Fall Break 2021: Hollywood Studios + Magic Kingdom

The first part of our fall break trip was SO perfect and we had a pretty perfect second half of the long weekend too 🙂

Whenever I ask the kids which park they want to visit at Disney it’s ALWAYS Hollywood Studios! It’s def the park with the most favorites for our whole crew. Spear’s fav is “Mickey Choo Choo,” Britt loves Rock n Rollercoaster, Tess loves Tower of Terror and Kye loves Smugglers Run!

This was our first time visiting Disney with the new rule in place regarding on property guests having early access to the parks (30 min before park opening across the board at every park). It was also PRIOR to the release of Genie + and Lighting Lanes. So it was this weird in-between zone and therefore I didn’t stress over making adjustments or developing new park strategies because I knew I’d have to rework and rethink ’em all with the upcoming changes with Genie and the changes with the operations of the DAS pass.

So we just did the day the way we typically have been doing ’em. We arrived 30 min prior then went directly to Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway!

Spear wanted to sit with Britt and Daddy on his fav ride which Britt LOVED hearing 🙂 We also loved getting to experience the ride in it’s full glory with the preshow. So many fun hidden mickeys during the show and around the theater.

We were seated in the VERY last row on the ride and it was my FAV viewing spot YET! It gave us the most time in each room to have the full experience and to better follow along with the storyline of the ride.

It was a BEAUTIFUL weather kinda day! Oct may be my fav for good weather 🙂

Tess cracks me up at how she will sneak a ride on the stroller whenever she can. We had some time to kill and decided to walk around Galaxy’s Edge and explore a bit since it’s something we haven’t done in AGES!

We were able to play a game of Sabaac with some cast members and the kids LOVED it. It’s complicated but they picked it up quickly and it was right up Kye’s ally. Of course I snuck away and bought a set of the cards to gift for Christmas 😉

Watching them play was THE magical moment of the day for sure! It was SO FUN and I just love random, unexpected moments like that.

The kids also found more items to add to their Christmas lists. One annoyingly frustrating thing is that items available in Galaxy’s Edge can’t often be found elsewhere. I did NOT know that and I regret not grabbing this Boba Fett set while I had the chance! They had TONS of them and they ended up being a hard to find item that is always sold out. It’s just tough to Christmas shop at Disney with the kids always with me!

We were able to ride Smuggler’s Run and Spear was a gunner this time. Bless he loves the ride but his little arms could barely reach the buttons!

I had completely forgotten about the golden statues around the parks for the 50th until Britt spied one! The kids enjoyed looking for them throughout the park.

We also had a really fun character interaction with Max and Goofy! Spear LOVED watching them fish together and they cracked us up when they caught a BOOT.

While these aren’t my ideal character moments – Spear doesn’t remember it any other way and he talked about this moment for SO Long. The magic is still very much there when it comes to these special character moments.

We also ran over and were able to be right up front for a Cavalcade. I LOVE seeing Spear’s happy smile and excited wave at Buzz as he passed by. My little Disney baby!!!

We found some more of the statues and yall the character choices are just SO RANDOM TO ME. WHY Frozone? Why Mod? Super random. But the kids were happy about ’em so I’m not complaining too much 😉 We loved going from statue to statue before taking a snack break!

Tess is finally tall enough to ride Rock N Rollercoaster! Zach took the big three to go ride that and Spear and I took our time meeting them for lunch. When we went to use the bathroom we saw a pressed penny machine and I decided to let Spear do one – I know this is CRAZY but it was my FIRST TIME EVER pressing a penny at Disney World!!!

He was so excited that we accidentally selected a Minnie Mouse one instead of the Mickey one he wanted so we “had” to do two 😉

Tess also LOVED Rock N Rollercoaster and declared it her favorite Disney ride! (Everest a close second)

Spear and I got a seat at the market and placed a mobile order for some chili cheese fries (the besssst) and then played “Guess the Mickey Penny” for awhile while we waited on the others to finish up riding.

I love when Spear is in a sweet, fun, playful mood! It was one of those moments I never wanted to end with him! While I’m not trying to rush the days away, it is SO NICE that he’s entering a stage in childhood where our time waiting together is FUN together instead of just me trying to manage/contain him 🙂

We lunched it up and then headed on out for the day! Spear wanted to walk like a Big Boy so Kye gave him a piggy back ride and Tess was quick to take advantage of the empty stroller 😉

On our way out we all stopped and stood under the tall palm trees and just listened to the breeze. We shut our eyes and listened to the wind whistling through the branches and imagined we were in Hawaii bc that’s the closest we’ll probably get to Britt’s #lifelongdream trip for awhile!

Bonus perk for Mommy was that Daddy even stopped on our way out and did some photo pass photos 🙂 I love a chance to have a memory as a family! These make me smile so big! My fav Disney pics are the ones from SUPER FUN days as a WHOLE FAMILY where all the smiles are genuine!

We headed back to the house for naps and rest time and I kept an eye on the wait times at Magic Kingdom. We didn’t rush to get there because the wait times were pretty long! I loaded Kye, Britt and Tess up so we could head to Magic Kingdom in order to see Enchantment for the first time together!

It was their first time at Magic Kingdom during the 50th celebration and they were all pretty into the decor 🙂

I needed to change out our annual passes for new cards so while I did that the three of them explored the Confectionary remodel a bit and I met them there after!

I made it just in time for us to catch the Magical Cavalcade! I just love Britt’s enthusiasm for all things Disney – especially her main man Donald 🙂 I also love that we’re at the point of sharing clothes! A lot of my older “slim fit” womens style of shirts are perfect for her with the current “baggie shirt” trend 🙂 She looked adorable!

Sometimes my kids totally and completely shock me. When I saw the new popcorn mixing station at the Confectionary I thought for SURE Tess would be over the moon excited about it. But nope. No interest at all and instead BRITT was the one wanting to try it! So funny!

We checked out the merch and said hey to Mr Toad! I’m so glad the big kids got the chance to ride Mr Toad’s Wild Ride on our trip to Disneyland!

Before this trip we made the decision to purchase an Apple Watch to take with us to the parks to allow Kye/Britt to split up from us and have a way to contact them as well as keep tabs on their locations etc. It was the perfect chance to use it that evening buttttt we forgot to charge it! Oops!

So instead I became “that mom.” I went ahead and posted up at our regular fireworks viewing spot (even though it was 2 HOURS before the fireworks and literally not a single person was sitting around holding a spot) and I stayed PUT. Kye went to ride Buzz solo and knew to come right to the spot where I was once he rode it. The girls took my phone and stayed together and walked around the Hub area to take pictures of each other at all the statues they could find 🙂

Everyone was happy. Everyone had fun! I was totally content to people watch and castle gaze and LOVED looking through all the photos the girls took together. They are SO GOOD right?!?! They really have a great eye and I Love all their poses but especially just that they were having so much fun together! While they did a fantastic job, my fav pic is the one with Tess’s little fingers in the screen. Just so precious to me!

Britt looks SO GROWN and I was so impressed with their use of angles and lightning! They loved finding all the statues and were giggling the whole time. I loved watching them from a distance! My sweet girls!

Kye took over an hour to ride Buzz and I did get a big nervous and anxious and it was a good moment to feel confident in our decision to purchase the Apple Watch. We won’t forget to charge it in the future, that’s for sure!

The girls went ahead and ate their dinner and a cast member filled me in on a secret – the location of Tinkerbelle’s statue so they went to check that out as well 😉

They roped off the area where we stand for the fireworks about an hour and 45 min before Enchantment. It had only just started running less than a week prior and there were NO CROWDS to watch it. It def hasn’t been the fan hit that past shows like Wishes and Happily Ever After have been. The crowds did fill in but even at show time it wasn’t NEARLY as crowded.

By then Kye had gotten back just in time for us to order a snack for mobile pick up from Sleepy Hallow! We got the Foolish Mortal Funnel Cake and it was SO GOOD! My little popcorn lover Tess got a bag of M&Ms for her snack and my chocolate lover Britt had popcorn. Crazy times 😉

I’m so, so glad Kye came with us. He has often elected to stay at the house for nights like these and the girls and I go solo but we had family worship that afternoon and on the way to MK he said that he is really wanting to work on being kinder to others and to HAVE MORE FUN. I could really and truly see how hard he was working at pouring into his sisters (and his mama!) and that FUN really did shine through and was CONTAGIOUS to us all!!!

My first night seeing Enchantment was ON Oct 1st (the actual 50th anniversary day and debut of the show). I was very “meh” about it but I will say it was WAY more magical the second time watching it. I think seeing it WITH my babies just made a big difference.

This will be the show that Tess feels emotional nostalgia and connection with! She LIT UP like I’ve never seen her do at a fireworks show in the past. SHE LOVED EVERY SECOND. Kye kept turning towards me the whole show saying “THIS IS AWESOME.”

Britt and Tess were super excited to see newer films represented in the projections and all three of them were in awe. Sure enough, seeing their eyes light up filled mine with tears 🙂

Britt said she didn’t like the main song as much as she loved Happily Ever After but that otherwise she enjoyed Enchantment more than Happily Ever After.

Kye and Tess both liked it better too! Of course I’d still personally choose to bring back Happily Ever After butttt I know we gotta let that dream go and embrace what is here and I’m here for it!

While waiting for the show to start I, naturally, made friends with others around me and they all agreed that they enjoyed Enchantment better the second time around too. It’ll take time but I know I’ll grow to love it and appreciate it and will be sad when it’s gone someday too!

Kye and Britt had THE BEST weekend together and nothing makes me happier!

We were all having SO much fun we didn’t want the night to end. The park closed at 8:30 for the Boo Bash event and the fireworks were at 8:00. So at 8:26 PM we were literally THE last people to watch Philharmagic one last time in it’s original glory before it closed that night for an extended refurb!!!

It was one of those magical moment kinda vibes! While we waited for the show Kye took turns dancing with the girls 🙂 Such a sweet moment and sweet brother.

Philharmagic will alwayssss be a special show for our fam and it was worth fighting against the crowds to get to see it one last time in the way we’ve always seen it before the changes were made (sidetone but they are FANTASTIC!)

We had quite the crowd heading out as Boo Bash got started. I didn’t regret bringing the stroller as Tessie sure enough did her typical fireworks night move of falling asleep 😉

Kye and Britt were straight troopers and we got rewarded for our efforts as we got to see the electrical water pageant as we waited to board the ferry!

It was such a wonderful ending to an AMAZING magic-filled weekend!

The next morning it was my turn to hang with Spear and have some CHILL TIME. I slept in, had lots of snuggles and got things loaded and packed up and ready to go while Zach took the three big kids to Universal for the morning to hit up a few rides for some Daddy time before we headed home!

We crammed a TON in over the weekend and these pics of the kids crack me up and sum it up. EXHAUSTED but SO HAPPY!