Hollywood Studios

So all year long I was planning to take Wyatt to Animal Kingdom this year. Since we go to Disney just about every year, we don't have to plan the marathon full day of park each day kind of thing. Last year we did Magic Kingdom which is still my favorite, but I thought this year he would get a kick out of the animals instead. But these last few months he has really gotten into "Cars" and "Toy Story" movies so I researched Hollywood Studios where these characters can be seen and decided to go there instead.

Yes it is pouring rain, but look how happy he is to see Mater and Lightning

As much as he loves Buzz and Woody, he did not want anything to do with them in person! At least we didn't have to wait in line too long. We were in the right place at the right time and jumped in line right before the character greetings started for the day.

Michael and I went to Hollywood Studios (or MGM as some of us old-schoolers still call it) several years ago and it had completely changed since then to make it much more kid friendly. There are still alot of shows which isn't always so kid friendly, but overall I think it has improved greatly. Since the strain on the economy has slowed down attendance at the parks, there are more limited feature presentations. The finale/fireworks show called Fantasmic only plays on certain nights so I wanted to make sure we went on a night it was shown because Wyatt really likes the Sorcerer's Apprentice cartoon on Fantasia. The other major thing I wanted him to see was the Pixar character Block Party Bash (afternoon parade). Pixar is Disney's CGI animation studio and those are the movies that Wyatt is most familiar with so I knew he would love it!

Well since the Fantasmic show wasn't until Thursday, we waited until then to go to Hollywood Studios. It was by far the crappiest day of weather we had there. All other days were extremely hot...but they were dry. It wasn't too bad until about 3pm when a storm started rolling in and they cancelled the parade. Then it poured rain for about an hour and we were all soaked to the bone. Wyatt fell asleep in his soaked stroller with a dry jacket covering him but when he woke up he was freezing so we had to buy a new outfit which was cute but ridiculously expensive. We stuck it out for the Fantasmic show and the rain ended and we got seated early in the large stadium and relaxed, waiting for the show to begin at dark. Well Wyatt only made it about two minutes into the show until it was too loud and scary for him. I had seen the show several years ago but I did not remember it being so scary. Essentially Mickey is having nightmares about the Disney villians and then he remembers he has power over his dreams and triumphs in the end. Poor Wyatt didn't make it far enough to care that there was a happy ending. Michael took him out of the stadium so Mom and I could watch the rest of the show. We soon met back up and headed back to the hotel. It wasn't the best part of the trip but it sure will be memorable!