Subsonic Radio

Every year around this time my wife gets restless and wants to get out of Gainesville. I guess it's the end result of a humid summer, fatigue from the busy-ness of her job (the summer months are always the most hectic), and the annoyances that come from living in a town with a Division 1 university during that most holy of American religious festivals that is Football Season.

In 2007 this restlessness led to 3 days at WDW unwisely charged to the credit card. Tomorrow, well, we're going to DHS for the day. Our 4-day trip in January is still a go, of course, but my wife really didn't feel like going to any of the attractions closer to home (Silver Springs, St. Augustine, etc.) so Disney it is. It would be the height of insanity to venture into the Magic Kingdom on such a hot and crowded day; EPCOT is bound to be less crowded but there's so much there we could easily stay till closing time, and we do have to be at our jobs bright and early Tuesday morning. AK will be the first thing we do on our January trip, so by process of elimination we were left with the Studios. Besides, if the rumors about Star Tours 2.0 are correct, then this'll be our last chance to ride the original version; it'll almost certainly be down for a rehab in January.

I think we're going to go ahead and spring for annual passes; that way we'll be able to go back whenever we want to get away for a day (and, of course, for our January trip). Might even be able to talk Mrs. Future Guy into coming back for Star Wars Weekends next year. So, we'll be hitting the road tomorrow morning at 6:30. I'll take lots of pictures.

Awesome!!! I hope you two have a great day in the Studios!!!

That is just really cool. I always love the impromptu vacation. Hope you have a blast and I can't wait to see the pictures.

Hope the weather is awesome

I hope you have a great time. Our family has been several times over the Labor Day weekend and the crowds were never as bad as we thought they were going to be. Looking forward to some pix.

Left the house at around 6:30 AM. After stopping to fuel the car and get a little cash from the ATM, we hit the Interstate a little after 7. At five minutes after 9, we pulled into the Studios. We weren't parked very far from the park entrance, but Mrs. Future Guy insisted on taking the tram, pointing out that we were going to be doing plenty of walking today, and we'd best pace ourselves. "Please-keep-all-arms-hands-tentacles-and-appendages-in-the-tram-at-all-times," I said, imitiating the rapid-fire delivery of the rapid-fire delivery of every tram drivers' safety spiel. "Please-do-not-set-fire-to-the-tram-without-first-removing-your-personal-belongings."

Listening to the entrance music as we approached the ticket counter, my first thought was "they're playing Subsonic Radio!" We picked up our annual passes at the ticket window (as part of a promotional thing that's going on right now, they're good for 15 months instead of the usual 12-I wonder what we'll be doing for our anniversary next year?). Our anniversary is on October 27, and when my wife mentioned it the lady in the ticket booth gave us each a "Happy Anniversary" button along with our APs. The rest of the day, almost every CM we saw wished us a happy anniversary, and some even asked how many years.

We decided to hit Toy Story Midway Mania before the wait time got ridiculous, and although the sign outside said there was a 40 minute wait, we were in line for less than half that. While we were in line, the Mr. Potato Head animatronic in the queue area asked "who's your favorite toy?" We all yelled "Mr. Potato Head!" except for one guy who said "Woody!"

"I love you, too!" Mr. Potato Head replied. "Except for the guy who said Woody!"

We'd never experienced TSMM before (we haven't been to the Studios since 2004), and we had a blast! WDI really deserves a round of applause on this one; it's the kind of attraction Walt never could have imagined, yet it's very true to the spirit of family-oriented fun that permeates everything he touched during his lifetime. I didn't score very high because I spent most of the game aiming for the hard-to-reach targets.

Afterwards, we got in line at the character greeting area across the way for our chance to meet Buzz and Woody. While we were in line, my wife snapped this picture:



Here we are with Woody and Buzz:



After we got done there, we stopped into One Man's Dream. Mrs. Future Guy didn't want to watch the movie, but we spent some time in the "museum" area. Here's a shot of the recreation of Walt's TV presentation of his Florida Project:


And here's a close-up of the old-school WED logo on the cameras:


Finally, here's a pic of the Spaceship Earth model:


We left One Man's Dream and headed over to The Magic of Disney Animation to get our picture taken with The Incredibles:


After that we did the Great Movie Ride. Our driver's name was Megan, and she was great. She noticed my t-shirt and said "Wow, I've got Green Lantern in my group!" Of course, the ride was awesome as always. Before we left the Munchkinland scene Megan got us all to sing "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" along with the Munchkins. And interesting twist: Muggsy the gangster was a dame! It's a good thing my wife was there; I've got a real thing for attractive brunettes with guns! (Kidding, just kidding!)

The Indiana Jones show was about to start as we exited the Chinese Theater, so we went to that and heartily enjoyed it, as usual. When we go back in January, I'm going to try to be an extra. After the show we caught lunch at the Backlot Express, and then we headed for the one thing that my wife has wanted to see ever since she first heard about it: the Lights, Motors, Action show. On our way there, we had to detour around the High School Musical show, which was in full swing. "Somebody give me a gun," I said as soon as I realized what was going on. I can tolerate Zack and Cody, and sometimes even Hannah Montana, but I my deep burning hatred for HSM is matched only by my hatred for the tarps in CommuniCore Plaza. On our way into the show, the CM stationed outside said, in a cheerful-yet-slightly-sarcastic tone "Go on in, folks! I'll stay out here and listen to the music!" I gave him my condolences.

Since it was such a hot day, and we knew that the heat from the fires and explosions during the stunt show would be pretty intense, we went to the very top of the bleachers, where to my delight I discovered that I could see Spaceship Earth in the distance!



The show was great; Mrs. Future Guy is usually pretty shy about vocally expressing her enjoyment, but he final stunt had her unselfconsciously cheering and hollering! It was great to see her so happy! After the stunt show we headed over to MuppetVision, where we had the worst seats possible: front row, all the way on the end. It's a terrible angle to watch a 3D movie from. The show was funny and enjoyable, as always, but I couldn't help but notice that the film itself is in really bad shape. About time for some digital restoration there.

Finally we rode Star Tours. It may be the last time we see the ride in its current form. My wife took this picture of me in the queue area:


It's not a great shot, but you can make out C-3PO behind me. Hopefully they'll add a more "interactive" 3PO in the new ride's queue area, kind of like Mr. Potato Head in TSMM. After the ride, we browsed through Tatooine Traders (easily the busiest store in the park, BTW) and paused outside to take each other's picture next to the moisture vaporator.




The block party bash was in full swing out on Hollywood Blvd, and as we watched from underneath the BAH I became aware of its one positive aspect: it does a good job of providing shade. Once the block party moved on my wife wanted to browse through some more of the shops. I left her to go get us some frozen Cokes, and by the time I got back with them she was ready to go. We left the park around 4 and were back home in Gainesville by 6. All in all, a good day. Although we're AP holders now, we'll try to resist the temptation to go back until our 4-day trip in January. After that, though, we're bound to be back a lot more. I imagine Disney will end up with the majority of my after-tax income in 2010!

Thanks for reading!

Great little day trip in Disney Future Guy. It seems like you both really accomplished a lot in that small amount of time you were there. I have noticed that the guides on TGMR have started to deviate away from the script to try and be more personable. I know when we were there in July we were in the first row and had a blast with our guide. I do recall we also had a female mugsy but she most likely was new to the attraction. She seemed nervous and very quiet for her role.

It's going to be tough to resist going back to WDW now since you are an AP. Best of luck in putting the urge to go off until Jan. and I look forward to reading more reports.

Awesome trip report!!! Thanks for sharing! I know if DH and I lived that short of a distance from WDW, we would be regulars there, how could you resist?! You accomplished alot in the short time you were there! Thanks for the pics. too. I always enjoy hearing about others trips. We'll have to be sure and ride Star Tours when we go in Dec. I hadn't thought that they might be giving that a refurb soon.

Great report, thanks again! Look forward to hearing about your Jan. trip!

Wow, great report! I suppose I am feeling guilty because I have not done my trip report yet from ours in August. I have a lot to report and my husband says I could "talk a dog off a meat wagon", so I will try to do a condensed one soon! Your report was really great, very detailed and lots of fun! We live on the other end of the state and have annual passes as well so the temptation is always there! We are about 3 hours and 45 minutes to get there!