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Disney's Hollywood Studios |
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DISNEY'S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS is one of the four
theme parks at Disney World in Bay Lake, FL, near Orlando. The
park opened in 1989 as the Disney-MGM Studios Park and was the
third of the four them parks at Disney World. Spanning 135
acres, the park is dedicated to the imagined worlds from film,
television, music, and theatre, drawing inspiration from the
Golden Age of Hollywood. |
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PARK ENTRANCE |
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Guests enter through the main entrance gate, which resembles the
Pan-Pacific Auditorium. Near the park's gate is a recreation of
the Crossroads of the World tower. |
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HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD |
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HOLLYWOOD BOULEVARD, inspired by the real
street of the same name, serves as the park's main entrance and
operates in the same vein as Main Street, U.S.A. at Magic
Kingdom. It is lined with themed streetscape facades and venues
selling Disney merchandise and park services. Live street
entertainment and seasonal parades travel down the main street
throughout the day. |
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(Right) Statue of a young Walt Disney when he was a
young filmmaker |
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Just in time for a "little" parade |
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GRAUMAN'S CHINESE THEATRE |
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At the far end of Hollywood Boulevard stands an exact replica of
Grauman's Chinese Theatre. The theatre hosted
"The Great Movie Ride", a dark ride that employed the use of
Audio-Animatronic figures, practical sets, live actors, special
effects, and projections to recreate iconic scenes from twelve
classic films throughout motion picture history. To accurately
represent a broad spectrum of cinema, Disney incorporated films
from outside of its own library, mainly through its licensing
agreement with MGM. The attraction debuted with the park opening
on 01 May 1989 and closed on 13 AUG 2017. |
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The Great Movie Ride |
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(Left) Costumes from "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"
and (Right) the dress Debbie Reynolds wore in the movie "Singing
in the Rain" |
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(Left) Gene Kelly from "Singing in the Rain, and (Right)
Julie Andrews & Dick Van Dyke from "Mary Poppins" |
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John Wayne in "The Searchers" |
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"The Wizard of Oz" |
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VOYAGE OF THE LITTLE
MERMAID |
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VOYAGE OF THE LITTLE MERMAID is a live show
attraction at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Disney World. Along
with a mix of live actors and puppets, the show features effects
such as light and laser projections on the auditorium walls and
light rain over the audience.. |
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A mermaid princess named Ariel dreams of becoming human and
falls in love with a human prince named Eric, which leads her to
make a magic deal with the sea witch, Ursula, to become human
and be with him. |
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Ariel rescues Prince Eric |
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"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" |
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HOLLYWOOD TOWER OF TERROR |
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The HOLLYWOOD TOWER OF TERROR is an accelerated
drop tower dark ride located at Disney's Hollywood Studios. The
attraction is inspired by Rod Serling's anthology tlevision
series, The Twilight Zone, and takes place in the fictional
Hollywood Tower Hotel in Hollywood, California. Guests/Riders
are placed in a seemingly ordinary hotel elevator where they
learn the fictional backstory in which people have mysteriously
disappeared from the elevator under mysterious circumstances
many years previously. |
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BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: LIVE ON
STAGE |
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BEAUTY AND THE BEAST: LIVE ON STAGE is a
Broadway-style musical at the Theater of the Stars, on Sunset
Boulevard. It is based on the popular animated film "Beauty and
the Beast", including many of the original songs and characters.
While most of the soundtrack is prerecorded, the actors playing
Belle and Gaston speak and sing live. |
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"Belle" |
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"Be Our Guest" |
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"Beuty and the Beast" |
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"Kill the Beast" |
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"Transformation" |
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"Beauty and the Beast" |
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ECHO
LAKE |
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ECHO LAKE, inspired by the similarly-named
neighborhood in Los Angeles, is designed to mimic the suburban
form of architecture from Hollywood's Golden Age and is anchored
around the area's namesake lat\ke. Echo Lake includes three
major attractions based on characters and films created by
George Lucas and produced by Lucasfilms. "Star Tours - The
Adventure Continues" is a 3-D motion simulator ride set in the
Star Wars universe. "The Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple", A
live-action stage show, invites children to become "padawan
learners" and receive lightsaber training from a Jedi master.
The live-action "Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!" reenacts
various scenes from Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost
Ark", while illustratlng how professional film stunts are
performed.. |
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INDIANA JONES
EPIC STUNT SPECTACULAR! |
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INDIANA JONES EPIC STUNT SPECTACULAR! is a live
amusement show at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Based on the
popular and successful "Indiana Jones" franchise, it includes
various stunts and live reenacted scenes from the series' first
film, "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark". As part
of the show, selected audience members, 18 or older, are invited
to participate as extras in certain scenes. |
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Going into the covered amphitheater, we paused for a few
photos |
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A couple photos of Curtis |
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INDIANA JONES EPIC STUNT SPECTACULAR |
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The action starts with Indy braving dangers in a recreation of
the Peruvian temple scene from the beginning of the movie.
Dangerous spikes, false floors and ancient booby traps test the
archaeologist's skills before he attempts to make a getaway with
the golden idol. |
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Indy overcomes the booby traps |
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Indy manages to escape that giant rolling boulder
Then the director selects audience members to participate in the
rest of the show |
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The stunt show then moves on to the busy and audience
participant-filled streets of Cairo. Indy and Marion watch
street acrobats before events take a turn for the worse and a
massive fight scene breaks out. |
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The Cairo street scene concludes with Indy shooting at a Jeep
loaded with explosives, producing a fiery conclusion. |
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The final scene of the stunt show recreates the action-packed
sequence in which Indy and Marion try to stop the Nazis from
flying the Ark to Berlin. The reenactment is complete with a
scaled-down version of a German aircraft with symbols imitating
the swastika (actual swastikas were used in the show up until
the 2000s). Indy fights a large German mechanic while Marion
operates the aircraft's machine gun, blowing away enemies in
sight. Indy and Marion are able to make a narrow escape as the
airfield is engulfed in flames. |
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Indy and Marion are able to make a narrow escape as the airfield
is engulfed in flames. |
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A FEW MORE PHOTOS |
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Curtis and Carolyn pause for a few photos before they
leave the park |
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LEAVING THE PARK |
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A much smaller group arriving at the park than when we arrived
earlier that morning - and a few others, besides us, begin to
leave the park, too. |
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SOURCES |
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All photos by Curtis Loftin |
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