Back From My Trip of a Million Dreams (tons of pics)

[twob4him]

Here's a bump up.....

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Life has been busy lately, but I promise to send another update shortly. There is still so much more to tell. Thanks twob4him for giving my TR a bump. I appreciate it.

Hang in there everybody!

 

[2xcited2sleep]

I'm so glad that I found your trip report! Thanks so much for letting us live vicariously through your report and awesome pictures. I can't imagine anything more magical than Christmas plus an anniversary at Disney. Keep those installments coming!!

 

[twob4him]

 

[njdisneyfreak]

I'm so glad that I found your trip report! Thanks so much for letting us live vicariously through your report and awesome pictures. I can't imagine anything more magical than Christmas plus an anniversary at Disney. Keep those installments coming!!

I'm so glad you're enjoying it! More installments are on their way.

Thank you so much for checking in. I've been swamped, getting ready for our Easter Play Performance at church and then other every day life stuff. But, I'm about to give another installment. You're wait is almost over.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

We had been so excited about this day. On our prior trips, we had never gone on a tour, and this one was major: 7 hours, 3 parks and lunch at Mama Melrose. We ate an early breakfast at the Pepper Mill Market. By 8:30ish, we were at Epcot, where the tour would begin. We met our tour guide, Nancy, who is originally from New Jersey! I’m telling you, it seems like a lot of us New Jerseyans are destined to end at WDW. Okay, by me. Whenever he gets the chance, my DH will look for opportunities for us to move down to Florida, through his job. The corporation he works for has a branch in Florida. So, who knows?

Our tour began by getting on a Disney cruise bus. You can see the bus in some of the pictures below. This would be our mode of transportation throughout the trip, which was nice, because of the cushy seats. They also provided bottled water the whole time, in a cooler they kept on the bus. We would travel from location to location via the bus, using backstage areas and various roads, some of which I had never known existed.

The first place we were dropped off was behind American Adventure. We got to see some of the animatronics up close, which was so cool! We also got to see how they operate everything for the show. Simply amazing. Nancy also showed us some really cool special effects they did when creating the World Showcase, that I had never noticed before. My DH was even chosen as part of a demonstration.

They also took us to their Tree Farm. I didn’t even know they had one of those, but makes sense. Here, they allowed us to take pictures, and I took plenty! We got to see the topiaries they are creating and preparing for the spring Garden Festival.
Tinkerbell in the Making

Bambi!!!

Flower & Thumper

A Panda and A Giraffe

Phases of Donald

Mickey

Pirate Mickey

Pluto

Lady (looking a bit scary)

Clockwork

Lumiere

Stitch

Dwarfs

Simba

Disney Royals

They were magnificent, and none of them were even completely finished yet! It made us decide that we have to come back to see one of their Garden Festivals. We could just picture how gorgeous it must be!

We also got to go into their Holiday Warehouse. While many areas were empty, due to the holiday season being in full swing, we did get to see more than I thought we would. We saw tons of ornaments and the new Christmas tree for the Grand Floridian for next year! The tree was in pieces and it was HUGE.

One building that we visited was where they repair and refurbish the rides. It was neat getting to see pieces of rides that we’ve ridden on before. We also got to see the costuming, cosmetology areas. That part was completely amazing!!! It was also neat getting to see where the CMs’ uniforms are. They also drove us through their sanitation area. It was kind of eerie seeing vultures (I kid you not.) flying all around in the sky, above this one area.

At the Studios, we got to have lunch at Mama Melrose, a place my DH and I had never eaten before. Everything is brought out family style, so that all of us on the tour can eat more efficiently and move on. They brought out salad, flatbread pizzas, various pasta dishes and a chicken and vegetable dish. I tried a little of everything, so we knew what we would want to eat whenever we come back. Delish! For desserts, they brought out cheese cake, chocolate cake, tiramisu, some lemon dessert and something that looked like ice-cream. I didn’t try everything, but what I did have, was tasty.

Getting to see what happens at the Disney Florist was neat. All those flowers! Beautiful. We got to go through one of their massive floral freezers, and man, it was ice in their, but the flowers were amazing. The workers putting together all the arrangements seemed to really enjoy their jobs. I never knew how many different types of arrangements they could do, and I know we barely saw the half of it. I didn’t know either, that the Disney Florist is part of the FTD Florists, so you can actually order a Disney arrangement to be sent to your home! I looked at my DH and said, “You know, that’s good to know!” Being the romantic he is, he replied, “Oh, I know.” Nancy, our guide, kept pointing out to him things he could order for me, for our anniversary! I was hilarious, and my DH would respond with statements like, “Yeah, yeah. . .you can move on now.” The group got a kick out of it.

At the MK, we got to go into the Utilidors (the underground tunnels). It was the neatest thing to see what you knew existed down below your feet when you’re at the park, but can never see. Nancy also pointed out a lot of things about the buildings going down Main Street. What was neat, was that people were already lining the street for an upcoming parade, so Nancy had permission to take us right down the center. Nobody was down the center, and you could tell that people were wondering what we were doing. So, at one point, Nancy smiles and said to us, “Okay, everyone! Now’s your chance to be in a parade. Wave!” People actually waved back and some jokingly said, “What? No dancing? You can at least dance for us.” Too funny.

Throughout this tour, we got to talking with a guy named Jeff. He’s a local guy who originally came from Maryland. He looked about our age. Though he had come alone on the tour, he has a wife and 2 kids. They were coming to WDW so often, that they were actually going as much as several times a year. So, they figured that they might as well move to the area. They absolutely love it. He said that when you live there, you can live like a tourist, if you want to. Jeff and his family go every weekend, which I thought was cool.

We also talked to our tour guide about her move from NJ to FL. She and her family have lived in Florida for 16-17 years now. She had lived there for several years when she was younger, working at WDW, and later in life, she and her family moved back. She works part-time for WDW, her son works in the Cinderella Suite Concierge area and in event planning, while her daughter works for the entertainment department of Busch Gardens. Seems like they lost one! LOL Meanwhile, her DH works a “normal” job, as she put it. Nancy said that they have never regretted the move. You could tell she really loves living in Florida and working for WDW.

At the end of the tour, we got exclusive Backstage Magic Tour pins!!! Another pin for my now growing collection.

As our bus was getting closer to the resort, many of us riders noticed a sky rider above the resort area. The sky writer first did a big smiley face and then followed it with Jesus Loves You! We thought that was so neat. We were also happy to be going back to the resort to relax, after going through a 7 hour tour.

Afterwards, we returned to the resort. We had cheeseburgers and fries for dinner at the Pepper Mill. We then walked around the resort store. My DH convinced me that I had to get a lanyard. As he said it, “Where else are you going to put all your pins?” He had a point. But, I didn’t get one, yet. We continued looking around at Disney pens and a tall travel mug that I liked. We bought nothing, since we just wanted an idea of what we might get before our trip ended.

Then, we spent some time walking around the resort a bit. Before heading back, we arranged for Magical Express to bring us to the airport at the end of our trip. Originally, we were going to have a car service pick us up, but then we realized that it was silly to do that, when we had a free ride. I had also realized that I never wrote down our return flight information. Yikes! Thankfully, my DH remembered our online confirmation number and so we got our information from the airlines, over the phone. Whew!

Back in the room, we looked through the clothes we’d accumulated from the various Disney stores, and I decided what I would wear for each of the remaining days. Some call that anal. I call it fun! We also talked about what we absolutely wanted to see and do between then and the end of the trip. My DH also called reservations to get prices for 2008!!! We had decided that we were definitely coming back and soon. In fact, we decided that we would return yearly, from now on. How cool is that? I then caught up on my notes for doing this TR.

By ended up calling it a night at 9 o’clock, since we’d have to be up by 5:30 the next day for a 7 o’clock EMH, and it had been a long day. Of course, we joked that we must be getting old, but in all honesty, I think we were just being smart. Don’t you?

 

[DISNEY4XMAS]

I am all caught up! I haven't been on the DIS for a while infact I started my trip report and haven't gone back to it in quite a while... I have been having trouble with photobucket downloading pictures and I took soooo many pictures it is taking a while to get them on there! I think I only have a few more days to download, so I should get back on the horse so to speak and start writing my report again... I had to laugh because you were only like 3 hours behind us at the crystal palace. And where you had those pictures taken with the Mayor and his wife we were like right on the other side. We sat at the Barbershoppe to watch the parade. We also saw the Sky writer! We have pictures of it somewhere we were on the boat heading back to the resort! My Dh and I have also decided to go back I think we will have to go twice one year because we want to do and ADULTS ONLY trip! we never honeymooned so ten years later I think we will FINALLY DO IT! Dh LOVES DISNEY! even throught out all the crowds he never complained he was just as layed back as he could possibly be!

 

[disneygirlinnj]

The tour sounds awesome! One of these days I definitely want to take the tour!

 

[twob4him]

Wow that was a LONGGGGGG tour but totally sounded worth it! I especially love the part about liking the move to FL. I worry that we are going to look forward to it then finally get there and hate it! Yikes!
Glad to hear about your return trips! I am hoping/planning to go Nov 2009 for a whole week (during NJEA convention) since we couldnt manage a trip in 2008. Its such a long way off that I am trying not to get too excited yet. Maybe we will see you there???

 

[njdisneyfreak]

I am all caught up! I haven't been on the DIS for a while infact I started my trip report and haven't gone back to it in quite a while... I have been having trouble with photobucket downloading pictures and I took soooo many pictures it is taking a while to get them on there! I think I only have a few more days to download, so I should get back on the horse so to speak and start writing my report again... I had to laugh because you were only like 3 hours behind us at the crystal palace. And where you had those pictures taken with the Mayor and his wife we were like right on the other side. We sat at the Barbershoppe to watch the parade. We also saw the Sky writer! We have pictures of it somewhere we were on the boat heading back to the resort! My Dh and I have also decided to go back I think we will have to go twice one year because we want to do and ADULTS ONLY trip! we never honeymooned so ten years later I think we will FINALLY DO IT! Dh LOVES DISNEY! even throught out all the crowds he never complained he was just as layed back as he could possibly be!

That's so crazy that we were so close! If you come across those pics of the sky writing, please send me a copy. I was so caught up watching, that I never got any pictures of it.

I'm excited about your adults only trip! You'll have a blast. When are you going?

The tour sounds awesome! One of these days I definitely want to take the tour!

It was awesome! You should definitely go, as soon as you are able.

Wow that was a LONGGGGGG tour but totally sounded worth it! I especially love the part about liking the move to FL. I worry that we are going to look forward to it then finally get there and hate it! Yikes!
Glad to hear about your return trips! I am hoping/planning to go Nov 2009 for a whole week (during NJEA convention) since we couldnt manage a trip in 2008. Its such a long way off that I am trying not to get too excited yet. Maybe we will see you there???

It was long, but so worth it. I don't think we'd hate it, but I'm sure some people might. Do you think you'd ever go down there?

It's possible you will see us. We never know when we're going. We're debating, right now, over our next trip date for a variety of reasons. We want to go, but there are other circumstances that we have to take into consideration before we decide on a date. Feel free to PM me to know more on that.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

If you have read the installment about the tour, go back and check out the pics I added. They're really neat!!!

 

[njdisneyfreak]

By no later than 6:30 in the morning, we were at our resort bus stop, to head over to the MK’s EMH. However, the bus came quite late and was so full, that every seat was taken and half of the bus was standing. We were bus stop number one, but there are four total stops at the resort and we always get picked up and dropped off last. Normally, not a huge deal. But, the buses were so behind this morning, that there were a lot of unhappy campers traveling to the MK that morning.

By ten minutes after the park opened, we were there, so not too bad. Of course, we went to ride on. . .you guessed it! Buzz Lightyear. Then, we went over to ride the Carousel of Progress again. Since it was so early, and let’s face it, the Carousel of Progress is normally not on the top of EMH lists, there were only two other people in the room with us. At the end of the first scene, there was a malfunction. A CM had to keep saying over the loud speaker for people to remain seated and not to go the Exit doors. Since the ride is set up to do several groups at a time, in a rotating fashion, we knew there were others in the other sections. So, we kept wondering what idiots kept getting up, making them continuously have to remind us of that.

At one point, the whole contraption made an odd noise and we moved backwards several inches and then back again into our original spot! Shortly after our third time sitting through scene one, we began moving again, so we missed the beginning of scene two. At least it wasn’t our first time, but it was weird to see things so out of whack.

By the way, the funny thing was that I had been hoping we were the only ones on the ride, so I could sing “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” real loud. The two other women in the room and the fact that we saw the first scene three times in a row, kind of put a damper on that idea.

We walked around the park some more, getting some more pictures. Then, we went right back onto Buzz Lightyear. Normally, lines are long to get on this one, but we really did well by utilizing the EMH times. Then, we went onto the Stitch ride, which I know is under appreciated, but we think it’s hilarious. I look at it as they can’t do a whole lot with the space, but personally, I think that Stitch deserves a better attraction.

At around 8:20, we headed over to the Grand Floridian for our 1900 Park Fare breakfast. Like at dinner, the food was EXCELLENT! The sticky buns were so sticky that they would stick to the tongs that were meant to pick them up, and wouldn’t let go without some help. They had an omelet station and a huge ham that someone slices for you. Of course, they had all the other usual breakfast foods, which were all well cooked and piping hot. The servers are amazing, and if you wait for a minute for something, they are overly apologetic. I went to the ham station and they were switching off the people doing the cutting. When the lady who would cut my slice got into position she actually said, “I’m so sorry to keep you waiting.” Only at Disney!

The characters at the breakfast were Alice & the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger.

It was a neat mix of characters. Alice and the Mad Hatter were hysterical! They kept running around the restaurant throwing a grape at each other. When the Mad Hatter arrived at a table, if someone was up getting themselves some more food, he would ask the rest of the party for that person’s name. Then, he would begin shouting clear across the restaurant for the person, by name, to come back. There was a couple sitting behind my DH, and the wife had gone up to get more food. So, the Mad Hatter jumped on top of her chair, and yelled very loudly and shrilly, “D-A-N-A!!!” At another table, the guy who was gone was the one with the camera, so the Mad Hatter shouted, “Bill! Bill! B-I-L-L. . .we need a photographer!” We spent so much of our meal laughing, especially me, who thought the Mad Hatter was great.

When he got to our table, he congratulated us on our anniversary and asked how many years we’d been married. Then he said to us, “Eight years?! I can’t get anyone to stick around me for eight seconds!” He shouted a lot.

We noticed that many little kids were frightened of the Mad Hatter. One little girl actually went underneath their table, because she was scared of him. So, Alice actually crawled under the table with her for a picture, and she was able to get her to come out. Too cute! From a distance, the Mad Hatter shouted to Alice, “Alice! What are you doing under that table?” Alice shouted back, “Why, looking for the white rabbit, of course.” Loved it.

Here is our picture moment with Alice:

I thought she played Alice so well, because she captured the fact that Alice was a child. As you can see in the pics, she looks like a young girl smiling real big for the camera!

Then, we headed over to the Studios. Immediately, we noticed that the MGM sign that had always been at the top of the Chinese Theater arch, was gone! They had taken it down, in order to soon put up the new sign. Two days prior it had been up there. We had missed our chance to take a picture of it, thinking they were going to wait to take it down. They had no plans to put the new sign up till a week after we left, but we can always look at the pictures from former trips.

We went on the Backlot Tour and Behind the Magic of Animation. We kept missing the characters, who were always just about to go on break. For lunch, we ate at Toy Story Pizza Planet, which we had never eaten at before. It reminded me of a Chucky Cheese restaurant. We ordered cheese pizzas with side salads and chocolate chip cookies. Not bad. Overall, the food was decent, but the place is very noisy. It was hard to find a place to sit, and it was a hotter day, so were hoping to stay indoors in the air conditioning. So, I asked an Asian family if they would share their table with us. They had four in their family and there were four more seats left. Thankfully, they were fine with us joining them.

We went to see the High School Musical 2: School’s Out show. Normally, they do it over by the Sorcerer Micky hat, but with the change of parade schedules and crowd levels, they had shifted it over to the Fantasmic courtyard. Big mistake, because it was way too crowded! We had waited to see it, because yes, I’m a 33 year old fan of High School Musical, but we figured we could see it later in the trip. They made everyone sits down, except for the back row, where we were. This is why we didn’t take pictures. Too hard to do there. However, the show was excellent! Even my DH, who isn’t overly familiar with the movies, enjoyed it.

We got a great spot for the Holly-day Parade and some great pics of it all:

Afterwards, we went over to take pics of some of the holiday decorations in the park and the front of the Aerosmith ride. We both get severe motion sickness, so we have never gone on the rollercoaster, but have always wanted to get a picture of that huge guitar!

That night, we went to see Fantasmic. We hadn’t seen it since 2002, choosing to not see it, when we had been there in 2006. So, we were really looking forward to the show. We arrived an hour and a half ahead of show time, to get good seats. We had our pick of seats! It was great. We chose a spot in the center, about seven or eight rows up from the front, since the first five rows can get wet and we wanted to videotape the show. I didn’t take any pictures, because the show makes it difficult to, but we got some great videotape of it.

As we began walking out, we spoke to a CM who was very excited. She asked us, “Did you see Harrison Ford?! He just left.” It was then that we noticed a lot of other CMs all excited, as well. We had just missed him. He had sat in the back, to enjoy the show. I can’t believe we had an actual movie star so close to us, and we never even got a glimpse of him! For the rest of the evening, we kept looking around, seeing if we would see him. Unfortunately, we never did.

Of course, where did we go next? Why, to the Indiana Jones Stunt Show Spectacular! Afterwards, we headed over to the Sunset Ranch Market area for dinner. My DH got a double cheeseburger, fries, chocolate cake and soda. I ordered a hot deli sandwich, chips, chocolate cake and soda. The food was great. Since we’ve only gone in the summer, we had never eaten there before. The seating is all outdoors and it’s set up like a food court, with various food places. We would definitely eat there again.

NEXT: Wild by Design Tour

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Your breakfast at 1900 sounds fabulous! I would have loved to see the Mad Hatter jumping on chairs calling for the people to come back and Alice crawling under the table!

How cool that you had an almost encounter with Harrison Ford!

 

[Donald is #1]

Well you convinced me -> I need to add the backstage magic tour to my "to do" list.

 

[disneygirlinnj]

i love the mad hatter stories!!! now i want to eat at 1900 park faire!

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Your breakfast at 1900 sounds fabulous! I would have loved to see the Mad Hatter jumping on chairs calling for the people to come back and Alice crawling under the table!

How cool that you had an almost encounter with Harrison Ford!

Truly some amazing experiences!

Well you convinced me -> I need to add the backstage magic tour to my "to do" list.

I'm so glad you're going to try it!!! You will love it. It's absolutely amazing.

i love the mad hatter stories!!! now i want to eat at 1900 park faire!

If you have never done 1900 Park Fare, you have to go! The mad hatter was just too much. I never laughed so much at a meal. That restaurant truly has a great combination of amazing food and outstanding entertainment and characters. I can't wait to go back, myself!

 

[twob4him]

Sounded like a great day! It would never occur to me to go to a park and then leave for breakfast, then go to a different park. I think I need to lose my "stay from 7:30 am till 1 pm" mentality!!! I never buy the park-hopper and you really seemed to use yours so well. I should let you do my itinerary for the next trip!!! Wow what great parade pics! Hollywood studios looks pretty cool. How hard is it to get to the Nemo show and the Beauty/Beast show and fit in lunch and some other rides????

 

[sharonW]

Still enjoying your TR, the pics are great!!
Do you think your next diz trip will be christ
mastime again?? It really is the most festive
time to visit! The resort decorations alone
are fabulous!

 

[DISNEY4XMAS]

I was so glad to see your hollywood parade pictures we missed that because we were having a low blood sugar and had to sit for 15 mins and by the time we made it to the parade route it was soo full that we couldn't see. I actually had Zac on my shoulders and that is a feat all in it's self because he weighs almost 70 lbs. Oh I will have to tell my mom that Harrison Ford was there he is her dream boat.

 

[njdisneyfreak]

Sounded like a great day! It would never occur to me to go to a park and then leave for breakfast, then go to a different park. I think I need to lose my "stay from 7:30 am till 1 pm" mentality!!! I never buy the park-hopper and you really seemed to use yours so well. I should let you do my itinerary for the next trip!!! Wow what great parade pics! Hollywood studios looks pretty cool. How hard is it to get to the Nemo show and the Beauty/Beast show and fit in lunch and some other rides????

Hey, if you ever want some tips for your next itinerary, feel free to let me know. I enjoy planning things. Going to see both shows before lunch, really depends on the schedules for the day, but Nemo is in AK and Beauty and the Beast is in the Studios. So, it may prove a bit difficult to manage both before lunch. If I knew the show times, it would be easier to say.

Still enjoying your TR, the pics are great!!
Do you think your next diz trip will be christ
mastime again?? It really is the most festive
time to visit! The resort decorations alone
are fabulous!

I am sure we'll do Christmas time again, sometime in the future, but it's not necessarsily when we'll go on our next trip. Part of what made it so special is that we don't plan to go during that time, as often as during other parts of the year. There are so many other time of the year that I still want to experience, that we haven't done, yet. Like, I would really like to go to the Wine & Food Festival and to the Garden Show. But, Christmas time again at WDW will definitely happen again, down the road.

Have you gone during Christmas? It really was amazing, and in many ways, it was like going to WDW for the first time again, since there was so much that you don't get to see any other time of the year. Everything is so transformed! I would highly recommend it, for at least one trip, to anyone who hasn't done it before.

I was so glad to see your hollywood parade pictures we missed that because we were having a low blood sugar and had to sit for 15 mins and by the time we made it to the parade route it was soo full that we couldn't see. I actually had Zac on my shoulders and that is a feat all in it's self because he weighs almost 70 lbs. Oh I will have to tell my mom that Harrison Ford was there he is her dream boat.

The parade was great. It's a shame you couldn't view it. We lucked out with our location, because as we were walking in the general direction of where we wanted to stand, we saw a CM begin to rope off a section. Nobody else seemed to take notice of it. It was still quite some time till the parade started, but the CM helped us know best viewing spot, and we just sat ourselves down on the walkway. At the time, we felt a bit weird, but once the parade started and we saw how great a view we had, the wait was worth it.

I love Harrison Ford, too. I just wish I hadn't missed him by literally seconds Ah, well. I guess it was pretty cool just to know he was right there.