TR - A Gregarious Ghostly Gallivant - Final Thoughts Finally Posted!

[mnmrmustard]

Back to HM! Loved the pet cemetary

Bean gave me a grin while Kris ...well, Kris acted like Kris

Kyra was busy reading all of the tombstones

The cat one was cute

I've seen pumpkin patches, but the jack-o-lantern patch was much cooler

The wreaths were great

We made it inside ahead of the 45 minute wait, so that was cool. The lobby was neat and the stretching room was VERY COOL. Unfortunately none of my pics from there turned out :-[ From there we walked past the transitioning pictures:

We jumped on our cars next to a cool pile of presents with good ole Oogie Boogie lighting our way

It wasn't easy to capture things inside the ride, but the jack-o-lantern mountain came out pretty cool

And ole Ooogie Boogie finished the show

Outside HM the Columbia had pulled into its dock and they were taking down the flag.

Caught a group canoeing around the river

And then it was time for a crowd favorite - PoTC!!!

More on it and our further adventures tomorrow!

 

[mnmrmustard]

I love the holiday overlay for the Haunted Mansion. Your pictures are wonderful. You guys managed to get a lot done especially not feeling well.

Yes, it was very cool - our first time experiencing it! We did what we could on that first day, gotta get as much Dis as you can

 

[Leger13]

Love the pictures from the train ride and HM. Both are much cooler than WDW. The canoeing ppl make me think of Salute Your Shorts show. Remember that?

As always, great pictures, Mike! Can't wait for more

 

[lovebuzzandwoody]

Wow, HM looks awesome!

Love the jack o lantern patch!

How were the crowds? It looks really busy!

Great pics as usual Mike!

 

[Husker Mickey]

Hey Mr. Mustard - waiting with baited breath to see if I make your trip report! I see you are still on day 1. Love the pics!!! Great work! I'll keep checking your report.

 

[Trentmom]

Haunted Mansion looks awesome

I so need to see that..so cool

 

[mnmrmustard]

Love the pictures from the train ride and HM. Both are much cooler than WDW. The canoeing ppl make me think of Salute Your Shorts show. Remember that?

As always, great pictures, Mike! Can't wait for more

I was happy we got to ride the train before they shut it down for maintenance. And HM was very cool, we went through it a total of 3 times

Ah yes, Salute Your Shorts - old Nickelodeon faire if I remember correctly Might have to wait for the weekend for more, parents meeting tonight for the band boosters and a busy Friday lined up.

Wow, HM looks awesome!

Love the jack o lantern patch!

How were the crowds? It looks really busy!

Great pics as usual Mike!

HM theming was amazing - so many little details both inside and out. The crowds were pretty bad on Monday and Friday, but the middle of the the week was good. Weather was a factor there, we had lots of clouds and some minor rain in the middle of the week.

Hey Mr. Mustard - waiting with baited breath to see if I make your trip report! I see you are still on day 1. Love the pics!!! Great work! I'll keep checking your report.

Hiya! Oh yes, I have our little meet in the Peter Pan ride in my notes and am looking forward to sharing it. Just gotta let me catch up with both story and picture editing (I have a BUNCH of pictures to sift through). Wish I had thought to take a pic of you guys Ahhhh, hindsight

 

[mnmrmustard]

Haunted Mansion looks awesome

I so need to see that..so cool

Yes, I highly recommend doing it and the SM Ghost Galaxy at least once.

 

[Trentmom]

Yes, I highly recommend doing it and the SM Ghost Galaxy at least once.

What is SM Ghost Galaxy?

DO they decorate your Space mountain for halloween?

 

[DizNee Luver]

I have really got to get myself to Disneyland during the Halloween season.....absolutely loved seeing the HM pics.......I can see why this is so popular!!!

Great report so far!!!!

 

[JustAKid]

Hope you don't mind my asking....why do you call your daughter "Bean"?

 

[mnmrmustard]

What is SM Ghost Galaxy?

DO they decorate your Space mountain for halloween?

Oh yes, first year ever - the ride has a ghostly soundtrack and you ride past ghostly figures and other scary stuff as you zoom around in the dark. It was very cool

I have really got to get myself to Disneyland during the Halloween season.....absolutely loved seeing the HM pics.......I can see why this is so popular!!!

Great report so far!!!!

It was our first time and I know we'll be back, just so much to see and do.

Hope you don't mind my asking....why do you call your daughter "Bean"?

Oh, no problem - it is a common question. Her name is Gillian and as a baby we started calling her Gillibean (like jellybean). Over time that just naturally shortened to Bean

 

[mnmrmustard]

Well after the long wait for HM we were suprised that the wait for PoTC was only 10 minutes - score! As we were strolling in I caught a pic of the Dream Suite. Man, I'd love to be able to stay there some time

I grabbed a shot of the rededication plaque

And then we headed up the walk and I snapped a pic of the bridge leading into Tarzan's Treehouse

We wound past the Dream Suite elevator entrance and back towards the entrance and Roxy thought she saw someone "famous" but wasn't sure

We wound back and sure enough, it was a Food Network celeb, Reva and her hubby Mike from Merci Beaucoup Cakes on the Amazing Wedding Cakes show. Roxy was jazzed and shook their hands. We kept going and she was feeling bad that they didn't get a pic with them. I said it was fine to stop and wait for them, so we pulled over just inside the entrance and "pounced" when they came by:

They were very good sports about it and even gave the girls "I Met Reva" buttons - lol They got on a different boat and we went our separate ways (or so we thought) ;-]

Pirates was fun as usual and I always enjoy DL's version more because of the two drops it makes at the beginning.

After we finished there we strolled through some of the gift shops and Roxy ran into Reva again. After that it was bathroom break time and Roxy ran into Reva one more time in there - lol. She was really feeling self-conscious at this point and thought that Reva may think she was stalking her ;-]

We turned back into Adventureland and saw that the Indiana Jones stand-by was almost an hour. Roxy picked up FPs for later in the evening and we hopped on the Jungle Cruise after only a 10 minute wait. Standard fun stuff on the cruise but sorry, no pics. By this time of the evening I was really starting to feel sick and was just exhausted so I mostly forgot I even had the camera :-[

After the Jungle Cruise the kids walked through Tarzan's Treehouse. I wanted to but was just too tired and was ready to have an encounter with a Dole Whip to soothe my throat. By the time the kids came down you could tell that the long day was getting to them too - lots of bickering between them.

We made a beeline to the Dole Whip stand and got some other food for the kids at the stand next to the Jungle Cruise. Kris was impatient and wanted to go do rides by himself and I said no, he needed to stay with us. Not two minutes later Roxy walked up from a food stand and he asked her if he could go ride IJ on stand-by while we did the Tiki Room. It ticked me off but I was too tired to say anything, so Roxy gave the go-ahead (she didn't know I had already said "no").

While waiting for the Tiki Room to start Roxy asked what was wrong and I filled her in, she was very unhappy that Kris had played her and tried to call Kris. He was already inside IJ and had no cell reception so she ended up leaving to go find him while I took the girls into the Tiki Room. I slumped in a back corner and managed to capture a couple of shots:

I tried calling Roxy when it was over, but she was inside IJ by that time so I just got voicemail. I let the girls browse the shops across from the exit of the Tiki Room and they bought a couple of pins.

After we were finished in there the kids made a pit stop and Roxy and Kris showed back up. It turned out that IJ had broken down so Kris had just been stuck in line. Roxy talked to him about the whole scenario and he apologized for asking her after me saying "no" and we called it good. While Roxy and him were talking I took a few shots of the entrance to Adventureland. The slow shudder makes some of the guests look like ghosts

We gathered ourselves together and headed for the Matterhorn. The wait was 20 minutes but it seemed to go faster. Here's a shot of the riders coming in to unload:

We all rode on the right side and they wanted to jump back on and do the left side. I was too wiped out so I wandered around a bit taking pics while they rode. Caught the teacups at night

And the Matterhorn:

IaSW

And a couple of shots of one of the Nemo subs entering the waterfall

And looking across the lagoon

I met back up with the fam - they had a blast doing the left side and said it was more fun. We decided we were done for the night and headed for the monorail station. As we were walking I caught a shot of the pipeline that commemorates the opening of the monorail in 1959

Up the walkway we went and while we waited I took a shot of Tomorrowland:

Then came our monorail

We had good luck and managed to get the front car. I took a couple of shots of the fam as we rode.

We got up to the room just before the fireworks. I took a shot of DTD and the park beyond

I took a BUNCH of shots of the fireworks, but I was so sick and shaky only a couple turned out

We realized that we hadn't eaten since lunch at Rainforest, so we ordered in room service and grabbed showers and hit the sack. I was feeling pretty miserable by then and Roxy gave me some cold meds and a tylenol PM. We were all out pretty quickly.

That's it for day 1 - 4 more days of fun to go!!!

 

[lovebuzzandwoody]

Aw, I'm sorry you weren't feeling well. That is no fun!

Did you notice you caught a hidden mickey in that last firework shot?

 

[Leger13]

Great pictures as always, Mike! I absolutely love the shot of the tea cups!! That's awesome that y'all saw someone famous (even though I have no idea who they are ). I can see the excitement in Roxy's face in the picture.

That stinks that Kris played you and Roxy against each other. Glad you guys got it worked out though. That would have really made me angry too!

And so sorry you were so sick on your first day at the parks. What a major bummer!! That happened to me on our 2007 trip. It's really no fun being sick on vacation. Especially a really busy one like Disney.

 

[DizNee Luver]

More great pics!!

So sorry about you not feeling good.....after all that planning & anticipation...to not be feeling your best would have been very hard.... I'm hoping to hear that you were better for the rest of the trip (fingers crossed).

You gotta love that every kid knows how to play one parent against the other...... that's just normal....then add in the excitement of being in Disneyland....can't fault the kid for trying glad it all worked out!

 

[mnmrmustard]

Aw, I'm sorry you weren't feeling well. That is no fun!

Did you notice you caught a hidden mickey in that last firework shot?

It wasn't much fun No, I hadn't noticed that - how very cool. Great eye

Great pictures as always, Mike! I absolutely love the shot of the tea cups!! That's awesome that y'all saw someone famous (even though I have no idea who they are ). I can see the excitement in Roxy's face in the picture.

That stinks that Kris played you and Roxy against each other. Glad you guys got it worked out though. That would have really made me angry too!

And so sorry you were so sick on your first day at the parks. What a major bummer!! That happened to me on our 2007 trip. It's really no fun being sick on vacation. Especially a really busy one like Disney.

Thank you, I was very happy with the tea cups shot too. Yeah, I had no idea who they were either and I've watched the show with Roxy before Yes, Roxy was very jazzed

Yeah, kids will be kids and he was better the rest of the trip. Oh yes, I remember your TR and how miserable you were. I felt like the walking dead by the end of the day. I didn't know how I was going to function the next day.

More great pics!!

So sorry about you not feeling good.....after all that planning & anticipation...to not be feeling your best would have been very hard.... I'm hoping to hear that you were better for the rest of the trip (fingers crossed).

You gotta love that every kid knows how to play one parent against the other...... that's just normal....then add in the excitement of being in Disneyland....can't fault the kid for trying glad it all worked out!

Thank you Yes, and being the trip planner I felt responsible for everyone having a good time. And that is hard to do when you're under the weather. And you'll find out if I felt better as soon as I get Day 2's notes and pics together - maybe this evening

Yup, he even tried to tell me that he didn't realize he was doing it. I just looked at him and he changed his tune and apologized properly for it. Gotta push those boundaries - lol

 

[kaoden39]

Wow you and Roxy are troopers. I just love teenagers don't you? I am glad that you and Roxy were able to convey to Kris that divide and conquer didn't work. I missed the hidden Mickey in the fireworks.

 

[Trentmom]

Oh yes, first year ever - the ride has a ghostly soundtrack and you ride past ghostly figures and other scary stuff as you zoom around in the dark. It was very cool



It was our first time and I know we'll be back, just so much to see and do.



Oh, no problem - it is a common question. Her name is Gillian and as a baby we started calling her Gillibean (like jellybean). Over time that just naturally shortened to Bean

Oh how cool. THat sounds so neat

 

[Trentmom]

What a bummer you were so sick your first day

Hope you were feeling better by next day

Glad you got things straightened out with Kris

Love all your pics as usual.....absolutely love the submarine shot. I miss our 20,000 Leagues under the sea