Tuesday 15th August

Happy Birthday to Nate, Happy Birthday to Nate, Happy Birthday to Nathaniel, Happy Birthday to you. Our tiny Nato Potato turns 5 and what better place to celebrate than Disneys Hollywood Studios!

We asked Nate what he wanted to do for his birthday and he replied “build a lightsaber” so we changed our dinner reservation from Chef Mickeys and headed for Hollywood Studios.

We took advantage of Genie+ (extra $80 for the day) which meant we can book a popular rides and jump the queue. Once we scan our Magic bands at that ride, we unlock another Genie slot to book the next ride. It’s all done through the Disney Parks app and the technology behind the scenes was blowing Daddies mind.

Before the heat started to kick up and things get all sweaty. We saw a green Disney photographer and grabbed some shots.

As we are “blessed” people now with the Genie in our back pocket, any rides are easily accessible. Want to go on Toy Story, normally a 60min wait, but the Lighting Lane gets you to the front in 5mins. You also get to look smug, smiling and waving at the poor pond-life in a one hour queue.

First problem we that we used our Lighting Lane but Nate would not go on the ride! We tried and tried to convince him, outside of being him up and strapping him into the ride we couldn’t force him on. That meant Elliott rode twice (lucky) and we started to wonder if Nate would go on any rides today.

Elliott ready to go!

We used another queue jumper to get to the front of the Space Invaders. Nate did go on this! Elliott had the best time and was shouting and screaming the whole time!

At this point, Mummy flips between telling us that we aren’t going on enough “big ticket” rides to warrant the extra money. We then flip to finding things that the boys will like “easy wins” to build them up to the big stuff. Meeting Olaf via a 2min Lightning Lane sounds like an easy win!

Side note, we were told by Olaf’s handler that he doesn’t sign autograph books but he will give the boys a sticker each.

We went back for round two of the Indiana Jones Stunt Show this time with more central seats and the boys tried to meet the stars afterwards.

The boys got talking to “Little John” who then brought over Indiana!

We asked Nate what he wanted to do next, the answer was simple. Build my own lightsaber! The shop next to the Star Tours ride, will let you build and customise certain parts of a lightsaber. The boys absolutely loved it!

We had a quick walk around the rest of the park, tried to convince Elliott to go on Tower Terror (didn’t happen)

We did get both boys on Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. This ride was a lot darker and faster than we expected, but Nate loved it. We queue jumped and even with the ride breaking down (temporarily) we were on the ride in under 15mins.

No pictures of the ride, but here’s Hulk Hogans hands on the walk of fame instead.

At this point, Mummy is itching for a big ticket ride and she uses the queue jumper to get on the Aerosmith rollercoaster. One of the fastest rollercoasters in Disney.

Mummy ride face!

Daddy plays things safe and took the boys back onto the Lighting McQueen show that they both loved so much.

We switched and Daddy headed straight to the front of the Aerosmith queue. It was like watching a line of sweaty people waiting for passport control. 85min queue and we were on in less than 10mins. Money talks here!

Daddy ride face!

Playing anything with Mummy turns into a competitive sport. Everything is a challenge. Luckily Daddy is a very chilled out chap, but one thing he will not lose at is shooting games. Enter the Toy Story Mania Round 2.

We managed to get Nate on this ride, the Mickey ride was so much scarier that it was crazy that he wouldn’t go on it. It’s a 4D shooter with a gun on the front that you need to pull the string on to fire. Pulling the string multiple times will fire multiple shots, there is a leaderboard and hall of fame.

Mummy then had a Mummy moment and wanted to go on the Star Wars ride. We told the folks at the beginning we need to do a ride swap. Yeah, yeah that’s cool. We had to see a person and set it up when we went on Avatar? No, it’s fine don’t worry.

We queue jump and get close to the ride. It’s tight and closed in, Daddy is about as wide as the narrow passages. We get to the front and ask about a ride swap. We are told you need to go back to the beginning to do that. Mummy nearly goes full Karen mode. We search for a more helpful person who tells us to wait at the gift shop and we can go through express lane. Turns out express is just Lighting Lane and we didn’t want to queue for another 20min – disappointed in that experience!

We jumped into the Frozen sing along and let Mummy sing her heart out.

The boys decided they didn’t like their lightsabers anymore and went back to the Star Wars shop and rebuilt them from scratch. The lady in the shop was so kind and helpful, the boys were even happier with these ones.

We headed back to Toy Story Land for two more rides on the shooting 4D game. More smug smiles and shocked “60min queue wow” all the way through the ride.

We grabbed a Mickey pretzel and Mickey cookie and watched as an American guy bought two light up balloons for $40. Nate also said on the way back that this was the “worst birthday ever” as Mummy took his lightsaber away, as he nearly hit three people with it.

We couldn’t get the Skyliner due to lighting in the area (shocker it didn’t rain) we had to go for the old fashioned Disney bus. Back to reality, waiting on a bus. Nate also said on the way home that it was “the best birthday ever” Daddy is choosing to selectively remember that part. Nathaniel is both Dr Jeckyl and Mr Hyde. It’s interesting that he can switch so quickly bet between the two. He has even developed a sort of angry shake to show he is switching.

Tomorrow we have called a rest day, Mummy has sore trotters and the boys just want to swim and play with their lightsabers. Daddy has seen an art animation class that could be happening in the resort and will investigate further!

Nathaniel, we love you with all our hearts, we are proud of you, our special boy. We wish you all the happiness in the world and we can’t wait to see what the future hold for you. You are funny, caring and beautiful and we are sure you will become a black belt ninja one day! All our love Mummy and Daddy xx