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 2016–Day 5, Part 2: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

(Wednesday, September 14, 2016)

After leaving BBB Hannah and we made our way to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, stopping for a few pictures at our annual picture spot at Disney Springs.

Our first stop at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

was at ‘For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration’.  We both enjoy this so much!

Hannah rockin’ the bubble snow hair look!

Up next was one of our favourite rides, Toy Story Mania.  This is such a great ride and one we try to ride a few times each trip!

Outside the ride it was a weird feeling to look where the former Backlot Tour ride used to be and see nothing but open space.  It’s exciting to think of the new areas of Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land that are in their early stages of being built but sadly I’m guessing those are still a few years away…at least. 

Before calling it a day we visited with Olaf.  This was the first time she’d met him and she was so excited!

I love her sweet face in this pic!

Tomorrow…Back to Epcot!

Disney 2015 ~ Hollywood Studios

(Tues, Sep 15, 2015)

Hannah and I were up bright and early on Tuesday morning and made our way to Disney’s Hollywood Studios (DHS) to sign Hannah up for Jedi Training that she would participate in later in the day.  Once we had secured a spot for her we parked her stroller and headed back out of the park.  We boarded a boat and on this bright, sunny day made our way to the Beach Club Resort to go to the character breakfast at Cape May Cafe.   So bright and pretty!

The food was delicious at this breakfast buffet (can you say banana, strawberry and chocolate crepes?) and the characters were fun in their beach attire.

The Beach Club Resort is located near Epcot in a beautiful location.

We made our way back to DHS and stopped for pictures on Hollywood Boulevard with it’s new look of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre at the end of it. 

It was now for Hannah’s Jedi Training so we made our way to her Padawan Training.

She did well learning her moves as a Padawan

but then this happened and my girl was outta there faster than you can say ‘No way baby!!!’

I was so proud of my girl for trying this and totally supported her quickly exiting the stage, ‘Because I don’t know him too well!’ 

Hannah was excited to try ‘Star Tours’ again this year (we tried it a couple of years ago but she didn’t like it) but this year it was a hit!  Afterwards she built her own droid.

One of Hannah’s favourite activities on a Saturday morning is to watch Disney Parks videos on YouTube.  I like them because they’re fun and 100% safe so I can be comfortable with any that she chooses to watch.  One she enjoyed watching was about the ‘PB and J Milk Shakes’ available at the 50’s Primetime Cafe.  It was surprisingly yummy!

On our way to watch Fantasmic we stopped to ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster.  It’s a really fast roller coaster with loops and barrel rolls all in the dark but Hannah wanted to give it a try.

She was excited to just barely meet the 48” height requirement.

She did well and there weren’t any tears afterwards but she also declared she doesn’t want to ride it again until she’s a teenager!  This was her post RRC face!

Our final event of a great day was watching Fantasmic which we both really enjoy.  As the final scene emerged my heart swelled even more for my sweet, amazing, wonderful girl!!!  She was beyond excited to see all the characters as you’ll hear in her voice but it was her words that melted me!  Her heart was with her cousin and best friend Makenna who hadn’t been able to stay for the show.  She exclaims, ‘Oh I can’t tell Makenna this!  I can barely tell Makenna this!  Makenna will be so upset!’ 

I love hearing Hannah’s excitement as she found Mulan and other favourite characters.

Another wonderful day with my girl and as was common, she crashed as soon as she hit the stroller.  Sweet Disney dreams baby girl!

Disney 2014, Day 6, Part II (Disney’s Hollywood Studios)

(Thursday, September 25, 2014)
One of the highlights for us this day was to participate in the Frozen Sing-Along.  What fun we had!!

Hannah couldn’t help but jump out of her seat when it started to ‘snow.’  She also tried eating it and quickly discovered it was soap.  lol!
There’s snow in my hair!
Bonnie isn’t a fan of the big thrill rides and was happy to watch the kids for us while Dave, Trish, Paul and I rode Rock ‘n Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror.  I have to say Trish was hilarious on this ride as she began screaming the second they closed the doors.  One of the other gals on the ride even turned around and laughingly said, ‘She’s my favourite!!’  Heh!  Trish, you’re the only reason I’m smiling and not also screaming in this pic.  In fact, I think you’re why everyone is smiling in this pic!  Thanks for taking one for the team sis!
What a great day we had at Disney’s Hollywood Studios!!

Disney 2014, Day 6, Part I (Disney’s Hollywood Studios)

(Thursday, September 25, 2014)

We were excited to share this day together as an group and we finally took a group picture together!

We also booked breakfast at Hollywood and Vine and dined with the friends from Disney Jr.

Sophia

Handy Manny

and Doc McStuffins

Although the rest of us stuffed ourselves silly at the buffets, obviously Kallen in his 0-3 month shorts needed to have tucked in a little more!  Hee!   Better take care of this before Mickey finds out!

Hannah loves her Uncle Dave (my brother)!  Here we’re waiting to enjoy The Backlot Tour just days before they closed this ride.   (I love this pic of them together!)

Part of the Backlot Tour was this plane that Walt used to fly between California and FL when he was scouting out the property where Walt Disney World now stands.