Disney World - Day 3 - Disney Studios, Pool, Arcade

Disney Hollywood Studios is one of our favorite parks.  Although we knew we wouldn't be riding the Aerosmith Rockin' Rollercoaster or the Tower of Terror this trip, we still love the shows and street performances at this park.  I think this place has some of the best "theme" restaurants in Walt Disney World as well.

Robbie was the least excited here...
you can hardly tell, right?

 We waited for a meet-n-greet with Phineas and Ferb.  Sam LOVES this show.  We also took a moment for a photo op with Lightening McQueen and Mater.

Aren't you boys a little young to be signing autographs?

The "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids" playset was a big hit with Robbie.  He especially enjoyed this giant super-soaker that squirted water every 20 seconds or so.  It had a nice climbing/sliding area and lots of fun enlarged props to play with.

Watch out for the super soaker!

That's a big puppy nose!

Lunch was at a favorite restaurant - the Sci Fi Dine-In Theatre.  I'm glad we had a reservation because they were turning people away at the door who wanted to wait for a table.  This is a great place to eat.  It looks like a drive-in theatre, your table is a car, and you get to watch clips of old sci-fi films. Awesome!  I got an appetizer of spinach and artichoke dip (which I normally don't order) and it was super yummy!

Robbie received a "driver's license" and got a fruit punch with a glowing Buzz Lightyear toy.  So much fun!

Glowing margarita? Don't mind if I do!

Nap time was upon us, so we hopped the bus back.  Robbie claimed not to be sleepy, but really needed to blow off some steam, so we took him to the hotel pool for a couple of hours.

If you ask Robbie what his favorite part of Disney World was, he will answer: "The pool!"

Sam and Robbie played in the pool for several hours while I slept relaxed in a lounge chair.  After a nap, we headed to the hotel arcade to burn our complementary tokens that came with our hotel package.  They had a giant screened version of Fruit Ninja, virtual bowling, and more that Rob really enjoyed.  We had a late dinner at the Whispering Canyon in our hotel.  This is such a fun restaurant if you've got kids. Just make sure you ask for ketchup, ok?

Tomorrow on the clipboard of fun: Animal Kingdom AM, Disney Studios and Fanstasmic Light Show PM.

Disney World - Day 2 - Chef Mickey's, Epcot, Magic Kingdom

Chef Mickey's is a character restaurant at the Contemporary hotel that is actually kind of difficult to get a reservation for.  I made breakfast reservations about 2 months ahead of our trip and had a choice of breakfast at 7:20AM or 10:35AM. We chose the early one. When I found out mom and dad would be joining us the first two days, I tried to change our reservation for 3 to 5 people and was told there wasn't a single table for 5 people available the entire week for any time or meal.  So mom and dad stayed at the hotel for breakfast and we went alone.  

This picture cracks me up because Robbie is like picking his teeth or something.  He was really tired from yesterday and insisted on bringing his cuddle pals kitty and puppy with him, so they are in the picture too.  

Chef Mickey's Character Breakfast

 After breakfast we popped by the gift shop.  I bought these "Ellie Badge" pins from UP.  LOVE THIS!

Back to the hotel to meet Mom & Dad and head to Epcot.  We were a little worried Robbie wouldn't like Epcot since it's geared more toward education and he is pretty young, so we only planned to be here in the morning.

We headed to "the Land" to see if he was tall enough to ride Soarin' but he missed out by about a finger width.  Bummer.  Then over to the Seas to ride the Finding Nemo ride... where just as we were getting on the ride he totally freaked out and refused to get on.  The cast member at the ride asked him if he wanted a flash light, which he accepted and grudgingly got on the ride.  Robbie, now happy with a flash light, was enjoying the ride.  The lady a few cars down from us was ticked though and kept yelling, "Put that flashlight away! You're not allowed to have that! Some kid has a flashlight and needs to put it away!" for the whole ride... so y'know... that was frustrating.  We got off and headed over to Turtle Talk with Crush which Robbie LOVED.  The kids got to ask questions and Crush answered.  I don't know how they did it, but it was adorable.

It was about lunch time, but Robbie was starting to get whiney, so we canceled our lunch reservation at Biergarten and headed back to the hotel.

Happy boys on the monorail

After another much needed nap, we went back to the Magic Kingdom. We rode the "Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin" which turned out to be Robbie's favorite ride at Disney World.  He had so much fun!  We had to say goodbye to Mom and Dad who needed to head home.  I'm so glad we got to spend some time with them.  We miss them and hope to see them again soon!


Robbie was missing his Papaw and Grandma, so we headed toward Fantasyland to ride Dumbo again to raise his spirits.  We happened across this new splash pad in Mickey's Toontown fair.  It was adorable and Robbie went from hot, tired boy to soaked, exhilarated boy in minutes.  Sam and I sat in the shade while Robbie ran around and splashed for nearly an hour.

Splash Pad! Exactly what we needed to beat the heat.

 We grabbed dinner at the Tomorrowland Terrace, rode a few more rides, then headed back to the hotel BEFORE the parade and fireworks.

Three Leahys on a flying elephant.

Dumbo at night... One of Robbie's favorite rides!

We watched the Electric Water Pageant from the balcony of of room and hit the hay.  On the Clipboard of Fun for tomorrow was Disney Studios.

(Robbie is in his stroller hiding his face
... so the photographer just shot us!)

Disney World - Day 1 - Magic Kingdom

We decided (maybe unwisely) that to save some money we would drive the 15+ hours to Walt Disney World instead of flying like we normally would.  We find that since we have to pay for three tickets now instead of just two, flying is a little out of our budget.  Sam flipped his schedule by working a few overnight police shifts leading up to the trip.  Our awesome babysitter Courtney came and picked Robbie up on Saturday morning and took him to her house to play while Sam slept and I packed up all our stuff.  Robbie came home right after lunch, Sam woke up, and we all got in the car for the drive.

We arrived at Walt Disney World's Wilderness Lodge around 8AM or so and we were relieved that they had a room ready for us.  We checked in, changed our clothes, and called Mom & Dad (who were driving up from Ft. Myers to spend the first few days with us.)  We really like the Wilderness Lodge.  Sam and I stayed here on our honeymoon 11 years ago.  The hotel itself is gorgeous inside and out.  The restaurants are great with very "American" food that we always enjoy.  The ride to the Magic Kingdom is just 10 minutes or less by boat and there is a great bus system out front for the other parks.

Disney's Wilderness Lodge

When Mom and Dad arrived, they were able to check in as well and we headed over to the Magic Kingdom for the first day.  Looking back now, we probably should have hung out around the hotel or did one of the other farther away parks the first day.  Robbie was tired from being in the car and wanted to run around.  This was also his best behavior day as well because he was running on excited holy-cow-I'm-in-Disney adrenaline.  But we didn't and the day still turned out pretty great.

Disney has this new (or at least new to us) thing called "Photopass" where you have a card with a barcode.  They have photographers all over the park.  They take your picture. They scan your card.  Then when you get back home, you go to the website and you see all your pictures.  You can buy a CD (or download) and a limited release copyright permission form.  It's kind of pricey and I wish I had bought the CD before I left (at the discounted pre-purchase rate) because I could have saved over $50 and we got a lot of really great pictures with Photopass while we were there.

Dad, Mom, Sam, Mandy, and Master Robert at Magic Kingdom
(Photo used with permission (c) Disney Photopass)

First order of business at Magic Kingdom was Robbie's Pirate Makeover at the Pirate's League.  He LOVED THIS.  He especially loved walking around the park and getting people's attention.  They would see him, smile really big and say things like, "Oh what a cute little pirate!"  He ate that up.  After the makeover we rode the Pirates of the Caribbean ride... ummm... during which Robbie cried profusely.  Now, he wasn't scared of the dark, or the pirates, or the creepy "DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES!" voice... no... he was terrified of the little waterfall boat drop at the very beginning of the ride where if you sit in the front of the boat you get splashed.  He cried and screamed and we felt like terrible parents.  He did calm down eventually and enjoyed the rest of the ride.  When he got off the boat he said, "I'm NEVER riding that ride AGAIN! Never!" and we proceeded on with the rest of the day, now a little worried about how the rest of this would play out.  We visited the Enchanted Tiki Room, the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, and eventually headed over to Tony's Town Square restaurant for lunch.  Sam and I ate at Tony's on our Honeymoon and again when we came for our 5-year anniversary.  Then it was back to the hotel for a much needed nap for everyone.

That evening we headed back to the Magic Kingdom and waited to see Mickey and Minnie at the Town Hall Meet-n-Greet.  Robbie was very excited.  He loves Micky Mouse!  We've been watching The Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on the Disney Channel since he was just a tiny thing.

Mickey really hammed it up when Robbie tried to high-five him with his hook. The characters do such a good job! They are so much fun!

Even pirates love Mickey.

We had dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern.  Oh my.  BEST. MEAL. EVER.  I'm not kidding here, this was an AWESOME meal.  The meal was an all you can eat "family style feast" with roasted meats, potatoes, veggies, bread, mac-n-cheese, and more.  For dessert was ice cream and a warm fruit cake that was divine. We will definitely be going back to this place again!

Sam and Robbie rode the Dumbo ride for the first time this day.  Robbie loved it.  I kept trying to get a picture, but Robbie wanted Dumbo to fly high the whole time.  This is as good as I could get.

We thought Robbie would enjoy the parade, but didn't get a spot early enough and sort of got crushed up against the castle.  He saw a little on Sam's shoulders.  Then we got really trapped as people tried to position for the fireworks.  Really. Trapped.  As in crush-of-people-can't-move-trapped.  We tried to escape out through Fantasyland then Frontierland but didn't quite make it when the fireworks started.  Did I mention that Robbie hates loud noises?  He started crying and holding his hands to his ears but there wasn't any place to go.  Even when they were over, we couldn't get out of the park because of the nine billion other people trying to leave.  It was also at this time that we notice that someone had stolen Robbie's water bottle spray fan off of our stroller.  Robbie was crushed, sad, exhausted,... would this be the worst trip ever?!?

OK.  In truth we had a great day and were thrilled to spend time with Mom and Dad.  We learned a valuable lesson in that if you want to be able to leave the park and be in bed before midnight, you've got to do so before the 9pm parade.  Robbie loved his pirate makeover, riding the kiddo rides, and getting to see Mickey.  He was such a good boy the whole day! Even though we had a few tears, most of the day he had a huge smile on his piratey little face.  Tomorrow on the Clipboard-of-Fun was breakfast at Chef Mickey's and a morning at Epcot...