This elevator leads directly to THE GIFT SHOP! A Dec. 2011 TR from BWI - FINAL 8-27

[kwitcherkicken99]

It's time to get back to the trip so I can reflect on the good stuff in my life, so here we go!

I actually just finished typing this up in Word so hopefully I'll get this TR completed in about two more weeks. Just after that, the 4-H fairs will be in full swing and I'll be no where to be found!

On with the show...

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We hopped the on to EP bus and were on our way. Luckily no surprises on this bus. We headed straight for The Land pavilion and our reservation at Garden Grill. I had never eaten there and was pleasantly surprised at the food. I felt guilty though (and E will attest to this) that we had THREE different meal settings come out. One sans black pepper, one sans gluten, and one normal. We all felt bad about wasting food.

The character interaction was great. Pluto and Chip (or was it Dale) came around several times. Pluto was smitten with MB because she had decided to dedicate her newly found pin trading career to Pluto pins! Pluto was very playful. This is another place I would definitely return!

After dinner we took a nighttime spin on LWTL (again) – it’s STILL cool after dark!

And then a spin on Soarin’. I know E isn’t a huge fan, but I just can’t get enough of the ride!

We walked towards the I-gateway and snapped a couple nighttime shots as we went. We passed by throngs of people camping out for Illuminations as we got closer to World Showcase. It was nice because they still had the lights up for us to get through.

We got out of the park just as the fireworks began, so we paused for a moment to watch some of the higher pyrotechnics from the bridge to the Boardwalk. There was a decent crowd on the bridge along with us.

This was our view of the Boardwalk after we left the bridge. It really is a magnificent sight back there. It makes me more excited to return to the area on our upcoming trip!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Screw it... I'd wait, but I'm in the mood for a double posting!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We started our day with a pre-RD ADR at Crystal Palace. I knew our DIS-friend, mom2rtk, was heading to her pre-RD ADR at BBB. I was so excited to finally see some of her handy work in the flesh! (and meet the rockin’ person in person). We sauntered up to the gate and chatted with a few of the CMs. For some reason they weren’t letting us in as early as usual and there were quite a few people getting rather antsy – ourselves included. We were at the head of the line almost and the CM kept checking his watch and saying, boy… we need to get going!

Just as he dropped the rope for us to head up Main Street I saw two brilliant yellow dresses walk up to the gate. I started hollering, “It’s mom2rtk! Look! E! She’s HERE!!!”

It was almost like seeing Elvis…

They pushed us through the gate and we made our way up Main Street, pausing for a couple of crowd-less photos and something else and we happened upon mom2rtk doing the same thing. We ran over and introduced ourselves and gave a big hug. We chatted briefly and we BOTH had to get hauling it to check into our reservations.

The line at CP was kind of long (since we were let in late) so we hopped over to the Castle to get our last morning icon shot.

From there, E got us checked in and I meandered around the front of the building to do some architecture shots. I LOVE that this family kept looking at me and still refused to get out of the way.

I know, I know… I have no right to expect others to NOT be in the way, but seriously. They could’ve moved over a few feet…

Of course while I’m futzing with my camera, I get caught with another one…

(who’s still thirsty???)

Our buzzer thingy went off and we headed for the door to the staff ready to go for the day.

I stopped for a macro shot on the way in, just for fun.

I love CP breakfast. It’s probably my FAVORITE breakfast on property.
1) There’s a TON of food to eat.
2) There’s a TON of food I can eat that doesn’t have to be specially prepared (even the bacon )

3) Mickey waffles, and

4) Chocolate Mickey waffles.

I live for these things.

The chef came out to give us a tour and take a small order of things that we needed to have prepared (I asked for some eggs as the ones on the bar are pre-seasoned). As we chatted with the chef, we did run into one small snafu. It had been rumored that E could get gluten free Mickey waffles here. Well, guess what, she couldn’t. Being totally bummed out, we pressed on to the bar and filled our plates. E and I both enjoyed the quinoa they had on the bar. It was something new for both of us.

Soon after we got our food, we started to see our friends from the 100 Acre Wood

Piglet left us for the Friendship parade and Eeyore was no where in sight. All of the characters bailed on our side of the restaurant for the other side. We decided not to wait for him. Just before we left, E was handed a special ticket as an apology about the non-gluten free waffles.

It was something completely minor, but that is what is called Disney’s “recovery” system when a guest isn’t 100% satisfied. We learned a little bit about the recovery system on the Backstage Magic tour.

 

[annmarieda]

Garden Grill... I have never been. I think it may be on my list for someday though.

The recovery ticket you got? We got one too... but it sits as a souvenir. We never used it. Did you?

And the pre rope drop ADR at CP... I just loved doing that for the first time in December. I think it will be on my list each and every trip.

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

You can bet we cashed it in

crap... if we are here it means we have almost come to an end

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Garden Grill... I have never been. I think it may be on my list for someday though.

The recovery ticket you got? We got one too... but it sits as a souvenir. We never used it. Did you?

And the pre rope drop ADR at CP... I just loved doing that for the first time in December. I think it will be on my list each and every trip.

I think food-wise, it was my least favorite outside of Sci-Fi. And Chef Mickey's. I would totally go there again in a heartbeat because of the character stoppage.

We did use ours. It was getting closer to everyone ascending the parks for the holidays and MK was getting a bit busier than we'd like.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

crap... if we are here it means we have almost come to an end

I know.

Imagine how I felt when I finished typing the whole document in Word.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

From CP, we walked THROUGH the Castle towards Fantasyland.

I was just glad the beautiful blue sky was out for us after breakfast. Our last day in MK was going to be gorgeous!

Just on the other side of the Castle, we saw our favorite family and stopped for a visit.

I tried to entice Lady Tremaine AND the girls into a bit of a fight by asking which daughter was her favorite.


I got scolded.


Drizella set me straight though… SHE’S the favorite. She’s MUCH prettier than her sister – and sings better, too!


At some point, MB bailed on us to shop and rest (I want to say it was after breakfast). We’d run her ragged in the past several days and she just wanted to go about our last couple days at her pace.

E and I wandered into Fantasyland to say goodbye to Snow White Scary Adventures. I still can’t believe it won’t be there on our next trip, but we have to make way for progress, right?

I was all excited when I actually looked at the second shot. I caught the Queen – I usually crop tighter and just go for Snow White. We did have to yell at our carmates. They were taking flash pictures in the beginning. E set them straight!


We hopped over to Peter Pan and used E’s special pass to get through the line. Try as we might, we just can’t catch a decent shot in Pan. Neither of our cameras have a high enough ISO for the super low light conditions. Maybe someday…

From Pan, we went over to Philharmagic to visit Donald and the gang. I really enjoy this attraction and have to stop each trip.

Before leaving FL, E tried (unsuccessfully) to become the next Queen of England!

 

[momabaarjo]

What does the recovery ticket entitle you too?

I love your picture of E trying to pull the sword from the stone!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

It's basically a FP for any ride.

We chose to use it on Peter Pan because the line is always ridiculous.

And one of my favorites.

 

[PrincessInOz]

So....did you settle on a favourite step-sister?

Nice that you got a FP out of non-gluten free.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

So....did you settle on a favourite step-sister?

Nice that you got a FP out of non-gluten free.

It has to be Drizella. She makes the best faces!




As for the pass, I think E would've rather had the waffles!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We left FL in search of the future. Instead we ran into Stitch.

Stitch gave us a hard time because none of our pins were of him. E told him about her fantastic Stitch hat and ears and we looked all over for him the day of the party, but he was no where to be found! He forgave us and told us he’d been surfing on our party day. His naughty level was quite high this morning!


I needed to take a spin on the TTA before we left. WEDway Peoplemover was always my mom’s favorite ride – it was her failsafe while the rest of us rode Space Mountain – but I’d always take spins before I was tall enough. It’s nostalgic for me and a definite must do.

Shoot, I remember my first ride on Space. I was 7 and I rode in my dad's lap. He held on tight because every time the ride dipped, I flew out of the seat!


Next on the agenda was the Tiki Room. E had never wanted to sit through it, but I have to go. Again, nostalgia. I was excited to see the Tiki Room returned to its former self. I liked the “Under New Management” the FIRST time I saw it. In 1998. I haven’t cared for it that much since.

This is the area that burnt that fateful night. Iago’s perch area was completely covered up and the roof was brought in. The rest of the roof was symmetrical.

I know I was torturing E by this point. At least I didn’t make her sit through County Bear Jamboree (even though I kinda wanted to…)


We went over to Jungle Cruise instead. Again, JC is one of my all-time favorites. The jokes are just so campy and lame that it’s hilarious. I also love seeing first timers get on and at first take the skipper so seriously. Then one of them GETS it. Our skipper was absolutely fantastic that morning. She was really into her job! I can imagine her performance may have been close to how John Lasseter performed as a skipper in the ‘70s.


Speak!
A little louder!
Now spray the boat! (everyone ducks)

Maybe someday they’ll get the point in the end.

The most famous part of the cruise… the back side of water!

I love the decorations outside the temple.

The inside needs SOMETHING done to it to make it relevant.


I love all the elephants, especially since they make sure to have their trunks on to keep this a FAMILY show.

When we were at the central shops building, they had out one of these little guys for refurb or replacement, of course they couldn’t tell us, but gosh darnit… they’re adorable!

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

It has to be Drizella. She makes the best faces!




As for the pass, I think E would've rather had the waffles!

You bet I would rather have Mickey Waffles

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Even though I've managed to lose all of my readers, I'm going to finish this thing!





We left Adventureland for more treacherous waters (and also to say goodbye to Captain Jack). This was the ONLY decent shot we got on POTC the entire week. Again due to a lack of ISO range, but I’ll take it.

I had one more project I needed to complete before we left MK for the last time. I had promised my friend back home that I’d send them some Disney mail since they were giving their kids a trip to Disney for Christmas. I needed an autograph from Pluto for their son, and their daughter loved Cinderella. I had planned to get Cindy’s autograph at MVMCP, but they weren’t allowing autographs because of all five characters being there – the line would’ve not moved at all. So, I didn’t get it. This was my last chance to get Cindy’s autograph and get the postcards in the mail. Cinderella went above and beyond when I asked her to sign the postcard for a little girl who would be coming to see her soon. She personalized the card and wrote my friend’s DD a little note telling her she couldn’t wait to see her! It was awesome! I dropped the cards in the mail shortly after and PRAYED they made it back to Indiana before Christmas. (Luckily, they arrived on the 23rd!)

We pressed on to meet Belle and Jasmine??? Wait… wasn’t she supposed to be somewhere else?

Jasmine not being in Agrabah really threw me for a loop. I figured they would’ve put a different girl in, but who knows?


E and I left Town Square to cash in BTMR FP.


In the queue we ran into mom2rtk again. They loaded through the alternate entrance because one of her party members was in a walking boot and needed the extra assistance. She snapped a shot of us on the train and I’d hoped to meet back up for a brief moment but we got separated after disembarking. I guess they had to wait a few extra trains before the GAC side was allowed to board.

(copyright mom2rtk)
I guess the guy behind us wasn’t happy to have his picture taken…
I had my camera out for this run because inspired by mom2rtk, I wanted a shot of BTMR while riding BTMR so I set my camera on my high speed shooting mode, upped my shutter speed, and off we were on the wildest train ride in the wild, wild west.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

After BTMR, we headed back to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz Lightyear again. I had another mission I wanted to complete, and this was my FINAL shot. Come heck or high water, I was going to be a Galactic Hero! I readied my weapon and we were off. I was hitting the high point targets left and right. As we entered the volcano room the ride stopped (I still would’ve made it without the stoppage… I think!). I found the top target on the volcano and unloaded. Just after the ride resumed operation, I hit the max score!

We got off the ride and I went to the photo camera counter and the CM gave me my badge of honor! It wasn’t anything special – they took an “I’m celebrating” pins and wrote Galactic Hero 2011 on it in Sharpie – but it was special to me!


We hopped on Space Mountain (finally) and met a fantastic family and their two daughters. We got to chatting and they asked if we wouldn’t mind splitting up so the family didn’t have to split up. E and I agreed – it wasn’t imperative to us to ride together as long as we were on the same train. E took the front car with the unenthusiastic daughter and dad and I took one for the team and rode in the back car with mom and the excited daughter. I made sure they were in the front of the back car to minimize the roughness of the ride.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We needed to get going because we had dinner ressies at ‘Ohana but I talked E into stopping to meet Tiana and Naveen. E has never seen Princess and the Frog but went for it anyway. I got to proudly show off my new badge (all the CMs loved asking about it) and we had a great time with the pair.

IIRC, E said meeting with Tiana and Naveen was one of the best interactions she’s ever had with a character.


We stopped for our final icon shot before heading back to BWI to pick up MB.

We got to our reservation and enjoyed a decent meal. The service was less than stellar and even after meeting with the chef, the instructions for MY food weren’t clear. Someone walked by and left a salad and said nothing. Well, it wasn’t MY salad or salad dressing. The server looked confused when he brought my stuff, mentally noting that I had already eaten something I wasn’t supposed to. My meat was on the dry side, but I really appreciated the chef going out of his way to make sure I had chicken wings to eat too. He had to get the sauce from Kona, but it was tasty nonetheless. I was so full by the time our actual meal came that again, I felt really bad about wasting the food. I tried my best to eat, and I did gain over 10 lbs on this vacation. I chalked the weight gain up to not having my children to push around in the stroller for the week.


And the fact that E wouldn’t let me rent a stroller to push her around in…


I made a super quick stop at the concierge desk (they have a book of pins, too) to look for DS’s yellow completer, but again struck out. I had a wonderful chat with the desk CM about becoming a galactic hero, bid him adieu, and took off.


After ‘Ohana, we went downstairs to watch Wishes from the Poly beach. It was an interesting experience, especially since there was a 12-ish year old who REALLY needed attention and was whooping and hollering over the piped in music. It took the wind out of my sails for the presentation but what can you do? My parents would’ve beat my butt if I pulled that, but judging from the lack of anyone telling him to stop, he was most likely at the pool without supervision.


We hoofed it to TTC from the Poly to catch the monorail to EP to go back home for the night. However, about halfway between TTC and EP, E realized she had left her camera hanging on the back of the chair at ‘Ohana! I got on the internet on my phone to look up the direct number to the restaurant and E had a bit of a time getting a straight answer from the person on the other side.


We overheard a super interesting conversation on the train. We were sharing a car with a family who was headed to MVMCP… on the EP train. It was almost 10p by now and they were JUST arriving to the party that would be over in two hours. They had no idea they were headed into EP.


We got them straightened out as we pulled into the station. Despite E protesting that MB and I carry on back home, we all clamored off the monorail, got the wandering family back on the MK monorail and went BACK towards TTC.

E ran ahead of MB and I to fetch her camera. Then we re-boarded the monorail at TTC to take the train to EP and walk the rest of the way home.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

You bet I would rather have Mickey Waffles

Patience, grasshopper.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Still here....

I wouldn't have wanted you to waste all that money on renting a stroller either.