Happy 21st Birthday! WDW, DCL and a Dis meet! *TR COMPLETE*

They've only ever done Mickey when I've gone and your drawings turned out way better than mine!
 
Great updates Cheryl! :thumbsup2

I have never been to the Animation Academy. I hope to do that in December when I'm there :goodvibes

I've been in One Man's Dream too when people are "bored" or disappointed that there is no ride or fun stuff for kids. It bothers me when people say that because they are the ones that don't appreciate everything that Walt did to make his dream come true for us to all enjoy.
 
I also love One Man's Dream and the Animation Academy. Those are 2 of my favorite things at DHS. I guess I can see how it would be boring for a kid to look at all the stuff about Walt, but absolutely not for an adult! I agree with you that it made me appreciate everything so much more.
 
I made it out just in time to catch the High School Musical show coming up the street. I love love love HSM! (So excited for the new movie by the way! Oct 24! haha) Anyway I grabbed myself a spot right behind the handicap area.
Here is the float as it makes it's way to it's final spot.
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This show is so cute they do a couple songs from the first HSM then most are from HSM2. All the little kids are always singing along but this time I noticed a boy with down syndrome in his late teens early twenties. He knew every line to the songs and he was clapping and dancing along with every song. At one point in the show they invite a lot of the kids up to "be in" the show. Well this CM saw the boy and pulled him up to be in the show...
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The boy had the biggest smile on his face and all the CM's were giving him special attention. I just started to cry. When the boy went back to his parents he looked at his mom and said "Did you see me?! I was in the show!" That just melted my heart. That one nice act from that CM made that boys whole day! I just love seeing things like that!

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After the show I made a quick dash down to Rock and Rollercoaster for the single rider line. Which by the way only had a 10 minute wait!!!

Then I decided to head out of the park back to Pop for lunch before heading to Epcot!

Up next...Epcot and meeting up with Megan!
 

great update and pics.

sorry but i saw the pic of Stitch and I was :rotfl2:

the Donald pic is really good.

that stinks about Toy Story.

I cannot do Great Movie Ride, I find it way too boring.

Ok so I never said I was an artist. :rotfl:

Great movie ride is kinda boring but it's tradition!!!

They've only ever done Mickey when I've gone and your drawings turned out way better than mine!

They let us pick the first 2. They took ideas from the crowd and then we voted.

Great updates Cheryl! :thumbsup2

I have never been to the Animation Academy. I hope to do that in December when I'm there :goodvibes

I've been in One Man's Dream too when people are "bored" or disappointed that there is no ride or fun stuff for kids. It bothers me when people say that because they are the ones that don't appreciate everything that Walt did to make his dream come true for us to all enjoy.


Thanks! Make sure you try the animation academy...you don't have to do it 3 times like me but at least try it once. :lmao:

That bothers me so much with One Man's dream. Without Walt (And really his brother Roy) Disney World, Disneyland would never be around. I know it's a theme park and you go for rides and shows but I just wish people would appreciate and respect what those 2 men did.

I also love One Man's Dream and the Animation Academy. Those are 2 of my favorite things at DHS. I guess I can see how it would be boring for a kid to look at all the stuff about Walt, but absolutely not for an adult! I agree with you that it made me appreciate everything so much more.

Those are my 2 favorite things to0!
 
Great pictures of the HSM pep rally! Oh, and my sister and I are totally going to see the new movie when it comes out. hehe
 
After a quick lunch at Pop back out I went to the busses. I didn't wait very long before a bus was there to take me and a few other park goers to Epcot. It was a beautiful afternoon and once through the gate I was really enjoying the Flower and garden Fest and the beach boys music.
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Next I went on Spaceship earth. As you will see I must of went on this like 10 times. Here is a picture of the lab after you get off the ride.
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This should give you a better Idea of what I was trying to explain before about the globe with everyones picture.
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I then went over to Mouse Gear. I could spend all day in here. I ended up getting a bunch of stuff for my family and myself. I had it sent to the front of the park because I knew Megan and I would be hiking around the park and I wouldn't want to be carrying a big bag with me.

It was around 3 and I knew I wanted to head over to Innovations to get my picture taken with the fab 5.
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There is a special Disney Visa member photo opt so make sure you take advantage if you have this. Oh and you get a free 5x7 pic!

While I was innovations there were a few CM's tryign to get people to see this show called "whats your problem?". Since I had time I decided to check it out. It was cute and funny.
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I will admit though I most likely would not of seen it if it werent for the CM's.

I then headed over to the Land just to see how long the wait was for Soarin.
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Just like I thought the wait was 80 minutes!!!

Living with the land only had a 15 minute wait so I went on that. Here are some of the quotes on the wall from the queue line.
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I just love this ride. It's neat to see all the plants that they have growing in there plus the new ways they are testing to grow plants.
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Call me crazy but I was amazed at the pineapples. I never knew they grew on a bush like that. haha
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After Living with the Land I headed out. I still had a bit of time before I was going to meet Megan so off I went to The seas. Nemo only had a 15 minute wait so I decided to head in. After coming off it would be time to meet up with Megan.
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The wait wasn't 15 minutes. By the time I walked through the queue it was about a couple minutes and I was on the ride. That's the great think about May is that even though there are posted wait times most of the time it's a lot less!!! This ended up being a good thing because by the time I got off it was time to meet up with Megan and this will be the first official Dis Meet!

Up next...great view, Mexico, Norway and some Characters!
 
Hi Cheryl!

Looks like you had a fabulous time at Epcot and DHS. Too bad about Toy Story being blocked off. :guilty:

I did have a blast! I know! I was so bummed about Toy Story...I guess there is always next time.

Great pictures of the HSM pep rally! Oh, and my sister and I are totally going to see the new movie when it comes out. hehe

Thanks so much! haha I'm so excited for the new movie. I'm glad I'm not the only one!
 
So coming off the nemo ride it was time to meet up with Megan. We had met up before last October as part of the DISney Princess meet and I was excited to see her again. She was nice enough to invite me to dinner with her at the coral reef.

We decided to meet up at the Nemo and friends sign and when I got there I didn't have to wait long! I was so excited so meet up again we had so much fun in October and we have kept in touch with the Dis and facebook. As much as I love my solo trips it's fun to meet up with friends.

We made our way into the Coral reef to check in for our reservation. It wasn't long before our buzzer went off and we were led into the resturant. Well as we walked in and started to pass all the tables we kind of looked at each other. Could we have gotten a front tank side seat? YUP!!! Right up front! People request to have these seats and we were just lucky enough to score them without even asking! Needless to say we were both very excited!
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While we were waiting for our meals we were catching up and enjoying the tank view. It was really fun there was a tour going on and all the tour goers were going by the tanks waving at us.
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Before we knew it our meals had arrived. I forget what Megan got but I remember it looked good. I got the salmon and mashed potato.
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Mine was very good I may add.
Up next was dessert! Megan got the do it yourself sundae and I got the wave.
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Dinner was very good and it was fun to share it with someone. We decided after dinner we were gonna check out Mexico and Norway.
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We had fun checking out the shops and riding the boat in Mexico. We were up for a little thrill so off we went to Test Track. We went into the single rider line knowing that we were going to be split up. If you don't mind being split up this is def a great way to cut the wait time. But you WILL be split up, there is no way around it.
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Here is Megan having fun waiting in line.
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Heres a night view of the track. It was so much fun riding this in the dark. A total different expierence. I would say it's better in the dark...that's for sure.

Once we got off Test track it was just about 9 and Illuminations was starting. We made a mad dash across to the Land hoping that the line would be short for Soarin. That was great thinking on Megan's part because look at this wait time...
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15 minutes!!!! I couldn't believe it. I have NEVER seen it that short. That CM in the picture said it's very rare for it to be this short and he had to pose for my picture.
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After our trip over california we decided to head over to Living with the land. This had no wait and it was actually kind of creepy in the dark. They had spot lights on but with out the natural sun light shining through it was very dark.
Here are my favorite pineapples! haha
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And a Plant Mickey...
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After our green house tour we made our way over to the character connection. I'm glad Megan likes the characters too because if I was alone I most likely would not of done this.
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I think we only waited like 20 minutes to reach the characters. Ohhh and if you are on a hidden Mickey search there are TONS in here on the walls!
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After hanging out with the characters we decided to started to head out but we stopped at Spaceship earth first. When you hop into your ride vehicle you pick the language you would like to hear the ride in. So we thought it would be fun to try it in French.

At this point after SSE it was getting late and we were gonna have a late night the next night since it was our big Pirate and Princess party meet. We decided to start to head out. I had to make a quick stop and pick up my visa photo opt picture and package that I had sent to the front of the park.

We decided to have our picture taken in front of the park.
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After that we said our goodbyes and went our seperate ways.

I had such a blast at Epcot with Megan. It's fun to experience Disney with someone who loves it as much as you do.

Up next...Keys to the Kingdom tour and Dis meet time! Ohana and the Pirate and Princess Party!
 
Sounds like a fun Dis meet with Megan!

It's awesome that the wait for Soarin was only 15 minutes. that's crazy. In a good way, of course!

Now you have me curious about riding Living with the Land at night. I'm going to have to try that!
 
sounds like a great fun time

the update and pics were great
 
Sounds like a fun mini-Dis meet. That wait for Saorin is nuts!

Can't wait to go in May, your pictures of the F&G Festival are beautiful.
 
Wow, 15 minutes for Soarin, that's great! Love the picture of the CM too. haha

Can't wait to hear about the Pirate and Princess Party! :banana:
 
Day 8- May 21

So today was the day that I was doing the Keys to the Kingdom tour. I was really excited about this. I had booked the 8:30 tour so I had to be at the Magic Kingdom by 8:15 to check in. But I wanted to get there a little bit earlier so I could get some shots of an empty MK.

I was at the bus stop at 7:00 and it was totally empty.
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There was a family waiting there with me to head to the MK. They had breakfast ressies for Cinderella's Table. The 2 little girls were all dressed up and so excited to be eating in the castle. It was nice to listen to them all excited.

When I got to the MK it was totally empty...perfect for pictures! Here are some of the Pirate and Princess decorations outside of the park.
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Since it was still early to check in for the tour I wanted to enjoy the quiet park while I could.
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It's a cool feeling having Main St. to yourself.
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It was a little past 8 at this point so I decided to make my way back up Main St and check in for the tour. When you check in they give you a name badge, a bottle of water and you pick out what you want for lunch (since it's included in the tour).

I then went outside to the little garden sitting area to meet up with the rest of the tour group. Our tour guide Claire showed up right at 8:30 and quickly handed out our guest pass (for the backstage areas) and a microphone/hearing device. Now I'm not gonna tell too much about the tour because I don't want to ruin it for some of you that may take it.

Claire was great! She spent a lot of time on Main St. explaining the meaning of the windows and a lot of the back history of Walt, Roy and their family. We also went on the haunted mansion and Pirates of the caribbean. A funny thing that happend was when we went on Pirates we had our own boat and it was full. As we are going along the ride we keep hitting the sides of the wall. Well in one of the scenes our boat stopped. We figured it was the ride but nope it was our fault. haha. One of the CM's came up beside us in the scene and wanted us to rock the boat. Turns out we were stuck on something. We eventually broke free from whatever we were stuck on and finished the ride.

Lunch was great. We had the whole upper floor of the Columbia Harbor house to ourselves. When we got upstairs our lunch was there waiting for us with little place holders. I know from reading the boards that the place holders were suposto have the Keys tour pin. For some reason ours didn't. Claire said she was sorry but the order they had in for some didn't come in. (I ended up getting the pin in the mail about a month later). Another thing about the tour was we went backstage at 2 different points. It was very cool to go behind the scenes but I will say it kind of ruins the magic a bit. It makes you appreciate all the work they do though to keep the MK as magical as it is. From what I saw it truly is a lot of work. After the tour Claire returned us to where we had started from. She was so sweet and gave everyone a hug goodbye as we turned in our materials.

The tour was great specially if you want to learn some of the back story in to the park, Walt and how the Disney company came to be. I would even take it again some day because Claire said that each tour guide has a different "script" so it would be the same tour but different. (if that makes sense)

So after the tour I made my way up to the bakery to have a snack before the 3:00 parade.


continued in next post...
 
It was getting close to parade time now and I decided to scope out a spot. As I walked up Main St I noticed that there was a spot on the curb at the end of the street where it breaks off and you can go left or right. I was so excited because this is the perfect spot!!! All the floats come right at you and you have the castle as your backdrop! I was suprised that there wasnt many people here. It was myself and another family.
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As everyone waited some of the Main St. citizens came out for a visit.
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After a few minutes the music started and it was time for the parade!!!
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This was truly an awesome spot because the characters seemed to give us some extra attention.
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All you need is three things.
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Faith, trust and... PIXIE Dust!
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haha ok so thats all my parade pictures...I promise! I think that was the first time that I had seen that whole parade. It was cute but I think spectromagic is so much better! After the parade it was almost time to head over to the Poly for our Ohana meet!

Up next our Dis meet at Ohana's!
 
Sounds like a fun Dis meet with Megan!

It's awesome that the wait for Soarin was only 15 minutes. that's crazy. In a good way, of course!

Now you have me curious about riding Living with the Land at night. I'm going to have to try that!

We had a blast!

I couldn't believe that wait for Soarin'!

sounds like a great fun time

the update and pics were great

Thanks

Sounds like a fun mini-Dis meet. That wait for Saorin is nuts!

Can't wait to go in May, your pictures of the F&G Festival are beautiful.

Thanks! I wish that Soarin had a 15 minute wait all the time.

Wow, 15 minutes for Soarin, that's great! Love the picture of the CM too. haha

Can't wait to hear about the Pirate and Princess Party! :banana:

Pirate and princess party update is coming soon!

Nice pictures!

Thanks!!!
 
great update and pics.


I don't know if I could do the tour. I think it would ruin the magic for me. Glad u liked it.

Great spot for the parade, I will have to try that
 












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