Day 5! Day 5, Day 5, Day 5!

Day 5 started out much the same as every other. After completing our NMR and grabbing a quick bite to eat {I’m pretty sure I had another cream cheese danish}, we headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios!

Personally, I love DHS. The performer in me loves seeing all of the shows, with a Disneyfied snack in hand; all of them are great in their own way. I also love the rides that DHS has to offer. If Tim and I were still a kidless couple, I could probably spend a whole day there, taking a good hour somewhere in the middle to sit back and relax in the Writers Shop over a cup of coffee and oversized muffin. However, with two kids two and under, sitting and watching show after show is not necessarily a personal interest of theirs. Although the Animation Courtyard {the area where the Disney Jr. show is} is a big hit, it can be done very quickly, leaving only the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, Muppet Vision 3D show, and Toy Story Mania to peak their interest. Until the kids get a little older, Tim and I have decided to keep DHS a half-day park for us.

We beat down the gate of DHS at 9:00am, and ran straight back with everyone else to Toy Story Mania. Man this ride is popular! I got the whole family FASTPASSES, while a cast member standing in the distribution center yelled out over the crowd like it was the end of the world. “Be sure to LOOK at the time on your FASTPASS! You will NOT be permitted to ride Toy Story Mania outside of that time window! Not one minute before, not one minute after. Think ahead to any meal reservations you may have. I repeat! You will not be able to ride the ride outside of the time printed on your FASTPASS!…”

Geez louise.

We snagged our FASTPASSES and then hopped in line since the wait had only gotten up to twenty minutes in the five minutes the park had been opened. {Did I mention that people were running frantically like it was the end times and Toy Story Mania was the only safe haven?}

The twenty minute wait went by very quickly. It honestly wasn’t that long. I love how Disney does that. Over guesstimate. Under promise, over deliver. This is a motto other {ahem! Universal! What?} theme parks could benefit from following. Under promise. Over deliver. Not visa versa.

Tim rode with Cole, I rode with Jack. Jack enjoyed it mildly. I think it was a little too jerky for him, and since he is at an age where he doesn’t dig wearing 3D glasses, the screens just looked blurry to him and shooting the targets wasn’t as cool. Tim said Cole cried off and on. Our little scaredy cat, Cole.

After comparing scores, and Tim justifying that I only beat him because he had Cole in his lap {which, let’s face it, is probably true}, we headed over to Animation Courtyard to catch the Disney Jr. show. Jack, of course, loved it. Cole liked it too!

So…incase you hadn’t caught it yet, my kids are eighteen months apart. That means that over a twenty seven month period, I was pregnant eighteen of them! That being said, our past few Disney trips I have been pregnant, or in the case of right after Jack was born, I was healing from a broken tailbone. Eck! Thus, I was unable to partake in a few rides; one of those being Star Tours, which I happen to love. Even worse! I was pregnant during the time that they made all of the updates {it’s now 3D and has a variety of scenarios so that you can ride it several times and it never be the same}!

I know. So sad. But this year I was not pregnant, so I was set on getting my Star Tours fix! {Fun Fact: I went through a Star Wars addiction somewhere during my middle school years. I read through books 7, 8, and 9, could identify droids, and knew every word to Weird Al’s “The Saga Begins”.} After the Disney Jr. show, my dad and I decided that we would run over to Star Tours while my mom and sis did the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show, and while Tim and Jack met Jake and Handy Manny. Tim and my mom get motion sickness really easily, so they weren’t interested, and Hannah…well, we already covered her distaste for thrill rides.

{Another kid wearing the same pre-bought Target Disney shirt! They must have read our Buy Now, Save Later post! Heh. Right!}

Star Tours was awesome. The wait was a whopping zero minutes {I guess the world was still ending over in Pixar Place}, so we actually got to ride it twice! The first time I was pegged as the “spy onboard” {they take a picture of a random rider and it pops up on the screen!} and we flew through a pod race on Tatooine in a malfunctioning ship. The second time around, Darth Vader tried to stop our ship before take off, ordering us to release the “spy” to him. We escaped, but that just spurred on a lightspeed chase through space, ending in a rocky landing and run-in with another aircraft.

I would have totally ridden it a third time, but we were getting calls by then from the rest of the fam wondering what was next. We met them back in the Animation Courtyard at The Magic of Disney Animation. Tim and Jack were just about to the front of the line at a Winnie the Pooh meet ‘n greet, so I joined in the fun. {Sidenote on the cowboy boots: I, in true girly-girl fashion, packed a few pairs of shoes, including my “walking” shoes. However, my trusty cowboy boots turned out to be more comfortable than my made-for-walkin’ “walking” shoes! I guess the cowboys that wear them all day working in the fields wear them for a reason, eh? Go figure.}

After snuggling that silly ol’ bear, we doodled around on an animation computer while my sister finished up a drawing class. She drew Stitch and did a really great job! She really enjoyed the class and said the teacher was actually the original creator of the Stitch character. Cool, huh?

At this point, the boys in our party were getting hungry. On our way to get food we looked down at our Toy Story Mania FASTPASSES and realized that we had approximately two minutes to get to that line! A familiar screaming voice filled my mind, “I repeat! You will not be able to ride the ride outside of the time printed on your FASTPASS!…” 

My sister and I looked at each other, grabbed up two FASTPASSES and took off in a sprint toward Pixar Place. “Waaaaaaait!!” yelled Tim, “You don’t have your phone!”

Ugh! Story of my life. I hate that thing.

A hand-off worthy of an Olympic relay race took place, and Hannah and I continued to book it. She said I sounded like a horse running in my cowboy boots, and she was right. People were staring. BUT DIDN’T THEY KNOW!?! ONE MINUTE LATE AND THE WORLD WOULD END!! TOY STORY MANIA IS THE ONLY SAFE PLACE!!!

Whew. We made it. And Hannah still had her shorts on. She’s always pulling on those things. Somebody get that girl a belt! And somebody get this girl a trophy! I beat her hiney by a few thousand points. [Dusts off shoulder] I’m still getting muscle cramps in my right forearm from the epicness that ensued.

Once we were done gaming it up, we called the rest of the party to see where they decided to eat lunch. I guess the phone did come in handy. They had decided on the ABC Commissary. We had hamburgers and chicken fingers and all things American.

Yawn. Stretch. Pitch a fit. Take your pick. It was time for a nap. The Elrods loaded up and headed out while the Burketts stayed behind. The boys slept, we rested. It was nice. Afterward, the boys and I headed to Downtown Disney to waste a little time before our dinner reservations at Olivia’s. This actually ended up being a life saver because due to the crowds in Pixar Place at DHS, we were unable to meet ‘n greet Buzz and Woody. The line to just get a quick hug and a picture was forty minutes, for crying out loud! BUT! Downtown Disney just happens to have a life-sized Buzz statue right outside of the toy store.

Sneaky, sneaky! Two-year-olds don’t know the difference! Even better, there was a family taking their picture with him in front of us, so we even had to “wait in line” to meet him. I know it wasn’t the same, but honestly, I don’t think he really noticed the difference. Well, we browsed Once Upon a Toy {Jack ended up entertaining a cast member that was demonstrating a remote-controlled car by chasing it around the store as she drove it}, smelled lots of soaps in Basin, got spit on by Stitch outside of World of Disney, and rode the train by Disney Pin Traders. Yes, we squeezed in tons of fun before heading over to Old Key West for dinner.

We met my parents and sister at the resort. We still had some time to kill before dinner, so we went into one of their activity centers and talked to the cast members about why they love DVC while Hannah colored and Jack played. They were super nice and had been DVC members, as well as cast members, for twenty years. Pretty much since inception. So cool. I’m sure they’ve definitely gotten their money’s worth. Ha!

Finally it was time for dinner. YUM! We had a fantastic waitress, who was honest with us in her opinions about the food {we always appreciate that; Tim likes to ask waiters for suggestions}, and the food lived up to our expectations. Even though appetizers were not included in the free meal plan we were on, Tim had read that the onion ring appetizer was great, so we splurged and got them. They were quite yummy! The kicker was really the dipping sauces. The rings were served with a mango ketchup and a key lime mustard. I liked them both, but the key lime mustard was the unanimous favorite of the table.

While waiting for our entrées, Tim decided to entertain himself by taking terrible pictures of us. Here are just a few.As far as food goes, he got the ribs while I got the pork chop.

Next was dessert!…everyone’s favorite part of a meal. I got the lemon pound cake and Tim reverted back to his childlike self and got vanilla ice cream again. Only this time, they did him up right! Sprinkles, chocolate sauce, and M&M’s!Although being at Old Key West didn’t make us want to necessarily buy in or stay there, it did give us a confirmation in our soul about our future as DVC members. How dramatic of a statement is that? Ha!

Look. We just love WDW. It’s a place where we can always count on having a great time while making the best memories with our family. Memories we will treasure for a lifetime. Memories that bring us closer as a family unit; and to us, that means so much. 

With love, Malorie