Famous Last Words: "You muppet, it won't be busy today!" - October 2013! *NEW 24/6 p5

[wiigirl]

Following along!

 

[meridascurls]

Following along!

Glad to have you!

 

[meridascurls]

Chapter 8: Dolewhip o’clock
Monday 14 October

Dead. Men. Tell. No. Tales.

We decided to leave the Jungle Cruise for another day and instead my brother and I joined the line for Aloha Isle, to get our first ever dolewhips. It was getting super hot so the line was pretty long and slow, and also out in the sun. I chose a pineapple dolewhip float and my brother had orange soft serve. It was great taking that first sip!

perfect weather for a dolewhip float

I absolutely loved it. Why have I not tried one before?

By this point it was nearly time for the 3 o’clock parade. We’ve always watched from Liberty Square for the first viewing of the trip so why break with tradition? We headed over and picked a spot outside the front of the Christmas shop. I decided to join the line for Tiana because she was due out just before the parade began.

A New Orleans princess and a Port Orleans princess.

I only had to go and wait for 5 minutes back with my family before the music started. I LOVE the music for the Celebrate a Dream Come True parade. I've noticed that with each trip the music has changed slightly, and this time it seemed a bit rockier which I really liked.

I hated knowing this could be my last time watching this parade. I hoped we’d be able to catch it one last time later in the holiday.

We paid a visit to Cinderella and Aurora, using fastpasses we got earlier. Cinderella loved my nails, especially the monorail one.

In the dump shop, I bought a necklace I’d been eyeing up for a couple of days. It is just a little Mickey head and an L charm. I’ve worn it every day since, just like my Mickey ring I bought a couple of years ago. (You can see the ring in the picture of my nails at the start of this TR.)

We were sort of laid back about the rest of the day and decided to stroll over to Tomorrowland.

We rode the TTA. I love the views from this ride.

Then we did Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. I used to hate this ride. I’m pretty sure I scored zero the first time I rode it because I couldn’t find where my laser was pointing. But now I really like it, even though I’m still terrible at it. I think my score this time got me the title Space Ace.

Afterwards, we tried to go on the Tomorrowland Speedway but decided 20 minutes was too long to wait, so we went back to Main Street to do a little shopping.

Continued in next post >>>​

 

[meridascurls]

Chapter 9: A game of ‘Where’s Dad?’
Monday 14 October

We stopped by the hub first for some photos.

I bought my gorgeous Haunted Mansion at night print by Larry Dotson in the Main Street Cinema. He was actually there at the time so he signed it for me: ‘Best wishes Lynsey ~ “Beware of hitchhiking ghosts!” Larry Dotson’. I also found Madame Leota iPhone cases for sale but only for iPhone 5 which was annoying because I have a 4S and I definitely would have bought it if I could.

It was at this point we realised that my dad had disappeared off somewhere. The three of us just kept on shopping down the other side of Main Street in the Emporium.

my dad has been missing in the main street crowd for about half an hour, g r e a t

Main Street was pretty packed with people starting to come in for the Halloween party. And then of course Move It Shake It Celebrate It began.

Somehow I know some of the music and words to this parade even though I have never watched it before and I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard the music either. But dad was still missing.

We decided to wait outside one of the shops to see if we could spot him anywhere or if he would find us. Eventually I saw him casually strolling across Main Street. He’d lost us in one of the shops so just decided to go off and do his own browsing.

For tea, we went to Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe and sat near to Sonny Eclipse.

I had a hot dog and carrot cake, with an orange slushee. Number 3. Mum had a caramel apple one that was available for the Halloween season. It was green and quite sour. I think she was also catching on with my obsession.

We headed out the park then as it was nearly time for MNSSHP.

Back at Coronado, I decided to go for a swim in the little Ranchos pool. I did swim training for 7 years and have always enjoyed swimming since then; I have quite a bit of speed in the water. Except of course it was only a week since I’d badly hurt my knees (it felt like so much longer!). Kicking my legs hurt so I was basically just using my arms to ‘swim’ and it was very frustrating. I was only in there about 15 minutes before I gave up.

In the room, I managed to commandeer the TV remote for a while to have something on other than the news.

The obvious choice?

STACEY

STACEY I MISSED YOU

Finally I got a chance to watch Must Do Disney. I then proceeded to tweet my various favourite Stacey quotes:

pirates of the caribbean, argh

mickey’s philharmagic... it’s threeeee deeee!

there doesn’t seem to be any track

The remote was taken off me after only one loop of Stacey. I was very disappointed so I went to bed. I had my favourite park to look forward to in the morning!

Day 2 roundup
Weather: Hot hot hot!
Favourite attraction: Haunted Mansion
Favourite food/drink: The Master’s Cupcake and my dolewhip float (hey, I drunk it through a straw, it counts)
High point: New Fantasyland and Be Our Guest
Low point: Losing dad


Continued in next post >>>​

 

[I_Luv_Stitch]

I'm glad you liked the Dole Whip!
What a fun, full day you had at MK
Can't wait to read more

 

[meridascurls]

Chapter 10:...YETI!
Tuesday 15 October

We were up bright and early again ready for a day at Animal Kingdom! Though we may have been bright, the weather was not.

Monday 14th was Columbus Day in the US (I’m not entirely sure the purpose of this day, and we didn't even know it existed until our 2011 trip when we visited Magic Kingdom and it was mad busy). The parks hadn't felt as busy over the Columbus Day weekend as they did two years prior, but we were still expecting the parks from now to be a little quieter. So my dad said to us, “it won’t be busy today”. And this is where the rest of the name of the TR comes from. It became a little joke as every time he said it, the parks were busy, so they ended up his ‘famous last words’. And so with that, and our muppet joke, you have the name of this TR!

Anyway, we caught the bus to Animal Kingdom and then had to stand in a looong line to get in. Disney was still having problems with its RFID thing and the readers were causing a big hold up. The readers just did not work at all for mum so she had to use her Key to the World with an iPad a CM had.

Eventually we got through and whilst dad headed off to Asia to get Everest fastpasses, mum, my brother and I went to Dinoland USA. We rode Primeval Whirl twice before dad appeared, and then we rode it again, walking on every time!

We also rode Triceratop Spin twice before moving on to Dinosaur.

Being the Disney frump I am, I could not resist the classic Dinosaur ride photo pose:
looking the wrong way on the dinosaur ride photo >

My family all thought it was pretty funny. (So did I.)

We exited the ride building and went down a little path back to Dinoland that led into a shop. It was here I remembered the monorail pen my friend Mirren Instagrammed a picture of in July. I was absolutely desperate for one. Thankfully, I found one right in that shop! It cost me like $10 but it was 100% a necessary purchase.

It was time to use our fastpasses so we started walking round to Asia. The grey cloud cover was still refusing to budge!

We joined the fastpass line and started winding our way through the detailed queue. I love it. I also love the loading announcement just before you go out onto the platform and get assigned to a row. I've always found it pretty funny.

We were seated around the middle rows and then our journey to the Himalayas started. Unfortunately the grey sky meant it the view going up that really steep bit was quite bad.

Once the ride really got going, I forgot how much I really do love it. I was smiling so hard coming down the drop where the ride photo is taken; it actually looks like I'm screaming. It just made me so ridiculously happy. No wonder it always has been, and still remains, my favourite.

Also, for the first time ever, I noticed the yeti. Probably because it was actually working so that was very exciting. I sort of did a double take when I came off the ride. I was like, seriously?! It deserved a tweet and an Instagram!

the yeti was actually working on everest today

The yeti was working today!

Continued in next post >>>​

 

[jdd]

Subbing! Great trip report

 

[Credit Man]

Enjoying your report! Your parade pics are amazing!!!

 

[meridascurls]

Subbing! Great trip report

Thanks! Good to have you

 

[meridascurls]

Enjoying your report! Your parade pics are amazing!!!

Thanks! That means a lot!

 

[daisymomof4]

Hi there I'm going to follow along too!

Enjoying your report so far! You take really nice photos I love them all but the ones that are grabbing me are your sign photos (is that odd to say? lol).

We're flying on a VA double decker from LGW in a couple weeks. We live in Ireland, but we are Americans so I'm hoping the US citizen line at MCO isn't as crazy as the one you had to wait in. I'll have the pleasure of standing in a horrendous line when we return to Dublin, lol.

 

[meridascurls]

Hi there I'm going to follow along too!

Enjoying your report so far! You take really nice photos I love them all but the ones that are grabbing me are your sign photos (is that odd to say? lol).

We're flying on a VA double decker from LGW in a couple weeks. We live in Ireland, but we are Americans so I'm hoping the US citizen line at MCO isn't as crazy as the one you had to wait in. I'll have the pleasure of standing in a horrendous line when we return to Dublin, lol.

Hi! And thanks! It means a lot!

The US citizen line was pretty much empty whilst we were in security. You'll be through in like 5 minutes. Lucky for some And the line might not be too bad back at Dublin! The majority of people on homebound flights are residents of that country, so I don't think the wait will be anything what it was like for us trying to get into America. Enjoy your trip!

 

[meridascurls]

Chapter 11: Flights of Wonder, fastpasses, Flame Tree, and new friends
Tuesday 15 October

A Flights of Wonder show was just about to begin after escaping the yeti so we decided to go in and watch. It was the same lady presenting it as the last time we saw it two years ago, which was pretty strange. It’s weird how you can recognise CM’s even with two years between trips.

My brother and dad decided it was a good time for them to ride Kali River Rapids. I do not ride this because there is a chance I will get absolutely drenched from head to toe and one thing I cannot stand is walking around all day in soaking wet clothes and shoes. Also it was quite cool out; not a day for water rides. Mum and I went to get fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris while they rode.

We headed to Africa to pick up the fastpasses and then back to where we’d agreed to meet. I took some pictures because they were taking ages.

Mum and I must have waited around 10 minutes and they still hadn’t shown up so we decided to walk round to the exit of Kali River Rapids to see if they were there.

They literally got off the ride just as we turned up. They’d actually ridden twice; the first time they came off dry but got soaked the second time. I don’t know how they weren't freezing.

We decided to get lunch next, probably because there wasn't much else we could do before they dried off a bit. We chose Flame Tree Barbecue because we’ve eaten there before and enjoyed it. I had the ribs with the nasty BBQ beans, chocolate mousse, and hot chocolate because I was feeling the cooler weather. Also it was only like my second of the trip and I was having withdrawals.

After we’d finished up, we saw Pooh was about to begin greeting, so we followed him down the trail to his greeting area.

He’s so adorable and cuddly. I love him.

Back up on the main part of Discovery Island, we noticed Russell and Dug out greeting. We decided to get in line for them as they were new characters for us. There was a little bit of a wait but their interaction with us was great. Dug took my hand and pulled me over to the side to show me his squeaky squirrel toy. He then went over and started acting silly in front of my brother who was filming the whole thing. They were so fun!

By this time, we were able to use our fastpasses for Kilimanjaro Safaris, so we started the walk towards Africa.

Continued in next post >>>​

 

[meridascurls]

Chapter 12: In which I get engaged... to a primate...
Tuesday 15 October

I have to say I was really looking forward to Kilimanjaro Safaris. Not only because I love the attraction, but also because I’m actually heading to Mount Kilimanjaro this summer and doing a safari around there too. I found the queue, and a lot of the other details in Africa, more interesting and I paid more attention knowing I’m actually going to the real Africa soon.

Our truck pulled up and we drove into the Harambe Wildlife Reserve.

From here on in, I was literally just taking pictures. I decided to cut down and post just my two favourites:

AND THIS ONE. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA OOPS.

Sorry. (I'm not sure why it won't upload the right way up.)

We walked through the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail next seen as it’s right next door.

I noticed that it was almost time for Pocahontas to come out to so we went to Camp Minnie-Mickey and joined her line. She was another new one for me!

We also met Baloo and King Louie while we were there!

I was enjoying meeting new characters and next on my list was Rafiki! So we went back to Africa to catch the train for Rafiki’s Planet Watch. It took us a few minutes to actually find where he was greeting, but when we did there was only a few people in line in front of us.

He signed my autograph book and then pointed to my top, which had birds on it. He made a flapping motion with his hands, then pulled me in for a picture. At which point, the character attendant said, “he’s looking for a mate!”. Rafiki responded by taking my hand and getting down on one knee. I couldn’t stop laughing. And then in our trip video, you hear this stranger obviously in line behind us saying “...that’s slightly disturbing”.

We paid a visit to the goats and then caught the train back.

We made it back in time to get a good spot for the parade. We were on the bridge between Africa and Discovery Island. It was a great spot for pictures of Everest:

It was finally starting to brighten up!

We probably only waited 10 minutes or so before the music started. Mickey Mouse to Animal Kingdom!

Continued in next post >>>​

 

[daisymomof4]

Congratulations on your engagement!

Again, lovely photos. What kind of camera did you use?

 

[meridascurls]

Congratulations on your engagement!

Again, lovely photos. What kind of camera did you use?

Thanks! My camera is a Fujifilm FinePix HS20, and some shots are with my iPhone.

 

[meridascurls]

Chapter 13: Jammin’ in the big blue world
Tuesday 15 October

Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Parade was my first ever Disney parade, and although it’s not my favourite, I still love it. I’m so annoyed that Disney not only got rid of the Celebrate A Dream Come True parade, but now this one too. (Also, Avatarland. Really, Disney?)

The parade finished and we started jammin’ our way past the Tree of Life back to Asia.

We were walking towards Everest just before I took the last photo when I heard a lady walking behind me say: “oh look it’s that mountain, eh, Kilimanjaro”. Inside I was laughing so hard. Not only the wrong mountain but totally the wrong continent, dear!

I also got a frozen lemonade from the Royal Anandapur Tea Company; slushee number 4.

We were going to see the last showing of Finding Nemo: The Musical. This show is so clever. I love the music too. Big Blue World replaced the parade music as the song currently stuck in my head.

After the show was finished and we got out of the theatre, it was pretty much park closing time so we started heading out.

We saw a sign advertising buses running straight to Downtown Disney and so rather than catching a bus back to Coronado and then another for Downtown we decided to try this instead. I think it was maybe a trial run for Disney to see if they should introduce it permanently, as it was a Mears bus. But it certainly worked well for us and we had no complaints.

We arrived at Downtown and went in search of dinner. I knew where we were headed and I was excited.

Continued in next post >>>​

 

[meridascurls]

Chapter 14: Sandwiches and spending all my money
Tuesday 15 October

The car parks/bus stops at the West Side were under construction for the new multi-storey parking lots so we got dropped off in this really awkward place. We had to walk all through West Side, Pleasure Island and Marketplace to get to the other end of Downtown Disney.

I wasn't complaining though. I could not get enough of the sky.

We made it!

My Hawaiian BBQ sandwich was back in my life. I missed it a lot.

earl of sandwich > subway

We did a bit of shopping around the Marketplace after tea. Mum spent like $200 or something crazy like that in 12 Days of Christmas. I also had a look in the pin trading store. I have always collected Disney pins. (I have over 100 now from 6 weeks in Disney). Until this point, I hadn't been too into it as I had before. But once you have a decent look at them, there’s no going back.

I had a proper good look at the pins tonight... it was lethal

My brother was getting fed up of shopping (he hates shopping, even Disney shopping) so we called it a day and caught a bus back to the resort.

I took a stroll over to El Centro to look in Panchito's Gifts and Sundries, would you believe.

love being able to see/hear the fireworks & lasors at the parks from our resort

I think it was most likely Fantasmic that was going on. It was pretty cool though.

In Panchito's, I branched out and finally made a purchase I probably should have done on my first Disney trip. I bought myself my first pin trading lanyard. As I said earlier, I've always collected the pins, but never traded them. But I decided to try something new this trip. I bought myself the princess set of four. I probably bought a couple of others as well for my non-trading lanyards. At which point I decided that was enough and I should probably head to bed.

I've spent like half my money already and it’s only the third day of the holiday oh my goD

Day 3 roundup
Weather: Cloudy and cool to start, which turned into a lovely evening
Favourite attraction: Expedition Everest
Favourite food/drink: Hawaiian BBQ sandwich/hot chocolate
High point: Expedition Everest
Low point: The weather, the RFID readers and being poor

Continued in next post >>>​

 

[meridascurls]

Chapter 15: Surf’s up!
Wednesday 16 October

We got up a little later this morning and decided to try the Pepper Market for breakfast (we had just been eating leftover desserts and little items from Cafe Rix for breakfast the other mornings). Our experience with the Pepper Market was a little better this morning. It didn't take as long to be served, and also we hadn't just got off a 9 hour flight and I wasn't in any pain which probably helped a little. And they had hot chocolate too.

At first I thought I’d just have pancakes but I changed my mind and instead ate the breakfast of champions: Mickey waffles.

(Also, strawberries and sausages? I know I’m not really one to say this considering my love for the chicken alfredo/hot chocolate combination, but this really is weird.)

We finished breakfast, headed back to the room to change into our pool things, and caught the first bus of the morning to Typhoon Lagoon.

We had to stand for about 10 minutes waiting for rope drop and it was SO HOT. I was wearing a thin dress and I still had to go and hide in the shade.

Eventually they let us in; we found a spot under a shelter, and hit the slides! My mum doesn’t really do the water slides so it’s just me, my brother and dad. First of all we went to Crush n’ Gusher. I really like these just because they’re so different to any other water park attraction. We rode all three slides with hardly any wait, which was great. Next we headed round to the back of the park and rode Keelhaul, Mayday and Gangplank Falls. It was getting pretty hot but the lines were still really short. We only rode each slide once because hauling the tubes around gets tiring after a while.

We walked back around and rode the Storm Slides. Then I left them to ride Humunga Kowabunga and went to see mum. I can get quite claustrophobic and those slides look absolutely tiny from the outside so there’s no way I’m ever going to ride them.

I decided it was time to hit the waves. Surf’s up!

the typhoon lagoon wave pool has to be my favourite water park attraction

The wave pool is by far my favourite thing out of both Disney water parks. It is so much fun. I love being out at the rope in the deep part when the wave comes, and swimming away from it and rising up before it engulfs you; I love being in the middle just before the wave comes crashing down where it sweeps you up and sends you flying back; I love being at the edge and watching everyone’s reactions and feeling the force of it even as it reaches the edge of the pool. One of my favourite things in Disney is the rumble sound just before a wave comes and everyone in the pool screams like crazy. It is one if the funniest things. I could spend hours in here. Also, my knees were feeling so much better, which was great because I could swim again.

For lunch, we had donuts from a little stall. They were fresh made so still warm, sweet, and just something different.

I went for a little walk with my camera, taking pictures and enjoying the music (I love the water park music loops), and then spent some more time in the wave pool before calling it a day and heading back to Coronado.

Continued in next post >>>​

 

[meridascurls]

Chapter 16: Aloha Poly!
Wednesday 16 October

Back at the resort, we got changed and caught a bus to Magic Kingdom. But we weren’t heading into the park at this point. It was time for an essential part of every Disney trip:

PLEASE STAND CLEAR OF THE DOORS

POR FAVOR MANTENGANSE ALEJADO DE LAS PUERTAS

We caught the resort line and disembarked at the Polynesian.

We had a little trouble finding Capt Cook's. It is in such an awkward place and its location was not made obvious by the signs. Maybe just because we were newbies to the Poly. Once we eventually got there, I ordered a ham and pineapple flatbread thing, some sort of brownie from the desserts selection, and Fanta. I really wanted a dolewhip but we weren't sure if it counted as a dessert on our dining plan. We managed to get a table outside as the weather was lovely.

I love how american fanta orange is actually bright orange

In the UK, Fanta orange is yellow coloured. So I love the really orange colour that it is in the USA!

Once we finished up, we walked around the Poly for a bit, and then caught a boat back over to Magic Kingdom.

There was an absolutely gorgeous sunset that night, the best since the night we arrived. And I was not missing another one! I jumped straight off the boat as soon as it docked and captured it.

We headed into the park for a night in the most magical of kingdoms!

Continued in next post >>>​