Hollywood Studios

This trip to Hollywood Studios was short because as Disney even admits, they are in transition.  They are building Pandora right now (I'm not sure why), and they are certainly building up the Star Wars presence in the place too. So, we did some of our old favorites (you must get a Fast Pass for the Toy Story ride here), and tried some of the new things.

We got an early breakfast appointment at the Disney Junior breakfast because then the husband could sign the boys up for Jedi Training and get a good spot.  This worked out well, as they signed people up even before the park opened to the public.  We not only got our spot, but when we realized it wasn't ideal we went back to update it.

The breakfast was delicious, and plentiful.  The characters were ok - but James kept calling Manny Handyman.  Which was funny.  Joel Husband says they are going to update these characters in the fall, maybe they will include Miles from Tomorrowland, something Joel Andrew loves now.  If your kid loves Disney Junior though, this is the breakfast for you.

As the boys are getting older and moving from Disney Junior to Star Wars, I also was able to for the first time since having kids - miss the Disney Junior floor show which I was psyched about.  That is a must if you have a little - but I do not miss sitting on the soggy floor for 30 minutes while littles bounce all around you and all the parents knees creek and crack.  You do not realize how old you are until someone asks you to sit indian style on a floor for 30 minutes.

The other thing to note - they still loved and had a successful visit with Woody and Buzz, and their shirts certainly helped for that - but I couldn't help but think this time is dwindling fast too.  James picked out a Star Wars shirt at the end of this visit, and insisted he put it on at the end of the park.

So, new this trip was the Star Wars things.  We were able to meet Chewbacca and visit a Star Wars area where we also met Kylo Ren (he tried to turn the boys to the dark side and Joel Andrew was almost obliging - shrugging his shoulders when asked if he would go).  James did not go to the Dark Side (surprising!) but instead kept his distance a few steps away and on the other side of his brother.

Walking around the Star Wars land we also ran into storm troopers, a Jawwa (which really liked me), and all sorts of artifacts such as the different storm trooper helmets and light sabers and such.  The boys geeked out over it.  It of course all ends in a store which offered a $4,000 Darth Vader outfit.

The big thing we did do was Jedi training.  This all started out very confusing with lots of rules of don't snap a snap, and parents stand here and get a photo card and stand there.  It was also 90 degrees+ and super sunny and the height of the day that we picked, so we were all hot and bordering cranky.  But the boys were super excited and happy to be doing some training.  You have to be there 30 minutes before the show time, and it is mostly 25 minutes of getting each kid a robe and parent confusion.  The last five minutes we all marched from the robe place to the stage.  Then the fun started.

The boys learned light saber techniques, and then it happened - the bad guys came out, the kids went into two groups and each child had a chance to fight a bad guy.  We were super lucky that the boys were in the group that got to fight Darth Vader.  Though for some reason Joel Andrew said he wished he could have fought the Inquisitor.  Really, Joel Andrew?

So - guess what?  They won the fight, they used the force, and they got a badge.  They had a great time and at the end I hugged James and exclaimed: "You just won a light saber battle with Darth Vader" - he beamed!

That was pretty much our day, with of course a Toy Story Midway Mania thrown in, and this time Mommy got really close to Daddy's score, my 133,000 to Daddy's 144,000...  James and Mommy won the accuracy department and the Joels won points.

Till next time Hollywood Studios, where we will do some new things!