Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios was a great park!

We truly enjoyed all of our minutes at this park, although it was almost disastrous!  Overall, my planning for this vacation went really well.  So well that when we did have to wait in a 10 minute line, Ryan turned to me and exclaimed "Mommy, don't you have a fast pass?!"  No, Ryan, this ride is not fast pass worthy.  "So, I have to wait??"  Ha!  The problem with my plans on this day is that I had booked dinner at the Sci-Fi Dine In for 5:45pm which would overlap the 6:30pm Fantasmic which Ava said was a must see.  Grr!  Originally, I had planned to go to the later Fantasmic, but that wouldn't let us hop to Epcot to see the cousins.  So, I made a last minute change to a character lunch.  While Tyler was initially bummed that we wouldn't be eating dinner in a car, he loved this lunch.

We got to see 4 more characters and they were some of Ryan's favorites.  Handy Manny!

Special Agent Oso!

Jake from the Neverland Pirates!

And, June from the Little Einsteins.

Lunch was so good that Tyler took a "to go chicken."  Seriously, he did.

Off to the Indiana Jones show which the boys loved.  They blew stuff up!

A stop for a little magic.  See the scowl on Ryan's face??  He was crabby, crabby, crabby.  But, playing along because he was told he'd be upset if it was just Tyler in the picture.  He wasn't going to enjoy being in the picture.  Nope.

The only real ride we went on at this park was the Toy Story ride.  It was fun!

Here we are in line.

And, getting our 3D glasses.

It was a fun ride somewhat similar to the Buzz ride.  When we left, we had to check out the Barrel of Monkeys.

And, look who we found!  Green Army Man!  Check out his feet (and try to ignore Ryan's hand placement).

So cool.  We also went on the Back-lot Tour which was a ton of fun.  And, they blew stuff up.

This was another favorite.

There were cars...

And, they blew stuff up.

Yup, my boys like fire.

We were excited to see Santa Goofy!

Still having trouble with Christmas in 80+ degrees.

Finally it was time to grab our seats for Fantasmic. The boys conned me into getting them something to pass the time.

The smiles were worth it.

And, I have to say that Ava was right.  This show was not to be missed.

The show was incredible.  The sprayed a wall of water and then projected video on it.  Too cool!  I did video it, but it seems the file it too big to upload.  Oops.

We left that night without seeing The Osborne Family Lights and I thought I was ok with that.  But, I wasn't.  So, at the end of our last day in the parks, we hopped a boat from Epcot to Hollywood Studios so that I'd have no regrets.

We caught Lightening McQueen and Mater just before they left for the night.

And, then we saw it.  Wow!  Five million lights is right.  Check this out.

Totally awesome and worth going back to see it.

Too cool.

It was a great way to end our trip.

But, I still don't need to go back.

Magic Kingdom

 We arrived in Magic Kingdom at night just in time for the Electrical Parade.  And, it was something.

Of all of the parades, it was my favorite.  The floats were incredible and the music was fun.  It was a great way to start our time in the Magic Kingdom.  The other parades were also very good, especially the scented floats.  I don't think I've ever experienced a parade with scent before!

After the parade, we walked down Main Street and got our first glimpse of Cinderella's Castle.  It was beautiful, draped in lights and changing colors!

Check that out!

We had an opportunity to see Wishes multiple times including during Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party where the show was expanded.  The fireworks were awesome and included Tinkerbell flying through the sky... although Tyler was quick to point out the wire.  He's no fun.

I loved the lights on the castle.  It is amazing how they can change the whole look in a flash.

This is a quick snippet of the show on the castle featuring Wreck It Ralph.  Love it!

Here is the back of the castle showing the room where we'll be eating later in the week.

Check out the snow on Main Street!!  The boys were fascinated although Tyler said it was soap after catching some on his tongue.  Oops.  Not quite like home.

 

Saturday morning we had reservations at Cinderella's Royal Table at Ryan's request.  I was psyched because I figured there was no way I'd see the princesses with two boys.  Yes!  When he first declared that is where he wanted to eat, Tyler started to balk.  I stopped him with one threat... if he ruined this, he would still be eating with the princesses except that he would be dressed as Aladdin.  I heard no more complaints.  In fact, Tyler was quite pleased once he learned who we would be eating with.  Cousins!!

After our experience running to Chef Mickey's, you would think we'd be early for this reservation, but you would be wrong.  We ended up running again!!  At least they waited a bit to take the picture this time.

Halfway through breakfast I realized that I had made a huge mistake.  A couple of months after Ryan initially made his request, he told me that the reason he wanted to eat in the castle was that a friend said he'd get a cupcake.  Really.  When we got to Disney, Ryan asked if we were going to eat in the castle right away and get the cupcake.  That morning he mentioned the cupcake again.  Clearly, he had not forgotten.  And, then I realized that I booked breakfast and they don't serve cupcakes with breakfast!!  Aaaaahhh!!  I looked around and sure enough, no cupcakes.  This was not good.  But, Disney came through and the table was served cupcakes after a panicked run to our waiter.  Phew!!  It was all worth it when he turned to Tyler and said "see, I told you there would be cupcakes."  Ha!

We did see lots of princesses!  Snow White.

Ok, I'll admit that I don't know who this is.  We'll call her the pink princess.  My nieces would be ashamed of me.

Ariel.

Is this Jasmine?  You'll have to wait for Sara's blog to know for sure.

On our way out we grabbed a quick shot with the lobby knight.

Ryan made a great choice.  So, after a great morning we went our separate ways.  Back to boy things...

We had to ride Dumbo, but were pleased to discover that there are two!!  And, they give you a beeper so the kids can go into a play area while they wait instead of just standing in line.  Awesome!

Check out the red corvette at the Tomorrowland Speedway.  Just like Grandpa's!  The boys were disappointed to discover that these cars didn't go any faster than the antique cars at our local amusement park.  Oh well.

The favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom was the Buzz Lightyear ride.  We went on it many, many times.

Yes, we met back up with the cousins Saturday night.  Yay!  Look, we found the perfect spot for them!

We checked out the Winnie the Pooh ride and I think the kids enjoyed the wait more than the ride itself.  Disney does a really good job at entertaining everywhere.

Virtual honey.  Perfect.

And, that was just the line!

We then went our separate ways for good.  It was brief, but great to see them!

On our way out of the park we decided to try one more ride... the Astro Blaster.  We had to take an elevator to the top of a building for this one.  It was a bit scary up there!!  I wouldn't have blamed Tyler if he was afraid of this one, but he seemed to be just fine.  I think I would have been ok if I was riding with Dan too.  Yikes!

More random pics...

Characters, characters, characters...

And, a surprise!

Ryan took credit for going on Splash Mountain.  I'm ok with blaming him for my wet rear.  Here's a hint, don't wear jean shorts when you are going to get wet.

More magic.  Ty is a pretty good actor, isn't he?

This is our second time on Space Mountain.  They went on willingly both times.  Remember Everest?  They both should have hated this.  I was very concerned when we went on the first time.  It is dark!!  And, fast!!  But, they did great.

This Mickey actually talks!!  He had the boys doing their best Buzz Lightyear pose.  And, then they told me that they had to go on the Buzz ride again because Mickey said so.  Oh joy.

The Magic Kingdom was magical.

But, not magical enough for me to want to go back any time soon.