Disney Holiday Firsts At Last! - Final Thoughts Finally!

[mnmrmustard]

Love Grinch shirts

I went on Hulk way back in the day.

I remember literally staggering out of there and not being able to walk straight. That was the only time that ever happened to me after a roller coaster. Fun times

Whew...Glad Bean made it back in time for wand show


Great pics as usual


Pumpkin Pasties Not even going say what I thought when I wrote that as I have not had points since 2008 and don't want them now

Thank you on the shirts, you're about to see a good family pic with them and their namesake

Hulk is quite the coaster, it really spins you for a loop for sure. I can understand getting off it a little shaky.

Yup, she made it just in time.

LOL, no - pasties are just another Honeyduke's treat

 

[mnmrmustard]

The next room was Defense Against the Dark Arts

Harry, Ron, and Hermione give you instruction on how to sneak out of class and take a ride with them

Next stop is the painting guarding the Gryffindor common rooms

And the common room itself

From there you can look down the hall at the sorting hat but its pretty much the end of the walking tour. We took the elevator back down to the bottom floor and got in the ride queue line. Only a 15 minute wait, we rode it two more times to get our fill of flying on a broom.

When we came out and went to get more butterbeer in the Hogs head, this time just cold, not frosted. We walked down to the Three Broomsticks first and peeked in there.

Then on to the Hogs Head

Somewhere during the course of doing this we lost PumpkinGirl. We tried calling her multiple time and Roxy was starting to panic a bit when she came out of Honeydukes packing Pumpkin Pasties.

Once we made our position clear on wandering off and listening/feeling for phones when we do get separated we moved on, saying good-bye to Hogsmeade Village for the last time this trip

Which way to go now?

Thats right, back to Seuss Landing where the Whos were out and about again

We watched them for a minute and then moved on to here for lunch

After a hearty lunch of pizza and more pizza on the meal deal we looked for something to bide our time with while we waited for the next showing of Grinchmas.

We went outside and found that The Grinch himself was holding court in the bookstore next to the Circus. He was very pleased with our shirts!

When our photo op concluded we went out the exit of the bookstore ..and right into a pack of Whos coming out from back stage.

They were very merry until they noticed our shirts

You can see how they reacted to Beans specifically as they came out

The last two shuffled by as quickly as they could, not wanted to be contaminated by any Grinchyness

When we return well have more Whoville fun including an old favorite and a peek at the Backlot


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 7 Part 4 - Whos, Cats, and the Universal Backlot

 

[mnmrmustard]

They moved on into the streets of Whoville to play with the park guests. I followed and watched their antics

We still had some time to kill so we went to an old favorite, The Cat in the Hat ride. Last time we rode it the girls looked like this

On we go! I didn’t start taking pics until about half way into the ride – I just wanted to watch it for a bit. It literally tells the whole story of the Cat in the Hat. Speak of the devil.

And the naysaying fish

You spin almost as much as those colors did when you get to this part of the ride

Thing 1 and Thing 2 make their mess ..and then the Cat returns to clean it all away

Everything back to normal, including the fish!

It was close enough to show time that we went ahead and got in line.

It was right next to One Fish Two Fish

Another one we rode back in the day

We were at the front of the line for people requiring assistance and were lead in ahead of the rest of the audience. They took us through the back lot area between Islands and Universal Studios Proper. You can see the top of the Rockit coaster in front of us as we moved forward

Looking down Stage 20

And at the back of the Hard Rock and our destination – Stage 19

Next up we watch some Grinchy Musical Fun!


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 7 Part 5 - Where Are You Christmas?

 

[Trentmom]

Looks like a fun walkthrough area.

Nice you got to go through ride twice. nice low crowds


THe place you ate at looks cute from outside

Love the Who's reactions to your shirts

Oh man, losing child has got to be the worst feeling, no matter what age. I am glad she reappeared not too much later and I am sure she won't do that again

 

[mnmrmustard]

Looks like a fun walkthrough area.

Nice you got to go through ride twice. nice low crowds


THe place you ate at looks cute from outside

Love the Who's reactions to your shirts

Oh man, losing child has got to be the worst feeling, no matter what age. I am glad she reappeared not too much later and I am sure she won't do that again

It was, it added a dimension I didn't even know about before our visit. Yes, gotta love the low crowds!

It is pretty cute inside too ...here are a couple of pics I took from the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride (a people mover' styled ride) on our April 2011 trip

The Whos were so great with their reaction and just generally staying in character. Great actors for sure.

Losing PumpkinGirl was a big stressor for Roxy, I tried to be the calm center, knowing that she was safe in the park. The whole not being able to speak thing certainly added something to the whole situation though. We were very relieved when we were reunited

 

[mnmrmustard]

The only bad thing about the show is that is had been humid and then the sun came out in full force and there was no shade while we waited by the stage door. It got pretty hot standing out there. Soon enough we were ushered into the studio, which had a large grandstand seating setup. We were the first in so were seated stage right.

The narrator who (I think he was also the mayor) came out and gave the background on the classic Grinch story. It is played out as a condensed musical of the live movie.

Next up was the entrance of Cindy Lous parents Lou Lou Who and Betty Lou Who

..followed by the rest of the Whos as they danced and sang about Christmas and presents and such

Then the grand dame Martha May Whovier made her appearance

More dancing

Big finish to the song

The sleepy who that we saw snoozing against the Christmas tree on our first Universal day was just as full of energy on stage today

And now the Grinch makes his appearance up on the top of the snow-capped mountain

Much grumbling and griping about the Whos and Christmas in general from him of course.

Next we have Cindy Lous entrance all buried in presents

She asks those questions about the meaning of Christmas

More Whos and Grinchiness to come!


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 7 Part 6 - The Grinchy Fun Continues!

 

[Trentmom]

Looks like a very cute show

Love Cindy Lou with all packages around her face

 

[mnmrmustard]

Looks like a very cute show

Love Cindy Lou with all packages around her face

It is a cute one. And the presents were a nice touch taken directly from the movie

 

[Trentmom]

It was, it added a dimension I didn't even know about before our visit. Yes, gotta love the low crowds!

It is pretty cute inside too ...here are a couple of pics I took from the Sky Seuss Trolley Train Ride (a people mover' styled ride) on our April 2011 trip

The Whos were so great with their reaction and just generally staying in character. Great actors for sure.

Losing PumpkinGirl was a big stressor for Roxy, I tried to be the calm center, knowing that she was safe in the park. The whole not being able to speak thing certainly added something to the whole situation though. We were very relieved when we were reunited

Thanks for showing me pics of the inside.

When Trent is a few years older, think we will do a trip half disney and half universal. I want to give him a few years to see if he will ever like roller coasters. Right now, he will ride big thunder mountain and Goofys Barnstorner. I got him on space mountain once and he said never again

 

[mnmrmustard]

Thanks for showing me pics of the inside.

When Trent is a few years older, think we will do a trip half disney and half universal. I want to give him a few years to see if he will ever like roller coasters. Right now, he will ride big thunder mountain and Goofys Barnstorner. I got him on space mountain once and he said never again

You're very welcome! A half and half trip would be good when he is a bit older. As far as coasters Universal is good since it has so few. Just the Dragon Challenge and Hulk at Islands and the Rockin' Rockit' at Universal proper. The rest of them are very tame with the exception of Harry Potter and Simpsons.

I totally agree on Space Mountain, it is a jarring, uncomfortable ride. I won't ride it at MK. DLR's is better though, I will ride that one

 

[mnmrmustard]

Cindy Lou is still asking about Christmas, and the grand dame is more than happy to answer

Cindy Lou finishes singing Where are you Christmas?

We have another musical number

The Grinch is not pleased and starts to hatch his cunning plan

Time to make a Santa suit

And in he comes with a Grinchy ho ho ho

The narrator is not impressed with his evil plan and goes into a very good rendition of Youre a Mean one Mr. Grinch

At this point I want to give special props to the sign language interpreter for the show. She put a lot of feeling in and expression into the show and made it a performance unto itself

The narrator continues his scolding via song

..while the Grinch goes about his thievery

We have the run-in with our wee little Who as the Grinch steals their tree

The Grinch takes his ill-gotten goods and retreats to his mountaintop abode to gloat

But despite what he has done our Whos gather around the tree and sing Welcome Christmas despite all he has done

He of course starts out being aghast that he hasnt ruined everything. But then slowly gets the true meaning of Christmas.

..and his heart grew 3 sizes that day

We hear him rushing down the hill with Max and soon they both come crashing into the village with all of their Christmas goodies

Presents were delivered, songs ensued, and there was Christmas joy for all!

Next up we have the grand finale!


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 7 Part 7 - GrinchMas Musical Finale!

 

[mnmrmustard]

The Grinchs good deed sparks happiness all around Whoville

The sleepy who even woke up - lol

Then we move into the musical finale with much singing and dancing!

Gathering around the tree

And then there were Whos running down to dance up front

They have some killer dance moves!

At the crescendo it started to snow!

Max was even out to join in the fun

The show ends with the Grinch and Cindy Lou singing hand in hand

..notice the sleepy Who reaching behind her back? She had treats stashed for Max so he would stay up front ;-]

It was a really fun and heartwarming show. I highly recommend it for anyone wanting to feel the Christmas spirit, I hope I was able to deliver a small dose of it to you all with my pictorial recap of it :-]


Next up the family splits up, with Roxy and PumpkinGirl heading back to Universal proper to watch Beetlejuice show again. Meanwhile Bean and I check out some more Seussian fun and then experience Dr. Dooms Drop on Marvel Superhero Island!


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 7 Part 8 - The Family Splits up for More Universal Fun!

 

[Trentmom]

Great pics

Really enjoyed all the musical pics

Love that you were able to capture the snow coming down at the end. very cool

 

[mnmrmustard]

Great pics

Really enjoyed all the musical pics

Love that you were able to capture the snow coming down at the end. very cool

Thank you Kelly, it was a fun experience and the snow was a very nice touch

 

[mnmrmustard]

We filed out of the theater while discussing our next move. PumpkinGirl had so enjoyed the Beetlejuice Rock n Roll Musical Revue that she wanted to see it again. It being Roxys favorite show at the Universal parks it was a no brainer for her to go with her. Bean meanwhile wanted to check out more of Seuss Landing so I stayed with her.

The first thing we saw when we came out was good old Sam I Am.

We decided to forgo the line for him but it was cool to see him all the same. They have a walk-thru of the story of the Lorax including audio stops so Bean gave it a go.

The Truffula Trees

As we were about to move on Bean spotted a lizard and spent the next few minutes pursuing and then playing with it outside the Loraxs house. We then started walking towards Marvel Superhero Island. The siren call of the Hulk Coaster was calling to Bean again. On our way out we stopped at this little nook

..which lead back to the egg, which Bean was gracious enough to sit on

This harkens back to our 2002 trip when PumpkinGirl sat on it

She came out of there and thought it was funny how small the doorway was

We then moved on and PumpkinGirl did Hulk as a single rider. Yes, I skipped it again. I had honestly overeaten at lunch, going through the line multiple times at Circus McGurkus for some pretty good pepperoni pizza. Darn that meal deal lol Bean was fine with doing single rider and soon zoomed through and was back down to me.

We then strolled down to Dr. Dooms Drop, which had some decent theming inside

But more importantly for me was the view on the drop itself! Here we go heading up the tower

And the following wonderful view of the lagoon

I was even able to pull off enough level shots to give you a high-level panorama of the place score!

We then moved on to Spiderman and rode it twice. When we came out we found that we had just missed a live street show put on by what looked to be a mix of the X-Men with Spidey and Captain America thrown in. We came out just in time for them to jump onto their motorcycles and take off down the street

We followed them out as we were also now done with Islands of Adventure for the day. Again, I love the theming of the marketplace.

I agree with this statement :-]

We came over to Universal and I ducked into a shop to find some quiet and reserve our MEARS bus for the trip back to POP. I called Roxy and we had decided to catch the 6:15pm bus and get some really good rest this evening before our Mommy/Daughter & Daddy/Daughter day the next day. During our conversation I found out that while they were waiting for the Beetlejuice show time they got to be part of the survey audience for the Pilot of the NBC TV show called Do No Harm. They watched clips and viewed promotional materials and helped choose what went on the air for it.


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 7 Part 9 - Bring on the Minion Dancers!

 

[mnmrmustard]

While on my call I had left Bean in front of the Despicable Me attraction where they were doing a live show. I of course gave her the camera to capture the fun.

Bring on the Minion Dance Crew!

Here comes Vector!

Nice capture by Bean

High steppin’

Word!

I came out and grabbed the camera so Bean could enjoy the show

She was enjoying their antics

Vector was bustin’ some moves himself in the background

The minion dancers finish up

Bean gets a high five!

..and almost missed the ‘down low’

Meanwhile the dance had finished but Vector had not!

The dancer and Bean were having a great interaction

Coming up more Minion fun and another Mummy-filled Adventure!


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 7 Part 10 - From Minions to Mummys!

 

[mnmrmustard]

More Minion dancer fun!

Then another dancer got in on the act

Bean got to hold her lunch pail

Nice pose

Vector was schmoozing with some ladies when Bean walked up to him

He seemed a bit startled!

But came in for a good pose

While we were doing that Gru and his daughters were doing photo ops. We didnt have time to get shots with the girls but we managed to be the last ones in line for Gru himself!

We did get to see the girls frolicking before they went backstage

After all of that fun we had to ride the attraction again. The line was a bit long but we lucked out when they called for two people to fill up a row. We got to skip ahead of a whole bunch of people, saved at least 15 minutes of waiting. It was very fun of course and when we came out we were greeted by two minions!

Then I took a shot of us on the screen with dancing minions

At this point the ladies had finished watching Beetlejuice so we met up and decided to have dinner. Given where we were at it was a no brainer to eat at Monster Café again. Once we finished another good meal there we asked the girls what they wanted to do while we waited for the Macys Christmas Parade to start. They wanted another shot at the Mummy ride so off we went!

The big guy was very welcoming

Meow

They have a two-story statue in the center of the queue area very impressive

These look important!

Another fun ride and we were done in time to get good curbside seats for the parade.


Next up get ready for a mega-post of the Macys Holiday Parade!



Click here for the next Chapter: Day 7 Part 11 - Introducing The Macy's Holiday Parade!

 

[Trentmom]

Great update!!

I like pics around Seuss section. Looks fun.

Seeing the old photo of Pumpking girl on the egg and new one of Bean was neat. It was cool to see how the nest and a few other things are more detailed now

What is Dooms Fall? Is that like Free Fall ride?

How cool Pumpkin girl and Roxy got to see some of a pilot and do a survey on it.

The Minion dancers looked like lot of fun and enjoyed seeing all the interaction Bean had with them

 

[cherbear]

We all struggled into wakefulness on our first park day at 7am. I had gotten about 8hrs of sleep, Bean maybe a half hour more, and Roxy and PumpkinGirl were somewhere in the 9 1/2hr neighborhood. So not too bad as far as hours go but still a struggle given the long day we had the day before, and that our west coast brains were trying to tell us it was 4am instead of 7am, and two of us being sick.

Speaking of sickies, or ironically not speaking of ...well, let me rephrase. PumpkinGirl woke up with no voice at all. The cold had brought on a case of laryngitis. This was to continue for the rest of the trip. We thought about how to deal with it and the cold meds were keeping her symptoms at bay and she could walk and such, just no voice. So we ended up taking her luggage tag and flipping over the paper inside. On the paper we wrote Sorry, I have lost my voice with a smiley face. She wore it on her wrist and showed it to anyone we were interacting with and we did a sort of pigeon sign language for most communications. It made for some colorful experiences, especially with characters!

We had all taken showers the night before and had set out clothes and such so it was just a matter of getting dressed and getting everyone out the door. We were out of the room by 7:30am and after a quick stop thru the gift shop to check the CM's lanyards for pins; we were at the stop for DHS with a bus just pulling up.

Here we are in our early morning glory

It was a beautiful sunny morning and after a short drive we were at the entrance to DHS and saw their wonderful tree

We got in the ADR line for Hollywood and Vine and were let in just before 8am. We had 8:05am reservations so our names were called very quickly and were seated at a table right next to the beginning of the right-hand buffet line. We were there for the food and the early entry, not so much the characters. They made their rounds and we waved to them and they waved back and moved on. I did get a couple of pics of Jake the Pirate while he was doing a song and dance with a couple of the CMs

The food was great, especially the cheezy spuds and the ham. The service was very good despite how hectic it was in there. We all ate our fill and were out the door by about 8:45am. We joined the flood of people that had just been lead in and made our way to TSM. I picked up FPs for it and we got in the stand-by line. It was at a 10 minute wait when we walked thru the entrance.

Bean took over photography duty for the ride queue:

As you can see some of the queue areas werent even being used yet

Who here wanted to knock over those dominos?

I loved that you could see scenes from Peter Pan thru the ViewMaster disk. I had one of those when I was a kid!

Yay, Tomorrowland!

Kewl

Watch out, its a shark!

Andy was quite the artist

Hi Roxy!

I love the board game theming on the ceiling

The monkeys broke out of their barrel!

I think Ive seen that hombre somewhere

I love the Pixar lamp reference

Bean found a hidden Mickey!

I see hand cactus

Faithful Bullseye

We were on the wheelchair side so we bypassed the upstairs queue and came out to a great view of Andys bed

At the foot of the bed is the Meeting Agenda from TS1  I thought that was very cool

Here is the scene as we waited our turn to board. There are only certain cars that have built in accommodation so we had some time to soak up the scene.

I rode with Bean, which was generally the rule. Roxy and PumpkinGirl stayed together with their sickie-ickies and Bean and I rode in the well but slightly crazy car. Bean was winning the whole way through but I managed to barely beat her out in the bonus round. She was not amused  lol

Next up we take a trip to the movies on the GMR!


Click here for the next Chapter: Day 2 Part 2 - On to the Movies!

you always have the best pictures!! And Bean sure takes after you. You showed some things in the queue that I have never really taken a good look at. Granted...I've only been in the queue ONCE and that was just so we could see everything. Every time after that has been with FP. That line just gets way too long for my taste.

Sorry that you had sickies on your trip but glad you all seem to be having a great time despite it!

thanks Kelly for alerting me to this report!

 

[cherbear]

awesome Indy pics too! I remember when you were in the show! I was in it the last time we went too. (way back in 2009...yikes!) It was a ton of fun but I would like to go back and actually watch again too

fav pic: