Hollywood Studios

Our final day was spent in Hollywood Studios. We were up with the sun that morning to get to breakfast at Hollywood and Vine.

Hollywood and Vine has all of the Disney Junior characters like Sofia, Doc McStuffins, Jake, and Handy Manny. Again, Reese was excited to see them all but the boys were not so much.

As soon as breakfast was over we headed to the Star Tours ride. Lance took the big kids on while I waited for Claire, Bryan, and Hadley to meet up with us again.

Finally reunited!

Once they were there, they kept Hayes so the four of us could ride Star Tours together.

And then the boys all went to ride it one more time. We also did a Frozen sign-along show, saw a really short Frozen Parade, rode Toy Story Mania (which we all loved), watched the Little Mermaid show and Disney Junior show and did some shopping.

Finally it was the moment we all had been waiting for. Tower of Terror!! Claire kept the babies while the four of us and Bryan went to ride. In this picture below Sam was being brave but Reese was crying while we were standing in line. I kept questioning making them ride this but in the end it was fun. Both of them were gripped on to an arm the entire time. They both said it was fun but wouldn’t do it again.

After that I told Reese she didn’t have to do Rock’n Roller Coaster.

Then we went to the Cars Stunt Show. We didn’t realize how late in the day it was so we couldn’t stay long because we had dinner reservations at Mama Melrose. Claire decided it was time for them to leave because they were heading back home that night. We were so sad about them leaving but it was great to have been able to spend a few days with them.

While we were waiting for dinner Reese saw Phineas and Ferb.

After dinner Lance took the big kids to ride Star Tours one more time and I went ahead and got in the Fast Pass line for Fantasmic. I was starting to get super bummer that I wasn’t going to get to ride Rock’n Roller Coaster because they were closing the ride line at 7:30. Luckily Lance walked up just after 7:00, I ran to get in the single rider line, rode it and was back to him by 7:15ish. Then it was his turn to run over and get in a quick ride.

That night was the Fantasmic! Show. It is a water show with really neat effects. It is supposed to be Mickey fighting his nightmares so there are some villains and scary parts of the show. Overall it was a fun show though.

Friday morning we slept until 8:45 and got moving slowly. We didn’t have to check out until 11:00. After packing all of our stuff up, we headed over to ride the monorail one more time for Hayes. We did one big loop around and then got in the car.

We were all so sad to end our vacation. It was truly a magical time and we can’t wait to start planning our next trip!!

Magic Kingdom ~ Day 2

We learned on our first trip to Disney when Reese was two that we needed at least two days in Magic Kingdom. And with just over two days spent in Magic Kingdom, I think we could have spent another day there. There is just so much to see and do that you never feel like you can get it all done.

Now, with all that being said, we did get to do some of our favorite things over and over and over again. I think Reese rode Thunder Mountain a total of ten times during those two-plus days. That is Reese and me in the front row for her second ride of the day and we finally got her to put her hands up.

She also rode Splash Mountain again with Lance. That is them in the last row. Reese is gripping on tight to Lance’s arm and I am pretty sure her eyes are closed. I was so proud of her and all of the rides that she rode. Going in to the week we told the kids they had to ride everything at least once so they knew what it was like. Reese did it…Sam did not. I forgot to mention that the night of the Halloween party Reese rode Space Mountain. I thought that almost ruined rides for the week but she was brave. On Space Mountain you don’t sit next to anyone else, it is in the dark, and you have no idea where you are going. I sat in front of Reese and reached my hand back so that she could hold it. The whole time she was saying that she didn’t like it and that she was never doing it again.

Next we did a Pirate Adventure treasure hunt. The kids enjoyed it but didn’t want to do more than one.

Reese got to see a lot of characters this day. The only ones we didn’t get to see that she wanted to see were Anna and Elsa. Their line was never less than 60 minutes long and we couldn’t get a fast pass. She didn’t feel like wasting her time in line waiting on them.

While Reese and Lance waited to see Mickey, I took the boys on a train ride. Again, Hayes was obsessed with the trains so he loved every minute of this.

Anastasia and Drizella are some of my favorite characters. The girl who is Drizella is just perfect! She is the same girl from the last time we were at Disney three years ago. I just love her. We asked one of the cast members while waiting in line something funny to ask them. They said to ask who was prettiest so we did. We ended up being the last people to get our pictures with them during that time so I think they were looking forward to their break so each of them just said that they themselves were the prettiest. I was a little bummed as we walked away. They ended up walking up behind us as they were headed to “meet their suitors” and Anastasia leaned down to Reese and asked her who she thought was the prettiest. Reese answered that Anastasia was the prettiest and Drizella came up from behind and said, “I heard that! I have feelings you know!”. It was such a fun interaction with them and Reese just grinned.

Like every other day, it was hot! We decided to take a little break and ride the PeopleMover. As we were finishing up our ride around the kids asked if we could do it again so we stayed on for one more loop.

After that we rode Buzz again.

Next we did Enchanted Tales with Belle. It was a cute interactive show.

Several of the kids got to be characters in the story. Reese was the Wardrobe and Sam was a salt shaker. The lighting was hard to get good pictures in there. We didn’t have any meals planned for this day so we headed back to BLT to have dinner.

After dinner Hayes was super tired so Lance took him back to the room to go to bed while I took the big kids out to see a movie on the lawn. They were playing Enchanted so we watched that for about 30 minutes and then headed up to the bridge to watch the fireworks from Magic Kingdom.

Next Hollywood Studios…

Magic Kingdom ~ Day 1

Next we were off to Magic Kingdom. We had decided the night before that we weren’t going to set an alarm for that morning. We would just wake up slowly. Well everyone was up and ready to go so we got to the park right as it was opening at 9:00. We decided that since the crowd was headed towards Fantasyland we would go the opposite way. We went to Adventureland first. Our first ride that morning was Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Ride.

After that we did Pirate’s of the Caribbean and then headed to Frontierland. Reese was most excited about this. She and Lance got in line for Thunder Mountain and got a parent swap pass for Sam and I. Reese had a blast but Sam decided there was no way he was getting on that ride. I honestly don’t know why but he flat out refused. So when Lance and Reese got off, Reese got to ride again with me.

After two rounds of Thunder Mtn she said she felt brave enough to go ahead and ride Splash Mountain. So off we went. I had forgotten how long of a ride it actually was. The wait was super short but it still took a while. Reese loved it and we hardly got wet. It was so hot out already though that it felt great.

After Splash Mountain, Claire called and said they were in the park so we headed to Fantasyland to meet them. They all looked so sweet in their matching shirts.

Reese and Hadley bonded super quick. Claire even said that Hadley woke up that morning asking to hold hands with Reese. She would ask Reese to hold her and loved holding her hand and giving her hugs.

Reese took total advantage of this and rode every ride she could with Claire’s sweet family.

Hayes loved all the rides he was big enough to ride.

Hayes was even tall enough to ride his first roller coaster. I think the pictures of Goofy’s Barnstormer are on Lance’s phone. As soon as it was over, Hayes was asking to do it again.

We walked up on the Festival of Fantasy parade about to start. The crowd was so light that day we had no trouble finding a spot to sit or getting to ride rides. The only ride that had a long wait was Peter Pan.

While we were walking around Claire said she had heard someone say there were still dinner reservations at Be Our Guest (Beast’s castle). This surprised me because I had tried to get us reservations there but had been unsuccessful. We decided to ask anyways and there was a 6:20 reservation for eight people! We were super excited to get to eat dinner together.

While we waited Hayes laid on the ground playing with his monorail train. He was obsessed with the monorail (I will post a video later). When we walked in to a store the first thing he saw was this model monorail and we knew he had to have it.

We got to eat in the Grand Ballroom. It was very pretty but our pictures didn’t turn out so well because of the lighting. The back window made it look like it was snowing outside. The Beast would make a grand entrance everyone once in a while as he walked to the library to have pictures made with guests.

I had the “gray stuff” for dessert and it was indeed delicious.

After dinner we headed in to the library for Reese to have her picture made with the Beast. This was the one and only character that Sam was having nothing to do with. He ran out of there so fast that Claire and Bryan took him outside so Reese could get her picture made.

After pictures we had to leave the park. There was another Halloween party that evening so the park closed at 7:00. If you were having dinner you could stay until dinner was over but you had an escort out of the park. Our escort had no idea how to actually get out of the park...we thought she just had a way she was supposed to take us as to not see some of the party but when she asked someone where to go we knew she was lost. She was walking us all over the place. It was crazy but oh so funny! At one point she even walked us up a street where the parade was about to start. It was lined with people waiting and some of them cheered for us as we were walking. Reese was totally embarrassed. We eventually made our way out and headed back to the room for showers and bed time.

Magic Kingdom day 2 next…