Fun, Food, Fantasmic!

Day 7 and we headed to Hollywood Studios at 8:30am for 9am opening. It's such a nice walk from the Beach Club to this park and we always arrive before a servicing boat. We had just a few must do's to accomplish on our last day at this park so we planned our schedule and got to it! We saw Muppet Vision 3D, Beauty and the Beast live show, The Great Movie Ride, and Lights Motors Action before heading back to the room to freshen up for our dinner reservations in Epcot. Ally passed out for a nap on the walk back so we let her sleep and walked to Epcot for a cocktail in France since we had a little extra peace to enjoy it. The view from World Showcase Lagoon was amazing, and the added drink was fantastic.  Jace kept occupied with a sucker. We forgot to grab pants for the kids for the evening since it gets cooler and Ally is sensitive to cold (aka, complains a lot about being cold if it's less than 75 degrees), so we walked the 5 minutes back to the resort to take care of that.

 Ally wanted her picture taken with Ariel in front of our Villa building

 View of Hollywood Studios on our walk from the Beach Club

 Back alley area of Hollywood Studios

Jace asked for "more more" so Ally helped him get some applesauce. She can be so sweet when she feels so moved!

 Napping for 2 hours and NEVER letting go of the ever-important sucker

 The sucker monster mess

 View of Epcot's France as we come to the back entrance, from Beach Club.

 Pretend smile and the beautiful Grand Marnier Slush

Ahhhh, the good stuff


Our dinner reservation was at 5:50pm at Les Chefs de France and we knew we'd be cutting it close to get to Fantasmic's 8pm show at Hollywood Studios. We got there at 5:15 and they sat us IMMEDIATELY. Thank goodness because I always forget how leisurely that restaurant experience is. No complaints, we love how relaxed it is and we never feel rushed to turn the table and it never feels like a long time (for us...we like slower meals). Our food was wonderful, as always here and our server, Baptiste, was probably the best server we'd had all week. He was totally engaging and interactive with the kids. I had the shrimp and scallops like I always do and Ryan did the 3 course option. He chose the french onion soup, the macaroni gratin, and I had his dessert option, profiteroles. YUM all around!

 Ally: "Take a picture of you and me Mommy!"

Oh. My. Gah.

It was 7 when we left Epcot for the walk to Hollywood Studios and again we beat the boat coming from the same location. We walked right in to the Hollywood Hills Theater and found seats on the far left side of the set. There really isn't a bad view in that theater, except maybe the standing only area in the back. Ally talked all the way through the show and pointed out every single character based on the music she heard before seeing them. The woman sitting in front of us turned to her pre-teen girls and said, "She's a professional." HA! We're so proud. ;-) Ally gets so excited with the characters and points them out, then waves...so cute! Jace slept through the entire event. We waited on the bleachers to let the crowds thin a bit. No sense it trying to hurry out when we had Fast Passes for Toy Story Midway Mania still and Extra Magic Hours had just begun! Not leaving the park just yet!

Ryan and I have a running competition on both this as Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. He beat me, we think (not sure if we recalled the numbers correctly since they were so drastically different), on Buzz Lightyear so we'd been trash-talking all week about Toy Story. This ride is regularly an 80-90 minute wait even in lighter crowds so this was our only chance to catch it. No do overs for this, unfortunately. Final scores, Ryan: 151,400, accuracy 37%; Tara: 146,000, accuracy 36%. Poop. Next year, baby, next year. I guess I'll have to play our Wii version a little more and train for the next rematch!

We wandered to the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights and this was pure Christmas bliss! I've been saying all week that I've been really underwhelmed by Disney's Christmas decor. It's just not what I pictured WDW to look like during the holiday season. I expected it to look almost as thought Christmas threw up all over The World, but tastefully Disney-done. This light display was so in-your-face, over-the-top, Christmas-awesomeness! Not acceptable Resort wide but absolutely invigorating for a couple blocks worth! Ally insisted we dance while the dancing lights soundtrack played all around us and Jace wasn't about to miss out on some shakin' so he got in on it too!

 No detail overlooked!

If you're not familiar with this lighting display, Google it. The story behind it is fascinating. It's inspired by a real family with this type of show on their house/lawn!

The day done, the kids out for the count and our moving day tomorrow. Epcot and then to the Polynesian we go!

Learning to do Disney with toddlers (read: RELAX)

This is Tara Huffman, reporting LIVE from the Happiest Place on Earth (yes, that is fact as opposed to my opinion)! For those that don't know me as well, the Cast for this tour of The World is:

Ryan (Daddy) age: 30-something
Tara (Me, Mommy) age: Younger than Daddy ;-)
Alexandra (Ally) age: 3
Jace (Jacerman Boogerbutt according to Sissy) age: 14 mo.

The facts:

7 nights at Disney's Beach Club Villas in a Studio and 1 night at Disney's Polynesian Resort, 8 day Park Hopper, and an over-planning, obsessive, Disney-loving Mommy.

I won't share much about Day 1 since it was nothing more than a travel day. We left home (Kansas City, MO) at 4:!5pm and landed in Orlando at 10:40pm. We walked into our room at 12:05am and were in bed at 1, both kids passed out to the world. Stressful 2nd leg of the flight but that's irrelevant when the destination is WDW.

Day 2: The fun begins!

Well, the fun did begin but much, much later than we normally shoot for. We decided to be nice (read: smart) parents and let the kiddos sleep in until they woke on their own. I love Disney World to a fault and all but I'm no dummy. 2 well-rested toddlers are essential, especially when the opinionated 3 year old is super sensitive to noise, sounds, and general excitement (or fear as it could be with characters and some attractions).

I got up at 7:30am and had myself and our belongings ready by 8:15. Coffee brewing for The Hubby and clothes set out for the Littles, I stepped out to have some forced relaxtion on the balcony and get some pictures of our view. Oh, my idea of relaxing in Disney World is pacing the balcony on a beautiful, cool, Florida morning while waiting for the sleepy heads to realize where we are. They finally rose about 9:30 and we were off before 10.

Breakfast at the Main Street Bakery, which would've been a great idea if we had been there at park opening. Horrible idea that ended up with our first wait in a line for about 30min. Breakfast was had and we headed for Cinderella Castle at Ally's request. Dumbo was her next request but the line was already too long for the patience of 2 toddlers so we side-stepped to It's a Small World among others in Fantasyland, saving Dumbo for a time when we were earlier birds or for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. We also were instructed by Ally to go back to see the Fairy Godmother whom we'd passed by earlier when Ally refused to say "Hello" to her.

I should mention now that Ally took a bit of warming up this morning which was no surprise so we let her be hesitant and a tad grouchy and let the fun soak in. She nursed her way through It's a Small World, coming up for air long enough to point out the monkeys and a couple of other random items...no interest in singing the song which happens to be her favorite and she knows every single word. Another time perhaps. By the time we got to Snow White's Scary Adventures she had fun yelling at the Evil Queen to "Go-A-Way!!" and then making a big deal out of our ride vehicle leaving the scene. This was Mommy and Daddy's trick for keeping the attraction fun instead of dark and scary.

We got Fast Passes for Peter Pan's Flight since the wait was already 45 min and out popped a "Surprise Fast Pass" for Mickey's Philharmagic. I thought this was pretty cool and Ally was all excited to tell Daddy. Unfortunately my excitement was spoiled when we later got a Fast Pass for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and the same thing happened. Oh well, we thought we were cool for a little bit!

We had lunch at Pinnochio's Village Haus which was fine; just your expected Disney counter service. Big building though with lots of seating options. The kids refueled and we headed back to Main Street for Jace's first haircut!

The Harmony Barber Shop was busy as usual and we waited at least and hour. Side note: They now take appointments! We'll be doing that next time. Ally got Pixie Dusted and held her head funny all the way back to the bus so as not to disturb and of the dust. It wasn't until she left the awake world that she let her head move. ;-)

(Sorry for all the haircut pics...it was kind of a big deal to cut off all his long, curly locks!)

The kids napped for a couple hours. Ryan and I relaxed on our awesome balcony and enjoyed an adult beverage with the liquor we brought from home and soda in our Reusable Disney Mugs (yes, purchased new on this trip, for all you MouseBuzzers!) as well as some must-have, family-traditional Disney vacation snacks.

After the kids woke up we walked the short distance to the back entrance of Epcot. We meandered a bit until we got closer to our reservation time for La Hacienda de San Angel.

Right after entering Epcot, we spotted Princess Aurora in the France pavilion and the line was only a few people long so we of course had to stop. This is Ally's first princess encounter for this trip! She held Aurora's hand and told her that Daddy's favorite princess is Princess Aurora which got a big "Thank you!" from the princess. We had our picture taken with Aurora by a Photopass Photographer so I don't have a pic to share just yet but I will after we get home. I'll have to do a separate blog entry to share all the Photopass photos that you don't get to see in the live report.

The Aristocat Marie was taking time for guests as well but Ally didn't have any interest in talking to her...a little too big still...she prefers characters with their helper's face showing.  Hopefully we can get her to branch out a little before our breakfast at Cape May Cafe with the Classic characters!

We checked in at the restaurant at the Mexico pavilion and requested a table by the windows so we could see Illuminations. Our table was ready about 5 minutes later and it was indeed by one of the huge windows. Really, most of the tables in this restaurant would provide you with a great view of Illuminations. We enjoyed our food very much! Both of the kids devoured everything we gave them and some of ours too. Ryan and I had one of the meals for 2 and were really impressed. It was a grilled variety of seafood, corn, veggies, rice, and beans to prepare fajita style. We would definitely recommend this restaurant as well as the particular dish we ordered. I had the empanada dessert, also good but pretty ordinary really. Our margaritas were good but needed more oomph from something...it was lacking a little but was still good and satisfied my need for a margarita. Sorry no pictures of dinner...the camera got left in the stroller outside of the restaurant. I'll do better next time.

After realizing it was only 9 and Illuminations didn't start until 9:30, we decided to venture outside to see if we could find an acceptable view instead of sitting at the dinner table with restless toddlers for another 30+ minutes. We found a decent spot and watched for as long as the kids would tolerate. It ended up being just too intense for our sensory-sensitive little ones. Jace really got upset as we were walking back to the resort when the fireworks got more frequent and the finale started. His arms started flailing and he burst into tears. Oh boy, walk faster! He was fine after the final booms and we had a nice, peaceful walk back to the resort. I love that we didn't have to fight crowds at a bus station or a wait for the next boat to get back "home". We love Epcot so the Beach Club Resort is really an ideal location for us since it's a 5 minute walk to the park.

It was about 10:15 when we got back to our room so we got everyone in jammies and settled in for some books, some final play time, and a choice of bed time movie for Ally (Sleeping Beauty was her decision, of course).

Tomorrow: Hollywood Studios!