Our Disney World Vacation--Day 3, Part 3

Everyone was extra tired this day and napped a long time. We hadn't really gone with a set plan for what we were going to do in the evenings. We had tentatively planned on going to the parks and just riding rides, more than watching the evening shows, so that we'd get to ride everything we wanted to ride, but I didn't realize how much we'd get done with Tour Guide Mike. We simply didn't need extra time for rides.

This evening, we decided that we'd watch Fantasmic! at Hollywood Studios. It was a show that we'd only been planning to see if we had extra time to kill. We wanted to ride a few rides, too, but the boys were slow getting going, and by the time we got there, we really needed to get into the ampitheater where the show is performed really soon.

But first, we needed to eat. Fortunately, there's an area with several varied counter service stands right outside the ampitheater. Chris got food for himself and Tigger. I think that Chris got a BBQ sandwich for himself and chicken nuggets for Tigger. I stood in line at Catalina Eddie's for pizza for Tigger and me. (Don't worry--I had half a chicken at the buffet with Pooh characters at lunch.) This is one of the few restaurants that doesn't have a kids' menu. They allow the kids on the Dining Plan to order off the regular menu when there is no kids' menu, so this was a great place to get pizza for Piglet.

Chris and Tigger ate, but we needed to get in the Fantasmic! theater by the time I got the pizza for Piglet and me, so we carried it into the theater. It's a good thing we decided to do that because we got seated in the last available row. Any later and we would have been in the standing-room-only overflow area. We sat down at 7:30 and waited for the 8:00 show to start. Piglet and I ate, and Tigger played with a light spinner.

Have I mentioned that it was really hot this day? I had been wearing Roo in the front pack since we'd left the hotel this evening. I'm normally fine with him in there, but I got really hot this time. We'd brought a mister with us, and I squirted myself and the baby for the first part of the show, but I was still melting. I unstrapped him to give myself some air, but before the show was over, I just had to get out of there so I wouldn't overheat. I went to the air conditioned bathroom to just cool off. When the show was over, Chris called me on my cell phone so we could meet up.

Fantasmic! is a really neat show. There are characters that perform in the middle of the stage, and there's a moat surrounding the stage where boats with more characters sail across during the show. They also spray up walls of water during the show and project images onto them. It's supposed to depict Mickey Mouse having a dream that's overtaken by (in)famous Disney villains, but then Mickey takes control of it, conquers the villains, and then sees a lot of good Disney characters. It's pretty intense at points. During the show when there was a brief quiet spot, Piglet yelled out, "Mommy, I'm really brave of all this scary stuff!"

The one really good thing about Fantasmic! is that they put a bunch of the Disney rental strollers at the entrance to the ampitheater during the show. When it's over, they encourage you to grab one and use it to get to the park exit. It's quite a hike to the exit from the ammpitheater, so Chris grabbed a double stroller and put both of the big boys in it. I had the baby in our stroller, so we didn't have to worry about losing anyone in the crowds. We went through the stores to look around a bit and cool off on our way out, then we boarded a bus and got back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel, I threw the boys in the tub, washed them off, and got them into their pajamas as fast as I could. There's a cute little parade called the Electric Water Pagent that floats past all of the Magic Kingdom-area resorts every night on Bay Lake and Seven Seas Lagoon. We went out to the beach at our resort and watched it go past. It's just some barges with lights that look like a sea serpent and other water creatures, and they play loud music that you can hear from the beach. It's nothing special, but it's cute and worth seeing if everything falls into place.

After that, we went back to the room and got in bed. Overall, this was our least favorite day. It was hot and poorly planned. It was the only day we had gone into without much of a plan, and it didn't work out. We'll definitely have a better plan next time.