Florida Vacation 2011 | Day 5 | Hollywood Studios

Wednesday morning we woke up early again and made it to Hollywood Studios before the park opening.  We were first in line in one of the entrances!

 Grandma Michele did a great job keeping the boys entertained and even took them to a shop and bought them Buzz Lightyear phones with pretend cameras.  They love them!  (Thanks Grandma!)

 Once again we got to watch the rope drop - this time no Disney characters.

 And then we made the M.A.D rush to Toy Story Mania.  Definitely a crazy experience - knowing what we know now, we would have gone an entirely different way - we ended up getting right on this ride and rode it 2 more times throughout the day.  This ride is so much fun for everyone! It was such a great time of the year to be at Disney so we were able to ride this ride and so many others multiple times with very minimal wait!

 There was a show in front of the "hat" called Disney Channel Rocks that we happened to run into.  Goofy was out front entertaining those who were waiting for the show to start.

 They used megaphones as the cones to keep people from getting too close to the show.  One cast member was very friendly with our boys while we were waiting and let them talk into it.  Isaiah thought he was really cool.

 Levi, on the other hand, crossed his arms and refused to try! :)

 The dancing was fun and Isaiah and Levi loved to watch.  I don't think they knew any of the songs because they were from shows on the Disney Channel (which we don't have) that are geared toward elementary and junior high kids, but they loved it just the same.  Isaiah even got up and joined them on stage for the last song.

A few minutes into this show, Mark and I snuck off to the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.  There was basically NO line.  I took a picture of the picture they took of us during the ride. haha.

 Then Mark and his mom went to ride it while the boys and I found Donald Duck!

 Things couldn't have been more exciting for the boys when we found Lighting McQueen and Mater!  The boys were both in awe and amazement when they saw these two.  They walked around them and just looked at them for a few minutes before grasping what they were seeing.  It was priceless!

 Around the corner from McQueen and Mater we found Buzz way up high on a building. Levi especially liked this.  (Can you tell he loves Buzz?)

 Grandma Michele enjoyed pushing the stroller throughout the park.  We ended up buying a Sit 'N Stand stroller off Craig's list for our trip.  It worked great, but the back rest for Levi was short -- so it was very hard for him to nap in it -- which made for a tired boy, otherwise it was very handy!

 After watching the boys love the Boneyard the day before, we knew they would love the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground -- and they did.  Once again we had to tear them away kicking and screaming!  (maybe an advantage to going to Disney in the summer is that kids can play at the park at home and not here! :)

Next we went to the Indiana Jones show, but of course Levi started crying as soon as we walked into the stadium.  Mark, Isaiah and Michele stayed - and Mark even made it into the show (again -- he did last time we saw it too - he loves being involved!)  Levi and I went and met Handy Manny, Goofy and Pluto.

The Indiana Jones show ended and they caught up with us when we were next in line to meet Tigger and Eeyore.  We brought our long distance walkie talkies so we could communicate quickly when we were separated - this was definitely useful!

We headed back over to Toy Storia Mania and ran into the Green Army Men - we saw two of them.  They signed Isaiah's book as "the green army man" which I think is funny.

We just missed our chance to meet Woody, but had a short wait to meet Buzz Lightyear.  I think he was the most exciting for us to meet and we all loved him.

We stopped into the animation studio (I think) and met a few more characters -- Lotso (from Toy Story 3)

and MICKEY MOUSE!  This was the only time we took the time to wait to see Mickey (and we only had to wait just a few minutes!)

and we met Mr. and Mrs. Incredible - this is who Isaiah said he wanted to meet the most!  We asked the cast members while we were waiting to get in to the park if Dash (the little boy in this movie) would be around, but they said they didn't think they had ever seen him before - so we told Isaiah that he was at school.

We also stopped back to meet Handy Manny (again for Levi - but Isaiah had missed him) and the Little Einsteins.  Isaiah wanted to take a picture of June on his phone so he'd "have it forever." :)

Mark and Grandma made it to the Tower of Terror while the boys and I walked around - hoping that Levi would fall asleep - but he was too excited by all that was going on.  I took them to see the huge guitar.

And then it was time for the parade.  Again, the boys LOVED it.  The best part about this parade is it had all the fun Pixar characters in it - Toy Story, Incredibles, Monster's Inc, Ratatouille, Bugs Life, Up.  I don't think we saw most of these characters anywhere other than this parade.

We then ran into a street Rock 'n Roll show.  Levi LOVED this and kept inching closer and closer to them.  The lead singer thought he was cute and pointed him out while she was singing.

We went to the Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt show.  As we were walking in a cast member came up to us and asked if we wanted to sit in the special seats up in front - of course!!  Only two families get to sit in these special seats so we were lucky!  They only had 2 showings of this the day we were there and we only arrived like 20 minutes before it was scheduled to start so we would have had to sit way in the back.  It made us all feel magical! :)

Levi made it through most of the show just fine, but did get very scared when they did the final stunt with fire. Below you will see the act with Herbie (the car in the 1960's movie the Love Bug).

All day long I wanted to make sure we got a group picture in front of the hat.  So we made sure to get this in before it got too late!

Our last event of the day was the American Idol show.  We watched the last "regular" show and enjoyed it so well, that we went back for the next showing which was the finale where all the winners from each hourly show competed to win for the day.  The daily winner got a golden ticket to the front of the line at any real American Idol audition.

By the time this show was over it was after 7:30 so we headed back to the hotel to relax a little, take baths, and get ready for our big day at Magic Kingdom the next day!