DIsney Trip 2015 Part 2: Hollywood Studios- Edited to Add Video!

After a late night Sunday, we had planned to go to another park on Monday.  Yikes! The kids went to bed at midnight the night before.  They got up early because they are kids.  So we took them to Hollywood Studios.  Hoo dawg.  It was a rough start to the day but there are no naps at Disney World!! We must push on!

 Here is our 'before' picture.  We had just gotten to the park.  The kiddos were tired. Look at their poor tired faces. 

 Even the photog noticed.  He zoomed in for effect.

 Tommy just gave in and laid his head down.  Poor guy.

 So we decided to try and perk him up by taking him on the Tower of Terror.  I thought the ride would be pretty freaky for him.  I made sure to explain everything as we were going through.  The twilight zone stuff was dark and scary like I thought but he was fine knowing it was all pretend.  Then came the drop! I turned to tell him it was coming when they took the picture.  He was excited!  He refused to go on the ride again but I think he was pretty stoked that he went on a big kid ride.

 We went to the Little Mermaid show and then ate lunch.  The allergy-free chicken tenders we got at Studio Catering Company were not very good.  Oddly bland.  Usually they add something to make it taste better but not this time.  Can you tell Tommy was not in a good mood still?? He refused to let me take his picture.

 Charlotte was in a wacky mood for lunch at least. ;) 

 Tommy played on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground.  He loved riding the ant!


We went to the Frozen show.  Charlotte LOVED singing along with all the songs.  Love seeing that magic in the kiddo's faces.  Also, SPOILER ALERT: Elsa makes it snow!!!


Then we headed over to the Beauty and the Beast show. 

 We had perfect timing for this show.  While we were there, it rained!

 We stayed nice and dry!

 Charlotte yelled Belle several times.  The show was entertaining as always.

 Sofia the First was available to meet and get a picture after the show.  Charlotte loves her (mostly because she's one of the characters on her pull-ups).

 She was pretty excited to meet her.  I couldn't believe how well she was doing with the characters.

 But every time she met a character, she would run up to them, hug them and then run off.  It was pretty funny.

She matched FIA FURST (that's what she calls her) with her purple dress too! Too cute!

We went to watch the early Fantasmic show because it was getting late and the kids were pooping out.  (Literally but more on that later.)
It's one of Tommy's favorites still because (SPOILER ALERT) Maleficent the dragon makes an appearance.
Right before the show started, Charlotte filled her FIA FURST pull-up. Yep, #2.  I check our bag and realize that I had left our diapers and wipes in a bathroom after lunch (several hours earlier) clear across the park.  AARRRGGGHHHH.  Not good.  So I carried Charlotte up the stairs and tried to find a cast member. I found someone who thought maybe they had dispensers in the bathroom for diapers and wipes. She said if they didn't have diapers/wipes then I would have to walk to the entrance of the park where the baby care station was to get some or I could beg some other mom in the bathroom.  I chose the latter option and waited watching all the women going in and out of the bathroom.  I found a woman who was in the stall with a little boy who seemed like he was new to going potty.  She came out and I asked her if she could spare a square (wipe/diaper).  She said, "Oh, yes. I have 3 kids. I have done that several times.  Here, takes a couple diapers and some wipes."  SUCCESS!!! Charlotte got cleaned up just in time to head back to our seats and see the entire (terrifying, at least to Charlotte) show.  Charlotte eventually just laid her head down while I covered her ears and she fell asleep! That sounds familiar to another 2 year old at Disney. 

 After the show, we had one Fastpass left so we headed over to Toy Story Mania to ride it before we left.  Charlotte loved it! She had no idea what she was doing but she was having fun! Tommy and Dada loved it too.  The best part was that we didn't have to stand in line.  Those Fastpasses are the BOMB! The line for that ride is 3 hours at Christmas time.  No stinking way.  It was an hour plus the entire day we were there.  Not worth it.  But we enjoyed it with our 5 minute wait.  Whoo hoo!

 We had really pushed the kids to the brink but we pushed on because we HAD to see the Osborne Family Christmas Lights one last time.  The lights are being taken down after this year.  So sad to see them go. :(

 We COULD have stood in a LONG line to get a professional picture in front of this tree but we knew better than that. :)

Here's our version of the professional pic. Ha!

 There were so many people standing around taking pictures with their phones (us included).  It was amazing. It matched the Christmas music that was playing.  It almost put us in the Christmas spirit. (Pretty hard to do when it's 85 degrees and it's November.)

 Here is a partial family picture and my mom is photobombing us.  HA!

 The kids had had enough.  But they got  light up toys from Grandma so they were kept entertained for a little bit longer.

 We were about to leave when we decided we should go back and get Tommy a Christmas gift that we had picked out earlier in the day.  We let the kids out and they went nutty for a bit chasing each other around, light up toys glowing!

We snapped a quick family pic right before we left.  This is definitely our "After" picture.  Sheesh.  I was spinning Charlotte's light up Elsa toy in the second picture.  Memories, right? ;-)

 The kids were loopy on the tram back to the car.  It was a good thing we had a break day after this.  Wow.  They were absolutely troopers for what we put them through, I do have to say.  They did awesome for being so tired.  Way to go, kiddos.

Disney Vacation 2014: Part 1

We had an opportunity to go to Disney this year so we decided to go while Charlotte was still free and Tommy hadn't started school yet.  

 Charlotte did fantastic on the plane. Way to go, baby girl! She never slept but she was very good.

 Tommy rode with Grandma and Grandpa and he also did great.  MUCH better than his first plane ride.

 We landed and rented our minivan.

 The kids were super excited to be in Florida!!

 We decided to visit Hollywood Studios on our first day.  I really wanted to ride Toy Story Mania in 2012 but the wait was 3.5 hours long and never got any shorter.  This year the line was much shorter so we went for it.

 Tommy and Andrew rode together, Charlotte and I rode together, and Grandma and Grandpa rode together.  Watch out, they've got their cannons ready!

Charlotte DID NOT like this ride. It was dark, 3-D, and she hated the glasses.  It moved super fast and was unpredictable so she hated that too.  She screamed through the first 30 seconds and then all the sudden, she was fine with it.  I don't know what changed but she totally got over it.
Sidenote: REALLY glad we didn't decide to wait in line for 3 hours in 2012.  Totally not worth that wait time.

There were pretty much NO lines at any of the rides due to the fact that it rained most of the day.  We spent too much on ponchos even though we had these exact ponchos at home from the last time we came to Disney.  Hopefully lesson learned?

We went to the Frozen Singalong! Yay Frozen!! Both kids sat through the entire show.  I was really surprised how Charlotte sat and watched it without squirming.  The snacks really helped.

The adults even enjoyed it.  It was pretty cute and of course they sang the big number TWICE.  Crowd fave!

There is an awesome "bad guys" store at Hollywood Studios.  We were able to get Tommy's favorite, the Maleficent Dragon, and Prince Philip's sword.  He used it immediately to protect Hollywood Studios from the evil Maleficent.

 My parents were nice enough to trade off so we could ride the adult rides at HS.  We rode the Tower of Terror.  What a great ride.  I will admit, I screamed at each and every hint of a drop.  So fun.

Here's a pic from ride before the drop!! AAAHHHHH!!! 

Then we took the kiddos and my mom and dad went on the ride.  (Charlotte got a sweet new sweatshirt, by the way.)

 Here's my mom and dad's picture from the big drop!! AAAHHHH!! ;-)

We traded off one more time and we went on the Rockin Roller Coaster.  That was pretty crazy.  This is the picture they take when you go from zero to 60 in 2.8 seconds.  We were definitely not expecting that.  Another ride that was soooo fun.

 We went to Fantasmic that night. We went to the show last time but Tommy fell asleep so he missed pretty much the whole thing.

 He absolutely loved it because guess who showed up?? Well Mickey of course... but also Maleficent the dragon!

 He was excited to see all the characters on the big cruise ship that sailed by us.

We got one more picture on the way out of the park.  The kids had about had it at this point.  It was time to go. But a great day was had by all! We rode/saw nearly everything and lines were minimal.  Success!! 

Keiper Family Christmas Vacation: Part IV

The day after we went to the Magic Kingdom, we decided to go to Hollywood Studios. We let Tommy sleep in so we got to the park a little late.  The problem with getting there late is the parking lot gets full.  We  thought the park might be full but it was not.  Instead they gave us free parking passes to go park at Epcot.  So we drove over to Epcot and parked.  Then we got on the tram which took us from the parking lot to Epcot.  Then at the entrance to Epcot, we got on a bus to go to Hollywood Studios.  That took awhile. 

Here's Grandma and Tommy looking too cool for school in their shades waiting on the tram. 

 We get to the park after all the convoluted logistics.  We pass by some unruly teens smoking dope RIGHT OUTSIDE of the park, not far from this Christmas tree.  We were like HUH??? Is no one else seeing this??? Or smelling this??

We walk in and head toward the ONE RIDE we wanted to go on (Toy Story Mania) but alas there was no Fast Passes left and the wait was 2.5 HOURS long all day. (That's what we get for getting there late.)  So we decided to see what else we could do that would be fun.

We found a character named Mike Wazowski (which I find hilarious that is his name) aka Billy Crystal from the Monsters Inc movie and got our picture with him! "You won't believe your eye!"  I thought Tommy would be terrified (look at that thing!) but he was pumped up! Monster! Cool!

Then we walked around the corner and found the Muppet Vision 3D Show.  There was a 5 minute line so we went to see it.  I tried to wear 3D glasses during the movie.  Tommy kept turning around and pulling mine off my face though.  And since he didn't wear the 3D shades, he probably thinks every Muppet has two heads and is blurry.  Proud parent moment: Tommy made it almost all 22 minutes! He got kind of antsy around the end but that's when it got loud so no one heard him! WHOO HOO!

Outside the movie, I took this cute pic of Tommy in front of the Muppet fountain.  He wasn't happy about it but he sure was cute!

 Then we found the second best part of the park. Life-size versions of Lightning McQueen and Mater!
Sad part is right before we got up to get our picture taken, he lost his shit.  He just started throwing a terrible fit when we were "on deck".  We had stood in line for 20 minutes and he just then decided to throw down.  So I just picked him up and said, "YOU'RE GOING TO LIKE THIS!" He did end up liking it, thankfully.

 Can't you tell how happy he is? At least Mater is jazzed.

 He was totally excited about touching Mater though.

After seeing Mater, we met my parents, Adam and Steph to go see the Beauty and the Beast stage show.  We felt so cool because we got there late and all these people told us "They're not letting anyone else in!!" We walk up and Adam is standing there with a nice gentleman who opens the gate just for us three.  Talk about VIP Disney Royalty, folks! We waltzed right in must to the dismay of all the rejected.

 We had to do a lot of Tommy-wrangling during this show.  Beauty and the Beast was just not his gig.  He's not really into talking plates and candlesticks.  But I, on the other hand, was totally into it.  I remembered ALL the words to all the songs.  I wanted to sing along but realized what a dork I was.  "There goes the baker with his tray like always!" :-)

 After the show ended, it was mass chaos trying to make it through this crowd.

Mass chaos crowd + Toddler = Long Island Iced Tea in the stroller.  Probably my favorite part of Hollywood Studios is how available the alcohol is all over the park! Sweet!

 The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights is on the Streets of America part of the park.  It was awesome.  There was a show every 10 minutes I think.
You can see the whole show here (since I didn't feel like uploading my short video).

Gotta love the Trans Siberian Orchestra. 

In between shows, there would just be random things lit up all over the place.

The toy soldiers were very cool.

So was the tree.

Here's a view from the opposite end of the street.  Pretty cool.  I'm kind of interested to know how much Disney paid the Osborne Family for that light show.   Here's the Wiki entry on it if you're interested.

We figured out that while the light show was on, we could weave in and out of people like we stopped the Matrix because everyone was just standing around staring in awe at the lights. We rode the Great Movie Ride with no wait.  There are a few scary parts (Alien being one of them) where my dad was trying to keep Tommy's attention on the phone (Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, of course) so he didn't freak out seeing an alien fall out of the ceiling.  He didn't cry once.  Neither did Tommy!! Hardy-har-har!

We went to see Fantasmic too.  You can see a video at the link but basically it's a real-life version of Fantasia. With splashing water, fireworks and all kinds of characters, it's loud and wild.

But Tommy fell asleep half way through.  It was getting late.  It was also the second day without a nap so he crashed. 

He missed the ferry that floated by with all the characters! It would have been the closest he would have been to Mickey all week! Oh well.

After the show, we decided to head home.  It only took an hour to catch a bus, to catch a tram, to find our car.  But we missed the tram so we walked across many parking lots to find our car.  Whoops.  

 We got home that night and we were ready to party! Brandon and Desi and fam got home from Gatorland and they were ready to party too! We played 31 and A-hole in our onesies! I like this picture because Adam is totally creeping in the corner.  What's he doing?? :)

 That's a Gator head from Gatorland... and a middle finger. I should make this my cover picture.

We posed "Lilli-style" for this pic. :-)

Then it was time for massive amounts of panoramic pictures.  Boy were these pictures ridiculous. A little scary even.

 What goobers!

This is probably my favorite.  Notice Adam is in it twice.  It's just like the panoramic pictures that they take on your school trip to DC.  (Maybe that's a Rensselaer-only reference.)  It's also cool because it looks like Adam skidded to a stop on the right side.  Too funny. 

This is only part of the remnants from that night.  There was one person that didn't feel so hot the next day.  But we won't name names.  :-)   That was ONE FUN NIGHT!