Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 10 years and 7 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

We got up early this morning and walked (it’s so cool being within walking distance of two parks!) over to Hollywood Studios for the early opening Extra Magic Hour. I’m sensing a pattern with our Saturday morning Disney visits on Labor Day Weekend (laziness? or efficiency? 😉 ) as we immediately got FastPasses for Toy Story Mania, then rode the Aerosmith Rockin’ Roller Coaster (twice!) while the lines were short, and I hit the Tower of Terror by myself (unable to convince my daughter to go on it again).

Since we’ve been to Disney a lot this year, we decided to make a concerted effort to do things we hadn’t done in a while (or ever, in some cases). This time that included the Studio Backlot Tour (always cool while the Lights, Motors, Action! stunt show is going on) and the Animation Academy where my wife and daughter learned how to draw Donald Duck. We also continued our quest for Hidden Mickeys. MuppetVision 3D is currently closed for refurbishment but a friendly cast member allowed us to wander around the outside of the building to find a particularly hidden one we had been trying to find for some time. It turned out to be way in the back in the outside queue lanes where we’ve never had to wait. There are all sorts of cool Muppets-themed movie posters back there that are worth checking out if you can get back there (and yes, we did find the Mickey finally!).

By mid-afternoon we had done what we wanted to do at Hollywood Studios so we took the Friendship Boat from the park entrance back to the Boardwalk and then spent some time in the hotel pool. My daughter enjoyed the 200-foot water slide, supposedly the longest water slide at any of the Disney resorts (not counting the water parks, of course).

After cleaning ourselves up, we walked over to Epcot for the evening. No Soarin’ this time (the FastPasses were all gone, as we expected) but my daughter did get to talk to Crush (again) in The Living Seas and we saw some people scuba diving in the large tanks there. We also took the boat tour in The Land out through the greenhouses (lots of Hidden Mickeys there).

Eventually it was time for our dinner reservation at the Rose & Crown in England, another restaurant we had never tried before. Unfortunately, it took a very long time for our food to arrive and while we were waiting the pub area (which we were seated right next to) was getting louder and louder, to the point where we couldn’t hear each other at the table. Since the food still hadn’t arrived, we asked to be moved. This turned out to be a good idea as we were re-seated outside on the patio on a beautiful evening with a full view of the Seven Seas Lagoon. Dinner eventually arrived (and it was very good) and we enjoyed dessert while watching the Illuminations fireworks show out on the lagoon.

The park “closed” at 9pm after the fireworks show and as we were finishing up and paying our check, it started to rain. We waited it out for a bit under the awnings of the Rose & Crown and when it let up enough we walked back to the Boardwalk, enjoying the now empty streets of Epcot on our way. Tomorrow: Magic Kingdom.