Day at Disney

We did it! We made it through our second Disney trip with two small children.

Last June we took the kids to Animal Kingdom and while we had a good time, Marco doesn't remember it at all. And Jonas, well he was only 9 months old at the time so he basically slept through the day.

This time we chose to go to Disney's Hollywood Studios, previously known as MGM. We decided to go here because it has all of Marco's favorites; Cars, Toy Story, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Plus, being that it isn't the most popular park, we'd have enough time to see more and have less people around. It was a good choice!

We downloaded an app that had the map of the park as well as show times and ride wait times. We were able to notice that the longest wait and most desirable ride was the Toy Story ride. Of course we HAD to go on this too do the first thing we did upon entering the park was to go there and get a fast pass for later. By the time we got there the only passes left were for 6-7 pm! We just decided to make that our last thing.

Then we headed to The Great Movie ride which takes you through a history of movies. All was well until the gangster movie era... We were in the middle of a gang war! And the boys thought it was real! Within minutes we had two crying children. Then to make matters worse, after the gangs, came the aliens! We didn't realize that ride was going to be scary until we were in the middle of it!
We dries up their tears and pealed them off our bodies and headed over to the Beauty and the Beast show. All was well. Belle had a beautiful voice and the dancers were great. Marco was a bit on edge already from our previous excursion, so he said the "kill the beast" part was scary... But it wasn't... He was being wimpy! Jonas loved the whole thing!

Then Mau and I left the kids with the in-laws while they took them for a snack and we went to ride the rougher rides. Fortunately both the Tower of Terror and the Rockin' Roller-coaster had only 20 minute lines so we were back with the group within the hour!

We caught up with them right when they were getting to The Little Mermaid show. Jonas was napping already and he continued to nap throughout the show. This show was horrible. So outdated, ugly and boring. And the girl that played Ariel was just awful. Her singing made me want to cry... And not in a good way! We were happy it was short!

Then we gave the in-laws a break while they went to another ride and we took the boys to watch the Disney Junior show! It was truly great! It was the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show that incorporated Handy Manny, Little Einsteins and Jake. It was all done with puppets and they had all the songs and even Toodles was there! Both kids were thrilled!

Since the kids were already excited, we decided to keep it up and head over to meet some of the most beloved characters: Buzz and Woody. The line was looooooong. But hey, that's what we were there for! Both of their little faces were amazed at seeing these characters in real life!

Then we found more faves, Lightning McQueen and Mater!

After all that activity, we were quite hungry... So we headed over to Toy Story's famous Pizza Planet for an early dinner. And then we were on our way back to the Toy Story ride to end the night. It was really fun and try let us ride twice!
We left by 7:15 and the kids were dead tired but happy and excited about all the things they saw!
We probably won't be back to Disney for some time because now when Marco turns 3, his ticket will be $79!!! Hello! Anyone else think that's over the top expensive?! So we'll be back when the boys are 7 or 8 and can really remember it and we'll get our money's worth! Unless somehow we get free tickets again... But for now, these pictures will have to suffice!