The Wonderful World of Disney- Part 4

Our last day began with rapidly packing out our rooms and saying good-bye to family. Everyone was heading out that day since they had to fly home. Since we drove, we were fortunate to be able to enjoy another day in the area. So, we loaded up and headed over to Hollywood Studios. First stop was Toy Story Mania. Ethan has a Wii game that simulates this ride. It’s basically a moving arcade game. You ride and shoot the targets along the way. We knew this was going to be the ride we had to wait in line for (we had avoided long lines for the most part since the kids are so young that most rides would not be worth the wait). So, we did the 90 minute wait (Fast Passes were already booked until the afternoon!). I ran across the park to Star Tours and grabbed some Fast Passes for later. Fortunately Disney is pretty good at keeping the kids entertained with things to see while in line. Here’s Ethan dancing to the background music.

The kids also enjoyed Mr. Potato Head talking and telling jokes!

We all put on our 3D glasses as we prepared to board!

The ride was fun and we were glad to be able to do it.  After the ride we walked over to Pizza Planet (another Toy Story reference) to enjoy some lunch. Next on our list was Playhouse Disney. It had started raining, so this was a good chance to get out of the rain as well! All of the kids were excited to see Mickey, Minnie, Handy Manny, the Little Einsteins, Pooh, and Tigger. There were bubbles to chase around, and there was music to dance to. Here’s a video of Ethan continuing his dancing through the day!

Afterward it was time for the Star Tours Fast Pass. Ethan and I went first. He definitely enjoyed it! There were space ships and lasers and robots. It was cool! We did the rider swap and Amber and Ethan hopped on. I went and grabbed a soft pretzel (I love soft pretzels…though I really think the ones sold at the rest stops on the Pennsylvania Turnpike are some of the best!!!), and we prepared to leave. Back in the car we headed north to Steve Mead’s hotel room. He had left us a key, so we walked right on in and unpacked. Everyone then took a nap. That was nice! We grabbed some dinner at the Golden Corral down the street and shot back to the Magic Kingdom. We really wanted to see the fireworks again from a better vantage point, and let the kids enjoy the rides again. We had heard some good things about Philharmagic, so we went there first, and it ended up being very enjoyable. Usually I’m disappointed with 3D shows, but this was really well done and was fun to watch. We walked around the castle and found a place to settle down and watch the fireworks. We had tried to catch the Electric Light Parade again (per Ethan's request), but there were just too many people in that area. The later show would have to do! This time the fireworks were even better! Amber said that they were quite possibly the best show she'd ever seen.  We could hear the narration this time, and we could see a much broader field of view. And we were able to see Tinkerbell this time.

(I wasn't quite ready for her, so she's a blur shooting out the top-left corner of the photo!)

It was a blast! The kids stayed awake for it, which I was happy about. I really didn’t want them to miss it.

When it was over we went around and hopped on Small World again! (I know... we’re nuts, but the kids LOVED it so much that we were willing). Then it was down to Aladdin’s magic carpets again. From there we watched the Electric Light Parade one more time. It was longer this time! It must be difficult to keep all of the floats working all of the time. Christmas lights are hard enough to keep working, these floats need to work twice a day everyday. I’m sure there are several full-time jobs just keeping the lights working! When it was over there was one more ride on the carpets (where Ethan's main objective was trying to get Amber wet with the camel "spit"... he succeeded) and then a slow meandering out of the park. We walked through several of the stores on Main Street (which is beautiful when lit up at night).

When we reached the exit, Amber wanted to take the Ferry since she’d never done that before. As with everything else it seemed that week, there was no wait, and we were one of the last groups on before the ferry left. It was great. We enjoyed gliding across the water back to the transportation area. It was a little sad seeing the castle and Space Mountain fade away in the distance. Disney does a great job making it a special place, and we really enjoyed our time there. Following the pattern from the other day, we walked back to the car. It really wasn’t too far. The hard part was protecting the sleeping kids from the noise of the trams going by. They are loud, especially under the bridge!!!! We made it to the car around 12:20am and headed back to Steve’s. This is when we realized what a blessing having Steve’s place was! We had originally planned on going to a hotel at this point. We would’ve had to unload and get beds ready. Since we’d already unpacked and moved in, all we had to do was walk in, put on pajamas, and crash!   Plus it was significantly closer.  It was great! In the morning we grabbed breakfast at the hotel, loaded back up, and began the trek back to South Carolina (with a quick stop at the McDonald's, which had the "biggest playplace in the world."  It was insane!!). We had dinner in Savannah, Georgia, and arrived back home around 10:30pm.

Overall, it was a fantastic trip. I was a bit worried about crowds and heat, but God provided good attitudes and air conditioning throughout (the heat was something else though!). Amber cared for us so well in her preparations for this trip. Her planning made it so we stayed calm and relaxed through most of the time in the parks. It really was an enjoyable trip, and a lot of that was due to the work she put in ahead of time. Thanks Mom and Dad again for the time share! We loved it!! It was a great vacation!