Even though I didn't make it to bed until really late that night (or early that morning, whichever way you choose to say it!) I was so excited that I had no problem getting up.
Before getting the kids up, I tried to do as much as I could. I packed our park bag with snacks and any other items I thought we might need, filled up water bottles, and showered. Then I started getting the kiddos up. They were all so excited that it was fairly easy to wake them too.
They quickly got dressed in their outfits for the day. Since we were going to Hollywood Studios, I had themed the day "Toy Story" after THE most popular ride there. Trevor was kind enough to feed them breakfast while I finished getting them ready. Slathering sunscreen on 5 people can take a considerable amount of time!
At last we were out the door! But we were also running a little bit late.
From my extensive research, I had learned that it is VERY important to make "rope drop". That's the term used for park opening. The first hour or two that the park is open is one of the BEST times to get a lot of the major attractions done before crowds pick up later on in the day. Because we still had our tickets to sort out too from the night before, I wanted to get there even EARLIER. Linda, Trevor, Michael, Bethany and Oliver decided to meet up with us at the park a little later since they didn't have to worry about their tickets.
Because we were heading out so early, the Shades of Green buses weren't running yet. So we caught the Disney bus at the Polynesian resort and headed out to Hollywood Studios.
As soon as we got there, I sent Matt and the kids off to get in line to get into the park while I worked on picking up the tickets. It should only take a couple of minutes.
WRONG.
There was some sort of hiccup with our tickets and their computer system. I had all the correct papers verifying that I had purchased the tickets but for some reason our tickets were NOT showing up in their system. I was so nervous, but I KNEW that Disney would make it right. It was very nerve wracking though because at least FOUR cast members tried to access my tickets in their computer system. I could tell that they were progressing up the chain of command to the manager on duty trying to get my tickets sorted out. It took so long to get our tickets straightened out that even though we were there about 25 minutes early, the park had since opened and Matt had to stand back and let people pass him in line.
Finally, after what seemed like forever the cast member had to override something in their computer system and just issue our tickets. And just like I knew they would, Disney totally tried to make it right by issuing me TWELVE fast passes that could be used on any ride for the rest of the day.
Finally with tickets (and bonus fast passes!) in hand, I met Matt and the kids at the gate and we headed in!
Once we were finally in the park I had to think for a minute about what to do first. Normally you head to Toy Story Mania and either ride or fast pass it first thing. But since we lost so much time on getting our tickets I thought we needed to skip ahead to the next thing on our touring plan, so we headed towards Rock n'Roller coaster. As we were headed down that way we got a phone call from the rest of our crew saying they were in the park. They met up with us and we pulled fast passes for Rock N'Roller coaster and decided to get in line for Tower of Terror.
I was really nervous about letting Riley ride this ride. She can be a bit of a chicken about big drops or things that go fast, but she was DETERMINED to ride this ride. I must admit that she did great! Of course she did hold her breath the ENTIRE TIME once we started the dropping sequence. (For those unfamiliar, Tower of Terror is an elevator drop ride.)
Once we got off the Tower of Terror, we met back up with the non-riders (basically everyone either too young/short or too old! HA!) and we decided to use the bonus fast passes I received and ride Toy Story Mania. We all had so much fun riding this! Once we were done with that we knew we wanted to try to get a fast pass for it later on so we could all ride it again.
We then went to go use our fast passes for Rock N'Roller Coaster. Adrianne had a blast on this ride.
After that things get sort of fuzzy, and I think we ended up leaving for our midday break soon, but not before we grabbed fast passes for Toy Story Mania to use later in the evening.
We headed back to our room for lunch and naps! Also swimming for the older ones.
Once we got back into the park I know we re-rode Toy Story Mania, the Great Movie Ride, Star Tours, and watched the Muppet 3D show.
Then we trekked all the way back to catch Fantasmic! I wasn't sure if we would get to see this or not but I'm SO glad that we did. All my girls loved it. Once Fantasmic! was over we made our way out of the park (along with everyone else!) and headed back to our room. It had been a great, but LONG first day, and I knew we were only getting started!
Three of the kiddos with Jake from the Neverland Pirates. I LOVE how Max was interested in all the characters!
Emmaline meets Minnie! We were the last ones in line! After this, the cast member told us that Minnie was going home to make a "cheesecake"!
Emmaline meets the ant on the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground.
Max and Emmaline playing in a puddle at the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Playground.
The kiddos going down a small "leaf" slide. All the big kiddos were off on Star Tours, and Oliver and Co. had already headed back tot the room for a nap!
The kiddos play at a spraying fire hydrant.
In line waiting to go on Toy Story Mania for the second time!
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