A visit with Mike and Sully.
The meet and greet with the Monsters Inc. guys was so well planed. There was a door with the logo that would open and the characters would be there and there was a roped line with instructions posted on the M&G. AND a CM dedicated to keeping everyone informed. There was no chaos, no screaming kids or parents shoving their kids in front of you. It was a nice thing to see. Plus the "Mike" was just a total schmuck. After the picture, he walked away and started pushing around the cameraman.
By now, I was hungry and it was time for my lunch reservation at the Sci Fi Diner! I was surprised the outside was just a simple "sound stage" but I guess it was in keeping with the studio theme. I was seated in the backseat of a car and the atmosphere of the restaurant was wonderful. Big screen showing trailers and short subjects. They even had a section from one of the Walt Disney episodes featuring the Aliens that live among us cartoon. I just had the typical Cheeseburger, which was good and ended with a Sundae. It was very "diner."
Alone in the back seat again!!
After, I went on The Great Movie Ride again, and caught some video of the Wizard of Oz segment. Naturally, not my favorite film at all, but it was the best scene in this ride. Plus I had heard that the Wicked Witch was one of the best AA’s around.
This is a link to the video.
Next was Tower of Terror, using my fastpass and then got another fastpass for Rockin Rollarcoaster! The Beauty and the Beast stage show was up next and I was a bit weary because of the previous trip to the Studio to see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid, which was disappointing. This show was terrible. I got in to the Theater and found a pretty good seat down front about 10 rows back from the stage on the end. A great view. Although it was nice to see the walk about characters and the dancing and music, this was barely a clif-notes version of the film. The major big scene of the film, the ballroom scene isn’t in the show at all and the rest were just very brief songs, with Be Our Guest being the big number, which wasn’t very "big" at all. Now I’m not stage/ Theater critic, but with the Aladdin show at DCA and even the really terrible Snow White show at DL, this was total garbage. Yes, there’s only so much time, its aimed at kids etc. I was just floored at how bad this was.
The Animation Courtyard area with the Magic of Animation was next. I understand in its glory days, this was the heart of the park and I could tell that its just been glossed over with some props, a store, some drawing and some character M&G. I can imagine it was really wonderful at one time and it’s all to sad to not be able to ever see that.
Rats in the Animation Building!
The Light’s, Motor Action stunt show was next. Wholly Cow was this a humongous outdoor venue. The view stands was like something you’d see at a real raceway and I got to walk all the way up to almost the top of the venue. The show was neat but nothing more than what you’d expect from a stunt show. Lots of dead time where they set things up and they have "directors" explaining what they’re doing. Plus there’s a big screen so you can see things fairly up close and they go into some detail about the cars they use. That was pretty fascinating.
Out come’s Herbie who splits after a bit.
They set a guy on fire!
It was a fun show and the finale was full of explosions and cars flying everywhere. It was quite a spectacle.
After waiting to exit and seeing everyone spilling out into the park from the stunt show, I made my way to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Coaster - which broke down just as I was next to get onto the ride. There was a lot of running around by the CM’s and some people in suits ordering them around. They cleared the ride and gave everyone passes to come back to the ride when it was "fixed." I was pretty disappointed that I didn’t get to ride it again, as the day wore on, I had to meet the group for the Fantasmic buffet and show. I had some time to take some pictures before the meet up.
Coming soon to DCA! I wondered if anyone knew what this place was?
The group met for the Fantasmic Buffet and we were taken backstage by our own personal CM (With lightsabre flashlight) to the private viewing area in the back of the Theater. We entered back behind Tower of Terror - "No pictures please" we were told - so it was interesting to see the back area I guess. Nothing too amazing.
The "Private" area was just a platform behind a railing that sat right next to the control booth. It was just high enough to see over the heads of the people sitting in the stands. The food was a pretty nice spread with Chicken and Beef skewers, Sesame Chicken, various cheese and bread, fruit and sodas. The show started and we all lined the railing. Now, I’d see the show on YouTube so I knew what to expect. There are things I really liked about it, but for the most part the Disneyland version is superior in many ways. The layout of the stage was awesome, I like having the Sorcerer Mickey on top of the rock and I loved the water fountains. The Aladdin and Lion King scenes were nice - especially the animals of the Lion King. On the bad side, Pochahantas goes on forever - the bubbles go on forever - the Peter Pan segment is sorrily missed and is the spectacular Mark Twain ending. I do understand the cartoony boat at the end and it has some impact on the show, but it reminded me of a milk carton floating downstream.
My one good picture of the show.
Still, it had most of the heart of what I love about Fantasmic and that got me thru it.
The park was closed now and I limped my way back to the hotel thanks to a ride from Rixter and MickeyMax. My feet were raw by now and I still had a whole day at EPCOT and the evenings event at Pleasure Island!
To be continued...
Next - Pleasure Island, Mannequin Dance Club and the Adventurers Club!