Walt Disney World Resort - Disney's Hollywood Studios, Part 1

Earful Tower topiary

Disney-MGM Studios opened on May 1, 1989, a year before Universal Studios Florida. Coincidence? Not hardly. This is what happens when the CEO of one company sees future plans of his competition when he used to work for said competition.

The place called Sea World didn't pose much of a threat, but Universal presented Disney with their first real competition in Central Florida. (Interestingly, even when Disney opened Animal Kingdom, they didn't challenge any of the Sea World attractions. Animal behavior, yes, but not to the same creatures.)

To be fair, Movies was supposed to be a pavilion at Epcot, and was an idea the Imagineers had laying around. But I'll bet that they have thousands of ideas laying around, and it was more than a convenient coincidence. :-)

So the first of the Eisner parks is Disney-MGM studios. Disney had licensed the MGM name to expand their catalog of shows for the new park, as well as for the backlot tour the Imagineers has planned. But a year before the park even opened, litigation ensued, and continued on for the next twenty years. Lawyers. Gotta hate 'em.

The culmination of this ended early in 2008. On January 6, 2008, Disney-MGM Studios closed for the night, and opened the next morning as Disney's Hollywood Studios. If you go to Disneyworld's web-site today, Disney-MGM has almost been wiped off the face of the planet. (And I can only find one reference to the old name in the park itself...)

And actually, Disney's Hollywood Studios is in Burbank, California, but I digress.

Disney's Hollywood Studios is about Show-Biz. The making of show-biz and the shows themselves, whether television, movies or stage...



Entrance

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Hollywood Boulevard is sorta the Main Street USA of DHS. The Icon of this park seems to have changed around 2003, from the Earful Tower, a copy of the water tower outside of Disney's Burbank studios, to Mickey's Sorcerer Hat, sometimes referred to as the Big Ass Hat.

It's much bemoaned because it blocks the view of the Great Movie Ride, one of the original rides in the park. (I have video of the Great Movie Ride on my Video Page.) But let's face it, the park needed an icon centrally located in the park, one different from the icon at another Disney location.

Hollywood Boulevard

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In February 2009, Walt Disney World opened the American Idol Experience, an attraction based on the wildly popular ABC television show. I went to a single show expecting the worst, but I was surprised at the level of talent that comes in on a voluntary basis. But, I suppose, if you sing like me, you wouldn't be auditioning in the first place...

American Idol

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Echo Lake could have just as easily been renamed Lucas Avenue, since the major attractions in this area are based on the two Lucasfilm blockbuster franchises Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Star Tours, a motion base simulator based Star Wars IV's Death Star Trench scene, is to be replaced in 2011. Indiana Jones's Epic Stunt Spectacular, is a stunt show based on Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Echo Lake

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Commissary Lane has a place you can meet the Monsters Inc characters, plus the ABC Commissary, my worst rated food place in DHS... You've been warned...

Commissary Lane

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End Disney's Hollywood Studios - Part 1
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05/15/2010 - Page rewritten, images added and upgraded