Thanksgiving at Disney: A Trip Report - Day 4 - The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights

My family tends to visit Walt Disney World in winter, but no one but me had witnessed the beauty of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights in Hollywood Studios yet. In January of 2009, we saw the lights still on the buildings, but they were of course not lit up. In November 2010, we regretfully forgot to go see them! Finally in December of 2011, I made it to the lights, and this year we were determined to make it there as a family.

There are those who complain that the iconic Hat hides the Chinese Theater. I
argue that the stage with blinding flood lights hiding the Hat is an
even bigger crime against Disney!

After checking in at Wyndham Bonnet Creek, we drove back to Disney's Hollywood Studios for dinner. Remember my side note about the wind on the trams from the parking lot? I thought I was plenty warm in long pants and a t-shirt, but one brisk ride on the tram later, I was hunting through the gift shops for a sweatshirt! I ended up wasting my time because I really wanted to wait until the next day to get one at Universal in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. (Oh yes, a new park and castle are coming up soon in this trip report!)

Family photo thanks to Disney's PhotoPass! Yes, we buy the CD
in advance and then take photos every chance we get!

Not wanting hot dogs surrounded by fire again, we made our way to our old standby: the ABC Commissary. I've always loved their Chicken Bleu sandwich, and they have the yummy honey mustard that comes from the pump, not the pouch. Food taken care of, we went on to ride some of our favorite rides and see the Osborne Lights. We only had time for a few rides: 

The Hollywood Tower of Terror is a must for LaRae and me.
Riding it at night is perfectly creepy and awesome! 

We had to ride standby since we didn't have time to grab a FastPass.
I passed the time by taking Instagram photos like this one and the next. 

We debated some yummy apple treats!

We passed the Great Movie Ride, but alas, we did not ride. 

From this angle, you almost forget about the giant stage. Almost.

We rushed by MuppetVision 3D, but again, no time for that!

I offered to take a family photo.... 

...and Joshua decided last minute that he'd join the family after all!

We also took a minute to ride Star Tours again, but for some reason I didn't take any photos. 

Before I move on to the Osborne Lights photos, I'm going to do a quick photography explanation. This being the first time I really used a fancy camera for an extended period of time, I didn't know quite what I needed with me. I did not bring a tripod even though my sister owned one that folded fairly compactly. The photos in this post are mostly taken without flash to get more brilliant photos of the lights without washing out what is right in front of the camera. Without the steadiness of a tripod, one tends to get photos with slight blur as the camera exposure is longer than when in bright light or using a flash. You'll notice the MuppetVision 3D photo up there is exceptionally blurry because I took that photo while walking! It took me taking over a hundred photos to get a few decent shots out of it all. This could have been avoided by bringing a tripod. The only way I could really steady myself in a large crowd at the lights was to plant my feet, anchor my arms as best I could, and try to either take a breath or steadily expel my breath slowly as I captured each shot. As you might imagine, this is not a simple thing. That said: enjoy the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights! (Spoiler: They actually DO dance to the music!) 

 

After the lights display, we were exhausted, and the park was closing! One quick PhotoPass picture on the way out...

The next FIVE posts will take you though Universal's Islands of Adventure. Yes, one day at a non-Disney park was so epic that it will take that many posts to share all of the photos and fun with you! Three alone will focus on the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Come back on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays as the adventure continues!