UPDATED! I am Your Host, Your Ghost Host. Tricks, Treats and Toddler in October 2011

Great update!! So sad to leave your home away from home.....

So nice that fellow Dis'er left you some stuff....LOL!!:rotfl::rotfl:
 
I can't believe how much y'all got done on your last morning before even heading to breakfast!! That is pretty amazing.

All the TRs I have been following are ending! It's so sad, especially after we all planned these vacations together. :hug: I guess on to the PTRs now! :goodvibes
 
As we enter, we notice the HUGE crowds. It is now after noon. I guess all the late sleepers or Saturday arrivals are finally awake and heading over to start their day! We decide to go in and see Minnie and Mickey first. We show our fastpasses and are first in, but I realize we forgot the autograph book and so Alan heads out to the stroller to get it. Meanwhile a family of 8 slides in front of us. No big deal since I was waiting on DH.



They only have 6 fastpasses, but the CM lets them in anyways, but she finally notices they are short and makes a comment about it. There were plenty of folks trying to get into the fastpass line without fastpasses. The regular line was about 30 minutes for Mickey. So we were behind this family of 8. Then behind us, is a lady and her daughter. AS we are ushered into the waiting area, the CM asks us to stand against the wall, so we do. Then this lady and her daughter come in. The CM lets us go in now and the lady tries to push ahead of us. She doesn’t speak English, but I know she knows we were there first. So I make sure to keep our place and I get ahead of her. I don’t mind letting people go ahead of me, but when they are rude like that and trying to purposely cut the line- no thanks.
So in we go to the room with Mickey and Minnie. There is a HUGE party with them at the moment. Literally 28 people the CM said. They are taking FOREVER. Finally the CM tells them only one more pic. One with Grandma, one with Grandma and two kids. One with the aunt and uncle. One with three kids. You get the picture or pictures! The continue taking more and more. It was pretty ridiculous.



She finally ushers them out. I send Will out to Mickey and lo and behold, the lady behind us sends her daughter out too- rushing ahead of Will. Um, excuse me?????? Mickey and Minnie see what is going on. The little girl is trying to hand them her book and finally Mickey walks her back over to the mom. The mom either had no clue or just didn’t care that it was our turn and that her little girl was right in the middle of us trying to take a picture. Thankfully Mickey and Minnie deal with this daily and handled it for us. I mean, I don’t want to push this little 5 year old out of the way, but really, we are trying to take pics here! I couldn’t believe the mom didn’t even try and move her. It took the CM doing it. I make a good effort to ensure William waits his turn and is patient. What kind of lesson is this kid getting when her mom just keeps trying to rush in front of us in line? I mean come on.



Again, I don’t mind letting someone go ahead of us, it happened plenty this trip, including many times with WISH kids- stopping the line to let a Make a Wish family ahead of us. No big deal. It’s five more minutes. But when someone is rude, like this lady, it just irks me. I didn’t let it ruin our magic, it happens at WDW all the time. But funny for sure.



So we finally get Minnie’s autograph and some pictures without someone else’s daughter in the picture. Thank you Mickey for the crowd control. DH commented how hard the CM’s job must be to deal with both the good and rude people all day long. It definitely takes a special magical breed to handle such situations with grace, calm and a smile. But that is why Disney is so famous for their guest service!



With Minnie autograph in hand, we head back outside and realize just how crowded it is. We make our way up Main Street and decide to tackle Tomorrowland. We head own Main Street on the right, and I pop into the Crystal Arts shop for a moment. We walk to the back and catch the glass blower in action. We watched for a good 10 minutes. It was so cool. One of those great “slow down” moments.


We know the crowds are heavy, so we just plan to do the less popular stuff. We see the line for Buzz is 50 minutes. Ouch! It is now 1:15pm. The fastpass return time is 2:05pm. Um, why would you wait in line 50 minutes, when you can get a fastpass right now and come back in under 50 minutes and get right on basically? LOL- but people were doing it and waiting. So we get our fastpass and then wait 10 minutes for Monster’s Inc. Stitch was only 10 minutes too, but we passed on it. We were at the very back of the line and theatre for Monsters.



When we were let into the show, of course guests did not follow the “all the way down to the end of the aisle” instruction from the CM, so there are no seats for us at the end. We have to walk to the front of the theatre and all the way around to find seats. But we get second row and into the middle. We really enjoy this show- so funny and entertaining and love that it is different each time. Gotta love “that guy” and all the other crowd participation. William really laughed his head off in this one.



Next up, TTA Peoplemover. Short line here, but boarded immediately. William loves this too. And we lucked out, Space was down. In fact, we could see guests were actually stuck on the coaster. The lights were on, so Alan enjoyed getting to se e the inside. We didn’t ride Space this trip. I had attempted it earlier in the week, but it was 30 minutes. Alan and Will didn’t want to ride, so I just ended up skipping it. William for some reason was obsessed with the safety signs inside all of the ride vehicles. “What does this mean mommy?”- I had to tell him it meant stay inside the vehicle, no arms outside etc. He just loved those signs for some reason.



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So after our ride on TTA, we do the Carousel of Progress. I haven’t ridden this in years. It was fun to do it again. Will was very tired, so it was a nice break to relax. We did get stuck on the last part. It started to replay it again, yet we weren’t moving. When it started to replay again, the whole audience let out a huge sigh, like “again?”- it was too funny. It finally moved and we got off. Now time to use our Buzz fastpasses. But where is the line? Oh, WAY BACK There……literally out into the street near Stitch. They had a CM with a flag showing us where the end of the fastpass line was. Crazy. That is when you know it is crowded. So glad we were using FP and not in a rush today. To be honest, I would never wait 50 minutes for anything. We finally get on and I share a car with William, Alan gets his own. The ride stops a few times. William loves to do the spinning part, so I let him, which means my score is not all that great. LOL, but hey, whatever the little guy wants, right?



After Buzz, we manage through the crowds and head to get some ice cream. It is HOT now. We get in line at the ice cream shop on Main Street, about five people back. It moves fast. We find a table right outside, but it is all in the sun and so hot. We all share a hot fudge sundae. I think it is about 2:30 or 3pm by now. We know we need to leave by 5ish.
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So next up? We head to use our fastpasses for Peter Pan. Wow, 60 minute wait. Even Small World has like a 40 minute wait. Everything is crazy long and crowded. Pooh is 50 minutes. SO glad we rode these multiple times this morning with NO WAIT. Our early strategy certainly paid off.



We get in the FP line for Peter Pan, and enjoy our third flight to Neverland today. I always catch something different on this ride- another detail I missed. Next up- we catch PhilHarmagic again. William really enjoyed it the first time, since he loves Donald. We waited quite a bit for the next show, and end up in the very back at the end. Not the best seats, so Will sits in my lap. He giggles his head off the entire show, reaching out for Donald and stuff. We look in the gift shop a bit and then locate our stroller amid the crazy masses of strollers. I have Alan take a pic of the crowds in the walkway here. You literally can barely walk or move, especially with that huge construction wall set up in the middle between Dumbo and the Carousel.
Check out the crowds!
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We get out of there as fast as we can and over to see how long HM is. 40 minutes. No thank you. We don’t wait longer than 20 minutes for anything typically, that is sort of our rule and we manage it just fine by getting there early and using Fastpasses.



So we keep walking and head to Big Thunder to use our fastpasses there. We take the shortcut on the wooden walkway near the water and through the smoking area. Again, massive crowds.



We get over to BTMR and get in the FP line. Even it looks long. Two little girls behind us notice the standby line is actually way ahead of us. I promise her that it isn’t faster and that they have a long queue up there wrapping around that we just can’t see yet. Sure enough- the standby line wraps through all of the queue inside on both sides. The FP line just goes right in and down. It’s funny, as us FPers are walking down, there is a break in the standby line. The next guy in line comes walking up and looks totally confused, and is about to hop into the FP line, I guess thinking he went the wrong way or something. He is holding up the entire standby line and now everyone behind him is confused too- so as we pass them by, I let him know to proceed straight, around the corner and he will see the rest of the line. He just couldn’t see around the corner to the area where the queue wrapped around.



LOL…..sorry dude!!! The CM was checking all of the FP’s, so not like you can just hop over anyhow. The standby line here- 80 minutes. CRAZY, did I say CRAZY?? Yep!
We managed to get on in like 10 minutes or so. WE all ride together this time. William gets a death grip on us going through some of the fast parts.



After BTMRR, we decide it is time to call it quits after a bathroom stop. It is about 4:30pm or so. We head out of the park and I try and turn around and take in the amazing view one last time. It’s so sad to say good bye. Now I know why we usually take a break from like 2pm-4pm, the crowds and heat were just insane.



I had been worried our last day would be bad, but it turned out GREAT! On our last trip, last December (early December) with Alan’s mom and niece, we had done Epcot our last morning, after a late breakfast at Chef Mickey’s. Epcot had been crowded that day too and we ended up waiting over 30 minutes for Test Track, which turned out to be more like a 50 minute wait, totally against our usual 20 minute rule. It turned out to be a waste of an afternoon. I was worried out last day would end up like that, but it turned out great instead!!!! I was so glad we had decided to get up early. It made for a LONG day, but worth it.



So we exited the park and headed back to BLT via the walkway to our car. I went to go get our bag from valet while Alan filled up our mugs one last time. It was so hot outside now. William was fading fast too.



We got in the car and said good bye to WDW. We stopped at the Hess gas station near the Car Care Center for gas. It was packed. No wonder, those pumps are so slow! Gas tank filled, we hit the highway back to MCO for our 7:54pm flight back to Dallas, this time direct.



We hit some traffic on I-4, so I was glad we left early. We arrived at the airport in plenty of time. Poor William had fallen asleep the minute we hit I-4. He slept almost an hour. I was so glad we had checked that second bag.
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We got the car returned with no issues and William even stayed asleep in his stroller, which was a first. He rarely sleeps in his stroller. We got in the airport and debated on whether to wait outside of security and let him sleep or just go on through. We had a little time to kill, but I worried the line would get longer. Because we used RAC, we had our boarding passes already and only our carry ons (which was a LOT). We took a bathroom break and decided to just go ahead and go through security and wake up William. I let him sleep as we waited in line. As we got close to going through, I woke him up. Bad idea, should have woke him earlier! LOL- he was half asleep, barely able to stand up and walk through the machine!
He didn’t go back to sleep after we got through. We got all our “crap” and found a spot to wait on our flight. Once again it was a full flight, but at least it was direct this time. Our flight departed at 8pm, and arrived home at 9:47pm. This is the latest we have ever flown home. I was worried it would be too late, but the other options were much earlier and would have cut into our day so much. I knew we’d be exhausted, but that’s why we flew home on a Saturday, so we’d have all day Sunday to recuperate and get ready for work/school on Monday.


The flight went well and William was so well behaved, unlike our flight last year. It’s only like a two hour flight back to DFW. We arrived and waited forever for our bags, I was getting nervous, since we used RAC, but both bags came out on the carousel. Wooh! Now it was time to get a cab. We found one right away. It is like 10:30pm by now. The cab drops us at Alan’s work parking garage where we left the truck all week. His work is only like 5 minutes from DFW airport. Free parking instead of paying for airport parking. The cab ride is like $20 or something. We get all loaded in the truck- exhausted. We make the 20 minute drive home and crash!



[FONT=&quot]It was a fantastic last day and we had a ball. Next up- souvenirs and final thoughts! [/FONT]
 


Great update!! So sad to leave your home away from home.....

So nice that fellow Dis'er left you some stuff....LOL!!:rotfl::rotfl:
Wasn't that so nice!!!!! :cool1: SHE totally ROCKS!!!!:wave2::flower3:

The last day is so sad .. but you sure did get a lot done ! Good for you. :thumbsup2
I hate the last day, i end up dreading it for days leading up to it.

I can't believe how much y'all got done on your last morning before even heading to breakfast!! That is pretty amazing.

All the TRs I have been following are ending! It's so sad, especially after we all planned these vacations together. :hug: I guess on to the PTRs now! :goodvibes
I know, I've never accomplished so much before in my life at WDW in such a short time. It was awesome! We plan to do it again this year on our last day. even Ohana's for late breakfast! I know, on to the PTR!!!:thumbsup2 speaking of, i need to update that!
 
so I thought I would share a few of our souvies.....

I am a shopping fiend at Disney. I love Disney stuff and love shopping. I know many of the shops carry the same "crap" as my DH likes to say, but I don't care, I just love checking every store out, to find that special something. I work really hard all year, and this is sort of my fun spending spree. We are very blessed to not be on a tight budget on our trips. With DVC now, we don't have a room to pay for (well we paid for it alright, but it's all paid for now) and I save up a lot all year including earning Disney rewards. so i tend to go a little crazy on shopping. I am sure when/if we have a second child and if I ever become a stay at home mom, I won't have the luxury of being so free with shopping there, but for now, I enjoy it! I have a general budget in mind, but if I see something i know I won't find elsewhere and I really want it- i get it.

I knew I wanted the Dooney 40th wallet, so I did splurge on that. That was my biggest thing. We also used money from my parents for Will's birthday to get him the monorail he wanted. So that was another big purchase. I did two shipments home- one from MouseGears and one from World of Disney. So we didn't have to lug a ton of stuff home. It was pricey to ship, but I was going to have to pay another checked bag fee, so I figure easier to ship. I don't regret doing it either!

I did get some wine glasses at the Food and Wine festival:
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I got a ton of ornaments, including about 4 for my mom- this is just a few.
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Mickey pop corn bucket- one of the ears broke off already! boo- i need another one!
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here is our new monorail around the Christmas tree!
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my wallet
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I got this cute 40th anniv shirt- red/blue- i love it- i wear it all the time- love the fit.
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So those are just a few of our purchases. It's been so long now, but I know I got another frame, a nice writing pen, some notepads, sticky notes, toys for the kids, more ornaments and a cute hoodie for Will and one for me. I'll have to take a pic of them, they are both really cute. I am pretty picky about the hoodies, always on the search for the right one......i don't want something that screams Mickey, but i found something fun that had these patches all over it- sort of almost like college letterman type patches. I'll post a pic tomorrow!
 



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