Universal Studios

Like most of our days down at Disney, this one began bright and early. Mickey and Minnie made a special visit to our condo overnight and surprised the kids each with their own bucket full of goodies, ranging from a special shirt to wear each day to personalized autograph books!





Today's adventure was Universal Studios, so Aidan wore his special Buzz Lightyear shirt, while Ella wore her special princess shirt!

Upon arrival at the park, Mike took off to get fast passes for the Toy Story ride while I took Ella and Aidan to see their very first character - Donald and Daisy Duck. Aidan LOVED every second and was imediately hooked. From that moment on, his sole mission was to see any and every character and to get his/her autograph! Ella, on the other hand, was less than enchanted and literally cringed in fear at the mere sight of the characters from this point on.....needless to say, this made for a bit of a challenge wherever we went!







While we waited for our fastpass time, we went to see Playhouse Disney Live - which Ella absolutely adored and danced along with the entire show!

Then it was off to ride Toy Story Mania....

....funny thing - we had read that the ride tended to break every day at lunchtime....and sure enough, it was about 11:45 when we were in the middle of the ride, and it broke down. The good part is that we got passes to come back later that afternoon!

Any guess where we ended up for lunch? Is there really any doubt? Pizza Planet, of course! We sat outside in the plaza so that Buzz could watch over us as we enjoyed our pizza!






After a few more character greetings....

....we finally came across the highlight of Aidan's entire week - Buzz Lightyear and Woody!

This was as close as Ella would get to Buzz and Woody - doesn't Mike look thrilled to be stuck outside?

What could be better than meeting Buzz Light year and Woody in person....seeing them in a parade along with all of the other Toy Story characters! I had read that the Block Party Bash was one of the best parades in all of the parks - and the books were right - it was fantastic! Aidan loved every minute, and Ella enjoyed it as long as she was up high on Daddy's shoulders (keeping a safe distance from the characters!).

We wrapped up our day watching Voyage of the Little Mermaid on stage - and ignited a new passion for Ariel in Ella!

One final character autograph from Handy Manny and we headed home for the day with two very tired children who were sound asleep in their beds by 6:30 PM!