May 11, 2014
We were all a little sad this morning because Addison was still pretty sick and running a fever. We weren't sure how long she would be sick so decided to go ahead with our plans and go to Hollywood Studios for the day. They were definitely missed all day long but we still had a really great day.
Hollywood Studios, here we come!!!
We arrived at the park at 8:45 so that we were there for rope drop. Again, life saver for the day to be there at opening! I think Daddy missed Josh and Jessica the most because he had to go and ride the "big kid" rides all by himself. Since we didn't want to waste Fast Passes on these rides (because the kids couldn't ride them), we knew that he needed to go and do them first thing before it got crowded. He was able to ride the Rockin Roller Coaster twice and then walked over to the Tower of Terror all in about 40 minutes with no waits!
Once we walked in, we saw Chip N Dale in front of the Sorcerer's Hat! They were just walking up and we jumped over there to be first in line to see them. Well...I guess the kids weren't character ready yet because they both clammed up and wouldn't go up there to see them. They signed their books and let me snap a cute photo of just them.
While he was riding those, we decided to head over to the Pixar area and see what the wait looked like for Toy Story Mania. We had Fast Passes for later in the day but wanted to see if we could ride it twice!! Unfortunately in the 10 minutes it took us to get over there (or less), the wait was already 35 minutes- so definitely not worth it since we would be riding later. We decided Buzz and Woody would be our first stop! Their character meet and greet is right across from Toy Story Mania and there was barely a wait. I think we maybe waited 5 minutes for 2 families in front of us. Now, Caleb loooves Toy Story but he got really shy when it was our turn! Thankfully Woody was awesome and walked up to Caleb instead of waiting for Caleb to come to him and he warmed up pretty quick. He still wanted nothing to do with Buzz, asking for a picture with just Woody, which made Buzz go in the corner and pout! Of course, Kailyn wouldn't go up by herself so I took her up and let the photo pass lady take our picture. I told Kailyn to push one of Buzz's buttons and he started dancing...it was too funny! Grandmama even stepped up there for a few pictures with the Toy Story pals!
Next on our agenda was the Indiana Jones show. On our way across to that area, we spotted some friends! Ducks and a lizard, Kailyn was a happy girl!!
For some reason, the Indiana Jones show was cancelled for the morning slot, there were lots of people going up to be told the same thing as us! Our first Fast Pass didn't start for a while, so we had time to squeeze in some characters. We walked over to the Animation Courtyard area and spotted Sofia the First. Kailyn definitely wanted to go and see her. Caleb said that was just for girls and wouldn't go up. But we did take Addison's book to be signed for her. Jake from the Neverland Pirates was next to Sofia but Caleb would not go and see him. For some reason, he was a little grumpy for the first hour or so this day!! Kailyn and I enjoyed seeing Sofia, she was super sweet.
Next door was the Animation building. Inside we found several characters! We were a little disappointed that the Incredibles were not in there but we were excited to find Mickey, Minnie, and Wreck it Ralph. Our first stop was Minnie Mouse. She had on the cutest sparkly dress and her room was so fancy. By now, the kids were really getting the hang of standing in line, getting their books ready, and picking out a color of sharpie for the characters to use! Kailyn even walked up to Minnie by herself with her book but would not stand with her for a picture so I decided to step in with her.
Right next to Minnie was her best pal, Mickey! He was all dressed up in his robe and sorcerer's hat. We decided this was a good family picture opportunity for us and had Grandaddy take some pictures for us (thus the little off centered look, ha!).
As we were finishing up with Mickey, the Wreck it Ralph characters were coming in. The kids didn't want to go meet them, so I just snapped a picture of them!
Next up was our first Fast Pass of the day to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show. It was so fun the entire trip to use the FP line and skip hundreds of people waiting in line, hehe!! We loved this show, it was a mixture of puppets and characters acting out the main scenes from the Little Mermaid. Kailyn loved every single second of it! Parts of it were a little loud for Caleb but he enjoyed it too.
Disney Junior Live was our last attraction in the Animation Courtyard. This is why your schedule has to be flexible at Disney! We already had to move things around to get Indiana Jones in later in the day...so at this point I decided to stay here and go to Disney Junior show instead of hiking across the park to Beauty and the Beast. Great decision! We were the last people they let into the show. We had to sit towards the back and could have had better seats but the kids still loved it. In this show you sit on the floor so I think the back gave us a little more breathing room too instead of being packed in the front! It was such a cute show! It started with Mickey Mouse Clubhouse then went into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Doc McStuffins, and Sofia the First- all shows we watch in the mornings!! It was interactive for the kids too with lots of singing, dancing, and bubbles.
During the Disney show, the kids ate a few snacks and we knew they were getting hungry for lunch. We headed towards the back of the park to find a place to picnic. We found a great shaded area of tables right outside the Backlot Express restaurant. Also during lunch was my time to re-vamp our schedule for the day. Thankfully, everything easily fell back into place for us! While we were eating lunch, we spotted one of our favorite characters...
Sulley!!! One of the Cast Members told us that Mike wasn't out at that time because Roz told him he had to complete his paperwork! Unfortunately, Kailyn started getting pretty cranky so Daddy walked her around in the stroller but she wasn't quite ready for her nap. While we were waiting in the (short) line to meet Sulley, Caleb practiced his scary Monsters, Inc. faces!! When it was our turn to go up, Caleb got quite intimidated by Sulley- this guy was huge! Grandaddy scooped him up and went to meet Sulley with him. These pictures are some of my favorite. Caleb loved meeting another one of his favorite characters.
Then it was finally time for our Toy Story Mania Fast Pass! This is one of my favorite rides in Disney. It is just so fun. You ride along wearing 3D glasses and shoot targets from the Toy Story movie. In our car it was me vs Caleb/Grandaddy...I totally smoked them :) Daddy, Grandmama, and Kailyn were right behind us and Daddy beat us all! We really wish we had the chance to ride this one again but the wait was just crazy without a Fast Pass. I think it was a favorite for most of us, actually.
Next it was time for the Indiana Jones show. Once the show started, it was dark, loud, and then had fire. The kids both started crying and wanted to go. So Grandmama and I took them outside and found a shady spot to take a break. They were happy just to eat a snack and play in a cool space. The show only lasted 30 minutes so we didn't have to wait long. And I put Daddy in charge of taking pictures...he took 3, none of which were very good. *sigh*
Beauty and the Beast
As we came into some "down time" in our schedule, we knew Kailyn really needed a nap! Daddy took her for a walk in the stroller and she passed out. This ended up being her best stroller nap day of our trip!! He parked her on the Streets of America where it was shady and breezy and quiet. I think she slept for almost 2hrs or so. Wow!
While Daddy was trying to walk Kailyn to sleep, the rest of us decided to walk around. We were going to go on the Backlot tour but I just wasn't sure if Caleb would like it or not. As we were walking around taking in the scenes, we stumbled upon the end of a Star Wars Jedi Training. None of us are big Star Wars fans, but Caleb thought the show was cool.
We also decided to check out the Streets of America which are really neat. We weren't exactly looking for Daddy and Kailyn but found them. I knew there was a special, secret event coming up soon so I offered to sit there with the kids and take another break so Daddy and Grandaddy could go to the Lights, Motors, Action! show. I had seen it during a previous trip and it is so good, I knew Grandaddy wouldn't want to miss it...but of course, they didn't want to take the camera with them.
Characterpalooza is one of the best kept secrets of Hollywood Studios- shhhh!!! Back in the Streets of America each afternoon several characters come out for a quick visit. This event is not advertised on the map! Most of the time it is rare characters that come out, but you never know who you might spot :) On our day we saw: Queen of Hearts, Army Man from Toy Story, Gepetto, Captain Hook, Max (Goofy's Son), Belle, Mulan, and Pocahontas. The funny thing is that I thought there was only 1 Characterpalooza spot this day and Caleb didn't get to meet all of the characters he wanted and walked away a little sad that all he got from Pocahontas was a high five because she had to go. Little did we know, about 15 minutes later, they came back out! The 2nd time we went over there Grandmama and Grandaddy went with us. Caleb went right to Pocahontas and was sure to tell her that we would see her in a few days at the Animal Kingdom- since I had told him that earlier to make him feel better! Grandaddy tried to get Caleb to meet Captain Hook but he did not want to because, "He is not a nice guy!" Kailyn slept through every bit of this and woke up as we were returning from our 2nd round!
One thing we did not have planned in our itinerary was dinner. I just assumed there would be lots of quick service options and we would just go wherever we were close to. Well, we were close to the Pizza Planet Arcade but it was so over priced and the pizza didn't even look good. Then we decided to go to the Backlot Express but they aren't open for dinner! We started to get a little irritated at this point but finally decided to go to the ABC Commisionary and it was great. We really enjoyed a quiet, cool place to eat dinner! After dinner we had plenty of time to walk slowly and enjoy our surroundings.
The last "have to do" thing on our list was the Muppets 3D movie. Grandaddy is a huge fan of 3D movies! It was really cute. Caleb refused to wear his glasses but the rest of us really enjoyed the special effects.
As the sun was setting and we were walking towards the front of the park to see the Fantasmic show, we decided to stop by the Animation Courtyard since we had noticed a cute princess gift shop earlier in the day. We felt guilty for having so much fun without Addison so Grandmama bought her a Frozen book to make her feel better! Grandmama and Grandaddy had also said that they were going to buy the kids each a souvenir of their choosing and Kailyn chose one right away- a Tangled set!! Caleb decided to wait until another day- smart boy :)
Daddy and I were SO excited about the Fantasmic show since we had been a few years before. I was so relieved that Kailyn took a good nap earlier and more relieved that Caleb was still going strong! The show started at 9pm which is way past their bedtimes. It was sooo worth keeping them up super late! The next day was our rest day anyways so I knew they would be able to bounce back, ha! The show did have one part with the villans of Disney that the kids were unsure of but the rest of it they absolutely loved. They even had fun playing with their glow sticks in the dark! At the very end of the show a big boat goes by with almost any Disney character you can think of on it- well all the nice guys anyways. The kids were shouting all of their names as it went by- it was so fun to watch the "magic" in their eyes and enjoy their excitement.
After the show, the kids were very easily convinced to take a ride in their strollers for the walk back to the car....although I do believe they could have ran the whole way if we had let them. Where does all of the energy come from?! Disney adrenaline!! I enjoyed the walk out of the park at night, seeing all of the lights and signs lit up. It really did feel like we were on a movie set!
We maybe made it out of the parking lot before this happened...
I can honestly say that this was one of my favorite days of our trip. We didn't get too hot or tired all day. There are so many shows that you walk to each one then sit for 30 or more minutes to rest then go to the next one. We also saw lots of fun characters. It was just a smooth day overall and the weather was great too! When can we go back??!!! :)
