Ferb, I know What We're Going to Do Today! - Updated 9/30

[Lovemy3babes]

I love Barnstomer!! It's definitely not a "tame" kiddie coaster. You really haul!

 

[If U Had Wings]

I don't get to Toontown too often, either. Those are some great photos!! When is it scheduled to close?

I'm not sure, I think starting in the spring. When I was there in March you could see alot of tarps covering certain areas in Fantasyland.

My light fixture obsession expands to ceilings as well. I really am a fan of that ceiling in toon town. I remember admiring that last May. Quite pretty.

That completely makes sense, figuring that many lights are hanging from the ceilings.

You know another thing I haven't done, ridden the Barnstormer LOL!! I'm going to miss ToonTown, I really like being able to walk through Mickey and Minnie's houses...of course I'm sure the expansion is going to be fabulous too!!!

Another great update!!!

It was one of the few rides I had never been on. I wanted to be able to say that I had tried it. I was really surprised how much I enjoyed it. It was awfully fast though.

Barnstormer scares me the most out of all the Disney coasters. I'm not even kidding about that.

It was a bit frightening!

Awe... we love the WL. That is were we honeymooned there in 1996 and it was DH's first time ever to Disney. So the WL holds very special memories for us But we have not returned there since.

We love TooTown too. I'll be sad to see it go, but DD6 will love to see the new princess castles.

The WL was just beautiful, I really want to try staying there one of these days. Maybe whenever I get that solo trip.

I like Toontown, but am not completely upset by it's leaving. Probably because I think this was only my second visit there, the first being with my nieces a few years back. I loved Minnie's house inparticular since you could really play around with everything.

Ok, so for any other word geeks that were curious about what a Natatorium is...it's a swimming pool! Particularly the indoor variety.

Somehow, though, I think I may be the only word geek.

Nope. Your not the only one. That one I knew oddly enough because of my high school. We had an indoor pool, and on the outside of the building it said Natatorium. I always loved that they just didn't put up "pool".

You know...I've never been on it. I've always felt that I should have a child in tow in order to ride. LOL!

I was feeling that way myself, but then my BFF and I just said why not? I figured it was a last chance ride.

 

[All7OfUs]

Ok, so for any other word geeks that were curious about what a Natatorium is...it's a swimming pool! Particularly the indoor variety.

Somehow, though, I think I may be the only word geek.

No, you are definitely NOT the only word geek here. Choosing just the right words is, in a geeky sort of way, fun for me!

Just a side note, I am an alum of Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and the pool there is called the Natatorium. So, yeah, it's actually a word still in use. and not just at Disney.

I will miss Toontown- but not really MISS it, if you know what I mean. By Sept, it should be pretty well covered up, which means one less photo opp. Ah well... what can you do?

 

[skier_pete]

I'm not sure, I think starting in the spring. When I was there in March you could see alot of tarps covering certain areas in Fantasyland.

They had the construction walls up in Fantasyland in April, but toontown was still open. We did our first ever ride on Barnstormer..too. Incredibly short. Fortunately there was no one in line, so they let us go around twice!

Toontown will be shuttered supposedly sometime in the fall. I am with you, it wasn't there when I was a child...I won't miss it at all. While I think Minnie and Mickey's house are neat, I am more than willing to give them up for what should prove to be a pretty awesome new addition to my favorite park.

 

[Lady Lallie]

Toontown will be shuttered supposedly sometime in the fall. I am with you, it wasn't there when I was a child...I won't miss it at all. While I think Minnie and Mickey's house are neat, I am more than willing to give them up for what should prove to be a pretty awesome new addition to my favorite park.

Well said!

 

[TarzansKat]

Thank you for those gorgeous photos!

I love, love, love Wilderness Lodge. It just feels so homey to me, and it looks wonderful with all the holiday decorations.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Toontown will be shuttered supposedly sometime in the fall. I am with you, it wasn't there when I was a child...I won't miss it at all. While I think Minnie and Mickey's house are neat, I am more than willing to give them up for what should prove to be a pretty awesome new addition to my favorite park.

That's exactly how I feel. It's cute, but the enlarged Fantasyland is just too exciting.

Well said!

Thank you for those gorgeous photos!

I love, love, love Wilderness Lodge. It just feels so homey to me, and it looks wonderful with all the holiday decorations.

It was so goregeous! It felt just right for a cozy holiday.

 

[If U Had Wings]

We had decided to use our universal fastpasses on BTMR. (We weren't going anywhere near Space Mountain again ). We were taking a leisurely walk there when I saw Donald out for a meet and greet and started squealing like a little kid. Donald was out in his holiday lumberjack tree salesman gear. I thought I had missed it at the Christmas Party, so I was thrilled. My friend didn't even have to ask, and we went right over to wait in line. The line was long, and moving kind of slowly, but I didn't even mind - I was getting to get my picture taken with Donald.

Luckily afterwards we were able to ride BTMR without any problems. It was crazy cold though. If we thought the day was cold before, it felt much worse once we were zipping along on the coaster. Brrrr!

The crowd seemed to be growing. We were getting hungry, but decided to stop at Sunshine Seasons in Epcot for lunch instead of getting something at the MK. We headed back towards Main Street for our last goodbye's to the Magic Kingdom.

We were happy to be leaving as the crowds were becoming a bit oppressive. Here's a shot of the crowd on Main Street as we were leaving.

One last Photopass stop for some pictures. The CM was too funny. She had me doing all kinds of crazy things like blowing kisses to the camera.

We stopped on our way out so I could pick out a Dooney bag and I was crushed to find out that they didn't have any left. All they had were the large tote bags. I was crushed, and kicking myself a bit for not just getting one earlier in the week, but if it was meant to be they would have still been there. (At least that's what I kept telling myself).

We made good time getting to Epcot and after lunch at the Sunshine Seasons we got in a ride on Soarin and Spaceship earth before heading back to the Great Britain pavillion so I could pick up a Mickey tea ball and a tea bag holder. We took our time getting there, riding the boat across the lake and then walking back. Epcot was even busier than the Magic Kingdom had been. We were a bit afraid we were going to lose each other in the crowds.

After that we headed back to the Boardwalk to get our bags set for leaving the next day, and to change for our final dinner ADR at Citricos. Our evening plans had been a real hard decision. The original plan had been to see Fantasmic before heading over to the Grand Floridian for dinner. It was the only day during our trip that it was showing. Our plans hit a bit of a snag though earlier in the week, when I had thought we'd be able to see the Osborne Lights before having dinner at the Brown Derby. In Connecticut in December it's already dark by about 5/5:30. I hadn't even taken into consideration that further south it's lighter longer. The Osborne lights didn't start that night until nearly 6:30, well after our ADR time, and by the time dinner was done the park was closing.

We weren't going to have enough time for both on our last night, so we had a quandry. Fantasmic, which is both of ours favorite Disney nighttime shows, or the Osborne Lights - the great unknown for us? We couldn't make a decision. We headed over to DHS, still unsure of which one we were going to see. The boardwalk looked just beautiful at night.

 

[jenjolt]

Oh No...No Dooney!! UGhhh...I'm sorry!!

YAY for getting your picture with Donald! It is always a lot of fun to find your favorite character and get a shot with them!!!!!!

Fantasmic or Osbourne Lights???? HMMMMMM...can't wait to find out which one you choose!!!!

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

Ohmigosh, that's the cutest outfit I've ever seen Donald in!!!

 

[Lovemy3babes]

I'm so sad you didn't get your purse. What a bummer!! I too learned my lesson on our December trip. If we see a great souvenir that we like, we are getting it then and there!! My poor daughter didn't get the Mickey headband she wanted because I asked her to wait. Dumb idea on my part.

This must have been Friday, the 11th? It was COLD that day. Brrr, brr, brrr. I can't wait to see what you chose between Fantasmic and Osborne Lights.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Oh No...No Dooney!! UGhhh...I'm sorry!!

YAY for getting your picture with Donald! It is always a lot of fun to find your favorite character and get a shot with them!!!!!!

Fantasmic or Osbourne Lights???? HMMMMMM...can't wait to find out which one you choose!!!!

I had wanted my picture taken with Donald since I was a kid, and never met him until 2007. I think the photopass guy told me that time that I was more excited than any kid he'd seen that day.

It was a really tough call on which to see!

Ohmigosh, that's the cutest outfit I've ever seen Donald in!!!

I couldn't resist! I loved the entire set up with the trees. So Christmassy!

I'm so sad you didn't get your purse. What a bummer!! I too learned my lesson on our December trip. If we see a great souvenir that we like, we are getting it then and there!! My poor daughter didn't get the Mickey headband she wanted because I asked her to wait. Dumb idea on my part.

I had no idea that those bags were such the hot item. There were plenty early in the week and I was a bit shocked to find none of them left. I had wanted to buy it early in the week, but since it was so expensive I really wanted to think about it. I did find something nearly as good before I left though.

This must have been Friday, the 11th? It was COLD that day. Brrr, brr, brrr. I can't wait to see what you chose between Fantasmic and Osborne Lights.

Yes! It wasn't feeling like Fla at all that day. I was so happy that I had brought jeans with me.

 

[Lady Lallie]

Donald is the cutest in that outfit. I just adore him. I want to meet him someday.

Oh no, Fantasmic or Osbourne lights? My educated guess is Osbourne lights because you can see Fantasmic anytime of year but Osbourne lights just during the holidays.

 

[If U Had Wings]

Donald is the cutest in that outfit. I just adore him. I want to meet him someday.

Oh no, Fantasmic or Osbourne lights? My educated guess is Osbourne lights because you can see Fantasmic anytime of year but Osbourne lights just during the holidays.

I loved Donald in that outfit. I'll wait in any kind of crazy line to meet Donald. Luckily my BFF realizes this and just laughs at me.

You may be thinking much the same as we were.....

 

[If U Had Wings]

After much back and forth discussion, we finally chose to see the Osborne Lights. It was definitely one of our toughest decisions of the week, as we both love Fantasmic. In the end though we went with the Osborne Lights because we knew we wouldn't be able to see on our next trip. It was really the best decision we made all week.

My mood on our last full day wasn't really much better than it had been the day before, even though the day had been going by relatively smoothly. I guess I had just had it for the week. I was tired and cranky, and it was getting harder and harder to hide that fact. The crowds were getting to me, and everytime someone bumped into me in the parks that last day I wanted to scream and throw a tantrum like some of the kids you see in the parks. My pixie dust had worn off long ago, and now I was just going through the motions until my flight left the next day. I was heading over to DHS not really expecting much from the Osborne Lights. Not that I expected to dislike them, or anything like that, but I wasn't expecting them to be the dose of magic that they ended up being for me.


The Osborne Lights for me were utterly amazing. The park was crazy crowded, and I didn't care at all. The entire display was gloriously tacky and magical. Just looking around at the glowing display, I felt myself really smiling for the first time in days and just filled up with happiness. What MVMCP should have felt like, this did instead. They even had the snow we had missed on Main Street, and with the temps down in the low 40's that night the snow felt terribly real. We were both so glad that we hadn't chosen Fantasmic over the lights. It was really one of my favorite moments from the entire trip.

I took a short video of the lights blinking with the music. We spent so much time soaking up the atmosphere back there that we saw the show a few times.





Some of my favorite parts of the display -

Me, completely in awe of the entire display -

It was fun poking around and looking for all the hidden Mickeys throughout the display. We could have spent so much more time back here if we did. We tried searching for the purple cat, but were never able to find it. They must have hidden it really well.

 

[If U Had Wings]

And some more pictures from the Osborne Lights. I don't want to fess up to exactly how many photos I took of the lights. Suffice it to say that these were only a small sampling of the pictures I took. This post is all pictures so feel free to skip it if you like.

We stayed a long time, but we did have a final send-off ADR to make, and we didn't want to chance missing this one.

 

[Tinkerbellarella]

I just NEED to get down there during the holidays for this. So. Beautiful.

 

[Lady Lallie]

These pictures make me want to change our trip from September to December.

Sigh.

So beautiful!

 

[If U Had Wings]

I just NEED to get down there during the holidays for this. So. Beautiful.

The Osborne lights really made the entire holiday season trip worth it for me. It was wonderful!

These pictures make me want to change our trip from September to December.

Sigh.

So beautiful!

You definitely should try it at least once at that time of year. So much to see!

Oh, and I fixed the video, so if anyone tried to view the missing video (or who caught the short pointless one) I've replaced it with the better video. I need to start double checking my posts before I hit submit.

 

[jenjolt]

The Osbourne Lights are simply amazing! I really have to get down there some day and see those!!! I'm so glad your trip was able to end on such a great note!! YAY!!

Great pictures!!!