When we first decided to go to Disney over Labor Day weekend for the Halloween party, it was only going to be for Friday through Sunday. However, we get so excited when our trips get close, that Patrick always starts looking at his work schedule to see if he can get off a little earlier and on the road to vacation sooner. On this particular trip, we ended up leaving home Tuesday around noon. By the time we stopped Tuesday evening, we only had 4 more hours to go. If you've read any of my previous trip reports, you know we always try to open the park. Patrick decided that this trip shouldn't be any different, so we got up at 4:30 on Wednesday morning and headed straight to Hollywood Studios.
9:00
We arrived in the parking lot just before 9:00 and by 9:05 we were on Sunset Blvd.
Even though we made great time, we knew we wouldn't be at the park before the opening rush, so we had decided to make way first to the Hollywood Tower of Terror. Littlecjc backed up against the height chart and we all cheered as her head brushed the 40" marker. She was so excited to finally be tall enough, and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror became attraction #1. She took it all in and as the elevator dropped, her little legs shook violently while she gripped our hands for dear life. When the ride came to an end and started to back away from the drop track, she asked if that was the end. When we said that it was, she exaggerated each word of "That. was. CRAZY."
We took our time in the gift shop when we got off the ride and bought Littlecjc a new pin to commemorate her first time on this big kid ride. As we walked past the ride entrance to get our stroller back, Littlecjc begged us to ride it again. We were a little surprised, but eagerly obliged making attraction #2 Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. This second ride must have been a little more intense, because she decided afterward that she didn't want to ride it again.
10:00
Since lines weren't too bad this day, we crossed the park and decided to wait out the standby line for Star Tours, attraction #3.
I think Littlecjc enjoyed this ride, but wasn't overly impressed. After our galactic tour, we walked past the red carpet meet and greet and noticed that the line wasn't very long. So, we met Minnie, character #1, and Sorcerer Mickey, character #2.
By the time we finished visiting with Minnie and Mickey, Littlecjc was begging to ride Toy Story Mania. We had fastpasses for this later in the day, but Littlecjc decided she was willing to wait in line to ride Toy Story Mania, attraction #4. While on the ride, as we were moving towards the third or fourth screen, our vehicle came to an abrupt stop and all the lights came on. We were instantly informed to remain in our seats and that a castmember would be along shortly to get us out. When they did arrive, it was a little funny as we got out of our vehicle and then stood in the formed line to move 10ft to the next vehicle until we had made the full circuit and reached the emergency exit. Although Littlecjc was upset, I found it very interesting. We were able to spot so many more details since this ride is usually dark. One of the castmembers even pointed out a hidden Mickey that will always stand out to me now, but which I never would have noticed while moving past it in the dark.
Before leaving the launch bay, we took advantage of our Disney Visa credit card special meet and greet. Every time we have done this, we have always met Kylo Ren, character #7, and always without a line.
Anytime you are escorted off a ride, you are given a fastpass so that you are able to come back. So, as we left the ride, two castmembers were there to scan a new fastpass onto our magic bands.
11:00
We decided to try to cheer up Littlecjc with some pizza from PizzaRizzo's. While here, we realized that our extra fastpasses never showed up in our app. We were a little upset obviously, but we did already have fastpasses for the ride a little later and we figured that was why it never showed up. (Remember this logic, as we will come back to it later.)
12:00
After lunch, we made our way to the Disney Jr. land area. First, Littlecjc wanted to meet Jake, character #3.
Lines were thankfully very short at this time, and within 6 minutes, we were meeting character #4, Sofia the First.
Again, we quickly moved on to Littlecjc's next pick, Doc McStuffins, caracter #5.
At this point, we moved inside the Star Wars Launch Bay and stood in a short line to meet Chewbacca, character #6.
This meet and greet is always fun, because we never know what to expect from Littlecjc. The first time she met Chewy, she loved him and called him a big dog. Since then, though, she's always been a little more cautious. On this particular day, Chewy really wanted a hug from her, but she was putting up a fight against this.
We ended up with some cute pictures regardless, so I was okay with this.
Chewy even got his hug from her.
1:00
We knew we'd be back for BB8 later, but by now, we needed to make our way back to Toy Story Mania to use our fastpasses, which made Toy Story Mania attraction #5.
At this point, we were excited to see that Star Lord and Baby Groot were still meeting at One Man's Dream. For some reason, I thought that this meet and greet was such a limited affair that it had already left. I was never so happy to be mistaken. We eagerly met Star Lord and Baby Groot, characters #8 & 9.
Baby Groot was so adorable stating his one line over and over and dancing around.
2:00
Littlecjc reminded us that we still hadn't met BB8, so we headed back to the Launch Bay to meet BB8, character #10.
We were feeling pretty accomplished for everything that we got done in this park and thought we'd head to the hotel to check-in. Before actually leaving, though, we made our way back to Toy Story Mania. Remember those fastpasses that never showed up in our app? Well, their was either a big delay or else the system was smart enough to not give us the free fastpass until we had used the one we already had. Either way, the fastpass was now there, so we took advantage of it before leaving the park which made Toy Story Mania attraction #6.
3:00-5:00
With a quick stop in at the Trolley Car Cafe, also known as Starbucks, we made our way to the All-Star Movie Resort. We had completed our online check-in, so we were able to head straight to our room.
Littlecjc was excited to use her band to open the door. For this trip, we were in the Mighty Ducks area, which happens to be the furthest buildings from the lobby and food court. However, these buildings are very close to the bus stops at All-Star Music, so it kind of evens out.
We had hoped that Littlecjc would take a nap, but of course she had no interest in that idea. We knew we wanted to go to Magic Kingdom that evening to see the new Happily Ever After fireworks since they were only shown on certain days during our trip due to the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween parties. Before heading out, we decided to grab some food from the hotel food court. Patrick was very excited to try the Reuben Burger.
It was pretty good, and big enough for Patrick and I to split. I don't remember what kid's meal Littlecjc picked, but between the the two meals, we were all stuffed by the time we walked over the the bus stop at the music resort to head to Magic Kingdom.
6:00
As soon as we entered the park, we could tell that it was going to be a very busy evening. Littlecjc was very eager to ride something, but almost all fastpasses were already gone. We decided to head to one of those classic rides that almost never has a line, that my kid loves. We rode Mad Tea Party, attraction #7.
7:00
With this ride done, and long lines all around the park, we headed to another classic attraction that usually doesn't have too long of lines. Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, attraction #8
We really enjoy this very simple ride. When we got off the PeopleMover, we decided to ride Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. I think that we had fastpasses for this ride, but it still took us a while to actually get on the ride vehicles since the fastpass line tends to get backed-up here a lot. Either way, Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin became attraction #9.
8:00
We decided we really needed to find a spot to watch the fireworks at this time.
For some reason, the park seemed extremely crowded to me this evening. We enjoyed the new show and Littlecjc made it to the very end before falling asleep.
Although the park had extra magic hours until 11 this evening, with a sleeping child and the large crowds, we decided to call it a day and head back to the hotel. Not to mention, that we had gotten up at 4:00 in the morning. It was such a great day, considering we were originally planning on spending the day in the car. We may have only ridden 9 rides, but we met 10 characters and had a lot of fun.
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