Orlando day 9

Day 28 - Thursday 8/7/10 - Epcot and Disney's Hollywood Studios

It was our last day at Walt Disney World :(. The plan for the day was to return to Epcot and do some more Kim Possible missions as well as go back to Hollywood Studios to eat at Pizza Planet. We ate breakfast in our room, finished packing and then checked out, leaving our luggage with the bell hops.We walked down to the International Gateway and registered for Kim Possible at the first Recruitment Center and then walked over to Future World. First stop was The Land Pavillion where we lined up for Soarin'. We then headed over to Future World East where we picked up Test Track fastpasses and then rode Ellen's Energy Adventure. When we finished with that it was time to use our Test Track fastpasses

and then rode Mission:SPACE (Green Team) a couple of times as there wasn't any queue. We spent a little time in the interactive play area and then headed over to World Showcase to start our missions. Sam didn't want to do Kim Possible so he and I wandered around and checked out the different countries and shops while the others did the missions. It was a really hot day and quiet miserable in World Showcase so they didn't get through all of them as planned. We had to call it quits after about an hour. They started in Japan

and then Sam and I checked out The American Adventure while they were still going.

We took a break when we spotted some characters

Pearla

and Rafiki

We moved on to Italy

and France

but by that stage we'd all had enough as it was too hot to keep wandering around World Showcase. We took a few last photos

then hopped on a boat to Hollywood Studios via the Epcot Resorts

We arrived at the Studios around lunchtime

 and walked towards Streets of America.

Pizza Planet was busy but we managed to get a table

and then after lunch we wandered around and did a little souvenir shopping.

I wanted to catch either the Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast shows but nobody else was keen. We walked up to Pixar Place but the Toy Story fastpasses were all gone and the line was at 170 minutes, so we skipped that. We saw Buzz and Woody signing autographs but to my surprise the kids did not want to line up to meet them. It was so hot that everyone was just over it. So we made our way to the exit and caught a boat back to The Dolphin where we collected our luggage and said a sad farewell to DisneyWorld.

We got a taxi to take us to the Loews' Royal Pacific at Universal. They boys loved it as there was a tv playing Tom & Jerry cartoons in the cab! Our room was ready so we checked in and headed down to the pool for a swim. Then we walked down to Universal Citywalk. First stop was the AMC Cineplex where we bought tickets to the next showing of Toy Story 3 (for the boys) and Eclipse (for the girls). Then we walked around to the Nascar Sports Grille for dinner.

After dinner we went back to the cinema to watch our movies. I was so tired that I really don't remember much of the film at all! We met up after both movies had finished and walked back to the hotel to get a good sleep before hitting Hogwarts the next morning!

Orlando day 8

Day 27 - Wednesday 7/7/10 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

We started out early as we had an 8.20am breakfast reservation at Hollywood & Vine at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We decided to walk as we had discovered a few days earlier that the boats didn't start that early. We walked past Epcot and knew we were going in the right direction when we spotted the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

We lined up at the gates where the Hollywood & Vine cast members were taking names for breakfast and then we were the first people to enter a near empty park

The Playhouse Disney breakfast at Hollywood & Vine was so much fun!

Sam is a big Playhouse Disney fan so this was one character experience that we were really looking forward too. The characters were great fun and the food was good too.

We met June and Leo from Little Einsteins

Jo-Jo from Jo-Jo's Circus

but everyone's favourite was Handy Manny

       

We left the restaurant just before 9am and joined the crowds waiting for rope drop. We were in an awkward position as we were at the front of the crowd who were going to run up Hollywood Blvd to Toy Story Mania, but we wanted to go down Sunset Blvd. So at rope drop we had to push our way across the mad Toy Story crowd and join the smaller crowd going towards Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.

We got Tower of Terror fastpasses and then joined the line for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster

It was a fairly short wait and we all loved it!

We then walked back up Sunset Blvd towards Pixar Place .

The line for Toy Story was already ridiculously long and it wasn't time to get another fastpass yet, so we decided to do the Studio Backlot Tour.

A highlight was seeing the hen house from the Hannah Montana movie on the walk to the tram

The studio tour wasn't nearly as good as the one at Universal Studios in Hollywood, but we all enjoyed it just the same.

another highlight was seeing Herbie, even though there was only half of him!

Darth Vader's costume

White Witch from Narnia

Enchanted costumes

After the tour we walked back over to Toy Story and picked up fastpasses, then checked out the shops along Sunset Blvd on our way to use our Tower of Terror fastpasses. Sammy did not want to ride once again so we used the child swap which thrilled Emily and Harry as it meant they got to ride it twice, once with me and then again with their dad. Once was enough for me!

From there we headed towards the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular as the next show was about to begin. When we got there they said it was standing room only, but we asked some people to squish up and let us in to their row which was great as it was way too hot to stand. The show was corny but fun.

After the show we went back over to Mickey Ave and lined up to meet Lotso

and Mr and Mrs Incredible

Sorcerer Mickey was there too but everyone had had enough of lining up so we skipped him and headed over to watch the Lights, Motor, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. We grabbed lunch at the Studio Catering Co on the way and took it with us to the show. I'm glad we made the effort because we all really enjoyed this show.

The kids had spotted the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground when we were getting lunch and were desperate to have a play there, so that was our next stop

and then we went back to Pixar Place and used our Toy Story fastpasses.

From there we walked through Walt Disney: One Man's Dream.

     Sammy loved it so much that he wanted to go through again, so we went back to the beginning and walked through a second time!

We were just about ready to take our afternoon break but the wait for The Great Movie Ride didn't look very long so we got in the line. It was deceptive though as there was a much longer line once you got inside. The Block Party Bash was on when we came out of The Great Movie Ride, but unfortunately we couldn't stay and enjoy it as we had to be back at the hotel in 20 minutes as I had to sort out some dancing stuff. Luckily a boat arrived just as we got to the wharf and we made it back in time. 

Alex took the kids for a swim while I finalised everything that I needed to do and then we hopped on a Friendship Launch back to Hollywood Studios. First up we grabbed Rock 'n' Roller Coaster fastpasses and then we walked over to The American Idol Experience. I was really keen to see a performance and we had decided to go to the finale rather then one of the audition shows which was a good choice as the finale was very entertaining. I was worried that the others would be bored but it was a lot of fun and we all really enjoyed it.

We had promised the boys that we would have dinner at Pizza Planet but were very disappointed to find it closed when we arrived. We got counter service at the ABC Commissary instead and then used our R&R Coaster fastpasses. Unfortunately Fantasia was not showing that evening so we called it a night and caught a boat back to our hotel.