2013: Does Jesus Eat At Wendy's

We were exhausted after a day at Disney Quest. You wouldn't think that playing video games would wear you out. But it did. Physically and mentally, we were exhausted. We slept-in Saturday and had a slow time of getting up and ready. Our plans for the day were to visit a Florida beach, however, with rain in the forecast, we decided to return to Hollywood Studios. We have done almost everything we wanted to do at Hollywood Studios, so, we didn't need a lot of time there.

There was a real estate open house in the neighborhood we are renting, so, we checked it out and had a nice conversation with a real-estate agent. We explained that our long term plans were to move to Florida. Our subdivision has many vacation homes, so, the neighborhood is usually half empty at any given time - which cuts down on traffic. The houses are well maintained to preserve their investment quality and encourage renters. The houses are 4 or 5 bedroom and cost $180K-$260K. But she warned that the market is improving and prices are rising.

The real-estate agent explained that this time of the year, the humidity is very high. In the morning, it isn't bad. But it increases throughout the day until it has built up in late afternoon causing rain the wash the humidity away. That is why we are seeing so much rain in the late afternoon and evening. That was true on Saturday when the sky opened and rain drops the size of golf balls bombarded the area. Luckily we were indoors - I wouldn't want to have been hit by that rain fall!

There is an old story about Jesus knocking on your door disguised as a stranger. He asks for help as a test to see whether you are a good Christian. Who among us would turn away a stranger in need?

We were on our way to Hollywood Studios when we saw the rain coming and took shelter in a Wendy's. In the booth behind us was an old guy talking very loud on a cell phone as to make sure the entire restaurant could hear him. According to his story, he lost his house in the Oklahoma tornado and the Red Cross relocated him to the Disney World area. But Florida doesn't take Oklahoma Medicaid and his wife can't get her $45 diabetes medicine and the insurance company won't pay on his house until September. In rapid secession, he was calling various aunts and uncles and telling his story, quickly providing the statistics on the number of people who have been relocated, the numbers who can't get medicine, and his plight. He ended every call asking them to pray for his sick wife at church. I was thinking about digging out $45 and giving it to the guy, but something kept telling me that this wasn't right. Why was he calling all these people? Why was he being so loud? Why was he getting Medicaid? Why did he have a smart phone? Why would the Red Cross relocate him to Disney World? How can this old guy have so many aunts and uncles? He would often say "The tourists down here all laugh at us. But imagine if a tornado took away Disney World, what would they do?" He would often discuss all the children that were killed at the school by the tornado. This guy was scamming! He was sitting in restaurants trying to get people to give him money. In my home area in New York, the homeless stand on the corner and ask for money. It is too hot to stand outside in Florida. This guy had really upped his game!

I don't know if the red cross relocates people to Disney World. I don't know whether this guy's wife needed $45 in medicine. I don't know if that was Jesus and we are bad Christians. But it sounded fishy. We left Wendy's feeling very guilty and debated in the car what we should have done. In the end, we made a donation to the Red Cross to ease our guilty conscious.

With our possible encounter with Jesus behind us, we made it to Hollywood Studios in the afternoon. There were only half a dozen rides we needed, so we had a good time at a slow pace. There is a Toy Story ride where you wear 3-D glasses and shoot at targets balloons, plates, etc. While you are shooting, you are in a cart that whips you around a track. As we whipped around one corner, the cart jerked and Linda cracked her head into the back of the cart. Hopefully she didn't get a concussion. Or maybe it would be good if she had a concussion because then I would own a little piece of the park after the law suit! I think we might try that ride again tomorrow.

Eating inside Disney World is very expensive, so, we decided to leave and eat "Off Property". We went to Outback for a light late dinner. When the drinks arrived, I noticed my glass was dirty, so I sent it back. That was replaced with a second dirty glass. Then a third. And I noticed Linda's glass was dirty too. Come to find out, this OutBack sells a lot of ranch dressing. The Ranch Dressing dispenser is next to the clean glasses and so the clean glasses keep getting sprayed with ranch dressing. I don't know if that makes me feel any better about getting a dirty glass, but at least I know I won't get sick. If you like ranch flavored beverages, this Outback is for you!

We returned home and, as I always do, I lead the group so I can unlock the house's front door. The lock system is very interesting. There is a combination that you enter into a key safe which releases the door key. You then unlock the front door with the door key and take the door key with you inside the house. When you leave, you lock the front door with the door key, enter the combination, and return the key to the key safe. The first couple of days when we left the house, I was so concerned about the key safe's lock combination that I would forget to lock the door! We would arrive home at the end of the day, I would lead the group and get the key. Oh No! I didn't have to use the key to open the door! Thank God Linda doesn't read this blog because she would kill me if she knew I left the front door unlocked on several days.

As we settled down to sleep, we couldn't get that old guy at Wendy's out of our mind. He was a really good scammer and almost had us believing him. But what if his story was real? We had made a donation to the red cross, which made us feel a little better. But what if that was actually Jesus sitting in the booth behind us?

Hollywood Studios: March of the First Order

Hollywood Studios (aka MGM) is undergoing massive construction. The small park has been made even smaller as various attractions have been closed down to make room for a new Star Wars land and a new Toy Story land, expected to open in 2020.

The favorites are still available: Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, Little Mermaid, Muppets, The Great Movie Ride,  Indiana Jones, Frozen Sing-a-long, and many of the rest. The Beauty and Beast shows have been cut back to make room for a new Toy Story show in the same theater.

The main reason for going to Hollywood Studios is Star Wars. If you are Star Wars fan, you'll find no where else that will give you as much Star Wars exposure.

You can watch Star Wars movie clips, get behind the scene information, visit the canteena, have pictures with characters, watch light saber fights, see the movie props, buy souvenirs, and more.

You'll see storm troopers march down the main street of Hollywood Studios around once an hour. The storm troopers are from the First Order and, as the story is told, they land just behind the buildings, emerge, and march down the center of the street to deliver a message of warning to the citizens. Last year, the troops came from the Launch Bay, but this year's parade down the main street is much better.

You can watch a video of the March of the First Order here.

Disney's Hollywood Studio's Hollywood and Vine

 Join us for dinner at Disney World’s Hollywood Studio’s Hollywood and Vine.

Video LInk (5:45)

What Would It Be Like To Live At Disney?

Today's theme is all about "What would it be like to live at Disney" because we woke up determined to go to Hollywood Studios. And then... Life happened.

I woke this morning to find one of the GFI electrical circuits in the house wasn't working. After unsuccessfully playing with the GFI reset button, I headed to the garage looking for the electric box. Sure enough, the breaker was thrown. I wanted to know more about living in Florida and this is about as real as it gets! Or... Does it get even better?

An overloaded shelf in the refrigerator broke sending a wine bottle crashing to the floor. The bottle exploded and sprayed the house with wine and glass. We found glass in parts of the house that we can't explain how it got there! It took us an hour to clean up this gigantic mess.

We finally have our prescription script so we needed to go to the pharmacy. Between all the morning problems and the pharmacy it was going to be late afternoon by the time we headed to the parks so we decided to trade Hollywood Studios and go to Animal Kingdom (our least favorite park). When we went to Animal Kingdom in 2011 and 2013 we couldn't ride anything due to massive thunderstorms that hit both years. What is the chance that would happen in 2014 too?

The storm came before we even left the house. At 2pm a large thunderstorm dumped rain for 90 minutes, temporarily flooding the neighborhood roads.


When the storm let up we ventured out to get the prescription filled. We have been waiting since July 2 to get this medicine. The first pharmacy didn't have the medication so we had to go a pharmacy out in Celebration. Forty minutes later the we finally had the prized medication!

On the way back to the house we stopped at a grocery store named The Marketplace near the Outback restaurant on rt 192. Be warned: things in this grocery store are twice the normal price! We should have went a mile further up the road to the Publix. It was scary how expensive this store was.

We returned home in time for dinner and since we had done nothing all day we decided to grab dinner off property. When we got ready to leave the restaurant I noticed a giant five inch spider! My kids freaked out and started yelling. This caused everyone on that side of the restaurant to scream and start running. Now, big spiders are a fact of life if you want to live at Disney. I walked over, took a picture, and ten stomped it into the carpet. That's the end of the spider story.


We left the restaurant near 8pm and didn't know what to do. Would it even be worth it to go to a park? And which one? We decided to go to MGM (aka Hollywood Studios) to knock a couple rides off our "must do" list.

We parked our car near a couple with five small children. I didn't see it but my family said the husband punched the wife in the face. Of course Linda is thinking "Do you really want to move someplace where that happens at Disney?" I didn't see it and by the time my family explained it to me, the guy had left for the tram with several of his kids and the lady was calling for him, following, "Do you want to wait for the rest of your family?"

I don't know anything about this family and I don't know much about domestic violence but I believe that if this guy hit his wife once he has hit her many times. We hurried to the tram. When we got there, the guy was leaving the tram area with several of the kids and heading back to the truck. About twenty feet behind him the lady was following with the rest of the children and yelling at her husband. I was concerned so I reported it to the tram operator who radioed security.

When we arrived at Hollywood Studios, we knew they were doing something related to the frozen movie but we were completely unprepared for what Disney treated us for. The entire Main Street of the park (from the hat to the gate) was stuffed with people listening to a DJ remix the Frozen songs. Large screen TV's appeared along the road and a huge screen on stage. When the DJ ended, a band came out and the entire place was hopping. After that came... Well... I am not going to ruin the surprise. I will just say that it involved Frozen princesses, fireworks, and snow. Real snow! In July! This was the second night of the Frozen Summer Party and it was incredible. It made the entire day worth it.


And, oh yea. We saw Fantasia too.

That describes our day, filed under the topic: what would it be like to live at Disney?

Touring the Disney Resorts

I love touring the Disney Resorts. I came across the following Disney Resort Touring Itinerary posted by Kat_Cubs_Fan on tripadvisor:

Here's one route I take starting from Downtown Disney, but this one takes a long time:

1. Take a bus from DTD to Wilderness Lodge and tour that resort.

2. Take a boat from Wilderness Lodge over to Magic Kingdom OR

Take a boat from Wilderness Lodge over to the Contemporary resort and start your monorail resort tour from there instead of going to MK first.

3. Head for monorail station and take resort monorail around to the three monorail resorts: Contemporary, then Polynesian, then Grand Floridian and have look around all of them.

4. Head back to MK and catch a bus over to either the Boardwalk or the Yacht and Beach Club or even Hollywood Studios park.

5. Take the Friendship boats that run between Epcot and Hollywood Studios and tour the resorts around those two parks: Yacht and Beach Club, Boardwalk, and Swan/Dolphin.

6. Wind up back at Hollywood Studios via the Friendship boats and take a bus from there over to Animal Kingdom Lodge.

7. Finally, head back to DTD from AKL via bus.

8. If you still have time once back at DTD or are not too exhausted, take a boat from DTD over to the two Port Orleans resorts (French Quarter and Riverside) and see them as well, catching the boat back to DTD from their docks.

A similar route can be done beginning at Ft. Wilderness instead of DTD using the internal bus system there. Take a boat from Ft. Wilderness over to Wilderness Lodge and follow the same route from that point.

Just remember busses do not go to theme parks from DTD...only to resorts. Also, busses do not regularly go from resort to resort..only from resort to theme park/water park or resort to DTD.

Hollywood Studios: A Galaxy Far Away

In the race to add Star Wars attractions to Hollywood Studios, a new stage show has been thrown together named A Galaxy Far Away (see Video). The show takes place at the center of Hollywood Studios in front of the Great Movie Ride.

The ten minute show includes many favorite star wars characters addressing the crowd before a backdrop of movie clips and star wars music.

Boba Fett, Chewbacca, R2D2, C3PO, BB8, Storm Troopers, and Darth Vader are just some of the characters you'll see during this show. If you like Star Wars then this is worth catching.

Disney's Osborne Family Lights

We went to Hollywood Studios to experience the Osborne Family Specticle of Dancing Lights presented by Siemens. 

Normally this section of Hollywood Studios is a dull movie set of a city street. It was created back when Hollywood Studios (then MGM Studios) purpose was to take people inside the movie making experience. Why would Disney want to do this? Because Universal Studios just opened and that's what they were doing. Disney unsuccessfully attempted to fight off the competition.

 Fast forward many years. While this section if the park is interesting, it really serves no purpose. Until... The Osborne lights come to town. Then, all of the buildings are covered in Christmas lights. The lights are timed to Christmas music, so, they flash and blink in coordinated ways. The entire street becomes a light show!

But wait, there is more: Snow! It snows. OK, it is cold soap bubbles, so, for dont want to catch these flakes on your tongue. But it looks like real snow flakes.

The event is ongoing from dusk until the park closes. There are no lines - just walk through the area of park in front of the Lights Motor Action attraction. Intentionally, there isn't anywhere to sit, although we made use of the curbs on the street. 

We had a great time and I hope to see the lights again some day.

Hollywood Studio Christmas Decorations

Join us at Disney World’s Hollywood Studio to look at the Christmas decorations

Video Link (04:11)

 

Hollywood Studios: Star Wars Galactic Spectacular

The Hollywood Studios Star Wars Spectacular is arguably the best fireworks show on Disney property. I may be a little biased because I am a Star Wars fan. Whether you are a fan or not, you are going to be awed by this show!

Disney converts three large buildings into video screens. They also use columns of fire, lights, smoke projection, and lasers that shoot right over the top of your head!

New for 2017 (at least... I don't remember it in 2016) the viewing area is surrounded by fire effects. And it seems there are more explosions and more lasers.

The best place to watch the show.

There are palm trees blocking the view. I have complained about the palm trees in other forums and have been told the palm trees are where some of the shows lights and lasers are hidden. Well.... I would suggest finding a different way to "hide" lights than to hide them in view obstructing palm trees!

Watch the 2017 video here

Prequels Missing From Hollywood Studios

When Disney bought Star Wars, they didn't just buy the original three movies. They bought everything! Comic books, cartoons, books, prequels, merchandising - you name it.

Most hard core fans will tell you that the original three Star Wars movies from the 1970's and 80's are the best. The prequels, which tell the story of how Darth Vader became Darth Vader? Are in many ways an embarrassment to the franchise. Who can forget that floppy Jar Jar Banks, the horrible speed pod racers, the terrible acting by Hayden Christensen, and the cartoon-like CGI.

When Disney bought Star Wars, George Lucas put forward a script that was believed to deliver more prequel level garbage. Thankfully, Disney tossed it into the garbage and went their own direction for Episode 7.

Hollywood studios is filled with Star War opportunities. From light saber battles, movies, character experiences, stage shows, storm troopers, night time fireworks, and more! Thankfully, the prequals do not play a significant role anywhere in any of this. There are brief flashes of when Darth Vader was assembled. We see the battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi that turns Anikan into Darth Vader. We see some very quick flashes of Padma, Qui-Gon, Mace Windu, and a few others. That aside? It is all about the original three movies and Episode 7: The Force Awaken.

A Day At Disney's Hollywood Studio

 We are taking a short trip to Hollywood Studios to see Star Wars and more!

Video LInk (12:47)

The Best Disney Fireworks Show

What is the best Disney Fireworks show? To answer this, we are going to look at several factors: Fireworks, timing and theme to music, viewability, wait times, and crowd levels.

4. Epcot's Illuminations - This show ranks the lowest because it has the worse viewability.
Unless you are in certain locations, there will probably be a tree or building blocking your view. The special locations with good views are very crowded and standing room only. The show centers on a spinning globe in the center of the lake - but the globe is so small that it is nearly impossible to see what it is projecting. Those issues aside, the fireworks and laser lights are excellent.



3. Hollywood Studio's Fantasmic - Seeing this show usually means arriving early and standing in a crowded shoulder-to-shoulder line for 30-60 minutes. Sure, you get to sit during the presentation, but you have to stand forever in line! Often, the huge amphitheater fills, so, if you don't get in line you might not get a seat. The presentation is old and tired - it has been around since the park opening with very few improvements. Nevertheless, it is a good story, the fireworks and effects are well themed, and viewers do get to sit during the show.






2. Magic Kingdom's Wish's Night Time Spectacular - Many people will put this at the top of their
list, and for good reasons. Fireworks around the castle are just... tradition. It wouldn't be a trip to Disney World without it! Disney has done much to improve the show over the years, including projections on the castle itself, and expanding the viewing area so that more people can watch. However, even with these improvements it can become very crowded and the view is easily obstructed by trees or lamp posts. The fireworks are themed well to the music, but sometimes it appears they are just throwing up fireworks to add volume.  When Jiminy Cricket says "Look, it is the blue fairy" and they fire off a blue fireworks... weak. While some of the fireworks are unique and spectacular, many are just filler. Regardless, this is an amazing show worth watching.



1. Hollywood Studio's Frozen Summer - Our favorite for now two years in a row is the Frozen
Summer Fireworks. The show begins right after a dance party that gets the crowd rocking. The fireworks are themed perfectly to the music, and the snow effect at the end brings you into the story and follows you as you exit the park. The music is very popular - even the cast members can be seen getting into it. Unfortunately, like all the shows except Fantasmic,  there is no place to sit. And like Illuminations, the streets can get crowded. But this ranks #1 as our favorite fireworks.

Instead of read about it, why not see it? To see the Frozen Summer Fireworks, click here: https://youtu.be/vii4skvbXTM

March of the First Order

The March of the First Order is a show is a new experience at Disney World's Hollywood Studio. Hollywood Studios is going through a transformation as it builds Star Wars Land (expected to be completed in 2022) to coincide with yearly realeases of Star Wars movies.

The First Order, a special group of Storm Troopers, was introduced in the movie Episode VII released in 2015.

The experience has the storm troopers March from the back area of the park an area in front of the Great Movie Ride (where the Sourcer's hate used to be). The storm troopers March around and  then March back from where they came. 

The die hard Dtar Wars fan will likely go nuts when they see Storm Troopers marching right in front of them.

A Day At Hollywood Studios

 Join us for a trip to Disney World's Hollywood Studio to see Star Wars Kylo Ren, Mandalorian, Grogy the Baby Yoda, the Toy Story Army Men Drummers, and more. 

Video Link (9:56)

Star Wars Cantina at Disney Hollywood Studios

 We are going to enjoy a drink at Star Wars Cantina at Disney World's Hollywood Studios

Video Link (03:24)

Snow in Florida

Today was a Hollywood Studios day, our second favorite park. We arrived at 2pm and stayed until close, which was a long hot day. The frozen Summer fireworks start at 10pm but most of the park is shut down by 830, leaving a huge gap with little to do. But I wanted to see the fireworks show again so we stayed.

For today's trip I placed water bottles in the freezer the night before and then distributed them to the backpacks so we could have cold on our back, and later have a cold drink. Last year I tried frozen grapes and that didn't work because the grapes just turned mushy.

We did the walking backlot tour, otherwise known as Lights Motor Action. It is a walking tour because the grand stand is so far away. They warned that the show only happens weather permitting. And after we finally made it to the grand stand, we could see lightening off in the distance. But we were able to watch the show before the storm hit. I was surprised this show was still playing because I had heard it was being replaced by Cars Land. I don't really like the show because I have been on a real movie set and it goes nothing like this show portrays.

We often joke: Have you heard about the new Disney ride? It so called The Line. You get to go and stand in line. Sometimes you have to stand in line so you can then stand in line. Although this year hasn't been as bad as most years. The Fast Pass Plus system, for all its quirks and inconveniences, is pretty good. The stand-by lines for the average attraction hasn't been bad. And in the very rare cases where the standby is long we have a guest assistance card. But usually we don't need it.

We went through many of our favorite rides. I even road the vomit commit, known as Star Wars Star Tours. I used to always get sick from that ride but since the refurbishment several years ago, I just get a little queasy.

Lunch/Dinner was at Pizza Planet while it rained outside. That is where we split a Frozen Snowman cupcake - carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It was so good that we got a second one.


Disney is making a killing on these cupcakes. Everywhere I turned in the park I saw someone with a cupcake. At Pizza Planet they were selling half a dozen cupcakes at a time! These cupcakes probably cost Disney $.25 to produce. But let's say that with storage, transportation, and spoilage they cost Disney $1 each. Disney sells the cupcakes for $5.60! The margin must be huge. And people are buying tons of them. I can't believe I spent $5.60 for a single cupcake... Twice. I can get twenty cupcakes at Costco for $19, and there I am paying $11 for two cupcakes.

The reason people pay $5.60 for a cupcake is because it is a human nature flaw to compare the cost of something relative to something else. If you pay $3.50 for a tiny box of popcorn, $10 for a small personal pizza, or $2.50 for a bottle of water (that you can get at a store for under $.20), $3 for a tiny cup of french fries, then this is what you accidentally start using to determine value. And suddenly you are willing to pay $5.60 for a cupcake. And Disney is very happy to take your money.

Speaking of frozen cupcakes, we went to the frozen cupcake eat-a-thon. No, not the pre-fireworks desert party (which must be crazy!) We went to the Frozen Funland where there is ice skating and snowman building. The snack bar had trouble keeping up with the cupcake demand!


We stayed for the fireworks because the Frozen Fireworks are incredible. Most of the rides shut at 8:30pm which makes people gravitate to the Dance Party where a DJ mixes the Frozen songs. That is followed by a band. Then there is fifteen minutes... Of nothing? People standing shoulder to shoulder in the hot streets, kids crying, legs aching, and we wait. Just when I thought fifteen minutes had passed I looked at my watch and it had only been five minutes. "Just another minute" I heard a Mom tell her crying and exhausted daughter. Disney needs to fill these fifteen minutes with something. I suggest something animated on the video screens - even if advertisements for future Disney movies. We need something because that fifteen minutes in painful.


The fireworks and the snow storm that follows (yep, Elsa creates a snow storm in Florida) ended a wonderful frozen and cupcake filled day at Hollywood Studios.

2013: Hollywood Studios

Disney's Hollywood Studios will forever be known as "MGM" to me, because, that is how it was originally named. I'm not going to necessarily change my thinking to match Disney marketing. It is MGM Studios.

Under a gray sky, we headed to MGM studios for the day. It was an odd kind of a day in that it would often rain, prompting us to dig the rain ponchos out of the backpacks. As soon as we put on the ponchos, it would stop raining. We would take the ponchos off, carefully fold and pack them away. And then it would rain again. We played this game all day - taking the ponchos out of the backpacks, and putting them back in. It was as if we were on a movie set and someone was playing a prank on us. After several hours of this game, we gave up. And decided to just get wet.

It is just as well that we stopped using the ponchos. People who know me know I like to pinch a penny. These rain ponchos are easily 13 years old and have never been cleaned. They get used once every couple of years, dried off, and then packed away. They smell. To say they were fowl would be an improvement to their actual smell. Removing them does not remove the smell from one's body. So, each time I must go to the restroom and wash my hands. Washing one's hands at Disney is impossible. Even though Florida is surrounded on three sides by water and dotted by hundreds of lakes, they must conserve water. When washing your hands, the automatic sinks disperse just one ounce of water in a spray. I know it is one ounce because I measured it in my water bottle. I can do a better job washing my hands by spitting on them. Which is what I often reverted to doing.

We devised a cleaver plan to avoid using ponchos every time it rained. When it rained, we would jump into the nearest store because all the stores on the street were interconnected. We would pass through from one store to the next until we reached the end of the street. Run across the street. Then into the next store.

The problem with this plan is that others would run to store too, take one step inside, and then stop - blocking the doorway from anyone else who would like to enter. They would gather their party together "It is really raining out there";. Well, no kidding! I'm still standing in it. Can you please move into the store? Others liked to stand in the doorway and watch people running up and down the street in the rain. I'm sure it was a great pastime activity, maybe they were watching for Brazilian blonds, I don't know, but please don't block the door while you are watching! There was one teen who was eating her ice cream in the middle of the door way. She was easily 1/3 my weight and I'm running through the rain charging right at her, thundering with each footfall. She didn't even flinch as I barreled past. Are you nuts? If I had hit her, I would have knocked her clear into the next store!

Lunch at the Scifi Drive in was perfect. Other than Mike dropping his toasted cheese on the floor and then trying to pick it up so he can eat it, and the outrageous price ($9 for onion rings?), we love the SciFi Drive in.

We went to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. Unfortunately, it had been raining and the set was wet so they need an abbreviated show. To make it worse, the show had some bugs in it. No, I mean, really, there were bugs. Insects. I was watching the show when I noticed a lady near me squealing, jumping around, and smacking herself. I thought, perhaps, it was a medical condition. Until I saw the person next to her do the same thing. And very quickly, that entire section was on their feet, stomping their feet, squealing, and slapping themselves. I could see all these green beetles on the floor scurrying all around their bags and belongings. I became concerned... For myself. I picked up my bag and slid away from the group. They grabbed their belongings and ran out of the theater. I thought - geez, that was really gross! But I didn't bother to say anything when another couple saw the open seats and came to sit down in the bug infested row.

Just so you don't think I am a horrible person for not mentioning anything about the bugs, let me explain what Disney is like in July. At Disney, English speaking natives are a minority. I don't know why, but Spanish is the natural language in the land of Disney. Perhaps it is winter in South America so many visit Florida (we have seen huge tour groups from all around Latin America). Or perhaps the weak US dollar is encouraging travel. Whatever the case may be, chances are? If I said there were bugs on their bench, they wouldn't know what I was saying anyways. In this land of babble, it is easier (and more enjoyable) to just to sit back and watch the show of another group get attacked by green beetles. I have seen India Jones a hundred times (big secret - the guy who stands on one leg? Is the paid actor). But this is the first time I have seen The Attack Of The Green Beetles.

I suppose the beetles might be attacking as revenge for all the roaches we are killing back at the house. By the way, eleven dead insects versus 0 dead humans - we are winning! I read that there are more bugs in a square mile of dirt (not a cube, a square) than the entire population of humans. Each human would have to kill 100 million bugs for us to win the Star Troopers war! With this obvious problem, I don't understand why there is human starvation in the world.

We road on Star Tours. Or, as I call it, the vomit comet with pilot Lou-Up Chuck. The ride isn't as bad as it used to be. When it first opened, you were almost guaranteed someone was going to pass up their lunch on the ride. Usually that someone was me. They redesigned the ride and now it is much better. You have a one in four chance of seeing someone puke.

After a fun day in the park, we road the tram back to our car. We walked with a crowd from the tram to our cars. In the crowd was a man and woman in their late forties. The man suddenly stops, pauses, and rips the loudest sloppiest fart I have ever heard. And then his wife pauses and rips and even louder fart. That is love! A couple that farts together stays together. After the momentary pause, they continued to their car unaffected, while those of us down wind held our breaths until we were blue in the face.

It really isn't this couple's fault. I give them no bad will. The bathrooms are so bad at Disney, I too have considered crapping myself to avoid using them. The toilet paper is the worse in the world. I can only imagine the execs at Disney sitting around the table at a meeting saying "We need to cut down on our costs, what can we do?" and someone says "I have designed a way to make the TP even thinner." And the leader says "That is great news! How do we make our TP even thinner?" and the executive says "We weave sand paper grit into the TP fibers." And the leader says "That is an awesome idea. Lets put it into production right away." The execs pat each other on the back and collect a big bonus check at the end of the quarter. They should invite me into the meeting. I can tell them what to do! Disney is the chief of marketing all kinds of things: Mickey watches, and shirts, and pins and pens - they have everything! How about Disney Depends undergarments? You are standing in that long two hour line and you don't want to lose your place? Just let it go! And maybe there is a computer chip with Mickey's voice that says "Way to go!". That couple walking in front of us in the parking lot could really have used some Disney Depends. And think of the money Disney could save by shutting down all the bathrooms. This could be the single best idea Disney had had since bring back Michael Jack's Captain Eo.

We had a nice day at MGM. I hope the weather improves because we are in Florida to see the sun shine!

Sci Fi Dine-in Theater at Hollywood Studios in Disney World

 Video Link (07:11)

Touring Hollywood Studios at Disney World

 Video Link (05:23)

The Best Location To Watch Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular

Hollywood Studios has a new fireworks show and it is arguably the best ever. The 13 minute Star War: A Galactic Spectacular provides music, video, and fireworks all to a Star Wars theme.

The show is massive, projected on a giant build-up of the Chinese Theater, two other buildings, plus projection against smoke screen, spot lights, lasers, spirals of flame shooting forty feet into the air, and fireworks across the sky. What is the best spot to see all this? I'll tell you. But with one warning: the show is so massive that it is impossible to take it all in  from any one location. There are various different things happening on each of the three different video screens while other activities are happening in the sky over head. This isn't a one dimensional show - the lasers from the ships on the screen shoot overhead of the audience, and the emperor's lightening electrifies the palm trees while the engine noise from the ships shake the ground under your feet.

A significant challenge with getting a good spot is, in part, all the trees! Even the best spots will still be obstructed by trees. But there is a huge difference between having a thin palm tree covering part of one screen, and trying to watch the event through a large leafy tree.

Disney ropes off a portion of the viewing area for their $70 per person desert event. You can imagine that those people paying $70 will have the best viewing area. Your goal, if you want a good viewing area, is to get as close to that roped off area as you can.

On the map above, I have placed an X for the best spot, used red lines to show where the video screens are, and a red circle to indicate the direction from which most of the fireworks are.

I saw the show three times. Once from near spot # 29 on the map and the view was very disappointing. And twice from where the X is drawn on the map.

You can see the show for yourself here:  Night 1. Night 2.