vacation - day 6.

Tuesday (January 19), our first full day at Disney, was sunny and delightful - though a little chilly at times. It was dark the night before when we arrived at our hotel building (one of eight in the Music resort complex), and we went in through a back entrance...so I was pretty excited when we left through the front and discovered what was decorating our residence. :)




Sarah came to Hollywood Studios with us, and she picked us up so that we did not have to deal with the bus system! Her friend Keil (who works at the park) was waiting for us at the gate - with free tickets for us! Talk about amazing. Here is the sign next to our parking space.

Sarah got a ticket for having her sunglasses "not in regulation." It was hilarious! I can't remember what the ticket said...but it was great.

Riding through the Star Wars forest. Excellent fun (if only it actually moved).

Studio Backlot Tour. We got to see lots of props and set pieces from famous movies. As well as lots of topiary Mickeys.

Costume shop. I don't remember if this is just the Disney Hollywood Studios shop, or the DisneyWorld shop, or the Disney-in-general shop. Probably DisneyWorld. Either way, it was huge and really cool. I would like to make pretty Disney costumes for a living. :)

The top thing on my list of things to do at Hollywood Studios? Experience Beauty and the Beast live. Let's just say...it wasn't quite what I expected. Beauty and the Beast gets severely shortened when you only have 30 minutes in which to tell the tale. It started off normal...with "Belle," which morphed strangely into "Gaston" after most of the song.

Then we were told that "by a strange and unusual set of circumstances, Belle ends up in an enchanted castle!" They entirely cut Maurice, Lefou, and skipped everything from the end of the opening scene to "Be Our Guest."

Lots of singing and dancing and grand commotion! I feel badly for the guys in the life-size enchanted object costumes.

Yeah, then suddenly there was a transformation! (okay, they gave a little more plot than that.)

Lots of pretty dancing.

After Beauty, we headed to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, where Sarah's friend Keil works as a stunt guy. He was not performing that day, so he went in to watch the show with us and got us seats in the VIP section. He also knows the girl who recruits volunteers from the audience to be a part of the show...so guess who she just so happened to pick?

That's me, in the center, above. I am screaming "as though the trap door on which you're standing has just opened." My throat was actually sore for 2 days. I got whisked off to get put in a costume, and meanwhile the show began.

Indiana Jones recreates the classic opening scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Crazy stuff!!

All the audience extras, back from wardrobe. We also had to sign a waiver that said something about how we wouldn't sue if we were injured or killed, etc. I'm third from left, in the pink robe and head scarf.

We met Indiana Jones and Marian. Well, we shook the hands of the actors portraying them. That counts, right?

The huge set from the first scene rolled out, revealing this street scene behind it. I am in the front right of the photo, one of the girls haggling rug prices.

There were a lot of cool fights and spectacular stunts going on, but since I was part of the scene, I actually missed most of them. We were given directions as to when to run, when to scream, etc - so we were apparently adding to the look of the scene.

Running away from explosions and chaos!

After the show. It was such a fun experience! I loved being part of the action, instead of just sitting there watching what was going on. The guy behind me (right corner of the photo) is Keil, who suggested I be in the show. Great idea! We met some of the crew after the show - and found out that one of the girls who works this show is Sarah Michelle Gellar's stunt double. We were excited. We ♥ Buffy.

We had lunch and Keil left, then we went on to explore more of the park. Next thing we did was The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. We thought Beauty and the Beast in 30 minutes was a stretch...try Little Mermaid in 17. Wow. There was a giant scary Ursula puppet creature...freaky. I would have been terrified as a child.

Mickey topiaries. I've never seen The Sorcerer's Apprentice. It was, of course, evil since it is about sorcery. :)

On our way to the Tower of Terror, we stopped by the Beauty and the Beast theatre again to take some photos.

Inside the Hollywood Hotel, waiting in the incredibly slow line for the Tower of Terror. We stood in this little room for at least 30 minutes. Andrew thought the ride was boring, Sarah enjoyed it, and I thought it was awful. Not so much scary. Just...lurching up and down randomly is not a pleasant thing. I'm not sure why we seem to think it's so fabulous.

Photo op!

With Sarah. I'm sad I didn't get more photos with her. Photographer skills that day - fail.

In the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. Andrew has pictures here from when he was a kid. How fun is that?

Andrew's collection, in progress. Cedric, of course, traveled with us, but Jack Sparrow Mickey was added on the cruise, and Luke Skywalker Mickey joined us at Hollywood Studios. They pose here with an appropriate backdrop.

At the Lego store in Downtown Disney - it's Indiana Jones! I love giant Lego statues. I also who has time to design these things, and WOW, what a job to have!

Yeah, this is the biggest Lego figure I have ever seen. I wonder how deep it's in the water.

With Cinderella at World of Disney, the massive souvenir store!

Belle, inside World of Disney.

Yummy, yummy, yummy Ghiradelli brownie sundae. Deliciousness. It was a good way to end the day. Actually, we had the sundae before dinner at Captain Jack's (which was not at all pirate-y, like one might imagine). But it was the highlight of the evening. So it gets the honor of last photo of the day. :)

Hopefully it won't take me so long to post the next day in the saga...however, the next post is the Magic Kingdom, where I took about 500 photos. So we'll just have to see. ;)

stress.

Resolving to say no is great in theory, until you actually have to say it. I hate feeling like I am letting people down. It's an awful feeling. Right up there with the way I feel when I've said yes and am then overwhelmed by the project I've taken on.

There's just no way to win. :(

Stress = not my friend.

my love.

You make me smile like the sun,

Fall out of bed, sing like a bird
Dizzy in my head -
Spin like a record crazy on a Sunday night.

You make me dance like a fool,
Forget how to breathe
Shine like gold, buzz like a bee.

Just the thought of you can drive me wild.

Ohh you make me smile.


Love you baby. Thanks for always making sure that I'm smiling. :)

vacation - day 5.

Tuesday morning (January 18), we packed up all our luggage (again...we did that a lot on this trip) and once again had the hotel staff store it for us in their back room. Then we walked to Universal again! We went to the other park - Universal Studios.

Universal Studios is fun because they have different "worlds" as well - but they're real places, like New York City, Hollywood, San Francisco, etc. They had some fun New York stuff. :)

We rode the Mummy roller coaster experience. It's an indoor coaster that goes forwards, backwards, sideways, and spins. And at the end, there's a video of Brendan Fraser and it pretty much looks like he finally gets eaten by a mummy (what a shame). Anyway, I thought this headdress was cool but I couldn't even think of a theatre reason that I would need it anytime in the next 10 years, so...we didn't buy it.

I am obsessed with smashed pennies (and pretty much always have been). I believe I smashed 17 pennies and 2 quarters on this vacation, total. Great fun. :)

I was eaten by Jaws.

Andrew with the car from Back to the Future. (yes, the actual car) I don't remember what it is called.

They had a fantastic area of buildings with cool architecture, and we took full advantage of the coolness of this.

We decided this would be an awesome place to do engagement/wedding/family/really any sort of photos. Maybe next time we will go, I will plan to take some cool vintage clothing and do a photo shoot. I need a 1930's costume here, don't you think?

This is one of my favorites. I love my Joby tripod, which was wrapped on the black rail you see at the bottom of this photo.

This staircase reminded us of the apartment in How I Met Your Mother. We were excited. :)

It even has the little bar next door in the basement. Ha! I want to live in a world that is this pretty. Really.

We went to see Beetlejuice's Graveyard Revue. While the singers were not fabulous, we gave them a few extra points because they were dressed as Frankenstein, Dracula, and the like.

We visited the larger-than-life Fievel playground, fulfilling a childhood dream I would have had if I had known that this place existed. I was a little bit bummed, though, because everything in the playground was from Fievel Goes West...nothing from An American Tale, which is by far superior. Oh well.

Lon Chaney - original Phantom of the Opera.

I met Donkey. When I told him I was from Missouri, he said, "Ah, the Show-Me State! What're you going to show me?" Yes. I was hit on by a donkey. Fabulous day. Sadly I missed meeting Shrek and Fiona, but we did see them at some point.

Scooby and Shaggy and the gang went cruising by. Actually, it was probably just Scooby and Shaggy. I chased after them to get a better photo, but no luck.

Shrek 4-D was kind of silly, but entertaining.

After we left the park, we headed back to the hotel, where we met my friends Sarah, Christine, and Rebecca. They took us on an adventure to visit IKEA at the Millenia Mall. We were all overwhelmed; there was SO much stuff and not enough time to look at it, and I had no space in my luggage to take home a new couch. Sad day.

We then went to Giordano's, because Andrew had eaten there in Chicago and wanted some delicious Chicago-style pizza. Chicago-style pizza, I have decided, is basically cheese with a little bit of crust and sauce. It was delicious, but I shudder to think how many calories are in just one little slice.

With Sarah, Rebecca, and Christine once we got to the All-Star Music Resort at Disney, where Andrew and I were staying for the next 3 nights. We had quite the adventure trying to find the hotel... :)

I love Disney. Things like this greet you when you walk in the door. How fun is that? :)

By the time we got to the hotel...we were exhausted and completely crashed. Because the magic was only about to begin!

Day 6 - first day at Disney World - coming soon!