What Do You Do With a Nine Pound Lemon?? LINK TO NEW TR!

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

I enjoyed getting to see WWoS, too. I didn't have time to shop either but wish I had. It looked like there was so much cool stuff! On Saturday when we walked out to the track for the kids races there were fields in every direction...football, baseball, soccer, you name it. I know the Braves do spring training there but I still have no idea what other sporting events it is used for. It's pretty cool though!

It was crazy, right? Wish we could have had more time to really get a feel for what that place was all about. I knew the Braves trained there but I thought that was basically it.

WWOS looks huge. I'd get lost in there if I was in a hurry

Yeah it was really fun and crazy because we were in such a rush!

It's good...maybe even too big! The color I got is "imperial tole!" Love it too!



I've been lurking your trip reports since your wedding, and your bag made me come out of lurkdom! I have the same bag, in a different pattern. I also have a different bag, in imperial toile! I love the brown pink ivory combination... I'm looking forward to reading more about your trip!

So glad you came out of lurkdom!! Haha! Imperial Toile is the best, right?! I kind of wish the hipster was a little smaller. I thought about the mini-hipster but I don't like the thin strap.

Hey Nikki, hope you guys are doing ok with the crazy weather. Can't believe the US has snow already, its still Fall!!! Stay warm and safe

Oh Stefy, the weather was SOOOO crazy yesterday, I literally hyperventilated on the way to my sister's house and had to pull over TWICE! I was so scared and couldn't get out of my own head so I just freaked. I should've listened to Tom and stayed home.....

 

[anjalee6]

It snowed here too, but we ddn't get more than an inch ad a half. The kids wanted so bad to play in it, but it was so wet ere, that it was kind of gross until later at night when it got colder out. Makes me want to go to Disney even sooner.

 

[jenseib]

Welcome to the "pro" gorup. LOL! I didn't go to WDW in 2010, so I let it laspe and sure enough I stil lexceeded. I have so many pictures posted here on Dis that people must'v still openong the pages (like the Pop picture thread) so it was still getting used up, so I quickly had to renew. But I always do the free trial thing.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

It snowed here too, but we ddn't get more than an inch ad a half. The kids wanted so bad to play in it, but it was so wet ere, that it was kind of gross until later at night when it got colder out. Makes me want to go to Disney even sooner.

I don't think we had that much accumulation when all was said and done....the trees just weren't ready for the heavy snow. So many trees down, it's unbelievable!

Welcome to the "pro" gorup. LOL! I didn't go to WDW in 2010, so I let it laspe and sure enough I stil lexceeded. I have so many pictures posted here on Dis that people must'v still openong the pages (like the Pop picture thread) so it was still getting used up, so I quickly had to renew. But I always do the free trial thing.

Yeah I just had to do it.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Day 2.....STILL! September 30, 2011

So we last left off with Erin and I running through the Wide World of Sports to get our race packets. On the way back, we realized there just wasn't going to be enough time to take a shower.

We had to be at 'Ohana for 5:20 and it was already maybe 4:00? I don't remember exactly but I knew we had to leave NOW! We decided to get the bus to the MK. Well, at some point during the day Brook, or maybe it was Hope? Maybe Stephanie? Well, ONE of my awesome agent coworkers texted me to tell me that MNSSHP was SOLD OUT that night. So needless to say, we weren't the only ones waiting for the MK bus.

I don't exactly remember what time it was, but I do remember being very afraid that we weren't going to make it by the time we finally got to the MK. We hauled butt up the monorail ramp and got on quickly...PACKED! Made a stop at the Contemp and TTA...getting MORE PACKED....and finally got off at the Poly. I'm pretty sure when we got there, it was exactly our ADR time, which to me, means we were late. When they tell me to arrive 15 mins before, I really try to listen but there was nothing we could do. We got there as quickly as we possibly could.

There was a little bit of confusion because the check-in was in a different spot than it was the last time we were there. AND there was a loooong line, which I was prepared for, but luckily, as opposed to last time, someone had the smart idea to make it so there is a separate line for people who have ADRs! Perfect! So we checked in and were given a pager. We only had to wait just a few minutes, which I was sooo thrilled about because I have heard horror stories and we had been talking this place up to Gary and Erin for so long, I really didn't want anything to go wrong.

Ok, enough of the chatter.....here are some pics of the meal!

Spoiler alert!! We had to bring our costumes with us so I carried mine into the restaurant.

Took a pic of the grill as we walked in...

And this lovely hostess who was bringing us to our seats with this warm, delicious bread in her hands!

We were very happy to be sitting and not stressing anymore. Now we can just enjoy our dinner!

First came the salad.

And then some warm (HOT!) towels.

Erin ordered, what looked like, a delicious drink but she didn't really like it so it went undrunk.

Some restaurant decor as I was waiting for the rest of the food to arrive.

Here are the dipping sauces.

And then came the meats!!

I honestly don't remember what was what. The steak was WAY better than it was the other times we ate there, which I was very happy about! Cooked just right!


Then came the chicken wings and dumplings! MY FAVORITE!

And then the noodles and veggies...

More steak? I love how they serve it to you!

Not for me (yuk) but Erin and Gary enjoyed the shrimp.

And finally, the bread pudding!

The meal was REALLY delicious. Unfortunately, the service at the end was AWFUL! Not only did we have to wait, what seemed like, hours to get our check, there was an issue with the waitress automatically adding tip, which she should not have done. Erin crossed it out and left cash because she didn't want anything charged on her KTTW card but she found out during check-out that it was still billed. Fortunately, it worked out but it was certainly a pain at the time.

And pretty soon we were on the (VERY crowded) monorail again on our way to the MK for MNSSHP!!!

 

[anjalee6]

I wasn't prepared for how crowded the party would be. I thought we would just hoping rides and it would be great. Wasn't that way at all. Interesting to see what you thought. It was fun, but very crowded.

 

[Nermel9]

I love 'Ohana soooo much! I think I could eat just the noodles and bread pudding and be happy! That's annoying that your server added in the tip though, but I'm glad it worked out!

I can't wait to read about your experience at the party, I just started posting about mine!

 

[DisneyCrafter]

The same thing happened to us at Ohana. I wonder if we had the same server b/c we sat at the table next to yours when we went (right in front of the wood). It took literally 20 minutes for us to get our change! I was NOT happy!!! I really enjoyed the steak this time. They actually went around with 2 skewers of it when we were there-one was med/med rare and one was well done.

 

[IheartDDuck]

Mmmm, the food at Ohana looks so yummy. I'm so glad that I have a reservation there on New Years Eve.

 

[marDgreen88]

Hey there! I just got caught up but I wanted to 'introduce' myself and say I've been enjoying your TR! Your niece and nephew are both too cute, and it seems so far like yall had a blast! I can definitely relate to packing everything into a short time, I've only ever been on shorter trips and packed they were!
'Ohana looks SO good, I've wanted to go there for a while but never had the chance! I'm hoping to book it for a future trip though... it looks too amazing to pass up.
Anyways, looking forward to more!

 

[Spartangirl]

Your meal at Ohana looked delish! Can't wait to hear about the party!!!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

I wasn't prepared for how crowded the party would be. I thought we would just hoping rides and it would be great. Wasn't that way at all. Interesting to see what you thought. It was fun, but very crowded.

Don't think we went on one ride, actually! VERY crowded!

I love 'Ohana soooo much! I think I could eat just the noodles and bread pudding and be happy! That's annoying that your server added in the tip though, but I'm glad it worked out!

I can't wait to read about your experience at the party, I just started posting about mine!

Oh those noodles! Soooo good!

The same thing happened to us at Ohana. I wonder if we had the same server b/c we sat at the table next to yours when we went (right in front of the wood). It took literally 20 minutes for us to get our change! I was NOT happy!!! I really enjoyed the steak this time. They actually went around with 2 skewers of it when we were there-one was med/med rare and one was well done.

Our server was the woman in the picture with the skewer. She seriously disappeared for like 20 mins!

Mmmm, the food at Ohana looks so yummy. I'm so glad that I have a reservation there on New Years Eve.

Oh you're going to love it! What a great way to celebrate New Years!

Hey there! I just got caught up but I wanted to 'introduce' myself and say I've been enjoying your TR! Your niece and nephew are both too cute, and it seems so far like yall had a blast! I can definitely relate to packing everything into a short time, I've only ever been on shorter trips and packed they were!
'Ohana looks SO good, I've wanted to go there for a while but never had the chance! I'm hoping to book it for a future trip though... it looks too amazing to pass up.
Anyways, looking forward to more!

So glad you finally posted! You should definitely try to get an 'Ohana reservation. It's really so delicious!

Your meal at Ohana looked delish! Can't wait to hear about the party!!!

Coming up!!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Day 2......September 30, 2011 ~ MNSSHP

We left off having had a delicious meal at 'Ohana and we were on our way to the MK for a SOLD OUT Halloween party. The monorail was really crowded and so was the walk from the monorail station into the park. They actually had "traffic" CMs having people GO while the cross section of people (people leaving the MK and going to the boats/monorail) STOP and vice versa. It was nuts! While we were stopped at a red light (ha) Gary, Erin and Conor quickly put their candy costumes on!

Once we made it inside, Tom and I stopped before going under the train station to put our costumes on!

It was pure craziness walking up Main St. Just so packed!! But I really wanted photopass picture so we stopped for that.

At this point, we separated because Tom and I wanted to find the Seven Dwarfs!

The line was right by Splash Mountain and although it didn't really look too long, the CM told us it would be a 1 hour and 20 minute wait. We looked at each other. I was thinking there was no way Tom would want to wait but he said, "Let's just do it." So we did it. We waited.....

.....and we waited.....

....and we waited.....

We kept ourselves entertained two ways. One was to watch the people who were trick-or-treating by the Splash Mountain queue. We especially liked the group that went as a Brazilian Tour Group!! From someone who usually goes to WDW in the summer, we found this hilarious!
(Sorry, this was the best picture I could get.)

The second thing that kept us entertained was the most adorable group of Asian girls who LOVED our costumes so much, they ALL took individual pictures with us! At the time, I just thought this group of girls must just love Potato Head but apparently it's a cultural thing because later that night, Tom ran into another group of Asian girls when he went to get a drink from the Lunching Pad with his brother who went CRAZY for his costume! And when he told them there was a Mrs., they lost it! I almost didn't believe him until we were on our way out and we ran into THAT group of girls and again, they all took pics with us! I'm thinking it's a cultural thing....Potato Heads must be big in Asia!

Anyway...where was I? With just a few people in front of us, the Dwarfs had to go in. It was soooo cute that they all grabbed their pails to take with them! Before long, they were back with their pails!

Oh so that fun group of girls was right in front of us in line and when it was their turn, I couldn't believe that they ALL handed the CMs and photopass photographer their cameras. It was funny!

We decided while we were in line, that we wanted to take our costumes off for the picture.

I'm very happy with how it came out. Totally worth the hour and twenty!
Gary and Erin were texting us about their awesome spot for the parade just as we were getting to the front of the Dwarfs line so we knew we weren't making the first showing of the parade. By the time we left the Dwarfs, got our costumes back on and got ourselves together, it was around 8:45/9.

We decided to avoid the residual parade crowds, we'd walk past Splash and back through Adventureland. We saw an AMAZING Jack Skellington costume. This guy was SOOOOO tall and skinny, I mean, it was like he was MEANT to wear that costume! If they ever had Jack Skellington as a character in the parks, they would HAVE to hire this guy. I tried to get a sneaky picture of him but he evaded me every time!

We did stop to get a photopass pic in front of Pirates.

And eventually made our way to the hub for HalloWishes, which started at 9:30.

We weasled our way right into the middle of the hub for a spot front and center! At first, I told myself to just watch and enjoy it but I thought I'd give my camera a true test run! I had done a little researching about appeture and shutter speed (and other camera words) so I figured I'd give it a go! Here are some of the pics I got. I kept changing the settings to try to see what would come out better so they all look a little different.

Then when they shot off the 360 fireworks, I turned just to my right and who do I see??? WALT!! So I snapped this one....

But I wasn't really happy with it so I quickly changed the setting and tried again.....

How amazing is that picture?! Don't even asked me what I did when I say I "changed the settings!" I really have no idea! I know that there's a way for me to see what settings it was on when I review it on the camera so I'll have to look for that before I delete them.

I then turned back to the castle and got another favorite. Just wish that guy's head wasn't in the way....

When the fireworks ended, Tom decided he wanted a frozen coke and Erin and I decided we wanted to get a spot for Villians Mix and Mingle. So Tom and Gary made their way to the Lunching Pad and Erin and I couldn't really even move forward too much because of THIS! CROWDS!

 

[anjalee6]

I was looking for myself in your pictures, but no such luck. LOL. You castle pictures are great. I really like the one with the orange-red glow. It's really pretty. I agree. The crowds were really bad. We did the first Villian Show and we did the 9:30 parade. was happy that we actually got to take a picture with the Queen of Hearts. My kids were so excited! By 10:30 we headed out because both kids fell asleep during the parade! (the afternoon nap that day didn't really work very well.

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

Cont. from previous post...


People were definitely being "nudgy" (as we teachers say ) so we tried to just stay in our spot and not get in too many people's way!

So packed! Erin really wanted to meet Cruella DeVille after the show but it just wasn't happening. It's supposed to be a "mix and mingle" but as soon as them came down, loooong lines formed very quickly and the handlers made sure to tell us they were only going to be out for a few minutes so we didn't even bother.

By this time, Tom and Gary came back and told us the story about the girls who loved Tom's costume. At this point, Conor wanted to ride BTMRR and we wanted to make sure we caught the second Boo To You Parade so we separated again. Before going towards Liberty Square, I stopped and got my pic with this guy who, unlike the other villians, had no one in line to see him.

So we then made our way to Liberty Square thinking we get a good spot near Sleepy Hollow. Oh. My. God. It was pure craziness!! There was a walkway crossing the main "road" so we went that way thinking that when they closed the rope, we would go up to the front. Well people were just piling in and no one was bothering to keep the walkway open no matter how many times they were told to by CMs. We were very uncomfortable and stayed in that spot until the headless horseman rode by.

(Best I could do, sorry!)

As soon as he went by, we said, "Screw this!" and went across the walkway around the back of the Christmas store and came out behind the Liberty Tree where we saw....

So we figured, this was as good as we could get!

Okay so before we left, on one of our many planning parties, Erin and I watched the parade on youtube and marveled at the music and how it all really works. I mean, I knew each float was on repeat but couldn't quite understand how they kept it all regulated so you only heard one float at a time. WELLLLLLLLLL, it just so happened that the place we were was RIGHT in the middle! It was really because it wasn't supposed to be a place where you watch from because it came around the corner from here.....


(Looking towards the Riverboat)

And then turned the corner and went past us here....

(Looking towards Hall of Presidents)

So I realized that the music from each float is really the same, just the lyrics and the melody change a bit. So we were hearing one version passing in front of us by HoP and another verse on the side of us. It was REEALLY odd and a little distracting, especially because I absolutely love this parade. But I tried not to let it bother me too much and just tried to enjoy it! I was standing on the tree ledge and Tom was sitting, not really going out of his way to try to watch!

Some pics I took during the parade.

I LOVE the Liberty Tree!

These guys are my FAVORITE part of the parade!!!

As soon as the parade passed by, we walked back behind the Christmas store again and over the bridge towards the Crystal Palace which, by the way, had a FANTASTIC view of the parade and nobody around! DUH!! Oh well......

Out by the Crystal Palace, there was a photopass photographer so we stopped for a shot or two!

He also took one with our camera AND he was really nice about it! You could tell her knew what he was doing because he changed some settings around and stuff and we told him that he probably took the best picture that camera ever took, and that we just got it and have been playing around. He was like, "That's how you learn!!" We thought that was really nice, especially after the encounter we had with the Phineas and Ferb photopass photographer who gave Tom an attitude after he told her that she had to look through the viewfinder instead of the display screen to take the pic, to which she responded, 'Yeah, like you do on cameras!" So snotty! He was just trying to be helpful because most people have cameras with the display screen and our display screen only shows the pic AFTER it's taken.

Anyway....after doing....we'll, not much, we decided to just go back to the hotel. We BOTH had a big day tomorrow!!

The parade was still going on so we cut through the stores on the right side of Main Street and by the time we got to the hub at the bottom of Main St. we realized, we couldn't go anywhere anyway until the parade was over.....or so we thought!!

I was able to get a few more pics of things I missed earlier.

So how cool is this?! There were CMs standing at a rope in the hub and whenever there was a break between the floats in the parade, they would lift the rope and let people go across!!! It was genius!

Once we were out, we felt like we could breathe for the first time all night!

All in all, we didn't do much of anything during the party. We didn't go on ONE ride OR really see the parade from a good angle but we still had a good time.


Up Next: Crazy, crazy night and up early for the 5K....which I almost didn't make it to and NOT because I OVERslept!!!

 

[anjalee6]

yeah, interestingly enough....Main street hardly had anyone standing there for the second parade. We just got a prime spot right on the curb. We did a lot of stuff looking back. We saw Philharmagic, went on Space Ranger Spin, Small World, Haunted Mansion (did pictures too), took pictures with carriage, got lots of candy, saw parade, fireworks, went on Pirates, Carousel, ate ice cream, saw villiam show, ate dinner, went to dance party. I guess we did more than I thought that we did. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your crazy night!

 

[archdandy]

Great update! I've been hearing more and more horror stories from the MNSSHP being overcrowded. It kind of scares me because I had planned to go next year! It's good that everything got settled with your friends bill at Ohana. The one thing that drives me nuts about Disney's restaurants is that they take forever to bring the bill!

 

[Tracy161]

First off, your costumes were great! And the bread pudding picture reminded me that you were my inspiration for making that recipe myself at home shortly after you had and showed us the beautiful finished product... now, it's a must-have at every major family gathering! So thank you for that!

Great pictures of the castle!

 

[NikkiLovesWDW!]

I was looking for myself in your pictures, but no such luck. LOL. You castle pictures are great. I really like the one with the orange-red glow. It's really pretty. I agree. The crowds were really bad. We did the first Villian Show and we did the 9:30 parade. was happy that we actually got to take a picture with the Queen of Hearts. My kids were so excited! By 10:30 we headed out because both kids fell asleep during the parade! (the afternoon nap that day didn't really work very well.

Pics came out good, right? I'm very happy with them. That would be so funny if you were in my pics!

yeah, interestingly enough....Main street hardly had anyone standing there for the second parade. We just got a prime spot right on the curb. We did a lot of stuff looking back. We saw Philharmagic, went on Space Ranger Spin, Small World, Haunted Mansion (did pictures too), took pictures with carriage, got lots of candy, saw parade, fireworks, went on Pirates, Carousel, ate ice cream, saw villiam show, ate dinner, went to dance party. I guess we did more than I thought that we did. Can't wait to hear about the rest of your crazy night!

Weird! I guess everyone was just in that spot where I was because it was INSANE! You did WAY more than we did!!

Great update! I've been hearing more and more horror stories from the MNSSHP being overcrowded. It kind of scares me because I had planned to go next year! It's good that everything got settled with your friends bill at Ohana. The one thing that drives me nuts about Disney's restaurants is that they take forever to bring the bill!

Yeah it was really a shame that it was so crowded because that's supposed to be a perk of the party. I thought, anyway! We didn't mind too much because we really didn't plan on doing anything other than the 7 dwarfs pic.

First off, your costumes were great! And the bread pudding picture reminded me that you were my inspiration for making that recipe myself at home shortly after you had and showed us the beautiful finished product... now, it's a must-have at every major family gathering! So thank you for that!

Great pictures of the castle!

Yes! The bread pudding! I've made it a few times since that first time. So funny that you are making it too!!

 

[ronnmel]

Wow! What a busy party! Too bad you didn't get that much done, but at least you enjoyed what you did get accomplish. Great pictures!