This park has attractions and entertainment dedicated to Hollywood and the Disney art of film-making. The park opens at 9am and it costs $10 to park. We split our visit into 2 days - the first day we got there early and left following the afternoon parade, the second visit we arrived late afternoon, had dinner and then stayed for the evening fireworks and show. This worked out really well.
The Sorcerer's Hat is the first thing you see when you go in. It is the park's new icon and is the hat worn by Mickey Mouse in Fantasia. Built in 2002, it towers 122 feet into the air. We saw Minnie Mouse and several other characters near the hat and got their autographs without queuing.
Several times a day they have the High Street Musical show in this area. It is a parade, show and interactive event. They parade down Hollywood Boulevard and along the way cheerleaders interact with the crowd. The stage moves as well. When they arrive at the Sorcerer's hat there is a 15 minute singing and dancing show. We watched it, but our son is not really into High School Musical, so we stayed at the back of the crowd, in the shade. It is high energy and very good.
We arrived at the park at 9:30 and went to the first showing of Playhouse Disney. This has the characters from the television channel in their own song and dance musical stage show. It is designed for pre-school children and is on about 8 times a day. You sit on the floor, so wherever you are, you do get a good view.
Outside after the show, we saw several of the characters and got their autographs with minimal queuing.
The Magic of Disney Animation is nearby. This starts with a short presentation focussing on the stages of development an animated character goes through from start to finish. It is fun, especially when the live Disney animator interacts with the cartoon character Mushu. We all enjoyed this.
Afterwards there is an interactive area which is fun. You can put your voice onto a movie and play it back; colour in a character in a film and lots more besides. Mickey Mouse was waiting at the very end dressed in a Fantasia outfit doing autographs and posing for photos. There was also lots of promotional stuff for the new Wall E film which we enjoyed checking out.
The Little Mermaid show was next for us. It is wonderful - a small, intimate, "under the sea" theatre with a damp feel. The show is excellent - although you do get a bit wet. It also has some great special effects.
We had lunch at the Backstage Lot which was convenient for our next activity - Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground. Children love this - there are huge spiders and a web, a rope maze, caves, slides and a giant roll of Kodak film. There is only 1 entrance/exit so you can relax a bit and wait there while your kids run around and have a great time.
We managed to fit in the Muppets 3D show - really funny and a lovely theatre, as well as the Great Movie Ride - a fun way to "ride" through all the great movies with an action sequence in the middle fairly quickly. Our last show of the day was Beauty and the Beast. The covered theatre seats 1,500 guests and there is live singing and dancing. Try and get seats near the front. The show lasts 25 minutes.
The afternoon parade at Hollywood Studios is superb. We watched by Echo Lake and found this to be a great spot - not at all crowded. The parade is at 3pm and is called something like the Block Party Bash. They have huge floats, characters from Toy Story and Monsters inc and loud, lively music. The floats stop at 2 places on the route, they all open up and out come trampolines, stilts, props and performers. Check out the map and the parade route so you know where the stops will be. It is fun, lively, loud and interactive - the children all join in at different times. We all loved it.
By the end of the parade we left the park and went back to our villa for a much needed rest.
On our second trip to this park we arrived at 4:30. We went straight to the new Toy Story ride. We had intended to get fast passes but they had run out. It was the same story the previous day, so I strongly recommend if you want to do this ride, go first thing in the morning and get a fast pass.
The ride is new - they call it a 4D ride and it is so popular, everyone wants to ride it. When we got there, it said the queue time was 1.5 hours. We decided we could live with this, but actually stood in line for close to 3 hours. The ride is excellent, creative and very different, but not worth a 3 hour wait in a slow moving line!
After Toy Story we had time for a very quick bite to eat, before we went to the Fantasmic show. It takes place in a 7,000 seat outdoor amphitheatre. We went to the first show at 9pm. The theatre opens 1.5 hours before the show. We arrived at 8:05 and it was three quarters full. You really must get here early.
It doesn't really matter where you sit - you get a good view regardless. The amphitheatre is semi-circular and faces an enormous moat of water. There are toilets inside and you can buy snacks and drinks - both alcoholic and soft drinks.
The show lasts 25 minutes - it has lasers, fountains, boats with Disney characters onboard, fireworks and wonderful special effects. It is amazing - really a must-see.
by Joy S on June 26, 2008