Disney’s Hollywood Studio

Day two of our Disney park adventure took us to Hollywood Studios. Again, this was a first for Andrew, but Susan and I visited once before years ago. We got off to a late start because everyone was tired from yesterday and Andrew needed to make some progress on his homework assignments. We arrived at the park just after noon.

Hollywood Studios doesn’t have much in the way of rides, but they do have some interesting and exciting live action performances. The two we liked the best were the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show.

Andrew enjoyed the Star Tours ride. This ride is based on Star Wars and has a full-sized Imperial Walker outside. Next door, young kids were training to be a Jedi and eventually got to face Darth Vader in a light saber battle. On this ride, we entered a Starspeeder 3000 (full motion simulator) to Endor. Along the way, we experienced a little trouble and detoured to the Death Star. Pretty cool.

The most exciting ride that Andrew was able to ride was the Hollywood Tower Hotel, also known as Tower of Terror. I was surprised to learn that he was big enough to ride it. The setup to the ride was pretty scary. We walked through the deserted hotel, full of dust and cobwebs, then went down to the basement, past the old coal furnaces, to the maintenance elevator. From there, we strapped in tightly and went for one crazy elevator ride. It started off slowly, but then, to everyone’s surprise, it dropped back to the basement, then shot up to the 13th floor, then went up and down in starts and stops. Finally, it dropped back down to the basement. At the end of the ride, we were all glad to be alive!

A new attraction at the park was The American Idol Experience. It was like being on the set of the actual TV show. Three park guests were chosen ahead of time to come on stage and sing. There were even judges there providing feedback to the contestants. Andrew liked the voting buttons, even though his favorite contestant didn’t win.

Another hit with Andrew was the Studio Backlot Tour. The coolest part of this was the Catastrophe Canyon. In here, an earthquake causes a power line to fall on a fuel tanker truck, which catches on fire. Then a dam breaks and dumps water into the canyon from both sides.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Today was our first visit to Animal Kingdom. We planned this as our first of four Disney parks this week. We wanted to get there bright and early to increase our chances of seeing the animals out and about. After showers and breakfast, we were on our way by 9:00 AM.

At the park, we flashed our annual passes and walked through the gate. Our first destination was Africa. We were pleasantly surprised to see the line for the Kilimanjaro Safaris was only 10 minutes long. We boarded a large truck and headed down the muddy, rutty trail. Our tour guide was in contact with an aerial spotter, who provided periodic updates to the animal whereabouts.

Our encounters included: Rhinoceros, Hippos, Crocodiles, Gazelles, Giraffes, Wildebeests, Elephants, Flamingos, Ostriches, and Cheetahs. At one point, we saw a male lion walking along a rock ridge, but he disappeared before I could get a picture of him. By the time our truck turned the corner, he was hidden in the rocks. At the end of the trip, Wilson – our spotter – reported sighting some poachers. We arrived at their campsite moments after they left and heard gun shots in the distance. It was quite intense.

Next up was Asia. The star animal attraction was the Gorilla habitat. There were also other animals, and a train ride to the conservation and behind-the-scenes area.

The animals were great, but the biggest attractions turned out to the the rides. The first was the Kali River Rapids water ride and the second was the Expedition Everest roller coaster. We were surprised to find that the roller coaster minimum height was only 44 inches. Andrew was good to go and the lines were pretty short. We rode it at least 7 times.

Then came Dino-Land. By now, the park was getting close to shutting down. We rode DINOSAUR, a time machine back to the late Cretaceous period just prior to the asteroid hit. The ride was very intense; dark, jerky, and full of surprises. We were nearly eaten several times along the way.

On the way out of the park, we found a display of very large fish. Andrew and several other kids enjoyed watching them slowly swim by. Andrew was busy taking pictures and video.

Long into the evening, Andrew kept describing his day to us. He was thoroughly impressed with the roller coaster.

WorldMark Kingstown Reef

This week, we’re on vacation in, of all places far and wide, Orlando, Florida. As WorldMark members, we have points that we must use over a given timeframe. If we don’t use them, they are gone. While unemployed, we didn’t use any points, so they were really piling up. To avoid losing them, we booked a week here in Orlando.

To prepare for this week, we bought annual passes to Disney World to go along with our afternoon passes to the Disney water parks. Before the week is through, we plan to visit all four of the major Disney World Parks: Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot Center, and The Magic Kingdom.