Hollywood Studios

On Sunday we used the last day on our Disney passes to visit Hollywood Studios. Leslie, our tour guide, had a full day planned so we left the RV Park early. Even at that, the parking lot was pretty full and we parked at FILM 32 --

It's a good thing the trams were making lots of trips. We only waited for a couple of minutes.

There's the Sorcerer's Hat.  It's THE landmark of Hollywood Studios --

The entrance to Hollywood Studios with everything built to look like the heyday of Hollywood --

The haunted Hollywood Tower Hotel --

Designed to look long empty with dust and cobwebs throughout the structure --

We passed through the empty lobby to ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror -- What a ride!

We spent time in the Animation Studio learning how to draw Dopey --
 

 

We saw the musical, Voyage of the Little Mermaid --

Went on a tour of the backstage lots and saw how many of the special effects were done --

Bill went over to the Brown Derby and returned with slices of this luscious Grapefruit Cake --

This is the set for the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular --

The Streets of America -- How about New York?

Or San Francisco -- Doesn't that hill look real?

We saw another parade -- this one featured many of the Pixar characters -- 
 

 

We went on rides that took us past many of the iconic movie sets --

We had lunch at the 50's Prime Time Cafe -- just look at all that chrome!

What else did we do? Let's see - we saw the Muppets 3D; Walt Disney: One Man's Dream; Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage; and the Star Tours ride. It definitely was a busy day.

Our Last Day at Epcot...

We went back to Epcot for one more time today. Leslie immediately ushered us over to get our pictures taken with Minnie and Goofy. I had put my hair into two ponytails today and Goofy thought that was quite funny. He kept showing me his ears and then checking out my hair.

This is our crew: Minnie Mouse (who was really flirting with Forry!), Forry and I, Goofy, Leslie and Bill --

Forry left his hat at home today and it was too hot to be without one. There are little and big shops all over the place in the park, so we went looking for a hat for him. He wanted a Grumpy one and found this one that said, "Being Grumpy ROCKS."

Leslie had had a great idea and suggested that we rent scooters for getting around the Park. It's a lot of walking. We just got one for Forry the first day and I ended up with blisters, so after that we've gotten one for each of us. They've really made it nice!

The first topiary we saw today was Flower --

And Bambi --

And, of course, Thumper!

Next, near the Butterfly Garden, was this creation --

This sand sculpture was created for the Flower and Garden Show in honor of Disney's latest nature movie --

I understand it tells the story of a male chimpanzee who stepped in to mother a baby after its mother dies.

One of the gardens had these baby pineapple plants growing -- they are striking plants.

We next went over to the Canada area where we saw this Mama Duck with her young'uns --

Leslie continued to add to her laurels by getting us hard-to-come-by dinner reservations at the Canadian Steakhouse. We started off sharing this delicious bowl of beer and cheese soup --

Followed by a shared bone-in rib eye for us and a New York strip steak for Leslie and Bill. Take note of the "pretzel" dinner rolls -- they were sure good!

 There was no debate about what to have for dessert, they had maple creme brulee!

After dinner we spotted the Winnie the Pooh crew --

There were Eeyore and Piglet --

Rabbit --

And good ol' Tigger --

We saw an impressive 360 degree movie about Canada, then went to on to Norway where we went on a Viking boat ride called the Maelstrom and marveled at how much their pictures of Vikings looked like Forrest!

This is one of the teacups in the Tea Garden sponsored by Twinings Teas. Each teacup was planted with the plant that was on the teabag. This one is peppermint tea --

The flower and topiary displays at Epcot have been wonderful to see. They must have incredible green houses as well as landscape architects and gardeners!

Back to Epcot

This afternoon we parked at Disney's BoardWalk and took one of the boats over to Epcot.

The boats make sort of a circuit around the Disney properties and are a neat way to get from one to the other.

We were able to look out on the lake and see some of the 14 barges that were getting set up for tonight's firework show --

There were even more topiaries to see. This one is Snow White and her Prince Charming --

And Cinderella and hers -- (Why is Cinderella such a lousy soccer player? Because she's always losing her shoe and running away from the ball and her coach is a real pumpkin... Told to us by the boat captain on the way back.)

Beauty and the Beast --

Loved this one of the Teapot and Chip --

We watched a great comedy act outside the French Bistro (and saw very nice movie about France) --

The it was time for dinner. Leslie made this dinner reservation at the Moroccan pavilion especially for Forrest --

Not that she thought he might enjoy the entertainment --

I'd say he was pretty attentive...

Not sure what the fellow on the left was playing. It looked like it might have been related to a dulcimer...

I'm not sure if Bill was trying to get a better look at the belly-dancer, or just wanted to get in the picture?

This is the beef shish kabob Forry and I shared --

And the lamb shank that Bill and Leslie had --

We had Turkish coffee with dessert. It was quite strong and made with orange blossom water --

 Dessert was a plate with almond, walnut and pistachio baklavas along with a dab of a date jam --

By then the dancer was back for another show (note the little girl on the left watching) --

She brought all of the little girls down to do a dance with her --

This is just one of the beautifully tiled buildings in the Morocco section of Epcot --

Some more topiaries --

 

 

We went to see the show at the US pavilion (which was very dated and disappointing) then found ourselves a place to watch the grand finale fireworks show --

We stopped in a VERY long line for ice cream at the Beaches and Cream shop, then took the boat ride back to the parking lot. Except we got on the boat going the wrong way and had a scenic tour in the dark of many of the Disney properties until we finally got to where we needed to be...