A Photo Heavy, Pixie Dust Infused Reunion-NEW TR LINK IN LAST POST 6/14!!!!

[katt789]

CHAPTER LINKS:
Day 1- Tuesday Feb 21st
The One with Extra Pixie Dust
The One with Barely any pictures

Day 2- Wednesday Feb 22nd
The One Where Kara Makes 4
The One With the Rain
The One with Even More Fantasy

Day 2- Thursday Feb 23rd
the One With K Squared
The One With the Purple Wall
The one With Even More Basic
The One with some Fantasy & Sports

Day 3-> Friday Feb 24th
The One with the Running
The One with the Wayfinder
The One with the Pizza
The One with Arendelle

Day 4-> Saturday Feb 25th
The One with the Cupcakes
The One with the Lollipop
The one with More Photos
The One with the Cheese Plates

Day 5-> Sunday Feb 26th
The One with Running 2.0
The One with the Animals

Day 6-> Sunday Feb 27th
The One with the Delays
The One Where Icecream Makes it Better
The One With the Floating Lights

REAL LIFE UPDATE/NEXT TRIP REPORT LINK!!

It's a world of magic! A world of mystery! A world of friendship, pixie dust, sunshine and joy where your favorite stories come to life, and you make memories to last a LIFETIME.

So…WHAT COULD BE A BETTER PLACE FOR A REUNION?!?!

This trip was somewhat spontaneous, in the sense that it was booked MONTHS in advance….Kara & I had gotten back from Asia and were itching for another adventure, especially one that would involve taking us home to Florida, and seeing some of the other friends from our CRP.

Tasha texted us saying that she wanted to sign up for the Princess Half Marathon's 5k! I'd always been interested in doing one too, so I was down for the opportunity. Kara needed a bit of convincing, especially because she wanted to do the 1/2 Marathon too, but before we knew it, the RACES WERE BOOKED!! AH!! WE WERE REALLY GOING BACK TO DISNEY WORLD!!

Originally, we'd really wanted to stay in the Fort Wilderness Cabins, and Kara's sister & bf were going to join us, we just needed one more person, so we started to talk to Becky about joining us.

Things changed, we waited way too long to try and get a discounted room, and our party size changed, and Becky wasn't sure if she could get the time off from work! Kara, Tasha & I decided we NEEDED to book Pop now, or we weren't going to have a hotel room! A few weeks later, Becky had the time off approved! Ahhh!!!

IT WAS AN EXCITING MOMENT!!

So…now how about some intro's?

I'm Katt!

I'm 27, and live in Vancouver Canada. I've frequented the Disboards for years, with some breaks here & there to spend some time working for the Mouse in 2014/2015. I enjoy performing, photography, travelling, and living the dream!



Kara,

is my best friend, who I met working as a Cultural Representative for Disney in the Canada pavilion. She lives about an hour outside Vancouver. We both enjoy all the same things, which is probably why we bonded so well and continue to travel together all the time!



Tasha comes next!

We worked together in food & beverage on the same program, and her & I were podium pals and spent a bit of time hanging out outside of work too. I honestly think we talked more after our programs ended, keeping each other out of our Post Disney Depression, lol! She works for Westjet, so we've been lucky enough to see each other quite a bit despite her living 2 provinces away! She loves all things Stitch, Beauty and the Beast and didn't spend a TON of time in the parks during her program, so she was going to have a lot of firsts on this trip.

Becky was the last friend to join our adventure!

She & Kara had worked together on their FIRST program back in 2011 and become pretty good friends. Her second program started just before our program ended, so I didn't spend too much time with her, but we bonded over our love for Festival of the Lion King!



Dates: Feb 20/2017 to Feb 28/2017



Special Events: Reunion with friends! Tasha & I were running our FIRST EVER races, and first Disney races (obviously)



Hotel: Disney's Pop Century Resort.



Well, there's about all you need to know so far! Stay tuned for a first day full of surprises, adventures, new faces and old friends!!

 

[Gigi@Disney]

Following!

 

[Kari0180]

Following along, I've always enjoyed your reports!

 

[JulieODC]

Joining in!!i did the half marathon that weekend so excited to hear about your rundisney experience!

 

[katt789]

This trip began a bit differently than previous ones. Partially because we were all flying from different places, and partially because we all booked flights separately (and Tasha was flying standby).



Tasha arrived in Orlando first (on the 19th), spending the night with some friends and hanging out with some of the current CRPs that we knew.



I spent the first bit of my day running some last minute errands and making sure I was all packed, and STRESSING about finances! It was really not the way to start off a trip, but with work having been not so reliable recently, I almost didn't make it on the trip! LUCKILY, I have some amazing people in my life who were able to help me through (and pick up & deposit paycheque's while I was in Florida….).



Thankful that Vancouver has good train systems, I jumped on one to the airport and breezed through security & customs pretty quickly that afternoon. My first flight was a TOTAL OF 25 MINUTES since it was just to Seattle. It was SUPER bumpy and unenjoyable, but I powered through. I was flying overnight on a red-eye (bonus full day in the park without paying for an extra night in the hotel #bonus). Leaving Seattle around 10pm (?) to arrive in Orlando at 7:00am! UNLUCKILY, I was sitting right beside a baby & the family, and was on the aisle seat, so when I was super tired and trying to sleep, the Mom was up & down changing the baby or walking the aisle with her to get her to sleep, so sleep didn't really happen for me.



That LUCK CHANGED THE MOMENT I LANDED IN FLORIDA THOUGH BECAUSE WOW OH WOW I WAS HOOOOOMMMMMEEEEE!!!! IT had been a SOLID YEAR since I'd set foot in Florida, and y'all Disboard people understand me when I say that it's INSANE!



I had only brought a carry on with me, A). To save money and B.) to save time on my way into the parks, I hurried down to B side, with a quick stop in the bathroom to change my outfit and shift some things from my back pack into my suit case before hurrying over to the Magical Express!



The airport was DEAD this early! I took a minute to explain to the CM that I was the only one here right now, and Kara & Becky were flying in later today/tomorrow morning, and she lead me down the aisle and ONTO MY VERY OWN PRIVATE BUS!!



I KID YOU NOT!!!



IT WAS JUST ME!!

HOW COOL IS THAT?!!?



I was able to sit in the very front row, and did my make-up on the bus, while we drove under this glorious site:

And STRAIGHT to Pop Century! I thanked the driver, skipped over to bell services to dumb my bag, made a quick bathroom stop, and managed to hop RIGHT ONTO A MAGIC KINGDOM BUS!



GUYS THIS IS SERIOUSLY INSANE!!



I LANDED AT MCO AT 7:05 AM AND MADE it to Magic Kingdom for 8:25 AM!

SERIOUS WITCHCRAFT LIKE HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN!?!



I was ESTATIC to be back, it felt like a day hadn't even passed, and certainly didn't feel like I didn't live there, just felt like it was my day off! Because of the new Welcome Show (forever bitter…) I was let into the park right away, but didn't have plans to watch it, so I headed to one of my favorite places in the park.



IMG_0003 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



IMG_9989 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



IMG_9994 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



IMG_9990 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

There's just something so magical, yet calm & serene about being up in the Train Station while the Kingdom bustles about below you! I took a few pictures before remembering that my shoes were still rather new, and I wanted to get some band-aids for my feet before the blisters started, so it was a quick trip to first aid for me!



I was SUPER excited when I saw a familiar face sitting outside of Caseys and ran up to say hello!! Barb was super surprised to see me, as she knew I'd been coming down soon, but hadn't remembered when! We chatted for a bit, catching up, she thanked me for the Christmas card, and it was just a super sweet catch up and we were both so glad to see each other!!

Her & her husband are regular Trolley/FoF watchers, as are we, so we'd usually run into each other a few times a day, and have just become a very friendly face to see during the day!



Since I'd only managed about 3 hours of sleep, I knew I needed coffee, so I grabbed some Starbucks to guzzle down while I waited for the Trolley Show to start! I knew there would be some friends in show today, and Cassy SQUEALED when she saw me! I'd told her that I wouldn't be in until a few days later (the tactic I'd used on most of my friends, cause hey, I like surprising). She asked if Amanda was around, as we were usually attached at the hip, and I told her Amanda was STUCK IN STUPID TRAFFIC, but should be there by the second show! We shared the biggest of hugs before she did her thing.



IMG_0009 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

(she's in yellow in the back there)



IMG_0008 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



I followed the show all the way down the 4 stops to the Train Station, where I chatted up with the Trolley kids, and Ellona and I shared some catch up time, hugs, and made sure to take a selfie before she headed backstage.

It was definitely exciting to be back home, and to see most of the Trolley kids too! I was super happy! They're all just so friendly and amazing, and just the SWEETEST people, seriously. I'm so happy to have discovered the show and that it brought these amazing people into my life!



Just as the show ended, Amanda let me know she was at the TTC, but lines were insane, so I spent a good chunk of time in the Emporium checking out all the new merchandise that I couldn't afford, lol!



A little briefing on Amanda, since she'll come up a lot, but didn't get an intro #sorry



We met YEARS ago, I wanna say in 2013, over Tumblr, while we were searching through the Disney Audition tag. We connected over social media, and ended up going to an audition together, and hanging out in MK later that day. When we bonded, and realized that neither of us were creepers from the internet, we decided to room together at an audition the next month. She was living in Virginia while I was in Calgary. Amanda ended up moving down to Florida shortly before my program started, and then we actually got to hangout all the time lol.

She's just overall an AMAZING person, and I am SO thankful that she was brought into my life! We love all the same things, we share the same goals and dreams and fully support each other all the time, and she's just seriously the greatest friend to have! She even facetime's me Trolley when I'm "homesick" lol. Since it had been a YEAR since we'd seen each other it was VERY exciting reunion!!!



By 9:45 we had made a plan to SNEAK over to see Snow White, as I had been wanting to surprise her, I mean, it had been nearly 2 years since I'd seen her. As we were creeping up though, it turned out a friend of ours was character attending, and had seen me talking with the Trolley kids & mentioned something to her! WAAAH!



But hey, we were still super excited anyways!

Snow said that she was super excited to see me, and said that I needed to STAY here this time, and offered to set me up with one of her Dwarves for a green card, bahahaha!

It was a very exciting moment overall! I let her know that Kara got in tomorrow, so we would definitely be back to see her again tomorrow!



Amanda & I made a pit stop at Starbucks to get some caffeine into her system, and ventured into Fantasyland to have a little tea party!

IMG_0041 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0037 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



IMG_0035 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



Alice was super adorable as always, and minded us not to fall down any rabbit holes during our adventures!



Sticking with the UK theme, when we wandered past the Glen and noticed Mary Poppins didn't have much of a line we stopped in to say Hello!

IMG_0043 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



She was practically perfect in every way, and said that I must have one strong umbrella arm to have come all the way from Canada!

IMG_0044 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



The two of us bid the Nanny farewell, and circled through Fantasyland to use our first fast pass of the day, for Amanda's favorite princess!

We were even lucky enough to get an extra surprise because Rapunzel was VERY EXCITED TO SEE US! It had been SO LONG! It was super adorable and we all exclaimed that it was the BEST DAY EVER!

We had a nice chat with Tiana about kissin frogs (or not doing it) beignets and jambalaya before we made our way back out into the park! It was time for some more Trolley Show!



Cassy came up and gave Amanda a warm welcome, and another hug for me before the show started, which was super nice!

IMG_0063 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



IMG_0082 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



IMG_0123 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

 

[katt789]

Alright, so here is the part where I kinda COMPLETELY fail as a trip reporter! I was NOT planning on doing a trip report at the time of the trip, so I didn't take detailed notes, but more importantly, I have barely any photos from the rest of the day!

Amanda & I were just wrapping up the 12 o'clock Trolley Show when Becky, Tasha & our friend Tyler (who currently works at Pirates) finally showed up!!

It was SUPER exciting to finally see everyone again! I hadn't seen Becky or Tyler in a year, so it was super awesome to be able to catch up with them!! Since they'd been out the previous night (and Becky had just flown in) it was DEFINITELY time for some lunch!! (though there's a pretty high possibility that we stopped to watch MiSi come out, Amanda & I commenting on how many new performers were, lol)

Amanda & I's favorite spot is Columbia Harbor House, I especially love it since it has such healthier options compared to some of the other quick service places in Magic Kingdom. It was definitely a busy day, so we ended up waiting a while to get to the front of the line, where there were a few kids meals ordered, and we managed to find a table upstairs overlooking Haunted Mansion.

Lunch was delicious, as always, and everyone was satisfied, we spent some time just catching up and chatting at the table, and wishing that the Wi-Fi would stop cutting out as we were pretty sure we'd missed our next fast pass, but hey, it happens. Before we knew it, it was pushing 2:00, and it was TIME TO HEAD INTO FRONTIERLAND! In case you couldn't tell, we're pretty big when it comes to entertainment, and the Festival Of Fantasy Parade is just simply AMAZING and a huge love of ours. We ended up having some time to kill, so we did a run through of Country Bears, which Tasha did NOT appreciate, lol! It's one of my favorite attractions because it's such a hot mess/full of derpy animals, and the lyrics are HILARIOUS, but Tasha was not having it.

Festival of Fantasy was absolutely incredible, as usual, it was just so amazing to see again, and I took it all in instead of focusing on pictures, as you can clearly see now lol! Jiminy freaked out over seeing us and gave us a bunch of love, and one of the dwarves came right up, grabbed my face and like, nose booped me, which was both hilarious, adorable and slightly painful! Lol.

I'll have a more detailed post on all of my feelings on Fof when I have more pictures for you as this is like, super boring.

After the parade, we started our RACE out of the park, and Tyler started his race over for work! When I'd been planning this trip, I obviously reached out to friends down in Florida to try and make sure to see them, whether at work, or outside of it, and Tiffany had mentioned that both her & her sister were at Festival of the Lion King on our first day! YAY! I rarely got to see her over there, so it was super exciting, and she put us down for VIP at the 5:00pm show!

The show was absolutely incredible, obviously, and sitting in the VIP section will FOREVER BLOW MY MIND, Tasha was simply LOVING it, as everything is just going on ALL around you, you truly become part of the show, meanwhile I was simply happy to be sitting in the elephant section for once! Lol. When the show was over, one of the theater cm's came to grab us and took us through backstage to the meet & greet area to say hi to the sisters!

These girls are just SO sweet, we chatted for a while about how things had been, and what we had planned for the week, before we said our round of THANK YOU's, and good byes, since it was their last show of the day, it was home time!

The four of us thought about what to do next, potentially we would grab a drink in the park, so we did a loop around through Asia, realizing that things were CRAZY EXPENSIVE, and we still needed to do a WalMart run that night (where everything was a heck of a lot cheaper) so we split ways with Amanda (we'd see her our last day again) and climbed on a bus to Pop Century. Lunch seemed like HOURS ago, so Tasha & I stopped for some pizza at the food court before we went to the room.

Naturally, once we were back in the room, in those comfy beds with the tv on, the EXHAUSTION hit all of us, Becky & I had both been travelling so long, and Tasha was just simply tired, we said we could always do WalMart the next day, and then Kara would have a better choice of what she got rather than just going off the list she gave me. It was time for relaxing!


Also, not really mentioned earlier, since I'd been on such a goal of making it into the parks right away, I hadn't checked in, just dropped my bags. When Becky arrived, first, she had trouble with Magical Express, since it had "Becky" on it and not her full name, and I BELIEVE then there was some kind of hiccups with the check in desk, I think it was that they wanted the girls to pay for the full thing when they checked in (in the past, when everyone's arrived at different times, they've given us 24 hours to do it). On the way back into the hotel, I stopped at the desk to pay Kara & I's shares, where we ran into another hiccup as there was apparently STILL money owing?! ARG! Luckily, it was figured out quickly that it was Becky who owed. She had taken the first "estimate" of hotel cost that we'd said in the group chat, before Kara pointed out she had one less night in the hotel than us, and didn't want to have to pay for it if she wasn't there, which bumped up the rest of our costs a bit. THANK GOODNESS.

Having accomplished so much, and being so sleepy, it was time for bed CRAZY early. Especially considering I'm usually a rope drop to an hour past park close type of girl, like, what was WRONG WITH ME?!?!

**********

Thank you to everyone who's reading! I promise there's WAY more pictures in the upcoming updates!!

 

[missangelalexis]

Joining in! Excited to read another TR of yours!

You definitely hit the ground running when you arrived in Orlando! Love those photos from the train station, its always such a pretty view up there! You met so many characters while at MK- awesome! Glad you had a great first day, with many more to come!

 

[Grumpy's Wife]

I love reading your trip reports. I'm so glad I just stumbled on this one.

I have to agree with you on rope drop till park closes. That's how my family does it. There is just too much to see to keep taking breaks. However, I like when others take breaks because it helps to empty out the park.

Great start, keep it up.

 

[katt789]

Joining in! Excited to read another TR of yours!

You definitely hit the ground running when you arrived in Orlando! Love those photos from the train station, its always such a pretty view up there! You met so many characters while at MK- awesome! Glad you had a great first day, with many more to come!

Yay!!! Glad you're here & excited! It probably won't be up to par, but I'll try to make it work, lol!! It certainly was a quick start, and so magical & amazing! UGH, I miss it so much already!

I love reading your trip reports. I'm so glad I just stumbled on this one.
I have to agree with you on rope drop till park closes. That's how my family does it. There is just too much to see to keep taking breaks. However, I like
when others take breaks because it helps to empty out the park.
Great start, keep it up.

Yay!! Thank you so much!! I'm glad you're here!! THERE IS TOO MUCH TO DO TO SLEEP. Like, I was 100% disappointed in how little time we spent in the parks this trip lol, we had so much more planned, but I think the crowds also had something to do with that, it hit a point where we just didn't want to fight them anymore, so we'd head back to the resort earlier. May is definitely going to be an exhausting, park open to close every day kinda trip!!

 

[katt789]

Wednesday Feb 22/2017

GOOOOD morning!!! Today was the regular early start for the 3 of us! We were up around 7:00, though I woke up a few times throughout the night just raring to go bahaha! Tasha, Becky & I got our things together, eating some leftover pizza for breakfast, and headed down to the bus.

We arrived at Magic Kingdom right on time, and after clearing through security, Tasha proclaimed she needed a picture in front of the train station!

IMG_0148 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

A family nearby was able to help us out to get a group shot too!

IMG_0145 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

I'm pretty sure we returned the favor for them too! Then it was time to head into the park, which is still just as magical EVERYTIME! It just gives me chills thinking about it! It truly is home to us! We popped into a few shops along the street to kill some time, and of course we had to stop for more pictures!



IMG_0153 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



Tasha commented that she didn't know how to pose, and as I was taking my turn, I commented that I really only had 3 go to poses for pictures,

IMG_0155 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Which, as I hit one of them, we all burst out laughing, cause it's just such a go to!

IMG_0156 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0157 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



It was now time to head over to claim a spot in front of the castle! It was the first time that we'd be seeing the new Welcome Show, and Tasha's first time seeing any kind of Welcome Show!



IMG_0164 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0170 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Let's be honest, I was here for Snow White….

IMG_0173 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0187 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

The new show is cute, Tasha liked it, having nothing to compare it to, but I will always miss the old one, it held a lot more magic to it. I loved that the Trolley kids were in it, and the Mayor was the one opening up the park, it just had a level of magic & tear inducing feels that the new one doesn't. But hey, at least now I've got an extra 15 minutes to get my coffee before the park officially opens, lol!



Tasha was excited to be in the parks and experiencing some first time things!

I was still feeling the effects of a red eye, and despite pixie dust coursing through my veins, I still needed a little caffeine boost, so it was off to Starbucks before Trolley. Unluckily, EVERYONE had the same idea as us, so we were stuck in there WAY longer than we wanted to be. We got our drinks, but missed the first stop of the Trolley Show, on the lucky side, we were able to walk right up to a front row view for the second stop, excited to see all the Trolley Kids again, especially since Tori hadn't been working the day before!

IMG_0252 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0275 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0300 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0325 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



We (naturally) followed the show down to the last stop by the train station, and were greeted with lots of hugs & chatting when the show finished!

It was so great to catch up with Tori for a bit, who said that she was actually coming to where we live (Vancouver) over her birthday week!! Super exciting, but she's just transferring from the airport to a cruise ship so sadly we probably won't see each other, but it's still exciting! Lol.



Now, I'm sure that we went on some sort of rides here, I know we did Haunted Mansion a few times during the week, or perhaps we took a spin on the people mover, or met a character or two, but I have nothing in my brain of what ACTUALLY happened between Trolley Shows. We managed to catch all stops of the 2nd Trolley show, and were pleasantly surprised when Kara popped up next to us at the 3rd stop! AH YAY! MORE FRIENDS!!! Kara had done the same thing as I had, flown in on a red eye, landed, and raced to MK as fast as she could! (though she didn't have as much magical luck as I had lol) I'd seen her recently as we live pretty close together, but it's always exciting to see your best friend again, right?! The Trolley Kids were all excited to see her as well!

IMG_0231 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0314 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0326 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



While we were all catching up at the end of the show, I commented to the girls how incredible it was to watch all 3 of them perform on the same side of the trolley, it was so joyful and happy and we just couldn't stop smiling. Tori, Ellona & Chrissy all just love what they do so much, and their passion just SHINES through their performance and it just makes me so incredibly happy!



The four of us were all ready to go and start our day off with some fast passes, so it was off to Fantasyland to start on our adventures.

IMG_0329 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0331 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



Our fast passes were for both sides of Fairytale Hall, but I somehow ended up with NO pictures from one side, so we're just gonna go with it. We met Elena & Cinderella, I'd been excited to meet Elena despite knowing NOTHING about her aside from that she was Spanish…. She ended up being super cute and really interactive, she told us a joke that I can't remember but that was actually really fun, and we all really enjoyed meeting her! When we crossed over to the other side of the hall, Tiana was lovely enough to chat with us about some gumbo & beignets.

Rapunzel made sure that we were having the BEST DAY EVER and made sure to remind us to keep an eye out for Pascal!

Also please note how ALL of us are standing in that photo, knee pops all around (minus myself doing Rapunzel's foot pop) like, go to pose, always. Bahaah.



We had another princess and special friend to make sure that Kara reunited with, so we casually started back towards the front of the park, where there's a high possibility that we caught a bit of the Trolley Show's last stop again, or at least waved to our friends as we walked by.

 

[missangelalexis]

What a fun morning! Love all the photos!

 

[katt789]

In case you were wondering who the mystery princess we HAD to make sure we saw, it's someone we'd seen the other day, BUT, we love her, so we make sure to stop in whenever we can to say hello.

Snow was so excited to see Kara, and commented on how much she liked her ears today!

I had to jump in for some love, and we all had a good laugh over the times during our program, where we'd go see Snow every Friday, and she'd always be all "KATT!!" and get all excited to see me, then be all "and who's your friend?" like, girl, that's Kara, she's literally with me ALL the time. Bahaha, but we're all great friends who know each others names now, so it's all good.

Becky & Tasha jumped in for some fun too!

We said our good byes to Snow, and Tasha said something about absolutely loving her, Snow can be rather hilarious, so she's a favorite for us, that's for sure!

We had another fast pass coming up, over in the newer Fantasyland, so we headed to the complete opposite end of the park to take a journey Under the Sea!! Ariel may have had a life on land at the end of the ride, but we emerged to the OCEAN ON LAND! It was raining, and it wasn't a light rain…the other 3 had ponchos already, since Kara & Becky had brought them from home, and Tasha'd bought one earlier on since she REALLY didn't want to deal with a wet weave. I RAN my butt as fast as I safely could over to Big Top Souvenirs to pick up a poncho and the four of us spent a little bit of time exploring the merch for a bit before heading back out into the rain with our brave faces on.

We'd been in the park a while, accomplished a lot, and Kara hadn't eaten in ages, so it was pretty natural that our next stop was lunch, bonus that it kept us out of the wet too! Columbia Harbour House was our destination again, and we all enjoyed what we had! I opted for kids meals most of this week to save on money, so I had some mac & cheese with some fruit to snack on later!

The rain was nice enough to us to slow down after that, and we were able to head over into Frontierland, with a bit of time to kill, we hit up one of our all time favorites.
IMG_0332 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Kara & I love it…Tasha didn't enjoy it all too much, but we were totally okay with forcing her to go on it again during the week, it's just such a HILARIOUS classic, like you can't NOT laugh at the lyrics. It's ridiculous. Country Bears is usually our time killer prior to Festival of Fantasy, since it's in the area that we like to watch it from, and with the rain having let up, we were able to grab some rope side spots for it after coming out of the hall.

Sidenote: for all of the clearly nicer photos, Kara & I both have DSLR's, so the ones with the Flickr footnotes are the photography by me, the ones that have NO footnote (since I'm linking them off Facebook) are Kara's photography. Everything else is a mix of Iphones or the point & shoot we use for vlogging, just to try and give a bit more proper credit from this point on…

Ladies & gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the Magic Kingdom. You are warmly invited to join Mickey Mouse & his Fantasyland friends for a magical celebration in the streets! Dreams will coem true! Hearts will soar! And YOU will become part of the magic! For the time has come to take your places, and prepare to welcome, the wondrous and wonderful, Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade!​

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IMG_0341 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

A dream is a wish your heart makes, when you're fast asleep​

IMG_0348 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

[i

So away we go, it's a festival of fantasy​

IMG_0353 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0359 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Dreams that glow, wondrous dazzling brilliantly​

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IMG_0375 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0379 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0382 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0386 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Like reindeer in the sky, you can fly, you can fly, you can fly​

​

IMG_0397 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0402 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Chase the wind and touch the sky​

​

IMG_0424 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Zip a dee do da, Zip a dee-a.​

IMG_0440 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr



Now….we were THOSE people this go around, it was an awesome cast, and the day that we had the time to do it, and obviously when it's your first time watching/photographing FoF in over a YEAR, you want to watch it as many times as possible. So we pulled the ever so #basic move of crossing the street as quickly as we could, and ducking through Adventureland, dancing along to the parade music as we skipped through the Main Street Shops, and emerged over by the Barbershop for VIEWING 2.0 OF FOF!

 

[katt789]

IMG_0454 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0473 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Ariel was excited to see us again, Tasha asked if I had a special bond with her, but it was 100% because of my shirt, bahahah. I mean, I am a mermaid..

IMG_0517 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Festival of Fantasy is just one of the incredible and amazing things that we love so much about Disney. It truly is an FANTASTIC parade, it's got so much energy, color, talent, and happiness throughout it that it just makes you happy. I'll always love getting to see my friends rocking it out there, and always love getting to capture those moments on "film". It's just part of Disney magic, and I can't stop smiling when we watch it. Post parade though, the sky was having a different sort of "feels" and the rain had picked up again, so it was BACK into the ponchos, and out of the park we went! Kara desperately wanted the Moana Tsum Tsums (they'd come out in the US while we were still in Hong Kong & they'd sold out RIGHT away so we didn't even get the chance to get them. Luckily for me, Amanda had picked them up for me at the Polynesian, so we were on the monorail over there to hopefully find some for Kara).

We checked the upstairs gift shop, that has most of the toys & stuffed animals with no luck, though Tasha found something she wished she could take home with her.

We popped downstairs to check the other shop, but had no luck there either. Waaahhh.

After a quick monorail to bus transfer, we were headed on our way back to Pop Century, where we stopped briefly back in the room, and asked Becky if she wanted anything from the adventure we were about to go on. Kara, Tasha & I walked back down to the front, and booked an Uber, it was time to head OFF PROPERTY and over to Walmart! I used to always get groceries delivered ,but last year I couldn't find everything on one site, and new it was probably cheaper to just Uber somewhere to pick things up. This helped us keep down costs on snacking/breakfast, and especially on alcohol! Bahahah! We ended up wandering around way more than we meant to, and probably had quite a few impulse buys, Tasha found a shower cap for her hair too, lol! It would come in handy if it was raining but not wet enough for a full poncho! We picked up some wine and beer (and a wine opener..), I got a box of Uncrustables, some cheese-its, and some other kind of snack type foods. Then we Uber'd back to Pop, and picked up another pizza for dinner from the food court (even cheaper when split between 3) I think Kara & I split the cost though since Tasha had paid the Uber? We enjoyed our pizza and some snacks and drinks back in the room and had, yet again, another EARLY night in!

 

[missangelalexis]

Beautiful parade photos!

Smart idea ubering to Walmart for some essentials!

 

[katt789]

Beautiful parade photos!

Smart idea ubering to Walmart for some essentials!

Thank you!! (and a thank you from Kara too lol)

SO MUCH EASIER, obviously you end up spending money on things you impulsively buy, but it seriously is so much more worth it and just as easy to do this than deliver groceries. And there's so many stores super close too! We usually do it arrival night but that red eye exhausted me way too much lol!

 

[katt789]

Happy Easter y'all!! I hope you're all having the MOST amazing time! Thank you for following along on our journey, I do hope you're enjoying!! Kara finished our trip video the other day, so here it is:

***********

Today started out with a traditional Disney morning, for once…although it was just Kara & I that were up early. Tasha's more of a sleeping in type, and Becky was EITHER, taking it easy today because she wasn't feeling too great, OR, she spent the day with her family that also happened to be in town. Or there may have been a bit of both? I don't have a single picture of her from today….I promise y'all, I'll actually take notes on my next trip…

Kara & I had no problems with the busses, and had our bags packed full of snacks and breakfast, so we were off to the parks in no time, and happy to not have to be up at 6:00am to get to rope drop on time, bahaha! We grabbed some coffee and headed straight to the castle stage so Kara could see the new Welcome Show, though neither of us took any pictures, even with Alice looking extra fancy this morning!

We had some time to kill before the first Trolley, so we wandered around a semi-empty/quiet Main Street taking pictures before the park was too crowded to do so!

IMG_0527 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0533 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0541 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Kara captioned that one on facebook with a "corn dog nugs that is all"

Our boys!

The next one, Kara wanted specifically for the bow that I was wearing, she runs and Etsy shop for Disney bows, ears and costumes! And she tries her best to do things that she hasn't seen before/aren't seen as often, and takes custom orders as well!! Check it out on Etsy or Instagram at sewitsmagic

It's a Winter Trolley inspired bow, for anyone that's wondering lol. Kara had brought a bunch of ears/bows with her to take photos so you might see some more of those popping up throughout the trip report! I pointed out that Kara needed a casting door photo too, so we made a quick stop over there too!

She also took the time to do a little "please, please, please!" as she's reapplied to go back to do another program, and, like most of the friends that reapplied, got waitlisted, waaaah. Just let us make magic again!

Camera's in hand, we were more than ready for the first Trolley Show right at 9:15!

Hello everyone, and welcome everyone to the Magic Kingdom, and our celebration of Main Street Usa!​

IMG_0556 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0570 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

It's the heart of America, the heartbeat of a holiday​

For there's no blue Monday in your Sunday clothes!

IMG_0618 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

How does she know, that you really, really, truly love her?

IMG_0677 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Prior to the show starting, Kara and I had noticed this ADORABLE little girl, who was dressed in a Trolley costume that matched my bow, and she was just TOO cute. We later connected with her Aunt through Instagram, and she even bought some stuff from Kara's shop! At the end of the show, she was clearly a favorite of the Trolley Kids, she even went up and gave each of them flowers!

Monica even sat down on the ground to play around with her for a bit

Which is when Pluto couldn't help but rascal up some of his own fun as he was heading in for a little snack, he crept up behind her and stuck his head as close to Monica's head as he could get before she noticed and got scared! Bahahah!

The Trolley kids took a bunch of photos with their mini-me, and Jerrad came up to ask if Kara & I wanted pictures with them too, especially since the blue costumes had technically been "retired" there was just a mishap today that lead to them being out wearing them, so of course, we jumped at the chance, as the blue dress is both Kara & I's favorite! (spoiler…it's everyone's favorite…)

Another PRIME example of how amazing and wonderful and nice the trolley kids are. Kara & I thanked them for the pictures and told them we'd be back for another show later on in the day!​

 

[missangelalexis]

So many lovely early morning photos!

The little Trolley girl is just too adorable!

 

[katt789]

Hey team! Thank you for reading!!! Come say hi! I promise I'm not scary! Lol. Now, I just wanted to say that I'm going to be posting a little faster than planned. I've noticed in older TR's that a lot of the photos are no longer working, with it saying that something about the link is expired. I THINK this has to do with the fact that they're linked off Facebook, but who knows?!?!

**************************8

Kara & I were still taking on the parks with photography in mind, and Kara wanted to take pictures of delicious looking things, so the Confectionary was naturally our next stop!

All the apples waiting to be coated in sugary goodness!

IMG_0737 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
And the post candy-ing!

We made our way through the shops of Main Street, and then realized, if we were to be the most #basic of #basic Disney things, we NEEDED TO GO TO THE PURPLE WALL!!!

And thus I present you with the 3rd classic pose for pictures…especially coming from the 2 girls who spent 6 weeks in Asia in the fall… and I have no idea how else to pose for photos..

IMG_0744[/url] by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr[/img]

Kara's like, major cute though

And when your best friend keeps taking photos of you, and you've ran out of ideas for what to do, resort to small chan pose

While we were in the midst of our purple wall photoshoot, a woman crossing by said that she followed me on Instagram and loved my photos, so if you happen to be her, thank you!! Kara & I also realized why there was so much love for the purple wall, it really does make a great back drop for portrait photos! It's also a pretty nice spot for some castle pics!

IMG_0753 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Since we were having a Katt & Kara morning, we knew if we were going to ride something, it had to be the people mover, and we were practically in Tomorrowland already!

And that's where I'm going to leave you for now! It's off to work I go, and there's EVEN MORE pictures coming up from the day! (in case that wasn't obvious….)

 

[katt789]

Ready to walk down the Middle of Main Street USA again?! Because, surprise, that's what we were doing…

I also have to apologize here, as Kara's photos, I'm just linking off facebook, and they're not uploaded 100% in order, so some of the Trolley pics might get double posted from the same day…#whoops.

The crowds had 100000% picked up, I mean, it was race weekend after all, and was coming off a long weekend prior to that, so we watched stop 1, and then leisurely strolled down to stop 4, to save on rushing while trying to push through crowds, swim upstream, AND stay off the road out of the path of the Trolley. We'd been texting with Tasha just before the show, as she was just arriving to the park, and told her to meet us at the last stop. However she got there before they got to stop 4, and found herself up at stop 3, thinking that's where we would be, and then found us under the Train station as she followed the show down. We all had a good laugh that she'd never seen the Trolley Show prior to this trip, and now had seen it multiple times, and had watched it all by herself, lol!!

IMG_0763 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0796 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Post show, I asked if we could go have a little photoshoot over in Snow White's area, since she wasn't around for the day, and it had a nice back drop. I had no clue what to really do for pictures, so we tried some twirling ones, but that didn't really work…
IMG_0809 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
So we opted for some being cute ones instead
IMG_0810 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
Somewhere in there, we discovered that this was going to be the last day we saw either of them that trip, simply because of scheduling and how our park days were planned out, which was sad for Ellona & I, meanwhile Tori was just adorable

Kara took a little turn in front of the camera too!
IMG_0812 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0814 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0816 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

And Tasha was lovely enough to get a group shot of all of us together!

On our walk back up Main Street, we briefed Tasha on what we'd done that morning, and she got super excited about the Purple Wall, remembering that she wanted all the cute photos over there, so naturally, it was #backtobasic for a bit!

We did a little Anna & Elsa posing

And then things got a little weird

Continuing on our trek to be even more basic, and take even more cute photos before it got any hotter, and before the crowds were taking over the hub, we spent some time in the Hub Grass!

IMG_0842 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr
IMG_0829 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

What happens when someone walks through your hub grass pictures…

IMG_0835 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

IMG_0826 by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Dreaming of castles and princes, we were just happy to be relaxing in the sunshine and warmth! Thankful that the rain had held off and that it was actually a super nice day out. The nice weather was definitely an excuse to head over into Adventureland to make our lunch even more delicious!

Because it's not Disney without a dole whip! Kara had needed to charge her camera battery, so we headed to a nook in Frontierland that we knew had a plug in available. Unfortunately, the safety latch on it prevented the charger from fitting properly, even if the latch was opened. Booo. We hung out in our seated, shaded spots for a bit, and honestly, we probably had a fast pass or two to use, but I've got no evidence of either such thing…lol.

 

[missangelalexis]

I love your purple wall and hub grass photoshoots!! So many pretty pictures!