December in Disney World - Part 3

December 10, 2015
Thursday

Plan for today:
Hollywood Studios with three fastpasses
The Boat House at Disney Springs for dinner

After about a fifteen minute wait, our bus arrives and carries us off to Hollywood Studios. There are a lot of people at the security tables but my choice of one on the far right worked well and I am quickly into the park.

It's not yet time for our first fasspass of the day so we start with a ride on The Great Movie Ride (after pausing to note the absence of the infamous hat). This ride is a walk-on and the first time we've experienced the Turner Classic Movies narrative. Once this is complete, we head to Toy Story Mania for our first fastpass of the day and it's a good thing we have the fastpass since the standby time is already around an hour. For the first time ever, I am ahead in scoring on every segment of the ride until the last. In the end, Gene manages to pull ahead for the win - much to my disappointment!!

With time before our next fastpass, we head to Star Tours where a 5 minute wait time is much to our liking. Our next fastpass is for Tower of Terror which shows a 40 minute standby time.

Since we have an early dining reservation, we want a light lunch so stop at Catalina Eddie's after our Tower of Terror ride. Gene has a pepperoni pizza and I have a Caesar Salad. This will hold us over for dinner!!

It's now time for our last fastpass of the day which is for Muppet Vision. From there, we take in Star Wars: Path of the Jedi which shows a series of clips from the prior Star Wars movies and a few from the upcoming film - sort of a history from the start to now. We also wander through Star Wars Launch Bay housed in the prior Animation Building - seems like a sad ending to that formerly wonderful attraction with artists at work and a tour led by an animated Robin Williams!!! We skipped the film (which had a 20 minute wait time especially after feeling the Path of the Jedi film was somewhat lacking).

We wandered through some of the shops, stopped and picked up the "special" viewing glasses for the Osborne Lights available to annual passholders - usually given out on Mondays and Wednesdays we are informed but with the understanding that folks might find it difficult to come during those times. I wonder if they are anything like the ones they passed out to everyone one year during the Osborne Lights that made all the lights look like they were angels?? I thing those are still stuck away in a drawer at home someplace.

There's nothing more we want to do here today so decide we will go "home" and relax on our deck for a bit. From there, we can watch the golfers as they tackle the hole that is our view while beyond that, we can watch the hot air balloon at Downtown Springs rise over the tops of the trees until it lands beyond those same trees a while later.

Around 4, we cross the street and head to the boat ramp to await the next boat to Disney Springs. We wait about 15 minutes for the boat and then have a pleasant journey to our destination. Today, we have a 5 pm reservation at The Boathouse for dinner. Once we check in, we are seated within minutes. Service and food were both good but this place is massive - according to our server it will seat 650 including the outside seating. We start with an appetizer of calamari - this was a particularly spicy presentation - too much so for me. Gene has swordfish and I have the salmon. Both are well prepared and quite good.

After dinner, we wander around Disney Springs. Much has changed since our last visit to this destination including a walkacross from across the street where cabs sit waiting for those who wish that form of transportation. Many stores are different. Much construction is still continuing. After our wander around, we visit the new Jock Lindsey's Hangar bar. Although there is much outdoor seating, the inside space is cute but quite a bit smaller than I expected. We have a drink and then head to the boat dock which is located just outside.

We are quickly back at Old Key West and head to our room. I have a nice, relaxing tubby and we watch tv for a bit before heading off to head.