We’re actually jumping backwards a day here with Hollywood Studios, as Magic Kingdom was our second day, but I wanted to share it first for a couple of reasons:
- I had created the video for Magic Kingdom I wanted to share first because Magic Kingdom is just the epitome of Disney.
- Hollywood Studios was a little bit, less say, diminished this year.
We chose to do Studios on our first day because we knew there would be less to do there so we’d get away with a shorter day, coming out of the park for tea, then returning for Fantasmic. We didn’t realise quite how little there would in the park though! The reason is that many of our old favourite attractions were closed and a large part of the park is currently sectioned off as they create the new Star Wars area. Backlot Tour is gone; the Lights, Motors, Action! show is gone; the Streets of America are gone…sad times! I think it was missing that “behind the scenes” aspect that Disney’s Hollywood Studios has always meant to me which is a shame.
But this isn’t to say we didn’t enjoy Hollywood Studios at all – in fact, we had an amazing time, as always in Disney! It just felt a little bit lacklustre to start my WDW 2017 posts with that!
The first thing we did when we arrived was to find a cast member at Guest Relations and get some badges sorted – we had 2 First Timers and Ben and I got badges to celebrate our engagement too – I showed these last time, but just to reiterate – Disney is amazing! We got so many congratulations and questions, marriage advice from cast members, complimentary glasses of champagne and cupcakes. If you’re celebrating, make sure to let them know!
We entered the park and popped into a shop to buy our Magic Bands – can’t do Disney without them in my opinion! I chose Rapunzel but was quite jealous of Ben’s grey Steamboat Willie.
Then it was time for first ride of the trip, and Great Movie Ride was our destination. I think our friends Peter and Christine were a little overwhelmed at the Disney atmosphere at this point, talking in the walk down to the ride, the detail of the building, the ride itself – everything!
Toy Story Midway Mania was our first Fastpass of the day, but sadly my gun didn’t work properly! It would shoot but would get stuck in one place, and no one believed me to start with! I discovered that if you tell them your gun didn’t work, you’ll usually get another go round, but only afterwards so I didn’t have the chance.
We also watched the Indiana Jones show (Peter was so impressed by this!), Star Tours, Muppet Vision (forever one of my favourite things) and ate lunch at Backlot Express. And that was it! We missed out on Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster this day because the queues were crazy long and we had a reservation at the Rainforest Cafe to make, so we wouldn’t have had a chance to do them – very sad! (But don’t worry, we returned another evening for Tower of Terror – Beth and I can’t do Disney without it!).
So we headed over to Disney Springs for our first look at it since it changed from Downtown Disney. I was super impressed. I’m sure some people won’t be big fans of all the new stores there (I know some of my family weren’t) but to be honest, I liked them. I like that there’s a section for popular “fashion” stores, the older stores that were there before, and the proper Disney area still. Plus all the food – I feel like I need a week there to try all the food outlets!
We’d booked the Rainforest Cafe originally for the 13 of us that were going because we thought Mollie and Eva being 6 and 3 would really enjoy it, but had to rebook it down to 7 again 🙁 Fortunately Peter and Christine as first-timers really enjoyed it and we had a lovely meal. Always a fan of their lemonade!
Then it was time to head back to the park for the evening for Fantasmic. We all love Fantasmic but it’s really special to me as it’s something that Ben loves too – sounds weird, but before meeting me, he wasn’t much of a Disney fan. I’ve been slowly converting him, but Fantasmic and Mickey have always been his favourites. Is it weird that we play the soundtrack to Fantasmic at least once a week every week?! And of course, it was as amazing as usual! Beth and I managed to get some Photopass pictures done too which was really awesome.
And finally, back to the apartments – I think we exhausted Peter and Christine even with that fairly easy-going first day since they weren’t sure what to expect!
PS: Head over to my blog to see my outfit details for the day here!
