Cheeky's first Trip - Day 8 - Mania

[Jezzerinos]

Today was going to be a great day. After a magical day yesterday and an amazing showing of Wishes, today was the day we had the ADR for Hollywood & Vine for lunch with the characters from Disney Junior. We knew when we booked it that Joseph was going to be blown away by it (even though we had never been before).

So, we were up and in the Food Court by 7am. I went for a double chocolate chip muffin, Joseph went for a strawberry yogurt and Maria didn’t want anything. We then headed to the bus stop and got the bus to Hollywood Studios. Turned out we were the only ones on the bus and once we got there, we were first at our turnstile! Fantastic.



We would follow the same procedure as last time. I would head off to Toy Story Midway Mania to grab the magic tickets and Maria would take Joseph to the Baby Care centre to get his thumb looked at.

Cheeky chops was as good as ever waiting for the park to open and even tried to squeeze his way through the turnstile to get in!



It wasn’t too long before we were let in and I was off. I was the first person to get to Pixar Place!


I know, it was a sight to behold!

I was amazed and once I got the tickets, I made my way back to find Maria and Joseph walking my way. We were right in that the swelling of Joseph’s thumb was due to over sucking. He had it plastered up so it would deter the sucking. We went on to Toy Story Mania and I beat the high score for the day until I got off to find it was beaten! I was determined to beat it so with a quick nappy change for Joseph, we were back for our second go with our FastPasses. I knew the score to beat and had done it………………………..until we got to the scoreboard to find that the person in the car behind us had beaten me! Unbelievable!

Anyway, we decided to move on and I head off to enter the Twilight Zone and enter the Tower of Terror. I know I said it before but I am still amazed by the attention to detail in this place. All the furniture in the lounge area being from the 30’s and the game of Mah-jong on the table. Just great! After a bit of bouncing, I went to have a go on Rock’n’Rollercoaster. Whilst I was doing this, Maria and Joseph went on a character meet and greet mission in front of the Fantasia hat. They met up with these friendly characters:







After my thrill seeking mission was complete, I went to find Maria in the queue to meet Donald and Daisy. After all the meets, Joseph had fallen asleep just before getting to them. This was not a problem though as we got this photo with them.



We did get another photo where they are telling everyone to shhhh as there was a baby sleeping. A great touch! With this done, we decided to head to Star Tours and have a go (well, I had a go) and by having a go, I rode it 3 times as it was a walk on! 3 different scenarios and different locations, great Job Disney and George Lucas! Better than ever! After I had come out from ride 3, Anakin had just walked out so of course, I had to get a photo with him. A great interaction, he really got into being Anakin and was asking about my glasses being some kind of space-age droid technology! Brilliant!



And this one too...



With me being a bit of a Star Wars nut, I was quite chuffed. Meeting Chewbacca and Anakin Skywalker in one trip was amazing. Maria on the other hand thought I was a big nerd! By this time, our reservation at Hollywood & Vine was coming up fast and Joseph was still asleep. We went over and I checked us in and then we took a seat on a bench and waited to be called in. Now, this may seem harsh but we decided to wake Joseph up as we wanted him to see where we were and the characters inside (we could see through the windows the characters walking around). Luckily once he came to and had gained his bearings, he was full of life and couldn’t wait to get in!

Without waiting long, we were called in and seated at our table. Now, if you have a little one that is really into Special Agent Oso, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Little Einsteins and Handy Manny, you have to book and eat here! We enjoyed it just as much as Joseph did I think. The character interaction was great. We had June from Little Einsteins and Oso come to us numerous times, giving Joseph big hugs and at (I think) 20 minute intervals, they get the kiddies up and have a little sing song and dance! An absolutely fantastic experience!











And the food, mmmmmmm. It’s a buffet so get as much as you can eat. They had a really good variety for both adults and kids. The adults can even get some of the kids food and vice versa. We were extremely pleased with this and would have gone again if we had known, just for the food! Joseph was in heaven! If Mickey was there too, he would have fainted due to all the excitement! At dessert time, Joseph asked for multiple bowls of ice cream! Cheeky boy but he deserved it (there wasn’t much in the bowl though).



After we all had really enjoyed ourselves and enjoying an absolutely fantastic meal, we headed out and headed in the direction of Muppet Vision 3D, with a stop at the Jedi Training Academy to watch the dark lord Darth Vader take on some Padawans. Once Joseph is old enough, he will definitely be doing this. It’s a great experience and the humour from the Jedi trainer is very funny (for the adults of course).



So after this, we did actually go to Muppetvision 3D. This is a very well themed attraction and after listening to one of the WDW Radio shows recently, the host Lou Mongello did a little walk round the Muppet area with Disney Historian Jim Korkis. They were talking about all the links and stories behind the attraction and I learned that there was going to be a Great Muppet Movie ride where Lightning McQueen is where they would spoof some movies but it never happened unfortunately.

Joseph to no surprise really liked the show. We exited after the penguins and Swedish chef had blown the theatre apart and headed to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playarea. Again, to no surprise, Joseph loved this area because he could get wet!

[Jezzerinos]

We spent a little time in this area before heading to the Writers Stop for a slushy. With a little pit stop done, we went to Walt Disney One Mans Dream which I was quite eager to see.

This is a bit of an under-rated attraction. It gives so much detail and history about Walt and where he began, how he started in the animation business and of course, the Disney Parks themselves. I really enjoyed this and would recommend you to go and take a slow stroll through here and look at the models they have there. Joseph liked it as he got to run around in the nice air-conditioning and showing of his funny run he made up which other guests found hilarious!





We watched the little film they had there and then decided to call it a day and headed out of the park. We stopped off at the camera shop to buy a battery charger for our camera batteries as the one we brought from home didn’t work. Joseph had seen a Cars steering wheel and we did have to tear him away from it which he didn’t like but the stickers the CM’s gave him he did like!

We got back on the bus and once back at the hotel, we got us some dinner. I went for something I had never tried before, a Chilli-Cheese dog, Joseph had a kids pizza (seriously, he couldn’t get enough of them) and Maria went for Mac’n’Cheese. We got back to the room to see that Meet the Robinsons was on so we chowed down and watched the rest of the movie. Once the film had finished, we changed the channel to find these two interesting characters...



We were hooked. It is hilarious! None of it makes sense but that’s the beauty of it! Them and the semi aquatic egg laying mammal of action, Agent P. I think we have watched it everyday since we returned. It’s brilliant! Anyway, after his belly was full, crazy boy Joseph had taken over and was hilarious! We ended the evening in the usual manner (bath and Duffy channel for the story) and went to sleep.

What a day! We had so much fun at Hollywood & Vine and the food was one of the best meals we had throughout our stay. We would definitely recommend going there if your little ones are into the characters that are there to meet. Joseph had an absolute blast there. We had all enjoyed the day and were looking forward to the little ADR we had booked for the next day.

Click here for Day 9

[Ycryan]

Yeah another day! Looking forward to the next one!

[Wallefan]

Great day, love his cheeky smile when getting wet!

[Dissie]

Really enjoying your reports. Joseph is so cute and you can really see his excitement and happiness on his face

[Gill635]

Another brilliant day

xx

[Milner]

What a brilliant day you wee boy is so cute.

[Jezzerinos]

Originally Posted by Wallefan

Great day, love his cheeky smile when getting wet!

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Ha ha, we saw that quite a lot while we were there!

Originally Posted by Dissie

Really enjoying your reports. Joseph is so cute and you can really see his excitement and happiness on his face

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Glad you're liking it!

Originally Posted by Milner

What a brilliant day you wee boy is so cute.

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Thank you. He can be when he wants to be (when showing off).

[Guest]

Another great day, thanks for sharing.

[joanna23]

We loved Play n Dine too! Phineas and Ferb is possibly the best programme ever, it's ingenious! I love watching it with DS and DD. Did you get to meet them in HS?
Another great day! I've wrote up my pre-trip yesterday and mentioned your report as it brings back such happy memories of our DS' first trip. He responded in exactly the same way as your gorgeous son.