Disney Family Fun Day

We zipped over to Disney on Friday for the express purpose of riding two rides that will disappear forever next month: The Great Movie Ride in Hollywood Studios and Ellen's Universe of Energy in Epcot. The sky was dreary and it spit rain at us most of the day, but we still managed to have some fun and enjoy our time. 

The Great Movie Ride is housed in the replica of Grumman's Chinese Theater from California.  The new attraction will be a train ride based upon Mickey and Minnie Mouse short movies - there are no Mickey/Minnie rides anywhere currently in Disney World. 

Scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark 

Scene from Tarzan

Scene from Casablanca

Scenes from The Wizard of Oz

We also managed to sneak in a trip to Toy Story Midway Mania and Mama beat the whole family this time (that's Davis' score next to mine). 

We took the bus from the Studios over to Epcot and these guys tried to tag along for the ride. 

Over in Epcot, we got some lunch in the Land pavilion. While we were eating a family gifted us with three paper fast passes for Soarin! So I rode with the big boys and Baba and Davis hung out together. 

A few of our favorite scenes from Soarin' - places we've visited! 

Then it was time to ride the Universe of Energy one more time. This is one of the few opening day attractions left in Epcot; it was updated about ten years ago with a new storyline featuring Ellen Degeneres and Bill Nye the Science Guy. It's one of the longest rides in the park - it takes 45 minutes - as you go back in time to learn about energy. It's going to be replaced with a Guardians of the Galaxy (Marvel) superheroes ride. 

We walked throughout the rest of the park and visited the Three Caballeros Ride in Mexico. 

And then we discovered that there was a drawbridge in the back of the park we didn't know about - and watched the sphere of Earth move out on a barge for the Illuminations fireworks show. 

The last ride before we left? Spaceship Earth only had a five minute wait and we jumped at the chance. 

Finally we took the ferry boats back from Epcot over to our car at the Studios.