This entry has been written from the view point of someone who has never been to any Disney theme park, not even Disneyland Paris.
It is also my first holiday in the US, and although I have spent two weeks in eastern Canada, I expect that the experience will be very different.
I would also like to point out that this holiday is being spent with my pregnant wife and two children under the age of ten, and so it is very unlikely that we will be experiencing any of the major thrill rides, which to be honest is no loss as far as I am concerned anyway. |
Saturday evening heralded a flash of inspiration, the days so far had started slowly and by the time we had got to the parks we were all starting to feel the effects of the heat and jetlag, what we hadn't remembered was that our body clocks were running five hours ahead, and the days don't start too hot, so the logical thought is go early to the parks and return home in the afternoon.
Day 4, we decided would see us visit a park we hadn't yet been to, and what also turns out to be one of the closest parks to the villa, Disney Hollywood Studios. We packed a backpack with water, fruit juices, sandwiches and snacks, another thought was that we should eat little and often to keep our energies up, and headed of just before nine.
As you leave the 192 and join World Drive you find the turning for Hollywood (was MGM) Studios peals off to the right, and the parks greeting sign arriving just after the main Disney World arches. As with the Magic Kingdom parking was a breeze, the park has six car parks each given a different name, in the case of Hollywood they are aspects of entertainment (stage, television etc.), and a tram shuttles you from the car park to the gates of the park.
 Tip
So that you don't forget where you parked you car, after parking the car walk to the end of the line that the car is parked in, and using either your digital camera, or preferably the camera on your mobile phone to photograph the row details painted on the ground. Each row has the name of the car park and the row number, as shown below.
One final thought, you will probably be driving a hire car so take a photo of it's license plate (registration plate), so if you confronted with an entire row of identical cars, you'll know which one is yours. |
The entrance to the park consist of the same two elements as the Magic Kingdom, bag search and turnstiles, but rather than the mid-west theme from the turn of the century, it very art deco of thirties Hollywood. procession through these is as efficient as the Magic Kingdom and soon you find yourself looking down Hollywood Boulevard toward Mickey's sorcerers' apprentice hat, everything oozes thirties Hollywood and for a moment you feel that you could be in California with the palm trees reaching up into the blue sky above.
As with Main Street, the shops welcome you in to explore and enjoy, though here there is more of a movie theme than the Magic Kingdom. You'll also notice that Disney have cleverly sprinkled references to various movies in the architecture, most prominently 'Who framed Roger Rabbit?'.
As with Magic Kingdom the park is centred around an iconic Disney image, in the case of Hollywood it's Mickey's sorcerers hat, which also acts as the backdrop to the regular High School Musical show. To the left is Echo Lake which was home, at the time of our visit, to four main attractions, auditions for this years American Idol and an American Idol experience, the Sounds Dangerous radio show starring Drew Carey, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, and the Star Tours ride.
Walt Disney World Resort - Disney's Hollywood Studios
Note
This is an early version of the article and may, and probably will change as the rest of the articles written about this holiday are completed. If there are any mistakes you feel I have made please leave a comment and I will try to resolve them in future revisions. |