Day 4 was spent at Hollywood Studios. I was interested to see Hollywood Studios because the last time I was there it was MGM. When we first got there all I could think as how cool everything was. I loved the different backdrops and all of the buildings. It truly felt like we were on a movie set. We watched a few shows, rode the Toy Story Mania ride, met Buzz & Woody & Mason played on the Honey I Blew Up the Kid playground. I think I enjoyed HW Studios more than some people in our group. And, I think we left before actually seeing it all. For lunch we had reservations at Prime Time Cafe. We had reservations for 2:35, but didn't get seated until after 3:00. That was kind of a bummer. It was super crowded and felt like we waited forever. Kind of defeats the purpose of making a reservation 3 months in advance. ha! Prime Time Cafe is a cafe set back in the 50's. The waiter greets you like long lost family that you haven't seen in a while. It's quite entertaining. If they catch you doing something at the table that you're not supposed to they will "shame" you and put you in the corner. Hilarious! As far as the food goes there are not many options at all. It was pot roast, meatloaf, pork chops or fried chicken {for the most part}. Nathan and I chose Meatloaf and it was just okay. It had a weird texture and I am big on textures. It was fun though and I am glad we did it. After lunch we watched the Indiana Jones show. It was pretty interesting. Mason enjoyed it! So that's a win. After the show we had a fast pass for Star Tours so we headed that way. This was probably my least favorite thing that we did the whole Disney trip. If you're not familiar...it's a 3d motion-simulated ride through space. Itmade me incredibly nauseous. I had to close my eyes just to get through it. And then I felt sick for about 45 minutes after! Eh! After Star Tours we went to ride the Great Movie Ride. We enjoyed that one too. We went back to the hotel after that.
Have you been to Hollywood Studios? Did you like it, or no?
We visited Animal Kingdom on Tuesday {Day 3} and we all agree, without a doubt, it was our most favorite day! We all loved the park and the day was just perfect!! It wasn't very crowded, lines went quick and it was so easy to meet characters {unless you're looking for princesses}. We just loved it! We also met the sweetest cast member there...more on that later. Also, our fast passes were a little more spread out on this day and we were able to just enjoy the day and take our time between attractions.
We started out our day with a ride on Kilimanjaro Safaris and it was great. It was fairly early and not burning hot yet, so we got to see most of the animals. I think it was the best way to start off our day at Animal Kingdom. The ride was about 25 minutes long and the scenery was just beautiful. So relaxing!
We walked around and did a few more things before it was our fastpass time for The Festival of the Lion King. While we were walking up to get in line we met the sweetest cast member. She asked us if we wanted to sit in special seats and save our fastpass for something else. We much obliged. So she walked us over to get our names on the list. We had no clue what the 'special seats' were, but we were dang excited! We hung out and talked with sweet Lillian while waiting on our show to start. She asked Mason what his favorite animal at AK was and he told her a monkey. About 15 minutes later it was time for the show and she walked us in. She put us on the front row and told us that the cast members in the show pick kids from the front row {4 total} to be in the show. Mason was ecstatic and couldn't wait. While we were waiting on the show to start sweet Lillian came back holding a big Disney World bag. She told Mason that she got him a monkey since it was his favorite! It was a huge monkey that you could wrap around your body. I think it instantly became his favorite Disney World souvenir! I cried because I couldn't believe the kindness and generosity of this sweet lady. Made my mama heart so full.
While we were waiting on the show Mason entertained us with some dancing...
The show started and we were in awe. It was the most amazing show that we had watched. The lights, the singing, the dancing, all of it was wonderful. Nate's brother Ty was chosen to be a part of the production and then Mason was chosen to be a part. It was so neat!! Mason had a blast
When we came out of the show we were right near the entrance of the restaurant that we had lunch reservations at. So we just hung out and waited until it was time for us to go in. We ate at Tusker House and it was amazing. It was an African inspired buffet type lunch and it definitely didn't disappoint. This was also a character lunch. We saw Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Daisy. No Minnie and I am not sure why. Mason loved getting to see the characters and get their autograph in his book. After lunch they brought him out a cupcake and a birthday card signed by all of the characters! He loved it.
After lunch we walked around the park, rode some rides and met lots of characters. Our favorite ride was most definitely Dinosaur!! We really didn't know what to expect going into the ride and it surprised us. The ride is fast, a lot of it is in the dark and you have dinosaurs jumping out at you. So much fun! I could have rode it over and over. Mason loved it, too. Actually, I think our whole group loved it. So much fun!
Our favorites from Animal Kingdom: The Festival of the Lion King The Tree of Life // It's Tough to be a Bug Dinosaur Kilimanjaro Safaris Have you ever been to Animal Kingdom? What is your favorite thing there? Miss Days 1 & 2? Click here {also updated it with a video}
Coming home from vacation is so bittersweet. Especially when it is Disney World!! We had such an amazing time and didn't want to leave. It truly is a magical place. Everyone is so friendly and always making sure you are having the best time. The weather was amazing, too. It did get hot at times, but Disney is so great about putting most of their lines in the shade or in the AC. Plus, that little 3-5 minute light rain everyday is just enough to cool you down. Our trip started bright and early Sunday morning. Nate and I were up by 5 and Mason at 5:45. And we didn't have an early evening, either. And of course I couldn't sleep because of all the excitement and also worrying that I packed everything we needed. Mason was pretty easy to wake up because he was excited!! He is the cutest little traveler!!! This was Mason's first time to fly and he did amazing. He loved it and had absolutely no fear {definitely not like his Mama in that aspect}. We had about an hour until our flight so we grabbed some breakfast and hung out.
We arrived in Disney on Sunday afternoon around 12:30 pm. It was the weirdest thing to not have to worry about picking our luggage up from baggage claim. Our resort took care of that for us. The Disney Magic Express took us straight to our resort and we went to get checked in. We were a bit early for our 3pm check in time, but thankfully our rooms were already ready. After walking around the humongous resort in circles trying to find our room, we finally did and stopped by to drop off a few of our carry-on items. Then we were off to the buses to head to down-town Disney!!
Down-town Disney was pretty neat! There were tons restaurants and shops and even a House of Blues and a Splitsville bowling alley among many other things. We purchased the Memory Maker package to where you can stop a photographer anywhere in Disney to take your photos. We found our first photographer as we were making our way over the bridge and were so excited to get our first Disney pictures!!
Mason had just finished eating a blue ring-pop if you're curious to why his mouth is a different color! ha. After our little photo sesh we were starving so we headed straight for our lunch destination - T-Rex!! There was about a 15-20 minute wait so we took Mason into the Lego store. A little piece of his Heaven! He found him a Lego set and also made three different Lego guys. After our Lego shopping adventure our table was ready so we went in. Pretty cool restaurant. Much like Rainforest Cafe, but with dinosaurs everywhere. We had the sweetest waitress and the food was delicious, too. They brought Mason out an ice cream with gummy dinosaurs for his birthday. After lunch we made our way back to the buses to head to the resort. We were ready for the pool.
We stayed at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort and it was beautiful!! I will say that it's huge and a good walk to everything...but you're in Disney and well, Disney is walking. So, it didn't really bother us. The resort had 3 pools, but we wanted to see the big pool so that's what we did. It was huge! They also had a playground, a bar, a food counter, sand volleyball, a waterslide, etc. It was awesome. Mason went down the waterslide several times by himself. We had a great time, but were exhausted so we headed back to the room after an hour or two so we could get some rest for day 2.
Day two was Magic Kingdom....our first actual park day. We couldn't be more excited!! We headed down to the buses a little after 8:30 am and were on a bus by 8:45ish. It was so exciting to see the Magic Kingdom sign! After months of planning we were finally here!!! It was our first time dealing with fastpasses so it was a little hectic trying to read the map and see where we needed to be for each of the fast pass times. But, still wasn't too bad. The park was crowded, but we rode several rides and never had to wait over 20 minutes for anything! It was amazing. We didn't stay for the parade or fireworks because everyone was exhausted. But, we knew that we were going back to MK on Thursday and would see them then.
**Edit - I forgot to mention that we went to the Monster's Inc Laugh Floor and they picked Mason out of the crowd to be on the big screen! Below is the video from that...
Days 1 and 2 were pretty magical. Come back tomorrow for more Disney! Have you ever been to Disney World? What is your favorite thing there?
