I thought she meant BTMR, but when we were talking about it when we got home (see, I already refer to the resort as 'home') she said she meant "the one with stitch" (Stitch's Great Escape)! I confirmed that we would not be going on that ride again. Ever.
I got up and made tea and sneakily put the kids invitation to breakfast under the door. I did this every morning that we had a character ADR.
Today was moving day for Daniel, Sam and Sarah, so everything from their room had to be brought up into ours as the change-over wasn't until 11am and we didn't want to hang around. I faffed about getting our park essentials into our bags and helped Amelia get dressed into her Doc McStuffins dress that I made her while Paul helped Daniel bring everything upstairs. Then we got in the car and made our way to Hollywood Studios… At least that was the plan. But the Sat Nav had other ideas. It thought it would be good to send us on a little (a long) detour. I'm getting frustrated at this point. A lot.
Eventually we found where we should be going with the help of the map on Daniel's phone and we were hot footing it from Television 39 up to the entrance at 8:05am, which coincidentally was the time of our dining reservation at Hollywood and Vine.
Oliver had a glitch with his magic band at the entrance, something which became a regular occurrence throughout the holiday, but eventually the mickey ball turned from blue to green and he was allowed in.
We had a quick obligatory photo as the park was empty. I now realise that this would be one of the last family photos we'll ever have in front of the Sorcerer's Hat which is quite sad.
Let us take a few minutes to remember the hat….
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Anyway…… So due to my excellent Disney-map-memorising skills (or as Paul calls it, OCD
), I knew exactly where to go We marched up Hollywood boulevard and made a left to Hollywood and Vine and we checked in with the campest cast member I've ever had the pleasure of meeting. We sat down only for a few minutes before we were called and seated at a table by the window just on the right hand side of the door. As we went in we saw Sofia the First with another family. We went up and got food. Amelia just wanted croissants and after feeling uncomfortable all day after eating so much at crystal palace yesterday, I followed suit with some pastries, fruit, a mickey waffle and some french toast, thinking it would be the same as the puffed ones at Crystal Palace. It wasn't. It tasted deep fried and greasy and unfortunately that was only the start of the food disappointment. Paul couldn't even finish his first plate as it was so horrible and Paul not finishing food is just unheard of! It must have been bad! I tried one of the sausages he left and it was rank! He said later that it was chicken… All I know is it was a greyish white, spicy and disgusting.. On the upside, the characters were great! Amelia was really excited and kept telling me that she was brave and met them without going shy! She couldn't stop giggling. It was so lovely. First up was Doc. Paul had to pick her up in order her for to be brave… Doc pointed to Amelia's dress and clapped and then listened to her heart with her stethoscope.
Next was Handy Manny. Amelia was REALLY brave now and touched him!
Then Sofia paid us a visit and she gave her first proper character hug! I could have cried!
By the time Jake came around, she was in her element! She had a permanent grin etched across her face now. Jake was really funny and kept taking things off the other characters an running through the restaurant with them.
You may notice there are no photos of Oliver with the characters. At nearly 15 years of age, he declared he was too old to meet them and busied himself eating!
Before we settled the bill, I went back up to the food station and grabbed some apples and bananas and snuck them into my bag for later
Then Oliver realised he had lost his wallet. Great. The first time I let him look after it, rather than put it in my bag, and within the space of an hour he'd lost it. He asked at the podium out the front and a server inside, but no one had handed it in so we waited outside with Sam and Sarah while Paul retraced our steps back to the car park and Daniel visited the restrooms. I took a couple of pictures of the kids who were having fun jumping up and down the steps. Then discretely changed Amelia behind the pushchair into shorts and a t-shirt so she could move around a bit better.
Daniel came back and he, Sam and Sarah left us and went off to do some rides. We hung around a bit longer and I decided we'd take a slow walk up Hollywood Boulevard and text Paul to tell him to meet us in front of the Sorcerer's hat. I took more photos and then we had a photopass one taken too….
As soon as we finished Paul called asking where we were and I could see him wondering around looking for us which was amusing.
Amelia ran up and jumped on him from behind. As luck would have it, he found the wallet it in the car. Phew. At last we could start our day.We made our way over to Toy story mania but realised we were a bit early for our fastpass, so we had a look around One Man's Dream and watched the show. Paul and I found it really interesting, but the kids found it a bit boring and Amelia started to play up towards the end. I wanted to take her outside but all the doors were shut and there wasn't a CM in sight.
Our window for TSM was open when we came out, so we scanned our magic bands once again and went straight to the front of the line, after a few attempts of scanning Oliver's. The queue theming was brilliant, as was the ride. Paul went on with Oliver and Amelia and I were behind them. She LOVED it and didn't stop shooting! This was our score… Don't laugh! We are first timers after all! It broke down in 2012 so we never got to go on it.
We had a walk down Pixar Place and met a green army man…
…And then we just walked around taking in the sights. I bought a car window decal of a cat wearing mouse ears to go with the rest of our family ones on the rear window of our car (we've been back 4 months and I still haven't put it on!). We looked in the shop at Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Amelia fell in love with an Ariel and Prince Eric dress-up set in a little carry case ($23.33 with tax). We had set a limit of $20 a day each for the kids, so we had to try and explain to her that if she bought it, that would be it for the whole day, but she was adamant that she wanted it, so she paid for it and we had it sent to Oscar's Super Service (package pick up) so we didn't have to carry it around all day. I was a little wary of leaving it under the pushchair while we went on rides. It was money well spent and she played with it for the entire holiday whenever we were at the resort.
Next we went in the Wandering Oaken's Frozen Snowground. I'm not too sure if this is a permanent attraction, but it did seem like it was thrown together at the last minute overnight. Not much Imagineering went into it, put it that way. The kids enjoyed it though and make a few snow bricks before their time was up (yes they were timed!). I wouldn't be in a hurry to go in there again.
We had a photo taken on the way out which looked a bit naff, but when we got home I discovered it was actually a magic shot which turned out like this…
We headed down Sunset Boulevard for our next fastpass at 12pm. It was time to ride this bad boy…
I don't know what I was more nervous about; going on ToT, or Oliver looking after Amelia for 10 minutes while we rode it. We sat them down close to the ride in some shade and instructed them not to move or talk to anyone, and left them with the promise of ice cream when we got back.
Then we walked up to the 'hotel' feeling a mixture of guilt and pure terror of the thought of entering the queue. To say I was petrified was an understatement. But you only live once, so I got on with it and it went a little something like this…
It was pretty horrible. But if it came to it, I would ride it again, so it can't be that bad. Daniel and sam took Sarah on during their day. I don't think she's forgiven them yet!
A "We did it" shot!
On the way out of the exit we noticed Rock n roller coaster closed down which we were a bit gutted about as we both really wanted to ride it.
The kids were still in one piece when we got back just a few minutes after we left them. Not one to break a promise, we got ice creams from a little cart near Rosie's. Oliver and Amelia both had Mickey ice creams..
And Paul had a Mickey ice cream sandwich.
I really wanted one too after tying a bit, but I decided not to have anything as I was saving myself for something else. After reading so many good things on the Dibb about carrot cake cookies, I was determined to pay a visit to Writer's Stop to get one before we left.
Next up was Beauty and the Beast live on stage. We were sat quite far back, but we found see OK. Amelia was consumed and loved every second. She really loved the shows and parades on this trip. I tested out the zoom on my new lens and got a few shots, but they're not great.
We had a FP for Star tours between 3pm - 4pm but we didn't really enjoy it that much last time so decided to skip it. We took a wander back over to Commissary Lane taking a picture of this little guy as we passed.
We found Writers Stop and ordered a carrot cake cookie for me, a white chocolate macadamia cookie for Oliver, a Mickey red shorts man for Amelia and just a Coffee for Paul which used 4 snack credits.
The carrot cake cookie exceeded my expectations and was as delicious as I'd read. Oh what I would do for one now!
It was really hot and we were starting to flag a bit. There wasn't really anything else we wanted to do and we decided to head back to OKW. We called Daniel who said they would get a bus back if we wanted to take the car as there was still a lot they wanted to do.
We took a few last photos and saw where the Osbourne Lights were going to be as we really wanted to see them at some point on this trip, however, sadly we never did get there. One of my biggest regrets of the holiday.
We collected Amelia's Ariel set from package Pick up and went back to the car and you guessed it. The Sat nav took us the wrong way again. Oh how we laughed. Not. A huge row ensued. Apparently it was my fault for not reading the sat nav properly? ! ( I was under the impression that it was the device that gave out the directions and not the person holding it - why was I given it to hold anyway? Shouldn't it be mounted in front of the driver on the dashboard?). For the next an HOUR AND A HALF (yes you read correctly. That is how long I took us to get from HS to OKW
) I sat looking out the window in silence after suggesting somewhere he could shove his sat nav. I was raging. We went back to the villa for a bit and calmed down. Then got our swim gear and got back in the car and parked at Hospitality House to go for a swim. We had a look around first and took advantage of the deserted area behind the pool where the hammock was.
Then they went for a swim while I watched from the side. Paul said although the water was warm, it was freezing when they got out. I hate being cold so I sat this one out. They seemed to enjoy themselves though.
I had a wander around the pool area and took some photos of the grounds. It is such a lovely resort.
I also spotted this in the sky…
Amelia wanted to get out as she was getting cold and tired so I got her dried and changed while Paul had a quick swim on his own and played with Oliver. I thought she was going to fall asleep on a sun lounger at one point, so I hauled them out of the pool and took her to play in the playground while the boys got changed. They came and found us after and the kids played in the giant bucket and spade. There was no one else around and the sun was setting. It was so quiet and tranquil. Writing this is making me want to go back! 
We headed back to the car, with a plan of going to DTD to get something to eat at the other Wolfgang Puck that we tried to find on our first night and buy some Pandora.
On the way back Paul said he felt sick and as soon as we reached the villa he saw everything he'd eaten for the past two days again! I was in the bedroom while he was in the bathroom and I kept thinking, there can't be anything else let to throw up, but then he'd vomit more and more. It was never ending!
He said he felt a bit better afterwards, although I said we'd stay in and get some toast, or walk up to Goods Food to Go, but he insisted that we go to DTD. There was still no sign of Daniel and sam, so we drove to HH and got water taxi to DTD. It dropped us at the boat dock and we had to walk around to marketplace. It seemed as though we were walking through miles and miles of hoarding. There was so much construction going on. We were shattered when we got to Wolfgang Puck Express and was gutted to find a queue outside the door to get in. We sucked it up and got in line. Paul left for the restrooms just as we got to the door. He was gone ages bless him. He came back just as we neared the front of the queue and I suggested going home, but again, he insisted we get something to eat as we hadn't had a proper meal today.
So finally, after waiting around 30-40 minutes in line, we ordered
Me: meatballs and spaghetti $16.00
Oliver: pepperoni pizza again $13.00
Amelia: Kids chicken tenders $8.00
Plus 1 cheesecake $6.00
1 brownie $3.00
1 choc chip cookie $2.00
2 adult fountain drinks $5.90
1 child's fountain drink $1.25
Unsurprisingly, Paul didn't have anything.
TOTAL £58.74 with tax… Or it would have been. But all of this was classed as a quick service on the dining plan so it was free
The thing I love most about this WPE is that it feels more like table service. They give you a table number and then bring the food over to you when it's ready. The servers are really friendly and funny. There's so much choice on the menu. We came back here several times this trip and had something different every time.
The food was great, but the atmosphere on our table, not so much. Paul looked pale and just awful (although he said he felt OK), Amelia was nearly falling asleep and barely touched anything, which is why I didn't take any food photos tonight (sorry). We pocketed the desserts for later (I had a few mouthfuls of cheesecake but couldn't finish it) and headed for the bus stop via a couple of shops for browsing. No Pandora, but I didn't mind. I just wanted us all to get home to bed at this point.
A mixture of smiles and stresses, but a pretty good day at Hollywood Studios.
We headed back to the car, with a plan of going to DTD to get something to eat at the other Wolfgang Puck that we tried to find on our first night and buy some Pandora.
On the way back Paul said he felt sick and as soon as we reached the villa he saw everything he'd eaten for the past two days again! I was in the bedroom while he was in the bathroom and I kept thinking, there can't be anything else let to throw up, but then he'd vomit more and more. It was never ending!
He said he felt a bit better afterwards, although I said we'd stay in and get some toast, or walk up to Goods Food to Go, but he insisted that we go to DTD. There was still no sign of Daniel and sam, so we drove to HH and got water taxi to DTD. It dropped us at the boat dock and we had to walk around to marketplace. It seemed as though we were walking through miles and miles of hoarding. There was so much construction going on. We were shattered when we got to Wolfgang Puck Express and was gutted to find a queue outside the door to get in. We sucked it up and got in line. Paul left for the restrooms just as we got to the door. He was gone ages bless him. He came back just as we neared the front of the queue and I suggested going home, but again, he insisted we get something to eat as we hadn't had a proper meal today.
So finally, after waiting around 30-40 minutes in line, we ordered
Me: meatballs and spaghetti $16.00
Oliver: pepperoni pizza again $13.00
Amelia: Kids chicken tenders $8.00
Plus 1 cheesecake $6.00
1 brownie $3.00
1 choc chip cookie $2.00
2 adult fountain drinks $5.90
1 child's fountain drink $1.25
Unsurprisingly, Paul didn't have anything.
TOTAL £58.74 with tax… Or it would have been. But all of this was classed as a quick service on the dining plan so it was free
The thing I love most about this WPE is that it feels more like table service. They give you a table number and then bring the food over to you when it's ready. The servers are really friendly and funny. There's so much choice on the menu. We came back here several times this trip and had something different every time.
The food was great, but the atmosphere on our table, not so much. Paul looked pale and just awful (although he said he felt OK), Amelia was nearly falling asleep and barely touched anything, which is why I didn't take any food photos tonight (sorry). We pocketed the desserts for later (I had a few mouthfuls of cheesecake but couldn't finish it) and headed for the bus stop via a couple of shops for browsing. No Pandora, but I didn't mind. I just wanted us all to get home to bed at this point.
A mixture of smiles and stresses, but a pretty good day at Hollywood Studios.
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