Day 5 - Hollywood Studios and More Magic Kingdom

Toy Story Mania!

We got to Hollywood Studios before it opened and once we got in it was a mad dash to Toy Story Mania. I had never seen anything like it before. Thank goodness Doug had done his research to know that we needed to go there right away and get a fast pass. We realized once we were there that the line wasn't too long so we decided to just get in line to ride Toy Story Mania instead of getting a fast pass. This turned out to be a good decision. The ride was a lot of fun, but I'm not sure it was worth all the hype except for the fact that it was the only kid ride in Hollywood Studios. 

While we were in Pixar Place the kids took a picture with Buzz and Woody.

After leaving Pixar we headed over to Animation Courtyard. Playhouse Disney—Live on Stage!™

was enjoyable, but the downside was that we sat on the floor and the puppets were controlled from the floor of the stage so they weren't very easy to see. They were a couple feet too short so we didn't get the full effect of the show. However, the kids didn't seem to mind which is really what matters.

Star Wars: Jedi Training Academy was by far the coolest part of our day. The kids were trained to be young Jedis by joining forces with a Jedi Knight against the Dark Side! The kids were trained in the art of fighting with a lightsaber, then put to the test as they face off against Darth Vader himself. Jacob, Ethan and Audrey handled themselves very well, but I definitely saw some children shaking when it was their turn to fight Darth Vader.

In the picture below Jacob is in the back, Audrey is to the right in a pink shirt and Ethan is to the right of her with the hood on his head.

Darth Vader shows up!

Jacob battles Darth Vader!

Audrey was much braver than I thought she would be.

Ethan was ready to fight!

After a tough day of Jedi Training we headed over to Pizza Planet for lunch.

We finished our day at Hollywood Studios with a couple more shows. Indiana Jones™ Epic Stunt Spectacular! was really cool, but Voyage of The Little Mermaid was not very memorable. Disney World has so many shows that it almost becomes numbing after awhile. It's important to make sure you only pick the ones that you really want to see and don't waste your time with the maybes. The only thing we wish we could have done while we were there was Star Tours. It was closed that day and it was one of the things we were really looking forward to doing.

We spent the second half of our day at Magic Kingdom riding all the rides we loved from the day before. We went on Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain. We didn't do any shows that afternoon which was a nice reprieve.

Day 4 - Time to Relax

We all slept in on Wednesday morning and didn't have breakfast until 10 am. We did some laundry and then went down to the pool. The Pirate Ship slide and pool was closed for a while so we had to hang out in a different pool until it opened. Once we were able to go over to the other pool Ethan, Jacob and Doug went down the Pirate Ship waterslide for the next hour or so and we found a smaller water slide for Audrey that she never grew tired of. It was a nice change of pace from the park adventures we had the last two days.

That night we went to the Hoop-Dee-Do dinner show at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground. We had front row seats and Ethan even found a way to work himself into the show. Since the stage was right next to us two of the actors were standing over Ethan at one point. So, Ethan decided to stick his tongue out at the guy, who is shown on the right in the picture below. It made the actor laugh and he actually worked it into the show.

Day 3 - Magic Kingdom

There is a reason it is called Magic Kingdom. It was nothing but magical for us and the kids all day.

Ethan was tall enough to ride Space Mountain and loved it. Even though Audrey was very close to being able to ride it I'm pretty sure she would have been scared.

Audrey was still a little skiddish after the Flick show from the day before. A few minutes into the ride we realized that she should have rode with Doug or I.

Car racin'...sort of!

The kids got to tour Mickey's and Minnie's homes!

Jacob was chosen to be in Storytime with Belle. We knew that Ethan was a disappointed it wasn't him, but Jacob did a great job playing Gaston.

He even had a speaking role. He had to say "You will marry me Belle" three times.

Ethan didn't want to be in the picture and meet Belle. Hmmm, I wonder why?

Lunch at Cinderella's Castle

This was the highlight of our day. Audrey got a professional picture taken of her and Cinderalla. The food was great and the kid's loved meeting all the princesses.

They gave the boys swords and wands to the girls.

More princesses!

Thunder Mountain was our favorite ride. First of all, Audrey was able to ride it, and second of all there were no lines. We rode the ride four times back to back and Audrey raised her hands the whole time. The screaming coming out of Audrey and Ethan was hilarious.

It started to rain so we hung out in a few shops while we waited for it to stop. The boys had fun playing with the merchandise while we killed time.

So sweet!

The fireworks show was great, but Audrey had had enough. Thank goodness we borrowed a stroller from the Simmons to take with us to Disney World. I don't know what we would have done if we didn't have it. It was definitely a lifesaver.

Day 2 - Animal Kingdom

We started our morning off by having breakfast at the Cape May Cafe in our hotel with a meet and greet with some of the Disney Characters. The kids loved it.

We patiently waited for Animal Kingdom to open. We tried to get there before the parks opened so we could do a couple things without much of a crowd. However, the first thing on our schedule for the day was very disappointing. Doug had planned everything out using a park planner and the first thing they said we should do was a 3-D Flick show. It scared the kids to death. Huge Black Widows dropped from the ceiling, water, wind and stink bug smell sprayed on us and bugs in 3-D swormed around our faces. The first question the kids asked when we went to see a show for the whole week was whether they were going to get sprayed. As the day went on things got better. We saw some bats that were really cool and Ethan got completely soaked on a water ride which we all laughed about.

One of the coolest things Doug got to do was go on stage for the Birds of Prey show and take a picture of this owl. You can see us sitting in the audience on the right.

Seeing the Bald Eagle was also pretty cool!

Next, we went on a safari. It was similar to Northwest Trek in Washington, although we saw a lot more animals. The only downside to this safari was that they talked about poachers the whole time. It would have been a lot more enjoyable if we didn't have to hear about how people kill these animals in the wild for sport. As terrible as it is, I didn't want to hear about it while I was on this type of a vacation.

We caught Animal Kingdom's parade. Which Doug had heard was not worth your time, but the kids enjoyed it.

Before leaving Animal Kingdom Audrey took a picture with Pocahontas. She wanted to meet her but she was very shy when she walked up to her. However, it was a good warm-up to all the princesses she would meet tomorrow. 

Our biggest lessons learned on the second day was that it was going to be a hot week, so sweating was impossible to avoid. Even though we had moments of fun Animal Kingdom was not our cup of tea, so we would probably never go again if we go back to Disney World. Lastly, don't trust the bus drivers. Doug made dinner reservations at a restaurant in the Animal Kingdom resort. Unfortunately, there's two resorts there and when we stopped at the first one the bus driver said it was at the second resort. When we got to the second one they said it was at the other resort. By the time we got back to the first one...we had to wait for another bus to take us there...our table was no longer held for us. This pushed our time to leave back which meant we missed the bus that would take us back to Animal Kingdom, then to our hotel. If we were finished about 15-30 minutes sooner it would have taken us 30 minutes tops to get back to our room. Instead, we had to go to Downtown Disney to catch a connecting bus to our hotel. We arrived to our room 2 hours after we left the restaurant. Next time we'll pay for a cab.

Day 1 - Check In

We stayed at the Beach Club Resort and arrived in the late afternoon. The picture of Doug and Audrey has our hotel in the background. They had a pirate ship waterslide at the pool, which the kids couldn't wait to go down. But, for tonight it was dinner and bed so we would be ready for a big day tomorrow.

Our Drive Down to Disney World

We got back from Disney World last week and I planned on blogging about it much sooner than this. I was actually hoping to blog while I was there, but the fee to connect to the internet at the hotel was almost $10 a day and most days I didn't have the energy or time to do it anyway. Our drive down there was fun and it felt like the time flew by. I actually did a little school with kids in the car, which was met with some complaining, but what can you expect since we were on vacation. The only thing Audrey couldn't grasp on the way down was the concept of time. One hour into our 15+ hour drive she asked if we were there yet. I don't remember if she ever completely stopped asking, but it really didn't matter because we were all excited to get there. We spent the night in Georgia before arriving to Disney World on Saturday, September 4th. There was a Cracker Barrel, a midwest/east coast restaurant for you west coast folks. They have a gift shop in the front of the restaurant and the kids picked out something for themselves. They had a blast with the glasses, teeth and frog that Ethan is holding. I think Jacob's pose looks a little Elvisish, but I think he was going for a different effect.

Audrey's 1st Dance Lesson

Audrey had her first combo class on Monday. She is doing ballet and tap and LOVES it! All of us were able to go and watch her on her first day. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. Surprisingly, the boys were interested in seeing her, which I thought was sweet.

Audrey loved getting dressed up and having me put her hair up. She also wanted me to make sure I took a picture of her heart on the back.

I wasn't sure how well she would follow instructions, but she did very well and it seemed very natural for her.