Day Seven – 9 September 2016
Today we headed to Disney Hollywood Studios after breakfast. When we arrived there and walked down the main street, we encountered a group of the First Order Stormtroopers being led by Captain Phasma. We kept out of their way because they looked like they were looking for trouble.
We were close to the end of our fastpass window for Toy Story Mania already, so we headed straight there and got in with one minute to spare! We really enjoyed the ride again and being in the cool air was great. We’ve had great weather here – hot and humid but apart from the first two days with occasional storms, we’ve had no rain since.
After Toy Story, we headed over to the Tower of Terror which was a walk on, so you can see how quiet it was in the park. We had a good group with us and I bought a t-shirt after the ride. Next up we went straight to Rockin’ Roller Coaster (stopping for a photopass opportunity on the way). It was about a 15 minute wait. When I entered the lobby, the music poster in the lobby said “Straight From Australia, Keith Performing Tonight” – haha, Magic Bands at work. The ride was as good as ever – fast and furious and fun.
After the ride, we headed to the shops for a little bit before remembering we had a Star Tours fastpass which again we nearly missed. All good though and we rode the new version of the ride with sequences from The Force Awakens.
After that, we went to the ABC Commissary for lunch. It was really busy but we found a table eventually.
We then went over to the Star Wars Launch Bay which was great – we watched a film about the Star Wars legacy and then went into the pavilion to see the props before meeting Chewbacca (awesome) and Kylo Ren (scary…)
Back outside and we watched the Star Wars stage show that brings a lot of the characters on stage, including R2D2, C3PO, Chewbacca, Empire and First Order Storm Troopers, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Kylo Ren. It was all really cool
Afterwards, we headed into the Great Movie Ride which is really good and then we headed down to where the Muppets were – that whole Section of the park is construction walls and was really dead of guests, but will be amazing when it leads to Star Wars land.
We next headed to the Frozen sing-a-long attraction in the theatre that once hosted the American Idol Experience. The show was surprisingly a lot of fun and similar to the comedy re-telling of princess stories they do at Fantasy Faire in Disneyland. They also have a giant screen on stage for the musical numbers with a bouncing snowflake against the lyrics. There are on stage appearances from Anna, Kristof and Elsa too. We really enjoyed the show which ends with snow in the theatre.
It was now dinner time, so we went to check in for our 7:10 reservation at the Hollywood and Vine for the Minnie’s Seasonal Dining Experience. After checking in, we waited a short while outside to be seated. When we made our way to our table, the restaurant manager came up to us to apologise for the delay (we didn’t even notice one). She said that it took them 17 minutes to seat us and therefore she would give us a resort wide fast pass for one attraction (fine by us!). The restaurant itself was a character dining experience with the fab-five dressed in summer gear for the season. It was a fun evening as the characters came around to our table. The food was a buffet menu of American classics and we really enjoyed the night.
We managed to settle our account with five minutes to spare before the commencement of the Star Wars fireworks. We got outside and moved along the street towards the Chinese Theatre. We got a good spot right in front and the fireworks were brilliant! They really capture the magic of Star Wars and they also have amazing projections on the buildings with scenes from the movies. There is also a great use of lasers which support the entire spectacle. We really loved the fireworks and can’t wait to see it again later in the week.
Once the fireworks were over, we went to have a look to see if Olaf was doing his meet and greet (it was an extra magic night) but he was closed, so we decided to have an early(ish) night and headed back to the resort.