Disney Studios

Yawn! Another early morning for me and Mommy and Daddy. Guess I'll work my trip report some more. These things take a lot of time to write. Now I see why Daddy didn't want to do it himself.

Okay, Day 3 we were going to Disney Studios. We didn't have a breakfast planned, so we went downstairs to the free continential breakfast at our hotel. Mommy and Daddy were really disappointed. Apparently they had stayed at other Marriott hotels where the free breakfast was plates of muffins and donuts and cereal and fruit and you went and got what you wanted. Well, at this hotel, you had to stand in line and tell someone what you wanted, and they put it in a paper bag for you. Mommy travels a lot and had never seen this before. Has anyone else? The selection was very poor -- just a few small muffins and cereal and a little bit of fruit. Daddy said the coffee was bad, too, like it was left over from the day before. Maybe it was, since we were up pretty early. Anyway, we ate a little and headed to the Studios.

It wasn't very crowded in the parking lot when we got there, so we were able to get seats in the front seat of a tram car. This fit my stroller much better -- there is more room in those seats where they have the seats facing each other in the front of each car. I'm sure you people know what I mean. The bag check at the Studios was a breeze. They had this big inflatable Stitch out front of the Studios, which was cool. I wanted to take him home with me, but Daddy said he wouldn't fit in our backyard.

I had slept through breakfast, mostly, so I was hungry now. Daddy said he'd take Thomas and me to the Baby Care Center and feed me while Mommy and Alex rode Rock'N Roller Coaster. They said they would pick up FastPasses for Tower of Terror -- Thomas' favorite ride -- while they were down there. So we went to Baby Care. The MGM Baby Care area was the worst of all the parks. It was located right near Guest Services, so it was really noisy and it was hard to get inside because people wouldn't let us through because they thought we were cutting into the Guest Services line. There was no TV and the nursing areas were just little rooms with curtains. Thomas was excited that they had a "children's only" bathroom, though -- finally something just for him. I had my bottle and waited for Mommy and Alex.

We were going to split up and do Tower of Terror in pairs, but I was feeling a little cranky, so Daddy sent Mommy and the boys to use three of the FastPasses while we waited. We went in line to get FastPasses for the roller coaster so Daddy could ride. This was another of the places where I realized Disney doesn't really accommodate infants. The FastPass lines are set up so that you get your passes, then you walk through the machines and come out the back. Except there wasn't enough room for Daddy to get me and my stroller through the machines. So we stood in line, and when we got to the front, Daddy parked my stroller off to the right of the machine and got our passes and then turned around to get me and the stroller and go back the way we came. The woman behind us got mad and told Daddy he should go through the machines. Daddy said he couldn't with the stroller and then the woman told him he shouldn't have a stroller then. Daddy advised her to go somewhere slightly hotter than Florida and left. What's funny is, if she had just taken a step to the left, she would have been around us and had her passes in half the time it took her to argue with Daddy! Even more funny is while we were standing near the Beauty and the Beast entrance waiting for Mommy, she came out with her husband -- who was in one of those electric wheelchair buggies -- much bigger than my stroller. I don't understand why some people are in such a hurry on vacation. It's not like the FPs were going to run out in the extra 30 seconds it took us to get out of the way.

But this wasn't the only time Disney didn't think about babies. Last night in France, they didn't have any kind of high chair a baby could sit in. At Chef Mickey's, they had highchairs with baby seats on them that I could sit in. At least at Akershus (that's a funny word), they had a high chair Daddy could turn upside down and put my car seat in. But in France, all they had was a high chair for bigger kids. Daddy and Mommy wouldn't have brought my big stroller at all if they hadn't needed the car seat for dining, because I can't quite sit up by myself yet. (I'm trying! I just mastered rolling while we were at Disney) So we ended up sitting my car seat in a chair half the time, which isn't really ideal. I know they don't have that many infants come through, but couldn't each restaurant have at least one or two of the chairs like Chef Mickey's had?

Anyway, I am wandering. But I am a baby, you know, and have a very short attention span. Now where was I? Hmmm... Oh, yeah, waiting for Mommy. We headed over towards Indiana Jones. This is a neat show. I tried to get Daddy to volunteer, but he was chicken. He said he couldn't because he was holding me, but I know that's a lie. I really liked the fire, but the explosions were a little loud and made me jump and I got scared and started crying at the end. Mommy said she would take me down to the ABC Happy Hour show, since that was sure to put us both to sleep (I guess it was dark and dreamy?) while Daddy and the boys rode Star Tours. But about 10 minutes later, Daddy and the boys met us at the entrance to the ABC show. The line for ST was 65 minutes outside in the heat, so Daddy got FPs instead. We decided then to skip the ABC show and get an early lunch. We went to the Hollywood Brown Derby, Mommy's favorite restaurant in the parks and walked right in and got a table. This place has a lot of funny drawings of people all over the walls. The food was really good. Alex spilled his Sprite all over himself -- the second time he had done this on the trip, so Mommy and Daddy called him "Sprite Boy" the rest of the trip. He was mad at first but started laughing at it after awhile. But he didn't order Sprite again until the last day of the trip! Mommy and Daddy said the food was great. She had some sort of beef with avacado-honey sauce on it, while Daddy had a BBQ chicken Caesar salad. The boys stuck to kiddie food, as usual.

After this, Daddy and the boys went back to ST. The FP line got them inside the building, but they said once inside, the FP line moved slower than the regular line and it still took them 30 minutes to get to the front of the line. Once inside the ride, they blasted off, and made it just past the moon of Endor when their spaceship broke and they had to be towed all the way back home to be launched again. And Thomas said the silly driver went the wrong way out of the space base the second time, too! You think he would have figured it out after going the wrong way the first time. But they finally got to go into space and fight the DeathStar. Daddy had Thomas convinced for a while that they had really gone into space, but eventually he figured it out when he couldn't see any spaceships leaving the building when they got outside.

It was hot and we were tired, so we headed back to the hotel to lounge by the pool for awhile. I sat for awhile with Daddy, but I was tired, so we went back inside for a nap while Mommy and the boys swam. Daddy went and got them at 4, because we had dinner at Whispering Canyon at 5. We drove over to the Wilderness Lodge. This is where Daddy wants to stay next time we come, but Thomas wants the Beach Club and Mommy is leaning towards the Poly. Alex is sucking up to Daddy today, so he likes the lodge. I don't care as long as I have a bed to sleep in. We walked around the pool area for awhile before the restaurant opened, then sat down. Our seater made cavalry noises on the way to our table, and then the waitress came and tried to get the boys to order the special of the day, which was fried skunk. They passed. Thomas had mac-and-cheese, but Alex finally stretched a little and got the all-you-can-shove-down skillet with Mommy and Daddy. That looked good, with chicken and pork and ribs and potatoes. Mommy and Daddy wished they hadn't had lunch because they wanted to eat more, but couldn't.

Nobody at our table had anything that they would put ketchup on, which made Mommy happy, but lots of other people needed ketchup. All I kept hearing was servers calling for ketchup at one table or another. And most of the time, these people already had four or five bottles! How much ketchup can one person eat?

Alex and Thomas rode silly wooden horses around the room, which was funny to watch, and they got to sing happy birthday to a girl having a birthday (because it would be kind of silly to sing it to someone NOT having a birthday). Mommy and Alex split apple pie for dessert while Thomas and Daddy had this big chocolate cake. Yummy.

We left the restaurant and drove over to the MK. For those cheaters who want to just park at the WL and take a bus to the MK, they didn't give us a parking permit at the WL, but they did ask for a photo ID and take our license plate number. Mommy dropped Daddy and me off at the Guest Drop-off near the TTC and went to park. We took the ferry to the MK and waited. It looked like rain was coming. Mommy and the boys took a long time coming. They said they were parked so far away, they thought they were in China. They must have been parked in Mushu, I guess.

It was turning into a dark and stormy night, with lots of thunder and lightning, so Mommy and Daddy made a plan change and decided to wander the shops on Main Street today, instead of later when we were coming again. The boys played checkers in the general store while Mommy shopped. Daddy helped Thomas, but Alex still won. Daddy had a brainstorm while we were in one of the shops. Our house has this black-and-white bathroom, which Mommy hates, left over from the people who built it. It is really not Mommy and Daddy's style and they have never figured out what to do with it. Daddy realized, however, that black-and-white made the perfect backdrop for one red-white-black-and-yellow mouse, so now they are going to Disney-fi their bathroom. How cool.

The rains went away and we went to Fantasyland. We got FPs for Pooh, which weren't until 8:50, then went and rode Snow White and It's A Small World. Snow White wasn't scary at all -- I never even saw the witch because I was looking the other way at the door. I think Daddy planned it that way. IASW was really funny. All the dolls were singing and Daddy and Alex were singing along -- "It's a Slow Ride, After All... It's A Slow Ride, After All...". Mommy made them stop because she likes this ride. I do too. We thought about doing Peter Pan but Daddy was afraid I might get scared being up high and the line was really long, so we walked around a little bit before riding Pooh. Pooh was fun. The car bounces up and down like Tigger. Daddy held me in such a way that I bounced a lot, and that was funny.

Mommy and Daddy checked out Space Mt. but the lines were pretty long and we were coming back tomorrow morning, so we skipped it and found some seats near the carousel to wait for the fireworks. Mommy fed me while Daddy got Coke floats for the boys and himself. He fed Mommy some while she fed me, which made me giggle. The fireworks were great. Mommy said she didn't understand why everyone crowds in front of the castle to see them when we had a much better view from Fantasyland and it was neat seeing Dumbo flying while the fireworks were going off.

We hung out for awhile, then wished we had waited longer as the crowd leaving the park was very heavy. It took almost 15 minutes to get out of the park. They had told Daddy the last ferry was at 10:45 when we came over, so we headed down there to catch a ferry. The lines were horrible and everyone was pushing and shoving. As we were coming into the area, a lady got on the microphone to tell everyone with strollers they had to come over to the left side. So, now, everyone was trying to get under the rope into the stroller lane! It wasn't their fault because you couldn't see the stroller and wheelchair sign until you got close, and if you came down on the right side, you would never know it was there. Daddy didn't understand why they didn't remove the turnstiles and just have sensors like on the monorail.

Daddy told Mommy to go on with the boys and just meet him at the pickup area. So they got on one boat and Daddy and I caught the next one. We walked over to the taxi stand and sat down to wait. I fell asleep and eventually Mommy got to the car and picked us up. She said it took three trams before she could get on one!

So it was almost midnight by the time we made it back to our hotel. I wanted a bottle, so Mommy fed me while everyone else went to sleep. It would be an early morning because we had breakfast planned for Epcot the next day. Princesses! Cool.