We're Changing The Plan Again?? You mean there's a Plan? New TR Posted/Link Posted

[mermaid764]

Those skies looked very menacing, Luckily you guys did not end up getting caught in the storm.

CHH was one of our favorites, your food looks really good.

Hopefully you guys found another opportunity to see the MSEP

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Signing on. So impressed with your MK day! Can't wait for more!

 

[sstewart]

Wow! What an amazing first day! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

 

[TinksThree]

I was all set to say what a great view at CP ... until you added the next detail of the outside company.
seems like a great location at Port Orleans. the more i see of it the more excited i am to stay there our next trip!
Has the piano player at Casey's always been inside a fence? i don't remember that.

For the most part the table/view at CP was great! We just had to overlook that 5-10 minute interval!!

PO is such a nice resort! Keith refuses to consider anywhere else now. I hope you love it as much as we do!!!

That was the first tiem I had ever seen the piano player so I am unsure if the fence was always there or not.

Those skies looked very menacing, Luckily you guys did not end up getting caught in the storm.

CHH was one of our favorites, your food looks really good.

Hopefully you guys found another opportunity to see the MSEP

We got lucky on those clouds and the rain. There was no weather checking, we were nto concerned by the menacing clouds and we just followed the "plan" before us. Really it was a lot of Pixie Dust that kept us out of the storm and pretty dry!

MSEP....I still kick myself over the next opportunity to see it!

Signing on. So impressed with your MK day! Can't wait for more!

Welcome!! I am so glad you are joining in!! This MK day was so much more than I ever could have planned for!

Wow! What an amazing first day! Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip!

Yes it really was an amazing day! If only all days could go so well!!!

 

[TinksThree]

I left off with us finding a spot to watch the fireworks. But first The Magic, The Memories and You show begins. This was AWESOME!! And if you have not seen it, it is hard to describe and my few picture attempts do not do it justice! But here are a few attempts!

Then…the fireworks begin!! Wishes! I will just let the pictures tell the story!! (in no particular order---way too many!!)

Continued on Page 8....

 

[TinksThree]

Continued since I get carried away taking pictures....

I really like Wishes but I think I must be one of the few that liked Nightastic (last year’s summer fireworks show) better! Even Madison and Chris commented that last year’s was better. But Wishes is still awesome and wonderful and lovely and fantastic!

Last year after the fireworks, we made our way out of the park. It was a nightmare! The year prior we had rode another ride before leaving. We definitely had planned to do this again rather than fight the crowds out of the park. I figured if I am going to get to the resort at midnight anyhow…I might as well enjoy some of the time in between! So we head over to Big Thunder Mountain. I love this ride at night!! We use our FPs (although the wait was 20 minutes, with the FPs we get on within 5!) and yes my mom is along for the ride!!

After our wild ride through the west we decide it is time to call it a day. Splash is still not operating so those FPs are not ever used.

One final castle picture for today:

We make our way down Main Street which is beginning to clear out.

okay...maybe one more of the castle...

We manage to exit the park by 11pm!! Not too bad!

I want a nighttime picture of this:

But it takes forever for a lady to take the “perfect” shot! Literally, we probably waited 10 minutes. But I knew this may be my only chance to get a nighttime shot so I waited!

Finally I get the shot and we move on to the buses. Soon we are nestled in our lovely soft beds dreaming of what the following day will bring!

So how did the DAY 2 Plan go? Well a recap (since it took me a month to get one day completed!) on The Plan:
1. Get to the resort and check-in, be at Magic Kingdom by 10am
a. We got checked-in, ate breakfast and arrived at MK by 8:30am—in
time to catch the Welcome Show! SUCCESS!!
2. Get FastPasses for Space and head to Fantasyland (Winnie-the-Pooh, Snow White, IASW, and FPs for Peter Pan by 11:15am; Hall of Presidents by noon)
a. From 9am until our ADR time (12:45 check-in) we had gotten
FPs for Space, rode Winnie-the-Pooh, Snow White, IASW, PP w/
no FPs!, Hall of Presidents, Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the
Caribbean, rode Space with FPs and snagged FPs for Splash Mtn
3. Lunch ADR at Crystal Palace 1:00pm
a. DONE!! And excellent!!!!
4. Afternoon: parade and Space Mtn FPs
a. Rode Splash with FPs and saw parade plus a little shopping; back
to resort on schedule!
5. To resort/swim/return to MK around 6:30pm
a. Swam/cleaned up/back to MK by 6:38pm!!
6. Evening: Columbia Harbour House, MSEP and fireworks
a. Saw princesses, rode Space again, ate supper at CHH, Haunted
Mansion, POTC again, and fireworks but no MSEP, and we rode
BTMRR w/ FPs but no Splash

Overall…who cares that the plan wasn’t exactly followed! We blew it out of the water and were able to do so much more than I ever anticipated on doing!!!! This day was so much fun and very relaxing!!!

So what will Saturday bring? It is another day at MK and Keith joins us. I will state,however, that when you enter in a hubby who is a WDW fence rider….well, things just may change!!

 

[mermaid764]

Wow the new castle show looks amazing, I can see why you wanted so many photos.

Love the pics on Big Thunder at night, such an awesome ride.

Can't wait for more

 

[ksl5f123]

What an awesome MK day!

I am glad that you missed those storms - the clouds looked pretty bad.

I love how the parks clear out with a good rain. for the evening walk-ons.

Too bad MSEP was cancelled. I love the Memories show too. It is really amazing and you just have to see it. My girls agree with you about the Summer Nightastic vs. Wishes. They could understand the "story" of Nightastic better and kept asking me why the fireworks were different this year.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Excellent update! I can relate to WDW resister for a DH

 

[IheartDDuck]

Hey, who cares that the plan wasn't followed? You guys got a lot accomplished that day!

You were in the same building I was the last time I stayed at POFQ. I was on ground floor though (fortunately). It's a great location in relation to the food court, for sure.

 

[TinksThree]

Wow the new castle show looks amazing, I can see why you wanted so many photos.

Love the pics on Big Thunder at night, such an awesome ride.

Can't wait for more

The castle show is amazing. Last night I was watching the video I took and I kept hearing myself say "Wow!" "Whoa!" and so on!

I love BTMRR day and night but night rides seem to be more special!

What an awesome MK day!

I am glad that you missed those storms - the clouds looked pretty bad.

I love how the parks clear out with a good rain. for the evening walk-ons.

Too bad MSEP was cancelled. I love the Memories show too. It is really amazing and you just have to see it. My girls agree with you about the Summer Nightastic vs. Wishes. They could understand the "story" of Nightastic better and kept asking me why the fireworks were different this year.

I am glad I am not alone in the Wishes/Summer Nightastic viewpoint! I wish we could ahve seen MSEP but the near empty park was also very cool! And i was very glad we escaped getting drenched!

Excellent update! I can relate to WDW resister for a DH

Thanks...and my sympathies on the "resister"! I "think" I may be persuading him a little but...as long as we stick to what makes him happy!!

Hey, who cares that the plan wasn't followed? You guys got a lot accomplished that day!

You were in the same building I was the last time I stayed at POFQ. I was on ground floor though (fortunately). It's a great location in relation to the food court, for sure.

That was my sentiments! I can get off course anytime when it works out the way this day did!

I really liked the building and location. None of the buildings are very far at POFQ but that location was about as perfect as I could have asked for--without asking. Well, except for the 3rd floor!

 

[mickeystoontown]

I love the pictures of Madison and Chris with the princesses. Especially the ones of Chris with them. Boys start out interested in the princesses because they are pretty....as they get older they are interested in the princesses for their ummmm assets.

Your pictures of the castle show and Wishes turned out so much better than mine. I may get one good picture out of 10.

 

[gumbo1009]

Really enjoying your TR!

 

[pinkxray]

Oops, I missed a few updates.

I love the pictures of the beds. If Caitlin and I make it to WDW in Oct. we will be staying at FQ. I am hoping the pool want be too busy but I guess we can always go to POR.

I love that FQ is so compact. I don't think you can really have a room location that is too far from everything.

Your pictures of the new castle show are awesome. I can't believe I missed that

Your kids are awesome I love how they are still into Disney so much. How exactly did you do this? Did they take many trips as kids? I am wondering if I am better going back many times or wait a few years between trips to turn Caitlin into a Disney addict so she will want to go back when she is older.

 

[TinksThree]

I love the pictures of Madison and Chris with the princesses. Especially the ones of Chris with them. Boys start out interested in the princesses because they are pretty....as they get older they are interested in the princesses for their ummmm assets.

Your pictures of the castle show and Wishes turned out so much better than mine. I may get one good picture out of 10.

Chris had so much fun with the princesses. He really liked the attention! And we definitely noticed the changes in his reasons!!

I have a Canon point and shoot so I am happy with what I get becasue point and shoots don't generally take the greatest shots like that! I also have a lot that were deleted though!

Really enjoying your TR!

I am so happy you are enjoying it!!

Oops, I missed a few updates.

I love the pictures of the beds. If Caitlin and I make it to WDW in Oct. we will be staying at FQ. I am hoping the pool want be too busy but I guess we can always go to POR.

I love that FQ is so compact. I don't think you can really have a room location that is too far from everything.

Your pictures of the new castle show are awesome. I can't believe I missed that

Your kids are awesome I love how they are still into Disney so much. How exactly did you do this? Did they take many trips as kids? I am wondering if I am better going back many times or wait a few years between trips to turn Caitlin into a Disney addict so she will want to go back when she is older.

I know how it is missing some. I get all caught up on reading and then I get way behind again! I think that is the story of my life!!

POFQ is compact and i am with you...that is one of the things I love about it! Caitlin will probably enjoy the serpent pool. And POR is not that far of a walk and an even shorter boat ride!

I am so glad the kids caught my Disney bug!! Madison went when she was 4and not again until 13. I never could get Keith to go once we got married so Chris did not go until he was 15. I was too afraid to take two kids and keep up with them. Now that I have been I wouldn't hesitate taking younger kids. But I am not sure what has them so into everythign unless it is because they didn't go as kids and now that they are older, we do everything from "kiddie" rides to the "big" rides. I'm glad they are liek that though so i can act liek a kid with them!!

 

[TinksThree]

Saturday morning we awoke bright and early. We grabbed some breakfast bars in the room and set out for the bus stop! Since we caught the Welcome Show at Magic Kingdom we were not in too much of a rush! Good thing because our bus driver was in training and he went a different route. It only took us 10 minutes the previous day to get to and from MK. It was very simple: right out of parking lot...drive to red light....left and viola you are there! On this ride? Take a left out of the parking lot...we panicked and I asked to be sure we were on the MK bus. Yep we were! So we ride and ride and ride and 25 minutes scared1 later we pass the TTC and finally get to the park! I do not know why we went that route but it was awful! And the other way was so easy I can do it 6 weeks later with my eyes closed!

Oh well, all is well that ends well....we end up here at 8:58am!!!

So I get to see the Welcome Show again!!!


Plan for the day? Typically MK on back-to-back days and at the beginning of the trip would not have been ideal but there were several reasons for us doing this. The biggest reason was because on today Keith flies into Orlando and joins the group! And if there is one thing he made abundantly clear last year, it is that he doesn’t care for Magic Kingdom!

Okay, I said there were several reasons, but really that is the only reason. Since he arrives in the afternoon, that means only half a day at MK and I hope to fit in a few things I really want him to experience later in the evening.

Backing up a little bit: As we made our way to the bus stop the question “What is the plan for today?” is asked. Well, basically the plan is out the window! I explain that we had covered most everything yesterday!! Really, this is a good thing, right!? So we decide to follow the original plan and just see where the road carries us!!

Our basic plan for the day (before Friday “messed” it all up!):
9am: Rope drop get FP for Splash Mtn
9:15am-11:30am: BTMRR, POTC, Jungle Cruise, Country Bears, Haunted
Mansion, Philharmagic
11:55am: Keith arrives so we go back to resort for a break/lunch
3:00pm back to MK
3:30pm-5:30pm: Options---Carousel of Progress/get Buzz FPs, TTA,
Monsters Inc, use Buzz FPs, use Splash FPs, Tom Sawyer
Island, Liberty Belle (or ride when we return)
5:30pm: head to Grand Floridean
6pm: 1900 Park Fare
7:30pm back to MK to pick up anything extra; out before fireworks begin

As you will see, these plans are not followed one bit. Not really.
We arrive shortly before the Welcome Show begins!! I get to see it two days in a row!! This is very, very good…for me at least!!

We hand over our tickets to Chris and his goal is to get FPs for Splash. We plan to all meet up at Big Thunder Mountain.

The rope drops and we are off to Adventureland!

Good Morning Dear Castle!!!!

Now this is the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend so I have been slightly concerned about crowd levels ever since I began planning this trip. Friday we had really lucked up and were extremely successful! And while it was crowded, it wasn’t bad at all.

A few pictures of the vast number of people heading the direction we are!

Chris has our FPs for Splash so we head to the Wild West….Big Thunder Mountain!

We go through the stand-by line. A 5 minute wait was posted…we get to the loading area and jump on board!! Off we go!!

Boy was that fun! Let’s do it again!! The 1st ride we were at the front.

We go to the middle this time around. Again we walked straight onto the ride!
How about one more ride?! Okay, we are up for that! We walk on again and this time we sit in the back!! As you can see there were very few people joining us on these rides!

We decide 3 times in a row is plenty so we go towards Splash but Splash is still down…since last night so something must have really thrown it off! But we have FPs so we will return later! Where to now?? It is now 9:30am...not a bad start!

Next on The Plan was Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise and Country Bears. Well two out of the three we did the previous day and we kind of want to save them for Keith. So what should we do now?

 

[mtgirl29]

Whew! I am finally caught up! I am totally all the pics! So glad you mom was up to being more adventurous and riding as many rides as she could this trip.
The night castle pics were AMAZING!!! It sounds like you guys really accomplished a lot that first day in MK. I cannot believe how dead the park looked at 9:30 in the morning on your second MK day. The pics on BTMRR had empty seats. WOW! The parks seemed so incredibly busy the whole time we were there, granted we never got to any park before 10 am.
Looking forward to your next installment.

 

[TinksThree]

Whew! I am finally caught up! I am totally all the pics! So glad you mom was up to being more adventurous and riding as many rides as she could this trip.
The night castle pics were AMAZING!!! It sounds like you guys really accomplished a lot that first day in MK. I cannot believe how dead the park looked at 9:30 in the morning on your second MK day. The pics on BTMRR had empty seats. WOW! The parks seemed so incredibly busy the whole time we were there, granted we never got to any park before 10 am.
Looking forward to your next installment.

I get caught up only to fall behind again! Plus a power surge blew my power cord for the computer. This greatly reduced my DIS time! Thankfully that was all it messed up though!

So glad you are enjoying the pictures! My mom was such a trooper on most of the rides. Some I just told her she wouldn't ride becasue I knew better! BTMRR being that empty really surprised me too! We felt we were all alone in frontierland...it almost felt criminal!!

 

[TinksThree]

We decide to head on over to Tomorrowland.

Frontierland had been a GhostTown! What will Tomorrowland look like??

We get to Tomorrowland and decide to ride Astro Orbitor.

We have not done this since Madison was 4 years old. It is a walk on to the elevator and soon we are soaring over Tomorrowland! We get some great views of the area. The views make this ride for me. Otherwise it is not very high on the list. But it was fun none the less!

You can get an idea of the crowd levels below:

Then we head over to Space Mtn.

We had two exciting and different rides the day before and we were holding our breath that there would not be any malfunctions on this day! We go through the stand-by (that has 5 minutes posted!!) and soon we are zooming through the darkness! We get off and meet up with my mom in the gift shop. She is talking to my aunt so we decide to ride again! And then we ride one more time for good measure!! Three rides on BTMRR and Space! Two Mountains down and one more to go!! All of this by 10:20am!!!!!!

Next we head over to Buzz Lightyear which has 10 minutes posted. We time it for fun and they were dead-on!!

My not so great score...

But I did better than Chris!

We leave Buzz and head over to Carousel of Progress.

This is another I wanted Keith to try but we decide to go ahead and do it now and we could possibly add it later. We make our journey through time. I love this attraction. I sing the song all the time. I think I enjoy it also because so much of it is based during “simpler” times. While each era has its own issues, I believe it probably wasn’t as rushed and technical as today is!

So we exit back into the bright sunshine and head off for Buzz again!
We ride Buzz….

Then we decide to try Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor.

We had never done this but I had heard enough about it to want to try it. We waited for about 15 minutes for the next show to begin. We laughed so hard…it was very funny and probably is a must-do for us now!

So a count of our morning so far:
3 rides on BTMRR
FPs for Splash
Astro Orbitor once
3 rides on Space Mtn
2 rides on Buzz Lightyear
Carousel of Progress once
Monster’s Inc once
And it is only 10:45 in the morning!!!

 

[TinksThree]

During all of this time I have been talking and texting Keith. His flight is on schedule so hopefully he will be landing by 11:45! So we decide we have a little more time to spend before heading back to the resort.

First Mickey’s Philharmagic. Another must do for us!!

We exit Mickey’s Philharmagic and see Mary Poppins by the carousel. The girls jump in line since we have never met Mary Poppins. We are only about 4 people back so we make it to the front super quick. Madison and Mary Poppins discuss many things including how to spell supercat….blah, blah, blah (I can’t even say it!). Madison does pretty well and then Mary Poppins does it backwards! Okay…I have problems saying it frontwards!!

The carousel is loading so we decide a quick ride would be fun. Well everyone but Chris. He joins in just so he isn’t left out!

This is a very quick ride and soon we are searching for one final thing to do before using the Splash FPs and then going back to the resort.

We pass by this...The circus is coming to town!!

We decided not to ride this:

We head towards The Mad Tea Cups.

This wait is relatively short…around 15 minutes. We go round and round and round very fast. Madison and Chris love to spin that tea cup!

Thankfully my mom was a trooper and no one got sick! So now that we are wobbling around in our dizziness states, we decide to head over to Splash. Along the way we see the castle show and stop to watch for a few minutes but it is really getting warm prompting us to move along.

We continue our walk to Splash:

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