Todays update is written by Cindy for a change!
Yesterday we got up reasonably early again and had a leisurely breakfast at the villla, eventually setting off for Disney about lunchtime. We headed to Downtown to buy annual passes. When we were at Guest Relations we asked if we could get a Florida residents discount as we were home owners. To be able to we would need to get a Florida State ID card, not a dirvers license or Social Security numner. An english lady next to us showed us hers and said how easy they were to get. You simply make an appointment at Haynes City and register. They do take about 4 weeks to come through but defintely worth getting. Paul and I are defintely going to make an appointment to get them as you can qualify for lots of discounts. We had to go ahead and buy the full priced Disney pass but the guy on the desk kindly said that if we went back once we had our ID’s he would be able to apply the discount.
We headed straight for Disney’s Hollywood Studios (or MGM as we all know it!) Parking is free with our annual passes which is good. We got into the park about 1pm and the weather was pretty good. When the sun was out it was really warm so we sat on a bench and soaked up some rays for a while. After having some Fairfax Fries (MickyD’s to everyone else) we decided to go over to Little Mermaid. Since we had just missed a show we thought we’d go to the Great Movie ride. As we went in we were held back just before the queueing area although it didn’t seem that full. When we did go in I noticed that everyone in the queueing area was wearing matching Mickey ears. I thought it was some kind of tour but then Paul spotted they were all “year of a million dreams” ears. Everyone had been given them as part of the Year of a Million Dreams promotion and we had missed out by litterlally seconds!! I was so gutted (I really wanted those big ears!).
We then headed over to the new Toy Story ride. The standby queue was 60 mins and all the fast passes had gone so we had to give it a miss. We will defintely come back to it in January.
The Back Lot tour also had a longish queue which seemd unusual as the park did not seem that crowded.
We walked right down to Lights, Motors, Action and eventually decided to head into the Muppets. Only a 5 minute wait and this 3D attraction is still pretty entertaining.
Whilst walking around we saw the area where all the Chirstmas lights are. They are the Osborne family lights which are nothing to do with Ozzy despite my obsession that they were!! They are dedicated to some family from Arkansas who used to add more and more lights to their house each year to entertain their neighbours. Much more of a heartfelt Disney story than Sharon and Ozzy I suppose!! We did go back to see the lights when it got dark so more of that later….
We headed into Voyage of the Little Mermaid to see Ariel for the 3:45 show and afterwards headed over to Indiana Jones – well It wouldn’t be MGM without doing Indie. No changes to the show but just as good as ever. Epsecially the audience reaction to the “plant” which when you know its a “plant” is even funnier than what he is doing!
By the time we came out it was starting to cool down so we went for a coffee whilst waiting for it to get dark. At 6pm the lights were turned on – all 5 million of them!! They were quite spectacular. Literally every building was covered in lights as well as trees, Angels, signs etc between buildings. They then ‘danced’ to the music. Defintely worth seeing and very Christmasy. Of course it snowed too – Disney style!
We’d pretty much done all we wanted and were both tired again so decided to skip Fantasmic and head out. We headed to Celebration to see the nightly snowfall there. We got there for the 7pm fall (they are hourly). Since the 6pm fall had already occurred there was foam all over Market street. It looks really good as you look down the street and see people in T shirts comfotably enjoying snow. The kids also love it and loads of them were covered in foam, literally rolling in it on the floor! Celebration always looks good at Christmas and again many houses are really nicely decorated. Mind you, so are a few on Highgate.
We finsihed the evening off at Applebees. Then came home exhausted once more!
It’s now Tuesday AM. Today we are going to the Dolphin hotel for lunch so we can make the most of the weather. Maybe try to do some more xmas shopping too.
More soon….