That was the BEST Most Magical Trip EVER!! (A Sept 2011 TR) [COMPLETED]

[katt789]

loved the trip report - keep it coming - brought back lots of very happy memories at the World. we are leaving in 5 days and taking our DS 6 on his first trip to the World - cannot wait to experience it with him.

tracey

Ah! How exciting!! 5 days! (though less than that by now!) you guys must be pumped!! And taking a kid for thier first trip, wow, I cannot wait to do that! Just so magical!

 

[katt789]

i finally caught up with all your updates and i'm loving it so far! you guys look like you had so much fun! it is so exciting that you are auditioning in december! good luck! i can't wait to read more!

Thanks! It was an awesome trip, the best one I've had yet (though, that's out of 2..) and thank-you!! I'm getting a little nervous, as you can be cut before you even get to do anything, based on your height, but I'm sure it'll all be great!!

 

[katt789]

Alright, I am going to warn you now, this update will be pictures and mostly pictures (which is what I’ll probably do for most shows/fireworks, etc) I take a TON of photos, especially of shows, and especially of ones I love so much. I’ve narrowed it down to the 20 best of the day, (approximately) I won’t bore you by the million that I got.

Now, let me tell you, if you have time for one thing, and one thing only in Animal Kingdom, this should be it. (especially if you have smaller kids that won’t want to ride Everest!) Festival of the Lion King is such an amazing show. The vocals, the specialty performers, the rest of the performers, it just so fantastic, I’ve nearly cried watching it. I bought the “soundtrack” last trip we went, and I listen to it at least 3 times a week! My dream job would probably be to be that blue bird dancer, she’s so incredible, GUH! Anyway, enough about my love of the show, let’s get on with some pictures! Am I right!?

Tumble Monkeys!! I can’t imagine having the strength to do those acrobatics every day for as long as they do (think about how many times they do it per day!?) I mean, I know that once it gets into your body, it just becomes muscle memory, and you don’t really even have to think while doing it, but still, having the energy to flip around like that, by the end of the week, I’d be dying!

Fire-baton guy! Some of these pictures turned out really well!

And; of course, my dream job: the Can You Feel the Love Tonight dancers. These guys are just absolutely amazing. I’m pretty sure that this is a different girl than we saw last time, she was still amazing, but I did like last years better!

Wow, just wow. So incredible!

Like I said, this is a DO NOT MISS on my list. If you have time for it, DO IT. And if you have to choose between FOTLK and the Finding Nemo show…go for FOTLK. Personally, my opinion (as well as Nick & Amy’s) is that the Finding Nemo show wasn’t that great, a nice place for an air conditioned nap midday maybe, but that’s about it.

Once the show was wrapped up, Nick decided that he was going to head back to the hotel, he still wasn’t feeling to great after riding Everest, and we had a Halloween party to get to that night, he knew he wouldn’t make it through the whole day. Tyler decided that he would join him, go relax, and try and figure out a costume for the party that night. Amy & I weren’t nearly done at AK, so we split off on our separate adventures!

 

[ronnmel]

I LOVE Festival of the Lion King! I agree with you, it's a must-see at AK!!

 

[shan23877]

Great pics from FOTLK. We missed it this trip because DD and DH were grumpy. They're not getting away with that again!

 

[katt789]

I LOVE Festival of the Lion King! I agree with you, it's a must-see at AK!!

It's close to being my favorite show at WDW, tied with Beauty & the Beast over at DHS. I'm just not sure which one I love more!!

Great pics from FOTLK. We missed it this trip because DD and DH were grumpy. They're not getting away with that again!

Thanks! I always take a million photos, it's just such an awesome show, I'd love to be a part of it!!

 

[katt789]

Amy and I were off on our own adventures around the Animal Kingdom, heading through some of the exploration trails, taking some photopasses, and meeting some characters. We stopped to look at some bats, and some tigers along the way! Not to mention, some ice cream! For the girls, we used most, of not all, of our snack credits on ice cream bars! The boys…used them for bottled water, I will admit, near the end of the trip, I started buying water oop, instead of refilling my bottles, at the end of 6 days, the tap water smells distinctively like POTC, and that’s just a gross thought while drinking it…

With all of the characters that we had heard were out meeting, we knew that Thumper & Miss Bunny had a chance of being out over in Camp Minnie Mickey, we had looped back around the park after looking in some shops & buying a couple of things. (I finally bought a watch, an Ariel one! A dress and some baby clothes for a friend) we scanned past CMM again to look down the pathway, and I saw a bunny! (Which I pointed, and shouted “I see a bunny!!” and Amy & I took off running to make sure that we didn’t miss the meet & greet, while running past the entrance to FOTLK, Amy shouted “I see a Thumper!!” a bunch of the cm’s around started laughing at us, and we joined into their laughter, it was a pretty funny moment. Thumper is just *so* cute, adorable! While he signed my book, he took my pen (the one with all the princesses on it, and a little crown on the top) and gestured to our heads, suggesting we were princesses. Then he “crowned’ Miss Bunny, and gestured that she was his princess, and they did a little kiss. SO CUTE.

After saying good bye to our furry friends, we decided to check out the rest of the characters in CMM, but chose not to go see the Chipmunks again, as we’d already seen them a couple of times by now, but figured that Goofy was in need of a visit!

This was the only time on the trip that we came across a not-so-great photopass photographer. Amy & I had began to just swap cameras at character meet & greets so we had pictures of ourselves on our own cameras, and as I was taking pictures of her, the photpass guy refused to take any of her, asking “are you done shooting her yet?” before he would take any pics! Not cool in my opinion, we want to have as many pics as possible. I do get it if maybe it was something to do with double flashes, but still. We left Camp Minnie Mickey and went out to circle the park again, just kind of wandering, and killing time until the 100 Acre Wood characters would be back out, and along the way, ran into a friendly bug!

Next up: the 100 Acre Wood!! It’s adventure time with Winnie the Pooh! We had a meal booked at the Crystal Palace for later in the week, but we figured, hey, why not meet them twice? Character interactions are different every time, so we liked to meet as many as possible. We swapped cameras, as per usual, and managed to get there right on time, the line just kept building behind us, but we didn’t wait too long. Amy even got to have some bouncing time with Tigger!!

 

[katt789]

Continuing on with our character hunting at Animal Kingdom, well, where to head next but Rafiki’s Planet Watch??!! Last trip we had gotten Pocahontas out there, and Amy knew there were some others in that region, so we hopped on the train, and off we went!
I’m sure that somewhere in that look of the park we stopped for some photopass pictures, and specifically asked if the photographer knew where we could get the baby Simba pics, and she said she could do them for us then and there! Great photographers! Seriously! (As for the photopass pictures, I’ll be posting them as soon as I get the cd, I’ll do a catch up, and then hopefully be putting them in with the report!)

The train was basically completely empty, it was reaching 3pm, which was not only the parade time, but most families had finished their tour of the park now, the cm’s were taping up the sidewalks for the parade on our way out. We jotted down the pathways (laughing at a couple of points, as the Rafiki signs that tell you where to go, well, some of them point straight into the bushes, not down any kind of path ) Once we entered the nice air conditioned building, we jumped in line for Rafiki!

While we were in line for our baboon friend, we had an…encounter…with a very *interesting* family, not so much an encounter, but when we left the Conservation Station, we both turned to each other and went “did you see/hear that?!” it was just another one of those oddballs that you see around the parks.

Pocahontas wasn’t out today, or at least, not while we were there, but we had gotten her at Character Palooza the day before (and to be honest, I’ve never really cared for Pocahontas anyways, or Mulan…I’m big on the *actual* princesses, and even within that group, I’m picky haha!!) so it really was ok! We discovered that our conscience was out though, so we of course jumped in line for him!

 

[katt789]

Amy & I were nearly done our adventuring, we had a Party to get to!! Quickly jumping back onto the train, we departed back into Africa, planning on heading back to Pop for a quick dinner and getting costumed (and for me, I really did want to take a dip in the pool if we had time!). Well, this plan was quickly thwarted by the fact that the parade was going on when we arrived! We took some time to browse through some shops, and kinda just wandered right into it! I get so turned around in Africa that I thought it was just ending, and we had great timing, but we ended up having to follow it 3/4 of the way out of the park, and then go through the mobs to the busses (though, when I say mobs, I don’t mean it, Animal Kingdom closing is NOTHING like the other parks) So, while we had some great seats & views, we snapped some pics of the parade as it went by!

I like and dislike this parade at the same time…if that makes sense? I like all the big animal things that the cast members come by with, and there are a lot more animalistic things about the parade, but there were SO MANY family of the parade’s! Wow! Not that I have anything wrong with that, I just felt like it was already quite a long parade, with not a lot of dancing (and of course, being a dancer, I like a lot of dancing )

Overall, a cute parade, and the music wasn’t as bad following it out of the park as the DHS was last time, it wasn’t too, too repetitive, which was nice. One the way out we stopped for a few more photopasses (one where the photographer had us stick our faces right together…odd…especially when we were as sweaty as we were!) and another with the magic Tinkerbell shot, which ended up not really turning out thanks to the trees in the background of the picture. We were second in line for the bus, and didn’t have to wait long before we were back on our way to Pop Century with a plan of picking up packages at the gift shop, and grabbing some dinner before heading up to the room to get ready to Party Not So Scarily!

 

[katt789]

The bus deposited us over at Pop Century at around 4:30, we had made plans to meet up with the boys in the room at 5:00pm to give us half an hour to have a break & get ready. On the bus by 5:30, and to MK at 6:00pm, as we were meeting our friends from Indiana that we had met on our way out of the Magic Kingdom on our first day! Knowing that we had half an hour or so until we had said we’d be back in the room, we cut through the gift shop to pick up any packages we had, and then continued through to the food court for some dinner.

Amy (I *think*) had the shrimp lo mein, and I had the vegetarian lasagna with a side of salad & breadstick, and chocolate cake for dessert. We both liked our meals, it’s SO MUCH FOOD (for the price, it’s a great value, although, with the DP, we weren’t paying haha) the lasagna was amazing, really good, I recommend it to anyone! As for the cake, I prefer the carrot cake!

We finished our meals, and went back up to the room just after 5, and found both the boys asleep! Amy & I woke the boys up and started getting ready, Nick, being as excited as he was for MNSSHP, jumped up and started getting ready, while Tyler proved a little more difficult (this may have something to do with the empty bottle I found on the counter when we returned to the room. Let’s just say, Tyler was an *extra* bit happy for this part of the night) but still managed to get up and going. We jumped on a bus headed to the Magic Kingdom, and admired all the other costumes around us, I remember an older couple dressed up as Minnie & Mickey, a little brother & sister dressed up as Woody & Jessie, who, as we overheard, were also from Canada! Whoot! We got off the bus, went through bag check & got our wrist bands easily, and headed up to the top of the train station, where we had planned to meet our friends. We were a little bit late, so we waited a few minutes, and when they didn’t arrive, decided that we had missed them, and might run into them later. Tyler decided that he needed a light saber, as he was going as a Jedi for Halloween, he had taken the little, shawl? Type thing that Nick had with his costume, so with a light saber, it wouldn’t look half bad. Thus, our first stop was in Tomorrowland.

Tyler managed to find a small Mickey one that lit up, for $6.00, that was good enough for him, he’d give it to his nephew when Jackson got older! (I wouldn’t be surprised if he keeps it himself though )

Now, I’ll run over some stuff right now that you might need to know later:
1.) Our costumes are: Amy: Peter pan, Me: Tink, Nick: Pirate, Tyler: A Jedi
2.) I’m going to keep to what we actually did as close as possible, meaning a lot of criss-crossing over the park, and so on, but I know people want to know stuff for their own benefit at special events like this, so I’ll stick to how we actually did it!

Now! On with the show! Amy wanted to try and ride Peter Pan’s flight while we were dressed up as the characters, so we headed through Fantasyland to check out how long the wait was. I’m pretty sure that the wait was the lowest we had seen it all week, so we jumped in line. (It was probably around 30 mins...I honestly couldn’t tell ya!) I hadn’t done this ride last time, and was really excited to do it this time, especially because the line was always so long, and everyone talked about how AWESOME it was.

Look closely enough in that last one, you can see a drunk Tyler photo bombing in the back! :rotlf: Classy guy he is…I did like PP Flight, it was pretty cool, Amy explained how it was a flying boat over England before we got on, and I liked all the black-light bits. I can’t really understand why its so popular, I guess it’s good for kids, but it’s something I just didn’t really get. I’d go on it again, but I wouldn’t wait that long for it. Great ride though!!

As we left Neverland, I saw right across from Peter Pan’s Flight, Cinderella’s coach!! There was a line already formed, so we jumped in, I did really want to get a picture with it. Our friends from Indiana, the guy had worked at Disney a few years before, and said that he hadn’t seen it out at a Haloween party, and that they usually only brought it out for *very* special occasions! I was excited! (Also, did you KNOW that they offer transport to your wedding in Cinderell’s coach?! YES PLEASE!!) After we had been in line for a few minutes, we realized it wasn’t moving! Tyler, beginning to get grumpy, didn’t really want to wait, and I was ok leaving the line, but we ending up staying anyway!

The picture’s on our photopass (*fingers crossed that it gets here sooooooooonnnnn*) Amy & I had planned on not riding a lot of rides tonight, but decided to do one more, as the party had JUST started once our coach picture was done, and there was one in theme with tonight. The Haunted Mansion of course!! We also had to check out the new cue, there hadn’t been a line since we had been there, so we figured now was the time!!

Yup, I was one of those people who saw the water on the ground, even saw the thing spray people, and still shrieked when I got wet!

Yup, Tyler had that out all night!! Haha, we ended up getting stuck on the ride, right during the crystal ball part, which was fine, but let me tell you, there was a little Tinkerbell in the buggie next to us, who had the flashy wings they sell at Disney, those things are BRIGHT! And when they’re constantly flashing, kinda gave me a headache, But! Still an awesome ride!!

 

[katt789]

Since we were in Liberty Square already, and Tyler was getting grumpy (which you can pinpoint in this picture)

and only wanted to go to Splash Mountain at this point, we decided to head over that way. They were already starting the parade, so we were caught on the one side of the road, picking through the crowds in front of the buildings on our way over. This ended up being another moment of pixie dust for us, as we heard some music coming from one of the buildings, and we had hit a dance party!! And because everyone was out at the parade, there was NO ONE in there!! If you have to hit up a dance partay, let me tell you, during the parade, is the best time to do it!

The last picture needs a bit of explanation, Woody came over, and made motion for Amy (Peter) to fly, she said she couldn’t, she was all out of Pixie Dust, and couldn’t fly anymore!! So, of course, Woody walked up, grabbed me, pulled me over to her, and then “shook” me beside her as to give her pixie dust, that picture: is me helping her fly!

One of the best parts of this dance party, they were playing Venga Boys! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VORaol22Yl8 ) HA! It was like the dance party was made for us! Seriously, there was like, maybe 5 small kids, their parents thankful to have a safe place to let their kids run around for a bit, and us, along with Woody, Jessie, and Bullseye! Awesome time. However, we had a Mr Grumpy Gills on our hands, so our next stop was Splash Mountain.

As you can see, just the boys went on, as Amy didn’t want to ruin her costume before the most of the pictures, and I didn’t want to ruin my period! (I also wear it for work, and that show doesn’t close till November, it needs to keep in good form!) While we waited for them, Amy & I went through the trick or treat line, which was a WICKED idea! There are about 5 or more candy stops in just that single line, and it wasn’t crowded, most people were on the ride. While Nick & Tyler were in line, they somehow got separated from our other, current, travel buddies, we waited a while, but they never turned up! So, knowing that we needed to catch more than 1 Villain Show to meet all the characters we wanted, we headed toward the hub to make sure that we made it in time. This was something that none of us wanted to miss!!

 

[ronnmel]

First of all, I didn't even know there was a dance party with characters in Frontierland during MNSSHP.

Second, you DANCED WITH WOODY?!?! How awesome is that!!!! And Bullseye was out, I've never seen him!!!!

 

[katt789]

While I have been planning a little, and getting excited about our trip down to audition in December, I have OFFICIALLY booked a trip for next Sept.

Since the first trip I took to Disney World, I knew that I wanted to come back with my mom, and kept thinking of all the things she would love, and how awesome it would be to go to Disney with her. Especially after being the planner for all the trips, I called her up thanking her hugely for planning and paying for a trip to DisneyLand in 1997. She was a single mother, working part time and still managing to be a great mom. So, let's introduce her:

That's a proud mama moment for her as it was right after I had finished a show at the dinner theatre I work at.

Mom's retired now, she lives 3 hours North from where I live, with just our (my...) dog and is on a gymnastics team for above 55 (I *think* that's the age) Here's a pic from back in the day:

Now, here's the special thing about this trip, she doesn't know!!

My plan is to slip in a lot of talk abot Disney (which would be normal anyway) and tell her all about the trips, show her pictures, and videos of some of the rides, so she knows the gist of things. Then over Christmas, I'm going to snag her passport (considering it's not expired!) and tell her I accidentally grabbed it when I grabbed my old one and I'll give it back in Sept.

Now, here's how the plan to get her down to Calgary (it's much cheaper to fly from my city than hers). I've told her that I want to make up for the lack of birthday/mothers days/christmas presents over the past few years, so she is coming down to Calgary Sept 10-17th.

I've told her we're going to be going to watch the show at my work, then we'll spend a couple of days in the mountains, and spend some time doing the typical Calgary tourist stuff.

I'll wake her up at around 5-6am, and tell her to get up, because "WE'RE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!" Then for the plane ride she'll have my disney guide books to read through.

The kicker, I've splurged, and we are staying at:

ANIMAL KINGDOM LODGE with a savannah view!!! We have 6 day park tickets with park hoppers, and we'll be celebrating my mom's birthday for the entire trip.

I've booked a package with the Disney Dining plan, and our reservations will be:

-Cinderella's Royal Table dinner (with a request for a window view)
-Le Cellier dinner
-Tusker House breakfast
-Boma dinner

And I need one more! So let me know your suggestions!! (I'm thinking I might do Crystal Palace for breakfast!)

I'm planning on giving her the run down on everything, but I'm definitely going to keep CRT a surprise, as that will be her "birthday" dinner and I want it to be a big deal.

SO, TO SUMARIZE.

Who: Mom & Me

When: Sept 10th-17th

Where: Animal Kingdom Lodge

With: Free dining plan, 6 day park hopper tickets & Mnsshp tix.

How: Surprising!! I'm really excited for all of it, and it's going to be one heck of a hard time keeping it a surprise from her. If her passport is expiring before we go, I'm thinking either Mother's day, or over summer, for an early birthday present, I'll send her the things I got her last time in Disney. A photo album, Minnie Ears, and park maps/mnsshp guide and when she asks why she would need it, I'll tell her!

The surprise might change up a little bit between now & then, but we'll see. It's bound to be an exciting trip!!

 

[ronnmel]

Very exciting! I'm sure your mom will be pleased!

 

[katt789]

First of all, I didn't even know there was a dance party with characters in Frontierland during MNSSHP.

Second, you DANCED WITH WOODY?!?! How awesome is that!!!! And Bullseye was out, I've never seen him!!!!

Yup!! It was an awesome time!! Such a little piece of magic that we just stumbled upon!

 

[shan23877]

Awesome updates! How awesome to have a dance party with woody and jessie, and bullseye was there? Amazing!

So looking forward to hearing more about your surprise trip for your mom. That's really cool that you're doing that for her.

 

[katt789]

Awesome updates! How awesome to have a dance party with woody and jessie, and bullseye was there? Amazing!

So looking forward to hearing more about your surprise trip for your mom. That's really cool that you're doing that for her.

Thanks! And heck yes! The dance party was awesome, even at the more crowded one the characters did their best to give everyone some dancing time! It was great!!

And so am I!! I've tweaked the surprise a little bit, I think I'll tell her on her actual birthday (the 2nd) that something came up and we unfortunately can't go to the mtns anymore...cause we're going to DISNEY haha then she'll have just over a week to learn as much as she can!

 

[kcandbella]

Joining in! Now I have to go back and read to get caught up!

 

[DisneylandDenizen]

All of you had some really great costumes - I never realized Bullseye was so big!

 

[katt789]

Joining in! Now I have to go back and read to get caught up!

Yay!! I hope you enjoy!!