Vacation Part 3--Disney-MGM

When we were planning our trip, we almost dismissed going to Disney-MGM. I don't know why--it just didn't sound that interesting to us at first. But, some friends of ours suggested we give it a try. Are we ever glad we took their advice! MGM turned out to be one of our favorite of the parks, with lots of neat things to see and do.

Our first stop was "Voyage of the Little Mermaid," a live theater show featuring Ariel and her friends. There are also black light puppets, and the stage and theater have some neat effects. All in all, a very enjoyable little show. After it was over, we wandered over and took the Backlot tour. It was a lot of fun. They showed us some of the tricks of shooting action scenes. They also took us to Catastrophe Canyon, where we experienced an earthquake, exploding oil rigs, and flood of water coming over the canyon. It was quite exciting. At the end of the tour, we went to the AFI Showcase, which had props and costumes from various movies, including Darth Vader's mask and cape, Cruella De Vil's dress, and my favorite, the hat of The Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz.

One of the best shows that we saw was called "Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show." It originated at Disneyland Paris and featured little European cars doing all kinds of stunts. The neat part was that the announcer would explain how the stunts were done after each sequence. We'll never look at chase scenes in movies the same way again. The picture at the top of the post was taken at the end of the performance and shows a number of the cars used. Even though we went to this show for Brian's sake, we all ended up really enjoying it and highly recommend it.

After the stunt car show, we were going to go to our car for lunch. But Brian had a headache and we were all feeling tired, so we decided to go back to the condo and rest for a few hours. We ate our sandwiches, Brian had a nap, and the girls went swimming. After I fixed a simple dinner, we headed back to MGM for the evening. Anna had been wanting to go to the Magic of Disney Animation, so that is where we headed first. After a short presentation on how animated movies are made, we went to a room with interactive activities and then the girls took a short animation class. Anna loved it. After we finished there, we headed over to the amphitheater, where the amazing "Fantasmic" show would be. I can't even begin to describe this show. It was fireworks, theater, water, lasers, fire...it was incredible. I would rate it as a must-see. After it was over, we headed back to the condo. There were lots of things that we didn't get to do since we took a "siesta" in the afternoon, but it was still a lot of fun. I'm so glad we didn't skip this park!

Trivia question: What is the official job title of anyone who works at a Disney park? Leave your answer in the comments section. I will post the correct answer in a few days.