Memories of Little Green Men and Sardines (6/8-17, 2010) **FINAL UPDATE 2-25-2011**

[photographymom517]

I really enjoyed the update! The crowds seem almost intolerable. If you liked the Dole Whip and you like pineapple juice, you might want to try a Dole Whip float next time. It will defnitely be less messy. I hope you got to see the fireworks later in your trip, but I understand not wanting to stay.

Yes, the crowds were ridiculous!!! It was honestly hard to enjoy ourselves at some points because of all of the people. Last year, we went during "spring break/busy season" and it was probably half as crowded as this trip in June! Craaaazy!!!

I will definitely have to try the Dole whip float. It actually sounds like I'd like it better.

Mmmmmm, a Dole Whip! It's such a wonderfully refreshing treat when it's so hot out, but you're right - they melt fast!

Loved the pics of the MSEP, I was able to see it a couple of years ago at DCA, it's a fabulous parade.

I was just scrolling down the page to reply to everyone & it made me hungry looking at the Dole Whip! lol They definitely melt very very quickly, especially when it feels like its over 100 degrees! But it was a nice treat on a very hot & humid day!

I really enjoyed MSEP, but my favorite part of all was listening to my son "ooh and ahh" over the lights & different characters!

Ooooh, thanks for the pictures of the MSEP! I can't wait to see it when we are there next week!

Are you there yet? I seriously need to catch up on my subscriptions! I'll try to find time to visit your report later & see what your trip dates are!

I am sooo jealous that you are going so soon! Have a GREAT trip!!!

Mmmmm...a dole whip sounds yummy about now. I can't believe how crowded the park was. Keeping my fingers crossed DHS will be better. Nice pictures of the Electric Parade.

It was very hot & humid here in PA today, so I definitely wish I had a Dole Whip on a day like this!

Yes, I still have to find my other "crowd photos" because you won't believe all of the people! It was insane! Looking back, I'm not sure how I got so many photos without people in them. Most of the time, I just stood in one spot until I got a good shot and other times I took shots in between crowds of people wandering by! lol

I started writing some of my report in Microsoft Word & somehow I got completely off track. I completely finished my last day there, but didn't start writing Day 3 yet!

I have a busy weekend, but I'm hoping to get an update early next week.

 

[Tinkermom76]

Love the MK updates. Great pictures of the Electrical Parade, I am so happy they extended it and I get to see it!!!

 

[stephielela]

ugh i hate dealing with crowds. i also hate dealing with messy snacks, so i think i will try the dole whip float! it's good to know your DS liked it, hopefully mine will too. i plan on sharing most of my snacks with him, since he has no snack credits of his own

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

Great update Hope!!! Your TR is getting me so excited for your trip!!! Less then a week to go now!!!

 

[Charlefours]

great updates! I am looking forward to seeing MSEP as I have never seen it (though I have only seen Spectro once ).

Looking forward to reading more when you get time.

 

[PopArtGal]

humm... maybe your son was afraid to get dirty? Maybe that's why he didn't want to be "hit" by the camel? I don't know. I'm puzzled too.

Great pics of the Electrical parade. I couldn't get any as we were in the hub and it was packed. I could barely see as I'm only 5'2 and parents figure they can shove their kids in front of me. After all, Disney is only for kids right? Adults don't want to see. Sorry for the little rant hehe

 

[photographymom517]

Love the MK updates. Great pictures of the Electrical Parade, I am so happy they extended it and I get to see it!!!

Glad you liked the update on MK! It was actually our shortest park day so just wait until you hear about all the others!

I really liked the electrical parade & I think you will too! Glad you are able to see it!

ugh i hate dealing with crowds. i also hate dealing with messy snacks, so i think i will try the dole whip float! it's good to know your DS liked it, hopefully mine will too. i plan on sharing most of my snacks with him, since he has no snack credits of his own

Yes, last trip we went during Spring Break...this trip during Summer! Yikes! All I can say is never, ever again!

We really don't enjoy ourselves or the parks as much whenever there are so many people. I definitely think the dole whip float would be less messy. I wasn't really thinking clearly by that time of the day! I was just in search of that dole whip stand & couldn't find it anywhere!

Since we had the QSDP and each had 2 snacks per day, we shared our snacks with our son (since he was under 3 and didn't have his own plan). It ended up working out really well. We had just enough and only bought a few items OOP. We used some snack credits for drinks as well because of the heat & humidity. I really love the dining plan and we will definitely be using it every trip from now on! I think I'll be a little crazy when we travel to places other than Disney...no dining plan!

Great update Hope!!! Your TR is getting me so excited for our trip!!! Less then a week to go now!!!

Did ya leave yet? Did ya leave yet? Did ya leave yet??????

I cannot wait to hear about your trip once you get back!!! Have a safe & fun trip!!!

I'm posting another update tomorrow so hopefully you can read one last update before you leave!

great updates! I am looking forward to seeing MSEP as I have never seen it (though I have only seen Spectro once ).

Looking forward to reading more when you get time.

I really enjoyed MSEP! I actually got some of my pictures developed this afternoon and they turned out better than I thought!

Hoping to post another update tomorrow morning!

humm... maybe your son was afraid to get dirty? Maybe that's why he didn't want to be "hit" by the camel? I don't know. I'm puzzled too.

Great pics of the Electrical parade. I couldn't get any as we were in the hub and it was packed. I could barely see as I'm only 5'2 and parents figure they can shove their kids in front of me. After all, Disney is only for kids right? Adults don't want to see. Sorry for the little rant hehe

Afraid to get dirty?!? If only you knew my son...

Seriously, I sometimes think he is the messiest kid ever! (is that even a word???) He's kinda strange about things though...for instance, the other morning, I was doing laundry & left him alone for literally three seconds. He got an entire box of cream of wheat out of the cupboard & threw it all across the kitchen. He was sitting in the middle of it, wiping it everywhere with both of his hands and both of his feet when I found him! What a mess!!!

BUT at the same time, if he's eating something messy, like tacos for instance, he will get really upset if he has something on his hands & will say "mama, mama" over and over until I get a cloth to wipe up his hands. So, I suppose you are right! He could have very well been afraid to get either dirty or wet when he didn't want near the spitting camel!

I just thought it was hilarious because all the other kids were running through it over and over...and they were mad when their parents made them stop!

OMG! Wait until you hear about our day at Hollywood Studios...I have a very good parade story for you! Hopefully I'll post tomorrow morning. I have my update typed up but need to add in my pictures from PhotoBucket. Now that you mentioned that, I'm going back and adding to my story just for you! I was going to leave some of it out because I didn't want to sound like I was complaining too much...but I suppose it happens to all of us!

 

[photographymom517]

Does anyone know if there is a Vinylmation thread on DIS somewhere? I keep searching for "Vinylmations" in the search bar but it just shows me a bunch of people's trip reports where they mention Vinylmations. I'm looking for a thread just about them. Anyone know?

Also, I have some Vinylmations that are doubles & am not sure when I'll be back at Disney to trade them. So I have 2 questions.

One is...does anyone want to buy any of them off of me? I would just charge you the price for it $9.99 plus the actual shipping which shouldn't be more than $2 or so.

My second question is...how long do you have to trade them? The doubles that I puchased this summer...can I trade them next September? Not sure if I'll be going again, but I know some friends who are so I could send them a list. I'm sure they'd be thrilled...lol.

If anyone is interested, I can post a picture of the doubles on here. I'd rather sell them to a fellow DIS-er than to post them on ebay. Let me know! If you don't want to post on here, just PM me!

I can't remember them all but I know I have the red Cutesters one with the leaves on it, Sweetums from Muppets, the green guy from Muppets (the guy with the glasses and blue suit), Donald Duck from the Have a Laugh series, Lonesome Ghost from the Have a Laugh series, and a few others I can't remember right now.

 

[PopArtGal]

Believe me. I'm not a complainer, but sometimes, you just need to tell the truth

 

[photographymom517]

I will warn you ahead of time! I wrote this update in Microsoft Word and it is 21 typed pages! I will probably have to put it in 5 or 6 different posts.

Enjoy!!!

Thursday June 10, I woke up at 7:23am, Luke woke up at 8:25pm, my husband woke up at 8:35am after I set the alarm (to wake him up while I was getting ready).

We were going to Hollywood Studios for Play N Dine!!! We got on the bus at 9:10am after about 10 buses passed by. It was really quick for another bus to come because they were running more buses for park openings. We drove around CBR picking up guests at other villages for 10 minutes. We arrived at DHS at 9:33am.

I had to wait in the “guests with bags” line while my husband took our son in the stroller through the gates. The lines were so long that I was worried we wouldn’t make our 10am ADR.

Look at the lines! I took this picture after I walked through the “bag check gate” but before I walked through the turnstiles to get into the park!

I waited 10 minutes in line (but I was so anxious to get to our ADR that it felt like an hour!) We grabbed a few maps and walked to Play n Dine. I couldn’t remember Hollywood Studios very well because the last time I was there was 1998 when it was MGM. Luckily the night before, I had looked over the map to figure out where we had to go to get to Hollywood & Vine for breakfast.

We parked the stroller & walked up to the desk. I told them our names & that we had a 10am ADR (this was at 9:53am). They let us right in! I was amazed because this was our first experience with ADR’s!!! I immediately learned that its so much easier when you have ADR’s scheduled ahead of time instead of going up to a million different restaurants trying to get “a walk in” when you are starving! I watched as the CM looked up our ressie on the computer. Its such a neat system! I know, I’m such a dork but I’ve never made ressies before so I had no idea what to expect!

When we first walked in, they were just getting finished with a song & the characters were taking a break. Handy Manny (our son’s FAVORITE since he was about 6 months old!) and Leo from Little Einsteins were the 2 characters singing & dancing. I was immediately thrilled to death that I had chosen this meal! June from Little Einsteins and JoJo were on the opposite side of the restaurant meeting with the families.

I immediately started snapping photographs of the characters & the dining area. I wanted to make sure that I had time to enjoy my food as well as taking photographs of my son with all the characters. Our waitress came immediately to our table to get our drink orders & told us to help ourselves to the buffet. I hesitated to get food right away because I was afraid the characters would start coming around & I’d miss them.

I told my husband that he could go up to the buffet first. He was like “BUFFET??? Seriously?!?” He was so excited it was actually slightly amusing to me! I guess I was so caught up the night before trying to figure out where we were going & what time the parade was that I forgot to mention it was a buffet! So, he went up to get his food & whenever he came back, I instructed him to use the camera a million times if he had to. I just wasn’t missing any of the characters! Unfortunately, I don’t have many food pictures from our meal and I have none of the buffet area because I always left my camera back at the table with my husband in case the characters came by while I was gone. I honestly don’t remember what my husband ate, but I’m sure it was some combination of danish, eggs, and lots of meats. He is a big breakfast eater, but eats mostly eggs & bacon/sausage and not “unusual” things. I did see him try a Mickey waffle!

I fixed our son a plate with a banana, a roll, and a danish. I also got him scrambled eggs, a few sausage links, a slice of ham, and watermelon. I then went back up to the buffet and got myself a plate with a danish, bagel with cream cheese, fruit, and sausage. (Sorry about the picture, I forgot to take it until after we had eaten a lot!)

 

[photographymom517]

When the characters were a good distance away from our son, he would laugh & smile & point at them while saying their name.

He’s very familiar with all of the characters there (except JoJo who he just referred to as “clown”) because he’s watched these morning cartoons since he was about 6 months old. I used to feed him breakfast in the morning and then let him watch the Disney channel while I cleaned up the table & dishes. His favorite 3 shows were always Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and Little Einsteins. For awhile, in our area, Little Einsteins was on pretty late in the morning so we usually only saw it maybe once or twice a week. Anyway, back to the meal! Sorry I got off the subject!

I was just trying to point out that our son did know the characters & is very used to watching them on tv…however, he was scared to death of them when they approached the table!!!

I was sooo excited because Handy Manny came to our table first! It was at the perfect time. I was sitting at the table with our son and we were just finishing up our first plates. My husband was at the buffet. I wish he would’ve been there so he could’ve taken a picture of me with our son & Handy Manny. I had our son wear his Manny shirt to the breakfast. I told Manny that his first birthday party’s theme was Handy Manny and his tools! Manny covered his mouth & laughed. Our son screamed & cried!

This was Manny’s reaction to my son crying! LOL

Manny was going to move on to the next table, but I asked him if he would please stand behind my son so I could at least take a photo with him. Poor Manny looked just as scared as our son at this point! Poor guy!!! I felt bad for him but I HAD to get a pic with our son. Handy Manny was the sole reason I had booked this meal!!!

Not exactly the picture I imagined in my mind of my son with Handy Manny, but since he’s been his favorite Disney character for so long, I had to get something!

I felt bad because there was a very nice family sitting behind us. The little girl and her mom had just gone to the bathroom & Handy Manny was at the table. The father asked Manny to please sign her autograph book for her & asked him if he would stop by again later. Manny shook his head “yes” so I was glad that the little girl and my son would both have another chance to see him! Manny and June then returned to the front of the room to dance & sing again.

June came to our table next. My husband stayed sitting while taking a photograph of me with June. I won’t even post it on here because the angle that he took the photo at makes me look like I have about ten chins & about three stomachs! Not the greatest photo but I suppose I will put it in my son’s scrapbook anyway because of the special memories of our trip! After taking the photo, I explained photography angels briefly to my husband. Lol

They announced that the characters were taking a little break & would be back in a few minutes. I took this opportunity to get another plate for myself and my son. I got him a bagel with cream cheese, pineapple, watermelon, a boiled egg and a slice of ham. I got myself a banana, croissant, and a danish with blueberry filling. Yum!!! I had many croissants and danishes while at Disney and they were all very very good! I highly recommend them! I also completely apologize for my pictures. I was honestly so excited to see the characters & thought the meal was so much fun that I forgot to take photographs of the food until we ate almost everything!

Next the characters started coming around again. Leo came to our table. Our son completely flipped out & cried & screamed. He went & sat on my husband’s lap so I didn’t even worry about getting a picture. I just asked Leo to stand alone while I took a photo of him.

Next up was JoJo!!!

For those of you who followed my pre-trip report, you know that I was thrilled about this meal because I would be seeing my favorite childhood character, JoJo as well as my son’s favorite childhood character, Manny! I told my husband to get ready to take a picture while JoJo was at the table beside us. I got a photo with JoJo and then took one of my husband holding my son with JoJo.

Next, Manny came back! I was more excited than our son at this point. My husband took a very nice photograph of me with Manny!

I decided since we had seen the characters each twice (by 10:43am) that we could go up to the buffet and get our final plates. I got a Mickey waffle with strawberry topping.

I wish I would’ve gotten one on my first plate because I probably would’ve gotten five of them throughout the meal! I am not a huge fan of waffles and usually don’t get them. But since I heard such great things on DIS about them, I figured I would at least try it. It was perfectly cooked, not too dry like most “breakfast waffles” at restaurants. All of the toppings looked delicious but I chose the strawberry. My husband had a different topping, I think some type of berry (maybe raspberry or blueberry?) At this point, our son finally calmed down & kept saying the names of the characters over and over again. It made me kinda sad because I knew we were leaving. I thought about it later & I probably should have scheduled another character meal at the beginning of our trip & saved this one for later. That way, he could have had a “practice character meal” that didn’t mean as much to me as the Manny one! I knew we’d be back again sometime before he turns 5 years old, so I figured that I can still convince him to see the characters at least once before he grows out of that stage.

Overall, it was a lot of fun for me, but our son was scared most of the time. I felt bad for him, but I loved the atmosphere & thought it would be fun for him in the future.

We left Play n Dine at 10:50am. Right after we got our check, the waitress asked us if we would like drinks to go. She filled up all of our cups & put lids on them! I thought that was very nice. We didn’t ask, she offered. She came by many times throughout the meal & the place was pretty much packed. She definitely had tons of tables to wait on, but I watched her stop at our “row of tables” many times. Very good service! I was definitely impressed by the atmosphere, character interaction, and our waitress. I just looked at our receipt and her name was Jessica K. Our total bill was $53.23 and I think we left $10 for a tip so our total was $63.23 and we paid OOP for this since we were on the QSDP.

 

[photographymom517]

My husband wanted to look at the art gallery when we first walked in, so we went back towards the gates.

It was a little crazy to get there because everyone else was walking the other way to get into the park. While my husband was in the shop, I went to the gift kiosk in the middle of the main road & bought our son a pack of lollipops. I thought it would be good to have while waiting in line for rides (of course I made sure I had wet wipes in my purse so I could wipe off his hands!) I paid OOP for them and my total was $6.34.

Here’s a crowd picture for you of the main street when walking into Hollywood Studios! This was around 11am.

We walked down the main street because I was looking for the Times Board. I was slightly confused because I read somewhere on DIS that the street performers would no longer be in the parks. I have no idea who said this or why, but we saw tons of them throughout our trip. Here’s our first encounter with them! These guys were very funny.

We then started walking around the Sorcerer’s hat. I cannot remember it being a gift shop before (now it’s a pin shop) but my mom insists that in 1998 when we were there, it was a gift shop. I was amazed as we walked by that there was a gift shop underneath the hat! I thought it was just a giant statue or that maybe a show was inside the hat. Guess you learn something new every trip!

We then walked around the circle and saw Goofy, Pluto, Chip and Dale, Donald and Daisy Duck, and Mickey and Minnie Mouse. The lines were insanely long (is that a word??) and there was no way even I was standing in those lines!!! It was very tempting and honestly, if I would have been on a trip alone, I would have waited. But I wasn’t going to make our son wait in four long lines. I figured it was the beginning of our trip & we could see the characters another day. (Remember this for future reference!)

We then walked towards Animation Studios.

It was funny because we saw the Playhouse Disney characters walking towards their character greeting area & our son kept pointing to Handy Manny and singing the them song from the show! It was funny to me because he just had the chance to see them up-close & was scared to death! (By the way…he’s sitting beside me while I’m typing this & he keeps pointing to Manny & says “mama, look Manny!“)

We went to the gift shop to the left of the Animation Studios building. I looked around with my son for awhile. There were some newborn/toddler onesies and tshirts. I wanted to purchase one for my niece but it ended up that I just couldn’t pay over $20 for a onesie. I decided to wait and check out our local Disney Outlet store (which is only operational from mid-January to mid-March, sometimes it closes sooner!) I thought this store was interesting because it had stuff from the Pixar films and another of my son’s favorite…Phineas and Ferb. Our son actually was in a very, very bad mood in this store so my husband took him outside to wait for me. It ended up that there was a very, very slooooow moving line. A lot of people were getting annoyed. It really didn’t bother me since our day had just started, but I knew my husband would be annoyed that he had to wait so long for me.

I purchased the Phineas & Ferb CD for our son. I also got myself scrapbook stickers. I had purchased Disney scrapbook supplies online prior to our trip & found some clearance merchandise at craft stores, so I didn’t want to purchase an entire kit. My total was $16.97 and I paid at 11:39am.

We decided to continue walking around the park because we were coming back later to the Playhouse Disney Live show. We kept walking and came across “One Man’s Dream” which I really wanted to see. I was surprised because my husband was the one who suggested we go through it. (When we’re on vacations, we really don’t want to do the same things which can sometimes get interesting!)

I really loved this and could have stayed here for hours. I know that some people think its boring, but I really love things like this. I love reading about the history of things (umm…this is a slight lie…I only LOVE history regarding things I’m really interested in…history bores me to death! Lol) Our son even liked walking back and forth from each section & I heard a lot of “oooh” and “wow” coming from his direction! He has a great learning mind already and I really hope that sticks with him throughout his life!

Here are some pictures from One Man’s Dream!

I took about a million pictures so these are just some of the ones that turned out the best. It was hard to photograph with my new camera because I wasn’t used to it yet & most of the things are behind glass (and its dark in there!)

*** On a side note, I ordered four books through Amazon for my Kindle last night. Of course all were Disney-related and all together they cost under $24!!! ***

I also learned through walking around One Man’s Dream that I really want to go to Disneyland one day!

 

[photographymom517]

We then walked through Pixar Studios.

I can’t remember what the wait time was at Toy Story Mania, but I do remember it was over 100 minutes and there were so many people in line, we could barely walk through that area. I’d say I never saw that many people in line before but I did last night! I actually just noticed from looking at my pictures that they had Fast Pass wait time for 12:07 but for some reason, we just kept walking. We could have easily gotten Fast Passes!

We arrived at the Backlot Tour at 12:20pm and got stuck behind the yellow line. There were only 2 families in front of us, so we almost made it. We were just amazed at how quickly the line was moving because of our previous evening’s experience with the lines at MK. The lines at DHS didn’t seem much better that morning. We waited 9 minutes and then our Backlot Tour began. We were very glad the line moved quickly & it gave us some hope for the rest of the day!

We really enjoyed the tour & so did our son. The first part requires that you stand for probably about 5 minutes. He was very well behaved & I was surprised he didn’t want one of us to hold him. I have no idea how he saw anything because I had trouble seeing over the other people (we were in the very back). He stood by the railing & watched the big tv the entire time.

We then began walking to our next destination so my husband carried him. He really loved riding the tram & liked it whenever we passed the various vehicles. He also said “ooooh” and pointed to the cars whenever we drove by the Lights, Motor, Action show!

This is from Hannah Montana. I’ve watched a show a few times but I’m not sure if its from the show or the movie.

Loved the Prop Warehouse but my pictures didn’t turn out good because I took them while walking. There were so many people behind me that I didn’t want to stop & just stand there. Plus, it was the first time I ever went on this ride & didn’t know where we were going! If I knew we were just standing in line waiting for the tram, I would’ve stopped to take pics & just caught up with my husband and son later.

Last time I saw this, it said “MGM”!

Here’s one of my favorites!!! Love Herbie!!!

I thought these areas were really neat!

We walked through the Villains display. I never saw this before & it was very interesting. Our son liked it but he didn’t know most of the characters there. Of course, my favorites were from Pirates of the Caribbean!

I also liked the display of old cameras!

We just kept walking and accidentally came across Mike from Monsters Inc. I love this movie!!! He was just getting ready to leave, but we were able to get a quick photograph with him. He was crying a little bit at first but I managed to get a good photograph of the three of us!

Right after we took the picture, Mike left with his character handler and went backstage to a show (I think). I felt very lucky that we walked by when we did…two seconds later and we would not have gotten that photograph! I didn’t even know he was at Hollywood Studios so I wouldn’t have looked for him.

 

[photographymom517]

We then stopped by Studio Catering Company to get lunch.

My husband and I didn’t really see anything we wanted to eat, so we just got our son a meal. Instead of using one of our QS meals, I got him a kids meal & paid OOP. My total was $5.32 (kinda funny I got an entire meal & drink for less than I paid for 5 lollipops earlier today!!!) He got chicken nuggets, fries, and an apple juice.

While he ate his meal, I took some pictures of the gift shop across from us and the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area. We decided to let our son eat & get food for ourselves later.

We walked down the Streets of America…

And ended up at

Here’s their menu for anyone who’s interested! I had about fifty people watch me take this picture & look at me like I was half crazy!

This ended up being a new favorite for us!!! I got the Fish and Chips, Sprite, and Chocolate Mousse. My husband got a Double Cheeseburger with Fries, Coke, and Chocolate Mousse. He’s not as obsessed with chocolate as I am but I convinced him to try it! He ended up giving most of it to our son. We used 2 meal credits but our total would have been $29.12 (yes, I figured out the cost of every meal plus tax!)

By this time, it was almost time for the Block Party Bash to begin. We tried to find a spot because it didn’t seem like many people were lined up yet. We found an opening on a bench between the main street and the stage under the Sorcerer’s hat. Our son had a lollipop (I can’t even remember when or where we bought this!) so it kept him occupied while we were waiting.

It turned out that our “perfect spot” was a horrible spot as many people began lining up in front of us…in rows and rows and rows! There was still a good 20 minutes before the Block Party Bash began, so I told my husband that we better move up. I told him that I would stand up there and save a spot for him & our son (and his stroller).

This is the first point of the trip where I cannot believe how rude people are! I was standing there for probably five seconds before my husband & son came to join me. We were all standing there and a bunch of rude people just walked right up & stood in front of my son in his stroller! There was room to the left of me…but they didn’t stand there! Why would you stand in front of a young child in a stroller when there’s a completely EMPTY spot right beside where you are standing??? I even said something to them very politely & they just looked at me and turned away. It was obvious that they were not moving! I told my husband to hold our son once the characters/floats started getting closer to us. He’s over 6 foot so I knew our son would be able to see if he was holding him.

I know this is sort of rude, but I had to chuckle when a CM came over & yelled at these people because they were standing in front of the yellow tape line. They didn’t move so he came back over and told them more firmly that they needed to move back. They moved behind the line and as soon as the CM walked away, they moved BACK in front of the yellow line. Then, I just laughed out loud at them because another CM came over and told them they needed to move…and the other CM was with her & said “I just told them 3 times, geez don’t people listen?” HAHAHAHA! (My laughs were short-lived because as soon as both CM’s moved down the parade route, these rude people moved right back in front of me & our son…RUDE!)

It really amazed me. Disney is supposed to be about kids and having fun. I don’t understand why others have to ruin the magic especially for little kids! I mean, if it were me, I wouldn’t even stand in front of another adult. I’m just not that rude! I was also annoyed because we got there first…we “paid our time” and waited. For once, we were actually early to a parade & got a good spot. But after this experience, I told my husband from now on, we weren’t going to waste our time & wait for parades. I told him that we would show up 10-15 minutes before the parade & just find a spot. I wasn’t going to show up extra early, get a good spot, only to have some rude person push in front of me & steal my thunder!!!

To be honest, I was so hot at this point of the day, I’m very surprised I didn’t just lose it & completely flip out! I guess my husband said a few choice words to one of the girls pushing in front of our son because she switched places with her boyfriend…I guess she was afraid of the 6’2” man yelling at her! I sort of wish I had pictures from this experience but its probably better that I don’t! haha!

 

[photographymom517]

Regardless of what happened, we all still enjoyed the Block Party Bash!!! I was so excited to see it! I love all the Toy Story movies, they will always be one of my favorites! I also liked the costumes of the CM’s! Here are some of my favorite pictures!

The CM on the right-side of this picture was so much fun to watch during the BPB. She had so much energy!

This picture is sort of sad to me because my husband refused to allow our son to buy a balloon. I tried at every single park but he said no. He said it was a waste for just a few days…how would we get it on the bus with our bags & stroller & son to take back to the resort? And he wouldn’t buy it & let our son carry it around just for the day at the park. I told him next trip, our son will get a balloon, I don’t care if he only keeps it for five minutes! (Our son looooves balloons! When he was a little younger, he wanted one at Walmart every single time we went there! I used to let him get them because they were only $2.98 but Walmart raised their prices of balloons…now you can’t find one under $6)

At the time of BPB, I thought this was the cutest pink bear!!! HAHA! That was until I saw TS3 and changed my mind! What a shame!!!

This is another CM who had lots of energy & really got into the whole Block Party Bash! (she’s the blonde on the side). A lot of the CM’s were energetic but half way through, most of them lost their steam! The two I pointed out looked just as excited at the end as they did at the beginning which impressed me (especially with the temps that day!)

I LOVED seeing these guys!!! Part of my trip report title is “little green men!”

I was amazed by my new camera’s zoom but loved getting pictures of the entire floats. The details on them are amazing!

I was disappointed. Mr. Potato Head walked by so quickly that I only got a picture of his backside! I really, really wanted a picture of him but this is all I got because I was busy zooming into the previous float!

 

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Monster’s Inc Floats

Also disappointed that I got the backside of Boo instead of the front of her!

It’s A Bug’s Life pictures
I loved this CM’s ladybug outfit!

 

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Next, we went to the Great Movie ride.

Of course I had to take a picture of this Goofy autograph since he’s my favorite character!!!

I really enjoyed the ride but wasn’t able to take many pictures. The only ones that turned out were from the Wizard of Oz.

We walked around and I took more pictures. I really wanted to get our son’s photo taken with Lightning McQueen and Mater at Luigi’s Garage, so that was our next stop. We couldn’t find it at first because I took a wrong turn, but we got there eventually. The line was so long, there was no way we were waiting. I took some pictures of the 2 vehicles in between children having their pictures taken. I figured we could stop back later.

We were really thirsty…the temps and humidity made it feel like it was waaaay over 100 degrees outside! So we stopped by ABC Commissary and got 3 sweet teas. Our total was exactly $7.00 and we paid OOP for these.

 

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We looked at our schedule and saw the Lights, Motor, Action show started at 4:30pm and it was only about 10 minutes from that time.

Our son really, really loved the show! He watched the entire thing & wasn’t fussy once. He sat on my husband’s lap during the show.

I took about a million pictures of the show, but here are some of my favorites!

I was trying out my zoom a lot during the show! That’s what this picture is!

This is how far away we really were.

Probably the best picture I’ve ever taken! I love this shot!!! My husband was amazed that I got this!

 

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After the show, I got some very unpleasant news. I found out that a young child in our family was going to Children’s Hospital. I got the call as I was walking down the bleachers and just started crying. It was horrible. I just didn’t feel like doing anything else and I couldn’t really think straight. My husband thought it would be a good idea to just got back to the resort & take some time to relax. I agreed but wanted to get our son a drink or snack first.

We decided to stop in a few gift shops on the main street since it was on our way out anyway. Our son was getting fussy, most likely a combination of a long day & the humidity. My husband took our son for a walk & ended up behind the dinosaur ice cream stand. Our son loved the ducks, so he was watching them in the water.

While they were watching the ducks, I went to 2 gift shops. The first was Mickeys of Hollywood. I think it’s the corner store on the Main Street (closest to the hat if that makes sense). I’m sitting here reading my receipt and have no idea what I purchased there! I know I got another Cutester Vinylmation (it ended up being the red doll!) This is also where I purchased my Wishes and Four Parks Cds. I saw them the night before in the CBR gift shop but figured I’d wait to buy them. After seeing them again at DHS, I couldn’t wait!!! I also bought a Vinylmation Jr (it was the first I purchased) and it ended up being the shark teeth one. I just remembered that the “4 gfy plsh kc” means a 4” Plush Goofy Keychain! That’s the other thing I purchased at this shop. I really liked the DHS shops and since I haven’t been there since MGM in 1998, I think I went a little crazy! My total bill was $66.90 (my most expensive purchase so far).

Picture of my CD’s and 2 scrapbook kits that I purchased a different day later in our trip.

I then went to the store beside it, Keystone Clothiers, and purchased a beaded necklace and pink polo shirt with navy Mickey silouhettes on it. I saw a lady wearing it earlier that day when we were leaving Hollywood & Vine. Last trip, I saw a shirt I wanted and didn’t buy it right away. Later when I checked, they were out of my size & I couldn’t find it anywhere else! I was afraid I wouldn’t find the exact shirt again and I wear polo shirts a lot so I figured it was a good choice. My bill there was $53.20 (see, told you I went a little crazy shopping at DHS!) I don’t have pics of any of my shirt purchases, but I will take some, I promise!

We left Hollywood Studios at exactly 7:00pm. On our way out of the park, I saw this in the air and thought it was really neat!

By the time we got back to CBR, our son was restless from sitting through the shows, being in the stroller, sitting on the bus, etc. so I decided to take him for a walk. We left our room at 7:40pm and walked down to OPR.

(Yes I let him walk around with just a pair of shorts on. It was soooo humid that I didn’t blame him for not wanting to change clothes again!)

I found this “Hidden Mickey” on the side of one of the buildings at CBR. I was all proud of myself because it was the first I found this trip!

One of my son’s “friends” that he found every single day of our trip!

 

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Remember how I said our son loved the fountain? We sat by it every time we went down to OPR because it was his favorite spot. This time, I asked him to pose by the fountain & say “cheese”. This was the first time in months he posed for a picture for me! I was so proud of him (I have about 8 pics just like this one!) Just wish he didn’t have that stupid bink in his mouth!

I decided that we needed a snack. So I got our son strawberries and a sugar cookie. I wanted to take the cookie back to the room for later or for him to eat in the morning while waiting for the bus. I got apples with caramel dip (ended up being a recurring theme throughout our trip!) I used 3 snack credits. Our receipt says it was 8:01pm.

After we ate, we stopped by the gift shop. I have no idea why I felt the need to shop again, after my 2 large orders at DHS, but I did. I wanted to buy my son a hat, but he kept saying “no no mama” so I didn’t force him to try them on. He must have been tired at this point because normally he LOVES trying on hats & shoes. I ended up getting 3 charms for my Disney charm bracelet. I got a Goofy charm since he’s my favorite character, Mickey’s pants, and Tink. My total bill was $12.63 at 8:28pm.

This is a picture of the charms and a keychain I bought later at OPR’s gift shop. I wanted the magnet but got the keychain instead. I can’t remember why!

We also went to the beach area right beside the main pool. He loved it there!!! It was very private, we were actually the only people there. We sat on the chairs for awhile & then he walked through the sand. He also found a turtle statue & kept sitting on it. I also loved this because I was able to get some pictures of him without his binky!

One of my favorite pictures from our entire trip! I think I’m going to edit the coloring in my photo program & add a border to it.

At 9:00pm, we started walking back to our room. By this time, my husband had rested & we all decided to walk back to OPR to refill our mugs. We sat at a table by the fountain (our son’s favorite spot at the resort!) and relaxed. Our son sat with us & he also played beside the fountain for awhile. Remember this for future reference…it ends up being a spot our son enjoys a lot!!!

Hope you enjoyed the update!!! I don't even have the next day's report started, but hopefully will work on it sometime this week!