Disney Day 3 - A Magic Kingdom Birthday

Our third day was our Magic Kingdom day and also happened to be my birthday!  I woke up early again to buy Genie+ and prepare to get Carter and me individual Lightning Lanes for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride.  I reserved Jungle Cruise after that for all of us but because I didn't have us both doing it right at 7am, that reservation was later than I hoped.  It worked out fine, though--we had plenty to keep us busy early on.  I was ready early enough to go out on the patio and FaceTime my parents for a bit.  I felt pretty good for 44 and the perma-sweat hadn't kicked in just yet so I took what is essentially the "before" picture for a very long but fun day.

We got to the park and it already felt so hot.  Even if I don't mention it, assume that's what's happening in nearly every picture and post from this trip.  It was crazy hot and super humid each day, with the heat index often climbing up near 100 degrees.  We tried to get a nice picture outside the park as is custom.  I'll get into it into another post why there are nearly no family pics of us, but three of us will do for now.

The Halloween decorations are up in the park because the Halloween party starts in August to let a lot of people experience it.  We had picked Magic Kingdom this day because there was no party (it closes the park early to non-party guests and costs a lot to attend) and there were extra late hours for deluxe resorts, of which ours was one.  There is a line of thinking that says to do Magic Kingdom on party days even if you have to leave at 6pm because the crowds are smaller due to the early closing, but that only really works if you don't care about fireworks or have a park hopper.  I still prefer the Christmas decor, but this was fun.  

We had to snap a picture by the baseball guy because we had a pic with him last time.

Craig purposely wore his Casey's shirt and had to get a picture with the statue outside the baseball-themed restaurant. 

The castle was lovely in its 50th anniversary decor.  

I love this view of it, even if it's not the most famous view.

Our first priority was the Seven Dwarfs Mine Ride, which I bought spots for specifically for Carter and me.  Since Slinky Dog didn't go super well for Craig and Jacob the previous day, we figured we'd go this one alone. 
 

It was super fun!  It had a cute dark ride portion with the jewels the dwarfs were mining and a cute part at the end with Snow White and the Dwarfs dancing in the house, but otherwise it was just an enjoyable ride!

We headed off to Tomorrowland and practically hopped right on the Buzz Lightyear ride, which was similar to the Toy Story target ride the previous day, but with lasers and real-life targets instead of video ones, plus the ability to turn your car to access different targets.  The blasters were so much harder to aim, in my opinion.  I was terrible at it but we all still had fun!  Craig and I did this one when we went alone when I was pregnant with Jacob, but I skipped it last time in favor of feeding Carter.  I was happy we all got to go this time.

The line was so short that Craig and Jacob stayed and played again while Carter and I got on Space Mountain!  We practically walked on the ride, which seems almost unheard of.  This one was highly anticipated and when I FaceTimed with my parents that morning, my dad specifically mentioned to Carter how excited he was for him to ride it.  It's definitely not my favorite ride because it's a little jerky, but it's still fun in its unpredictability in the dark!  Carter really enjoyed it, and I suggested we do a quick FaceTime with Grandpa to tell him.  My dad really appreciated the update, and then off we went for more adventures!

Excited to ride!

After that it was time to head over to Adventureland for our Jungle Cruise, but along the way we caught a minute of a show by the castle.  I should have taken a better picture of me with my birthday button, but this was the best I got in the craziness of the day. 
 

Having the birthday button was sort of fun because tons of cast members wished me a Happy Birthday throughout the day.  It caught me off-guard at first, then got sort of funny, but ultimately it was actually really nice since so little of the rest of the day had any connection to my birthday.  I was hoping to get some "pixie dust" as a result but I think the only "maybes" were a possibly accidental overfilled slushy in the afternoon and a little help from a cast member late that night (more on that later).  

It was so hot by this point that the boys were loving these misting and water shooting carvings.  Craig walked right through the streams.
  

We got over there quickly enough that we had some time to kill, and Pirates of the Caribbean had a short line so we crammed that in before our Jungle Cruise.  Pirates was fun as usual.  It's a classic, even if they had to add Jack Sparrow separately after the movie came out.

Then it was time for Jungle Cruise.  For some reason we hadn't ridden it either time we had been there previously, but it's one of the most popular rides (maybe because of the newer movie?) so I felt like we needed to ride it this time.  I found pictures from my trip when I was nine so I know I rode it, but I forgot it even existed.  It was a cheesy animatronic ride that Walt Disney put in because he wanted real animals but knew it wasn't practical.  Imagine what he'd think if he saw Animal Kingdom today!

The ride was super cheesy and our guide was very sarcastic and silly, but it was a fun little boat ride.  When I posted this picture on social media, people thought the elephant was real!

Some of the scenes were really funny, like the people on the pole getting poked in the butt by a rhino.  I'm still not entirely sure what all the hype is for since it's not super exciting, but it is a classic and I enjoyed it.
 

We wandered around Frontierland for a bit to look at Splash Mountain and consider our options, but we decided to save that for later and book Haunted Mansion next since it wasn't far.  When we got there, they were just closing the line because the ride broke.  That meant we needed to find something else to do, but the good news was that our Lightning Lane would turn into a freebie that we could use on the spot for almost anything else!  Since we were in the area, we decided to check out the Hall of Presidents.  I hadn't done it since I was nine, so there were six new presidents to see!  I have to say, it was a pretty neat thing to see them all sitting on that stage getting introduced one by one like they were still alive.  It definitely stirred up some patriotic feelings, which has been tough to make happen over these past many years.  

We came out of that show into a parade!  It had most of the princesses and few other cool floats including a fire breathing metal dragon.  This was the big finale with Mickey and Minnie!
 

Everyone was excited to get on Splash Mountain after that.  I'll be honest, we avoided it the past two trips because of my aversion to water rides.  But I confirmed via a friend a few weeks ago that it was barely a splash--basically a toned-down version of a standard log flume despite the 50-foot end drop--so I figured it was doable.  We still changed shoes just in case.  We used our Haunted Mansion make-good on the ride so we didn't have to wait for a Lightning Lane time or anything--we just scanned in and were good to go! 

The big drop is that white streak left of center.  Big hill but they tone down the splash a lot!

The ride itself is...interesting.  I was glad to ride it now because assuming we ever go back, it will be different by then.  The current "Song of the South" theme does seem a little questionable in these times, and honestly, aside from the Zip-a-dee-doo-da song, how often do you really come across that movie these days for kids to know what it's about?  I think the upcoming Tiana theme (Princess and the Frog) has a ton of potential to be awesome and visually stunning.  The ride is actually pretty long, with a series of themed dark ride sections and smaller drops before the big drop at the end.  We really enjoyed it and this is one of the few pics you'll see of us all together from this trip.
  

Next up was Big Thunder Mountain.  As shared previously, this was my first ever real coaster and I was excited to share it with Carter.  It really is a fun one.  Jacob actually rode it too, and I think he enjoyed it despite his struggles with Slinky Dog Dash the previous day.  This might have been one of my favorites last time, but now pales in comparison to some new ones...but I still love it!

Similar angle to the picture I posted a couple weeks ago of my mom waving from the ride

We took a lunch break at Pecos Bill's across the way, and made our way back across the park to Fantasyland.  We stopped at a classic wild west-style shooting gallery on our way, which was FREE!  That was a lot of fun once we got the hang of it. 

I love the less traditional views of the castle.  It was so pretty from this spot.
 

I was a little torn on riding It's a Small World going into the trip.  On one hand, it's weird, a little boring, slightly annoying, and full of questionable stereotypes.  But it's also a Disney classic and Carter had never done it.  I figured it would be a good rainy day option, at worst, but we had made such good progress to that point that it was doable.  I love the view from the entrance.  It is SO classic Disney. 

 

I compared this view below to an old picture from when I was three, and it looks nearly identical aside from more lights and maybe more colors.  I love the nostalgia factor here.

After that we tried again on Haunted Mansion with another Genie+ reservation, and this one worked out!  Haunted Mansion was one of those rides that stuck with me from when I was three.  There were parts I never forgot.  Craig and I recalled taking Jacob on it in order to try to scare him straight in the midst of his difficult behavior last time--didn't work, of course--he liked it, which was almost as good considering very little seemed to phase him at the time.  I was a little bummed that the Lightning Lane line skipped some of the fun interactive stuff in the regular line, but I was happy to get through that quickly.  We liked this creepy tombstone at the end of the wait--she opened her eyes periodically which was so creepy!

While it's not actually scary, it is cute and fun and a nice look at what people once considered a little spooky.  Nowadays most "scary" things are all blood and gore and creepy creatures, but Haunted Mansion takes it back to a time where it was a more refined, elegant type of spookiness.  I love the scene where the ghosts are eating and dancing, and the room where the ceiling gets higher and reveals more of the pictures was a favorite of mine from the beginning.  The part where you go downhill backward is the best, and I love how they show you the ghosts in your car at the end!  I think Carter wanted more jump-scares, but he enjoyed it.

We worked our way back to Tomorrowland, just around the time the rain hit.  It was light at the time but we wanted to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway so we put on ponchos just in case it poured while we were on the ride.  I rode with Jacob and Carter drove Craig.  Jacob was a terrible driver, but admittedly the steering on those things isn't great.  But it was a fun ride nonetheless. 
 

Craig and Carter were right behind us.  You can just see Carter over the steering wheel!

I have some vague memory of this ride from my trip when I was nine but I'm not sure I ever rode it.  There's a picture of me from when I was nine sitting in the photo op car outside the ride looking super grumpy.  All I can figure is that I wanted to ride but since my grandma probably couldn't ride and the cars only fit two people, maybe I didn't get to ride because it would have been too much waiting for my mom to go twice?  I have no idea.  But I definitely got on this time!  

By this point Jacob was getting extra eager to leave and admittedly I knew we had to go back to the resort for a bit if we were going to come back for fireworks at 9pm.  I convinced everyone to go on the People Mover since it was just a five-minute wait, and I was glad we did because it poured pretty good while we were on it!  I was much happier there than walking to the bus in the rain!  It's such a basic ride but I love how it was one of Walt Disney's big ideas.  It does make Tomorrowland seem sort of like a futuristic community.  It may have never become a real "thing", but it is definitely a Disney classic.  We were hot and sweaty by this point but still smiling!

From the People Mover you could get a really good view of the next big ride, TRON Lightcycle.  Apparently that canopy is the big finale of the ride (most of which takes place in the building behind it that you can't see).  You can see the roller coaster track inside it.  It sounds like the cars will be similar to Motocoaster at Darien Lake.  I just found video where they were testing the ride and lighting the night before we were there, but we just got to see the lighting.  It looks really cool!

After People Mover we headed out.  I snapped this shot of the Monorail all decorated for the 50th on our way out.

We figured we'd come back for dinner, but between rain and the bus rides, we didn't get back until much later than planned, and at that point we didn't have quite enough time for dinner before the fireworks.  On the way to grab a spot to watch, I snapped this pic with the Astro Orbiter (our main ride target that night) in the distance.

About five minutes before the fireworks were supposed to start, it POURED.  Like a biblical deluge of rain.  The drops were giant and the ground was one big puddle almost immediately.  We had our sandals and ponchos which were lifesavers, but it was BAD.  The show must go on, though--how, I'm not so sure.  That Disney magic is strong!  They cancel fireworks near us with just a little rain but this was such a deluge and they happened anyway!  Of course, it was hard to see with my poncho hood in the way (and looking up wasn't wise) and it was raining so bad that I wasn't willing to pull out my phone to take any pictures.  I kept hoping the rain would stop, but no such luck, and after a while standing there felt utterly pointless.  We eventually gave up and walked into Tomorrowland toward our dinner restaurant (at like 9:15...ugh) and I managed to take a couple pics of the fireworks (but no castle...waaahh) from under a canopy.  

The puddles were so deep in spots--flowing like rivers in many areas but I noticed at least one spot where it was ankle-deep!  It stopped raining while we were eating, but Craig and Jacob were done after all that so they went back to the resort.  Carter and I pressed on for what turned out to be a lovely night, and if we wanted, we could have stayed until 1am since we were deluxe resort guests!  I figured we'd ride a few things, get some pictures, and head back, but we had quite the odyssey!  Astro Orbiter was still closed at that point so I figured we could ride the Barnstormer since it was a super short line.  I had checked that one out before the trip and determined it was too simple of a ride to bother waiting any sort of extended time for it.  It's basically a step up from a kiddie coaster so it was short and relatively simple.  But for a five-minute wait, I figured it was worth trying it once.  And it was--we enjoyed it enough that Carter wanted to ride it again, but I figured we really needed to keep moving because it was getting late and I figured we'd still have a wait for Asto Orbiter once it reopened.  He didn't want to ride Dumbo while we were over there, unfortunately, but I figured it wasn't much different from the Astro Orbiter format, so it wasn't a big deal--nostalgia is fun but we'd had plenty that day already.  

Finally Astro Orbiter reopened so we headed back there.  Carter kept asking to ride it all day, but it's not on Genie+ and is usually a long line.   It also closes in bad weather, so it made for a challenging ride to get on all day.  But the line was reasonable by this point and it was our last big conquest.  It was neat to be up above the park and the lighting on the ride was cool.

The views from up there were amazing: 

This was another ride I hadn't been on since I was three.  I was a little worried about the spinning, but the ride was pretty short and I was pleasantly distracted by the views so I felt fine.  Carter really enjoyed it, too.  You control your height on it and while he loved being high, I had to encourage him to take it up and down a bit so we got to experience that sensation, too.

After that, we were working our way back to Fantasyland, but the line for Tomorrowland Speedway was short so we went on it again.  Carter drove and struggled a bit, but by then the lights for TRON were on and it looked SO cool.

Someone stalled on the track two cars ahead of us, but luckily it was only maybe a 90 second delay before a cast member came over and restarted it.  

I decided that I wanted to wrap up the night with a ride on The Little Mermaid, which I never got to ride last time, so we headed back to Fantasyland.  Carter didn't really want to go on it but I suggested it could be his birthday gift to me to tolerate it since I've always loved the movie.  However, I didn't check the map and then Carter needed a bathroom so we ended up in the area of the carousel instead.  That scored me this picture, and then we tracked down the sword in the stone to see if we could pull it out, but no dice for either of us.

When I realized how off course we were for The Little Mermaid and then checked wait times again, I saw that Peter Pan's Flight was only a five-minute wait.  It is always a long line so I was shocked, even after 11pm when only deluxe resort guests could be in the park.  I decided since The Little Mermaid would have been a long walk on tired feet, and since Carter did a whole unit in school on Peter Pan the book, that it might be a better choice to ride Peter Pan.  We did it before on one of the trips but I was happy to get the chance to do it again with very little wait.  It's a cute ride, for sure, but now that we filled that quota I don't think we'll feel compelled to ride it again next time.  But brace yourselves family, next time The Little Mermaid needs to happen!

After that I decided it was time to start making our way out.  We headed back around with the hope of getting one last walk through the rest of the park at night.  I captured this pretty shot of the lanterns near Rapunzel's tower on the way around.
 

Shortly after this we ended up taking a detour back to the castle because our feet were hurting.  Frontierland and Adventureland seemed like such a long walk, and I figured better up-close pics of the castle were better than anything.  I should mention here that wearing slides due to the rain ended up being really problematic and started a series of blisters for both Carter and me that impacted a lot of the rest of the trip.  They just rubbed us wrong and on top of the foot fatigue, it made for a lot of challenges for our last few days.  The detour was a good choice, I think!

I mean, does it get any better than this?

Main Street looked beautiful at night and I had one last stop there in mind on the way out.  

There was a crystal store there and I believe that's where we saw the fancy glass castle in 2007 that was $25,000.  I really wanted to stop in because they had some blown glass and other things up my alley, but the doors were locked when we got there.  A cast member opened them and asked if we had a pick-up order, which we obviously didn't.  She apologized and explained that they were having some technical difficulties and needed to close early.  I was like, "Oh, OK," and explained that I just wanted to see the sparkly castle I saw in the back of the store for a minute.  Maybe it was my birthday button or maybe she was just nice, but she said we could come in quick if we didn't buy anything.  That was fine with me!  Sure enough, there was a gorgeous crystal-encrusted castle in the back that cost a whopping $250,000!  I would have taken a picture but I wanted to be fast and didn't want to be "that person" gawking at the expensive stuff, but it was incredible!  You can see a short video of it here.

Carter and I hopped on the bus back to the resort with about five minutes to spare before the official end of my birthday!  It had definitely been a full day, but I was so happily exhausted because I felt like we really conquered everything we set out to do!  We made the most of the day, cramming in everything we could physically manage.  It made for a very late night, but the next day was our rest/resort day so I figured we could sleep in to compensate for the late night and recuperate a bit physically since we wouldn't be walking a dozen miles the next day.  It was completely worth it and made for a wonderful way to end my birthday--even if my birthday was mostly a non-event for most of the day other than the many birthday greetings.  I think I need a belated celebration now that we're home--after all, what's a birthday without cake?  But we definitely needed a good sleep after that before we were ready for more fun!

Disney Day 2 - Hollywood Studios

I woke up bright and early on day 2 because I had to work on our Genie+ situation.  Genie+ is a new thing that Disney instituted in place of their old Fast Passes.  The Fast Passes were free and limited in number, but this service costs money--$15 per day per person--but has some added flexibility.  Not cheap, but if you're a ride nut like me (and Carter), it's worth every penny.  There's definitely a learning curve, though, and I was extra nervous going into our first park day because I knew that lines at Hollywood Studios tend to be long and in order to hit up all of our priorities I needed to be on the ball.  You have to buy Genie+ the day of, and at 7am you can start your first selection--and since thousands of people are doing it at once, you have to be fast to get what you want.  

I basically panicked right off the bat and bought individual Lightning Lane passes for Rise of the Resistance, the new Star Wars ride that's not available through Genie+ (each park has one).  Your choice for rides like that are basically either buy the ILL, wake up crazy early and be there for the park opening so you can sprint to the ride, or wait for an hour or more in the standby line.  We had been gifted money for this trip so I figured it was an investment in a better night's sleep, a potentially shorter day, and happier family members.  At the same time I was arranging that, I had Craig on the app on his phone setting up our first Genie+ ride, Slinky Dog Dash, a newer coaster that looked awesome.  Once we had our times for both, we just had to get to the park.  At least I was greeted with this gorgeous view that morning to ease the pain of waking up early!

Our morning went typically slow, but we finally got on the bus and were on our way.  We got through security quickly and moved on to scan our MagicBands (yet another thing that used to be free but isn't anymore) to enter the park.  I love the scenery at Hollywood Studios.  All the old Hollywood glamour stuff is fun.

It took me about two times past the Chinese Theater to realize that the park's most recognizable icon was no longer there!  The giant Mickey Fantasia hat that used to block part of the Chinese Theater was totally gone.  I missed that they had taken that out--turns out it was within a couple years of our last visit.  It was sentimental to me because that was the spot we rode out our first Florida thunderstorm last time.  But the theater is pretty awesome, even if the hat was iconic.  

The park has changed significantly in other ways since we were there last.  Not only has Toy Story gained its own section, but so has Star Wars.  I was probably actually a little thankful the park was so different because I was oddly nervous I'd have some sort of emotional reaction to the area where we got the news Jacob likely had Celiac Disease.  While that area still existed, everything in and around it had changed so the reaction was certainly less.  A lot of this trip triggered weird memories for me since we were going through so much last time we were there, but thankfully our circumstances have changed pretty significantly so they didn't hit me too badly.  

Toy Story Land was amazing!  It was so neatly themed, from the Tinkertoys to the giant K-Nex pieces lining the walkways.  It was so colorful and whimsical that you'd think Andy or Bonnie themselves built it.

As I mentioned, Slinky Dog Dash was our first Genie+ ride.  We got to bypass a whole line and basically only waited about 10 minutes to board.  It was so much fun!  Well, Carter and I loved it.  Craig and Jacob were less than thrilled but tolerated it.  This trip was a test of their motion sickness capabilities and they're not super high, especially in the heat.  But it was a fun start and got Carter and me pumped for more!

Next we headed to Toy Story Mania, which was probably one of the favorites of the day.  We loved it last time, too.  It's basically an arcade style shooting gallery, except it's all video-based and your car spins and moves from one screen to the next.  It was so much fun!  Jacob and I did really well, and had the line not been so long the entire rest of the day, we definitely would have done it again.  

The entire land was so creatively themed--even the bathroom was!  Tinkertoys, Scrabble tiles, Cootie, blocks--it was my childhood, all right there! 

Then it was on to Star Wars Land.  That was incredible.  I can't even describe how crazy the theming was.  To realize this was not there at all the last time we were there and now see mountains and giant, elaborate structures was shocking.  It was surreal and totally felt like transporting to somewhere totally different.  

The Millennium Falcon!

We had to wait to actually ride the Millennium Falcon, but at least the boys posed.  

Around every corner was a sight more elaborate than the last.

Jacob got a fun, futuristic bottle of Sprite (written in Star Wars language) that he kept as his souvenir.

Each area was more elaborate and so impressive.  

It was finally time for our ride on Rise of the Resistance.  I can't even describe this ride.  You walked through a series of rooms to set the stage for your ride.  The last part uses a cool trackless ride system that's almost like skating across the floor.  There were animatronics and walk throughs, and at one point the car flew up in the air like an open elevator and then did a mini drop that scared the crap out of Craig and Jacob.  But the whole ride was so elaborate and so cool.  I was doubtful anything else could beat it (but spoiler alert: it only ended up #3 on my list by the end of the week!).  

We had to strategically pick a time for the Millennium Falcon ride and needed some lunch anyway, so we grabbed some pizza and went to the Muppets 3D show, which we'd seen previously but Carter obviously didn't remember.  It had changed slightly (we think) but Carter was amused by the humor.  
 

We hit up Star Tours after that, which we'd been on before.  Jacob didn't like it as a kid because it's a pretty intense simulator, but Craig and Jacob gutted it out--just barely!  It's definitely quite a rockin' time!  Carter loved it, of course.  

I took this picture of Carter with his glasses because it was very similar to one I took of Jacob last time.

We needed to kill a little time before the Indiana Jones show, and I happened to catch this fun photo where the ibis was in the same position as the dinosaur.

We also randomly ran into a character parade during that time that had a bunch of Toy Story characters.  Funny story--One of the toy soldiers told a girl watching the parade that he liked her boots (she had on combat boots) and on the flight home Carter mentioned something about the toy soldier saying something inappropriate during the parade.  Then he spelled out what he thought he said, and Carter thought he was complimenting her "assets" with a term that sounds very close to "boots".  I set him straight that it was definitely the boots!

The Indiana Jones show was not my favorite way to spend an hour since we've seen it 1-1/2 times (last time it got cut short due to weather), but Craig loves it and Carter needed to see it.  We got there early and had to wait a while, but at least we were shaded and there were big fans so I felt like maybe COVID was less of a concern despite the crowd since the breeze was moving pretty good.  The show was exactly what we remembered (other than no volunteers, much to Craig's dismay), but it was fun to see the big ending since we missed it last time.

Then it was off to the Millennium Falcon ride.  On that one you go through a couple rooms of prep before settling into your own Millennium Falcon cockpit.  There were two pilots, two gunners, and two engineers.  We ended up with one random single rider as our sole engineer.  Craig and Jacob were pilots and Carter and I were the gunners.  You go through a simulator run steering the ship and when buttons lit up, you pressed them.  There actually was some skill involved in piloting and Jacob won't be driving anytime soon because he hit so many asteroids that he cost us 1,000 points!  But I did get this cool picture of warp speed!

Once we finished that ride, the big boys were ready to be done.  We had hit almost everything they wanted to ride, and we decided they might as well go back and get some resort time while Carter and I finished our rides.  That brainstorm ended up becoming a bit of a trend, but it probably made the trip work much better than it could have otherwise.  They got some popcorn in our refillable container and headed out, while Carter and I headed up Sunset Boulevard to make our Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Genie+ reservation.  
 

I won't lie, it felt really good (but rather guilt-inducing) to skip an hour-long line, especially since we were getting tired.  Carter loved the ride, which is a very fast launched dark coaster with a lot of black-lit signs.  He was ready for a good coaster, and he got it!  Every time the coaster launched out of the station, I giggled because it went SO fast!

We wanted to do Tower of Terror next but we had already made a Genie+ reservation for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, which was booking later into the day.  That left us with some time to kill.  Part of the challenge with Genie+ is booking the most popular rides before they run out, while also not locking yourself out of things in the meantime.  You end up either needing to find standby lines you can manage or booking at a time where killing two hours isn't a problem, because you can book a second ride two hours later, even if you haven't ridden the first one yet.  So by strategically using meals and other lines, it can work.  I decided we should check out this Lightning McQueen show next door before going to Tower of Terror.  The only wait was waiting through the previous show (15 minutes or so) and I figured killing time in air conditioning was better than anything else.  Carter was less than thrilled because he wanted to ride other things and thought it was a little kid show.  He couldn't understand that we just needed something to pass the time and this was better than sitting in the heat or walking around on tired feet.  

The show was a little kid-ish but it was cute (and nice and cool).  And we got to see Lightning McQueen in the flesh...or paint, rather!  He was a really cool animatronic, moving his tires just like he does in the movies and using a screen for his eyes and mouth animations.  It was actually pretty neat, even if the storyline was cheesy.  It was basically a 180-degree movie screen up above with the animatronic below, and it culminated in a fun video game-style race.

 
Tower of Terror's posted wait time was only a half hour, which worked well for our timeline, so I figured we could manage one wait.  It actually went super fast so it didn't kill as much time as I hoped, but we both loved it.  It is such a sadistic but fun ride with all the ups and downs.  I don't think Carter knew what to expect and I think after hearing him talk, the guy next to me was eyeing him up mid-ride to see how he was managing.  But we had a blast!

Since we still had more time to kill, I figured we could wander over to Toy Story land to maybe ride the Alien Swirling Saucers.  I wasn't jazzed to ride a spinning ride but figured late in the day I'd manage.  But then we noticed that Slinky Dog Dash, which had been closed, was testing.  We figured we'd stick around close and if it reopened, we could ride it again with a short line.  Alas, that didn't pan out so we didn't do either.  I think Carter was a little disappointed, but that was short lived.

Swirling Saucers with the peaks of the Star Wars Land mountains in the background

This was a view of a section of Slinky Dog Dash where you thought the ride was over but this turned into a booster that sent you into another set of track, much to Craig's and Jacob's dismay!

It was finally time for Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.  I wasn't sure what to expect but had seen positive reviews of it, so I figured we should make sure we rode it.  It was in the Chinese Theater, and we checked out the concrete handprints and footprints on the sidewalk outside until our reservation time came up.

This ride started in a standing theater space with a Mickey and Minnie cartoon, and turned into an exploding train and a busted movie screen that you then walked through to load onto the ride.  It looked like a roller coaster at first but used the same trackless system that Rise of the Resistance has, so there were individual cars that went into different rooms.  One made it feel like going down a waterfall, one was windy like a tornado, and one was a dance studio where Daisy Duck led the cars in dance lessons, making all four cars "dance" back and forth to her counts before conga-ing to the next room.  It all ended happily with Mickey and Minnie having a picnic.  It was a neat combo of actual scenery and video projections to animate the faces.  It was such a cute ride that simply left me smiling with the creativity.    

For the rest of the week Carter kept bringing up how Goofy (the engineer) "tased" us at the end of the ride--it was just a funny little electric shock feeling but it cracked him up.

Here's a pic of the busted movie screen on the way out.  I still can't figure out how they did it.  It definitely looked like a full screen when we got in there.

We stopped in a shop and I had Carter wear this hat because I took a picture of him as a baby wearing a similar one.  You can see it in this post.  

It was finally time to head out, and just in the nick of time since it was threatening rain.  At this point, Jacob and Craig were at the Saratoga Springs resort down the road from ours, since it had a functional basketball court.  Apparently they got there and walked on the court only to have it start downpouring like crazy.  Oddly, it never rained on us at Hollywood Studios.  But the bus that got us was wet and the resort was full of puddles, too.  The property is so big that it happens like that sometimes!

We decided to head back to Disney Springs for dinner because there was a restaurant that had good gluten-free reviews.  In the end it wasn't exactly what we were expecting for Jacob, but the food was really good nonetheless.  We did a little more shopping after that and Carter asked to have his picture taken with Buzz!

It had been a long day but I think we handled it really well with the split day.  I loved all the rides we did so much and was really impressed by all the Toy Story and Star Wars theming.  The magic was kicking in a bit, for sure!  We had one more extra-long day (with a little extra something to celebrate) coming up before a much-needed break, so it was back to the resort to wind down (with another jacuzzi night for the boys) before heading off to bed for my last time as a 43 year old.

Disney Day 1 - Getting There

When I left off, anxiety was really getting to me during the final prep for the trip.  Getting up and ready that morning was a challenge.  I woke up easy enough but the process of getting ready was really frustrating.  I tried to be as prepared as possible but a few things went wrong and of course Jacob was as difficult as usual to get moving.  Fitting all the last minute stuff into all of our carry-ons was hard.  I had to try to do stain removal (and drying) on a shirt I was taking (it had a mystery grease stain out of the wash a couple days earlier, I washed it but forgot to check it, and when I did there were more in a different spot).  Then the cherry on top was that I realized the backpack I was taking had a broken buckle I forgot about.  That meant I needed to repack my carefully packed backpack--and actually find a replacement, but Craig came through at the last minute.  As I was scrambling to do that, Jacob finished getting ready and immediately got all over my case, freaking out about us being late (we weren't--this is why I built in extra time).  In the midst of it, of course he brought up how I ruined last year's vacation, which in the midst of this round of stress, instantly made me cry.  Ugh.  That was already such a sensitive subject--both because I hate that he can't see the fun we did have last year just because he hated the hotel and we missed Legoland, and because I knew he would blame me again if anything went wrong.  It's so annoying that he can't just be grateful for the experience.

Despite all that, we made it to the airport with plenty of time.  We hauled in our bags, checked in online, and spent a bunch of time waiting before it was finally time to board.  Unfortunately we were flying Southwest so the best we could do was split into twos.  Carter was excited but a little nervous for his first flight in his memory.  I talked him through a few things and helped him to learn to look for things on the ground as we took off.  

Love catching the Finger Lakes lined up from a plane--did it on our last trip and this one!

He spent most of the flight just looking out the window.  It was only an hour, and very quickly we were landing in Baltimore.  Carter spotted this cool cloud as we landed and said it looked like someone with their arms in the air--he was right!

Our second flight was...less enjoyable.  We had landed on time in Baltimore but by the time we did a bathroom stop and figured out a lunch spot, our flight was already boarding, much earlier than the time on our boarding pass.  But we needed to eat so we pressed on to the food court and got food within about 10-15 minutes.  They were nearly boarding our section when we got there, and as a result there were nearly no seats together.  Carter is older than their family boarding age so we couldn't board early.  Luckily a woman gave up her seat next to an empty single so we had a couple together.  Jacob ended up in the row in front of us and Craig was in the row ahead of that and across the aisle.  That flight was longer so we had to keep ourselves occupied a bit more.  We waited until tray tables could go down to eat, then finally used the in-flight movie app to start watching a movie.  We only got about 45 minutes in before we started our descent and Carter wanted to watch out the window.  I used the flight tracker to watch altitude and distance, which was fun.  We finally landed but then had a long wait to get our shuttle and finally make it to the resort.  The funny thing was our bus was themed with tree frogs, and we were welcomed last time by a giant frog on our balcony!  

I will say the check in was easy online and we could even use a phone to open the door!  Our suite was identical to last time.  This was the view from our balcony!

We had a warm welcome on the TV, too.

Our resort has lizards everywhere!  You constantly have to watch to not step on them.  They're always skittering off the walkway or hanging out on lampposts and trees.  We even have one that likes to hang out above our door, and the one night we came back and it had a giant bug in its mouth!  They also do this weird throat thing (a red flap comes out) and it totally grosses Craig out!

After we settled in we went exploring a bit before heading out to Disney Springs for dinner.  Jacob desperately wanted to check out the basketball court, but we had a very sad sight greeting us when we got there:

Well, that was not so great since that was a huge part of the reason we picked this resort.  We'd have to find a solution another day!  We headed off on the boat to Disney Springs and found out upon arrival that the boats were getting shut down because of thunderstorms in the area.  We were lucky we were more than halfway through the boat ride because otherwise they would have had to turn back!  

We checked out the outside sculptures at the Lego Store before it started raining.    
 

The rain came down pretty good when we were shopping, so we put on the ponchos and water-friendly shoes and headed to dinner at Splitsville.  We ate there last time and I didn't really want to go back, but Jacob insisted.  It wasn't the easiest gluten-free menu to navigate, but we managed.  It poured for a while as we ate but eventually slowed back down.  We shopped a bit after that and got the lay of the land.

We ended up back at the Lego Store and I got this picture...

We did a bunch of exploring and made a couple mental notes for our next visit.  It had been a very long day and we were relieved to make it back to the room via bus.  The boys were obsessed with the jacuzzi tub in our bathroom and took a "swim" in their trunks!  All of our days so far have featured at least one jacuzzi soak for Jacob.

(They're clothed, I promise.)

We made it to bed at a somewhat reasonable time (all things considered) after placing our grocery delivery order for the next morning.  It had been a very full first day, but we were happy to be here even if we had some frustrating moments during the day.  Our first full day in the parks awaited!