Yep, you’ve totally guessed it! Today I am excitedly talking about Hollywood Studios! I say excitedly because this park is awesome and I LOVE spending the day here while on vacation, and yes you can do this park in just one day! (If you plan right!)
So let’s start as always with the stats:
Disney’s Hollywood Studios was originally called Disney-MGM Studios (a name I personally loved), the park opened on May 1, 1989, and was the third of the four theme parks built at Walt Disney World. Spanning 135 acres, the park is dedicated to show business; including film, television, music, and theatre, drawing inspiration from the heyday of Hollywood and California in the 1930s and 1940s.The visual centrepiece of Hollywood studios is the Chinese theatre home of the great movie ride, unfortunately, after scanning my thousands of photos from various trips I couldn’t find a photo of this iconic building so I found one on google (I do not own this image)
But I just wanted to add the picture because it’s such a stunning feature to the park.
For me however, my favourite building (and ride) has to be the Hollywood hotel aka tower of terror! Now as I mentioned before I’m not going to go into too much ride detail as I will be doing a separate blog on my top rides and the ones to avoid! But I couldn’t talk about Hollywood studios without at least mentioning how awesome this building is
I just love how it sits there at the end of sunset boulevard looking pretty eerie, like something out of an old Hitchcock movie, it’s another iconic structure at the studios.
So the key to this park is all about planning…. get it right and you’ll only need to do it the once (unless you are planning on going here several times during your trip) but for me personally, I can easily pack in one full fun-filled day.
So the park has 2 main thrill rides (rock n’roller coaster and tower of terror) you will need to Fastpass these! Or spend a good 45 plus minutes waiting in line to ride them! (And you most definitely will want to ride them!). Star Wars is a very big themed topic at the studios and unfortunately, I’m not a fan so I missed a lot of this out, I will make sure to do it this trip so at the very least I will have something to report back on!! I do know that they have the launch bay where you can check out movie props from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, play games, snap photos, screen videos, and greet heroes and villains, Luke did actually do this, and when we were talking about this earlier he said even as someone who likes Star Wars he found it quite boring…. but each to there own and some people will absolutely love it. They also do Jedi training but again I don’t know anything about that as I didn’t see it, I will be more organised this year!.
So while your down that end of the park check out the great movie ride, but do take into consideration that it’s 20 minutes long so factor that into any fast passes so you don’t overrun and miss out!
Okay so besides the rides (which also include toy story mania, muppets 3D, and Walt Disney: one mans dream) there is also the entertainment.
There are 5 shows you must see while at Hollywood studios (and here they are in no particular order) For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration live on stage.
I originally missed this out on my 2015 visit! WHY it’s fantastic, it’s so funny in places and has a little adult humour that goes over children’s heads even my boyfriend found it funny although he didn’t sing but that’s fine, he let me have my moment and I will definitely go and watch it on my next visit. One thing to mention here, we didn’t fast pass this we just turned up and waited, the queue was around 20 minutes and then we got inside and everyone just merges together (there are no set lines) so we waited there for a further 10 or so minutes and then when it was time to go in maybe 4 or 5 doors to the side open leading into the theatre it’s at this point things are a little chaotic and people do have a tendency to push so they get a better seat, I did hear a family with small children saying that they had not only Fastpassed this but also had been waiting for a long time only to be further back than someone who had maybe waited only half the time, therefore I wouldn’t use a fast pass on this as that will only guarantee entry but not an allocated good seat, the best bet is to turn up and wait as we did.
Next up is Voyage of The Little Mermaid
another beautiful live performance of the little mermaid, featuring all the favourite characters……and the theatre does make you feel like you are in fact under the sea!!
No trip is complete unless you’ve seen the Indiana Jones™ Epic Stunt Spectacular, whether your fan of the movies or not this is a lot of fun for everyone-make sure you raise your hand when the casting director is looking for extras and you might be lucky enough to be in a stunt scene…. just like my boyfriend Luke (pictured below in the red turban)
, this is all undercover so even if it rains you will be fine, although they may not be able to do some of the stunts for health and safety. Again this is not worth a fast pass, just queue, wherever you are seated you will see just fine.
One of my favourite shows is Beauty and the Beast-Live on Stage, it’s just as beautiful as the film and the performers and worthy of a broadway or Westend musical because they are super talented.
It’s a dazzling mix of singing and dancing whilst the story unfolds live on stage. We didn’t originally fast pass this but we had problems that day with a picture downloading to our memory maker so the cast member we asked for help was so helpful that after trying to sort out a picture he then came and found us in the stand by queue for beauty and the beast and gave us some fast passes for the inconvenience (so nice) so we then moved round to the fastpass area, again when we walked into the actual theatre we weren’t sat near the front just somewhere in the FP area which is a block sectioned off, I probably won’t waste a FP on this when I visit this year I will just wait because again you will see wherever you are sat.
And finally, we have Fantasmic! Fantasmic is fantastic! It’s a show that brings together favourite Disney heroes, princesses and villains, and takes you into the colourful imagination of Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. (My pictures really do not do it justice)
Pyrotechnics, laser lights and if I have researched right-one million gallons of dancing water make the dream come alive!! Now Luke pointed out earlier that the entrance to Fantasmic isn’t that clear as for the past 2 years he’s missed it and thought the queue was for beauty and the beast as they are right next door to each other, so don’t mistake that!.
Okay, so 2 factors to consider here when going to watch Fantasmic 1) The weather– So as we know Floridian weather is a little temperamental, one minute it’s 32-degree sunshine next it’s a torrential downpour, do not leave this show until your last day! This will get cancelled if there is a thunder and lightning storm! 2015 and 2016 about 2 hours before the 7 pm showing we had torrential rain and storms, they postponed the show for as long as they could to see if the storm would pass, luckily on both of these occasions the storm did pass and I got to watch it but I know of family’s who haven’t been quite so lucky and have unfortunately missed it altogether. So factor this into your plans and allow another night that you could potentially park hop over to watch it if the heavens decide to open up
2) the second piece of information I’m going to give you is FASTPASSES!! Yes, I fastpassed this, but this does not mean that you can rock up at 6.45 and expect a good seat, people with the most common sense will queue a good hour before the show starts whether they have a FP or not. The auditorium feels up very quickly and the shows are usually full to capacity. I watched one family turn up 10 minutes before the show was to due to start and have no choice but to sit at the back to the side, even though the family had fastpasses for this show, the cast member once again pointed out that having that pass would only guarantee them entry and not a front-row seat, you still have to get there and queue! Please bear that in mind! The FP area is an entire block in the centre but the seats will go all the way back, and viewing, of course, will not be so great.
Hollywood Studios is currently undergoing a huge makeover and I believe they are adding a toy story land into the mix. Obviously, for this reason, parts of the park are closed off to allow for building work, I can’t wait to see how it will look when I return in September! I’ve heard on the grapevine that they are also changing the name!…. again!! Watch this space ……….
well another Disney blog is done, I hope you find it entertaining and useful.
Next week I’ll be back on Tuesday (my new Disney blog day) and I will talk about Animal Kingdom!
Until then, as usual, all tips and comments welcome
Thanks for reading, that’s just me littlemisskeepingitreal 