An Evening at Disney's Hollywood Studios

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After two fun-filled SUN-FILLED days in Orlando, we were really tired and ready for a cooler evening at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I say cooler because it was starting to sprinkle a bit when we left the hotel Thursday evening to head back to the park! Normally, you wouldn’t want to spend an evening in a theme park when it’s been raining – but after enduring 100 degree weather for two days, we were ready for a bit of a cool shower!

When arrived at Hollywood Studios, we made a beeline for the Pixar area to see what kind of wait time the ToyStory Mania ride had going on…it wasn’t pretty. At 75 minutes, we decided to pass and headed over to the Tower of Terror , which only had a 40 minute wait time. It actually didn’t even take them 40 minutes, so they went on it again immediately!

While they rode the ride, I headed over to the nearest concession shop and bought an apple pie sundae. In a word? Delicious! I love the ice cream at Disney World!

After they got their fill of falling 13 stories in the Tower of Terror, we headed back to the Toy Story Mania ride to check on the wait times…130 minutes. That’s right, over two hours to ride that ride! They girls didn’t really care much for waiting two hours when we only had three hours left in the park, so we went to the Rock-n Roller Coaster Areosmith Ride and got in line there. There was a 70 minute wait time, but the girls have both been on this ride in the past and they already knew it was going to be worth the wait!

While the girls waited in line for the Rock-n Roller Coaster, I headed over to the souvenir shops and to take a look around. I hadn’t been to Hollywood Studios since they changed over from MGM and was excited to see if they had made any changes. I just loved the scenery – just like Animal Kingdom, everything was decorated to the hilt!

I just love Disney! I love everything about it, from the cute way that the parks are decorated to the fun rides for the kids (and adults who don’t get motion sick like I do) to the great food and snacks throughout the parks.

We left the park shortly after the kids got off the Rock-n Rollercoaster because it was raining cats and dogs and we were really tired from spending 8 hours in the Disney Parks that day!

Friday morning, before we headed home, we stopped by a few souvenir shops and hit a McDonald’s before we got on the Turnpike to go home.

I had brought along a copy of The Complete Walt Disney World 2011 guide book by Julie and Mike Neal during this trip, and it really helped us figure out which rides and shows to make a priority. We took a quick look through it before we left for Orlando and the girls poured over it during the drive there, as they still hadn’t decided which parks they wanted to visit while we were there. By the time we arrived, they decided that they wanted to go to Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom.

I thought that this book was incredibly detailed and thorough – they even included the average wait time for each ride and which attractions they thought were a waste of time! It was fantastic, just like getting advice from a friend who had recently been to the park. When I mentioned to a friend who lives in Orlando that I had brought the book along, she laughed and said that it was one of the best guide books out there.