Trip Report Epcot is Glowing

Hello Everyone. We made it back from our 10 day trip a few days ago. I had a lot of fun working on my last trip report, so I wanted to do one for this trip too. The big change from last time??? We took both kids along for their first trip to Disney.

Leading up to our trip, I had a lot of conversations with people I work with about our vacation plans. I guess I was just so excited that I was steering conversations that way. What I learned is that a lot of people see visiting Disney World with kids as an obligation. When I would tell them where we were going, I'd get, "Oh, you're going there..." It got to the point where I'd be able to finish their story before they did. They spent (insert high amount) of money to go there, it was hot and the kids only wanted to go to the pool, and they ended up not remembering the trip. They knew that Disney was something they should do with their family, but did not enjoy their trip while they were there. Maybe it had something to do with the fact I talked to a lot of dads.

I'm glad to say our trip was nothing like this. Sara, myself, and the kids had a great time, and Luke, our 4 year old, is constantly talking about what he enjoyed and what characters we met. As any parent can tell you, traveling with young children certainly has it's challenges (and that might be a nice way to say it). But it also has some truly great moments as children are able to fully immerse themselves in the magic. I'm very happy to say we had a good number of those moments.

The trip started at 3:15am on Friday.

We had done most of the packing the night before. The kids slept in comfortable clothes, so we were able to get them up and place them in their car seats with the goal being to have them go back to sleep. They did fall asleep, but Luke woke up again before the sunrise.

Yes, this was a drive to WDW, first time we had done that. We did have a DVD player in the minivan, and I can't put into words how helpful this was. Ok, I could, but I doubt you'd want to read it. We threw on a Jake and the Neverland Pirates DVD, and made it south of Richmond for breakfast at McDonalds. They liked the play area.

After breakfast, we continued our trek through the Carolinas, and ended our day in Brunswick, GA.

A few driving photos:

Sara taking a turn

Luke watching something on DVD

and Makayla taking it all in

We stayed at a Hampton Inn for the night, and had dinner at a Toucan Ale House. It was right by the hotel and made for an easy dinner. We don't have them in Pennsylvania, but it reminded me of an Applebee's.

Luke enjoying his meal.

Sara and Makayla

Time for a selfie (or groupie) Not sure what the cool kids are calling it these days. Obviously forgot to wipe Luke's mouth first.

Makayla didn't eat a lot for dinner (which is completely unlike her), and we noticed that she had a bit of a fever. We hoped it was just due to a long day in the car and gave her some children's Tylenol. It was time for some sleep and then we'd finish the drive to WDW the next day.

 

[Lyear]

For being brother and sister, Luke and Makayla are vastly different in their personalities. Luke has always been a laid back, go with the flow kind of kid. Our family would always remark how nothing seemed to bother him, he was ok with just about anything. He's a complete goofball and is the current class clown of his daycare class. He's always pretend falling down, making silly noises, or doing something else to try to get his friends to laugh, sometimes to the dismay of Sara and me. It's no surprise to use that Goofy is one of his favorite characters. It was during one of his fits of goofiness that he gave Makayla a nickname that has stuck - Makiwi, or Kiwi for short.

Kiwi can be exactly the opposite. She is the first type A 1 year old I have ever met. She knows exactly what she wants, and will throw a fit if she doesn't get it. When she was born, she screamed solid for several minutes, only taking the occasional break to breathe, prompting the doctor to comment to me, "She's already got an attitude, dad." That has definitely remained true.

So when we woke up from nap and began getting ready, Sara and I didn't think too much of it when Kiwi was screaming. We offered her water, milk and a snack, but nothing was doing the trick. We tried holding her, letting her roam, but it wasn't working. After a few minutes, Sara and I began to think something might be wrong. She had had a fever the previous day, but that was gone. We decided that we should probably get her checked out to be safe. I did a quick search and found a nearby urgent care center that was open on a Sunday evening. We decided that I would take Makayla in our car, and Sara and Luke would go back to Animal Kingdom. We had reservations for Boma later in the evening, so the plan was to meet up there.

So without much delay, Makayla and I were on our way to Centra Urgent Care. I'd love to tell you that I was a calm, caring father here, but honestly I found myself pretty annoyed. The one thing that I was telling our friends before we left for WDW was that I was really hoping that everyone stayed healthy, and now here we were on the way to the doctor. I kept telling myself that these things happen, and it will make a good story to tell someday (Turns out today is that day). I was able to calm myself down pretty well, much to Kiwi's relief .

There isn't too much to tell about urgent care. It was a little difficult to find, and very full when I got there. After about 75 minutes of waiting (a very fun time with a squirmy, unhappy one year old), they called us back, and it turns out poor Makayla had an ear infection. We were able to get the antibiotic at the urgent care center, and then made our way to Boma. I gave her some of the antibiotic when we got her in her car seat, and she seemed to feel better shortly after this.

Sara and Luke meanwhile had made their way over to Animal Kingdom for our final fastpass - Festival of the Lion King. It's my favorite attraction at WDW and I was missing it .

Getting ready for the show

And maybe Sara let Luke take this picture?

Sara said Luke enjoyed the show, but was concerned that the fire spinner was going to catch the building on fire. He also said it was too loud. After the show was over, AK was closing, so they made their way to the exit. They just missed a bus to AKL, and it took a while for another one to come.

Luke enjoying the bus ride to AKL. Sara also said she enjoyed not having to hold Kiwi on the bus for once.

Meanwhile, Makayla and I were in the lobby waiting. Makayla was taking this time to practice her walking and hydrate

Before long Sara and Luke had arrived and we were ready to check in at Boma.

 

[Lyear]

Boma has been a favorite of ours since our first trip together in 2005. When we begin making our plans for an upcoming trip, it doesn't take long before Boma is mentioned. The theming of this restaurant is great, and the food is great as well.

Today the restaurant was crowded and it was a bit of a wait to be seated. Luke enjoyed watching the water effects in the downstairs lobby while we waited. Luke was very, very hyper tonight. Maybe Sara snuck him some Starbucks while they were in AK. He was running all around the lobby and actively trying to reach down and touch the water. We had to keep pulling him away.

Eventually our pager buzzed and we were seated. Sara went up to get food for the kids while I waited. Here's one surefire way to keep Luke still...Angry Birds.

Luke has recently said that Angry Birds is his favorite thing. Call me Natalie Imbruglia because I'm torn. I love that the game keeps his attention, especially when we find ourselves in restaurants and similar places, but I don't want him spending all his time playing a video game. Is this how that habit starts? I know I played a ton of video games growing up, so it must not be that bad. I'm sure it will all work out in the end.

Sara came back with their food, so both kids were happy while Sara and I in turn got our food. I ordered myself a Tusker Lager. It was pretty good, but I was expecting the taste to be more distinctive.

We deemed this meal my birthday dinner, since we waited til WDW to celebrate my early November birthday this year. It did not disappoint.

Kiwi starting to feel better.

Someone must have heard us saying this is my birthday dinner, because our server brought me a cupcake.

Luke was happy to help me blow out the candle. Good job Luke

After dinner, Luke began practicing his jumping again. This time he was jumping on the bench seat, which I'm sure must have been fun for the people seated beside us. I'm not sure if it was coincidence, but it did seem there were a lot of families with small children seated around us.

So with that, we packed our stuff and headed home. The one positive of using our car to get there is we didn't have to take two different buses to get to our resort which was less than 1 mile away.

 

[Beckett]

Awesome trip report so far and what a beautiful family! I hope Kiwi felt better afterwards (adorable nickname!). I was hoping for a ASM trip report because I will be staying there during Christmas. Thank you!

 

[Lyear]

Awesome trip report so far and what a beautiful family! I hope Kiwi felt better afterwards (adorable nickname!). I was hoping for a ASM trip report because I will be staying there during Christmas. Thank you!

Thank you. Yes it's always so fun reading trip reports where you are going to be staying. We liked ASM a lot. I had heard the rooms were small and that the bus service is slow, but we didn't have either of those problems. I hope you have a great time at Christmas.

 

[Lyear]

On Monday morning we woke up early with plans to get to Hollywood Studios before they opened. We introduced Luke to a Disney World icon. Have to give props to @Longers for the photo idea.

We had 9am reservations at Hollywood and Vine for the Disney Junior play and dine. This was by far the hardest reservation that we had to make. I went online at 6am 180 days out, and it was already full. That's what you get with free dining I guess. I was scanning the website everyday, and finally one day there it wa...an open reservation. I had to do a double take because I was so used to being disappointed. Probably the same way I'll be if the eagles ever win the Super Bowl.

Luke was dressed in his Jake Halloween Costume for the occasion. Jake and the Neverland Pirates is definitely one of his favorite shows. Thanks to Netflix he's seen every episode in seasons 1 and 2 countless times. But hey, season 3 just came out. We had been looking forward to this day.

After a quick mug fill up, we were on our way. The bus came pretty quick, and we were off to Hollywood. After a quick potty stop we made our way inside. So that's what it looks like without the hat.

A quick left and we were at Hollywood and Vine. We checked in and while we waited for a table, we saw Jake through the window. Luke started to get very excited. Then our pager went off, and just as we walked in, here comes Jake walking past us. He saw Luke's costume and gave him a big high five. Luke was over the top with excitement at this point.

They walked us to the very back corner of the restaurant. X marks the spot for Luke.

We liked this seat since it gave us plenty of room to keep our bags. Sara went up to get our food, and first to our table was Sophia while Sara was at the buffet. Luke decided he didn't want to meet Sophia (or anyone other than Jake for that matter) so he found a hiding spot.

Yes, this is where he was anytime a character other than Jake came to our table. Makayla liked Sophia, though I believe she's explaining to her that the food on the table is Makayla's, not Sophia's.

After we had all gotten some food, Handy Manny was next to arrive. He did not receive a warm welcome. Luke returned to his hiding spot, and Makayla...well, the picture says it all

It wasn't long before Doc McStuffins arrived. Doc wasn't quite so scary.

Then we were just waiting for Jake. And we waited, and waited. We figured he must have had to go save Neverland from Captain Hook or something. While we waited, Sara took Luke to get a photo by the welcome sign.

Every 15 minutes or so they would have a song and dance party up by the buffet, and Luke enjoyed when they sang the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song. The guy in the blue and yellow shirt lead the singing, and he was very good and energetic.

At this point I was getting concerned. Our Toy Story fastpasses were from 9:30 - 10:30 and it was approaching 10:20. I knew they would let us in slightly late, but I still was hoping not to cut it this close. The waitress even felt the need to apologize for Jake's tardiness. Finally, here comes Jake, and Luke's morning was made.

After our farewell to Jake, we quickly packed up, likely before Jake said Ahoy to his next table.

Overall, I would highly, highly recommend Hollywood and Vine to anyone with young kids who watch Disney Junior. We thought the food was excellent, especially the Apple Crumb with vanilla topping. They had plenty of singing and dancing to keep everyone entertained. And I do believe the wait for Jake was an anomaly, not the usual.

Once we got out the door, we quickly made our way to Pixar place.

 

[Lyear]

Since we got behind at breakfast, the rest of the morning was sort of a blur. We made it to our Toy Story fastpasses with about 5 minutes to spare.

3D glasses don't go on a baby, dad.

And Luke doing some kind of goofy face. It's hard to keep this kid still for photos.

TSMM was a big hit with Luke, and even Makayla tried to pull on her shooter. He really wanted to go again. We explained to him that this is a Mickey to Mickey ride (touch the magic band to the mickey head), and you can only do those once because there's so many other people that want to go on them. And anyway, it was time for the Frozen sing along. Off we ran, and we were the last ones to get in the fastpass line.

Luke loves the "let it go" song. What kid doesn't, am I right??? So Sara and I were excited to check this out. The theater was pretty big. We had a bit of time before the show started so we cheesed for the camera.

And then Kiwi decided she really wanted my hat.

The royal historians. These guys were pretty funny.

Luke and Sara enjoyed singing along to all the songs, and Luke especially liked the end when Elsa made it snow inside the theater.

After this, we quickly ran back to Pixar place to get photos.

And then it was time for our final fastpass - Disney Junior Live on Stage. We again were the last ones to get through the fastpass line before they left everyone else in. The theater was very full. Floor seating for use please.

SPOILER ALERT...if you don't want to know what happens, turn away now
Luke really liked singing along to the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse song (again) and seeing the different characters as puppets.

Each character would have a problem to solve, and they would get their solution from a story from a different Disney Junior show. I loved that they made it very interactive. During Sophia's part it snowed, and then for Doc McStuffins we had to pop bubbles. Then finally, it was time for Jake.
Sharkey and Bones singing the Jake theme song

And mean ole Captain Hook trying to steal the team treasure chest.

Luckily Jake knew just what to do, everyone needed to open and close their arms like the tick toc croc. Luke LOVED it.

We all scared Captain Hook away, and we all got Gold Doubloons. Luke was all smiles. He was talking about this the next few days. Afterwards, photopass caught Luke playing with one of the streamers they shot off at the end of the show.

We ended up getting him a Captain Jake stuffed animal, then made a quick stop at Starring Rolls for some sweet treats.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake. Yum...mee

And a chocolate, chocolate chip muffin for Sara, along with a croissant. It was lunch time after all.

So this was a really, really, really good morning. Luke had so much fun, and we as parents were soaking it all in. Truly what Disney magic is all about.

For now it was time to head back to the resort to take our nap.

 

[MinnieM123]

These are wonderful pictures! I think that Luke is hysterical; I burst out laughing over his "hiding place" behind the chair! Glad that your family had so many fun experiences.

 

[DisneyFans4Life]

Glad you guys had such a good time. I have to agree that Boma is delicious! We went there for breakfast and it's definitely a place that we will be going back to!

 

[Lyear]

These are wonderful pictures! I think that Luke is hysterical; I burst out laughing over his "hiding place" behind the chair! Glad that your family had so many fun experiences.

Thank you. He's quite funny, and unfortunately he knows it . He loves trying to get a reaction.

Glad you guys had such a good time. I have to agree that Boma is delicious! We went there for breakfast and it's definitely a place that we will be going back to!

Boma for breakfast sounds interesting. I would think they'd have more than just Mickey waffles and scrambled eggs . We've only been for dinner, but enjoyed it every time.

 

[Lyear]

After a restful nap, it was time for our Hollywood Studios evening. Started off exploring the fountain in the middle of the Jazz Inn section of All Star Music.

This evening was the longest we waited for a bus our entire trip. I think it took about 20 minutes to arrive. The HS bus stop was all the way at the far end of the bus stops, so Luke used some free space to run around. We had some races until I got too tired to continue. Luke never gets tired...never. I was constantly being urged on by chants of "Run, Dada."

Once we got on the bus, it was a short trip. When we got there, Luke discovered there was water over where the ferry boat to Epcot boards, so he wanted to throw things into it. This is one of his favorite things to do. He likes to see what sinks and what floats. We tried to pull him away, but he was really into the water. He must be the only kid who would rather look at water than go into a Disney Park.

Once inside, we made our way to Pizza Planet for dinner. It was pretty crowded, so Sara took the kids upstairs to get a table while I ordered the food. Sara got a cheese pizza, and I got a veggie pizza. Luke had a "Power Pack Lunch." It had carrots, grapes, yogurt, a granola bar, etc in it. We each shared part of our meal with Makayla. Dinner was enjoyed by all.

Kiwi was definitely feeling better by this point.

After dinner, Luke wanted to check out the games. He really liked this area. I really liked that he still thinks demo mode is actually playing the game.

This was his favorite one.

While I was getting the stroller packed up for our walk over to Fantasmic, Luke caught a sneak peak of the Osborne Lights.

About halfway down Sunset Boulevard we hear an announcement that Fantasmic is now standing room only. Well that should be fun with a 4 year old and 1 year old. We decided to press on. Sara really likes this show. We made the long walk to the show area. Once we get there, there's cast members waiving us on and on. We kept going left, until we had essentially come to the far left of the seating. Here in the very back is where they had been leading us. The only seats left. Not that good of a view.

Sara had brought some glow sticks from home, so we broke these out, and Luke Makayla were honestly more interested in that than the show. We could only see the top half of it anyway. Certainly not our best Fantasmic experience.

Afterwards, we let the crowd clear out. It's not like we were getting anywhere quickly. Then it was time to head to the Osborne Lights.

 

[Lyear]

After exiting the Fantasmic show, we knew from experience that most people go through the Star Wars/Muppet area to get to the lights. We decided to head past Toy Story. This allowed us to stop at the new, and fairly empty, Toy Story bathrooms for a potty break. Then it was light time. Let's just say Luke enjoyed them.



I hope the video comes through for you. Luke had a great time. And do you remember me mentioning he never gets tired? Once I finished the video up, I'm happy to say I did take his suggestion and danced a little bit.

Luke wanted to dance, and sing, and jump, the night away. Kiwi really liked watching the lights go as well. Here's some more photos of the night, starting with a photopass one,.

We had a great time. We were there for almost an hour, but it seemed like 10 minutes. We stayed until the last song. And at the end of the night, a cast member came up to us and offered us a free gingerbread cupcake. Um...yes please.

As we were leaving, Luke saw the sci fi car, and wanted to take a picture.

Another fun day was over. We headed back to All Star Music, and were very excited to tell Luke that tomorrow would be his first chance to see Cinderella's castle!

 

[fractal]

Sounds like a great day overall (minus the Fantasmic seats) at Hollywood studios. This is bringing me back to the days of taking small children to WDW - something I nearly forgot. Thanks!

 

[Longers]

On Monday morning we woke up early with plans to get to Hollywood Studios before they opened. We introduced Luke to a Disney World icon. Have to give props to @Longers for the photo idea.

Hello Stacey!

 

[Longers]

I'm a bit late to this party but now following along. You were there when we were and that first weekend was busy - we left MK as it was so busy on the Sat night.
I wish I could drive to WDW rather than fly but I don't think I'd ever do any work as I would always be in the car heading to the world!
And being ill at WDW sucks so here's hoping it didn't continue for your whole trip.
Looking forward to more

 

[Lyear]

Sounds like a great day overall (minus the Fantasmic seats) at Hollywood studios. This is bringing me back to the days of taking small children to WDW - something I nearly forgot. Thanks!

Looking back, it was probably our best overall day. But we had a lot of great ones. Maybe one day you'll get to take some grandkids

I'm a bit late to this party but now following along. You were there when we were and that first weekend was busy - we left MK as it was so busy on the Sat night.
I wish I could drive to WDW rather than fly but I don't think I'd ever do any work as I would always be in the car heading to the world!
And being ill at WDW sucks so here's hoping it didn't continue for your whole trip.
Looking forward to more

Yes we've always gone in the fall (2 times in September, and 3 times in November), and have never seen it this busy before. The lines for rides were long, but what I noticed is how congested everything was. It was really hard to move around, especially with a stroller. Driving to WDW is not as tempting as you might think . That is a long, long trip.

 

[Lyear]

On Tuesday with woke up with plans to make the Magic Kingdom welcome show. Luke didn't realize it, but he was in for a bumpy ride.

The day started as normal. We were out the door around 7:45 and on good pace to make the opening show. We stopped to get drinks, and then waited for the bus.

Luke running, a very common sight

And a view of the other direction, with the poor people boarding the ME bus.

I was really concerned about bus travel coming in to this trip. I had heard that the All Stars share buses to most parks. I was expecting long waits and full buses. Thankfully, the long waits didn't really happen. But the high crowd level made it so that almost every bus we were on was standing room only. This morning, we waited about 7-10 minutes for a MK bus, which was plenty of time to allow the queue to go from empty as you see in these photos, to being overflowing.

We ended up getting to MK around 8:40, and there are A LOT of people heading towards the entrance. We get into a bag check line, and just as we're finalizing having our bags checked, the welcome show starts. Now Luke at this point had become so accustomed to leaving bag check and going to touch his Mickey band at the entrance stand. It caught him off guard when we said, let's come over here so we can watch the show. We were in that no man's land between bag check and entrance, trying to get a good view of the show. Luke could not understand why we weren't going in, and began a pouting fit. The welcome show was going forward, and Luke was sitting in his stroller with his head between his knees. Sara at one point picked him up, and he just buried his head in her shoulder. So we missed that magical, welcome to Disney moment. But at least we have a good story to tell.



We noticed that Luke had drank his whole mug full of lemonade on the way to the park, so we took a quick potty stop once inside. That allowed me to take some photos.

Then Roy and Minnie were sitting there all by themselves, so we decided to take some pics there. We must have started something, because by the time we were done there were two families waiting to do the same thing.

Luke's current way to smile is to do the all-in extreme smile.

After Roy and Minnie were nice enough to have us join them, we decided it was time to go save the galaxy.

But first, the obligatory castle shot. Luke liked seeing the castle, but there was no real awe moment. It was more of a what are we going to do first time.


Buzz was a walk on currently. Luke ended up riding 4 times. He loved this one. Makayla enjoyed looking around and seeing everything. She enjoyed pointing at things, but never got to the point of shooting at them though.









Luke didn't want to stand inside the bars.

After saving the universe, we decided to give the people mover a try. Luke was very proud of himself that he only got a little scared during the dark times inside Space Mountain. Once we got back, he asked if we could go again, so we ended up staying on for another go around.

Kiwi got a bit squirmy the 2nd time.

Luke having fun

 

[Lyear]

Once we were off the people mover, it was time for our first Fastpass, Dumbo. I didn't realize it, but when you use fastpass for Dumbo, you skip by the indoor playground. It looked like fun. Thankfully Luke didn't really seem to notice. Time to fly.

Kiwi decided this was a good time to fall asleep.

Ready to go

And Makayla and I behind them.

After the ride, Luke said he liked it and wanted to go again (He said this after almost every ride). The wait was about 40 minutes though, so we decided against it. We walked over the the Casey Jr. Splash area, but Luke wasn't interested in getting wet. He just wanted to stand there and watch the water go. After a few minutes, it was time for our Tomorrowland Speedway fastpass.

This was our first experience using rider swap. Luke and I went first, and we had a nice, smooth ride. Luke loved it and was excited to go again.

The next time...well, I mentioned he was in for a bumpy ride.


We've probably watched this video 50 times, and each time we seem to laugh harder. Sara claims her car was "broken." She was apparently so convincing in her description of this to the cast member that they let her go again. During the second one, she had become a much better driver.

 

[Lyear]

After our whirl around the speedway, we were ready for some lunch. We stopped into Cosmic Ray's which was right across from the speedway and a favorite of ours. Sara and I both got the black bean burger, and Luke got the mac and cheese, along with a pink lemonade slushy. There were a lot of ups and downs getting napkins, utensils, etc, but eventually we were able to settle in. We all enjoyed it, and Makayla especially enjoyed mooching on the French fries. She seemed to be feeling like herself again.

After lunch, it was time for the Little Mermaid, our last fastpass for the day. Hey a waterfall, that will make a good photo.

We were all able to get into one clamshell, so it was nice to enjoy it together. Luke has seen the Little Mermaid, but he's not a big fan since he doesn't like Ursula. He was a bit scared going in, but he seemed to like it. Afterwards we took a quick photopass pick. Again, we seemed to set a trend. The photographer was all alone when we came up, but afterwards there were about 3 families in line.


Before we went back to the hotel to take a nap, Luke really, really wanted a balloon. We found them relatively easily.

The problem was I didn't have any cash. The vendor told us about this "elusive" green ticket. Let me tell you, this thing is hard to find . I thought I heard her say it was in the jewelry store, but the people there had never heard about it. They sent me to the emporium, and we again came up empty. This fabled green ticket was proving elusive. I would have happily given up at this point, but we had promised Luke we would get a balloon before we left. So I had to keep going. We ended up going into the crystal store, and they told us we could get them at the stand set up between the crystal and jewelry store. We asked the person that worked there and, SUCCESS, we finally had a green ticket. And that was quickly exchanged for a red balloon.

With that our morning ended, and we were quickly on a bus back to the hotel for our afternoon nap.

 

[MinnieM123]

Curious about the "green ticket" -- is that something you buy (via credit card) in the Crystal store? (Do the CMs selling the balloons only take cash?) Or, is the green ticket a "complimentary" ticket to exchange with the CM selling the balloons on Main Street USA?

Glad you went to Cosmic Ray's for lunch. It's a fun place.

 

[Lyear]

Curious about the "green ticket" -- is that something you buy (via credit card) in the Crystal store? (Do the CMs selling the balloons only take cash?) Or, is the green ticket a "complimentary" ticket to exchange with the CM selling the balloons on Main Street USA?

Glad you went to Cosmic Ray's for lunch. It's a fun place.

Yes I didn't really explain that all too well. The balloon CMs take cash only. If you want to pay with a credit card, you need to buy a green ticket. It's not in the crystal store. If you're walking up Main Street towards the castle, about halfway down there's a small alley to the right. I believe it's between the jewelry store and the crystal arts store, but I'm not positive on this. There's a small portrait stand set up, and the CM's there can sell you a green ticket. You then exchange the ticket for a balloon.

We've done Cosmic Ray's on every trip we've been on. You're right, it is fun. We went twice this trip, both times it was very crowded. The last day they had assisted seating, where you get your food and then stand in line until a cm finds you a table.