Destination Disney: Hollywood Studios

This week has been all about Disney! (Are you totally exhausted yet, too?) I'm wrapping it up today, but in case you missed the first parts of the trip you can read about them here...

Disney Arrival | Animal Kingdom | Epcot | Magic Kingdom

Our last day had arrived and we were going to make the most of it! We knew we were headed to Hollywood Studios and after a late night and having learned from our past mistakes we took it easy straight out of the gate from the moment we woke up. The Cutes briefly mentioned the pool again, but then they decided they wanted to head towards the Cars section of our hotel to play for a bit. 

The love seeing the characters from one of their favorite movies in real life. 

We played in this area for about an hour and then we headed towards our destination for the day. The kids had never been to Hollywood Studios before, but from the moment we entered they were already  huge fans!

Their favorite Disney Channel characters and Star Wars...what's not to love? 

First up, we headed to the Frozen sing a long show. It was cute and definitely a big sing a long. Cute informed us he could have skipped this one, but the girls were riveted. 

Everyone's favorite part was when the "snow" started falling from the sky. #letitfoam

Next up we caught the Star Wars show. Cute was beyond excited! He was riveted the whole time and wanted to watch it again (it plays several times a day). 

We made our way after this to sign him up for the Jedi training. This is the only time we hit a parent fail the entire day. We should have signed him up right when we entered the park. We were placed on an alternative list because all the time slots for the day were filled. We checked in a couple of times to see if he ended up making it but after a few hours we gave up. I'm sure as the day goes on we would have finally gotten cleared, but it wasn't worth it for us (and for him) to keep waiting around. 

But we settled his disappointment with the Star Wars ride and the Indiana Jones show. Because nothing makes your mood go from bad to good quicker than seeing something blown up in real life. At least in the mind of a seven year old. He loved the Indiana Jones show. He kept asking if it was really a real fire. I should be nervous. 

It was super hot so I went to grab us some waters and came back with a Dreamsicle for myself. It might have been before 5 o'clock, but I couldn't pass up the Magnolia Mamas signature drink! 

After we were all refreshed we made our way to check out Olaf. Mommy was super excited Olaf had to stay inside in the air conditioning because of melting potential. That pool was sounding kind of nice at this point. 

We grabbed a quick bite of pizza and then we were off on a little Disney and Star Wars character tour. 

The kids wanted to see Chewbacca and by this time Baby Cute had fallen asleep in a post pizza haze so Mr. Cute took them in. The kids had a blast and Chewbacca would apparently only take a picture with Cute if he covered up his shirt. Chewy doesn't support the Dark Side. The kids thought this was hilarious. 

Next up we saw Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, and then Doc McStuffins. 

And then L.C. was so excited because Princess Sophia was walking right by her and gave her a huge high five and hug! One fun thing about Hollywood Studios is the potential for the characters to be walking around. We noticed lots of the characters all over this part of the park. I loved that! I remember the excitement of being surprised by them as a child and wish that still happened at Disney as much as it used to. 

B.C. woke up and we let the kids each pick out a little souvenir. The girls went straight for the costumes. To this day B.C. still hasn't taken off the Princess Ariel costume. Unless it's to change into her Anna costume. The batgirl costume from Halloween might have officially been retired. 

At this point we realized we were "in it to win it" for our last day, and buckled down to stay the rest of the night. When dusk came we made our way to the Fantasmic show.

It was so good! I was so impressed with what they could do with the water! 

The kids loved the show and next to the Happily Ever After show it might have been the best we had seen all weekend. 

Once Fantasmic wrapped up we headed back to the main area to see the Star Wars show.

Now I have no clue about anything Star Wars related. Cute only knows what he has read some books, and none of us have seen any of the movies. With that being said it was a really good show! 

Parts of the movies were projected onto the buildings and then music and fireworks occurred all around. Everywhere you turned was a new scene.

It was definitely cool to see. And a great way to end the night! 

And that wrapped up our trip! We went back to hotel after the late night, passed right out, and then woke up the next morning and headed back to Atlanta. It was a whirlwind of a week, and I came home feeling like I needed a vacation after my vacation, but seeing the excitement from the kids and the memories we made with them made it worth it! 

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Destination Disney: Magic Kingdom

Chatting all things Disney this week! In case you've missed it, here are the first few days:

Disney

Animal Kingdom

Epcot 

On our fourth day immersed in the magical world of all things Disney, we slept in (as late as you can sleep in with three young children), ate a leisurely breakfast, and made our way to the Little Mermaid Pool.

We arrived early enough that we had the whole pool to ourselves! The kids were so excited!

It was just what we needed to recoup a little bit from the previous few days.

The water in the pool was heated, but I think it was warm enough outside regardless to swim at any time. Gotta love that amazing Florida weather.

The heat ramped up by mid-morning and I was glad that I thought to bring along a little frozen treat with us. My kids love when I freeze these Slammer's pouches during the summer to bring to the pool. I threw some in our snack bags last minute and I am so glad. It was an easy treat to hold them over until lunch time.

Between the heat of the day and the fun in the pool, we almost abandoned all plans and made the decision to stay poolside. But around lunchtime the kids decided that the Magic Kingdom beat the pool.

We arrived at the park by 1:30p.m. and it was just as crowded as we expected it to be. The Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend was well underway as well as Disney Social Media Moms, and a few other conferences we learned, so the park was full.

It didn't affect us though. We realized part of why we like the afternoon at the Magic Kingdom more than getting there first thing in the morning is that there are so many things to do aside from the rides as well. Between our few fast passes, and the shows, we are busy straight until the night time fireworks.

First up we continued L.C.'s week of touring princesses. The boys headed off to the Haunted Mansion, and the girls made our way to Princess Ariel.

Once we got our fill of the mermaid life we headed back towards the boys. We were shocked they still hadn't finished their ride. Apparently several of the more popular rides in the park were down, and causing super long lines. One of the advantages of having small children and being at the park in the afternoon is that a large majority of parents and kids have gone back to their accommodations for a break. So typically the tamer rides are wide open. Even with the park being down, it didn't seem to affect us any. We hit up a few of the kids favorites that we didn't ride on Monday's visit, and then we settled in for the parade. My kids love the parade.

We were able to manage a front row seat with our friends and the kids had so much fun!

They loved that the characters came right up to them. They cheered as loud as the could and when one would come over to give high fives or hugs they would scream in delight. 

After the parade ended the boys headed off to race cars and the girls cheered them on.

Mr. Cute was still riding high on that Disney life.

And B.C. was still riding high on that Frozen life.

It was well above 90 degrees out, but she rocked that velvet and polyester costume like she was Princess Anna herself.

The teacup line was non-existant so we made our way over to spin up that Mickey pretzel I just downed.

I was so excited when we got off the ride, but not because the world finally stopped spinning, but because I ran into this lovely lady...

Jenna from Savvy Sassy Moms! We've worked together for a few years now and have never met in person. She and her sweet family were down for the Disney Social Media Moms Conference and we just happened to be on the same ride at the same time. We spent about an hour chatting while our families played together. It was so nice to meet and catch up! 

After all the swimming, rides, and princess-ing, B.C. tapped out. We let her sleep for 30 minutes and I took L.C. over for her next leg of the princess tour. 

She loves Elena of Avalor on the Disney Channel and was so excited to meet princess Elena in person!

Then she majorly fan-girled again when she met Cinderella. Poor Cinderella couldn't get a word out of her. And the Disney photographer got about a million photos just like this one.

Once we wrapped up the princesses, we found Mr. Cute and Cute having a little fun of their own. Cute asked me about the Sword in the Stone and I can't believe I haven't shown him this movie yet!

The boys had never ridden It's A Small World before and were curious. We woke Baby Cute and stood in line. People were getting ready for the Happily Ever After fireworks show so things were clearing out. It only took about 10 minutes to wait. 

I'm not sure it lived up to their hype, but Baby Cute was riveted. I think if we hadn't wanted to see the fireworks ourselves this night she would have ridden a second time happily.

We tried to meet up with our friends for the show, but it was so crowded we didn't make it beyond the Tomorrowland bridge. Which in the end gave us a really great view, and we were less crowded. 

Every one of us loved the show! I love the changes from the old show and the little surprise at the end with Tinkerbell was a huge hit! Definitely not a show to miss if you are at the park this late.

The minute the show ended and L.C. belted out the last line of music we looked down and saw her passed out in the stroller. Girl was Disney d.o.n.e.

Everyone else in our ten person crew was still going strong so we decided to take advantage of the low lines and did a few more rides. The kids had so much fun, and loved getting to ride everything when it was lit up. I am so glad we decided to plan our day this way!

It was a late night for sure, but everyone had a blast and was still in good spirits, and that's what mattered most. We got back to the hotel late, and still had one more park day planned, but we knew from here on out it was a much tamer trip.

Last day recap tomorrow! Stay tuned!

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