Almost Done: Day 6: Hollywood Studios (again)

The first thing on our agenda for Hollywood Studios, was to ride the Toy Story Mania ride.  We have heard numerous people tell us how awesome it is.  Waiting in line was fun because they made all these giant toys to make it look like we were the size of toys.  It was fun to look at them all and see really old toys that you had when you were a kid. 

Bella not wanting her picture taken

Still waiting in line...Noah loved the giant Mr. Potato Head; it's one of his favorite toys.  His face doesn't look that excited though, does it?

This is what you ride in.  It's an interactive 3D ride, (well 4D ride if you count getting splashed with water when you pop some of the balloons) kind of like at a carnival and you get to shoot at things and throw rings around little green aliens, and throw baseballs to break plates.  It was a fun ride and definitely worth the wait. 

Next, we went on the "Hollywood Studio Backlot Tour".  Studio Backlot Tour is a 35-minute, behind-the-scenes guided walk and tram ride showcasing the art of special effects in movies at Hollywood Studios. 

Us on the tram going "behind the scenes"...

We found this from Return of the Jedi

At the end of the tour, we visited the showcase of villains' costumes and paraphanelia.  We ran into Darth Vader here.  Lydia cracks me up in this picture!!

Noah loved the light saber and the swords...a true boy!!

 Right nearby, we found Mike Wazowski from Monsters.  I can't imagine what Noah was thinking as he was staring at this one eyed green thing. 

After a lunch break, we split up. Garrett took Lydia on StarTours. Once again, I chose not to ride this one, even though I love Star Wars, because you ride in a flight-motion simulator vehicle, which gets me really sick! Lydia had a great time, though. 

After we were done shopping in the Star Wars store, we came out to this parade:

It's the Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun Parade.  There were characters from the Incredibles, Ratatouille, Up, A Bug's Life, Toy Story and Monsters, Inc. 

We split up again, but this time had Maggie take all the kids to see the Disney Jr. Show with Mickey Mouse while Garrett and I went to the "Great Movie Ride".  It's housed in a building that is a replica of  Grauman's Chinese Theatre, complete with hand and footprints of celebrities.   

This one's for you mom...:)

I love movies, so I thought this was a cool ride.  They had scenes from different popular movies and even had some real actors acting out part of a gangster movie and we were right in the middle of it.  They mostly used lifelike Audio-Animatronic replicas of legendary movie stars in the scenes.  Some of the movies were Raiders of the Lost Arc, Mary Poppins, Aliens, Casablanca, Wizard of Oz, and some Gangster movie I don't know the name of.  It was fun!

Next, we grabbed some ice cream and headed to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show.  Noah was freaking out for his own ice cream, so Garrett and I shared.  He really liked it, can you tell?

A scene from the Stunt Show...pretty cool

After this Garrett took Lydia and Maggie back to Star Tours and the rest of us walked around, getting Noah to sleep.  Paige was really good about walking around the whole time without complaining.  I'm sure she was pretty bored, but we couldn't go on anything with Noah asleep.  Bella got to ride in the stroller the whole time, so she didn't care what we did. 

In front of Star Tours, they had "Jedi Training" against Darth Vader.  Maggie took these.  She and Lyd are pretty big Star Wars fans these days. 

When Garrett and the girls got back, Maggie and I went on the Aerosmith Rockin' Roller Coaster which was a lot of fun. Then Garrett went on it with Maggie.  Maggie seemed to get to do most things twice.

The Tower of Terror

Maggie kept saying she wanted to go on this one.  Here it was the end of the day and we hadn't made it a priority.  I don't like free-falling, so I wasn't going to go at all.  Then when I was waiting for Garrett and the girls to get back from Star Tours, I kept watching this ride and trying to talk myself into it.  By the time they did get back, I was all set to go on it.  But we had fastpasses for the rockin' roller coaster that were about to expire, so we went on that first.  When we were done, Garrett told us to go and ride on Tower of Terror because we were about to leave.  We got right up to the line and we both decided that we didn't want to do it.  So, yes we are big chickens and I have a small amount of regret that I didn't try it.  But not a lot.  Oh well, there's always next time.  :)

Back at the resort eating dinner.  After dinner, the kids (minus Maggie and Noah) went swimming and I got Noah in bed and had a chance to read a book. It was fairly chilly at night, I really don't know how they swam.  They loved it though. 

French fries with dad

Disney World..Traveling and Day 1: Hollywood Studios

For Christmas, Garrett and I surprised the kids with a trip to DisneyWorld in January.  (I think I forgot to mention that in my Christmas post).  So the day finally arrived that we were going to the Happiest Place on Earth!!

We left for Florida on Sunday January 22nd and flew ALL day!  It was a long day.  Noah slept a little bit on the plane, but not enough.

Eating teddy grahams and watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on my phone.  That little Mickey did not leave his side the whole trip.  He LOVES it!

Eating Quiznos at the airport during our layover in Kansas City

Riding to our hotel on the Disney's Magical Express bus that picked us up at the airport.

 Our resort was pretty fun with giant icons all around the resort that are from the 20th-century popular culture crazes—there were giant 8-tracks, yo-yo's, a big wheel, giant foos-ball players and Mr. and Mrs. Potato heads.  It was pretty fun!

 This giant Mickey Mouse was in front of our building and the first time that Noah saw it, he was a little bit scared, even being the big Mickey fan that he is!

Eating a late dinner at the cafeteria. 

Noah would feed Mickey a bite of his food before he fed himself...it was so funny!

He did surprisingly well though, considering we were eating dinner at 11:00 at night and then not getting to bed til about 1 am.  The Disney Resort was supposed to get our luggage for us, but it didn't get to our hotel till about 12:45 am.  Noah had a hard time sleeping that night.  Being in a new place and over exhausted didn't help.  Turns out there is no fridge and no microwave in the rooms at Pop Century, so he had a hard time with not having a warm bottle before bed.  I've been wanting to wean him from that, so that was one positive thing that came from this experience.  So, Garrett and I had to take turns getting him back to sleep that night--took 2 or 3 times.   Then he woke up really early that morning and Garrett got him back to sleep till about 10 or so.  The girls had been up for an hour wanting to get going, but I made them stay in their room (we had adjoining rooms) and watch tv until Noah woke up.  So, we got a really late start this first day.  Oh well. 

For our first day, we went to Hollywood Studios. Since we were so late getting started AND because I wanted to get back to the hotel to give Noah and Bella a decent bedtime, we didn't get to do much. But, it was an exciting start...

Taken at the resort (they are standing inside the cirlce of the 8 in the 80's sign)

Waiting for the bus

Decade signs in front of the resort

 Just getting to the park and picking up the stroller.

The stroller was a whole other issue that we had to deal with.  Our good friends who have been to Disney numerous times suggested that we rent one of the strollers at the park for the whole week.  That way we wouldn't have to take ours on the plane and transport it on the bus each day.  It was going to be spendy, but worth it.  I thought it was a GREAT idea as long as it was comfortable enough for Noah to take a nap in.   Anyone that knows me, knows that I'm pretty strict with naps, so this whole week was looking pretty stressful to me knowing that Noah was going to be tired and cranky.  So, we went to pick up the stroller, and I was so upset that it was a tiny hard seat that didn't recline.  There was no way that he would ever take a nap in that stroller.  So, I was pretty stressed out, but trying to just deal with it.  We ended up having to carry him when he was tired and get him to sleep on our shoulders and carry him while he napped.  My arms and back ache just thinking about it!  (I'm sure I sound like a Debbie Downer here, but I'm just trying to record all my feelings so that I can remember everything.  I did have a good time and things got much better, I promise.  The first day on vacation is always the hardest with kids in my experience.)

 I loved all the buildings and the themes of each of the parks...so fun!

Right off, we were all hungry so we headed to Pizza Planet for lunch.  Look how tired Noah looks! It was a cute place with lots of arcade games, but we didn't play any; we wanted to get out and see things.

Next, we headed over to the Disney Jr. show for Noah and Bella.  They have a 30 minute show featuring Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Little Einstein and Handy Manny.  It was really cute and Noah and Bella loved seeing all the characters. 

After that, we went to watch the "Voyage of the Little Mermaid"  It was kind of cool.  They made Ursula really scary looking and huge.  I had just gotten Noah to sleep while we were waiting in line for this.  He'd been asleep maybe 15 minutes when we went in to be seated.  Of course, he woke up as soon as the music started.  I'm sure he was pretty freaked out to wake up and see this giant, ugly purple thing. 

Then we went to see "Lights, Motor, Action Extreme Stunt Show".  This was fun to watch and it was interesting to watch how they do all these stunts for movies.  The kids all loved the explosions!  They only showed a few minutes worth of Lightning McQueen.  I kind of wish they showed more of him.  But it was good.

This picture is so funny!  Noah really wanted his own ice cream...he didn't want to share with Bella.

Then we went to watch "Beauty and the Beast, Live on Stage".  They did a really good job on this and Bella really liked this one.  We just got the movie Beauty and the Beast for Christmas, so she's very into it right now.  I loved Gaston, he was so funny!

By this time, it was around 6 o'clock.  Everyone was tired and Noah was cranky.  So, we decided to go back and eat dinner at the hotel, then I would get Noah to bed and Garrett would take the girls swimming.  Everyone was happy with the plan. 

The weather was perfect!  So sunny and beautiful!  A little hot, but I love the sun!  All in all it was a good day and we were all excited to go to the Magic Kingdom the next day!