October 2011 Disney World Trip Report, Pt VI
Why we walked to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in that heat, rather than taking a Friendship Boat, was beyond me. Actually, I think it was my idea to walk, but never-the-less, it was a bad one.
The few decent photos I got as we walked didn’t justify walking in the still-hot weather, but at least it was beginning to get cooler. Within an hour of arriving at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the weather would be nice and mild, and actually a bit cool. It would never again get hot during our trip, so that’s the last you’ll read of me complaining about the heat. Quite a relief, right?
When we got to DHS, we headed directly to Great Movie Ride. As I mentioned in the last installment, we had done very few attractions that day, so Great Movie Ride, an attraction near the entrance that normally didn’t have long waits, seemed like a great option.
I was pleased to see that our Cast Member host (or whatever the position is called) was actually enthusiastic and wasn’t phoning it in. This made the first portion of the attraction quite enjoyable.
The gangster scene was less impressive. My first complain, the Cast Member host during this scene always goes to the same spot in the scene and simply stands there without taking any sort of cover. This spot happens to be right in the line of fire. If this were a real shootout, the Cast Member would be dead in like 3 seconds.
My second complaint, and this might ruffle some feathers, was that the gangster was played by a female. Now I am all for equality, but a female gangster strikes me as unauthentic. It would be like a man playing the part of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (oh wait…), or Mary Poppins being played by a man on Broadway (well, I guess there is Mrs. Doubtfire). Still, my point stands. Historically, gangsters from this period of films were men (I’m sure someone is going to find some obscure film where this was not the case to “prove” me wrong). This is not to say women can’t be gangsters, I’m sure they can. Anyway, that’s my stubborn and possibly antiquated view on that. If I’m not progressive because of that, so be it. Maybe this was more pronounced to me because the female gangster also happened to be a terrible gangster with a thick fake accent.
The rest of Great Movie Ride was excellent. All of the effects were working, including the aliens in the Alien scene, and it was one of our best rides overall.
Next up, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. We had a chance to experience a soft opening of this in May, and we were blown away. It was equally impressive this time, and I’m pretty sure our experience changed substantially. I say “pretty sure” because, and I suppose this might be my one complain about the attraction, it is so fast-paced that if you blink, you might miss an entire scene. On second thought, I don’t think that’s a complaint.
They’ve done a great job cramming a lot of action into a relatively short attraction, and making it feel like a long (distance-wise) tour. The fast-pace is pretty fun. It’s my own fault if I have the memory of an 97 year old and can’t remember what planets I experienced only a few months ago. We didn’t spend a whole lot of time in Disney’s Hollywood Studios this time, so we didn’t get to do a whole lot, but I really wish we would have done this a few more times. It’s not like it had long lines or anything (it was basically a walk-on, which is somewhat disappointing in its own right, as the queue is incredible).
After Star Tours, we decided it would be a good time to eat. We walked back to Studios Catering Company to get dinner. Along the way, Nick told us that it was probably closed, but I didn’t believe him. Turns out, he was right. Nick 1, Tom 0.
Since most of the other Counter Service at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is downright bad, we decided to see if we could get into Sci-Fi Dine-In as a walk-up. Surprisingly, we could! Until a day before the trip I thought we had an ADR for Sci-Fi. Unfortunately, it turned out that I made the ADR for the end of August, rather than the end of September. Something told me that, although you can show up 30 minutes late to your reservation, you couldn’t show up 30 days late. The sunset was shaping up to be very nice, so I asked Nick and Sarah if we could come back and eat there in like 45 minutes. They reluctantly agreed.
In the meantime, we stopped at the ABC Commissary to get water, and then headed off towards Hollywood and Sunset. As we passed the BAH, it dawned on me that the Hollywood Brown Derby might be an even better option than Sci-Fi. I mentioned it, and they seemed to agree. First, though, we’d go ride Tower of Terror. The wait time was listed as 25 minutes, but we walked right into the library. I don’t think Disney views it this way, but I consider that to be the start of the attraction. That pre-show video is so good and integral to the attraction itself that it’s more like a “show” video. It’s no wonder this attraction is universally loved by everyone and probably the best attraction at Walt Disney World.
While I am really excited to see Tokyo DisneySea’s Tower of Terror, the lack of Twilight Zone story framing it is somewhat disconcerting. I know it can be great even without that, but I am such a huge fan of the Twilight Zone that I don’t know if I can appreciate a version without that element as much. I guess time will tell!
When we exited the Tower of Terror, it was time for my big joke. I thought this joke up in California when we were there in May, but had forgotten to use it during our May Walt Disney World trip. So, I had been sitting on it since then. As we exited, I asked Sarah, “do you want to see the Disneyland Preview Center?” She responded, “they have one of those here?” “Yeah, C’mon, I’ll show you, it’s this way. It’s actually a Disney California Adventure Preview Center.”
As we walked to the “Preview Center” I talked it up, saying it was really cool. Finally, we arrived outside of the Carthay Circle Theatre, and I said, “Ta da!” She didn’t get my joke, so I said, “the Carthay Circle Theatre, like they’re building in Disney California Adventure.” I could tell she was not amused, and didn’t really find the joke funny. That’s probably because it wasn’t. The one (and only) plus about the joke was that neither Sarah, a huge Disney fan, nor Nick, a Cast Member, instantly said, “there is no Disneyland Preview Center in Walt Disney World.” Instead, they both followed me, curious to see the preview. Tom – 1, Nick – 1, Sarah – 0. Although I should lose like 15 points for the lame joke.
At that moment, it came to me. The views of female gangsters, the Star Tours memory thing, and the fact that I not only enjoyed a really corny joke, but that I had sat on and anticipated this corny joke for months. I really was becoming an old man!
I needed some alone time to reflect upon this stunning development, so while Sarah and Nick went to inquire about the Hollywood Brown Derby, I did some shooting. I figured Brown Derby would have a 5-10 minute wait, given that it was a 2-credit Signature Restaurant that wouldn’t appeal to a lot of Guests on the Disney Dining Plan, but that was far from the case. It actually had nearly an hour wait! Instead of waiting an hour, the Cast Member at the check-in desk allowed us to make reservations for forty-five minutes later.
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16 Responses to “October 2011 Disney World Trip Report, Pt VI”
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I was trying to judge by your photos, but it didn’t seem as though folks were as dressed up for the Brown Derby as I thought they would be. Also, I got the impression that its much more of a “Mature Kid” establishment; not for the high-chair set. Did you find that to be true as well
As always, another fantastic post!
I don’t know which I’m looking forward to more- reading a full “Bricker Dining Review” of the Brown Derby the next time you make the trip, or eating there myself!
I was going to go further with this in my A & B thing (part B), but no, no one was dressed up. I think this is partly because it’s in a theme park, but I think it’s more likely because Disney Guests are lazy. Sarah is always well-dressed in the parks since she wears dresses, but all I had on was a polo, shorts, and running shoes, and I was probably more dressed up (by virtue of wearing a collared shirt) than over 50% of the rest of guests. I think that’s marginally acceptable because BD is in a theme park, but that attire would really be pushing it at a resort restaurant. In the real world, at a restaurant as nice as BD, I would have been woefully under-dressed.
As for the lack of kids, I don’t recall seeing many toddlers, but we also ate dinner around 8 pm. There were plenty of kids, and we always see (what I would consider) too many young kids at Signature Restaurants. The only restaurant at Disney where you won’t see kids is Victoria & Albert’s, and that’s because they aren’t allowed there! Heck, we even saw a large number of children at Club 33! I have nothing against kids, parents, and all of that, but I consider it poor form to take kids to fine dining establishments. I don’t see that as me being “prejudiced” against parents with small children (or not “understanding how it is”) simply because I don’t have kids. I think that’s how things should be. I can’t go play in those awesome-looking jungle-gym things at McDonald’s because I’m too old, kids shouldn’t be able to enter fine dining establishments because they’re too young. To me, it’s comparable to a bar or nightclub (except for different reasons). There are some places I simply want to enjoy without kids being around.
I think taking photos of our food in a restaurant like BD was probably poor form, also, and that’s why I made the remark, but we were FAR from the “worst” Guests there. I guess, as the saying goes, “when in Rome…”
Kids in restaurants is always a fickle thing, and everyone has their own opinion on it. We have a 4 year old daughter, but we always try to make sure that the restaurant is appropriate for her age and that we go during a kid-friendly time (between 5-7), or we bring back up and go out on our own. She’s very well behaved at restaurants, but she’s a kid. We hate when we go out to “an adult restaurant” for a date night alone and there are kids running around. We made the mistake of bringing her to Kouzzina this time around- they were wonderful and accommodating, but normally we would not take her to a place of that level.
You could really open up a can of worms if you get too deep into this topic! But, I am in agreement with your stance- a signature restaurant is a special occasion, and should be treated as such
Oh yeah, I definitely could open a can of worms with this topic. That’s the great thing about having complete editorial discretion over this website–I can say anything I want about whatever I want. If that pisses off some people, oh well!
I understand both sides of the coin, here. Disney World is a family friendly place and it’s tough to expect parents to not take their kids a lot of places within WDW. Now, if this were Vegas or NOLA that we’re talking about, it’d be a totally different story…
So glad you finally got to experience The Brown Derby! That Cobb Salad really is like nothing else! And the filet is really good too:) I don’t have a problem with children in the Signature restaurants (as we’ve been taking our son to these types of restaurants since he was in a bucket seat!) but they have to be well behaved. I don’t want to be spending $100+ on a meal to the accompaniment of screaming children…that happened to us at The Yachtsman…we could tell that even our server was getting uncomfortable with how loud this child was…kinda ruins a nice meal:(
I realize I’m not likely to get a response to a year + old post, but here goes: I absolutely cannot stand being in public places (especially expensive ones!) with kids who are acting up, being loud, etc. I am infinitely more understanding with the baby/toddler set, who of course are just acting their age, but I still don’t want to be seated near one in an expensive restaurant. Having said that, we took our three kids (ages 14, 9 and 6) to dinner at Cal Grill last summer. I knew I could count on them to behave appropriately, which they did – once we were seated they stayed seated, no loud voices, etc. Just curious whether that would have bothered you anyway (i.e., their presence, even when behaving appropriately)?
In regards to the Cast Member placement in the gangster scene of the Great Movie Ride, they are supposed to stay in that one spot because a hidden microphone is located there.
Parkeology just had a posting about this:
http://www.parkeology.com/2011/10/gangster-rap.html
So per your comment onTokyo Disney Sea’s Tower of Terror… I just got back form my 6-week trip to Asia which included TDL and even though I enjoyed the parks TDS was a bit of a let down. It was just too adult for me. Plus the ToT was not as fun or scary as the HS one. If you want to read about it check out my site I listed. TDL is on Oct 5-8th
huh… so I guess when you put a site down it does not show it, sorry
http://web.me.com/eljphoto/Ericas_Travel_Site/Welcome.html
Amazing pics and great report as always
In regard to the “female gangster” comment- I’m a chick, and I totally agree with you. During our 2008 trip, we had a (not to be mean, but…) chubby, 50/60ish gangster lady with less than stellar acting skills. It was funny but sad, and it definitely took away from the experience. I get that Disney is trying to be fair and diverse, but they do such a great job casting princesses and other characters, so why skimp here? (Sure, people aren’t taking pictures with them, and little girls don’t wait their whole lives to meet a gangster, but come on… this is Disney!)
I wholeheartedly agree with your praise of the Brown Derby. We ate dinner there this past trip and it was probably the best meal I’ve had at Disney. We split a Cobb and each had a filet. While it was definitely extremely expensive, the food was equal to Shula’s but the experience and price were better. We just enjoyed it more. This was probably in part because we could afford all the extras and drinks compared to the overpriced sides at Shula’s. I would suggest it to anyone looking for an adult dinner without completely breaking the bank.
Hmmmmmm . . . what will I order this evening, the Cobb salad or the can of worms?
These are amazing shots!! The best of WDW I’ve ever seen Seriously. I was wondering if you could recommend a good photography book and easy/ reasonably priced editing software. I bought a good camera (Canon Xs) a few years ago to take pics of my kids and I’m still shooting in automatic. I’m so ready to learn something!
Here is a good place to start: http://www.disneytouristblog.com/photography-camera-reviews-disney/
I love the blue hour photos! I have never heard of this theory before and want to try it out on my little point and shoot. And, as you know from my tweets, I love the buildings on the main street of DHS and these photos capture them beautifully! I also love the crossroads of the world pictures.
Next time I am there, I am going to get my group to go to BRown Derby. Looks so good but could never bring myself to pay for it. You have me sold!
Amazing post!!! The blue hour photos are fantastic! Your trip reports are my favorite to read – I savor them and really feel like I have escaped to WDW while I am reading them. I also enjoy your humor/sarcasm
I was salivating over your Brown Derby Cobb Salad photos – that is my favorite meal in all of Disney, if not the world!