MGM Studios

I guess the new name is Disney's Hollywood Studios, but I remember it when it opened as MGM Studios. Keith and I were originally planning to hang out in one of Disney's water parks Saturday night, but since we had a nice swim and nap in the afternoon, and since Keith is a big Star Wars fan, we thought we'd see what this Star Wars Weekend business over at MGM was all about. We arrived to a pretty full park. We had heard rumors that earlier in the day, the park had stopped allowing people in because it was at capacity. But since it was nearing 4pm, we figured we'd gamble on the fact that the people who stayed in the park during the major heat of the day were probably ready to head back to their hotel rooms by now.
Someone will have to fill me in on what all this High School Musical rave is all about. The music was cute and catchy during the live show, which we did not watch, but could hear through-out the park.
We saw Chewy and an ewok hanging out in the shade. I'll bet they must have been hot with all that fur.
The dark clouds began rolling in once again, but we stayed in the park, hoping the clouds would just blow right past us.
We were too late to see the Indiana Jones show, but Keith and I both agreed that Joshua would be one happy little boy if we brought him to see it. We did get to the park in time to see the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show. We walked right into the stadium and managed to get really good seats. Unfortunately, the dark clouds brought along lightening. Since the lightening was very close, the show was cancelled. We were both a little bummed since we really wanted to see it.

We ate dinner at a cute little buffet called Hollywood and Vine. The buffet was amazing with tons of fresh veggies, salmon (we're starting to get used to this weird feeling of actually paying for fish!), chicken and bunches of other healthy foods. The buffet also had plenty of unhealthy things, but we were both really looking for something lite and healthy. We loved our meal there, even though we both had a bit of sticker shock when the bill came. We must have missed the sign on the door that said the buffet was $30 per person. We definitely consumed enough proteins and veggies (not to mention snickers cheesecake and key lime tart!) to justify the high cost. Probably not someplace we'd bring the kids, but we'd go there alone again for another good, although expensive, meal.
After dinner, it was pouring raining. We're not skeered of a little rain, after all, we survived Kodiak for 5 years! We had heard that Toy Story Mania was something that we shouldn't miss, so we braved the 90 minute wait. How people manage to wait in line for 90 minutes with kids is beyond me - there was a lot of crying and a lot of scolding going on.
Overall, the wait wasn't terrible, since we were in out of the rain.
We spent quite a bit of time talking about things that needed to be done for our new house.
And some time talking about what to expect at Keith's new duty station.

Potato Head was pretty funny. He had a hidden camera in him so he was actually heckling people in line. He made fun of Keith's bucket hat.
The ride was a 3-D trip through a midway playing a bunch of games. It was really neat and pretty much worth the wait. I was beating Keith the whole way up until the last game, were he scored big and won.
After we came out of the ride, just about everyone was either gone from the park, or over watching the fireworks. It felt like we had the whole place to ourselves. We walked right onto the Star Wars ride.
I will say that MGM (Hollywood Studios) is probably one of the prettiest parks at night. Everything was lit up, and since it wasn't crowded, it was nice to stroll along and enjoy the sites.
Keith was pretty excited to see WALL-E. He can't wait to take the kids to go see it.