WDW Day 2 (Hollywood Studios) Part 2

I think Lex woke up around 6ish or so, and we headed back out to Hollywood Studios. We were going to see the 9p showing of Fantasmic (which was something that I was kind of wishy-washy about seeing), and after that we were going to see the Osborne Family Christmas Lights (not to be confused with THOSE Osbornes!). When we showed up at Hollywood Studios, there was already a line to get to the Fantasmic auditorium. Now, remember, we have no idea what this is. But the travel agent said that it wasn't something to be missed, and Dennis clearly took that to heart!

So, we stood in line. For about 30 minutes. And eventually, we started to move. And for the second time I made a Nazi Death March joke. I mean, seriously, we're just walking through the park like cattle with no idea where we're going, but when we did get to the auditorium it was HUGE. I'd say it easily held 10,000 people. and so we waited some more. With LOTS of 'Wave' action. Now, for whatever reason, Dennis HATES the wave. HATES. IT. I do not, so whenever it came to our section, I taught Lex the joys of the wave.

Promptly, at 9p, the show started with Mickey describing his 'dreams'. And I'm just going to go all dork on you, but this was definitely one of the coolest things I've ever seen. And I, personally, was so enthralled that I don't think I took a single picture of the things that we saw. Water fanned up out of the lake, and movies were projected on the water. On. THE. WATER. I've never seen anything this cool before. It probably lasted about 20 minutes with fire on water (again, Lex loves that stuff!), and boats of characters~ When it was over, we filed out, and headed towards the Osborne lights. Now, again, we've (for whatever reason) decided not to bring the stroller. Dumb, dumb, dumb. It is around 10p, Lex isn't willing to walk, and Dennis and I are having to switch off and on from carrying him, and trying to coerce him into walking.

Once we finally made it to the light show, it was spectacular. I've never seen anything like it. This was about the only time that we were able to get Lex to walk because he was clearly exhausted/enamored like we were! We loved the 'appearance' of Dr. Doofenshchmirtz; it was definitely the highlight of our night! And it was COLD. It was like being in Indiana. They had fake snow flying, but I swear it was freaking cold enough to actually really snow down there. Once we were sufficiently frozen, we decided to head back to the 'Star House' for the night. Back on the bus, all snuggled up with the little man, and off to sleep.

Day 2 was at Magic Kingdom and we were PUMPED!

WDW Day 2 (Hollywood Studios) Part 1

We had an 8:35a call time at the Hollywood and Vine character breakfast in Hollywood Studios on our first day. When we left the hotel, I feel like there might have been some discussion as to whether or not we should take the umbrella stroller as we left the room, but I think we decided to leave it because he can walk, he likes walking, and he's NOT fond of being stuck in a stroller. So, we loaded onto the bus, and headed out around 7:45a. Now, Hollywood Studios the park, does not open until 9a, but because we were eating breakfast we were allowed to enter the park. Now, remember, this is our FIRST time ever to anything Disney related. We have these cards that not only get you into your hotel room, but they serve as your park tickets too. I watch Dennis pass through the turnstyle by slipping his card into this reader and then sticking his thumb on a scanner (I swear it felt like Mission: Impossible), and going through. Now, honestly, in hindsight I understand how stupid I am, but at the time I was completely under the impression that my ticket as well as Lex's ticket were on Dennis' ticket. So, I try to walk through the turnstyle, and a lady gets HELLA shitty with me. "Ma'am, you MUST stick your card in!" So, par for me, I got hella shitty back with her, "I'm SORRY. You'll have to excuse me because this is my FIRST time here." Anyway, I'm Mission: Impossible'd in, and we're off to breakfast.

Now, let me tell you something. When you use a travel agent, they (you can do this too on your own) can get you reservations for meals. I would suggest this because not unlike 'stand-by' for rides, the lines for sit down meals are HOURS long. HOURS. This would be our first character breakfast. I had no idea what to expect and neither did Lex. Hollywood and Vine is a buffet, and the characters kind of, as it was described to me, ping-pong around the restaurant. About every 15 minutes or so, the characters take a break from interacting with the tables to dance and sing. A-fucking-dorable. I wish I would've thought to video this, but it never crossed my mind. So, while we conned Lex into eating (he was really weird on vacation...it was like pulling teeth to get him to eat ANYTHING), the characters walked around, signed autographs, and generally interacted with everyone.

After breakfast, we decided to hit the park. Now, again, these places are HUGE...and we really had no idea where to start. The sole purpose of WDW, for us, was for Lex to see Mater and Lightning McQueen. We had NO CLUE where to find them, and the map isn't exactly helpful. So, we decided to walk through the Pixar studios portion. Unfortunately, the only really cool thing that Lex was into were the stairs. At this point, we're starting to realize that forgetting (or leaving) the stroller behind was a bad idea. Now, both Dennis and I realize that we expect entirely too much from our preschooler. While he wants to run up and down the stairs doing something that he can do at home, we want to look around. So, we start to lose our patience, but we've paid something like $240 for all of us to go in to this park, and god damn it, we want to see something other than the stairs inside the Pixar area. So, thus 'the dragging of the Lex' starts. Which, of course, turns into a fight. I'll leave out the gory details, but eventually we were able to con him out of the gift shop.



So, in order to appease both Lex and parents, we go to a backlot tour. Now, this was super cool. They just kind of give you a behind the scenes look at how special effects/stunts are done on a movie set. Lex's favorite part (and mine too!) was when they blew stuff up. And then there was FIRE. ON WATER. He LOVED it. Then we got to ride a little tram around the studio, saw the famous Mouse ear water tower, a bunch of Star Wars props , and a multitude of other wicked cool movie props. We watched an Indiana Jones stunt show, and after that we headed over to our main reason for Disney World: Lightning McQueen and Mater. We stood in line for about 15 minutes for about 4 minutes of what we wanted. Which is fine. That's kind of what it's like in WDW. A lot of standing around for just a few minutes of joy. Now what you don't get to see is the epic meltdown that we had to contend with AFTER the family photo was taken. In order to get Lex to relax, one of the theaters was showing Mickey's Christmas Carol, so we sat in a warm theater (again, FL? You're south, start acting like it!) and watched the movie. It was cool seeing on a huge screen.

After the movie, we had lunch at the 50s Prime Time Cafe. This was actually attached to the restaurant we went to in the morning. It was set up like a 50s style house. Think "Leave it to Beaver" and that's exactly what the waiting room was like. I couldn't take any pictures because like everything in WDW, it was packed wall to wall with people. When we were finally seated, our server was HILARIOUS! As one kid was being carried out screaming, she proceeds to yell after the family, "Hey!!! I have some Nyquil in my cabinet if you need it!" The idea of the restaurant was to have the 'servers' be moms. And if you didn't finish your plate you were teased. One little girl was made to get her own refills, we sang Happy Birthday (off key intentionally)to another little girl at a table near us, and our server threw straws at us when we asked for some. . We got a massive kick out this restaurant, and I would definitely go back again!

After lunch, it was time to take Lex back to the hotel for his nap, so back on the bus and back to the Star Hotel. The rest of the afternoon was spent by Lex napping, me sitting by the pool watching the dumbasses swimming (It was 63 degrees), and Dennis watching TV.

I'm going to finish up Day 2 tomorrow. I'm tired of typing...

Walt Disney World (The departure of Bloomington and the arrival in WDW)

I'm going to have to do this WDW blog in phases because it's going to take me forever to get it all out, and format the freaking pictures from our trip.

For Christmas break this year, on a $2000 whim, we decided to go to Disney World. From the first part of November until the day before we left, we talked Lex up on going to "Mickey Mouse's house". We ordered the DVD to watch so that he would have an idea what to expect, and I think he and I watched it about 10 times. I was more interested than he was, as he was too busy playing with trucks or whatever the hell it is that he does 90% of the time.

So, on December 18th we embarked on our 16 hour drive. Lex had a new DVD player in the back seat that I could control from the front seat (epic WIN!). Unlike last June when we drove to North Carolina, he was phenomenal in the car. Nary a complaint, nary a peep. Thank YOU, Mater Tall Tales and various other movies.

Around 6p we rolled into Perry, Georgia, our 'layover' for the night. I had specifically chosen this hotel on the exit for one reason alone. In.Door.Pool. It was the only one. When we pulled into the parking lot, I was a little concerned. The lights weren't on in the pool area. Hmmm...so, Dennis went inside to check in while Lex and I chilled in the car (literally. Hey, GA, last time I checked you were the south. WTF is up with 20 degrees? I could have had that crap in IN). When Dennis came out, he looked a little timid.

Me: What's up with the pool?
D:Umm...I don't think we'll be swimming.
Me: WTF? Why not?
D: Well, it's ummm *scratches head* not heated. And...Ummm...the windows are open.
Me: Are you fucking kidding me? They marketed the hotel as having an indoor pool. That's not an indoor pool. That's an outdoor pool with sides!
Lex: What's wrong, Mommy?
Me: Nothing, Lex. The hotel is a liar.
Lex: Oh.

So, no swimming. I guess while Dennis was inside, he asked about restaurants in the area. The receptionist suggested Applebee's. When Dennis asked for something with a little more local flavor, she suggested Longhorn. :-/ Um, lady, that's a chain too, but whatever. Anyway, she finally suggested a local Mexican (score!!) joint, and we went over there. After that, we hit Wal-mart to buy Lex another cheap pair of pants so that we had a back-up in case of accidents (we needed them later on).

After Wal-Mart we went back to the hotel to relax and sleep. The next morning, we packed up and headed to Orlando. We were only about 6 hours from our destination, and considering how wonderful he was in the car on the way down, we knew we were going to be fine.

Six hours later (approximately 12:30p) we rolled into the WDW resort area. Now, I will tell you one thing. The map they give you of the resort is VERY deceiving. This place is EXPANSIVE. Dennis and I had 'talked' about walking to places. Im-fucking-possible. I don't think I would've even dreamed of walking down to the next couple of hotels. It was HUGE. We pulled into the check in lot, and I asked Dennis if we should wait in the car. He said no, and I'm glad he did. The line to check in, I'm NOT shitting you, was easily an hour and a half long. I spent an hour and a half trying to entertain an almost 3 year old by letting him walk around the hotel's Disney Store. It had its OWN fucking Disney Store. You name it, they had it. And then some. They also had an arcade (which became a place I grew to HATE after 1 damn day). In the 'gift shop', they had a package of the three types of buses you could see there (the resort bus, the airport bus, and the cruise bus). I conned Lex into pooping in the toilet by telling him we would buy these $14 buses. Yes, three pack of buses for $14. Welcome to the most expensive place on earth!


After checking us in, we went back out to the car to move it to our wing of the hotel. We get in the room, and there is ONE king sized bed and a shower stall. Apparently, when Dennis told the woman at the desk that we had a 2 year old that equated to "You all only need one bed, and your kid can stink for a week". Now, some kids might enjoy showers, but mine loses his shit. He accidentally turned the shower on in HIS bath once. It took me almost 2 weeks to get him to NOT scream taking a bath. So, yeah, the shower wasn't going to work. So...back to the main building to the desk to move us. And move us they did. To a completely different building on site. So, we had to trek all of our stuff from Fantasia 2000 to 101 Dalmatians. Yay, a room with 2 double beds and a bath. Score!



At this point, the rest of the day is kind of a blur. Lex started melting down because he was so excited but couldn't calm down enough to take a nap. Needless to say, there was a lot of screaming and crying while Daddy spent time on the phone trying to sort everything out with the resort. He was displeased because he felt like we were too far from the main building where the food court is, etc. It resulted in some awesome Fast Passes.

When Lex finally woke up, it was time for our dinner reservations at Fort Wilderness. So, this would be his first of MANY bus rides. Now, if you know my son, you'll know he LIVES for buses. I wasn't sure how he'd take to riding an actual bus, and not just riding a bus, but at night. He took to it fine. In fact, he loved it. When we got to Magic Kingdom, we had to hop a boat to ride to the other resort. He LOVED this too! He wanted to look out the window and watch the water, he loved seeing the lights at the ends of the docks. When we got to Fort Wilderness, he was able to play on a playground for about 30 minutes while we waited on our reservations. Lots of fun.

When dinner was over, we were full, and had a light up Buzz Lightyear that came with Lex's drink ($5...again, the most expensive place on earth!)We hopped the ferry back to MK, and hopped a bus back to the 'Star Hotel'. We passed out on our respective beds to wake up for our 8:35a call time at Hollywood Studios. Breakfast with Handy Manny, June and Leo from Little Einsteins, and Agent Oso.