Disney World - Part 5 - Hollywood Studios

We spent the last day at Disney at Hollywood Studios. We were told it was a long walk, so we decided to try the boat.



Water taxi.



Here's a shot looking down the boardwalk.



Sam and DeeDah on the boat.



A picture looking back at the hotel.



We started off the day on the wrong foot. Sam didn't want to eat breakfast and then he didn't want to get dressed, so we were late leaving that morning. Then we got to the park and Chris ran Sam's ticket through the machine (something he'd done probably twice a day the whole time we'd been there), but Sam decided he wanted to do it after the fact. Too late. Big fit.



We posed for this picture in front of the sorcerer's hat after Sam calmed down.



Here are some pictures from the Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage puppet show. They had Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, Little Einsteins, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh.










We got to pose with Mr. and Mrs. Incredible after seeing the Magic of Disney Animation. At first Sam didn't want to pose with them. Then he wanted to go back and do it again.



Of course we had to get another picture with Lilo and Stitch.



Sam had another fit which lasted at least 30 minutes, and we were sure he would pass out, but he finally calmed down and we had a character lunch with the Little Einsteins and JoJo. This is June from Little Einsteins.



JoJo Tickle



Leo from Little Einsteins. Sam said, "Hey! He has red hair like me!"



JoJo's lion, Goliath



McQueen and Mater




After posing for pictures with McQueen and Mater we decided to head back to the hotel. Hollywood studios is not a good park for preschoolers. Almost every ride has at least a 40 in height restriction. The rest of the stuff is either adult oriented or a show. The waits for the shows were an hour or more in the sun. Sam was not happy, so neither were we. On our way out we saw that a storm was rolling in, so we ran in an tried to get on one of the rides. Unfortunately the people who were already on the ride would not leave when the ride was over, so they eventually shut the ride down and we got stuck in there for over an hour. When we finally got out, we walked back to the hotel. You can see from the map above that we weren't able to do much at the park.



Epcot had Magic Hours that night, which means they were open late for people who were staying at a Disney resort. We headed over there for a dinner of fish and chips in the U.K. pavilion. We wore ponchos and it rained all around us, but we had a blast. We got to ride a bunch of rides after dinner, and Sam had fun running around and playing.



We went back to the Living Seas pavilion and saw Turtle Talk with Crush. An animated Crush interacts with the kids in the audience and it was very funny. Dory even joined him later in the show.



Our last stop was back at the Imagination pavilion. We made this funny picture of Sam in the Kodak Labs.


Here's all of the rides that we did at Epcot that night.



Our last morning at Disney, we had a yummy breakfast buffet at The Swan. There was a really neat tree in the middle of the restaurant.



I took a quick picture of the kiddie pool and play area on our way out.



This is a picture of me and Sam on the bus on the way to the airport. Sam was exhausted. We all were. We had a great time, but we were ready to go. Sam fell asleep as soon as the plane took off and slept until the plane landed. It was a nice smooth flight.

Disney World - Part 4 - Update

I forgot to post these super cool pictures of us on the Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom. It's a mix between a ride and an arcade game where you have to hit the targets with your "laser canon." Chris kicked our butts and got the highest score of course, but Jay and Lulu didn't have much of a chance since Sam was steering their car. You can see his hand on the red joystick which controlled the car in the picture below. You can also see from the looks on all of our faces how serious we all were about getting a high score!

Disney World - Part 4 - Magic Kingdom and Lulu's Birthday

The second day at Magic Kingdom was, without a doubt, the best day at Disney. It was Lulu's birthday so she got special FastPasses for our whole group. Normally you can only have one FastPass at a time, and it's usually issued for one or two hours later, though some rides like Peter Pan's Flight could be many hours later. With the special birthday FastPasses, you could have six FastPasses at one time and they were immediately available for use.



We got to the park right when it opened and hit the popular rides that didn't have FastPasses, like Pirates of the Caribbean. We got on the Jungle Cruise as soon as it opened with our FastPass.



Sam was having a blast and kept asking, "what's next?" Chris still wasn't feeling that great, so between that and moving from ride to ride without really waiting, we don't have many pictures from this day.



One ride that we did have to wait in line for was the Dumbo ride. There are no FastPasses available for this ride and the line is pretty much always about 45 minutes long unless you go straight there in the morning.



Sam didn't seem to mind waiting since everything else had moved so fast. He REALLY wanted to ride Dumbo.



Here's a picture of Sam playing with a robot in Tomorrowland.



This is the map of all of the rides that we did that day. I can't believe that we got to do so much in one day. We even finished early so we could go back to the room for naps and playing in the pool.



Later that night we went to the Moroccan restaurant in Epcot for Lulu's birthday.



Sam was very excited that Lulu had a birthday cake with candles.



A birthday kiss for Lulu.



Here's a video of us singing Happy Birthday to Lulu.



After dinner we got to watch the Illuminations fireworks and light show again.



Here is a picture of Sam on DeeDah's shoulders on the boardwalk walking home from Epcot that night. Sam even had his own ice cream cone and ate it all by himself.

Disney World - Part 3 - Animal Kingdom

We spent our third day at Disney World at Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom is like a zoo/safari with rides and shows. It also happens to be the hottest and most humid park at Disney. According to the people that work there, it's due to the rainforest effect with all of the plants. Poor Chris woke up sick that morning with what seemed like a cold at the time, but we now think it was probably the flu. He's just now starting to feel better.



We got a FastPass for the Kilimanjaro Safari, so we looked a the animals along the Oasis, Discovery Island, and Pangani Forest trails while we waited for our time slot.



This is what a fit at Disney World looks like. We're not quite sure what this one was about, but it had something to do with leaving the parrot exhibit.



Flamingo





Okapi



Hippo



Safari



Giraffe






Elephant







Lions (enlarge the picture and look in the top left for the male lion)



Gorilla






Baby ducks





After the Safari ride we headed over to the Festival of the Lion King show. Sam absolutely loved it. He made us all clap the whole time. We were in the Lion section and had to roar like a lion. Here are some pictures of the show ...










and a video



We were on our way to lunch when Sam saw Lilo and Stitch. He insisted that we wait in line to see them (again). Unfortunately, by the time it was our turn, Lilo was on a break. Sam turned super shy and ran away from Stitch. I'm not sure how I managed to grab him and actually get a picture. After the picture was taken Stitch started tickling Sam and playing with him and Sam loved that.



One of the street performers had all of the kids join in and follow along with the beat.



After lunch we went to the Finding Nemo musical. Sam really liked that too. Here are some pictures from that show ...







and a video.



After the Nemo show we were all pretty hot and ready to go back to our rooms. Chris really needed to get some rest. I figured that Sam and I could play in the pool again, but Sam fell asleep on the bus ride home and didn't wake up when we got to the room, so we all got a nice long nap that afternoon. We had dinner at Boma in the Animal Kingdom Lodge that night. It was a really good buffet with lots of different types of African food. The resort had huge walls of windows with great views of the storm that rolled in that night.



Here is a map of all of the rides/shows we did at Animal Kingdom. We could have done more trails and animal shows if it hadn't been so hot, but like Epcot, most of the rides have at least a 40 inch restriction.

Disney World - Part 2 - O'hana and Epcot

Sam coughed all night long and woke up the next morning with a fever, but he still wanted to go to the character breakfast at O'hana at the Polynesian resort. I think it was the one thing he was most looking forward to. He REALLY wanted to meet Lilo and Stitch. They are definitely his favorites. We gave him some ibuprofen for the fever, but we didn't have anything to give him for the cough.



Meeting Mickey and Pluto was an added bonus.



Stitch and all of the other characters lead all the kids on a parade around the restaurant. They played the theme song from the Lilo and Stitch movie and gave all of the kids maracas to play.



Sam was soooo excited to meet Lilo. When she finally got to our table he was really shy.



Lilo and Stitch came to our table at the same time.



He finally got to meet Stitch!



Sam had a sticker for him and everything. You can sorta see the stickers on the edge of the table and Sam is trying to pick which one he is going to give to Stitch. We had to go find Lilo again because he had forgotten to give her her sticker. We didn't take a picture of the food, but part of the breakfast was Mickey Mouse shaped waffles, which Sam loved!



One of the street performers at Epcot: The JAMMitors.



We met my Mom and Jay at Epcot after breakfast. They arrived the night before. Here we are looking at one of the aquariums in the Nemo and Friends pavilion.



Marlin and Nemo (orange clownfish)



Dory (Regal Blue Tang)



Aquariums



Epcot has Kidcot Fun Stops all over the park. They are basically little arts and crafts activities for younger kids.



Posing with Marlin



Playing in the Imagination pavilion. There were different squares with different musical instruments that would play when the squares were lit. Sam loved running and jumping everywhere.


Here is a map of all of the rides, shows, etc. that we saw at Epot that day. We got there late because of the character breakfast and didn't stay very long because we wanted Sam to get a nap. Honestly, other than the areas we visited, Epcot is not very appealing to a preschooler, especially when it's hot. Most of the really cool rides have at least a 40 inch height restriction and Sam is at 38 inches. Most of the country pavilions in the International Showcase are restaurants, stores, and shows targeted at adults.



We headed back to the room, took a nap, played in the pool, and then headed back to Epcot for dinner at the Mexico pavilion. The Mexico pavilion does have a little boat ride which features Donald Duck, so Sam liked that.



Before leaving Epcot that night we got to see Illuminations: Reflections of Earth which is their fireworks and light show. Here are a few shots of the fireworks ...





Sam was feeling a lot better by this point. He ran all the way back to the room that night.

Disney World - Part 1

We went to Disney World in Florida two weeks ago. We had the trip planned since April, but we didn't tell Sam we were going until about two weeks before the trip. He was soooo excited! He asked multiple times a day when we were getting on the plane, when we were going to Disney World, when we were going to see Mickey Mouse.



The flight from Dallas to Orlando was only supposed to be a little over two hours. Unfortunately, they found a leak in a hydraulic line in the landing gear. It took them about 45 minutes to fix it. Then they found another leak, and it took another 45 minutes to fix that, so we sat in the plane for almost two hours before we even took off! I hate flying. I'm simply terrified of flying, so with the delay plus the storm we flew threw, I was a mess. Sam did pretty well, but he got a little bored and a little scared by the end.



We arrived at Disney World hours after we had planned on getting there. It was 9pm EST by the time we'd checked in and headed out for dinner. The worst part was that our luggage wasn't delivered until 11:30pm EST, so we couldn't get Sam ready for bed until midnight. (We did the Disney Magical Express where your luggage is specially tagged and delivered directly to your hotel so you don't wait at baggage claim.)



We stayed at the Boardwalk Villas which is part of the Epcot resort area. This area is within walking distance of Epcot and Hollywood Studios.



They offer boat service to those resorts instead of bus service. The boats run every 20 minutes, so it was definitely faster to walk since the boats stop at multiple hotels. We honestly liked walking. I miss it now that we are back home.



We got a late start the first morning since we'd been up so late the night before. We were headed to Magic Kingdom, but we wanted to ride the monorail instead of the bus, so we walked through Epcot.



Sam wanted to stop and see everything in Epcot, so it took us a while to get through there. At this point we asked him if he wanted to rent a stroller, but he said no. He's never really been willing to go in a stroller, even when he was really little. He (and Chris) preferred the Baby Bjorn carrier. By the time Sam outgrew the carrier, he was basically walking and had no interest in sitting in a stroller. That's why we didn't even really think it would be worth it to pack a stroller.



Waiting for the monorail.



Monorail



When we got to Magic Kingdom, we road the WDW Railroad to the section of the park named Mickey's Toontown Fair. Sam loved the train, of course. He was convinced it was one of the trains from Thomas the Train, and we didn't argue with him.



Goofy's Barnstormer was the first ride that Sam and Chris rode. I couldn't ride it because I'm pregnant, so I ran over and got FastPasses to the Winnie the Pooh ride for later.



Here are Chris and Sam in line.



This is a video of The Barnstormer. Chris and Sam are in the front car. It was the most roller coaster like ride that Sam could ride due to height restrictions.



Taking a water break on a chair in Minnie Mouse's house.



We went in this store to get a break from the heat. It had a big build-your-own Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head area in the middle of the store. All of the parts were Disney themed. Sam loved it and we spent a long time there.



One of many street performing groups at Disney.



Posing in front of Cinderella's castle.



Better shot of the castle



This is Cinderella's carousel. I was proud of Sam for actually getting on a horse. He usually wants to sit on a bench on the carousel's around Dallas. He did not want me to touch him or his horse!



One of many birds around Disney looking for a bite to eat.



We were actually looking for Stitch when we ran into Buzz Lightyear. Sam was pretty shy, but he was still willing to pose for a picture. He was a little star-struck too!



DeeDah and Sam taking a break in the shade.



By about 3pm that afternoon, Sam was hot and exhausted, and it started raining. We tried to talk him into going back to the hotel for a nap, but I don't think he understood that we had four more days at Disney and he was determined to keep going.



He really tried to smile for the camera! You can kinda see the little heat rash he had on his chin.



Chris on the Mad Tea Party spinning tea cups ride. I don't think I'll ever be able to ride that ride again, especially pregnant. I'm surprised I didn't get sick.



Of course you can't leave Magic Kingdom without riding It's a Small World.



It's a Small World is one of my favorite rides of all time. I remember going to Disney when I was little and the park wasn't busy, so we got to ride it three times in a row without getting off the boat.



Here's a quick video of us on the ride. You can see Sam wide-eyed and mouth open.



A shot of Cinderella's castle from the train station.



A hug for DeeDah



Sam and DeeDah with the castle and parade in the background.



We had a great view of the parade from the train station.


Here's a map of all of the rides that we did the first day in Magic Kingdom. Peter Pan's Flight was Sam's favorite. We got off of that ride and he said, "That was REALLY good!" Goofy's Barnstormer was a close second. He and Chris rode that one twice.



We headed back to Epcot for dinner at the German pavilion that night.



Sam caught his second wind and we had a lot of fun at dinner.



Of course we had to stay and watch the band. They were a lot of fun and Sam clapped and danced along.



Here's a shot of all of us before we headed back that night.



Sam fell asleep on the stroller ride home that night. And, yes, we bought a stroller. Sam was ready for a stroller by the time we got back to Epcot. He couldn't walk another step. It was actually cheaper to buy a stroller than to rent one every day that we were going to be there.

We had so much fun the first day. I loved watching the expressions on Sam's face each time he saw something new. I couldn't wait to get going the next day.

Ice Skating

Sam had his first ice skating class this week. He was very excited though I'm not sure he new exactly what ice skating was before we got there.

For the first two classes they do 15 minutes off the ice and then 15 minutes on the ice. Here they are practicing marching. The goals for Ice Tots 1 is just to teach them how to march on the ice and how to get back up when they fall.

Sam didn't try to move very much once he got on the ice.

Poor guy couldn't get back up after he fell down either.

The 30 minute class was over very quickly. It's nothing like the 45 minutes of activity with soccer.

Here are some videos of the class. If you watch Sam's feet closely, you can see that he actually tried to move them once or twice.

We had a snack and watched some of the other kids skate before heading home.