Disney World- Day 2: Main Course of Hollywood Studios with Magic Kingdom for Dessert

Our first day at Disney World started out well.  The parks open at 9am, and I wanted to leave at 8am to make sure we got there before the park opened.  The earlier you get there, the less likely you will have to wait in long lines!  I didn't know how much JP would like getting up at 7:30am Eastern aka 6:30 our normal time, but he got up every morning without complaining!

One way we decided to keep costs down on the trip was to bring breakfast to eat in the room instead of spending $10 per person for breakfast in the food court.  Before leaving Birmingham, JP went to our favorite breakfast place, Magic Muffins, and got us a ton of muffins to eat for breakfast.

JP and I arrived at Hollywood Studios around 8:30am and were, therefore, able to be there when the "gates" were opened.  If you've never been at a Disney World Park at opening, it is quite a site!  There are a ton of people are walking as fast as they can (running is not allowed) usually to the same one or two rides.  Many of these people have strollers and small children by there side.  JP and I found this whole process quite humorous!  We walked quickly, but we definitely got passed by a whole lot of people.

The first attraction we quickly walked to was Toy Story Mania! which is the newest addition to Hollywood Studios and an attraction I had never experienced.  We were able to virtually walk right on since we hadn't gotten there at park opening.  Later in the day we noticed that the wait time was 60 minutes!

Toy Story Mania! is definitely a good example of what makes Disney World unique.  You can tell that so much time is put into detail.  For example, the waiting line area is not surrounded by bare concrete walls, but is actually a magnificently decorated area.

Even the ceilings are elaborately decorated!

The ride itself was quite fun!

The ride takes you through a Midway.  The games are 3-D and on your car you have a gun which you pull the string on to launch pies, rings, darts, and other things in order to hit things to score points.  It was definitely a lot of fun and one of my favorite attractions!

After completing our game in which JP scored more points than me, we headed over to the other two top attractions at Hollywood Studios...

Rockin' RollerCoaster- which we both give 5 stars for it's super quick start and upside down loop













And Tower of Terror- which JP loves but I, who can ride roller coasters all day, hate that straight dropping feeling.

Other attractions we saw that day were:

• Light! Motors! Action!
• Muppet Vision 3-D
• Star Tours
• The Great Movie Ride
• Walt Disney: One Man's Dream

After finishing our day at the park, we took a boat to Disney's Boardwalk to eat lunch at ESPN Club.  While we were there, the waitress noticed my birthday button (My birthday was the day before we got there and JP's was the Friday of our trip.  Disney celebrates with you by giving you a birthday button).  She surprised me with a free dessert!

After lunch, we were both very tired and went back to the room for what became our daily afternoon break/nap.

Around 8:15pm I decided that we needed to go to Magic Kingdom and see the parade.

After watching a minute of the parade, JP and I decided to skip the parade since most people were watching the parade leaving lines short.  So we took advantage of short lines and rode Pirates of the Caribbean and
Buzz Light Year's Space Ranger Spin.

Buzz Light Year, which is a shooting game to score points, was definitely NOT my talent.  JP slaughtered me. My score is on the left, and JP's is on the right.

We got out of Buzz Light Year just as the fireworks were ending.  We decided, instead of joining the massive crowd on their way to the buses, we would take advantage of the last 30 minutes the park was open to ride a few more rides with no wait.  We rode Space Mountain and Haunted Mansion, which is JP's favorite.

We exited the park as it was closing and hopped on the crowded bus back to our hotel.  Once there we were very hungry and decided to go to the McDonald's that was about a quarter mile from our hotel.