Disney Weekend January 2020: Part 2
You can read part 1 of our trip here!
We all took naps after having SUCH an early morning.
It was a much needed break for us all.
Moods weren’t so great by that point (yes mine included) and we all just needed the reset.
Since Spear has been born he’s NEVER done a full day at the parks.
He’s always just done a morning, I don’t even think he’s ever gone to a park in the evening time yet?
Our original plan for the weekend was to just go to DHS in the morning and then I was planning to go to MK the next night with the big kids.
Since our boarding group hadn’t been called yet that morning we decided to switch up plans and all go back to Hollywood Studios together for the rest of the evening!
I did some googling to figure out a rough estimate of time for when we’d be able to board the ride and also just watched the app all day and realized the pace was roughly 10 boarding groups an hour.
We figured it out that we’d be called in the 3:00ish hour and sure enough at 3:30 our group got called!
With Rise of the Resistance boarding groups you have 2 hours to return to the ride when your group is called or else you loose it!
We loaded up and headed back to the park!
I was hardcore about getting to ride it with the kids first – since we had Spear with us we were given the ability to use rider swap for it!
It was SO awesome seeing the ride from their perspective.
Britt, of course, was THE most excited!
With the DAS pass we were able to just walk on the ride without the wait too:
I took TONS of pictures this time since I knew what was happening!
The kids were in straight AWE of the entire experience.
They all agreed it was AMAZING.
Britt and Tess said best ride EVER.
Kye actually said he prefers Smuggler’s Run which isn’t super surprising as it’s more “video game” like in its design!
I took a video of their post-ride review and it should auto play in this post!
While we were on the ride Daddy and Spear had so much fun exploring Batuu!
I LOVE that Zach stopped and got pics at a photo pass spot. SO SWEET and SO ADORABLE!
Love the magic shot too!
He let Spear walk around a good bit and said he did great! I told a cast member Batuu needs a play ground for all the baby yodas…since both rides have a height requirement you’d think they’d provide a place to let little ones PLAY!
We swapped and Zach took the big three back on the ride while Spear and I went to get SNACKS 😉
I am obsessed with the popcorn in the marketplace of Batuu. SO GOOD.
The kids have also started to play “Mandalorian” at home and I knew they’d love having more of the soda containers to use in their games 🙂
We stopped to get a family picture to remember our Epic Day (and Spear’s first full park day…minus nap…) and then headed to dinner!
We ate at Backlot Express which has pretty good food but is awesomely CHILL to hang out! We’ve never had it be crowded for us!
We enjoyed our meal and just took our time as we didn’t really have anything that was “must do” for us.
Zach took the big kids to ride Slinky Dog and Spear and I made our way over to meet them and we all road Alien Saucers!
It was Zach’s first time seeing Toy Story Land at night and he said he prefers it and that Slinky Dog was super cool in the dark too.
I love that we got to ride Alien Saucers for Spear – and it was a rare moment of me getting to ride with my biggest kids!
With it being winter and therefore dark earlier the parks close earlier and the night shows take place earlier than they do in the summer time.
I really wanted to have Spear see his first night show since it’s such a good time of the year to do it!
It’s much easier to keep a toddler up for a 7:30 show than a 10:00 one!
We watched the new night show: Wonderful World of Animation and then Daddy was even okay with us staying to watch the Star Wars show after!
Spear did GREAT and loved the lights and fireworks!
I love having our whole family together at Disney – it makes the magic even more magical!
(Britt was ADORABLE during Star Wars naming all the characters!)
A little note on our day with the potty – it went REALLY well.
We took him frequently which was fine as we didn’t have major plans or a strict schedule or anything.
He had lots of potty success and only a couple of accidents so def a win!
He did great the whole day – I def think he’ll be good to skip nap here soon and go for his first open till close day 😉
We had the girls have their
I am terrible at relaxing. It’s just not natural for me and a STRUGGLE.
I tried really hard this weekend to RELAX. And on Sunday I did great!
I was super chill.
We slept in, the kids and Zach went to the community pool to check it out for the first time, I ran a quick errand with Spear.
Kept it low-key! And I did enjoy it!
The kids all had fun swimming and Spear had a great time with the playground too.
During nap we did “Family Fun Time” which is something Kye is always asking to do.
His definition of this time is that we all play games together so we set up Monopoly and played for over an hour!
Of course Daddy killed us all. Once Tessie got up we played Disney Meme and Britt won that one!
Zach picked up pizza for dinner (the kids had some screen time while he was gone) and we had popcorn and candy and watched The Descendants.
It was all of our first time seeing it and def not a movie Zach or I will want to see twice although the girls LOVED IT.
After the movie Zach took the big three to the playground for some epic laser tag battles to end the family fun day!
I love our Disney home and I love the neighborhood and just how relaxed it is visiting!
Truly our home away from home and I love that having this chill day together allowed us to really enjoy it and just have some family bonding time.
It’s hard at home to truly RELAX because there are always things we should be doing so getting away allows us to really do that and connect in a way we can’t at home!
While I loved having the chill time…I do regret not going to MK Monday morning.
The kids didn’t have school for MLK Jr day so we had a longer weekend and it was SUCH pretty weather.
I took the kids down to the playground while Zach was cooking a big brunch for us and the whole time I just wished I’d taken them to MK instead.
We could have been making memories TOGETHER rather than me watching them play on the playground.
Lesson learned though…one day of relaxing is enough for me and I need lots of Disney in my life 😉
Typically we head back home in the mornings and check the kids into school prior to the time that they’d be considered absent.
This trip we decided to try driving home the night prior.
Since it was an extra day for the weekend it didn’t cut into our time much and I’ve always wanted to give it a try.
It’s tough getting home on a week day and checking the kids in and then kinda feeling like the day is wasted ya know?
This way we could get home and truly have a fresh start the next day!
Since we were going home that evening anyway we discussed going ahead and leaving after nap (giving us nap time to pack up) and then surprising the kids with a special treat on the way home.
When I took the big kids to my hometown last January we went to Chuck E Cheese for the first time together (I hadn’t been since childhood) and they LOVED it.
We found out there is one located about halfway from Orlando to our house and it’s right off the highway.
Perfect stop for dinner and some family fun to end our weekend with!
The kids had NO CLUE what our plans were!
We pulled in the parking lot and got nervous it wasn’t open and the kids noticed it and still didn’t get their hopes up and assumed we’d just pulled over for a bathroom break.
They were thrillllllled when we went inside!
I love how safe it is set up where the kids can just PLAY and not have to worry about their safety.
This location also had a timed card rather than a number of plays which was so perfect!
We were able to scan their cards multiple times so the kids got to play a TON and we had a full 45 min to use them and were able to pause them for when we ate too.
Spear was even super into the games and it was great that they had so many games that interested all of our different ages.
Not a stop we’d make often, but def a worthwhile adventure!
We spent around $60 which is not cheap but really it’s cheaper than a movie or a non-fast food dinner out for our whole crew!
I am so thankful for my core crew and the memories we make together!
These are the times I cherish most and this weekend was SO great – perfect first trip of the new year 🙂
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