So today was our first last day at a park. Since we were going to do all our chosen parks twice this trip, this was our first last day trip to Disney Hollywood Studios. It is nice to be able to visit all the parks to make sure we get to do all the things we missed the first day, in this case it was Beauty and the Beast and Jedi Training Academy. We had heard that you need to get in and sign the kids up for the Jedi Training Academy as opposed to the kids getting picked out of the audience as was the last time we were there 3 years ago. So I went early and the park actually opened before the 9am listed start time. I walked down to the ABC building where they held the sign ups and yeah, you have to have your kids with you. Whoops. So I called Russ who was only 15 minutes behind me to tell him that he needed to bring the kids over to the building as soon as he could. He gave our backpack to his mom (because they inspect all bags you bring in to the park) and he took the kids and rushed them to the sign-ups. I had snuck into line where I hoped would be enough time to get the kids to me. And I did let a few families ahead of me when I wasn't sure if I would make it to the front too soon. They got there with 5 families to spare. They were both signed up for the 2:20 show. That was the 7th show of the day and the other previous shows were already booked. There were about 7 shows after that as well, but it was very lucky that I didn't get sent to the back of the line or we would have had to stay at the park until very late at night. Advice to anyone doing this anytime soon: Get to the park BEFORE it opens and bring YOUR KIDS WITH YOU to the Jedi Training Academy sign-up, which is the ABC tower building right next to American Idol.
Ok, so that part was taken care of, but it threw us for a little loop. When the kids got there, I noticed that Trevor didn't have his hat. He had forgotten it, so I said we could get him a Disney cap. The first one we saw that he liked we bought, and the clerk asked if he was going to wear it right away and we said yes. So he put it on and Oops! It was a toddler hat. TOTALLY didn't fit him even with the closure on the biggest setting. Guess who's getting a hat from Disney when we see him next! Ethan!!! Hope you like Buzz Lightyear!
Alright, so the hat is taken care of. Russ got us fast passes for Toy Story Mania, and the time on those was from 4 to 5pm. We went on the great movie ride, got right on and then I remembered that it did have a scary sci-fi Aliens scene in it that would probably not be a big favorite with the kids. I was right...so they were shielded from it and made it through our first ride of the day. After that ride we ran into a short line for Minnie Mouse. We took some pictures with her and then started walking over to the roller coaster and I noticed a cute bakery selling some pastries. Trevor got a cinnamon roll, Gwen got a chocolate muffin, I got a blueberry muffin and Vicky got a danish. Wow...those really hit the spot. I love disney for the variety of foods...they always seem to offer just what I'm looking for! We headed over to the roller coaster to figure out what we were going to do there and found out that the single person riders was closed for the time being. Russ was going to do that, but because the fast pass for the roller coaster didn't work out for us, we ended up catching the first showing of Beauty and the Beast. Like the Little Mermaid that we saw the last time, she loves her princess shows ;-)
So after Beauty and the Beast we headed right back to the roller coaster where they were accepting single riders and Russ got on while we got lunch. It took a good chunk of time for him but he grabbed fast passes for Trevor, himself and me to go back around 3. We ate our lunch at the Commissary and then checked out Star Tours again which only had a 10 minute wait (although it said 20) just in time for the kids to be checked in to their Jedi Training. I ran back to the entrance while the training was going on to grab a stroller for Gwen. We were getting a little tired of carrying her around and thought that if she made it this far without needing a stroller, we could give her a break. So the Jedi Training started, and I stayed in the back not seeing much. Russ was in the front row videoing it and Vicky had her own camera going. Next thing I know, Gwen was off the stage crying. Apparently she got scared of Darth Vader. She was having a great old time with the training up until that point. Now that I think about it, we should have had her watch a show beforehand so she could see Darth Vader and know that all the kids got to fight him and he runs away in the end anyway. But oh well, we got some GREAT pictures of both of the kids, just none of her fighting Darth.
Then, we headed back to the roller coaster and used our fast passes. Trevor started to convince himself that the ride was too scary. He has really started to put a lot of thoughts in his head and compound them until they become so fearful to him that it makes him freak out. When he came off the roller coaster the first time, he had a big smile on his face. When I asked him if he would go on it again, he said he would one more time because he would go with Russ. And yet here we were and he said the ride was too scary. So we brought him on anyway. He wasn't very happy with us, but I know it wasn't going to be giving him nightmares or cause him to be afraid of anything unrelated which was why I wasn't going to make him go on Tower of Terror.
So after the roller coaster we had to head back to Toy Story Mania and play one last game. Gwen doesn't care much for anything 3-d so she didn't wear her glasses, but isn't scared of it anymore as a result. After Toy Story, we started to walk around to grab some dinner when it started to downpour. We were under a covered area so we could let the worst of the storm pass. This was the only part of the day where we got just a little wet. It might have been the reason why we didn't have very many people around at the time. But we got to Pizza Planet, had a leisurely dinner and asked the kids if there was anything they wanted to do one last time. When they said Muppet 3d I was a little happy! We did that and then also went on Star Tours one last time as well. Did you know they remade that ride so that they have over 50 variations in the ride? We saw two similar ones and one completely different one. It is pretty cool! Especially for the Star Wars fans. And with that we departed our park. It was a fun park...I usually rank it #2 in my book, although I think the kids would go #3...I guess we'll have to ask by the end of the trip. For now....that's it from DHS for this trip. Can't wait until next time!
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