Tinseltown Disney Style

Wednesday will go down in our books as "show day."  There aren't that many rides at Hollywood Studios, and out of those, most are too intense or have height restrictions that are too tall for our crew.  Our plan was to start with Toy Story Mania, let Ian and I get in the single rider lane for Rock 'N Roller Coaster, catch a few shows and OF COURSE "meet" Mater and McQueen and then head out early and take advantage of our hopper passes.

Toy Story Mania is wildly popular and by the time we arrived at the park the line was already 80 minutes long with fast passes available for long after we were planning on leaving.  So Toy Story was a no go for us, good thing our kids aren't too crazy about Woody, Buzz and their friends.

Next part of the plan, Ian accompany the kids to Little Mermaid (Ky was a bit nervous about Ursula appearing and requested Daddy's presence) while I hit Rock 'N Roller Coaster.  There were two more single riders in front of me when the ride went down.  Really?  Really??

At that point I wondered if I was going to get to ride a roller coaster on this trip.  And of course Ian and the kids had missed the Little Mermaid show, and it started to look like we were on track for a second day of major derailment.  Enter time to improvise again.

Ian wisely headed directly to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids movie set play lot and they had so much fun there they were totally oblivious to my frustration.  Once again I learned so much from them and decided to go with the flow.  So we played.

Then it was show time.

my girls are pretty big miss piggy fans

We caught the Muppet Vision 3-D, Beauty and the Beast, the Little Mermaid AND Disney Junior Live on Stage all pretty much in a row.  We'd ask if they wanted to see another show and each time they'd instantly answer 'YES!'  Well, the kids did.

Cause during Little Mermaid I did indeed get to ride Rock 'N Roller Coaster and during the Disney Junior show, Ian got to ride it twice and catch the Tower of Terror.

The only breaks in show time were to meet some characters.  We hugged on Handy Manny,

wee one actually was pretty excited to meet manny, don't  know why he froze up  at photo time

 flexed muscles with Jake from the Neverland Pirates,

during both of these photo opps i had a very close companion

and had our first sighting of McQueen.

do you see those smiles?

 And then THE moment for the boys.  I'm pretty sure we could have told Daniel immediately after this picture was taken that it was time to go home and he would have happily headed back to NC.

Of course we're a whole family of Cars fans, so we all did step in to schmooze with McQueen and Mater.

please note that Daniel couldn't be bothered to glance at the camera, he was far too enamored with LMQ to look up

Then it was time for a little pick me up in the form of frozen treats.

three out of four chose strawberry fruit bars instead of chocolate covered vanilla ice cream in the form of mickey.  i have weird kids.  :)

It was early enough in the day that we made a beeline back to Animal Kingdom.  At the entrance I very politely asked the gate assistant if Everest was back up.  When I explained how we missed it twice the day before, she apologized and happily wrote us a fast pass for the ride.  Wouldn't you know though that we arrived just in time to get stuck on the wrong side of the parade from all the attractions.  Thankfully we had missed the Festival of the Lion King show (on our side of the parade route) the day before, and walked in just as they started seating.

Next item of business?  Trying to catch a safari.

mission accomplished!  oh, and the orange addition to c's glasses?  a confetti banner from the disney junior show.  he's currently using it as a headset, not sure who he's talking to...

And then there was the grand finale.  Everest.  It was pretty cool!  And you know who rode it more than anyone else in our family?  Let me introduce you to our newest roller coaster junkie!  Caleb rode it with me and then again with Ian.  You know, so neither one of us would have to ride alone.

that's my boy ~ the roller coaster junkie!  

funny that the first day he was the one that wouldn't pose with me in front of everest.

So five shows and very few rides in one day.  But it sure made them happy...

Munchkin favorite moments.

Ky ~ The Belle show!  She was enthralled every bit of it, but the highlight was "when Belle fell in love with the beast and broke the spell!"

Caleb ~ "Being brave and riding the big, scary roller coaster.  Oh, and I liked Lion King too.  I like the song (starts singing) just can't wait to be king."

Darcy ~ "I LOVE the Little Mermaid!"

Daniel ~ "McQueen!"  (of course!)