Car rides, Characters, and Coodies. October 18-25 TR

[Diamondintheruff]

How sweet!

It's really a great price too!

Did you save any hair?

 

[longing2Batdisney]

How fun!! to have a new do for Madeline and good choice not to make her first haircut to severe...I hope ya'll were able to enjoy the night!!

 

[chicagoshannon]

I was a couple of updates behind but am all caught up now. Madeline's new haircut looks absolutely adorable on her. Don't blame you for not going to BBB and opting for the Barber Shop. Much better deal.

yep and since you have to be 3 to do BBB we didn't have a choice this time.

How sweet!

It's really a great price too!

Did you save any hair?

yes Diane put some in a kleenex for us. I just need to find where I put it.

How fun!! to have a new do for Madeline and good choice not to make her first haircut to severe...I hope ya'll were able to enjoy the night!!

You'll find out soon.

 

[praisehisname]

Madeline looks really cute in her Belle dress and new 'do! What a bargain! Hope Eric isn't getting sick!

Denise

 

[crocko]

I was starting to wonder where you were.

LOL -- finally here.

It was a lot easier to keep up with TR's when I wasn't spending all my time trying to get my own udpated.

 

[my2disneyboys]

Another great update. That pool is AWESOME!!!! What a great place to stay at. I am surprised you dont want to go back for your Feb trip!?? I am so glad you enjoyed the barbershop. We loved it too!!

 

[LoveMyTwoPrincesses]

ok so we were sitting in opposite sections of the restaurant. Did you guys get to open the park? All of your siggy pictures look amazing!

We did get to open the park on the 18th! I hope to get a trip report done if I can get my act together.

 

[chicagoshannon]

LOL -- finally here.

It was a lot easier to keep up with TR's when I wasn't spending all my time trying to get my own udpated.

so true! I need to go check yours.

Another great update. That pool is AWESOME!!!! What a great place to stay at. I am surprised you dont want to go back for your Feb trip!?? I am so glad you enjoyed the barbershop. We loved it too!!

Well the Feb trip is being paid for by my parents mostly and I've always wanted to stay at the WL. It will probably be the only chance I get. We're planning our 2012 trip to stay back at the Marriott resort.

We did get to open the park on the 18th! I hope to get a trip report done if I can get my act together.

ooh make sure to let me know when you start it! You'll have to give the details of how you were chosen to do that!

 

[chicagoshannon]

After the hair cut we headed down Main Street. I always love what they do with the Emporium windows.

The castle show had just started so we stopped to watch that

Eric wasn't feeling well and I was afraid we'd have to leave or something so I sent him to a bench with his can of coke and Madeline and I stood to watch the show.

After the show we took some pictures of Madeline in front of the castle.

and in front of Cinderella's fountain.

Everyone kept stopping and gushing over Madeline. It sure made her mommy feel good.
Eric still wasn't feeling well but he said he felt ok to go on Snow White so that's where we headed

Then the Dumbo line looked SUPER short so Eric sat on a bench while I took Madeline on that. We had to wait for 2 cycle of the ride- that's it!

I wish the kids were allowed to sit on the outside because the pictures would be so much cuter. Ah well, I guess it's better to be safe
Next up was Ariel. Madeline always wants to meet King Triton, but no such luck.

After Ariel it was raining. Well, I'm not sure I would call it rain. It sort of spit on us for 5 minutes or so. Eric still wasn't feeling well and by this time I had pretty much figured out it was because he was slightly dehydrated after spending a few hours in the pool earlier. So he was sent over to get something else to drink while I picked up the stroller.

Madeline played in the circus train car

I think it was around 5pm or so by now (yep got all that done in an hour)
Winnie the Pooh was our next stop. We waited maybe 5 minutes. The entire time I was trying to keep my eyes open for where Snow White was going to be later. After Pooh, Madeline and I took a spin on the Teacups. At around 5:45 we decided to grab some dinner. We walked over to Cosmic Rays close to the teacups. Eric sat with Madeline while I ran inside to get us some food. I think I got a cheeseburger meal and a kids chicken nuggets meal. I also had some snacks along. Madeline hardly touched her food. I was starting to think that maybe she wasn't 100% well either. I was so preocupied with finding out where Snow White was going to be I rushed through my meal. I knew it was somewhere around the tea cups but not sure of the exact spot.

When we were done eating I left Eric to finish up with Madeline while I went scouting. Would I ever find out where Snow White was going to be?

 

[chicagoshannon]

I left Eric to deal with Madeline and told him I'd be back in a few minutes. I walked around the Tea Cups ride and then spotted it. The Snow White line. Fortunately for me it was only 2 families long at this point. So instead of going back to Eric I hopped into line and called him. I told him to take Madeline to the bathroom and then meet me over there. Good thing I did because when people start to see a line forming they jump in even if they don't know what the heck the line is for. Within 15 minutes the line stretched all the way to Toon Town. I chatted with a couple next to me. I kept trying to figure out if they were a couple or if their kids were dating. Their kids showed up and acted more like brother/sister then a dating couple. It didnt' much matter but I'm sort of a nosey person. Anyway, I never did figure it out. They did have matching shirts though.

So back to waiting. I got there at just before 6:30 and Snow White wasn't coming out til 7:30. I think Eric and Madeline joined me just before 7pm so they had about 30 minutes to wait. While we waited Madeline decided to entertain the entire line.

She just danced and danced in the middle of the street. (they had turned on some music right at 7pm when the party started)

Finally 7:30 arrived. Soon it was our turn with SW and the dwarves. I made a hasty decision to have all of us in the picture so I handed over my camera to the CM. I expected him to just snap, snap, snap away. My camera takes like 10 shots per second so it wouldn't have been hard to hold down the button. What did I get:

I also was hoping to get a picture or 2 of just Madeline with them. The group ahead of us got to take a picture with EACH of the people in the group. NOPE didn't happen. We were hurried out of the area. After I saw the picture I felt absolutely sick to my stomach. We pretty much gave up 90 minutes of our time in the MK to get that one lousy picture. There is a better one on Photopass so I'm considering ordering it.

Next we decided to Trick or Treat for a while. We headed towards Toon Town and went down the treat trail. Madeline enjoyed this immensely, although they gave out crap candy. Good thing Madeline loves smarties and lolli pops cause that is basically all we got. Between the 3 of us we got 2 name brand candy bar mini's. We then headed to Stitch's dance party hoping to score a Star Wars tooth brush. No such luck. They must have just given those out the first week of the party.

We then high tailed it to Main Street for the 8:30 parade (or was it 8:15 I don't remember) We scored a nice spot in front of the Emporium. While Eric (still not feeling all that great) and Madeline held our spots I ran into the store hoping to score a MNSSHP pin. No luck there but they sent me to Main Street Jewelers across the street. They had 2 regular pins and 1 AP pin left. I was very annoyed. They were obviously the ones no one wanted. I picked the AP pin and one other and also bought a regular chip and dale halloween pin. I just don't understand why they don't have enough pins for everyone that buys party tickets. It was very disappointing.

I headed back to my family in time to catch the headless horseman.

A few minutes later the parade started. I thoroughly enjoyed this parade. They brought out rarely seen characters. It reminded me of the old 3pm parade from when I was a kid.

and then they handed out candy.

Madeline loved the trick or treating so much that we decided that while we wait for Wishes we'd do some more of that so we headed toward Adventureland. We ran into Jasmine and Prince Ali ( I guess he only comes out for the party, most of the time he's dressed as Aladin.)

We continued ToTing and wandered down by the Riverboat and ran into this lovely ghost.

By now it was time for Wishes so we headed back to Main Street. Eric was being a party pooper and just sat on the ground basically pouting. Madeline and I watched the fireworks. Now, I've only ever caught about 5 minutes of regular Wishes but those 5 minutes were a million times better then the entire Hallowishes we saw. I don't think it was worth watching but oh well. We then stuck Madeline into her stroller and headed out of the park.

We were handed a handful of candy on the way out (chocolate FINALLY but the cheap kind), hopped on the monorail to the TTC. We were lucky in that there was a waiting parking lot tram there. Got on that but after dropping off the first 2 sections the Tram broke down. I think the battery died or something. So we had to get off and walk back to the 1st stop so another tram could pick us up. Did they send an empty tram for us? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOo The thing was full. We managed to get on but were not together. Eric was LIVID at this point. I think if I ever tried to get him to agree to go to another party he'd shoot me.

We arrived back at the condo at around 11pm I think, maybe a little earlier. We had an ADR for CP in the morning. Would we make it?

I wanted to share my thoughts (more then I already have) on the MNSSHP.
Pro's:
no waits for rides (a plus if you arrive at 4pm since the party hasnt' even started yet)
seeing characters you don't get to see during the day
the parade

Con's:
having to wait for characters takes so long that you don't have time for anything else
Snow White doesn't come out til 7:30 so 30 minutes of the party was wasted
Not NEAR enough time to do everything at the party.
spending $50 per person to get 1 photo with a character and crappy, crappy candy.

Here is a list of things we didnt' have time to do:
Cinderella's carriage
Haunted Mansion and picture
Free face painting
missed a bunch of the treat trails
ride any rides during the party itself

IF we could have stayed for the entire party we would have been able to do a bit more but I really don't know anyone that would be able to stay that late with kids under 10years old.

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Shannon,
sorry to hear ya'll were disappointed with the party...my parents went to the Christmas one a few years back and my dad kinda had the same impression you did; and they didn't even do the characters. I do think that it probably would be more fun with a child around 6-8 (where they still love all the characters and are able to handle the late night a little better--just need to get the parents ready for all night too! )

great pictures though! I think the snow white came out nice but I do see your point!
love the Alice, Prince Ali, and Jasmine shots!!! and I love that M provided the entertainment...how cute!!!

 

[praisehisname]

So sorry the party was a disappointment. A lot of what you said is why I keep going back and forth about adding MVMCP in December...

Denise

 

[mickeystoontown]

I forgot to mention waaaaay back in my other post.....You may still get your Epcot email. We went in August and didn't receive our Epcot email pictures until mid-September.

I am sorry to hear that Eric wasn't feeling well. Wonder what was up?

You sure did luck up on attraction wait times! I'd love to wait just two cycles to ride Dumbo.

I hate that you didn't have an absolute blast at the Halloween party but you still had a good time.

 

[my2disneyboys]

Your post makes me glad that we opted for January and not October for the party! It is a HUGE expense... I think it should just be going on during September and October and not be extra $ and private.... just my opinion.

I would think they would have cute Mickey Chocolate Bars or something Disney atleast!??

 

[chicagoshannon]

Shannon,
sorry to hear ya'll were disappointed with the party...my parents went to the Christmas one a few years back and my dad kinda had the same impression you did; and they didn't even do the characters. I do think that it probably would be more fun with a child around 6-8 (where they still love all the characters and are able to handle the late night a little better--just need to get the parents ready for all night too! )

great pictures though! I think the snow white came out nice but I do see your point!
love the Alice, Prince Ali, and Jasmine shots!!! and I love that M provided the entertainment...how cute!!!

she had a lot of fun dancing
We had an ok time. I don't know maybe the fact that Eric was in a BAD mood affected the night more negatively for me then it would have if he was in to it.

So sorry the party was a disappointment. A lot of what you said is why I keep going back and forth about adding MVMCP in December...

Denise

I've heard that MNSSHP is the better of the 2 parties and that you can get most of the Christmas stuff during regular park hours anyway. I think if you go into it that way then it might be worth it. If you were to go to just ride the rides then it's worth it too I think.

I forgot to mention waaaaay back in my other post.....You may still get your Epcot email. We went in August and didn't receive our Epcot email pictures until mid-September.

I am sorry to hear that Eric wasn't feeling well. Wonder what was up?

You sure did luck up on attraction wait times! I'd love to wait just two cycles to ride Dumbo.

I hate that you didn't have an absolute blast at the Halloween party but you still had a good time.

I think he was dehydrated and then he just got crabby when he wasn't happy with the candy or lack of star wars toothbrush.

It was awesome to be able to do Dumbo like that. The evening really helped with our other days when we were in the parks too. We got those rides done so we could skip them later if we wanted.

Your post makes me glad that we opted for January and not October for the party! It is a HUGE expense... I think it should just be going on during September and October and not be extra $ and private.... just my opinion.

I would think they would have cute Mickey Chocolate Bars or something Disney atleast!??

Yeah I think Jan/Feb is a better time to go overall. Maybe if Madeline was like 8 or something it would have been better cause we could have stayed longer and maybe skipped the trick or treating or something.

you know some people said that they werent' giving out chocolate because it was so hot. Well that night it was low 70's so not hot at all.

 

[GreatBiscuit]

The barber shots pics were adorable! Sorry the party was a bust. It really stinks that the tram broke down on the way out. That's the LAST think your feet need to deal with after a day in the parks! Hopefully tomorrow turned out to be a better day!

 

[chicagoshannon]

Before bed we decided that we would play the next morning by ear and if we got up in time to make our before park ADR then we'd go if not then oh well. I woke up at about 7am and asked Eric what he thought. He said "NO WAY". So my before park opening Crystal Palace breakfast didn't happen.

I think everyone woke up around 8am or so. While Eric was in the shower I got Madeline ready. She felt a little warm to me but I didn't have my thermometer and I didn't think it was too bad, (see where this is going?) so I gave her some Ibuprofen( which I realized later was actually Tylenol). We got ready and made it to the park at around 9:30 or so.

I decided to take some pictures around the castle area.

Then we actually got to walk THROUGH the castle. This was the first time in I don't know how long that we got to do that.

I honestly can't remember what rides we went on, but whatever ride it was the CM told Madeline about the Fairies (maybe Peter Pan). I think we also went on the carousel again. We headed to Toon Town. First stop was a quick picture of Minnie's house.

Then we went to the Fairies. Sign sain 1 hour wait and it was right about dead on. Luckily it didnt' feel like it was quite that long. While I waited in line with Madeline I had Eric run and get fast passes to Thunder Mountain and Splash (one of each since we could do child swap).

We got to see Silvermist, Tinkerbelle, and Rosetta (the CM had to tell me their names)

Tinkerbelle and Rosetta were especially fun and lively. I think the wait was worth it. Madeline talked about those fairies for the rest of the trip.

I started to notice that Madeline was getting hotter. She was also refusing to drink anything. She said she felt fine though. We decided to check out Mickey's house next.

 

[chicagoshannon]

I made a special point to visit Mickey's house because I wasn't sure it would still be there in Feb when we go back.

I was feeling very rushed. The house was pretty busy.

Madeline was getting crabbier by the minute so we decided to go find a place to eat for lunch. We rode the train around to Main Street planning to eat something at Casey's. We stopped at the bakery and noticed the croissants. So we decided to go get a hot dog for Madeline and get the croissants for Eric and I. BIG mistake. Casey's took FOREVER! Madeline and I actually caught the end of the Dreams show in front of the castle while we waited. When we got back to the bakery all of the croissant's were gone.

Madeline wouldn't eat so Eric and I ended up splitting her hot dog. I gave her some more Ibuprofen(Tylenol ugh) and we planned to head out of the park. Madeline decided that she NEEDED to ride Pirates before we left. So instead of leaving we rode Pirates. With a somewhat happy child we headed out of the park. We took a monorail back to the parking lot. This time our tram didn't break down.

We got back to the condo and put Madeline to bed. We planned to go back to MK after her nap if she was fever free. Unfortunately that did not happen. Her temp actually got worse and she started coughing and had a stuffy nose. So we called it a day. Tried to get her to bed early which didnt' work. We all finally got to bed. Woke up a couple of times and around 1am I sent Eric out for more meds and a thermometer. We also looked up a clinic that we could go to if necessary. He got back, I took her temp (around 100 degrees, I had given her meds about an hour before that) and I gave her some Ibuprofen. When Eric got back with the meds I realized I had been giving her Tylenol all day not Ibuprofen like I thought. I felt horrible because Tylenol doesn't work as well as Ibuprofen for her. We all got to sleep finally. We again decided to plan the next day by ear. We had a before park opening ADR at Tusker house the next morning that we really wanted to keep since we lost the CP one this morning. Above all we hoped that we would be able to avoid a trip to the clinic.

Would Madeline feel better in the morning? Would we be able to keep our Tusker House ADR the next morning?

 

[longing2Batdisney]

Sorry to hear Madeline was under the weather; but, it does sound like you were able to get in enough to have a great start to the day...hope ya'll were able to avoid the clinic and make the ADR since I am looking forward to the report of Tusker House that is one of my must do's for next trip!!

BTW: you should still be able to see Toontown in Feb. they say the park should not be affected by the new additions for some time...as they are starting where the old 20K leagues ride used to be!

 

[chicagoshannon]

Sorry to hear Madeline was under the weather; but, it does sound like you were able to get in enough to have a great start to the day...hope ya'll were able to avoid the clinic and make the ADR since I am looking forward to the report of Tusker House that is one of my must do's for next trip!!

BTW: you should still be able to see Toontown in Feb. they say the park should not be affected by the new additions for some time...as they are starting where the old 20K leagues ride used to be!

Isn't Pooh's Thoughtful Spot where 20,000 Leagues used to be? hmm