Next to this photo we took a picture and had Anna and Elsa inserted in.
That dang face paint!!! I'll still consider using it for Christmas, but it's still not my vision!
When we left the building there was a Frozen backdrop and PP photographer in front of it, so we stopped there too. They were doing shots with Olaf inserted.
Act cold!
We apparently all took that to mean different things - I look sad, Danica's confused, Skyler's trying to figure out what's going on and Cecil looks like he just saw a spider. Welcome to my family.
They also added a little video on our MM of Olaf doing a little dance next to our cold face picture. It's nice, but I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it?
Right after our photo session we walked back over to TSMM to redeem our
DAS time. On the way, we bumped into some of the green army men, who I LOVE. They are always doing goofy things, and I especially love when there are a bunch of them out at the same time.
They made a big scene getting in a group and circling around with their hands in the middle. One or two kept sneaking off and another would go grab them really quick. Afterwards, they grabbed all the kids watching and included them in the big 'annnnnd team' thing they did.
*** I feel like I need to insert a WDW wide apology for the amount of butts that my children probably end up grabbing while taking pictures. Sorry ***
After pictures we redeemed our DAS time at 12:15. We were at the ride turnstile in 8 minutes.
As soon as got out of TSMM we made our way towards the Frozen Sing-a-long. Our FP+ time wasn't until 1:15p - 1:30p so we grabbed frozen lemonades from the Joffrey's near the line, snacks, and hung out on a bench to enjoy them in the shade. While the kids were snacking well had intermittent restroom breaks, and I walked over to Star Tours to grab a return time.
When I got to Star Wars, I noticed that the same CM that was verifying people's FP+ reservations and bands was the one I had to ask about the return time. And I felt terrible. He was clearly a little flustered, and asking him to another thing just stunk. But I did, because, that's the system. I don't know if he was just too flustered to try to do the math, or if he was just being nice, but he wrote the return time for the immediate time. The standby wait was 30 minutes, so I should have had a 20 minute wait time. He did let me know that he just wrote it for now, I thanks him, said we would still need to come back, and made my way back to the Sing-a-long. It was 12:50p when I had the DAS filled out, and if I would have had the 20 minute return time it still would have worked out that we could do Star Tours right after the Sing-a-long, which was the goal.
When I got back to the Sing-a-long we all tossed away our trash and made our way into the FP+ line which was already starting to let people in. There was a father with a toddler waaaaay back in the line just trying to let her walk around on her own, and he told us to go on ahead of him. There were umbrellas along the line that provided shade which was nice. A few minutes before we started going in I noticed the father and his toddler a few people farther back in the line and asked if he wanted to come jump in front of us since that's where he was originally. He declined, but it was nice to see guests just being polite to each other instead of worrying about being 1-2 people farther behind.
I had watched the standby line grow and grow and grow as we ate our snacks and waited in our line, and I was really thankful that we had gotten a FP+ for it. About 2 minutes before the line started moving it started to sprinkle. I know this is a poor time of year to go for this issue, but I HATE getting rained on.
Thankfully we were right under an umbrella that I could hover under, and once the line started moving there were some trees that I just made sure to stay under.
When we got into the theater we were in the very first row behind the reserved seats for the Frozen Premium Package. We were nearly right in the middle. It was fantastic. We spent the next 20 minutes or so sitting on cozy seats, dry, in the air conditioning. It was perfect.
While we were waiting the auditorium filled in, and I do mean FILLED in. It was packed. At one point I noticed a woman, her husband, and two children, hovering over the last premium package row entrance (the row directly in front of us). I watched the silent disagreement between the adults, and then the woman moved the beam that holds the elastic blocker one row up, and she sat down right in the middle of the completely empty last row. Her husband just stood there mortified while she waved for her children to come over, but a CM immediately came over and told her to get out. It was hilarious. The CM put the blocker back and I was really just kind of baffled that this woman thought the CM manning the area a) didn't know the total amount of rows used for the package and b) wouldn't noticed this woman was in a row that was completely empty. I mean, you're not even blending in!!! Now she probably lost the seat that she originally had and ended up with a seat farther back because she wanted to be a douche - yeah. I said it. You're a douche if you try and sneak into something you didn't pay for.
Once the show started it was hilarious. I thought that I was going to rip my hair out listening to all the off key children singing, but the music was loud enough to block most of it out.
The pictures we tried to take on our phones were pretty blurry from all the movement and lighting changes. But the historians were hilarious and they did a lot of improv jokes that were really for the adults.
The Sing-a-long lasted for about 30 minutes, which ended up being the exact amount of time needed for the rain to go away! Super shibby! We made our way over to Star Tours and snagged a couple PP photos.
We hopped into the FP+ line using our DAS at 2:33p and we were in the row of our seating assignment in 4 minutes. The standby line was down to 20 minutes. Once we got off Star Tours we were kind of at a loss for an hour what to do before our F! dinner reservation. We ended up just making our way over to Hollywood Brown Derby and looking at some of the shops and pins. We went over to check out the Villain Store merchandise since I was hoping to find a Maleficent shirt and ear set for the Halloween party.
We checked into our reservation about 3:30p in hopes that we could get seated early. While we were waiting outside with our buzzer, I heard someone come out of the restaurant and inform her party that they were running 30 minutes behind. OH GOD. There is no way we would make our JTA check in time at 5:00p if that's true.
Cecil went into the restaurant to ask and the hostess advised that since it rained, people hung out at their tables and that's why they were behind. She said that if we cancelled she would wave the $10/pp fee. Cecil relayed the information, and we wanted to cancel, but we did the F! package and there was no way we were giving up the reserved seating. Cecil went back into the restaurant to talk to the hostess and asked what we should do. She cancelled our reservation, waived the fee, and gave us the F! reserved seating passes.
I feel like in this situation, everybody wins. We get our passes which we would have gotten anyway - so no loss for anyone there. And the restaurant frees up a space to try and help with the backlog.
We decided we'd just grab a QS meal. We've never actually had a QS meal at Hollywood Studios since we always do an early F! dinner, so we weren't really sure where to go. We started making our way down Commissary Lane towards Pizza Planet when it started to rain, so we ducked into ABC Commissary. We ordered food and grabbed a spot just in the nick of time, as people started pouring in to avoid the rain.
We took our time eating and ended up hanging out at ABC for a bit since it was still raining pretty hard. Once it let up we made our way over to JTA to sign in. I was terrified that they'd cancel, but the rain seemed to have passed. We figured that Cecil would stay with Skyler and the Jedi group while me, The Jood, and Danica grabbed spots by the stage.
They gave Skyler her robe and she really started getting excited.
The Jedi host was great and had a bunch of great, on the spot jokes. Skyler followed directions well and really loved the whole experience. Sadly, right after we stopped recording one of the Storm Troopers went right up to Skyler and bent down starting at her for a minute. Finally he gave her a thumbs up on her face paint. It was hilarious. The whole thing lasted 20 minutes or so, and really gathered a big crowd of people who just stopped to watch as they passed, so getting a spot early was important. There was also a PP photographer taking photos of everyone and we got a card with all the pictures on it to link to our MM.
At the end they get a little certificate. Skyler wants to frame it and put it in her room, and she's also started watching the Star Wars Rebels animated series... she truly loved the experience. I think it ended up being much cooler than she originally thought when she watched the videos. The rest of the trip she'd tell CMs about it, show them her button that she got, and say she was a padawan.
After Jedi Training made our way over to Animation Studio again in hopes of drawing a character. When we got there, a class had just started so the wait was around 35 minutes. We decided to skip it and try again on our second HS day. We walked around the building for a bit and let the kids play some of the computer games they have there. Apparently, my Disney spirit animal is Belle, Danica is Nala, Cecil is Jiminy Cricket, and Skyler is Pocahontas. I don't believe a word of it since Jiminy Cricket is wise... if they got that wrong I'll just assume the rest aren't right either!
We jumped in line for Minnie's meet and greet. The line took 8 minutes. Her parlor area was cute, but I thought she was in a fancier outfit from pictures I saw.
We played a few computer games and made our way over to ToT for our FP+ from 6:25p - 7:25p. I figured we could go from ToT directly over to the area for F!, grab a snack, and wait for the show!
We ended up getting to ToT right at 7:15p. We went right in and were put immediately into a group going into the movie room. Once we left the movie room the wait to be sorted for our elevator only took about 5 minutes. The groups always look so much bigger than they actually are.
The kids, even though they always talk about loving this ride, were apprehensive. Danica always says she hates it and won't do it, but after I force her into it she says she loves it. I'm pretty sure she just thinks it's funny now to say it's terrifying and she won't do it again. But both kids dislike the movie and the scenes before the actual drop, so they close their eyes. I always end up laughing hysterically the whole ride because Danica is so terrified - I'm probably a terrible person for that. But I don't care.
Skyler's face
We made our way over to the reserved seating for F! and I was shocked at how many people were already there and how crowded it was. We did the F! package in February and I felt like we had the whole section to ourselves!
We found a spot on the isle and waited for Cecil to run and get some napkins to wipe off the bleachers because they were soaked. It took him forever to maneuver through the crowds, and then the food place wouldn't give him any napkins unless he bought something. So he bought a pretzel and took 400 napkins.
When we got everyone situated Cecil and I both went back up to get drinks and snacks for everyone. We grabbed popcorn, cotton candy, drinks, and caramel corn in a souvenir bucket. I really wanted to try and find something more substantial but the crowds were making me grumpy, and the line was taking forever.
We made our way back to the seats with about 5 minutes until showtime.
As usualy, F! was awesome. It's genuinely my favorite park ending show I think. There's just something about those glow in the dark Lion King floats and animals that just really blows me away. Last trip we saw Megora, my second fave, on the ferry boat. She was sadly absent this time, but there were a lot of cool characters up there as usual.
We made a plan that Cecil would carry Skyler, I'd carry Danica, and The Jood would just keep up, but if anyone got separated to just meet by the bus back to AK. The crowds were just... so overwhelming. Danica started out walking but after a few bumps and shoves from people I carried her the rest of the way - which isn't the easiest thing in the world after a day in the parks!
We managed to all stay together, but the streets were just packed with people waiting to watch the Frozen fireworks. We ended up grabbing a spot right on the corner of Hollywood and Sunset Blvd in front of a screen so we could see what was happening on the stage. We were right next to a pole, which was apparently a cut off point for where people could stand. Any time someone stopped in the walkway a CM standing there advised them that they needed to be on our side of the pole, or the opposite side of a tree on the other side.... so of course people tried to just squish to the side and bump us over. UH, NO. 'You can quit pushing me, there's nowhere for me to scoot over' was said several times.
The view for the screen was pretty obstructed with a lamp post, but it was okay. The fireworks were actually a great view, and the palm trees actually made watching them even cooler. I'd read a lot of reviews saying the Frozen fireworks shouldn't be missed... I really didn't feel that way. Aside from having some Frozen songs that I love I thought they were just alright. I'm glad I saw them, but it was more of a pain than it was worth honestly. Hollywood Blvd was at a standstill of people packed together. It's just not my thing.
We decided to head into some shops and take our time getting out to avoid the madness. Danica was adamant that she wanted to spend money on a baby Pegasus she had seen another girl carrying around. It was an odd choice, but she stuck with it all day. She knew she was spending her own money, so she bought it. And honestly, she carried that stupid thing around everywhere. So good for her for making a good choice with her money.
By the time we got to the bus there was a pretty big line. We ended up making it onto the second bus, but we were standers... and that was awful. The jerking forward and back while trying to keep Danica from losing her balance darn near ripped my shoulder out of the socket. And since AKV isn't a short ride, it just stunk. And I think it soured my attitude of the bus system - which isn't really their fault, but Disney transportation just isn't for me. I'd rather walk an extra 10 minutes to my car, sit, and drive myself comfortably.
Once we got back to the resort we all showered to get the makeup off our faces and passed out. Overall, it was a great day and we did a ton of stuff! I was pleasantly surprised how my feet felt. I soaked them in the jacuzzi tub for a bit before melting into my cloud pillow and drifting off to sleep thinking about our plans for Animal Kingdom the next day.
and heading to Hollywood Studios for our pre-park opening breakfast at Hollywood and Vine at 8:20a (park opened at 9a). This cute little statue was out front and the kids loved it! 
