Day Two -- Thrills and Chills

I woke up to find that Tinkerbell had left me a gift! A new cup and a Minnie Mouse t-shirt! She sure is sneaky. She also left me a little purse filled with money to make "pressed pennies" with. I ended up doing about 20 different kinds. We got an early start off to Hollywood Studios again to wrap up what we didn't do the day prior. We had a breakfast reservation at 9 am at Hollywood and Vine. It was pretty sweet to walk past the lines of hundreds at the turnstyles and walk right into the park -- ALONE! Something magical about being in the park with no one else. We were seated right away and the characters from Playhouse Disney began coming by. We filled up our plates from the breakfast buffet and Mom ventured out to score fastpass tickets for the Toy Story ride. She was allowed to go about halfway into the park and wait behind a rope with a few other people. At exactly 9 o'clock, the guard let down the rope and the chaos began. There were literally hundreds of people, all running towards Toy Story Midway Mania. Elbows were flying, kids were crying and adults were yelling. Fortunately, she was already halfway in the park and one of the first ones at the ride. She immediately got 3 tickets while probably a thousand people were coming up behind her. Good thing we got the tickets, because the ride sold out by noon. So we finished up breakfast and I was able to see all my favorite characters and get their autographs. I even danced with them. The food was good and we were ready to go.

We had a few minutes to kill before our allowed return time of 10:00. So we walked around and got acquainted with the Pixar area of the park. Finally, it was our turn to ride the most hyped-up ride at Disney. We breezed past the stand-by line and got on in about 5 minutes. The ride was cool --- an interactive 3-D game where you shoot at carnival games with a little gun on your car and score points. Mom beat Dad and I hands down! It was a very dizzy ride with lots of stimulation! Was it cool? Yes. Worth all the pandemonium and crowds? No. After that, we headed to the 10:30 showing of Playhouse Disney. It was neat to see all the TV characters playing out the shows live and I had fun singing and dancing along. Next was another show -- this time Beauty and the Beast musical. It was a great 30 minute compilation of the movie, full of beautiful singing and dancing. We were debating going, but glad we went. Next....the Tower of Terror. I had said for months that I would NOT go on this ride, but with a little bribery and coaxing, I agreed. Mom said it wasn't that bad. Either she forgot or she lied to me. It was terrifying! I didn't cry, but I was pretty ticked off at Mom and said never again. She felt pretty bad and really didn't remember it being that scary. C'mon Mom, a 13 story elevator drop NOT scary? Impossible. After our stomachs came back down out of our throats, we had a really cruddy lunch at a burger joint. Not good. Then we saw a quick stunt show and headed back to the hotel around 2:30. We took a quick swim and then cleaned up to catch the boat. This time we headed to Downtown Disney where Mom assured me I would be pleasantly surprised. I sure was! We had dinner at the coolest place ever....the brand new T-Rex Cafe. It cannot be described in words very well, but imagine a Rainforest Cafe filled with robotic dinosaurs, meteor showers and ice caves. Grandpa Miller and Betty were kind enough to drive there to meet us. It was awfully loud in there, but fun. I loved walking around and seeing the realistic dinos. They even had a dino-dig area. More surprises after dinner followed. Mom let me go to the Build a Dino workshop and pick out anything I wanted, no limits. So I picked out a cute triceratops whom I named Trixie and dressed her in the cutest little winter outfit. I had fun putting sounds in her, stuffing her and making her birth certificate. I even got a baby dino and egg to go with her. After some shopping, Gramps and Betty left for home and we caught the next bus back to the resort. I had a great day and was eager to go to bed. Coming up next, Epcot!