Zombie Apocalypse and Pixie Dust - A 2 week Disneymoon (PTR link 11/14)

[ronnmel]

I would say early to mid-November is good! I did November 3-13th in 2010 and loved it! The crowds were mid-level the first couple of days due to Jersey Week, but not that bad and dropped off after that weekend. I was able to ride every single ride and see the shows in Magic Kingdom on one of the Jersey Week days, with little waits except for a few rides, and without EMHs! Early November is also the end of Food and Wine, so you can take advantage of the food at least, and the MVMCP and Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights starts during that time period too. I went to the first MVMCP and the first night of Osborne and the crowds were very manageable for each. Just my two cents of course, but I think that time period fills all of your desires. And if you went for 10-14 days you might even be able to do both MNSSHP and MVMCP if you arrived around Halloween.

Those dates would be perfect for all the things Ron and I want to do in Disney. Unfortunately report cards and parent-teacher interviews are due in the third week of November around here, which means the weeks leading up to it are extremely busy and there is no chance in hell my principal would ever let me take a week off at that time. That's why it leaves me with early October, or late November/early December. But thanks anyway! If I'm ever free of a teaching schedule for whatever reason I'll definitely keep this in mind.

I think most of us have had one of those "blah" days while at Disney. It still sucks though when all you want to do is have fun.

Don't you just love the streetmosphere actors at Hollywood Studios?! It sounds like the two cops you ran into were really into character.

You know what's funny about that "blad" day? It actually wasn't so bad living it. It's just remembering the whole trip, it sticks out as not being as good. At least we did have some highlights that day, like those mini-donuts!

Last trip we really breezed through HS, so we had not encountered any Streetmosphere people. Even this time, despite our good intentions of taking it slow we were pretty much running from one place to the other, so this was our only interactions. I think also because it was so darn HOT outside, we did not really feel like standing around in the sun to watch those. It's okay though, that gives us something new to look forward to on future trips.

My mom just got back from her trip for Christmas. She said the crowds were awful. You can read her TR here if you want. I have heard October-November is nice, but I have never been during that time. I would love to go for F&W or the halloween party!

We went in May for our honeymoon and the crowds were pretty low. It was really hot, though. I have been to DW in feb before and the crowds were insanely low but the weather was FREEZING (we went during a cold snap)! I think it depends on what you want. Do you want hot weather or cool weather? The weather in FL never seems to be "mild" to me. It has always been really hot (over 85) or really cold (under 60). We will see how this January goes for us in terms of weather.

Are low crowds important to you? Keep in mind, in January and February, a lot of rides and shows are closed (including Fantasmic, which always seems to be closed in Jan/Feb).

Hope that helps!

Oh we would for sure not go during Christmas! Way too crowded and expensive. It would be more the last week of November or first week of December. I think crowds are pretty low (or at least lower than August) at that time, and weather is much cooler than summer/September.

Since we may only ever be able to take a trip off-season once, I want to make sure we take advantage of something special Disney has to offer. I'm just not sure if we would appreciate more Food & Wine and MNSSHP, or Holiday decorations and MVMCP. I usually can handle the heat very well, but if we do go with a toddler and me pregnant, than I think I would prefer cooler temperatures.

The only other time we *may* be able to go would be our March break. It's usually before all of the US's spring breaks so resorts are not as expensive and crowds are not so bad. The only problem is flights are ridiculously expensive since our entire province has the week off at the same time and airlines know that...

 

[ditsypixie]

Love the updates and the picture of Ron and the security guards!

Just my 2 cents on when to go...we have always gone at the end of Sept (still a little warm and heavier crowds because of a major school break here in GA) or mid October. We really, really like October. Weather is a little cooler, crowds a little lighter and we love, love, love MNSSHP! This year was the first that we actually tried more of the F & W and I enjoyed it. I am picky too, but I found several things that I really liked!

Hope you are feeling good these days!

 

[ronnmel]

Day 7 part 2 - "Be Our Guest"
August 17th, 2011

The park had not even been opened for a full hour and already our Hollywood Studios day was off to a great start! After we left the security officers we walked to the Animation courtyard. On our way we passed this:

We had absolutely no interest in this, but I suspect next time we'll be spending some time in there...

We also saw this:

Despite The Lion King being my favorite animated movie, we did not go see it when it came back in theatre. I did, however, buy the blu-ray movie a few days ago and plan on watching it very soon.

This was our real destination:

We took several pictures inside.

I had fun with these:

I have no idea how I accomplished this, but I managed to convince Ron to try out one drawing class! Some more photos of the little waiting area:

So who were we going to draw? Pluto. I was a bit disappointed at first, as I had already drawn him earlier in the trip, but this time it was from a different angle so it was okay. The animator offered two slightly different versions of Pluto. Ron took the easy one, I chose the harder one. Can you spot the difference? (Really, it's pretty obvious!)

By the time we were done it was time to collect yet another set of FPs, so we chose TOT. On our way there we came across a photopass photographer and stopped for a few shots. It was another chatty CM. He was from Puerto Rico and after a little discussion about where we were from he decided to show me the little French he knew.

We did some cute poses:

The traditional "Tower of Terror is scary" pose:

And ended with the "OMG, Stitch is coming out of the ground" pose.

If you read the title of this chapter then you can guess where we were headed next. If you skipped over it, shame on you! Just kidding. On our first day at HS we got rained out of the Beauty and he Beast show and we were determined not to miss it this time. With blue skies above our heads, we took our seats in the Theatre of the Stars.

It's such a beautiful theatre!

Most of the pictures are blurry (and I'm getting awfully close to that 25 images limit for this post), so here are my best three photos.

What a beautiful and awesome show! It ranks second for both Ron and I (FOTLK is first for me, and Finding Nemo is first for Ron). This show, and the fact that there will be a Beauty & the Beast area in the new Fantasyland expansion has made me want to watch the movie again, so I just bought it on Blu-Ray was well. What a masterpiece!


Up Next, Sully is being Silly
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[ronnmel]

Love the updates and the picture of Ron and the security guards!

Just my 2 cents on when to go...we have always gone at the end of Sept (still a little warm and heavier crowds because of a major school break here in GA) or mid October. We really, really like October. Weather is a little cooler, crowds a little lighter and we love, love, love MNSSHP! This year was the first that we actually tried more of the F & W and I enjoyed it. I am picky too, but I found several things that I really liked!

Hope you are feeling good these days!

Thanks for the info. I am not as picky as I used to be, and I think there are several desserts offered at the booths as well for Food & Wine, so maybe I would be fine trying a few things.

 

[katt789]

Wow, I managed to miss 4 updates! Eeek! Well, now I'm all caught up! I haven't done a Disney waterpark, and can't say I'd be too big into it, I'm just not a water park person, although they do look fun.
Beauty & the beast is definitely my 2nd favorite with FOTLK in a first place favorite show, such an amazing show! It's incredible that they can get that much talent in one place!

 

[suorkaterina]

I love Beauty and the Beast. It's my favorite. I didn't take DF last time because I wasn;t sure he'd like it but he loved FOTLK so I think he would have been into Beauty and the Beast too. Looking forward to it next time. Never done Nemo though! Looking forward to that deffinately!

Great pictures. The camera(and the Photo Pass CM's) loves you guys!

 

[DisneyKira]

Love the photos! Lion King is my favorite movie, too. I didn't see it in theaters in 3D either, but my SIL bought me the blu-ray for Christmas. I love it

 

[SOUTHERNtinkerBELLE]

Love your ToT scary pose! It seems like the PP photographer in that spot was a great one.

For your off-season trip, I would vote for the first week of December. That is supposed to be a great time to go, both weather and crowd wise, and I think it might even be considered value season. I think the little one would be pretty amazed at the decorations, too. March has actually been my favorite time to go to Disney so far (out of Jan, April, June, August and November), but it sounds like it would be pricier, and like you mentioned, if you'll only be able to take one off-season trip, I agree that you should go during one of those special times of the year.

 

[ronnmel]

Wow, I managed to miss 4 updates! Eeek! Well, now I'm all caught up! I haven't done a Disney waterpark, and can't say I'd be too big into it, I'm just not a water park person, although they do look fun.
Beauty & the beast is definitely my 2nd favorite with FOTLK in a first place favorite show, such an amazing show! It's incredible that they can get that much talent in one place!

It's okay, everyone's busy during the Holidays. Plus, I've been an updating machine these past few days. And if everything goes right, I should have another one up tonight.

I guess water parks are not for everybody. Which is okay with me, since it means less people there at the same time as me.

It is incredible how much talent Disney has with all of their shows! BTW, I'm sorry you didn't make it for the audition. Forgot to comment on your TR, but I did read the update.

I love Beauty and the Beast. It's my favorite. I didn't take DF last time because I wasn;t sure he'd like it but he loved FOTLK so I think he would have been into Beauty and the Beast too. Looking forward to it next time. Never done Nemo though! Looking forward to that deffinately!

Great pictures. The camera(and the Photo Pass CM's) loves you guys!

I think all Disney shows are great. Plus, they are free (well, with the admission ticket ) and are only about 30 minutes, so I would have your DF try them all at least once. Worse comes to worse, your DF can catch up on sleep if he hates it. Nemo has the added advantage of being in a dark air conditioned theatre, and is quite fun of course.

Thanks for the compliment. I do love taking pictures.

Love the photos! Lion King is my favorite movie, too. I didn't see it in theaters in 3D either, but my SIL bought me the blu-ray for Christmas. I love it

Lion King is the best, and has the best collection of songs to sing along.

Love your ToT scary pose! It seems like the PP photographer in that spot was a great one.

For your off-season trip, I would vote for the first week of December. That is supposed to be a great time to go, both weather and crowd wise, and I think it might even be considered value season. I think the little one would be pretty amazed at the decorations, too. March has actually been my favorite time to go to Disney so far (out of Jan, April, June, August and November), but it sounds like it would be pricier, and like you mentioned, if you'll only be able to take one off-season trip, I agree that you should go during one of those special times of the year.

I have read about people getting bad PP photographer, but we never encountered a bad one. And we even got a few great ones who were fun to interact with.

Thanks for the advice on when to take our off-season trip. Yeah, though the first week of March would be great for many reasons (reasonable prices, reasonable crowds, reasonable weather), airlines just take advantage of an entire province being off during the exact week to hike up prices. Though really, this trip is still a ways off. I'm just having fun thinking about it. I do need to give birth to peanut and let him (her grow) a good 15 months before we can go on it. On our fridge we have a Disney countdown, and right now it's at "At most 32 months before our next Disney vacation" Though more realistically, I think it's more like 20 months away. We'll see how broke having Peanut makes us...

 

[ronnmel]

Day 7 part 3 - "Sully Is Being Silly"
August 17th, 2011

Before I continue on with our day at Hollywood Studios I realized that I made a mistake in my last update. I said that I had been disappointed about drawing Pluto for the second time in the trip, but it's not true. At that point I had only drawn Buzz. I got a little ahead of myself. Please forget what I said.

Once we were done watching the amazing Beauty & the Beast show it was getting close to noon. Since I barely had anything for breakfast, I was getting hungry. CS choices are kinda limited in HS, but there was one place I really wanted to try. Which one is it? Well, you'll find out later.

On our way to our mysterious lunch place I took a picture of this. I have no idea why, as we did not go on it that day. plus, it's really not the most interesting sign in Disney. Oh well, here it is anyway.

Very close to that area though is a much more interesting place: the Monsters, Inc. meet & greet! We had only met Mike so far, so we decided to check out if Sully was there. He was! Not only that, but Mike Wazowski was there too. And the line was not too long. Yay!

I love the decorations in the queue there, it's hilarious!

While waiting in line we saw the cutest interaction between Sully and a little girl. She must have been only 2-3 years old. Around Boo's age. She was a bit scared of Sully and would really approach him. So he started acting scared of her, just like in the movie the monsters are scared of humans. Not only that, but somehow she lost a flip flop and it got "stuck" on one of Sully's hand, just like the sock on his back in the movie. Every time she'd move forward to get her flip flop back, Sully would move backward, as if he was afraid of her touching him. Eventually he let her have it, and it all ended in a big hug. Awwwwwww. It was so cute and hilarious at the same time. I wish I had thought of taking a picture. Sully was being silly today, and not only with that little girl but with several other guests too.

I think the characters took a break just before out turn. I was afraid Sully would not be back, but luckily he was. We went to hug them, but Mike is kinda awkward to hug...

You know how in the movie there is always hiding Mike in any photo of him? Well, I decide to hide him! Mike was not happy about that, but it did make his handler laugh.

I felt bad for him, so we took a regular pose. Well, as normal as it can be with Sully patting down Ron's head... I told you Sully was being silly...

Enough detours now, it's time to eat. With the food being only so-so everywhere, I based my choice of CS on atmosphere. Who doesn't dream of eating in a place straight out of a movie, a Toy Story movie at that? "To infinity, and beyond!" Err, I mean, off to Pizza Planet.

What do you eat at Pizza Planet? Well, pizza of course! I got cheese pizza, and I think Ron got vegetables pizza. Both tasted fine, but the side of Ceasar salad left a lot to be desired. It's basically just lettuce and very little dressing.

That place was packed! We went upstairs to find a table, but none were available. Luckily, a family saw us searching and told us they were about to leave, so we got their place which was near a window. As we are eating, we see something outside : it starts pouring rain! I tried to take a picture of the rain, but that's all I could manage:

Not only was it raining, but it was also lightning and thundering. We had planned on going to the 1:20pm showing of Lights! Motors! Action!, but it's obvious it'll be canceled.

Ron hates being wet so he would much prefer we stay put until it stops. I don't really care about a little (or a lot of) rain, and I just can't sit around doing nothing while we are in Disney!, so I insist we put on our rain coat/poncho and find something to do. We walk across the park, with Ron grumbling, taking a few breaks inside some stores when the rain gets too heavy. We eventually get to our destination. Did I choose to do something closeby, like say, Muppet Vision? No, I had us trek ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the way across the park to the two headliners. Okay, so maybe Ron had a reason to be grumbling...

First we go on Tower of Terror because I think it's fitting to go on such a ride when it's so gloomy outside. Not that you can see the outside for more than a mere second, but still. I enjoyed it, so that's all that counts, right? I don't think we even needed to use our FP because the line was short, but we did need to use our FP for our next attraction, RNR.

It's a different song than last time, but just as much fun. When we come out things are drying out, so we walk back to the middle of the park. On the way I snapped this shot. I had been wanting to take a shot of the balloon since before I left. I think it looks pretty, though it would have been better with a blue sky as a background.

There's a blue sky, too bad it's a fake one...

We stopped for another PP shot.

There was some sun shining, as you can see from the last picture, but the sky was still very grey. Where would we head next?

Up Next, Heavenly Cupcake!
​

 

[PhoenixStrength]

I agree completely about Pizz Planet! The pizza is better then any other CS places pizza, but the salad leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm with you on the rain. You're at WDW, why sit around inside when you could be enjoying the rides and shows?

 

[ronnmel]

I agree completely about Pizz Planet! The pizza is better then any other CS places pizza, but the salad leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm with you on the rain. You're at WDW, why sit around inside when you could be enjoying the rides and shows?

I haven't tried enough Disney pizza to know if it tastes different, but just the name Pizza Planet makes it better.

I know, right? There is no sitting around in Disney!

 

[discnewbie]

Love the PP pics!

I've also read that the salad at Pizza Planet leaves something to be desired. Do you happen to know if they give you any other options besides having a salad (extra bottle of water, piece of fruit, anything) or is it a salad or nothing?

 

[ronnmel]

Love the PP pics!

I've also read that the salad at Pizza Planet leaves something to be desired. Do you happen to know if they give you any other options besides having a salad (extra bottle of water, piece of fruit, anything) or is it a salad or nothing?

Thanks!

I'm sorry I can't help you with your question. We did not ask for the salad to be switched with anything, so I don't know if you get the choice.

 

[discnewbie]

Thanks!

I'm sorry I can't help you with your question. We did not ask for the salad to be switched with anything, so I don't know if you get the choice.

No worries!

 

[Starscream275]

Just read that Peanut's the name of your baby. WHAAAAAAT?! YA NAMED YA BABY, PEANUT?! No offence Rommel but that's a dopey name. Anyways it's never a good sign when the rain is involved at a Disney park. Surprisingly though both times I was at DHS it was sunny. Weird huh?

 

[ronnmel]

Just read that Peanut's the name of your baby. WHAAAAAAT?! YA NAMED YA BABY, PEANUT?! No offence Rommel but that's a dopey name. Anyways it's never a good sign when the rain is involved at a Disney park. Surprisingly though both times I was at DHS it was sunny. Weird huh?

Of course Peanut is not the name of my baby! It's just the NICKname of my UNBORN baby right now. As you can see from my ticker, the fetus is often compared to some type of food in terms of size. At some point it's just as big as a peanut. I did not want to call the fetus "it" all the time, and i got tired of always saying he/she, so I came up with a nickname. I tried a few, but my mom liked Peanut the best so it stuck. Other people will call their unborn baby : Munchkin, Pumpkin, Apple, Mosquito, etc.

When we went two years ago Epcot seemed to be the park that was always rainy, but this year it was DHS. At least it never lasted long (well, except one time, which you'll hear about later...)

 

[jedijill]

Of course Peanut is not the name of my baby! It's jsut the NICKname of my UNBORN baby right now. As you can see from my ticker, the fetus is often compared to some type of food in terms of size. At some point it's just as big as a peanut. I did not want to call the fetus "it" all the time, and i got tired of always saying he/she, so I came up with a nickname. I tried a few, but my mom liked Peanut the best so it stuck. Other people will call their unborn baby : Munchkin, Pumpkin, Apple, Mosquito, etc.

When we went two years ago Epcot seemed to be the park that was always rainy, but this year it was DHS. At least it never lasted long (well, except one time, which you'll hear about later...)

I love nicknames for unborn babies. My nephew was "Angus"....yes, my brother and I love MacGyver....and my boss's son was known as "Haggis."

Jill in CO

 

[DisneyKira]

Of course Peanut is not the name of my baby! It's just the NICKname of my UNBORN baby right now. As you can see from my ticker, the fetus is often compared to some type of food in terms of size. At some point it's just as big as a peanut. I did not want to call the fetus "it" all the time, and i got tired of always saying he/she, so I came up with a nickname. I tried a few, but my mom liked Peanut the best so it stuck. Other people will call their unborn baby : Munchkin, Pumpkin, Apple, Mosquito, etc.

When we went two years ago Epcot seemed to be the park that was always rainy, but this year it was DHS. At least it never lasted long (well, except one time, which you'll hear about later...)

My cousin was named "Cletus the Fetus" until she was born

 

[Starscream275]

Oh I see it's a nickname. Sorry it's just that celebrities in the past have come up with dumb names for their children and I thought that was it. Anyways I think I may need your help soon with my second trip. So expect me posting a thread in the Trip Planner forum soon and on another side note are you feeling a lot better now?