We had originally planned to only visit two parks during our two day stay at Disney. I was really torn over picking Hollywood Studios or Epcot. Hollywood has the best rides, but Epcot provides a richer cultural experience with better shows and food. Because it was the off season, we figured the lines might not be so bad and opted to get a Park Hopper attachment for our tickets so we could go park to park during the day. The money was well spent as we eventually got to hit all of my favorite rides at every park. Of course, we were there from open to close.
We hit Hollywood Studios first figuring we could beat the rush to the rides and then spend the rest of the day wandering Epcot. Our plan worked out brilliantly (except for the part where I woefully underestimated how popular the Toy Story ride was). We got on Tower of Terror, Rockin’ Rollercoaster (twice!), and Star Tours without much of a wait though and that was awesome. By noon we were heading to Epcot. Man that place is huge. We walked through the world showcase twice (the second time being more of a sprint to get back to the Moroccan restaurant in time for our reservations). Unfortunately, the best ride at Epcot (Test Track) was down for renovation. We still had fun on the Nemo ride, Soarin’, and Mission to Mars (barrrrf…). The Imaginarium ride was eerily empty as there was absolutely nobody in line and we had the entire ride to ourselves. That whole area of the park (with Captain EO next door – blech) could use a “re-imagining”. Still a very fun (and tiring) day! We left the park right before close quite sore from all the walking.
Click on any image below to open up a slide show.
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- Look! No line! When the Hollywood Studios park opened, we made a bee-line for the two biggest attractions. We got a Fast Pass for Rockin’ Roller Coaster and then got in line for Tower of Terror. There was no line and we got right on the ride. Awesome! Afterwards we waited in the short line for Rockin’ Roller Coaster and then used our Fast Pass a bit later to get back on. 3 rides on the most popular attractions in the park with a total wait time of 10 minutes.
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- Check out the cool giant AT-AT they had at the line for Star Tours!
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- The line was pleasantly short for Star Tours as well. We got right in queue for the next ship. This is the first time I’ve seen the 3D prequels makeover and it was pretty fun. I was the Rebel Spy!
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- There were all sorts of cool homages to throwback toys in the line for the Toy Story ride which is good, because the line was loooooong.
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- Still waiting in line for the Toy Story ride…
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- We’re getting close to the end of our 60 minute ordeal waiting for this silly ride. The animatronic Mr. Potato Head was pretty cool.
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- Last time I was here, they called this place MGM studios. Funny how times change. Disney has cast members with cameras all over the parks. You get a photo pass card that they can scan and any photos they take of you can be seen and ordered online. The idea is very cool, but MAN are the photos expensive to order. Of course, if you’re a geek like me, there are ways to work around that…
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- When we arrived at our resort, we were handed “Congratulations Newlyweds!’ buttons to wear. Kim thought they were schlock, but I knew their value and insisted we wear them. Everywhere we went, cast members would single us out and say “Congratulations!” The camera people took extra time and photos. We even got to skip to the front of the line on the Great Movie ride! We’re only going to be newlyweds once, so lets milk it for all it’s worth!
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- We wrapped up our Hollywood Studios experience right before noon and headed over to Epcot to finish out our day. I’m so glad we bought the Park Hopper tickets so I don’t have to miss out on any of my favorite rides during our 2 days at Disney.
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- A major part of Epcot is the world showcase which is a giant loop of “little villages” designed in homage to a variety of countries. Of course, in the Mexico section we encountered a Mariachi band doing their thing.
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- And in the Morocco section, we got treated to live belly dancing. It was quite good and we heard there was an additional show inside the restaurant at night, so we signed up to come back and use our meal ticket there.
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- Here’s Kim playing with one of the puppets for sale in the China pavilion area.
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- A nice man offered to take our picture in front of the China pavilion. Smile!
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- Here’s a shot of one of the acrobats putting on a show in front of the China pavilion.
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- I’m elbow-deep booger hunting up a giant troll’s nose in the gift shop after we got off the Maelstrom ride (which was pretty slow and smooth for being a “maelstrom”).
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- Hey they even have a Canada pavilion on the far side of the showcase. Kim loves making me stand in stocks like this for pictures. I’m not sure why…
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- We had a lovely dinner in the Restaurant Marrakesh at the Morocco pavilion. We were treated to live music and a belly dancing show. I took pictures, but they all turned out blurry because she was moving awfully fast and our little portable camera is kinda crappy (a problem we corrected after this trip).
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- Here’s another Photo Pass picture we had taken as we were leaving Epcot. What a great day! Our feet were so sore after that first day. We went back to the room and crashed immediately.
