Greetings and Salutations everyone! I hope you are having a fabulous day so far wherever you are! Today we're going to look over and review the third Walt Disney park that opened to the public, Hollywood Studios! So without further ado, let's jump into it!
The Introduction
Entrance to Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios opened to the public on May 1, 1989 as Disney's MGM Studios. The concept of this park was to have a park that you could experience movies being made, as well as riding rides relating to movies. Sound familiar? Yes, there is speculation that Disney "stole" the idea of a movie studio based theme park from Universal Studios. Disney then dropped the MGM from the park's name and changed it to Hollywood Studios as we know of it today.
The Rides
Stormtroopers from Rise of Resistance
The rides at Disney's Hollywood Studios, as I mentioned earlier are more movie-themed rides. But that being said, there are also a lot of non-IP rides, such as Tower of Terror or Rock 'n Rollercoaster. When I say non-IP rides, typically I do not associate these rides with films, even though Tower of Terror is somewhat associated with the Twilight Zone and Rock 'n Rollercoaster is associated with Aerosmith.
I thoroughly enjoyed the IP themed rides, however, I did notice that quite a few of the big name rides, i.e. the e-ticket attractions, went down a lot over the days we went to HS. For example, we counted three times in one day that the Slinky Dog coaster went down, which was frustrating for us, as everytime they could no account for when it was due to be going back up.
The Food
Woody's Round-Up Rodeo BBQ
There were so many food options, alongside snack options at HS. From your bog-standard quick-service meals such as Fries (or Chips for us Brits) and Popcorn, to the sit-down restaurants that are extremely well themed. Myself and my best mate went to at least two table-service restaurants, the Sci-Fi Drive In and Woody's Round-Up Rodeo BBQ.
One thing we will note for Woody's Round-Up Rodeo BBQ is that DO NOT DO IT WITH TWO PEOPLE (unless you have massive appetites, then by all means do it with two people). WRRBBQ (probably the easier way of calling it) is a restaurant set within Andy's Toybox where you get plates and plates of BBQ food coming out. You pick your sides and desserts, but the starters and main you don't get a choice in what you get. The food itself was delicious, as was the atmosphere, but it was a lot of food, which is why I recommend going with at least four to six people.
The best part about WRRBBQ is the fact that randomly you'll hear announcements from the toys, such as cheering the green army men, watching Duke Kaboom doing a miraculous stunt or hearing the famous, Andy's Coming. And of course, the staff react accordingly to each of the announcements that you hear!
The Characters
Myself and Darth Vader (made my dad & sister jealous)
The characters that you can meet at HS are very much based off of the Disney/Disney-owned IPs, such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca, BB-8 (can you tell yet that I'm a Star Wars fan too!) as well as Sully, Edna Mode and the Incredibles!
I did prefer the character meet and greets here, as there were more options for the various members of the family. You can also see characters like the stormtroopers, Rey and Chip & Dale wandering around the park, interacting with the guests. Personally, I enjoyed the interactions with the stormtroopers, as they spotted myself taking a photo of them (yet they didn't believe that I worked for their PR department)
The Parades/Fireworks
Fantasmic Fireworks display
In terms of parades and fireworks being present at HS, we caught at least one parade and the fireworks show twice (will explain why in a bit!). When we went round HS, we only noticed one parade, and that was in the Toy Story land when the Green Army Men came out and were doing a really cool march with their drums, but other than that we did not notice any other parades, but sometimes the weather was awful, so maybe they cancelled them. I do hope they introduce some more parades though around the various areas of the park.
The fireworks was a show called fantasmic, which was fantastic (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist!). The show in a nutshell is about Mickey Mouse having a really cool dream which turns into a nightmare due to the Disney Villains getting involved. The nice thing about this show is that it is in an amphitheatre which means everyone is sat down and not getting in your eyeview!
However, as the show does use live-actors be prepared for it to be cancelled if there is a thunderstorm. That's what happened to us when we first went to see the show, we got about five minutes in before the thunderstorm got worse and they had to cancel the show. We then got told to leave the theatre, but not the park, so we got a cheeky ride on Tower of Terror before heading back to the hotel.
Out of all the fireworks shows that we saw over our two weeks, my favourite by far was Fantasmic for the story, the effects and the costuming! I'm excited to see what other shows Disney have in mind for their fireworks displays.
So, did I make it to Hollywood (Studios)?
In short, yes and no. Yes I made it to Hollywood Studios, but no I didn't make it to Hollywood level famous. But, who knows, maybe this blog will take off and I will be Hollywood level famous!
Have you been to Hollywood Studios? What was your favourite memory of the park? Do you think that you can manage all the food at Woody's Round-Up Rodeo BBQ? Let me know in the comments, and I hope to catch you all next time!
Sadie
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