She's a Princess, a Superhero, and a Rock Star -a Sept 2013 TR (Completed 2/24)

[GrandCalifornian]

Yay, an update! We have breakfast booked at Akershus, but dinner sounds lovely!

Yeah, sometimes life gets in the way of getting pictures uploaded and the reports written, but we're keeping pace.
We really thought about doing breakfast at Akershus, but decided on dinner since we were on the dining plan and feel that is a better deal. The breakfast there sounds great though.

I'm glad that the princesses got to see Allie's special skirt. It is so cute on her. I'm very excited to see that Allie got to visit with the same Snow White that my granddaughter saw. She was so wonderful and spent a lot of time with our granddaughter. Your trip report is the first one I've seen with the same Snow White. It looks like you picked the right restaurant for princesses and food.

I bought the same eclair for my DH and he loved it. They had a lot of great food choices at that bakery in France.

That is so neat that your granddaughter got to see that Snow White, and that you remembered her. She really did a great job, and the character interaction was great at this meal, which is why we chose it. The real surprise though was how great the food was, and it was probably Melissa's favorite food of the trip.

I (Paul) wasn't sure what I would want from the French bakery, but I will definitely go back for that eclair, and I am sure that other things there are great as well.

Sounds like a great day! We haven't done a water park yet, probably won't until Ellie is around 3....

Our last trip both kids napped in Epcot! We have pictures of the stroller parked in front of each works pavilion! It made for a great afternoon!

Allies skirt is precious and perfect for that meal! As have lunch there next month!!

It was a great day. Allie was old enough to enjoy the water parks, especially the kids areas. I'm not sure she would have been as into them last year, so it all works out. She didn't nap nearly as much this year, so the time with her asleep in Epcot was a treat for us, as we love wondering around World Showcase.

The Akershus meal did work out great. Here's pictures of out entrees, which we really enjoyed:


The short ribs were fork tender and sitting on top of some of the best mashed potatoes I've ever had. The beef tips were delicious too.
Enjoy your lunch there!

 

[kastoney]

Dinner at Akerhaus looks amazing. We've been contemplating a breakfast there but the menu didn't really appeal to me, but dinner and a buffet full of cheese and smoked salmon is another story. Love that Mulan was there too, definitely not enough of her around.

Love, love, ole Alli's skirt. How perfect that each of the princesses she got to meet we're on her skirt. I'm sure it was a great conversation piece.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Dinner at Akerhaus looks amazing. We've been contemplating a breakfast there but the menu didn't really appeal to me, but dinner and a buffet full of cheese and smoked salmon is another story. Love that Mulan was there too, definitely not enough of her around.

Love, love, ole Alli's skirt. How perfect that each of the princesses she got to meet we're on her skirt. I'm sure it was a great conversation piece.

Yeah, we considered breakfast as well, but are very pleased with the dinner food offerings. It was probably Melissa's favorite food of the trip, and was definitely up there.

We have been sidetracked lately with being busy at work and a side job photographing a wedding, but we are checking in and will hopefully get another update posted before Thanksgiving. Then we'll be gone for a week, so there will be another delay, but we'll keep updating. There's still 5 days of fun to cover!

 

[WDWKOOK]

I'm back from the depths of WL thread revising/posting

Love all the photos! My memory of the Lazy River is that I kept having to get out of my raft to retrieve DD who kept "falling" out of hers. I guess it was more entertaining to be less lazy and walk the river?

The new Boulangerie Paitisserie les Halle in France is so much better than the previous bakery. We can't wait to go back.

I've been trying to change to Akershus our arrival day next month, but it's booked for lunch. I'm not giving up though, your review has inspired me to keep trying.

I have a feeling this won't be Allie's last Duffy. Are she and Melissa going to make their own outfits for him?

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I'm back from the depths of WL thread revising/posting

Love all the photos! My memory of the Lazy River is that I kept having to get out of my raft to retrieve DD who kept "falling" out of hers. I guess it was more entertaining to be less lazy and walk the river?

The new Boulangerie Paitisserie les Halle in France is so much better than the previous bakery. We can't wait to go back.

I've been trying to change to Akershus our arrival day next month, but it's booked for lunch. I'm not giving up though, your review has inspired me to keep trying.

I have a feeling this won't be Allie's last Duffy. Are she and Melissa going to make their own outfits for him?

We're glad to have you following along, and are extra glad to hear that you are enjoying the pictures. We took so many, but it is great fun to go through them and see how great the trip was. Your hard work on the WL thread looks great too.

We had the bakery in France on our must visit list, but I was even more impressed with that eclair than I expected to be.

I hope you can get an Akershus ADR. It surprised me with the quality of the food, so we'll definitely be back.

Allie already has a collection of Build a Bear bears, so it is neat the Duffy can share clothes with them. They haven't sewn up anything custom yet, but I could see that happening. We got him without any clothes so Allie could pick her favorite outfit for him during the trip.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We started our earliest day of the trip with the alarm set for 6:30 AM because we had a much anticipated 8:05 AM breakfast ADR at Crystal Palace before MK opened at 9.

Allie was sleepy and a little cranky but we got her dressed and made it to the bus on time. She insisted on bringing her blanket which actually helped with the earlyness of the morning

We had a bit of a wait for the bus, as we arrived at the bus stop at 7:10, but the bus didn't come until 7:30. Fortunately once it did come, it was a quick 5 minute trip to MK.

Once we got to the park it was still too early for them to let us in so we just kinda waited in line until they were ready for us


We meandered up Main Street and got pictures of the castle and Allie had fun watching the ducks.


It really was cool to be in MK before the park opened. One thing we saw was they had poured some concrete overnight near the carriage tracks, and they still had barricades around it:



We had about 10 minutes to walk around and take pictures before our ADR time, and it was neat to see the castle with so few people around.



When we checked in for our ADR the computer crashed. It was pretty random and slightly annoying and it meant we had to stand in another line and check in again.

Yeah, the poor CM was like "I can't do anything now, you'll have to go up to that line and tell them you were partially checked in when the computer froze." Fortunately the wait wasn't too bad, and we were soon seated at a nice table by the windows in the back.

There was Mickey confetti sprinkled on our table for Allie's birthday. She then proceeded to arrange it into neat rows.


We headed over to the buffet, where I was truly impressed. There was a huge variety of offerings, from the infamous puffed french toast (which we got from the cute little kids station) to made to order omelets. I love custom omelets, and this was our first time getting one at a Disney restaurant, and it was great.

I really enjoyed the breakfast too. The character interaction was superb mostly because Allie woke up on the right side of the bed though.




Our server was also our best of the trip. She made sure to give us plenty of notice when a character was coming, and did a great job keeping our Diet Cokes full. she was also very friendly, and really added to an already exceptional meal.

Another neat thing we had done before the trip was we bought Allie a Winnie the Pooh DVD. She watched it for a few weeks before the trip, and became much more familiar with the characters. Once we were at Crystal Palace, she knew all of the characters. She was surprised by their size though, especially Piglet, who she thought would be much smaller.


Oh yes, that was pretty funny. She decided he must have grown up really fast like her

After breakfast we waddled (since we were very full) out toward Adventureland.


Our first stop was Aladdin's magic carpets, which excited Allie and only scared Melissa a little bit, since she generally isn't a fan of Dumbo style rides. The ability to control the tilt of the carpet freaked her out a bit, but she did great and took pictures during the ride.



At least by taking pictures you can't see the death grip I had on the seat.

As we were getting off the ride we saw that Aladdin and Jasmine were in line to ride it, and they hopped on for the next ride with some surprised looking guests. Then we headed for Small World because it is one of Allie's very favorites that we hadn't done yet this trip.

Unfortunately it was down so we headed over to Peter Pan's flight instead. There was virtually no wait and we sailed right over Neverland.


By the time we got off Small World had just opened up so we walked right on and got a boat to ourselves.





Next we decided to try something new, and we watched Philharmagic for the first time. Allie wasn't too thrilled with it, but it was fun.

It was loud for her and the 3d stuff wigged her out so she pretty much watched it with the glasses off and her fingers in her ears.


Then we just had to ride the carousel, so we did that again and then headed back to New Fantasyland.



Next, we did what turned out to be one of Allie's favorite activities of the trip. Since the line wasn't bad, we went to Enchanted Stories with Belle.


I didn't know what to expect, but was super impressed with the show and how involved they got the kids. Allie absolutely loved it, and she got to be a dish in the play. (For those of you who haven't been, the event takes place in Belle's house, where the audience passes through a magic mirroe and meets the wardrobe, who coordinates a surprise re-enactment for Belle of the day when she first met the Beast. The kids in the audience get to play different roles, with one little boy playing the part of the Beast. When Belle comes in, she interacts with all the kids, especially the Beast. They provide photopass pics of everything, and it makes for a very fun event.


Allie was just immersed in it and she still says this was her favorite part of the entire trip.

After hanging out with Belle, it had warmed up outside so we walked around in the Big Top gift store, and got some treats using snack credits.



By now it was hot outside, and Allie was looking for a way to cool off.

See what she found in the next update...

 

[Wood Nymph]

Next we decided to try something new, and we watched Philharmagic for the first time. Allie wasn't too thrilled with it, but it was fun.
It was loud for her and the 3d stuff wigged her out so she pretty much watched it with the glasses off and her fingers in her ears.

Next, we did what turned out to be one of Allie's favorite activities of the trip. Since the line wasn't bad, we went to Enchanted Stories with Belle.

I didn't know what to expect, but was super impressed with the show and how involved they got the kids. Allie absolutely loved it, and she got to be a dish in the play.

By now it was hot outside, and Allie was looking for a way to cool off.

See what she found in the next update...

We did the Philharmonic when our oldest grandson was a toddler and it was really loud then. I'm sorry to hear that it is still loud because I was hoping to go to that show on this next trip, but not if it is still loud.

We didn't get to see Belle when we were there with the grandchildren in February but I did get a fp+ for our December trip. I'm really curious to see what it is like, since all I hear is good things about it.

I love Allie's dress. It looks very comfortable, especially in hot weather.

 

[kastoney]

Another great update. Love the pre opening pics of the Castle, especially Ali and you looking at it from behind. Priceless. We went to CP for breakfast too and enjoyed it, though there is no way me and my crew could ever make a pre opening ressie. We'd all look like Alli but no one to carry me ; )

 

[WDWKOOK]

Your CP and MK/RD photos made me teary-eyed. It's so magical seeing the MK before it opens and your little Allie posing with the CP characters and her on the carrousel. The one of Tigger with his nose to Allie is just precious!! I guess it brought back my own CP memories of DD. I couldn't get Akershus for our arrival day lunch, so now I'm going to try for CP

Allie wasn't the only sleepy-head at RD. Everyone in the background of your first photo look sleepy, too. I bet they just haven't had their morning cup of Joe yet.

Love those pigtail elastics - so cute! And, of course, that dress is FAB!! Those treats are making me so hungry.

That's cute about MP being a bit too much for Allie. I recall DD not liking It's Tough to be a Bug because of the "bugs" who crawl under you and on her 3rd birthday we took her to Rain Forest and she covered her ears during the thunder. I think Allie will better appreciate MP in a year or two. Does she like Muppet Vision? That's pretty loud at the end.

Can't wait to see what Allie "found."

 

[GrandCalifornian]

We did the Philharmonic when our oldest grandson was a toddler and it was really loud then. I'm sorry to hear that it is still loud because I was hoping to go to that show on this next trip, but not if it is still loud.

We didn't get to see Belle when we were there with the grandchildren in February but I did get a fp+ for our December trip. I'm really curious to see what it is like, since all I hear is good things about it.

I love Allie's dress. It looks very comfortable, especially in hot weather.

Yeah, I didn't think Philharmagic was to scary, but Allie didn't like the noise. She is pretty noise sensitive, but it still might be one to skip with little ones.

Thanks, Allie loved her dress too. It was soon to be changed out though, as she wanted it even cooler and managed to get soaked...

Another great update. Love the pre opening pics of the Castle, especially Ali and you looking at it from behind. Priceless. We went to CP for breakfast too and enjoyed it, though there is no way me and my crew could ever make a pre opening ressie. We'd all look like Alli but no one to carry me ; )

Lol, yeah, we are definitely not "rope drop" people, but we wanted to try it just once during the trip to get in to MK before it opened. We made sure it was the latest opening time possible during our trip, and it really wasn't too bad. The great meal at Crystal Palace was worth getting up for.

Your CP and MK/RD photos made me teary-eyed. It's so magical seeing the MK before it opens and your little Allie posing with the CP characters and her on the carrousel. The one of Tigger with his nose to Allie is just precious!! I guess it brought back my own CP memories of DD. I couldn't get Akershus for our arrival day lunch, so now I'm going to try for CP

Allie wasn't the only sleepy-head at RD. Everyone in the background of your first photo look sleepy, too. I bet they just haven't had their morning cup of Joe yet.

Love those pigtail elastics - so cute! And, of course, that dress is FAB!! Those treats are making me so hungry.

That's cute about MP being a bit too much for Allie. I recall DD not liking It's Tough to be a Bug because of the "bugs" who crawl under you and on her 3rd birthday we took her to Rain Forest and she covered her ears during the thunder. I think Allie will better appreciate MP in a year or two. Does she like Muppet Vision? That's pretty loud at the end.

Can't wait to see what Allie "found."

Sorry for the slow reply. That is neat that seeing our CP experience brought back memories of yours. We sure were happy with CP, and Allie loved it.

I don't think Allie has done Muppet Vision, or at least not recently. Last year Grandma and Grandpa went on it while we shopped. It would probably be loud for her.

You won't have to wait much longer to hear about the rest of our day, we are writing it now and should post it later today...

 

[WDWKOOK]

You won't have to wait much longer to hear about the rest of our day, we are writing it now and should post it later today...

 

[GrandCalifornian]

It got hotter as we ate our snacks, so Allie then headed to the splash area by the Fantasyland train station.



She got absotlutely soaked, but it was hot and I had spares so we let her have fun. After we got her changed she convinced me to ride Dumbo.


Two of these rides in a day phew it was alot for me but Allie rode next to me for support.



It was funny, Allie wasn't scared at all of riding Dumbo, but she wouldn't do the slides in the waiting area playground. That's ok though, the lines were short enough that we could just go right through and get in line for the ride.

After our trip on Dumbo it was still HOT so we decided we needed a break. We hopped on the train and took it to the front of the park.


We had never finished the train loop at WDW, and it felt odd to go through that section and not have the Dinosaur exhibit like at Disneyland. Seeing the CR was cool though.

Then we left the park and hopped on a boat for WL. It was a shared boat with Fort Wilderness, with WL as the second stop so we wound up going for a bit of a ride. We rode up front and enjoyed the view.


So you'll just have to take our word for it but we headed down to the pool when we got back to the lodge. It was a super relaxing afternoon and we even participated in some of the activities. Allie really liked doing the limbo and the bean bag toss.

It was our first time ever participating in the afternoon kids pool party, but the timing worked out and Allie enjoyed some of the games. I left the waterproof camera in the room, so you'll just have to imagine the shot of Allie doing the limbo with about ten other little kids.

We did bring our refill mugs with us and got drink refills at Roaring Fork. After over an hour in the big pool, we decided to head over to the Hidden SPrings pool by the villas because we had never swam there. It was nice too, and has underwater jets (like a hot tub) that you can feel.

Allie was starting to get sleepy and cranky so we headed back up to the room to shower and change for the evening. Since we had a breakfast ADR the evening was completely open.

We really enjoyed taking the time to check out other resorts during our previous trip, and we wanted to wind up back at Downtown Disney, so we decided to go by Port Orleans Riverside for dinner on the way.

Connecting between resorts is always an indirrect process, but we hopped on a boat headed for MK to catch a bus to POR. We always enjoy the boat rides, and you can get anywhere from MK.


On the way to POR Allie fell asleep which led to a super peceful dinner and stroll around the resort.


Dinner at the POR food court was great. We hadn't really eaten since breakfast, so we were ready. We both decided on the make your own pasta, and were very impressed at the amount of food.

We could have easily shared and probably should have but we each ordered our pasta made differently so it worked out. Plus we got two desserts that way.
We got a Cherry pie a la mode and a magic cookie bar.
I LOVED that magic cookie bar, it was one of my favorite desserts of the trip, my mouth is currently watering thinking about it. I wonder if there is anywhere in Disneyland that has one. Looks like I have a mission for the weekend.

After dinner we walked around POR a little bit. From our exploring we think this is our favorite Moderate resort, and I like it's similar rural feel to WL.


With Allie still asleep, we were ready to head for Downtown Disney, so we hopped on a boat.

She slept for that entire boat ride too.

As we got off the boat at Downtown Disney, we thought Allie was asleep in her stroller until as we were walking by the magnet shop when she sat straight up and said she was hungry and wanted one of those donuts. They had a very realistic looking donut magnet that reminded her she had slept through dinner.

After some convincing that the donut magnet was in fact not real, and no we cannot buy it anyway she decided she wanted spaghetti for dinner.

On the way we walked through the art store and admired the pretty paintings.


Then we went to the Christmas ornament shop to get our special ornament for the trip. We started this on our honeymoon, and like getting one custom ornament each year. Here's Melissa with this year's choice:


Allie helped pick it out and I had wanted to put on it "The Three Mouskemeers" (Allie's name for the Mexico boat ride, think three caballeros and mousketeer all rolled into one) but they changed their policy and would only put the date one it... it was pretty disappointing.

After purchasing our ornament Allie was STARVING so we headed over to Wolfgang Pucks and got her a kids spaghetti to go. I thought she could eat it while we shopped but then realized that could get REALLY messy so we just camped at a table until she finished.


It was weird not to order food for us at WPE, especially since we enjoy it so much, but we were both still stuffed from our huge dinner ar POR. After Allie was fed, we were ready for some shopping. We worked our way through the smaller Disney stores and the toy store. Ibn the toy store Allie made friends with a few of the cast members, and at one point had a group of four of them playing with her.


We moved on to the sports store, where Melissa found a neat Run Disney shirt that we decided she had to have.



I am going to run a Disney race some day so I figured it was motivation.

We moved on to Basin where we had fun smelling all of the soaps and buying a few too.

Allie kept picking up the bath bombs and her hands got all dusty so she wiped them on some random guy's shirt. I was mortified but I don't think he noticed the tiny hand prints on his butt so we just moved on.


Doesn't she look suspicious?


We finished shopping in Basin at 10 PM and then headed into the WOrld of Disney store. We had visited earlier in the trip, but this time we were there to buy the stuff we knew we wanted.

Allie played in the virtual dressup mirror and annoyed a family because they thought she took too long but she got to try on all of the dresses and we moved on.


Then we walked down to the Lego store where we checked things out but avoided buying anything, but Allie insisted that we take pictures with the lego figures outside.


After posing with our lego friends we walked across the bridge to the other side. This area reminds me alot of our Downtown Disney here. Unfortunately it was getting late and most of the places were closed. We had a quick potty break then headed out to find a bus.


I did manage to get a picture of the giant baloon, which Allie wanted to ride in, but I'm not too sure how well that would have gone. Maybe next time, and I think Melissa would volunteer to stay on the ground and take pictures.


Yeah I'm not sure I would enjoy it all so I'd prefer to keep my feet on solid ground.

We headed to the West Side bus stop and got there at 11:15 PM, and were on a bus to WL by 11:26. We arrived back "home" to WL at 11:45, and Allie snuggled into bed with her Duffy, who had acquired a Lightning McQueen racing suit at Downtown Disney.


It was a super duper long day but one of the best of the trip. I definately want to do a CP breakfast again before the MK opens.

Continued in the next update, where we finally make it to our fourth park...

 

[wiigirl]

Great pics!

 

[Wood Nymph]

So you'll just have to take our word for it but we headed down to the pool when we got back to the lodge. It was a super relaxing afternoon and we even participated in some of the activities. Allie really liked doing the limbo and the bean bag toss.

It was our first time ever participating in the afternoon kids pool party, but the timing worked out and Allie enjoyed some of the games. I left the waterproof camera in the room, so you'll just have to imagine the shot of Allie doing the limbo with about ten other little kids.

Was the pool party music loud when you were there? When we were there in Feb it was blasting loud. This trip, this week, it has become a reasonable volume.

I'm glad that Allie enjoyed the games. Did she go on the slide? Our grandchildren couldn't get enough of it.

After over an hour in the big pool, we decided to head over to the Hidden SPrings pool by the villas because we had never swam there. It was nice too, and has underwater jets (like a hot tub) that you can feel.

I love that pool.

After dinner we walked around POR a little bit. From our exploring we think this is our favorite Moderate resort, and I like it's similar rural feel to WL.

We moved on to the sports store, where Melissa found a neat Run Disney shirt that we decided she had to have.



I am going to run a Disney race some day so I figured it was motivation.
.

You should definitely do a RunDisney race. My sister and I did the half marathon and my DH and I did a family fun run 5K. That 5K race was full of "non-running types", including DH, but it was a lot of fun.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Great pics!

Thanks! We are really enjoying our camera and are so glad we got it before the trip.

Was the pool party music loud when you were there? When we were there in Feb it was blasting loud. This trip, this week, it has become a reasonable volume.

I'm glad that Allie enjoyed the games. Did she go on the slide? Our grandchildren couldn't get enough of it.

I love that pool.


You should definitely do a RunDisney race. My sister and I did the half marathon and my DH and I did a family fun run 5K. That 5K race was full of "non-running types", including DH, but it was a lot of fun.

Wow, we got a live from Disney reply on our TR! We hope you are enjoying your trip.

The pool music wasn't too loud, which Allie appreciated. She didn't end up doing the slide since it looked a little tall to her. Melissa enjoyed it though.

Melissa has really been enjoying running and is working up to a half. Doing a Disney race just seems perfect.

Enjoy your WL stay and we'll post another update soon.

 

[WDWKOOK]

Those handprints are hilarious! I wonder if they ever noticed. It's nice that you and Melissa are flexible with your trips. You let Allie sleep whenever the mood strikes and if she awakens famished, you stop what you're doing and have an impromptu meal. It's nice that your trips seems very well organized, yet at the same time, flexible.

POR/Dixie Landing was our first-ever Disney Resort and I agree that it has a similar feel to WL which was our first Deluxe. That Magic Mirror and mustache photo is so cute! Love all the photos.

Have you jogged around FW? It's lots of fun, but the paths aren't lit so it is pitch black on the trails in the morning, but you can also use the treadmills 24/7 at Sturdy Branches.

Interesting about the ornament monogramming. I wonder if this is happening at MK, too. I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks...

 

[Miss Potts]

I'm in for your TR and enjoyed everything so far! Allie is so cute!

 

[GrandCalifornian]

Those handprints are hilarious! I wonder if they ever noticed. It's nice that you and Melissa are flexible with your trips. You let Allie sleep whenever the mood strikes and if she awakens famished, you stop what you're doing and have an impromptu meal. It's nice that your trips seems very well organized, yet at the same time, flexible.

POR/Dixie Landing was our first-ever Disney Resort and I agree that it has a similar feel to WL which was our first Deluxe. That Magic Mirror and mustache photo is so cute! Love all the photos.

Have you jogged around FW? It's lots of fun, but the paths aren't lit so it is pitch black on the trails in the morning, but you can also use the treadmills 24/7 at Sturdy Branches.

Interesting about the ornament monogramming. I wonder if this is happening at MK, too. I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks...

We are glad you are enjoying the report. The handprints weren't our proudest parenting moment, but I'm sure they dusted off...
We love our lack of over planning for the trips. We have one ADR a day which provides some structure but still lets us be very flexible. Besides, a well napped kid is a happy kid. She definitely napped less this year, which could make next year interesting. We had a general list of things we wanted to do, and tried to get them done when we had time so we didn't have a lot to try to cram in at the end of the trip.
Melissa thought about running at WDW but has decided so far that we get enough exercise during the trips. The rest of the year of calorie counting and running is with the primary goal of being able to really enjoy the food and time at Disney.
We were disappointed about the lack of real custom lettering on the ornaments, and we were reminded of it this week as we put up all of our past custom ornaments on the tree. At least we got a 2013 ornament, so it is still special.

I'm in for your TR and enjoyed everything so far! Allie is so cute!

Great, we are glad to have you following along. We think Allie is cute too, and we get all the pictures we can. We'll have another update up soon.

 

[GrandCalifornian]

I got up a little early and went out to the balcony about 7:20 AM. After a couple of early mornings, we were in no hurry to get up. I sat on the balcony with the iPad and watched park buses come and go. Allie woke up about an hour later, so I then headed down to pick up our waffles from Roaring Fork.

Both Allie and I enjoyed the leisurly start to the morning. On the way out to the bus stop we mailed some postcards. Last year I was really good about getting lots of them out, this year I got about half that I wanted done. Next year I think I'm going to preprint lables with addresses so all I have to do is write in a message and drop them in the mail. I think they are a special touch and our family and friends really enjoy recieving them while we are on vacation.

After getting dressed and finishing our waffles, we headed down to the bus. I took a couple shots on the way, like I always did.


I also took this one from the elevator lobby, because I just love this view.


Melissa and Allie made a game out of trying to beat me to the elevator while I was off taking pictures out the window, but I always made it on before the doors closed.

We almost left him once, it was an easy way to get Allie moving quicker in the morning too.

After a relatively short wait we hopped on a bus to Hollywood Studios for the first time of the trip. This is our fourth favorite park, and since we have many of its rides in California we just don't spend a lot of time there. Today was the day though,, and we were on our way.


Once we got to the park we got a picture with the Hat, Allie didn't want any part of it so she just hung out in her stroller.


Our next stop was Starring Rolls for a Red Velvet cupcake. The line wasn't super long but it does take a minute to get outta there. I had left Paul and Allie outside while I went in by myself and as I came out I heard a kid screaming at the top of their lungs and actually said I hope thats not my kid. Sure enough it was. I'll let Paul fill you in on Allie's mega meltdown.

Yeah... We had pulled up to an empty table and Allie and I sat there while Melissa went inside. Allie started kicking the table from her stroller and pushing herself back toward the other tables, so I put the brake on. That turned out to be the wrong move, because when she couldn't roll anymore she decided that she was done with the stroller, and with Daddy, and with having fun, and Mommy would be the only one who could fix it.
I tried walking a little with her, but immediately someone came to take the table that we were standing next to. I could see that Melissa was at the front of the line, so I sat back down at the table. Allie wanted none of that, and proceeded to scream at the top of her lungs for Mommy. I got the worst looks from some elderly ladies at the table next to us, and I politely smiled and appologized for her behavior. They scoffed at me and returned to their conversation, and Allie returned to her tantrum.

It seems there has to be one epic tired melting each year. Last year's was at Downtown Disney when a CM offered her a sticker. This year's was when we waited for a cupcake. It is funny how a tired preschooler can be set off by the strangest things.

Alas the meltdown didn't last too long and as soon as I got to the table she was done. Like all was normal sunshiny skies and everything.


So we all enjoyed our cupcake and discussed how sometimes kids just scream and there's really nothing you can do. Especially at Disney, it's not like he could leave the park with her and even if he had left the immediate seating area she'd have really freaked out that they were leaving me.

Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed our cupcake and then decided to wait in line to go see Princess Sofia.


In line Allie made friends with another girl who was just about her age. Allie loves making friends with other kids, and they spent the whole time in line talking and bing very excited to see Sofia.


They even got a picture together with Sofia.

After seeing Sofia, the timing was perfect to walk in and see Disney Jr. Live on Stage, so we went in. We have this at home too, but Allie really enjoys it, and it was nice and cool inside with the air conditioning.


Plus we hadn't seen it with Sofia yet so it was a good opportunity.


Then we walked around the animation building and checked things out. One thing Allie loves to do is run around in circles, and Disney courtyards seem to be some of her favorite places for this, so we again took advantage of the one outside the animation building that she had visited last year.


We then went through the shop and looked at the pretty artwork. These were some of Melissa's favorites.



Allie also enjoyed watching the artist work for a little bit:


we tried to get her to see some of the characters while we were there but she wasn't into it so we moved on to our lunch ressie at Hollywood and Vine.
When we initially made our ADRs for the trip we had booked Mama Melrose. We decided to switch to Hollywood and Vine about 2 weeks before we left for the characters and the food.


Allie was still in a cranky mood but we were just rolling with it.


It was funny making the relatively late ADR change after booking all of our ADRS at the first possible opportunity. We had been discussing our trip plans and both felt we would miss Hollywood and Vine more than we would enjoy Mama Melrose, and with Allie still being young enough to enjoy the characters we decided to take advantage of it. (Thanks, Wood Nymph!)


Once again I found the lunch buffet to be really good. I couldn't believe how much variety of good food choices they had. My favorite this year was an Asian Chicken salad, which I went back for more of.

Allie's favorite was the chocolate dipped marshmallows.


I really enjoyed the variety of salads and the BBQ Meat Balls. They also had a create your own pasta section that was new to us this year but neither of us did it. I think we were still recovering from pasta overload from the night before. The characters made their way around, Jake was the first to stop by and Allie agreed to have her picture taken with him as long as I held her.


Allie looked much happier with June, who she was particularly excited to see.


When it came to Manny though, she wouldn't get up for the picture so it was just Mommy in that shot.


Oso was our last character to visit, and we got a shot with him before heading out.


After heading out of Hollywood and Vine we meandered around and ended up at the hat. Allie of course had to try on a few hats and I checked out lanyards and ended up buying one for my keys.

Then we decided to explore some more of the backlot section of the park. We were in search of Writer's Stop so we could check another item off of Melissa's snack list. Not knowing exactly where it was at, we just kind of wondered around. Allie found the Sci Fi drive in cars, and just had to have a picture taken in them.


At this point we started feeling rain drops. Giant sized ones.


As the rain picked up we stumbled right upon Writers Stop.

We went inside and grabbed some snacks for later. We got a couple of cookies, but were tooo full to eat them then, so we saved them for later. We put on our rain ponchos and went out to get wet.

Our plan was to catch the afternoons Light's Motors Action Stunt show but it ended up being cancelled because of the rain.


We wandered the streets of America, which we pretty much had to ourselves because of the rain then hid out in the doorway of the mens bathroom with it started in really hard.


We formulated our plan for the rest of the day, where would we head next? Would we get washed down the storm drain? Stay tuned to see what happens next...

Continued in next update...

 

[Wood Nymph]

I'm glad that you had a good meal at Hollywood and Vine. I know who Manny and Jake are, but I don't think Allie cared for them too much. The picture with Sofia is just darling. Allie has the sweetest smile on her face.

I was really disappointed that Disney Jr was closed for refurbishment when we were with our grandchildren in Feb. I know they would have enjoyed that show.