a short day at hollywood studios

i'm skipping our epcot day because it was our favorite, and i want to save it until last... so let's move on to thursday morning! we arrived at hollywood studios and rushed to the back of the park to get our fastpasses for toy story mania. we knew we only wanted to spend half a day at this park, so we hoped we'd get a fastpass time that was not too late. those toy story fastpasses go really quickly! our fastpass time was for 11:30, which was perfect. we also got right in to meet buzz and woody before a line began, which was a great way to start our morning!

they had different props for the kids to mess around in while you're standing in line, but there was no line! :)


we were surprised that buzz stamps his name instead of signing it! i guess those space rangers are pretty efficient guys!


i loved that the floor looked like we were standing on andy's bed with the toys. :) clever!


besides toy story mania, the other "must-do" for us at hollywood studios is the animation academy. in this class, a disney artist teaches you how to draw a disney character.


brian l-o-v-e-s this class. in february, brian went to the animation academy alone, but this time, i thought ethan would really love it too. at least to watch daddy draw if he wasn't interested in drawing anything... and i was right. he did love it! for this class, we drew pluto. ethan let daddy worry about pluto while he busied himself drawing miniature slingshots and other doodles at the bottom of the page. :) here are my boys after the class.


now the animation academy's classroom has swivel stools that are attached to the desks behind you, and they are kind of a hazard for small children... so caroline had to sit in my lap. "sit" isn't really an accurate word, but anyway... let's just say that i had a little trouble keeping my drawing neat and tidy. but in the end, i was pretty happy with my pluto! i was just going for recognizable, but i don't think he looks that bad! especially for having a wriggly 3 year old in my lap!


after the drawing class, we crossed the park to make the first beauty and the beast show, caroline's favorite part of hollywood studios. it really is a great show, even if you're not eating and sleeping princesses like my caroline. ethan was on the edge of his seat for the whole show, despite seeing it just 3 months ago. i put the camera away for this one and just enjoyed it!

after beauty and the beast, we retraced our steps and got in line for toy story mania. the queue for this ride is so interesting-- but we shouldn't be surprised, right!? there are giant toys everywhere, like tinkertoys, dominoes, and playing cards. the ceiling is covered with game boards, like checkers and chutes and ladders.


i am determined to eventually get some good pictures on this ride, but it's a challenge since you spin around from station to station! all the carnival games are so fun... and the kids enjoy it even if they aren't very good at it. ethan and brian rode separately from me and caroline, so i have no pictures of ethan on his favorite ride. but here is a not-so-thrilled caroline being spun around a little too much...


the last attraction we went to before leaving the park was the star wars jedi training. ethan didn't want to ride star tours on this trip, but he was so into watching all these kids fight darth vader and darth maul with their light sabers! and his daddy was maybe kind of into it a little bit too... :) caroline and i were not so much into it and were hot and tired, so we went shopping while the guys cheered on all the padawans. i am not exaggerating when i tell you that over half of our day's pictures were of stormtroopers, the darths, and the jedi! but at least we did not come home with a $25 light saber.


we saw what we came to see at hollywood studios, and we were ready to get back to the condo for lunch and a long afternoon nap! there's some other shows at hollywood studios that we enjoy, and we still haven't seen their parade.... but this time around, it was nice to take a mid-day break before heading back to the magic kingdom for the evening. this may very well be my shortest disney post ever! only 10 pictures!? hardly any characters!? well, i will make up for it in my next post. epcot was our most fun-filled park by far. lots and lots to tell about! be back soon from "the big ball", as my kids call it!