"Can I see your pins?" 12 Days of Disney Fun: Oct. 2011 3/13 It's the end.

[DisMomAmy]

All caught up again! Apparently I had read your last two updates on my phone but it was nice to see the pictures this morning - especially the view from your room. What a pain moving from room to room... but I'm glad it worked out in the end!

I'm glad you got to enjoy Food & Wine... it was soooo busy when we were there that I think Tim only bought one thing the whole time we were there. He got the shrimp & really enjoyed it. I'm sure he would have liked to sample a few more things if we hadn't had the kids with us. Someday...

Can't wait to hear what you did next.

 

[DisneyCrafter]

LOVE all of the F&W pics! I can't believe the size of the sausage from Germany! And that French dish looks gross! I agree that they could have presented it so much better. The Swedish meatballs make me think of Ikea.

Ugh - I can't believe you had to switch rooms three times! How frustrating. It looks like it was worth it, though. Your view was great! I am interested to hear a full review of the hotel. I have considered either the swan or the dolphin (actually thought about it for our upcoming trip) but I feel like I just don't know enough about them!

Ikea; that is SO true! I'm sure they taste much better than the ones at Ikea (I wouldn't know, though, as I've never had the ones from Ikea.)

It was really frustrating but I'm happy it worked out in the end. If they hadn't moved us I don't honestly think we'd stay there again. It just would have rubbed me the wrong way. I can't speak for the Swan but I'm sure it's nearly the same as the Dolphin. We really enjoyed the hotel. I never felt like any of the parks (or downtown Disney) were a long bus ride away. We never had any housekeeping problems (never had to tell them to come back later, they always left plenty of towels and the room was always clean). It was nice to have the 2 bottles of water every day. The food court wasn't great but it had a decent selection. However, the Fountain was fantastic (they have shakes, burgers, etc. ). The bed was seriously the most comfortable bed I've ever slept in on vacation. I slept so well every night. The room was always cold enough (our room was never cold enough at Pop). I loved the feel of it as well. It was very modern without being overly done. I LOVED the pool area. There was 3 pools to choose from and they had a pool bar area that you could order food and drinks from. Staff went around taking drink orders and I could get water with lemon from the bar for no charge. It was really relaxing! For the price ($169/night and we had one night free and a $100 resort credit) it was fantastic and DEFINITELY comparable to the actual Disney owned deluxe resorts (we did stay at GF last year) and it was only a fraction of the price.

Hope my little (or long? ) review helped you!

I can't believe you had to switch rooms so many times, that's so annoying! Glad you finally got a great view! Look how close ToT looks!

Yeah, it was pretty annoying and Greg was getting annoyed with me by the end for just not sticking with what we had in the first place. You should have seen him snapping pictures once we were in our final room, though!

I wish ToT was that close! That was a zoomed in picture.

All caught up again! Apparently I had read your last two updates on my phone but it was nice to see the pictures this morning - especially the view from your room. What a pain moving from room to room... but I'm glad it worked out in the end!

I'm glad you got to enjoy Food & Wine... it was soooo busy when we were there that I think Tim only bought one thing the whole time we were there. He got the shrimp & really enjoyed it. I'm sure he would have liked to sample a few more things if we hadn't had the kids with us. Someday...

Can't wait to hear what you did next.

It was really busy when we were there, too. That day was particularly hot as well but we love Food & Wine so we persevered! I can only imagine how different it is to tour Disney with kids. One day, hopefully, Greg and I will actually know what it's like.

 

[DisneyCrafter]

When we last left off we were just finished getting settled into our room at the Dolphin. We didn’t linger too long because we wanted to get to MNSSHP!

We waited over 25 minutes for a bus! We must have counted 3 AK buses and at least 1 of every other. Something neat did occur when we were waiting at the bus stop, however; we had another person come up to us and compliment us on our shirts. I can’t wait to wear them again next time we go for MNSSHP!

When we got to MK, we rode space and only waited in line for 10 minutes! We then rode IASW which was less than 10 minutes, Splash with a 20 minute wait and then we took a break and had a Dole whip. Yummmm….

As soon as we were finished we headed back over to Splash to get in line for the 7 Dwarves. We were there at 615 and we were probably 50 people back! YIKES! This is definitely an effect of the sold out party. It was a cast member discount night so I saw many CP kids and the man in front of us worked for the Contemporary. We also hadn’t even thought about dinner so Greg went to find food and came back with a corn dog and popcorn. We also passed the time by going through the candy line in the Splash queue; they actually rope off that part of the queue from the actual line for the ride as I’m sure the line for Splash never gets long enough during the parties to utilize it.

At 730 we were finally smiling for this:

I was expecting a pretty non-existent line for the photo op with the Cinderella carriage but there was actually a line so we booked it over to the Villains show. It was a pretty neat show but honestly, I don’t mind skipping the castle stage shows so I could take it or leave it. We stood all the way to the left so we could grab this picture quickly:

Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to get a picture with any other villain as they are only out for a short time; no exceptions!

Oh! I think I snagged this photo while walking to the Villains show.

I knew Greg would love to have a picture with Genie so we headed over to that photo op in hopes that he would be one of the Aladdin characters to come out! We were the only adults without children in line for a picture and I felt a little out of place. Oh well, what do I expect traveling as a couple in WDW? I shouldn’t be embarrassed, I should be proud! Haha…

After that we were able to finally get a picture with the carriage but the photographer wasn’t very good and the image came out a bit blurry. Oh well…
At this point it was time for Hallowishes so we headed toward the hub to wait. I loved loved LOVED the music for this show! Greg did too; he even came home and downloaded the music to his iPod!

As soon as the fireworks were over we headed down Main Street but we weren’t leaving yet! We wanted to see Mickey and Minnie and get our picture taken with them. There was no line!

CONTINUED IN NEXT POST…

 

[DisneyCrafter]

CONTINUED…

So we were quickly done with that and headed to Liberty Square to find a spot for the parade. There’s not as much space here but we found a spot for the two of us fairly quickly and I must say that I loved our spot! It was kiddie corner from the Country Bear Jamboree, right in front of a garbage can. I didn’t love our spot as much as I loved the parade, though. OMG! Best parade I’ve ever seen in Disney, hands down!!!

Here’s the headless horseman. I had read reports that he wasn’t really moving too fast but he was definitely trotting at a quick pace! I wasn’t able to get a decent picture but Greg got a good one, I think.

My favorite part of the entire parade was the Haunted Mansion themed stuff. They had the old man and the dog, grave diggers doing a little choreographed bit, the dancers and the hitchhiking ghosts on a float!

We made the mistake of heading over to the Haunted Mansion as soon as the parade ended. I say mistake because apparently that was everyone’s plan.

We obviously skipped the cemetery in lieu of waiting less and it worked!

Everyone was going through the cemetery. We probably wouldn’t have enjoyed it much anyway.

I don’t think we took these pictures at this point in the night and my memory is foggy as to when we did take them but they seem fitting to show here.

It was nearly midnight at this point so we walked through Fantasyland and Tomorrowland to stop at any candy stations we saw before heading out for the night. We had quite a haul of candy!!!

We waited only 5 minutes for a bus and spent the ride discussing whether or not we were going to get up for the 40th anniversary festivities at MK in the morning.

Up next: Did we make it to the Magic Kingdom or did we choose sleep?

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Great update! I love all of your pictures from the party. The one of the headless horseman is great! I really, really hope to make it down to Disney during the fall next year. I so want to do MNSSHP! Can't wait to hear if you went to the 40th anniversary festivities!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Great update! I love all of your pictures from the party. The one of the headless horseman is great! I really, really hope to make it down to Disney during the fall next year. I so want to do MNSSHP! Can't wait to hear if you went to the 40th anniversary festivities!

I love the fall in Disney World so much that it's hard to go at any other time. However, I actually would like to go in the spring. I think we'd enjoy the TS dining more b/c the food and wine fest wouldn't be there.

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Naturally, I woke up at around 830. It basically gave us enough time to get ready and head to the Magic Kingdom if we got it together with lightning speed. Which, of course, we attempted. We were out the door around 9am. There were A TON of people waiting by the bus stop. After a few minutes people starting walking away and getting into cabs. Then more people did. After the third family got into a cab I said, “That’s it! If I miss this presentation b/c of a dumb bus, I’m going to flip my lid!” (Okay, so maybe I actually didn’t say it like that but that’s how I felt at the moment.) We grabbed a taxi ourselves and were on our way. (I do want to note that the taxis at the Dolphin are white town cars and I actually think they charge you more than the Mears taxis. We spent $20 or so to be dropped off at the TTC.

We then had a choice…monorail or ferry? We choose Ferry as it looked like less people were heading that way. Here is where we saw the first signs of Disney celebrating. There were balloons tied to various places around the area and they had chalk out near the ferry entrance so people could write congratulatory messages.

I’m actually really glad we took the ferry. It was a beautiful day and we got to enjoy the scenery.

Oh, Poly! I hope to stay here someday!

Reminiscing about our stay here last year:

Hi, Greg!:

Here is what we were waiting to see:

We SLOWLY disembarked and headed through the turnstiles. Time? 9:50AM!
Yeah baby! We were handed 40th anniversary buttons (which apparently they ran out of fairly quickly as people continuously asked us where we got the buttons) and walked into the madness.

We asked a group of people if they knew what was going on as there were people standing in front of the train station and they said that it was going to start there. We found a spot and within moments the festivities were starting.
The “mayor” and citizens of Main Street USA came out and made an announcement about joining the procession up Main Street to the castle and before I knew it characters were coming down:

It was really crowded and we should have headed up Main Street ahead of the procession but we really had no idea what was going on. We were able to squeeze up as far as we could get and unfortunately we had a horrible view but we were there!

The president and vice president made a speech. There was a sing along to “When you wish upon a star” and that was nice except I had someone who felt the need to sing with vibrato really loud behind me and it kinda ruined it.
There was a few fireworks at the end and these streamers were released:

We then attempted to find the cupcakes and got in line at:

It was a really long line and everybody around us were standing in line for the cupcakes but we found out after about 10 minutes that they weren’t going to be out until 12. Ugh! We needed something to eat so we stayed in line and got:

And:

That was when we saw someone with the 40th cupcakes. They were at the confectionary. I zoomed down there only to hear right as I was getting in line that they were out. UGH! I guess it wasn’t meant to be.

It was beyond crowded and I wasn’t feeling waiting in long lines to ride the attractions so we headed out of the park and decided to spend our afternoon by the pool at the Dolphin.

Up next: What did we decide to do for the evening?

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Hello, anyone out there?! Jeesh, I don't have very many readers....

Oh well, I'm not a quitter, I'll continue this TR even if I'm the only one reading it!

Saturday, October 1: Part 2

We spent the afternoon relaxing pool side. I did some reading and thanks to Greg’s tablet we snagged ourselves a reservation for that night to the Grand Floridian Café. I had read great reviews in the past and I know it’s not a TS location that often is crowded. Back to talking about the Dolphin; I have to say that I loved the location of the laundry room in regards to the pool. The laundry was located on the ground floor just a bit away from the doors out to the pool area. It made it easy to do laundry (multiple times). I had a much better experience with doing laundry at the Dolphin than the GF, actually. Unfortunately, I didn’t snag any pictures of the pool area but it was really nice.

As soon as we felt rested, we headed back up to our room to get ready for the evening. We actually were ready to go early for our dinner reservation and we decided just to try to get seated. If not, we’d go somewhere else because we had decided to try to see the fireworks at MK.

We took a bus to the MK and then the resort boat to the GF.

Greg went to go check us in and they said it would be about 15-20 minutes but as soon as we sat down in the lobby to listen to the piano player, we were called in!

Our meal was absolutely DELICIOUS!

We started with warm rolls and butter, mmm. I loved the ones with the raisins in them!

Greg and I both chose the same thing for our entrée; the NY strip with red bliss mashed potatoes, haricot verts and red wine sauce. OMG! It was so flavorful! I was in heaven.

I actually wasn’t too impressed with the desserts. I do love the Mickey chocolate on Greg’s, though!

After we were full of delicious food we headed via the very CROWDED monorail to the MK:

(I noticed in this picture that Greg still had a lot of the pins he brought to trade on. This was obviously before he started me on the run around Disney World trying to find certain pins. )

I told Greg to go on ahead and find us a good spot to wait while I went to the restroom. He ended up finding us a spot in front of Casey’s along the Main Street side and even though we hadn’t intended to watch the electrical parade again, we did; just so that when it ended we had a great opportunity to go right in the hub with a view of the center of the castle.

I was happy with our spot…

but we weren’t going ANYWHERE for a while!!!

Behind us…

To the right…

To the left…

The fireworks weren’t anything special, really. They just added some perimeter ones at the end (like they do in Hallowishes) and IMO Hallowishes was more spectacular. I do love me some Wishes, though!

Oh my goodness was it MADNESS trying to get anywhere after the fireworks were over. We took our time and moved with the flow of the crowd that was heading towards Tomorrowland. Some people were VERY pushy and I just didn’t understand it. We’re all trying to go to the same place, there’s no room to cut anyone off so just be PATIENT. Anyway…

We used some Space Mtn. FPs, went on BTMRR (using our “special” FPs we got back at Pop for the luggage issue), rode Splash again and then used some more Space FPs (thinking about it now, where did we get 2 sets from? Haha); the FP line was nearly just as long as the standby line and I was NOT happy. Oh well, we made it on in about 25 minutes or so and were soon enjoying this from the MS Bakery:

Needless to say, Greg and I were arguing over who was taking bigger bites. LOL!

After finishing that, it was just about closing time so we headed on back to the bus stop and were dreaming Disney dreams once again.
Up next: Butterbeer! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I'm still here and still reading, I promise! I just don't always comment I like the little dipping dessert at GF Cafe. And holy cow, that crowd is INSANE at MK. I'm really glad I wasn't there that day

 

[DisneyCrafter]

I'm still here and still reading, I promise! I just don't always comment I like the little dipping dessert at GF Cafe. And holy cow, that crowd is INSANE at MK. I'm really glad I wasn't there that day

Did you notice our tickers are nearly the same?!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

No, I didn't! Where are you guys staying? I'll be at Pop Do you have a PTR up for it yet?

 

[DisneyCrafter]

No, I didn't! Where are you guys staying? I'll be at Pop Do you have a PTR up for it yet?

Not sure where we're staying yet; debating between the Swan/Dolphin, renting DVC points and Pop!

Nope, don't have a PTR. I'm waiting until this TR is completed!

 

[DisneyFirefly]

Not sure where we're staying yet; debating between the Swan/Dolphin, renting DVC points and Pop!

Nope, don't have a PTR. I'm waiting until this TR is completed!

Yay! We shall have to make plans for a Dismeet It's kind of hilarious that we live so near each other and will probably say hi in person for the first time in Florida

I shall definitely sub in when you start your new PTR

 

[Nermel9]

I'm still reading, don't worry! I just don't have a lot of time to comment, so I only get to comment on a few TR's each night.

I kind of wish I braved MK on the 40th in the morning, it looks like even though it was crowded, it was fun. I'm kind of upset I missed all that fun stuff that you guys saw!

GFC looks awesome! I really need to go there someday!

OMG I cannot believe Main Street during the fireworks! I'm so glad we stayed off to the right, near Tomorrowland! I would have freaked out in that crowd if I couldn't move! Ugh, I can't stand the pushing and shoving after fireworks! Glad you made it out of that mob!

That cookie looks amazing! I need to go to Main Street Bakery!

 

[BridgetR3]

Hello, anyone out there?! Jeesh, I don't have very many readers....

Oh well, I'm not a quitter, I'll continue this TR even if I'm the only one reading it!

I'm here and I feel your pain!! My TR has two readers who actually talk back to me!!

But I'm doing it as much for myself as I am for them!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

Yay! We shall have to make plans for a Dismeet It's kind of hilarious that we live so near each other and will probably say hi in person for the first time in Florida

I shall definitely sub in when you start your new PTR

I know, right?!

I'm still reading, don't worry! I just don't have a lot of time to comment, so I only get to comment on a few TR's each night.

I kind of wish I braved MK on the 40th in the morning, it looks like even though it was crowded, it was fun. I'm kind of upset I missed all that fun stuff that you guys saw!

GFC looks awesome! I really need to go there someday!

OMG I cannot believe Main Street during the fireworks! I'm so glad we stayed off to the right, near Tomorrowland! I would have freaked out in that crowd if I couldn't move! Ugh, I can't stand the pushing and shoving after fireworks! Glad you made it out of that mob!

That cookie looks amazing! I need to go to Main Street Bakery!

Actually, I would have probably been happier had we skipped it. It wasn't worth the stress we endured to get to the MK. Well, perhaps the buttons were worth it.

I'm here and I feel your pain!! My TR has two readers who actually talk back to me!!

But I'm doing it as much for myself as I am for them!

I didn't even know you had a TR. I'll pop over!

 

[Joyciemc]

Needless to say, Greg and I were arguing over who was taking bigger bites. LOL!

After finishing that, it was just about closing time so we headed on back to the bus stop and were dreaming Disney dreams once again.
Up next: Butterbeer! The Wizarding World of Harry Potter![/COLOR][/FONT][/SIZE]

I yell at Ben all the time for taking bites that are too big when we are sharing a dessert

I have been reading, but the DIS has been super annoying lately for me when it comes to posting/replying. I have to stop and reload the page a million times. Because of that, I've taken to being a lurker on the TRs I usually post on, but I do try to reply!

What are your dates for next October? Do we overlap at all??

 

[DisneyCrafter]

I yell at Ben all the time for taking bites that are too big when we are sharing a dessert

I have been reading, but the DIS has been super annoying lately for me when it comes to posting/replying. I have to stop and reload the page a million times. Because of that, I've taken to being a lurker on the TRs I usually post on, but I do try to reply!

What are your dates for next October? Do we overlap at all??

We are planning on arriving Saturday, October 27. What about you?

 

[Nermel9]

I yell at Ben all the time for taking bites that are too big when we are sharing a dessert

I have been reading, but the DIS has been super annoying lately for me when it comes to posting/replying. I have to stop and reload the page a million times. Because of that, I've taken to being a lurker on the TRs I usually post on, but I do try to reply!

What are your dates for next October? Do we overlap at all??

Ugh, that's been happening to me too the past couple of days! Last night, I actually had the DIS open on Safari and Opera, and whichever one would open first, I'd read a TR and post...it was a little insane. Tonight seems to be a bit better, but it's still really slow! And I need to reply to comments on my TR, and I feel like it's going to take forever when I am going to try to post! Ugh!

Dude, everyone is going next October. I picked the wrong October to go. Maybe I'll go again next year, little solo trip!

 

[Joyciemc]

We are planning on arriving Saturday, October 27. What about you?

Aww, I'll miss you by a week! We're there October 13-20

Ugh, that's been happening to me too the past couple of days! Last night, I actually had the DIS open on Safari and Opera, and whichever one would open first, I'd read a TR and post...it was a little insane. Tonight seems to be a bit better, but it's still really slow! And I need to reply to comments on my TR, and I feel like it's going to take forever when I am going to try to post! Ugh!

Dude, everyone is going next October. I picked the wrong October to go. Maybe I'll go again next year, little solo trip!

It just took me 4 re-loads to be able to write this reply. And it'll probably be at least a couple more to post it. Annoying!

Another October trip would be awesome!