If you love movies, you don’t want to miss The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! The queue is a double-queue (winding in and out of the rows – so the people you see once you probably won’t see again – it’s kind of cool), with previews from old movies playing while you wait. Upon leaving the queue, you board a tram that will take you literally into the movies! You get a personal tour guide, who will tell you a bit about the movies as you’re traveling through.
You start with the musicals – Footlight Parade, Singin’ in the Rain, and Mary Poppins. Then you enter into the gangster movies and westerns. When you first board your tram, pay attention. At certain times, if you’re in the front tram, your next “adventure” will be in the western movies. If you’re in the second, it will be in the gansgster movies.
All of a sudden, your tram gets overtaken by Mugsy (gangster) or a bank robber (western), and your poor tour guide is lost for good. Or so you think.
The ride then progresses into the movie Alien, where you see Sigourney Weaver hiding from the disgusting alien that is coming down from the ceiling. Then you progress into an iconic scene from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Snakes. Why does it always have to be snakes? You see a large jewel being guarded by a cloaked priest, but the gangster/bank robber that has taken over your tram decides to make it their own. The cloaked priest tries to stop them, but they won’t listen, and turn into a skeleton in a puff of smoke. Lo and behold, the cloaked priest is none other than your original tour guide!
Back to your original crew, you take a brief ride through the horror movies, then head into the next movie, and it’s a jungle out there – Tarzan’s jungle to be precise! After a quick ride past the final scene from Casablanca, you get to see the main man for everyone visiting Disney World – Mickey in Fantasia!
Then you finally get to meet back up with the other tram that you originally started the ride with, and make a stop over the rainbow – at the Wizard of Oz. The audio-animatronic munchkins sing you a song, which is interrupted with a blast of smoke, as the Wicked Witch of the West comes in and wants to know which of you dropped a house on her sister! The tour guide from the front vehicle scares her off, and the munchkins tell you how to get out – by following the yellow brick road, of course! You pass by Dorothy and her friends as they head up to the Emerald City, and then head into a dark theatre where you get to see great moments from classic movies.
The ride then ends, with you exiting back out onto the red carpet. Interestingly enough, this is one of the few Disney rides that does not exit into a gift shop. This is a definite must-ride for all movie buffs, and it’s a nice way to get out of the sun for a bit if it’s a warm day (or out of the rain!)
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Nicole is a more recent convert to Disney, and has her husband Corey to thank. As a kid, she went a couple of times and had fun, but didn’t really catch the “Disney bug” until her husband finally convinced her to go in March of 2003. Since then, she goes every opportunity she can, and every time finds something new to explore! She’s a proud Disney Vacation Club owner and mother of two Disneyphiles – ages 5 (Maggie) and 2 (Max). She helps friends and family to plan Disney vacations all year round, and when she can’t be at Disney, she surrounds herself with it. Her house and office have plenty of pictures and souvenirs covering them, so she’s never far away from the magic!
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