May 25 – “A Disney Adventure: Day Three: Hollywood Studios”

I’m still having a hard time telling all these Disney places apart.  Josh took a little stab at my ignorance today.  As we arrived he said, “I think y’all will really like this place.  It’s all old stuff.”  And … thank you very much for that.  Sad thing is … he was right.  It was the movie one - Universal Studios, maybe?  And I did like it a lot better than the one the day before. 

The first ride was all about the history of great movies.  Saw John Wayne on a horse and Clint Eastwood on a porch.  Some gangster took over our ride and drove us through a gun battle with some guys in a car.  We drove through the Land of Oz.  Discovered a carefully guarded secret, too.  Guess it’s OK to let you in on it.  The driver of the car in front of us was Glenda the Good Witch.  Well, her secret identity, anyway.  Yup … he spoke back to the wicked witch and everything.  And I recognized the words from the movie.  He had to be her. 

We went on one ride that was a giant video game.  Everyone had a controller and we each had to shoot at targets while the cars moved from spot to spot.  I got 95,000 points.  Zak and Caleb really enjoyed that one.

Speaking of Zak and Caleb, they were joined by Luke as enlistees in the green man army – the army men from Toy Story.  They had to march and obey orders and everything, all in front of the whole crowd.

I have to mention the intermittent reign of terror perpetuated by a squad of storm troopers from Star Wars (particularly intimidating to little girls).  They periodically marched through the entire complex demanding absolute obedience and threatening to take down any rebel sympathizers.  Their fear tactics worked well for a while.  Until we began seeing Chewbacca and C3PO and R2-D2 and even a Jedi training academy.  There is still hope for the galaxy.

We saw a 4-D movie called Under the Sea.  That was impressive.  A live actress, some puppets, and some computer generated video all interacted with each other.  Impressive.

We also did some kind of Star Wars ride where the theater style seats moved all over the place in response to action taking place on the 3D movie.  That one was lots of fun.  Zak and Caleb built their own light sabre after we made our way back to earth. 

The Hollywood Tower Hotel of Terror was the best ride of the day.  Up and down and around while in a totally darkened hotel elevator.  Pretty scary stuff.  I took my Galveston Fire and Rescue chaplain cap off and sat on it so I wouldn’t lose it.  Little did I know that we would be spending most of the ride actually out of our seat, straining against the seatbelt as we plummeted to the ground and back up again.  The elevator somehow grabbed my cap and devoured it without a trace.  The staff promised to search for it, but I have little hope.  I suppose we are now immortalized in cobwebs for eternity. 

The Beauty and the Beast live musical was fun to watch.  It was like watching one of those Little Golden Books come to life, only with singing.  I stayed awake through almost the entire presentation. 

The Indiana Jones stunt show was interesting.  Not just the stunts, but the whole explanation of what goes on behind the scenes was fascinating. 

I decided to go ahead and get a new hat.  The sun has been treacherous here, and even with sunglasses on, I needed a hat to help block some of it.  I finally settled on the only one I could find with Goofy on it.  He’s not the only character portrayed, but at least he’s there.  And speaking of Goofy, we finally found him.  In fact, I got to have my picture taken with him.  Someone who will remain nameless made a crack about now there being two Goofy’s in the park.  I don’t know why Diane Huntley would talk about Chris that way, do you?

Generally speaking, this park was much less stressful, even with the cap-eating hotel elevator monster.  It was much smaller, so there were fewer people.  It was kind of like the difference between WalMart and Randalls.  With this fast track stuff and the benefits I got from walking with a cane, we really saved a lot of time.  What will tomorrow bring?  More Mickey-ness, I suppose.

Romans 5:17 says, “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.”

Father, thank you for dream culminations and Goofy-ness.  Amen.