WDW Last day

The week passed so quickly that we were quite sad to wake up Saturday morning and realize it was our last day at Disney World. As quick as we could, we packed the last of the bags and went down to catch a bus for Hollywood Studios. We started our trip there and decided we wanted to see the opening show and ride Buzz Lightyear one more time.

We got to the park about 8:30 a.m. and realized with a twist in the stomach that today was "Extra Magic Hours." Not only had we missed the opening show, but everyone else from all the Disney resorts were ahead of us in line. We raced over to Toy Story Midway Mania where the FastPasses were giving out 11:50 a.m. times already! (We had to check out of the hotel at 1 p.m.) After standing in line for the FP, we hopped in line for the Midway Mania ride.

The line was about 25 minutes and Disney really tries to entertain you while you wait, and time passes faster than you think. Brenna was disappointed that she had the lowest score, but I praised her for improving her score from our visit last Sunday.

Then we crossed the park to fulfill Brenna's request for another ride on Star Tours. I believe this and Toy Story were the only rides we rode three times while at Disney. Both girls just loved it. Once was definitely enough for Bryan, so he and I spent this ride watching the girls' faces. Brenna promised me she would keep her eyes open this time and she did. She sat full back in her seat, hands gripping the arm rests, with huge saucer eyes staring intently at the screen. On the other hand, Cameron leaned forward, as if she actually could be part of the action, with a huge grin on her face.

After Star Tours, we entered the The Writer's Stop on Commissary Lane for a coffee and muffin. The girls plopped down on the comfy couch to watch tv with another girl (Sarah) about Cameron's age. Cameron and Sarah really hit it off and were chatting. I think I forgot to mention that while at Magic Kingdom on Thursday, Cameron found a pin on the ground. Pin trading is a really big deal at Disney, but we had decided we weren't going to get involved. Cameron stuck the pin on her name badge holder, but while at Epcot she talked Bryan into getting her a "pin lanyard" and another pin. Of course Brenna had to have one also.

So Sarah and Cameron were talking about their pins. Sarah clearly had some experience in this area, and before we left she had given Cameron three small "starter pins." She didn't want to take Cameron's big pin as a trade and claimed she had lots of these little pins and didn't mind sharing with Cameron. She said she was from Nashville, and I think her mom is involved in some way with the new American Idol show at the park.

We wandered over to Lombard Street, which leads to the Hollywood Hotel of Tower and Rock'n'Roller Coaster. Since we don't care for the rides, we hadn't been in this part of the park on our last visit. We caught a street show while walking by...

The movie producer used an "extra" from the audience, and then the "cop" participated while the "Diva" hammed it up good. We used our snack credits to pick up some more ice cream while on Lombard street and then meandered back across the park in search of a few more characters.

We watched the MuppetVision 3D show again, this time in the front row, and then headed up Streets of America to see the Monsters, Inc. characters. We caught a break and there wasn't any line.

Unfortunately, Mike Wazowski was the only character. (I wanted to see Sully.) We wandered behind the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" set and saw the fountain Daryl Hannah (Madison) gives Tom Hanks in the movie "Splash."

Pixar Place being packed with people, we didn't stand in line to meet Woody & Buzz, but stood for about ten minutes waiting for the Incredibles to come out at 11:35 a.m. They were... well... INCREDIBLE.

Mr. Incredible can't sign autograph books, but he carries an ink stamp. We zipped across to Midway Mania and used our FP to ride it one last time, before we almost ran out of the pack to catch our bus back to the Lodge to check out by 1 p.m. I should mention that the other two times we rode Midway Mania, Bryan or I always rode with the girls and Bryan had the highest score of the family. But this last ride, he and I let the girls ride together so we could ride together, and I finally beat his high score!

Back at the hotel we called a bellhop to get our luggage and hold it for our 3:30 p.m. Disney Magic Express pick up. We ate lunch in the Roaring Forks and went into the Arcade to use our "30 minutes unlimited play" card that came with check-in.

Brenna tended to choose the motorcycle rides that moved back and forth. Bryan played the basketball toss, while Cameron chose boxing.

We were alone in the Arcade, but must have looked funny. You swipe the card to start the game and it tells you how much time is left on the card, counting down from 30 minutes with the first swipe. So one person runs around swiping games for the other three people to start, then swipes their own game and pockets the card. Before I finish my game, Bryan comes fishing my pocket for the card, swipes the girls to start again, then pockets the card. And so on until we ran out of time.

But we still had time before catching the shuttle, so we wandered outside along the nature trail between the Lodge, the Villas, and Fort Wilderness.

We arrived back with plenty of time to catch our bus that took us back to the airport. Our non-stop flight left at 6:30 p.m., so we grabbed dinner in the airport after checking our bags.

All we have left now of Disney World is our memories. Perhaps one day we'll go back again.

WDW Day 2 Hollywood Studios

Sunday morning we woke up early because all of the guidebooks told us that to get the best bang for your time you simply must be at the park about 30 minutes before they open. Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios) opened at 9 a.m. We headed down to the bus stop about 8 a.m. Despite the cool weather, we didn't wear anything heavier than a fleece jacket because we knew it would warm up. We were really excited at the prospect of going to our first park. The hotel bus stop has 3 stations with buses arriving about every 10-20 minutes taking you around to the different areas of "the World". We arrived at Hollywood Studios about 8:30 a.m.

Your hotel room key card is a master card that manages all of your activities including charges back to your account, Dining Plan, and park admission. The entrance resembles (to me) boarding the Metro in DC because=, you slide your key into the slot and it pops out the back giving you a green light. Adults also have to put their index finger on the fingerprint reading pad.

When the park opens they have you assembled in the main street area and they put on a show to officially open the park. Even waiting at Disney World involved a pre-show production. We didn't realize what was going on, so didn't pay attention. When they finally opened, we headed straight for Star Tours and were on the first ride of the day. On our way we passed a few characters but didn't stop to meet them.

After the ride, we crossed over to Pixar Place to get a Fast Pass for Toy Story Midway Mania. On the way, the characters we passed coming into the park were being led back indoors. While we couldn't stop and talk to them or get autographs, Goofy gave us a big thumbs-up, making him officially our first character interaction.

Fast Pass is a wonderful Disney invention (patented). It allows you to go to a specific ride, insert your room key into the "Fast Pass" machine and you get a little slip of paper with an hour block of time allowing you to come back to the ride and go straight to the head of the line. So if a ride has a 2 hour stand-by wait and you have a FP, you only wait about 5-10 minutes, which is how long it takes to walk through the pre-show/queing area, get past a certain point, and queue for a seat.

After getting our FP for Midway Mania, which turned out to be my all-time favorite ride of WDW, we stopped in front of the Sorcerer's Hat and watched the High School Musical 3 song/dance act. Then we went up Streets of America and Brenna got the first two autographs in her book.

Oh yeah, it was the Power Rangers! First we had to meet Red.

Then Yellow. We could have met Pink and all the others, but their time was almost up and we didn't want to spend any more of ours just meeting Power Rangers. Character interactions are very well controlled. Each character has a "handler" who manages their situation, especially for non-face characters (like Power Rangers, Goofy, etc.) who don't talk. They have specific amounts of time to be available. The characters sign autographs, give lots of high-fives, and pose for photos. The park time schedule gives you the times and locations where you can meet characters. You could spend all day in a line to meet this character or that and still might not see all of them working the park that day.

We headed back down Streets of America to the Muppet Vision 3D show, which everyone enjoyed. Looking at the time schedule, we wanted to go to the 11:30 showing of Indiana Jones Stunt Show, but we were also getting pretty hungry. I scoped out the Indiana location and learned we could bring food in, so we decided to try and get pizza from Toy Story's Pizza Planet and bring it to our seats and eat while waiting on the show. Unfortunately, the timing was completely off. Pizza Planet, which was supposed to open at 11 a.m., had computer issues and opened about 10 minutes late. By the time we got our food and rushed over to the Indiana show, the stadium was full and we couldn't get in. So we settled down on a park bench by the water and enjoyed some really delicious hot and fresh pizza.

Disney Dining plan allows each person one snack (ice cream, a drink, rice krispie treat, bag of chips, etc.), one quick-service meal (entree, dessert, drink), and one table-service meal (sit down, entree, dessert, non-alcoholic drink) per night. We loved using it and figure it saved us money in the end. However, we did end up walking around with desserts in our backpack and stashed in our room, because we didn't always eat all of the desserts though it came with the meal. (At this moment, I still have 1 rice krispie treat and 2 brownies in the kitchen.)

After lunch we went to see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show. Both girls loved the show, but I rate it pretty boring. However, after the show let out, we were able to go back to Pixar Place and use our Fast Pass to ride Midway Mania, which is a new fairly simple ride with awesome interaction/graphics in 3-D. You use the toy cannon (with a string, like Woody) to shoot as you would at a Midway carnival. Rings, darts, etc. There are fabulous effects when you hit something. It was much better than a similar ride in Magic Kingdom.

When we came out of there, wishing we could ride it again, we walked into Journey into Narnia, which was another complete miss for me. It simply told the story of the Prince Caspian movie with some effects. Then we walked through the tribute to Walt called One Many's Dream. This museum of sorts included a look at Disney's life, career, and vision for his parks.

After One Man's Dream we picked up some ice cream and went over to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show, allowing ourselves a good 25 minutes before the start time to guarantee we'd find a seat. The show recreates most of the exciting Jones stunts, then shows how they were set up. The girls loved it!

We headed back across the park to Animation studio, which involved a short show, but exited to a character meeting area where the characters of Bolt, Incredibles, and Mickey Mouse were available for autographs. The Incredibles had left for the afternoon, Bolt had a long line, but we were happy to wait for Sorcerer Mickey.

We left the character greeting with just enough time to see the Lights, Camera, Action show way at the back of the park. This was another big hit with our family, involving awesome precision driving, car stunts, and then they showed how it was done, how the cars were modified.

After the show we had dinner reservations at the Sci-Fi Dine in Theater. What a cool place!! Disney really knows how to do themes and create magic. The whole eating area looks like a drive in at dusk. You eat in cars with a dashboard light and the "show" is a 45 min loop of campy sci-fi flick trailers, space cartoons, futuristic shorts, etc.

Unfortunately, this restaurant doesn't have very good food, with the exception of the dessert.

After dinner it was getting dark and we only had time for 1 or 2 more rides. We hopped on one of the last Great Movie Ride turns, then decided to end our day as we had started - with the last ride on Star Tours. (Again, no line.) Bryan didn't want to ride the simulator again since it gave him a headache in the morning, so he hung out in Tatooine Traders gift shop.

After the park closed, we took the bus back to our resort and the girls spent about an hour choreographing a "stunt" routine with their light sabers. Eventually we got them into bed because we had a really big day planned for Monday.