Utopia Land Delivers With Side Effects-Day Three

February 29, 2012- Leap Day

On the third day we piled in the two rental vans and headed to Disney Hollywood Studios. We anticipated a day full of action. The rounded metal vintage style entrance reminded us of the movie, Robots.  Upon entering the park you felt transported to a movie set with a street scene.

Mary was our expert navigator and pinpointed on the map the way to the Star Wars virtual ride. We strapped ourselves in the seats and encountered Darth Vader who used the powers of the dark force to fling us into space. C3P0 flew our spaceship through galactic space meteor showers and we crash landed but all in one piece. We were all smiles and giggles getting off that ride.

The Force is strong with this bunch

We ran over to the Indiana Jones set just in time to get front row seats. Alex's expressions were priceless to watch as the rolling boulder scene was played out before her eyes and the stunts and explosions were re-enacted showing how a movie set works.

Alex was gasping and getting ready to cover her mouth at the intense action and explosions.

The scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indiana has to fight the Nazi twice his size and the propeller finishes the job.

We finished off this park with Aerosmith's roller coaster a couple of times and the Tower of Terror. The Tower of Terror was like an elevator dropping you and rendered the theme of the Twilight Zone, one of our favorite old television shows.

We arrived at Epcot and the girls were wondering if that globe was a big golf ball. This park definitely had a more futuristic atmosphere.

We all enjoyed the first ride we went on called Soarin'. We got to be hang gliders over different scenery. It was nice to land and go have a beer and some sushi while we decided on what part of the park to go to next.

We toured the Land and Nemo exhibits, gentle rides compared to the one we decided to go on next; The Mission to Mars. Of course we chose the Intense Program Module. As we waited for our mission detail from Gary Sinise the apprehension built as we wondered if we should have picked the fiercest level. One traveler backed out and was escorted to the mild program. My Dad, Husband and I looked at each other in a 'what did we get ourselves into but I'm not going to chicken out' look. My dad was the Pilot, Nathan was the Navigator and I was the Commander. We pressed our buttons on time and made the orbit in order to land with the gusto of the Astronauts from the movie The Right Stuff. My dad still wonders how Gary Sinise our base mission controller made it to Mars before we did to congratulate us on our successful mission. Ha, the details he doesn't let get past him cracks me up.



 We got to be crash test dummies and go through a test course cars go through to determine safety and performance.

The best parts were the near collision with a MAC truck, the fake cement wall separating just before you thought you were going to slam into it and the 60 mile per hour speed test at the end of the ride.
Nathan would have liked his car to have been a Porshe or a Lamborghini.

We really enjoyed the countries of the world walk path along the lake, we would love to go back to see it during the day. We sampled some delicious Japanese green tea, ginger ice cream. We watched another out of this world fireworks show over the lake.

But the fun didn't end there, at least not for the die hard crew. Brantley, Dom, J'Den, Brooke and Alex all headed over to the Magic Kingdom for an all night ride fest. Since it was Leap Day the Magic Kingdom stays open all night. This mom and dad were already to pooped to try to prove our fun factor so we waited to hear about it at four in the morning when they all came home. It was an absolute zoo, with people trampling the grass in order to get to the rides that had more than an hour wait, so the codger crew who just couldn't muster the strength were happy they stayed home. The die hards now hold the title of holding a once every four year occurrence of an all nighter at Disney. Both parties happy!

Leap Day All Nighter at the Magic Kingdom With Mickey and Minnie