Disney: Day 6

Weeks before the trip (and the entire drive down and every day leading up to our visit to Hollywood Studios), Nathan talked non-stop about the Hollywood Tower of Terror (actually called the Hollywood Tower Hotel)!!! He was SO excited to see it and ride it....until, we got to the doors of the ride--then he wasn't so sure. He got on anyway (and insisted on sitting next to Alan). He did well in the beginning and then lost it when the "elevator" started free-falling and rising at random heights and speeds!! It was definitely a wild ride, but he survived!
Before we got to the ride...

The boiler was part of the setting that you passed on the way to the ride.

 These are the elevator doors--the seats for the ride were inside--this is where Nathan started getting a little nervous..

 Before the ride started, Nathan was nervous but still ready to ride....

 After the ride (and having recovered in the gift shop)....Nathan did an amazing job hanging in there!!

There were all kinds of cool things to look at, rides and shows!! Alan was particularly enamored with the cars!

(more on the stunt show later....)

They had some statues of famous people including
Walt Disney! 

We saw the plane that Walt flew over Florida in order to find the land he wanted to develop into Disney World.

 There was a great roller coaster that featured the music of Aeorsmith!

But I think the best parts were the special effects show, which demonstrated how they make things happen in TV and movies, and the stunt driving show we went to right after the special effects stuff--it was awesome!! They drenched this guy from the audience with water in a scene from a movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor..

A French village was the setting for the stunt driving show--I took video instead of pictures during the show, but not sure I'm going to be able to upload it.....

the show included Lightening McQueen, which Nathan thought was pretty cool!

And there you have Day 6.....almost done.....

Disney: Day 5

We left the resort and moved into a room at one of the Disney resorts. Unfortunately, one of the beds was stinky so we had them bring a new mattress (and we got a free night)!

 They made fun shapes with the towels.

Of course it wouldn't have been vacation without some souvenir shopping!! So we went to the Disney Marketplace. Alan about passed out from excitement when he saw the Lego store--Nathan was close behind.

There were some cool Lego constructions outside--one was a dragon, but I didn't get a very good picture of that one. The Lego serpent in the water was totally cool!!

Then Scott found the sports store (Team Mickey) and was in absolute heaven! He got himself a shirt after much deliberation about what to get!!

We ended the night be going into a sugar coma after ice cream treats at the Ghirardelli shop!! YUM!

And that wrapped up day 5......next, day 6....

Disney: Day 4

We saw lots of animals like black swans, flamingos, macaws, an okapi, lemurs, frogs, lizards...the list goes on and on....

Alan and Nathan posed with an enormous fake termite hill 

 and all three boys were intrigued by an aquarium. 

 They also had a Tree of Live with animals "carved" in it. 

 We went on a cool dinosaur ride

 and of course rode a train ride.

We also went on a safari ride where the animals were out in the open and some were right by the road!

We watched this funny 3-D bug movie based on "A Bug's Life". Here's Nathan sporting the cool 3-D glasses!

They had a great roller coaster--Everest and our favorite was the Prehistoric Whirl--a spiny roller coaster type thing!

 And there's day 4.....day 5's coming up next.....

Disney: Day 3

Nathan has been obsessed with haunted houses for a while now, so when he saw that they had a Haunted Mansion we just HAD to go see it! He really liked it!

The Mansion had some "statues", one was of Jacob Marley--Nathan's favorite ghost character! 

They also had a ghost horse and carriage!

We also rode a boat ride with a really funny tour guide, Pirates of the Caribbean and It's a Small World. We of course saw Cinderella's castle, but fortunately didn't see Cinderella because Carol made me promise that I would get a picture with Cinderella if we saw her! We also rode the tea cups and Nathan got to drive a car (on rails). We rode a train ride--because if there's a train ride, we always have to ride it and get a family picture!

We rode the giant carousel ....

 ....and the best ride in the park was definitely Big Thunder Mountain--the roller coaster ride that we had to go on twice because everyone loved it!!

 The light show and parade were amazing! One of the favorites was Pete's Dragon, and of course the huge waving American flag with the eagle at the end was impressive!

Don't go anywhere, there's more.....