot more to it than a drop and scream, it remains imaginative and elaborate.
Rock and Roller Coaster does not make me as nervous as ToT always does. It is a fast and furious ride, and remains a lot of fun. Of course, it is faster than Space Mountain, but it is sure shorter. You just kind of get warmed up, and it is over. It is still worth the wait, though.
The Great Movie Ride remains a favorite of mine, although Nick claims it is getting dated. I really still like it a lot. We had a nearly perfect ride with the gangster switch, and a good gangster actor but a so-so "tour guide". Still, the animatronics, music, movie and set touches are all really cool. I still like the finale, with some classic and neo classic movie clips.
I still like Star Tours a lot. Partly, it always reminds me of our first Disneyland trip (Debbie and I, before Nick), although Debbie no longer rides it. It is a good show that still holds up, and the virtual thrills are still exhilarating. Nick and I sat in the very back corner, where the video is not as good, but you have the most motion. What a great ride!
Muppet Vision is still fun, cute and funny. Nick did not react as much, but I think he still liked it. It makes me laugh, and the effects are still pretty neat.
When we rode ToT and RnRC we stacked our Fast Passes. This was a good plan. The ToT queue is nice, but it is also nice to go straight on.
I got comment in the Villains Store, motivated by my Hades T-shirt. He said its too bad don't have a decent villains shirt selection any more. Sadly, I had to agree.
Lunch was at the 50s Prime Time Cafe. It was good food, but we miss the show. There was a day when the staff here was just off the wall, with dated 50s humor and cliches, and that was more than half the reason for coming here. Our waitress was nice and friendly, and tried to be funny, but did not try to hard. Still the service and the food were good. We all 3 had meat loaf. It was good, i thought, not great. Debbie liked it more than I. i really liked the potatoes, though. I liked their chicken better (when I had it before). Desert for Debbie and I were hot fudge sundaes, and they were very good. The hot fudge was great. Nick had dad's brownie sundae, which he liked. The cherry and vanilla cokes were good, and a nice nostalgic touch.
Dinner at Olivia's was not planned. It was the best meal of the trip so far. I had prime rib and a key lime tart. The filling was very good, but crust too much and too sweet. still very good. Prime rib was near perfect. There were good potatoes also. Debbie had the New York strip, which she very much liked. Nick had bbq pork chop. He thought it was too done, but I tasted it, and it seemed awfully good. Debbie also had the tart, while Nick had the cheesecake, which they liked. This was a great meal!
Debbie and I got to hot tub (in room) after dinner. It felt awfully good, and was probably good for my poor circulation.
It was a very nice Disney day. We had short park time. But, we had fun, and really good food.
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