Hollywood Studios with Trina & Angie Part 1

The New Year brought a New Name to a park that originally opened its doors May 1, 1989 (13 months before the Other One). Disney's MGM Studios has become Disney's Hollywood Studios because Hollywood is what it has always been about.

Today we accompanied Trina and Angie to The Studios. A major player in the movie Fantasia, Magic Kingdom's 3-D Mickey's Philharmagic and the Fantasmic! evening ending show at The Studios, Mickey's sorceror's hat is the focal attraction of the center of the park.

First, we headed on over to take a Star Tour in our cruiser guided by trusty and probably rusty R2D2.

One of the most recognizable icons of the United States, The Statue of Miss Piggy, greeted us in the courtyard outside the venue for the hilarious Muppet Vision 3D.

We had a fantastic buffet at Play 'n Dine at Hollywood & Vine. We dined and played along with several Playhouse Disney characters.

Marlon and Goliath pose for a shot on the way to the food.

JoJo and friend lead the entire restaurant in a rousing rendition of "Hot Dog". Don't know the song? Check it out in this You Tube video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wePMYM4av6Q .

Trina learned a thing or two from that smarty-pants Leo (short for Leonardo), one of Disney's Little Einsteins.

Another of Disney's Little Einstein's, June, stopped buy for a visit.

We left the Play 'n Dine just in time to catch the High School Musical 2 Live production staged in the center of the park by the sorceror's hat.

Then it was on to The Great Movie Ride, one of the attractions which has endured since opening day.

For a video highlight of The Great Movie Ride, click below.
Excited tourists prepare for the Studio Backlot Tour and a visit to Catastrophe Canyon, where a demonstration of special effects may cause some tourists to get wet.

I wonder what movie this jet fighter was used in...

Everyone's favorite Love Bug was there...Herbie.

After the tour we ran into Mike Wazowski (with one "I") and Sulley, a couple of our friends from Monsters, Inc. Be sure to visit them and Roz over at the Magic Kingdom at The Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor.

The Streets of America feature New York...

and San Francisco (as well as Chicago).

One of the stars of the classic Disney movie, Fantasia, was in charge of cleaning up around the flower beds of The Studios.

For more of our visit to Disney's Hollywood Studios, check out the next blog entry.

To be continued...

Animal Kingdom with Trina & Angie Part 2

Continuing with the Kilimanjaro Safaris at The Animal Kingdom, here is an okapi. While resembling a zebra in its striping, the okapi is actually most closely related to a giraffe.

This rodent was NOT seen on safari.

The Pangani Forest Exploration Trail situated near the end of the Kilimanjaro Safari features gorillas, hippos, birds, fish, rodents and reptiles.

Next we took the Wildlife Express Train out to Rafiki's Planet Watch where we kept running into Rafiki. Here he is.

Here he is.

And here he is.

Here's another happy consumer of an Animal Kingdom hot dog and refreshing Sprite.

Jiminy Cricket croons "When You Wish Upon a Star" as he poses with two humans.

It was 3:00 and time for Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade at Animal Kingdom.

There's Mickey!

Camels can survive a great while on the water contained in their hump.

There's our other Jammin' Jungle guide, Goofy!

Many of the floats in the Jammin' Jungle parade are walked along like this one or ridden along like a bicycle.

There's a big bird...not to be confused with Big Bird.

Here's a purple animal holding a set of drums being played by a human.

Here are three humans known to us and three humans not known to us on their very own Expedition Everest.

Mom, son and daughter take a moment for one last picture together in front of 199.5 foot tall Everest.

If your looking for a brief video of Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade, here it is.
For more pictures of our day, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2008/january/magic-kingdom-with-/ .

To be continued...

Animal Kingdom with Trina & Angie Part 1

Marlon's mom (Angie) and sister (Trina) arrived yesterday from St. Joseph, Missouri for a 10 day visit. We decided the first park we would take them to was Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom.

Here's daughter and mother now.

Here are some egrets. Egrets are often also known as herons.

The Tree of Life is the focal point of The Animal Kingdom.

There are over three hundred carved images of animals on the exterior of The Tree of Life. How many can you find?

The 3-D film It's A Bug's Life is shown continuously inside The Tree of Life. If you get a chance to see it, be prepared for a few surprises.

After viewing The Tree of Life and It's A Bug's Life we headed for Dinoland.

While in Dinoland, be sure to ride Dinosaur! Dinosaur! takes you aboard a time traveling land rover to view several different species of dinosaurs. Hang on...it will be a bumpy ride!

We found this mother and daughter hanging around on our way to the Kilimanjaro Safaris. It might be mother and son or perhaps brother and sister.

And this guy was just lounging around.

And these guys were just standing around. Although these unique animals HAVE been taught to write their names in autograph books handed to them by little kids.

The Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction features common African animals such as antelope.

Zebras can usually be found taking in some sun.

It's neat to see all the animals, including this giraffe, roaming around together in the same area. Gee, like a safari!

This bird was holding up our Safari vehicle by slowly strolling in front of us down the road.

While riding the Wildlife Express Train later in the day, we learned that most of the animals, including this rhino, are led back to their cages at the end of every day. A few, such as the alligators and flying birds, are not removed from the attraction every evening.

The Kilimanjaro Safari and the rest of our visit to Animal Kingdom will continue in the following entry.

To be continued...