Disney's Hollywood Studios

On our fourth day in Orlando, we went to The Disney Hollywood Studios (formerly called Disney-MGM Studios). We headed straight to Toy Story Mania, their newest ride built in 2008. The line said it was an 80 minute wait, but it only took about 45.

Wes did great in line because there were so many fun Toy Story props and things to look at. This was a talking and joking Mr. Potato Head. It's a 3D ride, where you shoot on onboard cannon at classic midway-style games to earn points.

I thought this ride was so much fun, but Michael ended up scoring the most points. And Wes wouldn't keep his glasses on of course, but he seemed to enjoy it too!

Next we took the Backlot Tour which is a 35 minute tram tour that takes you "behind the scenes" for a look at the vehicles, props, costumes, sets and special effects used in movies and TV shows. Here is the Earrfel Tower.

Here we are in Catastrophe Canyon, waiting for the catastrophe to begin!

And here's the flash flood, which was preceded by an earthquake, an oil fire, and explosion and a torrent of rain!

We also saw the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show. This is a great show that uses 40 different vehicles including cars, motorcycles, and jet skis to perform all kinds of amazing stunts. And since Wes loves all things car, he loved this show!

After lunch and a little nap...

...we went to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. We have a good friend from the fire department Adam, whose brother works for Disney and is one of the stunt men in this show. He got us great VIP seats about three rows from the front! Wes thought this show was great; he loved all the tumbling and action, the airplane, jeeps and especially the giant boulder from the Raider's of the Lost Ark. He kept asking for more "rock"! We talked to Adam's brother for a little while after the show and watched them get all set up for the next one. Wes was particularly excited about the blue tractor that was pushing all the props back into place. And the guy in the lower right of my picture is the stunt man who plays Indiana Jones. Such a good show!

While everyone else went on the Hollywood Tower Hotel ride, Wes and I opted for a dark chocolate Mickey Ears ice cream treat!

I should have bought two!!

We stayed all day at this park so we could see Fantasmic! (Can you tell how tired Michael is in this photo? And Wes is in delirious mode!)

What is so great and different about seeing Fantasmic in Orlando is their 9,000 seat amphitheater! Here you can come in early, get a good seat and grab something to eat, or a fun light stick like Wes got!

Wes actually fell asleep about two minutes into the show, but the rest of us really enjoyed it!

One park to go, Epcot next!

"Wog Dog"

Wesley has always loved the water, and he had a blast in the swimming pool in Orlando. I think we're going to be spending a lot of time in the water this summer!

We've been cracking up at this video, because in the beginning of it Wes is asking Michael for something and we think he's asking to play with some toys on the other side of the pool. We keep hearing him say "wog dog", "wog dog", "wog dog" over and over! And it took me a while, but I finally realized he was asking to play on the ladder!! When we were at the pool with Grandma earlier in the day, he was climbing the ladder to get in and out of the pool. Poor kid, we'd told him "no" a dozen times! Now we ask him to say ladder just to hear "wog dog" :)

Our Day Off

On Monday we took a break from the parks and stayed at the time share to play in the pool, do some laundry and get Wesley a real nap!

Grandma and Wes headed down to the pool while I relaxed a little and daddy went to a driving range to hit some golf balls.

I took these pictures from the balcony of our room. Pretty nice view!

After lunch and a nap, Wes and Daddy hit the pool.

Wes loved this "foun-an"! He asked to see it every night before bed and it was the first thing he asked to see in the morning. Since it was on a timer and didn't come on until after we were up, he would get so excited as soon as he would hear it come on.

Being Superbaby and flying around the timeshare.

Auntie Monica and Uncle Chris were crazy and didn't take the day off with they rest of us! :) They headed to Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. These two parks are connected, so not only did they not take the day off, they did two parks!! But we met them at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Universal City Walk for dinner. Here we are with Jimmy Buffett's sea plane, the Hemisphere Dancer.

We had a great table by a window in the back of the Hard Rock Cafe and we had a perfect view of one of the roller coasters. Every time the cars came zooming by on the track Wes would light up and point and say "nother one"! So cute!

Grandpa and Wes with one of the race cars outside the Nascar Cafe.

More park pics coming up next!

The Magic Kingdom

On Sunday morning we headed to the Magic Kingdom. It's a little bit of a trek to actually get to the park...you have to park, then take the tram to the Transportation and Ticket Center, then you take either the ferry or the Monorail to the park! We took the ferry over and the monorail on the way back. We really excited for this day, and meeting Mickey was definitely on our agenda!

Waiting for the ferry to arrive.

Finally made it into the park!

A quick pic with Walt and Minnie.

(It's kind of hard to tell, but there was a sea of people heading down Main Street! It was definitely spring break at Walt Disney World!

The first ride we went on was it's a small world (bet you didn't know that even in the guide books, this ride's title isn't capitalized - but all the other ones are)

It's such a classic, we all enjoyed this one!

Afterward we wandered through a gift shop and Wes tried to give every animal on this shelf a kiss.

While Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Monica and Uncle Chris went to see PhilharMagic we rode the Prince Charming Regal Carrousel. Since this post is going to be long anyways, I thought I'd add some funny info I found. I needed to google the spelling of carrousel, because spell check was telling me it has only one "r". While I was googling, I found this info from the Disney Parks blog:

A quick update to share tonight…our antique carrousel ride in Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom Park –Cinderella’s Golden Carrousel – is officially changing its name to Prince Charming Regal Carrousel. The name change takes effect June 1.

The name change helps tell the rest of the Cinderella story that inspired the carrousel. Here’s the official story behind it:

Following their fairy-tale romance and happily-ever-after wedding, Cinderella and Prince Charming took up residence in Cinderella’s Castle. With peace throughout the kingdom, Prince Charming had time to practice for jousting tournaments. In the countryside near the castle, he built a training device of carved horses, on which he could practice the art of ring-spearing, a tournament event in which a knight rides his horse full speed, lance in hand, toward a small ring hanging from a tree limb, with the object of spearing the ring. This event was known by various names throughout the lands, but generally came to be called “carrousel.”

The carrousel device drew the attention of the villagers, who wanted to take a turn on this amazing spinning contraption. So Prince Charming had a second carrousel constructed closer to the Castle, where everyone could take a spin on this wondrous invention. Instead of a working knight’s training device, however, this new carrousel is more befitting its regal location in the Castle Courtyard – its rustic training horses replaced with ornately decorated prancing steeds adorned with golden helmets and shields, flower garlands, feathers and other festoons. Prince Charming invites one and all to test their horsemanship skills and to enjoy their own happy ending.

Disney and Disney fanatics crack me up! There were 81 comments related to this change, most people were unhappy about it! All I have to say is that Wes loves a good carousel, no matter what it's name or how many "r's" are in the spelling!

We even got to ride twice in a row :)

(I didn't take any pics, but we rode Peter Pan next. Thank goodness for Fast Passes, that line gets so long! But I've always loved that one.)

Wes also got his first set of Mickey ears. I thought for sure he'd love them...but of course, I was wrong. These were the only two pictures I could get, trust me I tried several times!

The line to ride Dumbo was over an hour, so we settled for some "pop pop" and a picture with him in front of the ride.

We did wait the 40 minutes for The Jungle Cruise (I'm telling you, I think everyone came to Florida for spring break!) and Wes really liked it. Our tour guide was pretty funny and it seemed a lot longer than our Jungle Cruise, so it was definitely worth the wait.

The famous "backside of water"

Wes was such a trooper! This is how he napped every day usually for only 30-40 minutes. But it seemed to recharge him enough for the rest of the day.

We waited about 45 minutes to meet Mickey and Minnie, and even though you can't tell from his face, Wes was really excited!

I love this picture! Minnie zeroed in on Wes sucking his fingers, I think whoever was playing her must have been a mom too :)

On the People Mover. I miss this one at Disneyland, so I'm glad we got to do it here.

While everyone else went to see the Hall of Presidents, Wes and I climbed the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. This is another one I really miss at Disneyland. I grew up watching the original movie and always loved seeing the "real thing." I hope they don't update this one here! And afterward we got Dole Whipps for everyone, one of my favorite Disney treats!

We had Fast Passes for Splash Mountain, so Chris, Monica, Michael and I did that one together. Mike and I had seats in the very front and get pretty wet. Luckily the weather was nice and warm even later in the day.

And for our last ride of the day, we took the Railroad from Frontierland to Mainstreet. Wes loves "tains" so this was a great way to finish up our day!

Disney's Animal Kingdom

On Saturday morning we were off to our first park, so we hopped on Disney's "superhighway" as my Dad calls it (Disney's freeway system that interconnects all the parks and resorts) and headed to The Animal Kingdom. It was built in 1998 and was the fourth major park Disney opened. It combines the landscapes of Asia, Africa and the prehistoric land of the dinosaurs.

Wes and I with the roller coaster, Expedition Everest, behind us. This is one of my favorites! Wes is too little to ride so he checked out the gift shops with grandpa.

Next we headed to the Kilimanjaro Safari, where a large safari truck took us to see all sorts of African wildlife.

Wes really liked seeing all the animals! What a difference in attention span a couple of months makes. When we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park in October we had a hard time keeping his interest. Definitely not a problem now!

We saw crocodiles, a lion, rhinos, hippos, and giraffes, plus lots of others.

We watched the Flights of Wonder bird show.

Daddy got this great flying shot!

Grandma and Wes at the Tree of Life, the Animal Kingdom's central landmark. It's a man made tree full of carved animals and sculptures.

This was actually Wes' first spotting of Mickey. (The line to meet Mickey was quite long, so we saved that for another day) But Wes was thrilled to see "Mi-ee" and his friend's fishing in this stream :)

Next we went to the Festival of the Lion King show. Wes loved the music and all the characters and he loved standing in the spotlight before the show started!

Wes and Daddy with Simba.

Waiting for our turn on the TriceraTop Spin.

Wes loved this one, it's just like the Dumbo ride (which we didn't end up doing at the Magic Kingdom, so I'm glad we did it here)

Here we are waiting for Mickey's Jammin' Jungle Parade. We got great seats right on the parade route (this was another thing I'm really glad we did here, because this was the only parade we saw on our trip).

So many of the characters came up to Wes, here we are giving five to Brer Rabbit.

And here's Mickey!

We saw lots of people wearing "1st Visit" buttons so on our way out we stopped at Guest Services and picked one up for Wes. He loved his "bu-un"!