Goldens on the Road: Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World – Hollywood Studios

The Crossroads of Disney’s Hollywood Studios is the location of Mickey Mouse walking on top of the world, the Iconic landmark found at the entrance of Hollywood Studios.

Hollywood Boulevard is the main street at the Studio's and has parades everyday. The buildings along the Boulevard were inspired it's name sake in Los Angeles. The buildings are themed streetscape facades and venues selling Disney merchandise and park services.

Grauman's Chinese Theater, located at the end of Hollywood Boulevard opposite Mickey Mouse walking on top of the World, houses the ‘Great Movie Ride’ which takes you on a spin through movie history.

The queue for the Great Movie Ride is one of the more entertaining lines to wait in. The theater "lobby" is pretty impressive. The first part is where you'll see movie memorabilia such as the Ark of the Covenant from Indiana Jones (which I was able to get a photo of), carousel horse from Mary Poppins and one of the three pairs of ruby slippers from the Wizard of Oz.

The next queue section has you weaving back and forth while watching movie clips on the big screen. From here, you enter a cavernous set where "ushers" will direct you to the large trams. These are actually two sets of trams that split up early into the show. Depending on which section you're in, your tram is hijacked by either a gangster or a Western bandit while your hapless host/hostess is left behind.

Using film footage, special effects and Audio-animatronic figures of famous actors, guests are treated to scenes from "Casablanca", "Tarzan", "Mary Poppins", "Singin' in the Rain", "Fantasia," "Wizard of Oz", "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and "Alien". Here's a few examples:

The finale features a sentimental film montage sure to bring a smile. Old and new clips are combined in a memorable recollection of some classic movie moments.

As we left the Great Movie Ride we were immediately over run by Storm Troopers from Stars Wars!! For awhile we thought we were in BIG trouble!!

These Storm Troopers were everywhere!! And this guy below dressed in silver with the black cape was really mad!! He growled at everyone - especially those two guys in the tee shirts.

Then when he raised his weapon in the air, well, a lot of the girls finally let out a scream or two!!

These Storm Troopers would not leave!! We were not sure what to do!!!!

Then , finally, they began to move away...

It turned out that these two tee shirt guys were shooting a scene and all these Storm Troopers were simply actors. What a scene!!

So long Storm Troopers.

Keeping with the Star Wars theme we wandered over to the 'Star Tours' for a space flight allowing us to feel the power of the Force! Excellent ride!! Here are some views we had on our way in to the ride:

And here are some help that went with us!

So we left Star Wars and headed toward one of our favorite rides - The Tower of Terror ... but along the way we saw these huge toys hanging on a wall!

Toy Story Mania had some really entertaining decorations during their queue to the ride which is actually a very BIG 4-D shooting game!. See for yourself:

This 'night light' is easily 12 feet high! It is plugged in to and huge electric plug 6 feet up on the wall as we entered the building.

Remember these???

Who didn't play Candyland with their kids? Only this one covers an entire wall easily 40 feet long!

Checkers from floor to ceiling and super large dominos!

This is totally entertaining if you realize all these toys are 10 times their normal size -- Fun!!

And below is a shot of the ride the 4-D Shooting Game Ride ! What fun!!

Now that we're done with our 4-D game we head over to the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. There are 2 totally awesome rides in Hollywood Studios ... one is the Tower, the other is the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster!

Unfortunately the Coaster was having mechanical difficulties and had to be shut down until maintenance could fix it. Sad :( because we love that ride!! But we were able to ride the Tower of Terror.

The story goes that the Twilight Tower of Terror, was a luxury hotel before it became haunted by a lightning strike in the 1930's that sent all of the guests into the Twilight Zone thus haunting the hotel. This is based on a episode of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone. (Wikipedia)

This is an elevator ride that drops you several stories, then lifts you up several stories several times before it finally drops you to the bottom!Here are images of the entrance to the Tower of Terror

We never know when we will see beauty, even here among the fearfulness of the ride! And believe me ... some folks in line were fearful!

Once we're through the cobweb covered lobby filled with items from many years ago we make our way to the basement and take the 'service' elevator into ....The Twilight Zone!