And that was without even a single drop of rum! UPDATES 5/16 Tower of Terror 10 Mile race

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Thoroughly enjoying this report What a great "game" you two came up with...I love the idea of character hunting. Sadly our impending trip is a 4 day park commando-athon so there will be no time for characters. LOL!

Thank you! I know exactly what you mean about the shorter trip. We have a short trip coming up at the end of may and we're worried about getting all the parks in, we aren't even thinking about doing anything 'extra' like this. When is your trip?

Thanks for reading!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

It was dinnertime and we'd met a grand total of 22 characters!



Definitely a fist bumpable moment.

We headed towards Brian's favorite counter service, Columbia Harbour House. We usually get the same meals here and I was not pleased to see that they didn't have my lobster roll. I ended up trying to lobster macaroni instead and enjoyed it a lot.



Brian had the tuna fish (not pictured. obviously).

After our dinner it was still rainy and the long day was starting to wear us down so we took a relaxing ride on the peoplemover.



For the second time that day, we boarded the monorail to head to Epcot. We had some FP+s that we'd been saving up all day.

First FP+:



We made our prettiest faces:



Spaceship Earth is one of my favorite rides at Disney. This ride is quintessential Disney, at least to me. We learn something, we ride on an innovative ride system, we see some great animatronics, the experience is heightened for us by adding in extra elements like the burning smell in Rome and we get to see some of the great fashions of the 80s (I think you all know which animatronic I'm referring to here).

We had a bit of time before our next FP so we ducked into the Seas to avoid the rain. We found this great hidden? Mikey



We liked this little guy sashaying around:



This next fish comes with a somewhat funny story. We were looking at all the tanks and we could not find the fish in this tank. Until I turned my head a centimeter to the left and had this face staring back at me, super close:





It was just a touch terrifying.

We decided to drop by the Visa character spot to see who we could find:



The rain finally let up for a bit so we rushed to our next FP+ appointment.





Exactly, you can't do a character hunting day without hitting up the character spot. That is what I like to call a 3fer.

At this point of the day I think Brian was running out of things to say to the characters. So he decided to play off our conversation we had with Goofy earlier in the day about his motorcycle accident. Which involved Brian asking Goofy about his insurance policy and what his premiums were like. I think this picture is a good representation of how Goofy reacted, look at this face.



Goofy is like...we are at Epcot and giving hugs and your asking me about my insurance premiums? He probably thought we'd lost it.



Minnie poses just as pretty as a picture:



I don't think Brian said anything to Minnie after the insurance premium goof.



I have no pictures, but we used our third FP+ on Soarin, of course. Can't go to Epcot without getting a dose of Patrick.



Very tired and charactered out, we arrived back to our room to find the mousekeeper had posed our sophisticated companions:









At the end of the day we ended up meeting 27 characters. We didn't make it to AK, and characterpalooza was a bust due to the rain. I think we did a good job, but I could also think of ways to do it better. Maybe when we have a longer trip in November we will try again.

However, if you have enough days at Disney I highly recommend doing a character hunt or something besides regular theme park touring. We barely rode any rides and had an awesome time, plus we had our best character interaction of all time with Naveen and Tiana. And to think, it came about because it was raining and we had to buy an umbrella.

Next up...the Blooper reel from the day.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Day 2 Blooper time!

We'll call this next set of photos: Rachel blinks.









Well, I think you get the picture.

and finally, a bonus: Brian Blinks:





Mulan best run for the hills:

 

[stacy~**]

Love the character hunt day! Tempted to give it a try in July since we will be there for 10 days!

CHH is definitely one of the best counter service spots in Disney! Sorry your usually wasn't available but glad you enjoyed the mac and cheese.

I love that you traveled with "friends" and how nice of mousekeeping to set them up for you.

Yay for blooper reel pictures!

Any chance you are planning to go for marathon weekend in January? I'm hoping to get registered for it and FINALLY experience a RunDisney event (5k and half, I think....)!

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

The following morning we were up bright and early (I mean, it is Disney, I'm usually awake around 6 because I'm too excited to sleep).

Our destination:



As it turns out, we did have a pretty wild time. At least, I think we did. My notes from this day are awful. The next picture I have is of these guys:



So according to my camera, we woke up super early and were at AK for opening so that we could rush to these parrots and take a photo.

My notes do get better from this day on, which is a good thing.

This couple was hanging out by the parrots:



Extreme close up of a turtle:



Ah, now I remember what we were doing, we were waiting for Pocahontas. She meets in this little nook that is pretty hidden away. Near her meeting spot live: the two parrots, the giant turtle and some porcupines. It is a nice area to wait in for Pocahontas to appear, plenty of animal friends to watch.



We exchanged some nice wingapos with Pocahontas. No one else was there so we continued the conversation and discussed painting with all the colors of the wind. Pocahontas was pretty fun. Finally another family walked up so we took our leave.

The day was hot and I was getting pretty thirsty so we stopped by here:



Where I discovered my obsession for the trip: the chai tea lattes. Soooo good and refreshing when it was hot.

Continuing the laid back vibe of the day, we wandered over towards Dinosaur and stopped to check out this guy:



A keeper was there and told us all sorts of interesting info about him. I believe his name was Marley and he was in AK because his tail was messed up. He wasn't able to get around very well in the wild, so now he lives in AK.

The keeper also pointed out Marley's bird friend:



This bird moved into Marley's enclosure and they now have a love/hate relationship. Marley loves the thought of getting to this bird, but hates that the bird is always a step ahead.

We hung out with Marley and his keeper for a long time, I highly recommend this. So far we'd had a very relaxed morning and had discovered some AK hidden gems: the animals.



We left the Dinosaur area and found another pair of parrots:



Then I think we stumbled onto part of the macaw show. I've heard that they release macaws to have them fly around the tree, but no one knows exactly what time the show will be. Well, I guess all the birds don't always come back right away, so we saw some keepers trying to call these macaws back.



The macaws were having none of it though, and stayed up in the tree.

Next up we started to walk the Asian animal trail.

We just made it to the bat house when it started pouring rain.

We had made a huge mistake and didn't bring Dungeon, the umbrella, so we took shelter in the bat house.



We hung out for around 20 minutes until the downpour changed to a drizzle then we continued our explorations.













We were kind of hungry, so we decided to share some food. But it had started to rain a bit harder again, so I took off for the covered seating area near Flame Tree to get us a table while Brian got the food.

I got one of the only available tables, everyone was trying to find shelter from the rain, and Brian joined me a few minutes later.







The rain had kind of stopped again. We had heard that sometimes characters will meet at the front of the park, so we headed that way to see who we could find. On the way we saw the ant eater:



I've heard people on the boards say that the ant eater never really took to her captivity and is unhappy. I hope that is not the case, I love that ant eater.

We didn't see any characters at the front of the park so we hung out with some birds.



After our super low key morning, it was time to take a bus to Epcot.

 

[Nhebron]

Following along!

 

[kastoney]

Just finding your thread and loving it so far. Must have "blinked" that I missed it when it started.

Seriously love your character day. What a fabulous idea, may have to steal that and claim it for my own.

Love me some snark and sarcasm, so I can't wait to see more.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

All in all I think you did a great job with the Character day and glad to read that you were happy with your decision to have a character hunting day! Funny too that often the best meets are the ones you weren't planning on

So according to my camera, we woke up super early and were at AK for opening so that we could rush to these parrots and take a photo.

... well, every trip planning guide I have read clearly indicates this is the best way to tour Ak and miss the crowds trying to get pictures of the parrots!

Sounds like a nice relaxing morning. I think AK is one of the best parks to go to and just wander and take in the details and talk to CMs and stuff.

 

[ashw100]

Okay, I'm all caught up. Great job on the character hunt! Sorry characterpalooza didn't work out but still 27, I'm impressed. I like the laid back vibe of this trip day one characters, day two animals, sounds nice.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Following along!

Yay!

Just finding your thread and loving it so far. Must have "blinked" that I missed it when it started.

Seriously love your character day. What a fabulous idea, may have to steal that and claim it for my own.

Love me some snark and sarcasm, so I can't wait to see more.

Feel free to take the character day! Just let me know when you do how many characters you get.

All in all I think you did a great job with the Character day and glad to read that you were happy with your decision to have a character hunting day! Funny too that often the best meets are the ones you weren't planning on

... well, every trip planning guide I have read clearly indicates this is the best way to tour Ak and miss the crowds trying to get pictures of the parrots!

Sounds like a nice relaxing morning. I think AK is one of the best parks to go to and just wander and take in the details and talk to CMs and stuff.

Clearly we read the same trip planning guides

Okay, I'm all caught up. Great job on the character hunt! Sorry characterpalooza didn't work out but still 27, I'm impressed. I like the laid back vibe of this trip day one characters, day two animals, sounds nice.

It is definitely out of character for me to have laid back days, but I think I actually enjoyed it

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

While I am writing this update, I'm watching Saving Mr. Banks. If any of you have not seen it, you must see it immediately. I love all the Disney historical touches, and P.L. Travers is just so over the top hilarious. For instance, right now she just said she doesn't want the color red to be in the movie. This actress should have won an oscar.

Anyway...

We arrived at Epcot and stopped for some photopass pics.







Stitch is gross.




Learn to eat ice cream like a grown up (says the grown up who can't keep food out of her hair).




After seeing Stitch eat his ice cream very grossly, we were hungry again, so we headed towards the right of World Showcase. Our first stop was a new country booth:

Puerto Rico! Everything at this booth was so amazingly delicious, and I loved the dancers out front.



The lights were so pretty too. I think this quickly became my favorite booth. I believe I have food pictures later on, but none for now. As we headed deeper into the world showcase, we spotted some characters meeting by the International Gateway.

Fancy meeting you again Pocahontas, you must have traveled just around the riverbend.





Our conversation with Rapunzel went on almost as long as her hair:





We were her last meet of that set, so she took a bit extra time with us. She was delightful.

Everyone best hold onto their hats, because we are about to get a little crazy.

We had really rode the monorail to Epcot just so we could use it as a stepping stone to get to DHS, so we actually left Epcot after our character greets and were soon on the boat to DHS.

Told you it was going to get crazy.

We stopped for some photopass pictures inside DHS.





I like all the cutouts and decorations around Muppets.





We didn't go in however, because we were waiting for characterpalooza. We wanted to try today since it had been cut short the past day. The following characters ended up appearing: genie, Aladdin, queen of hearts, mulan, stitch, green army man. We were following Aladdin and Genie to their meeting spot when the character attendants called them back in due to a few sprinkles



Boo. We missed out again. To console ourselves, we bought corn dogs and took some Frozen magic shots.



I think we were getting some weird directions from the photopass. Either that or we just make weird faces regularly.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

We had come to DHS for 2 purposes, one was characterpalooza, the other was to ride a childhood favorite ride of mine.

Today was the last day of the Backlot Tour (and Mo Rockin, Off Kilter and the Fife and Drum). Since it was just sprinkling outside, we got into line for the Tour. We only had to wait for one rotation of the ride. I was pretty sad about this ride closing. Sure, it sucks now, but I went on it when I was young when it was in all it's glory. I miss it even more now that it is April and Disney hasn't put anything in that space or even started to renovate or remove it. I don't mind change, but at least get a move on if you are going to close attractions/shows.

It was a very festive mood, former CMs who had worked the ride were showing up in droves to experience it one last time. It turned out to be the announcer CMs last go round for the day so she was very into the whole storyline and spiel of the water tank.







I love this horse in the prop shop, but the line was moving fast so I only got a blurry shot.









You most likely can't tell but these are Guardians of the Galaxy costumes:







I always liked seeing Walt's plane, I wonder where it will end up.



I got the lucky outside seat for the canyon scene. The canyon scene is really quite amazing and well done, I'll miss it especially.









Then the ride came to an end The glorious last ride of the Backlot Tram Tour, hah.



So long Backlot Tram Tour, and thanks for all the fish.

We were switching hotels this night, we had a one night reservation at Art of Animation because I'd been wanting to try it out. Ohio State was playing that night, so we figured we could relax and enjoy the room while watching the game. So we caught a bus from DHS to AOA, we'd had our luggage transferred before.







Here I am posing like my favorite, Guido:



We wanted to grab some dinner before the game...and omg, this food court is the best food court ever. In looks and food choices and food taste.



After our food was ready we took it to go and explored our room.



I loved this lamp (hah, like Brick in Anchorman, I love lamp).

 

[Nhebron]

So what did you think of AOA compared to the other resorts you have stayed at in WDW? We stayed one night in a AOA Cars Suite. We loved it. I really just wanted to take pics of my kiddo in his cars shirts running around the resort .

I have actually never been on the Backlot tour (and I guess I never will get the chance!). Great pics.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

I don't think I've taken so many pictures of a Disney hotel bathroom before.

We found the game on tv and ate our meals:







Ohio State ended up winning (some of you may know how that season turned out). And right after the win we heard booms outside.



We could see the Frozen fireworks from outside our room!



Invigorated by the win and the fireworks, we decided to hit MK which was open late that night.

I may have been in a hurry to catch a bus, but I wasn't in too much of a hurry not to stop for some blurry nighttime photos.





Anyone need to brush their hair?



I love Pumba.



The magic of the night continued, there was a MK bus waiting for us. We quickly made it to the park around 9:30 pm.

Right away when we entered we realized Tink didn't have a line so we headed on in.





We watched the end of Wishes on the bridge to tomorrowland, then we raced the crowds to the ever popular Peoplemover. After that we walked onto LM.





I love this 'kiss the girl' scene. It just perfectly encapsulates the movie to me. And we got stopped, so I was able to get this no flash panorama.







Then we walked onto the happiest cruise that ever sailed.



I love the jolly panda bear.





Crazy hippo. It wouldn't be A Small World without you.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

These animals know how to partay. Partying is one thing, partaying is quite another.











We then caught the Electrical parade (one of our favorite things) in Frontierland. I can just hear the music now.





My favorites:



Their little wha wha noises are so funny. I also love this gentleman turtle.


















Sam Eagle's favorite part:



We wanted to ride Big Thunder but it had closed. We didn't let that ruin our whirlwind magical night though, back towards Fantasyland we went! We stopped on the way to walk onto HM. Brian made a new friend while waiting. One of the CMs kept sneaking up behind him and getting very close until he'd turn around and notice. She even snuck up behind us through a different door once we were in the loading area. She was even starting to creep me out by that point, so good job CM!

Next up we walked onto Pooh and experience his very blustery day.

Then we rode the Omega side of Space (walk on) which I thought was the bumpier side by far. We didn't get our picture here, but I did snap this one of the awesome old video they play of the ride.



Then we rode Buzz and I got my highest score ever!



The MK was almost closed, but we had time for one more ride.











Nothing better than the MK on an unplanned, dark and magical night.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

Since I've been working hard to finish up this day of the trip report, I want to go ahead and end with that day's Blooper post.

Now, this day had it's fair share of blinking and weird faces, but I think this picture of us riding Buzz really took the cake. We are both super competitive people. I usually end up winning Buzz and he usually wins TSMM.



I look like a wide eyed crazy person, and Brian said he had just looked at my score right before the photo was taken which is why he is making his 'I am not impressed' face.

 

[OhioStateBuckeye]

So what did you think of AOA compared to the other resorts you have stayed at in WDW? We stayed one night in a AOA Cars Suite. We loved it. I really just wanted to take pics of my kiddo in his cars shirts running around the resort .

I have actually never been on the Backlot tour (and I guess I never will get the chance!). Great pics.

I loved AOA. In my eyes, the better something is themed the more I love it. We were able to explore the Cars area on a different trip, and I wished they had regular rooms because I would have loved to stay there. Did your son love it?

AOA is definitely my favorite value, especially because of the food court. I like it better than all the moderates except for Coronado.

 

[Nhebron]

I loved AOA. In my eyes, the better something is themed the more I love it. We were able to explore the Cars area on a different trip, and I wished they had regular rooms because I would have loved to stay there. Did your son love it?

AOA is definitely my favorite value, especially because of the food court. I like it better than all the moderates except for Coronado.

My son loved it. He is a runner and he just ran through out the resort looking at all the character statues. And I just tried to keep up, clicking away with my huge camera

Weather was kind of cool (February) but we went swimming in the cozy cone pool which was neat. I loved the theme. The room decor was the best!

 

[Nhebron]

Since I've been working hard to finish up this day of the trip report, I want to go ahead and end with that day's Blooper post.

Now, this day had it's fair share of blinking and weird faces, but I think this picture of us riding Buzz really took the cake. We are both super competitive people. I usually end up winning Buzz and he usually wins TSMM.



I look like a wide eyed crazy person, and Brian said he had just looked at my score right before the photo was taken which is why he is making his 'I am not impressed' face.

you look super focused...like "I will win this challenge!"

 

[bearcat97]

I've been looking for TRs that include MNSSHP because our first trip is this September and I want to know ALL THE THINGS about that time of year so YAY for finding yours. (Bonus: you're a Buckeye, even if you don't live in Ohio anymore... I'm a Cincinnati girl by birth, but I live in Columbus (well Delaware, but close... and I work for the city of Columbus) now so all things are Buckeye related, except my screen name!)

Also, can I just say that my favorite discovery of all the Disney-related blogs I have been scouring to figure out the best way to plan a trip with 2 8-year olds who have never been to Disney (and the last time I was there was probably 30 years ago, so yeah... it's different) is Kenny the Pirate? His character info is the BEST!! Even if we don't take a whole day for character hunting this trip, I'm still using his stuff to do as much as we can.