We’re back at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for another morning filled with glitz, glamour, and… broken Fantasmic signs.

I’m going to ignore for the moment that the Fantasmic! sign is still turned off, because look at that line! It turned out that Tower of Terror was delayed in opening this morning. This line was at about 9:15 in the morning. Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster also didn’t open on time today. Talk about a rough morning for those Cast Members.

Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy

I decided to take a look at the new Lightning McQueen Racing Academy. It opened on March 31st. (You can see our full coverage of the show here.) It’s located over behind Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster.

If you get lost, you can consult the map.

The show is really well executed, and any Cars fan in your group will really get a kick out of it. The animatronic of Lightning is especially impressive.

I noticed that, since guests weren’t originally supposed to be back in this part of the park, the themeing on Tower of Terror isn’t quite finished from this angle.

Merchandise

There was a smattering of Avengers merchandise released recently. With the new film coming up quick, they want to make sure you have your gear before you see the movie.

Four new Magic Bands were released, each one representing a major character from the upcoming Avengers film. You can see all of them right here.

Over in the Stage 1 Company Store (near Pizzerizzo), they have been putting a different retired framed cel on display every week. The Cast Member today told me they are “put back in the Vault” at the end of the week and replaced with a different one.

Basically they just have a lot of these in storage and can’t think of any better way to sell them. Good luck!

I found this cute mug in the Celebrity 5 & 10 on Hollywood Boulevard. It has lots of nice little details.

Construction and Changes

Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge construction seems to be the same from the outside. I’m sure inside, however, is a flurry of activity as they get ready for the August 29th opening.

A crane was towering above Grand Avenue in a new spot today.

This is in what will be a backstage area of Galaxy’s Edge, just behind the Muppet*Vision show building.

Say goodbye to this smoking section. I had assumed it would move once Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge opened, but I wasn’t expecting the full-on smoking ban. You can read about that here.

Mickey is still missing from the top of the entrance spire!

Hopefully it’s just to fix the mechanism. He used to spin and hasn’t worked properly in some time.

Outside the park they’re putting some details on the Skyliner station.

It’s starting to look really nice, the closer it gets to opening.

Some possible concrete work going on near the Sorcerer Mickey topiary.

This is where the new Tram Loop will drop guests off, with the guest services restrooms just off to the right.

It looks like they’re starting to install lamp posts or something similar along the new pathway.

Closer to the parking lot, they’re finally doing some work on the tram path. You can see that they installed the concrete pillars that will line the path.

I leave you with this really cute kid I met today with his Kermit the Frog puppet. He had rigged the guitar on there himself. I didn’t catch his name, but he’s a true fan and I can’t let that go unacknowledged.

That’s it for today! Lots of minor changes, but they’re always interesting at least. Which upcoming Hollywood Studios project are you looking forward to the most?