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

[kswm30b]

Eek, I haven’t updated this in FOREVER! I’m SO sorry. (I'll try make up for it here by including as many pics as I can fit into this report!) My report is done, I just haven’t had a chance to work on my pictures (mostly because I’ve been working on my scrapbook from the trip. So at least I have a Disney related excuse!) I really hope those following my report will continue. *crosses fingers* Someone asked earlier why there weren’t any pics of me in this report. Well, this day includes 2 pics of me.

This was a long day, so I’m going to cut this report into 2 parts. Hopefully it won’t take long to finish my Epcot pics from the day, and then I can post the second part.

Day 4 – Wed 10/25 - part 1

Today was going to be our earliest, and longest, day. Magic Kingdom had Early Magic Hours in the morning. We got up at 5:45am in order to get there at opening. We were walking from the bus to the entrance to Magic Kingdom just as they were having an opening ceremony for the park. Mickey, Chip & Dale, Chicken Little, and maybe another character were standing on the railroad platform above the entrance, with some guests, to open the park. I couldn’t get there fast enough, so I just took some vid, and got a few pics of them leaving. Still fun.

Dale waves from the platform:

View of the entrance, all decorated for Halloween:

Here are my pics from the entrance & main street (includes pics from day 1 as well):
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/ms/

When we got into the park, it was almost empty, though that changed sort of quickly. We had some photo pass pics taken, and in that time, the almost empty Main Street had people on it. From there, we thought about going into the Main Street bakery to get something to eat, but we didn’t want to waste our extra hour, so decided to come back later. We walked down Main Street towards the castle, and took some more pictures around there. It was still almost empty around the castle. We saw someone taking a picture of someone standing in the castle entrance from the street, so we did that too (though the pics didn’t come out so great.) We walked through the castle into Fantasyland, but not before taking some pictures all around standing in the castle. We went straight for the Peter Pan ride, since it had always been a 50 minute wait any other time we had tried. We got there, and there was no wait, so we could finally go on it! It was a cute ride, you sort of fly, I’d go on it again. I made sure to remember to take pics of the outside of rides we’d already been on, since the other times we were in Magic Kingdom, it was dark. Then we went on Small World again, just switching sides in the boat from last time.

My pics from Small World, if you missed them in the first day’s report:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/smallworld/

By that time it was 9am, the time when the park opened for everyone, and we were hungry. We tried to find some place near where we were for a snack, but nothing had breakfast items. We started going back towards Main Street for the bakery, but decided to walk back through Tomorrowland, so we could go on Buzz Lightyear again, not knowing if we’d make it back to Tomorrowland after we ate. Absolutely no wait for the ride, it was great. Such a fun ride, my mom hit something that loaded up on points, so she won this time. I would have gone on the ride many more times, it’s definitely a favorite. We also decided to buy the pic that they take during the ride this time. I remembered when they took the pic, so I smiled, haha, so I like the pic. My mom completely forgot, but she still wanted to buy it. Since we were going straight to Epcot after Magic Kingdom, we decided to have the picture sent back to our hotel, rather than having to take it with us.

After Buzz, we walked back to Main Street for the bakery. Of course, the line was now out the door since the park was opened to everyone. Oh well, we were hungry, so we waited. Everything looked good, but ultimately, we decided on sharing this HUGE cinnamon bun. Even splitting it, it was hard to finish, it was so big. And really good! I thought I had taken a pic, but again, I didn’t.

After breakfast, we walked back towards Toontown. I knew to get there early, when it opens (10am), or the wait for the princesses would be long, but by the time we ate and got back there, it was already 10:40 (though I still figured it wouldn’t be too bad.) In Toontown, first we went to Minnie’s House. Really cute, lots of picture opportunities (though I never got a good pic of the outside of the house, since people were always in my way!) Her fridge opening to reveal all sorts of cheeses. And the microwave was popping popcorn, and the oven was baking a cake. The utensils above the stove would dance while both of those things happened. Outside of the house, Minnie was there for pics (even though I had heard she’s not usually there), but since we’d seen her the day before, we didn’t need to wait in line.

Looking in Minnie’s fridge:

Minnie greets visitors to her house:

We then went into the Hall of Fame, where you could meet the princesses. It was about 10:50, but the wait was 45 minutes! We stood in line, but I kept second guessing myself, thinking it was stupid to wait all that time, and kicking myself for not getting there right away, for less of a wait. Ultimately we stayed, and talked with some of the people behind is (the little girl’s favorite was Cinderella), so the time seemed to go faster. At first it seemed like the line didn’t even move, but it’s because they let in a small group at a time to the room with the 3 princesses, so it would only move every time the new group was let in.

It ended up being 35 minutes before we got into the room. It was really nice, they had 3 tents, each with a different Aurora, Cinderella, and Belle. I took some pictures of them before I got in. I felt really underdressed standing next to them with their fancy dresses. Each princess also had a photo pass photographer.

Belle from afar, it looks like she’s floating in this pic, doesn’t it?

First up was Aurora. I was wearing a pink Mickey shirt I had bought the other day. She said how we were both wearing pink, and I said it was my favorite color. : ) I forget what else she asked. Most of the time, the face characters always asked where you are from, so maybe she asked that, I don’t remember. Aurora signing my book:

As I was leaving Aurora, my mom took a picture of a little girl dressed as Cinderella, talking with Cinderella. Is this not the most adorable pic?

A little bit later, I was met with Cinderella, and then Belle. I wish I had written down what was said, but I don’t have that in my notes, so now I’ll never remember. Oh well.

Cinderella signing:

Belle signing:

It was just adorable, and absolutely worth the wait! I felt like a kid, and couldn’t stop smiling. And, for some reason, whenever I talked with any of the characters, my voice went higher, lol. It’s amazing how into the character all of them are. I know it’s what they do, but even with adults, they are just as sweet & in character as they are with children. My only regret with any of the character greetings is that I never really knew what to say. I should plan something next time!

Here are all my pics from meeting the princesses at Toontown:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/toontown/princess/

After meeting the princesses (when we left, the wait was now 60 minutes), we went over to Mickey’s House. His house wasn’t as interactive as Minnie’s, you could only stand in the doorway and look into each room (while in Minnie’s, you could sit and touch everything in the rooms.) In Mickey’s bedroom, he had a bunch of white gloves sticking out of a drawer, and all his outfits hanging up in the closet. The game room had ping pong, with the paddles in the shape of Mickey heads. There was a checkers board set up, with the pieces also being Mickey head shaped. Outside the house is a garden with Mickey shaped tomatoes and pumpkins. There’s also Pluto’s dog house. And, like Minnie’s house, Mickey meets you outside in the Judge’s tent, but we instead walked through Mickey’s garage (as cute as the house.)

Halloween pumpkin on Mickey’s lawn:

Mickey’s bedroom:

Closeup of all his gloves, which couldn’t fit in the drawer:

Here are all my pics from Toontown:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/toontown/

We then decided to take the Walt Disney World Railroad to Frontierland. Walking to the train stop, we passed by Donald’s boat. We didn’t stop, but I took some pics from outside. Then, we boarded the train. It was a neat view of the Magic Kingdom entrance when we stopped at the Main Street stop. We got off at the Frontierland stop, which is right by Splash Mountain. There were several rides that I was talking myself into doing before the trip, and SM was one of them. If it was hot like the first 2 days, that might have pushed me onto the ride, but it wasn’t a great day weather wise (it was cold, I had to wear my hoodie most of the day), and so I couldn’t talk myself onto the ride. We did stand and watch the logs fly down and get people wet for a while though, that was fun.

About to drop:

And the “splash” part of the ride:

We were also near Big Thunder Mountain, which had been closed for refurbishment, and was just opening that day. There was already a 2 hour wait, and the fastpass time was 6pm! And it was only after 12! Eek!!

Then, we walked towards Liberty Square to get to the Haunted Mansion. I figured it would be a long wait, but I thought we’d just see how bad it was, and try. I wanted to go on HM during the Halloween party, but obviously never even got close to wear it was that night. When we got close to the ride, we saw that the wait was only 10 minutes! We couldn’t believe it!! We were kind of let down by it, though. I don’t know, maybe I need to go on it again to take it in better. *shrug*

Two of my million pics of HM:

and

Gravestone:

I took one pic during the ride (no flash, no LCD screen, don’t worry ) that looked completely black. When I played around with it in photoshop, though, there was something there. Better than nothing, haha?
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/frontier/IMG_5871.jpg.html

Here are my pics from Frontierland & Liberty Square (probably half are Haunted Mansion pics though!)
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/frontier

After that, we walked back to Fantasyland to go see Mickey’s Philharmagic one more time before we left. We got there just as they were letting people into the theater, so no wait! There was a tall guy in front of us, though, so it sort of blocked part of the screen, especially for my mom, so she didn’t enjoy it as much as the first time. Still one of my fav attractions during the trip, though!!

Here are all my pics from Fantasyland (includes pics from our first day):
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mk/fantasyland/

We were getting hungry, so then we went to Cosmic Rays in Tomorrowland. Every time we were in Magic Kingdom, everything smelled so good from there, so we couldn’t wait to get lunch there. We both had counter service meals, cheeseburgers, fries and drink. The drink was so huge, 4 people could have split it. I guess we could have split the whole meal, too. There was a nice toppings bar, but we were pretty disappointed in the burger. Oh well, guess we should have gotten something else (they had sandwiches, salads, and more that looked good), but we had been looking forward to having a good burger that day. My mom got a brownie for dessert, but it wasn’t very good. I think I got a cookie. One of the few meals at Disney that we were disappointed with.

After eating, we made our way towards the exit. We stopped in Goofy’s Candy Store on Main Street, and got some jelly beans (I still haven’t eaten most of them, though!) And then right by the exit, we saw Pinocchio! What a great surprise!! So we stopped to meet him.

Hugging Pinocchio

Pluto was also there, but I’d already seen him, so I didn’t get in line, but I did get this cute picture of him waving:

Then, since I wasn’t sure if we would be making it back to Magic Kingdom during the trip again, we took a picture under the “see ya real soon!” exit way (though people kept getting in the way of the pic!) I was hoping we’d make it back, since we hadn’t even made it over to Adventureland (including Pirates of the Caribbean!), but it was possible we wouldn’t be back. We took a few pictures by the entrance, and then we were off, to catch the monorail to Epcot.

Thanks again everyone for reading! Next up, the second half of our LONG day: the World Showcase at Epcot & Illuminations. Check back to see if we are able to stay awake after being at the parks for 13 and a half straight hours. I’ll end this report with an appropriate pic

 

[kswm30b]

Continuation of LONG day at the parks…

To get the monorail to Epcot, first you take the monorail from Magic Kingdom to the Transportation Center. Then catch the monorail from the Transportation Center to Epcot. The Epcot monorail was great, it went through the entire park, so you got a nice overview of the whole park. When we got to Epcot, after taking pics by Spaceship Earth (better pics than the day before), we went straight to the World Showcase, since we didn’t make it back there at all the day before. When we went to Epcot in 2003, we had started on the side by Canada, and hadn’t seen a lot of the countries on the other side of the World Showcase in the daytime. So, we decided to start on the opposite side this time, starting with Mexico. By the time we got to Epcot, though, it was after 3, and we were already exhausted. It probably would have been smarter to have gone back to the hotel and rest, and then come back later for Illuminations. But we wanted to see more of the World Showcase, so we didn’t do that, and were knocked out for most of the rest of the day.

Tilted view of World Showcase from the monorail:

The Food & Wine Festival was taking place at Epcot when we were there. For the F&W Festival, they have booths for all different countries (not just the ones in the World Showcase) where they sell food from those countries for a few dollars. So as you went around the World Showcase, you not only got to see all the countries, but have a chance to taste even more from that country & others. We didn’t get anything from the F&W booths until later in the day.

Here are all my pics from the Food & Wine Festival:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/epcot/fw/

The first country we came across was Mexico. We took a few pictures, but decided to move on to the next country, Norway. We had some photo pass pics there, but they took a long time since people kept walking in front and behind just as he was going to take the pic. There was a ride I wanted to go on in Norway, but we were too knocked out to wait (I forget how long, but it was at least 20 minutes, and I didn’t know if we’d be coming back that way to get a fastpass.)

After Norway was China. Just as we got there, they were starting a show with acrobats. They were phenomenal, and were only 10 years old.

While watching from a distance, my mom got a Strawberry Tea Smoothie/something from The Joy of Tea. Then we walked further back into China, and saw Mushu just leaving. I had hoped to see Mulan in China since she’s usually there, but she wasn’t there that day. There are some really gorgeous views around China, and I took loads of pics. As I was changing the media card in my camera, I saw another photo pass person. He was great and took a TON of pics of us. My mom didn’t want to get in the pics most of the day, and he kept asking if she wanted to get in any pics. She finally got in a few. He said he would be back in a half hour with Mushu, so we kept that in mind, but didn’t make it back to China. Two of my favorite pics from China:

Here are all my pics from China:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/epcot/world/china/

Next was Germany. As we turned a corner around one of the buildings, I saw Snow White & Dopey were there. Remember that I had just missed Snow White with all the Drawfs at the Halloween party, and was upset about that. So I went to the line, but AGAIN they said that they had just closed the line. Argh, so annoyed. They said she’d be back at 5:30, so I made sure that I would be there when the line opened so I wouldn’t miss her again!

Italy was next. My mom had mentioned earlier when we got into the World Showcase that last time we were there, I had gelato in Italy that was great. I didn’t remember, but then sort of remembered when we got to Italy. But the place we got it last time wasn’t there. I took some photo pass pics by a fountain (again my mom didn’t want in the pic), and someone told us where they had the gelato, in a cart just outside where we were. We had been there before (I even took a pic), but the woman must have been on break before, because it never said anything about gelato. When we went back, she was there, and I had the gelato (though it wasn’t that great.) We sat down for a break while I ate the gelato, and it started raining. We were sort of covered, and it wasn’t raining too bad.

By then it was about 5:30, so we made our way back to where Snow White was in Germany. There was another family waiting, they also had just missed her last time. Since it was raining, now we were worried she wouldn’t come out. A guy came out and the woman asked him about Snow White appearing, and he said he would find out. A few minutes later, he came out and gave the thumbs up sign. Then they said they were just moving it over so it was covered a bit more, but if it started raining harder, that she’d have to leave. Then she came out with Dopey, and the photo pass person. Yay! When I got up there, I told her she’d always been my favorite, and she said Dopey always said the same thing. She said something about being like her, with dark hair and brown eyes, and said “all you need is a prince to save you from poison apples.” I thought, yea, tell me about it, haha. She asked where I was from, and I said NJ, and she said, oh you’ve come a long way! When Dopey was signing my book, I found out later he signed the other side of Belle’s page (I had a 4x6 autograph book I’d made from a 6x8 scrapbook so that I could just put the autographs straight onto my scrapbook pages), so now I was going to have to photocopy one of those sides of the page. Figures Dopey of all characters would do that! After he signed my book, he wouldn’t give me the pen back, haha. Then we got our pics, and I was SO happy to finally get to meet Snow White.

Here’s a little bonus for this report. I’m almost finished with my character scrapbook pages, and here’s my layout for meeting Snow White: page 1 / page 2 / two page spread

After Snow White, we went over to America to go to the American Adventure show. We’d seen it last time in Epcot, but I HAD to see it again because they had added Michelle Kwan to the final photo montage! (I’m a big fan…see my avatar!) By now it was about 5:40, and the next show started at 6. The line was inside, which was a good thing because it started raining. Towards the end of the show, they started with the photo montage, so I knew Michelle would be coming up soon. The company that she's with in this film is phenomenal. It's Rosa Parks, Jonas Salk, JFK...Michelle. They started showing some of the newer stuff, so I was ready to take the picture. And then, she glided across the whole screen. They didn't do that for anyone else. I don't really know who else was shown after her because my mom and I basically just kept saying "Michelle!!!" It was really amazing. My mom couldn’t believe how she was a part of that, she knew she was going to be in it, but had no idea who else would be in it with her. I was able to snap a pic of her on screen, not the best, but better than nothing. When we were leaving, we heard several people mentioning Michelle. This one behind us said "oh, they updated the film! I know Michelle Kwan wasn't in it last time." They added a bunch of people & events, but she mentions Michelle.

Here are all my pics from the World Showcase:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/epcot/world/

When we left the theater, it was raining, but not as bad as it had been during the show. Apparently, it had been pouring, so we missed that, thankfully. We still had time before Illuminations to walk around the World Showcase some more, but we were so exhausted, and decided to just sit and wait for the show. I knew later in the week we’d be back at Epcot for dinner, and hoped we could see the rest of the World Showcase that we missed today. I had read that the best place to see the show was by Germany. We found a place where there was a picnic bench by the railing, and just sat there. Because of the rain, the bench was wet, so I sat on a tray. Illuminations didn’t start until 9pm, so we had almost 2 hours to wait. Two people came and sat on the other side of the table, and had just gotten something from the F&W Germany booth, which was just behind us. One had Apple Strudel with Vanilla Sauce, which looked really good. The woman said it was really good, so we decided to get that while we waited. The line for the Germany booth was long pretty much the whole 2 hours we sat there waiting, but we had time, so it didn’t matter! I thought I took a picture of it before I ate it, but I think I might have been so hungry that I forgot! It was really delicious.

Just before the 2 people left, though, they told us that this wasn’t a good place to see Illuminations, that you couldn’t see the globe used, but would be able to see the fireworks. I started to worry, because if we were going to sit for 2 hours, I wanted to be able to see everything! So after a little while, my mom saw 2 women who looked like Disney veterans. She went over to talk to them, and they said that this was the best spot to see the show. They talked for a while about Disney stuff, and talked about how many times they had seen this show. A little after my mom got back, some other people sat on the other side of our bench. They were talking, and we heard that one of them was from Philadelphia. The other ones were from Dallas, so they were talking about football. Funny coincidence. We talked all the way up until the show started.

Just before Illuminations, they lit up torches all around the World Showcase, and when the show started, they all went out. I was dying to see this show since we were in Epcot last time, and my mom wanted to leave just before the show. Then I heard that it was amazing, and therefore brought it up all the time to my mom. The show had fireworks, but also a light show on the water, with a large globe in the middle of the water. It was fantastic. One time we thought it was over, and then it continued. Just amazing.

I’m pretty happy with my pics from Illuminations. Two of my favorites:

Check out all my pics from Illuminations:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/epcot/illuminations/

After the show, it took us 20 minutes to get out of Epcot! At least on the way out, I got some nice pictures of the ball lit up at night, like this one:

Then when we got to the buses to get back to our hotel, the line was incredibly long. And like usual, our line was the only one that seemed to have that long a line, and wait the longest for more buses. By the time we got on a bus (3 had come and gone before we could get on, that’s how long the line was), there was still a ton of people in line waiting, and most of the other hotel bus lines didn’t have anyone waiting at all. Another crowded bus back. I can’t remember if this was the one time I had to stand or not.

When we got back to the resort, it was about 10:30. We were hungry, so we went to food court. They had their late night menu out. I was going to get a sandwich, but then we decided to split an individual pizza, with a brownie as dessert. The pizza was really good, and the brownie was pretty good too (much better than the brownie my mom had with lunch.) It was also so cold that I got hot chocolate in my refillable mug to take back to the room! Thank goodness the next day we got to start the day a little later, since we were exhausted!

Next up, Chef Mickey’s & MGM.

 

[Yzerbear19]

While watching from a distance, my mom got a Strawberry Tea Smoothie/something from The Joy of Tea. Then we walked further back into China, and saw Mushu just leaving. I had hoped to see Mulan in China since she’s usually there, but she wasn’t there that day. There are some really gorgeous views around China, and I took loads of pics. As I was changing the media card in my camera, I saw another photo pass person. He was great and took a TON of pics of us. My mom didn’t want to get in the pics most of the day, and he kept asking if she wanted to get in any pics. She finally got in a few. He said he would be back in a half hour with Mushu, so we kept that in mind, but didn’t make it back to China. Two of my favorite pics from China:

Here are all my pics from China:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/epcot/world/china/

Beautiful pics from China! Too bad you just missed Mushu.

By then it was about 5:30, so we made our way back to where Snow White was in Germany. There was another family waiting, they also had just missed her last time. Since it was raining, now we were worried she wouldn’t come out. A guy came out and the woman asked him about Snow White appearing, and he said he would find out. A few minutes later, he came out and gave the thumbs up sign. Then they said they were just moving it over so it was covered a bit more, but if it started raining harder, that she’d have to leave. Then she came out with Dopey, and the photo pass person. Yay! When I got up there, I told her she’d always been my favorite, and she said Dopey always said the same thing. She said something about being like her, with dark hair and brown eyes, and said “all you need is a prince to save you from poison apples.” I thought, yea, tell me about it, haha. She asked where I was from, and I said NJ, and she said, oh you’ve come a long way! When Dopey was signing my book, I found out later he signed the other side of Belle’s page (I had a 4x6 autograph book I’d made from a 6x8 scrapbook so that I could just put the autographs straight onto my scrapbook pages), so now I was going to have to photocopy one of those sides of the page. Figures Dopey of all characters would do that! After he signed my book, he wouldn’t give me the pen back, haha. Then we got our pics, and I was SO happy to finally get to meet Snow White.

So glad that you FINALLY got to meet Snow White.

After Snow White, we went over to America to go to the American Adventure show. We’d seen it last time in Epcot, but I HAD to see it again because they had added Michelle Kwan to the final photo montage! (I’m a big fan…see my avatar!) By now it was about 5:40, and the next show started at 6. The line was inside, which was a good thing because it started raining. Towards the end of the show, they started with the photo montage, so I knew Michelle would be coming up soon. The company that she's with in this film is phenomenal. It's Rosa Parks, Jonas Salk, JFK...Michelle. They started showing some of the newer stuff, so I was ready to take the picture. And then, she glided across the whole screen. They didn't do that for anyone else. I don't really know who else was shown after her because my mom and I basically just kept saying "Michelle!!!" It was really amazing. My mom couldn’t believe how she was a part of that, she knew she was going to be in it, but had no idea who else would be in it with her. I was able to snap a pic of her on screen, not the best, but better than nothing. When we were leaving, we heard several people mentioning Michelle. This one behind us said "oh, they updated the film! I know Michelle Kwan wasn't in it last time." They added a bunch of people & events, but she mentions Michelle.

WHAT?!? You? A big fan of Michelle Kwan? Who would have ever known! I need to go so I can see Michelle since she hadn't been added when we went. Good job on getting the photo of it.

Just before Illuminations, they lit up torches all around the World Showcase, and when the show started, they all went out. I was dying to see this show since we were in Epcot last time, and my mom wanted to leave just before the show. Then I heard that it was amazing, and therefore brought it up all the time to my mom. The show had fireworks, but also a light show on the water, with a large globe in the middle of the water. It was fantastic. One time we thought it was over, and then it continued. Just amazing.

Great pics of Illuminations! All your pictures are great though.

 

[kswm30b]

Yay! Someone is reading!

WHAT?!? You? A big fan of Michelle Kwan? Who would have ever known!

I know, I pretty much keep it a secret from everyone.

I need to go so I can see Michelle since she hadn't been added when we went. Good job on getting the photo of it.

Thanks. Haha, it's always easy to come up with excuses to go back to Disney again!

Hopefully my next day's report won't be too much longer. I leave for FL a week from Sunday, so I really need to finish this before then!!

 

[kswm30b]

Day 5 - Friday 10/26

Part 1, Chef Mickey's:

Today was one of our later start days. We had breakfast reservations at 11:10 at Chef Mickey at the Contemporary Resort. I don't remember the exact time we left, but it was probably a little after 10 because we still had to catch the bus to Magic Kingdom and then take the monorail to the Contemporary. When we got to the bus stop for the Magic Kingdom, we had JUST missed the bus. We saw it pull away as we were walking towards the stop. So we had a LONG wait until the next bus came, at least 20 minutes. When we finally got to Magic Kingdom, we had to wait a little bit for the monorail to the Contemporary, which is right next door to the park. We probably could have walked there faster! The monorail actually goes INSIDE the Contemporary resort, pretty cool. The monorail stop is upstairs from where the Chef Mickey restaurant is.

The monorail passing through the restaurant & hotel:

Once we got to Chef Mickey, they took a picture of us behind a large plate with the Chef Mickey logo. You have to pay for it, but once you buy it, you can put it on your photo pass card, so we ended up getting it. The photo also comes with a cute pic of the 5 characters that are at the breakfast: Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy, and Donald. Then we waited to be seated, though the wait wasn't too long. While waiting, we watched the character interaction with those in the rooms near the buffet, and it looked like fun. Then, they sat us, and they put us all the way in another room with just a few other tables, and it was pretty much separated from everyone. The other rooms had bright, colorful decorations. Our room had nothing, it seemed darker than the other rooms, and there was no atmosphere. It was kind of sad compared to the rest of the restaurant. If we go there again, we'll definitely ask to NOT sit in that room. We also had a bad waitress. For one thing, she kept forgetting to bring my apple juice, even after every time she'd be near our table, she'd say she remembered and was going to go get it.

Almost as soon as we sat down, Goofy came to our table. When we were in the Crystal Palace, it was really easy to see when a character was coming, and get ready (or get back to the table if you were getting food.) But here, because we were in this far away room, and behind a wall, we only knew if we heard people on the other side of the way saying someone was there, so we had to keep standing up to see if someone was in the room next to us. After Goofy (we got pics, but since I saw him twice already, I didn't have him sign my book), we went to get food at the buffet. It was good, but we didn't realize there was another table with food and pastries until we left! Oops! I remembered to take a pic of my plate for once, yay! I had a Mickey shaped waffle, French toast, eggs (though I don't think I ended up eating them), bacon, a small pastry, and really great potatoes:

Every 20 minutes or so, they had some sort of celebration where the characters would go around the whole restaurant and do towel waves. Minnie came by our section the first time. We thought they'd stay after that, but when it was over, she left. A little bit later, Pluto and Mickey were both in the room, behind our wall. So we thought they'd both be at our table soon. Pluto came by, pics and signed.

While we were with Pluto, Mickey was with one table in our room, and then he left, without coming to our table! Minnie came in next, and she stopped at our table this time. She ended up coming to our table several times after that. Just after they brought my mom a cupcake for her birthday, Minnie came by, so I have this cute pic of my mom & Minnie with the cupcake:

The cupcake wasn't as tasty as the one from the Crystal Palace, but it was good. It had a chocolate Mickey on top. Goofy came by again a little after that, so we got another pic with him, since the first ones came out a bit blurry. Just after Goofy, Donald showed up. We hadn't met him at all during the week!

So, now we're done eating, and we've seen everyone…except Mickey. The place is called Chef Mickey, how do you not get to meet Mickey?! They told us the characters are there until noon, and it was about 11:45 by this point. We kept waiting, and didn't know what to do, whether we should go into another room or what. We saw someone and told them we were still waiting for Mickey (along with a few others in the room.) They said not to worry, that we would get to see him before breakfast was over. But a few times, we saw him just outside the room, and he didn't come in. We were starting to worry that we would miss him. Finally, at 12:05, Mickey came to our room…and then they started the towel waving thing, and he almost left again! We yelled, Mickey, and he came over. Phew!!

After that we were about to leave, and Minnie came by again, haha! Never enough Minnie pics, I guess!

We then had to wait almost 10 minutes for our waitress to bring our check (even more annoying since we were on the dining plan, so all we had to do was give her our card.) We then left, and took a few pics in some of the other rooms, where we weren't seated. This is when we saw the other buffet section that we both missed! We also saw most of the characters walking around, so I got a couple of cute pics of them waving goodbye. We then stopped in the hotel gift shop, where I took some pics of Mickey related cooking stuff.

Goofy & Donald leaving:

Here are all my pictures from Chef Mickey's:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/resorts/contemp/chefmickey/

And a few other pictures around the Contemporary:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/resorts/contemp

 

[OhMari]

Bump for pictures.

 

[kswm30b]

OK, so I’ve been really bad at keeping up with this. I actually finished this right after the trip, but I wanted to combine it with my pictures. But I got really behind posting my pics, probably because I was working on my scrapbook from the trip. Problem is, I’m going back to the World on Monday (woohoo!!), and I figured I should just post the rest of my report, even without the pics. Someday I’ll finish the pics, I’m sure! I do have some random MGM pics from this day that I had worked on, so I can post that link with this day’s report. The rest of the pics will have to wait (forever maybe? )

OK, so, I left off mid Day 5, Friday, 10/26. We had breakfast at Chef Mickeys. And now the report continues…

After finishing breakfast at Chef Mickey's, we went upstairs to take the monorail, but I said there wasn't a monorail to MGM Studios, where we were planning to spend the rest of the day. I guess I figured we'd take the monorail back to Magic Kingdom, and then a bus to MGM? But they said we could get a bus from the Contemporary right to MGM. So, we went back downstairs, and took the elevator to the lobby, and they told us where to catch the bus. We ended up having to wait over 20 minutes for the bus, and while waiting, we didn't see any other buses come by. We were the only ones that got on the MGM bus, so the others who were waiting at the bus stop had to wait even longer for their buses. Geesh! We did have a nice view of the castle while waiting, since the Magic Kingdom is in walking distance from the Contemporary. When our bus finally came, it wasn't a direct bus to MGM. It stopped at the Polynesian Resort & Grand Floridian first. The bus was really cold, and there was only one other person on the bus with us. We didn't get to MGM Studios until after 1:30, and we were at the Contemporary bus stop at 12:45, so it was a long wait & bus ride.

MGM Studios was a good park for us to get to late, though, since there wasn't as much we wanted to do there. We'd been there twice before during our spring training trips, and had seen several rides and attractions already, none of which we wanted to do again this time. The most important things to see today were the afternoon parade & the nighttime show, Fantasmic.

After getting into the park, we saw some street performers. I know MGM has street actors (they act like old Hollywood actors), but I had never really seen them perform both times we've been there in the past (one was for ESPN the Weekend, so I was preoccupied that time!) So, that was fun. One of my pics from Streetmosphere:

We took some photo pass pictures in front of the hat, as well as their magic photo (at MGM, it was looking shocked at Stitch coming out of the ground.) While we were taking some pics of the Snow White topiary (which I had never seen before, I don't know if it was new or not), we ran into the family that was behind us in the princess line the day before. Funny coincidence!

Then, we made our way to Tower of Terror to get a fastpass. There's no way we were going to do the ride, but I heard the preshow/queue was great, and that lots of people took the “chicken exit” for this ride, so we decided to do that. When we got there, the standby line wasn't too bad, so after getting our fastpass tix, we decided to stand in line. When the line didn't seem like it was moving much, we decided to come back later (our fastpass time was 3:10-4:10) because we didn't want to miss the 3pm parade. So, we made our way back towards the main street (Hollywood Boulevard) to find a place to watch the parade. I got a frozen lemonade drink, and we should have used a snack credit on our dining plan for it, but we didn't think about it until after we'd already ordered (and it was $3.99, so it was the most expensive thing you could get as a snack, so that would have been a good snack credit!) Oh well.

We got to Hollywood Boulevard, and found a place to sit and watch the parade. My mom didn't feel like sitting, though, so she stood against a tree. Then she went off to get a snack herself, and came back with a Mickey Bar. It's then when I remembered that I wanted to get one during the trip, too! While waiting for the parade, I was talking to the family next to me. The guy was saying how they were season pass holders to Disney, so I said, oh, do you live right around here? And he said yes, in Ohio. Haha! They go to Disney at least twice a year. He talked about several must sees, and the only one we hadn't done yet was the Animal Kingdom parade. I told him we were going to Animal Kingdom tomorrow, and wasn't planning on missing it. (That's foreshadowing tomorrow's report, btw.)

Finally it was parade time! I had only seen the very end of this parade from a distance the first time I was at MGM years ago. And since I knew the parade wasn't going to be there after the spring, I really wanted to see it this time. We had a really great view, with the hat in the background. The Stars & Motor Cars parade has a ton of characters, the typical along with those you can only see at MGM. The cars (some characters walked in front of the cars, too) in order are: Ratatouille, Toy Story, Mary Poppins, Muppets, Star Wars (the kid next to me was so scared of Darth Vadar, he wanted to run away), Mulan, Monsters Inc, Aladdin, Villains, Lilo & Stitch, Little Mermaid, Power Rangers, some preschool thing, Snow White, then a bunch of characters (Pooh, Pinocchio, Chip & Dale) walking just before the Mickey, Minnie, Goofy & Donald car. The parade was great! It was just over too quick! I didn't even realize the last car was coming until it was almost on top of us. I loved this parade so much, it was the first thing I worked on for my scrapbook (ended up being 14 pages!) I’m really going to miss it now that it’s gone.

I actually have my pics up from this parade! Check them out:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mgm/parade/

After the parade, we made our way back to Tower of Terror. Even though we had the fastpass, we could have gone in the standby line since there was hardly anyone in it! When we got inside the queue, my mom started thinking that we were going to have to actually do the ride, didn't believe that we didn't have to do it, and said she would never forgive me, lol. I promised her that we were not the first people who were going to do this! I think she was so worried that she hardly paid attention to the hotel lobby. After the preshow, she started wondering if we should do the ride. We stood there trying to talk ourselves into it, but when we got to the front, we said we weren't riding. There were several others that went down on the real elevator with us. Maybe next time. We heard several people walking out saying how great it was, but then later we heard this woman talking about how she was still terrified from it. So, who knows?

My pics from TOT:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mgm/tot/

After Tower of Terror, we walked towards the Muppets 3D show. For whatever reason, we had never made it over to that side of the park the other 2 times we were there. When we got over there, we realized how it was right next to where we had been, so I don't know how we missed it! We first passed Indiana Jones. We had just missed the start of the show, so we were going to come back for the 5:10 show. We continued on, walking past Star Tours (another ride I thought I'd go on, but didn't have a chance.) I took a few pics, but there were a few picture opportunities that I thought we'd come back for (sitting on or under certain props), but we never did. *sigh* Once again, I'll have to get back there! We walked past the Streets of NY, and saw all the lights that they already have up for Christmas (I can just imagine what it looks like all lit up!) Finally we got to the Muppets show. There were a few secrets I knew about the preshow (such as there's a sign that says “key under the mat”, and if you lift up the mat, there's actually a key there), but we just walked past to go inside. The show was cute, not as good as Mickey's Philharmagic, though.

Pics from Muppets Show:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mgm/muppets/

After leaving, we saw Woody, Buzz, and green army man character greetings. The lines were long, though. At first I was going to stand in line, but knew we wanted to make sure we caught the 5:10 Indiana Jones show, so I just took a few pics of each character and moved on. Then we were back in the Streets of America section, this time in San Francisco. I saw the Singing in the Rain umbrella (it rains above the umbrella when you stand under it.) I wanted to take a pic under it, but a girl was playing around near it. Finally she moved away, so I tried it. My mom took 2 pics, in the first you sort of see the rain, in the second, it's just ending. Still cute.

We walked back towards the NY section of the Streets of America, and the Cars characters were going down the street, so I took a few pics. I also took a few pics from a distance of both NY & SF, but the effect sort of looses something with all the Christmas lights & poles in the way. It was show time, so we made our way back to Indiana Jones. It was a pretty good show, more than I expected. The show ended around 6, so we thought we still had about half an hour before we could get in for Fantasmic, the nighttime show. I was told to get there an hour before, and the show started at 7:30. I also thought the park looked pretty empty all day, so it wouldn't be much of a problem to see the show, which seats 10,000.

We were starting to get hungry (we only had breakfast and a snack), but MGM doesn't really have that many food choices, so we decided to wait and eat dinner back at our resort. I knew they had some nice choices for dinner, and we'd actually be getting back when they were still serving dinner (and not just the late night menu.) It was also pretty cold. I had my Tinkerbell hoodie, but my mom left her jacket back at the hotel (I told her to bring it, too!) I was cold even with the hoodie, I knew my mom had to be freezing. So, we stopped in a store to find a sweatshirt for her. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea, haha, because the store was packed. We couldn't really find anything at first (she wanted one you could zip up), but then she found one. It was ok looking, but was over $40. I kept looking, and found some cute jackets. It was more expensive, but we decided that she'd get more use out of it, so she bought that. As an aside, once we got home, we both realized we should have gotten some long sleeved or sweatshirts that we could wear when it's cold. All the shirts I got were short sleeved, and only this jacket was a cold weather souvenir for my mom, but she wanted something she could wear other than that. Oh well, more excuses to go back, huh?

After that, we made our way over to Fantasmic. We saw they were already letting people in. When we got inside the theater, we couldn't believe how packed it was already! All the center sections were already full. We kept looking for a good seat, but it was tough. There were some close up, but we didn't want to sit there and get wet. First we sat in one spot, but there was a pole in the way. Then my mom asked someone a section over & in the last row if there was anyone sitting next to them, and they said no, so we went over there. While still having about an hour to wait for the show, the one next to us said that they started letting them in at 6! Ugh! Sitting 2 rows in front of us were the 2 people that were in line with us for the bus from Epcot to our hotel the night before. For the 2nd time today, another funny coincidence!

I wanted a good seat for the show because I wanted to get some good pictures. When we saw the show last time, I only used my teeny camera, and I figured this camera would do much better. For whatever reason, I had a horrible time getting pictures, and it drove me crazy. I still sort of had a pole in my way, and it didn't help the focus a few times. I think I got better pics with my worse camera last time! Normally I enjoy a show better when I take pictures. But I was having such trouble getting pictures, and I really wanted to get good pictures, that I think it was distracting me from the show itself (that never happens to me!) In any case, both my mom and I enjoyed the show better when we saw it a few years ago. I loved the show last time, this time, eh. I don't know, hopefully I'll enjoy it better next time. (As an aside, when I went in March, I got some awesome pics, and loved the show again I definitely need to post those pics! OK, back to the Oct report!)

The best part about sitting in the last row is that you are the first one out of the theater. Since the park closes after the show, EVERYONE is heading towards the exit & buses. It took us 10 minutes just to get completely out of the theater, and then we still had to walk out of the park. We got lucky for a change because when we got to our bus station, the bus was already there, and we were the last ones let on the bus! I can only imagine what it was like getting out of that park if you were sitting close to the front of the theater!

Here are all the pics I have up from MGM Studios. The ones that I haven't already linked to are out of order (sorry!), and they go up to the Indiana Jones show. I definitely have to post my pics from that show, I was really happy with them, and then of course Fantasmic. Along with a few other random pics, those are the only pictures for MGM Studios that I haven't uploaded yet.

http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007/mgm

When we got back to our hotel, we were starving. Everything looked good, haha. At first we decided to share a chicken & ribs combo. Even though I was cold, I wanted to get ice cream as the snack, but I didn't want it to melt. So we asked if you could come back for the ice cream, and they said yes, they just wrote something on the receipt. I ate the ribs while my mom went back to the room to get our refillable mugs. They were so good, and I was done before my mom even came back! When she came back, I decided to get something else to eat, while she ate the chicken. She said I should just get ribs since I enjoyed them so much, but I decided to get a grilled chicken sandwich instead. It came with fries, and you still could get your dessert with it on the plan. (I already was getting a sundae, so I think I just got a cookie to eat another time.) After eating, I went back to get the sundae, which we were sharing. It was huge!! Even though I had ice cream, I was still cold, so once again, I got hot chocolate in my mug to bring back to the room.

Next up, a shortened trip to Animal Kingdom and dinner at Le Cellier.

 

[kswm30b]

Day 6 – Saturday – 10/27

Again, my pics aren’t uploaded yet from this day. At least I have some food pics from our dinner that I can share.

Today it was supposed to rain pretty much all day, which was bad because we were heading to Animal Kingdom, and were planning to stay until the 4pm parade (which is supposed to be great.) We got to the park about 9:40 (again, hoped to get there when it opened at 9.) We actually saw a photo pass photographer outside the park gates. That was a first. So we got a few pics there. There were some characters (Rafiki & Timon from Lion King, and something from the Jungle Book, I guess) with hardly any lines, but we decided to pass them by to get into the park. After getting inside the park, you walk down trails where they have birds. We stopped for just a minute, and I got a pic or two, but we just continued by.

After getting past the opening trails, we saw the park’s icon, the Tree of Life, and got some pics by it. We started walking towards Africa, to go to the Kilimanjaro Safari attraction, but saw that Lilo & Stitch were by one of the shops. So, we stopped for them, but when there was only one person in front of us, they left! The handlers said they’d be right back, and they were back just a few minutes later. After I got my pic, it started to drizzle.

We continued walking towards Africa, and stopped on one of the trails to see Expedition Everest in the distance. When we got to Kilimanjaro Safari, it was a 30 minute wait. We decided to just wait in line rather than get a fastpass. As always, we started talking with people behind us in line. They were from Tampa (only about an hour away), and they said usually it’s not crowded at all with no waits at this time of the year. The crowds didn’t really seem too bad to us other than a few times, but I know that October is supposed to be really slow, but has been getting worse the last few years. Still better than peak times!

It was a little over 30 minutes before we were able to board the truck for the Safari. They say every time you go on the safari, it’s different. Hopefully it will better next time we go, since we didn’t really see that much. Of course we were on the wrong side to see most of the animals (you never know which is the right side, of course, but this time, we were on the wrong one!) We saw some birds, rhino, hippo, elephant, zebra, giraffe, crocs, warthogs, and a few animals that I don’t remember what they were. The lions weren’t out, unfortunately. It was really hard to get pics, since the ride was kind of bumpy, and when we were able to stop, the animals were on the other side of the truck. There were some cheetahs, but they were kind of hidden on the other side. We did go right up to a giraffe, and that was on our side, so that was cool. It was actually a whole family, including a baby. When the ride was done, we walked towards another trail and saw a gorilla.

By this time, we were hungry, since we hadn’t eaten yet. We started walking towards the other side of the park, since I knew of a good place to eat, but we decided to stop at Pizzafari, another counter service place instead. I had a chicken parm sandwich and my mom had a hot Italian sandwich, both came with chips, and our desserts were frozen lemonade and apple blossom. Mine was really good, and at the time I think my mom enjoyed hers. We went at a good time, just before it started getting crowded.

After eating, we went towards Camp Mickey & Minnie, to see the Festival of the Lion King show. We were planning to catch the 1pm show, but we still had some time. There were character greetings (Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy) in that spot, but the lines were crazy, and we’d already seen them all a few times. I took a few pics from a distance (got a good pic of Minnie, but never of Mickey.) We also saw another Phillies fan (she had a Jimmy Rollins backpack ), and my mom talked to her a while. I was starting to rush since I heard to be at the show at least 30 min before, so we made our way over to the theater.

I heard there weren’t any bad seats in the theater (the seats are in a circle), but to try to sit towards the front. We couldn’t find any, so we decided to sit in the last row. So if we had trouble seeing, I could stand up and not bother anyone. The show was good, they did the bigger songs from the Lion King with a nice show. They had large animal floats in each corner, and of course we were on the wrong side to see Simba! For each song they had different dancers, etc. For one, they had “monkey” gymnasts, for another they had a fire dancer (not sure what he’s called?) For another they had bird dancers, sort of reminded me of skating, though they flew in the air. I had trouble getting pics for a lot of the show, I don’t know why.

Unfortunately, at some point during the show, my mom started to get sick. She didn’t want to leave, especially because she knew we wanted to stay for the parade (it was 1:30, the parade was at 4), but we thought it was best to leave. So we headed for the exit. We saw another bird trail when we were leaving. I got a few pics, though the one would not cooperate and always turned away when I went to take a picture. At some point, I got bitten on the knee (by a bug, not a bird ), and it blew up for the rest of the trip.

Then a Disney person came up to us and asked if we could answer a few questions for a survey. I asked my mom if she was ok for it, and she said yes. They were doing a survey about the food, but it was way more than a few questions! And my computer wasn’t working, you were supposed to just touch the screen, but mine didn’t work. Typical! I said nice stuff about what we ate, but later my mom said maybe there was something in the food that made her sick, so I shouldn’t have been so nice, haha. After leaving the park, we saw a drink stand, so we both got ice drinks. I didn’t really want one, but I knew my mom wanted something, so I just got something to make sure she did (I hope that sentence makes sense. ) They didn’t have straws or tops (I heard the park didn’t have either because of the animals, but they did have special biodegradable straws where we ate, so I don’t know why this stand didn’t.) I ended up not drinking much of my drink, as we headed towards the bus.

It was probably a mistake to get the drinks because as we were walking towards the bus stop, we saw our bus was there. We walked as fast as we could, and I know they had to see we were sort of running for the bus, but they left. So annoying! We waited at least a half hour for the bus, by the time we got on our bus, it was almost 3. We got back to our hotel about a quarter after, and took a few pics around the hotel. We had a 7:10 reservation at a nice restaurant at Epcot, so just relaxed at the hotel until around 5:30.

Our dinner reservations were at Le Cellier, which is one of the hardest restaurants to get reservations for. It's a fancy steakhouse, pretty much, in Canada in Epcot. When we tried to get the reservations, I'm sure the lady on the phone laughed when we asked (our AAA travel agent even told us it was sold out through the end of the year without us bringing it up.) She found a date for late lunch, 3pm or so, and we were going to take it even though we'd rather have dinner. Then she looked a few days later, and said that there must have JUST been a cancellation because they had an opening at 7:10! We were so excited. The woman kept saying "you are SO lucky." So, we had been looking forward to this meal, and thankfully, my mom was feeling better from the rest before we left for Epcot.

We got to Epcot, and I had a few pics taken again in front of the ball by a photo pass person. As we were leaving the area, the photo pass guy from China recognized us! He asked my mom if she was getting in more pictures today! We couldn’t believe that he remembered us, and remembered that my mom wasn’t getting in the pictures. We said we only have a few of them to remember, but he has so many more people he sees. Wow! We should have had him take pics of us at the entrance, now that I think of it!

We continued towards the World Showcase, and entered on the side that we hadn’t seen the other day. We still had time (it was 6:40), but decided to just check in at Le Cellier, in case they could seat us early. The area outside the restaurant is really pretty, so I took some pics while waiting. Someone came in and asked about dinner that night, and they were told there was a 2 ½ hour wait. They thought she was joking! The hostess would come out and would go right up to the person to tell them their table was ready. My mom couldn’t believe what great memory the woman had, and they even talked about it. Well, we were finally called (7:10 exactly), but it was a different hostess who sat us. She told us that they took notes on what the people wore so they knew who was who. Haha, busted!

The restaurant has a nice atmosphere, it’s like a cellar, with low lighting. This was our first real table service (the others had been buffet.) The TS includes drink (including frozen drinks, which we got), appetizer, entrée, dessert, and tax & tip. For our drinks, I got a mango smoothie, and my mom got a sour apple ice drink. Both were good. My appetizer was shrimp cocktail with wasabi slaw and some sauce. It was really good, but a little sharp. My mom had the beefsteak tomato stack, which was also good. They also brought over 3 types of breadsticks. We didn’t like 2 of them, but the third was a pretzel bread. It tasted just like a soft pretzel, really good. I would have eaten more than just a bite, but I wanted to save room for the meal! While we waited for our entrée, another waiter saw me taking pics, and told me to turn around. He had plates behind my mom’s head, so it looked like Mickey ears. Haha! So I got a pic of that, really cute. The other waiters seemed better than ours, who seemed like he didn’t even want to be there. *shrug*

For the entrée, I got prime rib, while my mom got the mushroom filet mignon, which I guess is their specialty since it was highlighted at top. We sort of shared though, we ate half and then switched. The prime rib was good, but the filet mignon was the best thing either of us have eaten in a long time. It was delicious. I keep saying everything was good, because everything in the meal WAS good, but the filet mignon was even a huge step above everything else. Yum! For dessert, my mom got chocolate mousse, which was actually set up to look like a moose, with maple leaf cookie antlers, and everything. I have a pic, it’s really cute. I got the crème brulee, which I never had before, but it was tasty. Great meal all around! If we weren’t on the dining plan, the dinner would have cost $110! So, great value with the dining plan today!

Some pics from dinner. Filet Mignon:

Desserts:

After dinner, it was getting close to 9, which was when Illuminations would start. My mom didn’t really want to stay for the show, but I figured since we were there already, it wouldn’t hurt to stay and watch it again. Especially since we were closer to the exit this time, and I wanted to watch without taking pictures (OMG, can you imagine!?) However, we both needed to use the restroom, and the line was insanely long. We would have missed some of the show, and still been caught in the crowd getting out. So, instead, we decided to just head for the exit, use the restroom there, and then just leave. Then, we could just hop on the bus, and not have to worry about long waits getting back, like last time after Illuminations. While walking towards the exit, there was a photo pass person taking pics in front of the ball, and since it was lit up, I knew I’d never get a good pic of us with the ball like that. So, we stopped for the pic quickly, since we knew the ball would go dark when the show started. On our way out, we tried to see some of Illuminations, but the trees and ball got in the way. We got to the bus stop while the show was still going on, but the bus wasn’t there yet. We still had to wait a long time for the bus to come, and the crowd from the show had joined us in line before it came. So, it was sort of a waste to not see the show. Oh well.

When we got back to the hotel, we stopped in the gift shop to pick up our picture from Chef Mickey from the day before. While waiting, I took pics of some cute things in the store. Then we went to the food court for a snack to bring back to the room. We got beignets, without the powdered sugar since I got it all over the place the first time. What a mistake, without the sugar, they had no taste. I guess I should have asked with just a little bit of sugar instead. Oh well. I also got hot chocolate once again. We weren’t sure what we wanted to do the next day, our last full day at Disney. We had dinner reservations at another nice restaurant at 6:10, but the rest of the day was free. It would either be Epcot or Magic Kingdom, and we figured we’d just decide the next day.

Next up, our last full day (*sob*) at a park, and dinner at California Grill.

 

[kswm30b]

Day 7 – Sunday – 10/28

We got up around 8. We decided to spend our last day at Magic Kingdom. We went to the food court for breakfast around 10. Wow, what a bad time to go for breakfast! It was packed, and there was a long wait to order & get the food. I would never be able to do that every day at Disney, it is wasting so much of the day. It’s much better to get to the park close to opening, even if you have to eat really early. Anyway, for breakfast, I had pancakes with berries with bacon, and my mom had an omelet (she said it was really good.) We *just* missed the bus to Magic Kingdom at 11am (we saw it leaving as we stepped into the bus stop.) So, we then did a very stupid thing. The bus to Epcot came soon after, and we decided to take that, then we could transfer to Magic Kingdom. When we got to Epcot, we thought we could just hop on the monorail. But first we had to go through the bag check to get into Epcot before even getting on the monorail. When we got up to the tracks, we just missed the monorail too. We were wasting so much time, we even considered staying at Epcot instead, but then the monorail came. Then we had to take the monorail from Epcot to the Transportation Center, and then take another monorail from the Transportation Center to Magic Kingdom. Ugh! Learn from our stupid mistake! We wasted an hour doing that! I was in a really bad mood from it. *sigh* The only good thing was I could get a good pic of the Magic Kingdom entrance from the monorail.

Once we finally made our way into Magic Kingdom (it was after 12:30), we took some more photo pass pics in front of the castle and in front of some statues. Then we made our way towards Adventureland, since that was the only section of the park we hadn’t been to yet. I took some pretty pics on the paths before Adventureland, including one with the Crystal Palace in the background. Today the weather was different than it had been since our first 2 days. It was HOT. Even after a few minutes walking around Magic Kingdom, we were crazy from the heat!

Just after walking into Adventureland, we spotted a character greeting. Timon & Rafiki were taking pics together. Good thing we didn’t stop for both of them at Animal Kingdom the day before! So we got in line for that, and the wait was only a few minutes. There weren’t any photo pass people there, but at least it was undercover with a fan.

We were really thirsty after that, and we came across the Dole Whip stand. I had heard so much about this snack from everyone, so I thought that was a good time to try it. It was a really long wait, and at first the ice cream machine wasn’t working, but finally we got our Pineapple Floats (pineapple ice cream with pineapple juice.) We really could have shared it, there was a lot there. I wasn’t really impressed with it though. My mom finished more of hers than mine, though. Next time, I’m going to try to find the strawberry version that I’ve heard about, also in Magic Kingdom. Oh well, at least I tried it! (Another update from our March trip. I got the strawberry version at Enchanted Grove, and, SO good. I can’t wait to get it when I go back on Monday!! Back to the Oct report )

We kept walking towards the Magic Carpets of Aladdin ride. If it wasn’t so insanely hot, I probably would have gone on that, it looked cute. Across from the ride, we saw Aladdin & Jasmine! One of my favorites, so I was excited we were able to run into them. The line was long, though, and right in the line of the sun, but I waited anyway. While waiting in line, a mother was pointing out to her daughter that there were jewels in the ground. I looked and saw that there was. Pretty neat. Just before getting to the front of the line, the photo pass person left. I was going to ask the CM covering the front of the line when the photographer would be back, but I didn’t. Of course, just after I was done, the photo pass photographer came back. *sigh* Oh well, the line was also stopped a bit after I got in line, so at least I wasn’t turned away like a few other times! When I got up to Aladdin & Jasmine, I said something about it being my favorite movie, so then Aladdin asked me what my favorite part was. And I suddenly had a brain freeze and couldn’t think of anything, haha! I finally said A Whole New World since that’s all that came to me, and Aladdin said that was his favorite too, because he got to kiss Jasmine.

After that, we continued on towards Pirates of the Caribbean. At first we couldn’t even find it, and then it was right there in our face! We thought there’d be a long wait, but we walked right in. It was nice and cool just after walking into the queue, we wanted to just stand there for a while, haha. Fun ride, now I guess I have to watch the movies. (Another update, I have since seen all the movies and love them. Now I can’t wait to go on Pirates again!) After leaving the attraction, I saw a photo pass guy who looked like he was taking a fun pic. I then remembered about a pic where you are fighting Captain Hook, and they put him in later. So we went to pose for that. I fought Hook, and my mom acted scared behind me. I’ve seen the pic, and I think she does a better acting job than me haha.

We continued on, and then we saw Wendy walking by us. I knew there were Peter Pan characters near PotC, but I didn’t know if she was leaving her spot, or going to it. So we followed her, and saw she was just arriving. So, no lines for a change, yea! When I was talking with her, I felt like I should have had an English accent too, haha. After she asked where I was from, and I said NJ, she asked, did you fly here? And I said yes, but not like you would. I think I stole her line or something. She said I needed to get some pixie dust, it’s much easier than an airport. It’s also funny that this was the one day I didn’t need my Tinkerbell hoodie, and wearing that would have been perfect in the pic with Wendy. She asked if I was enjoying my time there, and I said yes, and that it was our last day. She said, and it took this long for you to meet me? Then she apologized for Peter Pan not being there, and I said I’d have to see him next time. After spending time with Wendy, we went to sit down nearby to put our autograph book away and sip some water. After one other set of people after us, no one was coming for Wendy. The CM was sort of begging people to come over and see Wendy, but no one seemed to care. I got a really cute pic of her hiding behind a pole, and she saw me and asked if I was taking a picture. Then, this little girl ran over yellng “Wendy!”, and grabbed her. It was so cute.

By now it was around 2:30. We wanted to leave the park before 3, so we wouldn’t run into the parade, and not be able to leave. We were debating taking the WDW Railroad to the entrance from Frontierland, but since it would have to stop at Toontown first, we decided to just walk back. Just a little after we started walking, we saw this long line. My mom first thought it was for a restaurant, but then we saw it was for Captain Hook & Mr. Smee. So, we got in that line. While waiting, there was some sort of Pirates Tutorial Show happening with Jack by the PotC, across from where we were. Then they said the characters were leaving, but would be right back. Some people left, but since we went through the same thing with Lilo & Stitch (and they had come back just 2 minutes later), we stayed in line. They said that Captain Hook was going to go try to find Peter Pan & Wendy, and my mom said that Wendy was right over there. The kids in front of us asked where, and we told them, so they were going to go see her after. Their mother didn’t seem very much with the Disney magic, asking me if I really believed, and pointing to my autograph book. *shrug* A little bit later, the characters came back. The CM said that if it started to rain, they’d stay if it was on drizzling, but would have to leave if it rained harder. We didn’t know what she was talking about, until we looked at the sky and saw black clouds. Finally we got to the front of the line. They were a fun character interaction, Captain Hook had me shake his hook, and Mr. Smee kissed my hand (we have a cute photo pass pic of that.)

Just after our pic was done, it started to drizzle. So we ran undercover to put our stuff away. We decided to sit there until the rain stopped, and then continue towards the exit. And just like that, it started pouring. Good thing we were undercover, people were getting soaked! Almost as quickly as it started, it stopped. So, then we started walking back towards the castle hub to leave. We saw a photo pass in a section we hadn’t seen before, and got a few pics there. A different angle of the castle than normal, so that was good. It was getting really close to parade time, and Main Street was packed. We decided to walk through the shops to get to the exit rather than walk on the sidewalk, another tip I had learned here at the DIS before the trip. It worked well, we got to the exit really quickly. We also did a good job of not even looking at anything inside the stores. When we got to the exit, I asked my mom to take a few pics of me waving goodbye, since that would be our last time in a park during the trip. After taking the pic, I took back the camera, and saw Chip & Dale leaving a character greeting. They were waving while leaving, so I have a cute pic of that. Then my mom wanted to take a pic of me waving under the sign that said “See ya real soon.” She went to take the pic and no one was there, it was perfect, until someone scooted in front. After that, there was a constant stream of people, so it was hard to get a good picture. We walked out, I took a few more pics from the outside, and then it looked like it was going to start raining again, so we walked quickly towards the bus stop. Of course, like always, we had to wait a while for the bus. While at the bus stop, it started pouring again. Good thing we were under cover.

We got back to the hotel, and I took some pics around the hotel that I didn’t have yet, including one of my mom upstairs outside our room, while I was still on the street. Then we went back to the room to rest up before dinner. We were going to another nice restaurant, the California Grill at the Contemporary Resort. It’s on the top floor, and has a great view of the Magic Kingdom. It’s one of the “signature” restaurants, where you’re supposed to dress up a little. I have dress sandals with a wedge heel I was going to wear. At this point in the week, I had SO many blisters on both my feet, I have no idea how I wore those shoes! Same with my mom. Our reservations were for 6:10, so we left around 5:20. We took a cab instead of taking the bus to the Magic Kingdom and then the monorail from the Magic Kingdom to the Contemporary. Our cab driver was trying to be funny, and said that the California Grill was closed. My mom started to believe him, haha.

We got to the Contemporary around 5:30. You have to go to the 2nd floor first to check in for the restaurant. Then, they take you up to the 16th floor for the restaurant. While we’re going up in the elevator, the guy says, “make sure you remember 9:30. That’s the time of the Hallowishes fireworks, and you can come back and see them later tonight.” Now, part of the lure of this restaurant is the view of Magic Kingdom, from inside as well as from the observation deck. I’ve always heard to try to time it so you are eating there while Wishes (the fireworks show) is taking place, as you get a great view. They also pipe in the music from the show. I thought you had to be eating there at the time of the show, but as we were going up in the elevator, we learned that you could come back that night, as long as you had your receipt. Cool!

We made it up to the restaurant 30 minutes before our reservation. They didn’t even make us wait, they seated us right away, even though we were early. There are huge windows around the whole restaurant, so you have a great view. We went past where you could see the castle, and they sat us in the wine room. The guy said it was the best room in the restaurant, but I can’t imagine that. We couldn’t see the castle, and they kept coming in to get wine from the coolers…which were right behind our table, and at first, right behind my mom’s seat. Anyway, when we got to our table, it was covered in Mickey shaped confetti, like when we went to the Crystal Palace. Nice! From our table, we could see the Epcot ball in the distance, so I imagine you could sort of see Illuminations from there as well.

The table setup:

For the appetizer, I ordered the Oak-fired mushroom flatbread. I knew I wanted the flatbread (I’d been dying for it for a while, ever since I heard how good it was!), but I didn’t know which type to get. The waitress told us which was the most popular, but she said this one was her favorite, and if you like mushrooms, you’ll love it. My mom got the lobster appetizer. For the entrée, I got the Oak-fired filet of beef. I just had the filet mignon the day before, so I didn’t think I was going to get that, but it’s their most popular dish, and I didn’t really feel like getting anything else on the menu. My mom got the halibut.

I wanted to check out the view (and take pics) while it was still light out. So, after ordering, we went to the observation deck to check out the view. It was really cold & windy from up there, but a fantastic view. You could see the castle, Tomorrowland, Big Thunder Mountain, and other parts of the park. Really great! I wanted to stay there for a while, but it was so cold, and my mom didn’t bring a jacket, so we went back inside. I don’t have pics of this view uploaded yet, but I did recently make a digital scrapbook page with one of the pics, so this will have to do for now

By then, our appetizers came. Both of us really enjoyed our appetizers. You could make a meal of the flatbread alone. I wanted to eat more of it, but I wanted to be able to eat my meal! (Another side note. Even though it’s no longer on the dining plan, I think I’m going to pay OOP if they still have the flatbread this trip. It was THAT good!) Our appetizers:

After the appetizer, I decided to try to find the second observation deck. I found it, but the door seemed to be locked. I went back to the first deck, and the sun was setting, so the sky looked really pretty. I also got a neat pic with the monorail passing by the park.

When I got back to the table, the entrée was there! My mom also told me that a woman came around to take our picture, for my mom’s birthday. She said she would come back later when I was there. I took some pics of our pretty meals, and then we started eating. Once again, the food was delicious. I think I liked the filet the night before a little better, but this one was still fantastic. Entrée pics:

The picture lady came by our table soon after, and took a picture (actually 2, we didn’t like the first one), and then went off to print it for us.

For dessert, I got the Caramel Apple, which was actually 3 desserts in one. It had an apple tart (my favorite of the 3), apple shooter, and apple sorbet. My mom got the Honey Crunch Cake with Chantilly Cream and Oven-roasted Golden Pineapple and Crunch Candy Crumble (I was able to cut & paste that ) When they brought out the dessert, my mom’s had a candle & a piece of chocolate that had “Happy Birthday from the California Grill!” written on it. Both desserts looked really pretty, and they tasted as good as they looked. My mom said she had never tasted icing like she had on her cake.

Yummy desserts:

A little after our dessert came (around 7:20), out of no where, fireworks started right out our window. They weren’t from Magic Kingdom (that was on the other side of the restaurant), they weren’t from Epcot (that was a little further away from us), and no one knew what they were, or where they were coming from. Eventually, we figured they were coming from Discovery Island, and assumed they were special for the end of a convention that was staying at those resorts. What a neat surprise, and a great way to end the dinner! I think this was one of the best overall meal I have ever had. From start to finish, it was delicious! We were wondering if it would be worth the 2 table service credits that we had to use from the dining plan (the signature restaurants are 2 TS), and I would say it’s definitely worth it! I thought it would just be for the view, but the food was worth it too. We sat at the table a little longer, taking a few more pictures (including of the receipt…our meal would have been $150 if we weren’t on the dining plan!) Then, we went back to the observation deck to take in the view (and pics!) at night. While standing on the deck, the Villains Mix & Mingle was taking place during the party. We could hear the music from the show, and I took a little bit of video since I knew a flash of fireworks ended the show.

By this point, it was still only 8, and we had until 9:30 to come back for Hallowishes. They told us to come back around 9, 9:15, and we should be ok to get a good view from the observation deck. We went back downstairs, and went to the floor where Chef Mickey & the gift shop is, since we knew we’d have a place to sit and wait. We sat there until a little before 9. And just before we were going to go upstairs, my mom started walking around to see what was down the hallway. I started getting nervous about the time when she came back, and said there was a good place to view the fireworks from outside. I followed her, and there was a spot where you could see the castle with benches. She wanted to watch from there since it was so cold upstairs (even though it was almost as cold where we were.) I wanted to go back upstairs since it’s part of our meal, and they pipe in the music. We went back and forth about that for a while, but finally decided to just stay where we were to watch the show. A little before 9:30, we could hear announcements from Magic Kingdom about the show starting soon…there was a speaker near where we were too, so we’d get to hear the music as well! I was excited to watch the show from another angle, and there wasn’t anyone else out there with us (we had been there for about 30 minutes.) Then, just as the show started, all these people came outside where we were! And they were loud. So loud that we couldn’t hear the music over the speaker. If you remember my report from the Halloween party, I wrote how cool the fireworks were. At the end, they have fireworks 360 degrees around you, it’s really cool. From the angle we were watching now, though, it wasn’t all around us, obviously. But it was still amazing to see…there were SO many fireworks at that point, the sky just lit up. The whole sky was filled with fireworks, it was awesome. I’m not even sure which view was better for that part of the show, the 360 degrees, or filling the sky.

After the show, we took the monorail to Magic Kingdom. When we were walking from the monorail to the bus to get back to the hotel, I took a few pics from outside Magic Kingdom. When we were there for the party, I didn’t remember some of the pumpkin balloons they had up, so I had to take pics of that. We got to the bus stop just as everyone who was leaving the party after the fireworks got there (that seemed pretty early to leave the party, since it ends at midnight, and it was only after 10 at that point.) So, we had a long wait and crowded bus (for the last time ) When we got back to the hotel, we got our drinks in our refillable mugs, as always, and a snack. I had been dying the last few days for a Mickey bar, and even though I was (a) cold and (b) not really that hungry, it was the only time to get one before we left, so I got it from the food court and brought it back to the room. My mom got ice cream, also. After that, we only had one snack left and 2 counter service, all of which we would use for breakfast the next day…our last day. *sob* We spent the rest of the night packing. I didn’t know exactly what we would do the next day for our last few hours at Disney, but we eventually got to sleep…for the last time at our Disney resort. *sob*

Next up, our last day & a recap

 

[kswm30b]

Day 8 – Sunday – 10/28

We originally hoped to do something this day (I hate wasting days during vacation!) Animal Kingdom had Early Morning Hours, and at first I thought we could do that (and see some of what we didn’t see the other day.) Ultimately we decided to just stay at the hotel. It’s a good thing we didn’t since it rained pretty much that whole morning.

The first thing we had to do was bring our suitcases to the Magical Express podium in the lobby around 8am. Because we were on one of their approved airlines, they would check us in, print our tickets, check our luggage for us and take it to the airport. So we didn’t have to do any of that, when we got to the airport, we would just have to go through security. What an amazing service they have…they picked up our luggage at the airport and brought it right to our room, and now they take our luggage there so we don’t have to stand in the long check in line. Plus they take you to and from the airport. All for free. That alone is worth staying on property! The airplane ticket also has the Mickey Magical Express logo on it.

We had bought a Disney duffel bag early in the trip since we knew we’d have so much more stuff to send back home, and it’s a good thing. When we checked our luggage, the guy said that pretty much everyone has to do that. The ones in front of us said that they always know they come home with more stuff, so they pack one suitcase inside another so that they’ll have another suitcase to fill on the way home!

After getting that out of the way, we went to the food court for breakfast. We used our final dining credits. Seeing the “you have zero credits left” on the receipt was so sad! My mom got the same omelet she got the day before, but it wasn’t as good. I got a Mickey waffle with berries (I asked for only strawberries), it was as good as the first time I got it. For our last snack, we got a blueberry muffin to take on the plane. I didn’t end up eating it until we got home, though, and it looked much better than it tasted. Sometime while we were eating is when it started pouring outside.

After eating, we went to the gift shop. We had taken pics a few times wearing hats in the parks, but I kept meaning to take a pic wearing the original ears! So I went and found some in the gift store and my mom took a pic. Then she said, why don’t you just buy them? So, a few hours before our trip ended, I finally got my ears! Next trip I want to get them earlier and maybe with my name on it. We went back to the room to wait until the Magical Express would take us to the airport (11:15a.) I hadn’t been nervous (for a change!) before flying to Disney…but I guess I made up for it before going home. I felt so sick while waiting. We decided to go outside and walk to the Magical Express stop early, maybe being outside would make me feel better. When we got there, the 10:45 bus was already there. We asked the guy if this is where the Magical Express bus comes, and he asked if we were there for the 10:45 bus. We said no, the 11:15 bus. He said they have room on the earlier one if we wanted to get on now. We figured it’s always better to get to the airport early, so, why not? I felt much better when we were on the way to the airport, so I guess that was a good decision.

When we pulled out of our hotel, I tried to get a pic of the French Quarter sign on the gates. The whole trip, I kept trying to get a pic of this. I either was stuck on a crowded bus or it was dark and so I never was able to get a picture. We were going to walk to the gates earlier today so I could get a pic, but it was raining. So, I attempted to get a pic on the ride to the airport, but there was rain on the windows, so that didn’t work. We passed by Downtown Disney, and the same problem here with me trying to get a pic.

We stopped at 3 hotels on our way to the airport: Riverside, Old Key West, and Sarasota Springs. The bus was packed. They showed a video on the bus about saying goodbye to Disney with all the characters, it was so sad to be leaving. We passed Sea World on the way to the airport. It took an hour 15 minutes to get to the airport (there was a lot of traffic when we got close.) I took a few pics of the Magical Express buses when we got there (since my pics earlier in the week weren’t that great.) I still never got a pic of the back of the bus (I didn’t want to get run over!), which was really cute. Oh well. Then we made our way upstairs to security. It looked like a long line, but they were really organized, and we got through security quickly.

It felt like we were there really early, but once we ate lunch and got to our gate, we didn’t have to wait too long to board. Everyone on the plane seemed in a good mood (we were at Disney, after all!) and exhausted (again, from Disney!) Even though it was a 2:15pm flight, it seemed like everyone was sleeping on the plane. Even I fell asleep, and I hardly ever sleep on planes. When we were landing, we flew over the Phillies ballpark, which doesn’t normally happen.

And that completes my Disney trip report! (OK, stop cheering! )

A summary of some of my favorite parts of the trip (for those who skipped my 27+ pages worth of reports!) Every category is hard to pick a favorite, though!

Favorite Nighttime/Fireworks show: This is a toss up between Hallowishes & Illuminations. Hallowishes was the best fireworks I’ve ever seen, and since it’s a seasonal show, I think I’ll give the slight nod to Hallowishes here.

Favorite Parade: This is hard because I loved all of the parades, they were each different & special in their own way. Again, it’s probably between the Boo to You Parade & Spectromagic, and I’ll go with Spectromagic since it’s spectacular, and not something you can appreciate as much through videos or pics as you can in person.

Favorite Show: I’ll go with the Villains Mix & Mingle. It was so much fun, so different than what I expected, and getting to meet them after the show.

Top 5 attractions (in no particular order):

Soarin’-Sometimes things are overhyped, and I’m disappointed. I was worried Soarin’ would be like this, but thankfully, it wasn’t. It was even better than expected, and I wish I could have gone on it several more times before leaving. Next time, I’ll be sure to get to Epcot at opening so we’ll be able to do just that!

Mickey’s Philharmagic-So very Disney! It includes all different Disney movies, it’s a great 3D movie, the smells & feels are fantastic. Just a lot of fun, definite something I’d go to anytime I go to Disney!

Small World-I don’t care, I love this ride (which means I haven’t grown up much, I loved it when I was 5, too.) For a deeper point of view, makes you wish people could actually see we are all the same no matter what, like the dolls in the ride.

Buzz Lightyear Ride-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! It’s something you get better at every time you ride, and hopefully, I’ll be able to get much better at it next time!

Character Greetings-Not really a ride, but I had to put this somewhere. This is something that’s only at Disney, and some of the most fun moments on the trip were meeting characters. I always thought meeting characters was just for kids (so in ’04 when I was in MGM and saw a ton of characters, I just took pics from a distance.) But I learned before this trip that it’s fine for adults, and I’m so glad I didn’t get embarrassed about it! My mom didn’t really get it when I said before the trip that I wanted to make an autograph book, but when we met our first character (Piglet at Crystal Palace), she completely understood and loved meeting the characters, too. Every character greeting added so much to the trip. Even as ridiculous as it sounds to wait 45 minutes to meet the princesses, it’s SO worth it.

I ended up meeting 30 characters. The only ones that I was hoping to meet that I didn’t see during the trip were Mulan, Mary Poppins, & Ariel. We did well on our last day getting characters, especially considering we had no idea what we were going to do that day! The characters I met were: Piglet, Eeyore, Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Goofy (3 times), Mickey (twice), Minnie (twice), Pluto (twice), Chip, Dale, Pinocchio, Aurora, Cinderella, Belle, Snow White, Dopey, Donald Duck, Lilo, Stitch, Rafiki, Timon, Aladdin, Jasmine, Wendy, Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, Cruella, Evil Queen (from Snow White), Queen of Hearts, and Jafar.

Thanks to anyone who’s been reading these reports. Hopefully someday I'll finish uploading my pics! You can see all the pics that I DO have uploaded here:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/travel/florida/disney/week2007

I also have LOADS of layouts done for my scrapbook. Over 160, but still no where near done! (I was hoping I'd be closer to finished by the time this trip came. Oh well!) I have my paper layouts posted here:
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/other/scrapbook/dis07/

And my digital LOs are here (some are from my March '08 trip in this gallery):
http://heatherw.com/other/gallery/v/other/scrapbook/digi/disney/

You can see some of the pics I haven't posted yet on my layouts (and with all the layouts I've done, you can see why I got behind in posting my pics here!)

Hopefully with this trip (I'm leaving Monday, if I haven't mentioned that yet ), I'll be more timely with my report!