our disney vacation, animal kingdom and hollywood studios

Planning a Disney vacation is no joke. Booking is only the tip of the iceberg. Then however many months out you need to make dining reservations which also means figuring out which park you plan on being at on a given day which also means looking in to which parks have extra magic hours that day or have a fireworks show or or or....It's a lot. Then add in fast passes and well... pour me a drink. All that to say that this first day taught me a thing or two (or ten) as far as planning goes. I overdid it. A lot. I've learned my lesson though and should my parents ever decide to bestow another generous trip to Walt Disney World I'll be sure to never do such a thing again. Scout's honor!

And so we begin.

Animal Kingdom had the extra magic hours this morning so we could get into the park at 8:00 a.m. After a super early run around the Boardwalk we all met to head to the buses at 7:30. Bright eyed and bushy tailed. Rob and I immediately took the bigger kids over to ride the new Avatar ride only to be met with a 105 minute wait. Only a few minutes after the park opened. It was bananas. Yes, I could have gotten a fast pass for it but they only let you chose one park to do that with and well, our afternoon park had more of what we wanted. Anyways so we took them on the river tour of Pandora then instead, as that line was quickly filling up. Afterwards we lied through our teeth to get David onto Mount Everest. He hates us for it now I'm sure but he did it just the same. We all met up again for the safari which is always pretty cool. All those animals! 

We left right after that ride (after another jaunt through Pandora) for Hollywood Studios. This park with all their Star Wars stuff just had me so excited! All of us fans were I mean! Storm Troopers wandering around?! Questioning us?! Then there was the march which wow. It really intimidated the boys seeing them out and about and stopping and acknowledging us. Letty ate it right up only worrying that they may see her shirt and know she is a rebel. She's not on their team, she said. None of the kids gave up any information about the droid they were looking for so I figure they are good peoples, my kids. 

After lunch we just stumbled upon a Jedi training with Darth Vader and Kylo Ren which was also super cool. Seeing a theme here? We got ourselves some drinks of the caffeinated and alcoholic variety before heading over to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid where David got to welcome everyone to the show, even taking the other kid's lines. Whoops! 

My brother and I took Letty onto the Rockin' Rollercoaster (which was her favorite thing of the entire trip) while the rest of the group got snacks. We did that ride twice and then the Tower of Terror.... Just to be sure that our stomachs were all messed up in time to watch the Beauty and the Beast Stage Show. Which Dom slept through. 

Then then then we were off to the Frozen Sing-a-long which was over the top but entertaining and it snowed so Letty pretty much had actual hearts over her eyes she was so enamored with it. You think we are done don't you? Well we aren't! We still had time before our dinner reservations so Matt and I took our kids to meet Kylo Ren Himself. That dude was in character something fierce, refusing a high five and everything. He about scared the pants off David. 

Dinner! Finally! It was at Mama Melrose, we love our Italian food for sure! We somehow got through dinner and off to the boat that took us home to our glorious beds... Just 14 hours later. Also a nod to Disney and their wonderful Christmas decorations. I dig it.

Some of these photos are my sister-in-law's.

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