Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Disney World - Day 4: Hollywood Studios

Hollywood Studios held an extra level of excitement because we had a reservation for the Disney Jr. character breakfast. Mallory and Aubrey had been hearing about "breakfast with the Little Einsteins, Handy Manny and Special Agent Oso" for weeks! Our reservation even got us into the park early!
Aubrey and Mallory were "patiently" waiting...
...but SO excited to see the characters.
I think Mallory was also excited for the food.
Buffets are a kid's best friend.
(...even though kids under 3 eat free,
she got her money's worth!)
Yummy Mickey waffles!
Special Agent Oso...
ridiculously goofy bear, but the kids love him.
June from Little Einsteins
Leo from Little Einsteins
There are FOUR Little Einsteins, but only two were scheduled to be at the breakfast. Just as I suspected ... Mallory asked, "Momma, where Quincy and Annie go??"
Handy Manny!
We immediately fast passed the Toy Story ride since it is the most popular ride in the park and we were not interested in standing in a 90-minute line!

Next Casey and I occupied the girls while Summer & Brian had their turn on Tower of Terror - I forgot how much I love that ride!! There's nothing like feeling your stomach jump into your throat, haha!
Hollywood Studios is a really cool park, but it's a different kind of entertainment. There are more shows than rides and yet it still has something to offer "kids" of all ages. We took the girls to see the Little Mermaid show (complete with cool ocean sprays of water over the audience and bubbles!) and then the Disney Jr. stage show where they got to see the rest of their pals. It also made me feel a little better about the amount of Disney Jr. TV Mallory watches ... every kid and parent in the room was singing along!
Lots of dancing and clapping!!
Jake & the Neverland Pirates is a fairly new show on Disney Jr.
...featuring none other than Captain Hook and Smee!
Okay, okay, you wouldn't have gotten ME out of the park without taken the girls to the "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" play area where you are the "shrunken kids". I still remember this from my first trip to Disney World when I was 10. SO much fun and of course, Mal and Aubrey could have played there all day!

Sliding down the roll of film...
Enjoying the tree root slides...
Okay moms ... you think Play-Doh is awful now ... imagine that giant can being ground into your carpet. Ha! Casey and Mal were standing under the "leaky hose" which kept squirting them with water.
Mallory would have walked through this cargo net structure 50 times ... we honestly dragged her out of here (crying) to go eat lunch.
After lunch, and four straight days of park excitement, the girls were spent. Here's Aubrey nearly napped out in her stroller. (I have no idea how that was comfortable...)
We headed to Aerosmith's Rock N Roller Coaster to get a second fast pass to use on our return trip to the park that evening. But .... we figured since the girls were wasted anyway, we might as well ride once and THEN head home. Casey and I went first - BEST ROLLER COASTER EVER!! Neither of us had ridden before ... it was closed for maintenance (or something!) during our trip to Disney in 2007 ... it was definitely worth the wait!!

Then, while Brian & Summer rode, we walked next door and enjoyed the Beauty and the Beast Stage Show (which also hasn't changed since I was 10, haha, although now it's in an amphitheater of sorts, it used to be standing room only). Lovely show and the girls were intrigued.
Mallory got a little emotional at the end ...
Disney movies have a way of tugging at even the smallest hearts.
I'm sure you're not surprised that we couldn't help grabbing a snack on our way out of the park. Kane family trip favorites: soft pretzels and frozen lemonade!
Like I said, they were toast.
We came back a little after 7pm and used our fast passes to ride Toy Story. Awesome ride and by far one of my favorites. It's like a county fair-type shooting game within the ride. And it's in 3-D ... super fun! Gotta love the glasses!
After the ride we made our way to find a seat for the night time show - Fantasmic! It's a live stage show combined with Disney film clips and just like everything else, it was pretty amazing. Good and Evil were represented by 30+ characters and I found myself as captivated as Mallory. She got to enjoy another frozen lemonade and her momma got to enjoy 20 minutes of Mallory on her lap. It would have been the perfect end to yet another day, BUT we still had that Rock N Roller Coaster fast pass to use up. And ... we got to sit in the very front seat! So that ended up being the perfect end to our day!

I can feel the trip coming to a close, but we still had plenty to do at Epcot, so I'll hold onto the fun for another day!

No comments: