Adventure is Out There! A Year of Disney Update 2/2

[Gracefulskinny]

major score for short wait at Anna and Elsa

 

[ElsasMom]

More Princesses!

When your DH isn't with you to be totally annoyed you must see many princesses & pose for many pictures! So, still all glow-y from our visit we decided to loop back to see Cinderella & Rapunzel. Which just happen to be who was there the last time I was at WDW in the spring. Do they still rotate?

The line flew by! I barely had time to take more pictures, but I managed!





It could not have even been 10min. We were in!

I adore Rapunzel, it was my favorite fairy tale growing up & I always wondered why Disney hadn't taken a crack at it. I really love Tangled from a deep childhood place, you know? Anyway Blondie was first.



I cannot for the life of me recall what we talked about...BUT she did give us the sweetest goodbye hugs ever.





I mean, that face...I just can't stand it. Like she's hugging the most precious person in the world. So sweet.

As if princess hugs weren't enough it was at this point that an astute CM remarked "Are you Disneybounding as Alice?" Night Made, right there folks. I was super pleased.

We discussed the amazing Snow White book in the room which makes me want to watch the movie even more than than ridding Mine Train.



And then it was Cinderella time.



Cinderella said "What's your favorite thing you did today?"
I said "Big Thunder Mountain"
She said "Oh, do you think my mice friends would like it?"
I said "Um, maybe Jaq, but Gus-Gus might be scared."
She said "I'd have to keep them in my pocket so they'ed be safe."
I said "Just DON'T put them in your shoe!"
She lifted her skirt so I could see her shoe and said "Don't worry, these have straps!"
And they did!!




I still laugh when I think about my chat with Cinderella. Love her! (In case you couldn't tell by my multiple TRs that have lyrics from "A Dream is A Wish Your Makes")

We were so happy we practically skipped out of there. We headed over to the castle. It was really empty so we took some picture & then we went further down main street for some more. The Photopass photographer who took these recognized me from Mickey earlier. I felt like a VIP, I'm Disney World famous.









At that point we realized we were tired. It was just after 11 so instead of taking advantage of extra magic hours we decided to head back to camp.

It was a short wait for our ride. We got a small boat which meant we had to fold up the chair & a lot less wind coverage. It was pretty nice walking around the park, but the wind on the water was awful. I felt like an ice cube. I was chanting "are we there yet" the whole ride (which took about 5 hours). Seriously though, only big boats with walls when wind chill is a factor ok Disney?

Then we walked back to our camp site while I held the tiny clip-on flashlight N was smart enough to bring. Headlight duty. Anyway, it felt like such a short walk earlier in the day, but cold & tired it took too long.

We gathered our pajamas and toothbrushes, etc and headed over to the bathroom. You have to scan your magic band to get in past a certain time of night & for some reason I was super worried that wouldn't work, but they did.

I doubled my socks for sleeping and wore a sweater over my jammies. All we had to do was plug in the extension cords to charge our phones and put some coverings over the window for insulation.

We had discussed whether of not to set an alarm and decided we would even though we knew we didn't need one. When I woke up in the morning I would be at Disney on my birthday!!
​

 

[ElsasMom]

major score for short wait at Anna and Elsa

I know! It was unbelievable. So exciting.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

yay for even more princesses.

 

[ElsasMom]

yay for even more princesses.

There can't ever be to many princesses!

 

[ElsasMom]

MY BIRTHDAY

So...on my birthday this year I woke up at DISNEY


This my friends, is how I woke up (Note my super awesome Sleepy Tink mug. It says "Mornings Aren't Magical")

BUT

After a trip to to the bathroom to put on my awesome Tiana Disneybound & some serious hair & make-up...



It was chilly that morning so we decided to wear pants & bring our shorts/skirt to change into when it warmed up. Quick funny story, I have no idea why those pants that fit perfectly in the waist were SOOOOO long. Nor did I recall that about them when I packed. Right after this picture we just cut them with scissors. Short people problems

Accessories & Shoes

N's



Mine





Hooray For Hollywood!! (& Coffee)

We drove over to HS



We got a great parking spot considering we were running a little behind schedule. We flew through bag check, paused briefly to ponder the sorcerer's hat remains & headed to the Trolley Car for Starbucks.

Pre-coffee selfies





This totally made my morning!




Next up breakfast, I'd planned on Starring Rolls but it was a zoo & N said we couldn't use our PH discounts in there. So we went next door to Sweet Spells. Nothing jumped out at me right away to be honest. I fully expected there to be something calling my name. They actually had exactly the same cupcake selection as Starring Rolls. I went with chocolate.



Cupcakes for breakfast!

We were eating on a bench outside and there were these bushes behind us & all these little brown birds were hopping around in them. N thought they were super cute. I told her they were her live Snow White accessories.



Do you see him in there? So cute. They were hopping all around.

Speaking of hopping, We decided to hop in line for Goofy. N really wanted a picture of the earful tower. She was worried that now that there was no more back lot tour she wouldn't be able to get a good one. I got it in the background of my sign photo driving up, but I realized in line we had a great shot!



He was all dressed up in his Hollywood duds, Such a charmer.









And then something odd happened. Despite everyone else standing in an orderly line and a sizable CM presence this lady just cut everyone! As I was sitting back down in the wheelchair I looked up & there was this lady rushing past me. The photopass photographer must have thought she was with us because I found this on my camera.



Shame on her!

Then while our minds were sufficiently blown from the line cutting lady we saw this!



It's painted on the wall around what's left of the Sorcerer's Hat. This nice security CM saw us taking pictures of it and offered to get one of both of us!



YAY, we're total nerds. Pictures with the construction wall? Only at Disney. Also, we kept doing "Ta-da" poses and later a PP asked us to "Un-ta-da ladies" and I am still laughing about it.

While we were on a roll doing things that would annoy our husbands and/or kids N mentioned how her kids wouldn't ride The Great Movie Ride! First of all, what the what?!? My kids would ride it ALL day and rightly so, it's fun! Second the sign had some burnt out letters today so it said "The AT Movie Ride." It was more amusing than it should have been.

Here we are with the cool old car behind us waiting in line.



Love the old Hollywood glamour.



I used to live two blocks from that intersection. I miss CA sometimes, but I didn't like DL as much as DW.



While I took this N took one of me.



I told N I was hoping for Cowboy side & we totally got it! Our tour guide was Will, he was great. Oh, yeah did I mention we rode in the first row? I was right next to our highjack-er. Fun times!

Here's Will & I



(Later when I showed my DH this picture I told him to look out I'd found a new nerd who doesn't mind hanging out at Disney )

Hooray for Hollywood!

It was warming up at this point so we ducked into our dressing room ( ladies restroom) for a costume change.

Up Next More Birthday Magic!​

 

[Clio]

i'm really enjoying your trip report. You were so lucky to have such a short wait for Elsa and Anna. I can't wait to read more.
Liz

 

[ememtingle]

I'm joining in! I am such a huge Punzie fan, she's my favorite Princess by far! I love your Dinseybounding too!
Also, lucky that you get to have a whole year of Disney magic, I'm so jealous.

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Sounds like a good start to the day!

 

[ElsasMom]

i'm really enjoying your trip report. You were so lucky to have such a short wait for Elsa and Anna. I can't wait to read more.
Liz

Thanks for joining us! Right? Serious pixie dust It was an amazing trip start to finish.

I'm joining in! I am such a huge Punzie fan, she's my favorite Princess by far! I love your Dinseybounding too!
Also, lucky that you get to have a whole year of Disney magic, I'm so jealous.

Mrs. Fitzherbet really is awesome! Thank you, I'm so happy to that my Disney Bounds are working out! I'm really enjoying them. I'll be making the most of this year for sure, stay tuned.

Sounds like a good start to the day!

It really was! No rushing, no issues, no grumpy people. Just an all around good start.

 

[ElsasMom]

Because We Can't All Travel By Bubble

Ok, that's from Wicked which is not Disney, but when I looked back at the next set of notes & pictures it popped into my head! Not sorry for the bad pun either. Let's move on, shall we?

After our costume change we headed to The Streets of America to see Cinderella's carriage. I was freaking out! I ADORE Cinderella & I'm so excited about the new movie! They had a little area roped off & almost no line. Most people seemed happy to stand outside the ropes & snap a few between families. Not us.

Here's some pictures I took waiting in line







And then it was our turn! I loved that they had the slipper painted on the ground!





I even heard some commentary from guests in line about how nice we looked. Yay! We bumped into our CM friend who took our picture by the construction wall she was like "Oh! hi, good to see see you again!" Adorable. I just love that about Disney. We decided to take some more pictures as we headed back toward the hat remains.

More Pictures!

First, some singing in the rain! The water was NOT on today. Oh well. We still got some good pictures.





Fun times.

A little visit to San Francisco.





Don't worry I didn't leave my heart there. Sometimes you just feel like making "dad jokes". Again, not sorry. I told N I had been reading TRs & decided there was not enough Daisy in my life so we were off to fix that.

Sometimes Visiting A Duck Makes You Feel Like a Princess

I really like this one of me waiting for Daisy


She was all dressed in her Hollywood clothes, adorable.

I got a big hug and she made kissing sounds in my ear the whole time! A million duck kisses.





She loved my the flower in my hair



The photographer said "She loves your bow. Better watch out, Daisy loves bows." I told her she had good taste & then the best! We discovered our matching shoes. I don't know who was more excited me or her!









We enjoyed Daisy so much we decided to hop in line for Donald. He was looking very sharp today. I was excited for another duck hug, but after a little while in line we checked our FPs & it was time for the Frozen sing-a-long! Donald would have to wait we couldn't keep Anna & Elsa waiting. We were old friends after last night.

Sing as Loud as You Want!

We had AWESOME seats. I had mentioned in PTR that I was worried about an obstructed view, but we were right in front! The theater was all decked out.







The family behind us said "Hey we saw you guys at Cinderella's carriage! You looked great. You were the only ones who took advantage of the slipper on the ground everyone else ignored it. We followed your lead when it was our turn." Aw! They were so excited for the sing-a-long the dad had the lyrics on his phone. Seriously, they (as DD would say) cute-d my head off! And then as if they weren't already my new favorite people they offered to take our picture. Because we didn't have enough of those already There's no such thing as to many Disney pictures.



See! I wasn't exaggerating about being right up front. Now, I realize why I felt the need to make bad puns & dad jokes in this post, the hosts of this show were so silly & fun. Example: "Oh, I love chocolate. I call this my chocolate chip muffin top."
"You're a gluten for punishment!"
OR
"Oh, Icy what you mean!"





Anna welcomes you to the show & interacts with the historians, but then she's off to find Elsa (Who we hope isn't out freezing Hollywood Land).

Up Next: More Sing-a-long & Lunch!

​

 

[ElsasMom]

I really enjoyed these two! They retold the story of Frozen & when we'd get to a song the screen would display the lyrics.



Then Kristoff joins them for a bit.



And in the end Elsa makes a grand appearance.



She even makes it snow on most of the audience! That would be the draw back to the front row for sure, the snow's behind you.







I must say it exceeded my expectations. I took the kids to the Frozen sing-a-long at the movies (it was a crowd of maybe 15 people), but we sang our hearts & had fun. It was way cooler with a packed theater & Disney magic! I was beaming when we came out. I told N I was pumped up after that. I felt like I had helped save Arendelle even though that's not the plot at all. It's a lot of fun and worth seeing once for sure.

Now we were off to re-live some of my warm and fuzzy childhood Disney memories, lunch at Sci Fi Dine In! Along the way we saw this guy jamming!



He's part of Mulch, Sweat & Shears. They play through out the day on streets of America. Good music too. We didn't hear to much though because we had somewhere to be.



Yay!!

We were a few minutes early for our reservation & it didn't look to crowded. When we checked in we let them know we were 2 not 3 & I may have mentioned it was my birthday...oh I don't know at least 3 times. They told us it would be about 15min, ugh.

We had some water & I made a call, j/k I took that for my kids who don't have a clue what that is.



I was saying "I think it's ringing" but I just realized I'm standing at a pay phone with my cell phone in my hand. Redundant.

Some of the hostesses came to wish me a happy birthday & chat, but we were super hungry & I was dying to get in & show N how awesome it was. She'd never been in Sci Fi before.



We got a pink car between 2 other couples which was fine with me. The couple in front never turned around or acknowledged that they weren't alone. I took a picture for the couple behind us, but the lighting in there stinks for pictures & they weren't super friendly.

Our server seemed friendly, but overwhelmed. Looking around it didn't seem terribly busy, but he was always rushing away & disappearing.

We tried to order the meteorite but they were out of the glasses what? Boo! So we ordered sodas & paid $4 extra to get glow cubes.





At this point N realized she was out of Benadryl so we had to wait for the chef to come talk about her allergy. She can't have black pepper (like salt's buddy) & a few other seasonings. She was super apologetic about causing a delay with our food, but I was just happy to be in my little pink car enjoying one of my favorite places.

I love all the little clips & previews so much. Especially the car that drives itself!





The chef came out & chatted with us about the time the other two couples got their food. We both ordered burgers & fries. While we were waiting for food a Manager stopped by, Mike, he was very silly. He warned us about flashing people because our glow cubes. He was very pleasant.

The couple in front of us was done eating by the time ours was delivered. Wouldn't you know it, BEST BURGER EVER. I was dying.



So delicious, totally worth the considerable wait. I was almost in tears not being able to finish it. We asked a super rude CM to take our picture now that we were the only ones in the car, but gave up on her. Then our server returned & got this beauty.



I LOVE this one.

Not surprisingly getting our check paid & out of there also took a while. We were super frustrated because we didn't want to miss our TSM FP window. The server never acknowledged my birthday either. Not to be 5 about it, but I expected a cupcake. Maybe that's a dinner thing? It really upset me, he didn't sing or anything. It really bummed me out. I wanted to find Mike, but N said we didn't have time. Ugh, not a good end to lunch so I stole my server's pen & left.​

 

[Gracefulskinny]

Glad you enjoyed the frozen show and had a tasty lunch!

 

[ElsasMom]

Glad you enjoyed the frozen show and had a tasty lunch!

Yes, I recommend the show & the food! Thanks for sticking around. I'll be back with an update soon, I had to start my DCL TR.

 

[Landslide305]

Great report so far! Your love of Disney definitely comes through!

 

[ElsasMom]

Great report so far! Your love of Disney definitely comes through!

Thanks! I'm so glad you're enjoying it!

 

[ElsasMom]

I did want to mention before we move on that, N loved Sci Fi so much she booked a reservation there for her family trip in March while we were sitting there.

Toy Story Time!

I'd only done TSM once before a couple years ago when I brought the kids for the first time. It was back in the "send a runner to get the paper passes" days. We got to HS at opening that day & DH has long legs & we had a 3 pm window. Anyway, not to be all Ben on Parks and Rec a la Lil Sebastian about it, but I don't get why it's such a HUGE deal. It's fun & I LOVE Toy Story, but I'm just as happy on the Buzz ride in Tomorrowland.

Maybe because I suck at shooting games & I'm not a competitive person?

That being said I was excited to try it again.

Here's the pictures I took on the way in





I love that even the FP line is fun to walk through and they even did the ceiling. I'd kind of like to go through the standby line some day just to see the rest of the cool toy decor.









Pretty soon we were one group away from the little gate. The group ahead of us were cheerleaders so there were like 7 of them plus a teacher. They had been having some serious drama at the FP entrance & split with some of their group outside. Overall the cheerleading event that was going on while we there hadn't effected our trip at all, but all the sudden they were all angry & some kind of drama was happening.

Two things: 1) It's the happiest place on Earth, act accordingly!
2) I wish we'd gone around them while they were having drama outside.

Whatever it was it got resolved (of course, it's Disney) & we were next!



I made a remark about "Who do you think we'll get?" & N was totally confused. So, I pointed out the characters on the side of the little cars. She had never noticed. I'm pretty sure we got Jessie.





She gave me some quick tips on shooting technique and we were off!

I probably don't have to tell you who was who



N was the winner overall for our whole group. Fun stuff!

N had commented several times that she hoped the army men would be out. I remembered them being great in a parade I'd seen there as a teenager, but I had no idea they just walked around.

They're a bit like mimes, they just come up and interact with you. We actually met two different soldiers, but N was on a call from her DH & totally annoyed & I was laughing to hard to take any pictures.

THE MAIN EVENT

N shook off the phone call drama pretty quickly, but then she started getting anxious about ToT. It amazes me that as often as she & I have been to Disney there are so many things we've never done.

We had seen the Citizens of Hollywood early on in the day & enjoyed them from afar. N said my outfit reminded her of Mimi so I snapped a picture as we walked by.



I was getting so excited. N was getting pale. There it was!



We had to stop for pictures! This may be N's one & only ride & it's my favorite thing in HS on my birthday!!







ToT Time!

All through the FP line N was freaking out. "I can't believe I'm doing this" etc I told her she may never do it again, but she won't regret it. I was super excited.
There was another group of cheerleaders doing the Gigglo over and over and over and over through the line. SUPER annoying (& slightly funny)

The people in line behind us told N not to worry, but to avoid the front row. Then N let a group go in front of us. I told her the sooner she got on the sooner it would be over. She was in panic mode.

Guess what? We got front row I told her it was all her fault for letting those people go ahead of us, but it may just be wheelchair procedure.

I loved every second of it! When the doors open & you can see the whole park, sigh. N let a bad word slip, but the family next to us was totally amused.

We were both shaking when we got off. Amazing stuff.

We hit the restroom & wandered through some gift shops while N calmed down. After awhile she did say she'd do it again some day.



I took this one for DS in a gift shop. Let's hope he ate that T-shirt before midnight.


​

 

[ElsasMom]

Two Princesses Loose in Hollywood

We people watched on a bench for a bit & debated catching a show. I honestly don't remember why we didn't because we were both dying to catch Indiana Jones. Must have been timing. Anyway, after a while we wondered over for a picture.



I honestly, don't get this picture spot. I assumed Mickey rotated, but it's Mickey's back up there.

We decided to go find Mickey for real. We headed to the Animation building.

I love the art in there!



We hopped in line for Socerer Mickey because N had always wanted a picture with him.







​

And then as we approached the Sorcerer's Apprentice the CM said "Some princesses have come to visit, Mickey! It's Snow White & Tiana" I was THRILLED!









After Mickey we headed up to see the Incredibles.



From the line for the Incredibles we could see Hiro & Baymax below us. They seemed like fun. We were speculating what Baymax must feel like.

While we were waiting these 2 little princesses were visiting with Mr. Incredible & Frozone. They were amazingly adorable. When they left one of them had forgotten their autograph book. He tried to get their attention & everyone in line was yelling, but they didn't turn around. Then Mr. Incredible returned it to her & we all cheered! He swaggered back to his spot it was awesome!





And then it got a little weird...







I think it was just they were kneeling to be more in frame with me, but it turned into a group hug or something... Poor N no super hero love.


We headed out after that & I asked a CM we passed what Baymax felt like. He said "I hear, like a balloon" Since then I've seen Big Hero 6 a few times & that totally makes sense.

Then another CM noticed my button. "Is your birthday today?"
"Yes."
"Like to today is your real birthday?"
"Yes."
"Your real actual birthday is today?"
"Yes"
"Oh! Here ya go."

She gave me a pirate Mickey sticker.

​

 

[wiscbugs]

Looks like you had lots of fun with FroZone and Mr Incredible!

 

[ElsasMom]

Looks like you had lots of fun with FroZone and Mr Incredible!

I love The Incredibles movie, but my expectations for this M&G weren't very high. It was a fun surprise how animated they were