1st Trip (of many!) as Mr. & Mrs.--the TR-- UPDATE 9/9: Life Update--We're Moving!!

[stacikristine]

I'll remind you!
One time, I seriously knew this person who set alarms on both their normal alarm clock AND cell phone and had to set it about a half hour before they got up because they hit snooze so many times on both. It was like an alarm symphony!!

Aw I didn't know your birthday was then either!! The 9th was actually my due date!! April birthdays are really the best!!

Oh and I've read threads about it...people who have seen celebs in line and they are able to go to the front and ride however many times in a row they wanted. Someone commented on one once that anyone can buy that privilege, its just really expensive and usually only celebs have that kind of money to do that! So I'd actually be paying Disney and not the people in front of me in line!! And, of course, if I had that much money to spend, I'd have enough to stay in Disney for a rather long time and would also have a day for shows. Actually, I'd probably split them a little better between the days...that probably would get boring!! But I would ride them A LOT!!

Oh, wow. I'm glad I don't have to have all of that to wake up!! I love having an April bday because it's usually really good weather and you can get new clothes for summer... It's just great! Really?! That is so crazy that those people can just pay to be in the front! I'd be mad if I was there at the same time as them. I'd be thinking, "I know you're super famous and all that, but you need to wait in line like the rest of us!" But I wouldn't say it... I know--you could just live in Disney for a month out of each year!

What great updates Staci!!!! You guys had so much fun!!!! YOu know me and my love of DHS so I was so happy you guys had such a great day in that park!!!! YAY!!!

Thanks, Jen! It was SOOO great! I can't wait to write more about our day! It was fantastic.

 

[BippityBoo]

Hey girl!! Just wondering how you downloaded the songs onto an alarm clock? I am in the dark ages about some things so...fill me in Is it a special alarm clock you have to purchase? Anxiously awaiting your new post

 

[princess_momma]

Oh, wow. I'm glad I don't have to have all of that to wake up!! I love having an April bday because it's usually really good weather and you can get new clothes for summer... It's just great! Really?! That is so crazy that those people can just pay to be in the front! I'd be mad if I was there at the same time as them. I'd be thinking, "I know you're super famous and all that, but you need to wait in line like the rest of us!" But I wouldn't say it... I know--you could just live in Disney for a month out of each year!

April birthdays are great. All I request is that its done snowing by then. In Colorado, you never know. Last year, it didn't snow on my birthday (thank goodness!) but it did snow after the whole rest of April and I was not happy!!

I would be pretty mad at a celebrity too!! (Especially because if I liked them, I would have to get all the way out of line to go stalk them kidding!! Well, kinda! ) But there have been threads about it!! I would love to live in Disney. I wonder if I was rich enough, if they would really stick to the whole "no body can pay to book" the room in Cinderella's Castle. (Since really, its only Cinderella's Castle in title...its really my castle!! )

 

[stacikristine]

Hey girl!! Just wondering how you downloaded the songs onto an alarm clock? I am in the dark ages about some things so...fill me in Is it a special alarm clock you have to purchase? Anxiously awaiting your new post

We actually have an iHome alarm clock/player at home. We just put our iPods on there, and it wakes us up to whatever song we choose. We do the same thing every morning. It's MUCH better than waking up to "Baaaahh! Baaaahh! Baaaahh! Baaaahh!" They actually had an iHome in our Studio. I don't know if that's standard for DVC or not, but we loved having it!

April birthdays are great. All I request is that its done snowing by then. In Colorado, you never know. Last year, it didn't snow on my birthday (thank goodness!) but it did snow after the whole rest of April and I was not happy!!

I would be pretty mad at a celebrity too!! (Especially because if I liked them, I would have to get all the way out of line to go stalk them kidding!! Well, kinda! ) But there have been threads about it!! I would love to live in Disney. I wonder if I was rich enough, if they would really stick to the whole "no body can pay to book" the room in Cinderella's Castle. (Since really, its only Cinderella's Castle in title...its really my castle!! )

Oh gosh. I would NOT like April so much if it was still cold here! We can almost always wear short-sleeved shirts and I've even worn sleeveless dresses during Easter before. It's pretty warm by April here. Haha--You're too funny. I would have a hard time "letting" them cut. I don't know...it sounds like they're pretty big sticklers for that rule! But since it is yours...

 

[stacikristine]

When I last left you, we had just finished riding the greatest interactive attraction ever: Toy Story Mania!! We stopped to take some photopass pictures, and we were on our way to Sunset Blvd.





We were on our way to a first for me—



















Tower of Terror!!!!!

We snapped some Photopass Pics

And then headed to the ride. The standby wait was 20 minutes, but we didn’t care.

If you remember from my TR, I’d always been to Disney with little kids. And no one would ever go on ToT with me. So I was finally going to be able to ride!

I love this queue line. All of the details are just fantastic!

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

I love this ride!!!!! The theme is incredible, and I love how it’s not just a “thriller”—it’s a whole show! Ours dropped before ever going up (which we weren’t expecting, but LOEVD). SUCH a great ride! It's now my favorite Disney "thrill ride"!


Oh, and as you can see, we were in the front-center!

It ended up being about a total of 35 minutes for the waiting/riding, and by the time we left, it was 10:00. We were able to get FPs at 10:05, so we headed over to Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster to wait. Oh—and we saw the guy that was next to us at rope drop doing the same thing. Great minds…

Our return time was 10:45-11:45.






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[stacikristine]

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With Fastpasses in hand, we decided to stop and take a few more photopass pics. We’d seen some girls take one with “something” on a bench, so we asked if we could do the same. She took some with ours first.

Next, she told us that Mickey would be sitting on the bench with us! Woo-Hoo!



Well….this is what we got on our photopass CD:

Mickey?

She must have forgotten to program it in. So we just added our own Mouse:

Next on our list: Star Tours (oh—and we followed our “plan” very well today!)


This guy is awesome! I love how huge he is.

Before long, we were ready to take a trip into a galaxy far, far away.

The wait time said 5 minutes, but it really ended up being around 15-20. There must have been a big rush that came right before us. Oh well. We took some pics during our wait (sorry they didn’t turn out well…)

I think I already mentioned this, but my family (well, my dad, little brother, and I—my mom hates it) loves Star Wars! We used to watch the original trilogy a TON. I wanted an Ewok as a pet, and I thought Princess Leigha was gorgeous. I knew that I had ridden this before (at least I think I did) but I really didn’t remember it.


It ended up being a cute ride, but it left me a little queasy. I also think it’s about time for an update—I hear there will be, is that right? It’s not anything either of us feel we have to do next time, but we’re glad we rode it this time.



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[stacikristine]

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After this, we headed over to Muppet Vision 3D! I know some people think this show is outdated, but I’ve always LOVED it. I think it’s so cute.

I don’t know what these faces are supposed to be, but we made them!

During the pre-show, Michael made some comment about Miss Piggy being a brat, and I told him that I loved Miss Piggy growing up. His reply? “You Would!” My reply? “I don’t care if you think I AM like Miss Piggy. I still like her!”

During the show, every time Miss Piggy was a brat, Michael would poke me. That boy…

The show was great, as always.



After we watched our Muppet Friends (AH! I just remembered—my little brother used to have Muppet sheets! We thought they were SO cool! Anyway…) we decided to take a quick stroll through the Streets of America.

It was getting hot, and as you can see in these next pppics (my new abbreviation, fyi), it was time for the hair to go up!

It was around 11:20 (I think) and we decided to go back towards Sunset Blvd to eat at

Starring Rolls Café! When we went in, we were a little surprised at how tiny the café was (there’s no inside seating, and it looks like a little locally owned café), but the food looked excellent! On the dining plan, we could get a sandwich (I think they had about 4 choices) or salad (and possibly other main items) and a bag of chips (or piece of fruit), a drink, and a dessert. The desserts all looked HEAVENLY! It was such a tough decision.

We ended up choosing:

Me—Black forest ham sandwich, chips, water, and fruit tart

Michael—Black forest ham sandwich, chips, tea, and a HUGE cupcake.

He wanted to take a picture of the inside (and show how big it was in comparison to his fork)

The food was yummy! There was some kind of dressing on the sandwich that I didn’t care for, so I only ate the top bread and the meat. But even then, I was beyond stuffed. Michael couldn’t even finish his sandwich! It was a perfect meal for a hot day.




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[stacikristine]

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We sat and relaxed for a while, and then we decided to head on over to Beauty and the Beast. (I took my fruit tart with me since I was too full to finish it right then. It was very good, by the way!) B&tB was starting at 12:45, and it was only 11:55, but we decided that we’d just sit it out. We were the first people waiting (obviously—it was super early), and we visited with the CMs, and then sat on the little ledge at the entrance.

I asked one of the CMs where the best seating was, and she laughed and said “VIP seating”. I asked where the second best seating was, and she told me it was behind the VIP seating—front, middle.


At 12:15, they removed the rope and opened the theater. We were the first inside!!! I was so excited because Beauty & the Beast is my favorite Disney movie, and I’ve absolutely loved this show every other time I’ve seen it. But we've always been pretty far back. Not this time!

We got on the third row (right behind VIP seating) in the dead-center. Here’s a pic of me to show how close we were:

Since we were SO close, I took a ton of pictures. If you aren’t interested, feel free to skip them, but I know that some people (a-hem princess¬_momma a-hem) love B&tB as much as I do, so I’m going to go ahead and share.

This Belle was AMAZING. Her voice was gorgeous, and she looked the part, and she just did a fabulous job.

Love this one

You can tell they just have a blast during this song!

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[stacikristine]

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And this Gaston was incredible as well! He did an amazing job!

I love how it looks like the castle is really behind him

Did you all know his name is Prince Adam? I had no clue until princess¬_momma told me the other day!

Love the pretty pink dresses!

Just look at that dress!!!

Woo-Hoo! They did a great job!!! It was a wonderful, wonderful show. We loved every minute of it!

I love how they pick a little girl from the audience to give a rose to. So sweet!

Sorry if you were completely bored during that. I could look at those pics forever. I promise they won’t be quite so girly from here on out.



B&tB was finished at 1:00, and we were just in time to walk over to the Indiana Jones area. Indy was starting at 2:00, and we wanted to be sure and get good seats for it as well. (It was time for some testosterone after all that girliness!)


We saw the end of these guys’ show on our way

We were first in line on our side (we went to the left) because everyone kept going to the right. While we were in line, we saw some familiar faces being ushered into the center section. It was the family from the airport/resort! Their little girl had a certificate of some kind, and they were going to be able to enter early.


At 1:30 they let us into the seating area, and we chose to be on the 6th row on the Right-Middle-Center (make sense?). They were really good seats! This will give you a little more of an idea of where we were. This was in front of us:

Here’s Michael showing off our view (I’m thinking that is a manly pose…)

We were both pretty hot, and in “need” of a tasty treat, so Michael went to get us some popsicles. YUM. I love these things! (mine was the strawberry)

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[stacikristine]

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Before the show started, our “friends’” kids from the airport/resort were introduced and opened the show. We found out they’re from Louisiana. Woo-hoo. I have some really great friends from there! After that, the CM started choosing people from the audience to be a part of the show. The first group had to do something having to do with poses. And then she started picking the second group.


And Michael was picked!!

He had to laugh like a villain. They played an evil laugh from the speakers, which caused him to really laugh!

The “extras” went up to change clothes and sign their lives away, and the actual show started.

Gosh, there’s a lot of talent in this show! I admire them—I could never do what they do! Here’s Indy himself:

The extras came back out and entertained us while they changed the set

This is my camera all the way zoomed out. See—we were pretty close.

These guys (and dolls) were so cool to watch!

Aaahh! Save us, Indy!

What a great show! I love how action-packed it is. And it was fun that Michael was picked to be an extra. Too bad all he got was a glass of water!




After watching Indy save whatever it was he was saving, we decided to head on over to the Backlot Tour. Michael went on this when he was little (and it was really different), but my family had never taken the time to go on it (unless they did when I was two, in which case I obviously don’t remember). Michael really enjoyed it, and I was anxious to see what it was all about.


I don’t remember what it said the wait time would be, but we ended up waiting about 15 minutes in line before we started the tour. We didn’t mind at all, though because it was full of interesting stuff and the movie was good too.

Before long, we were allowed in here:

I knew what was coming to her…and I cringed when it happened! I’d hate this!

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[stacikristine]

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We walked quickly through the “warehouse” (we were at the end of our row in the water part)

And boarded our tour vehicle. Off we go!

I LOVED this place. I could stay in this area for a very long time. How fun would that job be?!

This part was really neat! Look at all that water!

I need to try to buy this movie—I loved “Flight of the Navigator”! Does anyone else remember that? I think my parents have it on a recorded VHS.

I really enjoyed the riding tour, but Michael was a little disappointed that it wasn’t “as cool” as it used to be. We both liked it a lot though! We also liked walking around and viewing the different displays at the end.


“Luke, I am Your Father”

Another look alike pose!

When we’d finished in the Backlot, we decided it was time to try our skills at Toy Story Mania again! We had our FPs from earlier (I’m SO glad you can use them late…), so we headed that way.

Woo-Hoo! This is SOOOOOOO much fun! Since I had WAY too high and accuracy score last time, I decided it was time to spaz out a little and just shoot as much as I could.

It paid off!

We both had higher scores, and my accuracy went down (but I still beat Michael!)


Can you tell we LOVE this ride?!

Oh, and by the way, it was 30 minutes from start to finish in the FP line. SO worth it!




After that, we did a “first timer” for both of us!


What a great morning/afternoon!!!




Up Next:
First time experience
Dinner and a show
Our most-visited attraction—You’ll never guess!

 

[princess_momma]

WOW!! What great updates!!!!

Do you have any idea how excited I am that ToT is your favorite thrill ride too?!?! That just made my day!! I love it. The theming is so great!!


Plus, I love the honorable mention!! B&tB pics are so great!! I really love Gaston...not really his character, he IS a jerk, but he has some of the greatest songs!! They are so fun to sing!! (Okay, the whole soundtrack is really!!)

I cannot believe how much meat was on your sandwich from Starring Rolls! I don't know how you guys were able to eat that!! Looks so good though!!

Thats so awesome that Michael was picked for the show!! I love the costume!

 

[princess_momma]

Oh and I forgot to add that I'm glad being Spastic Staci paid off! I'll have to take a lesson from you next time so I can score higher!! YAY!!

 

[stacikristine]

WOW!! What great updates!!!!

Do you have any idea how excited I am that ToT is your favorite thrill ride too?!?! That just made my day!! I love it. The theming is so great!!


Plus, I love the honorable mention!! B&tB pics are so great!! I really love Gaston...not really his character, he IS a jerk, but he has some of the greatest songs!! They are so fun to sing!! (Okay, the whole soundtrack is really!!)

I cannot believe how much meat was on your sandwich from Starring Rolls! I don't know how you guys were able to eat that!! Looks so good though!!

Thats so awesome that Michael was picked for the show!! I love the costume!

Thanks! I had some time on my hands... I knew you'd be excited!! I just LOVE that ride! It's so unique. Thanks! It was so awesome to be so close. I passed on your Prince Adam info! I agree--he'd be such a fun character to play. I think that close-up of him during "Kill the Beast" just summarizes his whole character! Oh gosh, we didn't eat all of that! You'd have to roll us out! I ate about half, and Michael ate a little more than that. We could have split one, but we had enough CS credits that we didn't need to. Yeah, he was really excited! Do you see how his ears were sticking out? He had to put the head thing on top of his ears so he could hear what they were saying. I told him he looked funny Yep! Spazzing worked!

 

[jenny105]

Wow, that was quite an update!!

How great is ToT? That is one of my favorite rides of all time.

Bummer that she left Mickey out of your picture! But you managed to get him in there anyway.

I love the B&tB show! We saw it on a trip a couple years ago and I was really impressed. Am I the only one who thinks the prince looked better as Beast in the movie than as a human? I never knew his name was Adam! How does Kimmy know these things?

So cool that Michael got picked for the Indy show! He looks like he was having a blast.

I'm not a big fan of the Backlot Tour anymore. I hold a grudge against them because they did away with the Golden Girls house. Grrr.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Scott MC]

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Heh, the date on these Fast Passes is my birthday!
I was at work....you were on Toy Story....
Do you feel guilty now?
Do ya?

 

[praisehisname]

Wow, you've been busy! Great updates! Is RNRC the first-time experience?

 

[MAJ RN]

I am really enjoying your trip report!! What a great way to spend a honeymoon. Can't wait to read more of your report!!


Melissa

 

[khertz]

Yay for Louisiana people!! Unfortunately, it wasn't me & DH though.

How cool that he was picked to be in the Indy show! I'm always so scared of being picked...I have major performance anxiety! I don't even like to let DH volunteer because I'm afraid they'll pick me for being next to him!

Your Beauty & the Beast shots are great. I love that movie too! The songs are my favorite of all Disney movies after The Little Mermaid.

Looks like a fun DHS day!

 

[Bridora]

I love the "antique"shot of the 2 of you in front of the ToT! Was that a PhotoPass shot or your own camera?

In the 2nd shot you posted of you in front of ToT--that plant in the background gives you a "Statue of Liberty" crown!

Also loved the antique ToT shot--looking up-I looooove it!

How fun that Michael got picked for the Indy show! When we went a couple years back my DH got picked in the Backlot Tour--to be the one who gets all the water! That was fun--

I loved Flight of the Navigator, too!

What a great, long update! I enjoyed it!