WDW Trip Report - LIVE March 6 - 14, 2009

[MouseRunner]

Hey Gang,

I'm going to try something a little different. My wife loves my trip reports, but I never get around to actually writing them. So, I'm going to try something different with the WTTM Forums. Each night of the trip, I'm going to attempt to write what we did that day. It sounds like a cool idea, so I'm going to attempt it. If quite a few people check it out, then I'll do it next time too.

What's going on now? Waiting for the wife to finish work. Waiting for a call back from the Disney Florist (wife's 30th birthday and all). Kids are resting, attempting an early morning nap. And we fly out later this afternoon. Car is packed and ready to go. And RJ, well, he's not sure what's going on.

Oh, and the boys and my wife are wearing their Thing shirts bought at the Universal Studios shop at the Orlando airport. Mine, unfortunately, has gone missing. Just a minor problem, and if that's the only problem we have on the whole trip, it's going to be awesome.

So follow us every night, hopefully, and I'll let you know what the family has done.

Man I hope this works...

[MagicJoe]

Good going Jeremy. Maybe you can add a couple of photos as you write up your daily reports. Should be interesting to see what you do each day and where. Looking forward to this...

[WindowtotheMagic]

March 7th... not much happened. Slept all day.

Here is a photo from my day (its the inside of my eyelids!)






Looking forward to your MUCH better trip reports!!

[MouseRunner]

A little background information before I start, this will be needed for the events of Day 1. I tried out the online check in for our DVC resort. Two problems: Conner's name was spelled wrong and our Deluxe Dining Plan was not showing. Also, no Brodie. So I called DVC and they said Conner's name would be okay, Brodie was on the reservation, just under 2, and the Deluxe plan was on the reservation. Awesome.

Florist called back, and she was awesome. Anybody who wants to get stuff for a loved one should use Disney Florist. She was nice, she was helpful, and she was the bomb. Tropical flowers, a lunch box, 2 bags of pretzels, and two bottles of water for the big run.

Boys and I left the house, ate at Johnny Rockets, and then went to Erin's high school where she teaches. She had told me they were watching Ratatouille, but they were watching Remember the Giants.

Fast forward, got to the airport, checked in (I put all three pieces of luggage on the scale, and Erin made fun of me, and the lady behind the desk thanked her because she couldn't say anything), got on the flight and were on our way to Denver.

First leg was okay. Brodie loved looking outside, but got bored quickly. Rarely cried, but made Erin and I tired from all the moving. Conner watched Thomas the Train (I hate that show, anybody else, I think it's evil).

Got to Denver at gate B54, and had to walk to B18. Got Quizno's to eat, Conner got a pretzel, and Brodie ate popcorn. No roast beef at the Quizno's, what's up with that??

The flight to Orlando was tough, real tough. First, when we got on the plane, dead silence. No engines running. The flight was to take off at 7:15. At 7:25, the captain came on saying that there was no air flow into the cabin and that was why it was hot. Mechanics working on the problem. 10 minutes later, the stewardess came on and said they were attempting to start the engines, and that we should be up and running soon. 5 minutes later, she came back on and said if we had never read those emergency pamphlets (my heart stopped right there) we better pull them out and fan ourselves with them. Erin almost got off the plane. 30 minutes after the flight was to take off, they got the engines started and we bounced our way to the take off lane. At that point, the captain gunned the engines, we didn't move. He let the brake off and in Rock 'n Roller coaster style, burned down the runway. As soon as we were above the clouds, we hit turbulance. I love turbulance, Erin kissed the boys good bye.

Brodie couldn't get comfortable, so he cried quite a bit. An hour into the flight, he was out. His feet on Conner's lap. Conner wasn't comfortable, pushed Brodie, waking Brodie up, Brodie started crying. Luckily, I got Brodie to sleep, and Conner fell asleep on Erin. End of flight story .

We landed, and the luggage was waiting for us at the luggage pickup, when does this happen? I have never had that happen.

There's another side story about Dollar Rental Car that I might tell later, but the ending to the story is that we changed to Alamo and Alamo is awesome. We picked our car, only one full size car left so not really, got our child seats, and were on our way in record timing.

We arrived at Saratoga Springs around 2:00 AM. Checked in with no difficulties...wait. Just one. I didn't see the sign that was at groin level and ran right into it. Yeah, didn't feel too good. Got back into the car, ended up on the wrong side of Saratoga Springs, turned around, and were in our room and the boys were asleep before 3:00 AM.

[MouseRunner]

I think this write up is going to be therapy for me. What a day. First, thanks to Magic Joe for the kind thoughts. I hope you enjoy the write ups and I hope they aren't today's, that would be a bummer. It's late, but tomorrow I'll attempt to get some pictures up. I think I have some great ones.

Paul, thank you for the laugh, I really needed it today.

THE GOOD PART

I woke up to Brodie trying to get out of the room. At least, that's what I think. When I sat up, the little guy was at the foot of our extremely comfortable bed ready to go. Everybody else was asleep.

Gave Brodie a bath, dressed Brodie, Conner woke and got dressed and I got dressed. Then I took the boys out for a walk around Saratoga Springs. First, a lot of retirees and runners for tomorrow's race. Pretty cool. Brodie got excited by the ducks and tried to say Hi. I stopped him before he got near the pond. We continues walking only to find that the ducks were following us. Pretty cool. Boys were really excited about it.

At the bridge, we looked at the fish, then continued on. We watched the tall birds (I keep thinking storks, but Erin corrects me and she's asleep right now...WAIT CRANES, is that right?). Brodie fell in shorts for the first time, and realized that it sucks. Scratched up knees in his future.

The day was cool in the shade, and kind of warm in the sun. I'm used to the humid days of summer, which is when we usually go because of Erin teaching. I like these days, A LOT.

I packed up the car once we got back to the room. Erin was almost ready to go. Then we loaded the kids up and walked, yes walked, to Downtown Disney where we had lunch at T-Rex. Erin and I were really nervous about T-Rex and the kids. Brodie cries every time the thunder storm hits Rain Forest Cafe. Putting it simply: WE LOVED IT!!

We got there at 11 and stood in a small line. They seated us in the Triceratops Room (or the 3 horn, Conner's words). The place was empty so I took Conner and we walked around and took pictures. The place was amazing. The ice cave was my favorite, but I don't think I'd ever eat there. Too blue, or pink depending on the color of the ice. The first meteor shower freaked Brodie out, but didn't make him cry. After the food came, Brodie was fine. Erin had the nachos, which she ate 1/4 of. Conner and Brodie shared the Mac and Cheese, and I had the burger with the most delicious bacon known to man. For dessert, we shared the Chocolate Extinction. Delicious, but way too much for 2 adults and two children. The cool part about the Chocolate Extinction was the dry ice in the middle. It fascinated Conner.

[UPDATE] Forgot some stuff the first time I wrote this. After eating, we dug for dino bones. It was a pretty cool area, but the kids lost interest quickly. Then we went to Build a Dino. Build a Bear except, well, you get the idea. Conner picked a Triceratops, and called her (I mean him, but it looks like a her) Dino. Brodie picked a dino with a flap on his head, and I called him Billy. [UPDATE END]

On our way back, we stopped at the Art of Disney to see if we can find any of those 3 inch Vinylmations. They only had the large ones. We got our first glance of the Kinkade painting of the Cinderella Castle, pretty awesome. Add that one to the wish list. We also said hi to the artist, but Conner got angry due to tiredness so we had to cut our talk short.

On our way back to the car, we took a detour through Saratoga Springs so Erin could see our home resort. We saw the pool, the quick service location and the store. On the way back, a cast member told us not to take the strollers down the stairs (we didn't know the only way down was stairs and wouldn't have taken the kids anyway) so he showed us a short cut through the spa. Nice guy.

Back at the car, we headed over to Disney's Wide World of Sports to pick up Erin's packet. At this point, Conner was losing it. He was tired and needed sleep. Brodie was on my shoulders with his hands yanking on my ears. I'm telling you, if I could find Timothy's feather, I might be able to fly!

At the Expo, Erin got her number, got her packet, got her shirt, and then picked up the tickets for the party at Disney Hollywood Studios tomorrow. This is where we found a lady cursing very loudly that she had bought tickets and demanded where they were. Long story short, she wanted to pick up her number for the race and was in the wrong line. She said it wasn't properly marked, the castmember pointed to the sign that said "Happily Ever After Party" and then pointed to the sign that said Half Marathon. The lady stormed off. Have a magical Day .

Conner and I picked up two signs to draw on to support Erin during the run. Erin looked at the merchandise for the run, which was surprisingly small. Maybe a couple of shirts. You would think a race for women would have more merchandise. Especially a princess event. We headed back to the car, and off to Animal Kingdom Lodge to check in.

[MouseRunner]

First, I hate writing this, I really do. This day was the worst day in my Disney history. I have never been so angry. Even through what happened, there were good parts too.

We got to the Animal Kingdom Lodge and went to the Online Check in area. The lady there checked us in and said everything was good. I said, cool, what about the Deluxe Dining Plan.

Lady: I'm sorry there's no Deluxe Dining Plan on your account, do you have a confirmation number

Me: No, I usually just tell them when I make the reservation and you add it.

Usually, for DVC, I walk in, they check me in, I tell them about the dining plan and they add it without problem. This caused a HUGE problem. First, the lady went in the back and the invisible manager who I never saw added the Disney Dining plan to our account.

Then she gave us our cards and said that's it. What about payment? She said oh, and went back. The question is, if I had remained quiet, would I have gotten them for free? She came back and said for 2 adults, one child for 7 nights it would be 680 dollars. For the Deluxe Plan. The plan that gives you three meals a day and two snacks and they were giving us it for 680 dollars? On the web, it was more like 1300 dollars. The lady said no, that it would be 680 dollars. I asked for the paperwork, and she gave me the deluxe paperwork. Sweet, maybe DVC has a discount??

I then asked about Erin's birthday, she said yes it was on the reservation, and then got a pin and wrote Erin's name on it. She was going to let us go earlier, does that mean it wasn't on the reservation??

She then told us that we needed to go to Concierge to get Conner's ticket. Erin and I received free annual passes when we got our DVC, so next stop Concierge. Oh, and by this point, my wife is steaming. She thinks something doesn't feel right. Her gut was right on that one.

At Concierge, the lovely Beth, great woman and I wish she was still around later in the day, gave us the pass for Conner and put it on his room key. Pretty sweet. Then I asked for a printout of all the reservations I had made for the Deluxe Dining plan and our points printout, showing how many meal coupons we had. The reservations came out fine, the meal coupons did not. The lady had signed us up for the Disney Dining Plan, not the Deluxe Dining plan. I mentioned this to Beth, and she said yeah, that's not right.

Add to this the fact that I didn't call my credit card provider who now thinks the card is stolen and is now being used in Florida. The lovely Beth said that she would talk to her supervisor and fix the Deluxe Plan problem. She would call us back. Cool! We headed to our room, still steaming over the problems. We expected something special for Erin's 30th, but there was nothing.

Then we opened the doors to the outside. All the tiredness the boys were feeling went out the door. There were zebras, giraffes, these huge cows with horns (I call one lop sided because he can't hold his horns up), and antelope. The whole scene was filled with life. Brodie was jumping up and down waving to the animals, and Conner couldn't soak it in fast enough. Dad teared up, big time.

Back in the room, I cleared up the problem with the visa card. While I was on the phone, Jim called saying that we had new cards and we needed to come down and pick them up. So I did.

I asked the newbie at the desk if Conner's ticket had been transferred. The short answer, no. They had to transfer it back over, and while doing that, cancelled the reservation. That's right, cancelled the reservation. If Erin had not stayed in the room, we would be locked out of our room until the reservation was put back in...15-20 minutes later. Due to this error, we were given a 50 dollar credit on our account and promised that the cards would be delivered to us shortly. Card set #3.

I went to the store with Conner to get some soda and water, we were all dehydrated. Back in our room, the newbie was giving the cards to Erin. I was now steaming. I had enough and didn't want to bring our luggage up. So I got Bell Services to do it for me. The guy that had helped the newbie out with the problem, looked at me, shook his head and laughed. I did too, what else was there to do?

Back at the room, Erin and I decided to head to Epcot for an hour or two so we could eat and make sure Conner's card was okay. We were going to go to Magic Kingdom, but that would involve a lot of travel time, so chose Epcot.

After parking (Journey we headed to the entrance. Erin and Brodie got in just fine, and now it was Conner's turn. He put his card in and was denied. The lady was really rude and told us that he didn't have a card and wouldn't be let in. That was in, I blew. Erin told me, from the other side of the gate, that it wasn't her fault. At this point, it didn't matter. Conner was hurt, confused, why could mom get in and not him? My heart broke, and my anger was steaming.

We went to Customer service who looked at his card and said that he did in fact have the 8 day park hopper, but for some reason the card wasn't taking. So she burned another, and tried again, same thing. She realized the reservation was messed up. Only the hotel could fix it. So she gave us a day card and said that it would get him into the park. The woman, who I don't know her name, was the kindest, sweetest, and frankly one of the prettiest woman I've seen, joked and calmed me down. I thank her for that.

We entered the park and walked to the American Pavilion where we had dinner. Conner and Brodie shared a hot dog meal, Erin had the kids Cheeseburger meal, and I had the double cheeseburger. Apple cobbler, brownie, and rice krispie treat for dessert. God bless the Deluxe Dining plan, and no we didn't eat it all. The boys loved the grapes. On the way back from the bathroom, Conner play hit me in the groin, and I was down again, second time in two days. What a day.

We headed to Mexico next and went on the Three Caballeros ride. Conner's favorite. Wanted to ride it twice, but the line was too long. Back to the hotel to figure out the card problem.

Boys in bed, I headed down to the concierge. They gave me a new card and promised it would work. We'll see tomorrow. I hope it works, I'm scared to be completely honest. I don't want Conner going through that again.

Oh, and when I jumped in the shower this evening, I had a burn on my head. Go figure right? Hopefully the bad stuff is behind us. I hope.

Tomorrow, Erin's run, we have to be up at 5 in the morning. Then the boys and me hope to see her run in the Magic Kingdom. If Conner is let in. I'll work on the pictures in the afternoon, I hope.

From Jermsworld, good night.

[MouseRunner]

First, let me add a little from yesterdays comments. There are some great people that work here at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. The maids, cleaners, and guys that walk around are amazing. They are nice, cheerful, and the exact opposite, except for the lovely Beth, of what I had to deal with at the Front Desk. Even most of the Concierge folks were amazing. My problem, no managers ever came to talk to us. Even when we asked twice. That isn't Disney in my book.

DAY 2, PART 1

After a night of tossing and turning, we woke up at 4:30 thinking it was 5:30. So we thought we were late. Erin called and confirmed it was 4:30, so we went back to bed.

At 5:00 AM, Erin and I got ready. We then got the boys dressed and out the door we went. To the car and to the traffic jam outside of Epcot. I have never met so many rude drivers in my life. Why is that? Take your time, relax, and we all get there safe and sound. The amazing part, the boys were awake.

At 6:00 AM, we parked and Erin went off to join the heard to the Start Line. Me and the boys rocked to 98.4 (I think that's the station) for some good classical rock. Life was good.

At 6:25, we started walking. We first got our picture by the sign of our aisle (Explore 78 I think) and then started walking. Two feet later, Conner fell and skinned his knee, sending him into fits of screaming and yelling. Didn't last long, but was intense. We walked through the pre-race party to the Monorail and rode it to Magic Kingdom, almost by ourselves. At the Ticket and Transportation Center, we walked over to the Polynesian and had a snack and Captain Cooks. The boys both got a bowl of Fruit Loops and a container of milk.

After breakfast, back on the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. We went straight to the gate and was let in with no pass. All the shops on the left side of Main Street were open. We did some window shopping, something Conner doesn't understand. Then we stood by the ropes at the entrance to Tomorrowland. Len Testa ran by us first, followed by Erin 10 minutes later. Len was quite the princess . No princess wear, but funny that only 5% of the runners were actually male.

One couple caused quite a commotion by us. He turned around to take a picture of his wife running and they both stopped right in the middle of the run way, causing people behind them to bump into each other. Could have been bad, but the didn't care.

After seeing Erin, we ran to the castle where we saw Len pop out and enter Liberty Square. Erin followed 10 minutes later and I snapped a couple of shots. That was it for seeing Erin, so we headed back. At the exit, I asked a castmember to try Conner's card, and he confirmed everything was okay.

Outside the Magic Kingdom, Conner fell again, this time both knees were bleeding. Speed in Crocs, probably not the best idea. We walked over to the Contemporary where we window shopped again (window shopping brought to you by Window to the Magic ). It took us awhile to find the elevator to the monorail level. When we finally found it, we found packed monorails, so the boys and I had to stand.

At the Ticket and Transportation Center, we got on the second monorail, and the boys sat. It was cool to fly over all the runners. Everybody on the train looked out the window to find their loved ones. I missed Erin some how. Probably because I thought she was a lot further, but turned out she was down there, somewhere.

At Epcot, we finally got to try Conner's card, and it worked. Stress flowed out of the body, and it was nice. We rushed through Epcot, past Innoventions, past the boarded up Fountain of Nations, and about half way down the walk way between World Showcase and the Fountain of Nations. It's where the water play area is located. I saw it when we flew over on the Monorail, and realized what a perfect place to let the kids play, and I take pictures of Erin.

Within 2 minutes, the boys were drenched. Women were running by laughing at them and wishing they could join them. This is the first time Brodie was ever comfortable enough just to get drenched, and boy did they. Erin showed up and I took her picture a couple of times. I let the boys play for a little longer, and then received the text that Erin had finished. With two soaked boys, we headed back to the car to meet our runner.

Erin finished in 2 hours and 48 minutes. She says it wasn't her best time, but she had fun. Lots of characters, lots of women, lots of fun.

At 10:17, we headed back to the hotel...after changing the boys of course. We had a 10:30 reservation at Boma's for breakfast. We were thinking about changing that time so Erin could bathe, but decided against it, other runners didn't bathe either. Erin got a couple of congratulations and everybody wanted to see her medal.

Boma's Breakfast buffet was great. The boys ate tons of cheese and grapes. Erin loved the huge sausages and the sticky buns. I loved the cheese omelet and the crunchy bacon. I also tried the Jungle Juice, which was delicious.

Well, it's a little after noon, and the boys are out and Erin is enjoying the jacuzzi tub. Did I describe our hotel room, don't think I did. We have a one room villa that looks over the animals. Erin and I have a king size bed which is awesome, Brodie is sleeping on the Sofa bed, and Conner is sleeping in a chair that makes into a twin. Our jaccuzzi tub is also the shower. In other resorts, the tub and shower are separate, which I like. But this room rocks. We love the hotel.

Time for sleep, no pictures yet, but I have taken a lot. We'll be heading to the Hollywood Studios later this evening for the party and to eat at Mama Melrose's.

[MagicJoe]

DAY 2, PART 1

After a night of tossing and turning, we woke up at 4:30 thinking it was 5:30. So we thought we were late. Erin called and confirmed it was 4:30, so we went back to bed.

Whew... with all the mishaps on Day 1, I thought you would forget about daylight savings time (we did and my son was an hour late for a basketball game where he is one of the scorekeepers)...

[MouseRunner]

Nothing much eventful after we awoke from our glorious nap. And it was glorious.

We parked at Hollywood Studios and walked to the front gate. Something we do a lot. We walk. Makes all the food we eat during the Deluxe Dining Plan seem okay. Probably why we only gain a pound or two while we are here.

One minor problem at the gate. We had a 4:05 dinner reservation and they weren't letting us in with our party tickets. So we were going to use our regular tickets, and the cast member that Erin talked to said she would prefer that we didn't. At 3:55, I talked to someone else, who told us to go ahead and go in. Right when we got to the gate to go in the park, they started letting the Happily Ever After party goers into the park. Oh well.

The last trip report Lou from the In Your Ears podcast said his experience with Mama Melrose was not a good one. This had us worried. Luckily, we had the opposite experience. The waiter never let our drinks get 3/4's empty, and our food kept coming. We shared the bread appetizer and Erin got the salad with the vinagerette. The boys got a side salad with their meal. Conner surprised us with eating the cucumber and ranch. I was shocked.

For the entree, I got spaghetti with the four cheese sauce. It was delicious. Erin got the meat sauce, which she loved too. Conner got the cheese pizza, and Brodie shared a little of everything. My favorite part of the meal, the warm bread with olive oil. I could have been happy with that.

For dessert, Conner had an ice cream sundae with mickey head sprinkles. I had the truffle chocolate cake, and Erin had vanilla gelato. Brodie preferred the bag of mickey head pretzels we had purchased earlier.

After dinner and thanking our waiter, we headed back to the front of the park to check in for the party. Instead of leaving the park, the lady just scanned our passes and gave us wristbands and a map of what was open.

We then headed to the Great Movie Ride. I can't remember the last time I've been on this ride, and really, that goes for most the stuff at Hollywood Studios. Usually, it's Aerosmith, Hollywood Tower, and now Toy Story mania, that's it. Conner was a little nervous about the Great Movie Ride. The ride was amazing. Couple of things I don't remember: the bullet's bouncing off the walls with a little air cannon, the speed of the car in the gangster scene (talk about fast) and the snakes in the wall above your head in the Indiana scene. The boys did great, and Conner even said it was a great ride. At the end of the day, he said it was the highlight, besides a gas story that I will be getting to shortly.

We decided to head over to the Animation building. We missed the Little Einsteins by seconds, and then waited 8 minutes to get into the Animation Building. While waiting, I found the cement signatures of Ollie Johnson, Frank Thomas, Marc Davis, and Ward Kimbell. I have to say, I was in awe of the Ward Kimball signature.

In the Animation building, Conner really enjoyed the Mushu cartoon interaction with the castmember. We were all laughing throughout the skit. Then we entered a room full of artwork for Up. The movie definitely looks different than what I thought it was going to be. I think it's going to be kind of like the Willy Wonka and the Glass Elevator story. Stopping in different locations and having an adventure. Finding Nemo anybody? We'll see.

Erin took a lot of pictures with characters. The ones I could remember: Longfellow, Sheriff of Nottingham, Frozone, Pluto and Chip and Dale. We also saw the queen, who told Conner not to smile, and to get rid of me because we said that Brodie was a year and a half, not two. I told her we don't say two because then we would have to buy him a ticket. She told Erin that she needed to get rid of me. But then whose legs would he hold? Ah, better keep him around. The other was Belle, who sat and talked to Conner for awhile. Even with a line, it was a special moment. Conner also colored a thumper picture and found out he was a lot like Buzz, which put a huge smile on his face. Tomorrow we will return to see Bolt and Rhino, I love Rhino.

Next up, the Happily Ever After Party had started so we headed over to watch the Little Mermaid show. Erin was thirsty, but all the food stand were closed. The show, as always, was delightful. This has become one of Conner's favorites since July of last year.

Next, we headed over to Beauty and the Beast. Erin didn't want to see it, so I sent her off to ride Rock N Roller Coaster and Hollywood Tower hotel. Being a big musical fan, I loved the show. Even teared up a little. My favorite was Gaston who played the part amazingly. I would have like to have taken my picture with him. At then end when Belle and the Beast were taking their bows, Gaston was on the side thanking everybody for clamping with him. Comic genious. Conner enjoyed the show very much, but didn't understand what happened when beast got stabbed. Brodie could have been elsewhere. He wouldn't stop moving, so not too many pictures taken.

Fantasmic seating didn't start til 9, so we decided to head over to Toy Story Mania. We were amazed, no line. We walked on. My score 189, 300; I just can't get to that 200,000 mark. Erin and Conner rode it again while I changed Brodie's diaper. Then Brodie and I each took control of a stroller and bashed it into each other. He laughed and laughed.

We then headed over to Fantasmic to find only one section filled with people. So we sat in the section to the right. All the food area's were closed, and the stroller drop off area was empty. So I dropped the family off and went to find popcorn (Toy Story Mania popcorn containers) and drinks. When I got back, the stadium was maybe 10% full, I have pictures to prove it.

Conner turned to me and said hey dad, Mickey is over there. I couldn't see anything. "Tricked you." Excuse me? What did he say? "Dad, look it's Minnie." "Buddy, I have no idea what you are talking about." "Tricked you." Did my son just "trick me." Oh this is not happening. Revenge will be sweet . To be continued...

I had hoped to take more pictures of the actual show because we were right in the center, about 10 rows up. But Brodie wanted me to hold him, and about half way through, he fell asleep. That's right, my youngest fell asleep during Fantasmic and didn't wake up until we stood up to leave. Conner got scared a little bit, but still loves the show. One little lighting mistake during the show, other than that, the show rocks.

Erin let me go on Hollywood Hotel: Tower of Terror. My favorite ride in the park. I skip Rock N Roller Coaster because it usually leaves me with a headache. Tower of Terror was almost a walk on. The ride rules and I loved every second of it.

While I was riding it, Conner was picking himself up to get on a cement seating area and passed some gas right in front of Brodie's face. Brodie's face was filled with disgust and he quickly pointed to Conner to show the blame. He then sniffed Conner's rear, something we do to Brodie to see if he had pooped. Conner didn't realize any of this had happened because he was laughing so hard tears were rolling down his face. I heard part of this story from Conner while we rode Toy Story Mania for the third time, no line again. Conner laughed through the whole ride. Erin filled me in on the rest. Conner's story had him passing gas in Erin's face, but he didn't realize it was actually Brodie behind him, not Erin.

After the third riding of Toy Story Mania, we called it a night. All the stores on the main strip were closed, which seemed weird to me. On the way out, Erin took Brodie's shoes off. Then a security guard came up to us and we thought we were going to get in trouble. But he was just coming over to give the boys stickers, Junior Security Stickers. The security guard came from Los Angeles so we talked to him a bit. Nice guy.

On the way out, we were given four gifts which we opened at the car. They were four Lithographs, one for each park. Pretty sweet.

QUICK STORY I FORGOT

This morning, while we were at Contemporary, I told Conner not to step on any of the red squares. It took him 10 minutes just to walk 6 feet. Funny stuff.

TOMORROW

12:48 AM and I'm a bit tired. We plan to hit three shows that we haven't seen yet: Lights Motors Action (Never seen it), the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular (haven't seen it since the early 90's), American Idol, and possibly Star Tours. Also need to meet Rhino. Breakfast at Play and Dine and dinner at Sci Fi Drive In. We could probably do most that in the morning, so we're considering miniature golf. We'll see. Still working on that picture thing. Til tomorrow...

[MouseRunner]

Before I start today's adventure, I'd like to talk about a detail I just found in the room, while using the restroom. On the door frames, there are teeth markes of all sizes. All the door frames in the room have this. It's as if an animal came in the room and gnawed on the door frame. Great detail.

Today we woke up at 7:15 and were at Hollywood Studios for our 8:30 breakfast, a full half hour before the park opened. Today, we ate at the Play and Dine restaurant. Brodie, again was reserved when it came to the characters, but he seemed to relax by the end of the meal. Conner got up and danced when we first got there, probably due to JoJo grabbing his arm and leading him to the dance area. That was fun.

As for the food, the tater tots and the Mickey Waffles in the kids area have always been our favorite. This time, they added flour tortillas so I was able to have a breakfast burrito. In my opinion, a great bonus. I ate two. I also had orange juice, boys had chocolate milk and Erin had her morning soda.

After breakfast, we saw Playhouse Disney. A fun show, but I remember more. The last time I though there were more leaves during the Tigger and Pooh section and I thought they threw balls at the end, I could be wrong. Probably wrong. Brodie got up and danced a couple of times, and Conner danced only when everybody else was dancing.

Next was back to the Animation building, using the back entrance. We went straight to Sorcerer Mickey, no line. Then Erin found out that she was Cinderella and Brodie was Aladin. Conner and I colored Flounder, and then we sang Hakuna Matata on the sound effects computers. I won't be winning any American Idol shows anytime soon.

Next we waited 10 minutes for Rhino and Bolt. I think Bolt was a little bummed because Conner and I gave all our attention to Rhino. I even gave Rhino a hug. The walk around character of Rhino is just as funny as the cartoon.

We got some popcorn and a soda and then headed over to American Idol (no food and drink in the theater folks, so we had to finish outside). At the entrance, a lady was almost begging people to audition, I don't think they are getting that many candidates, or not too many know about the show yet. In the theater, it was pretty cool. I have never seen the show, so I can't tell you if it feels the same, but it was cool. The guy at the beginning was hilarious and I really enjoyed watching him. The female lead of the show was okay, kind of wish the original guy stayed through it. The three judges were cool, and I probably would have enjoyed them all the way through the show. If we had seen the whole show. Here's what happened:

The first girl (16 years old) came on and sang. She was amazing. The second guy, he actually looked a bit like Rhino and knew how to talk to the crowd, went on stage and was about to sing when...no music. He waited, Simon made some jokes, but no music. The female host came on and made some "tap dancing jokes" as she put it. Then announced the server needed to be restarted. So they interviewed the young man. Then she talked about tap dancing, and the young man said he could tap dance, and did so. Then we were told that the servers were unable to be restarted in our high tech rooms with our high tech equipment with our high tech mechanics. And the show was cancelled. At this time, an audio voice came over saying that this sometimes happened. It was weird because the host didn't seem to know what she was doing, and the voice kept interupting her. Very weird. So we left after 18 minutes of show, with only about 10 minutes of singing and American Idol stuff. The show was entertaining, I'll give it that.

We walked over to Indiana Jones, a show Erin had never seen, and I haven't seen in awhile. Conner was sucked into with tons of questions through the whole show. Brodie was ready for nap time, and I think people around us...okay, a woman started getting a little fed up. But in Brodie's defense, he wasn't really that bad, he talked a little bit and would walk between Erin and I, that was it. No crying, no screaming. So unsure what the problem was. My favorite part was the audience member that got his butt kicked in the fake fight scene. He did this spin on his head after one punch (Erin's favorite) and acted like he was being picked up and thrown on the ground (my favorite). Conner liked the plane and the fire. Great show. Time to update it though.

Conner wanted to see the Power Rangers, Brodie was almost asleep. So Erin took Brodie back to the car while we headed over to the Power Rangers. Conner got his picture with the Green Power Ranger (great pose) and then we rushed to catch up with Erin. Oh, and I tried getting a picture with the Singing in the Rain prop, but the water wasn't working. We caught Erin who was carrying Brodie because he almost fell forward onto his head, but Erin caught him before that happened.

At the hotel, we got our free refillable mugs, got some soda and water for the fridge, and walked over the bridge on the 5th floor that goes over the lobby. There's a lamp that has ostrich's on it with an egg in the middle. I also think I saw a hidden Mickey.

Forgot, we are using the Hidden Mickey guide and have found a few. One at Play and Dine thanks to our waitress and some other's that I have taken pictures of. Man, time flies by while your here. But the boys need to catch up on their sleep, and with the soft sounds of heavy breathing behind me, so does Erin. See you in the evening.