Will the time ever come that I've had "enough" Disney? I didn't think so! :)

[Paparazzimama]

After that last post, I shut down the computer, put my trip journal away and was getting ready for bed . . . but the more I thought about the next post, the more excited I got and I just couldn't stand it any more!!!! This day (and night) is the most fun to report about and I am very excited to tell you all about it!!!! Today was our Hollywood Studios (forever in my heart as MGM) day! We knew from everything here on the dis that we needed to head straight for Toy Story Midway Mania if we had any hopes of doing it twice in the first half of the day - so that's exactly what we did! We got to HS about 8:15 (morning EMH) and grabbed a set of FPs for the ride, then got in the standby line which was posted as a 30 minute wait. Those 30 minutes flew by because DH and I were so busy reminiscing about all of the "old school" games they had for decorations. Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Ants In the Pants, Lincoln Logs . . . those were the good ole' days weren't they? No one was worried about small parts or toys coated in lead paint! There were just toys - FUN TOYS that didn't cost a fortune! Anyhoo, even the line was lots of fun, and we weren't even on the ride yet. I got so caught up in looking at everything that I forgot to take pictures of it all. Here are the only "in line" pics I got:

This ride was so much fun!!!!! Bo rode with dad while Brooke rode with me and naturally Brandon beat all of us by a pretty hefty number! (We have to keep letting him win for his ego right?) After our ride, we were so glad that we had a set of fastpasses for later that morning! Our next stop of the day was Rock 'n Roller Coaster. If you read my PTR then you're aware that DS was having us measure him weekly to see if he would be able to ride. By the time we left, he was still lacking 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch, but we had a "plan". (You're scared aren't you?) We brought his heelies and stowed them away in DH's backpack and put them on him right before we tried to get in line for the ride. (Yes, I'm one of THOSE parents! LOL!) Well, as it turns out, the guys measuring take notice of the shoes and wouldn't let him ride anyway - DS was heartbroken!!! While I consoled him with ice cream, DH took Brooke to take her limo ride with Aerosmith:

My redneck ride photo:

Then Brooke and I took a ride together using the rider swap pass:

By the time these 2 rides were over, it was almost time to use our TSMM fastpasses. Since we knew what the ride was all about now, we agreed to let the kids ride together so they could play against each other. DH was glad to play beside me so I could see "how great" he was (or said he was anyway) at it! Here we are:

In case you haven't noticed, I'm the queen of the extended arm self-picture! LOL!!!!

By the time we were finished with our match, it was time to head to our lunch ADR at Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater! We were really looking forward to this! We checked in and in a matter of just a few minutes we were brought to our "car":

We all LOVED our lunch at Sci-Fi! I had the burger and DH had the ribs - we definitely were not disappointed! The kids gobbled up their's before we even snuck a bite - oh, and they now think that milkshakes should be allowed at every meal! We will definitely be back for lunch on our next trip!

Acting like they're driving the car:

You can tell from the pics that we had a blast!

Okay, so as badly as I want to finish this right now, I'm really signing off now till tomorrow. I know you're crushed, but it's totally silent in my house and I've already folded my last load of clothes for the night so it's too tempting not to crash at this point knowing that I can finish this tomorrow - I hope you'll forgive me. Stay tuned tomorrow to find out how this day got even better! Good night!

 

[mkluvsmickey]

Yay - Two new updates!

Love the picture of the kids waiting to get in to CRT - cute! They all look so nice.

Very sweet of your hubby to buy the necklace for you! It looks great with your outfit too.

DHS(MGM to me too) day sounds like it is off to a great start! I can't wait to try TSM! Too bad about the CM noticing your sons shoes - I guess there is always next time. At least your daughter got to ride twice!

We ate at Sci-Fi last year for the first time and it is now one of my favorites! You guys look like you are having a great time!

Did DBFF and her family join you at DHS this day?

 

[MegansMom]

Great updates!!! I can't WAIT to hear all about the rest of this day!!!

 

[mom2mek]

Two updates!

CRT sounds lovely - except for that "eye" cake! Ick. That's so sweet that your hubby got you that Tink necklace - how observant he is!

The kids look so cute at CRT and I am loving the lashes! Very cool!

Your studios day sounds like you were off to a great start! I can't wait to try out TSM - it looks like it could be addicting, though.

We love Sci-Fi! I don't know why it gets such a bad rap sometimes. It's just so Disney to me, you know?

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your day!

Sara

 

[Paparazzimama]

Yay - Two new updates!

Love the picture of the kids waiting to get in to CRT - cute! They all look so nice.

Very sweet of your hubby to buy the necklace for you! It looks great with your outfit too.

DHS(MGM to me too) day sounds like it is off to a great start! I can't wait to try TSM! Too bad about the CM noticing your sons shoes - I guess there is always next time. At least your daughter got to ride twice!

We ate at Sci-Fi last year for the first time and it is now one of my favorites! You guys look like you are having a great time!

Did DBFF and her family join you at DHS this day?

Thanks! Our DHS day was so much fun! We met up with DBFF and family after we all rode TSM and we all ate at Sci-Fi for lunch. We stayed together after that. I'm fixing to finish up this day in the next post so stay tuned!

Great updates!!! I can't WAIT to hear all about the rest of this day!!!

Coming up . . .

Two updates!

CRT sounds lovely - except for that "eye" cake! Ick. That's so sweet that your hubby got you that Tink necklace - how observant he is!

The kids look so cute at CRT and I am loving the lashes! Very cool!

Your studios day sounds like you were off to a great start! I can't wait to try out TSM - it looks like it could be addicting, though.

We love Sci-Fi! I don't know why it gets such a bad rap sometimes. It's just so Disney to me, you know?

Looking forward to hearing about the rest of your day!

Sara

Yeah, I definitely didn't see where Sci-Fi got all the bad reviews from! Of course, I think it's a lot different from lunch to dinner as far as expectations go. DBFF and her family had dinner there last year I think and they weren't impressed so maybe that's what it is - you just have to go for lunch!

 

[Paparazzimama]

After our lunch at Sci-Fi, we grabbed a set of fastpasses for Star Tours and headed off to catch the Indiana Jones Stunt Show - my family has never seen that one. It was very entertaining and we enjoyed it! After the show, we used our Star Tours fastpasses and let Bo do a little shopping at the gift shop. He got a shirt that says "Judge Me By My Size Do You?" on the front with a picture of Yoda on the back eating a Mickey Ice Cream and standing under a "you must be this tall to ride sign" and not measuring up. We thought it was only fitting considering the morning's events at Rock 'N Roller Coaster!

After our Star Wars purchases, we head to the area where RNR and TOT are, and the kids pose for these oh so hollywood pictures! LOL!

Okay, so now we come to the part of the trip that I was a little nervous about . . . I had been telling the kids that we were ALL riding Tower of Terror together this year so that we could have a ride picture with our whole group in it. (DBFF and her family too)

DD was okay with this as long as there was some sort of "compliance reward" at the end but DS was way more than apprehensive! Still, all 9 of us got in line and I spent the whole wait time trying to reassure DS that it was all going to be okay and the drop would be over before he knew it. (Now mind you that last year this was his FAVORITE ride!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) So, we get in our "elevator" and all buckled up and DS starts to cry. Not like sobbing in terror crying, just soft tears. I'm trying to comfort him the whole time (every time the elevator stops he thinks it's the drop part and freaks out) but he's still way wound up about it the whole time. Well, the time comes for our free fall and I am WAY RELIEVED to find that the computer gave us a very mild thrill. We had lots and lots of smaller drops but no like really drastic falls. So after it's all over with and the elevator moves into place to let us off, Bo looks at me and says "That wasn't so bad". After all of that crying it wasn't so bad!!!!! {sigh} Okay, so crisis avoided, we all head to see our ride picture that DBFF and I have been looking forward to . . . and . . . you can't see the kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of that and we can't even buy the picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Looking back those events were quite comical, but at the time it was very upsetting!

After our visit to the Twilight Zone, DH and I sit with our kiddos and DBFF's girls so that she and DH can ride Rock 'N Roller Coaster together (they offered to do the same for us, but I was wiped out and not up for another ride at this point - but was happy to do it for them!) While they were riding, I took this pick of our crew that wasn't big enough to ride this year (they really hammed it up for me!):

Is that not the cutest picture ever!

After DBFF's ride, she and I decided that we would take all the kids back to POR to get some rest and baths and let the DH's use up the RnR fastpasses by themselves. (Which they enjoyed very much and were very appreciative of - props to the selfless mommies, right?) So, we headed to the bus stop only to find that the line was crazy long, there was about 10 sq. ft. total of shaded standing area and it had already been 15 minutes since the last bus! So we waited . . . and waited . . . kids got really hot, tired and cranky . . . and we waited . . . 10 minutes passed . . . 15 minutes . . . 20 minutes . . . and finally a guy that was in line in front of us trying to make it to POR in time to catch the Magical Express walked over to the white transportation van and asked them when they were sending a POR bus (explaining his time crunch), and the guy says, oh, okay, well this can be your bus - and radios to a bus that we've been watching SITTING there the entire time we've been in line!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So, here's my quandry for the Disney Transportation system - if there are two buses parked and are steadily watching a line build to an insane level and seeing that no bus has come to that line in over 45 minutes, wouldn't they have the sense to radio in and report that?!?!?! Or even that dude in the van? They were all 3 LITERALLY sitting IN FRONT of the bus stop that we were waiting at!!!!! DH and I have decided that we will NEVER stay at POR again! We never saw any other resort stop have that problem during our entire trip, yet, had it happen to us at the POR stop ATLEAST 6 times during our trip!!!! {SIGH} Getting off of soap box now . . .

Okay, so we get back to POR and the mad frenzy starts - we're now more than 30 minutes behind schedule and we have a photopass family picture session at the poly that everyone needs to be "picture perfect" for at 7:00! The assembly line of baths and showers begins. Endless primping, blow drying, flat ironing, anti-frizzing and all that fun stuff takes every last second that we had to spare. Finally, 5:45 arrives and we are all looking sharp and ready to be paparazzi'd! We arrive at the Poly (took a bus to MK, then the monorail to the Poly) with about 10 minutes till our appointment time and check in at the photopass desk. We meet our photographer Gino and immediately click with him - so important when someone is photographing your family! We tell Gino that we have a 7:40 ADR at 'Ohana and he says that it won't be a problem and he wisks us off to a beautiful grassy hill along the water. While he is getting DBFF and her DH into position for their "love story" he called it I snapped this pic of Brooke:

I just love it! It's so hard to catch her with a natural smile at this age. Our photopass CD is coming in today so I will be back to post our family pics later tonight - but I can tell you that it was AWESOME!!!!! If you are ordering the CD I highly recommend you do the resort photo session! Priceless memories of your trip! In the end we ended up with 96 pictures from the session - and we had an assortment of scenery too. I can't wait to show you! Oh, and while we were on the beach I snapped this pic of DH:

Up next, our dinner at 'Ohana - OUR FAVORITE MEAL EVER!!!!!! AS IN OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Paparazzimama]

This is the post I have been looking forward to since we got home!!! Our dinner at 'Ohana! I must say that we were excited beforehand, but had no idea just how great it would be. (I'm going to type my thoughts, then post all the pictures) First off, I LOVE how they take you on a little "tour" of the restaurant on the way to your table and how they have you carry your own bread to your table. The kids loved seeing the fire pit where they cooked the meat and we were all ready to chow down at this point. (Oh, forgot to mention that we had to wait about 20 minutes for a table) We are seated at our table and everyone dives into the warm, yummy bread . . . then the salad . . . then the dumplings . . . and the sticky wings . . . and the food keeps coming . . . and we keep stuffing . . . and it was so DELICIOUS!!!! All during the meal the kids kept getting up to do whatever activity was going on - the singing, hula lesson, coconut races and the limbo. They loved it all! And the grown-ups were able to stay at the table and watch from there. You will see in the pictures that it was a blast for everybody!

DH after he had eaten too much!

After our fabulous dinner, we rolled ourselves out of the Poly somewhere around 10:00. We made it out onto the beach right after the fireworks started. Here are the kiddos enjoying it. (Sorry for the poor quality pics - again I wish I had brought my big camera)

The kids had a great time, but were WORE out by the time we headed back to POR:

We arrived back at our room somewhere around 11:00 and everyone fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillows! Up next - our Animal Kingdom day and DH's long-awaited "Flights of Wonder" show! Will it be all that he's built it up to be??????

 

[mkluvsmickey]

So many great pictures - I don't know where to begin! Love the Yoda shirt you picked out for your son - perfect!

Love the "Hollywood" pics of the kids and the "not big enough" pic is a riot! What great picture ideas!

Too bad your ToT picture didn't turn out - were the kids ducking down or just people in front of them?

Ohana looks great too - will have to try that sometime.

Love the picture of your kids watching the fireworks on the beach - very sweet!

Sounds like a fantastic day at WDW (excpet for the bus issue)!

 

[Paparazzimama]

So many great pictures - I don't know where to begin! Love the Yoda shirt you picked out for your son - perfect!

Love the "Hollywood" pics of the kids and the "not big enough" pic is a riot! What great picture ideas!

Too bad your ToT picture didn't turn out - were the kids ducking down or just people in front of them?

Ohana looks great too - will have to try that sometime.

Love the picture of your kids watching the fireworks on the beach - very sweet!

Sounds like a fantastic day at WDW (excpet for the bus issue)!

DS LOVES his Yoda shirt and puts it on as soon as it comes out of the dryer!

The people in front of us on ToT all had their hands raised so you couldn't see any of the kids. Next time (if we ever convince them to ride it again! LOL) we'll ask for the front rows!

You should definitely put 'Ohana on your list of things to try in the future - it's going to be a must for us every trip now!

 

[tmkinney]

Great updates!!!! I cannot wait to see the pics from the Poly! I loved everyone's outfits! We LOVED Ohana's too!!! So sweet of DH to buy you the Tink necklace! Sorry Bo couldn't ride RnRC! That's the way it is, they either don't check at all or pay too much attention and check out the shoes!

You couldn't see any of us (me, Dawn or Hunter) on our TOT ride either because we were on the back row and a guy in front of us had his hands up the whole ride!

 

[mom2mek]

Woo-hoo! Between you and Katie updating your trip reports, I'm getting a ton done at work today!

Really great pictures - I, too love the pouting kids in front of RNRC! WHat a hoot! The Hollywood ones are great too - might have a couple of future models there!

You have me so excited about eating at O'hana this trip! It's our last meal of the entire trip, and it looks like a blast!

The fireworks on the beach looks so nice - I might have to see where I can fit that in (our O'hana night is a party night, so fireworks aren't until 9:30 - I don't think we will still be there by then).

The photo session sounds like it went really well. Can't wait to see those pics. All of the kids (and the adults) look very nice in their coordinating outfits! A big pat on the back to the moms for that one! Ya'll did good!

I briefly considered doing the photoshoot again (did it over Thanksgiving) but decided against it. Good thing you got it when you did, because they just upped the price on it and now it doesn't seem as good a value to me.

Can't wait to hear more.

Sara

 

[MegansMom]

Ohana is always a must for us too---it is the one restaurant Tom insists upon!!! Sounds like the photos at the Poly were GREAT!!! Can't wait to see them! We are heading back next September---just decided last night---just the three of us--and I am definitely going to set up a photo session for us too!!! Can't wait for AK!!!!

 

[Paparazzimama]

Great updates!!!! I cannot wait to see the pics from the Poly! I loved everyone's outfits! We LOVED Ohana's too!!! So sweet of DH to buy you the Tink necklace! Sorry Bo couldn't ride RnRC! That's the way it is, they either don't check at all or pay too much attention and check out the shoes!

You couldn't see any of us (me, Dawn or Hunter) on our TOT ride either because we were on the back row and a guy in front of us had his hands up the whole ride!

That stinks about the ToT pics! It would have been so cute had we been able to see all of the kids' faces!

Woo-hoo! Between you and Katie updating your trip reports, I'm getting a ton done at work today!

Really great pictures - I, too love the pouting kids in front of RNRC! WHat a hoot! The Hollywood ones are great too - might have a couple of future models there!

You have me so excited about eating at O'hana this trip! It's our last meal of the entire trip, and it looks like a blast!

The fireworks on the beach looks so nice - I might have to see where I can fit that in (our O'hana night is a party night, so fireworks aren't until 9:30 - I don't think we will still be there by then).

The photo session sounds like it went really well. Can't wait to see those pics. All of the kids (and the adults) look very nice in their coordinating outfits! A big pat on the back to the moms for that one! Ya'll did good!

I briefly considered doing the photoshoot again (did it over Thanksgiving) but decided against it. Good thing you got it when you did, because they just upped the price on it and now it doesn't seem as good a value to me.

Can't wait to hear more.

Sara

Glad we got in on the photopass session before the price increase! I can't wait to show yall how they came out! And, yes, the outfit coordinating worked out good! Thanks for the props to the mommies!

 

[becky_AK]

I just came across your TR and LOVE it! Can't wait to hear more. Looks like you are had a great time!

We love Ohanas too. It is probably one of our favorite places to eat every trip.

 

[Paparazzimama]

I just came across your TR and LOVE it! Can't wait to hear more. Looks like you are had a great time!

We love Ohanas too. It is probably one of our favorite places to eat every trip.

Thanks for reading! 'Ohana is now definitely our favorite! And at just 1 TS credit, we will definitely be back next trip!

 

[Paparazzimama]

Ohana is always a must for us too---it is the one restaurant Tom insists upon!!! Sounds like the photos at the Poly were GREAT!!! Can't wait to see them! We are heading back next September---just decided last night---just the three of us--and I am definitely going to set up a photo session for us too!!! Can't wait for AK!!!!

OMG you have a new trip therefore a new ticker!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yay for Jen!!!!! (or should I say yay for Megan! LOL!) I'm so excited! When is the PTR starting?

 

[MossyCastle]

Ohana rules!!!! Second only to the BierGarten in Epcot.

How can you not like meat on a stick brought to your table. (AKA Brazilian BBQ)

 

[Paparazzimama]

Ohana rules!!!! Second only to the BierGarten in Epcot.

How can you not like meat on a stick brought to your table. (AKA Brazilian BBQ)

I so definitely agree! And DH does too!

 

[BurleyGirl]

My brother is a youth pastor at a small town in Texas, and so your family story is close to my heart (they even look a little alike!) Anyway, I'm enjoying reading about your trip, and looking forward to the rest of the story!

 

[Paparazzimama]

My brother is a youth pastor at a small town in Texas, and so your family story is close to my heart (they even look a little alike!) Anyway, I'm enjoying reading about your trip, and looking forward to the rest of the story!

So glad to have you!!!! I hope you enjoy the rest of the report - sadly, though, it's halfway over. Lots of good things still to come though!