Disney!!! Day 3!

Tuesday we had scheduled to go to Hollywood Studios! When I was originally planning the trip I was unsure as to what parks we should go to and which ones the kids would really like. We ended up going to all 4 because, quite honestly, I just didnt know if we'd ever go back!  I also planned a few sit down meals with characters and thought pretty long and hard about which meals to use for those and when to schedule them. I wanted to make sure that we had enough down time for both the kids and Jeff and I, especially with me being pregnant and not knowing how I'd do with all the walking (which was totally FINE!)

I had been told that we could do Hollywood Studios in about 1/2 a day so we scheduled a character meal on Tuesday morning before the park! We chose Chef Mickey for breakfast! I knew Mack would like it because he watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse at Tracy's house sometimes and I wanted to be sure to do one character meal that would really appeal to each kid :-)

Our breakfast reservation was at 8:30am... and it was a RAINY day. From the moment we walked out the hotel door, I could feel my hair getting curly and see Rhyans going crazy. Poor us! But we were determined to have a great day regardless!!

Here, we are waiting for the bus to take us to Magic Kingdom. Chef Mickey is held in the Contemporary Resort which is right across the street from MK so we decided to ride over and then walk to breakfast!

Pretty much the theme of the week for Mack and pictures is, once again, summed up in this picture. :-(

I had chosen breakfast for Chef Mickey's because, quite honestly, its HARD to go "wrong" with breakfast. All of us eat bacon, sausage, french toast, biscuits, eggs, pancakes, etc... With as much as it costs to go to these character meals, I just would have hated to have gotten to the meal and for one or more of us to have not liked the food. But certainly this breakfast did not disappoint! And I can also always count on our kiddos being fresh and at their best in the mornings, as to where they may be totally worn out in the evening and in need of an early bedtime, etc. So I was happy with this meal for sure!

So Rhyan's (and possibly my) favorite part of the breakfast is something we can get anytime... the fruit with the yummy fluffy fruit dip. OMG. I could eat my weight in strawberries alone, not to mention once they are dipped in that cream! But the other food was really really good, too! The hashbrown casserole was so good and we each ate a couple of those mickey waffles ;-). They were great even w/o butter and syrup!

The way the character meal works is that we were seated and got food as we pleased and the waitress explained to us that each character would come out and start at X table and proceed in this direction. She told us all of that so we could keep an eye out and be sure to be AT our table when they were getting close to us!

I was unsure as to how Mack would react to having his picture made with the characters, but I was pretty pleased with how much he seemed to enjoy them and WANT pics with them! Rhyan loved it too!

I think that the fact that the kids watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse at tracy's house from time to time really helped with this meal. We NEVER watch disney jr at home (only gptv... i know, we are horrible parents) and while i have NO problem with disney jr, we've quite honestly just never turned it on! So I was SO glad that he knew ALL the characters and showed such excitement for them!

They got EXCITED watching Donald make his way closer to us! It was too cute!

When Pluto came around he came up behind Mack and "ate" his head. Mack thought it was HILARIOUS! "He eat my head Mommy!". Pluto was really SO playful and one of my very favorite in watching his interactions with the kids!

And i KNEW Rhyan would be most excited to have Minnie come by. She watched and watched and watched till she came to our table. Thing is, I think her excitement made her nervous!

We really enjoyed the breakfast and the whole experience! Its definitely something I would recommend or do again for sure. We did not at all feel rushed and our waitress was super nice and helpful. The food was delicious and who can eat all you can eat of some really good food?! :-)

On the way out we ran into a service dog and seeing as how my kiddos (and Jeff) love animals, we had to take a moment to say hello and pet him :-)

And then we were OFF to Hollywood Studios! Admittedly so, this park was probably the one I was least excited about... it just seems to be catered towards older kids and adults from what I could tell from the website and from chatting with friends. But again, we were trying out ALL the parks!

I was sure to get a MAP when we first walked in and we stopped to let me look through it and review our fast passes for the day. We were allowed 3 fast passes and that was pretty much for the 3 things our kids can do there. The Little Mermaid Show, The Disney Jr show and the Toy Story Ride. We also planned to watch beauty and the beast but had a tight schedule to fit it all into! So I was trying to get a good gameplan :-). The kids didnt mind though, because they found a DUCK. And so Jeff broke out our snacks for the day and "shared" with the ducks. I'm telling you... we pay ridiculous amounts of money to go to Disney and my kids are enamored with the rabbits and ducks... HA!

Our first stop was for the Disney Jr show. I wasnt sure how/if the kids would like it because, again, we dont watch Disney Jr around our house. But surprisingly, it was super cute! The whole show is centered around planning a birthday party for Minnie and that Mickey and the gang would need help from lots of friends. They took some adventures to visit Doc McStuffins, Jake and the Neverland Pirates and Princess Sofia to help plan the party. And the kids pretty much knew who the main characters of each "stop" were! So they liked it!

My only complaint about the show is that its floor seating only. And let me tell you, regardless of the fact that I was only 21 weeks pregnant, the floor gets uncomfortable FAST. :-(

Before we had headed into Disney Jr, it had started sprinkling. But nothing significant. When we came out, however, it was RAINING. And we had a small wait before we could get in the fast pass line for the Little Mermaid Show. So we took the opportunity to walk down to the character meet and greet area! I was surprised at how short the line to meet Mickey was! We had purchased the Memory Maker Package and so I'll post ALL of our pics from it in one post at the end, but we were able to meet Mickey and do a family pic before heading back for the Ariel show. It was great timing and kept us out of the rain :-) Win/Win!

 

With the Little Mermaid, we planned to try to sit at the end of a row, close to  a door, so that when it was over we could be some of the first out and head over to the Beauty and the Beast. I wasnt sure it would all work out, but when we walked in, we were able to get the last 4 seats on the 3rd row! It was a GREAT show and while it would have been nicer to have sat towards the middle, our seats were still great and served our purpose of getting out quickly, too! I loved all the colors and such!

The kids really liked the show, as well! I told them the Beauty and the Beast was next and we all booked it, in the rain, on over! I wasnt sure how the seating would be but it was an outdoor stage for the most part and we made it just in the nick of time! We got seats on the next to the last row (bleacher style seating) and had a few minutes to spare. I went to search for snacks (i found nothing close by! at least not that was up our ally of taste) so I just came back with a couple of waters and we snacked on the apples I had brought. Worked out great!

Emily had told me that this show was a musical and not animated or anything and that it was "moving". So I didnt know if it would be a hit with the kids or not. But BOY, was I wrong. Rhyan, especially, LOVED IT!!! She (and Mack!) followed along so well and she kept asking me "take a picture of that, Mommy!"

It really was a really well put together musical! I mean, Jeff and I got tickled at the end when the beast turned into a prince and it was a little cheesy, but other than that, we both liked it, too!!!

And from that show we headed on over for our fast past of Toy Story. Again, my kids arent big Toy Story fans so I just didnt know how they'd react. Emily always talks about how its the best ride in all of disney so I was interested to see what all the hype was about.

I was shocked at how long the line was when we got there and it made me SUPER grateful for our fast pass! Man, in my opinion, its not even an option as to whether or not you should pay for the fast passes at Disney. With the amount of money you already pay to go, just consider it part of the cost. For all of the days that we went to the parks, the longest line we waited in was 23 minutes long. We had a very well planned out day each day and well planned out fast passes but we got to ride EVERYTHING we wanted and lots of things we rode more than once because we were smart with those 3 passes per day!

When I saw that it was a ride where you wear the 3D glasses, I wondered if Rhyan would wear them and participate. She was super hesitant to wear them with Mickey's Philharmagic show at Magic Kingdom the day before... but I talked her into trying it :-)

Although, clearly, she was less than thrilled. HA! And btw, dont you just love my curly fro?! Good grief.

Ok, but for real, the ride is SO fun! Rhyan ended up riding with Jeff and Mack with me and when it was time to get off, Mack screamed bloody murder. Pitched a royal fit because he wanted to ride again.

We had actually NOT used our fast pass for the Disney Jr show (b/c we didnt need to!) and if we wouldnt have all been tired and if we could have gotten another fp for that ride again that day, I totally would have brought him back for it! But Disney has this thing where you can only get one fp of the most popular ride category, so we couldnt have gotten another one for that same ride. But it was fun, for sure!

We were thinking we would be done around 2pm and had planned to do late naps that day and literally, we were walking OUT of the park at 2:02pm! Which was great because we were all over being wet and chilly! We were glad we went and experienced the park, but quite honestly, its not one I'd do again until Rhyan is at least around 10 years old maybe. Its just too much money to only be able to do 4 things, 3 of which being shows, ya know?! I certainly dont regret it, but it'll be a while before we go back!

When we got back to the room we pretty much just chilled out the rest of the day. We took long naps and then headed to the food court to eat. A much better experience by this point in the week, as we had learned what food was best and what we all wanted to eat :-)

Day 3 on the books... soggy, but fun!