PRINCESS Palooza 2011! 9/9 Update: Departure Day

[mom2rtk]

12/17 Continued:

The girls sat in our spots while Kim and I went to the Main Street Bakery to get us all some dinner. One last massive turkey sandwich and cinnamon roll to tide us over until our next trip. I can't believe we've never really eaten at the Main Street Bakery before. I think that's mostly because the lines are always too long. I'm glad we gave it a try this time. I'm pretty sure we'll be regulars from here on out.



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I think the girls thought we got lost, but that line seems to be long no matter WHEN you go. We sat back down and quickly ate our sandwiches. That left JUST enough time for me to take the girls to Tomorrowland to use our Space Mountain fastpasses from earlier in the day.


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[mom2rtk]

12/17 Continued:

We finished up around 8:30 and scurried back to our spot. I fired of just over 300 frames while watching the parade. A family was sitting behind us and I knew I wanted to stand to take my photos, so I let the mom sit on the curb holding her 2 little girls. When the parade was over, she thanked me with a huge smile on her face. She apparently enjoyed the view. Which was fine, because I really enjoyed shooting the parade.


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With much sadness (and great fatigue) we bid farewell to the Magic Kingdom and were back at the Pop Century before 10:30. Sure, I would have loved to see Wishes. But more than a week in the parks had taken a toll on my feet. It was time to get back and finish packing up the room.


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[KCmike]

Fantastic update. So many pics and wonderful trip reporting. Really enjoying Janet.

 

[petals]

oh I want their Christmas outfits and your Christmas window decorations.

 

[francis6306]

WOW! You were busy!!! Um… any chance you wanna pass my cell number to your trusty friend for some pixie dust during my stay??

Love the window! What a sweet picture!!!!

 

[mom2rtk]

Fantastic update. So many pics and wonderful trip reporting. Really enjoying Janet.

Thanks Mike!

I hope your wife is FINALLY over her dental surgery.

oh I want their Christmas outfits and your Christmas window decorations.

LOL! I really did love them in those skirts. And it really is fun decorating our window for Christmas. I've already been plotting for our Little Mermaid room's window.......

WOW! You were busy!!! Um… any chance you wanna pass my cell number to your trusty friend for some pixie dust during my stay??

Love the window! What a sweet picture!!!!

Thanks! But the photo was sort of bittersweet. We were about to take the decorations down out of the window.

And I'd love to help you, but passing your number along wouldn't really help. Apparently they typically do the characters at the monorail resorts during the last week before Christmas. With the way the dates fall this hear, I don't hold out any hope for it happening while we're there again. Although I would TOTALLY leave the MK and run back over if they were. We ended up missing Victorian Minnie and Mickey by ONE day. Kim and her family were there after us and went back to see them.

I'm so grateful to my DIS friend for taking the time to let me know though. I was really great to add Scrooge to our "characters met" list after missing him when he used to come out for the parties.

I'm hoping to do my final update fairly soon. After all, I'm within 3 months of our next trip now!

 

[jenseib]

I would've loved the scrooge mcduck meet. That is so awesome.

I know you are a big flash user...so did you use the flash for that parade? I am debating on trying it this year and see how they come out. I have said that a couple of times now...but many times I just leave the dang thing in my room. I really need to play around with it a bit more.

 

[mom2rtk]

I would've loved the scrooge mcduck meet. That is so awesome.

I know you are a big flash user...so did you use the flash for that parade? I am debating on trying it this year and see how they come out. I have said that a couple of times now...but many times I just leave the dang thing in my room. I really need to play around with it a bit more.

Meeting Scrooge McDuck really was awesome. I had been kicking myself since 2008 when we completely bypassed him at MVMCP. I just assumed there would always be next time. Hah!

It's funny you ask about the flash issue at parades. That comes up pretty routinely on the photography forum.

Here's the latest thread:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?p=46078629#post46078629

For MSEP I never use my flash, and the consensus seems to be that it will wash things out too much. I agree with that.

The issue is with the MNSSHP and MVMCP parades. Some of the characters walking along and some of the floats are just so dark that it's really hard to get a decent shot without a flash. I have tried it both ways and am pretty sold on not using a fash if possible. Of course, when you do use a flash on one of those parades, I highly recommend dialing back the flash exposure compensation so it adds a little to brighten faces, but not so much it washes everything out. To go flashless though you really need at bare minimun a 2.8 lens. Something even faster would be better. And I use 3200 ISO for those parades.

 

[Glennie5]

I cannot believe how far behind I was on your TR and am going to blame it on summer holiday's and back to school. I happily spent the morning catching up and loved every minute of it! I feel like I am always repeating myself but once again your gowns are gorgeous and pictures incredible!

 

[princess_momma]

Wow, what a great post!! You guys met so many characters in "special" outfits, that is great!! I am loving it. The girls are so cute together, you got some good shots of them! I'm sure they loved being there with a friend!!

 

[Caretames1]

Holy Update! I knew it was a long one so I waited until the weekend so we had time to properly stroll through it.And yes, it logged me out again. Kadence really enjoys taking all the details of the pictures in. She's like wait! I need to see all the patterns on the skirt! LOL If she only knew....

Scrooge McDuck is an awesome meet! He's close enough to Professor Von Drake for Kadence! He's been a favorite of hers since she was very little, we even have a stuffed P. Von Drake.

I'm supposed to tell you I'm a chicken when it comes to the Tea Cups. I can ride, but NO spinning! Oh, and motion sickness meds must have been taken.

Beautiful pictures. How many times can I say that? As many times as possible! LOL

I'm looking forward to decorating our AoA window. I have a Light up Mickey Christmas head to stick in the window with some Mickey Christmas gels. I seen a couple little cheap Christmas trees at Hobby Lobby,maybe I'll grab a few.

 

[nannye]

Love the updates! I am always so amazed at your photography skills. What lens do you use?

 

[mom2rtk]

I cannot believe how far behind I was on your TR and am going to blame it on summer holiday's and back to school. I happily spent the morning catching up and loved every minute of it! I feel like I am always repeating myself but once again your gowns are gorgeous and pictures incredible!

Well, you were only far behind because I'm doing my updates in lumps now to get done sometime this YEAR!

Thanks for the kind words. And I'll let you know when you've repeated yoursel too much!

Wow, what a great post!! You guys met so many characters in "special" outfits, that is great!! I am loving it. The girls are so cute together, you got some good shots of them! I'm sure they loved being there with a friend!!

I really had no idea at al about the special monorail character meets. Without my DIS friend taking the time to message me, Scrooge McDuck would have been hanging out right close by at the Contemporary while we chilled at the Magic Kingdom. And I would have had no idea.

And yes, it's been very fortunate for Katie to get to spend some time at Disney with her friend. Me too!

Holy Update! I knew it was a long one so I waited until the weekend so we had time to properly stroll through it.And yes, it logged me out again. Kadence really enjoys taking all the details of the pictures in. She's like wait! I need to see all the patterns on the skirt! LOL If she only knew....

Scrooge McDuck is an awesome meet! He's close enough to Professor Von Drake for Kadence! He's been a favorite of hers since she was very little, we even have a stuffed P. Von Drake.

I'm supposed to tell you I'm a chicken when it comes to the Tea Cups. I can ride, but NO spinning! Oh, and motion sickness meds must have been taken.

Beautiful pictures. How many times can I say that? As many times as possible! LOL

I'm looking forward to decorating our AoA window. I have a Light up Mickey Christmas head to stick in the window with some Mickey Christmas gels. I seen a couple little cheap Christmas trees at Hobby Lobby,maybe I'll grab a few.

LOL! Tell Kadence thanks for taking the time to check out all the details!

So I'm not the only one the DIS keeps logging out on? That has driven me nuts for a while. It seemed to get a little better, but it's back at it again today.

So Kadence made you fess up about the Teacups, huh? I'm just one of the lucky ones it doesn't bother. In fact, Katie usually has to tell me to stop spinning QUITE so fast. I love to get going, then turn around and start going the opposite direction to unwind my brain!

I was considering a small Christmas tree for the room again, but am not sure if I will or not. I will defiitely do the window though. For me, it was just really hard giving up our very limited table space in the room to put up the tree. And I thought I'd sleep with the tree lights as a nightlight, but once Katie said she needed complete dark, I had to give up on that. So the payoff was diminished. And honestly, we're barely in the room. But there's nothing like walking up and seeing that warm inviting window full of lights and decorations at the end of a long day at the park.

Thanks for the nice words on the photos!

Love the updates! I am always so amazed at your photography skills. What lens do you use?

Thank you!

I have the Canon 17-55 f/2.8 that I use about 90% of the time.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I still can't get over your color saturation!

 

[jc040404]

Oh my! Super jealous right now! We skipped over Scrooge one year and I've been regretting it ever since. It must've been near the end of his time in the park because we never saw him again. How awesome that you had a secret friend to guide you to him!

Loving the pics, as usual. As I scrolled through your IASW pics, I kept hoping to see one special doll and you got her! I absolutely love the doll on the left in your last IASW pic. That has to be the best picture of her I've ever seen, too. Loved it!

Looks like a fun day! The girls' look adorable, as always. They must've had such a great time together.

 

[mom2rtk]

I still can't get over your color saturation!

Thanks Jenn. It's the lens I tell you. I edit in LR3, but really don't do much more than tweak the exposure and a couple other minor things.

Oh my! Super jealous right now! We skipped over Scrooge one year and I've been regretting it ever since. It must've been near the end of his time in the park because we never saw him again. How awesome that you had a secret friend to guide you to him!

Loving the pics, as usual. As I scrolled through your IASW pics, I kept hoping to see one special doll and you got her! I absolutely love the doll on the left in your last IASW pic. That has to be the best picture of her I've ever seen, too. Loved it!

Looks like a fun day! The girls' look adorable, as always. They must've had such a great time together.

I felt the same way after skipping by Scrooge in 08! Really regretted it. So you know how excited I was to be able to just hop on the monorail and find him! The problem of course is that one has to typiclly be there at a very busy time of year to see these characters. We were lucky to just catch them on our way out.

And I'm so glad I caught your favorite IASW doll. She's quite beautiful. And I'm glad you like the photo.

It really was a fun day. The park was really busy, but we had already done so much that it didn't really cause too many problems. We're planning for a very busy day in the parks Saturday 12/15 this year. It really helps to anticipate and sort of plan around that. And really, the girls don't care. It's such a treat for them to just hang out together that they don't care how many other people are there.

 

[mom2rtk]

12/18 Departure Day and AK:

Somewhere along the way, I must have missed the day's weather forecast. I had been up and about for a while, checking bags and checking out of our room, but somehow it didn't register how COLD it was that morning. I suppose I just assumed it would warm up as the day went on. I even left my jacket with my bags at bell services.



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In spite of a relatively late night bidding farewell to Kim and McKenna the night before, we still packed up and left our room with all our luggage at 7:45. We checked the bags and were walking into the park around 8:45. We had been there a week earlier, so didn't have a TON of stuff to do, but we still needed to move quickly. On the way in Katie found the sweetest little duck to stalk........




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Katie wanted to ride EE and I wanted to see Festival of the Lion King and find the characters at Camp Minnie Mickey. I had read online that the best character access is at 9:50, so that was the plan.


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On our way to Everest, we came across a FP machine set up for FOTLK. PERFECT! After confirming it would not keep us from getting our EE fastpasses shortly, we took some. We got our FP's and headed over to CMM.
The place was practically deserted yet there were characters all over. We saw Meeko, Thumper, Miss Bunny, Mickey, Chip, Dale, Pocahontas and Pluto all within about 25 minutes. We finished up just in time to enter the fastpass line for FOTLK. Talk about perfect timing!


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[mom2rtk]

12/18 Continued:


Festival of the Lion King was every bit as awesome as I remembered and would watch it again today if I could. The music and the acrobatics are really great and make the show.


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It was over around 11. I was really shocked at the quantity of people in the area when we left. We could have never met all those characters after the show. It was a completely different place. One man stepped on Katie's heel as we were leaving the area. It was just way too packed.

We headed toward Asia to use our EE fastpasses. Along the way we were sidetracked by the smell of Chinese food. So we stopped and got some orange chicken. It was good, but not great. So we quickly finished up and headed on to EE. We finished the ride right before noon. Katie talked me into a parting gift........ a yeti stocking cap.


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I knew we needed to be on our way back to the resort soon, but I still wanted to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek. The Pangani trail only took about 20 minutes the week before, so I hoped we could still quickly squeeze this one in. It would have been great to spend more time, but honestly there were just too many people to get good views anyway.


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[mom2rtk]

12/18 Continued:



We had pushed our time to the limit, just as we do on our last day of every trip. Our ME reservation was at 1:45 and we were back at the resort by 1 PM with the help of a taxi ride from the park.


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We scurried about the resort as we always do, including taking some photos of Katie in the decade numbers out front. I gave Katie money to get candy tubes for Robbie and Timmy in the gift shop while I bought a must-have for the trip home: chocolate croissants and a chocolate chip cookie. I was bound and determined to bring me some Disney pastries home and NOT leave them in the airport this time!

I think Katie was ready to get home. Going to Disney a week before Christmas certainly has it benefits. One of the best when you're 11 is knowing you still have Christmas to look forward to!

Once we got to the airport and past security, we sat down for a soda at the same McDonalds where I had lost my pastries last year. This time they were safely stowed in my backpack. Better to get home with smashed pastries than NO pastries!

I knew this was not a direct flight, but to be honest never paid attention to where we changed planes. How crazy that we flew all the way to Chicago that night to get home to Kansas City.

Not long into the first leg of the flight, the lady sitting next to me spilled her entire glass of wine. Some spilled on my pants, my blanket and my scarf. Later she switched places with her friend across the aisle. I thought for a moment that might be good since at least the smell of spilled wine might diminish. It didn't take long to realize things were worse, not better....... when he started making meowing noises. Seriously............

When the plane emptied out in Chicago, we moved up near the front. We also had a few minutes to stretch our legs and get some McDonalds to eat on the way home. Not great, but it had been a long day and it helped.
As always, it was so hard to believe when going to sleep that night that we had started that very long day in one of the Disney parks. In some ways, it's easier to say good-bye to a park other than the Magic Kingdom.

 

[francis6306]

It is amazing how QUICKLY that character spot can fill up, but we did the same thing- we got in and met all kinds of characters in NO time when compared to other character meetings!! I'm hoping to have a good set of characters out when we go in Nov!! I LOVE the FOTLK! I hope that it doesn't close forever… I read something about it closing soon…

That is a LOT of luggage!!! WOW. But you do have a lot of costume changes, so I guess it makes sense!