Disney World Vacation - Day 5 (Hollywood Studios)

On our 5th day of our vacation we went to Hollywood Studios!  This is a fun park to walk around and see all of the different sites.  There are a lot of shows and not many rides, which made the wait times on the rides that are there pretty long.  We did have a few Fast Passes that definitely helped, and we really enjoyed the shows that we went to as well.

We started the day visiting Olaf, which the kids thought was really great!  He gave a lot of really nice "warm hugs"!  

Next, the big kids went on the Star Tours ride with my husband as I watched the Jedi Training with the little ones.  We then did a rider switch for the Star Tours ride since the big kids loved it so much.  Now, one thing I will say is that our kids have never watched Star Wars.  Even though they did not know the characters or story line at all, they still enjoyed all of the Star Wars rides and events at the park.

After Star Tours we headed over to Pixar Place to go on Toy Story Mania.  This ride had high wait times all day so we were glad to have a Fast Pass.  The kids thought this ride was fun, but for all of the hype I was not incredibly impressed.  It felt like a glorified video game to me.

We then stopped for a break and snack and then switched gears and went to some shows.  We went to the Disney Jr show, which our little ones LOVED!  Then we went to the Frozen Sing a long, which our 3 and 5 year olds really enjoyed.  Finally we went to the Indiana Jones show, which was a hit for everyone.  The simply loved all of the special effects, especially the fire!

It was another hot day and our 15 month old started not feeling so great (we weren't sure if it was the heat, exhaustion or a little of both), so we decided to head back to the hotel around 2:30.  It was still a really fun day at Hollywood Studios!

Disney World Vacation - Day 4 (Animal Kingdom)

On our fourth day of vacation we went to Animal Kingdom.  Although my husband and I had both been to Disney World multiple times before this was all of our first time at Animal Kingdom and we all loved it!  The park was simply beautiful and the rides and experiences there were a lot of fun.

We started our day with a Fast Pass for the Kilimanjaro Safari.  I was glad that we got a Fast Pass for this experience early on because even when we got there at 9:20am it already had a 45 minute regular wait time.  Our baby took a morning nap during the entire 25 minute ride but the rest of us all really enjoyed it!

Next, we strolled thru the forest paths and then went over to Asia to go on Mountain Everest.  Mountain Everest is a rollercoaster that has a lot of hype, but it definitely lived up to the expectations.  We loved it so much that the kids went on it FOUR times!  

After Expedition Everest we ate some lunch and then went to the Finding Nemo Musical.  It was a really nice break in our day to cool off and rest a bit.  Plus, it was a very well done musical and a lot of fun to watch!  We then walked around the Tree of Life and explored a bit while our little one napped in the stroller.

We then went over to Dino Land where we went on Dinosaur, the Primeval Whirl (this was the only ride that only our oldest child was tall enough for) and the TriceraTop Spin.  Honestly, Dino World seemed a bit misplaced in this park to us, but it was still a lot of fun.

This day we choose to have another early dinner at the park and ate at the Yak and Yeti Restaurant.  It was great food and a wonderful way to wind down our day.  We took a relaxing walk back thru the Discovery Island to see more animals as we were leaving the park.

 We ended the day with a fun movie night back at the hotel!  It is sometimes those simple moments that end up being the favorites of the trip.

Disney World Vacation - Day 3 (Epcot)

For our second day at the parks we visited Epcot.  We wanted to try to go to all of the different parks, but we officially decided with little kids this was probably our least favorite park.  We still had a lot of fun, but made this a shorter day staying at the park from about 9am - 2pm.

The first thing that we did when we got to the park was go on Soarin'.  We did not have a fast pass for this ride because they have the Fast Passes on Tiers so that you can only pick one out of their 3 most popular rides for a fast pass (either Soarin', Test Track or Frozen Ever After).  Our kids REALLY wanted to go on Test Track, so we prioritized that ride for our Fast Pass.  I took our oldest 3 kids on Soarin' (which we all loved), while my husband played with the leaves with our little one.  Then we had a Rider Switch Pass to switch out for my husband to ride with our oldest two.

After Soarin' our first Fast Pass of the day was at the Epcot Character Spot to meet Mickey, Goofy and Minnie.  Our kids really loved this experience, and the characters were really great at interacting with all of the kids and not making it feel rushed.  Now, we were glad that our boys are not that into all of the Disney Princesses, because meeting the characters can really take out pretty big chunks of time out of the day.

 

 

Next we headed over to the Seas with Nemo and Friends and Turtle Talk with Crush.  This was a fun ride for the whole family and the aquariums were amazing.  Although we have one of the best zoo's in the world in our home city it was fun to see different animals like dolphins, which we realized our children had never seen in real life before!  I stayed at the aquariums and rode the Seas with Nemo and Friends a second time with the little ones while my husband took the big kids over to Test Track.

After that it was approaching lunch time so we took a walk thru the World Showcases.  It was interesting to look at, but it was hot so we were all getting tired by this point.  We were thinking of going on Frozen Ever After but it had a 95 minute wait line so we decided to go on the boat ride in Mexico instead.  The kids loved it and it was nice to get out of the heat for a while.  

After walking thru the World Showcase we headed over to Mission Space, which our oldest two kids could ride.  We had a fast pass and then also got a rider switch so they could go a second time with my husband.  Again, this day it was really hot so we decided to call it a day after Mission Space and headed back to the hotel to swim.  

Swimming was a great way to cool off and end another great day!