Disney Day 2: Hollywood Studios

So the second day of our Disney trip included what I remembered to be my favorite park: Hollywood Studios. I have fond memories of the old Hollywood-glam look and feel, the really fun rides (like Tower of Terror, which my mom and I rode so many times!), and also cool restaurants.  Fortunately, my memory served me right and we all loved this park. I think everyone said it was their favorite (and best, out of three great, day).

At the advice of some travel blogs, we rushed back to Toy Storyland right as the park opened, hitting the (already) 40-min line for the Slinky Dog Dash right upon entrance.  Maryn felt pretty brave after loving Splash Mountain, so she decided to stay with me and JB (while James and Wesley went to check out the area).  Even as the rollercoaster zoomed all over and around us, she remained committed...

Poor gal did NOT enjoy the ride once on it!  It moved fast and whipped around and around. JB and I loved it, but poor Maryn had her head down and in my lap the entire time.

It started sprinkling on us during the Dash, so we quickly tucked into the ride one over where we also met up with James and Wesley.

Then we headed as a family over to Toy Story Mania which turned out to be a SUPER fun ride/game, all in 3D and involving a little competition of target shooting. Of course, we all got competitive. :)

We walked out of Toy Story Mania to a MASSIVE DOWNPOUR. Social distancing out the window, we huddled with several other families under an awning and waited for it to pass.  Which, fortunately ('cause it's Florida) it went as quickly as it came.

We headed over to the Muppet Vision 3D (one of James' favs from childhood) to watch it.  Monster did come out in the audience but Maryn did great and didn't freak out.

We got some snacks because, well, DISNEY. Rules out the window, I even let them eat the artificial flavored / colored cheese dip with their pretzels.

Even prior to arriving at Disney, JB had talked about the Tower of Terror ride. He had heard me talk about it, his Grammy talk about it, we watched a YouTube video, and he proclaimed it his #1 aspiration of our Disney trip. Of course he wanted to ride it the second we arrived at Disney, but patiently waited until the right time. He kept telling me (himself??) when I asked him if he was sure he wanted to do it: "look, super smart engineers built it, no one has died on it, it's perfectly safe."

We waited in the long with another family that had a young boy.  As we went into the building, and the room got darker and colder and eerier, I could tell JB tensed up a bit.  However, once we got off, he said he LOVED IT. It wasn't until after the ride when I saw the picture that I realized he gripped my arm the entire time!

We met up with the rest of the family afterwards for our lunch reservation at Minnie's Diner.  All our favorite Mickey Mouse characters showed up and the kids (even Maryn) loved it! Of course the characters couldn't give hugs or take pictures, but they came over to every table and waved and said hi.  Little Wesley could not stop flirting with Minnie and I got a precious video.

Oh, and the food was delicious.  Everyone cleaned their plate and the desserts put a huge smile on everyone's face.

After lunch we headed over to Star Wars Galaxy's Edge.  Now, our kids know little-to-nothing about Star Wars, and James and I have (gasp) never seen a single Star Wars movie.  I even told someone we'd probably skip that part of the park.  I'm so glad people convinced me otherwise (AND filled me in on some tricks and tips to getting in the virtual queue, which takes mad skillz on the Disney App.)   I managed to get us in right after lunch, and James and I took advantage of the rider-swap benefit so that we could both go (and lucky JB rode twice!)

The Galaxy Edge ride blew me away. Not so much a ride but an experience. Just super cool and I can appreciate all the technology and creativity that went into building and running it.

After hanging out in the Star Wars area for a while, we headed back over to the center of Hollywood for the new Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway.  Of course, as all lines do right now at Disney, we wrapped around half the park while waiting. BUT, the benefit to these spaced out lines is that you always feel like you're moving...even if it's around and around for an hour. 

This was the only ride where we all five fit into the same train car, and we loved it!  If the line had been shorter, we would have hopped back in it to ride again.

We finished up with Lightening McQueen and Cars, one of Wesley's favorite (as you can tell by his mask).  The boys really enjoyed it.  

On our way out the park we allowed JB to pick a souvenir, since the littles had bought bubble makers while we rode Tower of Terror.  He selected a build-your-own light saber.  

On the way out to the bus I realized how long we'd been at the park! The sun was starting to set. Yet still, everyone had energy and behaved and walked with smiles on their faces.  Just a GREAT day.

Disney World!!! Magic Kingdom Day

Of all the things I didn't anticipate we'd do during a pandemic...but the Sasser family went to Disney World this February!!   When they dropped their capacity down to 30% I knew that it was now or never. James has been dreading the day the kiddos beg for Disney, and less crowd is how I convinced him 'now is the time'.

We also had to allow time for Maryn to get over her aversion to masks and costumes. She used to have an intense, INTENSE fear, and the thought of her in fear and agony the entire trip had led us to push it off. However, with JB seven years old now, we also knew we were slowly edging away from that still "magical" young child age. Honestly I think we nailed it with the ages of our family for their first trip.  The kids at 7, 5 and 3 soaked up every single bit of the magic!  

We stayed at Bay Lake Towers, behind the Contemporary Resort.  This put us in walking distance to Magic Kingdom (and able to see the castle as we drove in late Thursday night).  The 1 villa was perfect for our family and we took up every single inch of space.  

(Now, before our I recap our park experience, let me preface by saying that James and I are not experienced Disney goers.  We both went as teenagers and then never again.  So I relied heavily on our Disney travel consultant (a HS friend that I reached out to after nearly 20 years!) and our friends who go on the reg to give me tips and tricks.  Some things (like Fast Pass) were not available in the Pandemic environment, but many of the restaurants were open and our consultant got us reservations at some great ones.  We also did very little planning other than picking which park which day (order for us: Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot) and figuring out the top rides.  We pretty much set low expectations, not knowing how our kiddos would do with the walking and waiting, not even knowing exactly how to strategically navigate, etc.) 

First day: Magic Kingdom!  We woke up early, walked across the street and entered this magical, overwhelming world.  The first thing that happened: parlor singers on a trolley, causing Maryn to break down in tears for fear of costumes!  We got her settled down, walked around bit, all headed into the Swiss Family treehouse, then saw the Aladdin Magic Carpet ride. This time Wesley freaked out and refused to ride. I will be honest and say by this point - just 30 minutes into Disney - James and I looked at each other with wide eyes, like "this may be a loooooooong three days".

BUT, then things turned around when both JB and Maryn got super pumped about Splash Mountain (even did great in the long line), James and Wesley found their first of many snacks and watched a Disney parade, and then Wesley rode Dumbo and declared "I am bwave now".  We would do several rides as a family, then JB and I would break off for a thrill ride (like Space Mountain).  

I didn't realize that JB was now tall enough for any ride (and, honestly, so is Maryn but she can't handle anything too intense).  Once JB figured this out he didn't want to miss anything.  Fortunately I love thrill rides so I became his happy companion...or other way around, I don't know :)

We had a late lunch at Be Our Guest, the Beast's castle.  Right after we ordered our 3-course meal, the Beast himself came out and - HAVE MERCY - our red head lost her mind.  Unless you've seen Maryn's reactions to masks and costumes it's hard to describe how strong they are.  So we dealt with that the entire meal (he came out every 15 mins)...fortunately with Hoegardens in hand...and the boys seemed oblivious (even encouraged the Beast to come over!) and then devoured all three of their courses.  The super wonderfully compassionate and nice waiter wrapped up everything for us to take home for Maryn.  

Following that episode we called it a day.  One our way out of the park a big Mickey and Minnie parade started up down Main Street, and - I don't know - maybe it was the sunshine (the castle had been dark) or characters (friendly faces), but Maryn decided she wanted to stay and watch.  We bought outrageously expensive balloons (that we still have, 1 month later, Mama is keeping FOREVER), and danced around.  So, all in all, the perfect way to end our Magic Kingdom day!