Weird and Ninja’s Pre-Disneymoon [Completed!]

[not_Joanna_eggs]

I go away for a few weeks, and you brought this TR back. Yay!

DH and I have had more than our fair share of un-magical fights at Disney. Glad to hear Weird realizes that it's always the man's fault DH is a slow learner Somehow even fights are better at Disney.

I love how excited you are about the fish basket adorable.

We've only been to CHH once, and I wasn't impressed. But I think we'll have to give it another try.

 

[NancyLuvsMickey]

It took me 3 Saturday nights, but I finally read the whole TR and I'm caught up...

And I'm glad you and Weird made up... Gotta love Disney magic!!! It's hard to be mad while at Disney!!!

 

[dancin_princess]

okay, so i wanted to play catch up but when I went to my bookmark, it was way back in July. I did not know I was that behind on your TR. I will have to come back another day and catch up because its 2:45am, I'm tired and my battery on my laptop is dying.

 

[RachelNinja]

I remember how we made up! I said sorry because I remembered that the guy is ALWAYS wrong

Silly

YOU are a smart man!

Hang on to him Rae!!

I will!

I go away for a few weeks, and you brought this TR back. Yay!

DH and I have had more than our fair share of un-magical fights at Disney. Glad to hear Weird realizes that it's always the man's fault DH is a slow learner Somehow even fights are better at Disney.

I love how excited you are about the fish basket adorable.

We've only been to CHH once, and I wasn't impressed. But I think we'll have to give it another try.

I brought it back ... and then I let it die again. Haha. I'll try to bring it back today.

Weird and I rarely fought then (now with wedding planning, it's a different story because of our parents causing tension!), so it was so so so disturbing for me to fight at all. Doing it in Disney World was like, whoa, seriously? I understand why it happens to others now though. There's more stress involved in the day to have a great time that every little thing can become a major thing.

I was craving fish and chips last night. I could almost smell it! I don't think we could EVER do DDP because we love the CS at MK. I think from now on we're going to do CHH and then maybe Pecos Bill or Cosmic Ray's.

It took me 3 Saturday nights, but I finally read the whole TR and I'm caught up...

And I'm glad you and Weird made up... Gotta love Disney magic!!! It's hard to be mad while at Disney!!!

Oh yay! I'm so happy when I have new readers! I'm glad that I was interesting enough to keep you reading for 3 Saturday nights!

okay, so i wanted to play catch up but when I went to my bookmark, it was way back in July. I did not know I was that behind on your TR. I will have to come back another day and catch up because its 2:45am, I'm tired and my battery on my laptop is dying.

I totally get it! I sometimes have to bookmark TRs, and I don't get up to them until MUCH later. I used to be more on top of updates, but life just takes over!

 

[RachelNinja]

Wednesday, April 7: And one GOLDEN SUN ...

I'm very glad that we went to eat first because we could actually move on to "it's a small world" and enjoy it. I know many people don't really like it, but every time I go, there's always something new that I notice. There's just so much to take in! Plus, I was very into finding the most important part from Kingdom Keepers! When we went back, I also remembered to use my Guest Assistance Card since there was a long line. It's strange now because the wheelchair line is actually the real line now. As some of you may already know, they swapped the lines.

Here you can kind of see the crowds there. You know it's crowded when rides like IASW have a ton of people. I'm sure the best thing to do would have been to ride something else and return to do IASW at night, but we're so used to our rituals of going through each land.

I do admit that I felt a little strange standing there in the wheelchair line when we clearly did not have a wheelchair. I think the family in front of us was wondering what we were doing there. You can see the dad in the picture looking at us.

We got on our boat and headed on the happiest cruise that ever sailed.

Weird played around with the settings on his camera to get better pictures. I didn't even try except for a few. I won't post that many, but I'll just post a few. Remember, this is just a little while after Weird got his DSLR, so they're not as fantastic as the people on the photograph section of DIS. And also remember that these were all taken without flash.

I like that they include Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. I think I read part of this story (like the kid version) in 5th grade. I remember my teacher played up the whole part of his trying to defeat the windmills. She did a good job explaining it though because I remembered it ever since then!

It's really amazing how these dolls can play guitar when their hands don't even touch the instruments. Haha.

This is my blurry version of it. I actually don't think it's that terrible because at least you can see what it is.

Okay, now getting to the part that I thought was rather creepy. If you haven't read the first Kingdom Keepers book, this will be a bit of a spoiler. In the book, the kids have to ride this ride at night when the park is closed. It's really creepy since they're the only ones in a boat. Well, the dolls start coming to life, and they break free from the platforms and begin walking to the edge! They then drop into the water and swim towards the kids' boat to attack them! Knowing that, you'll understand why I thought this was creepy! Where was this little character?!?

That was Howard's, and this was mine. You can see the difference in color.

Is it just me or do these little guys look really creepy?

I took this picture because it made me sing, "High in the hill was a lonely goatherd, yo de lay yo de lay yo de lay hee hoo!!!"

I asked Howard to take a picture of this because it's probably one of my most favorite parts of IASW. I took an Intro to Judaism class in college since I had a theology minor. I love the word chuppah!

This is cute because I never noticed the elephant in the background of this scene!

Panda!

This picture was taken with my cousin Dani in mind because of her trips to Japan (the cousin that's in my current TR).

Don't you love hwo they tilt this? It's so clever because otherwise you wouldn't be able to see all of it.

Haha, there's a boy on a ... water buffalo?

Okay, the 2 little dolls that bow to you as you leave this section creep me out because they're really close to the boat!

I think we were here when I really started paying attention to the suns ...

I've had MANY a nightmare about this room. One particular dream is still in my memory with vivid detail. I was on a boat riding with people I didn't know when the ride stopped. We actually had to step off the boat and onto these platforms to get to one of the EXIT doors. Well, suddenly there was no one in there with me! I don't know where everyone went, but I was in there alone! I had to walk among all the animals by myself!!! I was so scared, and I couldn't really walk (you know those dreams when your limbs feel like jello when all you want to do is move out of there faster?). Haha, so because of that dream, I'm kind of scared of this room (seriously, what else am I scared of ...).

I'm sure it doesn't help that this hippo has wacky eyes.

I also do not like the hyenas. I used to like them as a kid, but they were a big part of that nightmare I had. Haha, of course, I did have Weird take a picture of them though!

Is it this sun???

(continued in next post)

 

[RachelNinja]

(continued from previous post)

I never noticed this little boy before!

I know this is blurry, but did you ever notice that cactus playing the guitar? Haha, Weird pointed it out to me! I have NEVER seen that before! Haha, it's rather entertaining.

I don't see it, but a lot of people would go to WDW and say that the Hawaiian girls reminded them of me as a little girl.

OH WAIT. THAT'S the SUN! Haha. READ KINGDOM KEEPERS!

I was smiling awkwardly because I needed to make sure I kept those killers away from me ...

I read somewhere that this last room is supposed to be like Tivoli Gardens in Denmark, which was Walt's inspiration for Disneyland. I'm not sure if that's true, but I do tell my kids that fact since Tivoli Gardens is mentioned in the book I do with my 6th graders, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry. Please, in your mind, underline or italicize the book title. I probably won't go back to underline or italicize it when I actually paste this into DIS.

I know it wasn't in this room, but how many of you miss the frowning clown that held the "Help me!" sign?

I really like this picture because you can see RIDE VEHICLES and you can see the whole room and the fact that it's actually IN a room. Haha, does that make sense? But I like the fact that you can see the ceiling.

Raise your hand if you've ever (1) wanted to ride that ferris wheel but (2) was also afraid of falling out because they don't have any restraints?

CEILING!

I really liked these ducks because I "had" ducks in Florida. Years ago, these ducks kept returning to the back of our timeshare because I fed them some of our bread. It's amazing how they would return every single day after that despite the fact that all the condos look exactly the same!



The American, haha. We're all cowboys.

I was excited that Weird got a clear picture of this because of the "Auf Wiedersehen"! I sing "So Long, Farewell" to my students sometimes when the bell rings and they're taking too long to get out of my room.

Back out in the light means it's easier to get clearer pictures once again!

Sparkly!

Okie dokie. That's it for IASW! Haha, I know I said I wouldn't post that many pictures, but if only you knew just how many pictures Weird really took! HAHA. That was just a FRACTION of them! Okay, now we were done with the IASW rides. Where would we go next?

 

[SoonerGirl]

It looks like one of the dolls is missing in this scene too

I will never look at that ride quite the same way again after reading that book, just remember to smile

 

[Jennifer48]

Raise your hand if you've ever (1) wanted to ride that ferris wheel but (2) was also afraid of falling out because they don't have any restraints?

Love your Sound of Music references! I super that movie! I want to do the ABD trip to Austria so bad!

 

[Cat0727]

Haha I take so many pictures of IASW too. I always tell myself I won't take as many as the last time but I always taking just as many if not more

 

[Cinderella16]

I just love Small World -- like you said, always something new to see no matter how many times you ride!

I read Number the Stars with my fifth graders this year. I just love that book and so do the kiddos!

Speaking of books, I must read Kingdom Keepers this summer. One of my students has been reading the series and she loves it. A story about Disney? I'm in! Although the attacking Small World dolls is sort of creeping me out, yet I am very interested at the same time.

 

[klacey1]

Love your IASW pictures! It's one of the best parts about that ride-- every time, you can notice something new! (Like the cactus playing the guitar-- totally never saw that!)

 

[407-W-DISNEY]

I was excited that Weird got a clear picture of this because of the "Auf Wiedersehen"! I sing "So Long, Farewell" to my students sometimes when the bell rings and they're taking too long to get out of my room.

I bet you are such a FUN teacher and your students LOVE your classes!

 

[YukiPhnx]

I think after playing Epic Mickey...I won't be able to ride IASW for a while...It creeped me out too much and all I will be hearing is the spooky music.

 

[JenAusty]

sweet wonderful small world... I absolutely love this ride but DH says he "wants to blow his brains out" when on it. I think its just too long for him.

 

[LilAnn]

I don't think IASW freaks me out now nearly as much as TT will next time I go on it. KK has definitely made me see Disney World in a whole new light! Although I am now a bit creeped out by some of the "missing" characters.

I have to say that I hear the song from IASW ALL the time. I think it's definitely one of DD's favorite songs. She asks to hear it again and again and again.

 

[therussells08]

Wow, I have never seen such a detailed post about IASW! I loved it! I don't think I will show it to John, though. He hates that ride enough already, and if I show him all of those details I will never be able to get him to ride it again!

I bought the first two Kingdom Keepers books at a local used bookstore for only $2! I am saving them to read in the car on our June trip! I can't wait!

 

[RachelNinja]

It looks like one of the dolls is missing in this scene too

I will never look at that ride quite the same way again after reading that book, just remember to smile

It's so funny that I probably never would have thought to look for missing dolls until now!

Love your Sound of Music references! I super that movie! I want to do the ABD trip to Austria so bad!

I remember watching Sound of Music ALL the time when I went to my cousin's house next door. My cousin, brother, and I would get on my aunt and uncle's bed and watch it almost every time we were over. I don't know why! Haha.

Haha I take so many pictures of IASW too. I always tell myself I won't take as many as the last time but I always taking just as many if not more

Once on the ride, it's as if everything seen is totally new and fantastic, and it needs to be posted on DIS! I think that would really happen if we were to go on IASW at DLR!

I just love Small World -- like you said, always something new to see no matter how many times you ride!

I read Number the Stars with my fifth graders this year. I just love that book and so do the kiddos!

Speaking of books, I must read Kingdom Keepers this summer. One of my students has been reading the series and she loves it. A story about Disney? I'm in! Although the attacking Small World dolls is sort of creeping me out, yet I am very interested at the same time.

This year was the first year I had my kids read Stepping on the Cracks too. It's great to compare with Number the Stars because the former is about two girls who have brothers overseas in the war. It's also about someone deserting the war. It gives the kids a good idea of what war on both sides, and how the characters were affected. There are a lot of similarities. We talked about things like rationing a lot because it was in both books.

YES YES YES! Read Kingdom Keepers! I just recently finished KK4, and I'm dying for the next one!

Love your IASW pictures! It's one of the best parts about that ride-- every time, you can notice something new! (Like the cactus playing the guitar-- totally never saw that!)

I'm so used to always looking in the same directions in certain rooms. I have to remind myself to turn around!

I was excited that Weird got a clear picture of this because of the "Auf Wiedersehen"! I sing "So Long, Farewell" to my students sometimes when the bell rings and they're taking too long to get out of my room.

I bet you are such a FUN teacher and your students LOVE your classes!

Haha, I hope so! Teaching ELA gives me the opportunity to be fun. Math doesn't provide those same opportunities although I love the subject (I try to make up wacky stories to explain math in real life situations). I actually had a student a few months ago say that I "made math boring" (he claims he didn't say it, but the whole class said it and bugged him about it afterwards). I said, "I don't care if you think I'm boring. I'm not here to entertain you. My main concern is that by the end of this year, you're prepared for 7th grade math. That's it." He was embarrassed after that because he said he really meant to say that math itself was boring. Right, right ... hahaha.

I think after playing Epic Mickey...I won't be able to ride IASW for a while...It creeped me out too much and all I will be hearing is the spooky music.

I don't think I'm brave enough to ever play Epic Mickey!

sweet wonderful small world... I absolutely love this ride but DH says he "wants to blow his brains out" when on it. I think its just too long for him.

Maybe your DH will learn to make that his nap ride!

I don't think IASW freaks me out now nearly as much as TT will next time I go on it. KK has definitely made me see Disney World in a whole new light! Although I am now a bit creeped out by some of the "missing" characters.

I have to say that I hear the song from IASW ALL the time. I think it's definitely one of DD's favorite songs. She asks to hear it again and again and again.

I don't know that I can get on Maelstrom anymore! Haha. I'm much more aware of the creepiness of that ride! However, despite how creepy the scenes are, I always want to go back to see where Finn and the others were! Haha, there are times I really do believe they were there!

Wow, I have never seen such a detailed post about IASW! I loved it! I don't think I will show it to John, though. He hates that ride enough already, and if I show him all of those details I will never be able to get him to ride it again!

I bought the first two Kingdom Keepers books at a local used bookstore for only $2! I am saving them to read in the car on our June trip! I can't wait!

As much as I love the WDW IASW, I'm so excited to eventually get on the DLR one! I really want to see all the Disney characters integrated in the scenes!

Woohoo! I wonder how you enjoyed the books during your drive!

 

[RachelNinja]

Wednesday, April 7: Playing "Ghosts" in Real Life

Talk about falling behind on my trip report! My last update was the first of May. Now I should be able to move along with this trip report since school is over, YAY! Of course, I do actually spend a lot of my time crafting too (blog: loveandsushi.blogspot.com ... I love followers!), so we'll see how quickly I can get through! The last thing we did at WDW was "it's a small world"! Thank goodness for very detailed pictures!

Once we finished IASW, we were ready to head to a different land. We took a nice, leisurely walk over to Haunted Mansion. I was excited about this because Weird and I used to play the Haunted Mansion game ALL THE TIME on Virtual Magic Kingdom (we used to just call the game "ghosts"). It's how we accumulated most of our credits (well, I played the Fireworks game a lot too). We especially loved playing during the double credit days because we'd get twice as many credits! Of course, that meant it was twice as hard trying to start a game because so many people were trying to play it too!

On the way, we passed the building that once housed the skyway. I kind of wish it was still there because I know I'd appreciate the views more now than I did back then.

Though the line for HM was pretty far back, we still hopped in line because we knew that it would move fairly quickly since it was continuously loading. We were all the way by Columbia Harbour House.

I always think it's so strange to transition from the fun Fantasyland rides to something supposedly scary!

This is one place in Disney where I would NOT want to live!

Mickey doesn't seem to be scared at all. He still has that big grin of his!

We liked these 2 older ladies who were in front of us. They were taking their time because they weren't sure where they were supposed to go (one of them had a walker). I told them that they'd have to walk around and then exit by a gate closer to the mansion. I knew because that's what I was told when I asked about the Guest Assistance Card.

Did you ever notice the creepy face above this sign?

While on the line, I tried calling Sarah (wdwgirl03) to see where she was because she had left a message for me. As she said in her trip report from a LONG time ago (haha, she actually finishes them within a good time span!), we kept playing phone tag! When she called me, I was on a ride and didn't realize it. When I saw the message and called her back, she was on a ride and didn't realize it. Would we EVER meet? And yes, if you've read Sarah's trip report from over a year ago, you'll know the answer to that question!

Of course, since these are Weird's pictures, he has a bunch of me.

When I was younger, I didn't really understand the invisible horse. I mean, I didn't understand that it was supposed to be an invisible horse. Haha. I don't know what I thought it was.

Don't the little things above the covered walkway look like people?

It was fun pointing out Madame Leota's eyes because those people who were closer to it and who had never seen it before actually jumped when her eyes opened!

When we finally made it indoors, we headed right for the stretching room. I felt comforted to know that Weird was with me because I think I will ALWAYS be afraid in there!

Despite not liking the stretching room very much, I think it's cute how they have the character pins that are posed as if they were the people in the stretching room portraits. For example, I know that there's a Minnie pin that looks like this girl.

I always think about the technical aspects of this ride in terms of how this is a real elevator at DLR because they needed to build the ride underground whereas here at WDW, it's just for the effect and isn't a real elevator.

Love how there has to be cobwebs all over the place!

Once we exited the stretching room, we got to the part I don't like on the ride. We just inched forward little by little. We actually stayed a little to the back so as to avoid the mad rush (even though you can't actually rush anywhere) and also because I wanted to hear the gargoyles talk. Apparently they start chatting once everyone's almost gone (we didn't hear them though). What annoyed me is that there was this family who was determined to push their way through to get on the ride before everyone else. They were being rude to us and making comments because we were looking at the paintings hung up on the wall and trying to look for the fisherman's harpoon (or whatever it is that can also be found as a decoration piece in Columbia Harbour House). It was as if we were in their way when clearly, we had nowhere to go anyway! Ugh. It bothered Howard and me a lot, but we had to just let it go. I don't want to be mean, but they were larger than we were too. I don't know if that made them think that they could push us out of their way because they were taller and wider, or if they thought we wouldn't do anything about it. I don't know; those things just bother me. I mean, you'll get on like, 2 minutes before we do. Is it really that important? Does it justify being rude? No!

Other than that annoyance, the ride was fun. I was able to point things out to Weird. I ALWAYS do that so that I can take my mind off the fact that I'm actually kind of scared! Strangely, it wasn't as scary when I was a kid. It's probably because I was smaller in size and felt more enclosed in the doom buggy. Now that I'm older and bigger (MUCH bigger, haha), I feel that we're actually very close to the props! I mean, there are some things that could technically jump out and attack us, and we're so close that there'd be nothing we could do! I'm surprised that there's no scene in any of the Kingdom Keepers books so far that takes place at HM. Maybe it's too obvious of a location!

It was the first time that I saw the stairs like Escher's staircase. I don't think I noticed the footprints though. I was glad that the huge spiders were gone! It was also the first time seeing the attic scene, and gosh oh gee ... that bride at the end of the whole scene totally freaked me out even though just moments ago, I was saying that the special effects showing the husbands' heads disappearing was cool! I was so glad that I wasn't on the left side of the doom buggy!

We got off the ride and walked back out into the sunshine! Phew! These things could be funny again instead of scary!

I had to show Mr. Toad to Weird in the pet cemetery.

I had also told Weird ahead of time that some people debate whether the pieces on top of the HM are chess pieces. Apparently, I was looking at the wrong things all along. Haha. Weird pointed it out to me, and I did recognize them as being chess pieces even though I don't know how to play chess! I thought it was funny how this black bird was on it!

And here you can see it flying away!

Lastly, there was something interesting about this plaque, but I can't decipher it now so I'm just posting the picture!

Phew, now that we were done with HM, I could breathe again and call Sarah! Would we meet? Soon? Maybe? Haha. It's about time I got to it, don't you think?

 

[not_Joanna_eggs]

I agree. I hate the post-preshow rush. People can be so crazy rude! Like seriously, does it matter if your 2 families in front of me? We'll all get to ride.

When we were there in December, we went really early, and we were the only people in the stretching room. it made the whole thing even creepier, but I was so happy that we wouldn't have to fight people to get out and we could linger as much as we wanted!

Hope you get to meet up with Sarah

 

[wdwgirl03]

Woo hoo, an update and I'm mentioned in it. haha Gosh, was that really over a year ago?! Crazy. It's funny hearing your side of the story. I remember being in Tomorrowland when I got your message. I think we were on the TTA when you called!

I miss the skyway. There are so many old attractions that I wish they could bring back.

I read that about the gargoyles too but I couldn't hear them either. Hmm...Now you've got me curious about that last picture of the plaque. I want to know what it says!

Oh, and I'm reading your blog right now. I like your little videos you have. I'm watching the one about your cricut cartridges. Those things are so cool but I know I would never use them enough to get my money's worth. But it would be neat to have especially being a teacher!