"Dead Men Tell No Tales...No. Really." 8 Days at ASMu! - October 2010 Trip Report

[terbethk]

Well this is my first crack at writing a trip report, so bear with me.

First of all, let me introduce you to my cast of characters.
Just two of us, me and the hubby, and we've been married for four years, but most of our married life has been spent apart, because he served four years active duty in the Army.
Here's me, Theresa, I'm 27. I'm a hairstylist, nail tech, and a Disney fanatic.

And here's my husband, Ryan, who's 26. Since getting out of the Army about 10 months ago, Ryan's been in the National Guard Reserves and working overnight/early morning freight at Home Depot.

The pictures are from our trip in December 2008. We also went in November 2007 (and I went two times prior to that with family, and actually again in 2009 with two friends).
I've been a Disney nut for as long as I can remember (and was born into a family of them, as well). Ryan loves Disney movies, but definitely wasn't LOVING WDW on his first two trips (despite the weather being good and crowds being low). After this trip, I'm pretty convinced that it's just that we hadn't spent enough time there on each trip. Our 2007 trip we spent two days at Universal/IOA and two days at Disney (one day at AK, Epcot, and DHS and one day at MK). On our 2008 trip we were there four days (but two of those days were travel days). So our trips up until then were really pretty rushed.

We started planning this trip in May 2010, and I was about to graduate from Cosmetology school. It took quite a bit of convincing on my part to get him to agree to this. But eventually, he agreed, and I started planning and booking. I booked our trip around what days had the cheapest flights. For me - the longer the better. We got our flights for $84 each way pp, and our dates shaped up to be October 26- November 2. 8 days - perfect! We would be flying out of Milwaukee on Airtran there (leaving at 6:20 AM with one layover) and coming home on Southwest leaving at 3:00.
Since we'd been mentally planning our trip since the last one, we already knew which resort we wanted to stay at - All Star Music! We stayed at Movies in '08, I stayed at Coronado in '09, and offsite in '05 and '07. We originally booked ASMu with a 30% discount, but shortly thereafter, free dining got released, and we decided to go with the QSDP instead, since the trip was so much longer, and in my mind, it would be easier knowing all our food was already paid for. I think that's really all the pretrip info you need...so, here we go!

I had asked off for the day prior to my trip in order to give me two days off to prepare. On Sunday, I went to the spa to see my manager, Marissa to get my nails done (I'm also a nail tech at this spa). I had her do the same Mickey heads on my toes as last year, and we did Fedora Shellac on my fingers. It looked fantastic, as always!

Most of Monday we spent packing and cleaning. It was a little stressful, I had a huge headache and of course packing in itself is a huge headache, but we did get everything done and were in bed early - like 8ish I think. Of course I was tossing and turning until at least 9:30. I woke up 15 minutes before the alarm went off at 2:45 AM. We set the alarm for 3, because we had a 6:20 AM flight, as always. Ryan's dad took us to the airport, and we arrived there at about 4:45 AM. It was the morning of a bad storm, and it was REALLY rainy and windy. It didn't get really bad until we were already at the airport, but they were hoping for our plane to make an early departure. Here's a very unflattering picture of us (me, actually) waiting to board the plane.

It wasn't long before we boarded our flight to Baltimore. It already seemed as most of Wisconsin was headed to Disney. The flight was CRAZY. Ryan fell asleep before we took off and slept almost the whole time, including the insanely turbulent takeoff and most of the flight was pretty bouncy - like I said that storm was pretty intense. It was kind of funny to watch Ryan's head - it was bouncing all over the place, lol.
As we were landing in Baltimore, I had "Good Morning, Baltimore" from "Hairspray" stuck in my head. Our layover was only half an hour, and as we realized we were already at our gate when we landed - we were just reboarding our plane. lame-ish. But we were on our way quickly and shockingly I wasn't going too crazy. I was pretty calm, but I was next to a weird lady on the flight. We landed in Orlando at 11:50 - about 25 minutes ahead of schedule. We deplaned, stopped by the restroom, hopped on the tram to the main area and made our way down to the Magical Express area. Nobody was in our line, we were the only ones, but there were tons of other lines, so I was a little annoyed thinking a bus to our resort had just left. A few seconds later, however, a nice castmember came over to us, asked us which resort we were going to, and told us to go talk to some castmembers at the desk up front. So we did, they kind of looked at us funny, but they quickly put us on the next bus, followed by one more family, then we were off! We were on the bus at 12:10, which was before our flight was even scheduled to land! woohoo! Already ahead of schedule, I love when things run smoothly! Especially because on our 2008 trip we were almost 3 hours behind schedule at this point. So things were off to a great start!

Here we are on the bus! Couldn't be happier! We also got to see the Disney Welcome video, which I was happy about, because we didn't get to see it last year.
Okay, I did get a little happier, when we passed under this sign!

To even make this trip smoother, our resort (All Star Music) was the buses first stop (we got there at 12:45) AND we were the only people getting off there. How convenient for us. Of course, I had done online check in before we left, so I got to skip the line (Oh wait, there wasn't one) and we were helped right away. Our packet was already put together, and we got the exact room I had requested! We wanted a king bed in the Jazz section. Perfect! Check in went very quickly and our room was already ready! So we headed on back to our room. Here's the view as you walk out of the main hall and into the pool/resort area.

I was in HEAVEN. Palm trees, heat, water. Oh, heat. It was HOT. As hot as last year, high 80's, low 90's, OUCH.
Can't complain though.

The room was in a good location. It only took a few minutes to walk from the main building. Not like the resorts I've stayed at the last few years. Yikes!
We freshened up a bit, and I took a few pictures of the room.

There was a privacy curtain, which was nice, because I was able to get ready without waking Ryan up.

Ryan also got pretty wrapped up in watching Stacey on the Must Do's.

We finally headed out to the bus stop at 1:20 PM, ready to head to the MK! Here's Ryan waiting for a bus!

We waited about 20 min for a bus, and there was only one other couple on it. We also weren't sharing busses with the other all star resorts, so we arrived at the Magic Kingdom at exactly 1:56. Of course once we got to the Magic Kingdom the first thing we had to do was take TONS of Photopass pictures, especially since we actually bought the CD this year.

To be continued....OUR FIRST DAY AT THE MAGIC KINGDOM!!

 

[terbethk]

October 26, 2010 - MAGIC KINGDOM!
We arrived at about 2:00 and had a monstrosity of Photopass pictures taken

This next one is probably one of my favorites -

Then of course, we hit Adventureland - tradition! and grabbed a Dole Whip Float to share, which Ryan was actually ready and willing to try this year. I think he tried mine when we went two years ago, but claimed it was terrible. He likes pineapple, so idk what he was smoking, but we decided to split this one with our first snack credit. We were a little worried about stretching our credits, thinking we would go through them like crazy, but in the end it was WAAAAAAAY too much food! The line for dole whips were longer than most ride lines that day, lol. totally worth it though and Ryan loved it!

haha, I knew he would love it, if he actually gave it a fair chance! We finished it quickly as I basked in the amazing smell of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride area. We walked right onto the ride and LOVED it. duh. It was the first of many rides on it this trip. Of course there was an obnoxious girl that insisted on taking flash photos of EVERYTHING. That was obnoxious. By this time it was about 2:30-2:45 and it just so happened that the Air Force Thunderbirds (all six!) were going to be flying over the MK! They were supposed to fly over at exactly 3:00, which is also when the "Celebrate a Dream Come True" parade comes down. So we headed to Main St. to grab a spot.

At 3:00 we, along with a bunch of other people were posed with our cameras ready to catch the moment. Well, 3:00 came and went with no sign of them. The parade began and was all fine and interesting and all that. Well it was nearly over, when they FINALLY did fly over (and probably around 3:15-3:30) it happened SOOO fast that I don't know if anyone had time to catch it. We were also told they were going to turn around and fly back over again, but they never did. So we didn't manage to catch a picture of it, but magically (of course), two pictures of it appeared on our photopass account

We got to spend lots of time people watching, which is ALWAYS interesting and I finally found the window with Walt's name on it! I don't think I've ever seen it before.

Once all that chaos was over, we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain, but it was closed, so we grabbed Fastpasses for later. Then we headed over to Cosmic Rays - a staple restaurant for an early dinner. We each ordered our own dinner - I got a burger and fries, with carrot cake, and Ryan ordered a turkey wrap, with fries, and a chocolate cake. It was all FANTASTIC! But...WAY too much food! I hate maybe half my burger, half my fries, and ryan and I split his chocolate cake, and saved the carrot cake for later.

It was so nice seeing the bill for this ONE meal be over $30 and NOT have to pay for it! Don't think we'll ever go w/o the dining plan again! And of course we had to grab a spot over by Sonny Eclipse.

Some things are just tradition now
After we were nice and stuffed, we decided we'd be sharing meals from then on. We then did Haunted Mansion, which was listed as a 10 minute wait, but was definitely less than 5, however the line was CRAZY when we got out. So we headed back into Fantasyland and did Philharmagic, which was a walk on, and grapped fastpasses for Peter Pan. Then, we headed over and did Snow White, which was also a walk on. We went back to Tomorrowland to use our Space Mountain fastpasses - which actually ended up doing nothing because the line was so short anyway. The ride was cooler than I remembered from two years ago, but it still really hurt. After we got off that we did Carousel of Progress and used our Peter Pan fastpasses. We decided to get "It's a Small World" out of the way - the wait said 10 min, but it was actually a walk on. I'm glad we took advantage of getting on rides this day, because it was probably the least crowded day we were there. We then headed over to Frontierland, where we did Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (one of Ryan's favorites) and Splash Mountain (my favorite...at the MK that is). Both with no wait.

Here we are on Splash Mountain, loving life! <3

By this time, it was almost 7, so the park was closing for the Halloween party, so we started heading out. We waited about 20 minutes for a bus and I ate my carrot cake, which was phenomenal! There were only a few other groups on our bus and we weren't sharing buses again! Yay! When we got back to our room at the resort our bags were there waiting for us, so we unpacked and got organized. We hit the sack early to get ready for the next day!


Next up....a FULL day at Animal Kingdom!!

 

[Princess116]

i love your nails! they look so cute

 

[terbethk]

We were heading to Animal Kingdom bright and early, and made it to the bus stop by 8:18 AM.

Our bus came at 8:25, and we arrived at Animal Kingdom at 8:41 on the dot.

We saw a little bit of the opening "show"

As soon as the rope drop, we stampeded our way over to Kilimanjaro Safari (which Ryan had never done!). On both Ryan's trips we had only ever done EE, Dinosaur, and ITTBAB, so I was excited for him and for me to see so many new things!

We made it allll the way back there at exactly 9:00. There was some kind of hold up and we didn't board our truck until 11 minutes later. Weird. lol, all the castmembers were joking that we should have headed to Everest. The safari was great! The animals were so active! For sure the best I've ever seen it. Ryan took a TON of pictures, so I'll just share a few of them here.

I'd been on this a couple of times before, but this was definitely the best!

The lions were pretty funny, the male kept biting the female on her butt!

After that we walked the Pangini Forest Trail - which neither of us had done before. It was alright, a little boring. The high point was seeing the gorillas, with the baby gorilla, so cute!

Look at the little guy! adorable!!!
After that we went to grab a couple danishes for breakfast. So good!
When we finished we grabbed the Wildlife Express Train to Rafiki's Planet Watch.
Here we are on the train:

As soon as we walked into the building, we saw Rafiki, with no one around, so we grabbed a quick picture with him.

Then we saw Jiminey Cricket across the room, which was awesome, because I've heard he's over there and we've never met him before, and there was only one group of people by him, so we got some pix done. Jiminey saw Ryan's Army tank stitch and silently thanked him for his service - so cute!

After we finished with all that, we wandered around, looked at animals, and learned stuff.

We also got to watch them do a check up on a bat, which was SOOO cool!!

 

[terbethk]

After we finished exploring, we took the train back, and Ryan was in his old element of map searching, figuring out what to do when we got back.

Once we got back, we headed over to Asia, to do the Maharajah Jungle Trek. It was much better than the forest trail in Africa, IMO.
We saw tigers, bats (without glass!!), and more monkeys.

We wanted to get fastpasses for Kali River Rapids, since we didn't want to do that until the end of the day, but it was so "slow" that they weren't even distributing them. So, we went and grabbed fastpasses for Everest instead., then rode standby. The sign said it was 15 minutes, but it was definitely under 10. It's still my favorite roller coaster ever (and I've been on over 70). Then we headed over to Dinosaur, which was a walk on. It scares the crap out of me!!!!
Then we decided it was time for lunch and headed over to Flame Tree BBQ, where we shared the 1/2 chicken meal with chocolate mousse. It was probably one of the best meals we had.

Our view wasn't too shabby either...

After we finished our food, we headed to Camp Minnie-Mickey to see Festival of the Lion King, which was great.

I saw the show last year, but it was Ryan's first time, and we both really enjoyed it!

Then we wandered around by the tree of life, got more photopass pictures taken and bought some pins and talked to some castmembers.

We then saw Finding Nemo- The Musical, which was super cute!! We both really enjoyed it.
Afterwards, we did Dinosaur again with no wait. Then we went to use our Expedition Everest fastpass which we didn't need.

We did, however, decide to wait in line for front row. It was less than ten minutes total. WELL WORTH IT!!!!!
Here we are in the car -

You can tell that its hot out - my bangs are curling and I'd sweat my makeup off - yuck! We got some nice pix!

view from the top! we could see hollywood studios, epcot, and coronado springs (my home on the '09 trip!)

coming out of the mountain, down the drop.
After that, we grabbed some Mickey bars, before deciding to do Kali River Rapids.

 

[terbethk]

i love your nails! they look so cute

Thank you! lol, my manager is very talented

 

[terbethk]

Kali was a walk on. I wore a poncho, but still got wet. By this time it was 5:00 and closing time. The castmember tried to convince us to go again. And it seemed like TONS of people were taking advantage of being able to ride again and again. We decided to leave though, and only waited a minute for a bus, and all the all star resorts were sharing. We got back to the hotel, grabbed some food, I had pizza with chocolate swirl cheesecake, and ryan had a burger and fries, with key lime pie (which we both thought was nasty).

Then we went back to the room to nap. Which I didn't do. I think I probably just watched soap net and showered and refreshed while Ryan slept. we were adament about getting to epcot's emh that night which went until midnight.

Once I finally dragged Ryan out of bed, we made it to Epcot around 9:30 PM, just as Illuminations was ending. Whoops, bad timing. We saw IllumiNations a few years ago, and weren't really fans.
But I was super psyched about going on Soarin, so we headed straight to it, and the wait was listed at 30 minutes, and there were no fastpasses left. The wait ACTUALLY took 45-60 minutes. boo. We did meet a nice older couple in line. They were fun to talk to. The older gentleman was really nervous about the heights thing - just like I always am (the first time I went on Soarin I was shaking sooo badly, and squeezed Ryan's hand ridiculously hard). We decided to do Living with the Land, since we were right there, it was a walk on, and neither of us had done it before. It was kind of boring/kind of informative. Ryan really enjoyed it, but he enjoys anything educational really. Then we headed over to World Showcase to ride Maelstrom - which was new to Ryan. There was only one other couple on our boat - here's a shot of us on that (we both look pretty tired):

We also did Gran Fiesta which was, of course, a walk on.

We grabbed a couple quick pics by the fountain.

We finally hit Test Track at about 11:45 PM - we did single rider, so it was a walk on. Standby was listed at 30, but was probably about 10. It was super fun in the dark! We hit Spaceship Earth right before midnight, and were the only people on it as far as the eye could see.
We also played all the games and things near the exit of the ride. It was super fun!

At this point it was about 12:15 AM, so we headed out to the bus stop, and they just started combining the All Star buses as we got there. and two of them came right away. It was fantastic timing. Got back to the hotel and passed right out.


Coming up next, Day 3 - Hollywood Studios, Downtown Disney, swimming at the hotel, Magic Kingdom, and Epcot - ALL in one day!

 

[terbethk]

We had a little trouble getting up this day, after staying out so late the night before. We arrived at the park at 9:30 AM, after waiting about 10 minutes for a bus, without sharing w/ the other resorts. Against my better judgment, we decided to brave this park on a fantasmic day - YIKES!

I knew this was going to be a bad move going in, but its the one park we hadn't been to, AND both of our favorites. Tower of Terror was listed as a 45 minute wait, so we grabbed fastpasses.

We wanted to do the single rider line for Rock 'n Rollercoaster, since the wait was already 30 minutes, but it wasn't open, so we did standby, and the wait was actually probably closer to 20 min. Also had a woman from wisconsin standing behind us in line compliment me on my toes Gotta love this ride

Also, had to take a pic of the hidden Mickey on the floor

After that we looked at some pins, and grabbed a cinnamon roll and orange juice from Starring Rolls.

We went back to use our fastpass for tot,

but still had to wait 5-10 minutes in the boiler room. Ryan and I entertained ourselves taking pictures of ourselves.

I was verrrrrrrry excited and happy!!!!
Ryan was bored?

scared? what a character!

haha, we had a blast!!!
When we got done with that we went to do the Great Movie Ride, but the line looked insane, so we skipped it. Went to the Magic of Animation, and the line was INSANELY RIDICULOUS, so we just wandered around in the gift shop, looking at all the art and stuff. Ryan, of course, wanted to buy everything.
We wandered around a couple gift shops, then headed out, and grabbed the first bus we saw, which happened to be Caribbean Beach Resort, so we could transfer to downtown Disney.
Caribbean Beach was HUGE! There were tons of bus stops, so it took FOREVER. I think we ruled out ever staying there.

Next up...Downtown Disney!

 

[terbethk]

We did lots of browsing shops at Downtown Disney, and ate at Earl of Sandwich, which was AMAZING. Ryan got the BLT sub.

And I got the meatball sub. Ryan had jello for dessert, and I got chocolate pudding.
For the record - best meatball sub I've ever had - even better than subway (I'm obsessed with subway's meatball marinara, btw).

Unfortunately I couldn't eat the whole thing and had to share.
I was kind of set on doing "Characters in Flight" but of course I saw it and knew I wouldn't be able to do it - ya know, the heights thing...

We walked the whooole way down to the other side so I could visit House of Blues, where I saw Hanson five years prior. (Love me some Hanson )

By this point Ryan was starting to catch the Disney fever! thank goodness!

I'm upset about missing a few things at DTD, I wanted to go back to Goofy's Candy Co. and make some stuff...and I don't even think we bought anything, although I pretty much wanted everything at TrenD. I think it was just easier not buying anything than deciding WHAT I wanted to buy.
Once we got back to the hotel, we decided it was time for a swim, as we hadn't swam at all yet.

We had a really good time playing in the pool and I think I always underestimate moments on vacation like this. It was so nice and calm.
After that Ryan napped for awhile again. And again, I couldn't sleep, so I probably watched Soapnet, showered and refreshed, just like the day before.
At around 5:30 we headed for the Magic Kingdom, even though they closed at 7. Ryan decided he wanted a haircut at the Harmony Barbershop on Main St. so we went in there, and shockingly there was no wait! Score! So we had this awesome guy, Rex cut his hair. I told Rex that Ryan never lets me cut his hair, so when he was done with him, he showed and told me exactly what to do. a haircut lesson in the magic kingdom - MAGICAL! For sure one of the highlights of the trip!

And while Ryan was in there getting his hair cut, the Move It, Shake It, Celebrate It! parade was coming out of the doors right next to the barbershop! So I had a great front row seat for it! Magical!

Rex was awesome and told us all about how he's been working in the Magic Kingdom for 20 years, and how he does all the castmembers' hair, cuts the wigs for the princesses, and even cut Tarzan's hair from 20 feet in the air on the Great Movie Ride. Totally awesome.

Then we, of course, headed back to Adventureland.

We did the usual Pirates, Splash and Big Thunder. I gave up my poncho to Ryan (who told me before he left that he wouldn't need one) on Splash, and I got uncomfortably soaked.

There's me in the third row, taking it like a man. Ryan's being a pansy and hiding in the poncho.

haha, he's happy he's dry.

I was soaked, but proud of myself for taking it like a man.
Then I grabbed a nice pic, as we were on our way out.

As we headed back out towards the entrance, we grabbed another amazing dole whip float.

By this point it was 7, which, again, was closing time, for another Halloween Party, so we skeedaddled out of there, and grabbed a monorail to epcot!
Shockingly, we were headed to our third park of the day, plus downtown disney, and had a swim break at the hotel and we STILL WEREN'T TIRED ! whoa. that never happens. So we headed on....

Coming up next, back to Epcot!

 

[terbethk]

When we got in to Epcot, we grabbed a few quick pix in front of spaceship earth and headed right to the Land Pavilion to have dinner at Sunshine Seasons.

We split the oak roasted chicken and strawberry shortcake. AMAZING! Might be tied for one of the best meals on the trip.

When we were finished eating, we went to the Seas Pavilion and rode Finding Nemo, which was a walk on. We spent the next hour or two wandering around and exploring the rest of the area, which we've never done before. It was pretty fun. And again, Ryan of course loved it, because it was educational.

When we were done in there, we crossed the park, and rode Mission Space. Ryan did his usual intense orange side, and I did the tame green side. Even the tame side is proving to be too intense for this motion sickness prone girl. By this time it was after 9:00 (closing), so we did a little shopping/wandering in Mouse Gears.

Ryan as Woody (my favorite Disney character)!

Illuminations got out around the time that we were in the shop, and we didn't feel like braving the crowds for a bus, so we sat and people watched for at least half an hour. We also stopped in the Art of Disney store and picked out hypothetical art for our dream home. That's always fun. When we finally decided to leave the bus got there right away and wasn't even close to being full.

Next up...Day 4 - another morning at the Studios!

 

[terbethk]

We made it to the bus stop at 8:15ish - a little later than we would have liked. All the lines at each bus stop were very backed up. We ended up waiting 20 minutes for a bus, which was NOT ideal on this morning - we were hoping to get on Toy Story Mania. We had a very full bus, so thank goodness we weren't sharing with the other all stars. We walked through the gates at Hollywood Studios at 9:00 on the dot, but we got in very quickly (I decided to ditch the whole purse thing), and headed back to Toy Story Mania. I sent Ryan ahead to get in the fastpass line, but it was sooooooo ridiculously long (I wish I'd taken a pic), so we got in the standby line. It was listed at 50 minutes, and it was probably close to that, but we moved through consistantly, so it wasn't too annoying (in case you haven't noticed, I'm terribly impatient).

Ryan and I let our truly competitive nature out on this ride. However, this first ride was NOT good. We both did pretty crappy, in part because the last screen wasn't working properly. Bummer.

I was on the left side, Ryan on the right.
Pretty sure these are our worst scores EVER.
Ryan still had the best in our vehicle though.

On our way out, the fastpass machines had no lines, so we grabbed some fastpasses with a return time of 3:30. Standby waits were up to 80 minutes when we left - yikes!
We went and grabbed a chocolate croissant at Starring Roles. It was alright, but not spectacular. We headed back down Sunset, to check out times for Tower of Terror. The wait was at 20 minutes, and we didn't feel like waiting, so we went over to Rock 'n rollercoaster. We got in single rider, because standby was at 40 minutes. Single rider still took us 20 minutes, but we met a nice family in line to talk to. They had just gotten back from a Disney cruise and now were spending a few days at the parks. Once we got off RNRC, we headed back to Tower of Terror, which was now listed at 30 minutes, so again, we decided to skip it. So we decided to get in a ride on The Great Movie Ride, which was supposed to be 5 min, but was closer to 10. We saw the gangster scene, as always. I was hoping to get to see the Western scene, but oh well...we still had four more days.
We were a little hungry, so we decided to grab a quick little lunch at the ABC Commissary around 11. It was crazy busy in there! We split a burger, fries, and chocolate mousse.

When we were done eating, we swung by Muppetvision 3D, which I always remind myself not to do, because I never enjoy it. The exit, however, was right by Lightning McQueen and Mater, so we got some shots taken with them.

Then we headed over to The Indiana Jones Stunt Show, since it's one of few things at DHS that Ryan had never done. And I hadn't done it in 14 years. I still didn't enjoy it. Prob won't do it again for a long, long time.

We headed back down sunset and grabbed fastpasses for Tower of Terror, so I could finally get my fix (my tot love is like an obsession).
We felt like getting fat about it, so we grabbed some MONSTROUS ice cream cones.

Tower of Terror waits were all over the place - one min it was at 50 min, then it was at 10. So when we saw it at ten min, we hopped right on, and it was a walk on! woohoo!

There we are, front row, taking a little nap.

We headed over to RNRC and grabbed more fastpasses, as soon as our window opened up.

then used our first set of Tower of Terror fastpasses, then hit the bathrooms, and sat on a bench outside for a bit, where a nice woman handed us Rock 'n Rollercoaster fastpasses which had a return time earlier than the ones we had just gotten. We headed back over to the Magic of Animation, hoping we'd have some luck, with NOT having an obscene line, like the day before. No such luck. The line was ridiculous. So we just gave up on seeing the show and went in the "Meet the Characters Only" entrance. Which was fine because we only missed the little show with Mushu, which wasn't terribly necessary. We still got to see the animators desks, which is one of the coolest parts.

We got in line to meet Mickey right away. I think this is the point when it hit me with annoyance at how much busier this year was, as oppossed to last year. Last year we were there almost the exact same dates - 10/29-11/2 and it was SOOO SLOW! It was awesome! But...not this year!

We were set on meeting Lotso, who wasn't coming out until a set time, and we were determined to be in line right when he came out. So we played around on some of the kiosks that tell you which character you're most like.
Ryan got Tarzan

and I got Tinkerbelle - booo- probably my least favorite disney character EVER.

Ryan tried again, in hopes of getting Stitch (he's a avid stitch impersonator), but got Gaston instead! lol

hung out for a little bit, spent some time sitting on a bench, waiting for Lotso.

After awhile of sitting, we noticed an adult couple, and one other woman sitting at the entrance to the lotso queue. So Ryan and I plopped down in the line, which filled in quickly after we sat down.

A few moments later, when the queue opened, we grabbed a quick few pictures, before we got to Lotso.

had discussed beforehand whether or not Lotso would actually smell of strawberries, and when he hugged us right away we were OVERWHELMED with the smell of strawberries. I can see why they call him Lotso-HUGGIN bear.

 

[terbethk]

Then, we got in line for the Incredibles. It didn't take long, but we killed time by taking silly pictures

We decided while we were in line that we would each hit on the Incredibles. Ryan told me he wanted to pick up mrs. Incredible, but I told him not to, because I didn't want t get thrown out, lol.
When it was finally our turn, I walked up to Mr. Incredible and said "well hello Mr. Gorgeous!" But he made it kind of awkward, and I'm not really sure what he was trying to do, but...ummm...yeah...

Meanwhile, Ryan was putting the moves on Mrs. Incredible.

and just as Mr. Incredible and I were finishing up with our pictures, we looked over to see this:

I think this was Ryan's favorite part of the whole trip. I was terrified he was going to get in trouble, lol, but he reassured me that she jumped into his arms, when he held them out. Mr. Incredible was not so pleased, and stormed off and a castmember had to chase him down and when we walked past as we were leaving we heard the castmember saying "OH, you know she still loves you, she's been married to you for fifteen years!" lol, way to always stay in character and I continued my little flirtation with Mr. Incredible by giving him a kiss on the cheek, as we walked out.
It was finally time for us to use our fastpass for Toy Story Mania, so we did it again, and our scores were TONS better this time!

This time I was on the right and Ryan was on the left, which makes more sense, because i'm right handed and he's left handed. And again, he had the best score in our vehicle.

Then we headed back down Sunset to use the Rock 'n Rollercoaster fastpasses the nice woman had given us, and we passed off the fastpasses we got to a family that was behind us in line to meet the Incredibles.

And since we were down in that area, we had to ride Tower of Terror one more time...
(we're in the back row)

We grabbed a fantastic frozen lemonade and peaced out.

The bus was already waiting when we got there, and all the allstars were sharing, but even then, nobody had to stand.
We got back to our room, relaxed and freshened up.

Next up...Evening EMH at Animal Kingdom!

 

[luckylady]

Love the paint job on the toes.Happy DH is now a disney convert. Those B&W photos are pretty cool. Wonder when they started those.

 

[terbethk]

At 6:30 we headed out to Animal Kingdom to enjoy EMH until 8 PM. The bus pulled up right as we got there, and there were only two other people headed over there.

We got in at about 6:45, and checked out the character spots. Mickey and Minnie were at Island Mercantile, with a crazy long line.
Goofy and Pluto were in Dinoland, also with a very long line.
We did Dinosaur first, it was the longest I ever waited for that ride. About five minutes. Rough life.

I played the scared motif the first time around (because it really is terrifying).

we headed over to Expedition Everest, excited to ride it in the dark! and front row!

We waited about 10 minutes, and asked for front row, but then a rude castmember told us second row and yelled "It's close enough!" at us. That really upset me, because no. It's not.
Unfortunately for me, I did let it sour the mood, and I was ticked. moreso with how rude she was about it.

But Ryan managed to get a few great pix on it!

YETI!!!!!!

We did it a second time again, right after that, and when we went under the yeti, it appeared to be shaking, which really freaked me out. It's probably normal, but it was just scary. This is when I came up with the irrational fear that she was going to fall right on me as we were sailing under her. So we skipped rides #3 and #4, and headed back to Dinosaur.
The second time for the day I decided to go with the "bored motif"

the third time for the day we did the shocked motif
and it looks like everyone else in our car was having a good time too
There was a cranky castmember, however, who was really mean, and he was always yelling at us to move faster, even before the gates would open to enter the ride vehicle he was waving his hand, and yelling at everyone to get on. That was pretty rude.

this time it was after 8 (closing), so we played around in the gift shop for a little bit, trying on hats and things

Then, it was time to head out to the bus stop and YIKES!!!! The line for our stop was allll through the weavage, and waaaayyy out onto all the walkways. It was insane, I tried to get a picture, but it doesn't really do it justice.

And this photo was taken after we'd already been in line for awhile. It extended way past where we were. When the first bus FINALLY arrived, everyone cheered. It took FOUR buses, before we finally got on, and it took at least one more bus to get all the people that were in line after us. We did however, meet a dad and his daughter who were in front of us in line, and I entertained the daughter by talking and looking at each others pins. Their wife/mom finally joined them in line at some point, and we learned that she's active duty army, so her and Ryan talked the whole way back to our resort. That was pretty cool. We grabbed a quick dinner in the food court - I had Penne Chicken Alfredo or something w/ a brownie, and Ryan had spaghetti and meatballs (which was terrible), also with a brownie. My food was fantastic! yum yum yum!

I haven't mentioned it yet, but I'm a VERY picky eater, which is why when at the parks I'm MORE THAN HAPPY eating counter service meals, and don't get sick of it, because a lot of the sit down places, I'd be too picky for anyway (especially the ones in the world showcase). Plus, even at just counter service places, we were able to find plenty of variety (although I would have been happy eating pizza the whole time).

Next up....Day 5 - Back at Hollywood Studios...AGAIN!

 

[terbethk]

Love the paint job on the toes.Happy DH is now a disney convert. Those B&W photos are pretty cool. Wonder when they started those.

Thanks
haha, yes, hopefully convincing DH to go on another trip won't be like pulling teeth again! He seems excited about it!
Making the pix B&W was an option in "edit photo" I think on the photopass site. Maybe its new? I don't think I ever tried to edit photos before this trip.

 

[terbethk]

We were out at the bus stop at 7:15 AM- FINALLY early enough! Excited for an EMH morning at DHS! AND hopefully two more rides on TSM!

T for Theresa!

We arrived at the park exactly half an hour later, for an EMH opening of 8 AM. We made our way all the way up to third back from the rope.

I told Ryan just to go ahead on his own, grab fastpasses for us, and I'd catch up with him, then we'd do standby. I figured I'd be pretty tired, my legs were killing me, so it was rough. I managed to keep up pretty well though. Here's Ryan with the rest of the men, workin it out.

the man hunt for the Toy Story Mania Fastpasses
He was the first one in, and grabbed the first fastpasses for the day!
woohoo!!!

When we walked in standby the line said it was 30 minutes, but we only waited 15.

We managed to improve our scores, yet again! (and ryan STILL had the highest score in our vehicle!)

This ride just KILLS my arm. Yowza!
The fastpass area had died down a lot, once we were off the ride.

We wanted to do Rock 'n Rollercoaster, but it was closed. So we did Tower of Terror, which was listed at 13 minutes, which was actually about right.

We went to go see which characters were out at the hat - we saw Stitch, Piglet, Minnie, Donald and Daisy. We decided we wanted to meet Donald and Daisy, so we got in line and it was long, but went quickly.

we headed right back to Toy Story Mania, to use our fastpasses, but still had to wait about 15 minutes. We also grabbed new fastpasses for Toy Story Mania, just to give away to people out of the goodness of our hearts.

Best scores yet!
We walked around the park more, had trouble finding somewhere to eat, it was just about 9:30 and Starring Rolls was packed. It was a little annoying. We walked around the streets of America, and wanted to see Mike and Sully, but they didn't come out until long after we planned on being gone, so we gave up on that.I was so annoyed in fact, I didn't even feel like getting one last ride on tower of terror, and we just went back to the hotel. Luckily, we were able to grab some breakfast there. I got a mickey waffle with strawberries, and ryan had some sort of variety platter.

After that we napped for a bit. I think I actually slept this day. The exhaustion was catching up with me.

Next up...Back to Magic Kingdom for a VERY VERY busy evening!
AAAAND, meeting up with one of Ryan's best friends!

 

[terbethk]

We were ready to head back to the Magic Kingdom at 2:30 or 3. We waited about five minutes for the bus, and didn't have to share with the other resorts. We met a very nice family on the bus, who were from Florida and big into pin trading. The mom was just a holder for the pins, but the dad and daughter were hardcore. The dad was actually wearing two jessica rabbit pins, so Ryan was able to trade him for one! yay for him!! They were super cool and gave us tons of tips for pin trading, which was great, because this is the first trip we ACTUALLY traded. I think this was the day we started getting REALLY hooked on pin trading. The 3:00 parade was just ending, so it was a little chaotic. I knew the park was going to be crazy because it was only one of a few nights that the normal parade and fireworks were going on. Plus, they extended the park hours til midnight. So I was fully prepared for it to be busy. I was NOT prepared. It was by far the busiest I've ever seen it in my life. It was impossible to maneuver around everyone. Especially because I have the hugest pet peeve for people stopping in the middle of a walkway. We grabbed fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear's Spaceranger Spin (which is probably my least favorite ride in all of WDW). Then we decided to ride the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, which shockingly had a 5 minute wait. Never seen that before. But we got some nice shots of the crowds below. I know. I'm spoiled when it comes to low crowds. You couldn't pay me to go over Christmas/New Years, Easter/Spring Break or anytime in summer.

All my notes from this night got deleted accidentally, but I'll try to piece together what I have by memory and pictures. Once we got off the TTA we grabbed FP's for Space Mountain, then grabbed a bite to eat at the Lunching Pad. Ryan had a philly cheesesteak hot dog (with banana, weird), and I had a sweet cream cheese stuffed pretzel...soooooooo good!!!

Then we went to go see Monsters Inc. We sent in a joke, but it didn't get picked

The show was a riot, as usual. They did change up the bit with Sam and Ella, so that was interesting. Not as good as it used to be, though. At least we didn't get picked on....this time.
I think this is when we did Stitch's Great Escape, and I decided I was done with it. Just dumb. Ry and I are huge Stitch fans so we always do the ride, but everytime afterwards, I wonder...why?
Then we must have at some point picked up FP's for Buzz, because we rode it (and I KNOW I did not wait in that line).

It's just sad how bad I am at that game. I don't even want to talk about it. We may have rode TTA again at this point. I know we rode it three times that night. And Buzz twice.
Then we wandered on back to Fantasyland, for no reason in particular, and I took a bunch of pictures of the construction. I, for one, CANNOT WAIT until its done!!! I am sooo freaking excited, especially for the little mermaid ride!

We wandered around for a bit, taking pictures around the castle and things, just killing time til Ryan's friend, John (who happened to be on vacation with his family!) got there and we could finally see him!

Then we decided to clean up of our list of "must do's" so we hit Hall of Presidents, which I hadn't done since I was 13, and Ryan had never done it. We both REALLY enjoyed it.

We wandered around a bit, and I'm pretty sure this is when I got really hooked on pin trading. I traded with every cast member in sight.
We also hung out back by Tiana's garden for a little bit, wondering when they'd be out, but they were done for the day.

I really liked how Tiana's Garden area was so tucked away from the main hustle and bustle of everything. It was really cool.
After just hanging out for a bit, we decided to go knock "Country Bear Jamboree" out of the way. Again, something that I did when I was 13, Ryan had never done, and I'd be okay if I never did it again. Ryan semi- enjoyed it, he said he would have enjoyed it more if the music wasn't so country.

We wandered aimlessly a bit more. Splash Mountain was closed down. Tom Sawyer Island was closed for the night. Big Thunder had a long line. We thought about going to do Pirates, but we veto'ed that idea as soon as we saw the line - YIKES!

mmm, never seen that before.
so we headed for the hub, and meandered down main street.

We were kind of waiting for John to get there and killing time. We wandered in and out of shops, got Ryan his pirate ears. We couldn't find the ones he REALLY wanted, but he settled on a pair. We wandered around in all the shops, we saw a glass blower in one of them, that was really cool.

I couldn't believe how much there was that I'd never seen before! And this was my 6th trip!
Walking through the gift shops was depressing. I wanted EVERYTHING. Especially the art. There was sooo much fun stuff!

 

[terbethk]

Here's Ryan showing off his new ears!

John STILL hadn't called at this point, so we decided to grab a quick dinner at Pinnochio's Village Haus back in Fantasyland. I was still pin trading crazy!
Dinner was soooo good! Ryan got the meatball sub with fries, and a strawberry yogurt, and I had the chicken parm with strawberry cheesecake, yum!

I think John called us at some point while we were finishing up, but we saw that Snow White's Scary Adventures had no line, so we quick grabbed a ride on that, then headed back into Tomorrowland to meet up with John. We found him saving a spot for us to watch Wishes on the Tomorrowland bridge. Not the best spot, but I didn't even plan on watching the fireworks, but both boys were pretty set on it. and I'll admit - I did tear up a bit.

Once the fireworks were over, we took John over to Monsters Inc, because he'd never seen it.

We sent in another joke, that one didn't get picked either. John did get picked on this show. He was the guy that can burp the alphabet. Pretty amusing. We grabbed FP's for Buzz on the way out. Ryan also wanted to give up his space Mountain fastpass we grabbed much earlier, to John so he and I could go on it. But it wasn't time to use those yet. Ryan insisted we take John on Stitch's Great Escape. I was annoyed, because I decided I didn't like that ride anymore, but instead of going into the room on the right (?) which I almost always go into, we got led into a room on the left (?), and it was ten million times better!!! The effects were sooo much sharper! I couldn't believe it! So I actually DO like this ride, just not the weak version of it. haha, still an unpopular opinion though.
We rode the TTA together to kill time, then headed over to Space Mountain. The wait was at 70 minutes, so THANK GOODNESS for fastpasses!!! John and I felt awesome just power walking past the whole sad line of people. We still had to wait 10ish minutes at the top, but in the grand scheme of things, I'll take it.
I did spend the whole ride worrying about John's head getting cut off though, because he's so tall. But the Space Mountain improvements ARE nice.
I think after this is when we used our Buzz FP's, I made the boys ride together so they could compete. I just spun myself around in my ride vehicle. Weeeee!!! lol, I seriously hate that ride.
After we finished up everything in Tomorrowland, we started heading over to Adventureland so we could do Pirates (AGAIN), but we of course stopped for another castle pic.

But on the way there, ryan realized the castle was open, and you could walk through it, so he got super excited and we did that. haha, he's always talking about how he wants to walk through the castle.

so we walked through the castle, didn't feel like doing anything in Fantasyland, but settled for Haunted Mansion in Liberty Sq. I made the boys go on together, so I could stretch out my legs in my doom buggy. Good times. Wandered around a bit and took a couple pix.

I really don't remember what we did the rest of the night...I don't think we did Splash or Big Thunder, but I could very well be wrong. We did Pirates together last thing, at about 11:45 PM. John peaced out, but Ryan and I were DYING to get a ride on Jungle Cruise, especially this late at night. It was a couple minutes to midnight, and we got the last boat!! There were maybe six other people on it, and our skipper was HILARIOUS!! We had soooo much fun talking and joking with everyone! It was a complete blast!!!! But at this point, the park was closing, so we we headed towards the exit, but I was starving, so we grabbed some fries at Casey's Corner. I'm pretty sure this was the night that the busses were bad. We had to wait for a second one, and we were the last people on, standing right at the front. We had three deer crossing the road, and the driver slammed on his brakes, Ryan and I saw the deer so we were bracing for the brake, but the rest of the standing patrons did not. Yikes, were they mad! Well...better than hitting deer.
But we made it back safe and sound, and were ready to SLEEP IN!

Coming up next! Halloween! Day 6 - Magic Kingdom and DHS for FANTASMIC!

 

[Missyrose]

Just caught up! We were there at the same time! Our trip was Oct. 30-Nov. 4.
I loved, loved, LOVED this shirt:

And your Disney mani/pedi!

We stayed offsite, so we usually avoided the parks with EMH, but we ended up at MK on the 30th and wow, the crowds were CRAZY.

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip...

 

[terbethk]

Just caught up! We were there at the same time! Our trip was Oct. 30-Nov. 4.
I loved, loved, LOVED this shirt:

And your Disney mani/pedi!

We stayed offsite, so we usually avoided the parks with EMH, but we ended up at MK on the 30th and wow, the crowds were CRAZY.

Can't wait to hear about the rest of your trip...

Thank you!!! yeah, the 30th at mk is the worst I've seen the parks ever!! So bad! I think I'm going to have to go read your tr!!