Disney/Universal 2013 Day 4

Read all about our Disney trip!  Day 1, day 2 and day 3 posts are up.

Tuesday
Tuesday was our "free day" meaning we didn't schedule a park visit for that day.  We had a free day in the middle of the week the last time we came to Disney and it worked out really well. So we decided to do it again.

We slept in on Tuesday (as you have noticed by now, that is one of our favorite things to do).  Then it was back to Downtown Disney for some intense shopping.

We started out at the Disney "Design-a-Tee" store.  That was pretty neat.  There were kiosks all over the store that you use to design your own T-shirt.  You choose the color of the shirt, which design you want on the shirt and what words you want to write.  You submit the design and pay for it, then you go back about 45 minutes later and the shirt is all ready for you.  Julie and I each designed a shirt.  Hers originally had Mickey holding a British flag saying "I love Harry Potter" but when we went to submit that, they wouldn't let her use the phrase "Harry Potter."  The guy said he thought it was copyrighted but I think it was more that it was advertising for their competition.  Anyway, she kept the picture but changed the words to "Disney World 2013."  Not quite as unique but still her.  She ordered it in adult large so she could use it as a night shirt.  That baffled the guy too.  He wanted to change it to a child's large and almost didn't believe us when we said, no, that's really what she wants.  In the long run she got the shirt in the adult large and she has slept in it almost every night since.

We explored the World of Disney store for a while.  There is soooo much to see there in all it's 12 rooms of Disney themed stuff, it takes a while to get through it.  Julie and I each got Mickey earrings and I spent a while looking at the Disney Infinity XBOX game.  That is high on our Christmas list this year.  There was a nice employee who took a lot of time answering my questions about the game.  It looks like a really great game with a lot of playability and tons of possible expansions onto it.  It could keep us busy for a while.

Incidentally, I was surprised that the huge World of Disney store didn't have accessories for the new Magic Bands.  Those were only found in the store at the resort, but I didn't discover that until the day we were leaving.  At that point it was really too late.  The bands were coming off within the hour, so I didn't buy anything.  But if I had known about them earlier in the trip, I definitely would have bought some.  They, obviously, need to have those things available to buy in other places because everyone I saw at the Disney parks had a Magic Band on.

Then we moved onto one of our favorite stores - the Lego store.

As you can tell, I gave Julie the camera while we were at the Lego store.  I knew David just wanted to look for a while and play for a while and that Julie would get bored fast.  So I had the idea to let her use my camera.  She took about 20 pictures of everything.  She had Tim and I pose in different ways and she took lots of pictures from different angles.  She really had a good time and didn't whine or complain once.  So my camera idea was completely brilliant, if I do say so myself.

David was a little sad that he only had money left for one small Lego set.  But it was his choice to spend it all the day before.  He knew the Lego store was on the agenda.  He still had a good time playing with everything and looking at all the built sets behind the glass.  We did buy David a big gray flat Lego board.  We had bought him one the last time we were there and he uses it all the time.  Since they are only available in the store, we decided to get a second one.  I also got him $5 off his set by using my Lego VIP card.  I think it was nice of me to let him use it instead of me, but I'm nice like that sometimes.

In the Lego store.  David has a Minecraft Lego set and
Tim is looking off at some other Legos somewhere.
Yes, the Lego store holds the attention of boys, young and old.

For lunch we ate at T-Rex.  It's owned by the Rainforest Cafe so it has a similar type of decorating but all in dinosaurs.  

There was a little play place that kids could dig up "dinosaur bones" in.  It occupied our kids for the short wait until we were seated.

We got to sit in this cool room that was an ice cave.  The lights kept changing colors so the room would go from blue to red.  It was pretty neat, although it was a little dark which made it hard to see our food...but still worth it for the cool factor.

I convinced David to order the ribs that were on the kids meal.  It was the only non chicken nugget/pizza or hotdog that he ate all week.  And he LOVED them.

Speaking of food...we were very fortunate on this trip.  Once again we had chosen not to sign up for the Disney meal plan, believing that we could buy food for cheaper than the cost of the meal plan.  Technically the meal plan was being offered for "free".  But, as we know, nothing is really free in this world.  When we visited Disney in 2011 we had bought 8-day, no-expiration-date tickets.  We used 4 days on the 2011 trip so we still had days left on those tickets that we were using this time.  In order to get the "free" meal plan, we would have had to buy new Disney tickets, which aren't cheap.  So for us, the meal plan wasn't really free.

But...we did have a bunch of rewards built up on a gift card from when we used to use a Disney Rewards credit card.  I thought we had about $250 but I hadn't really checked.  When we used our gift card to pay the first time, the balance printed on the receipt and it was $400!!  We used that money to pay for our meals on the trip as well as for a lot of the souvenirs we bought and it covered almost all of them.  Besides the food we ate while traveling down there and back, we paid for food in Universal, of course, and for 2 meals at the resort.  And. That. Was. It.  Yay!

After lunch we visited the Disney Christmas store for our obligatory 2013 Mickey ornament.  I also bought Julie an ornament for the tree in her room (since we had bought David something at the Lego store).  Then we rode the bus back to Pop Century.  We all went for a swim that night in the flower pool and the kids played some of the games they had going on - a cake walk kind of game and a big wheel race.  We had dinner at the resort and turned in early.  We had to get our rest for the next day - the day I had been waiting for - Hollywood Studios!

Check out what we did on Day 5.