Hollywood Studios

For the first time since we arrived here, this morning we split into two groups. Tim dropped Lizzie, Charlotte and I at Hollywood Studios, before heading to NASA at Cape Canaveral. 

To recount their adventures, I’m going to invite a guest scribe to join me in wealding the typewriter for this edition of our holiday journal. 

The B-Team dropped us in the car park amid grey skies and the threat of rain, which didn’t bother us too much as it drizzled on and off for about 40 minutes but there were plenty of stores to skip into. One member of our party was super excited to have the opportunity to build a lightsaber. With one eye on the clock (our appointment with destiny was at 10:15am) we were pleased to be able to move through the stores and other attractions without needing to barge through the crowds. Once we’d perused the merch, we looked for somewhere undercover to leave Charlotte to read her Kindle while Liz and I attended our secret building appointment. Secret because you have to hide it from Storm Troopers, and it’s nestled in the corner of the courtyard where you’d easily walk past it if you weren’t aware what it was. 

The experience was great and we’re now the proud owners of a lightsaber. 

Once we’d scooped Charlotte off her bench we strolled over to Mickeys Runaway Train, a cartoon-themed ride starring “classic” Mickey Mouse and Goofy. You be forgiven for thinking the ride would be a little tame. How much action can you get from an old cartoon?  But Disney had scattered their magic dust and had several surprises up their sleeve. The first happened when Pluto’s picnic basket got stuck in the chimney of Goofy’s steam train causing it to explode, at the same second the scream shattered and the cartoon juddered to a halt. Goofy then invited us to ride the train we’d seen on screen. A little way along the track, another explosion caused Goofy’s engine to separate from the carriages, and the carriages to separate not single car with a huge jerk which explained why we needed the safety lap bar on what had seemed at first glance to be a noddy ride of lot significance. 

We lurched from side to side, rotated, were blasted with strong air jets, danced a waltz with Dixie Duck and using VR dived into the ocean to swim with the fishes. 

Once we were done we revisited Rise of the Resistance as it was so good it needed further inspection. Unsurprisingly it was just as good as the previous time we rode it, except this time the element of surprise was missing. But it had been replaced by a level of excitement which knew something was going to happen and was eagerly looking forward to it.

After we’d stood in a line for a while to queue for Rise of the Resistance, we decided a show would provide a welcome rest. Beauty and the Beast didn’t disappoint on any level. Although the show was massively abridged, we really enjoyed it and the costumes (as usual) were amazing.