Monday, December 7, 2009

Disney, Day 4

Wednesday we headed for Hollywood Studios, formerly known as Disney MGM studios for those who don't go more often than once a decade...like us. Tell you what, I like the Changes, both Christmas-y and not. We also did laundry Tuesday night, so we could all wear our shirts again. I tell you in the crowds, it really helps to be all wearing the same thing, especially when it's bright yellow!



Frankly, when we were headed there, our only plan was to the Playhouse Disney show, the Toy Story Mania, and the Star Wars Gift Shop, but that place had lots more that went along with it. First we sent the boys to the back to get FastPasses for Toy Story Mania, the newest ride, while Mamas and kids went to get in line for the first Playhouse Disney show of the day.



We investigated the area a bit, and found that next to the Disney Animation presentation (which the kids would NOT Have sat through) there were some character meet and greets. We got to meet Russel and Karl from UP!



The kids were hypnotized once the characters appeared, but by the end Chris was dancing. Sam was entertained by the lenscap from the camera until the show began. Then we got to see Mickey again, this time he was all festively bedecked in his Fantasia garb, which was cool too. Very Cool.



When we left we were able to go meet Jojo and Goliath. Apparently Jojo is a girl, I made the Disney employee snort when I told Chris to "Go sit with him, her, her him, Jojo." Then we headed towards Toy Story Mania with our FastPasses. We bumped into a Green Army Man walking down the street, and I stopped for a photo and autograph op. Totally unprompted, the green army man, put Chris's arms up in Strong Boy pose. That got me crying again, because even the Green Army Man got what a strong brave boy I have.



From there we hit Toy Story Mania, it's like an arcade ride, where you have a 'gun' and you spin around and it stops and you shoot. The waiting area was cool, as we're surrounded by giant sized toys. Eric did well one handed with Sam, but I was helping Chris hand over hand, and he got it eventually. But All My Boys LOVED that ride! Oh yeah, and it used 3D glasses. A big hit with the kids!



From there Chris spotted Buzz and Woody signing autographs but the line was atrocious, and we were hungry, so we went to Pizza Planet (from Toy Story) and were actually able to avoid the crowds a bit, and I got a super yummy veggie pizza. We did a bit of shopping for Christmas ornaments, then headed off to Star Wars. Of course, the kids were too little to ride, so we just hit the gift shop and the photo opportunities.



But Chris was melting down in the gift shop, so we left to go home for naps.
This was the Julius clan's last day, so they stayed a bit longer. Their plan was to meet us at our room, so they could change, and pick up a few goodies. Chris was sound asleep when they arrived, and it was so sweet. He woke up to Emily appearing by his side, that was a Great Wake Up call for him. We had a bittersweet goodbye, and escorted them to the front of Port Orleans.



As we left them at the bus stop, we couldn't quite decide what we wanted to do with our evening, so we decided to take the next bus that came along. It was Epcot. So we went there, we hadn't been able to hit any of the World Showcase the day before, so we headed there. But after hearing about how much Emily loved her Secret Mission, and being a Special Agent on missions around the 'world'. We decided to sign Chris up too. He LOVED it!



They gave him a special cell phone, and when we'd reach a spot, either something would happen to that area, like in a gift shop, or it would send us on. He even got a free golf ball, for conquering the bad guy in the U.K. and he blew up a bad robot in the gift shop in Japan. He had a great time, but Mommy was So Tired. Once we hit Japan, we opted to stop for supper, a little sushi. We had no reservations, but there wasn't a bad wait for people who just wanted sushi. Chris even got 'chicken on a stick' aka yakitori, the chef put his teriyaki chicken on tiny sticks just for Chris. Chris was singing along when he heard the birthday song, so we told them his was coming too, and he got them to sing to him and bring him a cake.
Our lovely evening went downhill as our dinner was coming to an end, the Fireworks show began. From inside the restaurant, Chris started getting worked up, we went outside only to find it had started raining, and there were loud fireworks. We were going to have to get closer to them to get out of the park. We made a mad dash for the 'back door', I remembered an International Gateway that opened to some stuff behind. We thought we could take a boat to Downtown Disney. Um no. The boat went to a couple resorts behind. The fireworks had ended and the crowd was with us, half divided to the boat, half walked on, so we rolled on. We kept glancing in the map, but we were totally confused as to how to get home. We rolled into the Yacht Club, to ask directions. Boy talk about Swanky! Chris fell in love with the giant Gingerbread Carousel they had going in there.



From there we hopped a Bus for Downtown Disney (the only park still open), and got on the bus from there to Port Orleans. Oy.

1 comments:

Unknown said...

It looks like you guys had a great time! Jack is loving looking at the pictures--especially since he is seeing Chris do all the things we have been telling him about. I just love how Sam looks like such the laid back cool little cookie in all the photos. =)