Since I'm on a roll updating this blog, I better continue- especially since vacation is over next week
After we decided to head out to Florida, I spent several months researching Disney World. Blog... after blog... after blog... thanks to Pinterest! Although the information was overwhelming at times, I realized that with the amount of money we'd be spending, we needed to make the most of our time there.
A crowd calendar was very useful in helping to decide which park to visit; we decided on Hollywood Studios first. When we visited about 5 years ago, we only spent half a day at this park; this time it was nice to be able to leisurely walk around. This park doesn't have many ride attractions; instead more shows. In hindsight, it was a good idea to start with this park to warm the kids up to the faster rides and ambiance of Disney.
Apparently Florida weather can be very temperamental; the high for this day was in the low 60's, which for our thin skin, was cold! Good thing it was sunny!
Similar to our trip to Disneyland, we used RideMax, a program that allows you to select what attractions you want to go on, then plans out a detailed itinerary for you. We were able to walk right on to attractions... except when they weren't working!
Jake and the Neverland Pirate!
Toy Soldier from Toy Story
The kids are now old enough to express their dislike for rides- especially fast ones! The Tram ride, part of the Backlot Tour, was one of their favorites since it went slow!
One of the more popular rides is Toy Story Mania. If you've been to Disneyland, it's very similar to the Buzz LightYear ride; expect instead of shooting a laser, you have to pull back a sling shot/ping pong ball toy. It's really fun and interactive, so we knew the kids would love it! We weren't able to ride this the last time we went, so we were excited there was a minimal wait time thanks to our Fast Pass and Ride Max plan! (Yes, there's really Disney lingo you have to learn in order to make the most of your time... one more term to become familiar with is "stroller pass"- I'll explain later!)
3-D glasses you need to wear
Garrett LOVES roller coasters... I'll ride most. :) Lisa and I agreed that she would be my "stunt double" if I didn't want to ride with him. The Aerosmith rollercoaster was one we've been on before, so we didn't need to be convinced to ride. (Even Gammy has ridden it on her two previous visits to DW! I'll have to try dig up a picture of that! Ha ha ha)
This was our first roller coaster of the trip, so Lisa and I screamed extra loud and several octaves higher than normal- which confused Garrett. He claimed the thought he was sitting by high schoolers. I guess we can't lie, since by our faces, you can see we're having a great time!
Family photo- Kenny is sleeping in the background!
We watched the Speed show and Cade enjoyed it!
Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater!
Took some convincing, but we got these two onto Star Wars! Kenny said it was "awesome"!
(He's drinking hot cocoa, not coffee... I'm sure Aunty J is wondering!)
Hollywood studios closes around 9, and as we were winding down our night, Cade kept begging us to go back to the Toy Story ride. We had finished riding everything on our Ride Max plan, but when we went to see how long the wait was: 60 min!
We decided to wait... and luckily, it wasn't 60 min... maybe 45 ish.
Goodbye Hollywood Studios... til next time!
