Disney Trip - Day 4 - Rope Drop @ Epcot & Evening Extra Magic Hours @ Hollywood Studios

Day 4 of our trip was also our last day at the Polynesian Resort. We had to pack up everything and load the van before we could go to Epcot that morning. (For the final week of our trip, we stayed at my parent's time share - Westgate Vacation Villas - in Kissimmee, FL, which is less than a mile off of Disney property.)

The kids hung out on our floor's elevator lobby while I finished packing all of our stuff.

I ran back to the van to get my sunglasses and the kids and Doug walked on to the Ticket & Transportation Center (TTC). From the TTC, we rode the monorail to Epcot for rope drop. By now you've realized that we are morning people and don't waste a second of our vacation by sleeping in. :)

Once we got inside the gate at Epcot, Samantha & I went in direction for rope drop and Alden, Clair, & Doug went another. Samantha & I ran to the Soarin' ride and Doug ran to Test Track to get a Fast Pass for later in the morning so Samantha & he could ride it. When asked if she liked Soarin', Samantha replied: "It was just a movie!" This is crazy! It is a high intense ride while you feel like you are gliding above areas of California! (Doug can't even ride it!)

Alden, Doug, & Clair met us at The Living Seas with Nemo & Friends. While Samantha & I were on Soarin' it rained so Doug had to get out all the rain gear! This was the only time it rained on our whole trip - and it was only for 20 minutes!! We all went on the ride and then we watched Turtle Talk with Crush. Crush talks to the kids and asks them their names and questions! The kids loved it!

After that, Samantha & Doug split off to go on Test Track. Alden, Clair, & I stayed at The Seas to look around at sharks and other fish.

Samantha on Test Track - she LOVED it! We joined back up with Doug & Samantha and then I split off to go on Mission Space. I had never been on it and almost got sick because it was so intense! (And I don't get sick easily!)

We walked to the American Pavilion to eat lunch and there was a really neat gingerbread house to look at!

We loved the character topiaries that were dressed up for the holidays - such as these Donald & Pluto topiaries!

We have a Disney Visa card, and because of that, we get a special "Meet & Greet" with the characters. This time it was Minnie Mouse & Goofy. We got to go into a room with just the characters for as long as we like just to take pictures in private! We also got a free 5 X 7 of one of the pictures.

After seeing the characters, we walked to Journey Into Imagination with Figment. Alden has always loved Figment and he got a stuffed animal of the purple creature this time! When the ride is over, there is a place for the kids to play and make music with their hands and legs. This is always a hit with our kids. (Kodak actually just pulled their sponsorship of this exhibit, so a lot of the fun things were closed, but the kids still liked it!)

Doug & I played in this "jumping" water fountains when we were kids, and it's so fun to watch our own kids play in them! The kids thought it was pretty neat that water can jump! It was actually warm this day, so the water felt good!

Another great thing to do on a warm, sunny day: have a Mickey Ice Cream Bar!

After our snack, we picked up our picture from our Visa Card Character Meet & Greet near the front of the park and rode the monorail back to the TTC. From there, we walked to our van (which was still parked at the Polynesian) and drove to Westgate to check-in. Westgate has a master bedroom/bathroom, a separate bedroom with 2 double beds (for Samantha & Alden), and a living room/dining room/full kitchen area (for Clair to sleep). It always has a washer and dryer too! We dropped our stuff off, changed clothes, and drove to Hollywood Studios to do Evening Extra Magic Hours!

On the way in, we stopped for a quick family picture! Then we ate dinner and walked to the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights! It was amazing to see all the lights! But, there were A LOT of people! People EVERYWHERE! We could barely move, so we walked along and found some space and just watched and watched! The kids danced to the music and tried to catch some "snow" (there were a couple of snow machines on the roofs).

We decided to have some popcorn and sit down for awhile while we waited for the crowd to clear out. We waited until Extra Magic Hours started and then we went to the Playhouse Disney Dance Party! (For Extra Magic Hours - only Disney hotel guests are allowed in the park - so there are a limited number of people in the park.) The kids had a blast! They each got balloon animals: Samantha got a flower, Clair got a frog, & Alden got a sword. (Later you will see his sword used as a hat.) Samantha danced with Mickey, Minnie, Handy Manny, & Jo Jo!

After the dance party, we walked back over the see the lights and were amazed at how many people had left! We walked around and watched them some more. We found the Purple Cat Halloween light that they hang every year. (One year a Halloween light never got put away, and they lit it with the Christmas lights. Now, they have a tradition that there will always be that Halloween light lit with the Christmas lights, but it is always in a different spot.) We were shivering by now, as the cold front had already set in, so we decided it was time to go back to Westgate.

Disney Trip - Day 3 - Rope Drop @ Hollywood Studios

Our 3rd day at Disney was spent mainly at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We wore our Husker gear because it was the day of the Big 12 Championship game! We went early for Extra Magic Hours Rope Drop @ 8am. There was big crowd already when we got there at 7:30am, so we had to change our plan of attack. We decided to send Doug to Toy Story Mania to get a Fast Pass and the kids and I would hang back so we didn't get trampled!

The kids and I stopped by the Sorcerer's Hat to see a few characters! Samantha loves Daisy and Alden loves Donald, so that was the perfect pair of characters to see! We also saw Piglet!

Doug met up with us near the characters and told us the Fast Passes were for 9:00am. We decided our best option was to go see the Muppet Vision 3D movie while we waited for our Toy Story time. The kids loved it and really enjoy 3D shows! Clair didn't care too much for it, but still out did Alden when he was that age. (Alden & I didn't see the show last time we went because he was afraid of shows like that.)

After the Muppet show, Doug took Samantha & Alden to the Little Mermaid show and Clair & I tried on some cute mouse ears and also got to meet Handy Manny!

After Little Mermaid, Doug, Samantha, & Alden met up with Clair and I for Playhouse Disney Live on Stage. All the kids loved it and they got up and sang along and danced to the music!

Finally at about 9:30 we went back to ride Toy Story Mania! This ride is THE BEST RIDE at Disney World's 4 parks! It's a 3D ride where you can shoot at targets and compete with other members of your family for high scores! ALL of us loved it! Even Clair!

At 11:00am we had lunch at Play 'n Dine with Playhouse Disney characters. We got to meet Oso, Handy Manny, Leo, & June. Clair threw her normal tantrum when she saw the characters coming toward us! Leo loved Clair and tried to get a hug or a kiss from Clair, but she just stared at him and cried. :(

We had a family picture with all our Husker gear on, taken in front of the big hat!

We walked to the Beauty & the Beast stage show and watched it after lunch. Alden slept on the hard bleachers and missed the whole show! Samantha loved the show and sang along!

After the show, we went to meet Mrs. Incredible & Lotso. Alden loved Mrs. Incredible as he was Dash (a fellow Incredible) for Halloween last year. He was not so keen on seeing Lotso. He had told us that he was going to kick Lotso if he saw him at Disney World because he was a bad guy. We talked him into not harming Lotso, and he even gave him a hug. (An in case you were wondering...yes...he smelled like strawberries!)

Next up was meet and greets with Little Einsteins: Leo, Annie, June, & Quincy, as well as Handy Manny!

Alden and I waited for the Block Party Parade while Clair napped in the stroller and Doug & Samantha rode the Tower of Terror! Samantha didn't like ghosts she saw, but she seemed to do okay with the big drops during the ride! Doug didn't tell her anything before the ride, and that's probably the only way he got her on it!

The Block Party Bash Parade is the BEST parade at Disney World! It had all our favorite Pixar Pals in it and they stop along the parade route and dance in front of us! We had a nice cast member move us a little bit so that we could be in front of the Toy Story Vehicle, which was awesome! We had a green army soldier yelling at us from above! He even teased us about our Husker clothing and about us not dancing to the music!! He was hilarious! The kids got pulled out to dance with a cast member and she tried to teach them how to dance! It was pretty funny! :)

After the parade, we left Hollywood Studios and went back to our hotel so we could get ready for supper. We had dinner reservations at Ohana - a Polynesian style restaurant with amazing food.

Dinner was amazing. They constantly brought us meat and food to eat. The grill was open and everyone could see the meat cooking. Samantha even got taught the Hula and they had a parade around the restaurant. (Alden was too shy to go up, so Samantha had to go alone.) Doug got asked to dance with Samantha and they were taught a dance to do together. The dessert was SO good - banana bread pudding!

After dinner, we "hopped" on back to Epcot to see some more characters. Goofy was funny! He must have been from Nebraska or at least liked the Huskers - because he saw our shirts and went crazy! He kept pointing at them and jumping up and down! We took another picture in front of Spaceship Earth. Then, we had to go back to the hotel to watch the Huskers lose in the Big 12 Championship game! We all watched the 1st 1/2 of the game and then we put the kids to bed and watched the rest without sound! I fell asleep right after 1/2 time and Doug never even woke me up to tell me we lost!