Well, I did it. DD's school had an extra-long weekend, so I booked us a quick trip to WDW for MNSSHP. I went for the first time this year and just knew how much she'd love it and apparently could not keep it to myself for a whole year. 
When I managed to score a great airfare and one of those $130/night rooms at AKL with my AP, the die was cast.
We tried ME for the first time. I usually book a ride, but decided to give this a go. We only waited about 5 minutes to get on a bus, though we were the last of several resorts on the itinerary. It was wonderful not to have to worry about our luggage, though because of our very late-evening arrival, it was a little problematic. When I booked ME, I was told that they would bring the bag up, though it could be as late as 1am, unless I requested that they wait until morning. Soooo, I let DD go to sleep while I waited up and stayed dressed. I passed out, which turned out to be ok since they never tried to deliver the bag that night and I had to call down to request its delivery in the morning...... An inconvenience we probably wouldn't have had to deal with if our flight wasn't so freakishly late, but still.....
Anywho, because the trip was so short and the price so good, I decided to go with the Deluxe and wound up at the AKL. I cannot tell you how much I liked the place and DD was just entranced by everything from the pool to the animals outside the window. The staff was great - friendly and helpful. The room was nice - small bathroom, especially for such a nice hotel, but very comfy beds. We both loved Boma and Jiko - food and staff were both excellent. The Mara.... eh. Typical Disney breakfast was pretty good, the pizza was also pretty typically Disney - edible but mediocre. Disclaimer - I am vegetarian, so my choices at lunch seemed to be pizza or pizza as far as hot meals and I did not get to try some of the more interesting-looking items. If we get to spend more time at AKL, DD would like to try more of the kids activities, which did look fun. Me, I'll be bringing my own coffee so I can have a decent cup while we watch the giraffes.
We both tried Crocs for the first time. I think they look cute on kids, hideous on us grown folks, but I decided that so many rave reviews were worth a listen. I'm mostly glad I did. I have serious foot issues that usually have me having to force myself to take every single step necessary to get back to the hotel room after a few hours at the parks. With the crocs, I walked a good part of the day on our first park day and wasn't in anywhere near that much pain! Second day, heels still comfy, but starting to get rubs on top of feet. Third day - rubs turn very painful, moleskin helps, but Crocs keep rolling up the moleskin so it comes off. Gotta tackle that problem because if I can, I'm a real convert. Clunky dang shoes, but I'm still marveling at how much pain I avoided with them. (We had fun adding spooky Jibbitz for the party.)
At MK on Saturday, we stumbled onto the soft opening of the new Million Dreams castle stage show. DD and I both liked it better than the Cinderellabration show. Worth checking out.
Typhoon Lagoon - fun, but good gosh, does the bottom of the wave pool *have* to be quite so rough? LOL I really scraped heck out of a couple of toes and when I went to first aid at the end of our day to get some bandaids so I could put my shoe on to head back to the hotel, there was a gentleman there with rub-burns all over his face getting patched up. OUCH! Gotta give them points for the shark swim, but take away a few for lack of a big-kids play area like BB has. That all sounds kinda negative, but our TL day was a whole lotta fun and I'm sure we'll be back.
So. MNSSHP. Very cool. DD dressed as a sort of Dark Bride - black dress, black flowers, etc. I made a Tshirt with a picture of Sully screaming that said "Boo to Who?" underneath the pic. We both got some nice comments and the kids working HM really got into the spirit with DD - took pictures, chatted, pretended to take her flowers to leave on one of the graves.... Did LTT for dinner and it was nice to get pics of the characters (Chip, Dale, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto) in their masks. Caught the first Villains show - sat down by the ropes pretty early and unfortunately the crowd that gathered behind us also sat, which for some reason I hadn't anticipated, so we wound up staying seated (yeah, I'm a chicken and they heckled the couple who did stand), which meant that we were close, but unable to see much when the dancers weren't on the very front of the stage. Ah well, still fun. Plus, Maleficent herself joined the gang for a meet and greet after the show. The lines were crazy, but we got a shot of DD with Maleficent, which was one of my goals for the evening.
After the show, we turned around and wound up behind one line of seated people for the parade. The parade was fun, with a song that gets stuck in your head and characters you don't see often. The gravediggers may well be my favorite bit. Lines for photos were long, candy lines were varied but even the long ones moved pretty well. We did manage to get photos with Mr Walrus and with Snow White and all 7 Dwarves. (Yes, I have a weakness for characters and enjoyed seeing the rare ones.) While this party was more crowded than the other time I went, it was still only crowded mainly along the parade route and by the castle for Hallowishes - most rides were walk-ons and we could walk around easily. Certainly better than a day in July.
We didn't get any of the Million Dreams, but we did see a family at CHH get accosted by a crowd of CMs and handed some sort of certificate.
DD did a little pin trading, I did a bit of minor shopping. We rode most of our favorite rides while saving energy for the party. We had animals outside the window quite often and DD never tired of that. We ate great food and tried a couple of new places. And now it's off to dream about the next trip.
When I managed to score a great airfare and one of those $130/night rooms at AKL with my AP, the die was cast.We tried ME for the first time. I usually book a ride, but decided to give this a go. We only waited about 5 minutes to get on a bus, though we were the last of several resorts on the itinerary. It was wonderful not to have to worry about our luggage, though because of our very late-evening arrival, it was a little problematic. When I booked ME, I was told that they would bring the bag up, though it could be as late as 1am, unless I requested that they wait until morning. Soooo, I let DD go to sleep while I waited up and stayed dressed. I passed out, which turned out to be ok since they never tried to deliver the bag that night and I had to call down to request its delivery in the morning...... An inconvenience we probably wouldn't have had to deal with if our flight wasn't so freakishly late, but still.....
Anywho, because the trip was so short and the price so good, I decided to go with the Deluxe and wound up at the AKL. I cannot tell you how much I liked the place and DD was just entranced by everything from the pool to the animals outside the window. The staff was great - friendly and helpful. The room was nice - small bathroom, especially for such a nice hotel, but very comfy beds. We both loved Boma and Jiko - food and staff were both excellent. The Mara.... eh. Typical Disney breakfast was pretty good, the pizza was also pretty typically Disney - edible but mediocre. Disclaimer - I am vegetarian, so my choices at lunch seemed to be pizza or pizza as far as hot meals and I did not get to try some of the more interesting-looking items. If we get to spend more time at AKL, DD would like to try more of the kids activities, which did look fun. Me, I'll be bringing my own coffee so I can have a decent cup while we watch the giraffes.
We both tried Crocs for the first time. I think they look cute on kids, hideous on us grown folks, but I decided that so many rave reviews were worth a listen. I'm mostly glad I did. I have serious foot issues that usually have me having to force myself to take every single step necessary to get back to the hotel room after a few hours at the parks. With the crocs, I walked a good part of the day on our first park day and wasn't in anywhere near that much pain! Second day, heels still comfy, but starting to get rubs on top of feet. Third day - rubs turn very painful, moleskin helps, but Crocs keep rolling up the moleskin so it comes off. Gotta tackle that problem because if I can, I'm a real convert. Clunky dang shoes, but I'm still marveling at how much pain I avoided with them. (We had fun adding spooky Jibbitz for the party.)
At MK on Saturday, we stumbled onto the soft opening of the new Million Dreams castle stage show. DD and I both liked it better than the Cinderellabration show. Worth checking out.
Typhoon Lagoon - fun, but good gosh, does the bottom of the wave pool *have* to be quite so rough? LOL I really scraped heck out of a couple of toes and when I went to first aid at the end of our day to get some bandaids so I could put my shoe on to head back to the hotel, there was a gentleman there with rub-burns all over his face getting patched up. OUCH! Gotta give them points for the shark swim, but take away a few for lack of a big-kids play area like BB has. That all sounds kinda negative, but our TL day was a whole lotta fun and I'm sure we'll be back.
So. MNSSHP. Very cool. DD dressed as a sort of Dark Bride - black dress, black flowers, etc. I made a Tshirt with a picture of Sully screaming that said "Boo to Who?" underneath the pic. We both got some nice comments and the kids working HM really got into the spirit with DD - took pictures, chatted, pretended to take her flowers to leave on one of the graves.... Did LTT for dinner and it was nice to get pics of the characters (Chip, Dale, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto) in their masks. Caught the first Villains show - sat down by the ropes pretty early and unfortunately the crowd that gathered behind us also sat, which for some reason I hadn't anticipated, so we wound up staying seated (yeah, I'm a chicken and they heckled the couple who did stand), which meant that we were close, but unable to see much when the dancers weren't on the very front of the stage. Ah well, still fun. Plus, Maleficent herself joined the gang for a meet and greet after the show. The lines were crazy, but we got a shot of DD with Maleficent, which was one of my goals for the evening.
After the show, we turned around and wound up behind one line of seated people for the parade. The parade was fun, with a song that gets stuck in your head and characters you don't see often. The gravediggers may well be my favorite bit. Lines for photos were long, candy lines were varied but even the long ones moved pretty well. We did manage to get photos with Mr Walrus and with Snow White and all 7 Dwarves. (Yes, I have a weakness for characters and enjoyed seeing the rare ones.) While this party was more crowded than the other time I went, it was still only crowded mainly along the parade route and by the castle for Hallowishes - most rides were walk-ons and we could walk around easily. Certainly better than a day in July.
We didn't get any of the Million Dreams, but we did see a family at CHH get accosted by a crowd of CMs and handed some sort of certificate.
DD did a little pin trading, I did a bit of minor shopping. We rode most of our favorite rides while saving energy for the party. We had animals outside the window quite often and DD never tired of that. We ate great food and tried a couple of new places. And now it's off to dream about the next trip.
