Disney Jan 2018 ~ Disney’s Hollywood Studios

We enjoyed a slower, quieter start to our day on Thursday.  We spent some time walking around Pop as we waited for the Hippy Dippy pool to open at 10:00am.  As you can see, there wasn’t a long line at the gate when it opened!  Crazy Canadian’s swimming in January in 16^oC/60^oF weather!

Hannah had the entire pool to herself for about 10 mins and then a few kids joined her.  I want to take this time to say how absolutely impressed I am with the care and dedication that Disney requires of their life guards.  What you’ll see here happens every single second that their pools are open.  Hannah is the only person in the pool yet all 3 guards are 100% focused on their section of the pool and constantly monitoring their section.  When another life guard comes on duty you will watch them diligently walk back and forth in the section they are taking over while the current life guard continues to do the same.  They give one another an all clear sign and the old guard moves to their new section and does the same.  it gives such confidence to the parents as their children are swimming.

Unfortunately we couldn’t stay long as we had a brunch reservation later in the morning but she enjoyed the bit of swim. 

After her swim we got ready for the day and made our way to the Contemporary Resort to go to Chef Mickey’s for brunch.  This is one of Hannah’s favourite places to eat so it’s on our list each trip.   Meeting the Fab 5!






When you leave your phone on the table when you go to grab more food, your daughter may take advantage of that and snap adorable selfies of herself with her dessert!

After lunch we headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (DHS) for the remainder of the day. 

DHS is a park under a lot of renovations right now so we knew we didn’t need a full day there. 

Next time it will be a new story as Toy Story Land is opening on June 30th and we’re super excited to check it out on our next trip!!!

For this trip we visited some old favourites and met a new one too.  Hannah was excited to meet BB8 although I think she might have been a little star struck when she did.

We enjoyed a quieter afternoon of shows and rides.  After riding Star Tours Hannah wanted to use her money to add to her little droid collection.

Something Hannah enjoys at DHS is the Peanut Butter and Jelly milkshake that is found at the 50’s Prime Time Café.  She talks about these year round so it’s on her must-do snack list each time we visit DHS.
 
As our day drew to a close we took a walk down Sunset Blvd.  One of the carts was closing up for the day and giving away their extra stock.  We enjoyed a free churro thanks to this generous Cast Member.

We continued down the street and rode Rock ‘n Roller Coaster before finishing up our day with a couple of rides on Toy Story Mania.  (Another great touring tip is to get in line for popular rides close to park closing.  Even though the posted wait time for TSM was 50+ minutes, we got in ride at 7:25 and rode it twice before the park closed!  As long as you are in line before the park closes you get to ride)
One our way out of the park we found one of these great water drawings on the ground that was created using a broom and dustpan of water!  I love these little gems that you find at Disney that make us smile!

Good night Mickey and Minnie!  See you at Epcot tomorrow!

Disney Jan 2018 ~ Animal Kingdom, Part 1

Wednesday was an early morning as we were both excited for the day ahead so we were up and out of the room before 7am!  We were on our way to Animal Kingdom  and going to check out Pandora – The World of Avatar, a new land that had opened since our last visit!  Pandora has been open for less than a year and one of it’s rides is the current hot item ticket at Walt Disney World!
We caught an early bus and arrived at the park around 7:15 for a 9:00 opening. 

We were able to go through bag check and security and were in line at the tap stiles before 7:30am.  By that point every tap stile as lined up about 30 people deep and the line continued to grow behind us.
I believe it was shortly before 8:00 that the tap stiles were opened and we quietly sauntered lightly jogged towards Pandora.  We had made friends with a family in the line and Hannah kept up with them as this mama isn’t used to moving at much more than that gentle saunter mentioned above.  We met back up on the bridge on our way to Pandora and the next wait began.
This was the group in front of us….

And the line extended further than the eye could see behind us….still about an hour before park opening!  And yes….95% of these people were all headed to the same ride!!!

The ride of choice, Avatar Flight of Passage! 
I will say I was surprised that the line did not start moving into Pandora until 9:00 as it’s common for Cast Members to begin the controlled walk towards the ride early.  I will say that Disney has mastered the controlled walk when you think of the thousands of people that were now in line and how they moved it forward slowly and from 25 people wide to single file without pushing, shoving and just moving forward.  It really is quite neat and while it would give my friend M heart palpitations to be in a crowd like that, it’s part of the excitement for Hannah and I. 
As we entered Pandora and made our way towards the ride I snapped a few pics of this amazing new land.  They really did a phenomenal job of theming it!!!


I don’t want to spoil the surprise but if you’re going to WDW, try not to miss Flight of Passage (FoP)!  It is breathtaking and unlike any other ride I’ve ever been on!  We were thankful to have FP reservations for later in the day so we knew we’d get to ride again.  Woot!
We exited the ride about 9:20 and by that time the standby wait was over 2 1/2 hours long!  Oh yes, arriving early was the key for sure!!
After FoP we made our way towards Africa to Tusker House for our character breakfast reservation.  The food at Tusker House is delicious and the character interaction great. 
Mickey told us Minnie was busy fixing her makeup so we didn’t see her but we did visit with him and some of his best friends.





Hannah had never been to Rafiki’s Planet Watch so we boarded an oh-so-crowded train and took the 5 hour minute ride to the Planet Watch area.  Yes, we had this entire car to ourselves.
Rafiki was there to greet her.  She was a little hesitant about greeting him at first but after a few minutes she warmed up to him and decided he was an okay dude to go see.

My niece Rebecca was the same when she was Hannah’s age and she exclaimed that she was not going to get anywhere close to ‘For-freekie!’
We took time to visit the small petting zoo before taking the train back to Africa.

A great day was under way and it was still only early afternoon. 
Tomorrow, part 2 of our day at Animal Kingdom.

Disney 2015 ~ Magic Kingdom, Day 4

(Sunday, Sept 20, 2015)

I’m finally wrapping up our 2015 Disney posts.  Life just got busy when we got home and finding time to blog took a back seat to other things.  I’m hoping to find time to get things caught up now.

Our final day in the parks for Hannah and I was at Magic Kingdom, the perfect place to end or start any Disney trip in our books. 

We left a little later in the morning so had lots of room in the bus which doesn’t happen often.

Hannah used the travel time to draw a picture of Mommy.  I’d recognize me anywhere, wouldn’t you?

Hannah had patiently waited to purchase a new pair of ears this trip and she chose these cute silver sparkle ears.

One of our favourite rides is Seven Dwarfs Mine Train so we enjoyed one final ride on it this trip.  Look at that face!

Hannah waited patiently for our entire trip to meet Elsa and Anna.  Today was the day our of our FP+ reservations and it was time to meet these wonderful ladies. 

I love this sweet pic of Hannah with Belle.  Hannah played the part of ‘Mrs. Potts’ in Enchanted Tales with Belle and afterward she was able to meet her.

One of the characters we hadn’t met before was humble Gaston.  We stood in the heat for about 45 mins to meet him and then Hannah was outta there when it was her turn!  LOL – After all that time I didn’t want it to go to waste so mommy stood in and Hannah turned into the photographer.  Great job Hannah!

As we made our way to the front of the park on the train Hannah took advantage of this time to catch a quick nap.  I love the ease that Hannah has sleeping when she needs it.

Our final dinner of the trip was with Cinderella and friends at 1900 Park Fare.  It’s one of our favourites.   Mmm strawberry soup!

Hannah visited with Prince Charming

Lady Tremaine

Drizella

Anastasia and

Cinderella!

(The flash on my camera had broken by this time so I’m thankful the pictures turned out as well as they did.  Thankfully Canon has agreed to repair the flash and it’s in right now being repaired. )

All too quickly our trip came to an end.  To make leaving easier I had booked what is known as a ‘BounceBack Offer’ which is an offer you can book for your next stay while still staying at a Disney resort.  Hannah and I are booked to return to Disney next September and I was able to secure Free Dining for that stay which is a huge savings and my favourite deal when booking Disney.  Let the countdown begin!

Hannah bought this cute set of Princesses with the money she had saved for Disney.  They entertained her the whole flight home.  Mommy in turn napped.  

I know it’s taken a while to finish up all of these posts.  Thank you for following along and the great comments and questions you’ve shared.

Keep checking in as there is more Disney fun to come sooner than later!!