It's Not So Very Scary - My 2007 Disney Halloween Extravaganza! MNSSHP and HHN!

[CriminyCrafft]

Hi everyone. I just returned from a week at WDW with TWO nights each at MNSSHP and HHN. I had a great time, although there were definitely some snags along the way. Here's the cast:

Me - Amanda, age 32, recent law school grad. I love all things WDW and Halloween is my favorite holiday. I went to MNSSHP for the first time last year, and I knew instantly that I would have to make a yearly trip to Orlando. A friend of mine has a Starwood timeshare, and Starwood owns the WDW Swan and Dolphin, so we planned this trip back in January.

My Disney tagalong friend - won't make an extensive appearance in the TR. This trip turned out to be partially a solo trip, so I won't focus too much on my friend as he was MIA a decent portion of the time. In the interest of full disclosure, more details on this to follow.

DAY ONE - MGM AND FANTASMIC!!

I arrived at MCO on Sunday, October 21. The flight was fine, no major problems. The only direct flight from Raleigh-Durham to MCO is a Delta Express, and it's one of the crappy little planes with two seats on one side and one seat on the other. I hate little planes!

The plan for Day 1 was to check into the Dolphin and then head over to MGM for dinner at the Brown Derby, Fantasmic, and then evening Extra Magic Hours. If you stay at the Swan and Dolphin you don't get to use Disney's Magical Express, so I had to arrange for airport transfer. We got dropped off at the front of the Dolphin.

Here's the lobby of the Dolphin:

And here's our room:

The room was nice enough, although I don't think it's worthy of being called a "deluxe" resort. I would discover that the bathroom had no fan and was very very small, and the room felt icky and humid most of the time. Oh well, it's time to HIT THE PARKS! I was ready to PARTY!

MORE TO COME VERY SOON!

 

[Nicole786]

great tr cant wait to see pics of hhn and mnsshp@

 

[tammy]

What a great start. Keep 'em coming.

 

[LilGMom]

Welcome back!!! There must have been something in the phase of the moon for trip snags.

Can't wait to read more!!

 

[Avivasmom]

SOunds like you had a great trip..cannot wait to read more.

 

[CriminyCrafft]

We took the Friendship Launch to MGM. I would later find out that walking to MGM was much quicker! I was so excited to step foot into the first park of the trip.

Upon entering, I saw some Streetmosphere. I love Streetmosphere! This lady is great - I remember seeing her last year.

Here's the obligatory pic of me in front of the hat!

We went straight to the Brown Derby for our dinner reservation. I'd never eaten here before so I was pumped!

We were seated in no time. I really liked the ambience.

We were doing the Fantasmic dinner package, so I got to pick one appetizer, one entree, and one dessert. I got the market greens as my appetizer.

As you can see I had already taken a chunk out of his before I remembered to take a picture. This had a really good dressing and green beans in it. It was really yummy, and I would definitely order it again.

For my entree I had the noodle bowl with tofu. This was good but not great.

For dessert I had the allegedly famous grapefruit cake. This was delicious and I would go to Brown Derby again just to get it.

After dinner it was time to visit the Hollywood Tower Hotel!

We hopped in the standby line and probably only waited 15 minutes even though the wait time was posted at 30 minutes. I love TOT!!

After TOT we got our wristbands for Extra Magic Hours and attempted to ride the Rock'n Rollercoaster. The standby time was 70 minutes! Doh!! So we decided to do the Great Movie Ride. Great Movie Ride is always so-so for me, but the guy that played the gangster was great.

We hoofed it over to the "special" Fantasmic entrance and found a seat. By this point it was drizzling, but that didn't dampen my love of Fantasmic. As usual, most of my pictures didn't come out. Don't know if you've noticed, but I'm a TERRIBLE photographer!! Sorry!

After Fantasmic we hopped in the standby line for Rock'n Rollercoaster.

We probably waited about 20 minutes. Great ride, as always! We rode TOT one more time and then browsed through some of the shops. I decided it was time to head back to the Dolphin as I planned to hit the morning Extra Magic Hour at Animal Kingdom the next day. Goodbye MGM! See you again soon!

Up next - Animal Kingdom, dinner at Crystal Palace, and Magic Kingdom.

 

[CriminyCrafft]

great tr cant wait to see pics of hhn and mnsshp@

Thanks! I ended up going to MNSSHP twice so I managed to get some good parade photos. Plenty of HHN pics to come as well!

What a great start. Keep 'em coming.

Will do! Thanks for reading!!!

Welcome back!!! There must have been something in the phase of the moon for trip snags.

Can't wait to read more!!

OH NO I hope everything went okay overall. I must know all about your trip NOW!!!!

SOunds like you had a great trip..cannot wait to read more.

It was a ton o' fun. Thanks for reading. Also, I've said it before and I'll say it again...your little girl is BEAUTIFUL.

 

[Disney Brat]

Great pics! Can't wait for more!!

Tiff

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Day Two - Animal Kingdom, Magic Kingdom, and Dinner at Crystal Palace

The next day I was determined to get up for the Extra Magic Hour at Animal Kingdom. I was out the door by 7:30, but ended up waiting for the bus for about 20 minutes. Argh. Plus, my friend was already starting to drag in the morning and I had a hard time getting him moving. Double Argh! Anyway, we made it to AK and first off, I saw Wes Palm!

What a cute lil' feller!

When we got into the park I SHOULD have headed straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris and at least gotten a fastpass, but I didn't. We did a quick stopoff at It's Tough to Be a Bug, mainly because there was no wait and I remember waiting about 20 minutes for it last year. It was good as always, although not many kids were screaming in terror this time! Then I headed straight for this:

On the way to Everest I got this pic. How I wished it was already open!

We rode Everest in standby (I think it was about a 15 minute wait) and then got fastpasses for later on. We headed over to Kilimanjaro Safaris and the line for fastpasses was a mile long! Oh well, no matter - I figured the standby line would die down later in the day, and it wasn't too hot so I figured the animals would still be out.

It was then onto Kali River Rapids. I got totally SOAKED from head to toe. I should have gotten a picture of myself but I was too busy squeezing the water out of my clothes.

We then headed over to Dinoland USA, walked around, and rode Dinosaur. The wait time was about 20 minutes standby, evidence of how crowded the parks were. When I went this time last year, most wait times were less than 20 minutes, except for a 70-minute wait at RNR, and I remember riding Dinosaur over and over with no wait!

After Dinoland I decided it was time for an early lunch, so we headed to Pizzafari. I had a salad and the breadsticks with marinara sauce.

The salad was EH - it was mostly iceberg lettuce and croutons. The breadsticks, however, were YUM!

Here's our dining room.

After leaving Pizzafari I got this pic of the Tree o' Life:

I wanted to get to Rafiki's Planet Watch and pet some goats and maybe catch a surgery before the 1:45 showing of Finding Nemo: The Musical. We hopped on the train to RPW and I got some good goat petting in. No surgeries going on, but we did see a very cute Egyptian turtle. I wish they would let peeps pet the little piggy. He looks so lonely.

I love pigs!

After we got back from Rafiki's Planet Watch, we ran into Devine:

She rules!

We made it over to Finding Nemo: The Musical. I liked this pretty well - it was inventive, the CMs were great, and the puppets were certainly cool, but I didn't like it nearly as well as Festival of the Lion King.

After Nemo I got this pic on the bridge across from Asia:

I believe at this point we used our Everest fastpasses.

It was then on to check the wait at Kilimanjaro Safaris. Here's a pic I got in Harambe:

The wait time was 60 minutes, I believe, so we decided to quickly do the Maharajah Jungle Trek. This was the only picture from it that I liked and came out halfway decent:

I love the bats on MJT!

We decided to hop in the standby line for Kilimanjaro Safaris. We definitely didn't wait an hour, it was more like 40 minutes. And we were off to the Harambe Wildlife Reserve!

Hello friends!

Oooooh look a giraffe hiding in the trees!

And his buddy!

Another lonely piggy (actually warthog in this case).

Well hello there pals!

Being completely handicapped with a camera, I was quite proud of that rhino pic!

Yay, we saved Little Red!

Continued in the next post!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

And then it was time for the Jammin' Jungle Parade to start. We got a spot near the fruit cart in Harambe, where I purchased a frozen lemonade and waited. Soon I heard the catchy parade theme!

And finally, the big guy himself!

We headed out of Animal Kingdom to get the bus to the Ticket and Transportation Center to get to our dinner reservation at Crystal Palace. Pooh and friends were waiting!

More to come!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Great pics! Can't wait for more!!

Tiff

Thanks for reading! Hopefully I'll have MK up this afternoon!

 

[KayleeUK]

Great pictures

 

[Disney Brat]

Thanks for sharing once again! Can't wait for the next instalment!!

 

[TheDISneyFamily]

Hi Amanda! Welcome back! I can't believe your trip is done already!!! Time is just flying by!

Your TR is off to an excellent start. Amazing pictures!

I can't wait to read more!

Take care,
Michelle

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Hello everyone, it's FRIDAY!!! I hope you all had a great Halloween. I did, and now I'm so sad it's over. Anyway, onto the TR!

We arrived at Magic Kingdom and I was SO HAPPY to see all the Halloween decorations!! They got me really excited for MNSSHP the next night!

Ah, the castle. The park was very crowded, and I think this pic shows it.

More Main Street Halloween stuff:

We immediately headed to Space Mountain to check the wait time and potentially get fastpasses. The wait was 40 minutes, so we got fastpasses to come back after our dinner reservation at Crystal Palace.

We strolled through Fantasyland and all the rides had 30-minute-plus waits. It's A Small World even had a 30 minute wait!! We popped into Mickey's Philharmagic, which I LOVE. Then it was time to hop back over to Crystal Palace.

We checked in about 15 minutes early and waited about 5 minutes before we were called. I LOVE CRYSTAL PALACE! Once we were seated I realized that there were no characters on our side of the restaurant, so I immediately hit the buffet. Here's my first plate:

I LOVE the corn souffle!

When I was up at the buffet I saw Pooh and Tigger come out of the kitchen and head to the other side of the restaurant. When I sat down I saw that there were still no characters on our side. I was starting to get antsy. Last time I ate here, I got at least two visits from each character. I guess it's because the place was less crowded last year.

I finished plate #1 and went back for #2. Here it is:

Mashed potatoes, mac 'n' cheez, and more corn souffle! I was in heaven. But STILL no characters. I was starting to worry. We had to use our Space Mountain fastpasses soon and still not one visit from Pooh's gang. Finally I saw Pooh and Tigger cross the threshold to our side. Perfect time to get my dessert plate!

I love the key lime pie and carrot cake. I took my time eating my desserts and all the characters finally made their way over.

After hugging all the characters we busted it over to Space Mountain to use our fastpasses. It was getting sort of close to time for Spectromagic, but I managed to fit in a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean beforehand. I love Pirates - the ride, the movies, and the Pirate Tutorial. After a bit of searching I finally found a not so hot place to watch Spectro in Frontierland. The park was PACKED. I've never seen that many people stuffed behind the ropes to watch a parade! Here are my crummy least-embarrassing Spectro pics:

After that I went to the area near Crystal Palace and got what I thought to be a great spot for Wishes. It wasn't. When the fireworks started half of them were hidden behind a tree to my left! I think the wind was blowing fairly hard??? ANNOYING but the park was so packed I couldn't really move. Seriously. No Wishes pics, the few I took turned out crummy.

It was then time for MK Extra Magic Hours. I knew I didn't want to stay too late because I wanted to get up for the Epcot morning EMH. We rode Splash Mountain and Snow White, and then decided to call it a night. I knew I'd have more time to ride rides at MNSSHP. Here's Main Street as we were leaving:

Nice Halloween display in the windows:

Our last stop was the Main Street Bakery to get a strawberry and cream smoothie, and I had to take a picture of the yumminess and the Halloween treats.

Then it was off to enjoy a shower and a good sleep in my Heavenly Bed at the Dolphin!

Next up - Day 3 - Epcot and MNSSHP!!!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Great pictures

Thanks, I really appreciate that as I consider myself photographically challenged (in several ways!).

Thanks for sharing once again! Can't wait for the next instalment!!

Thanks for stickin’ by me. Expect another update Monday!

Hi Amanda! Welcome back! I can't believe your trip is done already!!! Time is just flying by!

Your TR is off to an excellent start. Amazing pictures!

I can't wait to read more!

Take care,
Michelle

Yo yo yo Michelle (and Brenna and Jordan and Steve and Conner)!! Thanks for reading, glad you like it! I’m loving your DIS Meet TR. I'll say it again, I love your family and am frankly very jealous of you all. Next year I hope to make it to the MNSSHP DIS Meet!

 

[Disney Brat]

Yay for Friday's!!! lol Great pics yet again!! Can't wait for the next bunch! Thanks again for sharing!

 

[Blessedw/boys]

Hey! I am enjoying your TR, I too live near Raleigh and we were at Disney Oct 11-17. FYI, Southwest flies nonstop to MCO. We signed up for the ding fares and only paid $125 for our tix.

 

[Kristina]

Yay! Good to see you back in a Disney park ! I'm a big fan of your Tokyo Disney reports so I knew I had to get to reading this one as soon as I found it. It's great, and I for one love your pics . Looking forward to more!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Yay for Friday's!!! lol Great pics yet again!! Can't wait for the next bunch! Thanks again for sharing!

Thanks for reading!! More coming up soon!

Hey! I am enjoying your TR, I too live near Raleigh and we were at Disney Oct 11-17. FYI, Southwest flies nonstop to MCO. We signed up for the ding fares and only paid $125 for our tix.

Ooooooh thanks for the info. I remember looking at Southwest and all the fares I found were $240 and up. If you would care to tell me how to sign up for the special fares, please PM me. I went to the website and the only deal I saw was a frequent-purchaser program.

Thanks for reading!! I hope you enjoyed your recent trip!!

Yay! Good to see you back in a Disney park ! I'm a big fan of your Tokyo Disney reports so I knew I had to get to reading this one as soon as I found it. It's great, and I for one love your pics . Looking forward to more!

Yes, I was quite happy to be back at WDW. Thanks for reading! I hope you get to Tokyo Disney SOON!!