Today was our first day of actually being AT Disney World on this Disney World vacation! When we came to DW 3 years ago we did not go to this park. I packed 6 backpacks (Beautiful and I had fanny packs and JJ didn't carry anything - I looked like a pack mule) with enough food, snacks, and water for the day. I did end up buying Buddy a $6.50 funnel cake...and I don't even want to know how much the 2 buckets of popcorn cost;) Otherwise we saved money by eating out of our backpacks. I did the fast pass system this morning for the first 3 days of parks to not waste as much time in lines. We got to the park by 10:30. I was surprised we got everyone around and there by then!! We are only about 20 minutes away.
We went on the Path of the Jedi first - which was really just a shortened version of all 7 movies into about 20 minutes in a movie theater setting. JJ was really bummed that most of the entertainment at Hollywood Studios are not rides a but theater seating.
Then we went on the Great Movie Ride. That was really, really interesting. We sat in moving tram-like cars and it took us through the history of movies from black and white, to gangster, to westerns, to sci-fi with fear and terror (like of communism, etc), to space sci fi, to other sci fi like Indiana Jones to animation, etc. The sets that we rode through were very fun to watch/learn about. Like most of the "rides" at DW it isn't about the thrill of the ride but the entertainment value of the experience. That took me awhile last time to understand - it isn't an amusement park.
Anyway, then we stood in lines to get pictures with Kylo Ren and Chewbacca. The kids thought it was great. They also got pics with Sophia (the girls) and Pluto (JJ and Superman). The girls and JJ got a pic with Olaf too:) We couldn't get pictures with the storm troopers or Darth Vader like JJ wanted to do, but we did get to watch them do a lot of "shows" and the storm troopers walked around and told people to "move along" and asked for their identification, etc. JJ was enthralled with them and followed them around. At one point after he followed them through half the park they asked him for his identification. I gave him his DW card and they held it up to his face (It has Donald Duck on it). They shook their head that it didn't look like him and made him stand against a wall. It was a hoot!
Beautiful and her husband went on the Rock n Roller Coaster (well, he made her go;) while the rest of us went to a Beauty and the Beast musical show. It.was.amazing. Even JJ sat enthralled with it. Of course the girls thought it was sweet and wonderful. I looked over at Superman once and he had a look on his face of barely concealed disgust. Romance is NOT his thing. Thank goodness lol!
Then we all headed over to The Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. It, again, was set in theater setting. I thought the kids would not like it but they loved it. It was like they were teaching us the behind the scenes of how stunts are done. Describing it doesn't sound very interesting - but the fire, explosions, and theatrics of it were very, very funny while acting out Raiders of the Lost Ark. I am glad we did it.
The Stars Tour was next. The line was super long so I am glad that we did the Fast Pass and only waited about 10 minutes. I did not tell my amusement park ride phobic husband about the ride and he was a bit apprehensive when he realized it was a simulation ride. But we all loved it. Grace got a bit scared but JJ wanted to go again. I laughed the whole time. It was crazy! It was like we were in a space ship flown by C3-PO. It was jerking all over the place, in 3-D so it looked pretty real, and had scenes from Star Wars. It was great! Again, we only sat in a seat and didn't move (other than the simulator tipping us all over) so it was helpful to remember that when it felt like we were falling down a mountain;) At the beginning the enemy "captures" the ship and demands that a traitor is aboard and that is why they are trying to shoot us down. They then show a picture of a person who is in the cabin. They put up Faith's picture. It was very funny:)
By then it was getting chilly. We went to the Little Mermaid show - kids thought it was nice. It was like a theater again and the character puppets were done well. It was warm in there so I really liked that lol! Beautiful, Buddy, and I took the 3 youngest back to The Stars Tour next as our son in law had taken Superman down the big roller coaster again:)
Then it was time for fireworks. Oddly it seemed warmer then than an hour before. I thought it was amazing. It had the projection on the main building showing scenes from Star Wars and the fireworks were set to the shoot-em-up scenes. It was epic. We will see how it compares to the fireworks the next two nights:)
The best part was that the fireworks were done early due to it getting dark earlier. Last time we were here we got home around midnight every night. This time we were home by 8:30! Yay!
After the fireworks my husband and oldest son had the great idea of walking to our vehicle instead of waiting in a long line for the tram to take us to our car. Yeah... We did eventually find our van and still made it home at a reasonable time;) The men even had time to run to Walmart while I put kids to bed since we have run out of bottled water and toilet paper. A family of 9 goes through a lot of both of those things;)
We did have some drama. JJ had some times at the park when he was less then...cooperative. The girls also had plenty of drama. So, Faith has been removed to another sleeping location and Grace is alone in the room. Hopefully I won't be woke up by drama tomorrow morning and all of us will get to sleep a bit longer;)
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