“You’re My Favorites: Now Go Away!” Feb/Mar 2019 First Family Trip (Complete 8/19)

Park Day Five: Hollywood Studios (TP Crowd Level Predicted and Actual 8)

After our long day at Animal Kingdom, the girls managed to sleep until 6:45am. This was still earlier than their typical wake up, but I took it as a win. We were slated to have a lazy-for-us morning, which meant we wouldn’t have to be downstairs for our breakfast reservation until 8:45am. We let the girls zone out to Dis Jr, I went down to grab coffee for the adults, and we started the oh-so-fun process of rolling dirty clothes into packing cubes. Since we hadn’t planned any total rest days this trip, I had built in a few chunks of time for the girls to decompress and the adults to keep the mess in the room to a minimum. Once we had dirty clothes shifted into the suitcase and the rest of the clean clothes pulled out, the adults even had a little time to mess around on the internet before our ADR. The forecast was 85 degrees and sunny, so we dressed accordingly and headed down to breakfast.

Our Bon Voyage Breakfast ADR was for 8:45am, but they were fine with us checking in ten minutes early. The hostess told us it would be about a 15-minute wait and suggested we grab a seat in the already crowded waiting area. Once again, I asked for a text instead so that we could wander and she was happy to oblige. For anyone traveling with young children, I think table-ready text is a must. Even if it just means getting a little energy out in front of the restaurant, being able to move is much better than being crammed into a tight waiting area answering the “But, when, Mommy?” question a dozen times.

On our way out to the boardwalk, I was flagged down by the mom of the chatty twins from our AK bus wait the morning before. She wanted to thank me for the advice on FoP drop times as she, too, had been able to score same day FPs for her family of five, much to the kids’ delight. I was thrilled to hear it had worked for her, too, because those boys really wanted to ride it. While we were chatting, Hubby and the girls headed out front and you’ll never guess what they did.

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I’m not sure why they were making a “shush” face, but they got a kick out of it. Soon after their pictures were done, we got our text at 8:47am and were promptly seated. The characters were all on break, so we could actually get the girls to focus on selecting their meals before the CM came to take our order. There were no specialty drinks included on the DDP for the kids, so they got juice and the adults got coffee and adult beverages. Hubby went for a mimosa and I repeated the magic star cocktail. I also asked the CM to wait to being those until the food was out as both of us wanted to enjoy them with food in our stomachs.

The pastry plate that comes out to start was awesome. All of the treats were tasty, although our crew was unanimous that the chocolate croissant was the best. The plate was a bit small for a typical family of five, though. I was glad we didn’t have too much as I broke things up for the girls to each have a small taste without filling up on sweets. If your kids are older or aren’t going to share, I would suggest asking for a second pastry plate right off of the bat.

Our food came out just as Rapunzel and Flynn were being announced.

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They took a quick walk around the restaurant together, then started meeting separately. We were at the back of the room, so we had about ten minutes to eat before our first visit. Everyone liked their meals, but the breakfast calzone was the star of the show. Hubby and I both wanted to order it but we knew it’d be way too much food, so we agreed to split that and the steak and eggs. The steak was good, don’t get me wrong, but the calzone was phenomenal. Half was plenty for each of us, but, if we had to do it again, I think we’d have ordered one to eat and one to go straight up to the fridge in our room; it was that good. The Tangled crew made their way to our tables while we ate.

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The characters at this meal were great. They were fun to interact with and two of them are unique to the meal. Plus, the small space meant the wait was always short and we were able to see them coming with plenty of notice to wipe sauce off of faces and get autograph books ready. Eric and Ariel were then announced and the kids were invited to swim along with them in a parade around the restaurant. The girls took the direction literally, using a combination of freestyle stroke and diving to make their way around.

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Forgive the photos, but my action shots are all blurry. They started swimming with moderate enthusiasm and, as the parade rounded past Rapunzel and Flynn, she said, “Oh my gosh, look, they’re actually swimming.” That’s all my little hams needed to hear to kick it into high gear; they were going to dive their way all the way around the room. After the parade, Eric and Ariel started greeting at the front of the room and our server came to check on us. He wanted to apologize about the wait for our drinks as the bartender was doing double duty running food and had gotten backed up. Hubby and I were both happy to take our drinks to go, as we would rather enjoy them at our leisure. We also asked for the check, since we our meal was otherwise winding down and Eric and Ariel were only a few tables away.

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The Little Mermaid was always my favorite, so I had to get a solo shot with Eric, too! He was quickly followed by Ariel, who told the girls that they were the first guests to swim with her in the parade. They wanted to commemorate the occasion accordingly.

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Drinks in hand, we were swimming our way out of the meal at 9:38am, not quite an hour after our ADR. We loved this breakfast and would recommend it again in a heartbeat. The food and characters are both awesome, it doesn’t require navigating a buffet line, and it’s the least expensive character meal on property. The cost didn’t matter for us on the DDP, but this is a meal that I wouldn’t hesitate to do OOP as well. If we hadn’t been staying right at the Boardwalk, I would have grabbed the latest breakfast you can get at noon and walked over to enjoy it as a lunch after RDing either Epcot or the Studios.

We headed back to our room to grab the strollers, change our outfits (the princess dresses for this meal had either been worn earlier in the trip or were earmarked for a full day later), and started walking over to Hollywood Studios. We were trying to make a FP for the 10:30am Frozen Sing Along. When I had booked it, I assumed that we would probably miss it, but at least it would use up one of our tier 2s. However, with our breakfast going so quickly, we had a solid shot at making the show as long as we were efficient getting into the park. On the boards, this walk is estimated as 15-20 minutes, but, even with strollers, we were closer to 10. Hubby and I are both runners who are perfectly comfortable speed walking with strollers, even in the heat. Granted, it wasn’t midday midsummer heat, but it wasn’t cool out, either.

We were through security quickly when I saw a character training happening off to the side. We were making good time, and I was sorely tempted to go over, but my girls hadn’t seen Mary Poppins yet and it was Bert who was out at that time. Despite the fact that I wanted to go meet him, I decided to play it safe and head straight in to use our FP. We tapped through, found the stroller parking by the theater, and were at the tap point just before 10:15am when they’d open things for standby. It was at that moment that C realized she didn’t have her magic band on and had no idea where it had gotten to. Luckily, I had brought along the RFID cards we got with our Undercover Tourist tickets. Before traveling, I wasn’t sure if the girls would actually want to wear MBs all day, and I didn’t want to end up with a sleeve of them, so I tossed the cards in a small change purse in the park bag. I fished out C’s card, tapped her in, and we found seats.

What a fun show! We had excellent historians for this showing who had us laughing out loud from start to finish. There was one moment where I was laughing so hard tears were rolling down my cheeks, although the drink from breakfast that I had brought in may have been a factor there. The girls loved it too, despite the fact that a lot of the jokes went over their heads. It was a Frozen show and they were five-year-old girls, so it was always going to be a win for them.

After the show, we tried to cut across the park toward our next FP, but we were briefly detained.

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I hadn’t put the march into our plans because everyone says it runs so often it’s nearly impossible to miss, and that proved true for us as well. March complete, we loaded the strollers and headed up to use our next FP at Tower of Terror. All five of us had FPs booked, as the girls exceeded the shockingly low height requirement of 40”, but I knew we weren’t getting them on it. On FP day, I booked for everyone just in case they decided to go for it, but, after their displeasure on Soain’ and FoP which only simulate heights, I wasn’t sending them anywhere near a drop of that intensity.

At 11:14am when we got to the CM issuing rider swaps, there was a small mob of people tapping into the FP line so I left Hubby and the girls a few steps back and went up to get swaps. I told her my kids were tall enough but terrified of the ride, that Hubby would ride on FP, and that I’d need a swap. She loaded the swap and confirmed that it would be good until the end of the day. Hubby tapped in and headed into the line. I quickly used our RFID cards to just tap in the rest of us and use our second tier 2 FP. Knowing that the system can be spotty at treating an expired tier 2s as “used” for the sake of picking up additional tier 1s, I felt more comfortable physically tapping ours and knowing they were spent.

The girls and I hit the bathroom and then doubled back toward a coin press station we had spotted at the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Blvds. The walkways were nowhere near as crowded as AK had been, so moving with the three of them was considerably less stressful. On the way, we saw a PP photographer with no line and decided to have a little fun. I told her that we were just killing time waiting for Hubby and asked what magic shots she had. She thought about it for a minute, smiled, and then said, “Let’s have some fun.”

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We spent about 5 minutes running through her repertoire. She actually did the balloon and chip shots with each of the girls getting to hold them in turn, which they really appreciated. Once we had done every magic shot she had, we continued down and pressed our penny as planned. We also had time to limbo under a slinky dog and browse the shops before Hubby caught back up with us.

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We made our way into Toy Story Land to use our last FP of the morning. As soon as we got in the land, we started to feel the lack of shade and pulled over for a sunscreen break. The land was busy enough that there wasn’t a way to get out of the way, but we huddled off to the side near a little merchandise cart. Just as we finished up, another set of troops marched by.

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We marched behind them to where they set up their show and decided to watch. There was a group of high school (maybe college?) age kids waiting, one of whom had brought her own drumsticks. The sergeant spotted her right away and told her to keep them out for later. About three quarters of the way through their set, he invited her up to show off her skills.

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She did a great job, and he gave her a set of his own green sticks at the end, too. If you have a percussionist in the family, it may be worth bringing along a set of sticks and seeing what happens. When the performance was done, we ended up marching behind the army men again on the way to Slinky Dog. At 12:14pm, they headed over to perform for the standby line while we whizzed by with our FPs. The family just ahead of us in line was a set of parents with a girl about our trio’s age. The kids started chatting and I asked the mom if she would mind if we went up to the CM as a party of 8 so that our extra child could ride with their extra parent. They were happy to oblige and we were boarding our coaster at 12:22pm.

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Important note: if you want your small kids to be visible in the ride photo, put them in the front or on the right in the car. Four of us loved this ride, but B was on the fence. She liked parts of it but said some of it made her belly feel weird. She’s the type that needs to try a ride a couple of times before she feels confident: at our local amusement park, she used to be very hesitant on the coaster but now she wants to ride every visit. Unfortunately, the nature of a Disney trip is very different from being passholders who can visit a park all summer long, so we didn’t have enough rides on any of the coasters for her to totally get over her anxiousness and just enjoy them. The rest of us had a blast, though, and she wasn’t upset enough that it lingered past the ride exit.

Our coaster ride complete, we weren’t totally sure about what to do next. The plan was to grab lunch and see the Frozen show, but no one was hungry yet and our excellent timing in the morning meant we’d already knocked the show off our to-do list. While we were considering the Little Mermaid show and looking up times for the next Indiana Jones, the girls asked if we could go back to swim at the pool. While we hadn’t planned to leave the park so early, it was only getting hotter as the day wore on. Plus, our second HS day was only slated to be a half-day as the park didn’t hold two full days worth of touring for us, especially with Beauty and the Beast under refurbishment during our trip. Since we had a few hours to play with and we weren’t sure how many good pool days we’d actually get, we agreed with the kids and headed for the exit.
 
The weather forecast was a high of 83 and sunny, so we were able to leave the long pants and jackets back at the room. We had a quick breakfast in the room and headed for the buses. We got to the bus stop just after 8:00am and the sign said the next bus would be there at 8:20. I wasn’t thrilled that we once again had bad bus timing, but I knew that we’d be ok to rope drop Navi River Journey even if we weren’t in the first waves of guests heading into Pandora.
It's not easy to judge bus times but it sounds like you still got off to a good start.

What’s the difference between three kids and five kids all talking over each other to me at the same time, anyway?
Haha! As a kindergarten educator in a class of 29 4-5 year olds, I completely agree with this!

In that thirteen minutes, we found out that this was going to be C’s grumpy day. She had been the one waking up earliest for a few days so I understood, but it didn’t make it any less annoying. When we explained that this was a boat ride through a pretend alien world, she decided that she was going to be scared. No amount of insisting that it was just going to be pretty, that it didn’t have scary scenes or big drops, was going to convince this kid that she was going to enjoy the ride. She hadn’t escalated to crying or full on refusal, just your run of the mill “I’m not going to like it!” accompanied by a foot stomp for emphasis. Once we were sailing, all three girls loved it, especially looking around for all the different creatures.
They certainly have their moments but I'm glad she snapped out of it.

I told him that most likely a real rhino had in fact blocked the path. True to her estimate, we were enjoying the back row of our safari vehicle at 11:25am. I was excited to get the back because then the kids would be able to all look behind us with an unobstructed view, which proved useful a few times.
Same thing happened on my safari with the giraffes.

Our server came to take our drink order and warn us not to go up to the buffet quite yet because we would have special visitors soon. I asked about available specialty drinks on the DDP, which included all of the adult beverages on the menu plus a few flavored lemonades for the kids. Hubby and I both got cocktails and the kids split between Jungle Juice and the flavored lemonade. Before our drinks could even come out, we were hit by a wave of friends.
So cute!

As is our buffet custom, we had to first tour the whole spread and discuss options. When the girls saw the kid-height buffet section, they lost their minds. Bring them to a theme park, put them on world class rides, let them meet all kinds of characters, and they’ll tell anyone who will listen that there was a buffet down where they could reach! My feelings about the kid sized buffet are very similar to how I feel about the kid sized grocery carts at Trader Joes: the kids are in their glory and I’m gritting my teeth trying to let them do it themselves while every part of my being just wants to intercede so that things move faster and with less likelihood of injury or spills. We were on vacation, so I did in fact let them use the tongs themselves to pick each grape and cheese cube individually for their plates. I loaded in some chicken wings, corn dog nuggets, and rice for good measure.
I remember my three feeling the same way.

In between bathroom trips, I did manage to make and eat a real plate of food. I enjoyed it, but I couldn’t tell you what I had. The ridiculousness of the near constant restroom visits has blocked this meal from my mind, other than the bread pudding, which was phenomenal. As we were finishing up dessert, as I asked the server out the little parade that happens around the restaurant as well as our meeting with Goofy. She told me the next parade was 1:25pm and Goofy wouldn’t be far behind.
That is a crazy breakfast for you!

Pins purchased, they wanted to play on the nearby drums and I needed to regroup. They didn’t seem all that excited about either of the animal trails, we had just blown our buffer time buying pins, and we needed to be in front of the tree of life in 30 minutes for an experience I thought the girls would really love. After thinking through our options, I landed on a new course of action: find Kevin, visit the Lion King dance party, and head to the Tree of Life. That’s exactly what we did.
I love Kevin and the dance party looks super cute!

The next drop was supposedly scheduled for 3:01pm, so I was trying to gauge if I would be able to get on and off of EE by then. Otherwise, I could stay back a bit in the FP line, wait for the 3:01 drop, and then board the coaster. Thankfully, the FP line was moving well and my ride photo is time stamped 2:56pm.
I will keep that in mind for July

After the ride, I quickly tapped for my pic, exited the gift shop, and found a section of curb where I could sit. I had more faith in the browser than the app, so that’s the route I decided to take and I was refreshing starting at 2:59pm. Right at 3:01pm, I was offered a party of 4 at 5:35pm. I booked it and immediately attempted to modify, since it only afforded us 5 minutes of overlap (plus grace periods) with my existing FP. Upon modifying, I snagged at 4:30pm for a party of 4, which was essentially a perfect match for my 4:40pm solo FP!
Awesome!!!!

I don’t have any pictures but, wow, what a good show! Everyone always makes such a fuss about FotLK which was, admittedly, gorgeous. Nemo, on the other hand, is one that people seem to think is fine, or good for a rest, but maybe a little boring. I came in with that mindset and was completely blown away. The production quality, the original music, and the puppeteering were so much more than a theme park musical has any right to be. Maybe it’s the original music that turns people off; these aren’t songs that they already know, love, and sing-along to. Hubby and I both walked out surprised that Disney hadn’t adapted the show into a full-length production and sent it on the road. The combination of puppeteering and performance was awesome. The large puppets especially, like the ray, shark, and sea turtle, were a sight to behold. Plus, fun fact: the composers for this show are also responsible for Avenue Q, The Book of Mormon, and Frozen. I mean, Robert Lopez is the first ever double EGOT winner. That’s a lot of talent to funnel into a show that isn’t going to NYC. Maybe there just wasn’t enough there to stretch it into a full length run time? Regardless, we were thoroughly impressed and the fact that it gave us 30 minutes to rest in air conditioning was an added bonus.
I haven't seen Nemo for a few years but it was one of DH's requests so we will be doing it this summer.

we continued onward to The Boneyard. They were off the minute we got through the gate and didn’t look back. Had they been younger, this would have been a very stressful stop for me. Luckily, we’ve made it to an age where I can be that mom messing around on her phone on a bench while the kids play. I remember chasing three two-year-olds around or pushing swings endlessly and being so jealous of the moms of older kids who got to have conversations without maintaining constant vigilance. It was with a sense of accomplishment that I lost sight of my kids and pulled up Facebook, knowing that they’d come find me if they needed something. While they were playing, Hubby was enjoying his encounter the Yeti.
My three loved the boneyard so much!

I was feeling guilty as hell and laying it on thick, so I offered a piggy back ride over to NRJ. That may not be a big deal for most kids but, since they outnumber their parents, my girls rarely get that privilege. We tapped into NRJ at 5:02 to a very short wait before enjoying another beautiful ride through Pandora. On the way out, we bumped into a PP photographer and decided to commemorate the occasion.
Super cute!

The ride was as incredible as everyone says; silly as it may be, I think the matching smells were my biggest “wow” moment.
So many magical things on this ride, it actually moves me to tears.

Once again, we came into this show with low expectations and were pleasantly surprised. A nighttime fireworks show it is not, but I thought it was beautiful in its own right. The projections on the fountains as they moved were a cool effect, something I hadn’t seen before. It certainly doesn’t have the high energy, grand finale feeling of the even shows elsewhere, but perhaps there’s a place for a chill, lower key end of night show at AK. It’ll be interesting to see how people feel about it after the announced update. Perhaps with the addition of IP, people will be more open to a non-fireworks show.
I am looking forward to seeing the update this summer!

Forgive the photos, but my action shots are all blurry. They started swimming with moderate enthusiasm and, as the parade rounded past Rapunzel and Flynn, she said, “Oh my gosh, look, they’re actually swimming.” That’s all my little hams needed to hear to kick it into high gear; they were going to dive their way all the way around the room. After the parade, Eric and Ariel started greeting at the front of the room and our server came to check on us. He wanted to apologize about the wait for our drinks as the bartender was doing double duty running food and had gotten backed up. Hubby and I were both happy to take our drinks to go, as we would rather enjoy them at our leisure. We also asked for the check, since we our meal was otherwise winding down and Eric and Ariel were only a few tables away.
Love the dresses on the girls and the great excitement!

Drinks in hand, we were swimming our way out of the meal at 9:38am, not quite an hour after our ADR. We loved this breakfast and would recommend it again in a heartbeat. The food and characters are both awesome, it doesn’t require navigating a buffet line, and it’s the least expensive character meal on property. The cost didn’t matter for us on the DDP, but this is a meal that I wouldn’t hesitate to do OOP as well. If we hadn’t been staying right at the Boardwalk, I would have grabbed the latest breakfast you can get at noon and walked over to enjoy it as a lunch after RDing either Epcot or the Studios.
Love this!!!!

What a fun show! We had excellent historians for this showing who had us laughing out loud from start to finish. There was one moment where I was laughing so hard tears were rolling down my cheeks, although the drink from breakfast that I had brought in may have been a factor there. The girls loved it too, despite the fact that a lot of the jokes went over their heads. It was a Frozen show and they were five-year-old girls, so it was always going to be a win for them.
I love this show....completely hysterical!

I hadn’t put the march into our plans because everyone says it runs so often it’s nearly impossible to miss, and that proved true for us as well. March complete, we loaded the strollers and headed up to use our next FP at Tower of Terror. All five of us had FPs booked, as the girls exceeded the shockingly low height requirement of 40”, but I knew we weren’t getting them on it. On FP day, I booked for everyone just in case they decided to go for it, but, after their displeasure on Soain’ and FoP which only simulate heights, I wasn’t sending them anywhere near a drop of that intensity.
It's a togh call. It was a favourite with two of mine at 6 but the older boy hated it.

We spent about 5 minutes running through her repertoire. She actually did the balloon and chip shots with each of the girls getting to hold them in turn, which they really appreciated. Once we had done every magic shot she had, we continued down and pressed our penny as planned. We also had time to limbo under a slinky dog and browse the shops before Hubby caught back up with us.
Those pictures are sweet!

Since we had a few hours to play with and we weren’t sure how many good pool days we’d actually get, we agreed with the kids and headed for the exit.
A pool afternoon sounds ideal!
 
Loving your details reports!! I am so impressed that you even attempted a buffet with your three girls and only two adults, that is something!! Your girls princess dresses are so adorable too!!!
 
Great updates. The girls look like they were having the time of their lives!
 


Definitely don't let the kids guzzle water to start! I didn't think anything of it in the moment, we were all thirsty after the heat, but ho boy did it come back to bite me.

The inconsistency in measurement really bothered me, but I didn't want to make it into too much of a thing since she was right on the border between moderate disappointment and a full freak out. She ended up enjoying her special time in the end.



A bathroom parade: that about sums it up.

The weirdest part about the height difference at EE and FoP is that they are both permanent structures. This wasn't someone holding a bar next to a kid where the ground might be a little uneven. These are two installed fixtures that are supposed to be the same height but aren't.



I'm pretty sure those mini carts were developed by the same people who insist on buying the children in their lives loud and/or messy toys! :rotfl2:

We were having a "remember the time" moment in the middle of that meal. It was a laugh or scream type of deal, so we decided to laugh.

I also ended up liking the Nemo musical more than FotLK. The Lion King is gorgeous, don't get me wrong, but I've seen those types of acrobatics and aerialists before. The Nemo show is unique to that park.

C took it pretty hard when she first found out that she couldn't get on FoP, but she came around fast. I'm pretty sure she was over it the second she heard "piggy back ride".



EE was so much fun and I was really excited to sneak in the second set of rides. That's a really cool coaster.

C probably got over the FoP height issue faster than I did. I was putting on a happy face for her but seething. She was genuinely enjoying being the recipient of my full attention.


One thing I will point out, while I don’t understand it, there is science behind us being slightly taller earlier in the day than later. It might not be the measuring structures at fault; it may be gravity is to blame. ‍♀️
 
I even had to go ask the front desk to put charging privileges on their MBs because they were mad that only the adults could buy food.
That is just too adorable! Did CMs like it when they would pay for things?

We thought about it. The thing is, the CMs really worked to try to get her to measure up. And, the triplet thing makes us very memorable for people even without an extended interaction. We would have to wait until they switched CMs and that would have been a whole other level of crazy I just wasn't up fo
I mentioned your story to my friend and she said sometimes kids can shrink as the day goes on?

Eric and Ariel were then announced and the kids were invited to swim along with them in a parade around the restaurant. The girls took the direction literally, using a combination of freestyle stroke and diving to make their way around.

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Everytime I think they can’t get cuter! Ariel must have thought that was hilarious!

We also had time to limbo under a slinky dog and browse the shops before Hubby caught back up with us.

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That’s so much fun!
 
Wow thanks for that information! I had heard about same day drops but never knew there was a semi-set pattern! Thanks again!!

That's awesome that your tips helped another family too!

Your girls really loved the photobooths! They take the cutest pics!

Your little Rapunzel looks so cute with Flynn! All the character pics are adorable! I'm glad it was such a great breakfast.

Great PP pics of the girls while you waited for hubby to ride ToT. Sounds like you got a great CM!

Sounds like a pretty productive and fun morning!
 


The fact that a plate of food hasn’t landed on one of their heads is downright miraculous.

:rotfl:

Thus began our sitcom-worthy 5 trips to the restrooms over the course of one lunch.

Oh man. I'm glad you can find humor in it because I'm sure that wasn't fun at the time! Since we don't have kids, I never quite thought about how much work buffets could be for parents.

Yup, that’s right ladies and gentlemen, my plan was now contingent on my ability to pick up 4 same day FoP FPs which would have to be valid in the next couple of hours before we needed to head for Rivers of Light.

:scared1::scared1::scared1: Glad you were able to do it!

The CMs really tried to help us out; they told her to blow out all of her air and take a deep breath in at the same time that she stood as tall as she could, but her head just wouldn’t touch.

Omg that's so frustrating! Poor C!

The CM loaded RSs for me, A, and B, then gave me and C a NRJ FP to use while we waited.

That was nice of them to help you avoid a total meltdown!

It turns out they were season passholders who had never managed to get FPs for FoP, so they’d only ever experienced it in standby

Aw that was very sweet of you! :goodvibes

The Little Mermaid was always my favorite, so I had to get a solo shot with Eric, too! He was quickly followed by Ariel, who told the girls that they were the first guests to swim with her in the parade. They wanted to commemorate the occasion accordingly.

Little Mermaid has always been my favorite too! Adorable picture of the girls. That's my favorite character breakfast too.

The kids started chatting and I asked the mom if she would mind if we went up to the CM as a party of 8 so that our extra child could ride with their extra parent.

Another awesome Disney moment!
 
I fell a little behind with your updates, but I'm all caught up now!


Bring them to a theme park, put them on world class rides, let them meet all kinds of characters, and they’ll tell anyone who will listen that there was a buffet down where they could reach!

:rotfl:For my kids it was the small sinks in all the bathrooms!

Thus began our sitcom-worthy 5 trips to the restrooms over the course of one lunch.

I would have lost my mind. omg. :scared:

Right at 3:01pm, I was offered a party of 4 at 5:35pm. I booked it and immediately attempted to modify, since it only afforded us 5 minutes of overlap (plus grace periods) with my existing FP. Upon modifying, I snagged at 4:30pm for a party of 4, which was essentially a perfect match for my 4:40pm solo FP!

Amazing FP work!!

I don’t have any pictures but, wow, what a good show! Everyone always makes such a fuss about FotLK which was, admittedly, gorgeous. Nemo, on the other hand, is one that people seem to think is fine, or good for a rest, but maybe a little boring. I came in with that mindset and was completely blown away.

We loved the Nemo show too! Definitely underrated!

C wasn’t quite measuring up. I figured she was slouching, since she had clearly hit the bar at EE two hours earlier, but no matter what we did, she was a hair too short.

:headache: What a let down!

This coaster is even better in the dark and I’m so glad we snuck these rides in!

EE is so good in the dark!!

C realized she didn’t have her magic band on and had no idea where it had gotten to. Luckily, I had brought along the RFID cards we got with our Undercover Tourist tickets. Before traveling, I wasn’t sure if the girls would actually want to wear MBs all day, and I didn’t want to end up with a sleeve of them, so I tossed the cards in a small change purse in the park bag. I fished out C’s card, tapped her in, and we found seats.

Wow, great planning on your part! We thought we lost a MB at one point, but the kid was just sitting on it in the stroller. :laughing:

There was one moment where I was laughing so hard tears were rolling down my cheeks, although the drink from breakfast that I had brought in may have been a factor there

:rotfl:
 
Thank you so much for the tip about Fastpasses! Who knows if they'll continue the pattern, but it can't hurt to try!

I've heard so many good things about the Bon Voyage breakfast - I'm glad your family enjoyed it! It looks like your girls had SO much fun!

Wow, what great timing with breakfast and being able to make your first Fastpass! I was pleasantly surprised by the Frozen Sing Along - the show is great and the hosts are a hoot!

I'm thrilled your family all enjoyed the Slinky Dog coaster. What another bit of good luck by making friends with the other family so everyone had someone to ride with.

I think an afternoon at the pool sounds like a great plan!
 
Oh, I know! We found out a few months back and I had to fight hard to hold back my glee when the cashier explained that they had gotten rid of them for safety reasons.
Ha! I didn't know that was the reason! And now all I can see is your 3 girls playing bumper cars with the shopping carts.

On our way out to the boardwalk, I was flagged down by the mom of the chatty twins from our AK bus wait the morning before. She wanted to thank me for the advice on FoP drop times as she, too, had been able to score same day FPs for her family of five, much to the kids’ delight. I was thrilled to hear it had worked for her, too, because those boys really wanted to ride it. While we were chatting, Hubby and the girls headed out front and you’ll never guess what they did.
That is so nice to hear! And so nice that she stopped you to tell you.

Everyone liked their meals, but the breakfast calzone was the star of the show.
YESSS!!!!! It is soooo good. And your review is making me really want to add it to our August trip!!! Literally for the Calazone alone!

I think we’d have ordered one to eat and one to go straight up to the fridge in our room; it was that good.
Agreed! And an excellent idea!


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Forgive the photos, but my action shots are all blurry. They started swimming with moderate enthusiasm and, as the parade rounded past Rapunzel and Flynn, she said, “Oh my gosh, look, they’re actually swimming.” That’s all my little hams needed to hear to kick it into high gear; they were going to dive their way all the way around the room.
I love it!


The Little Mermaid was always my favorite, so I had to get a solo shot with Eric, too! He was quickly followed by Ariel, who told the girls that they were the first guests to swim with her in the parade. They wanted to commemorate the occasion accordingly.

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I love that Ariel has a real smile on her face, she truely is laughing with those cuties.

On the boards, this walk is estimated as 15-20 minutes, but, even with strollers, we were closer to 10. Hubby and I are both runners who are perfectly comfortable speed walking with strollers, even in the heat. Granted, it wasn’t midday midsummer heat, but it wasn’t cool out, either.
Oh, we walked that from the Yacht Club, which is technically a little farther away. It was a solid 20 minute walk with my girls, not in strollers. And it was HOT already.

We also had time to limbo under a slinky dog and browse the shops before Hubby caught back up with us.

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Didn't they limbo in EPCOT also?


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She did a great job, and he gave her a set of his own green sticks at the end, too.
That is awsome!
 
I agree about breakfast at Bon Voyage it is a really good one! I had that calzone and it was so delicious but I could only eat about 1/3 of it!

We never stay at HS for more than 4-5 hours nowadays!
 
Thanks for sharing the FP information. I took a screenshot of the text, now just have to hope I actually remember it while I'm on my trip.

I've heard amazing things about that calzone, glad to know it did not disappoint!

Love the story about the girls swimming through the parade. They were embracing the Little Mermaid theme.

You had a productive DHS morning; I'm sure the girls were very excited to have finished up early and get the opportunity to swim for a bit.
 
It's not easy to judge bus times but it sounds like you still got off to a good start.

I was glad I was going to NRJ, where there's a lot more wiggle room before the line builds. It would have been very frustrating if we were attempting a high priority RD.

Haha! As a kindergarten educator in a class of 29 4-5 year olds, I completely agree with this!

Right? You just say, "Cool!" and "Really?" a bunch and the kids think you're following along.

It's a togh call. It was a favourite with two of mine at 6 but the older boy hated it.

A part of me really wanted to try it, but I was pretty sure the story of the ride would have them totally freaked out before the drops even started. There's always next time.

A pool afternoon sounds ideal!

It really was.

Loving your details reports!! I am so impressed that you even attempted a buffet with your three girls and only two adults, that is something!! Your girls princess dresses are so adorable too!!!

Thanks! Ever since they were babies, when it was much harder, we've tried not to let the fact that they outnumber us limit what we do with them. When you force yourself, you just figure out how to make it work.

Great updates. The girls look like they were having the time of their lives!

They absolutely were. This was a great age for a first trip.

One thing I will point out, while I don’t understand it, there is science behind us being slightly taller earlier in the day than later. It might not be the measuring structures at fault; it may be gravity is to blame. ‍♀
I mentioned your story to my friend and she said sometimes kids can shrink as the day goes on?

So, I do know that we shrink a bit as the day goes on becausecartilage tends to compress under the effect of gravity. However, she was first measured on EE at 2:45pm after she had already been up and moving for a good part of the day. It seems unlikely to me that two afternoon hours could have that significant an impact. Plus, she didn't actually try to stand tall at the EE measuring stick. I would think that any effect of 2 hours of gravity would be combated by her purposefully standing tall, taking a deep breath, etc at FoP. My guess is that, since the cement was poured, the ground in Asia has settled to the extent that the measuring stick is no longer accurate. I did a little searching on these boards and found a few people who said they passed EE on the outside but then were re-measured in the line and kids got bounced.

If anyone with an AP wants to go over with their own measuring tape, I'd be very interested to see the results on that!

Everytime I think they can’t get cuter! Ariel must have thought that was hilarious!

Awe, thanks. Ariel did seem to get a kick out of it.

Wow thanks for that information! I had heard about same day drops but never knew there was a semi-set pattern! Thanks again!!

That's awesome that your tips helped another family too!

Your girls really loved the photobooths! They take the cutest pics!

Your little Rapunzel looks so cute with Flynn! All the character pics are adorable! I'm glad it was such a great breakfast.

Great PP pics of the girls while you waited for hubby to ride ToT. Sounds like you got a great CM!

Sounds like a pretty productive and fun morning!

I hope the FP times help you, too. I was really excited to hear that it worked out for the other family, probably even moreso than for myself in light of everything that happened with measuring.

Yup, my kids love photos. They have their own cameras and take pictures of each other, their toys, anything. Having unlimited photo booth access was a real perk of Memory Maker for us.

Oh man. I'm glad you can find humor in it because I'm sure that wasn't fun at the time! Since we don't have kids, I never quite thought about how much work buffets could be for parents.

It's funny the things you don't realize will be hard about parenthood. There are the classics that people warn you about (being tired, how much money kids cost) but there are little things that come out of left field that are surprisingly difficult to manage.

That was nice of them to help you avoid a total meltdown!

It was definitely the difference between her moving on and sulking. I was very appreciative.

:rotfl:For my kids it was the small sinks in all the bathrooms!

Haha, they have those at Sesame Place, so they're old hat for my kids.

Wow, great planning on your part! We thought we lost a MB at one point, but the kid was just sitting on it in the stroller. :laughing:

We did find the band in the stroller, but I was glad that we could use the cards then and go back for it at our leisure.

Thank you so much for the tip about Fastpasses! Who knows if they'll continue the pattern, but it can't hurt to try!

I've heard so many good things about the Bon Voyage breakfast - I'm glad your family enjoyed it! It looks like your girls had SO much fun!

Wow, what great timing with breakfast and being able to make your first Fastpass! I was pleasantly surprised by the Frozen Sing Along - the show is great and the hosts are a hoot!

I'm thrilled your family all enjoyed the Slinky Dog coaster. What another bit of good luck by making friends with the other family so everyone had someone to ride with.

I think an afternoon at the pool sounds like a great plan!

I hope the FP times work out for you.

The breakfast was a highlight for sure. I was so glad to have that one booked.

Ha! I didn't know that was the reason! And now all I can see is your 3 girls playing bumper cars with the shopping carts.

Yup, I'm pretty sure it was my kids in particular that required they be taken away. :P

That is so nice to hear! And so nice that she stopped you to tell you.

I was glad she flagged me down, too. It's nice to know you can help someone out a bit on their trip.

YESSS!!!!! It is soooo good. And your review is making me really want to add it to our August trip!!! Literally for the Calazone alone!

They also offer walk up, a la carte, non-character breakfast. If you don't want to commit to a full reservation, you could walk over one morning just for the calzone.

I love that Ariel has a real smile on her face, she truely is laughing with those cuties.

Completely! I thought the same thing.

Oh, we walked that from the Yacht Club, which is technically a little farther away. It was a solid 20 minute walk with my girls, not in strollers. And it was HOT already.

I can only imagine what that walk looks like on tired, hot kid legs. That's the main reason we ended up with stroller seats for everyone.

Didn't they limbo in EPCOT also?

They danced with the Jammitors, but no limbo.

I agree about breakfast at Bon Voyage it is a really good one! I had that calzone and it was so delicious but I could only eat about 1/3 of it!

We never stay at HS for more than 4-5 hours nowadays!

That breakfast is so good, I was glad we could fit it in.

We could have done more time at HS, considering all of the shows were new to us, but we were happy to hang by the pool, too.

Thanks for sharing the FP information. I took a screenshot of the text, now just have to hope I actually remember it while I'm on my trip.

I've heard amazing things about that calzone, glad to know it did not disappoint!

Love the story about the girls swimming through the parade. They were embracing the Little Mermaid theme.

You had a productive DHS morning; I'm sure the girls were very excited to have finished up early and get the opportunity to swim for a bit.

I hope the FP times work for you, too.

The calzone and the characters were delightful at this meal. It was awesome.
 
Park Day Five: Hollywood Studios (cont’d)
On our way out of the park, I debated popping in to visit with Daisy, but her line was too long. Having already met her in safari gear at Tusker, this would just be so that B could have a picture with her that had some purple in it (B’s favorite color). It would have been nice if the line were short, but no one wanted to wait in the heat for the photo op.

There was a friendship boat loading just as we started walking back to our resort, so we opted to ride. From my research here, I knew that the ride from HS to Swolphin would save us time with the boat being right there, but that we should get off at the first Crescent Lake stop rather than waiting for it to unload at each resort. To my surprise, the captain made an announcement to that extent as well. He made sure everyone knew that the ride from Swan to Beach Club to Boardwalk would be at least ten minutes more than hopping off at the first stop and walking back to the resort. I’m curious if that’s part of the official spiel or a tip from an experienced CM. Regardless, we enjoyed a quick, pleasant ride and a short walk back to the boardwalk.

We quickly changed into our suits, grabbed our pool bag, and headed down to grab a spot by the pool. At 1:20pm the girls were sliding through a creepy clown’s mouth and I was chilling in a lounge chair. The fact that I was sitting back and relaxing while the kids were swimming was a victory in and of itself. Last summer, they were swimming on their own but not with enough stamina to be safe in the pool without an adult always in arm’s reach. They had made great strides in intervening six months of swim lessons, though, and were finally strong enough in the pool that I could watch from the sidelines. After swimming for a while, they got caught up in the games being hosted poolside.

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A little after 2:00, I was getting hungry, which made sense since we hadn’t eaten a thing since our 8:45 breakfast. The girls said they weren’t hungry, but I knew full well that, as soon as there was a break in the games, they would realize they were ravenous. Nothing at Leaping Horse Libations was speaking to me, so I opted for a trip around Crescent Lake to pick up food. First top was Hurricane Hanna for a burger with fries, an extra side of fries (not on the menu but can be ordered for a snack credit), and a Pina CoLAVA for me.

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Continuing around the lake, my next stop was the Boardwalk Pizza Window for a personal size plain pizza, an order of mini cannoli, and a Schofferhofer beer for Hubby. I know this place has a horrible reputation, but the new menu was perfectly solid pizza. It’s not something I’d go out of my way to try but, for a family like ours hanging at an area resort that doesn’t have park admission to Epcot for that day, it’s a good option. Plus, the pizza comes with a side salad or dessert, making it plenty of food for sharing. While my pizza was being prepared, I refilled our mugs with Powerade for the kids and snagged a beverage carrier from the bakery. I’m sure I could have balanced the drinks and burger on the pizza box for the short walk back to the pool, but the carrier made the trip less treacherous.

As expected, the girls realized they were ravenous when I showed up with food. Being the classy folks that we are, we opened the pizza box all the way, split up the fries and burger, and all ate right out of the box. Why make more trash with plates, right? Hubby and I let the kids have their fill before we dug in too much, but there was plenty for us all to be satisfied without being overfull.

In the midst of the meal, I logged into MDE and was able to use the 2:31pm FP drop to pick up passes for Toy Story Mania for 4:50pm. I probably would have been able to do something similar with a lot of refreshing and breaking us into groups of 2 and 3, but using the drop meant I could do our whole party at once and not have to coordinate overlapping times. After our late lunch, the girls wanted to hop back in the pool, but I knew that wouldn’t end well. Not only were they already showing signs of swimming fatigue, but C has a tendency to get sick if she pushes herself too hard in the pool right after eating. Instead, we ended our pool time for the day, showered at the room, and made our way back to the park.

We were walking back past the pool at 4:03pm and found ourselves in the park hopping into line at 4:25pm. The Crescent Lake location absolutely spoiled me for any future trips; in 22 minutes anywhere else, we could have well still been sitting at a bus stop waiting for our ride! Instead, we were in Walt Disney Presents, looking at an estimated 30-minute wait for Mike and Sulley. Per Josh at easywdw, there’s only a small window where you can manage these characters with a short wait. When they start greeting at 10am, a line will have already formed and it will stay long until about 5:30pm, with the greet shutting down at 6pm. I was worried about waiting to go that late in case we got delayed and missed it entirely. Instead, we opted to suck it up and do the long wait. We had done such a good job minimizing lines where we could otherwise that this ended up being one of the longest waits of our trip. Forty minutes later, we were meeting our favorite monsters.

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The girls were completely over the moon for this meet. The wait was long, but it was totally worth it. During our visit, our FP window for TSMM had opened, so we headed back into TSL. The CM at the FP tap point said that FP was significantly backed up and running a 25-minute wait. Since our window would be open for another 45 minutes, we opted to let the crowd dissipate and come back later. As we were leaving TSL, I got a notification from MDE that our FPs had in fact gone to anytimes. I’m sure you’ll all be shocked to hear that the app was being glitchy, so we didn’t get the notification until 20 minutes after the pass converted. If it had been running properly, we would have known the ride was down before heading into the land, but at least we hadn’t come from clear across the park.

Next on our agenda was a stop at the Incredibles dance party and a tasty treat. While we hung out, I picked up Fantasmic FPs for everyone. I did them one person at a time and it took maybe 2-3 refreshes per person to get them to pop up.

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The girls danced for a bit but Mr. Incredible was heading out for a break just as I got my Num Num Cookie. Edna Mode’s line was only posted at 15 minutes, so we decided to wait to see her while we ate. The cookie was a delicious, gooey mess that was very hard to share. Every attempt to break it up lead to chocolatey fingers, so I ended up having to hold it while the four of us took turns taking bites. It was absolutely worth the hassle, but don’t try sharing with young kids unless you have wipes on hand.

Edna’s wait was as short as predicted. After she signed our autograph book, A requested a photo with everyone sewing a superhero suit.

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When we finished up with Edna, Frozone and Elastigirl were having a dance off.

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Over the course of the dance off, all of the kids bailed on Frozone and went to dance with Elastigirl. You can even see him pouting about it in the last picture. We decided to keep our character streak going and get some warm hugs. We were only the second family in line to meet our favorite snowman (sorry, Frosty!).

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Hubby had to get a solo picture (perhaps his only solo character picture, come to think of it) because he was wearing my absolute favorite shirt of the trip. I’m not sure how well it comes up in the picture, but it's Ikea-style directions for building a Snöman. Perhaps I’ve spent one too many hours of my life putting together furniture, but this tee made me incredibly happy. We finished up our Olaf visit at 6:03pm and decided to go back and take our ride on TSMM.

The FP line was still somewhat backed up, but it moved quickly. We tapped in at 6:15pm and the timestamp on my scores is only 6:30pm

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A and C both wanted to ride with me, so I didn’t get to play my own game for the ride. I kept bopping back and forth helping the girls instead. Hubby did not take a picture of his and B’s scores because he seems to think that “winning” theme park games doesn’t matter. With an attitude like that, I’m not sure how he got to be the one to have his own controller, but so it goes.

After our ride, we were at a loss as to what to do next. Dinner was on the agenda, except no one was particularly hungry after the late lunch and ooey gooey cookie. Plus, since I was holding Fantasmic FPs, we decided not to try refreshing into any additional TSL rides. We also didn’t want to commit to a full Little Mermaid show as it would start to bump up against Fantasmic. Instead, we opted to head to Star Tours since the standby wait tends to be low that late in the day.

On our way through the park, we found ourselves stuck behind the stage for the Star Wars show. After the last show of the evening, they slowly drive it though the park and store it right by Star Tours. It was all of a four-minute delay, nothing earth shattering, but an annoyance none the less. We were walking into the standby line for Star Tours at 6:49pm and were already in seats at 6:53pm.

The girls have very limited Star Wars knowledge. They had board books as babies that went through the original trilogy very succinctly, so they recognize a few of the characters. The one exception is Chewbacca. They always adored him in the board books and used third birthday money to purchase a 2ft tall poseable, talking version from Target.

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Their love of Chewie, though, is completely divorced from his character; they think he’s the world’s largest teddy bear. He plays Candyland and attends tea parties. I give you all of that background because, happily, our trip through the galaxy included a stop at the Wookie plant. They were absolutely psyched, squealing, “Look, Chewbacca!” The ride overall was just on the border of being too scary for them. As with Soarin’, Mission: SPACE, and FoP, they found the screen based simulated motion to be a bit too real for comfort. This was the only ride from the set that got a thumbs up, because “Chewie!”

On our way out, the girls saw a Jedi training going and asked to do that, too. Since our HS rope drop was later in the trip, I told them we could sign up later if they really wanted to. We were moving at 7pm and it was time to trek through to Fantasmic I still had my ToT RS to use, so Hubby took the girls to use the bathroom and get seats while I continued on for my elevator ride. I got to ToT at 7:13pm and the FP line was several families deep. It turns out that the ride had gone down at some point earlier in the day, prompting the backup. The line moved, though, and we were in the preshow just a few minutes later. The was one teenager who was very nervous, and the CM quietly walked right up next to her to do her announcements. The girl jumped about a foot when the CM started talking; it was delightful. When I made it to the boiler room, the CMs were not trying very hard to fill each elevator. I had hoped, given the backup outside, that they’d be calling single riders to fill seats, but no such luck. I was entering the Twilight Zone at 7:36pm.

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By the time I was through with the ride and my restroom pit stop, I was getting worried about the time. I was supposed to be grabbing treats, but it was already fifteen minutes to showtime. Hubby had texted that they were on the far left side of the Jafar section so I went in, headed left, and hopped into a comically long snack line. I figured I’d see how it was moving and hop out of line at 5 of if need be. When I texted Hubby to let him know I was in line, he said the girls were worried I’d miss it and wanted me to get there more than they wanted snacks. I headed down the correct aisle and started looking for the rest of the family. I kept heading down, but no sign of them. I assumed I had missed them and started to double back when I saw Hubby waving at me from all the way down in the front. He wanted the girls to get a good seat, so we were in the third row, aka the splash zone! I had no plans of getting wet that night, but it was too late to move without being in the far back, side of the seating. A little water never hurt anyone, right? Here was our view.

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While we were waiting, a dad and his 10ish year old son came down to the front. Dad said they wanted to start a wave for son’s birthday. It took a few tries to get people’s attention, but they did manage to get a wave going all the way to the end of the arena and back. Then, the CM selling light-up souvenirs took over. She told us to go as slowly as possible when we started the wave. Low and behold, a slow-motion wave went all the way around and back. Then, she had us do the fastest, loudest wave we could and the whole rest of the arena complied. Even for us jaded, old folks, seeing the entire crowd modulate the speed of the wave was a little bit of Disney magic. It was also an excellent way to kill time that didn’t involved answering “When will it start?” a dozen times per kid.

When the show started, I braced myself for the water spray but it never came. Folks a few feet to the left and right of us were getting wet but we were positioned directly in front of a projector, so the water wasn’t coming out at us. Now, that’s some magic!

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Everyone loved the show. The girls were especially thrilled to be able to wave to Moana at the helm of the boat full of characters at the end. She’s one of their favorites and they were bummed that she wasn’t meeting anywhere during our trip. As the masses of humanity filed out, we hung by the top bleachers for a few minutes. The girls were happy to sing and dance a bit while Hubby and I were glad to be waiting for a little elbow room to make our own exit. Since we hadn’t gotten treats during the show, we told the girls we could stop at Ample Hills for ice cream before bed.

We left through the auxiliary exit, which was relatively low stress until it merged back in with the main crowd on Sunset Blvd. Trudging out with everyone else, I was once again very glad that we had opted for stroller seats for all three girls despite not using strollers at home. They probably could have made it to the front gate, but it would have been a very different story getting back to Boardwalk. By the time we made it to Ample Hills, C was completely out. I tried shaking her awake but there was no rousing her. Lucky for her, neither A nor B were able to finish their treats, so we put leftovers into the freezer to share with her in the morning.

In looking back over our plan for day 1, we missed the Little Mermaid, the Indiana Jones show, and a visit with Mickey and Minnie. We weren’t going to try to fit the mice back into the plan, as we had several meals with them and they were only there to help kill time until Fantasmic. I did adjust our second HS day to fit in Indiana Jones and Little Mermaid, though. On the flip side, we had the Incredibles dance party, Edna Mode, Star Tours and Toy Story Mania that were all extras we were able to fit in. We were lucky that the day with great weather was also one where we could easily head back for a rest, because the girls had a blast poolside. Our totals for our first day at Hollywood Studios included 3 family rides, 1 set of parent swap rides, 4 shows, 4 character meets, a host of magic shots, an extended break by the pool, a speed changing wave, and a breakfast swim with our favorite mermaid.
 
Dining Plan Day 6

Day 6 Actual Spending
Bon Voyage Breakfast: $189.31
Hurricane Hanna: $30.90
BW Pizza: $25.67
Num Num Cookie: $6.20
Ample Hills: $29.78

DDP Day 6 Value: $281.86

Total DDP To Date: $1,983.76
Amount remaining to break even: $131.15

Moderate Splurge Adjustments
My only adjustments here were removing adult drinks across the board, 4 in total between breakfast and early dinner. That’s a firm point in favor of the DDP because my pool time is markedly improved with a good drink.

Moderate Splurge Day Six Estimated Cost (Tax and Tip): $265.89
Moderate Splurge Budget To Date: $1,411.06
 
Sounds like a fun filled DHS day! Fantastic is a must for first timers!

We love Mike and Sulley, such a fun meet!

We have to try the Jack num num cookie next trip!
 
Swim time looked fun - despite that darn creepy clown. 🤡

Mmmm… Pina Colavda! So delicious.

I'd love to stay at the Epcot area resorts one day, but I fear I'd become spoiled by the short walk to two parks. (Who am I kidding - I KNOW I'd be spoiled by it but it would be great!)

So many great character meets! I don't think I've met Mike and Sulley for years and they're so fun to meet! It looks like the girls had a great time at the Incredibles dance party, too!

You had such a great day at Hollywood Studios! I'm really impressed with how much you got done even with missing rope drop. Your planning really paid off!
 

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