Day 9 ~ Hollywood Studios & Outback Steakhouse ~

My alarm went off at 7am this morning, but I kept hitting the snooze button and finally got up at 7:36am.

I had some toast and Paul made everyone tea. I took it in to Mum, Dad, Tracy and Oliver who was still in bed fast asleep.

Since we had arrived at the villa, Amelia had thought it was hilarious to keep pushing the ice dispenser on the fridge, creating a small avalanche on the kitchen floor every morning. This morning though, Paul managed to find a switch to lock it! Mwahahahaha... no more ice clean-ups for us! : D

Everyone else surfaced at 8:15am and Mum and Dad had decided that they would have a rest day at the villa today. Mum’s feet were really bad. I’ve never seen such big blisters. Tracy said she would stay with them and said to leave Amelia at the villa too. So it was just Paul, Oliver and I off to Hollywood Studios today. It was Star Wars weekend and Oliver couldn’t wait! We arranged to meet back to the villa at 3pm ish, have a swim and then go out for dinner with everyone at Outback Steakhouse, and then back to Hollywood Studios afterwards for Fantasmic.

Tracy had read in the villa’s guest book last night that the Sat Nav could be very temperamental, and you just had to angle the wire to the left and it should work. All this time we assumed it had run out of battery, but there was no charger for it; despite the instructions saying there should be one. We were even going to buy one for it and had looked in Publix on Day 7 for one.

So we took the Sat Nav, I plugged it into the cigarette lighter on the driveway and held the wire to the left and sure enough, the light came on! I couldn’t believe it; all this time we had been driving hours out of our way because Paul kept getting lost/couldn’t drive/couldn’t read directions (delete as applicable). FINALLY we might get somewhere swiftly this morning!

I spotted the Sherberth Road and took a note that it was just after the McDonald’s sign on the 192 so we would know for next time. How easy is that?! Such a quiet road; we were there in no time. We arrived at Hollywood Studios at 9:50am and parked up in Music Lot 56.

We had our photo taken in front of the sorcerer’s hat and the CM took an individual shot of Oliver. He then went on to say that he was taking photos of all pretty girls under 18 today and took an individual photo of me too!!! Errr... under 18?? I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry... I am 31, but only 6 months ago I got asked for ID in The Range when I tried to purchase a tube of PVA glue!!!! It was also the most hideous photo of me I have ever seen and will not be making its way into this trip report! The sun was really bright and we were all squinting, so excuse the next couple of pics!

There were lots of posters everywhere for Brave and a Disney Junior program called Doc McStuffin’s. Amelia watched it at the villa a few times. It was so cute. I've just googled it and apparently it's due for release in the UK in August 2012 on Disney Junior. Can't wait!

There's a trailer HERE.

I was wishing that Amelia was with us so I could have taken her to Disney Junior Live on Stage.

The queue for Voyage of the Little Mermaid was huge, so we got fast passes for it. Paul and Oliver weren’t really bothered about going on, but Tracy and I watched The Little Mermaid religiously as kids and I knew the film off by heart (and still do!). It is one of my all time favourite movies so it had to be done.

We wandered around and ended up in Pixar Place. What excellent theming! We passed Toy Story Mania but the wait time was 90 minutes. This is one ride I really wanted us to go on. Paul said we would come back later to see if the queue had gone down.

I spotted a green army man and told Oliver to run and catch up with him as he walked behind a pillar. A little boy got to him first, but Oliver was next in line. I heard the green army man tell the little boy to say please, sounding a bit annoyed as he just held out his autograph book without talking to him. I gave Oliver a nudge and told him to make sure he said please! As we waited for our turn I noticed a storm trooper behind Oliver. I tapped him on the shoulder and pointed in its direction and Oliver’s face literally lit up when he saw it! He was ready to run over and leave the line to see Green Army Man, but as we were next in line I told him to wait. Oliver got his autograph and posed for a photo making sure to say please and thank you. I think green army man was a bit annoyed as other people followed suit and started queuing up behind us. I hope he wasn’t on the way to his lunch break (or Wonder Break as we heard CM’s calling them in MK)!

As we got in the queue for the storm trooper, a CM told us that there was no actual queue for them as such and the storm troopers could walk off at any time. I didn’t hold out much hope for meeting them then knowing our luck. We queued for about 10 minutes but my prediction was right, and they started to move and we never got to meet them. We did get a couple of photos though.

Then we got in a queue to see this guy...

... but after standing in the scorching sun for 10 minutes without moving I was getting really peed off. Paul went off to get us some drinks and when he came back we hadn’t moved.

I then spotted Darth Maul which is Oliver’s favourite character. From the front it didn’t look like there was a queue. We decided to ditch the queue we were in and went over to meet Darth Maul... Little did I know that the queue went around the back of the area he was in. This area was right in the sun with no shade at all. It was SO hot. We queued for 45 minutes, and 20 of those minutes we didn’t even move. Maybe Maul went on a wonder-break?! I was ready to have photos taken of the three of us with him, but Maul’s eyes were so scary I walked straight over the other side and just took pictures of Paul and Oliver! Such a wuss! Lol. Darth Maul snatched Oliver’s autograph book off him, sneering, signed it and then just held it out without even looking at him... he was soooo creepy!!! He then posed for some pictures...

Oliver came away dead chuffed that he’s met him and was full of beans, telling us everything he’d done and how much he’d freaked him out! Worth the 45 minute wait just to see his face!
By now it was 11am and I thought we’d better make our way back to the little mermaid. We passed TSM again and I couldn’t believe it when I saw the wait time....

I thought I would try to get FP tickets as the return time was 3:25pm, but didn’t realise you couldn’t get more FP’s if you had already got some for another ride. Gutted The CM said to come back at 12pm and get them, although the return time would be a bit later. We would have to come back after we’d been on The Little Mermaid.
We entered the FP queue for VOTLM but still had to wait 10 minutes to get in which I found annoying. I was so sick of waiting around by now. The air conditioning was nice though. When we were finally let in, we got a seat quite near to the front. I thought the show was brilliant. The characters were so well done and Ariel’s voice was amazing! Even Paul and Oliver liked it!

We went back outside and round to TSM. The return time was now 9pm – 10pm! We got fast passes as we knew we were coming back tonight and might just make it after Fantasmic. Not being familiar with the fast pass system, we tried getting FP tickets for Mum, Dad and Tracy using their tickets so they could come on the ride with us tonight too, but it came up on the screen that they hadn’t entered the park today and wouldn’t issue them. Well you learn something new every day!

We walked around for a bit and took photos, Oliver being the ever-willing subject!

Then we stumbled upon the Phineas and Ferb Character Spot and got in line. Oliver loves the cartoons on the Disney channel (and if truth be known, so do I!). Paul said he would wait for us while Oliver and I got in the queue. We waited... and waited... I think we queued for about 35 minutes. There were a lot of Mums with strollers so we were moving forward quite quickly and the queue interaction made it go fast too. Oliver passed the time by drawing little pictures in his autograph book of Phineas and Ferb, as he had done for all the other characters he’d met. Just as we made it to the front of the queue and Oliver was next in line, you guessed it, they went for a wonder-break! Pffft. They weren’t gone too long before they returned, maybe 5 minutes or so. They came back through a door to the left of Oliver and as they passed, Phineas put his arm around Oliver and walked him up onto the stage area! He was grinning from ear to ear! They hugged him and played with him, giving him high 5’s and then moved their hands out of the way jokingly and when Ferb took Oliver’s autograph book to sign it, he showed Phineas Oliver’s drawings of them and high fived him again! It was a great interaction and one i’m glad I queued for!

We were starting to get a bit peckish now and Oliver wanted lunch at Pizza planet, so that’s where we went. There was an American girl behind us in the line who had heard us talking and asked me if we were from England. She said she would never forgive herself if we left and she hadn’t asked me! She was from Georgia and had driven down for the weekend. I think she said it took them 4 hours in the car. We chatted about the places we’d been to and where we were going and then we were next in line and I said goodbye. She was really nice and friendly.

Oliver wanted a Kids Power Pack which was a selection of snacks presented in an R2-D2 caddy. It was $10.99 which I thought was a little expensive considering it had nothing really substantial to eat in it, but I thought it would make a nice souvenir of Star Wars Weekend, so I let him have it. It came with a coke too. I ordered a cheese and tomato pizza and an apple juice and Paul had a meatball sub and chips with a coke. The girl at the checkout made sure Paul understood they were USA chips (crisps) and not UK chips (their fries!) and he said that was fine. It came to $36.37 with tax. I bypassed a chocolate cupcake when I realised it had peanut butter in it but they looked sooo good!

We made our way upstairs to find a seat and had to sit on the edge of a table for 6 where a couple were already eating which I hate. It was packed in there and there wasn’t anywhere else though. I gave Oliver a slice of my pizza and he ate his way through the R2D2 caddy, all except the Carrotini’s and ranch dipping.

 

We came out of there at about 2pm. We watched this band for a little while...

And then made our way over to Star Tours which we found had a 40 minute wait, so we picked up some Fast Passes with a return time of 3:50 – 4:50pm.

 

We saw Chewbacca and took a few snaps and then waited while Paul went to the restrooms. By the time he got back, the wait time for Star Tours had gone down to 20 minutes! We decided we may as well wait in line and would give the FP’s to someone afterwards.

Paul was a little apprehensive when he realised Star Tours was a simulator-type ride as they make him feel sick and dizzy, but he felt fine on this all the way through and we all really enjoyed it.
We looked in Tatooine Traders for a limited edition 2012 star wars weekend pin for Oliver but they didn’t have any left. Oliver wanted everything in the shop and I was sad that we couldn’t afford to buy him anything as money was really beginning to get tight now we were into the second week.

It was about 3pm when we came out and we decided we would call it a day now and get back to the villa for a swim. I know we had only been on 2 rides (or one ride and a show) and I was really disappointed that I’d missed out on so many things that I had read about and wanted to go on... Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, Beauty and the Beast (my other favourite film),... but we were all tired, hot and bothered. Oliver had had a good time and had met some of his favourite characters and had been in his element all day with Star Wars weekend. And we would have the chance to ride Toy Story Mania tonight when we would come back for Fantasmic... Or so we thought. More about that later...

As we wandered towards the exit, the Pixar Pals Countdown to Fun was just starting, so we watched that go by.

 

 

 

 

While we were watching the parade it got very cloudy and just as we were leaving it started spitting.

As we made our way towards the exit I looked for a group of three people to give the Star Tours FP's to. I eventually found some and gave them to them and they were very grateful, although I did have to explain to them what they were.

We got back to the car, waited for the air conditioning to kick in and drove back to the villa via Walgreens with the help of the sat nav. Paul was really struggling with prickly heat; His arms, feet and hands looked awful and it was starting to spread up to his neck. He tried the Tesco antihistamines I’d bought from home but they didn’t work, and also some other over the counter stuff from Publix a couple of days ago, but nothing relieved it. He went to the pharmacy and the pharmacist recommended some cream and the USA equivalent to Priteze. It didn’t make any difference though. We will have to get him something from the doctor to take with us next time as he gets it really bad.

We arrived back at about 4pm. It wasn’t raining over Lindfields so Oliver got straight in the pool. Amelia was fast asleep in her pushchair in the living room.

Mum, Dad and Tracy had had a lazy day around the pool. They had taken Amelia for a swim, Mum had changed their bed and Dad had taken Amelia for a walk in the buggy as she was tired and grumpy but wouldn’t sleep. While he was walking through the Lindfields estate, an American woman stopped her car in the middle of the road, wound down her window and shouted to my Dad “You’re as pink as that goddamn stroller boy! Get in and get some sunscreen on!” He couldn’t stop laughing all the way home!

We all went in the pool for a bit until a big black cloud blew over and it started raining. Good job we got out the pool when we did as it soon turned into a storm.

   

We got showered and changed and went to Outback Steakhouse on the 192 for dinner. It was really busy, but we got a booth table straight away and were served by Rick. This is where I had my first taste of coconut shrimp....OMG! How nice is that?? I can’t believe I’ve never tried it before!

I had the Steak combo with coconut shrimp with a baked potato and seasoned rice.
Paul - ribs and chicken with fries.
Dad - same as me but with sweet potato fries and green beans.
Mum - steak in mushroom sauce with garlic mash.
Tracy – Same as Paul but with sweet potato fries.
Oliver – Outback cheeseburger
Amelia – Chicken fingers, apple and grapes.

It was a really lovely meal and we would definitely eat here again.
We were so stuffed that we skipped desserts and asked for the bill which came to $122.70 including 18% gratuity.

We made our way back to Hollywood Studios and had photo pass photos taken on our way to watch Fantasmic. 

It was so busy and Fantasmic was due to start in 10 minutes so of course there was nowhere to sit. We stood right at the very back on the kerbs against the bushes and could hardly see a thing. The kids had glow sticks that I’d bought from home and Amelia sat on Paul’s shoulders. She was still going through the eye-bogeys phrase (see day four) and was throwing pretend eye-bogeys at the camera...

 

This is the view we had

Fantasmic was great though (from what we could see). Next time we go to Florida I will definitely make sure we get there early to get a good seat.

Paul, Oliver and I arranged to meet the others in front of the sorcerer’s hat and raced over to Toy Story Mania with 10 minutes to spare before the park closed at 10pm. We got in the fast pass queue but after waiting 5 minutes, the CM’s at the front announced that the ride had broken down and we were free to use our tickets tomorrow at the same time. I was gutted to say the least. So that was another ride we missed out on.

We met up with the others and looked in a few shops on the way out. I saw my T-shirt again in Keystone Clothiers and I told myself I MUST get it before we go home! But once again, left the shop empty handed.

Despite the Sat Nav now working, Paul still managed to take a wrong turn. When we eventually got back to the villa, I got Amelia ready for bed and fell asleep lying next to her for 10 minutes! Then had tea and chips ahoy cookies while I uploaded my photos to my laptop before bed.