Disney Day #2

With cousins here and ready to play, we were up and ready early.  Out of the house around 8:25, we were walking into Hollywood Studios just as it opened.

We zipped over to try and get the big cousins signed up for Jedi Training, which we did.  Knowing they needed to be back for their prep at 3:20, we worked on planning out the rest of the day.

Then Star Tours, which was a huge hit with everyone.  C3PO is your guide as you zoom around in a pod, seated in rows all together.

Buds had gotten Fast Passes for Toy Story Midway, which meant our afternoon was pretty set.

We headed to The Muppet 3-D show, which was a good place to relax, and Maya and Noa had great fun sitting on my lap, reaching out to try and grab the objects that were flying out from the screen.

After Muppet 3-D, Buster and Cousin O went back to Star Tours for another round, with Buds, while the rest of the crew headed to the “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” playground with Uncle Z and me.  We met up there and relaxed with lunch.  The shady breaks with downtime really helped to make sure everyone could hold it together for the long hauls.

Then the Backstage Tour, which turned out to be a hit because of Catastrophe Canyon. Noa loved the 70,000 gallons of gushing water which followed the big explosion.

Thanks to Buds getting Fast Passes for all of us, we waltzed right on to the Toy Story Midway Ride.

From there, people were starting to fade, so off we went to The Car Stunt Show in the big stadium.  That was cool.  Learning some of the tricks of stunt car driving, i.e. a car that has been modified with the driver facing backwards so the car be driven crazy fast, looking like it is going in reverse, was really neat. The kids loved the explosions.

When I came to Disney with Steve and Faye and Patricia and James all those many years ago, we rode the Tower of Terror.  Once in a lifetime was sufficient for me.  Despite my dire predictions, or possibly because of them, all the cousins, from the 3 y.o. to the 9 y.o., wanted to ride the Tower of Terror.  Off they all trooped with the Dads for the ride of their lives.  Later reports indicate at least one child in tears, one child having to talk to himself like a therapist the entire time (It’s okay, you’ll be fine.  You can do it.), a dad who kept his eyes closed the whole ride, and all small child butts experiencing the feeling of weightlessness as they were lifted off the seat in the “drop” portion of the ride.  The ghostly haunting may have been the most distressing to our crew, and at least three of the children had nightmares that night about the ride, but…like many difficult things…in the years to come this will be one of their favorite stories to reminisce about.

For the rest of the trip, though, our children refused to refer to it by its name.  It was to be called only “T of T.”

The timing worked out well in that the day was very full, but as soon as they exited the T of  T, Buds grabbed hold of the three big kids and took off at a sprint for Jedi Training.  If you are late for Jedi Training, they give your spot to some eagerly waiting wait-listed child.  Also with impeccable timing, the daily Disney parade was going on as they had to sprint to Jedi Training.  I can only imagine the cajoling, threatening, and scooting that Buddie had to do to get them all there on time, but they did it.

Jedi Training seemed to largely consist of sitting and waiting, learning a certain attack pattern:  Left arm, right arm, left leg, duck, left leg, right leg, head.

Lots of pictures of this.

After Jedi training was complete, we made our way over to the stage where the children were given their Jedi robes and light sabers.

Well, I’ve written more about Jedi training in another post, and I’m now working on this post 8 weeks post-Disney. My memories have grown dimmer, so pictures will have to suffice.