Hollywood Studios

Day 3 of our trip was spent at Hollywood Studios. Nothing could have prepared us for the insanity of the first hour of our day! The park opens at 9, so it was pretty crowded when we got there, which was to be expected. Pretty much everyone lines up (read - pushes, shoves, etc.) at the rope drop on the right side to go to the same spot - Toy Story Mania. The goal is to get a fastpass, quickly, before they run out for the entire day. Todd and my dad were on fastpass duty, but they also had Brett with them to get Brett signed up to be a Jedi-in-training before the park ever opened. They were able to get Brett signed up, then raced over, through the crazy mob, to get in the fastpass line for Toy Story. Somewhere in the middle of that, my mom and I had Kate and were able to get in line to ride Toy Story with only a 30 minute wait. Todd got Brett to my mom and I and the 4 of us (my mom and I and the kids) were able to ride Toy Story with only a 30 minute wait, PLUS we now all had a fastpass to ride later! Score! While we were in Toy Story, Todd was in line to meet Buzz and Woody from Toy Story. By the time we got out, he was #3 in line, so it worked perfectly. I just handed the kids over the fence to him and they didn't have to wait at all! The lines for the rides aren't bad once you figure out the timing, but the character lines can be INSANE. More on that a different day :)

Jedi Training - Brett was paying close attention to learn how to defeat Darth Vader

Can you hear the Star Wars music?!

Darth Maul

One excited boy!

His Jedi Training class

Focus!

His turn to fight Darth Vader

Backing up, while we were waiting until Brett's time for Jedi Training, we took the kids over to the playset of "Honey I Shrunk the Kids."  I wasn't sure if they'd like it, but they absolutely loved running around with a little bit of free time!

Kate loved sliding down the leaf!

Later in the day - waiting in line with our Toy Story Fastpass - our wait time was about 20 minutes.  Those without a fastpass were waiting 150 minutes - TWO and a half HOURS?!?!  Can you imagine?!?!  Fastpass people!!!  I'm so glad the general public hasn't figured out the brilliance of Fastpass!

We watched a Belle show that was pretty cute... the whole sttory on stage in about 30 minutes.

Star Tours - I know this ride makes me sick, and this time was no different.  I don't know why I still go on it!  Brett loved it... Kate was not impressed.  She didn't dislike it, but it's definitely not on her list of Top 5 things to do again.

Hanging out behind bars, outside, in the cool air, waiting for the Star Tours-induced vertigo to pass.

Woohoo!!