Our Christmas Time Audition Adventure! (Updated 2/15!!)

[katt789]

Hi there!! And :welcome: to my newest trip report!!
I JUST finished our Sept TR, and just in time too, as we take off to the World again bright & early tomorrow for an excellent adventure! My plan for this trip is to do a "live" styled report, with updates coming right out of our hotel room, as this trip will have more down time in it than any of our last ones!

And now: Chapter Links!! (which is what the rest of this post will be, while I get intros and all that junk settled up!!)

Introductions! (http:/http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43460438&postcount=2)

Plans of the Trip! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43460768&postcount=3)

Disney Survey! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43465377&postcount=4)

Day One-> December 14/2011

It's Time For Takeoff! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43506969&postcount=6)

Downtown Disney Distractions (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43513096&postcount=12)

Day 2-> December 15/2011

A Morning in the Wilderness (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43520904&postcount=13)

Exploring With Animals (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43541643&postcount=18)

Excuse Me, Professional Artiste Coming Through (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43577231&postcount=21)

Even More! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43577272&postcount=22)

Tut Tut, Looks Like Adventure! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43596056&postcount=28)

The Audition!! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43614970&postcount=34)

Character Extravaganza (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43624207&postcount=38)


Day 3-> Dec 16!

A Morning of Terror & Delicious Snacks (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43680915&postcount=45)

Song as Old As Rhyme (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43701015&postcount=49)

I Take A Lot of Pictures... (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43702427&postcount=50)

Secret Red Head Club Meeting (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43743100&postcount=53)

Celebrating Royaly With You (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43777031&postcount=57)

Food, Frontierland, Fairies & Fun! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43796223&postcount=61)

The Party Begins! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43854476&postcount=71)

Christmas Time Is Here (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43902505&postcount=84)

Parade Time (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43939997&postcount=93)

Last Night :( (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43969579&postcount=98)

Day 3-> Dec 17th

A Practically Perfect Breakfast! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44036873&postcount=119)

Reviews!! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44036911&postcount=120)

Real Life Updates!


Christmas Surprise! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43541679&postcount=19)

A GREAT SURPRISE!! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43854668&postcount=72)

Solo Trip Review (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43902539&postcount=85)

Disney Premier Passport! (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=43981593&postcount=103)

Food & Wine (http://www.disboards.com/showpost.php?p=44028072&postcount=111)

[katt789]

Alright, so let us start with the who of this trip, it' is I, your fearless TR writer, and Disney-holic, Katt, and Sylvia:

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/314689_10150765995770570_622820569_20280619_438290 0_n1-2.jpg

This trip was an in-the-moment decision for a very important reason, hence why there are only two of us, and this whole ordeal will probably be very short, and busy!!

When: December 14th to 17th

Where: Disney's Pop Century, of course!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Day%205-%204%20parks/113-1.jpg

Why: Well, to see Disney World, of course! Along with: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. And....the biggie...the reason of the trip, the reason that I was going to go down on my own, but then Sylvia was convinced into it...the audition!!:eek:

That's right folks, after I came home from the trip in Sept this year, I fully decided that I would be auditioning for Disney. I have danced all my life, along with some gymnastics thrown in there, went to Performing Arts school, and have worked in the theatre environment for the past 3 years. I began keeping an eye on the audition website from when I got home, and once I found an audition that suited everything, I booked the tickets!!

The audition is for "character & parade/show performers & look alikes" which basically means everything that Disney has to offer, minus the fancy really skilled roles in shows like FOTLK, B & TB, and the castle shows.

And now, onto more about the who:

Me:

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Photo0015FourBySix.jpg

I'm Katt, a 22 year old Canadian Disney lover for life. I went for the first time this past May, and have been back in Sept, and again in 2 days, and then again next Sept. (with the possibility of another trip in the Spring).

Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom. Hands down, the atmosphere is just so amazing.
Favorite MK Land:Main St USA, where the Magic Begins.
Fave MK Rides: Splash Mtn, Winnie the Pooh, the People Mover, POTC
Fave Epcot Ride: Test Track
Fave Epcot Country: France (the slushies just make it impossible to go anywhere else :laughing:)
Favorite Hollywood Studios Ride: Tower of Terror
Favorite Animal Kingdom Ride: Everest
Favorite Disney Princess: Ariel
Favorite Fab 5 Character: Donald
Favorite Winnie the Pooh Character: Tigger
Favorite Disney Movie: Little Mermaid, Lion King, Tangled, Pirates of the Caribbean
Favorite Pixar Movie: Up
Favorite Disney Songs: Part of Your World, Be Prepared, The Wonderful Thing About Tiggers, Gaston
Favorite Day of the Trip: Day 1
Favorite Shows: Magic Kingdom Rope Drope, gets me every time
Favorite CS: Cosmic Rays!!
Favorite TS: Cinderella's Royal Table (it's eating in the Castle!! it doesnt get better!)
Favorite Snack: The carrot cake!!!

And now, Sylvia:

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/298134_10150923251120647_645435646_22022849_170930 1775_n.jpg

She's 19, and works with me at the dinner theatre I've been at for the past 3 years. We both dance, and kind of bonded through that and working together over the past year or so. When I was talking about auditioning, she seemed kind of interested, but has a pretty big commitment to dance, and didn't know if she could take a job if it was offered. Eventually though, she gave in, and said sure, why not!? I need to be more spontaneous, and volia! The trip was made!!

Now, I would put in all her info, but I don't know 100% about it, so I'm going to wait for her to be at my house tonight, and we'll put up some info in a 2nd post!!

[katt789]

Here is roughly, how our schedule will be going for the next few days:

Dec 14th:-We'll be getting up bright & early, probably around 5am, when Sylvia's parents will be picking us up and taking us to the airport for our 8am flight!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/PTR/IMG_0005.jpg

Except...there will be a lot more snow in a picture like that...although...we haven't had too much this year...but it's only the beginning...

We've got a stopover in Toronto, which is something like 3 hours, so I definitely plan on bringing my lap top to enable us to post on here, and watch a movie or 2...

And before ya know it, we'll be landing in FLORIDA YAYAYAY :yay: Heat...no snow...Mickey Mouse, heck, yes.

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/PTR/21.jpg

We'll be whisked away to Pop Century, where I've already done:
http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/PTR/rb6x.jpg

And hopefully our room will be awesome & not too far from anything. As for this evening, there isn't any time to get to a park, we might head to DTD or BW for dinner, or just hang out at the hotel.

Dec 15th:
-This is it, the big day! Our audition is at 3pm sign in over by the Animal Kingdom. Now, because we really don't need to be there until noon at the earliest, it's possible that we'll do one of the following:
-Go to Animal Kingdom that morning, ride Everest, and hit up FOTLK
-Go to MK's EMH until around 10/11 am, then head back to the hotel before the audtion.

We'll figure it out when we get there :laughing: We have NO CLUE how long the audition will take, but chances are we won't have time for a park that evening. Who knows?!:confused3 I'm thinking we might head back to MK, as it's open the latest.

Dec 16th:
Now that the big day is over, we've got LOTS fo plans for today!!
-If we hit up AK the day before, then we will be skipping it today, otherwise, plans are as follows:

-Start at Animal Kingdom, right at 9am, and head straight for EE. We must brave the Yettie! Sylvia's never been on it, and it's one of my top rides! Then, if timing works out, we'll be heading to FOTLK, and then heading out of the park!

-Bussing over to DHS; where things get complicated a tad! We'll swing over to ToT, one of the favorite rides for both of us! And check the wait time, along with the next showing of Beauty & the Beast. If timing's good, we'll ride ToT, grab a fast pass, watch B&B, then ToT again. THEN, I've got some Muppet gift shop shopping to do, so we'll head over there, and maybe see some Muppet 3D action. Then we're done with that park.

-Then, we'll jump on another bus that will take us over to the Magic Kingdom. We'll be spending the remainder of the day/night here. The plan is to hit up as many rides as possible during the park hours, and then we're into:

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Audition%20Trip/crowds-at-mickeys-very-merry-christmas-party.jpg

(which is Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party...)

Where are solid plans are:
-Castle Show @ 7:45
-Princesses during first parade/ 8:15
-Cinderella, Tremaines & Prince Charming
-Belle & Beast
-Peter & Wendy
-Captain Jack
-Fireworks @ 9:30
-Parade @10:30
-Tomorrowland Stage @ 11:45

And then back to the resort for some sleep

Dec 17th:
Today the plan is to get up bright and early (and I mean early!) and check out of the hotel, and then bus it over to MK to be there no later than 8:45 so that we can watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNygbGM-B7o

before getting on:
http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Audition%20Trip/monorail_4.jpg

to get to;
http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Audition%20Trip/disney_Grand_Floridian.jpg

as we have a very special breakfast at:
http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Audition%20Trip/1900park1.jpg

Then, we'll probably resort hop for a bit, check things out, and then head back to Pop, as it will be time to go home!!

It's a short trip, with one REALLY busy day, but we can make it work!:wizard:


Stay tuned for the adventure starting tonight!!

[katt789]

Disney Survey!

1. What is your name?:

Katt

2. When was the first time you went to Disney World?:

April 1997 for Disney Land, and May 2011 for Disney World


3. When was the last time you went to Disney World?:
Sept 13-19th 2011

4. When is the next time you will be in Disney World?:
Tomorrow!!


GETTING THERE

5. How do you usually get to to Disney World?:
Flying. Being from Western Canada, it would take FAR too long to get there if we drove.

6. What do you do to pass the time while getting there?:
Listen to music, read, sleep, etc

LODGING

8. What is your favorite place you have stayed at and why?
I’ve only stayed at Pop so far, I’d love to stay at AKL, or the Poly though. Pop’s a great place! It’s cheap, and awesome!!



MAGIC KINGDOM

10. What is your favorite attraction in the MK?
Splash Mountain!! I could ride it forever!!

11. What is your least favorite attraction in the MK?
Without even seeing it: Hall of Presidents. Otherwise, Stitch’s Great Escape! UGH! Never again!!


13. What is your favorite place to eat in the MK?
Cosmic Rays for counter service. And either Crystal Palace for breakfast, or Cinderella’s Royal Palace

OTHER DISNEY PLACES

28. Which water parks have you been to and which one was your favorite?
I haven’t been to any of the water parks, I’m not big on the water parks.


38. What is your favorite extinct show/parade?
The main parade at DL was the Lion King parade when we went, and it was totally awesome. I also got to dance & play an instrument in it once!

RANDOMS

39. What is one thing you MUST do every time you go to Disney?
Get a Dole Whip, ride Splash Mtn

40. What is one thing you MUST eat every time you go to Disney?
Dole Whip, Grey Goose Slushie, CARROT CAKE! Hooooly, it’s incredible!

41. What is something you haven't done yet that you look forward to doing?
Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!

42. What is something you have done and have no interest in doing again?
Stitch’s Great Escape, Soarin, can’t lie…wasn’t in to it, and it made me kinda naseas
43. Who is your favorite Disney female?
Ariel, Tink & Rapunzel

44. Who is your favorite Disney male?
Prince Eric, Gaston & Commodore Norrington from POTC…

45. Who is your favorite Disney villain?
Gaston & Scar
46. Your earliest Disney Park Memory:
I told Tigger that he was my favourite when I met him, and he “kissed” my head, but it looked like he was trying to eat me in the picture!

47. What other Disney Parks have you been to outside of Disney World?
Just Disney Land, I really want to visit all the Disney parks around the world though!

48. Have you ever had to explain your love for Disney to someone who just didn't "get" it?
Now that I’ve gone twice in a year, yes, people don’t really get it, though it’s more of a “I don’t get how you can afford it”

49. Blasphemous I know, but where is your favorite place to travel outside of Disney?
Camp! I love summer camp so much, I’ve worked at one for 5 years, and went to the same one forever, it’s amazing!

50. Which Disney character reminds you of you?
Tink, but the original Tink, with the feisty-ness and jealousy that she gets, she’s awesome! And I have to say that I love her!

[shan23877]

joining in! I'm really excited to hear about the whole audition process, and of course how you did!

[katt789]

DAY ONE BEGINS!!!:woohoo::woohoo:

Well, it was partially the day that we were leaving, and partially the day before. On Tuesday night, Sylvia had dance until 9, and I was working until midnight-ish. After work, a couple of friends ended up coming over, and Sylvia still had to pack. She came over to my place around 2 am, and then the 5 of us ended up watching movies right up until 5 am, when Sylvia's mom came to pick us up for the airport.

Let me tell you, this was the first, and last, time that I stay up all night before a flight. It's much nicer to just wake up super early!

Once we loaded up the luggage, we were off! EEEEK!! It was a super exciting hour!! When we got to the airport, was when the problems kind of began. The day before, Sylvia had been printing off tickets, and noticed that her ticket had my last name, instead of hers on it! :eek: Now, if you know anything about airlines & tickets and having to change things...you can't...so the aircanada employee added her last name to the ticket, and said it would be fine. However, it screwed up our check in, as we were trying to use the machines, rather than go to a person.

(Also, am I the only one who HATES those machines, nearly every time I have to talk to an agent anyway, why bother with them!?:confused3) Once everything was cleared up, we quickly whizzed through security, and were stopping at the Tim Hortans beside our gate for some breakfast.

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1406-1.jpg

This of course, would be the last Tim's until we got back! We had some time to kill taking pictures at the gate before our flight!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1407-1.jpg

The first flight was pretty uneventful, we landed in Toronto 8 minutes early, which at first, we thought would suck, as we had a 2.5 hour layover. Later, we realized it was a blessing, as we had to stop and pick up our luggage, and then clear customs in Toronto (usually I fly with an American carrier, so we clear customs in Calgary). We waited over an hour after getting off the plane to get our luggage, and then realized we had to throw out our brand new bottles of water to get through security again. Ugh.

While passing through security in TO, they pulled me aside for a special search, which ended up being just the full body scanner, but it was kind of nerve-wracking to be told I had to go to a "special line" Egads!!

Our next flight was just as uneventful as the first, we slept, I attempted to watch Toy Story, but kept falling asleep. When it was time to get off the plane, was of course, when the adventure began! I had taken my shoes off in order to get more comfortable, and when it was time to get off, one of them was missing! We checked in all the aisles around us, and eventually had to wait until the plane cleared, and ask a flight attendant. Luckily, it had been kicked out into the aisle, and then stuck under the refreshments cart, and dragged to the back of the plane!

With my shoe intact, we jumped off the plane, and embraced the warmth and humidity that was already greeting us.

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1408-1.jpg

After grabbing our luggage, I pulled the mistake of forgetting what side the Magical Express was on, and the fact that we were on the opposite! So we had to go back up, across, and down, but made it there just in time!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1409-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1410-1.jpg

The bus seemed to be waiting on us, as, as soon as we got on, it took off. It was one full bus, let me tell you! There was a school sports team on it as well, and a lot of older people, not a lot of small kids. We made a stop at Caribbean Beach, and then it was our stop, Pop Century! I was home!! Something about that place, I just feel at home there, :yay:

I had done the online check in already, so we breezed through that quickly, and stopped to add another day of park tickets to our cards (after talking it through, we decided that the audition wouldn't take all day, and we wanted to adventure as much as we could!!)

Our room was over in the 80's(maybe the 90s?), in building 9 and, being the Pop veteran that I am, I directed Sylvia across the parking lot rather than through the whole resort. Our room was probably the 2nd closest room over there, we were right on the corner near the rubix cube (I've got some pictures coming up soon).

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1412-1.jpg

After checking out our room, and changing into shorts!! We made the plan to head to Downtown Disney after some food court dinner. Sylvia and I clearly have similar tastes, as we ended up eating the same thing basically the whole trip. Tonight, it was vegetarian lasagna (which is way better than the picture looks) and CARROT CAKE!!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1413-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1414-1.jpg

For anyone that knows me, they know that I RAVE about Disney's carrot cake. Disney food is so amazing plain & simple, but the carrot cake, is just amazingly incredible!! I love it, and was very very excited to be having it agian.

********

Here is where I will have to leave you for now, as I have many things to do today, I hope you're enjoying so far!!

[Grumpy's Wife]

Good luck with the auditions!

[rockin2it]

I read your Sept TR so I am looking forward to reading about this one as well! I can't wait to hear about the audition and all that wonderful stuff!

[ronnmel]

Thank you for posting the link in your other TR, otherwise I might have never found this!!

[jane2073]

I have read (and enjoyed) your other trip reports! I can't wait to read how this one turned out! :)

[katt789]

Good luck with the auditions!

Thank-you!!

I read your Sept TR so I am looking forward to reading about this one as well! I can't wait to hear about the audition and all that wonderful stuff!
Yay!! I'm glad you came over to this TR for the adventure!!

Thank you for posting the link in your other TR, otherwise I might have never found this!!

Haha! I realized it was probably a good idea rather than attempting everyone to just hunt for it, and I'd like to keep all you guys updated!

I have read (and enjoyed) your other trip reports! I can't wait to read how this one turned out! :)
Thanks! I'm glad you're here to enjoy!

joining in! I'm really excited to hear about the whole audition process, and of course how you did!

Yay! I'm glad you came over! I have another amazing Ariel story! :laughing: And do I remember something about you going back to WDW in May?

[katt789]

Sylvia & I finished up all we could eat of our dinners (and later decided that we could probably have shared most of our meals while at WDW) and headed over to a bus stop to get to Downtown Disney. We disembarked quite quickly, after not a long wait (oh Disney Transit, how amazing you are!) those bus announcements always make me so happy! :rotfl:

Before we knew it, we were there!!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1415-1.jpg

My goal for the night was to get most of my shopping done! As we doing such a short trip, and park hopping so much, I didn't want to send anything back to the gift shop, and certainly didn't want to carry it around in the parks all day, so tonight, was the time to shop! :yay:

Of course, this was our first stop:

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1417-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1419-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1418-1.jpg

I knew what I needed for the people I had left back at home, but I ended up getting; a Princess Aurora dress for my friend's daughter (though it'll be 4 years before it'll actually fit her :laughing:) and a pen & notebook for myself (ya gotta have something to keep those trip notes in!)

We made sure to wander through the whole store & of course, try on some hats while we were there!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1421-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1420-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1422-1.jpg

My best Kermit impression! Sylvia got the Goofy hat for one of the friends we work with, and a Tinkerbell & Ariel cup for the twins that she nannys for back home. Along with a couple of other things, but I couldn't tell ya what!

We made a plan to circle back towards the busses, as things were slowly closing down, and we wanted to hit up Goofy's candy store before leaving. Along the way though, we were distracted by the awesomeness of TrenD!

Wow! Let me tell you, I have looked briefly in this store before, but haven't ever really found anything, but today, I found SO MUCH stuff that I liked.

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1423-1.jpg

The whole "too big/baggy for you, but still fits and looks good" style really seems to be in, I got a muppet 3/4 sleeve shirt, and an Ariel one, while Sylvia got an Alice one, and a new dress.

By the time we were done trying on things & buying them, the store was closed, so we simply circled around to the bus stop, we had a huge day ahead of us, and wanted to get some rest before the audition!

We got back to Pop, picked out our clothes for the next day, packed my park bag (including our jazz dance shoes :laughing:) and set the wake up call before drifting off! :cloud9:

[katt789]

Our wake-up call this morning went off bright and early at 7 am, which was pretty early for us, as we both work nights at home, and it was only 5 am back home! GAH! However, there's always that "OH MY GOD WE'RE AT DISNEY" magic that really wakes one up, no matter what the time is! We quickly got up, dressed, and even threw on some sunscreen.

While Sylvia was finishing up, I popped out the door to take some pics around the outside of our room.

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1424-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1425-1.jpg

Our room number! And the view down to the right of the room (we were RIGHT on the corner)

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1426-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1427-1.jpg

Pac Man! I love it!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1428-1.jpg

Once Sylvia was finished getting ready, we meandered our way over to the food court for breakfast, deciding that we would be sharing the food today, we got a Pop Waffle and some grapes & drinks to share!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1430-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1431-1.jpg

Sylvia had to present it all nice & pretty! Once we were finished eating, we headed out to the bus stop, we had a lot to accomplish today, and we were starting at Animal Kingdom! We didn't wait too long for a bus, and before we knew it, we were there!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1432-1.jpg

I love all the Christmas decorations, they're so cool!! This was definitely the earliest that I'd ever been at AK without having a breakfast reservation! Luckily, the crowds weren't that bad at all! I had expected it to be mobbed, especially after what a friend had said (and he used to work down there, so I trusted his opinion) So we had some time to grab some tourist-y photos before going in! :laughing:

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1434-1.jpg

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And that was the moment they began; the Brandi poses that is.... For anyone who has read my other TR's, you may notice that this pose comes into play alot. For others, I'll be sure to explain. A friend of mine, Brandi, has more pictures of her in that pose, than any other, up on facebook, and she seems to always be making it, and about a year ago, I started to do it as my go to pose as well, and right after taking this picture, Sylvia and I decided that we had to get the characters to do it this trip as often as we could remember. :yay:

It was probably about 8:30 at this point, so we jumped in line at the turnstiles and waited, full of excitement!

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They let us in around 8:45, 8:50, and told us all about the exhibits and how we could take some time looking through them, but everyone simply raced up to the next rope, it was important to get to the rides first!!

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While we were waiting, they had some games of x & o's going on, I'm thinking that the winner was winning fast passes for later in the day. Sylvia went up, but ended up against a little girl, so obviously let her win! Before we knew it, they were walking back the rope & we were headed into Asia! :yay: I was SO excited to get back on Everest, it's one of my FAVES, (which is impressive as the caterpiller rollercoaster for kids used to terrify me too much! haha), and Sylvia had never been on, so it was an exciting moment!

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Verdict: AH-MAZING! Absolutely loved it, and we jumped right back in line for it. The line had formed a bit, but still was under a 5 minute wait. We used this time wisely, but showing our fiercest yetti (dinosaur?) impressions!

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Yup...we're just that cool...

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Of course I had to grab a shot of Emily's husband for her!

We asked for the first row this time, which would be totally awesome! And of course, it was! This was also where our posing for pictures began!

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We decided it was best to grab a fp for later now, and head through Africa for FOTLK.

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Along the way, I peeked down the character trails, as it was almost 9:30, and wondered aloud "I wonder what time they'll actually be out" and as we neared the start of the trail, out walked Baloo & Louie from around the corner! I gasped pretty loudly & Sylvia defintiely laughed at me!

We followed them down the path, and were their first friends of the day!

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With that incredible picture done with, we headed on through Africa, we had some important stuff to get to today!

[IheartDDuck]

I'm joining. Good luck with the audition! I mean, I know you already had it, but I hope it went well for you. :goodvibes

[ronnmel]

That POP waffle looks delicious! I can't believe I only had one my whole trip.

Love the whole doing a pose with the characters! Fun!

[ronnmel]

Joyeux Noel to you!!

[katt789]

I'm joining. Good luck with the audition! I mean, I know you already had it, but I hope it went well for you. :goodvibes

Thanks!! I'll be sure to actually update sometime soon to get to the audition part!

That POP waffle looks delicious! I can't believe I only had one my whole trip.


It really was! I'm really not a person who likes pancakes or waffles, but Disney ones are just too good!

Joyeux Noel to you!!

And back to you! I hope everyone's holiday has gone great!

[katt789]

Sylvia & I got our Brandi pose with King Louie & Baloo, saying the biggest of thank you's, and moved on, into Africa! Our plan was to check the wait time for the Safari before catching the 10:30 FOTLK. The wait time was under 15 minutes still, so we jumped in line, and it turned out to practically be a walk-on! As we boarded our jeep, I made sure to point out to Sylvia, that there was in fact, no dancing on this ride!

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And then we were off!

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Our safari guide was little lack-luster. It may have been early in the morning, but we'd already been going for 3 hours, and she was just too un-enthusiastic. Oh well, we made it fun for ourselves!:woohoo: A little comment from Sylvia throughout the ride that I found adorably hilarious: "I know this is a stupid question, but are the animals real?" :rotfl: It was near enough to the beginning of the safari that it was understandable. And my mother asked the same question while looking through pictures yesterday, so it definitely makes sense! :laughing:

With our animal safari over, we were done in Africa, and headed down to Camp Minnie Mickey in time for my favorite show. Sylvia had seen video of the bird dancers already, and was suuuuuper excited for it, and, as any of you who have read my previous TR's know, I have far too many pictures of it, so it will be in an update all it's own!!:yay:

[katt789]

:yay:I just wanted to pop in and say a couple of things, first off, Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays & a Happy New Year to you all out there.

Secondly, to share a story that any of you who read the last TR were probably wondering about. To explain:

I have planned (and booked and paid for) a trip down to WDW in Sept, from the 10-17th, staying at Animal Kingdom Lodge, with 6 day park hoppers and free dining, for me & my Mom. I had various ways planned on how to surprise her about the trip, and since we live in different cities, I decided to do it at Christmas. I made a little scrapbook that had pictures and explained that we weren't going to the mountains in Sept, we'd be getting on a plane, and going here: and had pictures of Florida, and the inside of AKl, the next page had a picture of the AKL sign & Mickey. The rest of the book had pics of what we could do while we were down there. Along with a bunch of brochures, and a planning dvd.

She took it great!! :banana::cool1: She's still a little in shock that she's going to WDW, but is excited!! She also this morning said she doesn't think she could plan a trip, there's too much to think about with just dining! (Which is true! I spent over a year planning my first trip...now it's alot easier)

We're super excited to go! And if anyone's going to be there during that time, we'll be sure to try & say hi!

[ronnmel]

I'm glad your mom is excited about the trip! I think the scrapbook was a great idea!

[katt789]

Once again, it is time for my favorite time at the Animal Kingdom, Festival of the Lion King!! :banana::cool1::worship: I had shown Sylvia a video of the Can You Feel the Love Tonight bird dancers on youtube (after finding one of the most amazing girl!) and she was soooo excited to see the whole thing & see it in person.

I have to admit, it is this, and Everest, that I go to Animal Kingdom, I mean I would go even if they weren't there, but then there sure wouldn't be much to do! :rotfl: The show just has so much color, so much talent, the performers are simply amazing, and it just makes me so happy. We were seated, and managed to get seats pretty close to the front (these crowds were amazing!:woohoo: ) and before we knew it, we were whisked away to the land of magic & lions & monkeys & more!! Now, for all of you that know how much I love this show, here are the millions of pictures!!

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[katt789]

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Wow. Just Wow. It's just as amazing every single time, and I definitely forgot how overwhelming so much of it is, there's just always so much going on! It's crazy! Sylvia's verdict: she loved it! So much, :woohoo: if any of you have somehow not seen this, you absolutely MUST, it's a definite must do, it's so incredible! Both Sylvia & I decided that we wanted to be the bird dancer (though I had fully decided on this months ago! :laughing:)

Up next; we kill some time, and head to the audition!!

[Windsor Princesses]

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1443-1.jpg

Of course I had to grab a shot of Emily's husband for her!



Glad to see your mutual love for Josh Gates too! I don't know if it's a Canadian thing or what, but he is probably the love of my life. Loving your TR so far, I can't wait to get to your audition.

[katt789]

I'm glad your mom is excited about the trip! I think the scrapbook was a great idea!

She ended up loving it!! And later showing it off to my friends that spent the next day with us :rotfl: I thought she had an idea what was going on, but apparently not, she was super surprised, and kinda still is haha!!

[shan23877]

Haven't had much time to dis lately, but I'm all caught up and eager to hear more!

[katt789]

Glad to see your mutual love for Josh Gates too! I don't know if it's a Canadian thing or what, but he is probably the love of my life. Loving your TR so far, I can't wait to get to your audition.

Haha, I'm not even really sure who he is, but one of the girls in our May trip was in love with him, so I had to get a picture of it for her! I'm glad you're enjoying!! I'll be sure to actually update sometime soon, and hey! We're almost at the audition part!!

[katt789]

Haven't had much time to dis lately, but I'm all caught up and eager to hear more!

Yay! I haven't had nearly as much time as usual either, it's been a crazy Christmas season up here! I'm hoping I can actually get some updating done with the 3 days off! Glad to hear you're all caught up, hopefully I can post some more today!

[katt789]

Sylvia & I had just had our minds blown by the awesomeness & talent that was Festival of the Lion King, she loved it, I loved it, it was awesome, as per usual! But now, we had some fast passes burning holes in our pockets, and had to use them up!! So we trekked back across the Animal Kingdom over to Asia for one more ride on Expedition Everest!

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With that last ride over and done with, we decided that we were done with Everest, as we would just have enough time for lunch, and the fast pass return was too late for us to make the audition on time. We pulled out the map, and decided that we'd check Flame Tree BBQ (I had heard lots of good things about it, and the portions were huge!) but we vetoed that and decided Pizzafari would be a better choice. Before that though, we had some time to meet some friends!

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The 100 Acre wood gang was always a fun time to hang out with! They flirted a little with us, which is always adorable! And then we headed out, it was time for a Safari of Pizza!! Sylvia got a cheese pizza, caeaser salad, and a birthday cupcake!

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While I got the sandwich, carrot sticks, and a chocolate mousse (although they did give me chips as well!)

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It was pretty good, I'm really into pesto sauce right now, and it's got pesto on it, so good! One thing I noticed on this trip, was how much I love the dining plan, and how I'd much rather travel with it, and have everything paid for in advance! And it's sooo much food (and honestly, it's so expensive to get that much food otherwise!)

We finished eating, and were headed for one last ride before leaving the park, it was nearly audition time!! :woohoo:

Along the way, we saw one of our wilderness explorer friends, and I had to jump in line for him! (the line was practically non-existant anyway!)

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Dug was great! He kept stealing our bottles of water, and shoving them in his mouth, or hiding them under the wheelbarrow! Adorable. Before we left, he made sure that we had to grab them out of his mouth! We said good bye, and then it was onto our next adventure.

It was an adventure of prehistoric times!!

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Again, the wait time was bare minimum, we walked right onto it! I like Dinosaur, but at the same time, don't, thanks to the darkness, and the jerkyness of the ride, I get kinda scared lol, it was a lot better this time around the the second time, but that T-Rex is just too much! :laughing:

With that, it was time to leave the park! We hit the gate, and realized how tired we were, so we circled back to a coffee stand to wake ourselves up, and then headed out to catch a cab, it was the big moment!! Let's do this!!

[dara00]

joining in! :)

[ronnmel]

Obviously I'm enjoying your TR, but I'm REALLY curious to read about your audition! In all the TR I've read, this will be the first time I read anything close to that. Hope you post it soon!

[allicat1214]

i'm subscribing, too, as i'm looking forward to the audition report. i'm hoping to take my DD this spring for a quick florida college tour trip and disney audition.

[Merida]

I just found this! I'm pretty sure we were (way far) behind you in the princess Town Hall line at the Christmas party. Around the first parade time? I would've said hi, but I was scared of all the mothers in front of us (there were some that were pretty intense!) since it would have involved going from the corner of the room to the front part of the line. ;) I was surprised at how short that line was actually (and my boyfriend was VERY happy about that too).

I wanted to meet Dug but the line was ridiculously long on our Animal Kingdom day (probably because it was lunchtime).

[katt789]

joining in! :)

Hi! Glad to hear you're along for the ride!

Obviously I'm enjoying your TR, but I'm REALLY curious to read about your audition! In all the TR I've read, this will be the first time I read anything close to that. Hope you post it soon!

It's comin! I'll definitely have time to do it tomorrow! Although I can't indulge too much information, but I'll do what I can! Haha

i'm subscribing, too, as i'm looking forward to the audition report. i'm hoping to take my DD this spring for a quick florida college tour trip and disney audition.

Yay! The auditions are quite possibly the most fun and most positive that I've ever been through!

I just found this! I'm pretty sure we were (way far) behind you in the princess Town Hall line at the Christmas party. Around the first parade time? I would've said hi, but I was scared of all the mothers in front of us (there were some that were pretty intense!) since it would have involved going from the corner of the room to the front part of the line. ;) I was surprised at how short that line was actually (and my boyfriend was VERY happy about that too).

I wanted to meet Dug but the line was ridiculously long on our Animal Kingdom day (probably because it was lunchtime).

I'm not even sure what time we ended up in the princess hall, it was still early enough that we hadn't done a whole lot but characters since the party started! It was DEFINITELY worth the wait though! ;):love:

[katt789]

Sylvia & I were done with Animal Kingdom for the day, and were off on our next adventure, the adventure I had been waiting for, for months! Not to mention the adventure that most of you are most excited to hear about!

We left AK and headed the opposite direction than the busses, over to the cab stand, I gave them the name of the building, and address, and we were on our way! The audition started sign in at 3, and something that I knew, was you always wanted to be early for an audition, especially one that was going to be as huge as this one was.

There were signs all through the building directing us down to the correct room, and we round the corner to find about 10 people in line already, most of them in casual styled clothing, and a couple stretching out already. Sylvia and I plopped own bags down, and said hello, with a brief bit of chit chat while we also started to stretch. I knew what the audition would entail, but knew that I’d feel a whole lot better stretched out and warmed up properly.

After an hour (and the line growing more & more behind us) we were finally let in behind the door! Eeek! We were let into a big, gymnasium styled room, still in a formed line, and they started to measure us. Shoes off, any hair that was too “poofy” would be crushed, or taken down, you were told your number, and then wrote down your name and the height number you were given. We were then given numbers to stick onto us somehow, and then let spread out throughout the room. Sylvia & I continued to just stretch out, relax, and make small conversation with some of the people around us. Eventually, the line died down, sign up was done, I believe there were over 200 of us in the room, and they said we’d be splitting up to smaller groups for the next part of the audition. Thanks to the way we had lined up, Sylvia was number 10, and I was 11, I was really hoping that the groups wouldn’t be as small as 10, and I was granted my hope!

They took the first group of 60 into a smaller room, where they talked a bit more about the Disney way (for example, no matter what you work as a performer in WDW, you’ll “be friends” with someone like Chip & Dale, even if they originally like you to be friends with Cinderella). And then we were off! The choreographer taught us a very basic, 32 count movement routine. Anyone that’s considered auditioning, well, there’s a reason it’s called a movement combination, it’s definitely not something that you need to be a trained dancer to pick up on. Once we had learnt it, and gone through the routine a couple of times, we were lined up, and did it across the floor. Everyone got one chance across the floor, and they called us all back to the middle, and made the first round of cuts.

And this, this is where our audition adventure comes to an end. Yeah, it’s sad, but at the same time, I will tell you, it was one of the best, most positive auditions that I’ve ever been a part of. The best part too is that you can re-audition in 6 months time. If you don’t get the job, it’s not just because you’re not good enough, or they don’t want you (although that could be it! :laughing: ) but it could be your height range, your specific look, etc. It was easy to tell that they weren’t looking for any dancers that were too highly trained, as four of us that were in the first group of cuts were all cut, but at the same time, have pretty specific looks, (not to mention I’m in a pretty generic height range).
Anyways! I am up to telling anyone more information on the audition itself, just pm me, and I’ll be sure to let ya know!

We left the way we came in, and then started kind of creeping along, trying to find a phone, and the cast members sent us into a back room to ask for a cell phone there. (That’s right, we were in a back stage room at Disney) in the costume department! EEK! It wasn’t the character costumes, but HOOLLEY there were a LOT of them, it really is insane how many people Disney employs!

Outside, we grouped up with a couple more people who had been cut, including one girl who was working on the college program currently, but was working attractions over in Magic Kingdom. As all 5 of us were headed to the Magic Kingdom, we split a cab over there to begin our next adventure.

Once we hit MK, we dropped CeCe off at the backstage cast members entrance, and then all of us said good bye, and wished well trips to the others. Now, we were at the most magical kingdom of all, and we had some crazy plans to achieve! (ok, maybe not that crazy, but whatevs!!)

[shan23877]

I'm sorry that you didn't get a job, but I'm glad you came away from your audition with positive feelings. What were you auditioning for exactly? And maybe I'm missing something, but what do you mean by "friends with Chip and Dale/friends with Cinderella"?

Will you audition again?

Enjoying the TR!

[dara00]

aww too bad you didn't get in. I hope you'll try again one day! looking forward to whatever came next for you on this trip.

[katt789]

I'm sorry that you didn't get a job, but I'm glad you came away from your audition with positive feelings. What were you auditioning for exactly? And maybe I'm missing something, but what do you mean by "friends with Chip and Dale/friends with Cinderella"?

Will you audition again?

Enjoying the TR!

It's something that I am glad I did, as was Sylvia, but we're not bummed we didn't get in. She has a pretty extensive relationship with her dance studio, and wasn't sure she could even take a job if she was offered, where as for me, I'm open to anything.

We were auditioning for pretty much everything, parade people, characters, show movers (the "ensemble" of FOTLK ex, but not the bird dancers)

And as for "being friends" that's the way that they refer to it if you "are" that character, just to not break the magic.

I'll definitely audition again, I'm waiting for the dance auditions to be posted, and am keeping my eyes on cruise lines, and ones for Disneyland, as if you get cast for something there, you are only doing that, and nothing else.

aww too bad you didn't get in. I hope you'll try again one day! looking forward to whatever came next for you on this trip.

I'll def be trying again! It'd be a dream to work at Disney!

[katt789]

Sylvia & I had just been dropped off back at the transportation & ticket centre by a cab, and said good bye to our new friends. We hopped on the park line monorail, and were off!! This is always a super exciting moment for me, you’re never really at Disney World until you’ve seen the castle & been in the Magic Kingdom. We quickly breezed through bag check, where, funnily enough, the cm wished Sylvia a happy birthday, and then said “you’re what, 13, 14?” to which she replied that she was in fact, 20! This was a common reoccurrence on the trip, people constantly think she’s younger than she is, which is totally fair.

Once we were through bag check & done with birthday greetings, we were off!

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As you can see, it was getting kind of dark, but it was still suuuper warm, and we had many things to accomplish! Main St looks so cute & adorable with all the Christmas decorations! I love how Disney decorates for the holidays!

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We had a target in mind for the first thing to do today, as we’d be spending half of the next day, including the Christmas party, we had lots of time at Magic Kingdom, and our first stop, was to see the fairies! The line said it was 30 mins (maybe 35) but it looked like it was a lot shorter than that, so we jumped on in, and within I’d say closer to 15/20 minutes, we were in! Inside Pixie Hollow today, were Rosetta;

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Who we said hello to, talked a little bit, and then said goodbye to after getting the picture, she wasn’t too chatty, but still good non-the-less. I preferred the Rosetta we met in September!

Next up, was the star of the show! Tink!

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She was GREAT! Definitely the best Tink that I’ve met so far, I loved her! Super chatty, right in character, she wished Sylvia a happy birthday, then asked how old she was. Sylvia & I, remembering something we’d seen on youtube with the Disney fairies, that once you turn 12, you no longer are that age, but then add the two digits together, making Sylvia, who was 20, be only 2. Tinkerbell asked if we had anything we wanted to do for her, and we asked if she was able to say hello to some friends of ours! (moreso, the kids the Sylvia nannies) Here’s the result;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6HFS95UTWEI&feature=youtu.be

We gave some last hugs and said good byes to Tink, and then decided that it was time for some dinner. Well, Magic Kingdom has the best selection of counter service food, and Sylvia knew that I knew the lay of the land and where was good to eat, so she let me choose! My choice! Over in Tomorrowland, so we crossed through the hub, and saw the most beautiful sight of the week! In my opinion at the least!

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Absolutely gorgeous! Seriously! The castle’s beautiful on a regular basis, but throw in the fact of those Christmas lights/icicles, and its just absolutely stunning, I couldn’t take enough photos of it! (But since I’m not a professional photographer, I won’t bore you with the million I took! :laughing: )

We crossed through the hub to the left, as if we were going up to the tea cups, and got into Cosmic Rays over by Fantasyland. I knew exactly what I wanted, a turkey sandwich!

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Sylvia ended up having the same thing, sandwich, cake, and a water! Delicious! I absolutely love Cosmic Rays sandwich, they’re always so fresh, delicious, and amazing! It’s a little too much bread for me, but that’s a common occurrence for me, I usually end up taking off the top slice, and eating it open faced.

While we were eating, we managed to run into one of the other girls from the audition, who had happened along some dinner at the same place and time as us. We chatted about what we were up to while we finished our sandwiches, and then were on our way!

Our next goal was to eventually make it over to Frontierland, as we are both pretty big Splash Mountain fans! EEEK! Best Ever! We rounded the corner behind the tea cups, and I let out a HUUUUGGGEEE GASP! Why, you may ask?! Why, there was a certain little rabbit out who usually wasn’t out for meet & greets! Obviously, we jumped right in line!

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Am I right?! He’s awesome! (Well, actually, he’s kind of a butt in the shows, but whatevs, he’s adorable, especially in person! So much cuter!) He flirted a little bit, and then we were on our way. Everything in Fantasyland had pretty big wait times, and we were headed somewhere else, so we circled into Liberty Square, saw that Haunted Mansion had a relatively low wait time, so jumped in for that.

Sylvia hadn’t seen the new cue yet, so we went through the long way and played along before entering the stretching room. HM is a classic, and a favorite, the music, the “we have 999 happy haunts, but there’s room for 1 more” line, just a classic!

We were finished up there, and decided that we had plenty of time, the park was open until at least 10 that night, so we veered over to Tiana’s garden to see if they were out. They were nowhere to be seen, and there was no handler or anything out, so we popped into the Christmas shop where we were told they’d be back out in about 15 mins, so we sat down and waited.

A couple of other girls around our age joined the line we had started, and I made the decision to grab our cards to get some FP over in frontierland as we had some extra time to kill. I ran over to BTMRR, the wait time was 10 mins, Splash was more, so I grabbed FP for Splash, and headed back over to Tiana’s garden. Let me tell you, that’s quite the speed walk some days!! When I got back, Wishes was just about to start, so we watched from our place in line, figuring we’d see some Christmas fireworks the next night, I wasn’t too concerned!

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Finally, Tiana & Naveen came out from around the corner, to which one of the girls behind us shouted out “It’s coca puff!” She was clearly excited, and I could tell why, he was a cute one! :laughing:

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We did the usual chit-chat, “Happy Birthday” “How old are you” “Are you sisters” etc, etc, we all exchanged hugs, when they asked where we were from. Hearing we were from Canada, Naveen started to sing the national anthem out to us!

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He only got through the first line before he said “that’s as much as I know” and stopped, we had a laugh, grabbed our good picture, and then said good bye!

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Up next; we had some fast passes to use, and some rides to rides before the special events took over the next day!

[ronnmel]

Bummer about the audition being over so soon, but glad you enjoyed the experience!

I get the whole "you look way younger than you are " all the time, so I understand what Sylvia has to go through. I'm 30, yet most people think I barely make the drinking age!!

How fun that you got to meet Bunny, and that Naveen and Tink provided fun interaction. :)

[Merida]

The Tiana/Naveen meet and greet is one of my favorites. They're just so fun and personable. I wish they would put Tinkerbell with Peter Pan at some point just because I'm not interested in the other fairies (... and don't know who they are!) and a Tink/Peter Pan picture would be cute.

Yay for Rabbit! I would why he isn't out with Pooh/Tigger/etc. all the time? I can't see it being very difficult to put him together (I can see Owl being tricky, but he's still my favorite!) and stick him in one of the many, many Winnie the Pooh places.

That sandwich looks amazing! I'm not-so-secretly obsessed with deli sandwiches. They're just so tasty! ;)

[katt789]

Bummer about the audition being over so soon, but glad you enjoyed the experience!

I get the whole "you look way younger than you are " all the time, so I understand what Sylvia has to go through. I'm 30, yet most people think I barely make the drinking age!!

How fun that you got to meet Bunny, and that Naveen and Tink provided fun interaction. :)

Haha! Yup! She gets it all the time, but she knows its a good thing in the long run, and I would agree, you definitely look younger than you are! ahha

The Tiana/Naveen meet and greet is one of my favorites. They're just so fun and personable. I wish they would put Tinkerbell with Peter Pan at some point just because I'm not interested in the other fairies (... and don't know who they are!) and a Tink/Peter Pan picture would be cute.

Yay for Rabbit! I would why he isn't out with Pooh/Tigger/etc. all the time? I can't see it being very difficult to put him together (I can see Owl being tricky, but he's still my favorite!) and stick him in one of the many, many Winnie the Pooh places.

That sandwich looks amazing! I'm not-so-secretly obsessed with deli sandwiches. They're just so tasty! ;)


I've always had a blast with Tiana & Naveen, and wanted to go back again to see them, they always provide such entertainment, and there also a disney couple that between people they're meet & greeting, they turn back to each other, hold hands, just look so in love! :cloud9: I would LOVE it if they put Tink & Peter together, or even just a character meal, do like, Peter, Wendy, Tink & Alice characters, it'd be an awesome gong show. There are so many people who love the PP Tink vs the new Tink, and I think it would be well recieved.

I don't know why Rabbits never really out? It confuses me :confused3 And Hooolyey, Cosmic Rays has the best sandwiches, I've always loved sandwiches, they're tops!

[katt789]

It was time to ride some rides!! HECK YES! Our first one of choice, why, the fast passes that were burning a hole in our pockets! Splash Mountain!

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We did our Pretty Princess pose for that one (also, I highly enjoy the kid behind us!) and with that it was “time to keep movin along” Ah, Splash Moutian! I bought the Four Parks, One World CD while I was there, and the Splash theme is what I listen to at least once a day, and to make me happy. It cheers me up a lot, what can I say!? Next up, Big Thunder! Let me just say, and Sylvia agreed, it sure isn’t the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness, at least, not in my opinion. It’s a good ride, but I have no need to go on it more than once a trip, or at least, once an MK visit.

We circled back the way we came, past Haunted Mansion, and continued into Fantasyland. Sylvia said she was quite alright with leaving IASW out of our list of things to do, and I was ok with that too! Peter Pan still had quite the wait, as always, but we decided on Mickey’s Phillharmagic next! I LOVE this one, absolutely love it, it has sooo many of the good songs from the best movies, and who doesn’t love Donald!? Or 4D effects? I love the smell of the strawberries during Be Our Guest (which, when we saw Beauty & the Beast on broadway last week, did not happen…lame….oh so lame… ahha)

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See what I mean…so gorgeous. Next up, Winnie the Pooh & his many adventures!

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The wait time was posted at 20 mins, but we just simply walked through the cue, playing as we went, it was definitely not 20 minutes by the time we boarded our hunny pot!

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Love it, absolutely love it. I’ve always loved Winnie the Pooh! The new movie was just as cute as ever, and hey, Tigger is by boyfriend! :rotfl: Next we wandered through Fantasyland, not seeing too much we wanted to stop at, so we headed over to Tomorrowland, and jumped into infinity & beyond to help defeat the evil emperor Zurg!

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I wanted to next share the magic of the TTA with Sylvia, but it was closed down when we walked up to the entrance, so we circled around to Stitch’s Great Escape… definitely not to ride it though! HA! But Cece, our friend from the audition who was on the college program, was working over there, so we stopped to say hi. She said she might see us at MVMCP the next night, and was sorry she didn’t have any FP left that she could give us. We told her it was no problem at all! And waved goodbye as we got to walk past this gorgeous sight one last time!

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I did my best attempt at a “myspace” pic of the two of us somewhere down there

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And before I knew it, we were headed back to our bus stop, with not much of a wait, we were back at Pop. After some quick showers, and some journal writing so I wouldn’t forget the details of the day, we were off to sleep with a wake up call scheduled for early the next day!

[Merida]

I've always had a blast with Tiana & Naveen, and wanted to go back again to see them, they always provide such entertainment, and there also a disney couple that between people they're meet & greeting, they turn back to each other, hold hands, just look so in love! :cloud9: I would LOVE it if they put Tink & Peter together, or even just a character meal, do like, Peter, Wendy, Tink & Alice characters, it'd be an awesome gong show. There are so many people who love the PP Tink vs the new Tink, and I think it would be well recieved.

I don't know why Rabbits never really out? It confuses me :confused3 And Hooolyey, Cosmic Rays has the best sandwiches, I've always loved sandwiches, they're tops!

Putting together character meals would be the best job ever! Coming up with different themes and "rare" characters would be so much fun. I think a Robin Hood themed one or a 'couples' meal (princesses + princes) would be really cute as well. Or even switch around a few of the existing ones (I don't understand why the Pooh characters are at Crystal Palace, they don't seem to go very well. Maybe general 'animals', with Lady & the Tramp, 101 Dalmatians, and Aristocats? I feel like all the people in those movies could totally be friends and organize a pet playdate in a fancy place like Crystal Palace!)

It was time to ride some rides!! HECK YES! Our first one of choice, why, the fast passes that were burning a hole in our pockets! Splash Mountain!

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Your Splash Mountain picture is great! I'm really awful at figuring out where the cameras are and never remember to pose (half the time I'm using my camera anyway :laughing:). I love the ones where people are playing chess/monopoly/proposing. Though how that became a thing I will never understand!

We never went on Pooh our last trip. :guilty: Since its entrance isn't in the main 'thoroughfare' of Fantasyland we always forgot about it! I guess we'll have to go back. :rolleyes:

TTA really is amazing! We went on it for our first time this trip and fell in love. I can't believe it wasn't open for EMH (we made that mistake too! I'm really happy it was open for MVMCP). Going through Space Mountain was probably my favorite part - I never realized that the tracks were that close together.

[ronnmel]

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/IMG_1598-1.jpg



What the heck was Sylvia looking at here? :lmao:


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Sooooooooooooooooooooooo pretty!

[katt789]

It was a bright new day & a new morning! Sylvia and I had a full day ahead of us, with 2 parks, and a Christmas party to tackle! Our wake-up call went off bright and early, and immediately, there was a downside to the day, Sylvia really wasn’t feeling well, a little nauseous, as well as her nose & throat weren’t feeling too hot. I bounded out of bed and started to get ready quietly while she slept a little more, and once she was up, I asked her symptoms, and then proceeded to my pharmacy in the suitcase. (Little fact; I generally have that many options of pills with me, all the time, I take roughly 7-10 vitamins every day, and usually have things like cold-fx, emergen-C, and advil cold 7 sinus on me at all times). Thankfully, I pumped her full of vitamins & advil, and she’s a trooper, so we headed down to the foodcourt.

I got a bounty platter, (French toast, a biscuit, bacon, sausage, egg, hash browns, (we had shared breakfast the day before, and I was starving by lunch, and knew that I didn’t like any of the counter service in DHS, I would eat big now, and avoid eating a meal until we park hopped!)

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Sylvia on the other hand, had some bread, no butter, just plain I hoped she would feel better soon, I wasn’t sure what I’d do if she chose to stay at the hotel & nap for a while! Halfway through breakfast we realized that she needed some saltine crackers, they always worked magically! I made sure to grab her some, and we headed over to the bus stop for; Disney’s Hollywood Studios! One of our favorite rides is Tower of Terror, (which, as you may be thinking, wouldn’t be the greatest on a queasy stomach!) but Sylvia said she would be waiting until we got there, and if she still didn’t feel better, she’d just ride it, and maybe that would help the puke! :laughing:

A bus pulled up at the stop, and it wasn’t just any bus, it was one of the Mears transportation busses, one of the big, shuttle busses like the Magical Express. The four of us in line got on it, and they closed the doors at took off! It was like having our own luxury private shuttle (if you may remember from our Sept trip, this seemed to be an ongoing theme!)

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You can see all the empty seats behind us! And the quality of them! Turns out, Disney was training more busses, and drivers on their routes for the Christmas busy season, and we had just lucked out on timing!

We arrived at DHS with PLENTY of time to spare, and jumped right in line for the turnstiles after clearing the bag check. Not ever 5 minutes in, we were both sitting on the ground waiting, and soon enough, the announcement was made. HOOOLEEEY. This, was, insanity! I kid you not (and anyone that has done it knows!) we, luckily, turned down Sunset Boulevard while practically EVERYONE else madly dashed to Pixar Place. There was another rope holding us at the end of Sunset Blvd, (where may I add, there was a very cute ToT cm who seemed to be checking us out…why hello! :rotfl: ) Soon enough, we were let down the road, and still even more people headed over to Rock n Rollercoaster, our choice of ride was clearly the best!

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One ride was clearly not enough, so we jumped right back on!

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Oh Tower of Terror, how you thrill me! I don’t know why I love it so much, as I *hate* elevators (as does Sylvia), and I would NEVER go on the drop of doom, but when it’s themed out like Disney does it, I love it! The build up’s even scarier than the ride most times! Although, unlike Sept, I wasn’t as nervous!

Next up, why, something to do with one of my favorite movies of course! The Little Mermaid, we wandered over that way, still watching the huge crowds headed to TSM, and found that the next show wasn’t for a while so we passed on, saying we’d come back (did we ever make it back?). I stopped for something that I think is truly fascinating, and not enough people stop to enjoy (at least, I don’t think they do!) One Man’s Dream!

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The next one, is the castle in Disneyland Paris, and is my newfound favorite, wow, it’s so gorgeous!

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We decided to skip on the movie, as it wasn’t right at that moment and we were spending some time really enjoying the stuff around the rooms. With some knowledge in our brains, and filled with fascination, we continued on our adventure. I had a goal to accomplish today, and couldn’t leave Disney without it!

In Sept, I had found some adorable toques in the Muppet gift shop, and had thought about buying one, but ended up not, and horribly regretted it. Here’s a picture refrence;

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Well, Sylvia and I circled around to go see some Muppet Vision, only to be told that it was down currently, and to check back in half an hour or so, saddened, we continued onto the gift shop, where I was just saddened some more. I couldn’t find the toques anywhere, and when we asked a cm, he said if they didn’t have them in the store, they didn’t have, them anymore. Sad face! I wanted one for myself, and had promised an Animal one for a friend! What was I to do now!?

With that overwith, we decided that we would swing through some shops on the way back to the 10:30 Beauty & the Beast, not to mention we had some fast passes for Tower of Terror to use (yes, it was that early still….) Knowing that I had to get some cash out before any shopping, I pulled out the handy dandy map to check for an ATM, found that it was in Pizza Planet, and sent Sylvia around with my camera to take some pics of the place while I did the withdraw.

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Those guys are my favorite, just so cute!!

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With my cash in wallet, we continued on, back to Tower of Terror (where, may I had, we had noticed the cute cm had been at the FP machines earlier, but had already disappeared. We had planned on getting the cute cm’s to do the “Brandi pose” with us in some pictures, but had missed our chance!) Oh well, what better to do than free fall in an elevator!?

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And again!

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It was during one of these rides, that we ended up just in front of a school choir group in the boiler room, which, was very annoying. Not only were they just loud & obnoxious, but while waiting, they burst into full choir mode, singing Christmas carols with perfect harmonies and everything. This is real life, not Glee, Sylvia & I don’t dance everywhere showing off, neither should you….(that, is my opinion, yes, they had talent, should they be singing in the ToT broiler room, not if I was in charge…) Thankfully, they weren’t in our elevator!

We were done with our scares for the day, and in need of a little snack, and I knew exactly what I wanted! I had read in Kristen’s (disneyfreak616 ‘s) trip report about a snack at Starring Rolls I had to try, so we headed there!

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Which one would we choose?! Why, the Red Velvet Cheesecake Cupcake of course! We boxed it up, grabbed some napkins, and headed over to the Beauty & the Beast theatre as it was getting close to show time!

Here’s a close up of the cupcake!

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I swear, I’m drooling right now, it was SO GOOD, so fresh, light, moist, amazing!! Now, I have a thing when I eat cupcakes, especially cupcakes like these with that much icing, I take the bottom off the cupcake, and smush it down on top of the icing. Kind of like making my own whoopee pie, the cake to icing ratio is just much better this way! And now, obligatory eating shots!

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And now with those lovely shots, I leave you for now, at least with pictures! Sylvia & I made friends with the small kids behind us while we waited for the show to begin. So many adorable kids, just everywhere, and thanks to Sylvia working with kids, every time I turned around, or came back from the bathroom, she would be talking to someone new! (It was like when you’re little, and you go out with your mom and you think she knows everyone because she talks to absolutely everyone you see, yeah…kinda like that hahah!!)

Next up; one of the greatest shows at Disney (and one that I saw on Broadway last week!), but as you know, the pictures will probably take 2 updates, there’s a LOT!

[shan23877]

Too bad they didn't have your hat! So disappointing!

I hope Sylvia felt better as the day went on, it's no fun to be sick in Disney!

[Merida]

The Disneyland Paris castle is really neat but it's weird that it isn't in a movie or anything! I don't know, it just doesn't have the same iconic-ness at the Sleeping Beauty/Cinderella castle (plus, who lives there? Or did they just build a castle..? Oh wait, never mind, it is Sleeping Beauty Castle 2. Why not build someone else's castle? Weird).

I swear I saw those hats elsewhere. Or at least other people were wearing them when we were in the parks!

[katt789]

Putting together character meals would be the best job ever! Coming up with different themes and "rare" characters would be so much fun. I think a Robin Hood themed one or a 'couples' meal (princesses + princes) would be really cute as well.

Your Splash Mountain picture is great!

We never went on Pooh our last trip. :guilty: Since its entrance isn't in the main 'thoroughfare' of Fantasyland we always forgot about it! I guess we'll have to go back. :rolleyes:

TTA really is amazing! We went on it for our first time this trip and fell in love. .

My goodness! I would love that so much! I really think they could tie the fairies into Garden Grille (and then have that way you could meet all of them in one go!) They'd tie in as it's all natural, home grown, in the land pavillion, and fairies all have their nature duties. Besides, Mickey & the gang are everywhere!! I'd love a couples meal (or heck, even just one with all the princes! :lovestruc

I love posing the pictures, so fun! It's just nice to get a different ride picture than normal once in a while. I love Pooh! It's just so *cute*! Ah, TTA, how I love thee, such an amazing ride, and completely different in the day & at night!

What the heck was Sylvia looking at here? :lmao:

Sooooooooooooooooooooooo pretty!

I have NO clue, I wish I knew hat even I was looking at! And oh man, the prettiest sight I've ever seen! The castle's so pretty normally, but with the decorations, they're even more incredible! :cloud9:

Too bad they didn't have your hat! So disappointing!

I hope Sylvia felt better as the day went on, it's no fun to be sick in Disney!

The hat story doesn't end now!! It will continue on within the TR. And she did start to feel better, I'm also glad she's a 20 year old, not a 4 year old, and isn't too much of a whiner, she toughed it out!

The Disneyland Paris castle is really neat but it's weird that it isn't in a movie or anything! I don't know, it just doesn't have the same iconic-ness at the Sleeping Beauty/Cinderella castle (plus, who lives there? Or did they just build a castle..? Oh wait, never mind, it is Sleeping Beauty Castle 2. Why not build someone else's castle? Weird).

I swear I saw those hats elsewhere. Or at least other people were wearing them when we were in the parks!

I LOVE the castle, I think I remember seeing something about it being Belle's castle...who knows? I'm not sure? :confused3

And we did end up seeing a lot of other people wearing the hats around, and ended up finding them later...but that story will come!

[katt789]

The curtain was rising on our next adventure; that of course being the Beauty & the Beast show. It’s one of my favorite things at Disney, the quality of the show is just amazing, the costuming, choreography, vocals, talent, the QUICK CHANGES! Holllleeeyyy cow! They blow my mind how fast everyone changes from costume to costume, (and it’s like, shoes, tights, dress, wig, all different, in a matter of a minute!) When I was growing up, Belle was my favorite (not sure when it changed to Ariel…), and Gaston is definitely my villain of choice, and definitely my boyfriend *drool* haha. And now, for a million pictures (at first I was attempting to take good ones, then just held up my camera in the direction of the stage and took continuous shots while I watched the show, these are the results!)

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Just have to jump in here & share, I would definitely be one of those girls (they’re called silly girls in the Broadway production, so I’ll refer to them as that from now on!) When I was little I remember my mother saying that I wouldn’t be Belle, I’d be “one of those silly girls” truth.

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[katt789]

And Part 2 (I told you there would be a lot of pictures!!)

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And that, is that! Such an amazing show! I absolutely adore it! Sylvia liked it a lot too, although she said that FOTLK wins between the two of them (which, honestly, it wins for me too, I love B&tB, but FOTLK is so much more variety and hey, dream job, right there…) I also have to add that at one point during the show, Gaston was on stage left right in front of us, and looked out into the audience to where we were with a smoulder-ing look on his face. I died. Seriously. Right then and there! And yes, I’ve convinced myself that he was, in fact, looking at us. (Hey, there were a lot of families/small kids around, it had to be us, right?! Haha)

After a round of applause, we exited the theatre, and were planning on exiting the park, we checked the wait time on ToT for a possible one last ride, but the wait time was too long (and yes, the cute cm from the FP machines was also still not there. Sadface!) So we decided it was time to hop over to Magic Kingdom to make some memories (and I had a mermaid to meet!) before the Christmas Party began!

[Merida]

You know, I really like the Beauty and the Beast show but something has always kind of bothered me, and I think I figured it out! The Beast just isn't very ferocious when he's made of velour and fake fur. ;) Like, there's no expression change to show how he's changing? I like movie-Beast better than movie-Prince but definitely live-Prince is better than live-Beast.

The silly girls are my favorite, I loved how color-coordinated they were (I also never got why everyone was fawning over Belle because they were always drawn/cast to be just as pretty as Belle... and they aren't as dismissive of the village as Belle. I don't know, I just thought they'd be more popular in the story!).

[katt789]

You know, I really like the Beauty and the Beast show but something has always kind of bothered me, and I think I figured it out! The Beast just isn't very ferocious when he's made of velour and fake fur. ;) Like, there's no expression change to show how he's changing? I like movie-Beast better than movie-Prince but definitely live-Prince is better than live-Beast.

The silly girls are my favorite, I loved how color-coordinated they were (I also never got why everyone was fawning over Belle because they were always drawn/cast to be just as pretty as Belle... and they aren't as dismissive of the village as Belle. I don't know, I just thought they'd be more popular in the story!).

I know! The Beast is actually pretty scary at many points in the movie! But hey, I guess he's not supposed to look scary when doing meet & greets!

I've never understood that either! They always look better than Belle, I mean, I get that she's the main character & all that :confused3

[katt789]

Sylvia & I headed out of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, with our next destination being Magic Kingdom. We hopped on a bus, and according to the pictures I have, we must have been dropped off at the TTC, as I have a pic of us on the monorail, and one coming down the ramp…though I don’t remember being on the monorail a second time during the trip. But hey, apparently that’s what happened! Haha

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I really do like taking the monorail, it just seems faster than taking the busses, and hey, the announcement is pretty cool too (yes, I just said that, I’ve become that obsessed :laughing: ) We cleared through bag check & security rather quickly as per usual, and before we knew it, we were on Main Street! Yay!

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The Move It Shake It Celebrate It street party was going on just as we curved around towards the hub. This is honestly one of my favorite parades (though Mickey’s Boo To You is my favorite currently!) it’s so high paced, with lots of energy & the performers are so enthusiastic. Let me tell you though, following it down Main St, Sylvia & I felt like we could most definitely just start doing the choreo along with them down to the hub!

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Our first plan of the day over at Magic Kingdom was definitely to get some food, especially for Sylvia who had only had a couple pieces of bread, and then half a cupcake over at Hollywood Studios! I knew that there was good food over in Adventureland, as we had eaten at Cosmic Rays the other day, so we headed over there. We peeked through the menu at Pecos Bill, but moved over to Tortuga Tavern in favor of some of their options. On the way in, the (cute) cm gave us a pirate Mickey sticker, which we quickly stuck on our shirts! Hey, if there’s one place adults can be kids, it’s in Disney. The menu looked awesome over here, and we both chose the Chicken burrito (which came with cilantro rice & black beans already on it, then you add your own toppings) and a non-alcoholic sangria for our lunches!


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It was delicious!! Again, Magic Kingdom counter service is honestly my favorite of all the parks in Florida, just so tasty!! It wasn’t dried out at all, and the cilantro rice added so much more flavor to everything. The sangria was amazing, it was fruitier, and obviously less wine-ey than actual sangria, it was so good!! I give Tortuga Tavern a 5/5 for food scores! I love the toppings bar that you can add whatever you want, and I love that they have the mushrooms in there as well, so good!!

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We finished our lunches, and after a quick bathroom break, left the Tavern, and of course, saw that Pirates had a relatively low wait time, so we walked over there and practically walked on to the ride! It’s one of our favorites, and I do always love it (and the movies…so amazing!) Of course, there’s no dancing on the rides, but Sylvia had to just go & break the rules of course!!

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There isn’t a whole lot for adults to do in Adventureland in terms of rides, we skipped over the rest of it, but made sure to check the next time that Jasmine & Aladdin were going to be out, and then continued onto the Adventureland gazebo, where I jumped in line for Ariel & Eric, it was time to see my princess of choice! And I was excited, so the length of the line didn’t really matter to me. Seeing that it was going to be a while, I saw that Peter Pan was out over on the bridge, so I sent Sylvia over there to meet him (and make friends with some ducks) while I continued to wait!

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Next up, is all from what Sylvia described for me when she got back in line. First up, while waiting, she took some pictures of the ducks that were wandering around the area. The line got cut off right after she jumped in to meet Peter, it seemed to be a bit of a wait (at least from my point of view, as I was waiting on her as well as Ariel). But when she got to the front, it was worth it. Peter asked if she was alone, to which Sylvia said that her friend (being me of course!) was over in line for Ariel. Peter came up with the idea of giving Sylvia a note to give to Ariel when we got to the front of the line. He made his handler write it, as he had bad hand writing, and gave it to Sylvia to give to Ariel!

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They got their regular picture, and then of course, Sylvia got a Brandi pose with Peter before coming back over to the line that I was in.

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Now, while I had been waiting, I realized why the line was taking longer (sometimes you just assume that the characters are crouched down, visiting with small children, right?) well, Ariel & Eric hadn’t even been out, they came out right before Sylvia came back from visiting Peter. Before we knew it, we were at the front of the line! Sylvia said she’d let me go up first, and have my chat before she brought in the note & jumped in for pictures.

Now, I need to quickly say this as well, while waiting, I was very aware that I recognized this Ariel from somewhere…was she the same Ariel I had met earlier? I really didn’t think so, but I could have sworn I had met her somewhere before…halfway through the line..it clicked! I had met her while she was friends with someone else the previous trip! (and honestly...it was the crazy blue contacts that triggered the memory! Who was it? Stay tuned!)

I jumped in first, giddy as a 6 year old, I dunno, it’s always so amazing for me to meet Ariel, I guess it’s cause she wasn’t out in the parks when I was first there (back in 97) and I have yet to have a bad experience, they’ve always been amazing! In fact, let’s take a little trip down memory lane while we have the chance right here;

First, when we went to WDW in May 2011, we didn’t get to Ariel in MK, and hadn’t found her anywhere else, but on our last day, we had princess breakfast at Akershus! We had been to a few character meals, and I counted 4 princesses, included Belle at the front, and figured that was it, so when, out of nowhere, Ariel appeared, I was in complete awe! She was incredible, and just perfect for the role

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Next up, when we went in Sept, I knew I had to meet her, and where she was in MK, so we didn’t miss her, it was one of our first stops. While we were chatting, she said something out of nowhere about me being Canadian, and we chatted about that (I had NO idea how she figured it out, and Eric was just as confused) she was wonderful, and so amazing, and of course, I loved it!

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So of course, I’m a little nervous going into any Ariel meet & greet, as I definitely don’t want it to spoil the previous meet & greets legendary-ness. Well, this one was not going to be bad, that’s for sure!

Well, I jumped up, and made sure to just double check that it was ok for a hug (I dunno, I just feel like being the same age as the girls, it can come off as weird, especially if they’re not into it) she said of course, and we started chatting along about where I was from, they asked if Sylvia & I were sisters (we got that a lot that trip!) Somewhere along the way, Eric saw my watch, which I bought last trip, and has Ariel on it (I never wear a watch except at Disney, so it works out!) and pulled my arm up, asking Ariel if she had seen my “time teller”.

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Ariel looked at it, and then immediately pulled my wrist up to her ear to listen to it, so it could tell her the time. Haha! She was awesome, she pulled away saying that she couldn’t speak clock, so she couldn’t understand it at all. Eric stated that it was something you learn as a small human child, so she of course, wouldn’t have learnt it yet. Then, Ariel said “oh, well, I can’t speak clock, but I can speak flounder, whale, sea lion, and star fish!” Of course, she walked RIGHT into that one, and Sylvia jumped in with “How do you say hello in sea lion?”

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Well, that, was the moment that we mildly cracked her, she definitely didn’t come out of character, but there was that moment of her giving us the “you just did that” look, before she actually “spoke” in sea lion, barking, and clapping her hands. Amazing!! We were all laughing hysterically, even Ariel & Eric! As we recovered from that, Sylvia explained the note from Peter Pan, which said;

“Secret red head club meeting, dress as lost girl, bring squail” and then we were supposed to ask her if she had a pet squail. Well, this, is when she lost it, and actually turned around and had to attempt to compose herself, there must have been some kind of inside joke between the cm’s that was just a little too much for her. Amazing!

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Hands down, the BEST interaction with Ariel that I have had yet, they just keep getting better!! When we took the posed picture, she was still shaking from laughter, I’ve had those moments of cracking right out of character, and it’s not the easiest to keep going. I’ve definitely had to walk right out of conversations thanks to something that’s been said at work before. I give her huge props. We got a bunch of great pics out of it, and Eric made sure to give us extra hugs on the way out *swoon* but those are on the photopass. Also, the first time we had been hugged by male characters, again, *swoon* We left our amazing character experience still beaming, and made plans to see some more royalty next up!

Oh, and while we’re on the topic of other royalty, have any of you figured out where I knew this princess from? Well, here’s the answer!

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It was honestly the contacts that clued me in, I had never noticed how odd looking the contacts were on some of the girls until Sleeping Beauty in our Sept trip, now that I had remembered that, it was the bright blue that jogged my memory, proving that yes, princesses have many best friends!

[shan23877]

What an awesome interaction! A perfect example of why older "girls" shouldn't be shy about meeting the princesses! ;)

I'm so glad that Ariel didn't disappoint.

[ronnmel]

How fun! I love how Peter Pan had a message to be delivered to Ariel.

[katt789]

What an awesome interaction! A perfect example of why older "girls" shouldn't be shy about meeting the princesses! ;)

I'm so glad that Ariel didn't disappoint.

I know!! I'm so amazed that Ariel has managed to be absolutely awesome every time!! I'm usually good with meeting Princesses, but every so often you have a character who you know is around your age, who puts the awkward in there for you, kinda like "oh...you're my age...weird.." and they don't interact as well, it makes me sad!!

How fun! I love how Peter Pan had a message to be delivered to Ariel.

I loved it! As did Ariel, it was clearly some kind of inside joke, but so worth it on all sides!!

[katt789]

Sylvia & I wandered through the hub, and back down Main St, we wanted to get all the Princesses we could, and knew that who was in the room would be changing around once the party started, and we wanted to get some more Brandi poses!

It was quick jaunt down Main Street, and before we knew it, we were in to meet some royalty! The wait time was around 15 minutes, I’m going to guess, it was really short, and we were in quickly. Sleeping Beauty welcomed us, asked where we were from, and asked if we had ice dragons up in Canada. She said Prince Phillip hadn’t ever fought an ice dragon, and would have to come up to Canada & our Princes were going to have to train him on how to fight them.

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Next up was Belle, who we chatted with for a little bit, and before taking pictures, she was sure to ask if there was anything else she could do for us. Well, we of course, asked about the Brandi pose! Her response; she actually couldn’t! Mainly because the arms of the dress make it so she can only lift her arms so far, so she did her best!

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Since she’s Sylvia’s favorite, she got a solo pic before we moved on to Cinderella.

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Now, Cinderella, was a thumbs down for us, she greeted us, took the picture, and then really didn’t say anything else. She wasn’t very big on the interaction, and was kinda just *bleh* to us. We left the Town Hall theatre, attempting to figure out what we were going to do next, but it seemed to be decided for us. The Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade was going on as we exited! So, here are the pictures from that!

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I liked the parade, it was a good one, but again, I like the high energy ones a lot better. I was glad to get to finally see it though! I guess we had always had other things to do at 3pm than watch the parade?

[laur roo]

Just wanted to say that I'm enjoying your TR, and I think I read part of your last one as well! (I'll have to go back and finish it.) I'm headed down to Disney in a few short days, and the first day we're going to Animal Kingdom, and I've already decided that FOTLK is going to be our first stop! I know what you mean about that show, it's just wonderful overall and the performers are amazing!

Also, I hope you found that Kermit hat later in your trip...I actually found the same one at a local Halloween store when they were discounting things after Halloween and I snatched it right up! It'll be coming along with me on my trip this time cause it's just so cute!

Looking forward to more updates!!!

[shan23877]

You got some really fun parade pics!

I think DD met that same Cinderella, and she was very blah with her too. So, don't think that it's because you girls were older, she was blah with a 4 year old dressed as a princess too! :confused3

Looking forward to reading more!

[katt789]

Just wanted to say that I'm enjoying your TR, and I think I read part of your last one as well! (I'll have to go back and finish it.) I'm headed down to Disney in a few short days, and the first day we're going to Animal Kingdom, and I've already decided that FOTLK is going to be our first stop! I know what you mean about that show, it's just wonderful overall and the performers are amazing!

Also, I hope you found that Kermit hat later in your trip...I actually found the same one at a local Halloween store when they were discounting things after Halloween and I snatched it right up! It'll be coming along with me on my trip this time cause it's just so cute!

Looking forward to more updates!!!

FOTLK is half of my reason to go to AK, the other half being EE, although there's lots to enjoy in the park I could just go back & forth between the two!!
The kermit toque story is continuign shortly!!

You got some really fun parade pics!

I think DD met that same Cinderella, and she was very blah with her too. So, don't think that it's because you girls were older, she was blah with a 4 year old dressed as a princess too! :confused3

Looking forward to reading more!


Thanks! I do what I can with my little point & shoot, it's really not the best, it's supposed to be "one up" from the last one I had, but I honestly think it's worse! I've never had luck with cameras!

Princesses like that make my soul hurt, like, I know Disney can find amazing people, and maybe they're just having an off day, or don't like that character as much, but I feel like you need to be awesome no matter what!! :laughing:

[katt789]

Once the parade was fully past the point where we were standing, we slowly began following it down the street. It was about that mid-afternoon snack point time of the day, and I knew that along the way to our destination, was the main street bakery, of course! We had stopped in the day before to check if they had the treat I had wanted, but they didn’t have anything but some cookies, cupcakes & the cinnamon buns. My goal;

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1774-1.jpg

The banana bread, bread pudding! I had it last trip, and again at the Crystal Palace (for the record, it’s WAY better at the bakery) It’s super warm, and delicious, and not dried out at all. The portion size is perfect too, not too big, not too small, Sylvia & I shared it, and it was just the amount for that afternoon snack. Spot, Hit!

We crossed the bridge into Tomorrowland, peering over to Stitch to see if CeCe was out today, but we didn’t see her, maybe she’d be around at the party that evening? Who knew! Sylvia loves Space Mountain, and since I couldn’t go on, I assured her it was ok, and I would go meet some friends while she rode, there was no single rider line, but the stand-by wait time was under 20 minutes, so she jumped right into the line. I took a bathroom break, bought a new bottle of water, and then headed over to meet some of my favorite chipmunks! (Where we planned on meeting up after Sylvia was done exploring outer space!)

Right as I jumped in line, Chip & Dale had to go back for an acorn break (something along those lines, right?) but they came right back out to greet some more friends. The wait wasn’t that long (yet again, we had a talent of beating the lines & crowds!) I said hello to the chipmunks, giving them both hugs while they flirted away.

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During the entire interaction & while I was in line, I was keeping my eye on the Space Mtn exit, looking for Sylvia. The wait time had gone up until 40 minutes just after she went in, so I was worried that it would be a long time, and I was hoping that she would make it back in time to meet Chip & Dale. Well, as you can tell by her absence in the pictures, she didn’t make it, JUST as I was saying goodbye, she came running up! Just missed it, for once, our timing was off! Since we still had plenty of time before the party, we decided to try out a ride that we had missed the day before, the TTA! Or Peoplemover, whichever you would like to call it!

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Sylvia hadn’t been on it before, and I actually really enjoy it, especially the part inside Space mountain, it’s awesome to be able to actually kind of see it! This of course, was another opportunity for some hilarious posed pictures!

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We had one last thing to do while we were in Tomorrowland, and that was change our Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party tickets into wrist bands! They had the station set up in the Stitch’s fast pass area, and we quickly got our bands on our wrists (and our count of cute boys for the day went up! Haha!) Now we had finished everything in Tomorrowland, so we headed back to Frontierland for our favorite ride! (It never gets old!!) Which ride of course, well, it’s “time to keep movin along!” Splash Mountain of course! We basically walked on the ride, and before we knew it, were splish splashing along through the briar patch.

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Something that we realized; there were two larger guys sitting in the front of the log, and thus, when we went over the big drop, SO MUCH water came up over the edge of the log! I luckily didn’t get too much of it, but Sylvia, oh dear! She was SOAKED (and wearing white shorts at that!)

We wandered back through Frontierland, with no desire to really do BTMRR again, and nothing much grabbed our eyes in Adventureland, but some characters did! Knowing that they circulated the fairy friend of Tink that was inside, we asked who was in there. The cm at the door said “I dunno…” of course, we knew he knew, so we told him we’d been in there the day before, and had seen Rosetta. He told us that we’d better go on in and see who was in Pixie Hollow today (I know, it’s changed to Tinkerbell’s nook, but really, I like Pixie Hollow better…)


The wait was posted at 35 minutes, but the line didn’t look that bad, but we of course, killed time by taking some pictures, specifically, of Sylvia’s Splash Mtn pants, which had soaked through to the front…good thing everyone knows that there are water rides in Disney World!

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The wait was a little closer to 30 minutes this time, but we eventually made it to be shrunk down to fairy size, and the fairy who we lucked out in meeting;

Vidia! I have met her before, and I do like her, she’s got the spunk attitude that the original Tink has, which is why I think I like her. When she finished with the family in front of us, she came right up to us, grabbed the camera & photopass from me and said to “give it to the shutter bug!” She asked if we were sisters, and said something to me about how it was good to be taller, as I would clearly be faster, “why else do you think I do my hair this big?” she asked. Sylvia made the point that bigger didn’t always mean faster, so Vidia had us line up beside the photopass guy, with our arms out in front of us with fists, and made us race to hit her outstretched hands. Sylvia, proved her wrong, as she won the race.

Vidia then had us make our best attitude faces for the “shutterbug” and then bid us good bye. She was great!

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We flew on over to Tink, who immediately recognized us! “You guys have been here before! How are your friends? What were there names? Are they still stuck in that box?” To which Sylvia came up with the smart response that if we could take them out of the box, they were Canadian, and without tickets, so it would be like illegal smuggling if we took them out now!

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She asked if there was anything else that we needed her to do, so of course, we asked for a Brandi pose! She had it pretty down!


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It had been a while since we had eaten at this point, and we were getting hungry, so we checked the map for a different style of food than lunch was. Pinocchio Village Haus sounded like a good option for us, some pasta would hit the spot right now! I got the penne pasta with meatballs, and a chocolate cake for dessert. I’m guessing Sylvia did the same as I don’t have a picture of any different food, and we do eat a lot of the same things!


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I give this a 4/5 for food rating, it was SOO MUCH food! Really tasty, a tiny bit too much cheesiness flavoring for my liking, but still really good. I think the pasta may have been multi-grain or brown pasta as well, which is awesome to know that Disney is all about the healthy-ness and stuff! The chocolate cake is also super good! (Just realized I haven’t really given it a review yet!) it’s more of a rich cake, but I usually scrape off most of the icing and just eat the cake.

Sylvia & I finished our dinners, and prepared a mental plan for the evening! I had everything kind of planned out since seeing the schedule on the Disboards, so we made the plan, and then set out!

[IheartDDuck]

I love fun character interactions! Vidia sounds like she was tons of fun.

Poor Sylvia getting her white shorts soaked through! My mom got so soaked one time on Kali River Rapids that she actually had to buy a whole new outfit. It was horrible! :lmao:

[shan23877]

Seems like you and I run into a lot of the exact same CMs! That was our Vidia too, and she was GREAT!! Loved her!

Can't wait to hear about the party!

[katt789]

I love fun character interactions! Vidia sounds like she was tons of fun.

Poor Sylvia getting her white shorts soaked through! My mom got so soaked one time on Kali River Rapids that she actually had to buy a whole new outfit. It was horrible! :lmao:

She was awesome! I have yet to have a not-good experience with the fairies except for the first Tink I met (although the other 2 made up for it!) That SUCKS (and is why I avoid going on Kali River Rapids..that and it doesn't seem to rapid) We tried to find her a hand drier to try & dry off, but there doesn't seem to be any around the parks!

Seems like you and I run into a lot of the exact same CMs! That was our Vidia too, and she was GREAT!! Loved her!

Can't wait to hear about the party!

Haha! Sure does! She was amazing, you can really tell when there are the cms who adore their jobs & bringing magic to everyone no matter what the age!

The party's nearly there!!

[ronnmel]

I love how Tink remembered you AND what you guys had talked about! Just another thing that makes Disney awesome. :goodvibes

I like spunk, so I like Vidia. :)

[katt789]

I love how Tink remembered you AND what you guys had talked about! Just another thing that makes Disney awesome. :goodvibes

I like spunk, so I like Vidia. :)

I know! It was amazing!! I love it when characters are that awesome that they remember you! Vidia's defs my 2nd fave for that reason as well!!

[francis6306]

Boo bad Cindy!!! I'd be really upset if my daughter had a blah princess. :mad:

Did I mention it here? I actually know a former Snow White. And she is such a PERFECT Snow White...

I forget? Are you in college? Have you considered doing the College Program? Maybe that could get you an "in" to the dancing...

[katt789]

Boo bad Cindy!!! I'd be really upset if my daughter had a blah princess. :mad:

Did I mention it here? I actually know a former Snow White. And she is such a PERFECT Snow White...

I forget? Are you in college? Have you considered doing the College Program? Maybe that could get you an "in" to the dancing...

I would definitely be irked if my kids had blah characters!!! Boo! That's awesome!!

And no, I'm not in college or anything currently, it's something I would look into doing, for sure, but I'd have to find a school first, and something I want to take haha!!

[ronnmel]

I would definitely be irked if my kids had blah characters!!! Boo! That's awesome!!

And no, I'm not in college or anything currently, it's something I would look into doing, for sure, but I'd have to find a school first, and something I want to take haha!!

I read on another TR that you only need to be registered to 1 class in a college to be able to apply to the college program. So even if you don't feel like doing a full college major yet, you can just register for 1 fun class and then try to get into Disney. :)

[katt789]

I read on another TR that you only need to be registered to 1 class in a college to be able to apply to the college program. So even if you don't feel like doing a full college major yet, you can just register for 1 fun class and then try to get into Disney. :)

That's something I'll definitely look into!!

[katt789]

As I had said earlier, once information about Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party came out on the Disboards, I kind of started making a plan for the party. Obviously, to start with the meet & greets that would be most crowded, such as Cinderella characters, Belle in her red dress & the rest of the princesses & their princes, and to do those during the first parade. When we got the map & info on the day of, we worked out what time we’d watch the castle show & such. Would we stick to the plan? Well, let’s see!

I knew Cinderella would be out in the “Fantasy Skyway Station”, but, didn’t know where that was….I thought maybe it was the area behind the castle where the Fairy Godmother meets, so we headed there first, and saw nothing set up, so we popped into a shop to ask where it was. The cm started describing it, and my response was “Oh! Where the coach was at the Halloween party?” To which Sylvia couldn’t resist laughing…you could tell I came to Disney a lot (that’s not a bad thing at all!) Now knowing where we were going, we headed over to the area over my IASW, there was a small line already formed, (it was about 6:45 right now, with the official party starting at 7) so we plopped down onto the ground to sit & wait for the royalty to get there.

Sure enough, right at 7:00pm Cinderella, Prince Charming & the Tremaines came walking out and took their places, and within a couple of minutes, we were in and saying hello! I find that with these big groups, it’s kind of hard to figure out where to go to take the pictures, but after a little interaction, and confusion, Prince Charming suggested I come over by him (why hello, I won’t say no to that! :laughing: )

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Sylvia & I had discussed getting a Brandi pose with them, and we did want everyone to do it, but it appeared that only the step sisters were up to it! They asked us what it was, and we said that it was a new dance move, well, more of a dance pose to end dancing with, and then they played around a little bit with their own dance moves while Lady Tremaine looked on disapprovingly.

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Overall, it was an awesome experience I love the Tremaines, there just so much awesomeness, though I do feel bad for all of them in that group greeting together. Like, all the little Princesses want to meet Cinderella & Prince Charming, and the Step Sisters are a riot, and then there’s Lady Tremaine…yup…just kinda chillin…. (like a villain… BAH! Yup...that just happened….) We had decided to go see another Princess right away, so we crossed quickly through Fantasyland behind the castle, and over to the Fairytale Garden. Belle & the Beast were out, and we jumped right in line, and with barely any wait, were up there.

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I love the red dress of Belle’s, so pretty! I did feel bad for this Belle though, her voice was kind of groggy, and much lower than the usual princess voice, it really sounded like she was sick, or just getting sick/over it. It would really suck to be stuck doing meet & greets when you have no voice!


Next up, it was definitely the rest of the Princesses, we had discussed who else was out for meet & greets, and we knew that we wanted to see the Princes…and hey, lets be serious, I really wanted to see Flynn…me & the rest of the world!! So, we headed over to Town Square Theatre and jumped right in line. The wait was posted at 30 minutes, but we figured it wouldn’t be that long, as the entrance lobby room wasn’t full at all. We were all the way around the corner, and the line curved twice, with us right at the 3rd curve, it wouldn’t be long now!

….Or so we thought…we waited…and waited…obviously we had sat down, I knew this was probably going to be the longest wait of the night, heck, probably of the trip! They let a few families in, and then the line just stopped….seriously…so, we did what we do best, and we made friends with the kids in line! (It helps when you’re sitting down, you’re right at there height! Haha!) There was this ADORABLE girl who was in the next curve up from us who was dressed as Rapunzel, we chatted with her for a little bit, she was super shy, and just the cutest! The line was STILL frozen, the little Rapunzel got let in, and then it just stopped again, seriously, I’ll bring a book next time! There was a small boy in front of us who was playing a video game on his parents i-phone, and it was really cute, he kept looking over his shoulder to make sure that we were watching him beat the levels! Soon enough, his mom & sister came back from wherever they were (my guess was the bathroom, or Mickey meet and greet!) It was adorable, she came RIGHT up and just plonked herself down, leaning right on Sylvia, and started talking. Yet another occasion that parents were all “I’m sorry!” and we said it was, of course, no worries at all, we both worked with kids (though me not currently) and enjoyed it. We spent the majority of the line talking to them & watching the boy play the video game (and save the princess!!)

Soon enough, the LINE MOVED! WE had been waiting for about an hour now, and I assumed that the characters had needed a break, and had taken that and we just managed to get in line at that moment. Thankfully, the line now moved, we rounded the third bend, paused for a bit and then were let in! FINALLY! Heck. Yes. Of course, right when you come in, you’re across from Rapunzel & Flynn, my thoughts “yeah…I guess he’s cute…” oh how my opinion would soon change. First up, was Snow White & her Prince

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They were great, she was super in character (almost too much for Sylvia, who said she could have done without the superbly squeaky voice), we chatted for a bit, and then moved on to Princess Aurora & Prince Phillip. Sylvia said he was probably her least favorite prince, mainly due to his name, as her brother’s name is Phil. My opinion, HECK YES, he’s the one prince that’s the BEST! Seriously, he’s betrothed to someone, but doesn’t care, he loves Briar Rose, and will do anything to be with her, he braves that crazy castle & slays a dragon for her! I think yes. (And I mean seriously, let’s think about the rest of the Princes right now: Beast, keeps Belle prisoner for the first half of the movie! Aladdin lies for most of the movie, Flynn’s only with Rapunzel to get his satchel back at the beg of the movie. And I haven’t seen the rest of the movies recently enough to comment.) But really, I think yes!

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They were also great, asked us where we were from, and asked if the horses had breaks from coming from Canada, which of course, we said they did. Prince Phillip had quite the hold on my hand during the whole thing as well, which you can kind of see in the picture!

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Now, it was time for the big one, the one we had all been waiting for! Rapunzel & Flynn, I was completely distracted watching Rapunzel & the kids in front of us, that I did not notice Flynn…the family in front of us had been making fun of him for his fanny pack, so he pulled it right around to his bum, and did a little bum popping dance, ditching out on them and coming right up to me. Much like Vidia, he grabbed the photopass card, and my camera, passing them off. He however, arm around me, escorted me personally up to the meet & greet area. I died. Right there. For serious. So much for “well, he’s cute…I guess…” full blown love *swoon*. After getting up close & personal, Flynn started chatting to Sylvia, and I quickly started with Rapunzel, complimenting her hair, we chatted about that, and braids, for a bit. Then it was time for pictures, and of course, the Brandi pose came into play, and, well, I made sure Flynn knew to do the smolder while doing it. I somehow didn’t mange to get an actual, not Brandi pose picture with them, but hey, my favorite picture of the trip, so that’s all good. There were a ton more pics on the photopass of course, but we didn’t pre-order the cd (BIG mistake…) thinking we wouldn’t really use it…our mistake…won’t do that again!

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Sylvia and I in full twitterpated mode, said goodbye to our new friend & boyfriend (hey, we can share, right?!) and exited Town Hall giddy as school girls! We decided that we would circle back through Adventureland, and try to get the only princess we hadn’t seen yet, Jasmine! Along the way, we made a stop for some hot chocolate and cookies (although, I got apple slices, and stuffed them in my bag for later!) Unfortunately, Jasmine was just leaving while we were walking up, but Prince Ali & Abu were still out, so in line we jumped! The wait wasn’t that long at all, and before we knew it, we were saying hello and greeting the both of them, pretty much as soon as we were up between them, Abu reached for my bag, grabbed the sweater I had over the strap & threw it right at Aladdin, then opened the zipper and started digging around! (Seriously, my only thought was “dear God, it’s a good thing I don’t have anything embarrassing in there!” You never know what a character is going to do!). Aladdin asked if I had any apples or carrot sticks or something in there, as Abu goes crazy for them! Of course, I had just been at a hot chocolate & apple stop, and I realized this, Abu grabbed the packet of apples out of my bag, and threw them to the handler, saying that he was going to keep them. She of course said that he had to give them back, which he was grumpy about, but I said he could keep them!

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Abu grabbed the apples from the handler, and went to hand them back to me, but then pulled away twice, and then eventually let me grab them, but wouldn’t let go. Sylvia & I decided that that was ok, and he could just come with us! We started to walk out of the m & g area, but of course, Abu couldn’t actually leave, so with one last hug (and the apples in my possession) we were off! Since we were already in Adventureland, we decided to swing around the corner to see if Jack Sparrow was out over near pirates (tonight certainly seemed to be a character night for us) we still had enough time before the fireworks, and the line seemed short enough so we jumped in. While we were waiting, another Disney Magical moment happened! A couple walked up and started there meet & greet with Jack, (we couldn’t really hear what was going on) but then the guy got down on one knee & proposed!! Eeee! Of course, Jack’s response was “I love weddings! Drinks all around!” Before we knew it, it was our turn to meet him!

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He asked the usual, if we were sisters, we weren’t, so how did we know each other, and we took the pic and that was it. Now, I had been holding off on meet Jack at DW for quite some time, and since I had always been with people from the theatre I work at, who have been there longer, we had agreed to not do it. Why, you may ask? Well, the theatre we work for does spoofs of real movies/shows, etc, and we have done a POTC one (two of them actually) and the guy we had playing Jack was just absolutely amazing, dead on in terms of looks, characterization, voice, absolutely everything, he was incredible! So, we always said “meh” to Jack at WDW as we figured he wouldn’t hold up to the expectation we already had. Sylvia, hadn’t been around for these shows, so I decided we may as well meet him today. Verdict; meh, could have been better.

While we were in line, we also saw something that grabbed my attention (we had also seen a couple around the park that day too) was a muppet toque!! We had seen an Animal one around earlier, and someone else in line had a Beaker one! Sylvia jumped over and asked where they got them from (a cart/store in Tomorrowland by Space Mtn). Our decision? Well, it was our last day in the parks, and it was MVMCP, who knew how late things would be open?! So, we ran….and I mean ran…. Through the rest of Adventurland, across the hub, and into Tomorrowland, and may I add, just as we started this adventure, the fireworks were starting! We took some shots while we ran through the park (the best we could that is, getting through the hub, during fireworks, in the low lighting…intense!)

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We made it! The cart was still open, and they had the Animal toques…and the Beaker toques…and….no Kermit! I considered buying two Animal ones, one for me & one for Tanessa, but I had my heart set on the Kermit, so I grabbed one for Tanessa, and Sylvia & I ducked through another shop, where she tried on a hat too!

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With our gong show of a run done, we headed back to the hub, we had a castle show, and a parade to watch! It’s very possible that we got some more hot chocolate & cookies along the way too! We managed to snag a spot RIGHT in front of the castle, in prime viewing spot!

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[katt789]

I know! This thread is FULL of surprises!

I may be taking a small break from the TR & the disboards (and internet really) for a bit because;

I'm taking a solo trip down to WDW!!! :banana::cool1: Yup, me & only me! I decided that I really need some alone time, and I wanted to go somewhere where the temperature was about freezing, and figured I shouldn't go to Mexico or something by myself, and what better than my happy place?!:confused3

So:
Sunday 29th-Wed 1st

I will be back at the world with some park hopper tix, and the most amazing thing, my other dream resort was do-able thanks to discount codes:wizard: so I'll be staying at:

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb360/cjeannie/IMG_0046.jpg

THE POLY!! Heck yes!!

Plans:
Sunday the 29th: Arrive, head straight to resort, if time is rushed, watch Wishes from the beach, then head over for EMH, otherwise, head straght to the park!

Mon the 30: Start with AK, hop to DHS, hit up character palooza. I might walk over to BWalk for dinner, then head to Epcot for a slush & Illuminations

Tues the 31st: Start at MK with rope drop & probably stay there all day. I have dinner at 1900 Park Fare booked too!!

Wed the 1st: I depart bright & early in the morning to get back to Calgary for 1pm, so I can be at work that night!

I've bought a data plan, so I will be tweeting (including lots of pictures) a lot while I'm gone, so feel free to follow:

https://twitter.com/#!/kattwy

[shan23877]

Wow! Awesome character meets at the party! Love the Abu one, but I'd really love to meet Flynn :thumbsup2

How exciting to be staying at the Poly!!! That's my dream resort as well, I'm soooo jealous. Have a great time!

[dara00]

I think we may have met that same squeaky voiced snow white!

I'm super jealous of your solo trip! I don't usually use my twitter account, but I'll try to remember to follow your trip!

[mars315]

I have just been loving your last 2 trip reports. You get so much done in a day! You are so lucky to be staying at the Polynesian. It is my second favorite (after Beach/Yacht Club). You are either getting great deals, or you are doing quite well for yourself for someone who is only 22. Good for You! Have a great trip, and have a great time planning your trip with your mom.

Michelle

[IheartDDuck]

Okay, love all of the meet and greets.

How great that you're taking a solo trip! You're going to LOVE the Poly. I can't wait to hear all about it.

[Merida]

Oops, I've fallen really far behind!

First: congrats on your Poly trip! That sounds like a perfect trip to take for some relaxation time. Going solo really is awesome, being able to do all your favorite things and being so close to MK!

Aah, you guys had so many great character meets! I really am jealous; I don't think my boyfriend would want to meet them all. I love the fairies' costumes and would love to go take pictures in there but it seems like that would be kind of awkward. Plus I don't really know anything about the Pixie Hollow stories.

I wish Disney would put better princes out for meet'n'greets. Not that the ones I met were bad, but except for Naveen, they all see so... young? Not really as muscular or a lot smaller or something. Maybe it's just harder to find "matching" friends for the princes than the princes, but I'm not as impressed with them. The ones in the parades seem much closer appearance-wise!

You got some great parade pictures! I haven't really seen any of the parades ever and I'm definitely more inspired now. :goodvibes

You hit like all the characters we didn't at MVMCP (which isn't really that hard, considering we didn't try that much, so you guys did way more)! I love the Cinderella group photo, that was a really great addition to the party this year. I think you were in the same room as we were for the princes/princesses. The Flynn in there was awesome! They were much more willing to 'play' than the other two pairs I thought. Not that they were bad, there's just much less give in a character when the main personality trait you're given is "sweet" or "dashing"!

What a neat idea to propose in front of Jack Sparrow! I don't think I've ever heard of anyone doing that. And Abu/Aladdin had a great interaction with you guys! I feel like it's much easier to have fun interactions with more people going up (compared to just me with my boyfriend watching). I really want to go to Disneyland because it sounds like they have some awesome interactions out there as well, but mostly for kids that are dressed up. It's not my fault I'm too old! :lmao:

[francis6306]

How much fun meeting all those Princesses! :goodvibes We got to meet Jasmine and Aladdin in 2010 when we went to MVMCP. My daughter was in love! :)

YAY for a solo trip! Stop in Indiana and take me with you!! :worship: I don't snore or anything!

[dara00]

oh! I totally forgot to mention that I got the kermit hat at dhs and you shouldn't have a problem finding it this time! it was at the kiosk outside muppetvision and in the muppets store!

[katt789]

First off, oh my goodness, an abundance of replies!! Thanks for being here guys!!


Wow! Awesome character meets at the party! Love the Abu one, but I'd really love to meet Flynn :thumbsup2

How exciting to be staying at the Poly!!! That's my dream resort as well, I'm soooo jealous. Have a great time!
Hoooly cow...my new man...seriously, WOW!! And heck yes!! I do want to return again with a group, the first trip we went on we ate at Ohana, and I isntantly fell in love with the Poly, but now at least I'm switching up the resorts and trying new things!

I think we may have met that same squeaky voiced snow white!

I'm super jealous of your solo trip! I don't usually use my twitter account, but I'll try to remember to follow your trip!

She was quite fantastic! And probably the prettiest Snow I've seen!


I have just been loving your last 2 trip reports. You get so much done in a day! You are so lucky to be staying at the Polynesian. It is my second favorite (after Beach/Yacht Club). You are either getting great deals, or you are doing quite well for yourself for someone who is only 22. Good for You! Have a great trip, and have a great time planning your trip with your mom.
Michelle

Thanks!! I'm glad you've been enjoying them! I'm not quite sure what my magical skills are, but they SURE ARE THERE!! Last Sept, we got flights, 5 day park hoppers, hotel, and free dining all for $883.00 each. And that's flying from Canada! :banana: This solo trip was aroudn $1700.00 (clearly I'm not shy about talking prices) I do my best to find as many deals as I can, and for working at a dinner theatre and considering what we make there, I'm doing pretty well (although I did just get a new job last night and my tips will at least double!)Thanks!!

Okay, love all of the meet and greets.
How great that you're taking a solo trip! You're going to LOVE the Poly. I can't wait to hear all about it.

Meet & greets are BY FAR my favorite part of Disney, I love the rides and all, but meeting childhood icons, and soaking in all the magic, that's where the love for Disney really comes! I'm SOOO EXCITED for the Poly, although I bet I'll definitely feel like it's way too classy for me! Haha

Oops, I've fallen really far behind!

First: congrats on your Poly trip! That sounds like a perfect trip to take for some relaxation time. Going solo really is awesome, being able to do all your favorite things and being so close to MK!


I wish Disney would put better princes out for meet'n'greets. Not that the ones I met were bad, but except for Naveen, they all see so... young? Not really as muscular or a lot smaller or something. Maybe it's just harder to find "matching" friends for the princes than the princes, but I'm not as impressed with them. The ones in the parades seem much closer appearance-wise!

You got some great parade pictures! I haven't really seen any of the parades ever and I'm definitely more inspired now. :goodvibes

You hit like all the characters we didn't at MVMCP (which isn't really that hard, considering we didn't try that much, so you guys did way more)! I love the Cinderella group photo, that was a really great addition to the party this year. I think you were in the same room as we were for the princes/princesses. The Flynn in there was awesome! They were much more willing to 'play' than the other two pairs I thought. Not that they were bad, there's just much less give in a character when the main personality trait you're given is "sweet" or "dashing"!
I really want to go to Disneyland because it sounds like they have some awesome interactions out there as well, but mostly for kids that are dressed up. It's not my fault I'm too old! :lmao:
As stated, be I'm so pumped to be going, and staying at a deluxe, not quote sure how I do it. I know what you mean about the Princes too!! They aren't all that rugged and handsome, and some of them are rather...flamboyant...which a 6 year old might not notice...but I sure do....:laughing: One thing I've always loved about Tiana & Naveen is that in between people they're meet & greeting, they always turn back to each other, take their hands, laugh, they actually seem so in love! I REALLY wish that Flynn was out for meet and greets. And how much money do you think they could charge if they had a Prince character meal!!:love:

I have seen some AWESOME youtube vids of character interaction in DLR, and I definitely want to go, Nick (the one guy that has been on both our May & Sept trips, and said he felt like I was cheating on him when I went in Dec without him :rotfl:) and some family of his & me might be going in Oct!!

How much fun meeting all those Princesses! :goodvibes We got to meet Jasmine and Aladdin in 2010 when we went to MVMCP. My daughter was in love! :)
YAY for a solo trip! Stop in Indiana and take me with you!! :worship: I don't snore or anything!

I've still only managed to meet Jasmine twice!! Haha, she's the princess that I haave the most trouble getting to! :laughing:

oh! I totally forgot to mention that I got the kermit hat at dhs and you shouldn't have a problem finding it this time! it was at the kiosk outside muppetvision and in the muppets store!

I have a story regarding the HAT!! A friend of a friend, who I have on fbook, posted something about being in WDW, and I said, totally thinking she wouldn't find it, but if she did find any kermit toques, to pick me up one. A few days later, our mutual friend said "Shelby's got your toque" BAH!!:woohoo::yay: finally!!!!! So I don't actually have it yet, but it's home in Canada for me!!

[glendroid]

Great TR. can't wait for more updates. This is seriously making my withdrawal worse. :(

[katt789]

Just thought I'd drop in a line and say I'm writing this from my room at the Polynesian!! :banana: I'm in the Tahiti bld, directly beside the ttc, I honestly think it's faster to walk there than the bus stop!
I've already been to all four parks, and am spending all day at MK tomorrow, and eventually, a TR will go up!!


Great TR. can't wait for more updates. This is seriously making my withdrawal worse. :(

Thanks!! Glad you're enjoying!!

[Aussiesalad]

Amazing!! So jealous!!!
Hope you have a wonderful time :goodvibes

[katt789]

Up next; The Castle Show!! It was cute, a heck of a lot of characters up there during that short time! But I can honestly say the Dream Along With Mickey one and the Villians Mix & Mingle ones are better, or at least, I liked them better!! Nonetheless; here are a BUNCH of pictures of it!

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It was definitely at this point that Sylvia proved me wrong! There was pointe somewhere at Disney! On the way into the parks the previous day, she asked if she should bring her pointe shoes to the audition, as well as her jazz shoes. After explaining that the audition would not be that technical AT ALL, I pointed out that there wasn’t pointe anywhere at WDW, I have been proven wrong!

After the castle show was done, it was about half an hour to the parade starting time (and the parade started in Frontierland, so it was probably close to 45 minutes until it would reach us). Rather than move and try to find another spot as good as this, or go on some rides to kill time, we decided that it would probably be best to just sit here and wait for the parade!

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[katt789]

I am currently sitting in the Orlando Airport, waiting about another 20 mins until I can board my flight home :sad1: I'm sad to leave, but am excited to get home, work my butt off for the next couple of months & save up more money so I can head back to the mouse again sooner than expeceted (and again & again for different auditions :laughing: )

Overall, I had an absolutely amazing trip! Met lots of new friens (and made some good ones!) and I could do whatever *I* wanted, which was amazing. It was filled with magic & memories that will last forever. I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy a solo trip, but it honestly was fantastic! I figured I'd drop some previews of what's to come in the TR when it hits (which won't be until I've got the photopass, but that should be soon, I've already edited & ordered it!)

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Solo%20Disney%20Trip/IMG_2149.jpg

Dream Job...simply inspired me to really kick it into gear, I *will* be that performer at some point in time!!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Solo%20Disney%20Trip/IMG_2180.jpg

Instant connection! It was as if Tigger knew he was my bf! :rotfl:

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Solo%20Disney%20Trip/IMG_2205.jpg

I'd be up for being one of these performers as well, specifically the one in the middle...that would be me if I ever met Gaston :lovestruc

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Solo%20Disney%20Trip/IMG_2278.jpg

Just walking down Main st, no biggie!

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The photopass got the greatest shots, but let's just say, I'm pretty sure we made bffs this trip :thumbsup2

Hope you'll all tag along for the stories & adventure!!

[Merida]

YAY TIANA AND NAVEEN!! They're (still) my favorites - so warm and friendly and charming!

I don't think we saw the castle show - we saw the one right before (?) Magic, Memories, and You/Wishes where everyone was dancing to Nutcracker music. Goofy was doing the trepak, that's all I remember! :) I really like seeing more classical stuff at Disney - it's nice to see something I could (theoretically!) do!

[ronnmel]

Awesome! I'm really glad you had a fantastic solo trip and I cannot wait to read all about it. Those previews are great. :)

[shan23877]

Can't wait to hear more about the solo trip!

I'm shocked that you went to see FOtLK!:lmao:

Hope you had safe travels!:grouphug:

[Amunet]

I read your other TR last night and this one today :) I'm really enjoying it!

Though, I'm still bummed you didn't make it past the first eliminations of the audition :( Haha I think I'm more bummed then you were!
I think that's what will keep me reading your TRs, I'd really like to see you accomplish your dream ^_^

But until then, I'm having a blast reading your adventures!

[nancyjvanwyk]

I am really enjoying this TR and look forward to hearing about your solo trip. My husband I and go every year and we do enjoy the character meet and greets and also just LOVE the mnsshp. We are going in Sept and want to get to the party again.

[katt789]

YAY TIANA AND NAVEEN!! They're (still) my favorites - so warm and friendly and charming!

I don't think we saw the castle show - we saw the one right before (?) Magic, Memories, and You/Wishes where everyone was dancing to Nutcracker music. Goofy was doing the trepak, that's all I remember! :) I really like seeing more classical stuff at Disney - it's nice to see something I could (theoretically!) do!

Tiana & Naveen have always been some of my favorite meet & greets, no matter who the cm's are, they're always amazing!


I read your other TR last night and this one today :) I'm really enjoying it!

Though, I'm still bummed you didn't make it past the first eliminations of the audition :( Haha I think I'm more bummed then you were!
I think that's what will keep me reading your TRs, I'd really like to see you accomplish your dream ^_^

But until then, I'm having a blast reading your adventures!

I'm glad you're enjoying! Haha! I was bummed, but I mean, it was something I went into with a positive attitude, and came out with one too, I've been to plenty of auditions before, it's something you just get used to!

I am really enjoying this TR and look forward to hearing about your solo trip. My husband I and go every year and we do enjoy the character meet and greets and also just LOVE the mnsshp. We are going in Sept and want to get to the party again.

Thanks!! Character meets are what makes the trips I find, it's just so amazing & magical. Guh! Mnsshp is probably the greatest thing ever, I'm SO excited for next years!

[katt789]

Awesome! I'm really glad you had a fantastic solo trip and I cannot wait to read all about it. Those previews are great. :)

Thanks! It was honestly so much fun, I thought it might be a little awkward, but it worked out for the best!

Can't wait to hear more about the solo trip!

I'm shocked that you went to see FOtLK!:lmao:

Hope you had safe travels!:grouphug:

The TR will start soon, I'm just waiting on the photopass to get here & we're ready to go!! I know right?! As if I would take time to go see it!

[katt789]

With our waiting done with, we were finally seeing and hearing the beginning of the parade coming into the hub! We jumped up to standing, but made sure to let some small kids in front of us when they showed up! I’m not about to stand right in front of them (although the woman from the family beside us didn’t seem to care one bit that she was pushing people out of the way, and standing while in the front row)

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The parade was great! It still loses to Boo To You, but it was great! I especially loved the ginger bread house that actually smells amazing!!

[ronnmel]

The costumes and the float, everything looks so great and Christmas-y that you can almost feel the cold winter feel that I associate with Christmas. :goodvibes Then you look at the people sitting down watching the parade and they are in t-shirts and some even shorts and you're like "oh right, it's hot in Florida, even in December!". :rotfl2:

[shan23877]

Love the parade pics, and how Peter and Wendy look cold! Love those details!!

[mike the canuck]

Following along :)

[katt789]

The costumes and the float, everything looks so great and Christmas-y that you can almost feel the cold winter feel that I associate with Christmas. :goodvibes Then you look at the people sitting down watching the parade and they are in t-shirts and some even shorts and you're like "oh right, it's hot in Florida, even in December!". :rotfl2:

I love it so much! And it's hilar that they're all bundled up, it's also hilar to see people in their sweatshirts & pants shivering while I'm in a tank top & shorts!

Love the parade pics, and how Peter and Wendy look cold! Love those details!!

Following along :)

Glad you're here!

[katt789]

Now that the parade was over, we stuck it out in our spot for a bit while we waited for the crowds to die down & just take in the beautiful-ness that was the castle. We had finished pretty much everything we wanted to do at the party, and really just wanted to soak it all in before we had to leave the next day! :(

Sylvia & I decided to wander through the shops around Main St, I’m not sure if either of us actually ended up buying anything during that time, but we slowly lingered through all of the stores. While we were lingering and looking for any last minute souviners to bring home to friends & family, I noticed someone!! All through the party, I had been keeping my eyes open for Janet (who’s mom2trk here on the disboards) and her daughter Katie, she always has such amazing costumes, so I knew she would kind of stand out. Sure enough, I saw them while we were in our last shop, right before paying, after a little back & fourth with Sylvia (I had NO clue how to go about approaching them) I finally just said hi and that I “knew” her from the disboards, the costumes looked great (the girls were dressed as Anastasia & Drizella) before saying good bye.

Right before we left, Sylvia & I were sure to stop by the confectionary and pick up some candy apples! She got a regular one while I went for the Minnie one with marshmallow ears! SOOO good, I ate about half it that night, and attempted to save the rest, but just ended up throwing it away.

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We said good bye to our happy place, and walked over to the bus stop to get on the Disney bus that would take us to our last sleep in the world. On the way home, we were sitting across from a Dad & his family, and as soon as Bohemian Rhapsody came on…well…singing insued. It made for quite the awesome last bus ride. Our night was pretty un-eventful, I had mentioned that I had brought some movies down with me, so we popped our new boyfriend’s movie into my laptop and started to watch Tangled as we packed up the last of our things. However, it was late, and we had a breakfast (and maybe a rope drop?) to get to the next morning, so to sleep it was!

[StitchsGurl]

What a great TR! Looks like you had some great interactions with the characters - you and Sylvia remind me of me and my friends when we go to Disney - always a hoot! LOVE the parade photos, and yes, I agree, Boo To You beats out Once Upon a Christmastime! Anyways, what a wonderful ending to what seemed like a great trip!

[IheartDDuck]

I hate the end of the last full day. You're always kind of dragging through the motions. At least you still had a breakfast and a rope drop to look forward to.

I have been on the bus when Bohemian Rhapsody came on. And I have sang very loudly. :lmao:

[Merida]

I love the winter parade so much! I love seeing the characters in "different" costumes (instead of just the traditional movie costumes). And all the dancers are so good!

I'm glad someone's tried the fancy candy apples; I've only seen pictures but no reviews of them. I love browsing in the bakeries at Disney World, everything is so cute and perfect.

Boo on it being the last night though! I was thinking about it and I guess there isn't a DVD player in the rooms. I don't know why I thought there was; maybe too much reading about club level or cruise lines? I do wish there was some better stuff on the "normal" TVs, maybe some classic Disney shows or movies? It would be so cool to see Jett Jackson reruns while on vacation! ;)

[katt789]

What a great TR! Looks like you had some great interactions with the characters - you and Sylvia remind me of me and my friends when we go to Disney - always a hoot! LOVE the parade photos, and yes, I agree, Boo To You beats out Once Upon a Christmastime! Anyways, what a wonderful ending to what seemed like a great trip!

Thanks!! And yeah we really did, character interaction is more than half the reason I go to disney, I love it!!

I hate the end of the last full day. You're always kind of dragging through the motions. At least you still had a breakfast and a rope drop to look forward to.

I have been on the bus when Bohemian Rhapsody came on. And I have sang very loudly. :lmao:

Yay! I was glad we had something to do rather than just wait around, I've had many different experiences with times of flights now, and I feel a 1pm one that has enough time to sleep in & do a breakfast is a lot nicer than rushing, or having a 4 pm flight & doing nothing, and not having a hotel room from noon onwards

I love the winter parade so much! I love seeing the characters in "different" costumes (instead of just the traditional movie costumes). And all the dancers are so good!

I'm glad someone's tried the fancy candy apples; I've only seen pictures but no reviews of them. I love browsing in the bakeries at Disney World, everything is so cute and perfect.

Boo on it being the last night though! I was thinking about it and I guess there isn't a DVD player in the rooms. I don't know why I thought there was; maybe too much reading about club level or cruise lines? I do wish there was some better stuff on the "normal" TVs, maybe some classic Disney shows or movies? It would be so cool to see Jett Jackson reruns while on vacation! ;)

I've always debated what to do with candy apples lol, I never know whether I should venture out and try something fancy, or just stick with plain, and the last thing you want to do is spend over $5 on a treat and hate it!

It bugs me that there aren't dvd's in the room, I mean, I love to watch Stacy, but I can't imagine that a kid on break/nap time wants to watch that or espn! It would be great if they had old disney shows or movies (if they played the old little mermaid & aladdin tv cartoons who knows how late for rope drop I'd be! :rotfl2: )

[katt789]

So I've been realizing recently, that if I had bought an annual pass for my first trip, it would have covered all of my trips under it...and that would be a savings.

Park tix for a 5 day park hopper at WDW is $400

4 days park hopping at DL is $320.

An annual pass, so worth it. Hmm..I begin my pondering, I ask about it during this Dec trip, they say you can't do free dining with it. I do more research, you just have to buy the minimum days of tix, and can save that tix and put it toward your renewal next year.

Now, I'm thinking, I'm making a trip to DL with Nick & his famjam next Oct, and I want to go to DL myself...and audition over there...is there a pass that covers Cali & Florida?

WOWOOWEEWA...there is...

Premier Passport (http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/disney-premier-passport-ticket/?CMP=ILC-WDWtoDPPremierPassport1001)

Yup..it exists, and it would be a savings on my trips on how often I'm there. Simply 2 trips to Disneyland next year, and 2 to Disney world would be covered, and I'd be saving money. Those trips would be:

DLR: early spring
WDW: Late May/early June (solo maybe, with another audition)
DLR: Oct w/Nick
WDW: Food & wine (possibly with Sylvia, she wanted to go back for her bday)

However, I'm now wondering, if I've already booked a trip (Sept, with my mother) and I get this pass, would I be able to get any money back from that if I was to put my pass towards it? Does anyone know anything about this? Would I just have to cancel the package, and book just the room & tix separately, or could I just subtract from it? This part confuses me? :confused3

Plain & Simple, I *will* be getting this....it'll inspire me to go a whole lot more, and hey, $800 for unlimited access to both parks, all parks, all waterparks & DQ, like :scared1::woohoo::yay:

As long as airfare doesn't get too ridiculous, it'll be a year of awesome Disney PARTAYS. So....if you're going to be there between March/April of this year & next year, let me know! :laughing:

[ronnmel]

I don't know that much about passes, but my guess is you would have to "cancel" your September trip and just rebook it room only. I know you are talking about free dining, but since you'll have an annual pass you should instead just get a Tables in Wonderland card. I think in the end you would save so much more than getting free dining, especially since you could also book room-only using annual pass holder discounts.

But getting an annual pass, how exciting!!

[IheartDDuck]

I want the premier pass sobadsobadsobadsobad!

I can actually justify it in 2013 too, if I think about it long enough. We want to go to DLR and then to WDW probably twice, so it would be the perfect justification of cost.

Remember, with the annual pass, you don't get free dining, but you do get room rate discounts. You just have to wait for a little while for them to get released. For me, free dining is never worth it when I crunch the numbers, because I can get discounts with my annual.

[katt789]

I don't know that much about passes, but my guess is you would have to "cancel" your September trip and just rebook it room only. I know you are talking about free dining, but since you'll have an annual pass you should instead just get a Tables in Wonderland card. I think in the end you would save so much more than getting free dining, especially since you could also book room-only using annual pass holder discounts.

But getting an annual pass, how exciting!!


Yup, something I'm working on, there seems to be a way around it (maybe?) so I'm hoping I can work with it, but even if I have to pay for the sept trip, the premier pass still justifies itself with the rest of my trips

I want the premier pass sobadsobadsobadsobad!

I can actually justify it in 2013 too, if I think about it long enough. We want to go to DLR and then to WDW probably twice, so it would be the perfect justification of cost.

Remember, with the annual pass, you don't get free dining, but you do get room rate discounts. You just have to wait for a little while for them to get released. For me, free dining is never worth it when I crunch the numbers, because I can get discounts with my annual.

Exactly!! Thanks to them being valid starting the first day you use them, mine would go all the way through to next April at the latest, which means I could squeeze in another trip, hey, depending how my funds are it could turn into a "oh hey, this person on the dis is going down and wants to meet, sure, lets take the day off" kinda thing. :banana: Ive thought again & again about free dining, and as much as I do love it, it's honestly, having the dining paid for in advance that I like better, the dining plan is sometimes too much food. GAH i need this pass!!

[Merida]

Congrats on being able to get a premier pass! We looked into getting one as well, but we're still not sure if it'll be worth it (we tend to go to Florida more than CA). Even if you do have to drop free dining, you should be saving quite a bit in ticket costs, right? So that might make up for it! And you do get other discounts on food and such with the fancy passes, but it is hard to give up free food. Then again, those passes are so pretty.. :goodvibes

I am really jealous of how often you get to go! I need to finish up school and get a real job with days off (Also, you know, a decent paycheck)! :rotfl: Are you thinking of doing another Christmas/winter trip?

[dara00]

how do you get free dining anyway?

[shan23877]

Lucky you! I'll look forward to hearing about a year's worth of trips!

[katt789]

Congrats on being able to get a premier pass! We looked into getting one as well, but we're still not sure if it'll be worth it (we tend to go to Florida more than CA). Even if you do have to drop free dining, you should be saving quite a bit in ticket costs, right? So that might make up for it! And you do get other discounts on food and such with the fancy passes, but it is hard to give up free food. Then again, those passes are so pretty.. :goodvibes

I am really jealous of how often you get to go! I need to finish up school and get a real job with days off (Also, you know, a decent paycheck)! :rotfl: Are you thinking of doing another Christmas/winter trip?

Thanks!! I'm super excited, and it's looking more & more to getting the pass, I make enough trips to justify it anyway, so I may as well, right?! That, and I will still be making savings, and it will work out in the end!! And you're right the passes are gorgeous! Gah! I don't know how I do it, I really don't, I make the minimum wage thanks to being a server, and hey, dinner theatres don't make the greatest tips, thats for sure. And yes, I'll be back next Nov, (as you can see from the new ticker!Nov 5-12!!) Sylvia & I will be back, and if we hit up a Christmas party again, that's totes awesome!


Lucky you! I'll look forward to hearing about a year's worth of trips!

Ahahaha, thanks!! I'll be sure to keep ya updated! Especially if I end up in the World at the same time!

how do you get free dining anyway?

On the Disney website under the "special offers" tab it comes up every so often, keep an eye on that there, also the mousesavers newsletters, or anywhere on here. Generally its around the Sept or lower crowd times to get more ppl into the parks, keep an eye around the dis, they'll update ya too!

[katt789]

Ok! First off, I just want to say, I've been lagging in doing the last update of this TR (even though it's typed up & ready to go!) because I wanted to wait until I could start my solo trip TR before closing this one. And for that, I'm waiting for my photopass disc to get in...*le sigh* should have done digital copies...:surfweb: For those of you who know, I had supreme trouble getting the photopass disc last time & I'm really hoping it's here by the end of the week!! :wizard:

*****************************

As for my other news!! Many of you are just going to hate me now :laughing: but if you couldn't tell by my ticker, it is now OFFICIAL. I will be attending the Food & Wine Festival this year!

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/ehenry10/WDW%2004/6531acc1.jpg

I will be going with Sylvia, and we're also celebrating her birthday (the big 2-1!!) We'll be down in the World November 5-12th, with one day at each Disney park, and 1 day over at Islands of Adventure for some Harry Potter fun!!

This time I'm going back down the hotel pyramid, as to make it cheap for Sylvia we'll stay at a Value, and I wanted to stay somewhere new, so we'll be at:

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa49/bacarlson72/WDW-%20All%20Star%20Movies/d833.jpg

Now, if any of you know anything about which All Star would be the best, that would be GREAT (now, if the AoA is open, and not just family suites, that will be where we stay, but for now, All Stars it is!)

So, if anyone's down in the world for that week, be sure to let me know! We'd love to meet ya!!! :chat:

[dara00]

I'm planning to be there! When is Sylvia's b.day? Mine is Nov. 10 and I'm planning to do the 1/2 marathon the night of my b.day! I'm only going for a short trip, Friday-Sunday most likely, just my husband and me!

[katt789]

Sylvia's bday is the 9th! Thats awesome that you're doing the 1/2 marathon! I'm hoping on maybe doing a 5k at disney,but Im not sure if I could!

[IheartDDuck]

Awesome for the upcoming F&W trip and that you'll be returning with Sylvia. What a perfect place and time to celebrate 21. :thumbsup2

[dara00]

Sylvia's bday is the 9th! Thats awesome that you're doing the 1/2 marathon! I'm hoping on maybe doing a 5k at disney,but Im not sure if I could!

there should be a 5K the morning of the 10th! you should try it, you can even walk!

[Amunet]

it is now OFFICIAL. I will be attending the Food & Wine Festival this year!

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a316/ehenry10/WDW%2004/6531acc1.jpg


I am so envious! But also happy for you :yay: DH and I really want to go during the Food & Wine Festival and maybe even overlap it (if the dates work) with MNSSHP one year. So far, that is our ultimate dream of when to go :)

Be sure to take pictures of EVERYTHING you eat during the festival! :rotfl::goodvibes

[nancyjvanwyk]

You are really going to enjoy the food and wine adventure!! we have gone 2 times and really enjoyed it. Also have stayed at the all star sports which was very nice and not overly crowded. I would stay there again if I was going for a quick trip down. My favorite is actually the Yacht club, so somehow in my mind I justify the extra expense by saying I am old and like to soak in a nice quiet hot tub after marching around the parks all day! But again, found the All Star Sports nice and the customer service was still Disney.

[MinnieMoose]

First off, I love the TR and plan on reading your others quite soon. I'm so jealous of your frequent trips to Disney! My husband and I plan on heading back September 16, so it sounds like we'll be there the same time as your surprise trip for your mom! We're so excited to try out MNSSHP!
Also, I don't think it'll be open for your Food and Wine Festival trip but AoA will have regular rooms and they're going to be Little Mermaid themed! I believe they don't open until next year though.

[katt789]

It's the last post of the TR!! (well...2nd last...) And I hope you all know what that means?!!?! YES!! As I got home from work last night, I found the photopass in my mail box from my solo trip! I have uploaded the first round of pics, and the TR will be started shortly!

*****************************

Sylvia & I allowed for a little bit of a sleep in the next day! We had a breakfast reservation at 10:45ish, and had originally planned for a stop over at Magic Kingdom to watch the rope drop show on our way, but decided that we’d rather sleep. Once we were awake, we threw the last couple of things into our bags, and headed down to the lobby to check out and leave our bags with luggage services before breakfast. They were quick to tag them & put our back-packs containing our lap tops in the locking cage, and before we knew it, we were on a bus to MK!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1916-1.jpg

As we were transferring over to the monorail, we took a look over at the lines, and HOOLLLYY, you could tell it was the first day of Christmas vacation, and you could tell that MK was the park to avoid! The lines were horrendous, it was past 10 at this point, and the bag check lines and turnstile lines were WAYYY backed up. I wish I’d managed to get a picture of it, but clearly my mind was elsewhere. Which monorailed resort were we having breakfast at, you may ask? Well, maybe this will give you a nice hint:

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1917-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1918-1.jpg

That’s right, the Grand Floridian! And let me tell you, wow, this resort is gorgeous! It has such a beautiful upscale feel to it, I don’t know if I’d ever be able to stay here, it just feels too fancy! On the monorail on the way over, they definitely announced the wedding pavilion, and I died a little inside, if there’s anywhere I want to get married, it’s there. I just discovered all the Disney wedding/engagement things this past year, and fell in love with all of them, the stuff you can do is just incredible, and the wedding pavilion is so gorgeous!!

Sylvia & I headed over to our reservation and checked in (if any of you haven’t figured it out, yes, we were headed to 1900 Park Fare!) they gave us a buzzer, told us it would be a bit, and to wait. So, we wandered through the lobby taking some random pictures of all the awesome-ness!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1920-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1921-1.jpg


Our wait was quite a while, or at least, felt like that, but eventually we were called in, and we headed into the restaurant. They seated us in that little corridor on the opposite side of the room from the door, which was fine at the start, but once pictures were being edited on photobucket, I noticed how much glare was coming from behind Sylvia in nearly all of them. Boourns. The characters were nowhere near us, so we headed up to the buffet to grab some food!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1923-1.jpg

That one’s my plate, starting at the top going clockwise, we’ve got some bacon, salmon, ham, a sticky bun, potatoes, some kind of Danish, a croissant, and somewhere in there was the lobster eggs benedict. I give the food a 5/5 for here! They had a great selection of everything, and from what I can remember, I liked all of it! The potatoes were the best, I’ll have to say that for sure, the lobster eggs benedict didn’t really live up to the hype I had heard about it, but it was still really good! Here’s Sylvia’s plate:

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1924-1.jpg

Soon enough, we started with the characters. I have no notes from this day, and don’t remember a whole lot, so I’m just going to swing all the pics up and kinda do a review at the end.

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1926-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1925-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1927-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1929-1.jpg

Mary had originally come around when Sylvia had gone to get syrup for her pancakes, but made sure that she came back at a later point. Alice was meh, we both agreed that she could have been better, but was still good. There was a bit of a lull in characters, so I ran back to the buffet to get what I had forgotten. Strawberry soup!!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1930-1.jpg

(I just have to jump in here & say, Tyler, who came on our last trip, and is a chef, saw that picture, and was outraged that they would serve something like that, as the plating had been horrible…I was quick to explain that it was me who did it & dribbled all over the side of the bowl )

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1931-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1932-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1933-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1934-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1935-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1937-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1940-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1941-1.jpg

We managed to get some pictures with both of us in them thanks to a man who was sitting across from us with his family, who was nice enough to offer to take pics with all of us in them. Tigger was great, right as I went to take the pic, he jumped infront of Sylvia to block her from the camera! Pooh was the regular Pooh, and Hatter, well, he took FOREVER to get over to the table. When he finally did, we had finished everything, paid the bill, and were literally just waiting on him. He was ok, nothing will ever beat the Hatter we met at MNSSHP last year. He asked our names, and when he found out I was “Katt” he hid the coffee pot from me, as that’s where the mouse is hiding in the movie.

Just before all this happened, our server brought over a cupcake for Sylvia’s birthday, and we made sure to grab a pic of him doing the Brandi pose (specifically because he kind of looks like one of the bartenders at our work!) and then we were off!

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1938-1.jpg

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1939-1.jpg

Once we were back at Pop, I picked up my back pack from luggage services, and we found a nice little bench in the lobby to sit down at and attempt to finish watching Tangled before the ME came to pick us up. I’m not sure if we did finish it or not, but soon enough, the bus was there, and we were leaving our magical happy place.

http://i1217.photobucket.com/albums/dd390/katt789/Disney%20Dec%202011/IMG_1945-1.jpg

Overall, the trip was another gooder, although I don’t think one can have a bad trip to WDW, I’m sure it could happen, but hey, thinking positive right? Sylvia was a great travel partner to have & I’m glad she was there, we travelled a lot in the same style, and she really just let me take the reins as I know what I’m doing when it comes to Disney (thank you disboards). I would definitely go down to audition again, and am currently planning on it near the end of May/June, it will also be a birthday trip to myself, and I’ll be sure to celebrate while I’m down there. (That being said, if any of you are planning to go around that time, let me know! Maybe we can meet up, ride a ride, have a quick snack together, etc).

I hope you have all enjoyed traveling along with Sylvia & I, and I’m glad you stuck through to see how everything went! I will most definitely be starting a TR on my solo trip soon (once the photopass gets here!) and will post a link for it in this TR so that you all know where to go!)

[katt789]

Reviews!
I find that it’s easiest for me to jumble all the reviews of everything together at the end of the TR, rather than do it after each day, or event, or meal. I try to remember to score the food as I go, but always end up forgetting! SO, here goes:

Overall Review
-The trip was awesome, as always! I’m sure you can have a bad trip to Disney, or have something bad happen at Disney, but as long as there’s some magic going on, it’s going to be awesome. December was an awesome time of year to go, still warm during the day, and you only needed a light sweater at night to keep you warm enough (and if you notice, I happen to be wearing my sweater most while we were inside…darn air conditioning, I freeze!!
-Crowds were VERY manageable, Sylvia pointed out numerous times (and to those we reminisced about the trip with) that I was some magic like creature who knew what to do & when to do it. We would be heading one way, and the crowds were heading another (thank you disboards!!). The only “WOW” moment we really even ever had was on the way to 1900 Park Fare, and seeing how crowded MK was on that last day (but it was the first Saturday of Christmas vacation!)

Pop Century
-I can’t stress enough how much I love this resort. It’s cheap, it’s an awesome resort, and hey, it helps that I know my way around it like the back of my hand. If you can’t request a room in the main area, a room in the 80’s/90’s is always the second best, as you can just jut across the parking lot to get to the busses/main building. Having not stayed at any other value resort, I can’t compare it, but I haven’t heard great things about the All Stars. Personally, I’ve now been spoiled by a deluxe, and understand why you would spend the extra money, but I’m super excited for the Art of Animation Resort to open, obviously, as they have Little Mermaid & Lion King suites. (anyway, I’m on a tangent now…) Pop is a great resort! Especially for only 2 ppl, if you were to have 4, it gets kinda crowded, but is still just a bed you’re sleeping in!

MVMCP
-The party was great, although Sylvia & I used it simply for more character hunting. I really wish they would have the princes out all the time (and I know I’m not the only one!) The hot chocolate & cookies/apple slices were awesome! (And I honestly preferred it to the trick or treating at MNSSHP, all that candy, I would never eat, and feel so bad about eating it, but with the hot chocolate, it was just enough and the cookies were delicious!) Overall, I completely & totally preferred Halloween, but I prefer that whole season overall in general, I would go to the party again though!

Food Reviews:
(these are just in the order that we ate them!)
Pop Century: Vegatarian Lasagna: not the first time I’ve eaten it, and won’t be the last. It’s super yummy, a little too cheesey, but a good sized portion for the price
-Carrot cake: AH-MAY-ZING. Obviously, I love the Disney carrot cake, it’s the greatest. Nearing the end of the day it is a little bit more dry, but still super delic!

[shan23877]

Another TR winds down. I'd be sad if I didn't know that there was another one in the works :thumbsup2

I'll be finding out tomorrow if our family will be able to make our spring trip to the world, and I'll let you know. maybe we'll be there at the same time! :goodvibes

[IheartDDuck]

I love the strawberry soup that they have at 1900 Park Fare. It's so yummy. I've actually made it myself, but it never ends up turning out exactly the same. Maybe it's because I make it and things always taste better when they're made by someone else. :laughing:

Can't wait to hear about your next trip. Oh, also, while the GF feels all fancy dancy, you'd still feel right at home if you stayed there. I always felt that way and then the one and only time we've stayed there I was fine. :thumbsup2

[katt789]

My solo TR is up & running as of currently!!

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2878488

Hope you enjoy!

[katt789]

Another TR winds down. I'd be sad if I didn't know that there was another one in the works :thumbsup2

I'll be finding out tomorrow if our family will be able to make our spring trip to the world, and I'll let you know. maybe we'll be there at the same time! :goodvibes

Ahaha, I know right?! Hopefully it will always be like that?:confused3 (dear god that's a lot of writing..) That's fantastic!! I may end up down in WDW in both May & June now, a friend who I had made plans to go to Mexico with scrapped th Mexico plans last night, and said "why not just do Disney" so we might go early May, and then I'd be back for an audition later!

I love the strawberry soup that they have at 1900 Park Fare. It's so yummy. I've actually made it myself, but it never ends up turning out exactly the same. Maybe it's because I make it and things always taste better when they're made by someone else. :laughing:

Can't wait to hear about your next trip. Oh, also, while the GF feels all fancy dancy, you'd still feel right at home if you stayed there. I always felt that way and then the one and only time we've stayed there I was fine. :thumbsup2

Ahah! Food is just never the same as Disney, no matter how hard you try! Haha, I have a recipie for Tonga Toast that I know won't taste anything like it, but I want to try it!

[WDWCPALUM03]

So, if anyone's down in the world for that week, be sure to let me know! We'd love to meet ya!!! :chat:[/COLOR][/FONT][/QUOTE]

I will be there Nov 2-11!!!!

[katt789]

So, if anyone's down in the world for that week, be sure to let me know! We'd love to meet ya!!! :chat:

I will be there Nov 2-11!!!![/QUOTE]

Awesome!! Our plans are pretty up in the air, I'm sure we'll be going, I just have no clue where we'll be staying or anything as of now![/COLOR][/FONT]

[WDWCPALUM03]

I will be there Nov 2-11!!!!

Awesome!! Our plans are pretty up in the air, I'm sure we'll be going, I just have no clue where we'll be staying or anything as of now![/QUOTE]

Mine are too, I'm booked for Pop which we love but I'm probably swithing to AofA