Surviving Disney & the 1/2 Marathon (Jan 09) - Our 1st Trip Report!

[amreli]

Hi, my name is amreli and I'm a DIS junkie (especially when it comes to TR's). I first joined the DIS when planning my 2001 disneymoon and only re-discovered them when I started planning this trip. Now that it has passed, we've begun planning our next two trips. After reading so many TR's over the last year, I've decided to write my own. My SIL, miabellarose (Mia for short from here on out), will be joining me, with her comments in purple.

So, without further ado, here are the who, what, when, where, why, and how it came to be.

What: DISNEY TRIP (with a half marathon thrown in)!
When: January 3 - 11, 2009
Where: All Stars Sports
Who: 6 of us (meet the cast below)
Why: half marathon!!
How: Read the report


The What and The Why
I've been a Disney lover my whole life, but my DH, not so much. A few years back, my dad ran the Disney Marathon and I went along for the trip and to cheer him on. Ever since then, I've wanted to do it myself, but lacked the motivation. In late 2006, Mia and I decided that we would run the half in 2008. Needless to say, we never started training. New Year's Day 2008 rolled around though and we decided to commit to it. On January 24th, we bit the bullet and paid our $107 fee.

I thought we didn't plan to run the 1/2 marathon until after doing the Charleston bridge walk, but Amreli said she had a receipt for when we paid, so I guess I was wrong. I was a Mickey fan ever since we went there the 1st time, but when we went again when I was in high school, it wasn't the same. But there was a lot of conflict in our family life at that time, so that may have played a role. So, the 1/2 marathon was how I reasoned to going back to Disney and I thought it would be a good way to lose weight.

There was no turning back, We came up with a training program (I bow down to the couch to 5k. We are not runners, let alone walkers.) and began planning our trip. In April, we booked the actual trip, paid our deposit and suddenly it seemed so real!


Meet the cast:
Me: 32. Disney lover and compulsive planner. I work on the Internet from home, which leads to excessive DIS-ing, which is not necessarily conducive to work, but still fun.

DH: 32 (aka Grumpy). A complete homebody and computer geek. Feels deprived when he's away from his laptop. He "tolerated" our trip only because I got him an iPhone before we left. I should also mention that DH is a football addict (eg he subscribes to DirecTV's Sunday Ticket and carries 3 tv's to our living room on football Sundays so that he can watch several "key" games, according to him) and was not at all pleased that this trip interfered with the playoffs. We lucked out that his beloved Steelers got to bypass the first week of playoffs and we made it home the next Sunday before they played!

SIL: 30 (aka mia or miabellarose). Another Disney lover, one of my closest friends, and my partner in Disney crime. She was my trip planning and race training partner. I introduced her to the DIS Boards and she hasn't looked back. She may, in fact, be more addicted than me. We spent countless hours creating and tweaking our spreadsheet of plans almost down to the minute. I told you I was compulsive. She is too.

FIL: (aka Donald) Not really a Disney person, but he's one of the funniest people I've ever met. He's got a short temper and you can just see his face getting hotter when he's about to blow up like Donald Duck. He was most looking forward to the bottomless milkshakes at Whispering Canyon and the movie theater at DTD (buttered popcorn, please?).

FIL's GF: (aka Pooh) Disney obsessed GF of FIL. She's a retired kindergarten teacher who particularly loves pooh bear. She has a tendency to get overly excited. She spent hours pouring over the food porn thread with me.

FIL's GF's Mom: Get that? She has Alzheimer's and Pooh is her primary caretaker, so she came along for the ride. She's a nice lady and always makes us laugh, but unfortunately, tragedy stuck her on this trip.

There had been a lot of talk of DH and SIL's other 3 brothers joining us on the trip as well, but in the end it was just us 6.


The trip details:

We were originally booked at All Star Music from Jan 3-11, but when the buy 4 nights, get 3 free came out in November (or was it December?), the only value we could get was All Star Sports. We were not thrilled at first, but it ended up being pretty decent. We were barely there anyway as we had our park hoppers (with water parks & more) and a spreadsheet schedule laminated in our park bags. We definitely did this trip commando style, once we knew we were staying for sure that is.

Our laminated schedule:

This trip was almost cancelled twice – once before we had even left and on the day we arrived. As I mentioned above, DFIL and his GF were joining us, but they both got laid off the week before we left and almost cancelled. In the end, they decided to go and try to have fun since it was paid in full. The second cancellation almost happened while we were there. But more on that later...


Our schedule:
Saturday, 1/3: Arrive, MK
Sunday, 1/4: Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios
Monday, 1/5: Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios
Tuesday, 1/6: Blizzard Beach, Epcot
Wednesday, 1/7: Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom
Thursday, 1/8: Wide World of Sports, DisneyQuest, Downtown Disney
Friday, 1/9: Epcot
Saturday, 1/10: Half Marathon, Magic Kingdom
Sunday, 1/11: Leave

Coming Up:
Day 1: The highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
Day 1: The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. – Part 2
Day 1: The highest of highs and the lowest of lows. – Part 3
Day 2: Breakfast with Mickey
Day 2: Everyone’s Grumpy in Disney
Day 3: A Date with the Animals
Day 3: A Fantasmic Evening
Day 4: Caught in a Blizzard... on the Beach!
Day 4: An Evening Around the World - Part 1
Day 4: An Evening Around the World - Part 2
Day 5: An Early Casting Call!
Day 5: Our Kingdom Awaits - Part 1
Day 5: Our Kingdom Awaits - Part 2
Day 6: Breakfast in Wonderland
Day 6: Race Check-in!
Day 6: Getting Our Game On
Day 6: Shopping & Piloting
Day 6: A Rumbly in Our Tumbly
Day 6: Shopping, Shopping, and More Shopping!
Day 7: Aloha!
Day 7: We're Soarin'! - Part 1
Day 7: We're Soarin'! - Part 2
Day 7: Into the Wilderness
Day 8: Surviving the Half! - Part 1
Day 8: Surviving the Half! - Part 2
Day 8: Surviving the Half! - Part 3
Day 8: The Race Aftermath
Day 8: One Last Wish
Day 8: Dinner with a Charming Prince
Day 9: The Trip Home & Final Thoughts

 

[amreli]

On Friday, the night before we were leaving, SIL arrived with her dog Bella and my mom arrived from across town with her dog Rosie. She was going to stay at our house for the week and watch the dogs (including my two, Bailey and Eli). We were so excited and could barely go to sleep that night, even though we were going to be up bright and early. So I got there around 9PM and Bella went crazy, like she always does.

Mia’s fur-baby Bella:

My fur-babies Bailey and Eli. Bailey likes to DIS too.

We were really excited but we still had a lot to do. We had to print out 3 different directions for my DF just in case we got separated and they didn't have a GPS. The different directions were from Amreli's house to Bahama Breeze, Bahama Breeze to their hotel for that night, and then from their hotel to All-Star Sports for the next morning. We also laminated our Excel spreadsheet and also our ADR info and everyone's contact info for everyone in our group. Then we packed our "park" bags and then packed up the car. We were planning to meet up with my DF and his GF and her mother around 6AM the next morning.

After we finished, we started loading up the car. Our doggies were very confused.

Bailey: This does not look good, they are leaving us with the one who says no-no don't breathe on my food!
Bella: That can't be right, call my mom back here.
Eli: Chill, guys, I hid their stuff behind the door. They cannot leave us, now!

The next morning we were up bright (actually, it was quite dark) and early. We were running a little late, but weren't too concerned because Donald is notoriously late. They, however, were on time today and ended up waiting for us for awhile.

Mia was driving as we took her car. Here she is singing along to Disney songs. I didn't know too many. Amreli ended up having to skip through the songs until she came to the ones I actually knew.

Disclaimer: Remember, cameras do add 10, 15, or even 20 pounds. So for every picture with me in it, let's remember that. Uh... me too.

DH had taken over the entire back seat. The drive was uneventful, but fun. Well except for the fact that DH kept trying to read his Steelers Digest out loud to us when we were trying to listen to Disney music.

We stopped for breakfast and hour into the trip at McDonalds and loaded up on greasy breakfast foods. I had gotten a fruit & yogurt parfait with my sausage biscuit, but was waiting a little while to eat it. When we stopped at a gas station a short bit later, I threw out the trash and accidentally threw out my yogurt too. I was so mad. The drive went on though...

Luckily I didn't get stopped for speeding. I was in the left lane, passing everyone and realized that there was a cop car behind me. I was driving pretty fast and I was really lucky that I didn't get pulled over. After that scary incident, I went the speed limit. Took longer, but I saved myself some money.

Mickey was guiding the way! That was a X-mas present from DM!!! Amreli had gotten Pooh, but she forgot to bring hers along.

After reading AGPrincess's TR (loved her TR's!) before we left, we knew to stop at the Florida welcome center for some OJ. Here’s me and DH:

And DSIL, Mia, enjoying her juice:

While in the welcome center, DH was gathering brochures. He decided that we must visit the world’s largest McDonalds because he saw a brochure for it there. Unfortunately for him, we never made it there. Pooh’s mom was enthralled with the brochures as well. She couldn’t believe they were free (she didn’t fully understand what they were) and she loaded up on them to look at in the car. We headed back out to the car where Mia dug out some allergy medicine for Pooh and got a good laugh out of the fact that DH had packed his own toilet paper. No, that’s not a joke.. here’s the proof:

FYI, we were thankful DH insisted on the TP! All Star Sports sucks in that area. It was funny though because every time Mousekeeping came, they would take our TP roll and replace it with theirs. Maybe they liked ours better too..

Anyway…

When we got to Orlando, we had planned to stop at Bahama Breeze for lunch before heading over to the world. DH loved this restaurant in Cincinnati and we don't have one anywhere near us, so we were trying to placate him. Keeping DB happy makes our lives easier.

Me, DH, and DSIL:

Pooh’s mom, Pooh, and Donald:

Lunch was good, but we were ready to get going. We still had to check-in, unload the car, get Mia's park ticket for that night (our package w/tickets didn't start until the next night, so we had to do a room only ressie for Sat night), and get to MK all before the 5:45 castle lighting ceremony. It was 3pm already at this point so we forced everyone to leave.

Donald, Pooh, and Pooh's mom were staying off-site for the night, so we helped them find their hotel before we went on property. After circling the Interstate a few times and going back and forth on I-4 because we kept getting turned around, we finally went under that beautiful arch.

And when we saw the first Disney bus I wanted to jump out of the car and get on it.

That's when DH started making Mickey wave to the people on the bus.

Check-in was a royal pain in the rear. Actually, dealing with the front desk at any point (and we had to deal with them several times) throughout the trip was a pain. They were incredibly slow and not always the most helpful. And I didn't understand why the person checking us in couldn't make any decisions on her own...she had to keep going back to talk to the manager and asking other people. Maybe she was new? Or do they always do that?

We were thrilled to see the tree still up in the lobby though and hoped that meant that the trees would still be up in each of the parks. It ended up that they were all up through Thursday or so and we were able to see the decorations in each of the four parks.

We had requested the Touchdown section, first floor, with rooms next door to each other. Because we had a room only ressie for Sat night, they had to put us on the 3rd floor and we'd have to move rooms the next day. Not ideal, but we finally got it all taken care of and headed to our room.

Disclaimer: this was actually our second room and this was snapped towards the end of the trip (thus the messy moved in look) I figured it was appropriate to include a room pic at this point.

Coming up: Will we make it to the castle lighting????
Day 1: The Highest of Highs and the Lowest of Lows – Part 2

 

[amreli]

DH wasn't planning on coming with us to the park that first night as he had more important things to do (his exact words). His "more important" things included watching NFL playoffs. It was helpful though as he was there to accept our fridge from the fridge swap Mia had joined. I was shocked they delivered it to our room!

Anyway, Mia and I headed down to guest services to her a one day park ticket. $75 for just the night seemed steep, especially since we wouldn't make it to the park until after 5pm, but we were on a mission. I had a 1 day ticket left over from our last Disney trip a few years earlier. We also added the water parks & more option to our tickets while there. We hadn't done it earlier because we weren't sure it would be warm enough to go to Blizzard Beach. We lucked out though and had absolutely gorgeous weather the entire time we were there - high 70's to low 80's and sunny skies the entire time! It was absolutely beautiful. I remember when my dad ran the race a few years ago it was just freezing, so we were thrilled.

New tickets in hand, we headed out to the bus!

When we got to MK, we were just bursting with excitement. We were racing to make it to the castle lighting (tonight was the last night of it) and we had read online that it was at 5:45. Of course we made some time to snap some pics and get some photopass pics along the way though.

Yay! The tree!

Pretty garlands!

I want this Mickey wreath for my front door! Too bad my baggalini wasn’t big enough to sneak it out in.

After we finished taking pics, we headed up main street to get seats for the lighting. It didn't look like people were staking out seats for it yet though, so we stopped at the tip board where we found out that the lighting was much later than we had thought. A CM was there and I asked him multiple times if the time listed was the actual time for the lighting because I really didn't want to miss it and it didn't "match" the information I had. He kept assuring us that the castle lighting was at a later time.

Since we suddenly had some unexpected time, we headed over to Splash to get a FP since it was supposed to close the next day for refurb and wouldn't be open again throughout our trip. The park was so packed, but we snagged our FP and headed over to ride pirates. I think after pirates we just walked around a bit and ended up getting a FP for Big Thunder. I think at this point we headed back to the castle to get our seats for the lighting, directly in front of the statue in the hub. I think we were behind the statue.

Soon the crowds started arriving, kids were hula hooping, and before we knew it, Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy were on the stage. I didn't think it would happen, but when those lights started twinkling on the castle, I felt tears well up in my eyes. It was just beautiful. After all this time planning we were finally here and I was just so happy. So I kind of have a hearing problem (self-diagnosed) and I really couldn't understand what the characters were saying. But OMG!!! I LOVED the lighting!!! Even though I was hesitant for a loooong time in getting a really expensive 1-day ticket for just an evening, this made up for it. I was soooo happy I decided to come and see it.

The pretty castle!

Us in front of the castle…

Photopass on the side of the castle…

After the lighting, we had a bit of time before Wishes. Since neither of us had seen Wishes (in the past, I've always ridden rides during the fireworks and the last time Mia had been to WDW was before Wishes). We headed to Tomorrowland via the bridge and went to check out the wait times. Space was over an hour and everything else was pretty long as well. We ended up heading to Fantasyland and got on the teacups. I haven't ridden these in forever because spinning tends to make me sick. We figured we were going all out tonight though, so we got on and spun ourselves like crazy. Surprisingly, we both felt great when we got off if you don't count the slight dizziness.

After the teacups, we rode the Carousel. Can you spot us?

And then It's A Small World…. after all.

At that point, our FP window was up so we went and got another Splash FP. It was getting close to Wishes time at this point, so we decided to grab some food and stake out some seats.

Side note: Food was one of the biggest parts of our planning. We made ADR after ADR, then changed them over and over again. By the time we arrived, we had every meal and snack planned out and pretty much stuck to that with only a few changes. I had actually planned to take pics of the food and do a dining report as well, but that went out the window when I forgot to take pics. I wasn't really keen on taking pictures of our food, so I purposefully didn't remember to take food pictures.

So, being our first night and we were without a dining plan until the next morning, we had planned to get the much raved about corn dog nuggets at Casey's and a Dole Whip from Aloha Isle. We both dream about of those to this day. In fact, Mia sent me pic of the corn dog nuggets that she found on the boards last week. And then just last night we were watching Wishes on youtube and wishing we were there watching it and eating corn dog nuggets (with cheese sauce please) and Dole Whip Floats.

Coming Up: Wishes and the lowest point.
Day 1: The Highest of Highs and the Lowest of Lows – Part 3

 

[amreli]

After the castle lighting, Wishes was the next thing I think we were both most looking forward to. When that first "star" shot across the sky, my heart started beating faster. I started to tear up and I looked over at Mia who told me I better not start crying because she would too. I could see that her eyes were already wet though. The only thing missing from Wishes was that my DH was not there to experience it with me. I don't get sappy at many things, but we've been dealing with infertility issues for a few years and all I could think about was how much I wished that we'd be here again in the future watching Wishes with our own little one. "Remember, we must always believe in our wishes, for they are the magic in the world. Now, let's all put our hearts together, and make a wish come true." I made many wishes during wishes that night, wishing with all my heart. Mia and I were both in awe and though we hadn't planned on watching Wishes again during the trip, after that first night, we planned for 2 more times minimum. I cried every time.

I loved Wishes!! I may have had initial tears when it first started, but I really didn't tear up until the 2nd time you hear the kids singing "Star light, Star bright, First start I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, Have the wish I wish tonight..." Then it really hits you, that you are finally at Disney after many multiple months of planning and the difficulties in making this work. At my job, I work 9-7 Mon-Fri. with every other Saturdays 9-2. Since I only had 1 week of vacation and I spent part of those days to see my mom for Christmas, I only had 3 days of vacation left. In order for me to get the time off, two extra days, I had to work every Saturday from October until Christmas. But all that was well worth it...and I am grateful that my work let me take the extra time off too. Side note: I didn't realize until the 2nd time I watched and listened to Wishes that the "Star light, Star bright..." song was the poem that we all learn when we make a wish on a star.

When Wishes ended, we wiped away the tears and headed to Splash!! It was time for some thrills. We got in line and it was just packed. Before we got in our log though, we asked a CM if it was really closing tomorrow as listed on the Disney website. She said no that it would be open the next day and would instead close on Monday. I knew DH would be totally thrilled. He's water ride junkie and Splash is his favorite Disney ride. But obviously Splash did not override football! After Splash, we rode BTMR and then rode Splash a second time.

After our thrills, we headed to Adventureland and rode Aladdin, Jungle Cruise, and then walked the Swiss Family Treehouse. Here’s Space Mountain from the treehouse:

Knowing that we were coming to Disney, I got a new camera for the trip. Amreli went with me at 3:30AM, I think, on Black Friday to stand in line at Staples to get my camera. I was really happy with my camera until night time. I got some really good night pictures but when we went up the Treehouse and I tried taking pictures of Space Mountain off into the distance...it all came out blurry. I tried resting it on the hand rails to minimize any motion but I was not too happy with my camera.

At this point, it was getting late and we were getting tired. We decided to browse the shops on Main Street a bit. They were having a sale on all t-shirts for the holidays, so I ended up getting Minnie shirt to wear the next morning to our Chef Mickey's breakfast and Mia ended up with a cute anklet. When we finished shopping, we went to pick up some corn dog nuggets to take back to DH and then headed to the busses. After reading many, many TR's, Amreli and I bought the plastic food storage containers that break down to be completely flat. Those came in soo handy throughout our trip...leftover desserts, transporting counter service meals, etc.

It was while we were waiting for the bus that we got the call. First, Amreli called her mom to see how our dogs were doing. They were doing okay, but she had mentioned that some of the dogs were peeing in the house. Now, I don't know who she was blaming that on that night but I know that she blamed Bella on other nights and that she could "tell" that Bella was the one who had peed in the house because of the "color" of the urine. OK, that made me really, really mad. Bella is potty-trained. There were two other dogs there that were not. Enough said. Then while we were waiting, we got the call...DH/DB called to tell us that Pooh's mom had a massive stroke and was being airlifted from one Orlando hospital to another. At that point, we didn't know if she'd even live. We were told that she had over 90% chance of dying that night. We got back as soon as we could figuring we were going to have to pack up and leave. As soon as we got back, we went straight to the front desk to find out about possibly cancelling our packages that started the next day. That was seriously the most annoying part of dealing with Disney. We were in the middle of a terrible crisis and they were telling us there was nothing they could do and that we'd have to wait until the next day.

We headed back to our room with plans to meet Donald and Pooh at the hospital, but Donald ended up calling and telling us that Pooh's mom had stabilized and was going to make it through.

When we arrived back to our rooms, we were getting ready to leave for the hospital but DF kept telling us not to come and to keep going with our plans and not to cancel anything. Amreli called her mom to see what she thought we should do regarding our trip and she said that we should stay. I called my DM to get some advice, but she was no help. I guess I/we wanted someone to tell us what we should definitely do but my DM said we should do what we felt comfortable in doing. I guess I wanted that responsibility in making that decision out of my hands.

We later found out that Pooh’s mother would be in the hospital for at least a week or two (thus the reason Donald and Pooh ended up staying in Orlando for awhile). Donald and Pooh decided to keep their reservations and join us for some of the stuff when they weren't at the hospital. This was the absolute lowest point of the trip. While none of us knew Pooh's mom very well, we felt absolutely horrible that this had happened to her and incredibly guilty for continuing on with our trip. Donald and Pooh assured us over and over again though and said there was nothing we could do. They themselves ended up spending quite a bit of time at the hospital that week, but since they were restricted visiting hours, they joined us for few things when they couldn't be at the hospital, though Pooh always felt incredibly guilty for enjoying herself at all. But I think she needed some time outside of the hospital and it did seem like at times she did enjoy herself...for instance when she rode the BMTRR.

After we headed home at the end of the trip, Donald and Pooh ended up staying in Florida for another month while Pooh's mom recovered in the hospital and then a rehab center for a couple of weeks. They were able to bring her home again in February.

Coming Up: What would the next day bring???
Day 2: Breakfast with Mickey

 

[miabellarose]

It seems like we have some lurking readers, so here's Day 2 for your enjoyment.

 

[amreli]

Day 2: Breakfast with Mickey

We woke up bright and early on Sunday morning because we had an ADR for Chef Mickey’s at 7:30 am (we were hoping to get to MK for part of the early EMH afterwards). It was a really early morning, especially after having been up so late worrying about Pooh’s mom and trying to figure out if we were staying or going. Once we knew she was stable and everything would be ok, we went to bed. Morning came too quickly… Too quickly. I had wondered if we should have cancelled Chef Mickey's because I don't think we went to bed until after 2AM. I wasn't sure what to expect this morning because even though Pooh and DF was going with us to Chef Mickey's, we were all tired, worried and tired.

We were up at 6 so that we could get everything packed up, loaded up by the door (the bag services people would be taking it to our new room while we were gone). Then Mia and I headed back down to the check-in desk once again to check-in yet again for our actual package. While there, Donald and Pooh showed up and got checked in as well. We ended up with adjoining first floor rooms in the Touchdown building just as we’d requested. We got all of our dining info, new KTTW cards and headed out with instructions to come pick up our $200 gift card later in the day because they weren’t available yet.

So now we were all on the bus to the MK and the driver was nice enough to drop us off at the Contemporary on the way.

We ended up there early, 30 minutes before our ADR. I don't think we got there that early...maybe 15 minutes early? They sat us immediately and we dug in. After hearing just so-so reviews of the breakfast there, I have to say we all LOVED it and it’s already on our list for the next trip. We had a blast watching the characters (Donald Duck and Goofy doing the Karate Kid kick!) and taking pictures. FIL kept calling Mickey by Minnie’s name so we got a good laugh out of that.

I wasn't sure how I would be with the characters. I'm shy and I really don't talk to people I don't know, so I was pretty anxious to see how I would like the character meals. But I had fun taking pictures with the different characters, although I don't think I said too much to them, other than the basic "hi".

It’s time to eat!

With Chef Mickey himself!

Group shot with Minnie:

DH with Goofy, his fave.

Mia with Pluto.

Loved Pluto’s dog tag!!

After breakfast, we hoped the monorail over to the MK for the opening of EMH. We were early, so we found a spot to sit while we waited for the opening show. Since today was the last day for Splash, I positioned myself nearer to the opening because I was the "official" FP getter. Everyone else found places to sit and watch the opening show. I was able to see bits and pieces of it from the side.

Us out front:

It’s time!

Once we were let in, Mia took off to get Splash FP’s, while we took our time walking up main street taking pictures.

With the carriage horse.

Love these guys!

Photopass:

Look! it’s Tink!!

I didn’t get a pic of it, but I loved the CM’s as we passed the castle greeting us for the morning with their Mickey hands on! I can't believe Amreli didn't take any pictures of them!!!

We were supposed to meet Mia at Dumbo, but since we took our time, the line was already long.

Well, I was supposed to get FPs for Splash, but the FP window didn't open until 10AM. I called Amreli to see what they wanted me to do but she wasn't answering her phone. So I called DB, who didn't answer. Then I called Pooh with the same results and then my DF finally answered. I was sooo mad at this time. I was out of breath from the "fast" walk to Splash, frustrated and NO ONE was answering their phones!!! I eventually ended up getting FPs for BTMRR.

We opted to skip Dumbo and instead headed to Pooh. I regret that we didn't ride Dumbo at that time because we didn't end up riding it at all. After Pooh, we hit Peter Pan, Snow White, It’s a Small World, and Philharmagic.

Mia taking a pic of us while I took a pic of her on Peter Pan:

Going 3-D.

We took a break to pull the sword out of the stone. DH was not thrilled I made him take a pic.

At some point around now, Mia ran back over to Splash (and yet again at some point later on) and got FP’s for us. She was seriously on top of the FP window and would take off to gather new FP’s as soon as the window was open.

Then we headed for some screams at the Haunted Mansion.

After the haunts, we took a few pics in Liberty Square, got shackled up, saw western Goofy, and then headed for Splash. DH was thrilled to be riding splash since he thought it would be closed, but Pooh was seriously freaked out. She was screaming before we even went down the drop. Since we had 2 FP’s, we went ahead and rode a second time right away.

After Splash, we convinced Pooh to go on BTMR. Of course we picked up more Splash FP’s first though. Big Thunder resulted in the funniest picture of the entire trip. After going down a drop, Mia turned around to snap this pic of Pooh and Donald – Pooh was literally screaming her head off. In the pic, she looks like she’s about to just die. Note the people behind her just laughing their heads off. Too freaking funny.

I love this pic as well. She looks relieved because she asked Donald if it was over, then we took off yet again.

DH and I on BTMR.

After BTMR, we decided it was time for some lunch. We headed into Pecos Bills where we had chicken salads (me & DH), taco salad (Donald), burger (Pooh), and hmm, I can’t remember what Mia had. We really liked everything. I think I had their bacon cheeseburger. It was good; no complaints.

After filling ourselves with lunch, we headed back over to Splash for one last ride. I had just as much fun listening to Pooh scream as I did the first time today. Around this time, we were really starting to get tired. We had been going non-stop for hours on little sleep the night before. Pooh and Donald still wanted to go to the hospital during the designated visiting hours and we kind of wanted to get a nap in. So, we called to see if our rooms were ready yet, but they weren’t.

So, we decided to take a quick ride on Pirates, then we walked around the Adventureland shops for a bit. It was getting hotter and more crowded by the minute though, so we grabbed some Dole Whip Floats and sat down and people watched for a bit. Amreli and I had been raving about the Dole Whips and they didn't even like them!!! DB ended up giving his to Amreli and DF and Pooh may have thrown the rest of theirs away.

This pic cracks us up because it looks like the bench is leaning with them on it, but it’s really not.

When we were done, Donald and Pooh left the park to head to the hospital, while we browsed the shops on Main Street, then head back to ASSports to our new room.

A quick photopass pic of Mia and her dad, Donald.

When we got back, I had to deal with the check-in desk yet again to get my $200 gift card. We finally got it, then set off to our new room to get organized and rest for a bit. We couldn’t rest long though because we had plans for the Osbourne Spectacle of Lights since tonight was the final night, plus we had an ADR at 50’s Prime Time.

When we got back to our room, DB turned on the TV and realized that one of the play-off games was on. He had forgotten that one of the games had started earlier. He then spent the rest of the time complaining that he was missing the playoffs, hadn't wanted to come to Disney in the 1st place, and the Amreli hadn't remembered to tell him the times for the playoffs. Amreli was supposed to have reminded him? This was one of many times my DB frustrated me to no end. Ah, family...I think DB ended up taking a nap.

When DH lays down to rest though, it’s sometimes impossible to get him up again. Would he sleep through the lights and our ADR?

Coming Up: Will we make it to HS or are we done for the day?
Day 2 – Everyone’s Grumpy at Disney

 

[mickeystoontown]

Signing on for more. I often say that trip reports and pictures are what help me pass the time until our next WDW vacation!

 

[amreli]

Signing on for more. I often say that trip reports and pictures are what help me pass the time until our next WDW vacation!

YAY! Our first reader!

Welcome mickeystoontown! I read so many TR's before our trip and I keep reading them since we're already planning two more!

Hope you enjoy!

 

[MEK]

Awesome trip report! So sorry about Pooh's mom. I'm glad she did make a recovery. Wow - what a terrible thing to have happen on your first night. Talk about stress!

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[miabellarose]

Awesome trip report! So sorry about Pooh's mom. I'm glad she did make a recovery. Wow - what a terrible thing to have happen on your first night. Talk about stress!

Looking forward to reading more.

Thank you for reading! Pooh's mother is doing much better.

 

[amreli]

Awesome trip report! So sorry about Pooh's mom. I'm glad she did make a recovery. Wow - what a terrible thing to have happen on your first night. Talk about stress!

Looking forward to reading more.

Thanks for reading!!

Pooh's mom is doing better, but yeah, it was definitely not a good situation.

Day 2, part 2 coming up.

 

[amreli]

Ok,so after DH’s 1 hour nap (or so), I dragged him out of bed again to get ready for our HS night. He was less than thrilled. Going to the lights was originally his idea though, so I reminded him of that each time he turned grumpy (which was a lot). A lot!!!

I called Donald and Pooh and found out they were almost back to the hotel, so we waited for them at the bus area and we all headed to Hollywood Studios. When we got there, it was packed. We came in January for the marathon, but had read over and over that the crowds were so light. Everything we read was wrong as the parks were so packed this entire trip. I was really looking forward to low crowds and "walk on" rides. That did not happen. All the parks in the afternoon and evenings were really crowded.

When we arrived, we saw that the tree was still up!

As we headed into the park, we were debating on what to do first. According to the tip board, there were no FP’s for Toy Story Mania (we had been hoping, but weren’t at all surprised). Line waits for everything were 30+ minutes. Mia and I suggested the Animation Academy, but no one other than Pooh wanted to do that. I suggested Tower of Terror, but Pooh was freaked out by that idea. I must admit, I was frustrated at this point because we had limited time before the lights and our ADR and I didn’t want to just waste our park time. We ended up heading toward the Great Movie Ride. Not my fave, but the rest of them couldn’t remember what it was like and wanted to ride it. I’m pretty sure Mia got mad at me at this point.

What I got frustrated with was the high level of crowds. Where was the low crowd levels? Then I felt like Amreli was pushing everyone to do Tower of Terror or Rockin' Roller but Pooh didn't want to do those. We were also limited in what we could do because DF could not stand for long periods of time, NO ONE else could come up with other suggestions, the show times did not work with our time constraints. So since the Great Movie Ride had a short wait time listed, I thought that would be a good option. Yeah, I don't think I talked to Amreli the rest of the night.

This was the start of a bad night. We were all so tired and grumpy from little or no sleep (in Donald and Pooh’s case) the night before. Honestly, if it hadn’t been the last night of the lights, I think we may have canceled the ADR and just gone to bed.

So, we get in line for the Great Movie Ride and it moves soooo slow. The supposed 20 minute wait easily turned into 40 minutes. No offense to anyone that likes this ride, but I was so frustrated with this line because we waited forever for what I remember as a crappy ride. And I remembered correctly. I think everyone agreed with me when it was over though. I had this ride confused with something else. I had suggested this because from what I had remembered I thought it was a fun ride, but this was not that ride. I did notice that my DF liked the ride sooo much that I caught him taking "naps" throughout the ride.

So after we disembarked from our movie making spectacular, we headed over to The Streets of America for the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. As we rounded the corner, I could hear everyone in our group oooh and ahhh. It was spectacular. I don’t think I put my camera down once the entire time. We didn’t really have much time there, but we were able to watch 3 songs of the dancing lights, experience the “snow” and walk the area a bit. The lights were really fun to watch. I miss the Christmas lights since I've moved down south. The Christmas lights without the snow just doesn't seem the same. But the "snow" made Osbourne lights very festive.

And finally, DH and I at the lights. The confused look on my face is due to the fact that FIL had just taken several blurry pictures of us and I was sure he was blocking the camera lens this time. My DF is supposed to wear glasses, but he doesn't.

I bet you didn’t know this:

Or this:

I didn’t want to leave, but we had an ADR calling us.

It was at this point that things went from bad to worse. Donald was tired, extremely grouchy, and had sore feet. Mia and I (or at least I’ll stress the I part) (yeah, I was still mad) were both still grumpy from the whole ride debacle. Donald started yelling at us to slow down because he said we were walking too fast. Ahhh, the joys of family. However, we were already running late for our ADR and had read that if we were more than 15 minutes late, they would take us off.

Mia ended up running ahead and getting us checked in, while everyone else slowly arrived. Pretty much at this point everyone was quiet and kept to themselves, which was perfect for a fun interactive restaurant!

Our waitress, “Janice” soon sat us and proceeded to tell us to keep our elbows off the table, napkins in our lap, etc. DH and Donald had no idea what 50’s Prime Time was like, so they were kind of shocked. Everyone had fun though and I think the combination of rest plus food really helped. We actually talked to each other on the way back to the hotel!

Bad picture, but at least we all managed some sort of a smile.


So anyway, we enjoyed our meal. I think we all had the Pot Roast other than Donald, who had the meat loaf, and everyone had either a shake or a malt to drink since it was considered a drink on the dining plan. DH and Donald tried the PB&J shakes (malt for Donald) and they were surprisingly good! For dessert, DH had Dad’s Brownie Sundae for dessert. That thing was HUGE. Luckily we brought our squishable Rubbermaid containers, so he ate a few bites and we took it back to the fridge in our room. Pooh had the bread pudding, but she wasn’t thrilled with it. Donald ordered the S’mores, but passed them on to me. They were soooo good, even though I was stuffed. Mia and I didn’t get dessert as this meal since it was OOP for us because we had an extra dinner that the guys were skipping the next Saturday to watch football. Seriously? Skipping a Disney meal for football??? But you have to understand, my DB does not travel from September, when the official football season starts, to the Superbowl. The only reason he came to Disney was because Amreli made him, and he could watch the games through his Slingbox. Amreli and I were sooo happy the Steelers had a bye week that week, otherwise, DB would have been horrible.

After we finished eating, we took our time leaving the park. It was so nice walking around just looking around at the holiday decorations and store windows with the park empty. We took a few pics of the hat.

Here’s Mia holding it up.

Some pretty decorations:

The tree lit up:

After our leisurely walk out, we headed to the bus. When we got back to the hotel, we stopped in the food court to buy our mugs. Full of pop, we headed to our room. At this point, DH and his dad had planned to watch the Vikings playoff game that DH had tivo’d at home. He has this thing called a slingbox that hooks to the tivo and allows him to watch shows on our tivo from his computer. Yes, he’s that addicted (or insane? ). Donald ended up falling asleep while watching the game (not a surprise because he falls asleep during everything). To this day he complains to Pooh that he missed his football game for Disney. Luckily we had 5 non-football days ahead of us and DH and Donald actually enjoyed themselves.

Coming Up:
Day 3: A Date with the Animals

 

[amreli]

Mia and I were up at the crack of dawn again today (around 7:15) and were out the door at 7:30. It was early EMH at Animal Kingdom and we wanted to make it to rope drop. DH decided to sleep in this day and Pooh and Donald headed to the hospital for morning visiting hours.

We arrived plenty early and had to stand in line outside the park turnstiles until they let us in to Discovery Island.

The tree was still up!

The show was cute, but we spent the whole time inching our way forward to get closer to the rope.

Now Mia has never been to AK and it’s one of DH and my’s favorite parks, so we kind of hyped it up to her. I was hoping it would live up to it. When we were planning out our schedule, I could have devoted just a morning for a day for AK. I'm not much into seeing animals penned up, like in zoos, but Amreli and DB kept telling me that it was different. I still wasn't convinced.

As soon as they let us in, we took off. We were on a mission to Asia to ride Everest.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t even do a fast walk since we had to stay behind the CM’s with the rope the whole time. That was really funny. I felt like I was back in grade school. Finally we arrived though, grabbed some FP’s, then hopped in line where we walked right on. I loved, loved, loved EE. Seriously smooth and so much fun. Everest was really, really fun. But that climb to the top was sooo scary...looking out from the cars and not seeing tracks but the ground? Very nerve-racking!!

After Everest, we hightailed it over to Africa for a ride on the Safari to see the animals soon after waking up. We paused along the way to admire the view of the tree:

And growl for the photopass guy. I couldn't help laughing, so I wasn't able to growl.

Our guide wasn’t all that great and it seemed like she kind of sped through the savannah. I felt like we were rushed too...but it was fun. I think seeing the other vehicles took something away from it. We had fun though and snapped tons of pics.

When we got off, we watched the gorilla’s for a bit, then planned to go to the conservation station to see what animal care/checkup/surgeries were going on today. We were informed by a CM though that it didn’t open until 9:30 and it was not even 9 yet.

With our African adventure over for the time being, we criss-crossed our way over to Dino-Land USA, stopping to get another FP for Everest. Once there, we hopped on Triceratops Spin. It’s an ok dino-dumbo. I liked it...since I had my own dino, I could control both controls and was able to go up and down and forward and backwards.

After our spin, we got on Primeval, which I had never ridden before and will never ride again. It was that stupid. I liked it okay, expect there were a lot of unexpected turns and jerks. And finally, we debated whether we should ride Dinosaur. I should mention this is one of DH’s favorite rides. The first time we rode was on our Disneymoon and we went three times in a row because he liked it so much. He had been looking forward to seeing Mia's reaction, though he didn’t know she had already read on the disboards about a dinosaur popping out and scaring you. We decided to ride though, so we hopped in line. It wasn’t nearly as good as I remembered, but still fun. It was nice though because we literally had no waits on anything.

When we got off, it was after 9:30, so we headed over to the train to ride over to the conservation station. The train ride was quick. It was neat to see the holding places for various animals behind the scenes. When we arrived, we were walking the path to the station and it was just jammed because of this one family who took the entire width of the path and walked soooooo slow. We started joking about how it was like rope drop where you had to walk behind the CM’s with the rope. They must have heard us though because they moved over and let us (and everyone behind us) through.

I’ll tell you at this point that we had been really looking forward to this as we had read in other TR’s where people have seen surgeries on gorilla’s and checkups on different animals. We figured we’d get to see something really cool. So anyway, we found the exam room and looked at the schedule and guess what we were going to get to see?!?!?!?!?

A pigeon!

No joke.

The CM said it was a “special” pigeon, but still, it was a pigeon!! A Nicobar (sp?) Pigeon!

It was scheduled to start in 5 minutes, but the doctor had been held up by an “emergency” at AKL. I think we ended up waiting 15 minutes, during which time we laughed at all the people who came up and had the same laughing about the pigeon that we did.

Finally, he arrived. Here is the pigeon getting it’s well-bird checkup.

After the exam, we got a quick pic with Jiminy Cricket.

Then we rode the train back and headed to Asia for lunch. We grabbed some food at the Yak & Yeti counter service area and sat down to relax our feet for a bit. We both had the crispy honey chicken and rice and mango pie for dessert. As we sat down though, I proceeded to knock my drink over and spill the entire thing. Luckily they refilled it for me. The crispy honey chicken was good...it needed a little more sauce...the mango pie was really good and sweet.

As we ate, we checked out the show time’s guide and decided to give the Finding Nemo musical a try. We ended up in the very back of the theater because we were late to lining up due to our lunch. While waiting, Mia decided to run to the bathroom and as soon as she got back, I headed out. Unfortunately, they locked the theater door on me and I had to run back to the line to get a CM to come let me in. We both loved the show. Considering I didn’t really know what to expect as I had never seen it, I was pleasantly surprised! I thought it was really, really good.

Towards the end of the show, I started smelling something though and realized my Burt’s Bees hand lotion had opened up and spilled all in my baggalini. This stuff isn’t the best smelling stuff (it’s sooo good though) and I could tell people around me were twitching their noses.

After Nemo, we headed back to Everest to use our FP. Rode again, this time with Mia daring me to leave my hands up the entire time. No problem.

Next, we got on Kali River Rapids. I’m not really a fan of getting wet on rides, but Mia really wanted to do this one, so we got on. I really love water rides...I was so happy Amreli would go on the ride with me.I was a wimp though and put on my poncho. Mia, on the other hand, got soaked!

After getting wet, we decided to head back to the hotel. We still had an Everest FP left, but we were tired and had plans for HS that evening. Since we needed to get changed and meet up with the others, we headed to the bus stop. I did stop in a few shops on the way out though. I really wanted the pooh shirt where he's looking at a tiger and says "Tiger is that you?". (Pooh bear is my favorite Disney character! ) I finally found a really cute one with Mia's help and we continued our way to the bus stop. But before we exited, we were stopped by a CM and asked if we would fill out a survey about Disney. We did...thinking we would maybe get some "pixie dust" for doing it, considering it took over 30minutes to do the survey...but we didn't. Oh well, maybe next time. I had totally forgotten about that! It was a survey about what you had eaten while in the park. We only did it because we thought we might get something, but we got nada. Oh well, onto the bus stop!

Coming Up:
Day 3: A Fantasmic Evening

 

[MEK]

Love your updates. Sorry you waited 40 minutes for the Great Movie Ride. I agree - that ride is boring. I loved it the first time I did, but now it is just a time filler. Certainly not worth a wait!

But, I think you made up for your bad night at HS by getting to do a lot the next day at the AK. Maybe the crowds were starting to thin out?

Anyway - I love the idea of collapsible tupperware and am seriously considering some for my next trip!

 

[amreli]

Love your updates. Sorry you waited 40 minutes for the Great Movie Ride. I agree - that ride is boring. I loved it the first time I did, but now it is just a time filler. Certainly not worth a wait!

But, I think you made up for your bad night at HS by getting to do a lot the next day at the AK. Maybe the crowds were starting to thin out?

Anyway - I love the idea of collapsible tupperware and am seriously considering some for my next trip!

We were hoping it was a sign that the crowds were thinning out. We were so wrong though! It was packed pretty much the entire week (or so it seemed to us at least).

The collapsible tupperware containers worked so well!! I'd definitely recommend them to everyone! We used them to take back desserts if we were too full to eat them, bring food back to others, pack snacks for later, etc. It was Mia's idea to get them and I'll bring them for all future trips too.

Are you planning any upcoming trips?

New update coming up!

 

[amreli]

After our busy morning, we headed back to the hotel and had only enough time to change and meet up with everyone at the food court. Donald and Pooh hadn’t eaten so they were having lunch and DH was chatting with them. Meeting up with Donald and Pooh in the food court became a regular activity as Donald was obsessed with the taco salads there.

We got to Hollywood Studios around 3pm and it was packed! I don’t know if it was because tonight was EMH or the fact that Fantasmic was only being shown twice a week and tonight was the first night. It could have been both. Whatever it was though, there were horrible waits on everything. We first check TSM, but the wait was over an hour and the FP’s were gone by noon. Instead, my dearest SIL, Mia, ran all the way to ToT and grabbed us all FP’s for that while we waited back in Pixar Place.

When she met back up with us, we checked out the animation class, but we didn’t have enough time before our ADR’s at Brown Derby at 3:45. We headed over to the Little Mermaid, but it was the same story. Instead, we just headed over to the Brown Derby and checked in early for our ADR’s.

While waiting, we watched a bit of Block Party Bash and took a pic with Sorcerer Mickey outside.

Brown Derby had been DH’s one restaurant request. We had been avoiding the signature restaurants because it would eat up 2 of our TS credits, but since DH really wanted it and Fantasmic was only being shown twice this week, we booked the Fantasmic package there.

We all ended up really liking it though! For starters, DH and I split a Cobb Salad, Mia and Donald split one as well, and Pooh had the crab cake. When you order the Cobb Salad, the waiter cuts and mixes all the ingredients in front of you at your table. He makes it a big production out of it and it was pretty neat to watch.For dinner, DH, Mia, and I all had the New York Strip, Pooh had the Salmon, and Donald had the pork tenderloin. For dessert, Mia had the famous grapefruit cake, Donald and I had some banana chocolate thing, and DH and Pooh both had the strawberry cheesecake. It was all delicious, especially the rolls! We love the rolls and luckily they gave us lots of them. I really enjoyed the grapefruit cake...it had the tartness of grapefruit but the sweetness of the cream cheese frosting balanced it out well.

Dinner took about 2 hours and we walked out around 5:30. We still had a bit of time before Fantasmic, but not really enough for any rides. We decided to see if there were any fast passes to Rockin Roller, so I ran ahead. When there weren't any fast passes, I called and since they were heading my way to wait for Fantasmic, I found a bench for us to use.Mia ran ahead and found a bench for Pooh and Donald because we planned to ride ToT and get some FP’s.

We decided we didn’t have enough time to ride ToT, so instead we tried to get FP’s for Rock ‘n Roller or ToT, but they were all gone by now. Instead we browsed a couple of stores and took some photopass pics in front of ToT. The photopass guy was a bit eccentric and kept putting us in some interesting poses. Here’s a few of the pics:

After that, we went ahead and headed into Fantasmic, despite having the reserved seating from the package. We had awhile to wait, but we chatted with the people around us and did Sudoku puzzles while DH played on his iPhone.

Before we knew it, the show started. DH and I have seen it once before in 2001 and I remember being slightly disappointed back then. In fact, he didn’t really want to go again, but he went since we did Brown Derby. We all loved the show. Well at least us girls. When the princesses went by on their boats, I started crying and looked from side to side and both Mia and Pooh were as well. So sweet and romantic. DH though it was better than he remembered. My favorite princess or Disney story is Belle from Beauty and the Beast. It used to be Cinderella when I was growing up, but in high school, I went to Los Angeles with my dad and we saw the Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast. Ever since then, that has been my absolute favorite and Belle has been my favorite princess. I used to know all the words to all the songs to the Broadway play version...

When it ended, Donald and Pooh decided not to stick around for EMH. They were tired from the hospital earlier and Pooh had gotten kind of emotional during the show because she was really sad that her mom was supposed to have been there for the show and she thought she would have really enjoyed it. Instead, they headed back to the hotel and we headed to ToT to use our FP.

Since it was now EMH and you had to show your KTTWC, people with FP were getting turned away. Mia, the brave soul that she is, asked if they minded if we took their FP. We ended up with enough FP for 3 rides. I ended up getting 7 of them from 2 different people. We kept 4 of them since we had 2 from Pooh and DF, so I gave the rest of them to a group of 3 women who were really appreciative.

After riding ToT twice in a row, we decided it was time for something else. Mia, our wonderful FP runner, ran off to TSM with our KTTWC’s to see if we could get FP, since it was reset for EMH. They were all gone though. While she did that, DH and I headed to Rock ‘n Roller where they still had FP. Unfortunately, we had no cards to get any with. We called Mia and had her meet us, but everything got confused and the FP ran out before we met back up. On my way to Toy Story, I didn't realize that the zippered compartment of my lanyard was open, and as I was fast walking outside of Brown Derby, I heard something fall. I looked down and realized that all of my money and ID had fallen out. I couldn't find my credit card and bank card until I backtracked a few yards and finally found them. I was soooo scared for those few seconds when I was looking for everything. After that fiasco, Amreli called and I thought she had said to still go to Toy Story to check for FPs, but I guess I had heard her wrong...so we ended up with nothing.

With no FP in hand for the big ticket rides, we headed over to Star Tours. After our ride through space, we watched Muppets 3D, then we just walked around the streets looking for the raining umbrella, which we never did find. We did come across these cute little holiday dogs though.

Since we were near Pixar Place, we decided to check on the wait one more time. On the way, we passed a giant coke bottle that sprayed water all over Mia, which she wasn’t expecting at all. TSM still had a super long wait, so we passed on. No such luck as the line was still long. It only said 30 minutes, but the line was way out of the entrance as the people from the second Fantasmic were piling in. We passed and instead went to the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

I didn’t think we would like this at all, but surprisingly, we all did! DH especially liked it, but I think that was because 1. he could sit down and 2. she had a bikini top on.

After Little Mermaid, we rode ToT one more time with our last FP. Take a look at that wait time that was posted!

We were exhausted at this point and just walked around the shops browsing for a bit. DH got some goofy candy with a snack credit and Mia became a princess for a bit.

On the way out, we got some photopass pics.

Then we headed out to the buses. This was a miserable experience this night. The line was soooo long. All of the All Star resorts were sharing a bus line and people kept cutting and going around because they thought the end of the line was a different resort line. Mia kept them in their place though. It took quite awhile of waiting, but soon we were on the bus. After filling up our mugs one more time, we all headed off to dream land.

Coming Up:
Day 4: Caught in a Blizzard... on the Beach!

 

[amreli]

Whew! We finally made it to page 2! I thought that first page was going to turn into a novel.

 

[MEK]

I love your latest update. I had a few minutes to kill before getting ready for work this morning and I was glad to find it waiting for me. Love the pics. Love the double commentary. Hate the crowd descriptions ot HS. 120 minutes for ToT. Lucky for you that you got extra FP's.

You had an awesome first full day, despite the crowds. I do hope you make to RnR by the end of the trip!

I am curious how the Fantasmic dinner pckg works now. Is it true you enter in the same entrance as the standby line?

 

[simbalion74]

I enjoy your trip report we were there at the same time

 

[amreli]

I love your latest update. I had a few minutes to kill before getting ready for work this morning and I was glad to find it waiting for me. Love the pics. Love the double commentary. Hate the crowd descriptions ot HS. 120 minutes for ToT. Lucky for you that you got extra FP's.

You had an awesome first full day, despite the crowds. I do hope you make to RnR by the end of the trip!

I am curious how the Fantasmic dinner pckg works now. Is it true you enter in the same entrance as the standby line?

Thanks for stopping by again!!

We had the worst luck at HS! We were there two days in a row and couldn't do toy story or RnR either time! It was so frustrating, especially since we kept reading such great things about TSM here on the boards.

We originally weren't going to do the fantasmic package, but then they switched fantasmic to just 2 nights a week, so we figured we'd do it. We ended up heading to the show quite a bit ahead of time anyway though and could have had great seats even without the package. Yeah, we did enter in the same place as the regular standby line. They just had a CM there that walked us to the reserved section. That was a little weird because the last time we went (all the way back in 2001) I know we entered through the 'secret' entrance. It all worked out, but I would not have wanted to stand in a long standby line with the reserved seats.