Pam & Amy share the Osborne Family Light Show at Disney's Hollywood Studios.
So.....as the sign says.....
Here are Pam and Amy just before the Pirates ride. It was a fun ride with the theme from the Captain Jack movies carrying through the displays. The animatronics in Disney is just amazing.....the Pirates ride is one of the best to see that in action.
We also rode through the Haunted Mansion....a really fun ride....Space Mountain, the in-the-dark roller coaster ride that throws you side to side as you zip up, down and around in the DARK! Yes, Pam did that one too.....but I have to say, it is probably the last time I ride it....not much fun being jostled around to that extent. It took over an hour before I felt everything in my body was back in its proper place!!
Other rides we enjoyed were Soarin'....a glide over the many scenic highlights of California (much like an interactive IMAX movie); Star Tours, a wild and fast simulated ride in the vein of Star Wars....and Amy and I did Fast Track.....where you design your own fast automobile and then take it for a ride on the test track....we got up to 63 MPH (but it felt like 100mph!!). We took the Safari Ride through the Animal Kingdom Park, the ride through the ages in the Epcot Globe....and the Land ride also in Epcot.
We stayed in our wonderful motorhome in Disney's 900+ site Fort Wilderness Campground. It was tight getting our 45 footer parked in its site, but once there we thoroughly enjoyed the place.....Ali enjoyed the nearby dog park also!!
Many of the campers went all out when it came to Christmas decorations at their campsite....others (like us) showed the spirit of the season in a more modest fashion....and the "bah humbugs" didn't put up so much as a wreath or a string of lights or hang a red ribbon. We drove around about half the 20+ circular "pods" of campsites and were "wowed" by many of the displays.
Each day we either took the boat across the lake to the Magic Kingdom or one of the many buses Disney has to transport folks like us all over the place! At the beginning of each day we would take the Outpost Yellow bus to the campground's offices....and from their one of the many buses to Epcot, the Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios. At the end of each Disney day....and more than once it was later in the PM....we would take the Fort Wilderness bus back from the park to the campground and then get on the Settlement Yellow bus to get a ride back to the 500 block of campgrounds, whereupon we would walk back to site 522 and be greeted by Ali who invariably had slept a good portion of the day away.
Here we are welcomed to the Magic Kingdom by Cinderella's Castle....as well as several hundred other folks!! Disney can be crowded, but I think we chose a very good time to visit as it was prior to when kids begin school vacations. It seemed crowded to me and you always had to "dodge" the hundreds of strollers being pushed by harried parents, but it could have been much more crowded than it was (and my definition of 'crowded' is colored by the fact I simply don't like crowds).
As mentioned, Disney goes all out for the Christmas Season when it comes to decorations. To the left is just one of the many trees Disney puts up for the season.....this one is at the entrance to Animal Kingdom.
> 1500 trees are used for decoration around the Walt Disney World (WDW) properties;
> 8 million lights are used in the 4 parks during Christmas Season.
> 15 miles of garland and 300,000 yards of ribbon are used throughout WDW at this time of year.
> All in all 150 semi trailer truckloads of decorations are used to adorn the WDW parks during the season.
Aside from the many rides we enjoyed in the park, we also had great fun at a Biergarten Buffet in the Germany Pavilion at Epcot. It was all you can eat.....so not only was the food scrumptious....we got "our money's worth" too! ha ha. We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas concert one night in Epcot...it involved the Disney orchestra, over 400 choir members and readings by celebrity Sigourney Weaver. It was a top drawer experience. After the concert we stayed to watch the nightly Illumination Show at Epcot with dancing lights and lots of fireworks set to music. And to top it all off we experienced the "Osborne Lights" at Hollywood Studios (you can google Osborne lights to get some background) which were simply fantastic and put even the most curmudgeonly among us into the Christmas Spirit!!
Here are a few PM photos of the Osborne Family Lights...........
At dusk this light comes on.....a few minutes later the show really begins!
The lights you see are also designed so they "dance" to the music.
This one Pam took with her phone under the Canopy of Lights with the buildings all lit up in the background (yes, that is yours truly in the blue shirt and the Tilley hat).
Here we are enjoying the light show.
Disney memories will stay with us....it is an unforgettable experience. Kudos to Mr. Walt whose vision, determination, risk taking and just plain hard work made it all happen....and with a mouse named Mortimer, until his wife suggested to him that Mickey might be a better name....imagine that!
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