Disney Hollywood Studios

We awoke early on Wednesday.  Our delightful children had decided that 6.30 was a good time to get up.  Given that they had done 2 days of theme parks and were pretty tired, it did not take long for the bickering to start.  So we had to get up and deal with them.  This enabled us to be out the door just after 8, the earliest so far.

We drove the usual distance to Disney, paid the usual $15, and parked up.  The tram was just arriving as we were about to start walking down to the park entrance, so we hopped on it.  We were in the park by 9.10, and went for one of the most popular rides that we all could do, Toy Story Midway Mania. we passed Pluto on the way.    In my research I had discovered that the fast passes for this ride often run out by 10am.  We got there, discovered that the wait time was 30 minutes, so joined the queue, while watching Buzz and Woody in the window over the way doing character meet and greets.  We moved through the queue, and got into a carriage quicker than the 30 minutes advertised.  We had our 3d glasses on, Paul rode with Oliver and Seb, I took Isaac.  Our seats backed on to each other, so photos  were difficult

                                      

Midway Mania is a lot of arcade games, where you have to shoot things.  It was perfect for our boys.  We all really enjoyed it.  We exited the ride to find a wait time of 60 minutes!  We got ourselves together and headed towards Disney Junior Live on Stage.

It was not due to start for another 30 minutes, but we queued up, just as they extended the queue lanes.  We ended up being about 20th in the queue.  This worked out much in our favor.  The boys were amused by the TV screens showing snippets of Disney Junior, and they waited very well, for over 30 minutes.  We entered the theater, and were seated 2 rows back on the floors (man that hurt our legs), right in the centre.  We did well to get these seats, there were many people behind us.  The girl comparing the show was very good.  The boys were able to see a lot of their favorite characters.  Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto, and Goofy all made appearances.  These were followed by Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First and Jake with his crew from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  Our boys really enjoyed this, even Oliver, which I was most surprised about.  A really good show, with puppets, perfect for a 'junior' audience

         

We headed from this to find food.  We arrived at the Backlot Express eatery to find it not open yet, at 11.10.  We had spotted on the way in the Jedi Training Academy, right. The Star Wars ride.  This is where young Padawans get to master their skills with the help of Darth Vader, and some Storm Troopers.  Oliver was ever so keen to do this.  It looked awesome, he was old enough,  so maybe next time.  About 10 minutes before the eatery opened, we headed back in.  Paul was one of the first served, so we were able to have an early lunch in relative peace and quiet (a rarity in Disney), but as we were finishing the hawks were circling, awaiting our table.  

We went out, along the Streets of America.  This is a fake film set, where nothing is as it seems.  We stopped, so the boys could have their photos taken with McQueen and Mater.  We had decided to go and see. 'Lights, Movies, action-Extreme stunt show'.  We got there in plenty of time, so were able to get good seats.  Think we waited about 30 minutes.  The boys were happy though, playing iPods.  Unfortunately, this show was not for Seb.  He lasted about 10 minutes, before I had to take him out as he was crying his eyes out due to the noise.  Just as we were walking down the stairs, they announced Lightning McQueen on the set, so we ducked through to the front so we could see him.  It still did not interest Seb.  He was too tired and spooked by the noise to care

I walked around with Seb in the buggie for a bit.  The place was packed.  I had just found somewhere to sit, when the heavens opened.  I got a text from Paul to say the show had stopped, so we headed over to where the show was kicking out.  We all sheltered for a bit, while we waited for the rain to stop.  

We had seen that Ralph from Wreck it Ralph were due to make an appearance in The Magic of Animation.  So we took a slow walk through Pixar Place, then up Mickey avenue, stopping for ice lollies and drinks on the way.  Oh, and a quick hello with some army men.

                                     

   

We got to the Magic of Animation just after Ralph and Venelope appeared, and the queue to meet them was already 30 minutes long.  So we watched them from a distance.  We don't do queueing, particularly when the boys are tired.

                                   

We also saw Sourcerer Mickey, again he had a massive queue.  We left the Magic of Animation, and decided to head home.  It only took us about 30 minutes to get from the middle of the park to the car, via the tram.

 The boys had managed 6 hours in a park, yet again.