LMM Plays Tour Guide - Spring Break at the World

[LittleMissMagic]

After dinner, we explored The Seas and did Turtle Talk with Crush.


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Then Marcia and Jim left to go back to the hotel. Jim was leaving that night to go back to his son's house in Jacksonville.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

I don't think I've shared this photo, yet...

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Bambi's Butterfly Garden


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Awesome sand sculpture


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We decided to wait in line to ride Soarin' again. The wait wasn't that bad - it was listed as 45 min (which isn't much compared to normal wait time at this hour), but was really around 30. I decided that Epcot wasn't that crowded today. Perhaps it's because it was a Sunday, a typical travel day, and Epcot, a park which handles crowds well.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Then we started touring World Showcase starting with Canada on the search for a good fireworks spot.


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[LittleMissMagic]

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[LittleMissMagic]

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[LittleMissMagic]

Max stopped in America to get a funnel cake, and I went on to Italy to claim a fireworks spot.


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Unfortunately, my camera died during IllumiNations. No worries, though - I was able to take more IllumiNations photos later in the week.


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Max loved IllumiNations.

Luckily, crowds to get out weren't that bad. Normally it's standstill after IllumiNations, but it was hardly crowded at all. We probably didn't need to claim our fireworks location an hour in advance, but I'm glad we did because we had such an awesome spot. Italy (right beside the bridge) is a great place to watch IllumiNations because there are no trees blocking your view.

On the way out, we stopped in Mouse Gear because Max had picked out a shirt and hat he wanted...

The bus ride back to the resort was MISERABLE. They packed the Downtown Disney bus full. However, they still went to Hollywood Studios and shoved more people on the bus. It was a long, awful experience. We were also the last stop. It took us over half an hour just to get back to the resort. AWFUL!!!

Max and I were exhausted. We went straight to bed so we'd be ready for an early morning at Hollywood Studios.

 

[GraceMonica]

Loving the TR so far! Sounds like yall had fun!

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Day Three


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Once again, we got up bright and early and headed down to the bus stop for the 8:00 bus. Well, the bus came and it said, "Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom." So we waited. Then the next bus came and it said, "Epcot and Animal Kingdom." What? The bus driver stopped and said no one coming? I went up to ask him if the bus really went to Hollywood Studios, and he shut the door on me and drove off!

The buses are on 30-min rotations, so that meant we'd have to wait another half hour. We were frustrated.

First I went in to talk to them, and they pretty much shrugged me off, saying "Oops - he must've just had the wrong park listed. Not our fault."

(I forgot to mention that these people are very rude. On check-in day, Marcia sent Max and I to ask a question about her rewards points, and the lady told us to "come back with our mommy." If I was going for my Dad, I would've [liked] to tell her that I'm 20 years old and she can talk to me.)

We waited around angrily for a while. In the meantime, more people were coming. This little boy was griping that it was taking long (they had been there maybe 5 min), and then this older lady said, "We've actually been waiting here long" and I muttered to myself that she could just shut up because we had been there an hour.

Well, Marcia to the rescue. I might've mentioned before that she is very high-up in the HHonors program because she stays there for work... she has a lot of pull. Well, she went to talk to whatever manager was on duty, and they decided to get us a car service to the park. So they took us out front, and this guy was supposed to drive us there, then he put up his hand like, "Stop," (very rude) and drove off. So we had to wait for them to get us another car. In the meantime, they decided to pay for us roundtrip.

FINALLY we were at Hollywood studios. We missed rope drop by 10 minutes. Which meant that there was no point rushing Toy Story Mania. I sent Max and Marcia to Rockin' Rollercoaster and I headed to TSM to get FPs.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

The wait for Rockin' Rollercoaster wasn't long, yet.


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Max LOVED RnRC. He wanted to ride it again and again. He was bugging me to set goals as to how many times we'd ride RnRC and ToT that day. I didn't want to do this because it was early morning, so I didn't know how the crowds would be. I finally threw out 3 each. Which left me to strategize the best way to do these 3 times each. Obviously, it would be smartest to ride them both multiple times that morning since the crowds were low due to the TSM rush. But, I didn't want to bore Marcia who wasn't riding either.

So, after one time on RnRC, we headed to ToT.


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[LittleMissMagic]

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After that, I led the way to Star Tours. I hadn't been on the new version, yet. I warned Marcia that there would be flying in a stimulator, but Max insisted that she would be fine. Luckily, this time, he was right!


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I liked the new version, though I enjoyed the old, as well. They did a really good job with the 3D.

 

[LittleMissMagic]

I had first suggested that we go on the Backlot Tour next since we were over in that area, but then I changed my mind since the Backlot Tour usually doesn't accumulate much of a wait time throughout the day and we would need to redeem our TSM FPs soon. So, I led us to the Great Movie Ride.


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We had the western scene.


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Max thinks angry faces are funny...

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That's better, Max...

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[LittleMissMagic]

We were a little early for our TSM FPs, so we walked through One Man's Dream first.


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[LittleMissMagic]

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[LittleMissMagic]

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I won! That never happens. High score in the car!

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Thennn we did Backlot!


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We got to ride in the front.

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[LittleMissMagic]

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I'm forgetting the exact sequence of events, but we got FPs for TSM - they were the very last FP timeslot, 9:15-10:00.


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Then we went to use our RnRC FPs before lunch. And Max was having headaches (which he gets when he breaks in a new hat), so he had us buy him Motrin. He specifically said Motrin. Even though he knows (and I knew but didn't question) that he is allergic!!!

So we went to lunch at 50's Prime Time.


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And Max broke out in hives.


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I wish I could've gotten a better picture, but the lighting in 50's wasn't the best for arm hive pictures. I've seen his hives before - he gets them every time he takes Motrin. However, I think the heat made his hives worse. They were all over his body and larger than normal.

So now Max was irritable because he was hungry and itchy... luckily the headache was mostly gone.


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The menu at 50's wasn't to Max's liking. He wanted a hamburger. So we asked the waitress if they had a hamburger on the kids' menu. They didn't, and she told us it was fine if we left - we could go to Backlot Express where they have good hamburgers. We asked Max what he wanted, and he decided that he would rather stay in the air conditioning and get a milkshake. The waitress came back and suggested that Max get the chicken nuggets - she could double the kids' serving for him. Yay! Happy Max!


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Milkshakes make everything better.

I got the chicken pot pie. It was very good.


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The lunch break was just what we needed. Thank goodness for afternoon ADRs!

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Next up, Animation Academy!


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Our teacher was very good. I've been there before when all they knew how to draw was Mickey. However, she knew a lot of character's and made sure to do one that nobody had drawn before - Dopey!

The architect's:

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And the engineer's:

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[LittleMissMagic]

Goodness, this is apparently my lamest TR, yet. Perhaps because I have no cute kiddos along with me.... this should soon be fixed because Max is now the proud uncle of twins, born April 25.

Meet Gaage and Chandler!


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Quote Max - "They are so little and cute and soft! I love them!"

I think these two are going to need to visit Walt Disney World in a year or two...

 

[LittleMissMagic]

Well, sucking in readers with precious twin babies didn't work.

Back to the regularly scheduled TR -


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I tried to convince Max into Voyage of a Little Mermaid, but he asked, "Does this involve a redhead girl singing?" He wasn't up for it. (Later he wished he had.)

I went to get us RnRC FPs before we went to Lights, Motors, Action!

Max liked the survey markers. We decided to start a survey marker scavenger hunt.

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[LittleMissMagic]

We arrived at Lights, Motors, Action 30 minutes early to get good seats. We decided to sit in the center, which is a little higher up. As you can see, I had to do some serious cropping to get the heads in front of me out of the photo. But overall, I was pleased with my action shots.


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I hadn't seen the show since they added Lightning McQueen.


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My timing was just a little off...


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