It was a Horror-ible, and then Not-So-Scary (but exhausting!), October/NovTrip!! Completed 3/13!!!

[WHIT1]

I will also tell you I do not have a beard, mustache like I have seen on some women. Just have a chin hair or two. The Doctors when I was young left me with PID so thats why I was so young when the first half happened. The last part they left me in pain and a scar that looks like I had a C-section, but I'm still glad to get everything out. As for WDW I will miss all the upgrades and pixie dust that Disney gave my DH and I over the years and I have stayed in all the resorts on the monorail except the Poly the place we got married. Believe it or not our wedding with 10 guest and the honeymoon at the WL , include a beautiful bouquet of roses and the cake all for $5000 or alittle more. Those were the days. I hope WDW will be kind to you guys and give you pixie dust also.

 

[buzzrelly]

I have one like this, too....it's called, "Don't trip over the bump, Jackie!!" I was glad I got a sort of normal one the next day at the 10K. I want a redo of the whole thing now that I know what to expect start to finish!!

Me, too! Too bad I'm never doing that again!

The only dessert parties we've done have been at MK, but it looks like this one is certainly worth springing for!! Did they have alcoholic beverage options, too, or were those all juices??

This was at the MK, so only non-alcoholic beverages here.

My husband just stands by and pretends he doesn't know the sobbing woman I sometimes become LOL

Men!

I will also tell you I do not have a beard, mustache like I have seen on some women. Just have a chin hair or two

As for WDW I will miss all the upgrades and pixie dust that Disney gave my DH and I over the years and I have stayed in all the resorts on the monorail except the Poly the place we got married. Believe it or not our wedding with 10 guest and the honeymoon at the WL , include a beautiful bouquet of roses and the cake all for $5000 or alittle more. Those were the days.

Sounds lovely, and for $5000.00…amazing

 

[disneyAndi14]

Enjoying your updates, sorry about your medical issues, glad you could work out a surgery date that would not interfere with Disney, we just returned from a stay at BLT, loved it! The dessert party and Tony’s looked like a good way to end your long day.

 

[buzzrelly]

Enjoying your updates, sorry about your medical issues, glad you could work out a surgery date that would not interfere with Disney, we just returned from a stay at BLT, loved it! The dessert party and Tony’s looked like a good way to end your long day.

Thanks!

Was that your first time at BLT? I'm curious how you liked it?! I'm going to hop over to your PTR which I can't remember if I already joined

 

[disneyAndi14]

Thanks!

Was that your first time at BLT? I'm curious how you liked it?! I'm going to hop over to your PTR which I can't remember if I already joined

This was our first stay there, we have stayed at Contemporary in a garden wing room. Our studio at BLT was so nice, we over looked Space Mountain, the lake, and the castle! We watched HEA several nights from our deck. Such a convenient location for MK access. I would stay again in a heartbeat.

 

[buzzrelly]

This was our first stay there, we have stayed at Contemporary in a garden wing room. Our studio at BLT was so nice, we over looked Space Mountain, the lake, and the castle! We watched HEA several nights from our deck. Such a convenient location for MK access. I would stay again in a heartbeat.

That's awesome! Sounds like our view in October! We are heading down in April and staying in a one bedroom, standard view…I'm hoping for a little bit that view, but we shall see!

And i just realized I am only one page behind on your November TR. I'll be on the lookout there for a link to your latest

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

I'm so glad I've found your report! Really enjoying it!

 

[buzzrelly]

I'm so glad I've found your report! Really enjoying it!

Thanks for reading!

 

[DancinDaisyDuck]

This has been the perfect trip report for me to read - I am going to Universal for the first time ever in April and staying at Royal Pacific so the early part of your trip report is so helpful! Then, in November I am planning the Wine and Dine 10K! I have also never seen Disney during Christmas/Holidays before, so I am THRILLED the Magic Kingdom is decked out so early. I plan to stick around for a couple days after the race weekend to see them. Looking forward to your final day and wrap-up thoughts of the trip!

 

[buzzrelly]

I am going to Universal for the first time ever in April and staying at Royal Pacific

You're going to love it!

Then, in November I am planning the Wine and Dine 10K!

Awesome! Good luck!

Looking forward to your final day and wrap-up thoughts of the trip!

Working on it…thanks for reading!!

 

[kastoney]

Hi there! Hope you are feeling better. I've had the same thing happen twice so I know first hand how painful it is. No good you have to have surgery, but hopefully it makes things better for you.

Looks like you all had quite the day post race. I can't believe you did so much in MK after that. Though we're gonna have to agree to disagree on the Tiki room I totally love the kitch, though it would be so much better if it had a bar.

Speaking of bar, I would be all over the HEA dessert party if it came with alcohol. I just can't get over paying the same as the other dessert parties but with no booze. Hence I've never seen HEA

 

[buzzrelly]

Hi there! Hope you are feeling better. I've had the same thing happen twice so I know first hand how painful it is. No good you have to have surgery, but hopefully it makes things better for you.

Thanks! Feeling much better!

we're gonna have to agree to disagree on the Tiki room I totally love the kitch, though it would be so much better if it had a bar.

I really WANT to love it A bar would help…maybe some Dole Whips with Rum

Speaking of bar, I would be all over the HEA dessert party if it came with alcohol. I just can't get over paying the same as the other dessert parties but with no booze. Hence I've never seen HEA

It is crazy, and yet, I'm a sucker for reserved seating. There are plenty of mixers though if you brought in your own nips (and now that I just typed the, I hope "nips" isn't only a word we use in CT…to be clear, I am not referring to a certain body part, I am referring to tiny little bottles of alcohol ).

 

[MeghanEmily]

Another day, another 3:30 am alarm

Uggh. Been there. Don't know how you did it more than once.

Somewhere between mile 4 & 5 we reached Pandora…7:20 am. Up until then the race had been pretty boring with not much to see. This was pretty cool to be running through a completely empty Animal Kingdom.

How cool!! Some of this course seems like it would be really cool to run through.

And in case you couldn't make out the HUGE number 7 on the sign, let me block it with something weird I started doing here and continued for the rest of the race

The one time I don't have my arms raised, but it still looks like I do from the people behind me

I was literally dying at this point and falling behind. Mike caught this on his camera and I didn't even notice

Oh my goodness!!

Doesn't that photo just scream, "Victory!" to you all?? I was literally dropping my sweater and trying to catch it, and trying to snap a finish-line pic on my phone, and it just made for the most disappointing picture ever.

Oh no!

This was the longest run I've even done in my life and while I am not sorry that I did it, I don't think I ever need to do it again, especially the day after I run a 10K.

Yeah, I can't imagine. I don't know how you did these two races back to back. But so many people do the challenges! I don't think I could. I mean obviously I couldn't if a 5K was a struggle for us, but even with more training I'd have no desire to do a 10K and then a half the very next day. It seems so exhausting!

We also kind of missed out on any of the fun characters and things because we started in the last corrals and the lines were insane by the time we would have gotten there. Plus, had we waited in any lines, we may have met the balloon ladies and it wasn't worth risking that.

This is the sad thing about starting in a later coral! I'd be really sad about this! I love the characters they have on the course, but the lines seem to get really wild.

So a short, real-life update. I found myself in the Emergency Room last Thursday night in absolute agony. It turned out I had (another) ruptured ovarian cyst. I've had this happen two times before, but this was the worst and the only thing that even kind of helped was morphine I was sent home Friday at 5:50 am with Zofran, and have been alternating with 800mg Ibuprofen and 1000mg Tylenol, and I'm still in pain, though I am finally feeling a bit better today. It's funny because usually I am working so much that I don't have time to update the TR, but now I find myself with a lot of free time and haven't felt much like starting the updates. But I have to say, once I started updating this and looking back at the photos of our trip has made me happy so I am glad I did.

Oh my goodness! I'm sorry to hear this. I hope you feel much better soon! But one nice benefit in a crappy situation was definitely that you got to enjoy your photos and memories!

We had been up for 7 hours, run 13 miles and eaten just a banana each hours and hours ago, so it was time for some food!

Wow. I'd die. You definitely deserved that breakfast!

I walked back down this little side road to see if I could hear the singing coming from the windows, and I did

Oooh cool! I'll need to pay attention for this!

I stood for a little bit watching, and I could have gone onto the other side of the rope, but they said once you are in there, you kind of need to stay there, and that's not how I wanted to spend one of my last days at WDW so I skipped it. If I was a local, and went all the time, I think it would be cool to do this.

I agree! I don't think I'd waste that much MK time on it, but if I was there all the time it would be a really cool experience.

I REALLY wanted to love this this time, having listened to all the Disneyland at 60 and Connecting With Walt podcasts, and knowing just how cool this was back when it was first opened. Sadly, there's a reason I haven't been back in years, though I hate to say that. I do like how it's all Tiki-Kitschy and that it's connected to the Poly, but the whole birds singing show is kind of a yawner for me, and Mike who had never seen it thought the same thing, as well.

We got stories about it on the Marceline to MK tour, and I was hoping that would change my opinion of it...but while I can appreciate the value of it...I just really don't enjoy it. I'm with you. Doesn't do the same thing for me that some of the other classic attractions do, like CoP.

And for us, since I would never step foot into Skipper's Canteen, it's kind of a safe option.

Oh really!? I love Skipper's Canteen! I haven't been to Tony's, and I know it gets a lot of hate, but I'd be interested to try it someday and form my own opinions.

I'm so happy we chose this spot, and I have it reserved again for April

I'm glad to hear your experience and that you both enjoyed this! I want to book it for this summer, I think!

 

[buzzrelly]

I don't know how you did these two races back to back.

I don't either!

I hope you feel much better soon!

I am, thanks!

We got stories about it on the Marceline to MK tour,

I think I might do that one in April with my DS (16), and DM. My DD will be flying home a couple days before we leave and my DS is finally old enough for a tour. I figure this is a good one to start with since it's so short.

Oh really!? I love Skipper's Canteen

Ehh…no offense. I just don't like anything on the menu. I'm definitely not a foodie, or an adventurous eater. Give me boring pasta/pizza/steak anyday.

I'm glad to hear your experience and that you both enjoyed this! I want to book it for this summer, I think!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I think I might do that one in April with my DS (16), and DM. My DD will be flying home a couple days before we leave and my DS is finally old enough for a tour. I figure this is a good one to start with since it's so short.

I hope you get a chance to do this tour! We really enjoyed it!! And just tonight, I just booked KTTK for our August trip, so I'm pretty psyched about that! I'm a little concerned about walking around in the heat of August for 5 hours, but at least we booked the 8am tour, so the first hour or two should be slightly less like walking on the surface of the sun.

Ehh…no offense. I just don't like anything on the menu. I'm definitely not a foodie, or an adventurous eater. Give me boring pasta/pizza/steak anyday.

Fair enough, the menu could definitely be considered a little adventurous. I've only ever tried the Tastes Like Chicken, and the prawns when they used to be on the menu, and those were probably the least adventurous things on the whole menu. I'm pretty picky. But we've always had good meals there. And the reason we tried it was because of their reputation for allergies, which proved to be awesome for me.

 

[buzzrelly]

I just booked KTTK for our August trip,

You're going to love it! I'm sure they have tricks for keeping you out of the sun if they can. And of course, the utilidors are air-conditioned

 

[buzzrelly]

November 6, 2017…Our last day:


Ahhhhh, the last day. Normally I am super sad not just on the last day, but also writing about the last day. It's always so hard thinking about the ending of a wonderful trip

But as of right now, we leave for our next trip in 27 days! Definitely takes the sting out of it! My mom and I are taking my kids, DS16 and DD14 on a 3-night cruise on the Wonder and then to Bay Lake Tower for 8 nights. We actually leave on April 4th and are staying at the Hyatt at MCO so the DCL bus can pick us up there the next morning and bring us to the port. I can't wait, especially since we are getting ANOTHER Nor'Easter here in CT today and I am just SO over this winter!

On the plus side, I was supposed to work today and tomorrow, which is really awful because I would be driving home from work in blizzard conditions and then back to work tomorrow at 6am in maybe a foot of snow . BUT…I got a text at 5:15 saying I was being cancelled!! Normally I'd be upset because this was an extra shift and I hate getting cancelled because I like the extra money, but I was SO excited to be cancelled on a snow day! And since the kids' school was cancelled too, that means I have all day to be cozy at home with no place to go and plenty of time to maybe get in a TR update or two

So, on to the last day...

By 8am, we had gotten up, showered, and packed up our owner's locker. Until next time…


If you don't know what an OL is, it's a large, purple, hard storage bin that we rent out for around $100/year, I keep soap, shampoo, toiletries, laundry detergent, dish soap, etc., so I don't ever have to bring those down with me. I kind of made a mistake this year by leaving a packing cube with all my shorts and bathing suits in it…I was trying to save room in my suitcase and thinking I wouldn't possibly need those things before April. Except that we were planning on going to Universal for a few days in April prior to our Disney trip and would have had the OL delivered there, but we ended up changing to the cruise instead, and now won't get the OL until we check into BLT. This means that I have no shorts or bathing suit for the cruise Oh well, I think I have some older shorts I can bring and I just ordered a new bathing suit from Land's End last night, so hopefully that'll work out.

Anyway, after we had everything packed away and my luggage sent off via RAC, we headed off to spend our last day in the MK.


By 9am, we were walking past the castle,



and into Fantasyland for our first ride of the day.



I've been chosen!



I usually have a fastpass for Peter Pan and never really get to appreciate the queue. It's super adorable








After our flight through Neverland, we headed over to the happiest cruise that ever sailed…aka, Mike's favorite ride.








Continued in next post...​

 

[buzzrelly]

November 6th continued...

Adios, small world...



Being in Fantasyland, we took a swim under the sea with Ariel.



then headed over to see if Gaston was around. He wasn't, but I found someone even MORE handsome



Anyone who knows me knows how sappy I get on my last day, so I was taking pictures of EVERYTHING to remember it by. I'm not even sure what I was going for here...



I had never stopped to take a picture of Cinderella's fountain...



When we got back to the hub area, they were still recording for the Christmas Special. I had to text my DD and ask who this was...



Apparently, this is Sofia Carson from The Descendants. She's adorable and had a great little singing voice. We stood and watched her do a few takes of her song, before we moved on. I was thinking those people must be sweating with sweaters and hats on. It was super hot this day, I don't know how they did it

When we'd had our fill of watching the Christmas show taping, we started walking to our first fastpass of the day…



Continued in next post…
​

 

[buzzrelly]

Here we go A. Wassailing...



There are a lot of great things about being at WDW for the Christmas season, but this has to be one of the BEST reasons…


Oh my gosh…they do such a great job changing this over that I'm almost sad it's not like this all year. I was totally laughing out loud at all the corny Christmas jokes (though I might have bee the only one ). If you love the regular Jungle Cruise and have never been on a Jingle Cruise, stop what you're doing and go book your trip right now!

Anyway, I took way too many pictures here because I just thought everything was hysterical, enjoy…



















Continued in next post...​

 

[buzzrelly]

Here we go A. Wassailing some more…








Our cruise guide was really good at her job. I love it when they are super serious and I also think it's funny when unsuspecting people fall for it and are totally confused the whole trip












Priceless


After having a good chuckle, we went over to be spooked by 999 Happy Haunts…


And then headed back to Main Street for some lunch.


Continued in next post...​