Thursday, January 12, 2012

Disney World, Day 3, January 4th

Well, since we'd been out and about until pretty late after our fancy dinner at the Grand Flo, we opted to let the kids sleep in the next morning. This was Wednesday, and we'd decided to go visit Hollywood Studios.



But first a leisurely morning. Girls lounging about in bed.



Though come to think of it, some boys I know were lounging a bit too. But watching tv allowed all the parents to bathe, and that was a very good thing.



Off we went to Hollywood Studios. And of course, I had to stop in front of the tree for a picture. We did the same thing last time we went. Actually, anytime there's a photopass guy or a neat photo opportunity, I made everybody stop. I think they may have gotten a little annoyed with me. Only slightly. Eventually, everyone may be glad I took 1300 pictures. Not including the photopass ones. ;)



As we had prepared for Magic Kingdom the day before, Christopher had made a list (he comes by it honestly) of the rides he really really wanted to do. His list was: It's a Small World, Toy Story Mania, Buzz Lightyear, and Epcot Ball (spaceship Earth). Well, we'd crossed off It's a Small World on the first day. So as we headed to Hollywood Studios we went dashing off for the fastpass line, but it was too far ahead of us. So we decided to try and see if Chris's Special Pass would get us all in. According to the gal at Guest Relations, it is only good for a maximum of 6 people. Luckily, the 9 of us included 6 paying guests, and 3 littles, aka 3 two year olds that were too tiny to register as paying guests. Well, that was another reason we went now, before Sam and the twins turned three. When we used Chris's Pass on Peter Pan the day before, not everyone wanted to ride, so it wasn't an issue to get us all on. The fastpass line returnees were low enough and the Castmembers were kind enough to let us all on at the same time. Bless Them! So all 9 of us piled on to Toy Story Mania! which I must say is Christopher's favorite ride.



I must confess I have a great time on that ride too. That whole street is one of Chris's favorites, there's the Toy Story ride, and a meet and greet with Buzz and Woody, and once again we got lucky finding Green Army Man walking down the street. Last time, he made me cry, having the green army man pick up on how strong my sweetboy is, so I screamed when we saw him again. Weird, maybe, but also Very Cool.



From there we headed off to Star Tours. The boys had made mad dashes and gotten photopasses for us. So we took some awesomely cheesy photos of the kids on the Speeder Bike. My boys have grown so much since the last time we went.



The big kids were pretty sweet all together too. We did Rider swap with Eric and Mike taking Chris on the newly revamped Star Tours, then Chris got to ride again with Kathleen and I. He was totally stoked, walking us through it, telling us exactly what to do. And when it was done, he gave us a "THAT WAS AWESOME!!!!"



Initially the twins didn't want to get on. But Kristin talked herself free, and got on, all by herself. She was so proud that she could drive the bike. Enchanting!




Mike was quite the proud papa of his little princess, who looks quite the young lady on the speeder bike now.



But even more fun, we took the big kids into the Star Tours gift shop after the rides, and they got to build their own Light Sabers. Emily chose a purple one.



Christopher chose a Blue one.



And Sam chose a Green one.



It was clear pretty quickly many fights were going to break out, so we opted to sent the Light Sabers back to Old Key West, where Mike picked them up later in the week. Since we've arrived home, Sam has been a stitch with them. This morning Christopher told us he was Luke Skywalker, and he told Sam he was Yoda. Sam said, Yeah, I'm Yoda! Chris immmediately asked him, Yoda where's Darth Vader? Sam said, in all seriousness, "I don't know." This evening he was chasing brother around the room, both of them armed with their Light Sabers, yelling, "Yeah, we've got our light sabors, Let's go get the Light Saber guys!" And off they ran. I think Daddy's a little proud around here too.

After filling our cups full of all the geeky star wars cuteness that we could, we went and filled our bellies at Pizza Planet, the Toy Story pizza shop. I think I have bad kharma there, because we got a tiny table, but the wait for food, and the crowd had everyone losing their minds by the time we ate, and it was 2. We purposely ate late to avoid the crowds, and failed miserably.

However, the day was redeemed, as we were at Pizza Planet, we noticed that Phineas and Ferb had a meet and greet right around the corner. So we hit that, even though we had to wait in line for and additional 15 minutes while they took a break, it was worth it.

While they were on break, they had a 'director' come out and prepare some of the kids to help them film “We’re Making a Movie - The Movie”. Of course, our adorable older kids got roles on 'the film'.



Christopher was the "GNOME OF TERROR". His job was to lift his gnome whenever the director said Gnome of Terror, and all of us were to shriek with fear.




Emily got the coveted job of holder of the letter G in the word Aglet. Do you know what an aglet is? The little plastic thing at the end of your shoelaces. If you didn't know, you need to brush up on your Phineas and Ferb songs.





Then came the time we were all waiting for. To meet Phineas and Ferb! The kids were thrilled and they ran right into their arms. Another big hit for this was that we were all wearing our Perry shirts on this day. And Chris got to dance with Phineas.



Hey Where's Perry?



Oh, there you are Perry. Sam was tired by the time of the meet and greet. Sometimes I wonder if he was playing the samtrum boy and burying his head in our shoulders when the characters came around, because anytime a character showed him some love, he's smile and ham up, cheer up immediately. It happened here too. Ferb was enchanting to Sam.



As we were headed out of the park, we stopped one last time to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater from Cars. The photopass guys got the big group photos, but I snapped a couple of the kids poking at Lightning. They were thrilled because the Lightning McQueen didn't have stickers anymore, he had real headlights. That made up for the fact that they couldn't sign our books because they don't have hands. ;)



As the moon rose, we headed back to the villa because Grandma was coming a babysitting. We opted to not nap the kids, so she could get them down to bed early if she needed too. We were afraid if they napped, and we didn't have to get them up they'd have been hard to get down to sleep later. As it turned out, they did wonderfully for Grandma.



Meanwhile, the Mommies and Daddies got a hot date at the California Grill on the top of the Contemporary. We got there a smidgeon early, so we popped out on the veranda to check out the view. I had packed my entire camera bag, because all I wanted was really good sushi, and some good pictures of Cinderella castle. I got both.



Last time we went, the sushi was so good it made Eric cry. Well, since we'd all teared up with Prince Charming the night before, the sushi was downgraded to just plain awesome. The food was so good, and the ambience so nice. We had a wonderful time. Our dinner was timed just right so that between dinner and dessert the Magic Kingdom fireworks show came on. So we stepped outside once again to the top of the Contemporary to watch the Wishes show. I went a little bonkers taking pictures of the fireworks.



But I just thought they were so beautiful. And I love my new camera. I took 80 pictures of the castle and fireworks shows that night, all without a tripod, and some of them turned out darn good.



We'd had some mighty yummy cocktails with our dinner, and we got a wild hair to go back over to Magic Kingdom and do a little shopping. Love that Park Hopper Option! Imagine the madness, Shopping WITHOUT the kids! Crazy. It was peaceful, and fun, and once again, I got carried away taking picture of the everchanging Castle. I love the lights they put on it during the holidays.



After it got cold enough to freeze my bare toes, we headed back home to our villa, for tomorrow was another busy wonderful day. And as they say Let the Memories Begin...



And Continue!

1 comments:

Yasher said...

Love, love, LOVE the photos! The moon with the palm tree, the castle, the fireworks - fantastic!