Day 1 - Part Deux, Fun with water

So after Maddie's nap (it ended up getting cut short when the cleaning service lady [who I may add speaks English about as well as Maddie] misunderstood the "Do Not Disturb" sign and barged in) we headed out to MGM Studios.

So the first thing we did once we arrived was to go see the Voyage of the Little Mermaid. This is a theater type show that involves lives actors, puppets on stage with black lights, and large screen animation all working together, it's one of my favorite shows at MGM. Maddie did really well for the most part, she didn't like it when it started raining inside the theater (they have misters that blow water on you) but once the bubbles started falling from the ceiling right after that she forgot she was upset and stared at the bubbles. She then got a little nervous again when Ursula showed up on stage and started being all mean and scary, but dad held her and she didn't cry, was just a bit scared.

After the success of that show, we decided to try on of the 4D animated shows. Both Shalisa and I love these shows (It's Tough to be a Bug, Honey I Shrunk the Audience, Mickey's Philharmagic and Muppetvision 3D) but we knew that they might be tough on Maddie as they tend to be a bit more intense. We took her to the Muppetvision 3D show in MGM and it started off well. She loved seeing Kermit (who she is familiar with) and other muppets, but once they started shooting off fireworks and canons, having large gusts of air blown in your face, and had the water from Fonzi's flower actually soaking you (they put little squirt gun thingies in the backs of all the chairs) she decided she was done watching. She did cry just a bit in this show, although it wasn't so bad that we had to leave or anything, but sadly I think this means we will have to skip the rest of the 4D shows in WDW. I knew "It's Tough to be a Bug" was out, but had hoped she would do okay in the others... but after this I doubt it (not that we couldn't watch them, but I hate to subject her to something she doesn't like just so mom and dad can watch a movie they have both already seen 10+ times).

After MGM Studio's we headed back to our resort and grabbed dinner in the resort cafeteria. Nothing spectacular, it was typical food, Dad had a cheeseburger, Maddie had chicken nuggets, and mom had some asian Shrimp Noodle salad thingy. But after dinner came the real fun.

At our resort they have several pools (much like any hotel) but they also have this unique pop-jet water mat area. Basically it's a large foam mat the kids can run around on and water shoots up from underneath at random times from random locations. We took Maddie over to it, and for the first 5 seconds she was a bit timid. She got splashed once by a water jet, and then decided it wouldn't kill her and that this was the most fun thing in the whole wide world. She then proceeded to run around like a maniac with all the other kids (who were all AT LEAST a good 1-2 years older) for about 30-45 minutes. Maddie had an absolute blast, purposely sticking her head in jets of water, sitting on water, splashing in the water, running through the water, basically soaking herself head to toe (hey, it's 90 degrees out, who can blame her). After 45 minutes mom and dad decided to take her back to the room to go to bed, which turned into quite the ordeal. She threw one of her first temper tantrums on this trip. We literally had to drag her out of the water jets and drag her along the sidewalk as she screamed and howled wanting to go back and play some more.

While the exit left much to be desired, she obviously enjoyed herself there immensely and it will be a must do for later on. Both mom and dad laughed and laughed as Maddie ran around, and we must have taken 50 pictures and a good 10 minutes worth of video footage of her playing. That experience alone made this whole trip worth it, it was wonderful to see our child have so much joy on her face.