Geez I've been slacking. Sorry to my faithful readers. I know there aren't many of you, but you have been wonderful and I've been lazy apparently. I'll blame the holiday. Yeah, that's it. And the fact that last Sunday we went to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago and saw the Disney Archives exhibit! So cool. You're going to be mad at me again, though. I had charged up my battery on the good camera and had it all rarin' to go, and we got to the museum and guess what?
I left the battery at home.
I know, I suck. I was able to get 4 extremely poor quality pics with my phone. No flash photos, as usual per Disney, so you'll have to take what you get. I do apologize, though. The pictures don't do it justice. Here's the girls with Captain Jack Sparrow's costume. They were VERY excited to see this one.
My favorite part of the exhibit, the Haunted Mansion part.
Mary Poppins. So cool!
We loved the exhibit and spent about 90 minutes in there just looking and reading. Maura was excited to see the Oswald cartoons. They had the Animation Academy and we drew Olaf! The best part? So we are members of the Milwaukee Public Museum and get 1/2 off at MSI, so we were thrilled with that. However, just as I was the next person in line, this little old lady on a
scooter asked how many were in my party, I said 4 and she said they'd had an event with some non-profit group and had extra tickets! She said we could get in free. I thanked her but said we wanted the Disney exhibit also, and she said the tickets included that! So how about that? Even
for Disney when we aren't at Disney! We saved about $60 getting in for free. I thanked the ladies up and down and said how incredibly grateful we were. They said they were glad we could take them so they didn't go to waste. A couple other families got the tickets too. Such a nice surprise! i will say though, the exhibit totally would have been worth the $60 we would have paid. If you are in the Chicago area and haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! it's only there through the first week of January though, so hurry!
Okay, now let's get back to
MNSSHP. So, we had just finished up our awesome PPs with the ghosts. Since everywhere but the hub basically WAS a ghost town at this point, we decided to do some more trick or treating and hitting some rides. We started T or T right there outside of the Rapunzel bathrooms. There was a T or T spot right there, so more huge handfuls of candy we got! The kids eyes got bigger and bigger with each spot we visited. Hey, at least the candy would keep them going since this would be a late night!
Since we were in Fantasyland, we of course walked passed the most annoying ride ever. That's right. IASW. We tried to quietly walk past it, but Maura especially was having none of that. In her most whisper quiet voice (and by that I mean she yelled), we heard "There's Small World. I haven't been on that yet." Sigh. We couldn't avoid it. So, we got in line, I mean, walked right onto our boat. Hey, at least we didn't have to wait to visit H E double hockey sticks. We just walked right on! A man and his 2 kids got on behind us. The kids were maybe 10 and 12ish and had obviously never been there before. The man/dad explained that we'd hear the song sung in several different languages throughout the ride. I jokingly turned and said "And you'll never want to hear it again!" and I chuckled. The man said, "Well, I'm not that cynical." Sheesh. Lighten up, pal. It was a joke. And I'm sorry, if you don't get sick of that song by the end of the ride? As an adult I mean? Come on. He was a barrel of laughs.
I didn't take any pictures. I have enough, and I KNOW you've all seen them before. If you haven't, visit KatMark's report, or Chicago Mo's. They have some. We made it through the ride alive, the kids got to see the pink poodle in France (their favorite thing about the ride), and we thankfully removed ourselves from the boat and that song.
We walked out of that ride and right onto Peter Pan. What? Walked on to Peter Pan? You heard me right. I told you, everyone was in the hub! What a great time to ride rides. That's why we went to the early shows! After Peter Pan, we walked onto Voyage of the Little Mermaid! We hadn't been on this yet and were all excited to ride. Our friend Randy, who cuts all of our hair, is also a Disney nut and he told the girls right before we left that Ursula was his girlfriend and they should say hi to her for him. Remember that. So, the ride started and I tried to snap some pics. They are not great, but better than I thought they would be.
Okay, this one is bad.
This was my favorite part. I LOVE the song Under the Sea.
Kiss the girl.
So I don't have a picture of Ursula, but when we passed her, my kids start yelling from the clam. "Ursula, we know Randy. He told us to say hi!" Well, they sure didn't forget! Jason and I were laughing so hard, and Randy almost died when we told him they remembered when we got back. He pretended he was talking to her on the phone when they girls got their next haircuts. I swear, those kids believe anything.
I got one last picture of Scuttle at the end.
We stopped for some PP outside of the ride. I love the lighting in these!
So you're never going to believe what ride we walked on after the PP. Come on, guess.
I'll wait.
OMG! Seven Dwarves Mine Train! There was NO LINE! None. We walked right up to the loading area. Seriously, can you believe it? We had told the kids we probably wouldn't get on it again this trip, but MNSSHP proved us wrong! We were all happy to ride again and hopped right on.
After visiting the Dwarves again, guess who we saw to meet across from the ride? And again, she had no line! She was a huge surprise and I think a Halloween party only M&G. No clue? I'll show you.
Holy cow, can you believe it? The Wicked Witch? I couldn't believe we just got to walk right up and see her. Her hands made it impossible for her to sign autographs, but we were perfectly happy with pictures. I'm sure this is a meet and greet we may never get again. She was actually not so wicked and spent a lot of time with us. You can see the girls were excited, but a little nervous too!
My eyes are closed in this one, but I don't care.
She may not have been Maleficent, but I'll take a good old Disney villain any day! I may have been the most excited to meet her.
About this time, my right foot especially was beginning to kill me. I could tell I had a blister right in the middle of my foot. I was wearing good shoes, but I guess they were rubbing the wrong way. My dogs were barking, but it was only like 9:30ish at this time, and there was no way I was giving up. I took one for the team and soldiered on!
We hadn't ridden Dumbo yet and the girls were itching to ride. So, of course we walked right on. I only took this one picture on the ride, reminding us not to dance.
I did take a few after though, in the sample Dumbo they have outside the ride. Jason is always the clown.
After Dumbo, we did the trick or treat trail over to Tomorrowland. About 4 stops and 27 pounds of candy later, we arrived. We had never been on Mickey's Speedway up to this point, and the girls were intrigued, mostly because they realized they could drive. Since there was no line, we went on. Again, I have no photographic evidence. Why are you even wasting your time reading this? But, it did happen. Lucy rode with Jason and I was the lucky one who got to ride with the 5 year old. She was driving like a drunken Grandma. Thank God for the bumper strip in the middle or we would have ended up in Seven Seas Lagoon I think. But, the kids giggled and bumped their way through the ride. I'm glad we did it. They had fun, and this one isn't accompanied by any ear-bleeding music.
continued in next post
Bogus. i wont' pay for it either! Did you read the review it got? I haven't read a positive note on it yet.
because i am cool like that.
Not that there is anything wrong with -a sweaty, drunk man with dreadlocks who steals stuff...... Right?
k:
super jealous! so glad for you all!!! cannot beat it! AND meet with the ol hag?!?!? she is very creepy! Too bad you didn't have an apple to give her! 
