Rock 'n' Adventures, Epic Stunts, Jedi Training, & Muppet Madness at Disney's Hollywood Studios

On Wednesday, right after our visit to Epcot and the Magic Kingdom, we headed right over to Disney's Hollywood Studios.  During my Florida trip in 1986, Hollywood Studios didn't exist, so needless to say, this was my first visit right along with Hubby and Little Lewie.

The two Lews were probably most excited about visiting Star Wars Launch Bay along with watching the Jedi Training and going on the FastPass+ attraction, Star Tours--The Adventures Continue.  (Star Wars Galaxy's Edge would not be open yet.)  However, I was most excited about seeing the Muppets and checking out Toy Story Land.  In both cases, our "inner-child" ruled that day as we all got to live out our childhood memories and fantasies.

We started out the day on "Sunset Boulevard" where Big Lew and Little Lewie went on the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.  Knowing it was a real-deal roller coaster, I skipped out and instead, used the time to check out the gorgeous scenery, which, of course, was even more spectacular with the holiday decorations.   After the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster ride, both Lews felt a little lightheaded from all the loops and twists, so they were happy to hear that we had some tamer adventures ahead.

Our next FastPass+ ride was the Muppet Vision 3-D Theater on Grand Avenue.  Just as I had hoped, the theater looked just like the one from Jim Henson's TV sitcom, The Muppet Show.  My inner-ten-year-old came out as I laughed hysterically at all the antics from Gonzo, Miss Piggy, Sam Eagle, Beaker, the Swedish Chef, and of course, the two old men in the audience, Statler and Waldorf.  Kermit, of course, was the star and main character of the attraction.  I repeatedly told Lewie how this was one of my FAVORITE shows when I was his age.  Thankfully, the humor is timeless.  He loved it just as much as I did.

Next up was the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular at Echo Lake.  The 30-minute show provided a "behind the scenes" look at how the movie's stunts and fighting scenes were pulled off in real life.  We watched as stage props were switched, stunt doubles performed gymnast tricks, and live explosions went off.  My favorite part was when a 12 foot rolling bolder chased "Harrison Ford" out of the temple.  When the director instructs "Harrison Ford" to do the scene again, he easily pushes the bolder (probably made out of styrofoam) right back into place!

Once the Indiana Jones demonstration ended, we headed to the Prime Time Cafe for our lunch reservation.  Although we arrived early, the cafe was so busy that we actually ended up waiting a bit past our reservation time to get seated.  A friend of ours recommended the restaurant, saying her kids had a blast.  It ended up being one of our favorite experiences at Disney, too!

The cafe, designed to reflect what family kitchens looked like circa 1955, offered seating by old fashioned TVs showing blank and white sitcoms.  Our waitress repeatedly reminded us to "watch our manners" at the table.  She scolded Little Lewie for putting his elbows on the table and slurping his milk shake.  My husband, in typical fashion, made a mess at the table.  I told the waitress to get him in trouble, and instead, I got in trouble!  She retorted back, "No one likes a tattletale.  Remember, snitches get stitches!"  Oh, how we laughed.  I tried telling on him again (after all, my husband was grabbing food off my plate without permission).  Again, I got scolded for tattling.  The food was delicious; Big Lew chose Cousin Megan's Traditional Meatloaf while I selected Dad's Stuffed Pork Chop.  Little Lewie, the picky eater that he is, asked for a special plate of buttered noodles.  Still, it was the experience and non-stop laughter that made it so memorable.

With full bellies, we headed to watch some Jedi Training and a Star Wars show, which brought Big Lew (yes, Big Lew) to tears.  Nostalgia from his early Star Wars memories, particularly of the movies in the 70's and 80's that he first watched with his dad, took over.  "You don't understand," he said, wiping the tears away.  "My dad and I loved Star Wars so much that he would take me to the theater four, five, or six times to watch the same movie."  Our next FastPass+ ride was Star Tours--The Adventures Continue, where we rode on a "StarSpeeder," a type of flight simulator, which took us on a fast-paced, somewhat turbulent adventure.  It was probably my next-favorite experience--after the Muppet Vision 3-D Theater, of course.

While the boys chose to explore the Star Wars Launch Bay, I ran to Toy Story Land to catch the Toy Story Mania attraction.  The ride wait time had dropped from an hour to 30 minutes, and quite honestly, the line ended up being shorter than that.  In less than 20 minutes, I was on the ride using my toy cannon to aim virtual pies, rings, and darts at screen targets.  It would have been more fun for all of us to do the ride together, but by then, the two Lews had lost steam.  The Slinky Dog Dash was right around the corner, but the wait time for that ride never dropped past 90 minutes.

On my way back to the Sunset Boulevard entrance, I took as many photos as I could, trying to savor my last views, sensations, and impressions of the park.  It was a spectacular day, and we all agreed that our experience at Hollywood Studios was"the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational" just like "what we call the Muppet Show!"  (If you're hearing the Muppet Show theme song in your head now and smiling, then you're welcome.)

Tampa

Last week, we went on our long awaited summer vacation to Tampa, Florida.  After going here last year and having a blast, we quickly decided that we wanted to make this trip an annual tradition.  Simply stated, there's just so much to do in Tampa, and each time we go on vacation, we're lucky if we even get to do 1/8th of the activities.  For example, there's Bucsch Gardens, the Tampa Zoo, Adventure Island, and tons of other beaches and costal towns that we still haven't even ventured to yet.

This week, our focus was going back to LEGOLAND for two days (we loved it last year and knew Lewie would enjoy going back) and hanging out at our resort's pool and beach.  Some extras that we were able to squeeze in that were different from last year were taking the Trolley Bus to John's Pass (a cool shopping area with a baby alligator petting zoo), having a fancy dinner at Guy Harvey's RumFish Grill (the restaurant has a 33,500 gallon fish tank that was built by Animal Planet's hit series "Tanked"), and venturing to our neighbor hotel, the TradeWinds Island Grand Beach Resort, that has the coolest beach slide ever!

My husband and I have a motto that our vacations need to be just as relaxing as they are adventurous.  We could have certainly packed in more things to do into our six-day itinerary, but we would have come home exhausted (and quite possibly--BROKE).  Also, on some days it rained, and we decided that it was way more fun to just curl up inside our hotel and watch a good movie than get soaked trying to make it from point A to point B during Florida's famous, wild thunder and lightening storms.

My favorite part of the trip, hands down, was having my son wake up with me every morning around 5:45 a.m., so we could walk on the beach and watch the sunrise together.  On the first day that he came with me, I wasn't sure he enjoyed it; however, during the next morning, when I thought I was sneaking out before he or Daddy would notice, his little head popped out from the hotel room (his eyes still half closed from sleeping) and called down the hall, "Mommy, Can I come with you?"  From that point on, he was my little morning buddy, and each morning we would walk for a good hour before returning to the hotel room.  (Our walks made such an impact that he woke me up this Wednesday around the same time and said, "Mommy, Can we walk together this morning and watch the sunrise?"  We didn't because I don't know where we can get a good view of the sunrise by our house, but I'm still trying to think of a place...I'd like to continue our morning routine--at least on the weekends since weekday mornings are just a little too frantic around here...)

Here are some highlight pictures and videos from our trip:

The new hotel that was just built this year!

Lewie and Daddy on the "Island in the Sky" Ride.

A mini-Lego rendition of the Excaliber Hotel in Las Vegas (where my husband proposed to me).

Ice cream!!

Pretending to sleep under a pillow cave.

Celebrating our 9th year wedding anniversary at the RumFish Grill.

A beautiful sunset!

Watching the sun rise in our PJs.

A wedding about to take place in an hour...

LEGOLAND

While planning our trip to Florida, we decided early on that LEGOLAND would be our main attraction.  (We were hoping to visit the Tampa Zoo, too, but we soon learned that five days wasn't long enough to do both without feeling totally rushed and overwhelmed.)  We bought tickets to visit LEGOLAND and enjoy their water park for two days, and that's just what we did.  Lewie was in heaven!

Day 3
On the third day of our trip, we did some relaxing by the pool and then headed out to LEGOLAND around noon.  Usually I have a very specific itinerary planned for our trips, but this year I decided to "go with the flow," which proved to be both a blessing and a curse.  When we programmed our GPS to take us to LEGOLAND, we soon learned that it was an hour and a half drive--one minor detail I may have overlooked.

"Annette, I thought LEGOLAND was just around the corner," said my husband.

"Me too.  I thought it was only a half an hour away," I responded, worried that we now wouldn't be arriving to LEGOLAND until well after 2 p.m.

The day called for afternoon thunderstorms and showers and just as we arrived to the park, the skies turned gray.  The lady at the ticket stand reminded us that the park provides no refunds for inclement weather, but we decided, against our better judgment, to go in anyways... 

After taking a cute little train ride in DUPLO VALLEY, an awesome section of the park meant for toddlers and young children, we then proceeded to MINILAND USA, where cities like Miami, New York, Washington D.C. and Las Vegas have been recreated into mini LEGO versions of themselves.  Lewie loved to see these awesome miniature cities, and my husband and I enjoyed looking at them too and comparing them to real life.  (We had been to all these cities during our traveling years well before Lewie was born.)

Our next stop was to try out a rollercoaster only to learn that these rides as well as the water park had been shut down due to the threat of thunderstorms.  We made it on a quick Safari ride before the skies opened up and the rain poured!  Showers?  This wasn't showers...This was a monsoon.  We went to the LEGOLAND 4-D theater, where we were snowed on inside and had a fun LEGO adventure, but as we came out, we realized that the rain was not letting up anytime soon and the park in general was shutting down.  Everyone, sporting ponchos and umbrellas, were packing up and leaving the park.  Feeling somewhat guilty, I bought Lewie a little SUV with Watercraft LEGO set to put together later.  As it turned out, it was the best little toy we could have bought him.  Since the rain never stopped that day, Lewie had a blast putting it together in our hotel room, and thankfully, we all knew that the visit wasn't ruined; we still had tickets to go back to LEGOLAND another day...

Daddy and Lewie on the Duplo train ride.

The cute little train station..

The Duplo farm across the street.  (What a fun place for toddlers!)



Mommy and Lewie posing in front of Miniland Miami, Florida.



Here's Miami up close...just like the real thing!



A LEGO ship.



The Golden Gate Bridge--made out of LEGOs, of course.

Daddy enjoying the LEGO Safari ride...



Lewie posing in front of the 4-D LEGO Theater.

Day 5
Since Day 4's weather forecast was calling for some more afternoon showers, we decided to visit LEGOLAND on our fifth and last day in Florida.  This time, knowing the distance from our hotel, we ventured out early, and the day did not disappoint.  In fact, we had no rain the entire day, and we had a chance to enjoy EVERYTHING.   With 90 degree temps, going to the water park first was a given.  This was followed by some rollercoaster rides and then Lewie's favorite ride of all, The Ford Driving School.  Here, Lewie not only had a chance to drive his very own LEGO car, but he took a "driving test" where he earned his very own LEGOLAND Driving License. 

For Lewie, having his own Driving License was it!!  He showed it to everyone inside the park, and he made sure to show it to everyone on the airport going home.  In fact, it's still the item most talked about from our entire trip...



A much sunnier day in LEGOLAND.

My two boys on the Island in the Sky ride.  (It was a relaxing ride 300 feet in the air.)



Miniland Las Vegas...so darn cute



The MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas



The Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas--This is where my husband proposed back in 2004.

Cooling Off in the LEGO Duplo pool.

Finally, a water slide that's more my speed :)

More water slides and fun activities, but on this ride, get prepared to be DRENCHED.

Lewie building LEGOs at the wave pool.

Hmm...Let's see if they will float.

There's nothing better than floating down a lazy river and adding LEGOs to your raft at the same time.

The Ford LEGO Driving School

All LEGOs, of course.

 

And we're off...

Nice merging Lewie.

Okay...you should be looking at the road in front of you.  Watch out for the LEGO people.

The test is over; congrats Lewie--you've earned your first driver's license!

LEGOLAND was a wonderful time.  Sure we were rained out the first day, but the second day was amazing.  Lew and I both agreed that we had the most fun in years, and the best part....spending every second with Lewie.  His happiness and passion for life is contagious.  Now if we can just bottle up the fun and spontaneity that we had on this trip and bring it into our everyday lives at home...