Vacation Day 5: Disney Hollywood Studios
We went to DHS in September 2010. I don't remember too much about it other than it was incredibly hot and humid that day and then it rained. On our last trip in February, we skipped it. I was actually looking forward to giving it another try.

Our day started bright and early with a character meal!!! We did the Play and Dine with the Disney Jr characters at Hollywood and Vine. I'd read some less than stellar reviews of this meal on the disboards but we thought we'd give it a try ourselves. I'm glad to say that we had a great experience!!! The food choices were somewhat limited but what was there was well presented and fresh. G had great fun dancing and playing with Jake (from the Neverland Pirates), June (from her favorite show The Einsteins) and Special Agent Oso. The restaurant wasn't too busy and the characters came around many times each and spent quite a bit of time interacting which was nice. G could hug and dance with them all day long!

After that we took advantage of the low crowds and hit the major rides and attractions including G's fav's Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid. We were also able to ride Toy Story twice. The first time with only a 10 min wait the second time on fastpass. We collected a bunch more character pix and autographs too. That afternoon we encountered our first bit of rain. It was bound to happen eventually of course. We just took some cover and waited it out. It passed pretty quickly. The bad part of the rain is the hour or so before the drops when the humidity and heat increases what seems to be exponentially. It was almost overwhelming for a bit. Ick!

Near the end of the day Bobby rode the Rock and Roll coaster twice. I've never been on it but he loves it. We were going to do kid swap this time so I could give it a try but G was bummed that she's not tall enough to ride so I told her I'd take her to the Animation Bldg to mess around with some of the computer games and see if we could catch Character Palooza.

I'd read about Characterpalooza (or Fan Fest) many times. From what I could gather, on most days at 4:50 (so precise, right?), a bunch of characters just appear in the Animation bldg. No ones ever knows for sure who will be there and its not advertised in any way. You need to be in the know (from reading the disboards or something) or just get lucky and happen upon it. With this limited info we arrived at the animation building at about 4:45 and then waited for something to happen. Five minutes later, it happened... the characters appeared! Cool beans!!!

Once we were done with that we caught a quick dinner and we were outta there! It was a long, hot and exhausting day.

This is us pre opening of DHS about 7:30 in the morning. It was probably the last time we'd feel somewhat cool for the rest of the day.

Georgie has Sorceror Mickey

Georgie loved meeting the Disney Jr characters

Working her ballet moves with June! G loves the Little Einsteins so hanging with June was big

I'm pretty sure Georgie didn't hit even one target but she thought she was doing great!

Matching guns with The Incredibles

Mr Incredible challenged Bobby to an arm wrestle...

Bobby won! then he joined in on the gun show :-)

Playing air guitar with Phineas and Ferb

At Characterpalooza we found Max. I've never really been that clear on Max actually. He's Goofy's son but there doesn't seem to be any clear answer as to who his mother is... I think its a deep, dark Disney secret.

Georgie loves Mary Poppins and the Penguins even though she's never seen the movie. I'm not really sure why.

G's making a "hook" with her finger. She comes up with the funniest stuff!

We met Frozone who's hands are creepily cold and melty... ick!

I think the Evil Queen has met her match in G

I asked G why she thought The Queen was so mean. G decided maybe she needed a hug! I asked The Queen if G could give her a hug and she said with much indifference "well, if she wants to hug me, I guess she could do that. So she did. As G walked away, The Queen looked at me, brushed the front of her dress or cloak or whatever and sighed, "I'll have to have this laundered now"... haha! Its not a wonder that the villains are my favorite. They're so funny!

Fun, fun!

Vacation Day 4: Magic Kingdom
I've read suggestions on disney boards that, of the 4 parks, people should always plan to visit Magic Kingdom (MK) last. The reasoning is that MK is so amazing, sensory overloading and exciting that once you visit there the balance of the parks will be a let down. I used to think that was silly but I'm starting to believe there's some wisdom there.

G loves all the parks and has fun wherever we go but her favorite at WDW is definitely MK. In some ways MK is so much better than Disneyland --the queue theming for Haunted Mansion and Pooh are awesome and Cinderella's Castle is without compare. In some ways it pales --far fewer rides in Fantasyland and WDW's Pirates and Small World are almost embarrassing in comparison to their DL counterparts. I enjoy comparing DL and MK and do it constantly.

Anyway, we got to the park early this time and were able to see the little park opening show they do. Its very cute and G got a kick out of seeing all the characters come in on the train. After that we headed straight for Merida hoping to be first in line. Normally the first child in line gets walked back into the meet and greet area by Merida and spends a bit of extra time calling out the little bear brothers, etc. Very cute! Even though we moved pretty quickly through the entrance we ended up being second. Bummer. Oh well, G didn't seem to mind or even notice. The meet and greet was pretty typical but afterward (I think its supposed to be while you're waiting in line but we didn't have to wait) they have a archery thing set up where they help the kids shoot an arrow at a target. They only shoot it about 3 feet into a one foot round bullseye but G, and every other kid I saw who tried it, thought it was really great when they hit the target :-)

We moved on to more Fantasyland rides. No lines which was pretty great! Its super hot and humid in September but the trade off is no lines whatsoever for almost anything. In about 1hr15mins we rode Peter Pan twice, the tea cups, Pooh, the new Dumbo, and let G have tons of time checking out the Pooh queue area and Storybook Circus play park. It was great! After that it was time to check in for G's Bibbity Bobbity Boutique appointment. We brought our dress and shoes this time. I actually bought the dress several months ago from disney.com. It was the Limited Edition Tangled: Rapunzel's Wedding dress Before this I had no idea that disney dresses came in limited editions but apparantly they do. The dress is stunning, it really is. And, its not only super pretty but well made like a real wedding dress would be. We must have had 100 hundred people come up to us throughout the day asking where we'd gotten it, etc. G loved it!!! The shoes were pretty but I knew they'd be completely impractical for walking more than 10 feet. After taking pictures, G quickly switched to some comfy but really pretty sandals.

Once G had been hair gelled and pixie dusted to her little heart's content we wandered around trying to find fun things to do while staying cool. We visited Mickey and Minnie and the princesses. G actually saw them twice because their line, which is usually a constant 45 min wait, had a zero minute wait! Yay! We also fit in lunch, Mickey's Philharmagic, the carousel, a parade, Tiki Room, Aladdin's Magic Carpet, Small World, gobs of photopass photos, and a one hour stroller nap for G before checking in at the castle for our Cinderella's Royal Table (CRT) dinner. Dinner was tasty but not as good as I recall the lunch being last time we were there. But, what CRT lacked in food it made up for in experience. G loved it and got totally into the princess interaction and silly little wish ceremony they do.

By the time we were done with dinner G'd had enough of that dress and I changed her clothes. Final stop was one of G's fav's: Haunted Mansion including lots of play time in the queue. Again, wait time: zero mins!!

Waiting for the park to open

I didn't know it at the time or I would have paid better attention but I guess the three brother bears behind Merida were puppets that were being operated. The day we were there was one of their last before they were pulled...bummer.

Archery instruction

Pre BBB

G loved the shoes that matched the Rapunzel wedding dress. Not at all practical for walking over a few minutes though. G didn't last long before she switched them out for some others I brought.

The transformation begins!

G was very pleased with her reveal

Afterward we visited with the Tremaines. They were so funny! As soon as they saw G with her bouquet and veil they screeched "Ahhh, are you getting MARRIED??!!!!"

They immediately popped their own veils over their heads and started playing "wedding"

Finally CRT

Later on in the evening. How neat does the castle look with that stormy sky??

G really wanted one of these $10 balloons but was, fortunately, pacified by me taking a picture of her with them.

Vacation Day 3: Chef M's and Blizzard Beach
The day started out bright and early with a quick drive over to the Contemporary Hotel for the Chef Mickey's breakfast. We actually did this in 2010 when we were here with the big kids and, to tell you honestly, I thought the food was pretty bad that time. But, we were planning on doing the water park today and really wanted to hit an outside the parks character meal so I figured we'd give it another shot. Plus, I found G the cutest Chef Mickey outfit to wear   :-)

As it turned out, the food and service was so much better this time around and Georgie loved the characters. They all had lots of fun with her and, because of her little chef's hat, she got tons of attention from the staff. Super cute!

After that we moved on to Blizzard Beach. WDW has two water parks and this one is themed as a ski lodge. Odd actually but very cute. We started out at the wave pool, moved to "ski patrol" (the under age 13 area) for several hours, and eventually moved up to some of the more advanced slides. G loved the fast ones more than I thought she might. I was particularly worried about Snow Stormers which required that she go down a 350 foot twisty turney slide laying on a mat on her tummy by herself. Eeek! I was concerned that she wouldn't hold on or would be terrified but she wasn't in the slightest. She loved it and immediately asked to go on it again! She's getting really brave!

For some crazy reason I got the idea to give Summit Plummet, the park's most adventurous slide,  a try. The Plummet is 120 feet high, has a 12 story drop, and results in travel between 50 and 60 mph! Seriously, what was I thinking??? What little of it I can recall --I had my eyes closed for the majority of the 10 secs or so of the ride-- was pretty thrilling. A huge sheer drop, darkness as I moved through a tunnel, a bit of pain on my back from the friction, a huge whoosh of water and then, all at once, I was no longer moving. Criminey!! When I stood up I found Bobby waiting for me with G (which I felt terrible about. The posted wait time was 15 mins but I'm pretty sure it ended up being like 45 or more). He immediately took a pic of me which will never be posted on this blog or anywhere else. My swim shorts had come unsnapped, my top was pulled up and quite askew, and I had a look of shock on my face. I look a bit like one of those "People of Walmart" photos you see only soaking wet... not pretty whatsoever. BTDT never to be repeated... well maybe, I dunno, it might be nice to try it again with my eyes open  :-)

After the water park we were POOPED! We had lots of fun but we were so tired and my feet, from walking around barefoot on sandy concrete all day, were achey and thrashed. Back to the hotel we went for quick showers and a bite to eat at the resort food court. After that it was pretty much lights out. To think, I'd imagined water park day to be calmer and more restful than park days... uh NOPE!
Minnie smooching on Bobby --ooh la la!

Georgie loved the serve yourself cereal thing and that she was able to get fruit loops. I'm not sure G has ever had them but hey! we're at disney! almost anything goes!

How funny is this expression?

The theme of the water park as as ski resort is pretty funny. Its like 90 degrees and 90% humidity and you're surrounded by plastic snow. Cute!

Self portrait of family on the ski lift

G waited in line for about 20 mins to try this jumpting from "iceberg to iceberg" activity. She was really too small for it and Bobby had to jump in the water and help her.

Fun day! We never did make it to the other water park maybe next trip!