For the First Time in Forever-

[librarygeek]

Looking forward to seeing the parade pics! And I love that big Minnie bag!

 

[mdsouth]

Normally I stay at a Value but this is a once in a life time trip. I got a good deal with free dining in the UK so decided to go for it. Looking forward to AKL as it is my favourite resort to visit. Hope marching down main street was as magical as it sounds.

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AKL and Free Dining?! SCORE!! How long will you be staying at WDW and the US? I am guessing with the long travel time and expense, one would typically take a longer vacation if possible than the four to seven days that I am accustomed to taking when I go.

What park is your favorite? Mine is MK.

 

[RedNoseMickey]

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AKL and Free Dining?! SCORE!! How long will you be staying at WDW and the US? I am guessing with the long travel time and expense, one would typically take a longer vacation if possible than the four to seven days that I am accustomed to taking when I go.

What park is your favorite? Mine is MK.

We will be staying for 12 nights, so lots of time to soak up the magic but also take it slow. It's a 9 hour flight and a 5 hour time difference so a short trip wouldn't make sense for us. My favourite park is and always will be MK.

 

[mdsouth]

Chapter MARCHING DOWN MAIN STREET USA!!!

Finally, the parade started. They announced my son’s school and the band headed out. The actual parade consisted of just my son’s high school band followed about five minutes later with a second high school band. There were no Disney characters and no other floats or anything. I was hoping that they parade would at least have a few Disney characters or even be led by one of the Disney vehicles to add a bit of Disney to the parade. I was still very excited to see my son actually marching down Main Street U.S.A., but the parade wasn’t much of what I consider a parade to be.



The parade course started near the firehouse. It circled around the hub in front of the train station and then proceeded to head down Main Street. It was exciting to see my son marching in the Magic Kingdom. We got some great shots of him throughout the parade route. I particularly love the shot of him right in front of Casey’s.





When they got to the central hub, the band followed the hub around the right when the path heads to Tomorrowland. The band then marched right in front of the castle. I found a viewing spot near the center of the hub so I could try to get a good shot of the band with the castle in the background. The photos didn’t really come out as well as I had hoped since he was on the opposite side.






The band then headed across the bridge into Frontierland. The parade continued through Frontierland and ended when they went through the gates by Splash Mountain.



The band changed out of their uniforms and then the kids came back into MK for some fun. We spent some time together with him and going on a few rides together and then he joined up with his band members. There were quite a few other families from his school that had traveled to WDW to see the band, so we had a chance to visit with them as well. My next installment will share some photos and highlights of our MK family time.

 

[mdsouth]

We will be staying for 12 nights, so lots of time to soak up the magic but also take it slow. It's a 9 hour flight and a 5 hour time difference so a short trip wouldn't make sense for us. My favourite park is and always will be MK.

Twelve nights will be nice! I do not envy your long flight! The noise of the airplane bothers me when I fly. I would have to try noise reduction headphones if I was on a plane that long. The longest trip I have taken on a plane is two and a half hours.

We are like minded in that MK is our favourite park! So, what do you want to do first once you arrive at MK??

Have you planned the order of the parks you will see? Are you like me in that your first and last day starts with MK?

 

[RedNoseMickey]

Twelve nights will be nice! I do not envy your long flight! The noise of the airplane bothers me when I fly. I would have to try noise reduction headphones if I was on a plane that long. The longest trip I have taken on a plane is two and a half hours.

We are like minded in that MK is our favourite park! So, what do you want to do first once you arrive at MK??

Have you planned the order of the parks you will see? Are you like me in that your first and last day starts with MK?

My first and last day are always MK because it is the best. IMHO.
I will be making a touring plan for December but it will be quite relaxed as I am travelling with family and I want everyone to have a nice time.
I am going on a solo trip in 35 days, which will be awesome. Starting and ending at MK and doing whatever I feel like in between. It will be brutally hot and humid so plan to take it nice and slow. Do you have any trips planned?

 

[mdsouth]

My first and last day are always MK because it is the best. IMHO.
I will be making a touring plan for December but it will be quite relaxed as I am travelling with family and I want everyone to have a nice time.
I am going on a solo trip in 35 days, which will be awesome. Starting and ending at MK and doing whatever I feel like in between. It will be brutally hot and humid so plan to take it nice and slow. Do you have any trips planned?

It is nice you have two upcoming trips that will be so different from each other. It will be nice to just have some basic plans, some ADEs and then just go with the flow with the family trip. That should lead itself to a less stressful trip for everyone. I would want to make ADRs for dinner some of the nights just because I know my family gets awfully cranky and irritable when they are hungry and have to wait a long time to be seated and served. So, I recommend making some key ADRs for the family to limit the time you have to wait for a table. The other nights you can just go with the flow and possibly eat counter service if the waits for table service or too long.

I would love to take a solo trip! I would enjoy walking around checking out all the little shops and scenery without having to think about holding up the others in my party. I had a little taste of that on my last trip when it was just my DD and myself. We took things much more leisurely and did things that we wanted to do but knew my son or husband would not enjoy as much.

Right now, I don't have a specific trip planned. But as a true lover of WDW and DISer, I of course have ideas of a future trip in mind. I am hoping to go back in 2017 or 18 for a week. I even started the "Who's Planning a 2017-2018 trip" thread about a year ago now. There are several of us that have been sharing ideas and dreams of our far away trips. Here is the link in case you are interested in joining the thread.
http://www.disboards.com/threads/whos-already-planning-for-2017-or-2018.3332439/

 

[vleeth]

How awesome that your son got to march at Magic Kingdom. Years ago my step-daughter was in the 'parade' at Universal and that was exciting for us. I can't imagine if she could have done that at Magic Kingdom.

What's the white stuff on top of Haley croissant?

 

[RedNoseMickey]

It is nice you have two upcoming trips that will be so different from each other. It will be nice to just have some basic plans, some ADEs and then just go with the flow with the family trip. That should lead itself to a less stressful trip for everyone. I would want to make ADRs for dinner some of the nights just because I know my family gets awfully cranky and irritable when they are hungry and have to wait a long time to be seated and served. So, I recommend making some key ADRs for the family to limit the time you have to wait for a table. The other nights you can just go with the flow and possibly eat counter service if the waits for table service or too long.

I would love to take a solo trip! I would enjoy walking around checking out all the little shops and scenery without having to think about holding up the others in my party. I had a little taste of that on my last trip when it was just my DD and myself. We took things much more leisurely and did things that we wanted to do but knew my son or husband would not enjoy as much.

Right now, I don't have a specific trip planned. But as a true lover of WDW and DISer, I of course have ideas of a future trip in mind. I am hoping to go back in 2017 or 18 for a week. I even started the "Who's Planning a 2017-2018 trip" thread about a year ago now. There are several of us that have been sharing ideas and dreams of our far away trips. Here is the link in case you are interested in joining the thread.
http://www.disboards.com/threads/whos-already-planning-for-2017-or-2018.3332439/

I have ADR's for my December trip as we got free dining but have booked several signature dining restaurants that will cost 2 credits so we have more freedom on other days. We also like fine dining and will be travelling without children so we can enjoy our fancy dinners in peace.

 

[ariane37]

Love the pictures of your son's band marching in the MK! I had high hopes that older DS might one day be able to do that, but unfortunately he decided to quit band this year And younger DS has no interest.

 

[mdsouth]

How awesome that your son got to march at Magic Kingdom. Years ago my step-daughter was in the 'parade' at Universal and that was exciting for us. I can't imagine if she could have done that at Magic Kingdom.

What's the white stuff on top of Haley croissant?

It was very moving to watch them march in MK. I only wish I would have been in a better spot to take his photo in front of the castle.

I really don't remember white the white stuff was. I think it was a bit of white icing which surprised me. I wlll have to ask Haley to see if she remembers.

I have ADR's for my December trip as we got free dining but have booked several signature dining restaurants that will cost 2 credits so we have more freedom on other days. We also like fine dining and will be travelling without children so we can enjoy our fancy dinners in peace.

That would be my plan too, to use the credits to experience some fine dining options that you would not normally go to with kids. This is why I need a adults only trip as well as another family trip. So which signature places have you picked?

Love the pictures of your son's band marching in the MK! I had high hopes that older DS might one day be able to do that, but unfortunately he decided to quit band this year And younger DS has no interest.

Too bad about your son quitting band. I know it is not for everyone but we were happy my son stuck it out all through junior high and high school. This fall will be weird without attending all the football games, parades and competiions and the basketball games for pep band. I am sure we will still go to a few games, but it will not be the same.

As for my DD, she plays the flute right now and will be heading into 7th grade. She is not really very good at it and really doesn't enjoy it all that much. But right now, she is sticking with it because of her brother's experiences. I think she is thinking about trying out for the Flag Corps when she gets to high school so she would still be a part of the marching band. I was a flag girl when I was in high school and loved it. I am tone deaf and so was not musically inclined and did not play an instrument.

I hope she does continue with band, AND she can go on her own band trip to WDW! I need to put the idea of another WDW trip into the band director's head. He does a band trip every other year, so she would tentatively go her freshman and junior years. The band director's daughter is in the same grade as my daughter and we know the family pretty well.


For those following along on this long dragged out TR, I want to say THANK YOU! I appreciate you all. I will post the next update sometime this weekend or else on early Monday.

 

[mdsouth]

Chapter 36- Magic Kingdom –Princesses and Be Our Guest

At the end of the parade route in Frontierland, Jacob and the band got to go backstage, behind the wooden fence beside Splash Mountain. They would be participating in some musical sessions hosted by Disney and then Jake would be spending some time with his friends in the park. We had plans to meet up again around 3 pm. So, until then, Gary, Haley and I were a threesome. We headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and got in the standby line. We rode it once together. Haley loves this ride and I do too. It was my very first roller coaster ride as a kid and so I naturally have a strong connection to it. In fact, it set the bar for roller coasters for me and is really the only roller coaster that I like and tolerate well. I had three fastpasses for later in the afternoon so Gary, Haley and Jacob could ride together. Since the band was staying off-site, I wasn’t able to get Jacob his own Fastpasses with ours ahead of time. So, instead we planned to just let Jacob use my Fastpass to go on the rides with us.

After Big Thunder Mountain, it was time to head to Princess Hall to see the princesses. We stopped along the way to capture a few photos. I have to say that Gary and Haley appear to be some of the happiest prisoners ever.

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The wait for the princesses was crazy! It was probably one of the longest lines we had stood in the entire trip. I think we waited over an hour to see them. Crazy but Haley wanted to see them again and was excited to see Rapunzel since we had not seen her earlier in the week at our Akershus breakfast.

Snow White was as sweet as can be and so delightful! She had the sweetest soft voice that was just perfect and such a sweet smile. Casting does an amazing job selecting the princesses.


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Next, was Rapunzel. Another delight! She was so engaging and very animated with Haley. They had a nice conversation and th

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Once we were finished with the princesses, it was time to for our lunch reservation at Be Our Guest! I was so excited to try this restaurant for the first time. At the time of our trip, the ADRs were still being conducted through a special website link that was connected to our room reservation. I had preordered our meal selections and am glad I did. It really did cut down on the wait time. With my family, it is easy to select meal choices way ahead of time, even three to six months out because my family tastes do not change much and they like routines. I am the most adventurous eater of our entire family, and I am somewhat limited in my choices due to my body’s reactions to certain spices and other ingredients. I would be more daring in my food choices if it wasn’t for these reactions.

Anyway, when we got to the restaurant, there was a huge line going across the bridge of people waiting to get in. Since we had Fastpass reservation, we were able to bypass the line and head straight into the restaurant.


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Once inside, a CM asked our name and pulled up our information. Since we were not making any changes to our order, we were told to go right in and find a table.

As others have stated, walking through the doors, it really did seem like we were walking right into the scene of the movie. I checked out all the available rooms first before we selected a table. The main ballroom was quite crowded, so we found a table in Belle’s library also known as the Castle Gallery.


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Gary as you can see in the picture is tolerating WDW but not super thrilled with his experience. My philosophy behind the photo is this. When we are actually at WDW, Gary tends to enjoy himself overall. He just hates the constant being on the go or dealing with all the crowds. He likes to have fun with his family and totally loves taking photos all around the parks and the resort of all the cool details. So, I think he does appreciate it, but since over the years he has always told me he doesn’t really like it and can do without going to WDW again, when he is there he has to act the part.


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Gary and I agree that our counter service lunch at BOG was the best CS meal we had the entire trip. I enjoyed it more than my meal at Boma’s too!

I had the braised pork, Gary had the carved roast beef sandwich and Haley had the macaroni. It was fun picking out our desserts from the dessert cart. I chose the lemon flavored one, Gary had the strawberry one and Haley had the Masters cupcake. I was thrilled with the lemon one. It had just the right about of lemon flavor without being too strong of a taste.

All in all a great experience and wonderful meal.

 

[cajunfan]

I LOVE BTMRR...I actually did not ride it or Splash Mountain my last trip! Next year will be different!

Glad to hear you enjoyed BOG. AS mentioned in my report, I was not overly excited about it. But I was also really tired. So we will give it another chance next year, and hopefully will be able to do dinner.

As always, thanks for sharing!

Lynn

 

[mdsouth]

Lynn,

Thanks for staying with me and my long drawn out TR. I can't believe that it has taken me so long to write this report. Life really does get in the way sometime. I remember you mentioning in your TR that you are already planning your next trip. Do you know when it will be?

I will add my next installment today. I am working on it and took a break to check the DIS. I should have finished it before logging in.

 

[mdsouth]

Chapter 37 – Soaking In the Atmosphere of MK

After our lunch we strolled around a bit since we had some time to spare before we met up again with Jake. We caught a Disney photographer and got our picture taken in front of the castle.



Gary also took some photos of Haley and me but it was very windy and my bangs kept covering my eyes.


Here is a photo Gary took of the bridge going to Tomorrowland. The crowds were not too bad at this point in the day.



I just love the topiaries of the characters around the different parks.




We headed back down Main Street to reconvene with Jake.





Next installment: Haley's first experience riding Space Mountain!

 

[cajunfan]

The balloon picture is really neat.

We are going 10/28/16-11/7/16. We are doing MNSSHP (probably on 10/30) and hoping to catch the very first MVMCP.

 

[ariane37]

Great update, love all the pics! Glad you enjoyed BOG. We also ate there on our Feb. trip last year, twice for dinner and once for lunch (yes, we really love it lol ). We had eaten dinner there when it first opened in Nov. 2012. At this point we've had dinner 5x and the one lunch, dinner being our favorite. We're eating there again on our Nov. trip and I've already booked it for when DH and I go on our quick get-away trip in January!!

 

[mdsouth]

The balloon picture is really neat.

We are going 10/28/16-11/7/16. We are doing MNSSHP (probably on 10/30) and hoping to catch the very first MVMCP.

I had a lot of fun with the balloon picture. It is just an iconic image for me that takes me straight back to Main Street U.S.A. everytime I look at it. I need to enlarge it and post it in my classroom at school. That is my intention. On our trip I found the coolest souvenir. It is a metal sign with Mickey on it and the monorail and states, "Stand Back from the Door". I hung it right beside my classroom door to remind students not to block the door when they line up to leave. I like having that little touch of WDW with me in my daily life.

Oh, Lucky you! Planning a fall trip and MNSSHP!! I bet you are super excited! I have heard how the weather is perfect and crowds are not too bad. It would be fun to see all the decorations. I will have to watch for your TR when you get back.

Great update, love all the pics! Glad you enjoyed BOG. We also ate there on our Feb. trip last year, twice for dinner and once for lunch (yes, we really love it lol ). We had eaten dinner there when it first opened in Nov. 2012. At this point we've had dinner 5x and the one lunch, dinner being our favorite. We're eating there again on our Nov. trip and I've already booked it for when DH and I go on our quick get-away trip in January!!

I can certainly see why you love it so much. Especially, since there isn't anything in MK that realy compares to it. I love the food options and the atmosphere is wonderful for a quick service meal. I hate sitting in Cosmic Rays, that is if you can find a table! They really need to renovate that place. l would have liked to have tried dinner there but didn't have the chance too. We were are tight schedule trying to get some family time in the parks when my son could get away from his band group. But then there is always next time.

How long will your trip be in January? Now, that school is about to start, both your and cajunfan's trips are getting closer to reality.

 

[mdsouth]

I decided to add just a post of all the cool scenery photos my husband took while at MK. He totally enjoys just snapping photos of all everything. The photos take me back there and conquers up the song, "Walking Right Down the Middle of Main Street U.S.A.". The song is a favorite of Haley and I and fits so well with the photos. I should try to find a digital version of it and make a slide show with it playing. But for now, sit back and enjoy!






















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[vleeth]

We just finish watching Beauty and the Beast for the first time in years. I'm trying to tell myself to wait until 2018 when we will probably have the dining plan, but your tr makes me want to go this year!

I think my dh could take it or leave it, but he is okay going wherever I want to go.