Full Map & Guide for Villains Unleashed Event

Here is the full guide to tonight's Villains Unleashed event at Disney's Hollywood Studios. You can see all of the special merchandise, food items, and where each character will be meeting:

Friday Photo Gallery: Before the Sorcerer's Hat

Here's some photos of Disney-MGM Studios in its early days, before that dreaded Sorcerer's Hat was plopped down blocking an amazing sight. You're welcome.

DHS Update: Closing Date for American Idol Experience

Photo by Brandon Glover

The American Idol Experience at Disney's Hollywood Studios will be closing on August 30th, 2014. There is no word for a replacement at the moment. American Idol will be added to a short list of extinct attractions at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We say goodbye to yet another form of live entertainment in the park.

Attractions Rankings: #17 to #11

#17 - The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow

Do I really need to explain? This attraction is just there. It MIGHT be entertaining the first time.

#16 - Studio Backlot Tour

Now we all know what kind of shape this Backlot Tour is in. At this point we know exactly what is going to happen in every portion of this attraction. Because of the footprint alone, 

#15 - Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show

I'm going to be blunt, I haven't seen this show since 2007. So yeah.

#14 - American Idol Experience

I'm sure this attraction was never popular. By the end of the year it is expected to be officially closing.

#13 - The Magic of Disney Animation

I put the Animation tour here because it's so shallow compared to what it used to be. It could be such a great attraction because of how big animation means to the Walt Disney Company, but unfortunately they cut down everything in Disney's Hollywood Studios including this. It's still fun to jump inside once in a while when it's raining.

#12 - Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure

I have never personally been inside but it looks very well themed and a fun way for kids to burn steam.

#11 - Disney Junior - Live on Stage!

When I saw Playhouse Disney as a kid with Stanley, Bear in the Big Blue House, and Rolie Polie Olie I loved it! Any stage show with puppetry gets a big bump.

Next time, numbers 10 - 6. Also go to flickr.com/brandglover and wdwlive.com because I used some of their photos!

Favorite Star Wars Weekends Posters

My favorite part of Star Wars Weekends for someone who has never been is definitely the posters. Okay, maybe the posters are second to pieces of merchandise like the Han Solo in carbonite Vinylmation. Regardless, here are a few of my favorite Star Wars Weekend Posters from over the years. I'm not sure exactly which years they're from, but they have been on point for some time.

I love this one. Grievous with the spinny light-up R2D2s is the best.

This is my favorite. Devious R2 causing the elevator to drop.

May 2014 Photo Album: Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

Here are photos I took on my last trip of RnRC. I'm going to make monthly photo albums from DHS from this month on.

Worst Counter Service Restaurant on Walt Disney World Property

Pizza Planet. Now, when most of you think of a bad quick service restaurant, you think of Electric Umbrella. You should, it is pretty bad. But not as bad as Pizza Planet. Why? At Electric Umbrella you have a selection. Not a great selection, but you have more than three options. At Pizza Planet you have, well... pizza. And salad. And a meatball sub. 

You would think a restaurant that has "Pizza" in the name and charges $10 for each individual pizza would make the pizza edible, right? WRONG. With these pizzas, you get 1/3 sauce, cheese, and toppings, and 2/3 crust/dough. The sauce is molten lava after you receive your pizza. IT IS $10! It may fill you in one sitting, but the quality is awful. Worse than Louie's at Universal. So the quality and price of the food is one quality of being the worst quick service restaurant on property. 

Another quality is the atmosphere. Going inside of this place, all of my energy is immediately drained. Tons of arcade games with no one playing them. There are more arcade games in there than tables for people to eat at. Eating at Pizza Planet is a horrible experience, when it really shouldn't be. I remember as a kid watching Toy Story and seeing Woody walk up to Pizza Planet. This is nothing like how I would have imagined it. Maybe like the mural in the photo above, but not like this. I'll leave you with this:

#TBT

One more observation: NONE of the arcade claw machines have Disney characters in them, which is ridiculous.

A Few Charming Features of Disney's Hollywood Studios

These are some things at the park that I like to look at and appreciate. They are small pieces of scenery that makes the feeling of being in Hollywood more genuine.

First, I have the fountain near the tip board on Hollywood Blvd. I just love looking at it as I walk by and sitting by it at night. I wish there weren't as many oblivious dumba**es going to these parks sticking their sweaty feet inside the fountains, that just ain't right.

Next, we have the Academy of Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame. This is just a cool little area to look at busts of legendary television personalities and producers. You can also find a bust of Walt Disney there and takez a selfie with him.

Now we have a thing that may scare the F$%# out of you if you are standing next to it and aren't paying attention. No, I'm not talking about the Sorcerer's Hat. The traffic lights on Hollywood and Sunset Blvd. make the streets just that much more lively.

Jeff Krause on Flickr

That's all I got for now! Definitely will make more posts like this in the future. I use photos from WDWLive.com in this article, please visit their website for great Walt Disney World backgrounds for computers and smart phones.

Nostalgic for What?

Here I'll take a little sidestep from the Hollywood Studios posts, but this one involves all four parks. A lot of Disney fans I'm friends with are nostalgic for a lot of little things that were a part of their Disney experience from when they were kids. That could be anything from an entire attraction to a character to something as small as a park feature like a bridge. This thing that I'm nostalgic for may seem a little weird, because I haven't really heard people talk about it at all. I have heard people said they liked the old monorail spiel by Jack Wagner, but nothing about the Disney Transport BUSES spiel.

Photo via Jeff Kyle on Flickr

That's right. It may be the ONLY thing I like about the Walt Disney Bus System, but it is the thing that gets me most excited for a day at the park, water park, or evening at Downtown Disney. The voice-over on the WDW Buses have been a part of every Disney vacation I have taken, nothing else gets me more excited before I enter the turnstiles. I don't know what it is but something about it gives me a unique feeling. It is the build up of excitement, the narration of things to do in the park, and the music that plays as soon as you arrive. All of that gives me the energy and excitement to have a fun time. If you need an example here's one below:

Why DHS is My Favorite Nighttime Park at Walt Disney World

DHS is the best park to be in at night. It's almost like the park was created to be at its best at night. It's the least crowded park on property, especially during evening EMH. Most of the crowd is spending their time watching Fantasmic!, which leaves almost no wait for Toy Story Midway Mania, ToT, and RnRC.

The Tower of Terror may be the best ride on property to do at night.

Low crowds and low wait times make for a very relaxing evening, even if you do the Tower of Terror 13 times in a row. The nighttime atmosphere on Sunset and Hollywood Blvd. is unique and can't be beat. In the other parts of the park however, it's pretty dark and deserted. Save maybe Echo Lake, because I like to see if I can see every combination of destinations in Star Tours, but when it's not during the holidays, it feels like you may actually get mugged in the Streets of America.

Now here's where I say that I've never been to DHS during the night of a special event (May the 4th, Unleash the Villains, etc.) so I've never really had a problem with parking or transportation. Another reason for that is the fact that I usually stay at the BoardWalk and walk back to my room at the end of the night. Anyway, that's why I LOVE Disney's Hollywood Studios at night.

Throwback Thursday - 3/6/14

On this TBT I'm sharing a picture of a huge frog named Kermit from one of the best Disney parades ever:

Will be sharing more from Stars & Motorcars in the future!

Throwback Thursday

Flashing back to 2005 with the Toy Story Meet 'n' Greet back in the Streets of America. This is now the Phineas & Ferb MnG:

Random Thought Dump No.1

So this is the first post on the entire blog. Exciting moment. I decided to start a blog about Disney's Hollywood Studios. Why? Well, it is my favorite Disney Park. I love the atmosphere, the performers, the attractions, shows, and just the all-around feeling. Being in DHS gives me a different emotion. It's the only park that when I'm there, I'm not worrying about the people around me and what they're doing, I'm not worried about how long I've been waiting for something. When I'm in DHS, everything else is blocked off. I enjoy every part of it. Hopefully that makes sense. Maybe I'm just rambling.

Someday, hopefully, this blog will become popular enough to become a podcast. I want my knowledge about the history of this park to grow as I go along. I'll get into more about me later. For now, I have to start thinking about things that make this my favorite Disney Park.