Today is Sunday, July 18th and we decided to go back to DHS ... along with the rest of the people at WDW.
Seriously this was B-U-S-Y. I'd say it was our most crowded day yet. Jerry was talking to one of the tour guides and was told that there were 21 tour groups today.
We had planned to use our last GAD Fast Pass here so we stayed in the park. Now my parents and sister's family had gone to a Comfort Inn over the weekend to save on DVC points, so we made it to DHS first. My parents had the GAD voucher so we were just waiting for them to get to the park. We decided to see how crowded TSM was and the line was super long so we skipped it. Jerry and Rachel rode on Star Tours.
Meanwhile, I get a phone call from my parents that there is no ice in the machines at Comfort Inn. They had brought a ton of food with them and now had no way to keep it cold. So my dad goes to Wal-Mart for ice.
Guess what? Wal-mart ran out of ice!
Finally dad gets some ice at another store and they head to DHS. However, by now, my mom can't find the GAD voucher paperwork and it's not a pretty sight.
My mom finally "has seen the light" and says that they aren't doing this stay 5 days at WDW and then check out for 2 days and then check back in again to WDW. They'll just go shorter and stay the whole time in one room.
I agree! We had done the switching for our first DVC and we found that you lose a LOT of time packing, unpacking, repacking, unpacking, changing resorts, checking out, checking in, etc. I know it works for many, but with small children or people who pack a lot, it's a lot of wasted time.
Anyway, my mom finally finds the paperwork and thankfully, the CM at DHS don't give her any problems getting the extra GAD passes.
We all meet up and see Muppets and then Dad goes back to BWV to check-in and Mom and my family walk around.
Rachel sees the CARS characters so we wait for a pic.
Mater
I love these pictures with Rachel, LM and her dog "Boomer", so I'm posting both
Then it's off to Hollywood and Vine for their Playhouse Disney Character Meal. We ate here in '08 and Rachel loved it and wanted to again. The food is really good for a buffet and the character interactions are great -- they get up and sing and dance about every 15 minutes.
Rachel loves it
Handy Manny (note Elie)
Elizabeth ... not so much.
"You think I'm going to touch you??!!??"
But near the end of lunch, Jo Jo started playing peek-a-boo with her and she was laughing at that
After lunch, we see The Little Mermaid and ride Toy Story Mania. Everyone loves these two.
Then Jerry and I do the child swap for RnR. However, Rachel says that she wants to try ToT. I say, sure!
She goes on but she doesn't really like the drop! But I'm so proud of her for trying it!
Then she tells me,
"Mommy, I want to go on Splash Mountain again ... 5x in a row!"
I'm thinking -- what? I had to practically drag her on the ride yesterday and turn in my mommy card and now she wants to go again? And yesterday we had 4-5 FPs to ride it and now we have none and aren't even in MK???
We ride Toy Story again and then go to the Animation Building for more photos. I had heard that a bunch of characters come out at 5pm.
Captain Hook
Pocahontas and Meeko
Mulan
I love this photo of the Tweedles ... we all match perfectly!
Jerry having some fun
Stitch and Rachel having some fun
Pinocchio and Gepetto
Oh, we also saw Annie. I can't remember if this was today or the 1st day. We had always seen June and Leo and had gotten Quincy, but for some reason had missed Annie. When I saw she was out, I called Jerry to come back and take Rachel to see Annie (Elie was sleeping on a bench so I couldn't go.)
Then we decided to call it a night. I had wanted to stay for the dance party that night but we were just too tired. We got to see a little bit of it on the way out. Looked like lots of fun.
Sadly, tomorrow is our last full day at WDW.
-- they were DISNEY photopass pics. Evidently if you got a picture taken in front of the castle, there was a special bonus and you got free parade and fireworks photos added to your account.
