Sunday, July 21, 2013

Day 10 - Studios and Blizzard Beach or Day 1 at WDW

We woke up and had breakfast in the room. I love having a full kitchen to make real food. Today it was orange rolls, bagels, juice, etc. But just to have it in our own space was great.
Once we were dressed and coated with sunscreen we headed out the door to rope drop at Disney's Hollywood Studios. We had a fairly short list of must do's at the Studios today, but high on the list was Toy Story Midway Mania. And Fastpass first thing is the only way to do this ride. So we made it to rope drop and here is where I dropped the ball. I got in the WRONG bag check line. Hubby was in the line next to me and all was going fine, then my line came to a screeching halt. His was cruisin along too fast for me to jump lines without being really rude. Well, what to do, stick it out. We made it to get Fastpasses, so all was not lost. But I learned my lesson... follow hubby when choosing a line.
Since we had about 90 mins to kill before our time to ride Toy Story we walked through the One Man's Dream attraction. Talking about the history of the parks and some of the future things.
Then we moved on to Muppet Vision 3D - a family favorite. When we left the theater we spotted Phineas and Ferb posing for pictures, so our Lady got in line to meet the brothers.
After her photo op, we did some leisurely shopping.
Then much to my suprise both kids said they wanted to go over to the Animation building and to the Animation Academy. Cool!
We all participated and learned (or at least tried) to draw Goofy. The animator promised, that no matter what it would look goofy... he was right ;)
We had a lot of fun with this.
Now its time to ride TOY STORY!!!! Yay! Its really what everyone had been waiting for. And we were off. It's one of my favorite rides. We have so much fun with it, it's a shame one time through is all we got.
This was really all that we had on our list for Hollywood Studios so we headed out... it was a short visit but full of fun. And we grabbed some Mickey pretzels for the way out.

Back in the room we packed up a few things for our afternoon plans.... Blizzard Beach. The kids have never been and were soooo excited. Waterslides - Yay!!!
But first... lunch.
We have always enjoyed eating at Coronado Springs, Pepper Market. In recent years they have tried to restructure it a bit, but upon arriving for lunch we found it was all back to normal... or at least what is normal for us. So we got our stamp cards and headed for the food.
Everyone got something that they liked and we had a lovely lunch. This place is big and open, but even when it's busy, you never feel like it's too crowded.

We moved on to Blizzard Beach. Our annual passes include waterparks... what fun! We took advantage of the changing areas and lockers and then were off to the slides. Actually we started with the lazy river.... they have a cleaver name for it... but I already forgot :) We thought this would be a nice way to go around without walking. Well it was, but you can't really see anything from the river. We had a nice float all the same. And made it almost all the way around before getting out to hit the chair lift.
Our little lady was sure she didn't want to go on the chair lift, and once she survived it and was at the top, she was sure she didn't want to do the family raft slide (Teamboat Springs) with us... but once it was over - you could hear her chanting "Again, Again, Again" all over the park.
This dumped us out really close to the kids area - Ski Patrol area. So we checked out the smaller slides here and scoped out what was next.
Ice Cream! Or something cold and frozen for sure. Some had Mickey bars, some had frozen lemonade, and all were cooled off and slightly sticky when it was over.
We cleaned up and returned to Teamboat Springs for another ride on the family raft slide... it's a great slide. Then we hit the lazy river again for a short ride, before going back to the ski patrol area. But when we arrived the sky had started to darken and we were greeted with a thunder clap.
Thunder and lightning are very common this time of year in Orlando, and they mean water parks close down quickly. Within minutes all the slides were closed and everyone was headed for cover... the rain came fast and hard. I had forgotten how crazy Florida rain is.
It was just before 5 when we reached the sheltered area. Which also happened to be the main food area. So we ate dinner.... our umbrella'd table weathered the rain well. We ate at 5:10 and hung out at the table til about 6. By this point the rain had mellow'd significantly and was light enough to walk in. The lightning was gone, or far enough away, that we didn't notice it. So we were hanging out waiting for them to re-open... Us and several hundred other families.
Apparently their rule is 30 mins after the last spotted lightning they can re-open. So we wandered.
And about 7, there were some announcements about the park still being closed, etc. and some codes - like "all cast, code 5" or something. We noticed a number of the life gaurds heading back to the slide areas... hmmmmm. Well lo and behold - 5 minutes later they reopened. And we had the place practically to ourselves.
This was hubby chance to ride the grown up slides, so off he went to Slush Gusher. While the kids and I did more Ski Patrol slides.
He came back by and the little lady decided to join him on some other slides, the toboggan racers and runoff rapids
The Boy and I stayed at ski patrol for various slides - He was a real ace by the time we left.
The park closed at 8, so this flurry of activity didn't last long. We dried off and headed out, with a quick stop in the store for me to pick up a new beach towel... it has the Nemo seagulls on it and says... wanna guess? "Mine, Mine, Mine" I love it. 
Back in the room we showered and fell into bed. What a great day.
Tomorrow we have a tour and princesses.

I apologize for not taking any pictures today... crazy I know. I was enjoying the day too much to get my camera out :)

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