We’ll set out to Hollywood Studios on a couple of afternoons last week.
Disney took to Facehook to announce that Wreck-It-Ralph would begin greeting guests “tomorrow” on October 25th. Of course this wasn’t true as his first day has always been October 28th. Very little of what you see from Disney’s social media department is rooted in facts these days – whether it’s purposeful misinformation or simple incompetence. I still remember the television commercials for Tower of Terror that had me certain it was a standing attraction when I was but a boy. If you relied on Disney’s promotional department, you’d believe all kinds of crazy things. From expecting to meet Mickey & Minnie in front of the Haunted Mansion dressed up during the Halloween Party to I don’t even know.
But as of the 28th, Ralph greets guests inside the Animation Building at Winnie the Pooh’s old spot. It would be Sorcerer Mickey to the left and Mr. Incredible/Frozone one floor up on the right.
Like Pooh, the queue winds behind the Meet.
The queue is slightly interactive.
Kids can touch the screens in case they’re running low on germs.
Why’d it have to be bugs?
People seem to be excited about the “8-bit soundtrack” playing as well as the signage:
Of course, not being dorky whatsoever, I have no idea what any of this means. Okay, the “Halo Delayed – Flood” is funny. And the Contra one. And Mortal Kombat II. And most of them.
The characters do quite a bit of interacting, despite not being particularly chatty. Vanellope von Shweetz signs autographs, but Ralph is too busy wrecking things. Currently, the characters greet from 10:30am – 1:30pm and 2:40pm – 6:30pm continuously.
I ended up waiting 25 minutes despite a short-ish looking line at 5:20pm. These characters appear to be more popular than Winnie the Pooh. They are undoubtedly cute, even if you have no idea who they are. I wouldn’t prioritize these guys over the Toy Story characters or Phineas & Ferb. With Fantasmic currently scheduled at 7:30pm, Characterpalooza runs from 4:50pm to 5:10pm. I’d get in line for these guys immediately after Palooza, then The Incredibles, and then Mickey Mouse, who normally concludes Meets at 7:30pm. If you have someone in your party willing to wait in the Wreck-It line while the rest of the group meets the Characterpalooza characters, that would work well. It’s easy enough for the group to reconvene in the queue. And rest assured that everyone behind you in line loves that.
My favorite crack in the concrete is under refurbishment. I WANT A REFUND!
I’ve given up the bushes. Prefer the wheat.
Rewinding a few days, the Studios was quite busy on Friday October 26th.
This is around 11:45am.
Wait times weren’t crazy yet, but Star Tours is going to have a posted 50 minute wait later, which is about as long as it gets over there.
While probably 30 minutes over exaggerated, the line for Toy Story Mania spills outside. Crowds are this heavy for a few reasons. Local schools had the day off. The Studios had closed at 6pm two days earlier in the week with no Fantasmic shows scheduled either night. And the Mickey’s Party over at Magic Kingdom, the only recommended Park that day, isn’t attracting a lot of people.
What I call the spider angels are up on the Streets of America. Pretty turned on. Creepy while off.
Signifying that the Osborne Lights are ready to go.
The first date is November 9th. Please note there is no ‘u’ in “Osborne.” This is not a Sharon and Ozzy thing.
Does it mean Cars Land is coming to Hollywood Studios? You can still put me down for a “No.” Speaking of which, Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm for four billion seemed to come out of nowhere. And what a price! Had I known four billion would have bought the entire Star Wars universe, I would have dusted off one of my AMEX cards. On top of that, Disney gets Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound and LucasArts. Disney is planning to release a new Star Wars movie in 2015. You’ve got to think that one’s going to gross 1.5 billion worldwide. Not to mention billions in merchandise, home sales, and the movies that are expected to follow in 2017 and 2019. And did you say theme park attractions? One would think it’s in the cards, though I wouldn’t expect an announcement any time soon. Disney wants to plug New Fantasyland as much as possible and they aren’t in the business of giving people reasons to delay their vacation. I bet Universal feels silly about their Transformers announcement in a few days. It would be even more fun if they’re up right now preparing an additional announcement on Harry Potter 2.0. Star Wars is probably the only property that could touch Harry Potter as far as fan base, merchandise sales, and theme park possibilities. And I’d venture to say that it exceeds Potter, especially if the new movies are fresh. It’s going to be an interesting five or so years here.
Lunch today is avec the Milz family. You may remember them from Akershus fame.
The menu is on the less expensive side, which isn’t evident from the menu outside the restaurant that is apparently sans pricing. Luckily, the menu is available here at DisneyWorld.com should you wish to peruse it. Like the other Studios restaurants, there’s just one menu for lunch and dinner. Considering a pizza from Pizza Planet runs nearly $10, the $13 – $14 Flatbreads are pretty reasonable and the other entrees aren’t outrageously expensive.
Mama Melrose is also available on the Fantasmic Dining Package, where you’ll choose an appetizer and entree along with the “Chef’s Selection” Dessert plate.
Inside, the restaurant may or may not feel like a family Italian restaurant.
Disney describes it as, “a colorful, casual and family-friendly restaurant located in the heart of the backlot at Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park.”
“Tacky” may or may not be more accurate.
Count the number of burned out Christmas lights and get back to WDWMAGIC.
Don’t see any? I’m sure we’ll find something to complain about. I’m getting angry just thinking about things to complain about!
A drink might help.
Yes, a drink. This is the sangria, which is just bottled Eppa. A Caraffe runs $28 and is enough to fill three glasses that look like this with a little left over. Otherwise, wine pricing is as insane as usual. A 750ml bottle of the Eppa would run around $11 in stores if you end up liking it. It’s decent, but nothing special since it’s widely available. You’d think they would make their own since Disney’s website touts “Mama’s sangria.” But you know, mama is getting old and that bottled stuff ain’t bad.
Another perk of table service lunch is the bread, which is plentiful and served warm.
Accompanied by mostly tasteless oil and pepper.
As usual, I was seated facing the wall. Forever alone. Which I’m now going to call flying Han Solo.
Speaking of things to complain about, would you look at all this graffiti!
And Disney does nothing to clean it! I may not renew my Annual Pass!
At least they have pictures with Italian-looking-people and Mickey.
And a wood fire grill that probably burns about half the Flatbreads that are sent out.
Potentially less often with this watchful eye.
Otherwise, the restaurant could probably be described as “cute and “fun.” Tables aren’t packed together like some restaurants, which is nice.
Despite a peak reservation time of 12:20pm, we were seated in just a minute or two. Never any guarantees though.
The “Seafood Arrabbiata” has recently replaced the “Cioppino.” The Cioppino was described as, “Fresh clams, shrimp, calimari and mussels tossed with fregola pasta and a flavorful tomato seafood sauce.” The Arrabbiata is “Shrimp, Mussels, Calamari, Fish of the Day, and Whole-Wheat Spaghetti tossed with spicy Seafood Sauce.” So more or less the same. I enjoyed this one quite a bit. The sauce was slightly spicy, but certainly nothing overwhelming. Most of the heft came from the large portion of spaghetti underneath the seafood, but there’s a decent amount of the good stuff too. Two large shrimp, some Mahi Mahi, a half dozen mussels, and the calamari rings. It’s certainly more interesting than your run-of-the-mill pasta.
Steve opted for what looks to be the “Carne D’ Italia Flatbread with Pepperoni, House-made Sausage, Pancetta, and spicy Marinara Sauce – 13.99. No complaints there.
And Peggy went for the “Wild Mushroom Flatbread – Roasted Cremini and Button Mushrooms with a Garlic-Shallot Spread and finished with Balsamic Reduction – 12.99. This was described as having a “lot of fungus.” I wouldn’t disagree. I’ll list the Milz(‘s) interject with additional thoughts if they have them and another thanks for lunch. And don’t tell the kids they were here.
Overall, Mama Melrose is a nice choice if you’re looking to get off your feet in more comfortable surroundings than most quick services. For not a whole lot more money than your prototypical Disney Burger or Nuggets, you can order something a little more interesting. Since Mama Melrose accepts Tables in Wonderland, lunch or dinner here is going to be about the same price as Pizza Planet. A no brainer in my book, though the restaurant wouldn’t be much of a value on the Disney Dining Plan. I would say that service was a bit on the slow side, though we were in no particular hurry and the bread was very good. So you’ll want to carve out a little more time if you’re looking at lunch/dinner here over a quick service. If you’re in a hurry, let the server know and they should be able to speed things up. “Fast” service is another person’s “rushed” and “relaxed” is another person’s “slow,” so they don’t know what you want unless you tell them.
We popped on Star Tours with FASTPASSes, which had a 50 minute posted wait. The overall crowd level on Friday should have been a “7″ rather than a “5.” It doesn’t help that Disney was planning for a 5. But hey, it’s a rare opportunity to enjoy the queue!
Pretty rough. The Studios would normally be recommended on a Friday and I was happy to see that it was in fact “not recommended” on this particular one. People might tell you that the recommendations are based on “logic” and “common sense,” but I can assure you that I use better “data” than any of the other crowd calendars to form the recommendations.
Sid Cahuenga’s One-Of-A-Kind Antiques and Curious sits just inside the Studios’ main entrance on the left as you walk in. Most people pass right by. It’s sort of like eBay in person. Here are some available items:
These items are from the estate of Barbra Streisand.
In constant competition with Lane Kiffen for biggest __________ in the world.
A signed Buster Crabbe check.
A signed letter by Vivienne Leigh and a signed check by Clark Gable.
AM I THE ONLY ONE AROUND HERE THAT WANTS A BIG LEBOWSKI SIGNATURE?
A Spiderman 3 prop for $900.
A lot of signed photos.
Biebz!
A signed Joe Jonas guitar for $900 or signed Jackson 5 photo for $3,500.
Dick van Dyke’s jacket would run you a cool 65 grand. It’s been here for years, but has not gone up in price! And they say everything at Disney is more expensive than last time. Liars. Filthy liars.
merica pls
It’s pretty cool stuff and you can easily visit on your way out of the Park or at some other point during the day. It’s a small store, so you should be able to see most of what’s available in just a few minutes, especially if you’re not interested in examining the signed photographs.
Refurbishment walls ruining my vacation! They had moved the Guest and Cast entrance we like to use to the far left in the morning. It’s now back on the right later in the afternoon. With limited turnstiles to work with, I’m thinking the Guest and Cast entrance doubles as the turnstiles used for breakfast reservations in the morning.
So I took my MANY COMPLAINTS to Guest Services, only to find that the windows were behind refurbishment walls too! So I just yelled at the wall for an hour and was then removed from the Park. Same as usual. I guess I can’t say the walls really affected my trip.
With the Food and Wine Festival nearly completed and an overview of what’s available at the rest of the booths nearly irrelevant, I’ll finish that up anyway. A lot of other stuff too – drinks and wings at the Tambu. Frozen beer in Japan. The “steak” from Liberty Tree Inn. Coney Island Dog at The Lunching Pad. Oh, nighttime pictures at Animal Kingdom and the Chicken BLT Salad! And like a million other things.
{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
That first photo is amazing. Nice catch! And also possibly nice use of your photography tools/filters.
Also, I thought for a second that you were promising “nightmare” photos of Animal Kingdom’s “cricket salad”. It might be time to update the prescription in my glasses. Please, though, no nightmare photos.
I was just wondering, do you Josh just have many navy blue stripped polos. It must be your favorite shirt and I can see why, very attractive on you. But was just wondering, do you have more than one or do you just wash it out every night? Oh, love your site.
When you say “wash,” what do you mean exactly?
To answer your question, my closet basically looks like Doug Funny’s.
http://www.colleen-taylor.com/blog/images/http%3A//winebibber.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/images.jpg
I am probably harassed over my attire more than anything else. Truth is Duffy the Disney Bear selects the uniform. Maybe it will be different next year, but since he’s Epcot’s President and “cheap” would be a compliment, I’d doubt it.
I’ll bet all those disney world down pours help quite a bit. I mean as far as the shirt goes.
When I described your wardrobe to my little sisters, I said, “If Josh showed a picture of his closet, it would probably look exactly like Doug Funny’s.” They had no idea what I was talking about, so now I can show them! Thanks.
Ralph is adorbs but Vanellope looks like she’s going to kill you in your sleep. Those signs are pretty awesome though. Are you going to go watch the movie?
Blue Striped polo needs its own twitter handle…
Lebowski: not a man, a way of life.
The dude abides.
I don’t know about you but I take comfort in that. It’s good knowin’ he’s out there. The Dude. Takin’ ‘er easy for all us sinners.
How about the commercials that would show dogs at Disney, when none of their hotels are pet friendly?
Lol, I was commenting the other day that it seemed like Josh must have a closet full of those shirts. Now as I am looking at the shirt I realize I have the exact same shirt. I am going to be sure to wear it at the parks in a few weeks to see how many “josh” pictures I can take.
Josh if you see 3xl version of that shirt walking around in a few weeks it will be me.
I am sure I could pass for you if you were to gain say about 125lbs. Oh I guess I could lose the weight but it would be easier if you gained it.
Jeremy: not just easier, but FUN! Losing weight is never fun but gaining it sure as hell is!
The “SOON” picture cracked me up.
I am not a Star Wars fan and I already think the presence in DHS is overwhelming. I can’t even imagine what it will look like in ten years. If they contain it all to DHS, I’ll be fine, I can drop that park cold turkey without batting an eye. Or, heck, make SW its own park. But if I have to walk around MK or AK or Epcot and see lightsabers and jedi cloaks and freaking Chewbacca everywhere, I will absolutely lose my love of the parks.
More Star Wars at the Studios or add something in Future World.
Josh, switch that polo up with a different color. Like Biggie says, “Dress to impress, spark the ‘ladies’ interest” He didn’t use ladies though.
Can I fill in the blank on the Ryan Lochte pic? D… probably shouldn’t – keep it family friendly. Hilarious stuff.
Once again, LOLz at the wdwmagic references. Love your updates!
You’re killing me! I laughed so hard… SOON… and your favorite crack under refurbishment…
Every time I read some crazy whiny complaint on disboards, I think to myself “Josh is going to be all over this”
Thank you for making my day!
It’s a shame the chinaman peed on your rug. It really tied the room together.
Simply hop on over to the linked Akershus page and you will see Josh in a different outfit. Obviously he had just finished a pick up game of basketball over at All Star Sports. This was before we was a celebrity Disney blogger and had all of his clothes tailored and replecated to perfection.
Love the blog, pictures and walkabouts. I’ve been catching up with some of the older posts and am really enjoying them. In the Studios pictures, there is often a shot of the Phineas & Ferb meet. Despite having been to the Studios 7 times, I have a hard time visualizing the exact location for P&F. Obviously they are near Muppets, Muppet Store, Mama Melrose, and the Cars characters. Can you post pictures of the area that puts everything in relation to the surroundings? Thanks.
This might help: http://www.easywdw.com/reports3/phineas3.jpg It’s right next to the entrance to Mama Melrose.
Thanks Josh!
Very helpful
“I’ll list the Milz(‘s) interject with additional thoughts if they have them”
As always, Josh did a thorough job of covering our lunch. Mama Melrose is probably our favorite TS in DHS. Brown Derby’s menu doesn’t so anything for us. Sci-Fi was “meh”. We’re pretty much over buffets. We like 50′s PT too but MM is probably our highest rated. Our kids love Italian food (pasta in particular) which definitely helps, so that may be why we frequent MM so often. It’s also one of those places where we like a specific menu item and usually always get it. Other than having chicken parm one time, I always get the carne flatbread. Peggy went wild and got that mushroom flatbread instead of her usual chicken and spinach one. The price point at MM is also something we like. Granted you’re not getting top-of-the-line Italian food here but where at WDW do you get top-of-the-line food anyway? We went to Yachtsman’s on Thursday night and while good, I would rate a place like Ruth’s Chris much better. Anyway, if you haven’t checked out MM before, you ought to give it a try. Just adding my two-cents… which would apparently get you about 0.01 ounces of that sangria…
Am I the only one cracking up over the pic of Kermit? Was that angle intentional Josh? And it’s in the reflection of the menu too! Awesome.
As soon as I saw the Dude I made a mental note to NOT bring my husband into that store. That’s why I love this site. You can make me laugh and save me $275 at the same time.
On the wall in Mama Melrose’s is a picture of Booger from Revenge of the Nerds~mmmm, now Im hungry!
We were at DHS on Oct 29. We followed your advice about the turnstiles with signs on them. As soon as they removed the sign. we walked passed everyone to be first. I’m sure we made a few people mad. We never waited in any line longer than 10 minutes, and despite several cm’s telling me there would be no character palooza, I knew better. We were able to get 8 autographs in the 20 minutes. Thanks for all the great advice! We have had a fabulous week because we’ve followed your suggestions.
I nearly sqeeeed out loud for that pic of you shaking hands with Wreck It Ralph. Soooooo awesome.
Another exemplary update. You’re going to have to post some crap soon or everyone will start to expect this level of quality.
I’ve read that Mama Melrose was actually planned to be a Muppet theme restaurant where the characters would be running the restaurant and it was going to have some cool features. Unfortunately Jim Henson passed away before the agreement was finalized and the estate couldn’t reach an agreement with Disney, so the Muppets were scraped. At the time everything created for MGM had to “fit” so this elaborate story to the girl trying to make it in show business while working at a family Italian restaurant was born.
On a side note, I plan to wear the exact same outfit as Josh everyday on our upcoming trip. I plan to bask in the celebrity and all the benefits from literally walking in not only Josh’s shoes, but his entire “uniform”. I know those sneaky Disney CMs have him pegged on sight and I’m not missing out on those fringe benefits.
I think Josh included the picture of him shaking hands with Wreck it Ralph to show off his Snow White hands, that is not a dig.
I counted three burnt out lightbulbs in that picture. (Hey, you asked!)
The fact that Mama Melrose seems to have Cupcake wine (saw a bottle in the “many bottles” pic) helps put it on my to do list now. Plus, Hubby wasn’t too happy with the “foo foo” food at Brown Derby (it’s more my cup of tea but his tastes are very basic, not up for adventurous appetizers, etc.). So if we ever do another Fantasmic dining package we’ll go for MM. And I hope they have Cupcake Moscato by the glass and not just the chardonnay.
It’s yummy. If they don’t have it, I’ll find something else…..my list of favorite wines is very short.
The Weston abides.
I was at DHS on 10/26. Yep, it sure was more crowded than I guessed. I was planning to be at MK that day but called an audible and went to DHS when the Orlando meteorologists said 10/26 was going to be a bad weather day. Turned out to be lovely, although DHS did wind up cancelling the first Fantasmic that evening.
One big thanks to Josh… I hustled my kids over to characterpalooza at 4:45 and was an absolute hero for having that “insider” knowledge. Thanks Josh!
Renea: we had a few CMs tell us that there wasn’t characterpalooza too! But I insisted we stay to know for sure. I panicked at first but within a few minutes, they all started to appear! We grabbed some great autographs! Thanks a bunch Josh!
We headed to DHS on 10/26 after spending most of the day at MK. Wanted catch Fantasmic! but the showings were cancelled. Long waits and no FPs left for RnR & ToT so we grabbed a FP for Star Tours and headed to Pizza Planet for dinner to wait out the FP. Might check out Mama Melrose’s next time around. Those flatbreads look pretty tasty.
I share your loathing for Ryan Lochte, but particularly Lane Kiffin. I still go back and read the EDSBS story with him and Orgeron when I need a laugh. Pure genius.
Love the first picture! I also never even noticed that antique shop or possibly antiques never iinterested me at Disney. But after seeing your pictures, I am definately going to stop in there. Cool merchandise, which is WAY over my budget, but would be fun to look at. Thank you for always opening my eyes to things I never noticed before.