Pushing on...

Bloomin' heck, where did June go?!
I made a decision yesterday. No more Facebook games (apart from Scrabble, but even that addiction is wearing off!), so goodbye Farmville and Frontierville. They are time-gobblers and I have so many other things I want to achieve.
It also seems a shame that I don't blog as much as I used to. I kinda got stuck into a routine of Facebook status updates over blogging. I'm switching back to blogging so that it's all there for keeps - I couldn't tell you what status updates I made last week. Blogging is better for looking back and seeing what I've been up to. It occured to me that no-one may be reading or in the slightest bit interested, but I don't mind, this is as much for me as for your entertainment :-)

Taking five minutes out over lunch to crack on with last summers trip report. Gotta get it done before we go back to Orlando this summer!

so...

August 17th 2009

Animated at Hollywood Studios (that's MGM Studios to us oldies!)

After a nice lie in and a slooow start we spent a little time in the pool,or sunbathing in the small corner that had sun mid-morning.

It was back to the Golden Corral for lunch and then off we went to Hollywood Studios. On our last visit we hadn't done the Backlot Studio tour and as this was an attraction DH and I could recall from 1992 it was one we wanted to revisit. We also hadn't done this:



- Disney Animation Class, and we really keen to try that (there's an artistic streak in my side of the family...my grandad in his younger days had painted inn signs and a beautiful Taj Mahal on the living room wall, mum is artistic, my sister used to paint backdrops for the Royal Opera House, DS enjoyed Art and Design BTEC, and DD was identified as 'gifted and talented' in Year 7). We got to draw Dale, and it proved a big hit with all of us. We agreed it was one of the best experiences in the park and were pleased with our sketches. I found the whole experience vey relaxing...sitting in semi-darkness and it was so quiet since we were all concentrating so hard! It occured to me half way through that it'd be good to take some photos of my artists at work, even though it meant getting behind in following the cast member's instructions, but I didn't want to ruin the concentration of the other visitors by letting my flash go off!




Here's the guy giving us guidance and one of our finished products:





I'd wholeheartedly recommend everyone to have a go, even if you don't think you are any good at drawing, it's all simple shapes, built up to make the overall portrait!

I would have liked to have joined the line for another go but I also wanted our photos take with Chip and Dale and the kids wanted to show the characters their portraits! As the line to see the characters was not too long we decided to join it. The friendly chipmunks seemed impressed with Sam and Katie's drawings and autographed their masterpieces. Sam found it amusing to tease one of the chipmunks, seeing as it wouldn't give him his drawing back, by sneakily putting his baseball cap on the chipmunk's head, see photo!



Katie and I also stood with 2 of the Incredibles for a photo but missed the opportunity to pose with Minnie and Pluto and some characters from the Robin Hood film who were on their way 'backstage' before we could catch them!



On our way out we admired the wonderful paintings and drawings on the walls and in the shop






We also stopped for a while to watch an artist at work, and I regret not buying something for myself in this shop, but Sam bought an animation book with his birthday fun card.

We also rode the Great Movie Ride, the scenes from the movies were great but the gangster acting wasn't very impressive!

We caught the Backlot Tour, hurray, no rain-check today! The kids only recognised a few of the vehicles (Herbie and Star Wars) and it was nice to see the Mickey Ears tower. Last night, looking at my photos I wondered what I could do with some of them and thought I'd do a collage of transport in WDW. It's over on Flickr account (see left) under Picasa 3 if you want to see.

There wasn't enough room for all the vehicles so I need to make a couple more, but I was really pleased with my attempt :-)

We all loved the tanker and fire, and later got to watch the action again on the stairs that led you down from the stands of the lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt show
which was our next port of call.

There was quite a wait for this show so we just sat, rested our feet and swigged our water, thankful for the shade.

It was a [I]really[/I] noisy show and the kids enjoyed it more than me, but then I made life difficult for myself by trying to take photos and video while trying to watch the action and the big screen that showed the commentators down on the street. Took loads of mediocre photos!





After the show we thought we'd try Toy Story Mania one more time but the wait time was in excess of 90 minutes so we decided not to.

By this time it was 6.45pm, just 15 minutes til closing time and on our way to the exit I persuaded the family to come to One Man's Dream where I wanted to find out more about Mr Disney himself. The kids were pretty quick wandering through the attraction so I didn't get a chance to read everything on offer but did get some nice photos of Mickey and films through the years. You're spared these, I think there are more than enough photos in this thread!

For the kids I suspect the film was as much a chance to let their minds wander and take in all that had gone before and relax their feet as it was to learn about how WDW came to be, but Lee and I, especially, enjoyed the history. Normally I would have bought a 'coffee table' book to take home but, as we'd spent enough of DH's hard earned pennies thus far, I didn't. A pleasant change from fast rides and walking we quite simply, enjoyed :-)


With some energy to spare we decided to squeeze in another visit to Downtown Disney. We refuelled at McDonalds and then strolled from the Lego store all the way down to the Rainforest Cafe, admiring the sunset and the lights of the shops, as well as the contents of as many as the shops as our quickly tiring legs would stand, and of course, the poor family had to put up with me snapping photos left right and centre, or palming the camera off so as to be in some of the shots to prove I really did get to my dream destination :-)













note how DS Sam is trying to walk straight past this one...is it really that he didn't notice a chocolate shop or is he actually trying to spare the minute on the lips, lifetime on the hips reality of the situation if I got myself in there?!


Lee decided to buy a new belt and buckle from the stall that we'd discovered days before and it took sooo long, boy, can men talk sometimes!



Honestly, talk about like a kid in a candy store, or a woman in a dressing room, trying on clothes: "I quite like this one...""but then again...it doesn't really go well with this buckle does it? Do you think it'll make my hips look big" :-)





Eventually the kids and I found a wall to sit on and as boredom set in I played with my camera....again, and even let the kids have a go to keep them quiet and we had some fun goofing around...







the more I asked for "just one nice photo of the two of you not bickering" the worse the faces Sam pulled :-)

A few more...







Oh yes, and if you haven't yet been to Downtown Disney, be sure to stand yourself right under Stitch (World of Disney store), he really is a charming fella, go on, have a good look...




A free Ghiraldelli's fix (yummy!), and some souvenirs and gifts, many photos and hours later we headed back to the villa to chill before bed. The kids spent an hour happily sketching Disney characters using Sam's animation book while Lee and I half watched TV/looked at the day's photos on the netbook/dished out complimentary comments on our budding artists' work and half dozed. What a brilliant day!