This elevator leads directly to THE GIFT SHOP! A Dec. 2011 TR from BWI - FINAL 8-27

[kwitcherkicken99]

Love pin trading. I should of never started. Hmmm....looks like buzz maybe wanted to propose...
At least I didnt have far to catch up with your TR.. Loving it.

I've been so super busy the last couple weeks.

It's May. I hope to survive it!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We took a stroll towards Fantasyland from Tomorrowland after a stop at the bathroom. Look who we ran into!

I’ve met Alice in EP before but never the White Rabbit. E took her turn and then it was up to me. I’m not sure if I have mentioned (like a million times) that I purposely buy oversized pens for autographs. It’s easier for the gloved characters to grab and the face characters always have a reaction to them. The White Rabbit signed my book and passed off the pen to Alice.



She asked if I dribbled some of the “Drink Me” potion on it to make it large. I replied, “well yeah – I needed to test it before I drank it”. She said that was a good idea. I continued on that I didn’t want to become a mile high or they’d kick me out of the park. She paused for a minute and told us thanks for stopping by. I ALMOST had her out of character. Almost. She wasn’t the only one I got to break character that week. ::maniacal laugh::

I guess we meandered over to Liberty Square from there and I guess we misbehaved…

We knew we needed to start heading to the front – we wanted to tour the monorail resorts before our reservation for early dinner. Leaving the park through the Hub, we ran into another friend.

We took a spin on the train before leaving. We had an interesting conversation with another rider. He lamented that all three of us had three very different cameras. After our backside tour of MK was done, we stopped of a couple of photos with the giant tree.

We took the monorail over to the Contemporary. It’s really neat to see the Grand Canyon Concourse all decked out for the holidays. The massive wreath, the over-sized gingerbread tree with the throw-back to Mary Blair – all cool.

We took the escalators near Chef Mickey’s to the lower level to the Wave for our last lunch/early dinner reservation. I will say that this was the meal I was most excited about. I had heard nothing but good things about it!

I chose the tomato penne pasta, well, my allergy-free version of the pasta. It was heavy on the garlic, but the pasta was tender and very tasty! Our waiter, James, was a little distant at first, but since we were one of the only tables before dinner service really started, he had some more time to chat. I actually told him the secrets to becoming a galactic hero and he was floored that he’d been a CM for over 10 years and never knew how to score that high!

After our bellies were full of American cuisine and AWESOME homemade ice cream, we toured GF to see the gingerbread house there.

We also wanted to stop at Basin WHITE. I was also on a secondary mission to find my 40th anniversary Dooney & Burke wristlet. I had been looking for a couple days and no one had them. Since the wristlets were relatively affordable, they sold a metric ton of them in October. Since I didn’t meet my full weight loss goal, I wasn’t going to treat myself with a large bag, but I still deserved something nice for all my hard work.



Anyway… they were out in MK, DHS, DTD (Do you see a pattern here? No pin, no purse… ). I was told to check at GF. If they didn’t have them at GF, I may be out of luck. And I was. GF was out of the wristlets, too.

We headed back to MK a little after 5p. We decided to go see Mickey and Minnie before we set our party plan into action.

We ran back to the locker to get into our party gear and chose to ride a couple rides. We planned to be in line for the princesses/Flynn Rider by no later than 6:15p. We were following easyWDW's post on gauging the waits by popularity. Josh said to go to the princesses first, then Jack... that is if you weren't waiting for the Dwarves.

Off we set for POTC and IASW.

Pirate Goofy was a flirt too! [what is it with these boys??]

I’m going to take a TR break to ask you all to read this:
The Disney community recently lost Robert Sherman, half of the Sherman brother duo AKA “the boys”. The boys were responsible for many of the songs that shaped early Disney films. Their work on Mary Poppins was incredible and they lent their talents to the theme parks as well, composing One Little Spark, Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, and It’s a Small World. After his passing, his son Jeffrey wrote a wonderful tribute to his father. IASW has always been a favorite of mine, but now, I can no longer look at it the same way after reading Mr. Sherman’s tribute. HERE. http://thedisneyblog.com/2012/03/21/robert-sherman-a-sons-tribute/

Kleenex’s away and on to the ride!

 

[annmarieda]

Great update!

I had an ADR for the Wave, but cancelled it when dh got sick. It is rare that I have canceled a reservation and I feel like I kinda missed out.

Love the pics and the plan of attack for the party.

 

[momabaarjo]

I have so many updates that I missed this week...oh the pin trading looks fun! We may have to try that next!

 

[PrincessInOz]

You all look like you're having so much fun with the characters and the rides. Glad that you got to eat at the Wave. It does look awesome there.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Great update!

I had an ADR for the Wave, but cancelled it when dh got sick. It is rare that I have canceled a reservation and I feel like I kinda missed out.

Love the pics and the plan of attack for the party.

You should put it on your list for the next time. The restaurant look is rather in desperate need of an overhaul but the food is soooo good!

E and I really worked on our party plan. I think we did a pretty good job at attacking the evening.

I have so many updates that I missed this week...oh the pin trading looks fun! We may have to try that next!

Pin trading is a blast! We are totally hooked now. E called me yesterday to tell me that she completed a set thanks to eBay.

You all look like you're having so much fun with the characters and the rides. Glad that you got to eat at the Wave. It does look awesome there.

I love character hunting! I love chatting with them and having fun. I'd rather character hunt than ride rides...

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

We had a clear plan of what we wanted to do. Flynn Rider first, then Capt. Jack Sparrow. After that whatever happened, happened.

We had some concerns about the length of the princess line as early reports were saying that 1) the line took FOREVER and 2) non-party-goers were still managing to sneak into the party only princess and prince meet and greets. Tonight was different though. They set us off to a different queue for holding until 7p rolled around. The early reports didn’t disappoint. THE LINE TOOK FOREVER.

While we were waiting, E was debating the hoodie on/hoodie off aspect of her wardrobe. With no mirror in sight, we resorted to the next best thing.

We chatted with an off duty Fairy Godmother-in-Training and she shared with us a chilling story about the difference between the Partner Statue at DLR and the one at WDW. The one at DLR has Walt pointing out to the future where the one at WDW – Walt is pointing down Main Street towards the statue of Roy Disney and Minnie Mouse. The CM legend is that Walt is holding Mickey’s hand and pointing to Roy, telling him that while he’s gone, Roy will take care of you and this place. E and I both had goose bumps when she finished her story!

They finally got us going, but we had been in line for well over an hour and a half. MB didn’t go with us for this part, so we felt awful that she was alone for this part. We finally made it into the room and saw:

and

Flynn didn’t disappoint – he was very personable. Prince Phillip, not so much… It’s almost like he didn’t have much to say. The most interesting part of our conversation was that he saw one of my rings, my spoon ring. He commented that he liked it and it reminded him of what his father did with the old silver in the kingdom. Awkward…

And we were on our way to our next conquest.

The wait for Capt. Jack wasn’t bad at all. Maybe 20 minutes at most. No one, I repeat NO ONE was near POTC by the time we got back there around 8p. The only people there were there to see Jack. I also figured that people were starting to camp out for fireworks and the parade. I’m not complaining at all!

We headed into Fantasyland in search of hot cocoa and cookies. After getting them, I REALLY wanted to meet Cinderella and the gang as I needed to get Cindy’s autograph on a postcard to mail back to my friend’s daughter. I got in line but E and MB separated to do something else. They weren’t keen on the M&G so they set off for Tomorrowland and I was planning to meet up with them before the parade.

 

[annmarieda]

Great pics! I love the one where Captain Jack is looking a bit like he is up to no good.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

And he wasn't! He was such an AWESOME character to meet. We had so much fun with him. He truly embodied Johnny Depp.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Lovely looking.....men....pictures.

 

[LegoMom3]

Lovely looking.....men....pictures.

DITTO!!!!






[Note to self: must...meet....Flynn..Rider]

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

DH is about to DRIVE ME NUTS!!!

2013... no 2014... no, I THOUGHT we were going next year...

We took the kids to the park for my Mother's Day gift. We had a picnic then took the kids on the "Indian" trails at the park (just a bit of wooded trails and a nice little walk full of exposed roots and mud teeth and they had a BLAST! While we took the paved way back, DH mentioned going next year... Then I said, "I thought we were waiting until 2014... so you want to go this time NEXT year?"

His response, "We'll see how much I get from profit-sharing next year."

We already know HOW were going to do our trip... rent points and buy our tickets from UT. My buddy is willing to sell us points from her vacation club (blue/green that are transferrable to RCI and DVC) as long as she has them available, otherwise we'll go through Davids or DVC rental. We know we're going to stay at BWV.

Talking today, I told him we should make the decision to buy our tickets before August when the price goes up. I'd hate to sit through 2 years of price increases, ya know? And since the tickets don't expire until 14 days after first use, we're safe.

He asked how much it would cost to get 5 day tickets and I went to the Disney site and told him the breakdown of cost per day. He liked the sound of how much it costs per day to stay 7 days!!!

Comparing UT to the Disney site, we'll save $96 by going with UT.

The only draw back is that if the profit share is high enough that he's willing to spend it on Disney, that would give me 4 months to get everything put together.

That's AWFUL tight.

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Lovely looking.....men....pictures.

DITTO!!!!






[Note to self: must...meet....Flynn..Rider]

Shall I remind you of my Tarzan meeting in 2010???

Tarzan was amazing - he went on break just before we got up to them the first time, so we met Terk and Jane (Terk TOTALLY saved our night BTW...) and then we went inside to see Timon, Rafiki, King Louie, Baloo, Jasmine, and Genie... we missed Aladdin and Abu by a few minutes . Well as Tarzan left the CM area he had to cross back through the inside of what is now Tink's Nook. He kept hiding behind all of the plants they had in the room and playing peek-a-boo with DD. She was enamored so we went back outside and stood in line AGAIN.

Oh, and LM... Flynn is just as "friendly" as he appears. No wonder the line takes 6 years to get through!

 

[annmarieda]

sounds like you are gonna start planning a trip!!!

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

Well… that line took forever. It just didn’t move. I wasn’t that far back and time grew nearer for the fireworks. A handler came through and told us there was a chance we wouldn’t see them before the fireworks and a lot of people bailed. I got closer to the line and someone with a GAC popped in front of me. I don’t mind people using a GAC, but showing up just before the fireworks and using it didn’t set well with me. What should have been a 25 minute wait turned into an hour. They cut the line at 8:50p, with that family as the last ones to see the Tremaines, Cindy, and Charming. All I needed was an autograph and a picture. Just give me 2 minutes! But nope! They had to get to the show.

I decided that since I had waited that long, there was no way in heck that I wasn’t going to see them, otherwise my time had been spent in vain. We knew we needed to get MB under cover, far away from Fantasyland because she hates loud noises. No matter how much she braces for it, they make her jump. Our plan was to get her away from FL and inside a show building. Since there was no way I was going to make it across the park to Tomorrowland, E and MB went into Monster’s Inc. while I held my ground at the old skyway station.

The fireworks began and from what I could see, they were cool. The music was great and festive. Next thing I knew… the sky was falling. Literally. Pieces of the fireworks shells were landing all around us!

Had I known the sky was going to fall, I would have brought an umbrella!

Finally the fireworks were over and the group came out 10-ish minutes later. I was one “family” back of the front of the line. We were invited into the station base and off we went. The group was surprised that it was just me, so they converged on me to look at my pins. Prince Charming is pointing to my Sword in the Stone pin

that was on my lanyard saying, “her name is… dangit… her name is…” and I responded, “Mim.” He goes, “THAT’S RIGHT! It was on the tip of my tongue!”

Now… keep in mind that HIS story and HER story are about 2-3 centuries apart. He shouldn’t know about Mim at all. Character OFFICIALLY out of character.

[PS – pay close attention to Anastasia back there. I had no idea she was getting choked while we were talking.]

Anastasia also dipped out of character shortly after Charming fell out. She saw my grape soda pin from Up and proceeded to exclaim, “I’m a Wilderness Explorer!” and did the hand sequence. I got a good laugh out of it since GPS wasn’t anything CLOSE to being invented during their story. I had a blast with my new “family”, disfunctionally time-lapsed as is was.

I needed to meet up with E and MB so I high tailed it out of Fantasyland through the castle

and over the rendezvous point of Monster’s Inc.

We walked toward the front of the park because MB was done for the day and I needed to get my tripod for the parade. We happened across CMs doing a bit of artwork.

We stopped for a nighttime icon shot and further up Main Street. E and MB left the party but I REALLY wanted to see the parade.

I was running out of time before the parade started, so I quickly grabbed my tripod, turned in our receipt for the locker and ran back to the tear drop. It wasn’t my first choice to shoot, but it was 5 minutes into the parade going live so I had to find somewhere FAST!

I dumped all of my gear on the ground and furiously started to get my nighttime gear together and guess what?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Shall I remind you of my Tarzan meeting in 2010???

Tarzan....in the flesh!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice pics of you with Cindy's family!

I dumped all of my gear on the ground and furiously started to get my nighttime gear together and guess what?

Did your batteries conk out?

 

[momabaarjo]

I love your story about the statues...it gave me chills. Pieces of the firework falling from the sky...oh my! Loving all the character pictures!

I am sure you can put a trip together in 4 months... it limits the OCD of planning! At least you have a family trip in sight! I love the the idea of staying at BWV! I will show you our room in my TR in a couple of posts...

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

Yeah for Disney trip!!! Though the more I look at the Art of Animation I say you stay there.. it looks SOOOOOOO COOOOOOOL

As for Flynn he was quite awesome... Thankfully I have my own Flynn at home. Adam (my fiance) is just like him When we went to the movie over Thanksgiving his family talked about how Adam and I were just like Flynn and Rapunzel

My mom and I actually watched a bit of the fireworks from the Noodle Terrace, though we were also watching from behind large rock and my mom had her ears plugged As for Monsters Inc.... She loved it!! She missed it is 2008 when she was last at the World and all she heard about for two days from my niece Faith and I was how hilarious it was. Did I mention I was in the show?

The little monster at the end talked about how he brought his pet donkey to school also he even said one of Jenn's jokes. Do you remember which one it was?