Welcome to Hollywood!

Our day in Disney's Hollywood Studios was... well interesting. We visited this park last because according to all of the crowd calendars, it was the only day that wasn't going to be horrific. They had Magic Hours over the weekend, and then as Easter approached, the crowds were supposed to go up, up, up! 

Well, surprise surprise. The crowds went UP a day early! We arrived at the park to a ridiculous crowd. We raced to Rockin' Roller Coaster for fast passes, and soon after grabbed ones for the Tower of Terror. The fastpasses for Toy Story Mania were gone long before lunch, and the line crept along with wait times reaching more than 3 hours. You know those days that test your patience? This was one of them. We were hot, cranky, and couldn't get in to do ANYTHING we wanted. Even the backlot tour had a wait of over an hour ... the typical wait is about 5 minutes. It was long, tiring, and frustrating. 

We weren't the only frustrated people though... Magic Kingdom had a back up 3 miles outside of the parking lot. They closed that park off to people with just single day tickets. The whole thing was a madhouse.

Luckily though, after giving ourselves an afternoon time-out at ABC Commissary (and treating ourselves to dessert!) we were able to get into the Indiana Jones Stunt show, and from there the day started to move and a much happier pace. We got to ride Star Tours, and found out later that this ride will be closing later this year for some "re-imagining."

We saw alot of the short little shows, to break up the time between rides. I enjoyed the exhibits after the Art of Disney Animation Show.

After twisting and turning and fighting our way through the park, the time reached 8:30 p.m. I still hadn't come within spitting distance of the entrance to Toy Story Mania. We went and saw the wait time down to 90 minutes. The park closed at ten. Perfection. So we waited.

I admired Disney's ability to recreate childhood favorites, and maintain perfect theming throughout a long line.

I giggled over the cute signs, and watched as my husband and most everyone around me became grumpy, tired and bored. Then I became grumpy tired and bored.

Then we got to this guy. He talked, cracked jokes, and was generally entertaining... until I realized we'd been within earshot long enough for him to get through his entire cycle ... ugh. Luckily a short time after that an angelic cast member sent us up the handicapped line to fill in a hole. We considered hugging her, but refrained.

The we rode the ride, and our arms hurt, and I kicked Steven's tail. I almost photographed the scores, but I thought he was grumpy enough.

And that friends, was our last full day in the parks. We spent the next morning at Downtown Disney (and rode Characters in Flight -- cool yet terrifying!) and the next evening at Epcot, where we ate at very yummy Le Cellier. Then Thursday came, and we were tired. Very tired. We swam, and contemplated what we would do for the next two days. 

Then we realized the only thing we wanted to do was go home.

Do you remember those Berenstian Bears books from when you were a kid?  One was called Too Much Birthday. This was our own version of that book. Too much vacation. We had a blast, and loved every second, but I have never been so tired in my life.

So we packed in a hurry, made a few calls and headed out. We waved goodbye to Disney, and headed back to Texas.