Last year I shared some stories of my trips to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and since I moved to the Orlando area this past January, I’ve experienced the Studios a lot more than I had previously and because I’ve been there so often (about once a week now), I’ve gained a great deal of stories that I share anecdotaly with my friends and so I’m going to share some more of these stories with you. These are fun stories that happened while at the Studios that help make my recurring trips so enjoyable.

 Last year I shared some stories of my trips to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and since I moved to the Orlando area this past January, I’ve experienced the Studios a lot more than I had previously and because I’ve been there so often (about once a week now), I’ve gained a great deal of stories that I share anecdotaly with my friends and so I’m going to share some more of these stories with you. These are fun stories that happened while at the Studios that help make my recurring trips so enjoyable.

One of my favorite past times at the Studios is to interact with Streetmosphere characters who are absolutely wonderful and I encourage you to talk with them (or simply watch a show of theirs) when you have a moment to see what I mean. I’ve mentioned before that my favorite Streetmosphere character is Francis Floot and I was lined up on Hollywood Boulevard back in March of this year to watch the brand new Block Party Bash parade. This was the first day the parade was being shown in the park to guests and not even all of the Cast Members had seen the show. Before Block Party Bash, the Streetmosphere characters mingle with the crowd to keep them entertained while they wait for the parade to begin. Francis was walking up Hollywood Boulevard and spotted me and we talked for a bit and he mentioned he was excited to see the parade for the first time so I invited him to watch it with me. To my surprise he accepted and joined me and let me tell you that you haven’t seen a parade until you’ve seen it with Francis Floot. The highlight of the parade was when Mr. Potato Head was walking up Hollywood Boulevard past us and Francis yelled at the top of his lungs at Mr. Potato Head, "Put on your angry eyes!".

Another time I was waiting for Block Party Bash to begin (do you see a trend developing here?) and the Streetmosphere character Bucky Convington, an aspiring actor, was entertaining the crowd with his songs he would make up on the fly that he would play on his small guitar. Bucky would ask a guest where they were from and make up a quick lyric to his song based on that guest’s location. At one point he asked me and I said "Orlando" and he then glanced at my shirt, noticed my shirt said StudiosCentral.com, and remarked, "Oh right, how did I not see that shirt?" and moved on to another guest who would make for much more interesting lyrics.

I am always pleasantly surprised by how wonderful the Cast Members at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are. Considering most aren’t making the big bucks by any means, they really go out of their way to make your trip more special and it means a lot. On a trip this past week I was going about my usual "routine", where I walk around the Studios to take photos of what’s new. Part of that routine is a stop to take photos of Toy Story Mania, which is near the entrance to Walt Disney: One Man’s Dream. I took my photos and turned around and headed back towards the Great Movie Ride. I reached the stairs when a Dream Squad Cast Member asked us if we had gone into One Man’s Dream and we said we didn’t because we had done it before and the Dream Squad Cast Member coyly said "I think you should go check it out again". I paused for a second while I tried to understand and then quickly realized I was being prodded and I’m not one to argue with the Dream Squad so I responded, "Yes….I think I will go check it out again." As we entered we were greeted by the Dream Squad inside and were presented with Year of a Million Dreams Dream FASTPASS. We were sure to thank that Cast Member on our way out (by the way, we did look around in One Man’s Dream after winning the FASTPASS).

That’s going to wrap it up for this session. There’s other stories that I’ll be getting to in future columns but these stories embody a small window into the sort of fun times one can have in the parks, be it looking for fun or more likely, having some fun run into you.