'Ohana Means Family - An April 2013 TR Updated 8/26!!

[jedimeg16]

Saturday morning came way too soon. My feet were still killing me, to the point that I just wanted to stay in the room while everyone else went to the Disney Hollywood Studios. It hurt to say that because after the Magic Kingdom, this was the park I was most looking forward to seeing with the boys. Ryan wasn't having any of it, and walked up to the gift shop to buy me flip flops, hoping that the change in footwear was all I needed. Thankfully it was (and I still wear them on a near daily basis when there isn't snow on the ground), and soon we were out the door.

I had booked us an early breakfast the the Hollywood and Vine Play and Dine because I knew that my boys would LOVE it. 99% of the boy's television time is spent watching the Disney Junior Channel (the other 1% is watching Dinosaur Train on PBS). The tagline for the Disney Junior Channel is "Where the Magic Begins", which is so so true! It's because of those shows that they knew so many of the characters we met during the trip and they've seen several of the more uncommon movies, like Pocahontas and Robin Hood.

As soon as we got up to the restaurant I heard one of our all time favorite songs from Jake and the Neverland Pirates, called "Talk Like A Pirate". The boys always stop and dance to it with me. While we waited for our name to be called Ian spotted the backdrop just inside the entrance and insisted on pointing out the characters to Grandma.





We were seated fairly quickly and went through the buffet for the first time. Other than knowing we got Mickey waffles, I honestly don't know what I ate for breakfast that morning. A combination of writing this so late after our trip, but also because the other part of our breakfast was so much more important.

First to our table was June from The Little Einsteins.



Ian was either helping to hold the book open or was trying to take it from her to see her signature. I think he was just holding it.



Next was Handy Manny





Ian was pointing out Manny's gloves



Manny was trying to get Ian to look at the camera, but Ian was too amazed that Manny was right there in front of him.



I think this is one of my absolute favorite pictures from our trip. It looks like Ian is deep in conversation with Manny, talking about how they both had green shirts on.



Continued in Next Post

 

[jedimeg16]

Continued from previous post

After the first two characters there was a short dance break where the characters joined a couple of Cast Members (two of each on each side of the restaurant) and they invited all of the kids to join them. Again Ian and Logan stayed in their high chairs, but they enjoyed watching it.

The next character was Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates

When Jake arrived Ian noticed June in a different part of the restaurant and pointed her out to him.





"Mama, Jake is real!!"



High fives



Dancing a jig



Ian noticed Jake's boots and was so excited to point them out.

Then Ian did the sweetest thing ever:



He tried to feed Jake a bite of his breakfast! Jake was trying to say no thank you, so we quickly explained to Ian that Jake had already eaten breakfast. Jake nodded his head and rubbed his belly.

The last character to arrive was Special Agent Oso. Now, I will admit, I do not really care for Oso, and I am glad that his air time is in the middle of the night when the boys are asleep because he is quite possibly the dumbest bear on tv. But the boys loved watching it, so I dealt with it when I had to.

Ian immediately spotted Paw Pilot pinned to Oso's vest.





I think this was the one time Ian looked at the camera during a character meal.



Gasp! Oso's real too!?



Look at that smile!





The one lone food picture we took.

We settled our bill and off to the rest of the park we went. Brandon and Rochelle actually decided to head back to the resort to change into warmer clothes because the temperatures had dropped drastically from the day before (you might have noticed that Ian was wearing a sweatshirt in the first picture of the morning).

Up next: More magic!

 

[RGirl]

Hi Megan! I followed the link in your signature from your post in Shannon's and my PTR and read through your whole TR tonight. What a great trip you had! Your boys look like they had such a great time - especially the pics of them dining with the gang from Disney Jr. So cute!

I can't wait to read more about your trip.

 

[jedimeg16]

Hi Megan! I followed the link in your signature from your post in Shannon's and my PTR and read through your whole TR tonight. What a great trip you had! Your boys look like they had such a great time - especially the pics of them dining with the gang from Disney Jr. So cute!

I can't wait to read more about your trip.

Thanks for joining in! I really think they had a great time because they still talk about "Mickey Mouse's House". We're working hard to save up so we can go again in 2017 for our 10 year anniversary. I hope to finish this TR up soon and then possibly start a PTR for the tentatively planned girls trip I want to take with my friend Kim.

 

[jedimeg16]

After breakfast we split off again - Brandon and Rochelle back to the resort so they could change into warmer clothes, and the rest of us off to the Animation Courtyard to catch my one absolutely must do attraction with the boys at the Disney Hollywood Studios.

First, the required Photopass pictures.





Despite the cooler weather the sun was still very bright. We were also slightly annoyed with our Photopass photographer, because she almost refused to take my Dad's picture. She thought that his shirt was for a beer company, which they can't take pictures of officially, which I understand. But between her accent and it already being a bit noisy it took us answering that no, Acadia is a National Park for her to understand that she was wrong about the image on my dad's shirt.

But enough of that, it was off to the Disney Junior Live on Stage show! While we were parking the strollers I walked down Pixar Place to check the FastPass return times for Toy Story Midway Mania, but they would have been right in the middle of our lunch plans so I didn't pick up any FastPasses at that time.

Posters around the theater:







I actually remember back when this space used to be a restaurant with an extremely eclectic mix of characters - like Aladdin, the Genie, Esmeralda, Meeko, and Rafiki. That must have been back in the 90's, possibly during our trip in 1998.

It was incredibly hard to take decent pictures of this show without the flash since we were a bit off to the side, but it didn't stop us from trying!

The show had barely started and Ian was completely engrossed in it.





While Logan decided to take his first nap of the day snuggled up to Grandpa.



If you haven't seen the show before, or if it's been a long time, the basic idea is that Mickey and the Clubhouse gang want to throw a surprise birthday party for Minnie.



And to figure out how to put the party together the characters (with the help of a Cast Member) learn from stories about Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. There are also several parts where the kids are encouraged to get up and dance. The biggest drawback of this show is that everyone is sitting on the ground. But despite that, this show is perfect for anyone with kids familiar with the Disney Junior shows.









After the show (and waking Logan up carefully) I went and got the TSMM FPs for later in the afternoon, and then we split off again.

Up next: Movies, Galaxies, and Characters, Oh My!

 

[yeheyprincex2]

Your tilte caught my eye
aww so cute, looking at your Disney Jr breakfast pictures makes me think I really missed out of a great experience with our boys(2&3 yrs old) on our last trip. They are also big Disney Jr fans. We did meet Jake at a character M&G which turned out some cute pictures. looks like you guys had a great time.

 

[KatMark]

Great updates.

Although I am not a fan of Hollywood & Vine, I can understand why people with young children who watch the Disney show would want to go. And your pictures are just proof of that...you can see how thrilled the boys are with seeing the characters up close and personal that they see on TV on a daily basis.

Awww...poor Logan needed a catnap and missed the show. But it looks like a cute show for the kids.

 

[RGirl]

Thanks for joining in! I really think they had a great time because they still talk about "Mickey Mouse's House". We're working hard to save up so we can go again in 2017 for our 10 year anniversary. I hope to finish this TR up soon and then possibly start a PTR for the tentatively planned girls trip I want to take with my friend Kim.

A big 2017 trip and a girls' trip sound great! I hope it works out!!!

Fun update! Ian looks completely taken with the stage show - so cute! That Disney Jr. really sucks 'em in - Willow still loves it.

 

[jedimeg16]

Your tilte caught my eye
aww so cute, looking at your Disney Jr breakfast pictures makes me think I really missed out of a great experience with our boys(2&3 yrs old) on our last trip. They are also big Disney Jr fans. We did meet Jake at a character M&G which turned out some cute pictures. looks like you guys had a great time.

Welcome to my TR! With so a big group of us together for the trip I couldn't think of a more fitting title. Your boys would have loved the Disney Junior breakfast. Hopefully you can take another trip within a couple of years and they will probably still enjoy it.

Great updates.

Although I am not a fan of Hollywood & Vine, I can understand why people with young children who watch the Disney show would want to go. And your pictures are just proof of that...you can see how thrilled the boys are with seeing the characters up close and personal that they see on TV on a daily basis.

Awww...poor Logan needed a catnap and missed the show. But it looks like a cute show for the kids.

A friend of mine in Libertyville also used to work at Disney and she worked at H&V before it was Disney Junior characters - back then it was Minnie, Pluto, and the chipmunks. She said the chipmunks were always playing tricks like tying the waitresses apron strings to other chairs.

And don't worry about Logan - he will get another chance to see the show.

A big 2017 trip and a girls' trip sound great! I hope it works out!!!

Fun update! Ian looks completely taken with the stage show - so cute! That Disney Jr. really sucks 'em in - Willow still loves it.

Unfortunately the girls trip might be delayed for awhile - my friend was informed earlier this month that her primary part time job would be eliminated by the end of August. She has been trying for 4 1/2 years to find a full time job, with no luck so far. She still has two other part time jobs (a music intern at our church and working for me on a commission basis for my crocheting business), but with a large chunk of her income gone it will take longer for her/us to save up the total we need.

I don't think Ian looked away the entire time during the show except for gathering up the gold doubloons.

 

[jedimeg16]

I'm sorry for the lack of an update this week - it's been crazy for us with Ian's bus schedule being a bit mixed up lately, on top of finally getting him potty trained.

But in exciting news I have a DISmeet tonight with one of the most infamous families on the TR board!

 

[jedimeg16]

I'm sorry it's been a month since a proper update. Life has been crazy and I'm still adjusting to Ian's new school schedule.

But I will be back to regular posting since I want to finish up this trip report. I've been writing it for almost a year and our trip was a year and a half ago already!

In awesome news though, we are visiting my parent's this weekend and my mom asked me to help put all of the Disney pictures in order that she had gotten printed and we found the missing pictures!! My dad had taken so many more pictures than were sent to me - like I had forgotten that my parent's and Ian took the boat from the Polynesian to the Magic Kingdom after our O'hana breakfast. I probably won't be going back and adding pictures to old posts other than posting a single post with a few of the highlights.