Last day at Disney!

All of our running around non-stop, on top of LeakyCon and her JumpstART experience, finally did Sarah in. She was draggy as we ended our Magic Kingdom day, and the next morning, she literally could not get out of bed. I sent Larry and Emily off the Epcot (so sad - the one park I was REALLY looking forward to going to!), and stayed at the room with my sick child. She slept nearly the whole day, I caught up on my blogging, and successfully communicated in Spanish with the housekeeper. Sra. Perry would be so proud!

 Much improved the next day, we set off for our final day at Disney, and, indeed, in Florida. This day would be spent at Disney Hollywood Studios. This was a much smaller, less crowded, and easier to navigate park - a good choice for a final day. Following Larry's "Disney Bible", we cherry-picked the things we wanted to do and see.



Entering the park was like entering a world of retro, largely art-deco buildings. Lots of theaters and "shops".

     

Mickey's Sorcerer's Apprentice hat was at the center of the park, and was quite the spectacle. Clever landscaping was found nearby.

  

Favorite rides? Tower of Terror and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. Tower of Terror had a fun set-up with its Twilight Zone approach. Combine that retro feel with a haunted house, and you've got me hooked. The ride itself was not so terror-filled as touted and shorter than expected, but the drops were exciting.

     

I am surprised I made it through the "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, Starring Aerosmith". A mouthful of a name, it was probably the most jarring ride I rode. My eyes were closed almost the whole time, and I'm so glad. I didn't even realize we'd turned upside down (maybe even twice...) until my family told me afterwards. Holy cow! I'd never have gone if I'd known that! Maybe I have more motion tolerance than I thought. As with others, this ride was over at just the point when I started worrying about losing it. I guess they know what they're doing!

 

Best restaurant of the Great Theme Park Tour? Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano. Wonderful food, attentive service, and not typical fast food fare. A sit-down, order-from-the-menu place, it fit the bill when we needed more than just burgers and bad salads.

Best show? Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. Staged as a shoot on a film set, it was exciting, full of dangerous stunts and special effects, it held our rapt attention the entire time.

     

Worst "show"? Narnia. A cheap shot at synopsizing the movies. A waste of time.

Honorable mentions? Muppet Vision 3-D, surprising since I'm not a huge Muppet fan, either. It was cleverly written and, well, 3-D! That always makes it better!

 

The Magic of Disney Animation was interesting, too, especially with two budding artists in our group.  

On our final day, I finally got into the whole "hidden Mickey" search. I love puzzles and such, so I'm sorry I didn't engage in the hunt sooner. Truly, we were so pushed to see and do what we wanted at Magic Kingdom, we really didn't have the leisure to look and relax. Epcot was a bust for me, so, I guess this really was my only chance. So, I found a number of hidden Mickeys, some I am sure more legit than others.

      

By the end of this short day, we were ready to go home. Fun, yes, but the culmination of time spent on our feet was beginning to get to us. So glad we had a few days time between Universal and Disney, or we never would have made it. Six theme parks in one trip is a lot of ground to cover!