Vacation Day 31: Rest Day/Downtown Disney

Today we decided to sleep in – which meant til 9am when the kids woke up. Sure hope they don’t decide to “sleep in” til 6am when we get back home to Sacramento and Pacific Time!!

We had a “real” breakfast this morning, and watched some cartoons. Jeremy head-butted Maria in the nose, and it hurt for the rest of the day. In fact, as you are reading this blog, it probably still hurts. Even painkillers wouldn’t get rid of the pain.

Then we decided to do some shopping in Downtown Disney’s Marketplace. Vavo stayed home to do some cleaning, Uncle Howie went to Disney-MGM Studios, and the rest of us took off for Downtown Disney.

We were really surprised to see that the Marketplace was PACKED with people. It was the middle of the day on a weekday – and we just weren’t expecting it. One of the cast members working in the art store told us that it’s because the locals are there doing their Christmas shopping now. D’oh!

First, we went over to a new section that we haven’t shopped in before. We visited “Mickey’s Pantry”, which had household items. We found the Mickey Mouse glove potholders that Tony and Laurie were looking for there. Then we went to the nearby “Disney’s Days of Christmas” store. You can guess what they had there. That store was by far the most crowded. So Andrew took the stroller outside because a) it was impossible to navigate around the store with, b) the kids were getting cranky, c) neither of us could get any shopping done. Maria picked up some special Christmas items while Drew and the kids found something special just outside.

Throughout the Days of Christmas store, there were little messages everywhere with a Disney twist on the 12 days of Christmas lyrics. This one reads, "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me Mickey in a Yule Tree". Other ones we saw were, "Nine Genies Flying", and "Seven Dwarfs a-mining".

There was one of those dancing fountains behind the store – the kind where there are holes in the concrete, and water randomly shoots up and out. The kids were instantly attracted. And since we had a change of clothes for them in the diaper bag, Drew let them go in the water and play. That fountain kept them entertained for probably at least an hour. It was crazy! People were stopping to watch them play. Drew said that there were even strangers taking pictures of them playing in the water.

Other stores we visited today included “Disney’s Wonderful World of Memories”, “Once Upon a Toy”, “Mickey’s Mart”, “Summer Sands” & “Team Mickey”. The “Mickey’s Mart” is a “$10 and under” store. They should call it the “10 second and under” store, because that’s how long it takes to walk through it. It’s just one little aisle under a cover. It was probably supposed to be storage for janitorial or something – cuz it was way small. And no good. We passed on that pretty fast.

We stopped at “Earl of Sandwich” for lunch. It was also PACKED. Even though it was already after 2pm!! They had really good sandwiches, though. But Drew’s had too much mustard. http://www.earlofsandwichusa.com/ For future reference, Andrew had “The Full Montague”, Maria had the “Hawaiian BBQ”, Vavu had the current special, which was a holiday sandwich with Turkey, Stuffing, Gravy and Cranberries. Aiden and Jeremy shared a kid’s PB&J and a kid’s Pizza sandwich.

After lunch, the kids took a nap in the stroller while we did some more shopping. Then we headed home a little after 4pm. When we got home, we watched “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “Ratatouille”. http://disney.go.com/disneyvideos/animatedfilms/ratatouille/

We called to pick up dinner at Carrabbas Italian Grill. http://www.carrabbas.com/ It kind of reminds us of Macaroni Grill or Johnny Carino’s. It got mixed reviews here with us. But for the most part, we liked most of the dishes a lot. Maria’s and Vavu’s were especially good!

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The best part of day 31 was the kids playing in the water, Andrew finding a volleyball for $8.99 at “Team Mickey”, the cast member who checked us out at Team Mickey (she was really nice and gave us a coupon and found an item we were looking for).
The worst part of day 31 was the crowds at the Marketplace (though that wasn’t really that bad), Maria getting headbutted by Jeremy (his head must be made of iron – cuz it’s hard)!
What we learned on day 31 was when Aiden says he wants to be by himself, 20 seconds of alone time is sufficient, kids love playing in the water, you can shop for hours and hours and realize you probably already have all the Disney stuff you’ll ever need (except for the expensive stuff, which you can’t afford). Potato Head parts boxes can bulge, as long as they close.
The weather on day 31 was warm...too warm.
Our character sightings on day 31 included none for us...ask Uncle Howie!
The crowd level on day 31 was very yuck at Downtown Disney Marketplace, very awesome at Disney MGM-Studios, according to Uncle Howie.