We braved the 4th!!! AND the rain...and the crowds??? 7/1-7/8 BOOKED NEXT TRIP!!!!

[Tinkerbellie16]

I'm late on this as well - but Happy Anniversary!

I LOVE the photo of you on SE. EXCELLENT expression!!!

 

[beachgirl2000]

Yay! Happy Anniversary! I read your honeymoon report and loved it -- Looking forward to this one now. We celebrated our 10 year anniversary last year at Animal Kingdom Lodge and plan on celebrating my 40th Birthday (yikes) this October at the Food and Wine Festival and MNSSHP!!!!!


I am subscribing to this thread now!!!!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

im a little late but happy anniversary!

I'm late on this as well - but Happy Anniversary!

I LOVE the photo of you on SE. EXCELLENT expression!!!

Thanks guys!

Haha, we always have to make funny faces! We just can't help it! Maybe next time we'll try purposely to just do a normal smile.

I swear though, even the very first time we rode SE after the upgrades, we had no idea they were going to take our picture but as soon as they said, turn to the camera and smile...this is what our pictures looked like!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

A note about the crowds. I wrote this in my PTR but I just wanted to reiterate. When we decided on going over the 4th, we knew it would be the most crowded trip we'd done. In the weeks leading up to the vacation, we had lots of theories to try to say why it might not be so crowded on this day or in this park and whoever was the one who came up with the theory, the other would simply say, "It's gonna be *%&#(&% crowded no matter what!" We just had to have that attitude because we had to be prepared.

Day 2 - Friday
July 2, 2010​

So we woke up early Friday morning so we could make it to rope drop at the MK. I had never seen the little opening before and I really wanted to! Plus, I reeeeally wanted a cinnamon bun from the Main Street Bakery and, with the crowds we were expecting, we needed to be there early!

Well, we opened the curtains first thing when we woke up and saw.......

it was still raining!

Okay, here was the plan for rain, the whole trip! The orange sling bag is now going to be designated as the rain bag, now that I have my hipster to carry everything else. SO, because I'm so crazy about my Reefs getting wet, I had one pair that were already ruined so I COULD wear them in the rain and like 6 other pairs. (So if it wasn't raining when we left, I put on a nice pair of flips and then when it started raining, I changed them.) So, besides our rain jackets, there were always a pair of flips in the bag, in case they needed to be switched out and a towel, just in case we need to dry anything.

Well, we got our gear on and we were on the bus in no time!

There was hardly anyone around when we got there around 8:30 and I felt kind of silly that we were there so early. It was raining and we were very uncomfortable and 30 mins to wait for coffee just seems like an eternity!!

But eventually, the train came rolling into the station and the park was opened!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0QctnDFo2bsmGB

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0QctnDFo2bsmGQ

So we were wet and there was a large crowd all moving in the same direction but after hearing that welcome song, and turning the corner and seeing the castle for the first time, I couldn't help tearing up!! But Tom had one thing on his mind and that was coffee!!

We got to the bakery and there were a few people standing around outside. They hadn't opened yet!! It was just a couple minutes until 9 so we didn't have to wait long.

I ordered my bun and this is what it looked like as she pulled it off the tray! YUM!!!

Tom went with the crumb cake and he said, although it doesn't look like much, it was the best crumb cake he'd ever had.

When we were done with our delicious breakfast, we made our way up the rest of main street, stopping to take a photopass pic, of course!

We then, walked up to the castle....
(yes, I have a sweater on under my raincoat!)

(It had stopped raining but the rain clouds were threatening!!)

...and through to the other side where we saw Lady Tremaine and the stepsisters, with NO LINE! I was so excited because I had never really seen them before! They were VERY funny!

Well, we walked into Fantasyland and the Carousel was right there and people were just getting on, so we made the quick decision to ride it. This was a first for us! I got a reeeeally high horse. I'm pretty tall but it was still very hard to get up! But I made it!

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0QctnDFo2bsmGj

Next we went to Pan, with maybe a 10 minute wait, then we made our way to Liberty Square.

So one of our theories about the crowds (that we eventually talked ourselves out of) was that because the 4th was on a sunday, most people would get there on the weekend and stay the following week, leaving Thurs and Fri with lower crowds. Hmm, maybe that theory was right!

These pics are from, maybe 11am?

We literally walked right through the queue into the stretching room! I couldn't believe it!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

We stayed until around 2 o'clock. We got a LOT of rides done that morning....I don't remember the order but besides the 3 I already mentioned, we did Carousel of Progress, Pirates, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear, TTA, Monters' Inc., and Philharmagic.

My score on Buzz...

Tom's score on Buzz....

Grrrr! He NEVER beats me!

Pooh's tree has been moved right outside the ride!

Friar's Nook for snack/lunch!

Poppins, Bert AND the penguins! What a find!! They were right outside Philharmagic!

At some point, Tom got an egg roll!

And I don't have a pic of this but when I went to get my traditional raspberry lemonade slushie, they were serving red and blue ice cream!! I thought that was so cool! Makes me happy!

Some photopass pics...

We were trying to do the pose Mickey and Minnie are in in the topiary but it didn't work so well!

On our way out, we got a pic with the piana player, who was being watered down (sprayed!) by a Casey's worker so he took this pic for us!

Up Next: Dinner at Boatwrights and BACK to the MK!

 

[disneybarbie]

Looks like a fun-filled day in MK so far!

I've never met the ugly stepsisters & Lady Tremaine before.. I've seen them near the castle though, look like good fun!
and MP, Bert + the penguins... wow!!

Btw that piano player has my dream Disney job!!


Emma x

 

[tinkerbell60]

What great character finds!! I would love to see the Penguins and Bert!!!

Rain does wonderful things to crowds!!

 

[dolfinjuls]

Wow your MK day is goinig really well!! You really lucked out with the crowds this day!

OMG that cinnamon roll looks to die for! I'm making it a priority to get over there for our next trip!

And the character pics you got are great! The stepmother & sisters all together! And Mary with Bert AND penguins!!??? How cool is that!

Can't wait to hear about Boatwrights!

 

[WLfamily]

Awesome day at MK even in the rain! You scored big on some of those character pics! I've never had the pleasure of the any of those except MP (had breakfast with her.) We've decided the best time to visit Fantasyland is when it's raining. We went there one night, and it was just a lite sprinkle, and we walked onto every ride with no wait. I'm like you, no rains gonna slow me down!

 

[MissJanice]

Okay, here was the plan for rain, the whole trip! The orange sling bag is now going to be designated as the rain bag, now that I have my hipster to carry everything else.

That is an amazingly wonderful idea! And the purse is really cute. My goal is to someday be able to walk through the No Bag line. But alaw, with two kids, I fear that is a long way off!

 

[tksbaskets]

What a fun day you had in the rain! I love the pictures with Bert, Mary, and the penguins!

After the Pooh tree picture what are the two pics displaying? A new ride and restaurant?

Thanks for posting!

TK

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Looks like a fun-filled day in MK so far!

I've never met the ugly stepsisters & Lady Tremaine before.. I've seen them near the castle though, look like good fun!
and MP, Bert + the penguins... wow!!

Btw that piano player has my dream Disney job!!


Emma x

Emma, you should totally do that! I wanted to take a picture with that guy because he's there every single time I walk by! And since he wasn't playing at the moment, I took the opportunity to ask for a pic! He even asked if we should make funny faces and since I didn't expect that and didn't have one ready, I said, "Let's just smile!"

What great character finds!! I would love to see the Penguins and Bert!!!

Rain does wonderful things to crowds!!

I've seen the penguins before by themselves. And Poppins we've gotten before but for them to all be together was amazing!

Wow your MK day is goinig really well!! You really lucked out with the crowds this day!

OMG that cinnamon roll looks to die for! I'm making it a priority to get over there for our next trip!

And the character pics you got are great! The stepmother & sisters all together! And Mary with Bert AND penguins!!??? How cool is that!

Can't wait to hear about Boatwrights!

YES! That cinnamon roll has been on my list of things to do for years and it was soooo worth it! You have to do it!

We really did luck out with the characters!

That is an amazingly wonderful idea! And the purse is really cute. My goal is to someday be able to walk through the No Bag line. But alaw, with two kids, I fear that is a long way off!

Yeah it was such a pain though because we kept our bags under our rain jackets so whenever we need to get into them, we had to take the jackets off......bag check was SUCH a pain for that reason! Even more than usual! It was so funny, on the second to last day, I said to Tom, "I don't think we need to take the orange bag today!" It was like Christmas came early for him! He was so excited!

What a fun day you had in the rain! I love the pictures with Bert, Mary, and the penguins!

After the Pooh tree picture what are the two pics displaying? A new ride and restaurant?

Thanks for posting!

TK

Those pictures were of signs on the looooon refurb wall in Fantasyland. There were signs of things they are working on. One is the Be Our Guest restaurant and the other is the Little Mermaid ride!

 

[myhappyplace1]

I am enjoying your trip report!! Too bad about all the rain!!

 

[mdrob214]

I love a rainy park day--so many people skip the parks and I've never figured out why? We grab ponchos and go enjoy the walk-on rides!

 

[Nermel9]

What a fun day at MK! I LOVE the Mary Poppins and Penguins picture! I want to find the penguins soooo bad, but the only one I ever see is Mary, and I've only seen her in Epcot!

The bakery looks amazing...I can never convince my DH to go there because there is always a huge line and he refuses to wait!

 

[onelilspark]

My favorite thing about rain at WDW is the lack of crowds!

 

[JenSop]

I had read that the crowds were low that weekend, but WOW! I guess that's the one benefit to all that rain.

 

[MarieTheCat24]

YUM! That cinnamon bun looks heavenly.

And it's so weird to see the Magic Kingdom that deserted. In July.

I love the pic with Mary Poppins, Bert, and the penguins. I've never seen them all together before. Great idea, Disney employee who thought of it!

 

[KYCruiseCrazy]

What crowds on July 2. and still rain. Loved the soft opening video's. Can't wait to hear more.

 

[anewmac]

looks like you had a great time despite the weather.. so glad to see that! Love the Cinn Rolls from Main Street too thats usually my dinner LOL