Is 7 Days Enough to Make a First Timer Fall in Love??--Aug'11 TR-- FINAL UPDATE 8/26

Confession time: I had never heard of The Wave before, and in the last 24 hours I've seen it on 3 different (P)TRs! I wish I had seen it sooner because now I'm itching to try it! Next trip I guess.

I also didn't like SM before the reno, found it awfully jerky but thought it was better after. I thought it might be in my head too, but maybe not if I'm not the only one to think it!

Great update :)

Okay good so maybe it's not just in my head either! :goodvibes

When I started reading your arrival to MK and seeing your pics, I was thinking, "look at all that pretty blue sky"

It didn't take long for that "pretty blue" to turn dark gray! Yikes!

Have never been to The Wave... but after reading about your yummy dinner, I think I'll need to try it!

I would definitely recommend it. It was so yummy!

Joining in!
The food at the Wave looked great - except I don't like blue cheese.....but yummy desserts!!!

Hmmm I suppose not liking blue cheese would make that dish less appetizing :rotfl: But if I remember correctly, that wasn't even the dish that the waiter recommended. It was some other steak dish, so maybe there is something else there for you! ;)
 
Geez, I can't believe they closed the monorail down! That's pretty scary.

Omgosh your food looks so good. I'm STARVING right now, almost lunch time. And the desserts you chose were the desserts I would have chosen! :banana:

Isn't it so hard looking at food pictures on here when you're hungry? I had already picked out what I wanted to eat for my lunch at Le Cellier months before our trip and was literally drooling over it looking at pictures in TRs.

ok- let me try again o subscribe to the story.

I hope it works! :goodvibes

I'm totally keeping up with your TR. As a matter of fact, all day at work I kept dragging on and on and thinking "maybe when I get home there will be more to read on this trip report". :goodvibes It gave me something to look forward to on this otherwise boring Tues.

I love blue cheese and am starving right now so I want to eat my computer screen looking at that steak:laughing:

So at this point the only park BF has been to is MK, right? He really liked Philarmagic but what else did you notice he thought was impressive? Did he like Space or Splash?

Keep it up!

You're too funny! I'm so happy that you're looking forward to reading my updates :worship: Your comment about eating your computer screen literally made me laugh out loud! :rotfl2:

He liked both Space and Splash and I would have thought he enjoyed Space more because that was the one he preferred to ride again later on (spoiler alert! :lmao:) but I just asked him and he said he liked them both equally...go figure :laughing:

That food looks really yummy! I'm so glad that I have a reservation there in October.

Your dessert looked absolutely divine. I think that's what I'm going to have to get.

Oh I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! :goodvibes

Lol love the photo of BF with the sheriff hat on! :laughing: Glad to read you enjoyed Space Mountain much more this time.

Wow at the monorail being closed due to the weather (crazy stuff!) Sounds like you had a great meal at The Wave - all of the food looks soo yummy :thumbsup2

I know! And I was so looking forward to BF getting to ride it for the first time!
 
I have to catch up, I just got power back after the lovely Irene visited here!

First, holy smokes, the rain must have been bad, plus the lightening!

Second, um the food looks amazing! Its so funny that you mentioned that you didn't care for the fruit on the cheesecake, because when I looked at the photo of the menu, the first thing I thought was I would have to find out what the seasonal fruit is before I ordered that!

The idea of popcorn gelato both frightens me and sparks my curiousity. Have a great first day of school!

Oh my gosh, glad you finally got power back! I have heard so many horror stories about this storm. I feel so so so so lucky...I didn't even lose power in my apartment! A lot of towns hear here still don't have all their power restored and some are still flooded! It's just craziness! Did you have any flooding?

I am totally with you on the popcorn gelato! Although I should confess...I *love* the buttered popcorn flavor on jelly belly jelly beans. BF things I'm disgusting for it... So maybe I would like popcorn-flavored gelato! I guess I better book another WDW trip so I can go back and find out!

No worries! get better soon and take your time on your trip report. I know I sometimes go several days before I get a chance to update mine. We've all subscribed and will check in here and there and certainly not give up on ya!

Thanks :hug:

I am enjoying your report. I took my gf to Disney World last year for the 1st time. It was so much fun watching her reactions :)

So what were her reactions!?!? Did she love it!?!? :lovestruc

First: I can't believe that the monorailw as shut down. I don't think I've even even heard of that before.

Second: The food looked absolutely delicious.

Third: I'm happy to see that your boyfriend is seems to be enjoying Disney more and more in each update :goodvibes.

Can't wait for another update popcorn::!

First: I know! I was really looking forward to BF riding the monorail for the first time and he was actually looking forward to it too! When we left the park there were CMs blocking the way saying it was closed. A little while later I saw on Twitter that they were down due to a lightning strike. This was the link that Touring Plans tweeted:
http://blog.touringplans.com/2011/08/20/monorails-down-at-wdw-due-to-lightning-strike/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Second: It was! :thumbsup2

Third: Thanks! I was happy too! :goodvibes

I just found your TR and it's great! My fiance *might* be joining my family in January for a week in WDW and I'm so nervous. He's only been once at age 7, and he just doesn't "get it". I'm hoping I can turn him into a Disney lover!

That will be so fun! It should be pretty empty in January right? That will make for a great first trip! What will determine whether he joins you or not?

No giving up here, everyone has a life to live outside of the Dis ;)

:laughing: Thanks! Life outside the Dis just isn't as fun though... ;)

Just wanted to chime in to let you know that I'm enjoying your report. Keep up the great work! :)

:worship: Thank you!!

No need to apologise - just post whenever you are able to do so and we will all still be here and reading along! :grouphug:

Hope the new school year is going well.

Thank you! :hug:

A busy day for you indeed! Do you start school next tuesday? Hope you feel better soon! :goodvibes

Today was the first day for teachers, tomorrow we have workshops all day, and Tuesday is the first day with students. And thanks, I do feel a bit better today.
 
Saturday, August 20 - Part 5

During dinner we talked about what we had done so far. What I mean is, BF had his first formal interview of the trip:

I started by asking him if Disney World had been what he expected so far. He said the atmosphere in the park was pretty much what he had expected but the rides had been better than he had thought they would be! :-)woohoo:) He also said it was more crowded than he had expected (hmm...wonder how he'd feel at Christmas??). He was really enjoying all the attention to detail, "like how they go all-out with theming, even the waiting areas match the theme of the ride." He said POTC was not as corny as he thought it would be and Jack Sparrow looked very real. But he also said he wished he hadn't already seen the Jack Sparrow animatronic on the Behind the Scenes DVD I made him watch so he could've been surprised by it. Oops... :headache: He thought the storyline of Splash Mountain was "weird" but the ride was fun. He said it was "really good for a log flume." He also said [again] that Mickey's Philharmagic was "WAY better than expected."

After our delicious dinner, we headed upstairs to see if the monorails were back up and running but they were not :sad2: Instead I just took a picture of the entrances to:
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Then we started back towards MK. We were happy to see that the sky was once again blue and the massive puddles we had to tiptoe through on our way to the CR had already evaporated!
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When we re-entered the park the Walt Disney World Railroad was at the Main Street Station and I thought it would be fun to ride it to Frontierland so we could use our BTMRR FP but we just missed the train by a few seconds. The gates were pretty much closed right in front of us as we got up the stairs. Oh well. I took a few pictures from the top of the station.

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I pointed out to BF that we could get him a 1st visit pin from guest relations and he was surprisingly all for it! When we got there though, there was a pretty long line out the door. I told him it was okay and we didn't have to wait but he *insisted* that we should! Who was this strange person and what had he done with my BF? I certainly wasn't going to argue! The line moved pretty quickly and when we got to the front I asked the CM for a 1st visit pin for BF. But then, something very surprising happened. BF then asked the CM for a birthday pin for me! :eek: I didn't even know that he knew there was such a thing! Apparently he saw other people wearing birthday pins. (By the way, my birthday had been 4 days before this) I was seriously shocked...not only was he more than willing to wear a first visit pin, but he had thought to get a birthday pin for me! Now I knew for sure I was in a magical place! :rotfl: Here he is showing off his souvenir (which, by the way, he insisted he take home!)
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We continued down Main Street,
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and took our first photopass picture.
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So, one of the things BF did *not* enjoy during this trip was taking photopass pictures. Okay to be honest, I didn't always want to stop either but I really wanted to get as many pictures together as possible. He may not have liked it, but he always did it when I asked. I think he'll agree now that it was worth it to have the pictures taken, even if he doesn't agree with the price I paid for it ($99.99 for a pre-order - I honestly can't believe I was willing to pay that much either). By the way, whenever we took photopass pictures, I also gave the photographer my camera. They've always been willing to do this and while the picture quality isn't as good as their official photos, and we don't get any of the magic shots, it's still nice to have on my camera. The picture above was taken by a photopass photographer with my camera. And this reminds me, I should really order the CD this weekend now that I'm done adding my borders and stuff (trying to get my money's worth!).

BF wanted to walk through the castle (again...who is this person!?!?) and we ended up here:
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The wait time was posted as 15 minutes but there was no line whatsoever. We walked right up to the front doors. While waiting for them to open, I admired the graveyard.
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I wanted to get a picture of her with her eyes open but unfortunately (or not?) the doors opened right away and we moved right in to the stretch room. Even though I didn't get a picture of her eyes open, BF at least saw it and thought it was cool. He liked the ride, although he of course had to comment that it wasn't really scary, but he thought the special effects were really cool, including the stretch room. I love love love the HM so I was really glad that BF enjoyed it. I realized later that night that I didn't even look at the new interactive queue! :headache:

Next we walked back to Frontierland to get another FP for Splash Mountain. BF would have preferred to get another FP for Space Mountain but that would have meant criss-crossing the park and he wasn't up for that, plus I really wanted to ride Splash during the MSEP. I didn't make a note of what the standby wait was at the time we got the FP, but the return time was at 8:10 pm, only 35 minutes away.
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Then we walked next door to use our FP for BTMRR. And we certainly weren't alone.
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Ha! I just noticed BF in the lower left corner of the photo. I wonder what he's looking at...

40 minute standby wait
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The FP line moved quickly though and before long we were boarding the wildest ride in the wilderness!
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I'll admit that BTMRR is pretty tame compared to Six Flags' rollercoasters but the theming of course makes it a fabulous ride. And it's so much fun! BF liked it but didn't seem like he loved it. Pfft, oh well, can't win 'em all.

After our ride we found ourselves in Adventureland once again. And would you look at this:
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A line out the door for the Tiki Room!!!! :scared1: It had reopened a few days ago after the fire that closed it back in January and it is no longer under new management. It is now called "Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room" and apparently it is reminiscent of the original attraction. I hope I don't offend anyone by saying that I wouldn't be waiting on line to see it...

Instead we headed to the Jungle Cruise which had a 15 minute wait time posted. This would be my first time riding it at night.
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I think we waited just about that, if not a few minutes more. Our skipper was in training so we had 2 other CM riding with us. I might not have noticed if we weren't sitting right in the front. One of the CMs would whisper things to the skipper from time to time and once she even turned the wheel for him which I thought was strange because I thought the boat was on a track... Anyway, our skipper delivered all of his lines with very overt sarcasm which I honestly didn't enjoy. He almost sounded like he was annoyed to be saying them. I think the jokes are much funnier when they're delivered enthusiastically. But that's just my opinion. Maybe he was nervous. I'm sure it's a very difficult job. I know I couldn't entertain a boat-load of people like that.

Even though I was disappointed with the narration, the Jungle Cruise is still the Jungle Cruise and it's a classic that can't be missed. BF disagreed however. He really didn't like it at all. It probably didn't help that this had been our longest wait so far and it was disappointing. Oh well...


Up Next: More things at Magic Kingdom that BF liked more than the Jungle Cruise!
 
What kind of camera do you have? It takes GREAT, clear pictures! :thumbsup2

:lmao: DH LOVED Mickey's Philharmagic too! He couldn't stop talking about it once we got off! I'm so glad your BF liked it!

And how sweet of him to ask for a birthday pin for you!

I must be really behind on WDW attractions...there's an interactive queue at the Haunted Mansion now? I knew there was one for Space Mountain, but not for the HM. And what's this fire you speak of at the Tiki Room (should have stayed closed IMO :lmao: JK of course)
 
So sweet of him to think of a birthday pin for you!
I first saw the Tiki Room when I was 5, and remembered being so bored that I've never gone back! Haha, maybe I'll try it this trip.
I've never done the Jungle Cruise at night! I think I'm going to have to do that!
Great update :)
 
So what were her reactions!?!? Did she love it!?!? :lovestruc

It was funny to secretly watch her during Its Tough To Be a Bug when
the bugs crawl underneath you. lol. And her reaction to Soarin was awesome. She enjoyed it so much :) Same with the Rockin' Rollercoaster :) she loved it
 
Hooray! I'm having such a good time following along on your trip report, because we were there at the same time!! :cool1:

We were at MK on Saturday too! Bet you anything we probably crossed paths once or twice. When the skies opened up, we were just coming out of the Carousel of Progress -- that was crazy rain, just buckets coming down! After making a mad dash to Space Mountain and a soggy ride, we bought our ponchos too. They sure came in handy for the week.

I'm glad you and BF had such a great time, and I'm looking forward to hearing more!! :hippie:
 
That will be so fun! It should be pretty empty in January right? That will make for a great first trip! What will determine whether he joins you or not?
Yes, January is an awesome time to go as far as crowds are concerned. I know he would like it more then since it won't be as busy. I couldn't imagine taking him in the summer or at Christmas. We are waiting to see if he will be able to get off work and what the money situation is like. My family will be paying for DD and me, but they can't really pick up his ticket and all of his food when we will already have a group of 7 without him. He might just drive down from NC with us and fly back mid-week.

Sounds like the return to MK was successful! How sweet that he got you a birthday button! :lovestruc
 
Love your detailed report!

I love how you gave BF his "first formal interview" :lmao: I'm going to do that for my whole family after our first night!

So sweet how he got into the buttons. That's pretty cool!

I did go on Haunted Mansion when I went on my solo trip and I LOVED it, probably my very most favorite in all of MK! I also really liked Jungle Cruise and heard it was better at night. Did you prefer the night or when you've gone in the day before?

That's great about how so many are impressed by Philarmagic. I have not been in that yet and am very curious now after hearing so much about it! If your BF was impressed, I'm sure my husband will be because they sound very similar. The only 3-D type movie I saw while at WDW is the Bug one at Animal Kingdom and I was very impressed by that. Is the Philarmagic equally had detailed and vivid?

Glad you are feeling better by the way!
 
Lol at having a formal interview about the trip! Love the idea and may have to borrow it to see if our trip has as much success! :thumbsup2

Aaw that is sweet of DBF to get you a birthday pin after seeing other people wear it.

Yay on getting a lot done on your return - the line of the Tiki room sure looks scary! Oh no on not having a great skipper on Jungle Cruise - that is such a bummer!
 
What kind of camera do you have? It takes GREAT, clear pictures! :thumbsup2

:lmao: DH LOVED Mickey's Philharmagic too! He couldn't stop talking about it once we got off! I'm so glad your BF liked it!

And how sweet of him to ask for a birthday pin for you!

I must be really behind on WDW attractions...there's an interactive queue at the Haunted Mansion now? I knew there was one for Space Mountain, but not for the HM. And what's this fire you speak of at the Tiki Room (should have stayed closed IMO :lmao: JK of course)

My camera is a Cannon PowerShot SD1400IS and I really love my daytime pictures. Nighttime isn't as great though and I have to be very careful to hold the camera still and sometimes I still can't get a good picture as you'll see in my next update :rotfl:

About HM queue - it opened in the last few months. It was still all covered up when I was there in February.
http://www.onlywdworld.com/2011/06/new-haunted-mansion-queue-at-magic.html

Now after reading that I'm even more upset I missed this! Oh well...this just means I have to go back!

And the tiki room fire was small but some of the animatronics were destroyed.

So sweet of him to think of a birthday pin for you!
I first saw the Tiki Room when I was 5, and remembered being so bored that I've never gone back! Haha, maybe I'll try it this trip.
I've never done the Jungle Cruise at night! I think I'm going to have to do that!
Great update :)

I really don't remember how many times I've seen the Tiki Room or when the last time was and it just doesn't stand out in my mind at all. I would have seen the new show if there was no line and BF was willing, but he just wasn't interested at all.

It was funny to secretly watch her during Its Tough To Be a Bug when
the bugs crawl underneath you. lol. And her reaction to Soarin was awesome. She enjoyed it so much :) Same with the Rockin' Rollercoaster :) she loved it

Haha I felt like I was (maybe not-so-secretly) watching my BF during every ride to see his reactions. I'm glad she had fun and you guys had a great trip!

Hooray! I'm having such a good time following along on your trip report, because we were there at the same time!! :cool1:

We were at MK on Saturday too! Bet you anything we probably crossed paths once or twice. When the skies opened up, we were just coming out of the Carousel of Progress -- that was crazy rain, just buckets coming down! After making a mad dash to Space Mountain and a soggy ride, we bought our ponchos too. They sure came in handy for the week.

I'm glad you and BF had such a great time, and I'm looking forward to hearing more!! :hippie:

How funny we were there on the same day! I'm sure we must have crossed paths because I felt like I was all over the park all day. What were the dates of your trip? We may have crossed paths on other days too!

Great TR, we are going for our firstbtime in 19 days. So im excitedd to see your BFs first trip.

Thank you! You're going to have an *amazing* time!! Are you staying on-property?

Yes, January is an awesome time to go as far as crowds are concerned. I know he would like it more then since it won't be as busy. I couldn't imagine taking him in the summer or at Christmas. We are waiting to see if he will be able to get off work and what the money situation is like. My family will be paying for DD and me, but they can't really pick up his ticket and all of his food when we will already have a group of 7 without him. He might just drive down from NC with us and fly back mid-week.

Sounds like the return to MK was successful! How sweet that he got you a birthday button! :lovestruc

Well I hope he joins you for at least part! And if not...you'll just have to plan another trip with him! :goodvibes

Love your detailed report!

I love how you gave BF his "first formal interview" :lmao: I'm going to do that for my whole family after our first night!

So sweet how he got into the buttons. That's pretty cool!

I did go on Haunted Mansion when I went on my solo trip and I LOVED it, probably my very most favorite in all of MK! I also really liked Jungle Cruise and heard it was better at night. Did you prefer the night or when you've gone in the day before?

That's great about how so many are impressed by Philarmagic. I have not been in that yet and am very curious now after hearing so much about it! If your BF was impressed, I'm sure my husband will be because they sound very similar. The only 3-D type movie I saw while at WDW is the Bug one at Animal Kingdom and I was very impressed by that. Is the Philarmagic equally had detailed and vivid?

Glad you are feeling better by the way!

I'm not sure if I prefer day or night for JC. I really think the skipper makes or breaks the whole experience more so than the time of day. But I had also heard that lots of people prefer it at night. I wonder why that is.

If you liked It's Tough to be a Bug, you will no doubt love Philharmagic. It's good to do in the afternoon because the lines really don't get long. The usual wait is just until the next show which is maybe every 15 min or so. But definitely do it!

Lol at having a formal interview about the trip! Love the idea and may have to borrow it to see if our trip has as much success! :thumbsup2

Aaw that is sweet of DBF to get you a birthday pin after seeing other people wear it.

Yay on getting a lot done on your return - the line of the Tiki room sure looks scary! Oh no on not having a great skipper on Jungle Cruise - that is such a bummer!

You should definitely talk about the things you've done and take notes. You will have lots of people waiting to hear all the details of your trip! And you're going so soon! :yay:
 
Saturday, August 20 - Part 6

After Jungle Cruise, we crossed through the hub on our way to Tomorrowland.
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I tried to take a picture of the sign but I totally moved my camera while taking it and got this:
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I love Tomorrowland at night.
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We headed here to use our FP.
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I didn't take a picture of our scores, perhaps because BF had beat me by so much. :sad2: I was a Space Ranger 1st Class and he was a Planetary Pilot. And he was *very* excited about this. Well, I was just happy he had fun!
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You can see in the picture, he put his glasses on for this! And it's no wonder I lost! I don't look like I'm even aiming at anything!

After saving the galaxy from the Evil Emperor Zurg we needed to relax a little bit so we went on the People Mover again. BF didn't particularly want to do this again but I did and of course there was absolutely no line. I know I already wrote that I love this ride, but I need to say it again. I love this ride. :lovestruc It's especially fun at night when there's a dance party going on in Tomorrowland.

Next we moved on to Fantasyland.
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We continued through Fantasyland to check on the status of Peter Pan's Flight. There was still a long standby wait (although I didn't write down what it was...shame on me) and FP had all been distributed for the day. As cute as Peter Pan is, it's very short and in my opinion (for two adults) not worth waiting more than 15 or 20 minutes for. We skipped it for now and went across the way to the happiest cruise that ever sailed!
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BF looks thrilled, right? He wasn't overly excited to ride this. But he knew it was a classic and he couldn't come to Disney World and not ride it! I always enjoy it and the music really doesn't bother me. I especially love the glitter everywhere. I think it's so pretty :goodvibes
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BF said IASW was just okay and kind of creepy. He's probably not alone on that.

At this point the MSEP had started on Main Street and was slowly making it's way toward Frontierland. Neither of us wanted to stand around and watch it so we decided to go in the same direction, to Frontierland. I wanted to ride Splash Mountain during the parade because you can see the floats moving down the street from up there and it's very pretty at night. If you're actually interested in watching the parade, then this idea is not for you.

As we walked through Frontierland we got to see a couple of floats. They're so pretty all lit up and I really like the MSEP music. But I honestly get bored of watching pretty quickly. BF was impressed by them but still didn't want to watch the whole thing. So we continued on and used our FP for Splash Mountain although we really didn't need to. There was no line. At all. We had our own log all to ourselves. I of course got into the front row, and BF started getting into the second row behind me! He's such a character that one. I yelled at him and he got into the first row with me.
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Here's a not-so-great picture of a MSEP float as viewed from the beginning of Splash Mountain when you're outside for a few seconds. I just think it's cool to see the lit-up floats from up there.
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Look at us all lonely in our log :lmao:
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Now it was time to find a viewing spot for Wishes. We were well aware that we wouldn't have a very good spot because it was so close to starting. We took a seat on the Liberty Square side of the Castle which seemed like a pretty decent spot when the shooting stars were flying over the castle in the beginning.
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However once the actual fireworks started we couldn't see them so we moved around towards the front closer to the hub and ended up in a somewhat decent spot. Some of the fireworks were behind the trees but we could still see them. This was fine for us but was in no way, shape, or form an ideal viewing location. If seeing Wishes is important to you, make sure you get your spot early!
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BF liked Wishes a lot. I thought he would find it corny but he didn't say anything about that. I was really happy that he liked it. After it ended we waited in our spot for a few minutes and watched while most people on Main Street headed for the exit. We wanted to see the Magic, Memories, and You light show on the castle since we had missed the earlier one. After Wishes, it's very easy to find a good spot right in front of the Castle to watch this. We had no problem finding a chair outside The Plaza where we could relax and have a great view of the castle. By the time the show started, there were still plenty of empty chairs. We weren't really that close where we could see all the photographs in detail but that was okay. I was very happy to be sitting in a chair at this point because my still-wet socks were irritating the backs of my ankles and I could feel blisters forming. I had put band-aids on earlier but they kept getting wet and falling off.

Here's a picture. Sorry it's very dark.
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BF really loved this. He couldn't stop talking about how cool the effects were. It made me so happy to hear. BF noticed the Ice Cream Shop right behind us afterwards and wanted to get something. The line had been way out the door right when Wishes had ended but it was shorter now. We waited a few minutes to order and a few more to get our ice cream floats but it wasn't too bad of a wait. My float had root beer and BF had coke, both with vanilla ice cream. He really loves floats but it's not usually something I order. I think I would have enjoyed it more if I wasn't still so full from dinner. We used 2 snack credits for these.
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We drank our floats while we exited the park. Gotta love Main Street at night.
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When we got outside the turnstiles we saw crazy crazy crazy lines for buses! The monorail was still not operating and there was a line for the bus to the TTC that went back all the way past the end of the bus stop. And it was the furthest bus stop from the park entrance - if you can picture that. I had NEVER seen a line like that for a bus. It was absolutely insane. I can't believe I don't have any pictures of it either. At first I thought it was the line for Pop Century, in which case I would have definitely looked for an alternative way to get back. Even if it meant taking a cab. I was relieved to find out it wasn't the Pop line (and I felt so bad for all the people who were stuck standing on it) but it turned out the line for Pop Century was pretty crazy as well. It was definitely the longest line for a bus I had ever waited on. It was 11:10 pm when we got on line. My feet were really hurting from my stupid wet socks and I really just wanted to get back to the hotel and sleep. We played 20 questions while we were on line and BF kept thinking of Disney related things :laughing: This made me feel a little better. I don't know why I didn't write down the time we finally got back to Pop Century but when we got closer to the actual loading area (our line started way back nowhere close to the actual stop, and we waited a long time before we even got to start looping back and forth in that area, if you know what I mean) a few buses came in a row and things moved quicker. I would estimate that we were on line for at least 40 minutes before getting on a bus. I can't even imagine how long it took some people to get back to the TTC to get their cars. Wow, what a crazy ending to the night.

Overall though, it was an absolutely fantastic first day!


Next Up: Segway Tour at Epcot!
 
My camera is a Cannon PowerShot SD1400IS and I really love my daytime pictures. Nighttime isn't as great though and I have to be very careful to hold the camera still and sometimes I still can't get a good picture as you'll see in my next update :rotfl:

About HM queue - it opened in the last few months. It was still all covered up when I was there in February.
http://www.onlywdworld.com/2011/06/new-haunted-mansion-queue-at-magic.html

Now after reading that I'm even more upset I missed this! Oh well...this just means I have to go back!

And the tiki room fire was small but some of the animatronics were destroyed.

Thanks for the info on your camera. I need a new Point and Shoot since mine broke on the cruise :headache: so i'll probably be looking at this one. I think your night time pics are great! ESPECIALLY the ones of the castle. :love: And oh my gosh, night time in Tomorrowland is probably the best land at night for SURE! I especially love riding the People Mover at night. It's relaxing, but bright and wonderful! :cloud9:

Your update was great! Ugh, that's the worst part at the end of the day...trying to get back 'home'. The first time we went to WDW we stayed at Pop during the Summer, and the lines were ridiculous for ALL resorts. It was mostly at MK when we experienced the madness of the busses.
 
What a great first day you guys had!

Love the idea of riding Splash Mountain when MSEP is running. Nice to be in your own log and not have to worry about anybody else.

DBF seems to be liking things so far. Can't wait to hear how he feels about the other parks. :goodvibes
 

During dinner we talked about what we had done so far. What I mean is, BF had his first formal interview of the trip:

Oh my goodness I just laughed so hard when I read that!!! "Formal interview." :rotfl2: I just had to stop lurking and say how much I'm loving this report. Oh my word.

After our trip last year, one of my deals with my DBF (Disney skeptic extraordinaire) is that, as I lose weight, every 10 pounds he has to have a 1 hour conversation with me about planning our trip--I've got a questionnaire all prepped for our first "interview" tomorrow night. (e.g. "If you could veto 5 things from my finalized plans, what do you think they would be?") I just can't believe that other fellow GFs to skeptical BFs out there think of these conversations as "interviews" kind of like I do... I always feel like it's this careful balance between not trying to convert him, but like, trying to make sure he's having or will have a good time.

Also, riding Splash Mountain during the parade is such a great idea... will definitely do this!

I'm so glad your BF is having a good time in this trip! I'm so happy for you guys, you look like such a great couple and like you're having a GREAT time together in WDW!
 
Love the pics of Tomorrowland at night! :thumbsup2

Lol at DBF beating you on Buzz lightyear - think I'm going to lose at that and TSMM as well!

Yay on getting a Splash Mountain log to yourselves and enjoying MSEP from the ride. You guys sure had a great evening with that and then Wishes. Shame about the crowds afterwards - what a crazy way to end the day! :eek:
 
I love Tomorrowland at night! Such pretty pictures. :) You two had such a good first day! I can't wait to hear what BF thinks of the other parks.
 

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