First Day Without Dad

Dad left this morning before Cavett even woke up. We were on our own. We left the hotel around 8:30 and as soon as we headed toward the boat dock, the boat appeared. Perfect timing! We also hit Hollywood Studios perfectly as well. Little wait before we were actually allowed in with our tickets and then let loose in the park. He even received a "1st time" visitor button.

Immediately, we found ourselves at Mickey's Sorcerer's Apprentice Hat (which is the icon of this park.) Out stepped Minnie and Daisy! We were the second in line to take pictures. Then on the other side of the hat we found Donald. Again, very little wait!

However, because we took this little detour on our schedule, we ended up getting to Toy Story Mania a little late. By the time we got there, the line was already an hour wait and the FastPasses were for 11:10. By the time we got our FastPass, it said 11:55. An hour later, there were no FastPasses left for the entire day! It was really no problem, but I didn't see what all the hype was about. I just figured it was very much like the Buzz Lightyear game at Magic Kingdom.

So, we went to the Great Movie Ride. Nothing new in almost 20 years on this ride. It is how I remember it and had I remembered better before we got in, I wouldn't have taken Cavett. I had him close his eyes the entire time through the Alien set. Next up was sitting in line at Playhouse Disney's Show. It was ok, just puppets that we really couldn't see very well since we were on the front row. Would have been much better, had they used people or even just a tilted stage. Then we headed to Voyage of the Little Mermaid. Very disappointing. Ariel must have been new--bad acting, bad singing, and she messed up some of the words. How do you mess up "Part of Your World?" Doesn't every girl know the words to that song??? The show was also a let down especially after seeing Nemo at Animal Kingdom. There were puppets, but not as good as Nemo, they just showed a lot of the movie and Ariel "sang." Don't waste your time.

By this time Cavett was getting hungry so we stopped off for the 3rd meal in a row (besides breakfast) of chicken nuggets and french fries. Ugh! 12:00 rolled around and we headed to see what the "Buzz" was all about for Toy Story. It was fantastic and I think I would wait the extra hour. Luckily, we didn't have to though. When you walk in there are huge sets of "old school" toys-Tinker Toys, Operation, Blocks, etc. You wear a set of 3-D glasses and are in a little car with a funny little popping gun. You are whizzed through a track where you pass and stop at several different screens that show 3D animations of a scene at a fair's fairway. You shoot your gun at the items and rack up points. What makes it so much fun and better than Buzz Lightyear at MK is the fact that the aim is more accurate, you can see your ammo hitting the target, it's 3D and it's just plain cute! The reason why it is so popular besides the reasons named, is it is one of the only RIDES that little kids can and would want to do at this park. Highly recommended.

We briefly saw mater and Lightning, but this was as close as we could get. Next we hit yet another 3D movie, the Muppets. Again, 3D tricks, just ok compared to others. The rain then began and we were able to get to the boat again just as it was pulling up. A little ice cream in the lobby and he fell asleep in under 10 minutes as I am typing this up. He's been such a troop and we have had very few and very short melt downs. What a blessing!

Hopefully we can head to the pool later this afternoon. Tonight Stephen and I go to Universal Studios for the IACA Instructors dinner. Cavett will have a "fairy godmother" named Carrie, come stay with him while he catches up on his sleep tonight. Tomorrow we will head back to Magic Kingdom for Frontier Land and Adventure Land. Until then I'll leave you with a few more thoughts I have on Disney in general.......