Monstrous All-Nighter TR: Don't question it, just go

[Disneyfreak616]

So glad I stumbled upon this! I'm enjoying every word. So sorry about the nightmarish Days Inn experience!

 

[WeatherbySwann]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone.


Friday, May 24
4:00 a.m.

Looking back on this, I really don't know what on earth we were thinking only getting 3 hours of sleep before attempting to be in a theme park on our feet all day for 24 hours straight. But nevertheless, at precisely 4:00 the alarm blared "Naaaaaaaaaaa savennnnyaaaa"! It was the most glorious and the most horrendous sound all at the same time. The tired part of me wanted nothing more than to chuck the iPhone against the wall. The I'm-going-to-Disney part of me got out of bed and reminded myself of the magic that we'd be rewarded with for waking up so early.

By 4:30 we were on the road and headed to the Magic Kingdom. The roads were clear and no traffic at all. I mean, I didn't expect there to be back-ups at 4:30 in the morning, but even as we got closer to MK everything was a breeze. I was a bit worried the week leading up to the event about managing the opening crowds. I read reports from the 2012 24-hour day for Leap Day, but I felt like those were almost completely irrelevant seeing as that was on a Wednesday in the middle of off-season. This was a Friday before a holiday weekend, so I really didn't know what to expect. Especially after Disneyland announced that their guests could start lining up outside the park at 10 p.m. the night before the park opened at 6 a.m., I started to freak out. But then I learned that WDW's monorail wouldn't even start running until 5:15 a.m. and I calmed down a bit. Not sure why Disneyland went so crazy on their camping out.

As we pulled under the MK entrance sign to pay for parking, Caleb handed the CM our assembled wad of cash among the 4 of us and she simply replied, "You won't have to pay for parking today!" with a smile. This shocked us so much that for a moment Caleb said nothing. After processing that we had just been told to not pay for something in a theme park, he said, "Really? Are you sure?" Then the CM dropped her pep, took on a straight face, looked us dead in the eye, and replied, "Don't question it, just go." Well, ok, you don't have to tell us twice!

Our guess was that the parking computer systems hadn't been turned on for the day yet, but idk what was the real reason. But we'll take it!

We arrived into the MK parking lot and it was clear immediately that we didn't need to be concerned about crowds at ALL. There was hardly anybody there. Absolutely deserted. Our parking spot was Zurg 101. Everybody holla for Zurg! (Did you holla? This only works if everyone participates.)

Approaching the monorail station, we all stopped and turned to each other at the sight before us---an almost empty station! We couldn't believe how not-crowded it was. I know it was early in the morning, but less than an hour before the start of a WDW special event, I really expected a ton more people to be there. The monorail line hadn't even reached the ground yet---it was just the first platform and part of the first descending ramp. I spotted Deb from All Ears and shouted hi, saying that we love her website. It was the first Disney site we ever used and love the wealth of info it provides.

At a little after 5:15, the first monorail arrived. We didn't make it onto that one, but comfortably fit in the second one. Not bad! We arrived with plenty of time to spare for the opening ceremony to begin. At the turnstiles I tried to use the new RFID thing but after a few tries, the CM examined my ticket and claimed it was too old to be used on it, and just swiped it through a handheld machine she had.

Upon entering the area in front of the train station, the background music could not have been timed perfectly: Be Our Guest. What a welcome.

There were several media outlets on hand to capture the special day, and the guests who were in the Disney Parks Blog Monstrous Meet-Up were already in place in the center of the Mickey floral, having arrived earlier via ferry. They all wore their commemorate Mike Wazowski green glasses, and I must say I was kinda jealous. I had been on the lookout for a meet-up, but of course the day I sleep in was the day it was announced, and spots were gone in a flash. Oh, well. We were still at Disney, and that was what mattered!

Most people were lining up as close to the railroad tunnels as they could be, but from those spots I knew we wouldn't be able to see the opening show at all. That puzzled me a bit. You'd rather enter the park 30 seconds before everyone else than see the opening? Peculiarly, right outside the Blog Meet-Up moshpit, there was absolutely no one standing. It was completely clear pavement. CMs onhand made it very clear you couldn't enter the center unless you had Meet-Up credentials, but it was perfectly fine to stand just outside the center, so that's what we did.

Here's Perry to show you where we were. We bring Perry with us every time we visit the parks. Not only does he get some great interaction from CMs and characters, but no matter what landmark you put him in front of, the picture comes out funny because of his face.

Just a random note: It's time to get rid of the "Let the Memories Begin!" sign. It cool and all, but there are too many layers of things on the train station for it to have its total intended impact. I honestly love that tagline, but the sign needs to go. The promotion itself ended with 2012 anyway, didn't it?

While we waited, I read on Twitter that MK VP Phil Holmes was there somewhere, but I never spotted him in person. I guess now would be a good time to talk about phones and social media. We anticipated charging our phones mid-day, but everyone else had the same idea and all outlets in City Hall Guest Relations were taken when we tried. I used my parents' Mophie, which is this neat phone case thing that basically gives your phone double the battery life. It lasted all 24 hours, which I was shocked about. Granted, I used my phone sparingly, turned off all Twitter notifications, and tried not to post too much of anything throughout the day, but I thought that was still pretty good that it lasted the whole time.

It was a win/lose situation with disconnecting from Twitter. I really dislike using excessive social media in the parks because it obviously takes away from being in the moment and experiencing the magic in person. But at the same time, not having it meant we missed some things. We had no idea there was a webcam in Town Square the whole 24 hours---that would have been so cool to wave to our families back home. We also had no idea that the MK parking lot eventually became full in the evening and they started sending people to Epcot to park. That would have drastically changed our touring plan if we had known how crowded the park really was *before* we re-entered the park. But more on that later. Ultimately, I'm glad I unplugged from everything.

Anyway. Back to the TR. We still waited for the opening ceremony to begin, and to my surprise we found ourselves face to face with Scoop Sanderson, a citizen of Main Street, who was making his way through the crowd. He told us, "Congratulations, graduates!" and shook our hands before continuing on. I was confused as to why he said that, but he was moving kind of quickly, so I just said "Thank you," thinking he saw a graduation button on someone nearby and thought we were with them. Then another Main Street citizen, the women's suffrage lady (I forget her name), came by and she also said, "Congratulations, graduates." Then I remembered the day's theme: Monsters University. It made sense now.

Then... the Pixie Dust sound effects started and the opening began!! As the day unfolded, we saw that Disney really went all-out with the MU theme, beginning with Mike and Sulley (dressed in their college gear) being onhand for the ceremony. The MK welcome is really quintessential Disney at its very best. It's the perfect start to any day, and today's crowd was especially enthusiastic.

The Main Street people started to sing, "Good mornin', good mornin'! Sure is great to stay up late." Yeah. No kidding.

"Good mornin'......."

"We're so glad you're here."

"Good mornin'......."

"Get ready for a magical day!"

"...to youuuuu!"

Before we knew it, we were counting down from 10... and the park was open.

 

[WeatherbySwann]

You do what you can afford to do, but as long as you've got friends with you and have fun, it's all good!

EXACTLY. Bam. That was my thinking throughout all of it.

 

[emilyindisney]

Sounds like an awesome start to the day! I agree the graduate thing was confusing, but once you said it was MU it made more sense. Very cool that Mike and Sully were decked out in their college gear!

 

[courtneylauren]

Love your report so far! You have an awesome writing style!

We stayed at that same Days Inn on our first trip back in 2000. Let's just say we've stayed on property ever since! Sorry to hear you had so many troubles!!

Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[WeatherbySwann]

We stayed at that same Days Inn on our first trip back in 2000. Let's just say we've stayed on property ever since! Sorry to hear you had so many troubles!!

LOL! I guess some things never change.

 

[EPCOTfantasyland]

Can't wait to read your whole report. We left Disney on the 25th, and I was wishing I were 20 years younger so I would have wanted to stay! I've been so curious about what it was like.

 

[jane2073]

What a fun trip report!! Can't wait to read the rest!
We've stayed at a couple of $30-a-night places on 1-92.
One place had at least an inch open gap on the bottom of the room door. Fortunately we were there for just a night.

 

[emmysmommy]

And the fun begins!!! What a great way to start the morning with free parking! Don't question it silly

I'm a stand in the middle of the entrance plaza and watch the park open kinda gal myself.... I don't get the lines by the tunnels either when the Mayor or Smokey the fire chief are welcoming you to the park and have their friends singing and dancing for you. How rude not to pay attention!

Oh modern technology! I imagine that if 20 years ago you had told people that they would be taking time out of their park day to charge their communication devices they would think you were crazy!! Your up-side/down-side makes sense but glad that you phone was able to survive the day as long as you!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[TheMaxRebo]

What a great trip and trip report (so far at least .... I assume the rest will be of similar or better quality)

Must have been a great experience and definitely something to do when you have the chance before Life gets in the way

also, thanks for the link to The Main Street Gazette - definitely something to keep myself busy with

Lastly, your first evening sounds like the "best and most Disney evening without going to any of the parks" ever

 

[WeatherbySwann]

Friday, May 24
6:00 a.m.


Walking into the Magic Kingdom at 6:00 in the morning... kind of surreal. There were Main Street vehicles parked around Town Square for photo-ops, but we passed them, partially because we were just swept up in the moment of entering the Magic Kingdom and also because I thought they would be out in the late hours like they were for the Leap Day event. (They ended up not being out later, but oh well.)

Everyone has been in the Magic Kingdom after dark, but it was just strange for it to be almost all dark, but to still have a tint of light creeping up behind the Castle. The ground was still wet from everything being freshly hosed off, too. Just

​

We knew our first destination would be New Fantasyland, but beyond that we had all agreed to play the rest by ear. Though the 4 of us each have differing levels of Disney fandom, we have all been to WDW many times and were all ecstatic about experiencing, for the first time in our lifetime, an all-new section of the Magic Kingdom. This was different from one new individual attraction or something--this was an entire new land!

And I gotta say, I was really impressed. Walking through New Fantasyland for the first time... wow. I knew a basic idea of what to expect (I knew what was built), but had intentionally kept away from any reviews or photo reports so that the little details could still be a surprise. I know we say it with everything they do, but the Imagineers have outdone themselves with this one. Wow. You are in the story. Everything is just exquisite. The construction of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a bit distracting (I almost wish everything else had waited to open at once as a grand reveal), but of course this was no real reason to complain.

Our first stop intended to be Little Mermaid, but a line of CMs were outside Prince Eric's castle stopping guests unless they were going to Ariel's Grotto, saying that the ride itself was closed. But that was ok, we'd go to Enchanted Tales with Belle instead. We knew based on the line apps we had been studying that we had better get inside now before the lines built up. As we entered the queue, the CM outside greeted us with a "Bonjour!"

And then it really hit how special New Fantasyland really is. It was the "Bonjour!" that did it. It was like the guy in Ratatouille when he eats the food his mom used to make. First I was all then I was then then . This was all internal, of course (if it hadn't been, the paramedics might have been needed) as I realized, at that exact moment, we were literally experiencing the movie:

Little town, it's a quiet village.
Every day like the one before.
Little town, full of little people
waking up to say...
"Bonjour!"

WE WERE IN THE LITTLE TOWN FULL OF LITTLE PEOPLE AND IT WAS DAWN AND THEY WERE WAKING UP AND SAYING BONJOUR TO US RIGHT OUTSIDE OF BELLE'S HOUSE.

Granted, I know that the CM says bonjour to every single person who walks by all day long, but... still. Pretty awesome of a moment.

Enchanted Tales exceeded my expectations - again, I basically knew what it was, but I did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. Dylan was especially impressed - he thought Belle was going to pop up on a screen or something for storytime so he was shocked when the whole experience started lol. To see what this attraction went from back when Belle used to tell stories outside in Fairytale Garden all those years ago, to what it is now - wow! Look at what some technology can do.

​

It was especially neat because, since it was so early in the morning, our group was mostly all teens and adults. The youngest guest was probably 9 or so, which made the tone decidedly different than I think it would have been with a lot of preschoolers in the audience. (Not that that would have been bad, but you know what I mean.) Dylan was even picked to be Chip! This was pretty fortuitous since when we were really little, our whole family would dance around the house to Disney songs and Dylan would always be Chip when Be Our Guest came on.

Overall - Enchanted Tales with Belle was great! The story made absolutely no sense at that hour (let's all surprise Belle, who happens to be walking around the castle in her ball gown at 6:00 in the morning ), but that didn't matter haha.

Next up, Little Mermaid, which was now open! I wish we would have walked through the queue a little slower to take in all the atmosphere, but, I mean, you really can't complain about speed-walking through the line of one of the park's usually-most-crowded attractions. Such a great ride! Again, technology is what allows it to push the envelope. You can really tell how much progress the Imagineers have made when you look at Little Mermaid, created in 2012, and the next-most-recent Fantasyland dark ride, Winnie the Pooh, created 15ish years ago. The special effects in LM really advance the storytelling to be the best it can be.

My dad called my phone during the Under the Sea scene - I answered it and held the phone up, hoping that he would hear the song, but alas he couldn't tell what in the world was going on.

Time check: 6:45

Since we hadn't eaten breakfast yet, I was getting pretty hungry, and thus began the 24-hour food saga. This is where playing it by ear worked to our disadvantage throughout the day. Had we chosen somewhere to eat every meal and snack, we could have looked at menus online beforehand and decided the best places to eat. Instead, it was kind of like we just ate whenever we were hungry, which meant we ate at wherever was close by at the moment. (We did plan on Be Our Guest for lunch, but that was the only pre-decided meal.) It didn't help that we were all hungry at different points during the day, meaning we probably stopped to "eat" more times than necessary had we all been on the same eating patterns.

Also - being there 24 hours made us discover that the Magic Kingdom's food options are a bit all over the place. Often I would be hungry for something, but didn't want to sit down for a whole meal. This is where MK lacks. Almost all of their snack options are sweets (think about it... Dole Whip, Citrus Swirl, Main Street ice cream, Sleepy Hollow Nutella waffle, Confectionery........). While this is AWESOME if you are in the park on a regular day and want some sugar, it's not so great if you're borderline shaky at 2 a.m. and want something of substance.

Anyway. Back to 6:45. Since we were right at Gaston's Tavern, it was perfect timing to grab some grub. I got the infamous cinnamon roll and some water. (Little tidbit if you don't know, cups of ice water are free at every Disney dining location everywhere. Saves a TON of money on drinks.) There was hardly anyone inside, so it was a great time to soak in a lot of the details. Gaston's personality all over the place is so funny. They had some Sulley cupcakes available for Limited Time Magic for the day, but I opted just for the cinnamon roll. I kind of wish I had tried Le Fou's Brew. Next time!

At this point, the sun was starting to creep in more prominently and the day looked a lot like how it feels upon arrival for an early character breakfast. We emerged through the castle walls and continued through classic Fantasyland. 1 hour down, 23 to go...

 

[Eastern]

Your trip report is

 

[emilyindisney]

What a cool way to start the morning! I agree that there's something really special about seeing the parks in the dawn/dusk lighting where its still changing. It just looks so cool!

Glad you enjoyed NFL!

I totally agree with you about MK dining. There are some AMAZING snack options but none of the QS options really jump out at me as much. Sure, they're good but its hard to compare to the Mickey bars, pretzels, Dole Whips, etc!

 

[emmysmommy]

In your first hour you accomplished two of the more popular attractions - great strategy. You exercised a lot of self control by not peeking at photos and reviews of NFL in advance!

I look forward to hearing about the next 23 hours.

 

[WeatherbySwann]

Going to try to get better about posting more frequently. Hope everyone had a happy 4th!!

Warning: Storybook Circus spoilers ahead! Do not read if you want to be surprised.

Another warning: Unexpected celebrity cameo ahead!



Friday, May 24
7:00 a.m.


We had just experienced a lot of New Fantasyland and really didn't know where the rest of the day would take us. It was neat being able to play everything completely by ear with the complete reassurance that we would most likely get to do everything we could possibly imagine with being in the park for such a long time.

Our first destination wasn't difficult to choose at all: Peter Pan's Flight had a posted wait time of 0 minutes. We jumped at the chance for what I'm sure was probably a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to literally walk on Peter Pan! Caleb is afraid of Captain Hook (always had nightmares about him when he was younger), but he persisted through the ride. The London nighttime scene is probably one of my favorite WDW moments. It's just so Disney.

We walked outside and gravitated toward the infamous new Tangled potties. I gotta say, the area is really well done. It's neat to see that new Disney animated movies are finally being used in the parks in big ways like this, after about a decade of duds. It's so great that classics are being cranked out again, and the tower area looks fantastic. It was only when I got home that I realized I missed out on the best tweet of all time. You know how the very beginning of Rapunzel's opening song starts out "7 a.m., the usual morning lineup"? Well, I was AT Rapunzel's tower AT 7 a.m. and whhhhyyyyyy did I not think to say that? Blaaah. Anyway.

Next stop, Haunted Mansion! We whizzed through some of the interactive queue elements - on one hand I wanted to see all of the new stuff but on the other hand... there was no line and I kind of wanted to get on the ride lol. Love the new effects in the hitchhiking ghosts scene! I had forgotten they changed it up, so I was pleasantly surprised.

Up next we hit a lot of things in quick succession, as everything was a walk-on. Splash Mountain, Big Thunder (twice!), and Country Bears. We tried out some of the new interactive elements in the Big Thunder queue, but as we were doing so a CM approached us with a rope in hand and said they were temporarily closing down that part of the queue.

No crowds!!​

Splash was excellent as always, but I noticed they added exterior mountain rockwork to the show building (you can see it in the part of the ride just before the first short drop). I understand the idea was to hide the building, but I don't remember ever noticing the building in the first place. I thought the rockwork was just distracting and reminded you even more that you were entering a separate building, whereas before you didn't really even think about it.

Country Bears was great as it always is. I'm so glad it's still there.

While we waited for Country Bears to start, we moseyed over to meet our first characters of the day, Chip and Dale! Meeting characters is one of my favorite things to do in the parks, but Caleb and Taylor don't really like meeting them and told me directly on no uncertain terms that if they were going to meet characters, I had to be the one to come up with conversation and make it less awkward for them haha. Usually the characters see our Perry toy and will do all sorts of funny things to make the interaction memorable, but Chip and Dale didn't seem to notice him, so I asked Dale if he planned on staying up the entire 24 hours. He said yes, but he might have to take a nap sometime.

After that, we decided it was time to check out the rest of New Fantasyland. We took the train to Storybook Circus! Now, let me preface this: I loved Mickey's Toontown Fair. I know it wasn't a huge headliner attraction, but I really loved being able to step into the world of the vintage Disney cartoons. Those are some of my favorite pieces of Disney animation ever and the attention to detail in Toontown (from the visual gags to the background music) completely took you to that place. So I was kind of bummed when Toontown closed, and it was really the first significant thing during my lifetime that I had a personal attachment to that closed.

However, I had heard wonderful things about Storybook Circus, so I entered with an open mind. That being said, I was blown away in a subtle, reassuring way. The whole thing feels as if it belongs in the Toontown world, but the tone is a bit more rustic and earthy rather than loud and in-your-face. I definitely think Mickey and Minnie's houses could have stayed (could they not have made the place Mickey's Toontown Circus with the same premise as before, with Dumbo and the gang in town for the circus?), BUT if Toontown had to go, Storybook Circus is a very pleasant and welcome replacement. Had I been on my own, I would have loved to just sit down and absorb the atmosphere for a while, but I knew everyone else wanted to get to the attractions.

I WANT TO STAY HERE FOREVER.​

First we peeked inside Pete's Silly Sideshow. Pretty neat in there! Both lines had really short waits, but we chose Goofy and Donald. We were the first party to meet them after they returned from a quick water break. Goofy was so funny when he returned - instead of moving the huge curtain to the side, he just kept walking through it so it completely went over his face. We had known beforehand that it would be Goofy's birthday tomorrow, May 25, so we had made him a birthday card. He loved it! He was so excited and you could tell it meant a lot to him. I asked him why his motorcycle was crashed through the wall, and he said Donald did it.

Donald was a bit on the awkward side I must say. We approached him and he pointed at Perry's bill, then pointed to his own bill, so I said, "That's right, you two are alike," to which he shook his head no. "Oh, you aren't alike then." He shook his head no again, and I really couldn't tell what he was trying to say. The character attendant was busy assisting Goofy's family so she wasn't there to interpret. At that point I should have remembered Goofy's remark and asked Donald why he crashed Goofy's motorcycle. That could have led to some fun interaction and maybe even a fight between the two characters. Instead, I had already forgotten that and none of us really knew what to say after that so we just got our picture lol.

As we exited into Big Top Treats, I was surprised at how much was inside it. I expected just a gift shop like County Bounty was, but was pleasantly surprised to see all the bakery stuff in there. Lots of really good-looking treats!! We made a mental note to come back here later in the day. We headed outside into the heart of Storybook Circus, and that's when it started to settle in how neat of an area this is. I would have liked to have seen the clowns or a band or something to get the "full" experience, but nothing was around. Oh, well. Another excuse to go back!

Barnstormer had no wait. I like the theming here a lot and I'm glad they kept it about Goofy. Honestly though the details in the line are more fun than the ride itself. It's neat and all and I totally get how it's a rite of passage for many young kids as their first roller coaster, but I would never in a million years wait anything longer than 5 minutes for it. But I get that I'm not exactly the intended audience. (But the seating... seriously, they need to make that better. It's hard as a rock and there are awkward ridges along the entire seat that make it very uncomfortable.)

Next, Dumbo!! Again, a walk-on. The fountains at the center are AWESOME. As we boarded, I did a double-take. Three teenagers were walking briskly through the Storybook Circus entrance sign followed by a camera crew tracking their every move and a fleet of Disney VIP Tour Guides. Oh, snap! It was a Disney Channel shoot!! And they were headed right for Dumbo! It was Laura Marano from "Austin and Ally," as well as Roshon Fegan and Adam Irigoyen from "Shake It Up." I'm not a huge Disney Channel guru, but hey, it's pretty neat to say I've seen Disney Channel filming something for real TV. They boarded the opposite Dumbo carousel that we weren't on and the actors waved down the cameras. After we exited Dumbo, we lingered in the area for a few minutes to see if they'd film anything else (aka to see if we could be on TV lol), but after the actors got off Dumbo, the whole unit quickly exited the area. You could tell they were trying to attract as little attention as possible.

I will say, I got to witness an awesome magic moment. The three teens were surrounded by their Disney Guides as they exited Dumbo and a little preschool-aged girl, not knowing any different, stepped right through them and walked up to the Austin & Ally girl. I didn't catch what she said, but it was clear she was a fan of the show. The actress knelt down to the girl's level and said something that again I didn't catch, but that was just so cool to see somebody so willing enough to pay attention to a young admirer like that. The girl's mom took her hand to lead her away from the hubbub, apologetic about the interjection but very clearly touched that the actress had taken time to talk to her daughter.

[Bucket List #242: Be on Disney Channel. Check.]
Except not really lol. Here is the finished product of what we saw filmed. Looks like we didn't make the cut! http://video.disney.com/watch/monstrous-summer-vacation-4e00582578660225d4d0bb47

I immediately texted my sister back home at this point, because during our last trip she ran into Debby Ryan from Zack & Cody in the Fort Wilderness bathroom.... I know, what the heck right. I joked that it must be tradition now for Disney Channel people to follow us to Orlando.

Time check: 9:45. Ordinarily it would definitely be too early to be thinking about lunch, but all things considered we had been awake for almost 6 hours so it was nearing time for a second meal already lol. And it just so happened that the castle down the street was nearing its daily opening. We heard the food was beastly, so we thought we'd give it a try...

 

[emmysmommy]

Great update and you still have more than 20 hrs to go!

I agree with your opinion that they should have left alone Mickey and Minnie's house in Toontown... couldn't they have moved them somewhere??

The birthday card for Goofy was brilliant! Glad he appreciated the thought. Too bad Donald was a bit bashful or whatever... I've asked Donald why he has no pants but he didn't give me an answer that satisfied my curiosity.

 

[WeatherbySwann]

Great update and you still have more than 20 hrs to go!

I agree with your opinion that they should have left alone Mickey and Minnie's house in Toontown... couldn't they have moved them somewhere??

The birthday card for Goofy was brilliant! Glad he appreciated the thought. Too bad Donald was a bit bashful or whatever... I've asked Donald why he has no pants but he didn't give me an answer that satisfied my curiosity.

That's a good one. I'll have to ask him. What did he say to you?

 

[WeatherbySwann]

Alrighty. Going to try to wrap this up sooner vs. later!! Don't know if anyone will still follow along, but at least for my own sake of preserving memories, I'll try to get back in the habit of posting. Things got crazy for a while there but are settling in again.



Friday, May 24
9:45 a.m.

Anyway. Away we went to Be Our Guest! It's open for walk-ups during "lunch"... but if you want to make sure you get in, you're going to have to wait in line, which begins forming around 9:45. That's why I put lunch in quotation marks haha. But to our body clocks, it really did feel like lunchtime, so all was well. It was getting pretty hot, so I went to Gaston's Tavern to pick up some free cups of water for us while the others saved our spots in line. I don't remember the exact time everything started moving, but we were definitely inside by 10:30.

Wow!! We had glimpsed inside Beast's castle earlier that morning, but to walk through it was nothing short of surreal. The detail is fantastic. The one thing I will say, though... the forced perspective doesn't work. The "castle" is tiny, but meant to look like it's far away. That's fine and dandy, but that illusion is shattered the moment you step through the doors. You're already right there in the castle, thought clearly a few paces behind you, the castle appeared to be far away. Some sort of tunnel passageway could have solved this I think... I'm sure not too many people even think much about it, but still.

The lunch menu is pretty basic, but significantly cheaper than dinner and, in my opinion, far superior to most of MK's lunch options. I got the kids' spaghetti (that portion is measly!! not worth what you pay!) and the potato leek soup (which was incredible and WAS worth what you pay!).

We wanted to eat in the West Wing, but it was full by the time we had placed our order, so we sat in the gallery. Now I think this was for the better--the gallery was probably not a room we would have paid much attention to, but since we sat in it for a good 30-40 minutes, we soaked in a lot of the details that we might have overlooked. After eating, we were able to browse around. Wow wow wow. Everything about this place is just stunning.

Next, we headed to Tomorrowland, which came to be known as basically our home for the majority of the day. Ok so maybe not the majority, but a pretty good chunk of it. I really don't know why, but we spent a lot of time in Tomorrowland... I discovered this when I realized just how many times I had used the same Space Mountain bathroom. Anyway.

We got Space Mountain Fastpasses and rode Peoplemover twice (and got stuck on it repeatedly). Caleb had never done Carousel of Progress... he liked it, but we all found it super creepy that the Animatronic dad's neck flap was clearly protruding from its intended position, so you could see some of the electric stuff inside. This was especially peculiar seeing how the attraction had JUST had a refurb the week before we rode it. Caleb had also never done Laugh Floor... that's always a fun one, love how it's never the same show. We were the last party to be admitted into the theater, and the CM sort of hesitated even admitting us, so the intro was already in progress when we walked right down the middle aisle toward the only remaining seats. Kinda awkward. We weren't on camera which was a bummer, and "that guy" didn't really seem to be amused that he kept being shown. So it wasn't the best showing I've been in, but it's still a great attraction.

It was getting close to parade time, which, because of the special day, would actually be twice: 12:30 and 3:00. We intended to drop our phones off at City Hall to charge, get Fastpassed to meet Mickey, and watch the parade right where it came out of the Town Square gate. It would be perfect! But let me just preface with this... I have bad luck when it comes to parades, especially the direction they travel. TWICE our last trip I got things mixed up and messed up plans and, well... today I'd repeat tradition and get confused twice again! Because of the special day, the parade would actually start in Frontierland, meaning it wouldn't get to Town Square until about 35 minutes later. Well, the sun was beating down and there was no way we were just going to stand around. And City Hall wouldn't take our phones anyway since all of their outlets were already being used. In hindsight, the best plan would have been to go in the standby Mickey line (which was probably 20 mins), meet Mickey, then come back outside and wait about 10 mins for the parade. Instead we threw everything around and decided to come back for the later parade and get Fastpasses for Mickey later (not sure why we did that).

One tiny tidbit - I said earlier there were pros and cons to being "unplugged." I wasn't checking Twitter all day, for the most part... I sent out pictures here and there, but I had turned off notifications that I usually get. This is the best choice in the parks I feel, as it allows you to be fully there and enjoy your vacation. A small disadvantage of this, though, was that we had no idea there was a webcam of Town Square being streamed online by Disney all day long! It was specially put up for the 24-hour day, and it would have been fun to wave to our families back home. But we didn't even know it was there, haha. So that was one negative of keeping the phone to a minimum, but overall it was a good choice.

On our way back up Main Street, we ran into my favorite Cast Member ever: the Mayor! He is always a pleasure to talk to. If you see him, make sure you stop to say hello. He took a gander at our group (3 guys, 1 girl), turned to Taylor, and asked her, "You look like you get into a lot of rifraf. Is that true?" Oh my word! We didn't know how to respond other than to just laugh. After browsing Main Street shops for about 10 minutes, the Mayor spotted us again maybe about 15 feet away, and called to us, "Hey, you're following me!" He's great.

After that... I really don't remember exactly what we did, and I didn't take many pictures during these hours so that doesn't help me recall it. I'm pretty sure it was more of Tomorrowland, but the same stuff... Space Mountain more times and Peoplemover more times!

As it neared 3:00, we headed back to Town Square to be at the parade gate near the Barber Shop when the parade stepped off. I've seen it from this spot before and enjoy it - you're the first people the characters see, so there's a lot of interaction and everyone is fresh and ready for a great parade. Well, we get there... to find out we're wrong about the direction again! My logic was that even though it started in Frontierland earlier, that meant it would reverse itself and start in Town Square this time to make the driving easier. Well, I guess not, because the parade started in Frontierland again and, again, wouldn't make it to Town Square for another 35 minutes. Bleehhh!!

How does one solve these frustrations?? With ice cream, of course!! The Main Street Ice Cream Parlor is always the best---the ice cream itself is probably not all that different from any other ice cream place in Disney, but the novelty of the area and the incredible smell of the place certainly makes it feel special.

We took our ice cream to the Tomorrowland Terrace, and had a breathtaking view.

We decided to stay there to watch the parade from afar. It was a postcard-perfect moment.

The pictures turned out great, though I do kind of wish I had gone up a little closer, maybe to the rose garden. I know it gets a bad rep just for being recycled so much, but I really do like the Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade and will be sad to see it leave in 2014. I understand the viewpoint that it's been there forever and Disney has just kept updating the floats over the last 12 years rather than put anything new... BUT I do think the current version is the best one yet, and really if nothing else affords the chance to see every single superstar Disney character in one place. They're ALL here.

The nature of being in the Magic Kingdom for 24 hours afforded us with the opportunity to see and do everything we could ever possibly want to do, which meant that as we entered the thick of the afternoon, there was some exploring to be had in territory none of us had ventured into before...

 

[emmysmommy]

Yay Blake you updated!! Glad to read your latest chapter as you head into the later afternoon.

Honestly, after 2 dinners at BoG, I think I would prefer lunch! Is the gallery room where they have the collection of portraits on the wall and the big Beast and Belle dancing in the middle of the room? I wandered into that room last week after it had been closed off the first time we were there. Anyhoo.... glad you enjoyed your lunch.

Your forced perspective comment made me do a head smack and realize that is what bothers me about the whole new FL thing. The castle is set far away on the hill and is shrunk down for perspective but yeah.... walk through those big old doors and bam... no tiny castle scale. Hmmmm... perhaps they needed your input for their design team.

I would imagine that Carousel of Progress may be a popular spot to catch a nap late into the 24 hr party! That and perhaps Philharmagic! Too bad about the dad sporting some visible electronic stubble!

Ahhhh Mr. Christopher Weaver!! Love the Mayor! He's such a character! I've seen his charm in action with the ladies so I'm sure Taylor was getting some attention from him.

 

[shalom]

When you said "Days Inn," I thought, "uh-oh." Man, that place is notorious! But it sounds like you knew what you were getting into at least.

I am shocked, shocked that you never post your Perry pics to the Picture of the Day thread.

Your write-up on new Fantasyland was particularly lovely, thank you.

This is where MK lacks. Almost all of their snack options are sweets (think about it... Dole Whip, Citrus Swirl, Main Street ice cream, Sleepy Hollow Nutella waffle, Confectionery........). While this is AWESOME if you are in the park on a regular day and want some sugar, it's not so great if you're borderline shaky at 2 a.m. and want something of substance.

Not food you want to race around eating, but Columbia Harbor House has bowls of chili or chowder -- and probably isn't open at two a.m. There are nuts at some snack carts -- they're sugared, but the protein balances that out a bit. But I agree that the MK is woefully short of non-sugary snacks. I usually bring a bag of (non-sweetened) roasted nuts for that reason.