Disney World 2013 - Day 2

We spent the second day at Hollywood Studios, even though it was really our first day in an actual park.  Oh, the girls were so excited.  Caroline for the chance to meet all of her favorite characters, Anna for the chance to ride in a bus.  Bless her heart, she will love more exciting things as she gets older.  

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel - I brought a ton of food and we only ate about 1/3 of it our entire trip.  But, my girls love snack-y foods and that's precisely what we ate this morning.  

Like I said earlier, I was so nervous about the weather forecast for that week.  Wally and I got some ponchos for us and Caroline before we left Myrtle Beach and we needed them this day.  It was drizzling hard enough that we needed some cover, but not hard enough that it was worth all the commotion.  It was HOT under those ponchos!  Ick!

Thankfully, it didn't rain for long or very hard, but we did have the ponchos to use as a cover when we parked the stroller.  Made it easy to identify our stroller in a sea of parked ones!

Of course, the first thing Anna did in this stroller was put that nasty strap in her mouth.

Also, how *awesome* are these strollers!  They were perfect!!! Definitely worth the rental price.

Caroline says "This hat goes all the way up to Jesus!"

A wise person told us (ahem, THANK YOU ASHLEY!) to go get our Fast Pass tickets for Toy Story Mania as soon as we got into the park.  We walked into the park at 10 am and went straight to the back to hold our spot for this ride.  Our allotted time was from 4:45-5:45 pm - which meant from the time the park opened until 10 am, they had handed out a DAYS worth of Fast Passes.  What in the world?  

Good thing we had the rest of the day to play around, though!  Our first stop was the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.  Caroline is all into Ariel these days and this show didn't disappoint.  Anna, on the other hand, was terrified of all the messing around.  

Our next stop was lunch.  We had an early lunch reservation at Hollywood & Vine - an excellent buffet that I think was our favorite meal our entire trip.  Anna ate her weight in buffet food - she's our good eater.  Caroline was content eating shredded cheese & ranch and "white noodles" (noodles and butter).

 

 This is pretty much as excited as Anna got when she was around the characters.  She was terrified of each and every single one of them. 

 

After lunch, Caroline and I waited in line to see the Disney Junior - Live on Stage show.  Oh, man was it cute.  Wally and Anna actually waited in line with us, too - but she was getting so restless, Wally took her to a shaded area to take a nap while we watched the show.  Anna is quite obsessed with Doc McStuffins right now - and once I saw that she was in the show, I just knew we had to come back and watch it a second time.  

Now you see me, now you don't!  If she doesn't start to eat any better, she will disappear behind that tree!

AAAAHHHH...sisterly love.

Don't those eyes just say "I'm up to no good!"

This show was EXCELLENT! By far, one of my favorite things we did.  It was set up like a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse episode - all the way down to Toodles, the Mouseke-doer, everything.  There was Mickey and all of his friends, Sophia & her family, Doc McStuffins and Jake with his crew.  Gold "doubloons" fell from the sky, the kids made it snow, everything!  It was a very interactive show and Caroline loved it.  When we went back the second time for Anna to watch it, she was so tickled to see Doc McStuffins, she couldn't hardly contain herself!

This is how we spent most of the time waiting for stuff - the girls playing with my hair.  Hey - it keeps them occupied!

Hollywood Studios was probably the best park we could have chosen as our first day in a park.  It wasn't so overwhelming that we were going going going for 8-10 hours and this park as a lot of shows and 3D rides that are a little more low-key.  We rode things like The Great Movie Ride, Muppet Vision 3D and the Little Mermaid which broke the day up a little and made things a little easier on us.

Let me just tell you...  Do you know how many characters we were walking up to to stand in line for autographs JUST as the little attendant was roping it off after the last guest?  UGH!  Over the course of our trip, I bet that happened 8 times.  Seriously.  I was beginning to wonder if we had a sign over our head that said "CLOSE UP SHOP! THEY'RE COMING!"  I mean, my kids aren't that bad!  To make a long story short, this is as close to Sophia that we got.  And what a disappointment, because she's one of Caroline's favorite.

 Are they or aren't they?  :-)

Oh, Anna - she's the queen of meltdowns.  I can count on one hand how many meltdowns Caroline has had in her 4 1/2 years of life.  Anna, had as many just in Hollywood Studios.  

The infamous Toy Story Mania ride.  It was awesome!!!  Caroline and I rode in one car - and I SMOKED her!  Hee hee.  Not only that, I thought I did REALLY well - until I saw Wally's score which was about 4 times what my score was.  What?

Oh, Caroline - she's the queen of falling asleep at the most inopportune times.  After riding the Toy Story Mania ride, we were ready for dinner and was trying to get over to Pizza Planet to eat & play in the arcade.  Then this happened.

She missed out on pizza AND the games.  Just as well, we were actually very tired and ready to get back to the hotel.

Family shot before we left.  Caroline was STILL asleep.

(I'm getting my days confused already - this might have been the day that Caroline and I went to the resort pool, but it was frigid and I did NOT get in.)