October '07 Report incl MNSSHP w/ LOTS of pics *final 4 days finally added on 9/13*

[kswm30b]

Hopefully this report isn’t as boring as the title. This is the first time I'm writing a report here, so be gentle!

I wrote up a 27 page report for myself, so I could remember every little last detail of our fantastic trip. I mentioned that elsewhere on the board where I was posting some of my pictures, and someone asked if I had the report up. So, I figured I would try to condense my report with just the highlights, and post it here. I also figured it would be the best way to share my pictures. I took over 3000 pics, and I’m working on getting them online.

Two comments about my pics in advance. I post them in the gallery on my site, so other than a few teasers, I’ll be linking to the individual album rather than embedding the images in this thread. Also, I take a ton of pics, and I tend to have a problem with paring them down when posting (I can always find something in one pic that makes it different from another!) So, if you have a problem with looking at lots and lots of pics, then this report won’t be for you.

Intro details: My mom & I went October 22-29. I’m 27, my mom is…going to kill me if I give her age. We go to spring training every year in Clearwater (near Tampa), and since it’s just about an hour away from Disney, we try to go to one of the parks for one day during our ST trip. In 2003 we went to Epcot, 2004 MGM, and earlier this year, MGM again for ESPN the weekend. We haven’t been to Disney for a REAL Disney vacation since I was 5, though, and we wanted to do that sometime soon. My mom’s birthday is in November, so we decided that would be a great time for our Disney vacation! We did all our research (here, online, and zillions of books) and heard October was a good time to go, so we planned our late October trip. I love Halloween, so we were excited to attend MNSSHP, getting tickets for October 23. After loads of research (enough to make you crazy!) we decided to stay at the Port Orleans French Quarter.

Think that covers all the bases! We LOVED the French Quarter. Perfect size, close to anything you could want at the resort. When coming back from the resort most nights, everything was close enough that I went to the food court to order, while my mom went back to the room to drop off our stuff & get our mugs. If (if? When!) we go back, we'd both love to stay there again.

The plan for our first day was to get to Magic Kingdom for our 3:50 ADR at Crystal Palace, and stay long enough to see Wishes and Spectromagic (there was only one other day we could see Spectromagic during the trip.) I was worried we’d be knocked out by then, and didn’t even think about doing the EMH that night.

I couldn’t wait to walk into Magic Kingdom for the first time in over 20 years. It was just, well, magical! I couldn’t remember much from when I was there when I was 5, so it was really seeing the castle for the first time. I went crazy taking pics of the castle, of course (haven’t uploaded those pics yet.) We got to Magic Kingdom before 3, which meant we were able to watch the parade! With all the planning, hoping to be there to see Wishes & Spectro, and with our 3:50 ADR, I have no idea how the idea of being there for the parade slipped my mind! I didn’t even think of it, I was planning on seeing it later in the week. So, that was a nice surprise. We wished we had the video camera with us (it was back in the room), which would be a recurring theme all week. We watched it from Main Street, the only thing was we weren’t in the front, so I had a harder time getting pics, but it was still great. Our first Mickey sighting:

Here are my pics from the Share a Dream Parade:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/dreams/

After the parade, we went to the Crystal Palace. We got there 10 minutes early, and weren’t seated until 15 minutes after our ADR. Because it was my mom’s birthday, they had Mickey shaped confetti, a streamer, and another decoration on the table. My mom got the birthday pin back at the hotel, but she didn’t think she’d get anything special because of it (or the bday notes we put on all the ADRs), so she was surprised about that. After we ate, they gave her a cupcake and a card signed by all the characters. It was cute. The food was pretty good (especially the salmon, and I’m not even a big fish eater.) From where we were sitting, you could see when the characters were getting closer to the table, so if we were up at the buffet we could come back to the table in time. In order, the following characters came to our table to take pics & sign our autograph book: Piglet, Eeyore, Pooh, and Tigger. Eeyore came when they brought my mom’s cupcake. It was a fun meal. My mom didn’t really get it when I said before the trip that I wanted to make an autograph book, but during the meal, she completely understood and loved meeting the characters.

Here are my pics from the Crystal Palace:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/cp/

After we walked out of Crystal Palace, the show at the castle (Dream Along with Mickey) had just started (the 5:40 show.) Again, another thing I never thought we would be catching, or even planned to see during our trip, except maybe by accident! I got some great pictures during this show. This is one of my favorites:

Here are all my pics from the Dream Along with Mickey show:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/castleshow/

Since we were by the castle, we took some more castle pics, and ones by the partner statue. We walked towards Tomorrowland, and took pics of the castle from the rose garden. We continued to Tomorrowland, and went on Buzz Lightyear. This was one I heard a lot about, and I knew I wanted to try it. When I explained it to my mom, she was kind of eh about it. But that changed when we went on the ride, we both had a blast and wanted to go back again and again. I love it even though I’m not that good at it. I knew which targets would get high scores, and even then I couldn’t hit them! I had heard the line for that ride is usually really long, but it was pretty short when we were there. Mondays are supposed to be a bad day to go to Magic Kingdom, crowd wise, but it didn’t seem bad the whole night for us.

Here are my pics from Buzz:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/buzz/

After that, we walked back towards the castle hub, and people were already sitting and waiting for Spectromagic, which started in about an hour. Since we wanted to make sure we had a good seat of the parade, we decided to just join them all and sit, especially since it would also be a good spot to see Wishes. While my mom stayed in our spot, I went to Space Mountain to get my EMH wristband. My mom was going to do the same when I got back, but there were so many people, she worried about cutting it close with all the people walking towards the castle for the parade.

Spectromagic was something I was really looking forward to, and it didn’t disappoint. It was beautiful and spectacular (hence the parade name, I guess!) It’s really hard to take pics of the parade, but I did my best (another I wish we had our video camera for.) Here are a few (I love the first one because the castle is seen in the background)

Here are my pics from Spectromagic:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/spectro/

After Spectromagic, we stayed around for Wishes, which started about 20 minutes later. Everyone says how amazing the fireworks are, and they were good. But both my mom and I weren’t as impressed with them as I guess we thought they’d be. Other than having the castle as the backdrop & tink, we both thought the fireworks we see at the Phillies ballpark each year are better (we came to that thought independent of each other.) I got tons of great pics, though! I like my pics of Wishes better than I liked the show. It was hard to pick favorites from this set, but here are a few:

Here are all my pics from Wishes (the last pic in the album is one of my favs, too):
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/wishes/

After the parade, we went to Space Mountain to get the EMH band for my mom, and then Fantasyland. Pooh & Peter Pan had 40 minute waits, so we put them off for another day. Those were the only attractions we saw with a long wait all night. We saw Mickey’s Philharmagic, and that became one of our favorite attractions the whole trip. We didn't know any of the secrets going in, so it was a fun surprise! After that, we went to Small World. My mom says when I went to Disney when I was 5, that it was my favorite ride. I guess haven’t grown up much, haha, because I still love it. Yea the song gets stuck in your head, but I don’t care.

Here are my pics from Small World:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/smallworld/

We walked by the carousel, and Goofy was there! So I met my first character in the park, and got a pic with him. He was very shy around me, too cute. My mom then took a pic with the Sword in the Stone. I was going to take one another day in the daylight, but somehow didn’t get around to it (even though we were in Fantasyland a ton!)

We left Fantasyland by walking through the castle back to Main Street. On our way out, I got a Halloween shirt with Tinker bell that I could wear the next day at the Halloween party (good thing, because I liked it much better than the MNSSHP shirt.) My mom picked up our MNSSHP tickets, while I waited at the entrance taking a few pics of everything decorated for Halloween. We left the park exactly at midnight (I took a pic of the main clock to prove it!) To think I was worried ahead of time that we’d be too tired to even stay for Spectromagic & Wishes! We did so much more on our first day than we expected!

Phew, hopefully that wasn’t too bad! And imagine, that’s my condensed report for the day. There are still pics from the day I don’t have uploaded yet (including lots of castle pics), I’ll post the links when those are done.

Stay tuned for day 2, when we attend the MNSSHP!

 

[OhMari]

Wow 3000 pictures. I enjoyed the one's you posted.

 

[Jrabbit910]

Great start... Love the links to the pics.. and I cant wait to read more!

 

[Yzerbear19]

I'm so jealous of how awesome your photos are. I so need a new camera. I love all of your Wishes ones. And the one you posted from Dreams parade is freaking awesome. They are amazing!!! Can't wait to hear more.

 

[kswm30b]

Yay, someone is actually going to read this! Hopefully my day 2 report will be up Wednesday. I just have to finish a few more pictures for that day before I post.

Yzerbear19 let me know that my Share a Dream Parade album wasn't public, oops! I've fixed that, so the album should be working now:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/dreams/

If you ever see a problem with any of the links to my pics, let me know, and I'll fix it right away!

Wow 3000 pictures. I enjoyed the one's you posted.

Thank you! Yea, I'm a bit of a photo phanatic! One of my friends dubbed me "the one who takes 500 pics of everything." She was actually surprised I *only* took 3000 pics in a week's time!

Great start... Love the links to the pics.. and I cant wait to read more!

Thanks!!

I'm so jealous of how awesome your photos are. I so need a new camera. I love all of your Wishes ones. And the one you posted from Dreams parade is freaking awesome. They are amazing!!! Can't wait to hear more.

Haha, thanks! I do love my camera! Though...in a bit of a sneak peak for the next day's report, something happens to my camera during the Halloween party. So, I actually just got another camera (basically 2 versions after this camera), hopefully it's just as good!

 

[KimAshton]

I am here reading. Wow your pictures are beautiful.

 

[kswm30b]

I am here reading. Wow your pictures are beautiful.

Thank you so much!!

 

[kswm30b]

Happy Thanksgiving! And for those outside the US, happy Thursday!

Onto the next report. Sorry this one is so long. At least you have a long weekend to read it!

Day 2 - Tuesday 10/23

We originally were going to go to MGM today, but we got up a bit later than planned, and still wanted to get breakfast at the food court. So we decided to go to Downtown Disney instead, and try MGM later in the week (it worked out fine.) It also was a good idea, since we were going to MNSSHP, and we’d be at the park until midnight, so it would be better to take it easier during the day.

After eating breakfast, we left to catch the bus for Downtown Disney. Anytime we waited for a bus, we always saw a ton of busses for the other parks, but never the one we wanted for a while. I don't know how long we were waiting, but suddenly this guy yelled "the shuttle!" And we're both thinking, what, where, I don't see the bus. Even though I remembered before leaving (and even the day before) that the space shuttle Discovery was going to blast off while we were there, I completely forgot while we were sitting there! It was supposed to take off sometime around 11:30, and it was about 11:40 while at the bus stop. We finally figured it out, lol, and ran out from the bus stop to see. You could just make out a glimpse of orange at the end of a long tail of smoke. Cool! By the time I took a pic, though, you couldn't see the orange at the end, so my pic is just the trail off smoke, not the shuttle. Here's my trail of smoke picture. Our bus to Downtown Disney came shortly after that, so the timing worked out great!

At Downtown Disney, we went in a couple of stores, but we had a discount to use at the World of Disney store, so I waited until we went there later that day to buy those souvenirs. We walked through the Art and Crystal stores. Such beautiful stuff there. At the Arribas crystal store, I got a necklace, and my mom got these adorable Minnie earrings (that she has gotten a ton of compliments on since.) They also had a castle that was $250,000. I did not get that. (I thought I took a pic of it, but I didn’t.) We eventually made it over to the World of Disney store, which I had heard was a huge Disney store. And wow, is it HUGE! You could get lost in there. There were a ton of entrances, and all of them had Disney characters above the entrance. The one with Stitch actually spit out water. I think we bought enough stuff there to pay for someone’s salary.

There were some other things we wanted to see Downtown, but we figured it was time to get back. So, we took the boat back to the French Quarter. Thankfully we got there just as it was pulling in (we thought it was leaving. It was a nice ride back, but slower than the bus. There wasn’t much to see once leaving Downtown Disney either. Still glad we did it once, though. Pretty view from the boat:

Here are my pics from Downtown Disney:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/downtown/

We got back to the hotel around 3, and rested a little before leaving around 4:30 for our dinner before the party. One of the best things about our resort is that it’s nice & small. So, no matter where your room is, you are never that far away from the bus stops, food court, gift shop, etc. The only thing is we were hoping to be on the first floor rather than 2nd, but it ended up being ok, the steps were right there and not too bad. In our room when we checked in, the maid had left 2 towel animals. They were really cute. When we got back to the room today, the maid had left another towel animal, a bunny. It was really cute, and looked like it took a long time. Other than a swan to hold our soap by the sink each day, it was the last towel animal we got, though. Oh well. Here’s a pic of our 3 towel animals:

We had 5:10 reservations at Ohana at the Polynesian. We decided to take a cab there, rather than having to keep changing transportation to get to the Poly. I have very few complaints from our trip, but I guess the cab drivers may be one of them. I know it’s nothing Disney can control, but when you are vacation, especially in a place that’s almost like another world separate from real life, I don’t think you really want to discuss politics and religion such. It happened 2 of the 3 times we took a cab during the trip. Not a big deal, but it was a bit jarring.

Anyway, we got to the Polynesian, and it looked really pretty. We went inside, and went upstairs to check in for Ohana. We were seated at 5:10 on the dot. The meal was good, not great, but it was fine (the dessert was the only thing we really couldn’t eat.) While we were leaving, I took some pictures of the grill, and one of the chefs asked me if I wanted to come back there and hold a skewer while he took a pic of me. That thing was heavy and it was HOT. I mean, that’s obvious, but I could feel the steam, and I was only standing there for a few seconds. Really nice of them to do that.

Here are my pics from the Poly & Ohana:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/resorts/poly/

Then, we took the monorail over to Magic Kingdom for the party! Quick pic from the monorail as the sun was setting that I thought was pretty:

The monorail was packed, and so was the entrance to the park. The party started at 7, and we got there pretty much 7 on the dot. Huge mistake. Everyone else was doing the same thing, and it was a crush of people getting into the park, and onto Main Street. They start letting you in at 4 for the party, so it’s better to come in earlier. I knew that, but we couldn’t get there any earlier because of dinner. Oh well.

Magic Kingdom looked fantastic for the party. The buildings along main street were lit up various colors. And on the buildings, they projected moving images like ghosts, witches, and bats. They played spooky music, it was great!

I thought they did a good job of making sure only the party goers were still in the park after 7. They had CMs stationed at all the doors of the stores, and wouldn't even let anyone into the stores without a wristband. If they are turning people away from buying stuff, you know they meant business! Another time, as we were waiting for the parade, someone next to us didn't have a band. Her husband had taken her kids somewhere, and asked if she could just wait for them to come back before they left (I just hope they both had cellphones!) The CM made her leave immediately, and followed her down Main Street for a while.

We went into several stores trying to find the limited edition pins and other merchandise, but they all said they wouldn’t have it until 8. We had lots of things we wanted to do, but we decided to just stay on Main Street and wait for the parade. We were sitting and waiting for a while, and I took some pictures and people watched. A lot of people went all out with their costumes. My mom and I just had Halloween things that we wore on our heads.

I don’t want to dwell on this, so long story short, I fell, hard, on the sidewalk about 15 minutes before the parade. I went flying backwards, and somehow hit (in order of importance ) my camera, my head, my arm, and both knees. I was really shaken up, and I was kind of in a funk until the fireworks began at 9:30. I feel so bad that I was out of it for pretty much half the party, and especially the parade. It’s one of the few regrets I have from the trip, and even just thinking about it makes me feel bad again.

Eventually, the first part of the parade started. The headless horseman was so cool, and I wish we had that on video (I have a video clip, but, again, we left the video camera in the room.) I know it’s hard getting pics of him, but I got two semi decent ones. Even though the 2nd one is blurry, I still thought it was pretty cool, showing the movement of the horse, but you can decide for yourself!

After the headless horseman, it took almost 20 minutes for the start of the parade to get to us. Even with everything, it was an awesome parade. I really wish I could have enjoyed it more (maybe we should have gone to watch the parade later in the night, but that would have been a total waste since we already sort of wasted an hour and a half waiting for the first parade.) Probably our favorite part of the parade is the Haunted Mansion section. There are pretty real looking ghosts/zombies (I have vid of them coming towards me, kind of freaked me out!), then the float, then the grave diggers. During the next section, I have this pic that’s really blurry, but it almost looks like ghosts in the pic. Would have worked better for the Haunted Mansion section, though! During the Villains section, Cruella went right up to my mom & said something, lol, but I don’t know what it is, even on video! The music is great for the whole parade, though I had it stuck in my head longer than Small World’s song, haha. A few pics from the parade:

Here are my pictures from the Boo To You Parade:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mnsshp/parade/

After the parade, we walked around a bit. I tried to feel better, and it wasn’t working, and my mom wanted me to leave. She kept saying we could come back later in the week, but I said it was stupid to pay *again* for 2 tickets. So we walked around, found a few photo pass places (looking at our pics, we didn’t get enough photo pass pictures at the party.)

We ended up at the castle hub a little before the fireworks (same place we saw the parade & fireworks the night before, just across the street), and decided to stay there for Hallowishes. The fireworks were AMAZING. I was a bit disappointed in Wishes the night before, but these absolutely lived up to their billing! They were probably the best fireworks I ever saw. They had fireworks that went 360 degrees around the park several times during the show. Fireworks were just going off all over the place. It was a real sight to see. For Wishes, they had a few shapes projected onto the castle (hearts one time, moon & stars another.) For Hallowishes, a ton of shapes were projected onto the castle throughout the show. Pumpkins, witches, ghosts, skeletons, villains. And the story and music that went along with it (all the villains & their main songs from all different films) was great, too. It’s also a pretty long show, about 20 minutes. I can’t say enough about the fireworks…I’d go back to the party <I>just</I> for Hallowishes. I have better pics from Wishes than Hallowishes, but I still have some cool pictures from the show. A few:

Here are all my pictures from Hallowishes:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mnsshp/hallowishes/

We stayed around the castle after the fireworks to stay for the Villains Mix & Mingle show. The fireworks ended around 9:50, and the next Villains show was at 10:05, so it worked out well. The show was a blast! Some of the villains were hilarious with the way they were dancing. After the show, the Villains come down and take pics. Everyone wants to be in the line for Maleficent, and I figured if I went there, I might only get to meet one villain rather than several. Instead, I got in the line for Cruella. When I was going up to get my picture with her, she was saying, “I’m so sick of all these princesses!” And I said, “no princess here,” and she yelled “thank goodness!” Haha. My mom also got a pic with Cruella, but she didn’t get one with any of the other villains. Then we went to the line for the Evil Queen. She was probably the villain I wanted most, since Snow White is one of my favorites. I kept thinking just before I got to her that they’d stop the line (I had no idea how long the picture taking lasted, especially because the 2nd parade started soon after the show), but it ended up working out fine. The Evil Queen was REALLY in character. Cruella was nice to us, but the Queen seemed kind of evil. In my pic I tried to be cute doing the same pose she did. I’m surprised she didn’t yell at me for imitating her! The Queen of Hearts had 2 people in her line, so I went there next. She kept moving around towards the camera, so my mom was having a hard time finding a chance to snap the picture. The Queen didn’t seem too happy with that! After meeting with her, Jafar’s line was really short too, so we went there, and I got a pic. Both the Queen of Hearts & Jafar weren’t face characters, so I didn’t think they were as good as the first 2 which were face characters. After that, the villains left. I only didn’t get a picture with Captain Hook (got him later in the week), Maleficent (no surprise, but would have been cool), and the villain from the Hunchback of Notre Dame, who I didn’t care about (and neither did anyone else, since he was just walking around because no one was in his line!) So, I think that went well. A pic of Maleficent from the show:

Here are all my pictures from the Villains Mix & Mingle:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mnsshp/villains/

By the time the villains left, it was just about time for the 2nd parade. We stayed right around the castle, just to see the Headless Horseman ride by again. Still really cool to see. Other than the parade and fireworks, the other must sees of the party for me were getting a picture with Cinderella’s coach, and Snow White & the seven dwarfs. So, we walked to Fantasyland, where both picture opportunities were. We walked past the character greeting for the evil stepmother & stepsisters. Just as we got there, they were closing it, but said they’d be back at 11:30. We ended up not making it back for a picture, though.

Then we went past where I knew Snow White was supposed to be, but no one was there. I figured it was because the parade was going on, and figured we’d come back later. Snow White was always one of my favorites, so I really wanted that picture. But, we continued on towards Cinderella’s Coach, all the way at the other end of Fantasyland. I had heard that the line for this was always long, for the whole party, and that you should get there early if you didn’t want to wait. Which, of course, we didn’t since it was already almost 11. I’ve heard it can be over an hour wait. It wasn’t that bad for us, maybe 20 minutes? It took so long since people were getting so many different pictures. Like a party of 4 would have one pic separately, then one with 2 of them, then one with 2 others, then one of all 4, etc. At least they had the photo pass person there, since I was iffy with my camera that night (I used my smaller camera for this and the meeting with the villains.) The wait was worth it, since the coach was really pretty. They also gave you a pumpkin to hold in the pic if you want. Cute picture opportunity.

Then we walked back, and looked at a few rides we couldn’t get on the day before because of the wait. Peter Pan was still long (over 50 minutes!), but the Winnie the Pooh ride didn’t have a line, so we were able to go on that. Neither of us liked it much, I was disappointed since I heard it was a cute ride for everyone. I can’t imagine waiting 40+ minutes for it, like we saw the day before! The ride got stuck at least 3 times while we were on it, so maybe that was the problem with our enjoyment of the ride?

After we left, I saw that Snow White was back, so I rushed over to the spot, only to be told that it just closed. Argh! As it was, there was a ton of other stuff I wanted to do at the party that we didn’t get to, but I especially wanted that picture. I took some pics of the characters (Prince Charming was also there) together, my mom joked that I could photoshop myself in there later.

Then we got some ice cream & watched Snow White and all the dwarfs leave. As we were sitting there, it started raining. Not too hard, plus we were under umbrellas where we were sitting. We went to leave, and it stopped that quickly. We started walking to leave, and we were near Toontown where they had a photo pass person, so we went there to get a pic. As we were standing there waiting for the person in front of us, it started raining again. We went to get the picture, and it started raining harder. She took the pics, but she said there’d probably be rain drops in them (and there is.) So we were walking out (it was almost midnight), and it just started POURING. We had umbrellas and we were still soaked. We walked fast trying to find some place to stop for a bit since we were so soaked, and it was almost flooding where we walked. Finally we got Cosmic Rays, which was closed, but they were letting people in. We waited a bit, and tried to wring out our clothes. We worried about our stuff in our bags. A lot of the stuff in my mom’s got wet, but I found out that my bag (which I got for the trip, and LOVED during the week) was waterproof. Thank goodness! Finally it seemed to stop, so we left for good. Of course, at that point, so did everyone else. The buses were packed going back to the hotel. I kept getting hit by this woman who was standing next to where I was sitting. Just one of those days, I guess!

I heard later that they gave out packages of candy when you leave the party, but I guess because of the rain, I didn’t see anyone near the entrance doing this? I wasn’t there for the candy, though. Even with my mishap, we still had a blast at the party. If we are at Disney in October again in the future, we’d definitely go back to MNSSHP!

Here are the rest of my MNSSHP pictures:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mnsshp

Stay tuned next time for day 3, where we meet Mickey & the gang at Epcot, Soar over California, and cozy up to giraffes at Animal Kingdom Lodge.

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

love the tons of pics and the TR so far. how was POFQ? we are thinking POR for our 2008 christmas trip. 3000 pics hmmmmm first year at WDW with a digital camera? i took almost 4000 our first time. can't wait for more on your TR.

 

[kors]

Great trip report so far~

 

[wdwgirl03]

WOW, 3000 pictures!!! Can't wait to see more...I love looking at other people's pictures because they give me so many ideas for when I go (only 38 days till I'm back at WDW!!!!).

 

[Yzerbear19]

Heather,

That stinks about falling. I did something similar last year while walking back to our hotel in Chicago though I didn't have my camera with me. It sounds like you were able to enjoy the rest of the night despite the mishap. I love the photo of the towel animals.

Don't tell my sister I said this, but your photos are making me want to go for MNSSHP. She has been trying to convince me we need to go.

Looking forward to EPCOT and what you thought about Soarin. I'm determined to ride it at DL in April.

 

[katylady]

Really enjoying your report and your pictures. Can't wait for more!

 

[kswm30b]

love the tons of pics and the TR so far. how was POFQ? we are thinking POR for our 2008 christmas trip. 3000 pics hmmmmm first year at WDW with a digital camera? i took almost 4000 our first time. can't wait for more on your TR.

Haha, well, there were a lot of stuff we were hoping to do but couldn't get to, so I probably would have gotten more pictures that way. We loved POFQ. The only negative was the busses going back to the hotel. We always seemed to be the only hotel left that had a long line, while the other lines were empty. It might have just been our luck though, and not a POFQ thing. But we loved how small it was; the bus stop, food court, gift shop, they all were just minutes away, no matter what building you were in. The only thing is we were hoping to be on the first floor rather than 2nd, but it ended up being ok, the steps were right there and not too bad. The room was nice, my mom and I especially liked having 2 sinks. We also liked the food court, there were a lot of choices, and anything we had was good. I need to remember to post my pics from the hotel in the next update or so. If you have any specific questions, let me know. But, I'd definitely recommend it.

Great trip report so far~

Thanks!!

WOW, 3000 pictures!!! Can't wait to see more...I love looking at other people's pictures because they give me so many ideas for when I go (only 38 days till I'm back at WDW!!!!).

I know what you mean! Even though I did a ton of research, there are still pics I've seen since I've been home that I wish I had seen before hand. There are SO many things to see at Disney, it's easy to miss something! This also may sound silly, but even though I knew generally about the rides, shows, etc, I didn't want to know everything that happened...I didn't want to be spoiled knowing what would happen on a ride, etc. So that also took away some picture opportunities, if I knew it was coming, I would have been ready to take a picture. I'll just know now for next time!

Heather,

That stinks about falling. I did something similar last year while walking back to our hotel in Chicago though I didn't have my camera with me. It sounds like you were able to enjoy the rest of the night despite the mishap.

It took about half the night, but yea, I definitely still enjoyed it! I was really worried about my camera (while my mom was worried about my head. My camera was clearly more important, I mean, priorities here! ) The part around my lens was cracked. So I didn't even use it that much the rest of the night (I had another camera with me, not as good though.) But when I saw the pics I took came out fine, and the same the next day, I figured the camera was ok. Though, I still upgraded the other day.

I love the photo of the towel animals.

Thanks! I kept meaning to ask if we could keep them (I've read conflicting reports here), but I never did, so we left them there. The ghost one, when we checked in, it was actually on the bed post. I have another, though it's more a holder for the soap, but I'll upload it.

Don't tell my sister I said this, but your photos are making me want to go for MNSSHP. She has been trying to convince me we need to go.

Haha, I won't say a word! It was such a blast, and there were still a ton of fun things I didn't even get to (seeing most of the characters, going down the trail of treats, seeing HM during the party, trick or treating at least once.) I have no idea when we'll go next time, but if it's in Oct, I'd definitely do MNSSHP again. (and, it gave me the excuse to get lots of cute Halloween scrapbook stuff. )

Really enjoying your report and your pictures. Can't wait for more!

Thank you so much! Hopefully I'll have the next report up sometime in the next day or so.

 

[Richard Bruvofetc]

Those pictures are absolutely brilliant.

 

[kswm30b]

Day 3 – Wed 10/24

Got up later than we wanted to…again. We decided not to eat breakfast, and instead have an early lunch when we got to Epcot. My shoes still hadn’t tried from the day before when we got caught in the downpour. Good thing I had brought another pair of sneakers!

We got to Epcot around 10:40. The reason I wanted to get to Epcot as soon as it opens was to be able to ride Soarin'. I heard such great things about it, and also heard that unless you get there early, the line is insanely long, and the fastpass for Soarin’ can go fast. When we got to Epcot, we took some pics in front of Spaceship Earth. I didn’t like the pics the photo pass person took, with her camera or ours, oh well. (We got better ones the next day, at least!)

When I heard they were taking down the wand before our trip, I was a little sad, because I thought Spaceship Earth looked a little plain without the wand (I had only seen it with the wand in person.) But seeing it in person, Spaceship Earth shines without the wand. Sadness gone quickly!

Then we went straight to The Land to get our Soarin’ FP. We got there around 10:50, and the fastpass time was already for 1:06-2:06. Fun getting our first fastpasses, haha. After that, we went over to Sunshine Seasons to eat. The food was delicious. The portions were huge, so my mom and I shared a turkey sandwich & key lime pie (all the desserts/snacks looked so good!) I wish we had a chance to go back there again during the trip. Next time!

As we were leaving The Land, we passed by the Garden Grill Restaurant, and saw Mickey pass by. So I have a pic of Mickey in some sort of farmers outfit. We then left The Land, and headed over to The Seas, to go on the Finding Nemo ride. When we got to the line, it said it was a 10 minute wait. From the outside, it didn’t seem like it would be a long wait, but you had to keep winding around and around, and it seemed like we would never get to the start of the ride! The area while waiting in line, though, was really pretty. We only waited about 15 min, but it seemed longer. For the ride, you sit in clamshells, so that was cute. After the LONG anticipation in line, though, the ride itself was a bit of a disappointment. A pic from the nice queue:

After that, we ended up by the Epcot Character Spot. They have 5 stations with characters, today it was Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Chip & Dale. Great way to get all those characters at once. We went in and the line seemed long. We stood in line for a bit, but knew our fastpass time for Soarin’ was getting close. My mom asked the CM when was a good time where there wouldn’t be a line, he said around 2 or 3. So, we decided to leave and come back later.

We made our way back over to Soarin’, and it was just about our fastpass time. When we got there, the fastpass time was now after 5pm! So, we went through the fastpass line, and got on the ride right away. It absolutely lived up to the hype! You sit in these seats, and then they lift up, and you watch an IMAX type film. Normally when I watch IMAX films, I get a little woozy, so I was worried about that with this ride, but that never happened. And during the ride, you feel the breeze of flying, and smell oranges as passing over an orange grove. Just amazing, only complaint was that it was over too quickly! We wanted to go on it again, but of course the next fastpass time was late, and we had a 5:10 dinner we had to get to, so it wouldn’t have worked out. We hoped to make it back later in the trip, but we never got to do Soarin’ again. It was definitely one of my favorite attractions in Disney (same for my mom. Even a month later she keeps saying she wishes we could go on that ride…now! ) Soarin’ queue:

After that, we were a bit thirsty, so I told my mom about Club Cool. I knew not to get the drink from Italy (seemed like everyone else there knew, too, as no one was getting tricked into trying it!) The others were hit or miss, but it did its job. No longer thirsty, and for free!

We made our way back to the Character Spot. The line looked shorter, and we decided to try it again, especially since it was inside, and it had just started to rain. The family in front of us had an adorable baby, with the cutest smile. She was always smiling…until she’d get up to the characters, and then she’d always cry for the picture. Even though it looked long, the line moved pretty fast this time, and before we knew it, we were next to see Mickey!

Each station had photo pass people, so that worked out great. They took pics of the characters hugging and signing as well as the posed pics, which I loved! After Mickey, you’d move to the next character, and stand in line for them, though it was only about 2 people in front of you. If you didn’t want a character, you could skip their line. Of course we wanted them all, though! (Who wouldn’t!?) Pluto was next. After taking the picture, he pushed his face into mine. His face is hard, and it hurt! Haha. Minnie was next. Can’t remember anything specific about her. Next was Chip & Dale. When we were getting in the line for them, the photo pass person left! We thought, just our luck! They said the Pluto photo pass person had to leave, so they stole Chip & Dale’s photographer (apparently, Pluto is more important than Chip & Dale. Hope Pluto doesn’t start acting like a diva! ) Just as we were walking to them, though, another photo pass photographer showed up. For Chip & Dale, first I was standing in the pic, then my mom decided to get in the pic, so it’s the only one that we are both in. Goofy was the last character. He was funny, he put it hand on my head. Goofy was also the only character that didn’t make the baby in front of us cry, imagine that!

Here are my pics from the Epcot Character Spot:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/epcot/character/

When we left the Character Spot, it was still raining. We headed towards the exit, but decided to stop in Innoventions first. We did the thing where it takes a pic of you and sends it as a postcard. Then I did this think-a-ma-jig video game where you built a car/flight thing and then flew it. There were 14 people in it, I think, and I finished 7th, so, right in the middle. Nothing too exciting, but it was raining too hard to leave. BTW, I’m a ride chicken, and I was hoping to do well with getting on a few rides during the trip. I really wanted to do Test Track, and it wasn’t nerves that kept me from it this trip. We were in Epcot parts of 3 days during our trip, but we never even made it over to the side where TT & MS are. Oh well, hopefully next time. After this, the rain seemed to stop, so we left for the Animal Kingdom Lodge, where we were having dinner at Boma later that night.

Here are my pics from Future World @ Epcot:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/epcot/future/

And here are all my general pics from Epcot. Mostly, a ton of Spaceship Earth. This album has pics from all 3 Epcot trips, so you can see a sneak pic from the next day’s pics of Spaceship Earth at night.
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/epcot

We decided to leave for AKL early so we could look around the resort & see the animals before eating. We took the bus to the resort (of course its bus stop was the furthest away!), and it was pretty much the first bus we took so far that wasn’t packed. So, it was nice to just sightsee out the window rather than being squashed with strangers for a change.

As soon as you get to the AKL, you feel the theming right away. It’s really an amazing resort, I’d love to stay there sometime. They have a lot of beautiful African masks, art pieces, etc. You walk straight through the lobby to get to one of the 3 savannas, where you can see animals. We went to this one spot, and saw some birds. In the far distance, we could see a giraffe! Then a zebra!

The giraffe kept getting closer, so we stayed and watched. Then we realized you could keep walking to get to another overlook. So we did that, and wow, what a difference! The giraffe was RIGHT there. This is one of my fav pics from the whole week:

Also, there was a guide from South Africa who spoke about the animals. She asked if I wanted to stand on the rocks to look over the fence and get better pictures. So I did that, and the view was amazing. I stood up there as long I could without feeling like I was going to fall. Even without standing on the rocks, the view of the animals was fantastic.

Three giraffes were eating at one tree at one time.

The guide told us a lot of information, how they feed them, how they live, etc. She was great.

We stayed for a while watching. It was just awesome. The guide told us where the other savannas were, and that every one had different animals (other than giraffes.) We walked onto another side of where we were, but the 2nd view was better. We walked back inside, to find the 2nd savanna. You could see it from the hallway. I said if we were staying there, it’d probably be bad because you’d never want to leave, just sit and watch the animals. My mom was trying to get a picture of me in front of the window, with the giraffe behind me looking right at the camera. I was too dark in the pics, and by the time I finally figured out the best setting, the giraffe was gone in the pic. Figures! We kept walking down the hallway, and got to where you could go outside on the balcony to oversee the savanna. More pictures (again, the giraffes would not cooperate, haha.)

Here are my pics from the Animals in the AKL Savannas
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/resorts/akl/savanna/

After that, we figured it was about time to get to dinner for our 5:10 reservation. So we went downstairs, to Boma. I’d heard such good things about the restaurant. We didn’t have to wait long (like with our Ohana ADR, 5:10 was a good time. Not crowded when we got there, packed when we left.) Our table was wobbly, and the chairs were really uncomfortable (they looked different than chairs everyone else.) The waitress was really nice, though, trying to fix our table, and switching the chairs for us. The food was really good! I ate things I never heard of before, and I’m usually a pretty plain eater. The dessert pod of course looked delicious. I’d heard that the zebra domes were famous, so I had to have those. They were really good. I also had little strawberry tarts, but those were just ok. They brought my mom a wood board with “Happy Birthday” written in chocolate icing. There was also mickey sprinkles, gummie bears, and 2 pieces of chocolate cake on the board. Nice!

My mom really liked the cake, but it was too chocolate-y for me. I wish I had taken pics of the food here, but I only have ones of the bday board, and the desserts (though I had a hard time getting the pic with the lighting, so the dessert pic isn’t the best.)

Originally, after eating, we were going to go back to Epcot for Illuminations. But, since we had a really early day the next day anyway (EMH at Magic Kingdom), we figured it would probably be better to just go back to the hotel and rest. Before leaving, we stopped in the gift shop (every resort gift shop we went into had a sale on keychains/magnets/luggage tags with their name on it, except our hotel. What’s the deal with that?) I got this really cute shirt that I wore to Animal Kingdom later in the week (and had a lot of people compliment it.)

Here are my pics from the Animal Kingdom Lodge:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/resorts/akl/

We decided to take a cab back to the hotel, rather than having to keep changing transportation to get back to POFQ. This cab driver didn’t say a word the whole ride (so we got either chatty cab drivers, or ones that didn’t speak at all!) This was the first time we got back to our resort before midnight, so we were able to get something to drink in our refillable mugs at the food court. We just relaxed in our room until after 9pm, when Illuminations started, and we could hear the fireworks! We looked outside but couldn’t see anything. My mom even called the front desk and asked if there was anyway to see it from the hotel, but they said trees blocked the view. Once or twice we could see color in between the trees, but that was it. The next day, though, we would absolutely try to see the show from Epcot.

Thanks again everyone for reading! Next up, a LONG day: Early Morning Hour at Magic Kingdom straight through to Illuminations at Epcot. (I can’t wait to post my pics from Illuminations, they may be my favorite set of pics.)

 

[kswm30b]

OK, somehow my brain disappeared when I did my last update. I forgot to make the AKL album public, and I also forgot to include the link to the animal pics album! *slaps forehead* I've fixed the AKL album, everyone should be able to see that now. And I've also added the link to the animals in the savannas album, the best part of the resort! Here it is, if you don't want to search the report for the link

Animals in AKL Savannas pics:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/resorts/akl/savanna/

 

[Yzerbear19]

It took about half the night, but yea, I definitely still enjoyed it! I was really worried about my camera (while my mom was worried about my head. My camera was clearly more important, I mean, priorities here! ) The part around my lens was cracked. So I didn't even use it that much the rest of the night (I had another camera with me, not as good though.) But when I saw the pics I took came out fine, and the same the next day, I figured the camera was ok. Though, I still upgraded the other day.

I can see your mom doesn't understand priorities! I would have been so upset had anything happened to my camera. What kind did you get? I'm seriously thinking of upgrading mine.

Haha, I won't say a word! It was such a blast, and there were still a ton of fun things I didn't even get to (seeing most of the characters, going down the trail of treats, seeing HM during the party, trick or treating at least once.) I have no idea when we'll go next time, but if it's in Oct, I'd definitely do MNSSHP again. (and, it gave me the excuse to get lots of cute Halloween scrapbook stuff. )

I actually told my sister that if she could convince our one friend to go with us, then maybe we could go to MNSSHP. She has her work cut out for her. We tried last year when my friend had the 40% discount off a room. So we will see.

Day 3 – Wed 10/24
When I heard they were taking down the wand before our trip, I was a little sad, because I thought Spaceship Earth looked a little plain without the wand (I had only seen it with the wand in person.) But seeing it in person, Spaceship Earth shines without the wand. Sadness gone quickly!

Yes now its back to being the Giant Golfball! I found a bunch of our photos from 1987 where it didn't have the wand. I really need to upload those ones, but keep forgetting to do it.

We then left The Land, and headed over to The Seas, to go on the Finding Nemo ride. When we got to the line, it said it was a 10 minute wait. From the outside, it didn’t seem like it would be a long wait, but you had to keep winding around and around, and it seemed like we would never get to the start of the ride! The area while waiting in line, though, was really pretty. We only waited about 15 min, but it seemed longer. For the ride, you sit in clamshells, so that was cute. After the LONG anticipation in line, though, the ride itself was a bit of a disappointment.

My sister and I both said it has the queue line that never ends it goes on and on. Of course you must sing this to the theme of the "The song that never ends" and it gets stuck in the head.

We made our way back over to Soarin’, and it was just about our fastpass time. When we got there, the fastpass time was now after 5pm! So, we went through the fastpass line, and got on the ride right away. It absolutely lived up to the hype! You sit in these seats, and then they lift up, and you watch an IMAX type film. Normally when I watch IMAX films, I get a little woozy, so I was worried about that with this ride, but that never happened. And during the ride, you feel the breeze of flying, and smell oranges as passing over an orange grove. Just amazing, only complaint was that it was over too quickly! We wanted to go on it again, but of course the next fastpass time was late, and we had a 5:10 dinner we had to get to, so it wouldn’t have worked out. We hoped to make it back later in the trip, but we never got to do Soarin’ again. It was definitely one of my favorite attractions in Disney (same for my mom. Even a month later she keeps saying she wishes we could go on that ride…now! )

Which row were you in? I really want to go on Soarin' but I don't want to be in the front that goes up the highest.

Next was Chip & Dale. When we were getting in the line for them, the photo pass person left! We thought, just our luck! They said the Pluto photo pass person had to leave, so they stole Chip & Dale’s photographer (apparently, Pluto is more important than Chip & Dale. Hope Pluto doesn’t start acting like a diva! ) Just as we were walking to them, though, another photo pass photographer showed up. For Chip & Dale, first I was standing in the pic, then my mom decided to get in the pic, so it’s the only one that we are both in. Goofy was the last character. He was funny, he put it hand on my head. Goofy was also the only character that didn’t make the baby in front of us cry, imagine that!

My sister always refers to Chip and Dale as "The Thieves" since they tried to steal her stuffed Eeyore out of her bag back in 2005.

Your animal pictures are awesome! I love the Giraffes.

 

[miss missy]

Hi Heather !!

I am in the middle of day 2, but I will have to come back to it. So far I love the report!! I love how on day 1 you were able to fit so much in

I am looking at the pics as I go, and I am one to take 900 a trip, so for you to do 3x that you are worse than me! My DD (14) is about to ban me from the camera, she says its a weapon LOL

OK so were are you and your Mom in the pics so far??? You dont' have any of you with the characters at CP??? or are you not posting them? They are the best part, the ones of you guys! My DD has perfected taking pics of us together with an arm reach. I do not know how she does it, but she gets great shots every time!

I will comment more later... this is great fun! YAY for you to write it up!

 

[kswm30b]

I don't have a report update yet. I still have a ton of pics to work on from the first part of the day (silly me worked on the pics from the 2nd part of the day first. If I did it the other way around, at least I could have posted the first part of my report!)

I do have my pics from POFQ finished, finally! I somehow didn't take any pics of the room though!? I don't know how that happened? I guess the first day we were concentrating on getting settled, getting our luggage, walking around the resort for a bit, and then getting off to the parks. And somehow, I just never remembered to take a pic during the week. Next time, I'm going to have to just yell "STOP!" as soon as we walk in the room to take a picture so I won't forget.

POFQ is so pretty. The pics can't show off how nice it is. I love how even the cobblestone ground had pits in it, like it had been worn down over many years.

I also thought I saw a hidden mickey in the wall of the room. I could have been going crazy, though. I took a pic just in case, I still don't know if I'm crazy or not (I have a closeup in the album)

Here are all my pics from POFQ:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/resorts/pofq/

I can see your mom doesn't understand priorities! I would have been so upset had anything happened to my camera. What kind did you get? I'm seriously thinking of upgrading mine.

My camera was the Canon S2. I wanted to get the S3 (I was even looking into it before I went away), but I couldn't find it anywhere with the newer one out. So, I got the S5. I should have gotten the S3 online, I'm hoping I didn't make a mistake in getting the S5.

Yes now its back to being the Giant Golfball! I found a bunch of our photos from 1987 where it didn't have the wand. I really need to upload those ones, but keep forgetting to do it.

We can't find the pics taken from when I was 5 and went to Disney. I can see the album in front of me, both my mom & I remember where it was at one point...but it's not there. We've gone crazy looking for it. I hope we find it at some point. I'd love to see your pics from '87 (two years after we were there) whenever you upload them!

My sister and I both said it has the queue line that never ends it goes on and on. Of course you must sing this to the theme of the "The song that never ends" and it gets stuck in the head.

When we were going through it, I kept thinking, you can't tell me at some point during the year, the line will go out the door...does it!? That's kind of scary!

Which row were you in? I really want to go on Soarin' but I don't want to be in the front that goes up the highest.

We were in the 2nd row. I'd like to go in the first row next time. It was awesome, you'll love it!

My sister always refers to Chip and Dale as "The Thieves" since they tried to steal her stuffed Eeyore out of her bag back in 2005.

Now, that's not right!!

Your animal pictures are awesome! I love the Giraffes.

Thanks! We were saying we could just sit there all day and watch them move around.

Hi Heather !!

I am in the middle of day 2, but I will have to come back to it. So far I love the report!! I love how on day 1 you were able to fit so much in

Yay! Thanks for reading!

I am looking at the pics as I go, and I am one to take 900 a trip, so for you to do 3x that you are worse than me! My DD (14) is about to ban me from the camera, she says its a weapon LOL

Haha! Yea, it can get scary. I'm like that all the time, any trip, sporting event, show, whatever. My mom once said I should put the camera down and just enjoy sometimes, but I'm one that enjoys & remember things more when I take pictures. I'm weird that way.

OK so were are you and your Mom in the pics so far??? You dont' have any of you with the characters at CP??? or are you not posting them? They are the best part, the ones of you guys!

Oh, yea, we got pics. I just haven't posted them yet. I don't really like having my picture online. Maybe towards the end I'll post one of my favorites (where I think we look ok )

My DD has perfected taking pics of us together with an arm reach. I do not know how she does it, but she gets great shots every time!

That's something I loved about the photopass, normally it's just pics of my mom or me, but here we could get lots of pics together (even though she went through a day or two when she didn't want to get in any pictures!)

I will comment more later... this is great fun! YAY for you to write it up!

Thanks! And thanks for pushing me to post the report.