[staceyheis]

Next installment - Wed. - we headed to Hollywood Studios. No bus issues whatsoever. After sleeping, we arrived at HS at 10:45 and headed straight for Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania - luckily they weren't out - our return time was 5:00. We then went to animation studio to see Bolt and friends. The line took a while because Bolt, Mittens and Hamster (sorry, forgot the name) were really taking their time to interact with the kids and have fun). They were quite funny. After that, we headed over to watch HSM3. We sat on the side but right by the dancers. They tried to get my DD5 out there but she would have none of it!! I enjoyed people watching during the show. It was amazing how many parents (me included) could sing right along!! We then grabbed a snack (because my DD never wanted to stop long enought to eat except at dinner time) and went to watch Beauty and the Beast. What a great show. We then went on the Great Movie Ride (my first time - it was fun) and then The Little Mermaid show. We then wasted some time around Muppets and watched Muppets (it so doesn't compare to Philharmagic) and then off to Toy Story Mania. Our fastpass still had us waiting 30 minutes (which was a little problem because we had 5:30 reservations at Mama Melrose's - I think that was the name - I keep wanting to call it Mama Mia's!). We really enjoyed the ride and understand the hype. I was afraid I would be disappointed but wasn't. I don't remember our scores. We wanted to ride it again but it had a 90 minute wait. So off to dinner.

I was pleasantly surprised by dinner. Our waiter was nice and attentive to our table (not some of the larger ones around us) and our food was good. My daughter had penne with alfredo and I had Pork Marsala. It was quite good. We were celebrating my DD's birthday so they brought her a chef's hat and she got to make her own sundae. She loved it. Once I figure out the picture thing, I will post the photo of her making it. It has great fun.

We then headed out to Osbourne Lights - how festive. We enjoyed walking through that (although I was disappointed we couldn't see Fantasmic - still haven't seen it). Then back to the hotel. Bus was right there and very uncrowded.

Thursday was a surprise for my DD5. I was taking her to the My Disney Girl Princess Tea at GF. As we were walking from the boat dock (we had taken the bus to MK - no problems), we saw Cinderella's coach being pulled by horses. I can't imagine how fantastic a Disney wedding would be (maybe someday). We would have enjoyed the tea more with different people at our table. The one mother talked the whole time so we missed some of what Rose Petal was saying (we also sat right next to the piano player so it was hard to hear anyways). And one of the other girls really didn't want to be there (I believe she had just turned 4) and didn't understand why she couldn't just run around so she whined/cried through most of it. My daughter just sat there in awe. She really wanted to know if Rose Petal's story was true. She was also very excited about all of the gifts. We both enjoyed the food and tea but it was really about the experience, not the food. I thought she was going to cry when Aurora came out. She wasn't expecting it at all. Overall, we really enjoyed it and would recommend it but it really is a one time experience (as I explained to my DD when she asked if we could do it again the next day)! We then headed via monorail to Epcot as we were having dinner at Coral Reef.

We went on Mission Space first as there was no wait. We had never done that before. We loved our pictures at the end and enjoyed playing around in the sphere! We got fastpasses for Soarin' and went into Honey I Shrunk the Audience and then headed towards the countries. We only made it to the UK and there were street players there that were hilarous. That took us up to dinner time. Off to Coral Reef. Service was good. My food was good but lukewarm at best so I sent it back. It was their special which was a mild whitefish (you can tell this was not a foodie trip this time). The best part was the Butterscotch Creme Brulee. After dinner, we did the Seas again - walked onto Nemo and then off to the best ride - Soarin. We ended up in the front row which was awesome. I can't tell you how much I love that ride. The couple beside me had never been on it and it was fun listening to their reactions. We then decided it was time to head back to our home away from home - again, no bus issues. We had more towel animals when we got back to our room and my DD's dolls and animals had all been arranged. It was great to come home to!!