Our Not - So - Scary - Halloween - Week at the World!

[Sarah28]

Loving your TR! Looking forward to seeing your costumes.

Thanks for reading Claire, glad you're enjoying it The next installment is coming up soon!

 

[Sarah28]

The boys didn't require anywhere to change as their's was just a lab coat really, but Chelly and I needed somewhere to change into ours so we found a toilet inside The Town Square Theatre / Tony's Town Square Restaurant where we quickly changed. We packed up our clothes and then headed back to the lockers to put them back in. We quickly drew eachothers make up on in the locker area - mine was a skellington grin and Chelly's was some stitches across her face and we were ready to go!

It was just about getting dark and it was getting busier. I loved look at everyone's costumes, and the boys got lots of comments about their Doofie costumes! We headed over to the Club 626 area so Chelly could check out Stitch and we took some piccys around here...

We stayed around for a bit and then decided to go on Space Mountain as there was no queue at all! We had a brilliant time and the ride photos was great of us all in our costumes (gutted we didn't buy it now as it did make us laugh!)

We then headed to the Speedway where we had a much slower car this time, but it was great fun none the less. We had another go on the teacups and then wandered round to the Winnie the Pooh ride and Snow White to take advantage of no queues! The Tigger bit on the Winnie the Pooh ride where the whole cart bounces made us laugh a lot!

Up next was another ride on the Haunted Mansion as we thought it only seemed appropriate! The queue time was set to 13 mins as always and it really didn't take long (I thought this is where there would be a queue if anywhere)

We had another picture with the hearse of us in our costumes...

Chelly found the special party merchandise on the cart outside Haunted Mansion and found a Limited Edition party pin of Stitch so she was well chuffed with this.

I was hoping to get a few special party pieces of merch but there didn't seem to be much on the cart so thought we'd head over to the Emporium on Main Street later.

Big Thunder Mountain was up next again with hardly any queues (we love riding this one in the dark!) so this was a must and was great fun as always! We caught the end of the first Boo To You Parade as we made our way over to Pirates of the Caribbean (we had heard the first parade is always busier so we decided to make the second one at 10:30pm.)

We had a go on Pirates of the Caribbean with very little queue time. We tried to check out the special merch at the Pirates Bazaar, but again, there wasn't much there so wasn't sure if they had nearly sold out of everything?

It was getting nearer the time for Hallowishes that was starting at 9:30pm so we headed over towards the castle where we had more photopass piccys...

We found Gaston so Si had a special picture taken with him...

We stood over to the left of the castle to watch the fireworks - I loved how each villain had their own music and it was themed to them - I loved every minute and managed to get quite a few piccys...

*Boo to you Parade up next!*

 

[Sarah28]

There was a Villains Mix and Mingle starting shortly after Hallowishes at 10:05 so we stayed around to watch this and moved more centrally in front of the castle to watch this which was really good... (please excuse the bad photography!)

After the show, it was nearly time for the second Boo To You Parade that was starting at 10:30pm so we headed over to the Liberty Bridge as I had heard this is one of the only places the headless horseman stops so you can take a picture (turns out I didn't get a very good picture of him anyway! )

The crowds had already begun gathering there so we found a place just outside Sleepy Hollow to wait - Andrew had found a seat so he sat down while the 3 of us stood up.

We had the CM with the rope right next to us who were letting people cross over to the Adventureland side before the parade got there. I had an idea that once the CM lady had pulled the rope closed on our side, I would be able to move up closer to the front to see (as I'm quite little). I said my little plan to Si and Chelly who said ok, and a lady standing near us must have listened in on my conversation to them. She then came over to me and said something along the lines of 'Oh I don't think so, that's what we were going to do' which I was a bit taken a back by. She was quite rude about it, I wouldn't have minded if she had been a bit nicer about it, or if she had small children but she didn't. I said that was no problem, I didn't know that's what she was going to do. I was a bit annoyed at this point, but then it seemed like she was trying to get in the way of all my piccys afterwards (you can see her and the rest of her group in a lot of them!!) so I'm always mildly annoyed when I look back on my piccys of the parade and see her!...

The parade was great, I enjoyed every second and the music was very catchy I was singing it for ages after!!

Afterwards, as we had been on our feet all day and it was about 11pm at that point, we started getting very tired and thought we would have a look in the shops on Main Street before starting to think about heading back to the hotel and beating all of the crowds out at closing.

We went into the Emporium to try and find the special party merch, but again there was hardly anything. We found a few more pins, but that was about it which was a bit disappointing. I did find some Nightmare Before Christmas pins that I wanted to get so got these anyway...

We then realised we hadn't actually had any time to get any trick or treat candy as we had been making use of the no queues! We thought the CMs would be very generous as it was nearly time to go, but we still only got a few pieces each which is a bit of a shame as I have seen peoples pics of buckets and buckets of sweets on here but we hardly got anything. But we were pretty happy We had got on all the rides we had wanted to do with no queues, we had a great time watching the fireworks and parades (apart from the rude lady!) so it was definitely worth it in that respect. It was a shame there wasn't more special party merch - in fact the next few days we noticed all halloween stuff in the shops was disappearing (even though it hadn't been halloween yet!) and more and more christmas stuff was coming out.

We went back to the hotel very happy but very very tired! The next day would be our last full day in WDW which was a bit sad but we had done so much in our time there which made me feel really great despite we would be going home shortly.

 

[stephensmum]

Shame about the lack of sweets, getting on all those rides makes up for it though. Thanks for doing this trippie, i'm so enjoying it.

 

[Sarah28]

Shame about the lack of sweets, getting on all those rides makes up for it though. Thanks for doing this trippie, i'm so enjoying it.

Aww no problem Sharon, thanks for reading it! Glad you're enjoying it - I'll try and update soon

 

[kirstinemma]

Really enjoying your trip report!

I also love your Rex t shirt!

Congratulations on your engagement!

 

[Sarah28]

Really enjoying your trip report!

I also love your Rex t shirt!

Congratulations on your engagement!

Aww thanks for reading Kirstin, Rex is one of my favs!

 

[taylor91]

I'm all caught up Congratulations on your engagement, it was so sweet, brought a tear to my eye. Love reading about proposals, they are lovely stories I loved your costumes, they were fab, shame about that rude woman though, I hate it when people talk down to you, it makes you feel a bit rubbish, it's a good job it didn't seem to get to you too much
Could I ask what camera you used? Your photos are really clear. I'm looking to get a new one sometime this year Looking forward to the next instalment

 

[Sarah28]

I'm all caught up Congratulations on your engagement, it was so sweet, brought a tear to my eye. Love reading about proposals, they are lovely stories I loved your costumes, they were fab, shame about that rude woman though, I hate it when people talk down to you, it makes you feel a bit rubbish, it's a good job it didn't seem to get to you too much
Could I ask what camera you used? Your photos are really clear. I'm looking to get a new one sometime this year Looking forward to the next instalment

Aww thank you Taylor for joining in! Yeah my camera is pretty old now (2008 I think?) but still does the job! It's only a little compact thing - Olympus FE-310 - you can probably get a much better one than that now. I've had a few Olympus ones and they've always given me good images (providing I take them right ) I do have a digital SLR but carrying that around WDW would be a nightmare as it's a bit of a beast in size!

 

[Sarah28]

Friday 28th October - EPCOT and Hollywood Studios

Another late morning after grabbing some pastries for breakfast at the food court and then we were off to EPCOT. We didn't have much planned for the morning there, just to go on the last few bits we hadn't done yet, and maybe the possibility of seeing what the queues were like for Test Track and Soarin'. Chelly wanted to go back to the gift shop in Mexico to get the crystal ornaments so that was the plan.

When we got there, the fastpasses for Test Track and Soarin' were much later in the day and by that point, we would be heading over to Hollywood Studios so we gave those a miss. I didn't mind too much as we had already done them, but it would have been good to do them again.

Up first then was Spaceship Earth as we hadn't been on that yet. It was very interesting to do as I hadn't been on the re-imagined version but not too much to write home about.

Afterwards we headed over to Mission Space as we hadn't done that either. I was a bit apprehensive as I hadn't been on it before, and had heard lots of stories about the green and orange versions. It wasn't the centrifuge that would have bothered me, it was the claustrophobic factor that they kept going on about. I thought I best give it a go, I'm sure if all the small kids in front of me would go on it, then so could I!

We opted for the green version to start off with, and we were all given our jobs. It was very cleverly done, but I was still feeling very nervous about the whole small spaces aspect of it. When we finally got on the ride, it was more spacious than I thought it would be so that relaxed me a bit, and I loved it all! I probably would've gone on the orange version if we had had more time but I was happy that I had tried it at all

We then wandered round to Mexico so Chelly could pick up some gifts for people and then we decided that we had probably done all we had wanted to do here, and that there was more to do in Hollywood Studios that we wanted to do, so decided to go over earlier than anticipated.

We tried to start using up all of our loose change in the vending machines at the bus stops by getting some snacks and drinks for our lunch, and there was a little wait for a bus to Hollywood Studios.

Once we got HS, we thought we would see if there was any fastpasses for Toy Story left (long shot!) but there wasn't. We kept an eye on the queue times all afternoon but they were very high that day (approx 80 mins at one point) so this is one we only ever did the once on our first day - it would have been good to do it again, but very glad we got to try it at all

Next on the list was to get a fastpass for Rock n Roller Coaster and by this point, it had started to rain. The queue time for this wasn't that long, so we decided just to wait this one out - I think it was something like 20 or 30 mins. Well they got this very wrong! We were waiting a lot longer and the time passed very slowly which wasn't so great but we were out of the rain. It was good riding this one again though even if it did take forever!

The next one we wanted to do again was Star Tours and the queue time for this was much shorter than it said, so not sure what was going on with the queue times that day! We had another version of the ride than the first day (can't remember which one unfortunately) but it was good to have a different experience.

After this, we decided to get a drink and sit down for a bit at Backlot Express while we had a think about what we wanted to do. By this point, the rain was really starting to come down which didn't really bother us.

We remembered that we had wanted our piccys taken with Phineas and Ferb, and that on the first day, the queue to see them was very long so we said we would come back. We thought if the weather wasn't great, the queues would be shorter. This wasn't the case! They had moved them inside a theatre nearby to their photopoint and there was quite a queue. This was something that we had all wanted to do, and as long as the weather was rubbish, we were quite happy to wait with all the children in the dry!

It was finally our turn for the 4 grown ups to have their piccys taken with Phineas and Ferb! They were really great at interacting and both gave me big hugs!

Ferb took me by the arm for our photos and we had a great time My favourite character interaction of the trip!

The weather was still a bit rubbish so we decided that as we had done all the rides we had wanted to do (apart from Toy Story that still had a crazy waiting time) we would do a bit of shopping to get some gifts and bits for ourselves.

I went into the giant Sorceror's Hat shop to get some more pins...

It wasn't long before it was time for our ADR at the Sci Fi Dine in. This was a meal I was really looking forward to as I am a bit of a 50s retro geek so I couldn't wait.

We went in and were told that the big screen wasn't working (boooo) so we could change our minds about our meal if we wanted to, but this wasn't going to put me off, so we waited around for only about 10 mins and then we got called.

We walked around the back of the set and into the drive in area and I must have wowed out loud! It was amazing in there! All these cars all lined up in the dark - I thought it was amazing!! We were shown to our 'car' - Chelly and Si were in the front, and Andrew and I were in the back. The waiter came over shortly and said as the big screen wasn't working, they were giving everyone free milkshakes (result!) so that was great. He was another really great waiter - we had such a great interaction with him. He took loads of piccys with my camera and was such a laugh trying to get us to pose for the photos - he was a really great guy

I had a vanilla shake, Andrew had a Chocolate, I think Chelly had chocolate too and Si had the Oreo. Then for food, I had the Angus Chuck Burger as did Chelly I think, and I think the boys had the picnic burger or something similar. We were all too full up for puddings so we got the bill and headed out.

It had stopped raining and was a little chilly so we headed back into the shops to get a few last minute gifts including these awesome little tumblers I got for myself in Pixar Place (matches my Rex Christmas Tree ornament!)...

I got some taffy for work and some other gifts for people, and the park was closing at 8 tonight - we had done all we had wanted to do so we headed back to the hotel and watched some more halloween movies on the telly.

We had arranged to the do VH check in at Downtown Disney in the morning and we had to be out of the room before 11 so I started to pack up a few things that I wouldn't need in the morning. It was very sad to be packing up already as it felt like we had only just got there, but I felt so glad that we had managed to cram in so much into a week! I felt absolutely knackered but very happy we weren't long off to bed so we weren't up too late the next day...

 

[Rach78]

Hi,
Just to say I loved your trip report. I am going for the first time this October and also doing MNSSHP so it was great to read about your experiences. Did you find the parks busy?
Also can I ask where you got your Rex t-shirt? He is my DH's favourite and I can't find one anywhere!!
Finally many congrats on your engagement!! Will you have a Disney Wedding?
Rach x

 

[Sarah28]

Hi,
Just to say I loved your trip report. I am going for the first time this October and also doing MNSSHP so it was great to read about your experiences. Did you find the parks busy?
Also can I ask where you got your Rex t-shirt? He is my DH's favourite and I can't find one anywhere!!
Finally many congrats on your engagement!! Will you have a Disney Wedding?
Rach x

Aww thank you Rachel, glad you're enjoying it! Ooh you'll have a great time, it was only my 2nd time there (first time was when I was a lot younger) so a lot of it was pretty new to me too. I don't have anything to compare the parks to, but we found them very manageable, especially if you make use of the fastpass

My Rex t shirt was a present from my other half, but I *think* he got it online here: http://www.tshirtsville.com/acatalog/Toy-Story-Tshirt-3.html - he's my fav too

We are hoping to have a Disney wedding, or at least some kind of small ceremony both in the UK and there, and of course a Disneymoon!

 

[the poags]

Hi,

Congratulations on your engagement.

Where did you get your Mickey pumpkin tshirts from?

We're heading to MNSSHP in September and i'd love to get some for the family as a wee surprise

Sharon

 

[Sarah28]

Hi,

Congratulations on your engagement.

Where did you get your Mickey pumpkin tshirts from?

We're heading to MNSSHP in September and i'd love to get some for the family as a wee surprise

Sharon

Hi Sharon, I made them myself and got them printed by www.vistaprint.co.uk but I can send you the images and fonts I used if they're of any help? Just send me a pm with your email address and I'll forward them

 

[princess_ariel_85]

Joining in!

You've packed soo much into once week, looks like you had a fab time. Congratulations on the engagement, it's a beautiful engagement ring.

I love your costumes for MNSSHP, we're doing it again this year hopefully.

Can't wait to read more x

 

[the poags]

Aw thanks Sarah, I've tried to send you a PM but as i'm a newbie, it won't let me!! Hope you don't mind but i've sent you one through Facebook

Sharon

 

[Sarah28]

Joining in!

You've packed soo much into once week, looks like you had a fab time. Congratulations on the engagement, it's a beautiful engagement ring.

I love your costumes for MNSSHP, we're doing it again this year hopefully.

Can't wait to read more x

Thanks for reading Ruth! I've just started reading your wedding PJ as this is something we might be looking into, I'm loving it so far

 

[Sarah28]

Aw thanks Sarah, I've tried to send you a PM but as i'm a newbie, it won't let me!! Hope you don't mind but i've sent you one through Facebook

Sharon

No course I dont mind Sharon, sorry it's taken me so long to reply! - the boards have been reeeeally slow all week for me I've just sent them to you on email, hopefully they'll come through ok

 

[Sarah28]

Thought I'd best finish my TR as I only had one post to go - unfortunately this one has no piccys and is very text heavy

Saturday 29th October 2011 - Downtown Disney and hometime

It was finally our last day and the weather was reflecting my mood - very rainy!! we weren't too bothered as we knew we didn't have any plans for the day so we got up and got ready. Chelly and Si had wanted to visit All Star Movies so they could check out the Mighty Ducks area as Si is a big hockey fan, so while they did that, Andrew and I finished our packing, remembering what a great holiday we had had, and how it was the start of the rest of our lives and that we would be back very soon on our Disneymoon! (or a Disney Wedding?! )

After we were all ready and double checked everything we headed off down to reception to check out. We didn't realise that as we hadn't charge anything to our room that we would check out automatically, so we queued up for a while to be told this, but it was no bother really. We got our suitcases and headed for the Downtown Disney bus stop.

The bus was quite busy so having suitcases on the bus wasn't ideal really, and we weren't really too sure where the VH check in desk was. We got off at the Pleasure Island side and then realised we had quite a walk to the desk which was next to Cirque du Soleil. When we got there, there was a bit of a queue so we filled out the paperwork while we waited. We then checked in and were told our flight was delayed slightly (only by about 45 mins), but we should still be at the Coach pick up for 4pm. Our cases were weighed, labelled and loaded onto the truck, and we got our boarding passes and off we went! The whole service was very smooth and it was good to get rid of our cases so we didn't have to carry them round all day.

We still had a good few hours to kill so we decided to go for a drink at Paradiso 37 and sat outside on the terrace as it was now sunny. We had a good chat about what a good holiday we had had, but we were also very very tired! We had some drinks and decided to go and have a look in the shops and get some lunch a bit later on.

We went back into the World of Disney so I could get a last minute gift for my mum and had a good look round the shops. We were going to go into the Earl of Sandwich but it was so busy we gave it a miss. We ended up grabbing a hot dog at Marketplace Snacks as everywhere was rammed (it being a saturday again) and we just sat on the wall and ate these. Chelly got a Mickey halloween popcorn bucket that she had wanted which was cool, and then we decided to head back to Candy Cauldron to get some yummy things from there. Chelly had one of the amazing toffee apples which was funny to watch her eat, and Andrew got some fudge which was really tasty.

We didn't have too much time after that before the Coach was picking us up, so we just chilled out in the shade near Cirque du Soleil as we were all feeling pretty tired. We then made our way over to the Coach stop and waited there until the coach turned up. The lady driver who picked us up was a bit confused as it was her first day and she wasn't sure what paper work she was supposed to take from us so Andrew was having to look through all of our documents to find the right bit. It wasn't long before it was sorted and we were all on the coach heading for the airport.

The coach journey didn't take long and we made our way into the terminal. We had a while before we had to go through security so we had a look in the shops at the airport (including the Disney store, haha!) and the Universal shop. Si also went into a sports shop and got a Tampa Bay Hockey cap so he was happy about that.

We made our way down to security not long after that which was very simple - we all had to take our shoes off, and they were even using the body scanners which we were in the queue for, but then Andrew and I were called into the metal detector next to it so we didn't go through it.

After clearing security we had some more time to kill to we popped into Burger King to have something to eat as our hot dog earlier hadn't really filled us up. It wasn't long before we were allowed to make our way down to the gate to board the plane. We were right near the back again (row 63) so were allowed to board quite quickly. The plane was still running a bit late but I was sure we could make the time up in the air.

The flight started out well as I started to watch Kung Fu Panda 2 and we were served a kind of Beef Casserole which was ok, but not as nice as our Sausage and Mash we had coming out! The flight then started to get very turbulent and the seatbelt lights came on. It was very rough for a while and I thought it would pass shortly. It didn't. The seat belt lights stayed on pretty much the whole way home and it was extremely turbulent and very uncomfortable. As we were at the back, I thought it might have been more exaggerated, and I tried to watch Mr Popper's Penguins to take my mind off, but it got more and more bumpy They stopped serving any drinks and the stewards took their seats while it was very bumpy. I could see Andrew was looking very pale and he didn't feel too great. It was the worst plane journey I had been on and seemed to take forever.

I tried to get some sleep at one point but it was just too rough that it was near on impossible. I think I managed about 30 mins, and when I woke up Andrew had given me his Ham and Cheese Croissant as he doesn't like cheese so I ate that, and it had started to calm down a bit. The flight still seemed to be going on much longer than going out and I couldn't wait to get off. I was constantly clock watching this time round and checking the tracking on the screen in front.

After what seemed like the longest flight ever, we arrived not long after 6am UK time on the Sunday morning. It took ages to get off the plane again as we were at the back, but we were just glad to have landed! When we finally got off the plane, we were welcomed by a very grey, cold and wet autumn day! Security was fine and there was a bit of a wait to get our cases - Chelly had lost her Disneyworld luggage tag off her suitcase that she had gotten as a present before she went so that was a bit sad. We made our way out into the terminal and we organised a taxi back to Chelly and Si's house.

It wasn't long before we got back to their house. Andrew hadn't slept at all on the plane, but he said he felt ok to drive back to Brighton as he had to go back to work the next day, he wanted to get home and get some sleep as soon as possible. We said our goodbyes and picked up all of our stuff and said how we had such a great holiday and sad that it was over after over a years planning!

We got in the car and off we went back home. When I got in, I had a lovely hot shower and then got in my clean PJs and had a good long sleep! When I finally woke up, I put on Haunted Mansion on the DVD to relive the memories already and started to put all my pins into my new pin folder

And that was the end of our holiday! If you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read it and I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I have had writing it and reliving all the wonderful memories we have after our life changing trip. It may sound cliche, but Disney is really the place where dreams come true!

 

[taylor91]

Yey you finished it Sorry to hear about the bad flight experience. I can imagine that after a few hours it would get very annoying!! Iv'e been lucky in the past with minimal turbulence. Thankyou for sharing your trip once again. I hope you have another WDW trip to plan soon. Please keep us updated especially with wedding plans