Thanksgiving AND New Year's?! Whew! - Update 3/12 Pg. 17

[IheartDDuck]

Hooray for getting BLT! We haven't stayed there yet either but last summer when me, my dad and sister went we went over there to see what it was like. It looked really cool!

Great day at DHS! Nothing beats starting your day off with TSM and it looks like you got a lot of other things accomplished too. That is so cool you spotted Figment!

We're super excited about BLT. We got the opportunity to check it out last year as well, and it was so cool. I was surprised honestly that they had three studios for us!

Figment is one of my favorites and has been forever. I miss the old ride so much.

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Hi Danielle! I'm joining in! I can't wait to read about how you managed Disney in three days - I thought we were crazy for attempting four! I'm going back to catch up now!

 

[scottny]

Great updates and pics.

Congrats on BLT. That is one we r thinking of for October but will probably hope for BCV being F&W is going on. Right now we are at SSR.

Nice to do TSM twice.

MMM, those jelly beans looked good

WOW! u r going back fast. Lucky you.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Hi Danielle! I'm joining in! I can't wait to read about how you managed Disney in three days - I thought we were crazy for attempting four! I'm going back to catch up now!

I seriously don't know how we did it either! I've never been for that short of a trip before.

Great updates and pics.

Congrats on BLT. That is one we r thinking of for October but will probably hope for BCV being F&W is going on. Right now we are at SSR.

Nice to do TSM twice.

MMM, those jelly beans looked good

WOW! u r going back fast. Lucky you.

I'm really excited about BLT. The models are so cool, and I was floored that we managed to get three rooms.

This is the fastest turn around I've ever had to WDW. I think I need to join a support group.....

 

[Lovemy3babes]

Great update! You and your mom did some really fun things in DHS. I have always wanted to go see One Man's Dream. Next trip for sure! I want some of those Uno cards!!! We love Uno in our house.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Great update! You and your mom did some really fun things in DHS. I have always wanted to go see One Man's Dream. Next trip for sure! I want some of those Uno cards!!! We love Uno in our house.

I'm actually amazed that we hadn't bought those Uno cards before! We love all kinds of card games in my house.

 

[Nermel9]

Great update! I love Muppetvision, I have to do it at least once on every trip! I love Bean Bunny!

I haven't done the Backlot tour in years...maybe I should check it out next time!

I love your Lotso pics! He is so pink!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Great update! I love Muppetvision, I have to do it at least once on every trip! I love Bean Bunny!

I haven't done the Backlot tour in years...maybe I should check it out next time!

I love your Lotso pics! He is so pink!

He is really pink and totally smells like strawberries! I love it!

Bean Bunny is so awesome. My favorite part with him is the "Dream a Little Dream" number with Piggy.

 

[Emilyswish]

Thanks for sharing your report! I'm so happy to hear that Lotso really smells like strawberries! I hope we get to him when we go!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Thanks for sharing your report! I'm so happy to hear that Lotso really smells like strawberries! I hope we get to him when we go!

Thanks for joining! Hopefully I'll have more to come this weekend. I see that you have a New Year's PTR. I will come over!

 

[IheartDDuck]

So we left off having dinner at POP and relaxing for a while. We decided to change our clothes too. I admit, I have this weird thing about changing in the middle of the day at Disney. Normally, if it's hot, I feel very icky by the middle of the day, and like to change to freshen up a bit. I think it's all of the walking and sweating!

It wasn't that hot out, but I have to keep with tradition, right?!

After changing, we headed out at about 7pm. I had been told when I made the reservation for the fireworks dessert party that we could check in at 8pm, so an hour is ample time to get there. This will play into the story later.

The line for the Magic Kingdom bus was crazy! Everyone was obviously heading over there to watch the fireworks. So I did something crazy. An Epcot bus pulled up. I told my mom that we should just hop the Epcot bus. I know that it would take a little bit longer, but I really wanted to take my monorail ride too! Can't miss that.

We got on the Epcot bus, and of course got the question from the driver "are you sure you want to go to Epcot?" I told him yes. I know they get people all of the time that don't know what they're doing. I'm just playing the system!

The bus ride was short, and there was no one on our bus with us. Our driver encountered a huge problem in the Epcot parking lot though. You know when they have to drive through the part where the charter buses drop people off? Well a charter bus FULL OF CHEERLEADERS had just dropped off and were unloading. Needless to say, they were just walking through the middle of the bus area in front of the WDW buses. Our driver had to stick his head out of the window and yell at them that they need to use the crosswalks. I'm telling you, it was an absolute hazard! I felt soooo bad for our driver, because it was like dodging cones!

On top of this, these kids were completely unchaparoned, which leaves me to believe that they were possibly college freshmen? I really didn't think so though, because they were awfully young. Now, I want everyone to understand, I have nothing against cheerleaders.....I just have something against obnoxious people, and they were absolutely obnoxious. Yelling, running, screaming, cutting in front of people in wheelchairs, you name it, they did it. And speaking in such a vulgar manner! F-bombs everywhere! I just looked at my mom and asked her if she was glad that we were simply hopping on the monorail and heading over the the Magic Kingdom. She just looked at me like this .

I know I didn't behave like this when I was a teenager. Am I the only one that believes that kids are just getting worse and worse? There is absolutely no respect for anyone.

Anyway, we headed through security and up the monorail ramp at breakneck speed. When we were waiting on the platform, we got a text from my cousin Heather that they were on the way to the Magic Kingdom. Apparently they were just parking at the TTC and were heading in. I told her that we were on the monorail to the TTC, and that we would wait for them at the entrance to the monorail for the Magic Kingdom when we got there.

So, my decision to take the bus to Epcot actually worked out, because we were meeting up with our family at the TTC. This worked better, because of the sheer magnitude of the crowds at the Magic Kingdom. It was easier to meet them in a location that wasn't so chock full of people.

We got there before them, and in no time they were upon us in the TTC. It consisted of my aunt, uncle, cousin Heather, cousin Nicole, Nicole's husband, Nicole's two daughters from her first marriage, her husband's daughter from his first marriage, and their son. Whew! Got all that?!

We all made it to the Magic Kingdom together and said that we would meet up after the fireworks. They were going to find a spot to watch them and we were heading the the dessert party. We took a few obligatory pictures with them at the front, but I won't post them since I don't know how they would feel about that.

So mom and I were heading through the mass of crowds to make it to Tomorrowland Noodle Station. Had to get my castle pic.

There was a line to get into the dessert party, but I figured they were just queuing up to let us in. Remember they had told us 8pm? It was actually supposed to be 9pm! So everyone was there early, and the fireworks weren't even starting until 10pm! Well had I known that in advance, we wouldn't have left our family so early! Oh well. Nothing we could do about that.

We struck up a conversation with the family that was in line with us. They had asked us if we had ever done the dessert party before. I told them that we hadn't done it in Disney World, only in Disneyland when they used to do it for Fantasmic!. They told us that they were staying off property, but that the next time they came they really wanted to stay on property. Apparently their parents have another timeshare, so they typically stay at the timeshare off property. They were also annual passholders. They were looking into renting points from a DVC member, and I told them that would be a good idea. They were under the impression that they would be eligible for the member perks by renting the points. My mom told me this after the fact. We didn't get the chance to tell them unfortunately that the perks like discounts are only available for the members.

We were finally let inside, and we were seated. We had a great seat right in front. Here was my view directly from our seat.

I got up and took a few more pictures. I love the castle like this.

Then it was off to the dessert party! I was so entranced with the desserts, that I only got one picture.

Sorry about the lack of food porn! I was so distracted!

Let me tell you though, it was absolutely worth the money that I spent on it. I am glad too that we decided to eat dinner at 5pm, because it gave us plenty of room. I admit, I tasted everything that was at the buffet!

Then it was time for the fireworks. I was playing with the fireworks settings on my two cameras, so bear with the pictures. Some of them turned out to be cooler then they are actually good. You definitely need a tripod to get good pictures.

I don't watch fireworks every trip, but I need to make more of an effort. Wishes is just so much fun to watch and it gets me choked up!

The original plan was the meet up with the family, but by this time, it was late, and our late travel day and early morning was really catching up with us. I sent a text to Heather to let her know that we were heading out. We walked through the stores on the way out, and when we got to the front, we saw Heather, my aunt, my uncle, and one of Nicole's girls (Alyssa) sitting up front.

I forgot to mention that we missed the MSEP because we were at the dessert party. I was a little bit upset, because that reminds me so much of my childhood, and we were likely not going to see it on a different day. I was sad...

So we stopped up front to talk to them a little bit, and then they made an announcement over the park intercom that the MSEP was going to begin again in 15 minutes! What?! I looked at mom and basically told her that we had to stay to watch it!

I got the best seat ever! We were in the area in the front by the train station, and we got seats right on the curb. I haven't had a curb seat to a parade in I don't know how many years!

I sat down on the curb with Alyssa and Heather and we waited for the parade to start. Here's what I got. This is how close we were...

Continued in next post.

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

Great update! How much was the dessert party? I know when it first started it was pretty cheap but has gone up now!

We were happy to not see any of the cheerleaders. I think we only saw them in one park on one day and it was a smaller group but I think they finished up towards the end of our trip or beginning maybe. I didn't see any at POP and didn't expect to see any at WL.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Continued from previous post

I didn't want to bore you with too many pictures, because I took tons!

At this point, it was really time to say goodbye. Now we tried to make plans for the next day together. We were going back to the Magic Kingdom, and were under the impression that's what the family was doing. It was at this time that they told us they were going to Hollywood Studios and likely to Epcot. We had already been to Hollywood Studios! Mom had made it very clear when we found out we would overlap that we had a tight schedule since we were only there for three days. We told them we would try to meet up the next evening at Epcot.

Does it seem to everyone else that it's always you who has to make sacrifices?

We parted ways with tentative plans, and were back to POP. I was really nervous, because this was the second mass exodus from the park, and I knew that POP's stop would be full to the brim. Yup, the queue was full. However, two buses pulled up at the same time. One began loading the guests in wheelchairs, and the other started loading everyone else. Very efficient if you ask me. They cut the line off a few people ahead of us, then began to ask if anyone wanted to stand. We just wanted to get to the resort, so mom and I volunteered. We had been standing all day, and an extra 10 minutes back to the resort wouldn't kill us.

The bus ride was quick and I was grateful to the bus driver for not dilly dallying on the way back. We were off the bus and back in our room by about midnight. We got washed up for the night and I wrote a little of my TR. Hopefully another early start in the morning.

Next up: Magic Kingdom.....would we make it to Epcot to see the family?

 

[IheartDDuck]

 

[TinkerbellLuvr7]

nice PP pics! We can never seem to get good ones from MK. We did get one good one last year and that one wasn't even that great. We seem to get great ones at Epcot and I'm never sure why!?

 

[IheartDDuck]

Great update! How much was the dessert party? I know when it first started it was pretty cheap but has gone up now!

We were happy to not see any of the cheerleaders. I think we only saw them in one park on one day and it was a smaller group but I think they finished up towards the end of our trip or beginning maybe. I didn't see any at POP and didn't expect to see any at WL.

I think after tax for the two of us it was around $50. I know that I looked at the ones they were offering for Christmas and New Year's, and they're really expensive. Almost $40 a person now I think.

I wasn't expecting the cheerleaders. However, this was the only time that we saw them, so I was happy with that.

nice PP pics! We can never seem to get good ones from MK. We did get one good one last year and that one wasn't even that great. We seem to get great ones at Epcot and I'm never sure why!?

Funny, as you'll see later, the worst ones of my trip are from Epcot. The pictures turned out blurry in the evening.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Woo, the trip is coming up in less then two weeks, so I need to get cracking on all of this!

Day 2 Itinerary

Animal Kingdom by 8am
Back to room early to turn in early!

Animal Kingdom is my least favorite park. I just don't spend as much time there, but the rides I do go on I love. So we figure that it's likely that we are going to be done early on this day, so we will likely turn in early too. Need to do that at least once to make sure we catch up from the prior days. If we're not ready to turn in, then we'll do MK in the evening since that park is open until 11pm.

Dining -
Everything POP Breakfast
Flame Tree or Pizzafari for lunch (this is dependent on weather. If it's cold, it's Pizzafari!)
Everything POP Dinner

Our must do's are:
Expedition Everest
Dinosaur
Kilimanjaro Safari
It's Tough to be a Bug

Everything else is gravy!

See you real soon!

 

[IheartDDuck]

Okay, let's keep this show rolling! I want to get my updates done so I can change this to a two for one trip report! I want to get this done before we go back!

We didn't get out of the room quite as early as we had originally planned to. We both slept really soundly, from the late days we had, and I think it all started to catch up with us. I was up by about 7:20am and we were out of the room by 7:55am. We stopped again at Everything POP for breakfast. I completely spaced out, so our food is half eaten by the time I got pictures!

I got: French Toast Platter, with bacon and sausage, grapes and sweet tea

Mom got: Key West Omelet with breakfast potatoes and mixed fruit

The food court was a little more crowded this morning then it was the day before. We finished up and got on our way. Apparently we went back to the room before we left, but I honestly can't remember why. I did take pictures of our towel animals in the window though.

We got a bus in no time, and we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom. We only had a few must does on our list this way. You'll see later, the day ended up progressing differently then we had anticipated. We wanted to make sure we got plenty of photopass pictures taken. I took my castle pictures:

Our first stop was Monster's Inc Laugh Floor. The cast member that was at the entrance was pretty funny. He was waving me into the attraction, and reads my shirt which says "I'm With the Band". He says "I'm with the band too. I'm the trumpet player." It was funny because he was whispering to me like it was some hush hush secret. I love it when cast members interact with you apart from their normal duties.

We got in right before they were starting a new show and we were seated in the auditorium after about 2 minutes. I like this show and it always makes me chuckle, but I think what I like most are the kids. They are so entertained by the show that it is just too funny. The whole "that guy" skit makes me laugh, and the guy they picked this time was a really good sport and would get up and dance around!

After we filled the laugh canister, it was off to Buzz Lightyear. The wait ended up being only 10 minutes total.

I ended up winning.

My score

Mom's score

Let's just say that she was less then thrilled with me on this ride. She was getting very frustrated as I was steering the car. I explained to her that this is why Jason and I will get into separate cars, because we have this whole issue with wanting to be the one that controls the car. He who controls the car gets a higher score. Truly, proven fact!

After this we decided to head to Carousel of Progress. I love everything that it stands for. When I watch it, I think it really makes you appreciate how easy we have it now. I'm a sentimental fool, I know!

After that it was time for our trip around Tomorrowland on the Peoplemover. I'm so glad that it's back to being called that.

It was on the Peoplemover that mom confessed to me that her feet were hurting really bad. Apparently, the pair of flip flops were just rubbing her feet the wrong way and to add insult to injury, the bottom of her feet were hurting really bad too. So, I thought if that was the case, we could just get her a pair of Mickey Crocs. So, after the Peoplemover, we went on a search. There is not one pair of Mickey Crocs in the Magic Kingdom! They seem to not carry them anymore. They went from being insanely popular, to being non-existent. Either that, or I am completely blind. The kiosk that used to be in Adventureland is gone, they didn't have them at Island Traders, or in any of the shops in Fantasyland.

At this point, I suggested that we switch shoes, but she didn't want my feet to start hurting either, because she said then we'd both be useless. Regardless, I made her switch shoes with me for a while until we found a solution. She suggested that we have lunch so she could relax for a bit. Hopefully, she said, her feet would get better.

Took these pictures on the way to lunch

The new queue area for Winnie the Pooh is so cute!

Where would we eat????

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

I think I'm finally all caught up! I really enjoyed reading your dessert party post. I'm considering it for our disneymoon in June (if they're offering it then) so I'm trying to read up on it as much as I can.

I can't believe you have another trip coming up so soon!

 

[wdwgirl03]

Oh wow, look at the new queue for Winnie the Pooh! I had no idea it was going to be so elaborate. I wonder if they're going to do that for a bunch of the rides especially with the expansion. Hmmm...In a way it kind of reminds me of the one at Disneyland.

Ugh, that is annoying about the cheerleaders! I know I never acted like that as a teenager either. I do have to agree that it does seem like kids are getting worse. That's not to say they all are but as a teacher I've seen a few obnoxious ones (why I do NOT want to teach middle school!). I don't know where some kids get off acting like that.

haha, nice Buzz scores. Your mom's score is pretty typical of my sister. She gets so mad if we get a high score.