Disney Trip Day 4

I got up and after conference with my mom, decided to go to Hollywood Studios in the morning and get some of that done.  By this point it was already 8AM (and it was only her and I who were awake), i knew we weren't going to make rope drop and that we were most likely going to have to stand in a long line for Toy Story mania.  Since we wanted a rest in the afternoon and then had reservations at Epcot for dinner I knew we weren't going to be able to get Fast Passes either.  Oh well, if you don't have to stand in one line that's an hour long, you haven't really experienced all of disney right?

We got to HS around 10.  We went directly to Toy Story mania.  The wait time was 70 minutes.  I told everyone, the line is only going to get longer and if we don't do it now we won't have time to do it anytime else.  So we got in line.  We spent about 10 minutes in line outside and then we made it inside the air conditioned building.  They have the line area decorated like all different kids games.  And every 10 feet or so you move into a different game.  It made the line seem like you were moving faster and it was kind of interesting.  Here are a few pics from the line.

So happy to have made it into air conditioning. 

Nathan too.

 We are well rested, excited for the first ride of the day and in air conditioning, what could be better.

 Mr. Potato head was cool, even if he looks possessed in this picture. Plus he's near the end of the line so we knew we were almost there.

This ride was really cool and everyone was disappointed the fast passes were gone already because we would have loved to go on it again.  But no one wanted to stand in line again.  This area right outside of the ride was the MOST congested I think I had seen on a normal morning.  There is the line for Toy Story mania and then right across the street is the line for character meet with Woody and Buzz.  So that street was CONGESTED with people trying to decide what to do.  And it's a major thruway to get from one part of the park to another.  We had to pass through it a couple of times and everytime I was cursing out who ever decided to put those two major attractions right across from each other.

After Toy story, we went to Disney Jr Live.  I sent matt and Tim over to get FP for star tours.  The kids really loved this show.  Characters and songs from Mickey mouse clubhouse, handy manny, jake and the neverland pirates, and Little einsteins were all featured and the kids really got into it.  This is Nathan watching the show.

After that we went to Little Mermaid. The kids liked it more than I thought they would.  Of course they really just loved sebastion.  When we went into Little mermaid it had just started to rain.  We got there just as they were closing the doors for the show.  So we had to wait for the next one but it was raining buckets and we were under a patio so we didn't mind.  By the time we got out of little mermaid it was 12:30 and it was just drizzling.  We headed over to Star Tours.  It was pretty neat, but since we were all hungry , we all got a little motion sickness from it. 

We decided to get a little food.  Then we headed back to the room for a little rest and relaxation.  We decided not to let the kids swim today since we only had a few hours before we needed to head to epcot and didn't feel like arguing with them to get out of the pool.  So we let them watch some TV while the adults rested and played cards. 

We headed back out around 4:00 to epcot.  I think getting to Epcot from the contemporary is the most difficult of all the places.  You can walk to MK or take the monorail.  The other parks are buses but once you are on the bus you just wait to get there.  Plus the contemporary is the first bus stop so the bus is empty and you can get a seat.  There's really only one choice to get to epcot, get on the monorail and then change monorails at TTC and get on another monorail.  The change at TTC is a pain in the butt, especially when you have strollers (like we did that night because we knew it was going to be another late night).  You have to go down a ramp and then back up the other side.  Plus it always takes like 45 minutes to get there.  But we got there almost at 5pm.  We went to Ellen's Energy Adventure.  We walked in just as they were about to start the preshow.  Which was when Nicholas decided he had to go to the bathroom.  So I HIGHTAILED it out of there with him to the nearest bathroom (which did not seem so near) and made it back about 1 minute before the preshow ended (total round trip time ~7 minutes).  That's when they announced that there was a problem with the ride and we would have to come back later. 

We had 6:10 reservations at Garden Grille so we just decided to head over there and get there a little early. Of course it had started to rain while we were waiting for Ellen.  When we got to GG they told us they were running a little behind because people were lingering over their food due to the rain.  So we waited but they had a few games out of the kids to play.  We probably get seated around 6:30.  The boys got chicken drumsticks (which was a nice change from the normal fare of chicken nuggets, pizza or hot dogs).  They enjoyed seeing the characters.  Nathan really enjoyed chip and dale even though silly mommy mixed up their names each time they came.

 By the time we got out of there it was 8PM.  We walked out to the world showcase and did Gran Tour Fiesta in Mexico and the troll ride in Norway (luckily the movie was not playing because we wanted to hightail it out of there for illuminations).  We stood outside of Norway to watch illuminations.  I have to say that Illuminations was my least favorite nighttime show.  The fireworks are great but it takes a long time for that ball to make it to the center of the lake and really they are just projecting pictures from around the world on it with slow music while it moves.  Not that exciting. 

AFter that we got our strollers from mexico and decided to very slowly make our way to the front.  I knew that there were going to be a lot of people leaving the park but I figured if we took it slow they might be gone by then.  Which may have been the case if every touring group from Brazil hadn't had the same idea and then stood in front and behind us.  Tired kids trying to sleep in strollers with very loud kids from Brazil singing and stomping their feet do not mix.  Although it was funny because one of the guys in front of us (from America) bore a stunning resemblence to Ron from Harry Potter.  All the kids from Brazil kept coming up to him wanting his picture and especially with the girls, he was happy to oblige.That made the time pass but really we stood in an hour long line just to get on the first monorail.  then we had to transfer at TTC and get on another really crowded monorail.  It was after 11:30 before we got home.  I personally don't think the show was worth the hastle.  Later I did see that we could have taken a bus to wilderness lodge and then a ferry to contemporary.  That may have been better but I didn't know that at the time.  It was another fun exciting day, but I was glad to get into bed that night.