Last week I asked visitors of Studioscentral.com to write in some of their fondest memories at the now renamed Disney-MGM Studios.  Well, I’m proud to say I received a pretty overwhelming response!  So let’s get right down to it and share the entries we got, starting with my good friend George aka biblio on the Boards…

Besides the Haunted Mansion, Star Tours was the ride I was most excited about during my first trip to Walt Disney World. Back in the day (1994), the Early/Extra Magic Hour was called Surprise Morning. They rotated the parks on a specific schedule and people really did not take advantage of them. Ah, those were the days. Anyway, Sunday was the Surprise Morning for the Disney-MGM Studios.

We arrived at the Studios a little after 8:00am. If I remember correctly, the park was scheduled to be open at 9:00am. For some reason, I remember the song Mr. Jones by the Counting Crows playing on the rental car that morning. But I could be wrong; it may have been another day we were there. Needless to say, that song reminds me of that time. Warmth. I remember that it was very warm in the mornings in Orlando.

There was no one in the park that morning. Below, you can see my first view of the Star Tours attraction. I vividly remember the kid and his parents walking in front of us. The kid with the baseball hat and blue backpack. And yes, I am wearing a dark blue t-shirt. It was hot (the weather--not me). We followed the kid and his family through the line and rode the attraction. What can I say? It was great. We visited Endor and in the traditional Disney storytelling fashion--something went wrong! When we left the ride the Star Wars fanfare was playing (you know, the music they play over the credits) and it was really exciting. Then we walked into the coolest thing in the world: a Star Wars gift shop!

I know, you're laughing, right? Well, you have to remember that back in 1994, there was not a lot of Star Wars merchandise. Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn had just been published in 1991. Before that, the last Star Wars books, merchandise or toys had been released in the middle 1980's. Needless to say, Teresa let me gawk for a moment and then we went to the front of the building to ride it again. And again.  And again.

And again. I think we stopped after the fourth ride to meander and shop. At least I did. This is another one of those moments that I remember. Picking out the books, toys and paraphernalia--trying to decide what to get Stacy, Andy and Matthew. And what I wanted. I picked out a book for myself by Stephen Sansweet called Star Wars: From Concept to Screen to Collectible. I consider it one of the first books of my collection. When we finally had finished, we had spent over $400.00. Whew! Talk about spending too much! But it was Star Wars.

The next one comes from Ken G.:

My main MGM memory is the first time I really spent a whole day in the park.  Not only was I blown away by the excellent effects in Tower, and the speed of Rock N' Rollercoaster.  But the highlight of a fun day was during Fantasmic.  We had to stand in the back as we got there later,  and there were no more seats left.  During the Pocahontas scene when she shows up and the orchestral score of "Colors of the Wind" is heard.  A slight wind did pick up and as what was happening to me was happening on stage during the show, I was super excited.  So even though it is small and an oddly timely coincidence of nature, that is one of my favorite MGM memories.

Jake T. aka Blixzit wrote in with this story about the Holly Tower of Terror:

Well this just a quick story, but it is my fondest memory of the MGM days. And it's rather recent. About a year ago, I was "dropping by" my favorite hotel, The Hollywood Tower Hotel. I was riding it pretty much all day, and it was right around park closing when something amazing happened. I got an elevator all by my self! Thanks to the high capacity of Fantasmic, there literally was nobody in line. I walked through the queue, in the library I was joined with only three other guests. As I made my way through the boiler room, I started pondering the possibility of getting the great pleasure of riding alone. Well we were the only guests at the loading area so the bellhop said we could sit wherever we wanted. So I asked if I could get an elevator all to myself. He said sure. So I was totally geeking out the entire first half of the ride. When I got to the picture spot, I did the first thing that popped into my head. Thats in the picture attached to this email.

P.S. My shirt says "Sarcasm is just one of the free services I offer!"

Kim aka Figaro writes in about her favorite MGM Memory during Star Wars Weekend:

My favorite memory was during our first Star Wars Weekend.  My son was 5 and a huge SW fan!  He had no idea we were going to Disney for the weekend and that they were featuring Star Wars!  The morning we were going to attend, we suited him up in his Anakin Skywalker costume and headed to MGM.  Having been on the MGMstudios.org boards, I had an idea of the activities ahead of time so we headed over to Jedi Training Academy.  We were right up front and one of the first ones there.  He was thrilled at the prospect of getting proper Light Saber training.  When they started looking for volunteers, they kept picking everyone around him.  The poor kid was jumping up and down trying to get their attention, guests around us were all pointing him out as well.  Finally they picked him as the last Padawan and made a big deal about his costume.  He ran up, got his robe & Light Saber and was ready for training.  When Darth Vader came out, you could see the excitement in his eyes!  He was ready for battle and used his training to defeat the evil Sith Lord!  He was excited beyond belief and still talks about it now 3 years later.  Where else but Disney could a boy live out a fantasy like that?

 

This next one comes to us from Aaron aka ADP:

• First Tower of Terror Ride at age 7 – July 25th 2007 

What do you say to your Daughter who just turned 7 and asks “Daddy, can we ride Tower of Terror?” 

Well, I have to admit I was more than a little concerned when she asked.  I knew I would be fine, but Anna didn’t know what to expect.  Would I get her on the attraction and suddenly she’d freak out?  Of course, as a parent those thoughts go through your head. 

Just to make sure she understood the attraction I explained it to her in a little more detail.  Part of me was hoping she’d say, “Let’s do it some other time”, but not on this day.  She said “let’s go!”  So off we went to the queue. 

The wait time posted was 40 minutes, but 2 attraction breakdowns later it took us more like 75 minutes.  The attraction broke down while we were near the boiler room and since we had made it this far we were determined to ride. 

Another unfortunate break for us was when some very loud high school kids walked behind us in line.  As we rode the attraction their screams were loud and during the darkest parts of the attraction.  Needless to say we made it through the attraction just fine.  As we exited the ToT gift shop I started to realize how Anna had grown-up.  I know this may seem corny, but a certain feeling of respect and maturity had come over me towards my Daughter.  Can a theme park attraction really have this affect on me?  I guess that’s what is meant when they say “Disney World brings families closer together.”

Robert M. aka Migs310 also recounts a ToT story:

Two years ago I went to Disney on a family vacation. This would also be the first trip in which I rode Tower of Terror. If you knew me you would know that I absolutely love thrill rides but I never got the guts to ride the Tower of Terror because I thought it was like a haunted house. Well I studied the ride from front to back before I left for my trip and committed that I would ride it. Finally the day came where we visited the Studios. I told my parents that I wanted to do Tower first. You know get it out of the way. So we walked down Sunset Bld. and I looked at the looming tower in fear. Long story shot (too late) I went through the line holding my mother's hand in fear and cutting off her blood circulation. When the drop finally came I screamed like a little girl temporarily deafening my mother's hearing and making birds flutter for trees in the park. Finally when the ride concluded I was shaken with fear and excitement. Basically I turned out loving the ride. I have included my infamous ride picture. I am the one with the "Vader Was Framed" shirt and my mother is the one on my left.

Peter F. aka Snuggie’s Pal wrote in about his favorite Disney princess, Ariel:

I used to belong to a group of adult nerds who had an unnatural devotion to Ariel, The Little Mermaid. Every year around January, we met up in Walt Disney World for the purposes of meeting Ariel and telling her how much we love her. One of our stops happened to be the Studios where Voyage of the Little Mermaid had been playing. We were extra fortunate to convince the stage managers to allow us to meet with the actors from the show and have our pictures taken and name tags signed... until Ariel's "other engagement" happened. On one “Arielcon”, we got to meet Prince Eric and Max also. On another meet, Ariel was taking visitors while her show was in the refurbishment stages, and then spotted us during the Stars & Motorcars Parade. It was the same Ariel!

Thank you again to everyone who shared their favorite moments at the Disney-MGM Studios.  Here’s hoping that our experiences at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are just as memorable.

As promised, here are the winners of the What in World? contest, picked at random:

Aaron aka ADP: Wins the Jungle Book on DVD as well as a free Studioscentral.com t-shirt.

George aka biblio: Wins a free Studioscentral.com t-shirt.

Ken G.: Wins a free Studioscentral.com t-shirt.                    

Kim aka Figaro: Wins a free Studioscentral.com t-shirt.

To those of you that won, please email me with your mailing address and desired shirt size.  To the rest of you – don’t worry – I’ll be announcing a brand new contest soon, so stay tuned!

Next week, we’ll discuss some ways to celebrate (or completely avoid) Valentine’s Day at Walt Disney World.  Until next time!