So according to my calendar Thursdays here at Nolie’s Place is known as Travel Thursday. However Thursday found me with my sleep scheduled all messed up and so no blog post was done. However better late than never so here is our little bit of sharing our trip to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
I was so excited to return to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I had so many fond memories of visiting as a child and again in my early 20’s. This time I was getting to enjoy it through the eyes of my children and my husband who had never been to Disney before. I was sad to arrive and find it mostly a construction zone. So many temporary fences were up that it was hard to navigate. The temporary fences also made the streets narrow so many people were navigating in smaller areas than before. Guess I failed at planning this part. Onwards we go though, we got our tickets, fast passes and dinner reservations.
Little Brother at this point of his life was in love with Woody and Buzz Lightyear. He had stuffed animals of both these characters and while shopping at Downtown Disney we bought him a talking Woody doll. The wait for this meet and greet was around 20 minutes. However the time went fast as the line had all kinds of cute little photo ops. Once we rounded the corner and came face to face with Woody and Buzz Lightyear Little Brother went running to them with open arms. To my surprise Big Brother was also excited to meet them. This was the first meet and greet that Big Brother actually enjoyed. We got tons of pictures of both kids hugging them. Was a great moment in our day.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6eti31b8yY&w=800&h=450]
After the meet and greet we headed to our first fast pass of the day and the one I was very excited for. We were lucky enough that Frozen Sing Along started running again during our visit to Walt Disney World. Since both kids and myself were in love with Frozen it had to be a good time. I was not let down. Since we had fast passes we had reserved seating only 4 rows from the stage. We all had an amazing time and enjoyed the show. I would love to see it again.
After the Frozen sing along it was time for lunch. We had reservations for the character lunch at Hollywood & Vine. We got to meet Doc McStuffins, Sofia the First, Jake and Handy Manny. When booking our meal reservations I tried to book a lot of buffets. Since Little Brother was dining for free as he was travelling as a 2 year old this would mean he could have full plates and not have to share with us. It would also mean Big Brother would have lots to choose from.
I did learn doing character meals during a buffet kind of sucks. They only come around to your table once and if you aren’t there well no meet and greet for you. I spent more time making sure we were present for each character then enjoying my food. Otherwise though it was a great meal and the kids enjoyed the characters.
Not only was this trip our “familymoon” but it was also Little Brother’s birthday while we were there. Since we were celebrating his birthday during this trip at the end of the meal he got a cupcake with a candle in it and a birthday card signed by all the characters present at the meal. This happened at every character meal we had which I thought was a really neat touch by Disney. We saved all the cards as souvenirs for Little Brother.
The only ride Big Brother got to do at Hollywood Studios was the Tower of Terror. I had gone on the Tower of Terror myself when I visited in my early 20’s and there was no way I was going on again. I sent Tobei with Big Brother to tackler this ride while I waited outside with Little Brother. Though Tobei is scared of heights I firmly believe everyone who visits Disney needs to get their Tower of Terror badge. Tobei came off the ride saying “never again”. Big Brother came off the ride begging to go again. So of course I made Tobei ride it again with him. I can not believe what an adrenaline junkie Big Brother is.
I did not get to see everything I wanted to at Hollywood Studios. We missed the Frozen area that had the snowground you can play in and a bunch of other things. The construction made me too stressed out so we left after all our must sees and went shopping at Downtown Disney instead. Overall though we had a good time and I can’t wait to be able to go back with the kids and visit the entire park sans construction.