You little sneak! A TR with lies & pictures! (July 25-Aug 5, 2010) Done 3/29

[captaindavidhook]

No kidding about snow here! But I will that people about an hour to an hour and a half west of here had it way worse.

Take a look at some of the pictures on thisSNOW It's crazy!

But this one is an actual road...

Snowy road

one word: Yikes!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Hey,

Been enjoying your trip review, getting me pumped for my trip to WDW in the fall. That is, I WAS enjoying it until you reminded me what a brutal winter it was here (j/k). Hopefully a lot of it will be gone after warm weather this weekend.

PS. If that is the ball field I think it is in your first snow pic, I live relatively close to you. I go jogging through your neighborhood regularly (when there is no snow around - hopefully later this month!)

Anyways, nice to know there are other Disney nuts (and freaks) close by.

Hope you get back there soon

Sorry LuzzBightyear! I promise to not post any more snow pictures! Although the snow melted quite a bit this weekend, eh? Hopefully the snow will be completely melted soon.

Yes, that's the ball diamond across from the house, thank goodness it's only little kids who play there, I'm nervous enough of the foul balls as it is! And I agree, it's fun to know that there are some other Disney nuts/freaks around.

You're right! And Dorothy is the biggest nut you'll ever meet!
Hope you have LOTS of fun, and yes the snow is going fast.
I don't think we're quite done of the snow though.........
one or two more storms?

She's my sister, she knows me well, yes, I'm a nut! And we didn't get our St. Patrick's Day storm yet, but aren't we supposed to get another 15 cm on Friday?

one word: Yikes!

It's not normally that bad though. Usually it snows, then melts a little bit before we get more, but this year we didn't seem to get much thawing/melting done. It was really pretty though... until it started to melt and got all dirty and brown!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Before I get started I just wanted to say I'm totally depressed right now! My March Break has officially started as of 2:40 this afternoon. I wish I was heading to Florida! But I'm not, I've got nothing planned.... Can't even take a trip to the nearest Disney Store because the nearest store is closing, probably today or tomorrow. So sad!

What? Was I sick or something? I only took 60 pictures the WHOLE day???? And I stopped at around 1:05? I don’t get it. So I really was sick.... in the head at least!


We had breakfast at the hotel.

Blanche’s food:

Mine

I think mine was just okay. I like my Mickey waffles and pancakes better.

We snapped pictures near the TV and decided to walk to Music to catch the bus there. I stayed at Music before and loved it, and I like to visit hotels I’ve stayed at before... and others I’ve never stayed at I guess too!

On our way:

On my last night of my solo 2009 trip, I went to MK and just missed a bus to Music, and since my building was the one closest to Movies, I the movies bus. It was about 1 am during EMH, but I was tired, and I knew I had to pack up to go home. I was doing the same walk backwards.

We’re at Music now.

At Epcot, 8:50 am and we're in the park.

Blanche stayed back and I hustled to get our fast passes for Soarin’. She didn’t think she could keep up with this:

Sorry... I guess I'm not good at those over the head shots!

I got the fastpasses, after standing behind someone that was the head of a tour group who got a TON of fastpasses. Annoying.

Then I had to go find Blanche... it wasn't too hard.

I just remembered how on my very first, very short 3.5 day trip to WDW, I got lost in Epcot, trying to find the exit! I wasn't feeling so great, probably all the excitement; so I wanted to leave and head back to my hotel. Epcot didn't really impress me at that point in time. Now I love it, but then I could really take it or leave it. I kept walking too far one way and then I'd turn around and walk too far another way. I remember being near the Wonders of Life Pavilion and then being near Mission Space and then back another way. I just couldn't figure it out! What a newb. ROTFL (I don't want to use a little smilie because takes away a picture....)

So we went to Living with the Land first.

Then it was time for:

Yep... that's it for Part 1 so up next is a fairly short part 2 because I was off and stopped taking pictures WAY too early!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

So after

Which is Soarin! in case someone doesn't recognize it...

and I’ve still never seen Off Kilter!

We had lunch at the Rose and Crown, but why didn’t I take pictures? I don’t understand it! I know I got a bowl of the potato and leek soup, and I loved it. It came with two cheese scones. Yummy!

While waiting to get in to Rose & Crown, we watched the little show.

I am pretty sure Blanche decided to head out at this point and I stayed a while longer. I did Test Track and Mission Space and shopped a little bit, but I didn’t stay long.

I can’t tell you what I did after that. I didn’t do any shopping, (well... any BUYING!) and I don’t have to food receipts to tell you what I did... BLANCHE? Help my failing memory please?

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I’m guessing we got up and had breakfast at the hotel... This is where I wish I had all the receipts! BLANCHE!!!

Blanche had decided that she would join me at DHS for the morning, then I’d go to Mass. If she felt up to it, she’d come, but if not, she would return to the hotel to relax and I’d go find her after Mass. Then again, depending on how she felt, we might go back to another park.

So off to DHS we go.

I don’t have many notes, and I don’t have pictures of things. I ran ahead to get our FPs for TSMM. Blanche didn’t want to be crushed in the mob, so she said she’d meet me near the Little Mermaid. I don’t really know a lot of what we did, so most of this section will be pictures. I do know we saw the Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast, and we ate an early lunch at the Backlot Express.

While in line for the fast passes, I saw a “little green army man” except he wasn’t too little!

On my way back to find Blanche:

Waiting for The Voyage of the Little Mermaid

I took a few pictures of the show, but since I only had the G11 and not the big camera, I wasn’t as pleased as I was the year before. Next time I go, I hope to get some better shots of everything!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

When we left off, Blanche and I just finished watching the adorable show/attraction of the Voyage of the Little Mermaid.
Into the sunlight again:

I know I went on RNRRC because I have a picture of the Demi Levato poster for my nieces and nephews. That’s not in the theming for TOT, but I can’t remember if I rode TOT at this point or not.

We saw BATB, and I was really cranky! We were sitting on the right hand side, and people kept coming in late and walking in between me and the stage! GRRRR.... And I tried recording a video of parts of it, and then people would walk by. It drove me crazy! But I did get good pictures of it last year, so I will post some of them when I’m done the TR, only because I really like some of them.

Here are the only three pictures I took of the show, and they’re not my favourites, by far!

I can’t remember if Blanche had gone or not by then, by I took a walk through One Man’s Dream. I love that attraction, even though the first time I went through it was only in 2009! I took over 60 pictures in there, so I’ll pick some favourites.

It’s a lot of snapshots of what is in there. It’s an amazing attraction and I love learning a little about Walt when I go through there. If you’ve never walked through this, I truly recommend it; it brings tears to my eyes and makes me appreciate where Walt came from. It’s nice to have this memorial to Walt in order to help people remember where WDW really came from.
Some shots wandering around DHS:

I promised myself that I’d at least get some more shots of this fountain, not necessarily good shots, but shots none the less!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

It was before Star Tours was being refurbished so I went in there.

That was my last shot in DHS. I took it at 1:51. I guess I started my way out of the park at this point. I wanted to take the bus to Port Orleans French Quarter. Blanche, Rose & I stayed there last year on our little three day shopping trip. We had lots of laughs there, but I hadn’t taken as many pictures as I would have liked. So I thought I’d go and take a few as I walked to the boat to DTD. My only picture on the boat was at 2:50.

Here’s where I have a fun story for you. The boat came (at some point, my first picture on the boat was at 3:15, but I might have been on the boat for a few minutes before then) and I opened the door to walk onto the dock and got growled by the captain! I thought he was serious for quite a while. I think he was serious in the fact that he’s supposed to open the gate, but he was picking on me. Then on the boat, he kept asking trivia questions. Everyone was quiet, so I started answering them. They were fairly easy except the one that asked who Daisy’s three angelic nieces were. Honestly, I don’t remember seeing them! He said it’s three months in a row. When we got to DTD, he told the guests on the boat that they would have looked really bad if I hadn’t been there (insert embarrassed smiley here). Then he asked if I worked for Disney. When I said no, he said “They’re always hiring, you know!” It was a fun little boat ride, and I think Disney trivia is the only kind of trivia I’m okay at!

Here you see just how close the boats get to the bridges....

I got to DTD and took a taxi to Our Lady of the Universe Shrine and Basilica. I wanted to take a walk up to the Outlet mall and see what the Disney Outlet Store was like before mass. Let’s just say it was kind of a creepy walk alone. I probably should have gone up to the road, but I thought it was on the same side as the church... nope, but the parking garage is on the same side.

Oh, I take the taxi from DTD because it’s closer to DTD, so it ends up being cheaper. It was around $12 plus tip on the way there. I took a Mears cab. I’ll tell you a little about the way back after....

Up next: Church and Disney outlet store pictures

 

[DisneyFreak06]

I find the church and the grounds beautiful. My heart is always torn when I see these big, beautiful churches. I love them, but then the money spent on them and on the upkeep of them could be used to help more people too.... But this is the Disboards, I’m not going to start a debate on that!

I’ll post just a few pictures because it really is pretty. I was there by 2:45 and mass was at 6pm... I hate being late and I had known that I wanted to see the outlet too. This was our gage for deciding which outlet mall we’d go to once Rose got there.

A lovely gentleman took pictures of me in front of the church. You know my school board, they won't be posted here, and there's a long way to go before retirement.

I made it to the mall by 3:15.

I ended up buying this later in the trip... I think.... did I Blanche, Rose? If I did, then I put it away for summer! I can’t remember now...

I did buy this, because I wore it the other day....

I walked back to the church and shopped in the gift shop for a few minutes. Then I wandered around their rosary garden for a little bit too. It was very peaceful and peace was nice to have in the middle of a very busy vacation!

Trying to be creative again:

So I took a taxi back to DTD. I had purchased a few things in the gift shop, and I had paid cash. I literally had $20 in my purse. I got in the cab, not thinking of looking at the rates or anything, and told him to take me to DTD. Silly me. I’m watching the fare go up and up. Mind you, it cost me like $12 to get there, and then I gave a little tip. I warned him and said that I only have a $20 bill. I got to DTD and he dropped me off. The fare was $20.25. I handed him the $20 and hopped out. I was upset! Let me tell you I look for Mears cabs now. I felt bad too, because it wasn’t HIS fault that the cab company charges too much. No tip for you though when I literally have no cash to give you!

I can’t remember what I did after that. Did we go back to another park? Did we stay in and watch a movie? We did watch 2 movies through the trip. Two nights to watch Enchanted and one night to watch the Princess and the Frog.

 

[DisneyFreaksis]

We saw BATB, and I was really cranky! We were sitting on the right hand side, and people kept coming in late and walking in between me and the stage! GRRRR.... And I tried recording a video of parts of it, and then people would walk by. It drove me crazy! But I did get good pictures of it last year, so I will post some of them when I’m done the TR, only because I really like some of them.

I hate to say it but I am usually one ofthe people who make her (and others) cranky.
But to defend us latecomers(some of us) if one kids makes us 30 seconds late, another 60 seconds, and you have 3 or 4 kids, it generally makes us late. Never our fault because we are so perfect and organized right Dorothy?
I said right!

 

[DisneyFreaksis]

[
That was my last shot in DHS. I took it at 1:51. I guess I started my way out of the park at this point. I wanted to take the bus to Port Orleans French Quarter. Blanche, Rose & I stayed there last year on our little three day shopping trip. We had lots of laughs there, but I hadn’t taken as many pictures as I would have liked. So I thought I’d go and take a few as I walked to the boat to DTD. My only picture on the boat was at 2:50.

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Wait til Blanche sees these! I do miss that too! Sigh...........

 

[DisneyFreaksis]

[I ended up buying this later in the trip... I think.... did I Blanche, Rose? If I did, then I put it away for summer! I can’t remember now...


I did buy this, because I wore it the other day....


Okay I think I remember that dress. Can't remember if you actually bought it though.
And that jacket would look better on me!
Tell her people!
Did you hear that?
It's everybody saying 'Rose is right! Hand it over!"

Come on.
I'm waaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiting!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

We saw BATB, and I was really cranky! We were sitting on the right hand side, and people kept coming in late and walking in between me and the stage! GRRRR.... And I tried recording a video of parts of it, and then people would walk by. It drove me crazy! But I did get good pictures of it last year, so I will post some of them when I’m done the TR, only because I really like some of them.

I hate to say it but I am usually one ofthe people who make her (and others) cranky.
But to defend us latecomers(some of us) if one kids makes us 30 seconds late, another 60 seconds, and you have 3 or 4 kids, it generally makes us late. Never our fault because we are so perfect and organized right Dorothy?
I said right!

Rose... you really need to learn how to quote... See the little button on the right side at the bottom of my post? It says QUOTE. Then you have a quote and people know it's me that said part of your message. I can show you next time you come over.

I don't mind people being a few seconds late if they have children with them... it's the adults walking in late that drove me nuts last time.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Wait til Blanche sees these! I do miss that too! Sigh...........

And you need to leave in this [QUOTE = ...

Yes, I so miss the POFQ too.... It was so much snun! Oh, I should probably explain that soon.

Okay I think I remember that dress. Can't remember if you actually bought it though.
And that jacket would look better on me!
Tell her people!
Did you hear that?
It's everybody saying 'Rose is right! Hand it over!"

Come on.
I'm waaaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiiting!

Nice try Rose.... The jacket is MINE.... You didn't buy it. You had your chance!

But I'll give you a since you could have bought that one too, but you didn't.

And don't worry everyone, when I'm tired of the jacket, it will go to Rose!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Here’s me, being a traitor again... but I’m a huge Harry Potter fan. Read all the books I don’t know how many times. Read them to my nephew, all seven of them. Read some of them in French. Owned all the movies on DVD and now own them on blu-ray. Actually Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, as it’s called in Canada, was my first DVD I bought. I’ve been known to put them on in French while I’m doing work, because then it doesn’t totally distract me, but I can hear the language. It’s good for me to hear different accents and then I try to improve my vocabulary. I’m now reading the series to my niece (We're on the 2nd book). Do you understand why this one day was important to me? It was almost as huge as my first trip to WDW! Not quite, but almost!

Blanche decided she’d stay at the resort that day, and might head out to shop a little bit. She was going to take it easy. I took the cab over on my own. I was at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure at 7:10. I really wanted to be early and get in to the Harry Potter section as early as possible.

Turns out, I was let into the park and had to walk around the left side of the park instead of ride with the onsite guests. That was around 7:40.
I snapped some pictures as I followed the tape and walked quickly through the park.

I can’t believe I went on all these coasters....

The tape we were supposed to follow.

I was really close to the front of the day guest line.

I liked this worker. He saw me get my camera out and he turned the sign around! Then he fixed it and smiled for me.

So it’s 7:49 and I’m in line. There was a young woman (I can’t remember, but she might have been in her early 20s) and she and I chatted as we waited. She had an annual pass and had been to the WWOHP many times by then.

Look, it’s only 8:29 and we’re moving!!!! Getting to US/IoA at 7:10 paid off!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

WARNING:There will be many HP pictures ahead.

Can you see where I’m headed? You can see that the wait time for the HP and the Forbidden Journey (from now on just FJ) ride was only 30 minutes at that time. I really should have stopped more in the line to try to get better shots. Next time I will. Some of these aren’t the clearest shots, but they do give you an idea about the queue for the ride. So to be fair about the wait times at this point in the day, it’s 8:30 and I’m just getting in the line. (And the park officially only opened that day at 9am!!!)

The mirror of Erised

I’m in the Greenhouses now... sort of ... I think. I honestly can’t remember much.

Now I know I am! LOL

What I liked was hearing the HP theme as I stood in line.

The speakers blend in with the plants.

The baby mandrakes (And it’s 8:42)

I’m entering Hogwarts!

House Points

Looks like Gryffindor's in the lead.

Entrance to Professor Dumbledore’s Office

I like the “official decree” signs.

The Sorting Hat

Did I mention that I only took my little camera? I didn’t want to have to bother with the locker. I had a fanny pack, and they let me wear it on the rides, so I put the camera in that. But now I want to go back with my big camera....

 

[DisneyFreak06]

So it’s 9:19 and I’m now in line for the Flight of the Hippogriff, and taking pictures of Hogwarts through the ride tracks.

I remember the worker asking me how many people, I told him I was solo and he says wait a second. He then goes to the express line and asks the lady there, she told him there were three people. Her and two cute little boys. He measures the boys and tells her that one of them cannot ride. They need to have another adult. I hear her trying to tell him that her husband is back with two or three other kids of theirs who didn’t want to ride. I am standing there thinking, “I just said I was alone! Sit him with me, dummy”. So I actually say to mother within hearing of the worker “Well, I’m alone, I can ride with one of the boys if it’s okay with you.” And that’s how we do it. It didn’t seem very complicated to me, but seemed to confuse the worker for a second.

Where they have some performances, but I missed them.

Look at the line now!

You can sort of see Sirius here,

It’s neat because it’s like a wizarding picture, where he moves and yells.

To be continued, mainly because I have too many pictures I want to share!

 

[DisneyFreak06]

So I kept wandering around. I didn’t go into any of the shops yet, but I wasn’t ready to do that either. I wanted to go into the shops after I was done riding any of the rides because I didn’t want to have to carry anything around.

So I headed toward the Dragon Challenge, since the wait time was supposedly only 15 minutes.

Hagrid’s Hut

The Ford Anglia

It’s 9:42 am and I’m just entering the queue because I kept taking pictures before then.

I can’t remember which “dragon” I chose, but I know I wanted to go whichever way a loud group of young people went. I don’t mind young people, in fact I work with young people a lot through my church, plus I taught high school for a year. But these ones were loud, rowdy and kept cursing and stuff like that. I just was tired of standing in line with them.

There must have been something wrong with the ride because it was definitely more than 15 minutes. It was 15 minutes before we split off into the two different dragons. Maybe I picked the one with more wait. I dunno. But it was around 10:30 when I got off the ride. At least 45 minutes of waiting.

10:37 am and I’m hungry. They’re serving lunch at the Three Broomsticks, and it’s early, most other people don’t like to eat this early.

I got Leek soup and a salad. And BUTTERBEER!!! I liked it. A lot. I wish there was a really good recipe I could find that was easy to make. I did find some, but I don’t know how accurate they are, so if anyone knows of one that tastes a lot like the Butterbeer at Universal... let me know please! (I tried to make one today, and it just didn't work. Doesn't help that our cream soda is usually pink, sometimes white, and never brown!)

So by 11:00, I had ordered, eaten and was outta there. Not bad. I can imagine the wait at 12:00 was much worse.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Um... how did I not upload the picture of the butterbeer to photobucket. Well.... here it comes....

 

[DisneyFreak06]

More pictures from around the WWOHP

I got in line to enter Dervish and Banges at around 11:05. There was a short wait, nothing like Olivander’s. That was probably about 2 hours. You know me, I kept taking pictures while I stood in line. In the hot sun. Barely any shade.

Here I come store!

I wish I’d bought a scarf. I love their scarves. But I think they were pricey.

I did take lots of pictures of the merchandise, but I figure you’re all probably a little bored by now.

The wands in Olivander’s. Boy, if Dervish and Banges was this packed, I cannot imagine what it would have been like in Olivander’s.

I bought a Gryffindor T-shirt, a Hogwarts glass, a Hogwarts keychain for my nephew’s 16th birthday, a magnet and some postcards for $55. I could have spent more, but I didn’t know what I really wanted. I love the t-shirt, I wore it to the newest movie.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Fuzzy lockers at the train station. Well, the lockers aren't really fuzzy, just my picture is fuzzy!

Next I went into Zonkos Joke shop and then into Honeydukes, the candy store.

Wizard’s Chess

I didn’t buy anything in either store. I wasn’t feeling the candy or the chocolate right then, and I knew they’d get gross in the heat!

It’s getting more crowded. It’s around 11:35.

You do not have to go into Ollivander’s to get wands. You can buy wands from a cart outside.

The little store at the end of the FJ ride is called Filch’s Emporium.