anotherhb
Easy on the Ears
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2012
- Messages
- 119
First of all, thank you to everyone who gave me such great advice!
Thursday Oct 11th - EPCOT
We got to the park about an hour after park opening and headed straight to get our Soaring fast passes. Then we rode several other low wait rides and proceeded to start our Food and Wine trek early in the day. The real standouts for us were the cheese soup in Canada, the Shrimp Ceviche at the Florida booth, and the Mongolian beef on a steamed bun at the China booth. With full bellies we then headed to ride Soaring (better than I remembered) and Nemo. At this point it started to get a little warm so we set out to find the lounge for Chase card holders and enjoyed some complimentary soda and tea and rested for just a bit. Nice perk! After we had our daily fill of Epcot, we headed to the Polynesian to watch the electrical water parade and Hallowishes from the beach. Hallowishes was impressive to see with a more full scope than in the park.
Friday October 12th (My Birthday) HS & MNSSHP
We started the day off early again after grabbing a breakfast sandwich at the Earl. HS seemed pretty crowded while we were walking between rides, but the waits weren't too bad. We tried to use our fast passes as efficiently as possible. We rode RR and the TOT twice, saw the Indiana Jones Stunt show for the first time, and also checked out the drawing class at the animation studio, which was really neat. We definitely plan on doing another class when we go back in December.
After changing into our costumes at the hotel (mine-a witch (very original I know), the boyfriend- an alien rocker) we went to MK about 5:30. We rode the Haunted Mansion before the official start of the party which turned out to be a wise move. Then we explored the park looking at the decorations and rode a few more rides BTMRR etc and grabbed a curb seat almost an hour early for the first parade where we also had a view of the Villians Mix & Mingle. The parade was so fantastic we did end up watching the 2nd one as well. We seemed to luck out crowd-wise that particular day because when we were standing on Main Street watching Hallowishes, I would say the back half of the street was almost completely empty. I'm not sure how crowded the character meet and greets were however since we didn't participate in those. We had a fantastic time at the party, and I would do MNSSHP again in a heart beat.
Saturday October 13th - Animal Kingdom
We decided to do Animal Kingdom on Saturday figuring the other parks might be more crowded. I got a little obsessed with Everest and rode it 3 times. We also explored Rafiki's Planet watch and petted the animals, my first time petting a pig! We got to see quite a few animals late afternoon on the safari before heading to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our reservation at Jiko. I had never been to the Lodge, and I must say I was very impressed. It was beautiful! Jiko turned out to be the best meal I've had on property yet. The wild boar tenderloin and duck confit flatbread were to die for. All in all a wonderful evening! I had a little extra time before bed to read some Disney info blogs and I'm so glad I did because dress rehearsals for the New Fantasyland were mentioned.
Sunday October 14th - Magic Kingdom
We woke up bright and early with the hopes that we might be lucky enough to see some of the New Fantasyland. In fact, I was so excited that I hardly got any sleep. We arrived at MK just after rope drop and headed straight for the area. And sure enough it was open. We looked inside the Be Our Guest restaurant and got to see the roped off ballroom area (gorgeous). Then we did Enchanted Tales with Belle and peeked in Gaston's tavern and the gift shop. Shortly after that they opened up Ariel's Grotto and the Little Mermaid ride which we rode twice in a row with no wait. I loved the interactive crab game in the queue. The presentation of the whole area was very impressive, and I don't know how we got so lucky to happen to be there during the dress rehearsal period, but I'm very thankful. Disney must have been celebrating my Birthday too
Thursday Oct 11th - EPCOT
We got to the park about an hour after park opening and headed straight to get our Soaring fast passes. Then we rode several other low wait rides and proceeded to start our Food and Wine trek early in the day. The real standouts for us were the cheese soup in Canada, the Shrimp Ceviche at the Florida booth, and the Mongolian beef on a steamed bun at the China booth. With full bellies we then headed to ride Soaring (better than I remembered) and Nemo. At this point it started to get a little warm so we set out to find the lounge for Chase card holders and enjoyed some complimentary soda and tea and rested for just a bit. Nice perk! After we had our daily fill of Epcot, we headed to the Polynesian to watch the electrical water parade and Hallowishes from the beach. Hallowishes was impressive to see with a more full scope than in the park.
Friday October 12th (My Birthday) HS & MNSSHP
We started the day off early again after grabbing a breakfast sandwich at the Earl. HS seemed pretty crowded while we were walking between rides, but the waits weren't too bad. We tried to use our fast passes as efficiently as possible. We rode RR and the TOT twice, saw the Indiana Jones Stunt show for the first time, and also checked out the drawing class at the animation studio, which was really neat. We definitely plan on doing another class when we go back in December.
After changing into our costumes at the hotel (mine-a witch (very original I know), the boyfriend- an alien rocker) we went to MK about 5:30. We rode the Haunted Mansion before the official start of the party which turned out to be a wise move. Then we explored the park looking at the decorations and rode a few more rides BTMRR etc and grabbed a curb seat almost an hour early for the first parade where we also had a view of the Villians Mix & Mingle. The parade was so fantastic we did end up watching the 2nd one as well. We seemed to luck out crowd-wise that particular day because when we were standing on Main Street watching Hallowishes, I would say the back half of the street was almost completely empty. I'm not sure how crowded the character meet and greets were however since we didn't participate in those. We had a fantastic time at the party, and I would do MNSSHP again in a heart beat.
Saturday October 13th - Animal Kingdom
We decided to do Animal Kingdom on Saturday figuring the other parks might be more crowded. I got a little obsessed with Everest and rode it 3 times. We also explored Rafiki's Planet watch and petted the animals, my first time petting a pig! We got to see quite a few animals late afternoon on the safari before heading to the Animal Kingdom Lodge for our reservation at Jiko. I had never been to the Lodge, and I must say I was very impressed. It was beautiful! Jiko turned out to be the best meal I've had on property yet. The wild boar tenderloin and duck confit flatbread were to die for. All in all a wonderful evening! I had a little extra time before bed to read some Disney info blogs and I'm so glad I did because dress rehearsals for the New Fantasyland were mentioned.
Sunday October 14th - Magic Kingdom
We woke up bright and early with the hopes that we might be lucky enough to see some of the New Fantasyland. In fact, I was so excited that I hardly got any sleep. We arrived at MK just after rope drop and headed straight for the area. And sure enough it was open. We looked inside the Be Our Guest restaurant and got to see the roped off ballroom area (gorgeous). Then we did Enchanted Tales with Belle and peeked in Gaston's tavern and the gift shop. Shortly after that they opened up Ariel's Grotto and the Little Mermaid ride which we rode twice in a row with no wait. I loved the interactive crab game in the queue. The presentation of the whole area was very impressive, and I don't know how we got so lucky to happen to be there during the dress rehearsal period, but I'm very thankful. Disney must have been celebrating my Birthday too
