Day 4 began slow. I went down to the sundries store in the main building of our hotel and picked up some milk and donuts and brought them back to the room for breakfast. Cynthia had an appointment for a trip to the Spa portion of our resort, so the kids and I were just going to hang around the room and sleep in.

Cynthia went to the Grand Floridian Spa, and had a facial and massage, which she reports was wonderful.

We took our time getting ready, and Cynthia returned mid-morning, so we didn’t make it to the bus stop until around 10:30 to head over to MGM Studios. We had lunch reservations for the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater, an interesting restaurant concept whereby you sit in replica cars in a large room outfitted to resemble a 50′s-style drive-in theater, complete with the speaker hanging on the pole by the car and cheesy trailers for B movies playing on the big screen. I had the ribs, Cynthia and Michael had hamburgers, the other two had chicken. And the trailers were very very cheesy. I’m not entirely sure the kids got the whole concept of watching a movie in your car. A little before their time, I suppose.

After lunch, we decided to head on over to the Lights Motors Action! stunt show and get in line, although it turned out not to be much of a line (the stadium seats about 5,000 and while almost completely full, the crowd moved very well). This show was a blast, no pun intended. Cars, motorcycles, people on fire, what more could you want? Michael and Matthew really got into it.

After the show (and the requisite trips to the restroom), we wandered into the “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” playground, where we found ourselves in and among the likes of a 5 foot tinkertoy, a huge roll of film with a blade of grass slide coming out of it, and about a million other kids and parents running around with cameras.

The kids had a great time running around, sliding down the slides, crawling all over things. And, like the other parents watching, trying not to lose their kids, I snapped some great pictures there.

Next, the daily trip through a souvenir shop where the boys picked out a pair of Pirates of the Caribbean pistols, which I found interesting seeing as we hadn’t been to that attraction yet. We followed that up with soft drinks and gummy bears.

We worked our way toward the center of the park, near the big Sorcerer Mickey hat, to catch the midday parade. It started, and suddenly the entire population of the park materialized in front of us. So much so that it became quickly apparent that we were not going to see the parade. So we turned around and found ourselves directly in front of the Great Movie Ride.

TGMR takes place in a building made up to look just like Mann’s Chinese Theatre, which I thought of as interesting this time around since I was in LA just this past May and actually was in front of the real thing. I’ve always liked this ride; it reminds me of the Jungle Cruise at Magic Kingdom, only without the boat. You ride 20 or so to a car with a cast member up front telling you corny jokes and pointing out interesting movie trivia as you “sail” past classic scenes from great movies. Half way through a live action scene straight out of a western is acted out, with the tour guide a participant in the show. Cheesy, yes, but fun, especially for movie buffs like me.

Afterwards, we went to the Animation building and took a tour of Disney animation, which included a short film and a walking tour of artifacts from recent animated films. This culminated in a lot of Chicken Little paraphernalia, photo ops and the like.

After that, Madison wanted to take a rest, so she and Cynthia found a nice bench and sent me off looking for roasted almonds. Once I returned with the snack, the boys and I went to catch the Indiana Jones Stunt Show. We were about 20 minutes early, so we went ahead and went into the seating area, and took up a spot 3 rows back and right next to the sound booth. I like to watch the tech crew “behind the scenes” almost as much as the show, especially if I’ve seen the show a few times before. Afterwards I talked with the tech crew and asked them some questions about the gear they used. I even shook hands with the stunt guy that played Indiana Jones. I made it a point to tell him how much we enjoyed the show, and he seemed to really appreciate that. I doubt many people take the time to tell them that in person.

After the show the boys and I met back up with Madison and Cynthia and we all decided to go ahead and go get seats for the Fantasmic fireworks show. Unlike the fireworks shows at Magic Kingdom and Epcot where people gather randomly to watch, Fantasmic takes place on and around an island in a lake, with stadium seating “in the round.” We followed the crowd and found seats on the left-hand side about 10 rows back; not bad at all.

Fantasmic was great! It was more a stage presentation than a fireworks show, per se. The neat thing about the show was how they sprayed water in a large “fan” and then projected scenes from Disney movies on it. Characters acted out the basic Good versus Evil story, in the form of Mickey as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice against all of the classic Disney villains. Fireballs, boats, lasers, fireworks, music, the whole nine yards. They even set the lake on fire at one point. The neat thing is how they were able to put it out on cue.

We followed the crowd again, this time towards the busses and found the one with Grand Floridian on the marquee. Back at the hotel we grabbed some pizza and chicken strips at Gasparilla’s and took dinner back to the room. A few cartoons later and we called it a night.