Disney 2009 - Chapter 4 - Disney Hollywood Studios (H31l day)

Another early morning, although Clone2 slept all through the night without coughing fits! Bonus for him, not so much for me because I had to get up and check to make sure he was still breathing as Moms are wired to do that sort of thing.


We arrived at Hollywood Studios just a few minutes later than we would have liked, and were happy to see our friends waiting at the turnstiles! Yippee!!! We sort of kind of explained that it would be a giant crush of people getting to the new ride, Toy Story Mania, and if they could at all hang with us for that, then the rest of the day would not be so bad. Good times getting the stroller and trying to maneuver up the street in the crush of people. I had not anticipated what effect limited Fantasmic! would do to the park, nor had we been to a park on an EMH day in the past few trips. It was more crowded than I thought it would be, but we managed.

Dh was FPV for our family and luckily we had explained that to Friends so Dad/Husband was FPV for them for Toy Story Mania. I had the stroller with Clone2 and kept up with the Friends. Clone1 and Princess Peanut stayed with Dh. I would say Dh managed to get up toward the middle of the front of the pack while I was in the middle of the back of the pack. It all worked out as we got our FP for Toy Story Mania, got the stroller parked, and got in the long line that wasn’t too bad as we ended up constantly walking until we picked up our 3D glasses. I rode with Clone2 while Dh had Clone1 and Princess Peanut (who was not able to be held for this ride, so she just held her blanket up to her face instead until she started laughing at the movement of the vehicles). First impressions of this ride are that it is GREAT and not too difficult to score fairly well. This is important because Clone2 has been discouraged on Buzz for not getting very high scores like his Daddy does (yeah me too Clone2 me too). We all finished around 100,000 points, and we all could not wait to ride again!



We guided Friends to a place to grab breakfast as they had not eaten, and we took the boys to ride Star Tours and get a rider swap for it. Flight to Endor was it’s usual bumpy self, but the boys loved it. We chose to skip the Jedi Training Academy at that point (regretted it actually later in the trip as it would have been easy to see if the boys could be picked). Friends caught up with us and we went to see Muppet Vision 3D. Princess Peanut almost liked this one. The boys laughed, Friends seemed to really enjoy it. We walked the Streets of New York and San Fran for a few minutes, then made our way to Sci Fi for our dining reservation. I played FPV for our family and walked to get Rockin Rollercoaster Fastpasses while they finished up lunch.



It was around Noon by this point, and characters were not something Princess Peanut was at all interested in nor was Clone1. Clone2 could have seen them, and I wish I had made the effort to find Buzz and Cars for them. As it was, we got on the Great Movie Ride after I took Clone1 back to Sci Fi to get his ears he’d left behind. Everyone loved the ride, and Princess Peanut even watched some. We are making progress!!



Once we left the Great Movie Ride we decided to use our fast passes for Toy Story Mania. Fun again and all the scores improved a little! I noticed that it was time to quickly make our way to Lights Motors Action, and I had based our touring plan on previous trips and expected there to be plenty of room in the stadium. There was not. We managed to get seats, but they packed this stadium full and had to turn people away. It was the first I had ever seen that happen, and it was then I looked at Dh and we both started thinking about Fantasmic! that night. Friends and the clones enjoyed LMA of course, and it took forever to exit (big huge crowds).



We knew were Monsters Inc were, so we went to stand in line to meet those characters (Friends had specifically asked to meet them). The Clones and Dh with Friends’ 14 year old went to watch Jedi Training Academy, I stayed with Princess Peanut as she wanted to meet Mike. Wow. She was all for it as long as she was at least 3 feet away from him, so definite progress had been made there! We joined up with the Jedi hopefuls to find out they had not been picked, and then they rode Star Tours again while the girls of the group went on to Indiana Jones. Once again I was expecting a mostly empty arena, but found it was starting to get crowded already. We grabbed some seats, and the boys joined us.



Friends’ Dad/Husband was chosen for the evil laugh, only they really should have used his real evil laugh as I’ve heard it and it’s really good! LOL Having a friend participating made it a fun show for me and Dh. The Clones thought it was great as well.


Phew…I’m tired just remembering all of this. I do remember Clone2 having some major issues with coughing and breathing coming out of Indiana Jones, and as we were walking toward Narnia (Clone1 really wanted to see it) I remember other people staring at him and yanking their kids away from us. Cough variant asthma really does sound bad. Clone2 felt a little warm to me, and with how he’d been coughing I decided to call the pediatrician to check in and double check okay meds for him and dosage amounts. Clone2 and I sat outside Narnia while I called the doctor’s office. Clone2 was just about literally turning flips inside the stroller (obviously he didn’t feel THAT bad). I got through and the nurse saw Clone2’s chart and decided that the doctor really did need to review it all before she advised me (duh…). So I had to wait on a return phone call. Fun times indeed.



It was now around 5:30pm, and Dh and I had decided if we were going to attempt Fantasmic! at 7pm that we needed to head to find a seat about now, and as we had fast passes for RnR, Dh, Clone2, and Friends’ Dad/Husband all went to use them. The rest of us found seats in the over half full stadium. Yes, long before 6pm it was over half full. I spread my bags and jackets out and waited. I saw the stadium fill up around us, and heard the complaints as people saw my “saved seats” but I knew I had to keep them saved. The boys rejoined us, we got our snack dinners and chatted with our friends. I could tell they were tired, but I hoped they weren’t too bad off as we had spent more of the day sitting than previous days. Well, at 6:40 or there abouts we got the 10 minute warning on show start. Huh? I noticed at that time that the stadium was completely and totally full. Dh told me that at 6:30 when he was up a Cast Member had mentioned that standing room was full as well. Fantasmic! started at 6:50pm. It was wonderful as usual, and I felt very sorry for the people down in the “mist zone” as it was a windy night and rather cool. I know they got soaked.


Friends LOVED the show. As we were sitting in the 3rd from the top row, we thought we could exit easily. No such luck. Exiting this show was horrendous. Absolutely horrendous. Imagine a mob of people standing shoulder to shoulder, front to back, with only the ability to shift your feet forward about ½ an inch at a time. Then because you have little kids walking with you people think there is an opening, so they shove into that space. You become separated from your 6 year old because of this, and before you can blink there are 4 adults between you and you have to shout ahead to the 14 year old to PLEASE keep an eye on your 6 year old. Which is when you notice that your 10 year old is with said 14 year old. You look around and Dh with Princess Peanut (age 2) asleep in his arms is at least 6 people behind you. Friends? Well, they are behind Dh. No amount of “excuse me my child is ahead of me and separated” gets you any further ahead. After 5-10 minutes (scary ones as you imagine your child getting trampled) you finally make it to the restroom area of Fantasmic! and you tell the 14 year old to pull the kids off to the side so all the adults can catch up. From that point on we hug the right side of the exit area so someone could dart ahead and get the younger kids if we had to. Only, others have this same idea and push forward trying to get ahead so you really have to watch your child. Your asthmatic child who is coughing yet again (stress is one trigger). We finally make it to the Tower of Terror area, and our hopes of things clearing out are dashed. Not only does it seem more crowded (we’re back to ½ inch steps) but there is a group of smokers with a heavy cloud of cigarette smoking hanging over the area we must walk through. I know this will trigger Clone2’s asthma, as it will also trigger my own and Princess Peanut’s. We do our best, I give Clone2 a throat drop to suck on hoping it will help keep the coughing spasms from getting bad. Dh covers Princess Peanut’s head with her blanket. I don’t let Clone2 stop for coughing, we basically drag him along with us as I know he has to get away from that area.


Now, you would think, YIPPEE we’re on Hollywood Blvd. We’re OUT OF THERE! Only, we’re now. Imagine this mob you’ve been traveling with, the crowd of people around you all sensing the freedom of the open “road” to travel in. It’s half blocked on the left by the people waiting to get in the 8:15pm showing of Fantasmic! The sidewalks on the right are full of the masses streaming into the RnR and ToT for their EMH night of riding as well as the various carts and trashcans on the sidewalk. As we hit the road with the left half blocked off with the mass of people waiting to enter Fantasmic! there is a cart, one with light up toys parked horizontally on the road. It literally is blocking all but 3 people widths around it. Our exiting mass has to further squeeze down into 3 single file lines to get by. This is compounded by strollers, wheelchairs, and scooters. People see the open areas where a stroller is and push into it not realizing they are pushing into a stroller. I saw the same thing happen with wheelchairs and scooters. We did NOT have our stroller with us as we knew it would be insane. Clone2, still slightly coughing, was walking beside Dh. I was in front of Dh with the diaper bag on my shoulder. Princess Peanut was on his shoulder. 2 adults pushed their way forward, pushing into Samuel and pushed him into Dh and myself (with the bag). I couldn’t move over any because the cart was there. They looked at Dh and me and said, “We’re just trying to exit Fantasmic!” Dh replied, “So are we!!” I looked at them and said, “and you just squished my asthmatic 6 year old!!!” Yes, complete with evil Mommy bear glare. No apologies. Dh did not realize, even after I said that, that Samuel had been squished between us. Clone1 was on the opposite side of the cart with Friends. Right after this, I drug our group to stand beside a trashcan (protection from the surging mass of people), so we could wait on it to die down some.


Friends chose to go shopping and dove through a break into the shop. Dh insisted we move on ahead with me in front, Clone2 behind me, Clone1 behind him, and then Dh. Everyone moved single file, holding on to the shirt in front of them. We passed a larger cart (popcorn maybe?), and got to the restrooms halfway down the road and finally the crowd started easing up. We moved faster and finally were able to walk almost normally, got outside of the park as quickly as possible. Dh took the kids to the bathroom, I found the asthma rescue meds, and we finally were able to take care of Clone2 and his breathing. I knew the fumes from the buses would further irritate him, and had him take my sweatshirt jacket and breathe through the material.

I was never so happy to get into our van as I was that night.


Dh and I have promised to never see another Fantasmic! as long as this kind of chaos is going on with it. Luckily we know this was not a normal Disney experience because it would have severely colored our judgement on what Disney is like. If someone were to ask me what my single most horrid experience at Disney has been, this was it.


We got back to our hotel, and Dh took off for a pharmacy as we needed some more decongestant/cough meds. I finally got the return phone call from the doctor and after some back and forth had a plan for Clone2’s asthma. Dh had to return to the pharmacy (caught him on the drive back to the hotel) for a new cough med that the doctor thought might work better with the myriad medicines Clone2 had to take. Luckily the next day was our rest day.

Recap of the day

FPV Toy Story Mania

Toy Story Mania - Standby
--drop friends off for breakfastStar Tours Standby & get rider swap
--Dh FPV for Star Tours
--friends meet back up with us
Muppet Vision 3D
Streets of New York (friends loved it)
Sci-Fi for Lunch
FPV - Rockin Roller Coaster
Great Movie Ride
Toy Story Mania with Fast Pass (at least I think we did this prior to Lights Motors Action)
Lights Motors Action
--Meet MIKE
--Jedi Training Academy
Ride Star Tours
Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular
Narnia thing
--Get seats for Fantasmic!
Rockin Rollercoaster


Survive H-E-double hockey sticks

Get back to hotel.