Day 5 – Bonus Day

We were supposed to leave Florida on Monday and take 2 days to drive home.  We were having so much fun that we decided to stay an extra day.  Monday we headed to Hollywood Studios.

We decided to take this day a bit easier than we had the 3 previous days.  Instead of waking up early and getting to the park when it opened, we packed up the condo, said goodbye to the Burbs (my brother and his family) and got to the park a little after 10.

We had heard a lot about Hollywood Studios and fluctuated back and forth between going there, or visiting Epcot.  I’m so glad we decided to visit Hollywood Studios.  I was under the assumption that it was mainly for older kids and adults, but that was not the case at all.  Yes, there were bigger rides, but they had plenty for kids too.

First we hit up the Beauty and the Beast stage show.  We sat in the second row right in the center, so Ella had perfect viewing.  She was mesmerized by the whole thing.  Of course this is the whole show condensed into 30 minutes, so she also kept telling us what they left out.

Next we headed to the backstage tour.  This was really cool.  We got to see all sorts of things from movies past.  Here are a couple of highlights.

 Apparently this house was in the Hannah Montana movie.  I never saw it so I'll just take their word for it.

 Frozen Mr. Tumnus (right) from Chronicles of Narnia

 Herbie the Lovebug!

 20 points to whoever can tell me what movie this is from.  (Wendy, you can't play since you already won on facebook :))

 10 points to whoever can tell me what movie this is from.  Why only 10?  Because this one is a lot easier than the above picture.

We walked around the park for a long time just checking out all the movie things they had on display.  It was really cool to see them up close and now I’ll be checking every movie I watch to see if they’ve done any of their tricks.

Next came the Indiana Jones stunt show.  Joe has decided that this was his favorite thing of the whole trip.  It was really cool to see all the stunts and have them explained to us.

It wouldn’t be a trip to a Disney theme park without a parade.  This parade was different than the others in that it focused a lot more on the Pixar side of things.

Last but not least, we went on the Toy Story ride.  This was basically set up like a carnival game with 3D glasses.  You ride around in this little car and come to various screens.  With your gun you shoot at the screens to collect points.  This is the point in the post where I definitely will NOT tell you that yours truly (Katie, in case you’re not sure) had a grand total of 96,000 points.  I will also definitely NOT tell you that my wonderful, antelope shooting husband had a mere 73,000 points.  Granted, he had 54% accuracy in his shots and I only had 37% accuracy, but I had a faster trigger finger and that’s what mattered in this game.  To Joe’s credit, he has shot 1 deer and 2 antelope.  I, on the other hand, have never shot a big game animal (I’ve actually never tried).

 

We had a great time at Hollywood Studios and want to spend more time there the next time we head to Orlando…and yes, there will be a next time.

Tuesday morning we headed out bright and early.  We had intended to stop along the way and get a hotel for the night, but once we got driving we just decided to push through.  Ella was so exhausted after the whole vacation that she fell asleep at 9:30 am and slept until 1:30 in the afternoon.  We finally arrived home around midnight.  It felt good to sleep in our own beds, but we sure missed the fun we had in Disney.

Ella still talks about our trip every day.  Just last night she was staring longingly at the picture of her with Cinderella and she said, “I wish we could come back.”  Me too Ella…me too.