The Time I Became Supersticious

SO, to end our vacation we headed over to Hollywood Studios for the evening. We had planned to see a few characters we still hadn't had a chance to see, get a quick dinner, then hang out for the Friday the 13th VILLAIN party!! The kids were really excited, because the villains aren't out to meet and greet much, so it was a rare treat to have them all together.

We didn't think anything about it when we got there and there was a really long line to get in the gate. Manly stood in line with Eli and the backpack while I went on ahead with all the other kids to stand in line to see Wreck-It-Ralph. It's a really cool waiting area, so although we were in line for about 30 minutes it didn't seem that long. The kids have only seen this movie once, but they LOVED it. The characters are HUGE!!

 

See how big Ralph's hand is?! Wowzah!

Once we left there we went straight to stand in line for Buzz and Woody. This place is ALWAYS crowded because it's right in front of what is probably Disney's most busy ride, Toy Story Mania. We waited for close to an hour. It was while we were waiting that we started noticing the crowd was getting much thicker, and they were all in the 15-25 range. Most of them were dressed VERY risqué. We were starting to wonder if the Villain Dance Party might be a little different than what we imagined. Still, we waited in line with plans to grab a quick bite afterwards.

The great thing about waiting in line here is that there are GREAT places to take pictures.

HaHa!! Olivia is such a character these days!

Loved this one of my Mia. Ha!

Hysterical! Love these pictures so so much.

Olivia strapped to a rocket.

HAHA! Addi strapped to a rocket. Her face is PRICELESS!

CLASSIC! KK strapped to a rocket. HA!

Isaiah strapped to a rocket. Pretty nice "strapped to a rocket" face for a 3 year old.

Mia, trying to be strapped to a rocket.

Stinky Pete must have been stinky. Isaiah is trying to cover Mia's nose.

Daddy tries to join in on the party.

Totally worth the wait! The kids LOVED meeting Buzz.

When we got finished and walked out we knew we were in trouble and we needed to leave. It was obvious this wasn't the sort of dance party we wanted to be part of. There was a DJ mixing music on the main stage, a BAJILLION people gathered around, and suddenly the park was standing room only. Like we're talking we could hardly move our strollers around. We tried to stop and get something to eat, but EVERYTHING(even the pretzel stands) were PACKED and had mile long lines.

Although we really wanted to get to see the villains(who were still about 2 hours away at this point) we decided we needed to leave ASAP. We headed to the bus stops, and quickly decided to head over to Epcot to eat our last meal. We decided we'd be able to eat somewhere yummy, then watch the fireworks(which we hadn't seen this trip yet.). When we got to the bus stop there were only a handful of people there, and everyone was talking about how CRAZY the crowd was.

After about 30 minutes or so we realized we hadn't seen many buses. Still, we decided to wait in this line thinking that a bus would come soon. After an hour with no bus we decided we needed to find a different option. The kids were hungry, we were all tired, and it was getting late. We started hearing through the grapevine that there was a terrible wreck, and the buses were not running.

After about an hour and a half a random bus came by and stopped at a stop where there weren't any people. At this point there were about 50-75 people waiting at our stop. I decided to run up and ask the driver what was going on, and he said they were really backed up, and there really wasn't a good way out. I started to panic a little, and decided we needed another plan. I found some other transportation workers and they suggested the boat(that I knew NOTHING about for some reason!!). We headed over to the boat dock and were quickly aboard the boat. We had to make several stops, but we made it to Epcot just in time for the start of the firework show(that means it was over three hours since we had started trying to leave).

We didn't even get to watch the show because the kids were so hungry. We ended up just going to the first available place to eat(which was somewhere in "France"). They were ready to close, but were so kind to feed us first. We were the last ones in and the last ones out. I hated keeping them from closing, but we were so thankful they let us eat!

We finally left the restaurant and headed for the monorail exit, which was on the other side of the park. By this time we were among the last people in the park. That was kind of neat, but we were mostly EXHAUSTED and knew we still needed to make a trip to get back to our car and to our hotel for the evening.

I learned a LOT from this night. The short list? ALWAYS know EXACTLY what you are getting yourself into. I had read about the Villain Party on the Disney site, but didn't research it on any travel sites. If I had I would have likely decided we didn't need to go and saved us a LOT of issues. Also, KNOW your travel options from EVERYWHERE to EVERYWHERE!! I never thought I'd need to know the fastest way to get from Hollywood Studios to Epcot, so that wasn't something I had looked up. If I HAD we wouldn't have been waiting for hours for a bus while the boat was making 20 minute rounds!! KNOW YOUR OPTIONS!! Chances are your plans will have to change. Lastly, be willing to come up with another plan(or plan for it and have a back-up plan ready) when things go downhill.  

Luckily, we had no problems getting onto the monorails, and we were back to our car after about an hour or so. We loaded everyone up and headed back to the hotel we had been at the weekend before. We checked in, put the kids in bed, and fell FAST asleep. At least for a while...