Preparing for the Parks and Pop Century 2008 WDW Pre-Trip (with pics from past trips)

[meeko_33785]

I’m almost a little apprehensive to start this Pre-Trip since it feels almost too early for it, which is kind of silly since the trip is less than two months away. Still, I’m use to waiting until a few weeks before the trip once most of the planning is done and using the pre-trip to report what happened in the planning like writing a trip report after coming back from WDW. As I’ve begun planning for this upcoming trip, I’ve enjoyed reading other’s pre-trips that are written more as journals and write about the planning as its happening, so I thought I’d take a stab at it. Hopefully all will go well.


Before we start, here’s the cast:

Meeko- College guy/ the author of this trip report. I’m probably the most energetic member of the family and occasionally a bit dramatic. If anybody over-plans for trips, chances are good it’s me, but I’m trying to be a little more flexible this time around. I like the rides and shows at WDW, but I enjoy getting pictures of the characters just as much. No one else in my family usually has much of an interest in characters, but they’re fairly patient about my quests for photos and autographs.

Buzz- My brother and still one of my best friends. Buzz is funny and artistic, working primarily in photography. He has an interest in animation of all kinds, but especially likes Disney and PIXAR animation, hence, my DIS nickname for him “Buzz”. At WDW (is in life in general) Buzz is usually a bit mellower than I am. Along with the major attractions, he also enjoys finding the little details that each of the parks have to offer.

Mom- My mother is passionate, caring and loves to learn. Mom’s favorite part of WDW is undoubtedly World Showcase at EPCOT. She loves seeing the countries, experiencing the different cultures, and eating at the restaurants. Mom also enjoys spending time at the resort and is looking forward to relaxing and spending time at the pool.

Dad- How to sum up Dad? I guess you could say he’s kind of goofy at times, but all in all a pretty fun and supportive guy. One of the running gags in our family is that if you d not sure where Dad is, he’s probably sitting on the nearest bench. He’s also into The Nightmare Before Christmas and wishes that there were more Nightmare-related things in the parks.


The four of us have been making trips to WDW since Buzz and I were babies, originally taking annual daytrips to Magic Kingdom. Eventually, we discovered that staying a few nights at WDW would not only save the parents from having to spend hours on the road driving home after a long day in the park but also gave us the opportunity to visit the other aspects of WDW like EPCOT Center, Disney-MGM Studios, Disney Village Marketplace, and Discovery Island. Needless to say, a lot has changed over the years and truth be told Buzz and I have also spent trips to WDW without the parents, but we all still enjoy spending our summer vacation together and continuing the tradition.


For this next trip, the four of us have reservations for four days/ three nights (not sure whether to call that a long weekend of a short week, but whatever) at Pop Century. We’re still pretty early in the planning stages, but I’ll be sure to update as we go. Hope you enjoy it.

 

[meeko_33785]

We’re all still a little early on planning for this trip, but here’s a taste of what we’ve got so far.


As I said in the first installment, we’ll be staying 3 nights at Pop Century. We’ve stayed there a couple of times before and have really enjoyed it. It’s got everything that we would really use at a resort and a lower price than most everywhere else at WDW doesn’t hurt either! Apparently, the resort should be pretty busy when we’re there since we were told that the resort would be pretty much full on the days that we would be there. This should be interesting. We’ve also put in a request for two adjoining rooms for which hopefully will happen but apparently can’t be guaranteed.


The itinerary is still in its early stages, but we’re pretty looking at doing three days at the parks- one at EPCOT, one at Magic Kingdom, and one at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (which I have still been calling MGM and cannot seem to adjust to the new name). Animal Kingdom doesn’t really have anything new or anything that we defiantly want to see this year so it’ll be the park we’ll skip. We’re also planning on skipping Extra Magic Hours this year. We a few Extra Magic Hour mornings last summer and sometimes it really worked and sometimes it just made the parks extremely crowded. I think we’ll go back and try to trick of trying to trying to avoid the crowds and not going to the parks on their EMH days.


That’s about it so far. We’re working on trying to decide what ADRs we’ll need and (hopefully) will make those reservations soon.

 

[meeko_33785]

Well, now I think it’s time to talk a little bit about dining. This is one of the main areas of planning where everyone is active. I think it’s probably Mom’s favorite part. Normally, she’s the first to start checking out the menus online and start making suggestions, but we’re all pretty involved in at least putting out suggestions. Because we’re all fairly into it, it’s one of the first thing that get’s planned.


For this trip, we’ve already decided on three full-service meals:

• Rose and Crown at EPCOT (Lunch)
• Plaza Restaurant at MK (Lunch)
• Hollywood and Vine at DHS (Dinner)

We’ve eaten at Rose and Crown and Hollywood and Vine before and enjoyed them, but this will be the first time any of us have been to the Plaza Restaurant. From what I’ve seen of it, it looks pretty charming so I’m looking forward to it.


We’re keeping the rest of the meals for this trip open for CS restaurants. Most likely, we’ll be eating at the food court at Pop Century for dinner on the day we go to MK and maybe the day we go to EPCOT (depending on how long we stay at the park that day). We will defiantly be eating lunch at DHS though and we aren’t sure where we’ll eat that afternoon. None of the CS places at that park look particularly good. Pizza Planet is ok so we might end up eating there again. Anyone have any good suggestions on CS places at DHS?

 

[meeko_33785]

Thought that it was about time to spice up what’s been a fairly dry Pre-Trip so far with a few photos. In anticipation of staying at Pop Century, here are some pics from the December when we stayed there last.

The lobby of Classics Hall shortly after arriving, complete with Christmas tree

Retro WDW memorabilia in the lobby. Kind of wish they still had the Pluto doggie bags like in the one in the display. Awesome idea.

Another Christmas Tree in a dining room of Everything Pop overlooking the bus stop.

One of my favorite photos of the trip. We stayed in the 1970s area not far from here.

Another of my favorite photos.

A couple of photos of one of the rooms.

Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head wave good-bye as we're about to leave.


I enjoyed staying in the 70s last time, but hopefully we'll be in a different section this time around. I'm sure that Mom and Dad would like to be in an area that was near a pool, which the 70s didn't have. I'm hoping for either the 50s or 80s, but knowing the resort, I'd be happy with any of the buildings.

 

[meeko_33785]

Made the decision to try changing the title for the Pre-Trip. I always think so many of the Pre-Trips and Trip Reports have such clever names, but somehow I just never seen to come up with anything that holds a candle to most of the others here. I didn’t think “The ‘It Feels Too Early To Start A Pre-Trip (But Probably Isn't)’ Pre-Trip Report”, so it’s now officially “Parks and Pop Century”. Short, simple, says what we’ll be doing. Hopefully it’s interesting enough, but I know I’m happier with it.


There’s somewhat of a lull in planning right now. Now that all the ADRs are taken care of, I’m just happy with that for now knowing that we do have reservations for the places we wanted to eat and knowing what times we’ll have to work around at the parks. More planning will probably continue after the 4th of July, but for now I’m at least taking it (relatively) easy on the planning for now.

 

[meeko_33785]

Before we go on with planning, I thought I'd post a little more about the Disney preferences for each of the members of our family. Hopefully, this should help you get to know us better.


Meeko

• Favorite Movie: Beauty and the Beast
• Favorite Park: Magic Kingdom
• Favorite Attraction: Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Favorite Resort: Boardwalk Inn
• Favorite Restaurant: Boma
• Something I’m looking forward to doing on this trip: Taking more pictures around the parks and resort

Buzz

• Favorite Disney Movie: Toy Story
• Favorite WDW Park: Magic Kingdom
• Favorite WDW Attraction: Splash Mountain
• Favorite WDW Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge
• Favorite WDW Restaurant: Boma
• Something Buzz is looking forward to doing on this trip: Toy Story Midway Mania

Mom

• Favorite Disney Movie: Sleeping Beauty
• Favorite WDW Park: EPCOT or Animal Kingdom
• Favorite Attraction: Doesn’t have one
• Favorite Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge
• Favorite Restaurant: Chefs de France
• Something Mom’s looking forward to doing on this trip: Lunch at Rose and Crown

Dad

• Favorite Movie: The Nightmare Before Christmas
• Favorite Park: Doesn’t have one
• Favorite Attraction: Soarin’
• Favorite Resort: Animal Kingdom Lodge
• Favorite Restaurant: Boma
• Something Dad’s looking forward to doing on this trip: Relaxing

 

[meeko_33785]

Hasn’t had a lot of time to think about the trip lately, but I thought I’d continue the Pre-Trip with a few things that we’re thinking about doing for the first time on this trip.


Top of the list- Toy Story Midway Mania at DHS. Unless you haven’t been paying much attention, you probably know that this is the newest ride in WDW. From what I’ve seen it looks like fun. I think Buzz is most excited about it. From what I’ve seen, I’m looking forward to the queue as much as the ride. Looks like a really detailed and fun queue. This will defiantly be our #1 priority at DHS this year.


Also new to us will be the Block Party Bash parade at DHS. We’re not really the type that watches the parades every time we go to WDW, but we try to at least see them all once. I’m not a huge fan of the parades that stop and do shows, but this one looks good and there looks like there’ll be a bunch of unusual PIXAR characters in the parade, so it should be interesting. Hopefully it won’t rain that afternoon.


Not really anything new per say, but this will be the first time any of us have been to MK or EPCOT since Haunted Mansion and Spaceship Earth received their recent refurbishments. We’ll defiantly want to see both to see what’s changed.


As I mentioned before, we also have ADRs for the Plaza Restaurant at MK- a first for us. Out of all our meals, I’m looking forward to this one the most just because we’ve never been there before.


The last potential “new” thing that comes to mind right now is Wishes at MK. While Buzz and I have seen it a number of times before, Mom and Dad have never seen it. Mom defiantly wants to go to MK at night this year to see the park after dark (it’s been a while since she has), so we’re thinking about fitting in Wishes while we’re there.


Hopefully, we'll be able to fit in most of these new experiences on this trip.

 

[meeko_33785]

Just a quick update today. It’s been a busy week so there’s not much Disney news to report. Haven’t really been thinking too much about planning, but I’m looking through some of the Disney albums I own and what’s on itunes to work on a playlist for the trip to WDW. Buzz and I are trying to find songs that we think will reflect the trip the best. Haven’t really made any decisions yet, but with all the new PIXAR additions to Hollywood Studios, you can bet there’ll be at least a few PIXAR tunes in there.


Other than that, there’s not much to report right now. I’m thinking of adding a mini-trip report to the Pre-trip- sort of a flashback trip report from 1998. Thought it might be fun to take a peek at what we did 10 years ago and see a few photos. I’ll probably start working on that in the next few days, so I hope that you’ll keep an eye out.

 

[meeko_33785]

While the trip steadily approaches, I thought that it might be fun to turn back time 10 years and take a look at a trip from 1998. The cast list is the same as this upcoming trip, though we were 10 years younger (back when I was a “tween”, though I don’t think the term existed at that time). I figure that I’ll include a few photos as well, but keep in mind they are from 10 years old and not fantastic quality. Hope you enjoy.


Day One

Welcome to Coronado Springs Resort, the newest resort at WDW in 1998. We arrive around lunchtime, quickly check in, and drop our stuff off in the room. We stay in the Castias section in the same courtyard as this topiary:

We stayed there a fairly recently and the topiary was missing. Not sure if it was out for rehab or if it’s gone, but apparently they’ve been using it at Mexico in EPCOT during the Flower and Garden Festival. It was one of my favorite details at the resort at the time. After getting settled, the rest of the day is spent relaxing around the resort. We grab some lunch at the Pepper Market, spend time at the pool, and have dinner at the Maya Grill. Can’t remember a lot about the meal. It was good but not incredibly memorable. Still have never gone back, so I guess it never made much of an impression on any of us. The night ended early since we would have an early morning the next day.


Day Two

Our first theme park day of the trip is spent at the just-opened Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Back when AK first opened, the main gates opened at 7am supposedly because Disney thought that guests wanted to come to the park early to a) see the animals during prime early-morning viewing time and b) to compensate for the park closing early and having no fireworks show. Therefore, we get up before the crack of dawn and arrive at the park before 7am. First stop- Kilamanjaro Safaris, which defiantly wowed us all.

After Kilimanjaro we returned to Safari Village (as Discovery Island was called at the time) and ran across the now-defunct Discovery River Boats. As we walked by the entrance, the greeter CM called out saying that the line was short and would get much longer later in the day. The boat cruise circled the Tree of Life passing the edges of each of the park’s lands. There wasn’t a ton of scenery besides the construction of Kali River Rapids and Maharajah Jungle Trek which would open the next year. The lack of things to look at was attempted to be made up for by a CM on the boat showing cruisers small terrariums with small insects and amphibians and sharing facts about them. All in all, the attraction was fairly lame. The next year it was now the “Radio Disney River Cruise” and featured a tween-pop soundtrack, but it still wasn’t very interesting and closed shortly after.

Next, we returned to Harambe to see the Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail (later renamed Pangani Forest). Please excuse the lousy photo- it’s the only animal photo I could find from that year. All I can say is hooray for zoom lenses, clear digital photography, and a decade of photography experience! The meerkats were a highlight for me- don’t think that I’d ever seen one before. After going through the trail, we headed to Camp Minnie-Mickey for the first performance of the day for Festival of The Lion King. This was followed by a visit to Conservation Station (pre-rebranding as “Rakiki’s Planet Watch), lunch at Tuskers House, and It’s Tough To Be A Bug.

Next, it was back to Camp Minnie-Mickey to see something else that has since been renamed- Colors of the Wind, now “Pocahontas and Her Forest Friends”. Pocahontas was one of my favorite Disney movies at the time (as if you couldn’t guess by screen name) so I defiantly wanted to check out this attraction. It was cute, but didn’t really wow us to the point where we wanted to see it again. Guess we never will since we won’t be going to AK before it closes for good in September. We ended the day with a look around Dinoland but skipped Countdown to Extinction aka DINOSAUR (is it just me or did half the park get renamed since opening?), saving it for next time. After this, we return to the Coronado for a swim and dinner.


Next: Day Tree and Four

 

[meeko_33785]

Continuing on with our look back one decade back to 1998, we pick up on…


Day Three

On this day, we headed off to Disney-MGM Studios. We begin our day at the Backlot Tour (I doubt that I’ll ever start another trip report with than sentence. ) There was a bit more to the ride at that point- Residential Street, a larger boneyard, a working Studios, etc., so it was a lot more interesting back then. After looking through the AFI Showcase upon exiting, we head for the Magic of Disney Animation. It had just been refurbished to allow guests to view the newly-expanded animation studio that once made its home at Disney-MGM Studios. Plus, this was the summer that Mulan had come out, and they couldn’t help but promote the first film to be fully animated at the Florida Studios. Next, it was time for lunch so we made our way to the Sci-Fi Dine-In.


After lunch, Dad pointed out that there was going to be a “Star of the Day” star conversation at the Theater of the Stars starting soon. Back then, Disney use to have celebrities come to MGM Studios on a somewhat regular basis, do parades, interviews, and put their handprints in cement in front of the Chinese Theater. Dad talked us into going with a little protest since Buzz, Mom and I really weren’t big fans of the Star of the Day- Paula Abdul. This was back before she had made her comeback with "American Idol". After watching some of her interview, we went to get a spot for the Mulan parade.

We all enjoyed the parade- Mom especially. This was probably her favorite Disney parade of all time, or at least one of them. It was pretty interesting to see- much different than any of the other parades at the Studios before or since it.

After the parade, we headed towards the Chinese Theater (like my attempt at an “artsy” photo? Also, notice no Hat back then. I still miss the unobstructed view of the Theater) and hit the Great Movie Ride and the 1 Saturday Morning Sound Show. The later was a little show where audience members added sounds to the 101 Dalmatians Saturday morning cartoon that ran on ABC at the time. The show was ok, but not too great. The next year it would be replaced by Sounds Dangerous which unfortunately wasn’t really much of an improvement either. The day ended with a little exploring through Hollywood, Sunset and the New York Street, we ended the day at MGM with the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and returned to the Coronado.



Day Four

We spend out last day in the parks for this trip at EPCOT. We spend a little time in Future World exploring the Living Seas in its pre-Nemo days until World Showcase opened.

First stop- China. We had never seen the CircleVision movie in China before so we made this a priority to see on this trip. After China, we were near were we would have lunch- the Biergarten in Germany.

We continued through World Showcase stopping in Italy and the American Adventure- staying for the Voices of Liberty and the Stage show in the later pavilion (an air conditioning break on a very hot day). After the show, I found Meeko doing meet-and-greets outside the pavilion and got his autograph. This was right before I felt that I was too old to be meeting characters anymore. It was only a few years until I got over that. We continued through World Showcase until just when we leave Morocco it starts pouring down rain. We duck into the Impressions de France, thinking we’ll do something inside and the rain might clear up after the movie. No such luck. We all break out the old yellow Mickey ponchos and check out the United Kingdom, Canada, Mexico and China, checking out some of the shops and seeing some of the indoor entertainment at the latter two. We stay in China for dinner at the Lotus Blossom Café before concluding this EPCOT visit with a ride on Malestrom.



Next: The final two days

 

[meeko_33785]

Not much left now…


Day Five

Another more relaxing day. We don’t seem to do these relaxing days anymore, but then again we don’t stay for six days at a time anymore either. We sleep in and then headed to Downtown Disney where we check out a bunch of the shops at Marketplace, Pleasure Island and West Side. We also had lunch at House of Blues- a first of us.

After lunch, we split up. Buzz and I wanted to go to DisneyQuest which was brand-new at the time, but Mom wasn’t really interested and didn’t think she’d enjoy it, so she went off to check out more of the shops while Dad, Buzz and I went to DisneyQuest. (Incidentally, Mom did come with us to DisneyQuest on at least one later occasion and enjoyed it, so I guess she was wrong). We had a lot of fun for the most part. The Virtual Magic Carpet Ride was great. I remember they use to have an Imagineering demonstration at Innoventions where the Character Connection is now when the it first opened and they showed a demo of what the Carpet Ride would be like, so it was really neat to be able to ride the finished product. The only dud of the day in my opinion was the Buzz Lightyear bumper cars. Couldn’t figure it out, got stuck in a corner, and couldn’t get it to work. Normally I like bumper cars alright, but it just wasn’t a fun experience. After an afternoon at DisneyQuest, we headed back to Coronado and had dinner at the Pepper Market again.



Day Six

The last day of the trip. Not much to say about it. We did our usual breakfast at the resort followed by walking around the resort and getting some pictures before we leave.



Well, that’s about it for this mini-Trip Report flashback. It was fun getting to look back and remember this trip. Can't believe so much has changed! Hope you enjoyed it.


Back to planning this year's trip!

 

[meeko_33785]

Only a few weeks now. As the trip gets closer and closer, I have a nasty habit of worrying more and more. Will the crowds be too large? Will the plans work? Will everything go right? Or worse yet, will a hurricane hit the state before or while we go? Yes, I know- way too melodramatic, but that’s how my mind works. Wish we could go sometime other than August- the height of hurricane season, but that's the only time all of our schedules meet. Let’s try to stay positive and assume there still will be a trip and we’ll have fun (but let’s not get too excited just in case something does happen).


On the lighter side, Buzz and I are almost done picking out all the music for the trip to Disney. Once we’re done, I’ll post the playlist here. I also remembered one other possible “new experience” we could do on this trip- the new version of O Canada with Martin Short in EPCOT. Haven’t heard a lot about it and had forgotten that it was even changed until I saw a mention of it online recently.


That’s about it for now. More later.

 

[meeko_33785]

Well, we've decided on what our music for the trip to WDW will be. Buzz and I wanted to pick music that would get us into the mood for many of the things we hoped to be doing on this trip (plenty of PIXAR music for Disney's Hollywood Studios, music from various attractions in the parks we'll be visiting, some songs that come from the decades that are represented in Pop Century, etc.), so we looked through our Disney CDs and music on itunes to find the list we've come up with. Hopefully it will be a good soundtrack for the trip. We're a little behind the times when it comes to technology so we'll have to make the playlist into a mix tape. Here are the songs we've chosen:

1. Flying [Instrumental] from the non-Disney live-action Peter Pan (aka the music from all of the “Year Of A Million Dreams” commercials)
2. That’s How You Know from Enchanted
3. Moving Right Along from The Muppet Movie (Also not technically a Disney movie, but the Muppets are Disney characters now, right?)
4. Grim Grinning Ghosts from The Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom
5. Once Upon A Dream from Sleeping Beauty
6. The Flik Machine [Instrumental] from A Bug’s Life
7. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins
8. Listen to the Land [Instrumental] from The Land pavilion at EPCOT
9. Down To Earth from WALL-E
10. Hooray For Hollywood from The Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios
11. The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book
12. Life Is A Highway from Cars
13. Goodbye My Coney Island Baby [Instrumental] from Main Street USA at Magic Kingdom
14. Beauty and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast
15. You’ve Got A Friend in Me from Toy Story 2
16. Can You Feel The Love Tonight/ I Won’t Say (I’m In Love)/ Let’s Get Together/ Belle from Disney’s On The Record
17. Minnie’s Yoo-Hoo from Kerry Butler’s Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust album
18. Oh Celia! [Instrumental] from Monsters Inc.
19. Kiss The Girl from The Little Mermaid

I'm sure the list looks a little short, but since the trip up here will be relatively short, it should be perfect- just enough music to get us in the mood for the last hour before we arrive. I'm pretty happy with the list. Now all that's left it to dub the tape.

 

[meeko_33785]

It’s now been one month since I started the pre-trip. Still no responces, but that’s ok. Hopefully you lurkers are still enjoying the report and pics. There are only a few weeks now till the trip and we’ve pretty much got a basic outline of our plans for each day. Here's a look at what we've got right now:

Day One:

Arrive at Pop Century early in the morning and check in early

Head to EPCOT as soon as possible

EPCOT:

• Attraction Priorities: Spaceship Earth, Soarin’, O Canada
• Dining: Rose and Crown (lunch); Pop Century food court or EPCOT counter service (dinner)

Day Two:

Breakfast at the Food Court

Go to Magic Kingdom for rope drop

Magic Kingdom:

• Attraction Priorities: Haunted Mansion, Mickey’s Philharmagic
• Dining: Plaza Restaurant (lunch); Pop Century food court (dinner)

Mom and Dad return to Pop Century in the afternoon while Buzz and I stay at MK

Return to Pop Century for dinner at Food Court

Everyone return to MK for the evening


Day Three:

Breakfast at the Food Court

Go to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for rope drop

Disney’s Hollywood Studios:

• Attraction Priorities: Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror (Buzz and Meeko only), Block Party Bash, Beauty and the Beast
• Dining: DHS counter service (lunch); Hollywood and Vine (dinner)

Day Four:

Breakfast at Food Court

Explore/ take pictures around Pop Century before check out

 

[meeko_33785]

The trip is getting closer and closer. It feels like there’s still a lot to do to get ready, so I’m guessing things are going to get busy now.


Buzz read over what I have on the pre-trip and the only thing that he could think to add to the plans from what I’ve put so far is the 25th Anniversary exhibit at EPCOT. I completely forgot all about that, but it should be interesting. We’ll have to check that out when we’re at EPCOT. Buzz is also working on getting the mix tape ready for the trip. Hopefully it should be done by the end of the week. The playlist has been changed just a little from last week. This should be the last change before it's done. Here's the current playlist:

1. Flying [Instrumental] from the non-Disney live-action Peter Pan (aka the music from all of the “Year Of A Million Dreams” commercial)
2. That’s How You Know from Enchanted
3. Moving Right Along from The Muppet Movie (Also not technically a Disney movie, but the Muppets are Disney characters now, right?)
4. Grim Grinning Ghosts from The Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom
5. Once Upon A Dream from Sleeping Beauty
6. The Flik Machine [Instrumental] from A Bug’s Life
7. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins
8. Listen to the Land [Instrumental] from The Land pavilion at EPCOT
9. Down To Earth from WALL-E
10. Hooray For Hollywood from The Great Movie Ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios
11. The Bare Necessities from The Jungle Book
12. Sh-Boom from Cars (Replacing Life Is A Highway from Cars)
13. Goodbye My Coney Island Baby [Instrumental] from Main Street USA at Magic Kingdom
14. Beauty and the Beast from Beauty and the Beast
15. You’ve Got A Friend in Me from Toy Story 2
16. Can You Feel The Love Tonight/ I Won’t Say (I’m In Love)/ Let’s Get Together/ Belle from Disney’s On The Record
17. Minnie’s Yoo-Hoo from Kerry Butler’s Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust album
18. Kiss The Girl from The Little Mermaid
19. Ever Ever After from Enchanted (Replacing Oh Celia! from Monsters Inc.)

Things seem to be going pretty smoothly so far. Let’s hope it stays that way.

 

[meeko_33785]

While we’ve been planning for the trip, I’ve been checking the DIS and some of the other Disney sites here on the web to find out what characters have been out lately. Every trip, I usually try to get some character photos and if I can find a few characters I haven’t seen before. By now I’ve gotten photos of around 140-something characters (can’t remember the exact number; most of them are on the site in my signature so if you really want to know, you can count the characters on the site, though I’m not sure why you’d want to), so finding new characters has become more and more challenging. It appears that the only characters that I’ve yet to find that come out on even an occasional basis lately are Jiminy Cricket (at MK), Price Caspian (at DHS) and The Queen of Hearts (at DHS sometimes). There’s also a bunch of Playhouse Disney and Power Ranger characters that I’m not particularly willing to stand in line for, so chances are I’ll be skipping them this trip.


I’m hoping to at least get Jiminy since I’ve been looking for him for a while and keep missing him and Prince Caspian since the trend lately seems to be that characters from recent movies only stay out for a little while and unceremoniously disappear from the parks like the characters from Ratatouille, Meet The Robinsons, etc. We’ll have to wait and see though.


While we’re on the subject of finding new characters, here’s a few pics of some of the characters I met for the first time on my last couple of trips. Enjoy!

Marie from The Aristocats. Never thought I'd see an Aristocat in the parks! She was in France at EPCOT which seemed like the perfect place for her.

Dinos from Dinorama (T. Rex and Roxie by name). Apparently, these two aren't doing meet-and-greets anymore, so I'm glad I found them when I did.

Stanley from Playhouse Disney. I know I said that I'm not really interested in the Playhouse Disney characters and wouldn't normally wait in line for them, but nobody was in line for him so I figured "why not?" I heard he isn't really out anymore either.

Tweeldle Dee and Tweedle Dum from Alice in Wonderland. Can't believe it took me this long to meet these two! It's not like they're too rare to see or new to the parks.

Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc. I'd seen Sully before, but Mike had elluded me every time.

Power Rangers. Again, they had really short lines (only one family in front of me for both of them), so I went ahead and met these two. I don't think the Green Ranger does meet-and-greets anymore either, but I could be wrong. Seems like a lot of characters disappeared in the last year!

Remy and Emile from Ratatouille These two were so much fun. Too bad they aren't out anymore either.

 

[meeko_33785]

We’ve finally made it to August. We can now say that the trip is planned for this month! It’s beginning to get close enough where it seems that it really is going to happen.


We have now bought the tickets for the trip- Florida Resident Play-4-Days tickets. We’ll be using three of the four days for this trip and will have an extra day that we could use anytime in the next 12 or so months (a day in December perhaps?) Also, we’ve also finally received the Disney Vacation Planning DVD. A little late, but at least it came before the trip. I have to say, I wasn’t very impressed with the DVD. Parts of it I liked, parts of it were ridiculously cheesy- even for Disney. I thought the "Happiest Celebration on Earth" one was a lot more fun, but whatever. It’s a free DVD so I won’t complain.


Hopefully you’re still enjoying the pre-trip. I’m afraid it’s probably been a little dull, or at least I’m guessing since we’re on Page 2 now and I’ve still gotten no replies. I’ll probably post some more pics this week from past trips to make it a bit more exciting. Hopefully the trip report will be better than the pre-trip.

 

[meeko_33785]

Well, by now most everything is fairly planned out, so I think the remainder of the pre-trip will be updates on the final preparations and some pics from past trips. Thought that it would be fun to look at the last time we went to each of the places we're planning on visiting on this trip. I posted some pics from when we were at Pop Century last December earlier in the Pre-Trip, so that leaves photos from December's trip to Hollywood Studios (then still Disney-MGM) and photos from Magic Kingdom in EPCOT from last August's family vacation. Let's start with EPCOT:

Spaceship Earth- closed and almost finished with removing the wand and "EPCOT" sign. This month will be the first time that we'll see Spaceship Earth fully restored to its pre-Millennium look.

The wait was really short on Universe of Energy last time, so we gave it a try after none of us had been on it for over 5 years. It was more fun than I remembered.

Taken before eating at one of our favorite restaurants- Chefs de France. Great restaurant.

Refurbishment in Japan. There was a ton of rehab going on all around EPCOT last year. Maybe this year will be a little more scaffolding-free.

I liked this shot. I'm almost positive they shot those Werther's candy commercials here, and this is based on one of the shots from that commercial. Inspiration comes from strange places sometimes.

The "new" Three Caballeros ride in EPCOT. It was fun. I defiantly wouldn't mind riding it again this trip as a afternoon air-conditioning break.

For years, I've had the worst luck finding Tiger. Every time I went to a location where he normally hangs out he would be missing or leaving for the day. Finally found him again on this trip in the United Kingdom with Pooh and Eeyore.

I really liked how this pic turned out. It started pouring down rain after we left Canada and we ducked into one of the shops in Showcase Plaza for cover. This was taken though the glass door of the shop.


Next: Photos from Magic Kingdom

 

[meeko_33785]

Continuing with photos of past trip, here are some pics of MK from last August.

Topiary of Cinderella and Prince Charming in Fantasyland. I love that there’s a clock tower behind them. How perfect is that?

Alice and the Mad Hatter wave to gusts on the Tomorrowland Speedway. These two were a lot of fun to watch- running around Fantasyland, riding the teacups, causing mischief and such.

Magic Kingdom from the top of the Swiss Family Treehouse. I’d forgotten what a great view of the park the treehouse has.

Brer Fox and Brer Bear hanging out in Frontierland. I really liked how this character picture came out. They really do look great there.

Monsters Inc Laugh Floor! This was a cute show- better than I thought. If we have the time, I think we just might see it again on this trip.

Haunted Mansion was still under refurbishment last August. Seeing the “new” Mansion will be our top priority for MK this year.

My first Dole Whip! Defiantly wouldn’t mind getting another one on this trip- maybe even try a Dole Whip Float.

The Castle at night. Isn’t it beautiful?

 

[meeko_33785]

Time is getting shorter and shorter until the trip. While we’re still waiting, here are a few pics from our December trip to Disney-MGM Studios back when it was still called Disney-MGM Studios. I’m having a hard time adjusting to the new name for this park. I’ve been calling it MGM so long it’s hard to call it something else!

Entering the park under the “Disney-MGM Studios” sign one last time. So long MGM, hello Hollywood.

Ron Stoppable and Kim Possible hanging out on the Streets of America between missions. Boo-ya!

Toy Story Mania still under construction. Can’t wait to see the finished product.

A near-empty dining room at Mama Melrose’s restaurant. We were one of the first parties seated that day so believe me, the restaurant didn’t stay empty long.

Giselle- the star of one of my new newest favorite Disney films Enchanted (If you haven’t seen it, defiantly see it. Chances are good you’ll like it) making an appearance before the Holly-Day Parade.

The Harlem Gospel Choir was doing concerts at the Theater of the Stars after “Beauty and the Beast” had finished for the day. Defiantly a nice Christmas treat. We all enjoyed it.

The Osborne Lights on the Streets of America. This has to be my favorite photo of the lights from last year. What a sight!

The MGM Christmas tree as we’re leaving the park.