TR: Father/Daughter Take on the World 2: Expedition Hidden Mickeys **Day 6 Posted**

[AmyBeth68]

Another great report Scott! I love reading about all the fun you guys had! I'm so glad you enjoyed Coral Reef...it's one of my girls' favorite restaurants! I also love that you share pictures...really makes us feel like we were part of the experience!

Can't wait to read the next installment!

 

[kimwim8]

Another great one, Scott! I really want to try Teppenyaki - was it hard to get ressies there? I wonder if I can sneak it in to one of our nights in November.

Another great installment. I have no idea where you find the time to put these together!

OH - and where did you get that Expedition Everest tshirt? My DH would love that shirt (he's not into the flashy-cartoony shirts).

 

[ScoJo15]

I'm so glad you enjoyed Coral Reef...it's one of my girls' favorite restaurants!

Thanks for the recommendation!!! I owe you one!

 

[ScoJo15]

Another great one, Scott! I really want to try Teppenyaki - was it hard to get ressies there? I wonder if I can sneak it in to one of our nights in November.

OH - and where did you get that Expedition Everest tshirt? My DH would love that shirt (he's not into the flashy-cartoony shirts).

Thanks Kim!

Teppanyaki was an easy ressie for us, but we did make them the full 120 days out....It's definitely worth a shot!! good luck!

The EE shirt was only available in the gift shop at the ride's exit...I love it too!

 

[AmyBeth68]

Thanks for the recommendation!!! I owe you one!

Nope! You don't owe me.....we're even Scott.....you gave me the awesome recommendation on the Behind The Seeds Tour which my DD loved!!! . I'm just glad you enjoyed Coral Reef b/c I know it gets mixed reviews.

 

[toystoryduo]

Hi Scott,

You continue to amaze me! You are an awesome runner and an awesome writer! Think there's a way to combine the two?

This is another great installment of your trip report. It sounds like your vacation was magical all the way around.

Can't wait for #4!

 

[SamIAm21]

Sounds like you had a great day -- rain or not!! And you reminded me, I need to hit Kmart for some ponchos!!

Can't wait to hear what the next few days will bring for you and Megan!

 

[keenercam]

Scott -- I am loving your trip report! The pictures are just wonderful! You and DD are going to have so many fabulous memories of these special times together, for the rest of your lives. Thanks for sharing!

 

[kimwim8]

 

[ScoJo15]

Sorry Sorry Sorry...here is the next installment! More to come quickly over the next two days.....thanks for reading and I appreciate all of the kind words!!!

TR: Father/Daughter Take on the World 2: Expedition Hidden Mickeys

Cast:
Me – 35 year old Disney Loving IT Manager from Canton, GA
DD – 8 year old WDW veteran anxious to get back to the World

Photopass pictures:
http://disneyphotopass.go.com/DPI/r.d?i=751265176

Background:
As some of you may remember, we did this trip last year after our school district switched to year round schedules, giving DD the third week of Sept off. Add the free dining plan on top of it and it was an offer we could not refuse. A trip report was made and you can find the link in my signature…so this year when free dining was announced again, we decided to re-visit our favorite place to re-live some of the magic from last year and create some new memories as well. I hope you enjoy reading along & feel free to let me know what you think!

Day Four – Magic Kingdom/Animal Kingdom evening EMH
I have to say that someone woke up with some tired legs…but it wasn’t gonna slow her down one bit. We had planned a full day visit to the Magic Kingdom, but since we’d already seen Wishes and there was an opportunity to visit the Animal Kingdom after dark courtesy of the Extra Magic Hours, we decided to see if we could get an early dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern and then head over to ride Everest at night 

I peeked out the door to find some early morning rain, but it looked as if it was not going to last and sure enough…by the time we got on the bus and made it to the MK, the skies had completely cleared up.

Our morning plan of attack involved heading to Pirates of the Carribbean first (since there might be lines there at some point due to the movie popularity) and then Big Thunder Mountain Railroad before trying to catch one of the first rafts over to Tom Sawyer’s Island to look for paintbrushes.

So we entered the Magic Kingdom, took some obligatory shots of the castle and made our way towards PotC. Rafiki was hanging out just across the bridge so we stopped for a quick autograph and photo op before pressing on.

The entrance to PotC had some new additions but nothing like the ride itself did. First of all, the mist thing that projects images on it took me by surprise….I didn’t know the boat was gonna go right thru it! And then the Jack Sparrow animatronics looked so real! That first one really looked like a person was up there portraying him!! His identity really added a freshness to the ride and made it much more enjoyable. It was nice to see that they were able to update the ride without taking away its original appeal and storyline. Major kudos to this ride revamp.

We thought about Splash Mountain next, but neither of us wanted to get the least bit wet that early in the morning, so we opted to skip it till a little later in the afternoon and headed over to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

We walked right on the next coaster and quickly found ourselves darting in and out of the mountain on our runaway train. I think the ride has lost some of its appeal over the years. With DD becoming a real thrillseeker and riding so many intense rides, BTMR just seems to lack the punch needed to make it really enjoyable. I mean, it’s still a great ride, but gone are the days when we would ride this repeatedly. In fact, this would be our only time on it during our whole vacation.

We walked over to the place where you board the raft to the island next and after waiting 10 or so minutes, they dropped the rope and allowed us on to the ferry. There was only one other family there so our hopes of finding the paintbrush brightened. We had never done this before and did not know what to expect. Upon reaching the island, the raft driver instructed us that Tom and Huck were busy painting and had carelessly left a few brushes in various places. Find one of the brushes and we’d get a front of the line pass to any attraction in the MK that day (any attraction that had a Fastpass). We had no idea how challenging it would be and excitedly started our search in the nearby caves. Now I’m not gonna spoil brush locations or difficulty levels, but let’s just say that within 5 or so minutes, we had spotted three brushes in various places. There is a one per family limit, so here is DD with her lucky brush:

We explored the island a bit after finding it and soon found ourselves on the raft back over to the mainland. Upon exiting the boat, we were pulled aside where we traded our brush in for one of these:

A front of the line pass!! And I’ll give you one guess as to where that pass is right now…you got it, still in my wallet!! With zero lines all day, we never needed to use it so we just held on to it as a great souvenir to have amongst our Disney memorabilia.

Next up we made our way over to the Grotto to meet Ariel. We’d missed this opportunity the last few trips and wanted to do it again this time. There was a wait as usual, but it wasn’t too bad and we were soon on our way after visiting with the red haired mermaid.

We agreed that we were getting hungry and wanted to grab an early lunch (especially since we planned an early dinner) so we started down the path to the Columbia Harbor House. DD wanted to take a quick ride on the Haunted Mansion before eating though, so we made a quick detour to the land of the Hitchhiking Ghosts. One thing that I’ve always liked about this attraction is the way the Cast Members are so “in character” with the theming (my other fav CM’s by the way, are ToT and Jungle Cruise)…so I decided to give it a shot myself…here is the result:

Ok ok…so I’m not cut out to be a Mansion employee but it was sure fun trying!

The mansion was fun as usual and DD didn’t get scared by the screaming pop up ghosts like she did last year, which made for a much more enjoyable ride. We looked forward to riding this again during the Halloween Party on Friday night.

Lunchtime!!! We loved the Columbia Harbor House last year and decided to go there again this trip and get our favorite seats overlooking the walkway between Frontierland and Fantasyland. So we got in line and I proceeded to order two adult meals (I know, I know..please refrain from flaming me) and the lady had issues getting it entered into the computer system. So after a painful few minutes, she had to call a manager to get a ‘void’ (meaning she had just charged my room instead of using the plan). The manager came out and rudely looked at me and stated “you need one adult meal and one child meal”…now I know I was circumventing the system here but she could have been a tad more polite about it…so I replied “what if I’m hungry and I want to eat two adult meals myself…she’s not eating”…she does nothing but say “I can only allow you to purchase one adult meal and one child meal”. Never one to argue or make a scene in front of my daughter, I did what she asked and got the order in. No smiles, no thank you’s, no sorry’s no nothing from the manager…so we went to get our food and was shocked to see that the kid’s fish meal is ONE fish stick and a bunch of fries. ONE…1 stick!! I had ordered the chicken & fish combo so I gave DD one of my sticks so she’d have enough to eat. So I guess the short story is that I know I was attempting to “get one over” on the Dining plan (it worked at other places) but I was appalled at the rudeness of the manager and impoliteness of the employees, and will not go back there again.

We did manage to get our favorite seats, where we ate our food and then headed over to Splash Mountain. Splash was enjoyable as usual and it remains one of my favorite flume rides anywhere…I just love how long of a ride it is and the drop is really a great one.

We then headed over to Tomorrowland to knock out that section of the park. We got a quick ride in on Buzz Lightyear and then headed over to Stitch’s Escape. It was our first time experiencing it and I have to say that the reviews are 100% accurate…why the heck does this ride exist? Ok ok….it wasn’t that bad….well….yeah it was  It just seems like with the technology, they could have done so much more. We didn’t hate it, but will probably never go on it again. What we would go on again (and again and again) was Space Mountain.

So, there is a funny story with Space Mountain and here is the first part…we were both wearing our pin lanyards and as we were going thru the queue line DD was swaying back and forth causing her lanyard to swing out…I told her to stop but she didn’t for a few seconds and her lanyard hit the metal railing. She quickly grabbed it and looked back for an “I told you so”, but I didn’t need to say anything at that point. So anyway, we rode it and immediately upon exiting, she said “let’s go again!”…now she does this from time to time but by the fourth “let’s go again!” I was starting to get suspicious….but the fourth time was the last and we decided it was time for something else. (this story will be continued near the end of this day’s report….)

So we headed over to the Astro Orbiter. We’d never ridden it before and keeping with our “gonna ride every ride in all of WDW” theme, ascended up the elevators and took a spin in outer space. It was pretty cool to see the park from up there…I know the ride is pretty basic but it’s definitely worth doing one time.

Afterwards, we went up the walkway and took two consecutive rides on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority. I still think this is a hidden gem..there is never a wait and it’s a real relaxing ride that takes you through some cool places.

From there, it was time for some autographs so we went to the Toontown tent and got Belle, Cinderella, Snow White, Minnie, Chip, Dale, Tigger, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto’s signatures in her book. Chip and Dale were incredible…they were entertaining the line with their antics (running into walls, hiding behind stuff, posing for cameras, etc) and it really made for a fun time.

We then decided to walk back over towards Liberty Tree Tavern where we’d see if we can check in early for dinner so that we could hit AK in the evening. Before dining, we did see Philharmagic (LOVE IT), rode It’s A Small World (DD wanted to ride it in honor of it being her mother’s favorite ride), and took an excursion on the Jungle Cruise. Oh how I’d LOVE to be a Jungle Cruise CM. I am a total sucker for that sense of humor. I was in tears from laughing nearly the entire ride. I just can’t say enough about how entertaining that ride is to me 

So we then made it to the Liberty Tree where we were told we could be seated early. And shortly after 4:45 we sat down for an early dinner. I guess the minimal food at lunch was a blessing in disguise as we were both pretty hungry at this point in the day. Upon being seated, Chef Mike came out and said “Johnson family, we weren’t expecting you until 6pm, but let me answer your allergy questions for you”..I thought it was awesome that the Chef was on top of what time we were arriving and really gave me confidence in the entire reservation system. Turns out Chef Mike was also allergic to peanuts (along with milk) so he gave us the low down on the menu. The family style meal was awesome and really filling. The characters came around multiple times and provided a great experience for the kids…we had originally only planned this meal because we hadn’t eaten there before but I could see us returning to the Tavern on future trips.

From there, we went thru the POtC gift shop so I could buy a shirt for the Halloween Party and DD bought a Pirate Princess Ears hat. I was skeptical of her purchase, but she wore those things for the entire duration of the trip!! Here she is in her ears:

We then proceeded out to the bus stops and were the only ones on board the transportation to the Animal Kingdom. We ended up passing thru the gates at 7:00pm and headed directly over to Expedition Everest to see it at night and to get some more rides in. Now let it be known that I tried numerous settings on the camera but never did capture the beauty of that mountain at twilight and in the dark. So you’ll just have to take my word that the attraction looks awesome both in the orange glow of sunset and the white lights of nighttime. It was the only purpose of coming to the park, so we repeatedly rode it…went thru the gift shop and entered the line again (along with a few other people doing the same thing). We managed to get five rides in before being seated on the next-to-last train of the night. Seeing the park as well as the other parks at night from the top was an amazing experience. Make sure you get the front row to see everything once you get to the summit.

So we ended up getting back to the Pop Century resort around 9:15 at night. We had to pick up some stuff we had sent to our room and it was there that I finally found a pin that I was looking for. A CM at Pop had a Pirate Pin that I immediately swapped for. Upon closer inspection, it was 1 of 3 of a Cast Member Lanyard series issued this year. While I was stoked to find a pirate pin, I was now on a mission to find the other two….knowing how hard it would ultimately be.

So we did make it back to the room where DD proceeded to say “you know when I was asking to ride Space Mountain over and over again?” I acknowledged and she proceeded “I lost one of my pins when my lanyard hit the rail…but I didn’t want to stop because I knew I shouldn’t have been doing that, I did look down and didn’t see it on the ground so I wanted to keep going back thru to see if I saw it.” So now I felt bad and explained to her that she could have told me and we could have looked harder for her pin…but we did agree that it fell down over the ledge and was probably irretrievable. It was a gold Minnie Mouse pin that was from Disney Paris…one of the ones she liked and we’d never seen it in the places we had looked at pins. She wasn’t upset and I made a mental note that I’d buy her a pin or two at the end of the trip to make her feel better. (oh yes, this story gets better….just wait til the next installment )

Both of us were pretty wiped out and it was good to be in early. We had really done a ton in a few days and Thursday would bring a full day trip to Disney’s MGM Studios, which would mean less walking and some great rides on RnRC & ToT. So we set the alarm and drifted off into dreamland.

Thanks for reading along…stay tuned for three more installments (I promise they won’t take as long next time )

 

[kimwim8]

Ladies and gentlemen.....HE'S BACK!!

You are truly the most comepetitive person I know! The paintbrushes, the pins....you are a trip!

 

[toystoryduo]

Another great installment!

 

[DisneyObsession]

Subscribing!

I am enjoying it so far, but haven't gotten too far yet.

Do you believe I need to work instead of DIS?!?

 

[ScoJo15]

TR: Father/Daughter Take on the World 2: Expedition Hidden Mickeys

Cast:
Me – 35 year old Disney Loving IT Manager from Canton, GA
DD – 8 year old WDW veteran anxious to get back to the World

Photopass pictures:
http://disneyphotopass.go.com/DPI/r.d?i=751265176

Background:
As some of you may remember, we did this trip last year after our school district switched to year round schedules, giving DD the third week of Sept off. Add the free dining plan on top of it and it was an offer we could not refuse. A trip report was made and you can find the link in my signature…so this year when free dining was announced again, we decided to re-visit our favorite place to re-live some of the magic from last year and create some new memories as well. I hope you enjoy reading along & feel free to let me know what you think!

Day Five – Disney MGM Studios
Ahhh…MGM Studios…two killer rides and a small park to have to navigate!! It was a welcome plan since our legs were getting more tired each day. We got through our morning routines and headed over to the Studios for our Extra Magic Hour entry.

Upon getting to the gates, we learned that it was NOT in fact an EMH morning and that we’d have to wait about 30 min for the opening. I double checked all of my paperwork and it stated that this was supposed to be an early entry, but I guess Disney had changed it sometime in the past few weeks…so lesson learned! Check the EMH hours just before departure to ensure the times are still the same.

It wasn’t too bad of a wait and we kind of needed the extra time off of our feet anyway. Before too long, we found ourselves headed down the street that leads to RnRC and ToT. We picked RnRC first and within minutes we were aboard our super stretch twisting and looping through the “streets” on our way to the Aerosmith concert. Yes, upon exiting we went right back and got in line again for a second early morning ride.

From there we went to the Hollywood Tower Hotel for a couple of great rides on the very random Tower of Terror. I managed to get a shot of the Hidden Mickey eyeglasses this time:

We also found the hidden Mickey located on the wall where the lines split before boarding, but couldn’t get a great photo of it….it was pretty tough to see.

Anyway, DD decided that she wanted to go back on the Great Movie Ride next. Last year, she was really frightened when the tram got hijacked by the gangster with the gun…and the trip through the Alien spaceship didn’t go well either….so she was out to prove to herself that it was not scary this year. Turns out, she had a great time on this ride. I think knowing what to expect helps out a bunch. We did see the Hidden Mickey in the Indiana Jones room (the one on the left as you exit) and it instantly has become one of my favorites…unfortunately it went by too quickly to get a picture of it. Nothing bothered her this time around and she was really proud of not being scared. I was proud of her too for wanting to face her fears a bit and overcome them.

We then got photos with Sully at the Monsters Inc. garage and afterwards headed over to where Sorcerer Mickey was located. I love this photo and autograph opportunity because it’s never crowded (I don’t think people even know it’s there) and it’s the only place I know of to get Mickey with his Sorcerer’s hat on. So here is our photo (wow…a whole lot of ears going on there LOL ):

Next up was the Chronicles of Narnia exhibit. You enter the doors and find yourself near the lamppost, surrounded by pine trees where you watch a short synopsis of the film on a screen in front of you. The White Witch does make a live appearance, but only for a brief time. It was a little disappointing but it was neat to see the actual film props on the way out. Their winter coats and the sled that the witch drove were a couple of the cool things on display.

In keeping with the movie/autograph theme, we headed over to the Animation Studios to get autographs from Mr. and Mrs. Incredible.

Here are the boys:

And the girls:

We then went to the drawing school thing located in the Animation Studios. A Disney artist stands in front of the class and in 10 minutes, teaches you how to draw a popular Disney character. We were fortunate to get to draw Mickey’s head….and it was fascinating to this total non-drawer (stick figures are tough for me) how the whole thing comes together. I thought I pulled it off in the end, but DD thought my Mickey looked “fat”…hey, drawing a perfect circle is not an easy task! DD’s turned out great..she did a real good job. This was a great diversion from the normal ride/attraction/ride routine that we often slip into and I’d love to do it again sometime. We even got to keep the drawings as a great souvenir of the trip.

Upon exiting, we stopped at a pin cart and the most amazing thing happened. The lady working there had the exact gold Minnie Mouse pin that DD lost in the Space Mountain queue!! Talk about some random luck…!! She was so incredibly excited to find a pin like that again!! I told her that good fortune was shining down on us during this trip and we should feel really lucky…she agreed.

We stopped and got lunch at the ABC Commissary. I had a cheeseburger and she had the fish. Wasn’t the best of meals but it was enough to get us by for the afternoon.

We went and did Star Tours next. The first ship that we were loaded into malfunctioned right before the start so we had to be evacuated and loaded onto another ship. The ride was still the same though…I’m just not fond of the motion simulator style and wish they’d update this attraction. There is SO MUCH you could do with Star Wars., I always leave there feeling a little disappointed.

We checked out the Indiana Jones stunt show next and DD really enjoyed it! She had never seen it before (cross another one off the list!) and I knew she’d like it after her positive reaction to the Lights Cars Action (or whatever it’s called) stunt show last year. I just wish I’d get picked one day to get on stage for something LOL! We left the show and realized that the parade had just started….so we bolted over to a nice spot near the Sorcerer’s Hat and took in the Stars & Motorcars Parade.

After the parade, we figured that we had pretty much seen what we wanted to see at the park so we decided to head home and sleep the afternoon and evening away in our comfy hotel room.

Yeah, right.

We b-lined straight to the Tower of Terror and proceeded to ride it 4 times in a row. In case you were interested, it takes approximately 15 minutes to go from the sign at the entrance, thru the queue line, into the preshow, thru the “boiler room”, loaded into the ride, full ride cycle, off the ride, thru the gift shop and back to the sign to ride it again. That is of course without any lines We decided to conduct the same experiment on the Rock and Roller Coaster. We rode three times in a row (in 30 minutes), so it takes 10 minutes to completely cycle thru the ride when there are no lines. So after seven rides on our two favorite MGM attractions, it was time to eat!!

DD wanted to go back to the 50s Prime Time Café this year and we had reservations, but decided we’d see if we could check in a little early. They said we could and we sat down (about 30 min before our regularly scheduled time). Here we are sitting:

Why did I post that photo? Because we sat there so long that it’s permanently etched into my mind. We were seated nearly an hour after we got there. So much for ADR’s working at the PT Café. What was worse is that we then waited a bit to get our waitress…who did nothing “in character” and only checked on us once during the whole meal (I would have ordered another glass of wine, but couldn’t find her). The food was again mediocre and I felt sorry for DD who was looking for the same awesome experience that she’d had previously at this eatery. She didn’t seem to mind too much though…so we finished up and headed out for a few more rides (guess where we went?)

Yep, we managed two more rides on the Tower of Terror before calling it a day. It’s pretty scary when the people working the rides recognize you…and even scarier when you’ve heard every line in their arsenal….we do want to mention one CM by name though. Peter was one of the best CM’s I’ve seen working an attraction. He totally got into character and was always fresh with new material. It was a relief each time we re-rode and saw that he was still working the load in. I can’t go into detail describing what he did or remembering all the things that he said, but he left a fantastic impression in our minds and made for a totally magical experience every single time. Thanks Peter!

We skipped Fantasmic since we’d seen it earlier in the week and opted to get some extra rest instead. We knew that Friday was gonna be a long one as we’d planned on going to AK in the morning (LOL, yes..to ride EE some more) then come back to the hotel, change into costume and then head out for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I mean, come on, did you really think we’d relax on our last full day at WDW??

Stay tuned for the next installment…featuring a long wait (oh my!), kids being dragged on attractions, which seat to NOT get on Kali, and our take on MNSSHP. Until then…thanks for reading!!

 

[kimwim8]

Each installment gets better and better! That daughter of yours is a great girl! She's a thrill seeker (girl after my own heart) and she just seems up for anything and everything!

My DD7 is planning on going on Everest this trip (in 12 more days!!!) for her first time. I'm hoping she likes it so much that she'll be willing to give RnRC a try. I know she'll love it if she just.......gets........on!

Thanks again, Scott! Can't wait to hear about the action-packed last day!

 

[VanniGirl]

Great Report - Looking forward to the rest !

 

[DisneyObsession]

Great Report!

I feel as though I was there with you, as you are such a good writer!

I am sorry PT didn't live up to expectations. I love eating there as it's usually so much fun. Next time!

Can't wait until the next installment!

 

[ScoJo15]

TR: Father/Daughter Take on the World 2: Expedition Hidden Mickeys

Cast:
Me – 35 year old Disney Loving IT Manager from Canton, GA
DD – 8 year old WDW veteran anxious to get back to the World

Photopass pictures:
http://disneyphotopass.go.com/DPI/r.d?i=751265176

Background:
As some of you may remember, we did this trip last year after our school district switched to year round schedules, giving DD the third week of Sept off. Add the free dining plan on top of it and it was an offer we could not refuse. A trip report was made and you can find the link in my signature…so this year when free dining was announced again, we decided to re-visit our favorite place to re-live some of the magic from last year and create some new memories as well. I hope you enjoy reading along & feel free to let me know what you think!

Day Six – AK and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party
We woke up refreshed, but feeling the effects that a week at Disney has on you. Our legs were tired and you could kind of see the overall tiredness in our faces (it’s funny to look at our pics…you can see the expressions on our faces grow more ‘tired’ as the week goes on)..but we had lots to do today!

First up we wanted to go to AK, mainly because every time we’d went so far, I had forgot to take our free 5x7 Everest Photo coupon with us. So this time, I made sure it was in the backpack so we could cash it in. We also wanted to get our first rides ever on Kali River Rapids. We figured we could do that last, come back to the room and change clothes…then head over to MK for the Halloween Party. We had done the party one time in a previous year and were very much looking forward to attending it again. Seemed like a great way to spend our last full day in the World.

So we managed to get up and out of the resort fairly quickly and found ourselves at the AK entrance. I stopped by customer relations and exchanged my coupon (thanks to that online Everest game) for the coupon that would give us our free 5x7 and we then trekked thru Asia on our way to Mt. Everest once again. (I really think we could do it totally blindfolded now!)

We rode it once, got off…didn’t like our picture…and then got back in line to ride it again. This time we were actually faced with a wait!! What? Where were these people coming from? How dare they get in the way of our line-free vacation! We actually waited about 15 minutes to ride it (oh how we are spoiled) and got a seat near the middle of the train. You see, if you are too far in front, the picture doesn’t come out as good…you are going down the hill too quickly…so the best spots for the photo are in the middle. We rode, were satisfied with our photo so we “purchased” it and then went to go ride it again. The stand by entrance now showed a 30 min wait so we opted not to ride anymore. We were secretly shooting for 20 rides total for the week, but ended up with only 18…I guess that’s pretty fortunate in the grand scheme of things though! Here is our self portrait from ride #17:

DD decided she wanted to go ride Dinosaur again. I can’t believe how much she likes that ride, but hey, it’s her vacation so I gladly agreed and we made our way over to the attraction. Is it me, or does the ride get dumber each time you do it? (sorry to those who like it or are genuinely afraid of it) It just seemed kind of cool the first time through…but the more we rode it, the less I found ‘cool’ about it and the more I wished the darn Jeep would just stop shaking back and forth. Anyway, I watched something that totally angered me while boarding. A child who appeared to be around 8-9 years old was screaming and crying that he didn’t want to ride…and both parents were not having any of it. It got so bad that the dad had to “capture” the kid from running away and literally drag him into the seat. The kid was holding on to the sides to avoid being dragged in, but the dad pried his hands away and sat him down. So he put his head in his hands, fingers closing his ears for the duration of the trip. I just have a real issue with parents forcing kids like that to go on rides. It’s one thing to kind of ask them to go on, and comfort them while riding….it’s a whole different thing to physically force them into the seat. I’m a thrill seeker at heart, but would never force my DD to go on anything…it’s just not worth it. Luckily, it was the only thing I saw all week that was really disturbing. I just feel sorry for that kid.

So after two rides on the “dark, dark and frightening attraction”…what better thing to do then get some more autographs? DD was a little reluctant but decided to get Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet who were all signing down by the old loading dock for the boats. She thought it may be too childish to get the Pooh characters, but wanted them to complete her collection. My, I think my little princess is growing up. Better hold on to these moments while I can Here we are with the T-i-double grr-rr:

We then walked around trying to find DeVine, but either she wasn’t out all day or we were gonna miss her time. I went to the board that lists all the wait times and asked the dude if she’d be coming out…he said “possibly at 1pm, but it’s not guaranteed”. So we opted to forgo seeing her and went to get something to drink.

We passed the Tamu Tamu Smoothie shop and I noticed that they were REAL smoothies!! So we stopped there and used some snack credits to get a healthy and refreshing treat! I didn’t know this place existed and it was a great find…the drinks were really good (now if only I had some rum LOL)

We walked back over towards Asia and figured it was time to cash in our Fastpass for Kali River Rapids. When we were walking to EE in the morning, DD suggested getting them just in case there was a line….it was a GREAT suggestion! When we arrived at Kali, the Fastpasses were sold out for the day and there was a pretty long stand by line (what was going on to make this place so busy???). So we bolted thru the Fastpass line and made it to our raft in just a few minutes. I love the storage compartment in the middle…it was a great way to keep your stuff dry. Now, I was ready for a normal style raft ride…going under waterfalls, getting shot with water, etc. I was disappointed to see how little water you actually came in contact with! Aside from the ride being super short...there were no parts of it to truly get you soaked. Well...almost none. I did learn that if you are in the seat that goes backwards down the drop (guess who was in that seat?), the water splashes in and gets you pretty drenched. So yeah, we got wet but the ride was totally not worth it in my opinion. So we got our credit and headed to the park exit to catch the bus back to Pop.

We were back to the resort fairly quickly and realized we had a couple hours to kill. Our early dinner reservations were at 4:30 at the Crystal Palace. I figured we’d be on the bus at 3:45 and that would allow us plenty of time to get there. We weren’t fond of the CP, but wanted to eat dinner before the party started and being in the park for the start was a bonus. So, with time to kill we went swimming.

It was a great way to spend a couple hours, just chilling out in the pool and relaxing a bit. I think it was the first time that I’d ever done something like that in the middle of the day. I’m always going from attraction to attraction, wearing myself out in a quest to do everything as quickly as possible. So it was really nice so spend some quality time and take a vacation from our vacation.

Of course, two hours was enough. Time to get moving!! We headed back up to the room, showered and DD transformed into Elisabeth Swann for the evening. Now, Ms. Swann was a tough costume to come by. You see, the U.S. edition of her costume is the white wedding style dress from the latest movie. We didn’t like it too much and wanted to find something from the first movie…so we directed our search to ebay. Turns out that in the U.K., Disney sells her costume from the first movie…complete with hat and fan. So I hooked up with a great seller and received the costume brand new in plenty of time for our trip. We added an authentic Pirate necklace and the transformation was complete….

Of course, the hat wasn’t such a big hit with DD. So she ended up sporting her Pirate Princess ears for the evening. I guess it worked just fine :

Now, that photo was taken at the bus stop at the Pop Century resort. Normally, the busses run so quick that we don’t have time for bus stop photos. For some reason, this time was different. We watched countless numbers of busses stop at all of the other park destinations except for ours. Many of us in line spoke to other drivers to see if they could send a bus our way and they explained that they couldn’t. One gentleman went inside and told the Pop Century people about what was going on…they told him they’d do what they could. I realized that I had the Disney Dining number on my cell…so I called it and was transferred quickly over to transportation. They were doing a good job of assisting me when finally a bus for the MK showed up. To make the real long and frustrating story short, we got in line at 3:40 and boarded our bus at 4:25. So much for our 4:30 reservations. Since it was the first time anything like this had ever happened (usually, there are TWO busses hauling off Pop Century people all the time)… I shrugged it off and we made our way as fast as we could to the Crystal Palace.

Upon arrival at MK, the park was decorated with all of the Halloween Party stuff. We received our wristbands at the entrance and darted over to CP to check in. We were promptly seated and enjoyed a pretty good meal there. Ms. Swann liked the make your own sundae bar so much, she ate two of them (hey, it WAS vacation and it WAS the Halloween party )

After the meal, we made our way to Tomorrowland and did a no-wait ride on Buzz Lightyear, followed by three consecutive rides on Space Mountain. I was never a huge fan of SM, but was really enjoying it this year for some reason. DD was starting to get comments from CM’s about her costume. Most were greeting her as “Ms. Swann”, and asking her how Jack was doing. She really wanted to answer them back with “how many times must I ask you to call me Elisabeth?” but never really got up the nerve! Anyway, she was really digging all of the attention she was receiving.

After our trips thru space, it was time to hit some trick or treat stops, and then Alice and Mad Hatters trick or treat trail. We got tons of candy along with photo ops with Alice, Mad Hatter and the White Rabbit (others were there, but we decided not to stop).

From there we went and got a spot for the first Boo To You parade. We were right on the curb, with the castle to our right, and the Walt statue across the street in front of us. It was a great spot. The Headless Horseman rode thru (everyone had to turn off their glow sticks and keep their feet out of the street due to the horse getting distracted) and soon the parade began.

It was an AWESOME parade. I don’t have pics (got it on video) but it was truly something to see. All the villains were there, along with the regular cast of Disney characters. My favorite things were seeing the gravediggers from HM, making sparks on the streets with their shovel dances…the PoTC float, complete with Captain Jack himself on top…and the Goofy candy machine float which emitted a candy scent as it ‘floated’ by. It’s easily my favorite parade out of all of them that I’ve seen.

We stayed in the area afterwards and watched the Villains show in front of the castle (complete with scantily clad dancers…wow…was this Disney or Halloween Horror Nights at Universal? LOL ) and then got a great spot for Hallowishes. Hallowishes was INCREDIBLE. The castle was decorated in motion lights while we were surrounded by fireworks. They weren’t just behind the castle, but coming from nearly 360 degrees around the park… it was really a cool sight to see. We agreed that seeing the parade, party and fireworks made the entire night worth it.

It was even cooler to know that real ghosts showed up for the party. Check out this photo I took of the castle about 5 minutes before Hallowishes…kind of spooky, isn’t it?

Speaking of ghosts…

Next up, we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. I mean, really, if you’re gonna do the Halloween Party, you HAVE to do the mansion, right?? It was lit up with eerie lights..and there was a photopass person there to take your picture in front of the ghost horse and carriage. When we viewed our photos, a ghost showed up and was driving the carriage…Neato!! We only waited a few minutes and enjoyed our trip thru the mansion. Something about being at the party made it all the more cooler.

We then crossed over and hit the Toontown Tent while the second parade was going on. There we were greeted by not only the princesses, but their princes as well  We saw Cinderella, Aurora and Snow White, all with their men at their side…it was pretty neat. We got photos and autographs and made our way back across to catch a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean…I mean, really…Ms. Swann cannot visit the park without riding HER ride now, can she?

On the way there, Snow White was out…with ALL SEVEN DWARVES!! We missed the opportunity to get a personal picture with them, but they posed for photos for one minute before heading back in. So here is a sight you don’t often see in WDW:

We continued on to PoTC where they again made a big deal of DD’s costume. Upon arrival, a CM shouted “Oh MY, it’s the Governor’s Daughter” and they all quickly stopped what they were doing to nod and bow to her. It was so cool! She was then greeted with many “how are you Ms. Swann” and “are you enjoying your evening”. So it made for a great ride and a great experience overall.

We got photos after exiting the ride and caught Captain Hook for an autograph as well. Unfortunately, the time was nearing midnight and our evening was coming to a close. Since we hadn’t had enough ice cream for the day…we got a dole whip as we headed toward the park entrance.

We were going to check out our photos from the night (ALL photopass photos from the event were 50% off for that night only) but the line was massive. So we purchased our limited edition MNSSHP pin and called it a night. We got a quick photo outside of the park entrance and dragged our tired souls over to the busses at 12:45am.

Needless to say, we went right to sleep. It was a fantastic way to close out our last full day in the parks. We didn’t have to head home the next day until around 1pm so we planned on visiting Epcot in the morning after sleeping in a bit. This would be the only time that I didn’t set an alarm or request a wake up call all week…we had earned a good night’s rest.

Stay tuned for our last installment, followed by a post-trip report recapping some highlights and a few things that didn’t make it in the reports (can you believe I forgot to mention some things? LOL) Thanks for reading!

 

[kimwim8]

OK, Scott...that picture has me officially scared!!

 

[toystoryduo]

Hey Scott,

Your trip report just keeps getting better and better! You really are a good writer. Looking forward to the next installments...