31 Days:: All About Hollywood Studios

{About Series}

Welcome to today's topic: All About Hollywood Studios! You can find out all about the park {here at the Disney official website}. Today we continue on our journey where I've been sharing with you my favorite things about the parks...

the "Ear"-ful Tower (as seen on the Studio Backlot Tour)

Top Attraction Picks

• Tower of Terror- located at the end of Sunset Blvd, this is one of my all time favorite rides at the parks, I love that "stomach dropping" feeling on roller coasters, and that's pretty much all this ride is! You get dropped a number of times (each ride is a different drop sequence!), and it's set to a theme of the old TV show The Twilight Zone.
• Studio Backlot Tour- located at the end of Streets of America, this is a fun ride. You tour starts with watching an interactive special effects demonstration (if you're standing at the front of the line, you may get asked to help out!). Then you ride through different areas of movie production- old sets and props, a prop building workshop, costume design, narrated with tons of cool movie production factoids, and the ride culminates with a live special effects demonstration of "catastrophe canyon"... I don't want to give away too much, but I'd keep youngsters in the middle or to the right-hand side of the car otherwise they might get a bit wet or hot... it's fun :)
• Rock N Rollercoaster- located at the end of Sunset Blvd, this is an indoor coaster that takes you on an upside down, super fast paced thrill of a ride through the streets of the city, trying to get to an Aerosmith concert! The street lights and signs are all illuminated via black lights... I can't really describe it well, but if you like coasters, this is a fun one!! And all to an Aerosmith soundtrack! 
• The Great Movie Ride- this takes you on a leisurely tour through some of Hollywood's classic movies- from the Wizard of Oz to Casablanca to Alien. A live narrator tells factoids about the film sets you drive through. Good for most kids of all ages (little ones might get a bit startled by a mock "shoot out" and the alien dropping from the ceiling, so give them a heads up and be prepared, you might have to cover some ears/eyes at one point- hehe, I know my parents did when I was young! But I still startle easily...)
• Star Tours- this is an oldie that they recently revamped, you take a rocking, bumpy ride through scenes of the Star Wars movies. I used to like this ride a lot, a classic, but they recently redid it so the movies are 3D (I'm just not a 3D fan)
• Honey I Shrunk The Kids Movie Set Adventure- this is super fun for the little kiddies! It's a replica of the set used to film the Honey I Shrunk the Kids movies, so little ones can "ride" an ant  and play in the forest-like grass or climb a rope "spider web"

Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular

Top Shows Picks

• Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular- a fun, loud action show that lets you in on some of the movie magic and action stunts used to make the Indiana Jones movies, really fun, especially for the older generations that actually have seen Indiana Jones (I know I grew up on them!)
• Lights, Motors, Action!- a fun, really loud action show that lets you in on some of the movie magic and action stunts used to make movies with high speed car chases! really neat and the ending is spectacular!
• Beauty and the Beast- a 25-minute Broadway-style show portraying the movie, complete with song and dance, perfect for your little princesses to watch :)
• Fantasmic- a fun, nighttime show complete with Mickey leading you through his dreams... from fun times with this friends to a huge dragon to lit up barges with his friends to water displays... another show that's a bit hard to describe, but definitely a must see if you've never been! It doesn't always show every night, so be sure to ask a cast member or pick up a Time Guide when you get to the park to find out if it's showing. 

That's about it for today, but come visit tomorrow when we'll be talking about Animal Kingdom! And check back later in the month to read about my top picks to dine at in Hollywood Studios!