Let There Be (Christmas) Light(s)

Ain't no party like a Disney park party 'cause a Disney park party don't STOP.

Seriously.  You should see these dudes' Christmas lights display.  It's ridiculous.  Our family has always been big on shiny, sparkly things, so any excuse to fest up the usual and mundane in multi-colored awesomeness, we're 100% down with it.  Taking this into consideration, the Voigts invited out to Hollywood Studios this evening to check out the park's humble Christmas lights (and of course, being Disney, it did not disappoint.)

Here's a snippet of the day. . .

In case you were curious, we parked at the farthest corner of the parking lot from the front entrance.  I'm actually not exaggerating, here.

Kris is happy (and you can see the Voigts in the background, there.)

Not big fans of the tram.

Nothing quite says 'Christmas' like palm trees and blinding sunlight. . .

Welcome to chaos and crowds. . .

We had to pick up a double stroller for the girls, as we had gifted our double stroller to the Voigts earler in the year (we never use it with the girls anymore) and the parks tend to wear the kids out.  

Thank GOD Adam - who, as you'll remember, works for the Mouse - could hook us up with a free rental. . . a double stroller rental at a Disney theme park these days will set you back THIRTY ONE DOLLARS.

Obviously, you can see from this picture here why this particular stroller would cost you $31.  Right, guys?

I'm a product of the public education system.  F*** off.

'Til the season.

Kris was a big fan of this stroller.

STAR TOURS

Adam and I really wanted to check out this ride before checking out the park's Christmas lights, and so I asked the girls if they wanted to do it as well.  Both of them did (surprisingly enough), but we had to double-check and make sure they were tall enough to ride the simulator (seeing how we weren't actually blasting off into space.)  The Cannonball made it.

. . . and even Abby squeaked by (sorry, Jackson.)

A lone AT-AT prepares to unleash hell upon tourists and palm trees.

Waiting in line inside Star Tours (Alayna begged me to take a picture of the franchise's favorite droid duo.)  Abby ended up getting spooked out while in line, and Kris had to take her outside, leaving only Yours Truly, Adam and the Cannonball to move forward through the queue.

R2-D2 is Alayna's favorite Star Wars character.  I'm cool with this. . . at least it's not someone obnoxious/shitty from the prequels.

Back outside after the ride.  They changed up Star Tours a few years back so that now your simulator goes through two random sequences per ride (usually planets or scenes from one of the six existing movies.)  Every time you go on the ride, the two selected sequences chosen at random for the ride are different.  I've gone on this ride several times, so I've cycled through most of them.  Tonight we hit up Kasheek (sp?) first, then the Republic vs. Trade Federation naval battle over Coruscant (again, sp?) from Ep. III.  Not my favorites, but Alayna really liked it.

We were ready to eat after getting off of Star Tours, so once we reunited with the rest of the crew, we all set off for cafeteria/restaurant/dining pavilion near the old Honey, I Shrunk the Kids attraction (why that feature is still in the park, I have no idea.)  Anyway, to get there, we had to brave our way through a horde of tourists, packed in like a can of sardines.  They were apparently waiting around for the lights to turn on.  No big deal, right?  Well, the lights don't just pop on for a few minutes, folks - they're on for HOURS.  Seriously.  Why stand around - or sit on the ground, like a bunch of idiot tourists did - in the middle of the bottle-necked thoroughfare - in order to watch some lights 'TURN ON'?!  Goddamn it do I hate tourists. . .

Women and children table. . . of which I wanted no part.

Beer and dude table.  Much more pleasant.

Business as usual.

Stroller jockeys.

Coincidentally, the $31 Double Stroller was the night's biggest attraction.   Who knew.

The Christmas Lights, turned on.  

The crowd thinned out substantially after the lights came on, oddly enough.  I guess people really enjoy the gradual process of unlit lights turning ON. . . 'cause, as we all know from Science Class, the speed of light is very, very SLOW.

They even had some fake snow falling from the sky. Not in 'Celebration, FL' levels, of course, but the kids still pranced around like idiots as it fell and liquefied in their hair.

The Houghs, ca. 2014.  Big fans of Christmas Lights.

More lights.

. . . and more lights.

. . . and even more lights (and some random dude in a blue shirt who is now immortalized on this obscure blog.)

Classy pictures with the girls. . .

 

The Voigts had to leave after awhile, seeing how their son is somewhat young still and has to go down at a reasonable hour.  We don't really care about ours anymore, so we tried getting the girls to go on the Muppets 4D ride next.  As we prepared to move into the 3-D theater, however, Abby once again had a melt-down, and I volunteered to take her outside while Kris and the Cannonball sat in for a show featuring one of my favorite franchises.  I spent the duration of the ride's length walking around trying to find Abby a nearby bathroom.  You can imagine who had more fun.

After the girls got out of the Muppets show, we decided to call it a night (the girls were on the verge of falling asleep in their stroller) and head home.  Here's the same tree on the way out of the park. . . sans the obnoxious, tropical sunlight.  (FYI - I really hope that picture this lady to the left is taking is everything she hopes it to be.)

Waiting for the tram to take us back to the far reaches of the parking lot.

. . .Aaaand then we came home.  And let the dog out.  The End.

- Brian