Day Three

We got an early start on Day 3; none of us were too happy about the early starts, but we went to be by 10 each night and got up around 7, so we really got enough sleep....it's just way less sleep than you'd expect on vacation. But we had to see as much as we could:) So on Wednesday, we ordered the Breakfast Cart to our villa-as we were getting ready, a van pulled up with quick breakfast options, like muffins, cereal, and fruit and juice. Chris and I grabbed a few things to eat on the way to Epcot. By then, we had pretty much memorized the way to Disney. Here are Tucker and Chris putting their tickets in and entering Epcot. The first thing I wanted to do at Epcot was meet all of the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse characters-that way, no matter what the rest of the day looked like, we at least got that accomplished! I knew that all 5 characters were somewhere at Epcot, so we got the map to see where. We found them and got right to the front. (no feeling guilty today, Lauren!!) I had the autograph book ready, and Tucker got hugs and autographs from each character. He almost skipped right past Mickey to see Minnie! We think he has a crush on her, he hugged her the longest;)

Then we saw Donald

and Goofy!

Daisy wasn't there, we found out she would be out in front of Epcot later.

We headed out to see what Epcot had to offer. Tucker had on his sunshades:)

First we went to the Living Seas, which is a big aquarium you can walk in. Chris liked it more than Tucker did, so we let him walk around for awhile. Then we rode the Finding Nemo ride, which was pretty cool. It feels like you are really Finding Nemo, maybe a kid with more imagination than Tucker would have loved it. Tucker was fairly bored, until the one part where it got very dark like the part in the movie where Marlin and Dory are in the dark, right before they find those really scary looking fish. So I knew that was coming, and I covered Tucker's eyes, good thing I did! They pretty much popped out of nowhere. After that, we checked out Turtle Talk with Crush, which is supposedly very popular with kids. It was a show, so we would have had to wait 20 minutes for the next one to start, so we opted out.

We went to see Figment, which is a dragon, the dragon leads a show through the Sensation lab. I had never heard of this, but we are very into sensory things with Tucker, and this lab was supposed to let kids use all 5 senses, so I thought we'd try it out.

It ended up being really cool, and Tucker loved it:) We rode in a tram (which is how almost all rides are) and got led through the lab, talking about sight, touch, smell, etc. It really wasn't that exciting, it was more educational, but I guess Tucker liked the effects or something, because he grinned the whole time.

After this, we decided to check out the World Showcase. Chris and Tucker indulged me, as I don't think either one of them cared to fake travel the world:) We went to Canada, England (which was a pretty good replica of the real England, but just not the same...), and then headed to France. Well I am such a Disney idiot, that I thought the only characters at Epcot were the ones we already met! So then in France, we saw Marie, the cat from the Aristocats, and I was so surprised. Tucker has never seen that movie, but he said "kitty cat" and pointed to her, so we went to meet her. We waited in line behind 2 people, because we had to find the autograph book anyways. When we met Marie, the attendant with her was very upset that we waited in line at all! He gave me his Times map (which is available all over the park, I just didn't realize) and told me where and when each character was out, and he said I better not wait in line again!

So then we went to meet Aurora, I don't really have a good picture with her. She was always my favorite:) We went to meet Belle, but the line was blocked as she was going to lunch. Beast was also going to be out, but not for a few hours, so we headed to lunch at Liberty Inn (good regular American food!).

Tucker and I sat and waited while Chris got our food (hamburgers and fries). I really can't overemphasize how well-behaved Tucker was for the meals at Disney. We ate as few meals at the park as possible, since the meals at GKTW are free and because they deliver them to our door, thus leading to the least frustration for Tucker. But we ended up eating at least lunch at the parks everyday, and Tucker was so, so good! He just listened to his music, watched his DVD player, and "helped" me to feed him. Of course, Chris and I are some of the world's fastest eaters (being with a kid who doesn't eat kind of makes you speed up!), so Tucker didn't have to sit still for too long...he even licked some food every once in awhile, which made us both happy.

Next we headed to Germany to meet Snow White, Tucker grinned from ear to ear! It was adorable.

We went through Japan, Italy, and Morocco, but didn't see Aladdin or Jasmine in Morocco like the guide said. We headed back to England to see Tigger and Pooh, but we couldn't find them either! We stopped at a gift shop, I was determined to buy something, haha. Tucker sat still in the stroller until he saw the Minnie Christmas stocking. He just had to have one! We showed him the Goofy, Pluto, and Mickey ones, which he considered, but then he chose Minnie. He was so happy:)

We couldn't find Tigger or Pooh in London, so by this point I was beginning to think the Times Guide was a big waste.

We were going to head to Hollywood Studios for the afternoon, but we wanted to stop into the big Epcot store to get Potato Head parts. My friend Lacy took her little boy Josh to Disney a few years ago, and he came back with all kinds of Disney parts for the Potato Head. Tucker loves the Potato Head, and he actually tried to steal Josh's potato head pieces one time! Lacy remembered the pieces being available at the big Epcot store, so we checked it out. There were tons of things to buy, but no Potato Head, so we bought 3 pairs of ears-one for Tucker, one for our new niece Kinley (she will be born tomorrow, January 18th!! :) ) and one for Samuel Knight, our mito buddy who went to heaven in September. His family was supposed to take him on a MAW trip to Disney, and they are taking his sister Lauren on a Disney cruise soon, so we got her Samuel ears to wear on her trip.

It was going to take them 30 minutes to embroider the names, so we had to find something to do. I asked where Daisy would be, so we could walk over and meet her. We got lost (one time out of many!) and ended up right in front of a huge firetruck! That derailed our plans by at least 30 minutes, but we didn't care one bit. Tucker was just in awe, walking around and around. There was Fire Safety information posted everywhere, the point of the truck was to learn about Fire Safety (this is in the West Innoventions, for anyone who is wondering where a big firetruck is at Disney!).

After about 15 minutes, I went back to the store and picked up the ears; they were still monogramming them, so I watched. I figured Tucker could spend as much time with the firetruck as he wanted. It was rough to pull him away from it finally, but we had more things to see!

Chip and Dale were right outside, so we met them.

We never did see Daisy or Stitch, but we were headed out to Hollywood Studios anyways. When we saw Chip and Dale, I mentioned how we couldn't find Tigger and Pooh. She said it was because they were in the toy shop in London, not just out on the street. So I was upset, but I thought we'd catch them at a different park. Before we left Epcot, we picked up two Mickey Ice Cream bars. My mom used to buy a smaller version of these for us occasionally, and Meagan and I used to love them!

I used to do my best to trick her into giving me hers (as we only got one each), and I always said that if I could find a box of them in a store, I would buy her a huge box to make up for all the ones I stole! So we took a picture of Tucker licking the ice cream to send to Nanny Meagan, she said one day we'll all go back, and I'll buy her one at Disney.

We got on another "beeg bus" to Hollywood studios, but this one had barely any seating. Chris and I had to hang onto the bars, and Tucker had to hang onto Chris. An older boy got up so Tucker could sit down, and Tucker was so happy because the lady next to him was wearing shorts! For those who don't know, Tucker is quite the leg man! It is embarassing, really, he loves to rub legs; so we have had a break lately since it's the winter, and I guess he was just beside himself when he saw a pair of legs to rub! I missed all of this, as I was stuffed next to other people on the other side of the bus, but Chris said the lady was really nice about it and that Tucker controlled himself after touching her once. Thank goodness!

So the above picture is of me pushing Tucker down the main street in Hollywood Studios, the big Mickey with the Scorcerer's Hat is in the background. Hollywood Studios was nice, but we got there right during parade time, and during the mid-afternoon, which is probably the worst time to go to any park. We knew that, but Tucker was doing so great, so we decided to press on.

It was hot and sunny, so Tucker couldn't really focus enough to see the parade; the place was really too packed to move, and we weren't sure what to do first. The main reason to go to Hollywood Studios was to meet Handy Manny, see the Playhouse Disney show, and see the Toy Story and Cars characters. We ended up doing none of this that day.

We passed many rides, the Star Wars ride was broken (Chris would have liked it). I saw a show "Lights, Cars, Action!" and I thought Tucker would love it....it was a stunt show, and he loves cars and noise, so I thought it would be great. We got mid-level seating with the Wish button, and it was great seating next to the aisle, just in case we had to make a quick exit. Then at the last minute, more people came and we had to move to the inside of the bleachers. We had Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on Tucker's DVD player, so we thought it would be no big deal until the show started.

There was a fake movie scene, and it looked really neat. Then the cars came rushing in, with loud noises, racing, it was really cool.

This is in the first 3 minutes, when he liked it! Then the cars blew up, and the people in the show started shooting at eachother. Tucker freaked out and tried to escape, but there was literally no way out! Chris and I had to take turns holding Tucker and rocking him, and covering his ears for the next 30 minutes. I had a booklet "Disney Parks for ages 2-5"; it showed rides and shows that preschoolers would like-Chris asked me was that show in the booklet?? Umm....no......but neither were a lot of the rides that Tucker liked! So from then on I was no longer in charge of vacation, as we thought we scarred Tucker emotionally.

We were starving and tired by this point, and had really not done much at Hollywood Studios. I insisted that we at least try the Toy Story Mania ride before we left; it's a game where you ride in a tram, and you get moved from screen to screen playing arcade games, like shooting darts or throwing baseballs to knock over glass jars. But it's all simulated by the little guns you have in your tram, and of course stars all Toy Story characters.

Even the fast pass line for this was fairly long, and it was inside. So after we waited for about 10 minutes, Tucker had "the face" meaning the face he gets right before he poops. No, Tucker is not even 1% potty trained, and right before going to Disney was not the time to start....so we saw every changing table in the WDW area, as well as Universal. So anyways, we were pretty much stuck in a crowd of people, we would have had to push through a huge crowd to get out, and of course pushing ahead wasn't an option. So we just let him go right there, and my goodness the rest of the people must have wanted their noses to fall off!

So we hopped on the Midway Mania game finally, and Chris had a lot of fun while Tucker was pretty uncomfortable! Right after, Tucker and I headed to the restroom, where I cleaned him up. Chris said while he was waiting, two teenage girls came out, saying "OMG" and holding their noses....he looked away, like he had nothing to do with it! So that was embarassing, but oh, well, nothing I could have done at that point.

So then Tucker was really ready to go, crying "hotel, hotel." I promised him we would ride the beeg bus, then the car, then be at the hotel. Well, we left Hollywood Studios, and we saw a ferry ride that had no lines. I suggested we ride the ferry instead, it might even be faster! Well, it turned out to be the beginning of the ferry ride that stopped at 3 other places, and then Epcot, which ended up lasting over 45 minutes! Thank goodness for the DVD player, otherwise Chris and Tucker would have swam to Epcot (seriously, Chris said that).

So at this point Chris said I was literally banned from giving suggestions.....until I realized something;) The ferry dock was right near France at Epcot, not the front. Therefore we had to walk through Epcot to get back to our car near the front; again, this doesn't sound fun, but we would have to walk right near England, meaning we had a chance to meet Tigger and Pooh.

We went into the toystore, and by this point we were all exhausted! I told the attendant we had a wish child even before Tucker had made it into the store, and she opened the rope for me to go in. Tucker and Chris came right behind me and Tucker ran up to Pooh and tackled him! It was so cute, and I was scared that the person inside the costume might have a permanent injury....luckily, Pooh was a very good sport and hugged Tucker and rocked him a little. Tigger joined Tucker and Pooh on the floor for a photo, the one that Disney Photo Pass took is much better, but here is the one I took:

So after this experience we decided it's okay if I get us lost over and over, as long as it ends like that. We walked to the parking lot, drove to the hotel, and were so glad to be home!

Tucker is hilarious, he rarely shows us what he knows, but he takes in everything. By the second day at GKTW, he knew to take the hotel key out of Chris's wallet, and to swipe it very quickly to get in the hotel door, it was hilarious!

To end the night, Tucker took a bath in the jacuzzi tub, and he loved it. We put the bubbles on for ten minutes, and when it was over, he pointed at the knob-"turn it on!" so we turned it on again. By then it was getting late, so after 20 minutes in the tub, he had to get bathed and out, he was not very happy about it.

We promised him more baths in the big tub if he was good and went to sleep, so he did. It helped that he was sleeping with us, that was really a treat for him:)