Dreams Came True! Hearts Soared! WE Became Part of the Magic!-COMPLETED. 5/19 NEW TR LINK

[katt789]

Luckily for us, our timing worked out perfectly, and we were VERY excited to be let into the room to see the princesses. We waited our turn, and when we were next, there was just a whole lot of excited commotion! Rapunzel was super excited to see all of us, and ran right up giving us BIG HUGS (which are seriously the best) and freaking out over our Disneybounds.


Someone was videoing pretty much the entire thing, if you watch our trip video there’s a big chunk in there!

I LOVE that one, because Rapunzel and Amanda are so excited to see each other, and then Pearl’s just the happiest little chameleon in the back. A few of these are out of focus, I had my 50mm lens on and a lot of the time people struggle with that, but I’m still happy we got so many photos from the interaction.

Rapunzel freaked out over Amanda’s shoes, they’re Toms with Tangled characters painted all over them, she was so excited about them that she fully got down to check them out!

Rapunzel at that point looked up to the photopass and was all “I am ON the floor right now!” and we all had a good laugh over that. It was seriously SUCH an incredible meet and greet, to manage to see Rapunzel feeling this awesome when we were Bounding was a supreme bonus and pure magic. We had SO much fun talking with her and engaging in hilarious antics. We were also totally those people that took up a lot of time, #sorry. We took a group shot, and then got some individual ones too!

Here comes the smoulder.

The next ones blurry as heck, but it’s still adorable, and just shows the amazing hugs that she gives!

Seriously just the BEST.

I felt kinda bad for Cindy as she was kinda just hanging out waiting for us to be done. To help kinda move things faster Abby & I jumped up to see her while the others were finishing with Rapunzel.

We waved good bye to the princesses and left Fairytale Hall just feeling up on a cloud and full of happiness and laughter. This day truly could not be topped! Since our group had more time between then and our dinner reservation, we decided to stroll on through the park, stopping along the way.

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


We Journeyed Under the Sea, and continued through to loop over to Tomorrowland for our favorite, the Peoplemover! It was starting to near time for dinner, and were getting hungry again, so we headed over to:


THE CASTLE!


And said goodbye to Amanda in the process, which was sad because we wouldn’t be seeing her again during the week, as she was back to work the next few days! Sad times!! She said she might try to come out to see us for a bit on Wednesday, and with some final hugs, we made our separate ways.

 

[katt789]

We checked in at the podium and were led inside to be greeted by Cinderella.

Tired and hungry, we plopped down onto the benches to wait, and it was to the point every time the bells went off we were all “please?!” I’m pretty sure we’d checked in early, but they hadn’t said it would be any longer. Luckily for us, it didn’t take too long, and we were soon being led up the staircase and into the glorious dining room. We ended up being seated at a half booth that was either a 6 or 8 top originally, so there was lots of space to spread out!

It was a bit of an off start since we weren’t given wands or wishing stars when we were seated. We get it, we’re adults, but we still like those magical touches. We reminisced to the times we’d been there in the past and they’d never been given to us and we used our cutlery for the wishing ceremony. Bahaha!

Our server came by, we ordered drinks, and looked over the menus.

I started off with the scallop, which was super tasty! A few of the others did too, we all liked them! For my entrée I went with the seafood dish.

Luckily for me, this one was a LOT better than the previous night at Be Our Guest! The crust on the fish made it super tasty, and the noodles were good too. Dessert fell pretty flat though. I had looked at the menu online and remembered REALLY NOT liking the signature dessert, and the smores on the kids menu sounded WAY better. But with the way our server was, I didn’t feel like asking for a kids dessert, so I got the cheesecake.

I was super disappointed in it, I won’t lie, it said it was “strawberry cheesecake” to me, and in a place like CRT I assumed it was going to be cheesecake literally made of/tasting like strawberries, not just the syrup on top. It also tasted kinda plastic-ey in some bites, so I didn’t eat much of it. A kid at the next table got the smores and just looking at them I knew they had to be a better choice, bahaha.

Oh, and I guess some princesses came around during the meal too!

They were all pretty meh, Aurora was (IMO) the best of the group, she was just the most interactive and lively, everyone else seemed like it was kinda time for a nap. We did enjoy watching them twirl around with all the empty space during the wishing ceremony though!

When everyone finished up their desserts, we gathered up all our belongings and said goodbye to the castle, and were all on the same page with CRT, we wouldn’t be doing it for a while again. Now, we’d had some INCREDIBLE experiences there, with food, characters, service, and we’ve had some completely rotten experiences too. But for the hefty price tag (especially with the dollar exchange so bad) and the adequate experiences we’d been getting, it just didn’t seem worth it anymore. I’ll still go again, just not anytime soon! Lol.

The park was slowly emptying out, as it was past closing, but there were many more people there than after our BOG dinner, so we didn’t stop as often, but we said goodnight to Roy & Minnie and took some snaps on the way out. I THINK we might have also seen the Kiss Goodnight tonight, not totally sure though.

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


We bussed back to Sports, and Pearl took off to Kyle’s again, and we geared up for another fun filled day, where we’d actually NOT be at Magic Kingdom!

 

[katt789]

I’ve got a bad feeling about this……





TOTALLY KIDDING! TODAY WAS GONNA BE A REALLY GREAT DAY, AND IT’S NOT A TRAP!





Okay..you should probably get where we’re going today…starting off at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! Since we were super excited about the new Launch Bay area, Kara & I decided to Disneybound as some Star Wars characters, while Abby borrowed my lightsaber skirt I got at SWW!

We got to DHS pretty quick, Pearl messaged us saying she’d meet us in a bit, and we proceeded to wait in line for the park to open, and when the gates did, it was quite possibly the like WORST and also most HILARIOUS experience of the week. Since Launch Bay was new, and we’d heard of crazy wait times for things and meets, we were a worried about how many people would be branching off at the same time as us.

Guys, it was full on madness, as per usual with Toy Story being in the park, we weaved our way through the crowd, trying to stay together and not get trampled or die of laughter. Some people branched off towards RnR & ToT, but not many at all! We came up to where the stage/hat usually was, and EVERYONE continued going right, and then, it was like perfection, EVERYONE turned down towards Toy Story Mania, leaving us, and ONE other family continuing into Launch Bay, and they had to stop to park their stroller so after all that stress we were the FIRST ones in!

It really was interesting to head into the area, and see how similar, yet, how different the area was to when it was the Animation Academy! Kara & I needed to deal with some family business, so we figured a visit to our son was in order.

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


The queues were all set up with various lightsabers of various evil guys along the way, pretty cool set up. We didn’t wait too long until we were in the room saying….well…nothing…to Kylo Ren…


It was seriously the MOST TERRIFYING AND AWKWARD EXPERIENCE OF LIFE. I GIVE YOU NO LIES. Kylo said some stuff about the dark side, probably something about destroying the rebel alliance and he got super close to us and up in our faces and I was like, legit worried he was gonna whip out his lightsaber and kill us then and there.


..okay…so maybe not but you get the point…


I’d passed over my camera for pictures but since the fixed lens was on they couldn’t fit all of us (there was no photopass) so I had to jump out of line and grab my phone which made things even more awkward, lol.

We somehow pulled it together for the picture. As we were leaving, Kylo followed us right up to the door and almost out of it, which made for awkward rushing since we’d all been told to put our bags down at the beginning.

In a fit of stressed out/scared giggles, we finally made it out of there. SERIOUSLY. It was insane. We were MORE than happy to hop over to the Wookie’s line next! When we were waiting, I realized I couldn’t find my lens cap! I usually stuff it into the side pocket of my back pack, which is where my phone was! I knew the only place it could be was in Kylo’s room, so I jumped out of line quickly to ask the CM at the gate but after checking it wasn’t there! BOO!

We were much more excited to be entering Chewbacca’s meet and greet, and he was super excited to see us too!

He was SUPER adorable, like, beyond perfection! He gave us all hugs, and the group hug, made his wookie noise, gestured to our outfits, loved it!

It was pretty much love at first sight. I also made sure to share with him that I had his Tsum Tsum with me to co pilot the day, and he LOVED that.

With some more love and giant wookie group hugs, we said good bye to our new friend!

GUYS SERIOUSLY! It was the HIGHLIGHT of our day, we absolutely LOVED Chewie, and he loved us and he was so adorably perfect, I’m sure our outfits helped but it was seriously amazing.

While we were leaving the greet, Pearl messaged us that she was just arriving into Launch Bay, so waved her over when we spotted her and told her all about the terrifying and awesome moments she’d missed. She said she really wanted to meet Kylo, despite have NO clue who he was or anything about Star Wars, so we got back over to the Dark Side.

Accurate representation of our feels being in that room. Kylo said something about joining the first order, and Pearl of course having no clue, goes “Sure! Yeah okay!” PEARL NO!

Despite joining him, she still looks intimidated by him, so that’s a plus sign at least? She’s not all sith!

I think the other thing that made him more daunting was that I wasn’t expecting him to talk, or to be as tall as he was! We left our second go around still in a fit of giggles, it wasn’t as bad as the first go around, but he still followed us pretty much out of the door.

We meandered through the rest of the area, checking things out, it was neat to see everything they had on display, I wish we’d had more time to look at all of it/explore in the area. I also would have loved to be around there when the Jawas were out, but that wouldn’t be happening til later (I’d asked)

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Rey! And BB8

The gift shop/used to be art shop had the BB8 droid for sale and I REALLY want it, the little one, it’s $150 and you can control it with your phone and he actually moves around and makes noises, but I knew I was too tight on money to be buying it today!


With Pearl in tow, and the adrenaline from Kylo wearing off, we knew we needed a pick me up, so what better place to hit than Starbucks!

It was clearly a healthy breakfast day! Lol. With our coffee and breakfasts in hand, we grabbed a table over at Starring Rolls and discussed our plan for the rest of the morning!







[/COLOR]

 

[katt789]

Breakfast finished, Abby said she wanted to check Watto’s Grotto for the lightsaber skirt, and we all wanted to look around there, so we headed to the back of the park next. We found the skirt, but it was only in XS, and considering Abby was wearing a small now, despite it being a bit big, she knew the XS wasn’t going to fit! IT WAS TINY! We still think it was a youth xs or something! We wandered through for a bit, Kara found something to play with.

She picked it up, posed like this and promptly said “my baby”. So we took a proper family photo with the Kylo that was BEHAVING.

Abby had asked about the skirt, but the cm helping her disappeared and never came back, which was super awkward, and Abby gets awkward so we decided to leave & potentially come back later. Besides, it was nearing time for one of our fast passes!

It was time to DROP into our favorite hotel, we skimmed through the fast pass line and were down in the loading area pretty quickly. There the CM asked how many & asked if we were okay being split up, he had 2 rows of 3 open, we said of course, and THANKFULLY, there was a GIANT tour group behind us, so we had the extra space, which prompted me to EXCITEDLY remember a ride photo I’d always wanted to do.

Clearly Luke got lost on that mission! When we were done fearing for our companinions lives, we decided to pay a visit to an enchanted castle, and since Tsums go everywhere we do, Kara took some time for a portrait while we waited.

We got decent seats too, off to the right hand side, but still awesome.

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


The show was fabulous as always, made me really miss wearing that bimbette dress, that’s for sure!!! While waiting for the show, we’d spent some time posting things to social media, and I’d gotten a message from a friend saying that if we were at DHS, we should come see the new Training Academy, and most importantly, the Seventh Sister. She let me know what times would be best, and they coordinated with our Star Tours fp perfectly!


Yay! Star Tours used to be something I always skipped, but we had the FP for it, so why not?! It was also awesome to see some of the new scenes from Force Awakens!


We took a quick bathroom break and headed over for Trials of the Temple!


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


It runs the same style as the old show, kids come up, learn how to fight, and about Jedi stuff, and then the bad guys show up!


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


I have to admit, she is pretty cool. The kids then battle against either Vader or Inquisitor. I do think this show has double the volume of participants in it, as there’s the main stage, and the lower bit where the Sister was, and having two villains obviously gets double the kids through per show, added bonus!


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


The two admit defeat, but that this isn’t over, and retreat back into the Temple, and JUST when you think all is well and fine, out of the smoke comes Kylo.


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Which was another startling moment, the smoke was there for the exit of the other two, and I knew Kylo was in the show, but figured he was just another option to fight, like how Darth Maul and Asaj used to come out, and he just like APPEARED there, GUH, STOP THAT.


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


He battles with the training Jedi, and eventually with the help of all the padawans and audience, they force push him back into the Temple and the day is saved!


It was actually a super cute show, the old one was good, but there’s almost more entertainment value in this having more kids and more villains! It was nice to see!


We had another fast pass coming up, so we headed to Toy Story Mania to battle it out! Despite not playing for a long while, I still did pretty good, and we all had a lot of fun! Since we had just a little bit of time to kill, we headed back to Watto’s Grotto to hopefully accomplish something with the skirt Abby wanted, and I ran into the bathrooms to change. It was overcastted, but still super humid and I was getting too hot, and with our lunch resso I wanted to look a little nicer lol.


Abby ended up not finding the skirt, deciding she’d just order if online when she got home if she really wanted it. We were running out of time, but we had ONE more stop to hit on the way out, I knew I needed a new cup.

I mean, if you’re not going to buy the $150 droid, just get this! It’s the same! I asked for it with just water in it, because I don’t drink any kind of soda, and was super surprised when it came with dasani, and no extra charge! Whoot! Kara also did the same.

With BB8 in hand, it was time to go, and GO FAST, we were running LATE!

[/COLOR]

 

[katt789]

Where we left off we were BOOKING it down to the boat dock outside DHS, we had lunch ressos at Epcot, and were running behind. Naturally, we just missed the boat, so we decided to walk over, and by walk I mean practically jog, which was not pleasant or easy, BUT, at least Kyle (Pearl’s bf) was already there and able to let them know we were on our way.


Finally, we made it, and our Lunch destination was….Le Cellier!! I mean, how could we not stop in to our home for a year?! We fully expected to know NO one on podium (since that’s usually where all the new people were) but we actually knew most of them (or at least, Kara and I did, Pearl & Abby had left earlier than us) we caught up for a bit, checked in, chatted with one of our old managers,and then were shown down to our table.


We all got drinks, various wines or beers, and had previously decided we were just going to get apps & desserts, since we also had a big dinner that night! I got the Beet & Goat cheese salad (sorry it’s sideways)





Pearl & Kyle shared this…I believe it was crab?





While Kara & Abby(?) both got mussels





(my descriptions would be better if these weren’t all new menu items to me bahaha)


We also got 2 orders of poutine to share for the table. It was super awkward/hilarious, the food runner brought them out, but only had 1 ramican of the sauce, and poured it all onto one poutine, and we realized after she’d done it that it was definitely enough sauce for 2 poutines and it was meant to be split… #whoops. We also didn’t recognize one of the servers, and either of the food runners, which felt weird, knowing we had only been gone 4 months and these people were already serving, whereas it took Kara & I nearly 7 months to get through to service training!


Everything was super delicious, despite the poutine be soaked in sauce, bahaha. The beet & goat cheese really complimented each other into a nice savory but light dish! For dessert, I got the chocolate whiskey trifle, which I have no pictures of, but it’s a chocolate, whisky soaked cake, with a layer of cream, a layer of caramel corn in a cup, then chocolate lace over the top, and a scoop of popcorn gelato on top of that, then it’s all melted down with a salted caramel sauce and is JUST DELICIOUS!


THEN, (mainly we think, since Kyle was at our table, and he works in the kitchen…) the Chef came out to our table to drop off some specially prepared salmon.





It was SUPER delicious too! We thanked him a ton, used some TIW on our bill, and paid. Chatted with another manager on the way out, and then talked about what to do with the next few hours. Lunch was only supposed to be a few bites, but we were ALL SO FREAKING FULL. We decided a stroll around World Showcase to help digest, Kyle opted to head home and meet up with us later for dinner.


I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures from this part, so I’ll try to be quick. We browsed some shops, stopped in Italy for a drink, and ended inside in Mexico enjoying some margaritas. We’d planned on being at Trader Sam’s around 5, but that did NOT happen, especially since we made one last stop on the way out of the park!





Since they both had their Tsums, they went up first, as Kara and I took a second to get organized, we started to go up to say Hi to Baymax and the attendant SNAPPED “LET THEM HAVE THEIR TIME GIRLS!” uhm…we’re all together…. #awkward





https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtl1/v/t1.0-9/12718078_10156914302455647_2167303063040114279_n.jpg?oh=09732689fcef0d51d2cdc0f861c0dd61&oe=57A6BCE1%5b[/img']

[img]https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtl1/v/t1.0-9/12718078_10156914302455647_2167303063040114279_n.jpg?oh=09732689fcef0d51d2cdc0f861c0dd61&oe=57A6BCE1


https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/12472746_10156914302670647_2573730452945815416_n.jpg?oh=0c99fa9b73762d1309d002a2d89d9903&oe=57AC27E8%5b[/img']
[img]https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/12472746_10156914302670647_2573730452945815416_n.jpg?oh=0c99fa9b73762d1309d002a2d89d9903&oe=57AC27E8[/img[/URL


All in all it was kind of an awkward meet and greet, the first bit with the tsums was super cute, but after that it kinda fell flat. Since we’d already stopped, we figured some pictures were in order.


[img]https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/12936760_10156914282950647_3799999725572813469_n.jpg?oh=d6ae6ab97ff23675deb2bd701ce912b2&oe=577372BB%5b/img']https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/12936760_10156914282950647_3799999725572813469_n.jpg?oh=d6ae6ab97ff23675deb2bd701ce912b2&oe=577372BB


“Show me some attitude ladies!”





We made a bathroom stop, Kara changed her dress to match our next “bounds” for the evening;





AND WE FINALLY LEFT!


We were all a little…happy…feeling at this point? I mean, obviously we’d had a couple of drinks, but nothing too major, and there had been a lot of food involved too! Our plan had been to hit up Trader Sam’s for a bit, but we didn’t have time for that! It was STRAIGHT onto a bus to Fort Wilderness, one of my personal favorite places!


Pearl split from us at the main parking lot/entrance to wait for Kyle so he wouldn’t get lost, and the rest of us headed into the Pioneer Hall region to hang out! We grabbed a drink from Davy Crockett’s Tavern and found Gene!


Tonight, was a very big night.


It was NUMBER 35 of our Hoop Dee Doo adventures. Yes, 35…35 times is how many times Kara & I have (collectively) seen it. There have been a couple times I’ve been without her or she’s been without me but it works out to 35…#whoops. (our justification is cast members get half off for the first & last shows of the night…it’s cheaper to eat there than anywhere else sit down on property, and a show, all you can eat food, drinks, and tip is all included!) Gene had come with us for quite a few of those so he was more than happy to come with us tonight, Emma, a friend from the UK who was nearing the end of her contract was also meeting up with us.


There was a bit of time to kill so we were sitting in the rocking chairs over by Trails End, and one of the hostesses came over and started to do trivia with us, like, HARD trivia, I think we managed to get all of them right except for one, and she gave us all stickers, which was super awesome!


We checked in, and found that our resso was made for 8…which was interesting as we thought it was for 7, but we thought maybe Emma was brining a friend, so it was alright with us. We took one heck of a classy picture





And headed inside! THE EXCITEMENT WAS UNREAL as we were lead to our table, first off it had been SO LONG, secondly, OUR FAVORITE THING, thirdly, WE WERE SITTING AT A VERY VERY VERY SPECIAL TABLE!!!





Not that you can tell from that, and honestly, to anyone else being seated, you couldn’t tell, but we knew! We jumped right into the delicious cornbread, were greeted by our server, and ordered a round of sangrias and a couple of beers. Today, there was no question asked, as she dropped off a jug of sangria AND a jug of beer for the table! Whoot!


Abby had a little bit of a mess laughter dying fit, as she was trying to stuff the extra loaf of cornbread into her purse (she had a Ziploc) but the show was suddenly starting and she got way too excited and it was just all too much. (watch the video for that clip…and for all of this actually..there’s quite a bit of Hoop)


The show starts with the cast all entering through the backdoors of the theater, and coming through the audience up to the stage, and as they came by, a few of them greeted us, and Six Bits yelled “THIRTY FIVE?!? WOW?” Clearly he’d seen what I’d posted, bahaha. Now, the special part that was our table, was in the “Chicken Song” right before/as dinner is coming out, the cast all comes out into the audience with chicken buckets for the tables and then turns around, and does a little …ring around the rosy…for lack of a better description, around one of the tables, and IT WAS OUR TABLE!!! We were all super excited, and Kyle had no clue what was going on.


Dinner soon came out, I’d asked for the grilled vegetables as well, since I don’t usually eat enough of the other food.





It was all AMAZING, seriously, if you ever get the chance to try Hoop, DO IT! The 4pm show is the least crowded, we’ve paid for category 2, and been seated right near the front, and 6pm is obviously the most busy, and the 8:30 is usually the one we’d go to, it gets out around 10:30, so depending on your family an earlier option might be good. But it is seriously WORTH IT. The show’s amazing, and hilarious, the food’s all super yummy, and there’s lots of secret menu items too! And it’s all so interactive! They pull people up from the audience to help out onstage, Kara & I have both been the can-can dancer, which is super fun! AND they bring out washboards at the end to really make the whole place a hot mess! Bahaha. I really do wish they sold them though! I want one!








After the show was over, we finished the last little bit of our drinks, and after some chatting, headed back to the hotel for bed. It had been a rowdy night, but we had ONE very important day left in Magic Kingdom!




[/COLOR][/COLOR]

 

[katt789]

PSA: These next few updates are going to be a bit of a mess/done in a different style than normal. I have no notes, had barely any photos except for photopass, and in all honesty, was a bit of a grump on our last day, so all I have to work off of is the photopass time stamps!





**


Our last day began not quite as early as we’d originally planned! We’d wanted to try for family of the day, but knowing that they weren’t doing the welcome show at that time, we opted for the bit of extra sleep. Today was our special, look cute and wear tulle skirts & Minnie ears day!

Pearl had stayed with Kyle last night, so Kara, Abby & I headed out towards the bus, where we found the skies to be gloomy, and the ground a little damp, not a nice sign for our last day in the parks. When we were pulling into MK, it was raining, the skies were reflecting how we felt about leaving, that was for sure. Since the park was damp, and we were hoping Trolley might start when it was supposed to, we stayed on Main Street and stopped in to see a Tinker!

We opted for breakfast next, and chose some Starbucks and then grabbed seats over in the Tomorrowland Terrace since it was covered. The three of us spent some time waiting for Pearl, and for Abby’s friend who were both meeting up with us, and tried to figure out when this rain would stop. It was looking like we definitely weren’t getting Trolley, and at this point, nothing was looking good! WAAAH!

We found Pearl, and then headed over to Main Street in hopes that we’d at least get some Rainy Day fun instead of MiSi, and we were super thankful that we did! While we were waiting for it to reach us, I saw a girl walking up to us, and, completely forgetting that Abby’s friend was coming, was legit weirded out when she made a “ssh” sign to me, and then jumped on Abby, then my brain kicked into gear bahaha.

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Since we needed something inside to do, we headed over to Fantasyland and took a spin through Fairytale Hall!

Rapunzel liked our ears and our skirts and had us all do her classic pose.

Cinderella was darling as usual, showed off her wonderful glass slippers and taught us how to princess pose.

We had fast passes in Fantasyland next, and thanks to our extra main gates still kicking around, we had enough for everybody to get in! Where were we? Enchanted Tales with Belle! It was no surprise when the two theater kids got picked to be in the show.

I honestly have such a love hate relationship with this attraction, some days its super entertaining and fun, and sometimes it just seems like SUCH a waste of time, but it kept us inside and out of the rain on that day, so it was something distracting!

Someone suggested journeying under the sea, since it was already so damp out, so we climbed into some clam shells and said hey to all of Ariel’s friends. On the way back out of Atlantica, Pearl spotted a photopass photographer & she really wanted the Pascal magic shot, so we asked about it, and got this in return:

Such a good chameleon he blended right in! Bahahahha…ugh..

Our group continued through Fantasyland, not really sure what to do, the plus side was that the sun was finally starting to come out! We reached Peter’s meet and greet and there were only about 2 people in line…seriously..since that NEVER happens, we thought we’d stop to say hello!

We talked of mothers, pirates, codfishes, mermaids, the usual.


[URL='https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/11241937_10156914397995647_6796030765933506153_n.jpg?oh=86c763263082434d855868fa78ee28ee&oe=5775FC17%5b/img']https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/11241937_10156914397995647_6796030765933506153_n.jpg?oh=86c763263082434d855868fa78ee28ee&oe=5775FC17[/img[/URL]]
















[/COLOR]

 

[katt789]

Despite the rain and crummy weather, we decided that now was a good of time as any to at least TRY for Dream Along, after all, it was a fabulous day to see it, there were some friends we hadn’t seen at all yet, not to mention it would be our absolute last chance to watch it….EVER..


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Luckily for us, the weather held out for the beginning part of the show…and just that…it started spitting/raining again during the show which caused them to immediately stop it… WAAAHHH…We only had a couple more chances to catch it, and the show had cut off right before the finale! Saddened, we headed over into Frontierland for Festival of Fantasy, knowing that it should at least get sent out! Abby at this point, really wanted her face painted, so her & her friend ran off to Tomorrowland to quickly get that done while we saved the spots.

And thankfully, it was getting warm, the roads were dry, and the parade came out!

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Untitled[/url] by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr[/img]


Life is the bubbles!!


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

That cape flip though… We were also really lucky that the only change in the parade due to weather was that the 2nd last really big float was missing, and those characters were walking instead!

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Since it was our last time watching Fof, we obviously followed it to Main Street and watched again from the Barbershop side.


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

 

[katt789]

With our last FoF over for now, we did the traditional thing and went over to Starbucks to get a refresher. We said goodbye to Abby’s friend, and somewhere along the afternoon, Becky came to join us for one last day of fun!


The weather was holding up, so it was back to the castle stage…one…last…time…

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Thank goodness we were able to defeat Malificient again, right Donald?! And the show actually got to be shown in FULL this go around, and boy were we happy! The finale just has a lot of feels.


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


And we could barely stand the cuteness that was Aurora & Phillip (in case you didn’t already notice)


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Pardon the blurriness but it’s too adorable and perfect not to share.


And just like that…it was over…done…completely… only to close a few weeks later, which was just as emotional. Seriously, it rained ALL day, people were camped out, but the rain held up ALL day, I think they managed to do a walk & wave/sing a long halfway through, and then THE LAST SHOW OF THE DAY, the skies finally cleared and they were able to do it and there was just too many feels.


I will miss this show more than I thought I would, that’s for sure. I’ll miss prancing through the hub grass, arm bursting our way across the hub, singing along, seeing the CLASSIC princesses up there, and just everything about it. I just truly hope the new show will hold the same tone and be just as inspiring, but who knows.


Since we were in the area, all we had to do was turn around to see MiSi starting up from Town Square, so we stayed for another dance party.

We then had another fast pass, so it was over to Mine Train for an adventure!

[/COLOR]

 

[katt789]

It was hitting that point in the day where there wasn’t much left to do at MK, and the crowds were too much for our liking. Since we hadn’t even been over to the Grand Floridian yet, we decided that a glass of wine and maybe some food would be in order, it was part of our routine after all.


Naturally, our regular couch spots were taken, so we headed over to the Citricos lounge, which is not our favorite thanks to the bartender there just not being the greatest. We each got something to drink and looked over the menu, Abby and Kara I think both ordered food, but I found nothing I wanted at a price I was willing to pay, lol. I was also getting tired, grumpy, and hungry, and just upset at this point, I wanted to not think about going home, but the thought was LOOMING there, and our last day had been full of a lot of gloomyness. I was also in a LOT of pain, the fake Toms I was wearing were NOT bearing well with the rain/wet and had COMPLETELY torn up the bottom of my feet, and every step I took was seriously painful. It didn’t help that some of the others are super fast walkers, and I ended up kinda feeling like I was left in the dust when we were in the parks. I ended up running down to the QS and grabbing food from there, much more my style at that moment.


You may have also noticed that Pearl disappeared from pictures…I think Mine Train is out of order a bit, and she disappeared sometime after that to have dinner at home instead…just…fyi.


Soon it came time to leave the Grand and head back to the park, we had a fast pass for Wishes and didn’t want to miss that, we hadn’t seen them yet!! Pearl met back up with us somewhere around here.


When we got back outside, IT WAS ABSOLUTELY FREEZING, seriously, that wind was ROUGH. I’d been the dumb one that day and thought “oh whatever, if it’s raining, it’ll be humid, I don’t need a sweater!” Luckily there was one I’d been eyeing in the Emporium, so I ran through there to pick it up as the others headed to the hub grass. I had a bit of trouble finding them in the dark, but we all did good.


Wishes was awesome, emotional, you know, the regular. I obviously was having a lot of feels that day, and Wishes gives me the excuse to bring them out, lol. The hub grass cleared out after the fireworks, and it was beautiful to just SIT there and relax. I had some glow stick/wands and bracelets that I passed out among the others, we totally ended up breaking on and it spilt all over the hub grass and Abby’s hands… #whoops.


Celebrate the magic played again while we were sitting there, and since it had emptied out, this was just super enjoyable. I certainly will miss sitting in the hub grass for fireworks and nighttime stuff. Especially with Halloween, I’m sure the dessert party will be taking it over for that as well, and that was my favorite part!


The five of us decided that we should probably mosey on over to Frontierland, we had plenty of time, but we wanted to make sure we actually saw DEP, same thing, had yet to see it this week! We made some stops for hot chocolate/candy/cookies along the way, and ended up RIGHT by step down, beside Peco’s wall.





Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


The HUGE highlight of the parade came at the tail end, we’d made it through the whole thing only seeing a few familiar faces, and then the banner girls came, and it was our Trolley loves!

Untitled by Katt mccluskey, on Flickr


Ellona & Jenna were SUPER cute, with all the waves and kisses to us, and they stretched out super long to make a heart for us, despite both of them holding the rope, so that was just adorable, perfect and made a wonderful end to a slightly gloomy day!


With some time left in the park, we headed BACK to Fantasyland (are you even surprised) and SURPRISED, found the Anna & Elsa line super short, so we jumped in there to say hello to them!

Anna was looking particularly adorable today, and made sure to give us all warm hugs on our way out.

Naturally, we jumped around to the other side of the Hall next, and were EXTREMELY HAPPY TO SEE CINDERELLA, IT WAS JUST AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE.

I somehow only have the posed photo, but that’s fine. Cinderella was SUPER sassy today, we chatted about her Step Family, she asked if we’d seen her sisters, I commented on how we HADN’T seen Lady Tremaine, Cinderella said she’d be sure to say hi for me, and we talked about shoes for a bit too. It was just super magical and I got hugs since I was heading out of the country in like, 8 hours. WAAH.

Punzie was super cute as well.


At this point, we were cold, tired, exhausted may be a better word, and I was still gloomy, so we decided to call it a night, there was no way we were making it til the end of EMH.

We said goodbye to Becky, and made our way back to Sports. I made sure to pack everything up, and totally did NOT manage to fit it all, I ended up having to leave the Han Solo lunch box behind, waaah! My flight was some ungodly hour like 6am, so the bus got me around 3am. The other 3 had til about 10am to sleep in, and then they headed off on their cruise.


Guys, I knew about PDD…post Disney depression, and it’s safe to say that I had it before, obviously, but there was NOTHING quite like the batch that hit me when I got home from this trip. To have been able to LIVE my dream out for a year and then have to leave sucked, but this sucked even more. It was like, a TASTE of what we used to have, so many memories and magical moments were created and shared in such a short week, that leaving felt wrong. The entire time we kept saying how it felt like we just had a few extra days off work, not that we didn’t live there anymore! It also didn’t help having the other 3 on a cruise and out of communication for the next 4 days, we have a group chat that we talk in every single day, so that was lame to not have too lol. I did end up stopping in Calgary on my way home and caught up with some other friends, but it’s not the same.


Especially when I returned home to find out my manager didn’t put me on any schedule for the next week and a half “because she didn’t know when I was coming back”…even though I gave her the dates I would be home.. I COULD HAVE GONE ON THE DAMN CRUISE AND NOT WORRIED ABOUT WORK AT ALL.


(in the end it actually made me quit and I got out of a not so great environment so ….blessing in disguise)





ANYWAYS, since I don’t like to end things on a bad note, and this TR kinda has that feel, we’re gonna bring spirits up.


We had SUCH an incredible time over the past week, to get to actually reunite, and in the most magical place on earth, and see such amazing things and people, was BEYOND amazing. We got to see pretty much everyone we wanted, and make so many new memories and smiles. I’m so thankful that all of these amazing people have come into my life, and seriously cannot wait until our next adventures!


Abby, Kara & I go to Disneyland in 2 weeks (and I move to Vancouver, and in with Abby just before that!) and Kara & I are taking on Japan/Tokyo Disneyland in the fall, followed by China/Shanghia & Hong Kong Disneyland that Abby’s joining us for, so this year will still be filled with magic.













[/COLOR]

 

[missangelalexis]

How weird that there was no welcome show! So sad!

Omg your Tangled photoshoot is perfection- love it!

Sounds like such a great day at MK. The Rapunzel meet sounds amazing!

Love the Star Wars outfits. The group hug photo with Chewie is adorable!

Yay for Hoop! Glad it was another amazing night

It stinks that the weather was so uncooperative on your last day. I'm glad you got to see FoF and your final Dream Along though!

I like the sweater you ended up buying!

Leaving Disney is always so sad, and I can imagine how hard it especially was for you this time around.

You have lots of exciting things planned! Have an amazing time in Disneyland

 

[missjackiemcg]

Hi, Katt!!
I just stumbled across this TR the other day and hadn't realized you were even back on the DIS! Then, I totally binged and read the whole thing at once I've been following you and your photography page on IG--you are SO talented! Loved reading about all your magical adventures back in the happiest place on earth! It must have been terribly sad to head home after so much fun. I'm really looking forward to reading about your other Disney adventures planned in Tokyo and Shanghai!!

 

[katt789]

The Disneyland trip report is up and running!! Come join in on some West Coast adventures!!!

LINK

 

[katt789]

How weird that there was no welcome show! So sad!

Omg your Tangled photoshoot is perfection- love it!

Sounds like such a great day at MK. The Rapunzel meet sounds amazing!

Love the Star Wars outfits. The group hug photo with Chewie is adorable!

Yay for Hoop! Glad it was another amazing night

It stinks that the weather was so uncooperative on your last day. I'm glad you got to see FoF and your final Dream Along though!

I like the sweater you ended up buying!

Leaving Disney is always so sad, and I can imagine how hard it especially was for you this time around.

You have lots of exciting things planned! Have an amazing time in Disneyland

It was super sad for us, we really wanted to watch it!! Thank you! We had a lot of fun, especially with all the tangled stuff!!
Our star wars adventures were some of my favorites! chewie gives such good hugs!

Hi, Katt!!
I just stumbled across this TR the other day and hadn't realized you were even back on the DIS! Then, I totally binged and read the whole thing at once I've been following you and your photography page on IG--you are SO talented! Loved reading about all your magical adventures back in the happiest place on earth! It must have been terribly sad to head home after so much fun. I'm really looking forward to reading about your other Disney adventures planned in Tokyo and Shanghai!!

awe yay!! Welcome back to my adventures! Yeah, the whole post disney depression has brought me back to the dis again!! Bahaha, yay!! THANK YOU so much!!! that really means a lot!!! I'm super proud of how far my photos have come!!

 

[heatherrrrz]

So I'm completely obsessed with your photos. Did you get that coloring using the lens itself or was it photoshop? I'm an amateur photographer, mainly using my dslr for trips to NYC, photoshoots of my dog, and zoo trips. I have the canon lens that came with the camera, and a telephoto zoom lens. I haven't quite ventured out from using the automatic and other settings on my camera so I'm not sure if the 50 is a good idea for me or not.

 

[katt789]

So I'm completely obsessed with your photos. Did you get that coloring using the lens itself or was it photoshop? I'm an amateur photographer, mainly using my dslr for trips to NYC, photoshoots of my dog, and zoo trips. I have the canon lens that came with the camera, and a telephoto zoom lens. I haven't quite ventured out from using the automatic and other settings on my camera so I'm not sure if the 50 is a good idea for me or not.

Thank you!!! The pictures in this TR are all mainly camera work, there's not too much post processing on them since neither Kara or I had anything good. I usually do bump up the saturation, which helps the colors pop more! I would personally do some research, get some photography books from the library and play around with your camera while you read them. That's what I spent a TON of time between trips doing & you can tell in the photos I ended up with in May! See what you can do with the standard lens first, and what you can do with switching your camera OFF auto/pre chosen settings, play with manual/aperture priority and the like! I originally only bought the 50mm for nightttime stuff, and ended up loving it for Trolley.

On our trip to DLR last week, I totally didn't realize my standard lens was the one on my camera when I grabbed it the first day, and was bummed at first, but ABSOLUTELY loved what I was able to do with it, and also loved that I wasn't as restricted to one focal length as I would've been with the 50mm.

Kara & I also both now use lightroom to edit, so the edits are getting even more crazy, lol. Head on over to that trip report to see the difference.

 

[mindeola]

I am having my own PDD. Your TR was just what I needed to lift the spirits. I love how you spent so much time at MK just soaking everything in. Your pics are fantastic too. Thanks for sharing!