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Our second stop on our first full day in Florida was Disney MGM Studios. We arrived a little early for our lunch reservation, so we wandered around a little bit before checking in at the '50s Prime Time Cafe (which I will write all about later along with all our other dining experiences). After the restaurant, we headed over to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, a show where they demonstrate how they do many of the stunts you see in the movies. They select several volunteers from the audience to serve as extras, and proceed to dress them up and embarrass them as much as they possibly can. It was really entertaining and amusing, complete with a stunt gone awry (involving an explosion and a flipped jeep that wasn't really supposed to catch on fire). Fortunately they plan for these things and had several men with fire extinguishers standing by.
The Back Lot Tour was also rather cool. It started with a water effects demonstration, and more audience volunteers having hundreds of gallons of water dumped on them. Then we boarded a tour tram which took us through another special effects demonstration involving an earthquake, a tanker explosion, and a flash flood. Despite the open-air nature of the tram, the water poured right over the top and down the side without actually coming in, with exception of a welcome refreshing mist for those of us sitting on the left side. Have I mentioned yet that it was HOT? The tour then continued through the movie prop boneyard, where we saw such gems as the ship from Flight of the Navigator, and Herbie the Love Bug. We finally got off the tram at a museum of smaller movie props and costumes, and the inevitable gift shop (which 95% of Disney attractions let you out at).
This is where Chris finally got me on some actual rides. First was Star Tours, the Star Wars themed flight simulator. Now that was fun! There were probably about twenty riders to a vehicle, and the premise is that you're going on a scenic tour through space. The pilot is an absent-minded robot and it happens to be his first flight... ever. You survive a few wrong turns, near misses, a detour through a combat zone, and getting caught in the grips of the Death Star, but the inexperienced robot ultimately gets you safely back to the Star Tours home base. The ride vehicle never actually goes anywhere... it just tilts, shakes, and produces the sensations to match up to what you're seeing on the screen. I could ride simulators like that all day long - it was truly a blast.
Now, remember those moments of temporary insanity I mentioned before? I had another one here at MGM when I agreed to go on The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, otherwise known as The Hollywood Tower Hotel. This ride was no simulation. They load you into a "haunted" service elevator in a thirteen story tower. Then, this haunted elevator proceeds to shoot up, and free-fall down, random numbers of floors within those thirteen. The ride is completely computer-randomized, so you never know if you're in for a short drop or a long one, or even how many times it's going to drop before the ride is over. A hidden camera snaps your picture just before one of these drops, and when you come out you have the opportunity to purchase the photo. Chris thought the look on my face was just so priceless that we had to buy one. It is included in the Disney MGM photo gallery, but please excuse the poor quality as it did not scan very well.
We finally finished off the day with Fantasmic, which is what Disney refers to as a "nighttime spectacular". It's a show that combines water, light, and fire effects, and features just about every Disney character you can think of. To get a seat they recommended arriving ninety minutes before show time, so we had some time to play with the camera, and finally figured out what that folding and rotating LCD screen is really good for... self portraits! The wait went by faster than one would expect, and soon it was dark and the show was starting.
One word. Awesome. This show was exactly the type of thing I came to Disney World for. It was dazzling and mesmerizing right to the very end. And it was the first of the second type of "moment" I had a lot of while down there. What I like to call, my dork moments. The moments when I found my eyes welling up with tears, as if I was witnessing the second coming or something. Nope. Just a Disney show.
Next installment: Disney's Magic Kingdom!
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