Tag Archives: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Disney Dining – The Writer’s Stop

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The Writer’s Stop at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

 By: Nick (This article originally appeared on the Disney Musings blog.)

Back in a quiet corner of Disney’s Hollywood Studios is one of our favorite spots in all of Walt Disney World.

The Writer’s Stop is located next to the Sci-Fi Dine In Theater Restaurant.

Doing some research, I’ve discovered that this was originally built to resemble the set of the  bookstore in Ellen DeGeneres’ sitcom Ellen, which was named “Buy the Book,” which is why you will find many items, such as the ceiling lights, that convey a TV set atmosphere.

The Writer’s Stop is a small bookstore, cafe, and gift shop all in one.

You’ll find many of the prepackaged goodies you can find at many other gift stores throughout Disney property here.

In the center of the store you’ll find comfy seats, a television playing Disney related programs, Disney themed games, a good selection of DVDs, Blu-rays, and books.

The book selection is pretty terrific; appealing to a wide audience, representing many of the Disney owned properties and assorted attractions, such as The Twilight Zone, that you’ll find at the Studios, as well as books about Walt Disney, Disney art, and children’s books.

Proceeding to the back, you’ll find an even more eclectic book selection, including best sellers and biographies, among others. You’ll also find tables and and more seating.

This cozy area is also where you’ll find kitchen items displayed beautifully: mugs and tea and biscuits that you’ll find at other stores as well.

They also offer a wide selection of drinks, including coffees, teas, espresso, cappuccinos, waters, juices and sodas.

Lastly, but certainly not least, are the bakery items, such as bagels, muffins, pastries and cookies, including one of my favorite snacks in the World, the Carrot Cake Cookie.

As far as I’m aware, The Writer’s Stop is the only place on Disney property to get the Carrot Cake Cookie.

It’s approximately the size of my head, but I have NO trouble finishing it off myself, but you may want to share it with a friend or 3!

Have you tried the Carrot Cake Cookie at the Writer’s Stop?

Walt Disney World Mid-Vacation Check-in

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Cinderella Castle at NightWith just a couple of days left to enjoy this week at Walt Disney World, I thought I’d post a quick update about how it’s been going…

What a GREAT time we’re having!  Everyday has been packed with fun – even though, by our usual vacation standards, we’ve been really taking it easy and going with the flow.  We’re trying a lot of things for the first time and revisiting some old favorites.  Mostly, we’ve been staying in the moment, stopping to smell the roses, so to speak.  This is what has certainly made our first trip as a couple in 25 years extremely special!

Here are 5 things that we’ve learned so far:

1. Animal Kingdom is experiencing some major growing pains and construction walls are Dawa Bareverywhere.  Even so, we had a wonderful afternoon there on Saturday – saw some amazing things even – like BOTH of the new baby gorillas and a cast member feeding the Meerkats by hand.  We enjoyed Kilimanjaro Safari in the late afternoon nearly as much as we usually do first thing in the morning.  We also spent a delightful and relaxing few minutes enjoying a cocktail at the Dawa Bar.

2. The road from Jambo House to Kidani Village is paved with….lizards.  We counted 31 along and on the walkway on our way to Sanaa.  Every great thing we’ve heard about Sanaa was true!  We had a great dinner and the bread service?  Just amazing!!!

Path from Jambo House to Kidani Village3. Excitement is in the air at the Studios.  You can feel changes coming and while it’ll be a little sad to see original attractions make way for new ones, the park needs some TLC and we will welcome the changes with open arms.  We saw the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular just in case it’s next on the chopping block and you know what?  I loved it as much as I did the first time I ever saw it.

4. Citrico’s (table service, Grand Floridian) has got to be one of the most underrated dining experiences on Disney property.  Everything from the atmosphere to the service to the fantastic food was perfect.  We can’t wait to go back.

5. The Food and Wine Festival at Epcot is a big bunch of fun.  We made friends everywhere we stopped.  We haven’t disliked a single thing we’ve tried so far and I can’t wait to rank everything when we’re finished.  Brazil’s Crispy Pork Belly – To. Die. For.  We started off sharing everything we tried, but by the time we reached the Brazil kiosk, we knew better than to try to share that porcine delicacy!  You don’t stayed married for 25 years without perfecting certain strategies.  We strongly recommend at least one serving per person to keep the peace.

Well…I hate to cut this short, but our ADR at California Grill is in about 40 minutes and that’s barely enough time for me to get gussied up a bit.  I’ll be back home in a few days with reviews, tips and tricks, loads of pictures, and much more about our trip.  I’ll leave you with this picture of me…well, technically not me, but certainly how I felt I must have looked after our first afternoon in World Showcase sampling all the tasty offerings at the Food & Wine Festival.  If most of the pictures in this post appear sideways to you, my sincerest apologies – taken with my new iPhone 6, I’m having a super hard time getting them to appear correctly.  I’ll be working on that!

Country Bear Portrait

 

 

Disney World Attractions I Could Live Without

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Inside MaelstromI’m about to say some painful things.  I’m going to make statements you won’t agree with – that’s okay!  We can agree to disagree and still be friends.  In fact, I would LOVE for you to weigh in on this particular issue either with a comment here or on Facebook or Twitter.  This is what’s so great about Walt Disney World (and the Disney fan community) – everyone enjoys the Disney parks in their own way and for different reasons!

I started thinking about Maelstrom, The Studio Backlot Tour, The American Idol Experience and the swirling rumors about what attractions may be next on the chopping block.  I thought – HEY!  There are plenty of rides I could happily live without – sacrifices I’d be gladly willing to make to the gods of change.  In return, I’d want my most beloved attractions to remain untouched, but I’ll save that list for another day.  If the Disney Company needs to free up some real estate for new and exciting innovations, I’d be happy to help with…

Disney World Attractions I Could Live Without!Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland

1.  Stitch’s Great Escape (Tomorrowland, Magic Kingdom) – Sure, I put the most obvious choice first.  I figure most of you will agree with this one and I can ease you into the rest of the list.  I’m a pretty hearty girl and I actually almost threw up once in this “experience” when I was hit with the chilidog belch.  It was touch and go there for a few minutes.  Guests are exceptionally well-restrained for the duration and I’m pretty sure that ‘s what saved me – I liked my outfit a lot that day and jerked myself back from the edge by concentrating on what the loss of my lunch would to do my cute ensemble.  I hear that Disney’s since removed that part of the attraction, but I still don’t care.  I was traumatized and have been unable to bring myself to ever visit Stitch again.  12 minutes of my life I can never get back!  I don’t even have a picture of this attraction to show you which speaks volumes about my feelings – I pretty much have a picture of everything.

2.  Magic Carpets of Aladdin – What the heck is this thing doing smack in the middle of Adventureland?  We’ve got double Dumbo’s now in Magic Kingdom and we don’t need the rugs, spitting camels, or garish color scheme tacky-ing up the beloved home of the Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean.  Fly away Carpets, fly away!

Mission: SPACE3. Mission: SPACE (Future World, Epcot) – I know!  The queue is cool, but if you don’t have the right stuff, why bother.  If you’ve got to ride the Green, don’t waste your time.  If you’re going for the Orange Team, you’d better have some strong constitution.  I rode the Orange (before the Green version was invented) and lived to tell about it.  Now I can look back fondly – which actually, if they’d go on and close this thing, I could blow up into an even bigger deal.  A fish story for the future grandkids.  This one begs to be a nostalgic story full of bragging and exaggeration!  No matter what happens to it, a memory will remain all it is for me since I’m not planning to ever ride it again.

4. Dinosaur – I ride it, I like it, I can live without it.  It’s just meh.  I’m not thrilled by it.  I don’t Dinosaur Ride Photothink the dinosaurs are a great representation of Disney Imagineering’s best work.  It is ever so much better since they turned down the volume and toned down the jerkiness of the ride.  I would not shed a single tear if this attraction moved on to make room for something (anything!) more spectacular.

5.  Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show – I didn’t just dislike this experience.  I loathed it.  I thought it was boring.  I think I wanted to see more people and fewer vehicles.  Some of the stunts were…interesting, but the attraction takes up valuable property in the Studios that could be put to much better use.  I haven’t seen the show since Mater and the Cars’ stars joined the fun…not sure even they could make me like it.

Here’s what you should do…for every one on my list you don’t agree with, offer up an attraction to take its place on the pretend chopping block.  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

 

 

The Rumors Swirling around Disney’s Hollywood Studios

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Darth Vader on Star Wars Weekend PosterI love a good Disney rumor, don’t you?  Some juicy tidbit of really-true, might-happen, or totally-fabricated gossip is FUN to think about – imagine if it actually happened!  I love to mentally weigh in on the possibilities –  Am I okay with it?  Horrified by the very idea!  Or jumping up and down with anticipation.  One of my favorite places to hear about all the possible happenings at Walt Disney World is on a podcast called “The Unofficial Guide’s Disney Dish with Jim Hill“.  Unlike all the other Disney podcasts I’m addicted to, the Disney Dish with Jim Hill doesn’t come out on a regular schedule.  An episode might come out once or twice a month…then skip a month….then magically reappear.

While I’ve been hearing a LOT of bits and pieces of what may or may not happen at Disney’s Hollywood Studios with Star Wars, ride closures, attraction removals, updates, refurbs, and so on.  One of the last Disney Dish episodes really made me sit up and take notice – it was “Episode 62: Disney World’s Next Five Years”.  Keeping in mind that it’s all “unofficial” – there was a lot to chew on in that 73 minutes of commentary.  Basically, the discussion is basedSorcerer's Hat on what may potentially happen at Disney World now that Universal has really upped their game.  Much of the discussion focused on Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

So – based on the information I gleaned from Mr. Hill’s revelations, there are some major changes headed to the studios while some long discussed rumors appear to be just that – rumors – and will not become reality.

Here are the one’s I was most interested in (listen to the show for all the rest of the details):

The Sorcerer’s Hat – Source of much debate between the hat lovers and haters, the big blue centerpiece of the Studios has long been rumored to be on the way out.  Seems like it’s actually staying.  I understand its purpose – a place to draw crowds away from other areas of the park, a centrally located performance venue, etc.  And if you believe the other rumors about the hat’s original purpose – it was put there to actually HIDE the Chinese Theater due to legal issues with Disney’s use of a replica of the California original.  I’m not necessarily offended by the hat – I would LOVE DHS Imperial Speeder, Jasonto see an updated version though.  It’s so 2001 – cartoonish and hardly designed to fit in with any of the existing park theme.  I imagine that its removal would be a bit of a headache considering it reportedly weighs 156 tons.

Star Wars Land is a GO – And I am ecstatic!  I’m not much of a Star Wars geek, but I appreciate the broad spectrum of potential, the plethora of possibilities, if you will.  Now, this exciting news means big changes to the landscape of Disney’s Hollywood Studios – Echo Lake will be no more allowing the new land to begin much closer to the park entrance than the Star Wars area is now.  Think about it though!  All those lands, worlds, creatures, vehicles, andWookie in Star Wars Parade characters that are wonderfully amazing and unique!  This is what Disney Imagineers do best and I can’t wait to see how they transform elements from the Force (and the Dark side) into rides, attractions, restaurants, and shops.  The epic battle between good and evil…in the Studios!  Wookies and Ewoks and Sand People, oh my!

Indiana Jones may STAY – Can you believe it?  I braced myself to tell Indy so long and I may not have to! (See that blog post here)  Personally, I’m confident that Indy’s presence in the Studios will be updated.  Disney’s ownership of the Indiana Jones franchise opens the door to a lot of possibility…it would be a shame to waste it.

The Great Movie Ride is on its way OUT – Take a deep breath and think about it for a minute.  The Great Movie RideIt’ll be okay!  Original to the park, this 25 year old tour through classic movie genres was fun and edgy in the beginning.  Over the years though, no updates were made, no new movies were added, no new scripting for those poor Cast Members was written, things that stopped working correctly weren’t repaired (just adjusted to try to hide the problems).  Have you been on this ride lately?  Tarzan makes me feel embarrassed – he’s just awful.  The good news, though, is that according to Mr. Hill, the ride won’t be leaving anytime soon, so you can go and say a proper farewell.  My favorite part has always been the final scene from Casablanca.  What’s yours?

Still hungry for more scoop?  Check out The Unofficial Guide’s Disney Dish with Jim Hill!Star Wars Weeekend's Parade  Download from iTunes or Stitcher.  Every episode is interesting.  Most recently (#63), the discussion was based on the history and future of DVC with information about plans that never happened and what DVC options may be available in the years ahead.

How do you feel about the possible changes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios?  What would you be most excited about?  Would you be disappointed by any of the proposed changes?