(Shameless product placement)
We interrupt this family vacation for a moment of shameless product placement. Walt never would have allowed this. His vision was to create a place apart from the world where kids and adults could play. Not create a place where there’s an admission charge to have products showcased. Brawny sponsors the stunt car demos. Tougher picker-upper drivers? Hanes has naming space on Aerosmith’s ride. Okay, that one I kinds get. I mean, after that ride you’ll probably need clean ones…

For all their reading about the parks, the kids are learning that going without a plan is not working. We are zig-zagging the park, bouncing from one thing to another. Tonight, I’m betting there will be a strategy session for tomorrow…. I hope so, this was as close to being drawn down into the murky depths of a cartoon sea as I ever care to be again.

Aerosmith’s Big Ride is the first Disney ride to fully invert passengers. In features a double corkscrew and full loop. It is not for the faint of heart. This is as close as Zuzu would get. And, somehow the rest of us just never got around to it. Darn it.

This giant chapeau appears at the end of Hollywood Blvd, MGM… er, Disney Hollywood Studios’ main street completely obscuring the Graumann’s Chinese Theatre replica behind it. However, it also provides space for a nifty gift shop–and those are hard to find here.

Our first full day and the weather is perfect: a brisk 65 degrees will lift to lower 70’s all day. Last night, by the way, temps dipped here down into the mid 30’s. Thankfully, that’s the last we’ll see of THAT if the forecat is right. And, how often are those guys wrong?