Boo To You and The Castle Suite Too! – A September 2013 TR

[RnbwSktles]

Looks like this is going to be a fun report. Can't wait to read more!!

 

[suzimar57]

those boardwalk hybrid pedal-surrey-fringe-on-top things are harder to do than they look! did them once, lots of leg muscle action involved!!!

 

[littlenellbell]

Bummer. The rain really does suck. But I am glad you just kept going. so many just hide out during the rain. might as well make the best use of your time.

I know the rain is so annoying! I know Florida is known for "afternoon showers that last 20 minutes" but this rain would not stop. Annoying as it was, we did not let it stop us from having a good time. In fact I think it thinned out the crowds a little.

Looks like this is going to be a fun report. Can't wait to read more!!

Thanks for reading along!

those boardwalk hybrid pedal-surrey-fringe-on-top things are harder to do than they look! did them once, lots of leg muscle action involved!!!

I wondered how hard they would be? Maybe we'll wait until the kids are older and have stronger legs. LOL

 

[littlenellbell]

Hello! Hope everyone had a nice Halloween. We had a good time and the kids got tons of candy, on top of the tons of candy left over from MNSSHP back in September! Just wanted to say thank you for continuing to read my little report!!! I hope your enjoying it so far.

Hollywood Studios was open until 11:00pm this night for Extra Magic Hours. We each had 3 Fastpass+ for the evening. Here is what we had:
Carson and Brandon had one for Rock-N-Rollercoaster from 6:00pm 7:00pm
Alexa and I had one to see the Little Mermaid Show at 7:00pm
All of us had a Fantasmic! for the 8pm show.
All of us had a Toy Story Mania from 8:00pm 9:00pm

Our boat arrived to Hollywood Studios around 4:45pm. Of course it was still pouring rain, so I didnt get to take too many pictures. The kids didnt seem to mind. DS thought it was fun to be wet and DD was all nice and dry in her stroller with the cover playing with her Figment.







Normally, we would have taken our time, soaked up the atmosphere and maybe gotten a few photopass pictures, but with the pouring rain we were practically running. We decided to find a nice dry attraction to do before our scheduled fastpasses. We headed towards The Great Movie Ride. Besides the Alien part, we always enjoy this ride. My favorite part is the Wizard Of Oz! There was no wait, so the rain must have been really thinning out the crowds.
Here is the lovely picture DS took of us as we got in line.



I didn't take too many pictures, because I was video taping, but here are a few!





Maybe the rain would be gone once we got off the ride? Not a chance! Poor Carson's poncho was getting a little small. I bought it before our trip about 3 years ago. Fortunately, we were blessed with excellent weather for all of our previous trips and never needed them. I guess I didn't realize how much he had grown since then. Hes only 8, but looks much older than he is. Hes the tallest in his class. DH ended up getting him a new one shortly after this picture was taken because this just wasn't cutting it.



Next we headed through the near empty park over towards Rock-N-Rollercoaster. Even with the rain, I couldn't get over how empty the park was. DH and DS had a Fastpass+, but we got a parent swap so I could also ride with him. I took DD into the gift shop at the exit and waited so we could swap and ride before we needed to go to the Little Mermaid Show. Now I know why the park was so dead&..everyone was packed into that gift shop trying to stay dry and out of the rain. The boys were taking a little longer in line than they should with a fastpass when I got a text from DH that the ride was down and it might be 10-15 minutes. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to wait and ride it again so we braved back out into the pouring rain over towards The Voyage of the Little Mermaid. The parent swap for RNRC would be good all night, so I hoped to find time to ride it later with him. As we trekked through the rain, I was getting a little discouraged knowing that Fantasmic! would most likely be canceled. We had a few minutes so we parked the stroller and headed into a gift shop to get out of the rain and find DD a Duffy Bear, the other souvenir she really wanted. This girl loves her stuffed animals and Duffy was on her mind! After a lot of going back and forth, she ended up with this one! She was one happy girl!



Next we headed over to the Little Mermaid, the show was about to start in 5 minutes. Normally, I wouldn't waste a Fastpass+ on a show where the waits are not long, but honestly there wasn't many options for someone Alexas age who isn't tall enough to ride the bigger rides here. But, in the end I was thankful to have a Fastpass+ or we would have had to wait for the next show. They were holding people back in the regular line and the waiting area was full. The Little Mermaid was my favorite movie growing up and I really love this show. Alexa loves it too!! It was so sweet to see her singing along to Part of Your World. She really got into it and was on the edge of her chair the whole time. Here are a few pictures from the show.








Meanwhile, the boys eventually got on Rock-N-Rollercoaster and they tried Tower of Terror for the first time. DS was so nervous to try TOT, which is surprising because he goes on all the big Roller Coasters at Cedar Point. For some reason TOT just freaked him out. We told him he didn't have to do it, but it was the only big ride at Disney he hadnt done since he chickened out last time, so he wanted to try it. DH told me DS was close to tears in line, but some nice people talked him into it. Of course he LOVED it. My kids are always fearful to try new things but always love them after its done. Its now his new favorite. We had some time to kill before Fantasmic!, which at this point we weren't even sure they were going to have due to the rain, so once the show was over I texted DH to meet us a Star Tours. As we are leaving the Little Mermaid Theater, everyone who was exiting in front of us started to cheer about something!?! The rain had stopped!! It was so nice to walk through the park without a poncho and I could take the rain cover off the stroller and actually talk to Alexa as we walked. I love the atmosphere of HS at night. Soon we spotted the boys and made our way into Star Tours, which was another walk-on.






This was the first time I had ever been on Star Tours. Im not a big Star Wars fan like DH and DS, but I do enjoy the movies and wanted to see it. One trip it was being refurbished and another I waited out with Alexa while the boys went on, so I was excited to try it. DD on the other hand was of course very nervous, but DS gave her a pep talk and she decided to be brave and try it as long as Duffy and Figment could come along. Once again, she really loved it. I liked it, but I felt a little queasy after this ride. I think its because I was leaning over trying to talk Alexa through it rather than looking directly forward at the screen. As we exited the ride, Carson spotted a souvenir he wanted. Here is a picture of him with his new Yoda. I thought he was a little creepy, but he loved it and has now decided to be Yoda for Halloween.



I'm going to have to stop here, but in my next post I will finish off this day. Stay tuned to see if the rain ruined our plans for Fantasmic!

 

[ProudMommyof2]

An empty HS would be awesome!! I so hope Fantasmic wasn't cancelled!

 

[Kristibo42]

!!!

 

[jenseib]

If i don't sit near the middle on star tours I get queasy too.
So glad the rain stopped.

 

[camimh]

Wow! What a great win! Looking forward to ready and seeing more of your trip

 

[acox17]

Can I just say, I can't get over how much your son looks like Charlie from Willy Wonka!

 

[TruLovesKiss]

Joining in!!

WOW, what an amazing prize!! Loving your TR so far... can't wait to read more!! : Sept 25th was the day we arrived in Disney! I remember that Orlando was hit with some pretty heavy rain right before we got there. Yuck for rain but at least you are making the best of it!

 

[ZehnJahren]

Ooh do you remember how much that beer flight was at Big River Grille?? That looks like something I will have to try next week for SURE!!

I don't blame your daughter at all - I kinda want a Duffy myself, and I'm a grown up.

The rain really tends to empty out the park. I know next week there's like a 10% chance of rain (and most days it hasn't rained in WDW in a decade or more!), but I wouldn't mind so much if it did!

 

[emmysmommy]

Hi Kristy! I'm finally getting caught up. I love the YC! It's just so lovely and the smell.... oh yes! The view from your balcony does look like it is next to the turret suites. That view looks pretty familiar.

Alexa's nautical swim suit was adorable.

What a rainy day! Sure hope Fantasmic went off as planned.

Looking forward to reading more.

 

[Jackiemarie21]

Hi
I just found your TR and I am hooked! I can not wait to read about the rest of your very magical trip!
I am in!

 

[littlenellbell]

An empty HS would be awesome!! I so hope Fantasmic wasn't cancelled!

Boo to the rain...but we loved the low crowds.

!!!

Welcome!

If i don't sit near the middle on star tours I get queasy too.
So glad the rain stopped.

Good tip on sitting near the middle. I was sitting on the end, and like I said I was leaning over talking Alexa through it. I think if I was in the middle looking straight ahead, I would have been fine. Maybe next time.

Wow! What a great win! Looking forward to ready and seeing more of your trip

Thank you! I'm glad you joined in.

Can I just say, I can't get over how much your son looks like Charlie from Willy Wonka!

We have heard that before and it's funny you say that....this sort of became a running joke on the night of our castle stay.

Joining in!!

WOW, what an amazing prize!! Loving your TR so far... can't wait to read more!! : Sept 25th was the day we arrived in Disney! I remember that Orlando was hit with some pretty heavy rain right before we got there. Yuck for rain but at least you are making the best of it!

Thanks for joining in! The rain was a bit of a bummer those first couple of days, but we did make the best of it. That's cool our trips overlapped. Will you be doing a trip report? I love to read reports of people that were there the same time as us. In February someone did a report and I spotted myself and DH on the bridge to the Beast Castle in one of their photos.

Ooh do you remember how much that beer flight was at Big River Grille?? That looks like something I will have to try next week for SURE!!

I don't blame your daughter at all - I kinda want a Duffy myself, and I'm a grown up.

The rain really tends to empty out the park. I know next week there's like a 10% chance of rain (and most days it hasn't rained in WDW in a decade or more!), but I wouldn't mind so much if it did!

The beer flight was around $15 I think. It was good and a perfect way to try new beers. They had a seasonal Octoberfest that was very good! Hopefully you will get a little rain to thin out the crowds, but not the downpours that last all day where you can't enjoy yourself. Have an awesome trip!!! I'd love to go during Christmas time to see the decorations.

Hi Kristy! I'm finally getting caught up. I love the YC! It's just so lovely and the smell.... oh yes! The view from your balcony does look like it is next to the turret suites. That view looks pretty familiar.

Alexa's nautical swim suit was adorable.

What a rainy day! Sure hope Fantasmic went off as planned.

Looking forward to reading more.

Hey there! I also just love the YC!! The door was cracked open to the turret suites while mousekeeping was going in and out. I couldn't see much but I took a peek in and from what I could see it looked amazing!!! What an awesome experience that would have been! Thanks for your compliment on Alexa's suit. She fit right in with the theme. A CM told her he could put her right to work as pool greeter .

Hi
I just found your TR and I am hooked! I can not wait to read about the rest of your very magical trip!
I am in!

Hello! Thanks for joining!!

 

[littlenellbell]

As we exited the Star Tours gift shop, the weather was still nice, so we headed over to Fantasmic! I took a couple of random photos along the way.





We were excited that it wouldn't be canceled because this would be our only chance to see it this week. We walked in the Fastpass+ entrance about 5-10 minutes prior to the start of the show. There were plenty of great seats in the Fastpass area.



This is a bad picture, but you can see how many empty seats there are around us in the Fastpass area, but it was crowded the next section over.



We love this show! I think it's because we saw it on the first day of one of our very first trips. The kids were so little and it was so magical for them. Great memories! Anyway, I video taped it during that trip and the kids watch it all the time, so they know the music. They were happily dancing along and anticipating their favorite parts. It was so cute! During the show it started to lightly rain and we had to put our ponchos back on. But the show went on. The boat didn't come out at the end with all the characters, but otherwise the light rain didn't stop it. Considering the rainy night we had, we were so glad we got to see this. I mostly took video, but here are a few pictures I took.














After the show, DS claimed that was the best show EVER! And went on and on about how awesome it was. This made me so happy to see that he still enjoyed it, since I was worried after he claimed he didn't want to meet the characters. We can ride thrill rides at home (Cedar Point) but these magical experiences are what we come to Disney for.

So if you remember we had a Fastpass+ for Toy Story Mania from 8:00pm 9:00pm. Fantasmic was over about 8:30pm. We had to hurry a little to get to Toy Story by 9:00pm. Im not sure if Fastpass+ is offered during extra magic hours, but 8-9pm was the latest I could get. Anyway, if you've been to Fantasmic, you know how the crowds are when its over. It takes awhile to be herded out of the exit and of course we had to find our stroller and take a restroom break. But we made it to Toy Story with a couple minutes to spare. It was so nice to have a Fastpass+ for Toy Story. Regular fastpasses were long gone for the day and the standby line was at least an hour. This is one reason we really liked Fastpass+! Here are a few pictures of us by the Fastpass+ Mickey Scanner using our bands.





More pictures of the ride. I rode with Carson and Brandon rode with Alexa. I dont remember our scores, but I know that DH got the highest score. It is such a cute theme and fun ride for all ages! I was hoping wed be able to ride again when we returned to HS later in the trip.














Continued in next post.....

 

[littlenellbell]

As we exited Toy Story, the kids got excited to see Woody and Buzz meeting across the street. But the line was closed and they were finishing up with the last few groups. We always miss these characters for some reason. So we wandered over to check out the extra magic hours dance party in the Disney Jr building. This is something we had never done before, it was really fun. We were there for about a half an hour. They were making balloon animals for the kids.





At first Jake and Hanndy Manny were out. There was a lot of dancing and bubbles. The kids were having a blast.





Then Mickey and Minnie were announced...the crowd went crazy! Carson was running around like a wild man getting his grove on while Alexa was determined to dance with Mickey and Minnie.





Then Alexa said she really wanted to get a hug from Minnie. The characters don't really stop for pictures, they just keep dancing and moving around the room because they don't want lines to form. Kids can get a quick hug or high five, but you need to be a little aggressive, not like the typical meet and greet where they welcome you for a hug with open arms. Poor DD is just a little too shy. Every time shed get close enough to get a hug, Minnie would move around the room to the next group of kids. So we kind of stalked Minnie and followed her around the room trying to get a hug. I told DD we could meet Minnie at the Magic Kingdom and we could have time with her. But, she was determined to get a hug before we could leave. I had to give her a pep talk to just run right up and do it.

She finally got her hard earned hug!



At this point we remembered that we still had the parent swap for Rock-n-Rollercoaster. DS really wanted to ride it with me, so we set off to ride it. I wanted to get a picture of us in front of the hat, but there were no photopass photographers to be found. I think because it was still sprinkling on and off. So I snapped this picture of him myself. My little roller coaster guy..excited for one of his favorite rides!



Once we got there they informed us it was broke down! We were disappointed but at least Carson got to ride it earlier in the night with his Dad, and I reminded him that we would be back to HS later in the week. He then wanted to do Tower of Terror again, but it was a 20 minute wait, and it was starting to rain again, so we decided to just head back to the resort. It had been a long day and we'd accomplished so much, even with the rain! Plus we had a very special day the next day.....we would be staying in Cinderellas Castle. I didn't want everyone to be overly tired for that!!

We took the boat back to the beautiful Yacht Club. After the kids were in bed we sat out on the balcony and enjoyed our beautiful view, discussing how we still cant believe we won this trip! Perfect ending to a very fun day!

 

[deedee2177]

Loving your TR! You have a beautiful family!! Thanks for sharing your story with us!

 

[RatherBeInAK]

Looks like a fun day at HS despite the rain. We didn't make it over there, mainly because it didn't seem like there would be much for DS to do. Your report made me feel better about that decision. Maybe in a few years we'll give it a go. Fantasmic looks great and the dance party looks like it was a lot of fun. I'm glad Alexa got her hug!

 

[jedimeg16]

The dance party looks so cute! I had hoped to try that on our Studios day, but it was a morning EMH and we had breakfast reservations instead.

 

[beebeeryan]

What an awesome day! Glad F! was not cancelled for you, we finally saw it this past trip for the first time because we had the FP+ and it was great! My younger DS got that same creepy Yoda doll at DHS in 2010. It's still sitting on his bookshelf guarding his bedroom. LoL