3 Favorite Attractions: Hollywood Studios

Tower of Terror
     It's a classic, it is the new icon for Hollywood Studios, it had better not get turned into a Guardians of the Galaxy ride or I might cry. My DCP was my first opportunity to experience Tower of Terror and like most things, I will never forget my first time. Thankfully I have reached an age where the creepy theme and darkness that comes with the attraction does not effect me as badly as it used to, but its the feeling of falling that will always get me, and that it what ToT is all about. I was anxious and nervous the first time I rode, genuinely hating the feeling of free fall and knowing that each ride is random did not sit too well at first. But it was exhilarating, thrilling and always had me coming back for more. It is unfortunate that with the state Hollywood Studios is in now and was in while I was there, it made/makes the wait times for Tower super long during the day. Therefore I felt like 90% of my rides came early in the morning or toward park close, but I was okay with that. It seemed like if we were there toward park close, we could usually get two rides in back to back because you could walk on. But during the day, you better have a Fastpass.
     But this is another one of those rides that was graced by having a Photopass opportunity that you can bet I took advantage of every single ride. And after knowing the full ride sequence up to the free fall drop all the anxiety and nervousness was gone and this was the most fun attraction to go on. I loved messing around during that lead up sequence, and knowing the drop was random every single time kept me coming back for more.
     Some of my fondest memories happened on Tower of Terror as well, adding to the sentimental meaning this ride has for me. It was one of the rides myself and some of my Port Fam got to go on after we did our backstage tour of Great Movie Ride and took one the best Photopass photos from my DCP. Next was when I got to ride it with my family when they all visited for Thanksgiving and we just had way too much fun. I was a bit mean to everyone in our ride vehicle when the doors close into darkness the first time, I was that guy who screamed and got EVERYONE to jump and scream which, for me, was hilarious. And we of course managed to take some great Photopass photos as well since we rode twice. Overall, I have and always will love this ride, I have too many great memories to share that I will have forever.

Rock N Roller Coaster

     The reason I like Coaster so much strays away from sentimental value, great theme or being a classic Disney ride....I just really like roller coasters. Plain and simple. My DCP was my first opportunity to experience this attraction as well and I was pretty hyped about it. In terms of other coasters I have done in the past, I was not very nervous about what it had to offer, I just wanted to finally experience it first hand, and I could not have been more excited when I got the chance.
     It is unfortunate that when I had my first opportunity to ride I did not have Memory Maker because my first Photopass photo from Coaster was priceless. I could not have looked more excited, screamed any louder, had my eyes more wide open than I did when I first experienced that launch. I loved every second of it and throughout my entire program wished the wait times for this ride were never as long as they always were. It was rare this ride dropped under 45 minutes, it was usually up in the 60 to 90 minute range so I usually steered clear. But the rare times it had a reasonable wait time or I planned a Fastpass, I was pumped. The launch at the start gets your adrenaline flowing and then the whole experience after that is a ton of fun.

The Great Movie Ride
     Now GMR has some of the most sentimental meaning to me that any ride at Disney has. Which is funny when I think about how little I thought about this ride leading up to my DCP having never rode it. After my DCP though, this ride is one that I have fond memories of because I had the chance to do a backstage tour of it, and once you do a backstage tour of an attraction you realize all the detail that are put into all of these attractions that no one would ever notice. The one I remember most is in the scene from the movie Alien, there are monitors on the left side of the track with text on them, all of the names on the screens were Imagineers who worked on the ride, its was crazy.
     And doing that backstage tour is what gives GMR so much value to me. It was at a time where all of us at Port were becoming a lot closer, it was something special we got to experience together outside of work and that is something no one can take away from us. So whenever I get to take a ride on GMR I always think about all the interesting facts and details I learned about during my backstage tour, and everyone I got to learn those things with.