Disney's Hollywood Studios

The park's old-time Hollywood ambience begins with a rosy-hue view of the moviemaking business presented in a dreamy stage set from the 1930s and '40s, amid sleek Art Moderne buildings in pastel colors, funky diners, kitschy decorations, and sculptured gardens populated by roving actors playing, well, roving actors, as well as casting directors, gossip columnists, and other colorful characters.

When Michael Eisner opened the then named Disney-MGM Studios in May 1989, he welcomed attendees to "the Hollywood that never was and always will be." Attending the lavish, Hollywood-style opening were celebrities that included Bette Midler, Warren Beatty, and other Tinseltown icons. Disney explains the recent name change as a way to "better reflect not only the Golden Age of Tinseltown, but all that today's Hollywood has to offer in movies, music, theater, and television."

Unlike the first movie theme park—Universal Studios in Southern California—Disney-MGM Studios combined Disney detail with MGM's motion-picture legacy and Walt Disney's own animated film classics. The park was designed to be a trip back in time to Hollywood's heyday, when Hedda Hopper, not tabloids, spread celebrity gossip and when the girl off the bus from Ohio could be the next Judy Garland. The result blends a theme park with movie and television production capabilities, breathtaking rides with insightful tours, and nostalgia with high-tech wonders. In a savvy effort to grab a big piece of the pop-culture pie, Disney opened its own American Idol attraction in late 2008. Performers with the most votes compete in an end-of-day finale that guarantees the winner a place in the TV show's regional audition process.

Thanks to a rich library of film scores, the park is permeated with music, all familiar, all uplifting, all evoking the magic of the movies, and all constantly streaming from the camouflaged loudspeakers at a volume just right for humming along. The park icon, a 122-foot-high Sorcerer Mickey Hat that serves as a gift shop and Disney pin-trading station, towers over Hollywood Boulevard. Unfortunately, the whimsical landmark blocks the view of the park's Chinese Theater, a more nostalgic introduction to old-time Hollywood. Watching over all from the park's back lot is the Earful Tower, a 13-story water tower adorned with giant mouse ears.

The park is divided into sightseeing clusters. Hollywood Boulevard is the main artery to the heart of the park, where you find the glistening red-and-gold replica of Graumann's Chinese Theater. Encircling it in a roughly counterclockwise fashion are Sunset Boulevard, the Animation Courtyard, Pixar Place, Commissary Lane, the Streets of America area, and Echo Lake.

The entire park is small enough—about 154 acres, and with fewer than 20 major attractions, as opposed to the more than 40 in the Magic Kingdom—that you should be able to cover it in a day and even repeat a favorite ride.

Numbers in the margin correspond to points of interest on the Disney's Hollywood Studios map.