New 8/22! NO. SLEEP. IN. DISNEY. My 24-Hour Birthday Shortest/Longest Trip 5/22-5/26

[budafam]

The parade was at noon. We had a FP+ for it but the viewing area is in the hub (direct sunlight at noon? no thanks!) We found a shady spot on Main Street at 11 and waited there.



We were right next to Cinderella & Prince Charming. Her dress was gorgeous and she must have had at least 100 people stop by and ask for photos as we sat there. Prince Charming did not look like Prince Charming though... lol, he needed a wig or something.



DS fell asleep while we were waiting for the parade to start. I got a Photopass photographer to snap a pic of him in his deep sleep



We had a great spot and the people in front of us let DS sit on the curb next to them. The crowds started piling in as soon as the parade began. I got pushed, shoved and my feet were stepped on. To make things worse, the shade was now gone. We were in direct sunlight and HOT.











Flynn Rider yelled Happy Birthday to me... this was the only interaction we got from any of the parade. The rest of the time, the characters were paying attention to Cindy & her bald Prince



















Continued in Next Post...

 

[budafam]

After the parade we headed back to Fantasyland for our Be Our Guest lunch that we had a FP for. I snapped a quick pic of the Mine Train in action.



We checked in and were brought in within minutes. The lunch process was different from dinner. We had been here for dinner before and had a pretty good meal.. I was excited to try lunch.



DS ordered the grilled cheese... this was awful. It was salty, hard and cold. Yuck.



The French Onion soup was good but there was just a ton of cheese on top... kinda gross.



I also got the braised pork. About 1/4 of this was edible. The rest was fatty which is nasty... I don't think we'll be back for lunch anytime soon.



DS wanted a strawberry cupcake so I had to go all the way back to the front to order that.



We refilled our soda before leaving.







It was now time to go back to our resort in order to "re-check in" for our 2nd reservation.

 

[budafam]

We spent 45 minutes waiting for a bus to go back to Pop Century from MK. It was the longest I have ever waited for a bus and quite aggravating. The line for Pop went through all the zig zags and then down 3 more bus stops by the time we had a bus finally show up. We finally made it back to the resort and we "re-checked in"..



We went back to the room to refresh a bit and dump some of our backpack goodies off... then we took pics on our way back to the buses.







Pop is such a fantastic resort. I just love it when I get clients that come back and tell me how much they enjoyed it. There was a bus waiting to take us back to MK



When we walked in, the Move It Shake It Celebrate It parade was just ending so we caught the floats as they went by.









We decided to stop off at Starbucks and we ordered one of the Refresher drinks. The CM that waited on us asked if he could customize it (he swore he had the best ever recipe that included hibiscus, lemonade and about 10 other ingredients I couldn't remember.



This drinks was fantastic!!! Very refreshing and really, really tasty! It was 5:30 now and we needed to meet up with some family members (and clients) of mine that were visiting MK that day as well My husband's aunt and her family were there and texted us that they were in the shops on Main Street so we started hunting and eventually found them. We got a pic taken on Main Street to prove we were all there at the same time and you would've thought we had coordinated outfits. We matched pretty good!



They had a Tony's reservation in a bit so we decided to go off on our own.

Halfway there!!! 6pm pic:







We walked back to Dumbo and the wait was a bit longer than we wanted to deal with so we headed over to meet Mickey with our FP+. First we called back home and had daddy & DD look at the webcam so we could wave to them. They could see us



We entered the line for Mickey. I was really hoping it would be the talking Mickey. He just started doing appearances back in December when we were there last time and we weren't lucky enough to meet him... this time, we got him!





This experience is just so neat! Even though it's not perfect, it's still really cool to feel like you're getting to talk to Mickey Mouse!

We decided to head out of the park and go over to the Polynesian. We had a reservation for 'Ohana just after Wishes... this would give us some time to relax on the beach a bit.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Thanks for sharing this! It is totally a dream to be there for a 24 hour event! I'm not so sure I'd last, but I would really want to! I am enjoying living vicariously through your TR, so thank you!

So sweet of you to surprise your son with the trip too.

 

[budafam]

We took the boat over to the Polynesian and we went straight to the bar... I stood at the bar for 25 minutes before I got waited on... it took another 10 minutes to get our drinks but they were worth it. I got the Habanero Lime Margarita and DS got a fancy lemonade. We took our drinks down to the beach and enjoyed some relaxing time.







The fireworks began and we got to see the Electrical Water Parade as well... the music is piped in at the beach so you get the full effect









It was now time for my birthday dinner. We checked in and got a beeper... I think we waited around 15 minutes before being seated.



We were seated to the side of the "kitchen" near the windows... it was perfect. Nice & quiet and we were ready to eat!

















Once again, an amazing meal at 'Ohana. I was so glad I chose this as my birthday dinner. We really needed this time to regather ourselves to make it through the rest of the night. At the end of the meal, I was brought out a birthday cupcake



Not to mention this goodness...



DS was given this dessert...



But it went to waste because he's the only kid in the world who HATES chocolate. lol...

We took the monorail back and we were ready for the night! 7 hours to go...

 

[Cando86]

I'm loving reading this! It's making me want to do a 24 hour event real bad! Your "cindy and her bald prince" comment cracked me up

Looking forward to more!

 

[budafam]

I'm loving reading this! It's making me want to do a 24 hour event real bad! Your "cindy and her bald prince" comment cracked me up

Looking forward to more!

Lol thanks!!! I was very worried about the 24 hour event... the fact that it's on Memorial Day weekend scared me but honestly, I never found the park to be crowded. I would seriously do it again if I ever get the chance.

 

[budafam]

The walls at Poly are hideous... well, as hideous as walls can be I guess.. lol.



We took the monorail and headed back to MK. I had been so nervous about the park closing due to reaching capacity... all kinds of rumors were flying on how popular this night was really going to be but we ended up having no issues. We were back and ready to go till 6am!



When we entered the park, the Electrical Parade had just begun. We waited at the crosswalk and in between floats, they let us cross.

DS really wanted to ride Big Thunder again... the wi-fi was not working So we headed over to check out the wait time... The parade seemed to follow us through the park until we got back by Big Thunder. I swear I can still hear that music! So annoying!!! The wait for the ride was over an hour. No thanks.

We walked over to Country Bear Jamboree for a rest. After that wonderful nap it was getting pretty close to midnight and we wanted to stake out our spot for the villains parade at 1am. We were supposed to meet up with a group of people from FB near Pecos Bill but my family texted and said they had spots on Main Street near Casey's so we headed over that way.



Taking some pics along the way...



For as much hype as Disney put into the "Villains" doing a parade... it was pretty disappointing.





We were hoping it would be the talking Hades but no... it was immobile masked Hades instead







We've done the Halloween party before so maybe that's why it didn't seem so great to us... it was short, maybe 5 minutes long and that was it.





After the parade our family decided to leave and go back to their resort. We took the path by the Plaza and they had a backstage area open next to the restaurant. I snapped a quick pic of the rarely seen behind the scenes area...



We were thirsty at this point so we decided to go to Cosmic Ray's for an orange slushie. This wasn't very good... basically tasted like orange juice with ice & whipped cream on top.. a little weird.





We enjoyed the show and finally got some wifi to work... while we were sitting there, DS said the guys from the Dis were sitting behind us and sure enough. It was Dustin & Shaun... Pete was nearby talking with some fans. We went over by Dustin & Shaun to say hi.. I wish I would've taken pics but I hate bothering people when they're eating. Pete was still busy with the other people so we left.

The line was still insane for the Mine Train and beyond long for Hades so we headed over to the Little Mermaid where it was a walk on.



I started feeling sick at this point. I think I was just worn out. I don't remember much of the ride because I was "resting my eyes".. lol.

Then we took in a show at Philharmagic which was another lovely nap.



Stromboli was out in front of Pinocchio's greeting people.



I can't explain how I felt at this point... it was almost as if I were drunk. I could not walk straight... I was really, really getting tired. I'm pretty sure I had asked DS if we could leave a couple of times by now and he just kept telling me no way. So we kept on...

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Oh! I can only imagine how tired you were! It's hard to stay awake that long. I still want to try once though! Of course, only at Disney!

 

[budafam]

We had our extra FP+ for Peter Pan so we rode that and then we went on Haunted Mansion which I took a good snooze on. I felt like we needed to recharge so we decided to check out Columbia Harbour House. I ordered the fried shrimp & DS got a PB&J. I didn't think I was that hungry but boy did we devour this...





We sat for a bit longer to just rest... there was a group of teens next to us who were being a little inappropriate so we headed back out into the park.

The music was blaring from Frontierland's dance party. We went over there for a bit and danced with Chip, Dale & Minnie. Then we headed towards the castle... DS snapped this pic of me along the way.



We danced to the YMCA with Pluto and headed over to Buzz Lightyear. The ride was so much fun as you can tell:



Haha, I wasn't the only one with this idea... every single person on the screens after the ride was "asleep" as well. We decided to do a few rounds on the PeopleMover and by "few", I mean three. We got stuck 4 times but that was okay with me. We then headed back over towards the Mine Train. It was now 5am and the line was said to be 45 minutes long. We ended up waiting around 30 minutes and this time we actually got to take our time and play with the things in line.







The Mine Train was our very first & very last ride of the 24 hour event

We headed through the castle...



The view from the castle looking down Main Street.. the dance party was still in full effect. "Let It Go" techno version was playing.



We made our way up Main Street and got the last picture taken in MK:



We found some spots near the train station and waited for the show. The characters came out and some fireworks went off (we're almost positive they went off prematurely) and then they sang the "M-I-C-K-E-Y" song... many, many tears were shed. I snapped this picture on our way to the buses (luckily Disney was ready this time and had buses waiting):



DS fell asleep on the bus and I had a great conversation with a couple from North Carolina who has done every single 24 hour event. Very cool. I snapped this pic on our way to our room.. you can just see the sunlight through the trees...



DS was out like a light. It took me a bit to wind down but eventually I fell asleep. I would say it was around 7am. I slept 4 hours and just couldn't anymore... No. Sleep. In. Disney!

 

[budafam]

Video from our 24 hours worth of adventures!!!

Check it out HERE

 

[WDWaddictt]

Great update, and great video!

Looks like a lot of memories were made there at that event!

 

[budafam]

I took some time to post pics and respond to emails before waking DS up around noon. We showered and got ready for our day at Epcot. We were out at the bus stop a little after 1pm. DS called daddy while we waited in line.



We arrived at Epcot and went straight for Spaceship Earth... our FP+ window was about to run out in 2 minutes.



Next we headed for Figment. We had a FP+... thank goodness because the line was out to the door. DS LOOOOOVES Figment... I sorta do too





We made our way around to begin our walk through World Showcase.





It was a warm one... we were feeling it!







We found the ice cream shop in France and decided to get something to cool down...







DS ordered the mango sorbet and I got an ice cream martini which included a scoop of hazelnut and coconut white chocolate with a (very generous) shot of rum.





As we exited the shop, we saw our aunt & cousins entering... so we all talked afterwards. They were on their way around the World Showcase as well. We walked for a bit with them afterwards but then parted ways once we got to Japan. I wanted a bit of sushi.





I got the spicy rolls and they were awful. I did not like them at all. They tasted old and a bit hard. Just not what I was used to. I'll stick with Cali Grill for my sushi.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

You know, I kinda like Figment too! He's just so cute... One little spark...

I really love your pictures on the way to WS. So pretty!

I haven't had ice cream in France since 2006. I think I need to try some again. I just love anything that has to do with France in Epcot. Although I still haven't eaten at the two TS restaurants.

Too bad your sushi was yucky. I've never tried sushi anywhere, so I wouldn't know!

 

[budafam]

I really wanted DS to see the American Adventure show... he absolutely loves all things history and I knew this would blow him away. He was a little hesitant to go see a show but I finally talked him into it and luckily there was a show about to start (perfect timing)! One of the CM's had me go to the phone right inside the doors and push a few numbers. It ended up calling Goofy who proceeded to sing Happy Birthday to me. I knew this trick since my daughter had the same thing happen to her a few years prior. So cute! I just love the escalators...



We barely had to deal with any crowds.



I just love this theater.



I was right... DS LOVED the show. He wouldn't stop talking about it when we got out. I stopped off and got us a Doofenslurper to share.



This drink is highly underrated! It was around $10 and lasted us the rest of the way around World Showcase. It melted slowly in the heat and kept us cool and refreshed. We just loved it! And you get a cute cup to keep. We also got some popcorn to share... keep in mind, DS still hasn't really had any REAL food yet today... lol, just snacking!

Just some views from our walk...





Our first time ever going into China...











We stopped by Mexico so I could get a margarita..



I went with the cucumber margarita which sounded good at the time.



It was not. I would not order this again... it tasted funny. I was wishing I had gotten the avocado instead... I ended up throwing more than half of it in the garbage.



These were just so beautiful... I had to take a picture. They reminded me of something my mom would've loved...



We had to make a pit stop at the bathrooms. I had a nice conversation with a woman that just got off the Disney Dream. She said it was unbelievable and was so excited to hear we'd be sailing in just a few months. I just love talking to Disney people

 

[budafam]

It was time to use our FP+'s for Test Track. DS designed a cool car and we were on our way!





We had a great time on the ride. Afterwards we took some time to explore everything. We didn't have time on our last trip to check it all out.









After we were done playing, we decided to head towards the monorail... we got a few pics taken in front of the ball. There were people waiting and they gushed over DS's shirt.



We waited about 15 minutes for the monorail... it felt good to just sit and relax



I snapped a pic while on our way to the Contemporary.



We changed our clothes and got ready for a pirate night!



We headed to the check in near California Grill's check in (oh how I secretly wished we were eating there that night!)







I found a very comfy seat on those giant couches and tried to relax a bit before the big cruise.



Our pirate hosts were fantastic! We were let into the main room where there was plenty to eat (of course, all snacky foods.. DH still had not eaten anything real for the day).









We grabbed a few snacks (and a few for later). We sat by a great family with a very comical dad.. he had us laughing the whole time.

 

[budafam]

Captain Hook & Smee came out so we got in line for them. I had my GoPro out and Captain Hook took it from me! The footage is hilarious... he took selfies of us and Smee kept playing with it as well.







It was time for the cruise and the hosts were hilarious!!!



They led us down through the lobby and out to the docks. On our way down we stopped for a photo op with the kids & Smee.



We were seated on the right side of the boat. The left side would be best but you can see from everywhere. It's really not a huge deal and you don't get to pick where you sit.



Our pirate kept us busy the whole time. He sang songs, told jokes, played trivia and was just all around fantastic!



When we got back to shore, we had a surprise guest waiting for us...
Peter Pan!!!







We then walked the path over to the buses at MK and went back to the resort. It was time for DS to EAT!!! lol... we got him a kid meal in the food court and he polished that off in no time.



Bed time! Our next day was going to be a long one.

 

[budafam]

We slept in a little more than we had planned but still made it to HS before the park officially opened.



The storm trooper welcome show was great. DS was very excited for this day! He just got into Star Wars a few months ago. We made our way over to the Jedi Training sign up near Indiana Jones.







We got a 2:00 return time and went off to explore the park a bit...



Star Tours was our first ride of the day (seemed fitting).





Then we went on the Great Movie Ride.







By now it was time to check in for our Star Wars Galactic Dine In Breakfast. I had high hopes for this meal considering the price tag.



We waited around 20 minutes to be seated... got our picture before going in

 

[budafam]

DS was in heaven.



Then the food started to arrive...













DS traded with the Jawa. He gave him two marbles and the Jawa gave DS a Birthday pin in return.





The characters were great. Very interactive and constantly roaming. There was a storm trooper who kept eying up DS. Our waiter had to fend him off a few times for us.



The dessert tray brought around looked very neat... just didn't taste the best.







We had to hurry to get over to the Feel the Force Premium Package check in.



We checked in an hour before the parade began and we were still behind another family by the ropes. DS was able to get up front so he could see and that's all that mattered to me.











To Be Continued...

 

[budafam]

This parade just kept going and going...







































To Be Continued...