"We'll always have Baymax!" and I guess the memories too! - Nov 2014 TR *FINISHED 9/24!!

[jwjulie]

Done and done! I'll make it a point to go see him. I love your TR. Keep it coming!!

Thank you!

Were you able to use a FP to meet Flynn and Rapunzel during the Christmas Party (and if so what time did you make it for? We are going to next December and just wanted to keep it in mind. Thanks

Yes, we were! We made it for after the party had officially started, that way Flynn would be in the room. I'm not sure what time we had exactly, but I think it was around 10pm. Any time after when the party starts you should be okay, I think they start at 7? I'm not sure.

 

[jwjulie]

Day Five :
For the first time in... four months

This was the day I'd been waiting on the entire trip. When morning rolled around, we woke up early, primped and prettied, and then it was off to Hollywood Studios! We had to be there for rope drop since we had a 9am FP+ for… the Frozen Sing-Along! I’d been able to take part in it during the Frozen Summer Fun, but Bren hadn’t done it yet. Obviously it was new for Kim and Bill as well, so we had a small window to book it all the way over there to make our entry time! We made it with a few minutes to spare, and Kim even hopped over to take a quick photo with Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater before joining us inside…

... which was a total waste of a FP+ since were all the way in the back right before it went up into the bleachers. Note to self, and anyone else : it may seem like a good idea, but if you want to be in the front seating, book a later show and show up before your FP time to get into the FP specific line. You'll be let in before the general seating, and have a better seat.

I'm short, so to say I was upset we wasted a FP is an understatement.

We did, however, get a shoutout from the male historian, and Bren realized that her true calling may be as historian of Arendelle ( and I believe she’s right! ). Plus, I got to stare at Kristoff ( which my phone now automatically capitalizes as KRISTOFF ) so it was a good time. Parents in front of us kept turning around though, but… it’s a sing-along for a reason! You’re supposed to S I N G A L O N G!

We had some time to kill before our next FP+ and didn’t want to wander too far, so I introduced them to the watered down version of Oaken’s that was in the corner back by where the backlot tour used to reside… where I proceeded to pick up three Sven plushies and made Bren take a photo - but she insisted it wasn’t going to happen unless I picked up one more.

NOTHING MAKES ME HAPPIER THAN AN ARMFUL OF SVEN PLUSHIES!

Bren and I also decided we couldn’t let it go…

From there, we headed over to the Animation Courtyard, where I dropped some coin on a talking Baymax plush because I. WANTED. IT. and we went inside to get in line for Hiro and Baymax! It was about an hour wait, I believe, and completely worth it. Plus, we made friends in line! I was really glad that I picked up the Baymax when I did, because later on in the day they were sold out and unsure of when they were getting more. I didn't really need one that talked, but they didn't have the non-talking option at the time. Now they do online, though! So... I may have to buy another.

Hiro told me that Baymax wanted to show me his karate.

It’s like hugging a giant marshmallow. Plus, Bren loves Hiro… so, it was a win/win!! Side note : Bren kept speaking Japanese all day, well, somewhat, repeating 'hajemeimashita' all day and this Japanese guy in front of us kept turning around. HI-LARIOUS.

Then it was time for our FP+, Toy Story Midway Mania! Again, I was seated with Bren and knew that it was on like donkey kong. After a fun ride full of screaming from all four of us…

BOOM! Okay, so her accuracy was better than mine but it's not accuracy that matters, it's poiiiinnnntttssssss...

I had the highest score in the cart! Screaming and victory dancing commenced, causing people waiting in line to stare while I celebrated.

We had lunch at 50’s Prime Time next, which Bren was excited about because she just wants to get yelled at. I’m more introverted sometimes and I don’t like being yelled at, plus I’m a picky eater, so I was a little nervous about this.

I was able to order from the children’s menu though, which made it a little easier ( chicken nuggets! ). Our waiter was amazing, but I forget his name! Bren and I enjoyed playing along once I warmed up to it, and we came up with the genius idea to draw a face using ketchup, carrots, and string beans ( all from her plate ) on my plate in the likeness of our waiter. He accused me of playing with my food, made me hand over my fork, did the ‘here comes the airplane!’ thing with a carrot, and made me eat it! I don’t like carrots in the first place, and it was covered in garlic and ketchup and I thought I was going to die! GROSS.

But then I got a takeout box for my leftover collard greens to stealthily take them out of the restaurant ( and ditch them… in a trashcan… ).

He told us ‘No Tower for an hour!’ before we left.

Can anyone guess where we went next?

That’s right, it was time for Baymax’s first trip on the Tower of Terror! Oh, and Bill and Kim’s too.

Baymax loved it, Kim screamed, and I think... what's that?! BILL IS SMILING!

Making our way back to the hat, we took a bunch of photopass pictures again!

From there, the group split up. I’m not sure where Kim went, but Bren and I headed over around the Muppets 3D area and chatted with a friendly CM at a cart outside of Pizza Planet! She gave us a bunch of Mickey stickers, so I wore one and gave Baymax one. Bren made a phone call to try adding someone onto a dining reservation, and then…

We rocked out to Blood, Sweat, & Shears! Bren as a soft spot for them, and we managed a spot right up front and rocked out. The photopass lady loved us! Sometime during this, Bill had met up with us and then left again.

This is probably one of my favorites from the entire trip. Mermaid hair, Baymax, rockin' out!



Sometime around here, we went back into Oaken’s and I took this photo :

You can just SEE THE JOY. Also : the only thing that’s better than an armful of Sven is a bucket o’ Sven and Baymax!

We managed a viewing of Voyage of the Little Mermaid ( for Bill ) and then Bren and I wandered through ‘One Man’s Dream’ for a while, reading everything and warming up a little since the temperatures had dropped again.

I had to go on the Great Movie Ride because it’s my moms favorite and even though she wasn’t on the trip I felt like I had to go on it for her.

Sadly, our driver was NOT enthusiastic at all.

And our gangster, a girl, was so quiet and mumbling everything. It kind of ruined the experience and I almost nodded off.

Sometime during the day, we had managed to add on a FP+ for the Rock’n Roller Coaster, so our group finally all met up for that!

In the gift shop, we ran into one of our friends from the Baymax line who had been displaced from his group. So we invited him to hang out with us as we headed towards the one thing I was looking forward more than anything else : the Osborne Lights!!!!!!!!!

I danced with our new friend, which Bren took pictures of.

We hung out and had photos taken and enjoyed the lights.

I don't know why I didn't choose a picture that's not blurry...

And then, we went to Fantasmic! I loved it, as always, even though it was SUPER cold. The park was closed as it ended, so we ended the night and turned in. The friend we had made tagged along for a little while. Instead of hanging out, and to avoid some drama that had started, I went to bed.


Up next : A solo morning at the Magic Kingdom, apology cupcakes, and a freezing fireworks dessert party.​

 

[angelicamy12]

Hello!

I just wanted to say that a stumbled across your trip report on my lunch break today after having a horrible day at work. I needed some escapism and you certainly provided that!

I love your writing style and your honesty and am already eagerly awaiting your next update...I am so jealous you got to meet Baymax! He looks amazing! I was in Disney in November 2013 and remember how unpredictable the weather was but it was worth it to finally see the Magic Kingdom decorations in person. I will never forget how I felt when I got my first sight of them! x

 

[jwjulie]

Hello!

I just wanted to say that a stumbled across your trip report on my lunch break today after having a horrible day at work. I needed some escapism and you certainly provided that!

I love your writing style and your honesty and am already eagerly awaiting your next update...I am so jealous you got to meet Baymax! He looks amazing! I was in Disney in November 2013 and remember how unpredictable the weather was but it was worth it to finally see the Magic Kingdom decorations in person. I will never forget how I felt when I got my first sight of them! x

Oh my goodness, thank you! I honestly didn't think people were reading this and was debating on just letting it fade into the abyss of posts. I'm glad I could entertain you and make your day a little brighter!

Baymax was truly an experience. He's so cute. The weather really was unpredictable. I should have known to pack heavier, but I didn't really think much of it. I absolutely loved seeing the Magic Kingdom all dressed up for Christmas, it was something I'll never ever forget!

 

[angelicamy12]

Oh my goodness, thank you! I honestly didn't think people were reading this and was debating on just letting it fade into the abyss of posts. I'm glad I could entertain you and make your day a little brighter!

Baymax was truly an experience. He's so cute. The weather really was unpredictable. I should have known to pack heavier, but I didn't really think much of it. I absolutely loved seeing the Magic Kingdom all dressed up for Christmas, it was something I'll never ever forget!

Well I most definitely am following along and I'm sure many others will be too so please do keep updating!

I can't wait to hear how the rest of the trip went x

 

[jwjulie]

I apologize for the delay here, for those who are waiting for the newest update! It's been a busy week at work, and next will be even busier! With that said, I've also decide to bite the bullet and go down to Orlando for Memorial Day weekend, which includes the 24-Hour event! Flying down late Thursday, getting to the resort around 3am more than likely, changing into my costume, and heading out the door after a quick power nap! A weekend with my girls Bren and Erika is WELL in order! Now back to the TR!

Day Six :
My Kingdom awaits... again!

When morning came, I decided to get up somewhat early and head to a park solo. Kim and Bill were going to Animal Kingdom and it’s really not my cup of tea, so I passed in favor of heading into the Magic Kingdom to explore on my own. Sometimes you just need some time to unwind and see things your own way, and after something that had happened the previous night - which I won’t get into, per request - I needed some time to myself. Bren had come back to the room and slept through my leaving, and I made it into MK a little after 10am.

I decided to make the most out of the sweater I'd bought the night before. Now I wear it all of the time.

I took my time through the Emporium, looking at some things I might want to buy, and grabbed an early lunch on my own at Cosmic Rays. I took this time to call my mom back home and vent my frustrations on things. It turned into a half hour conversation. She told me to take it easy, and to not let bad decisions ruin my trip. Sometimes you just have to forgive.

After lunch, I myself made a bad decision :

That’s right, I rode Space Mountain immediately after lunch, and it reminded me why I don’t ride Space Mountain! The poor kid in front of me was terrified, and I couldn't stop laughing.

I love roller coasters. I really do. I have a season pass to our local theme park and go a lot more than I should. But Space Mountain just gets to me and I don’t know why. I survived though, and I trekked it over towards Fantasyland. By this time, I had a text on my phone from Bren asking me where we could meet up, and I told her where I was, and that I was planning on getting in line for Gaston, one of the only characters I had any interest in meeting on this trip.

He loved my button, and pretty much loved me.

While it wasn’t as memorable as my previous encounter with him, it was still enjoyable and laughable. Seriously, he’s one of the best interactions in the park. No wonder his line fills quickly. I don’t think Disney really takes into consideration how much people would like to meet the male counterparts in movies ( i.e. : “WHERE IS MY KRISTOFF MEET AND GREET?” ). Bren had joined me in line, and after that, we headed towards the Cheshire Cafe. She bought me a cupcake cup and a hot chocolate to apologize for the drama that had occurred. Nothing says "I'm sorry" quite like two cups of pure sugar, right?

We also took pictures with Sebastian. Which we didn’t tell Bill about. OOPS.

Now this is where things get a little fuzzy.


I know we rode the PeopleMover, because I have photos of when we went through Space Mountain while the lights were on ( !!! ) but I don’t remember who was with me. And I know I watched part of Dream Along With Mickey, while Kim staked out spots in the FP+ line for the Festival of Fantasy parade.

The blinking and moving mouths still freak me out.

When we were let in the area, we secured spots right up front, facing the Castle in the hub. I could have died. The sun was warm, the sky was blue, and we took a few pictures while we had the advantage.

I took one of my favorites from the entire trip.

It's like a postcard!!

And we sat there and used the free wifi to order our tickets for our day trip to Universal! Sorry, Disney. I must say, seeing the parade from this spot was amazing. I know a lot of people don’t want to “waste” their FP on a parade, but it was really nice to be able to see it without having to worry. Plus, we weren’t crowded in very much.

Flynn smoldered at me as the float went by and I kind of melted into the ground. I think Bren taped it, and we now have that on video for me to watch over and over again until the end of time.

After the parade, we treated Bill and Kim to Mickey’s Philharmagic for the first time! This was my view.

Ah, the perks of being short.

After that, we went over to It’s A Small World! That’s right, I talked everyone onto it! YAY ME! First, the cast member tried shoving the four of us into one row. We had a struggle selfie, but I can't find it...

But we couldn’t fit and were loudly trying to get situated, so she let us wait for another boat and take two rows instead!

This was so much better. Look how happy we are now!

Then after a quick pitstop in the best bathrooms ever…

It was time for 3/4ths of our group to experience the Seven Dwarves Mine Train for the first time! I’d spent time over the summer with my parents in line for it and frankly, was underwhelmed. So I was glad we were able to get FP for it, seeing as the waits were always high whenever we made it close. I’ll say this : it’s a very smooth ride, and fun for kids. I could tell Kim was having a really good time, and it’s a nice ride but it doesn’t really live up to it’s hype for me.

Kim is smiling right at the camera!

Once that was over, we headed off to visit Bren’s second home, the Haunted Mansion! Honestly, we had no plan of attack at all and we criss-crossed the park MULTIPLE times but we had some time to kill before our next fastpass. We checked the wait for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad via the app and seeing as it was a short wait, we booked it over there to ride! I’d never ridden in the dark before and it was like a whole ‘nother beast in the dark! Super fun!

After that, we had to book it over to Princess Fairytale Hall because we had a VERY IMPORTANT fastpass, and I had something extremely special to take care of!

You see, my niece is eight and absolutely LOVES Frozen. When she heard I was going to meet Anna and Elsa yet again, she was happy for me but bummed she wasn’t able to because my brother and sister-in-law won’t let us take her on a plane. Sigh. So, I told her that if she wanted to color a picture and have me take it to them, I would. She colored one of Anna for me to give her, which Anna loved and hung up behind her on the shelf, and then I had a colored photo of Olaf for them to sign.

I explained everything to the princess and queen of Arendelle, and… success!

BOOM.
BEST. AUNT. EVER.

I'd upload our photos with Anna and Elsa, but I look rather terrible and would not like to subject you to that kind of awful at the moment.

And then… we realized we had exactly ten minutes to make it to Tomorrowland Terrace for our Wishes Dessert Party check in!

We’d never done this before, so I didn’t know if our check in time would affect where we were seated ( I didn’t realize it was the time of booking, which worked to our advantage since I’d booked at first opportunity! ) and we tried going around the castle. Couldn’t get through because of fireworks prep. Ended up going all the way around through Liberty Square and practically sprinting across the park. We made it in less than ten minutes ( with all of the people traffic! )… and ended up in a line of people to get in anyway. So we could have walked.

When we checked in, the woman led us over to our table, telling me that it was in what she liked to call ‘the danger zone’ aka it was in the front row of tables and right by the desserts!! We set our things down and went over to start filling up, and I grabbed a nice mug of hot chocolate along with a plate full of goodies.

I have a picture of it somewhere, but I can’t find it. It was basically every option they gave us.

Somewhere along the time we were eating, Bren decided to dare me to shove an entire mini-cupcake into my mouth, and she documented it.

It's not cute.

Once we were finished with our junk food, we noticed people starting to line up at the railing and wanted to stake out spots. Note : with the construction going on in the hub, a lot of the ground below the rail was dug up. The wind was very strong this night and we absolutely froze. I could hardly feel my hands.

While we waited, Kim made the call to book our shuttle for the following morning to take us to Universal and I made a call home via FaceTime to check on my dog.

The only thing I didn’t like about the dessert party, was that there is one lonesome tree blocking the view of the castle. I know it shouldn’t matter, because it’s for the fireworks, but it blocks the view of the projection show which is one of my favorite things. While Wishes was going on, I facetimed home again and let my parents watch them on the iPad. I’m a good daughter, I know.

You can see the tree.

When we exited the party, instead of making us go out onto main street into the crowds, they let us go back behind main street and out another exit! We started dancing around and Bren and I chanted “secret exit!” the entire time, making the CMs laugh. It's really not a secret exit. We get a little excited sometimes.


After making it back to the resort and grabbing drinks in our mugs, it was time for bed. We had a VERY early wake up come morning.

Up Next… We pop the Disney bubble for a day!

​

 

[disneyguy4life]

Seriously, he’s one of the best interactions in the park. No wonder his line fills quickly.

Gaston is funny... until he started flirting with my wife. LOL!! He cooled his jets once I told him she was my belle and he should go get his own.

 

[jwjulie]

Gaston is funny... until he started flirting with my wife. LOL!! He cooled his jets once I told him she was my belle and he should go get his own.

He really is hilarious!!

 

[jwjulie]

Day Seven :
The Day We Wandered Elsewhere.

This is the day that had been switched around. Originally, we were to go to Universal Studios earlier in the trip, but I forget why, things had to be switched. It worked out in the end, although Universal day is the day when things started to wear me thin. It started off fine enough, I swear. We woke up early and got ready ( some of us taking longer than others… you know, it’s pretty funny when the girls are ready before the lone guy on the trip ) and headed towards the hospitality house to wait for our ride. We’d arranged for a pickup early enough so we could get to Universal without having to worry about traffic, and could still get some optimal park time in - the winter months mean shorter operating hours, and we wanted to get everything in that we could! Kim had called the night before, during the fireworks, to reserve a ride for us with Mears. She'd given her name and requested a shuttle, but as we walked over we noticed a Mears taxi waiting. We weren’t sure if it was for us or not, as we were expecting a van ( as we'd been told ), but when we asked, he said yes it was ours! So three of us hopped in the back and one up front. I busied myself with my phone.

I usually don’t like cabs, but this driver taught us so much. We chatted about taxis and the companies that are in the area, and those that are allowed on Disney property while others aren't. Only as we were pulling into Universal to be dropped off near CityWalk did we learn that he wasn’t really supposed to be our ride! So, we took somebody else’s taxi by mistake? But he let us, so... OOPS.

It was around 8am when we made our way onto CityWalk and decided to grab something quick at the only place that was open at the time… which happened to be Cinnabon! YUM. Non-Disney food! I'm sorry, I love Disney food, but after a while you just want something normal and considering Cinnabon was the only thing open, we all kind of jumped at the chance.

After sitting around in there for a while and overstaying our welcome, we walked further towards the entrance and up our tickets at the kiosk before going towards the gates to wait to be let in.

We were going in the entrance at Islands of Adventure, and trying to get over to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter first thing. It was the main reason for our venture off of Disney property, after all! After waiting for what felt like forever, we were let in and followed a few people over towards the area. I acted like I knew where I was going, since I'd been to the Hogsmeade section when it had first opened.

As we approached Hogsmeade, Bren may have shed a tear or two. Although I'd been there before, it it was still SO beautiful to see again.

For a while, we were alone. It was pretty neat to act like we had the park to ourselves.

It was cold. And because of this and me not being prepared for temperatures as low as they were, I look like an orphan.

First order of business was the Forbidden Journey. Bren wasn’t going to ride but insisted that the rest of us do, and she was still allowed to walk through the castle with us to check everything out.

As I’d been on the ride before, I knew there was a part with giant spiders ( I can’t do spiders ) so as soon as I realized it was coming, I covered my face.

Unfortunately, that’s when the photo snapped.

Fortunately, none of us wanted to buy it.

Now that THAT was taken care of, we made our way to Ollivanders Wand Shop with hopes that Bren would be chosen to ‘be chosen’. Things were looking good, until a small child joined the room at the last minute. Everyone knows that they only pick small children because their parents are more likely to buy the wand afterwards. Low and behold, the child was chosen.

We still all bought wands. Okay, except for Kim, but I let her use mine.

Bren and I bought the ones that let you do magic throughout the HP parts of the park and we had a hard time with them at first. It was pretty funny though, watching the reactions to the things that would happen. My favorite was the chocolate frog, but I also liked the water fountain because I unknowingly drenched a small child.

We also bought some candy in Honeydukes!

This is one of my favorite shots from this day, because I’m getting my strut on.

Then, it was time to ride the train! We were taking the Hogwarts Express!

Dragon Alley was completely new for me and I was completely taken aback by the theming. We rode Escape from Gringotts, and then made one of the best decisions of the day : butterbeer!

Look at Bill, having SO MUCH FUN!

Before long, after some shopping and venturing along into Knockturn Alley, we found ourselves in Springfield! Krusty and Sideshow Bob were out greeting people and they tried to steal Bren!! I took a selfie with my main man Milhouse, and we wandered around pretty aimlessly for a while.

It was a pretty relaxing day so far. We walked right into a Spongebob store because Kim FREAKED OUT over it, and ended up meeting Spongebob and Patrick! She was more excited about that than anything else, I think, and we had to explain to Bren what Spongebob was…

While Bill left to do some shopping, Bren and Kim rode the Terminator 3-D thing and I spent some time on the phone with my mom. After that, we rode the Despicable Me ride. We also did the Shrek 3-D thing, and Bren got in trouble when she cheered about the flogging. So whenever the guy would mention flogging and we were to boo, we’d just cheer and he kept getting frustrated and laughing. Bill was dead set on going on Twister, which I had done before and kept telling him it wasn’t worth even a ten minute wait. Bren offered to do it with him, and Kim and I set off to ride the Rip Ride and Rock It, which is probably one of my favorite things. She was unsure about the incline, but loved it when she realized she could pick her own music. There was hardly a line, so we probably could have ridden it twice, but we made our way back over to Twister, where Bill and Bren emerged a few minutes later less than impressed. At the lockers at Rip, some guy around my age made a comment about loving my outfit. I gave him a high five. I really looked like an orphan.

After that, it was time to head back to the train station because we were finally heading to Platform 9 3/4!!! We’d ridden the train earlier, but it’s more of an experience this way, knowing you’re heading TO Hogwarts instead of away from it.

The ride was pretty cool going the other way, too.

We wandered a little more, and while Bill and Bren went on some Storm ride that reminded me of the teacups, Kim and I quickly got a locker and snuck away to ride The Hulk! My face was so cold I was almost frozen!

We did the Spiderman ride, and as we were walking in, I got COMPLETELY SCHOOLED by an employee! She noticed my bag from Ollivander’s and asked what house I was in. When I told her Gryffindor, she scoffed and said “You poor thing.” and asked to see my wand. After taking it from me, she smirked and told me “You should know better than to ever let a Slytherin hold your wand…” My jaw hit the floor. I got PLAYED. It was so funny!!

Bren loves dinosaurs, so we headed over into the Jurassic Park area but since it was cold and a bit rainy on and off, we didn’t do the ride ( She doesn’t like water rides much anyway ). Bill and Bren played a whack-a-mole game since two players were needed to win a prize and he wanted it. She ended up winning and gave it to him anyway.

At this point, Bill realized we hadn’t done Men in Black, and he wanted to buy a stuffed pug dog for his aunt I believe, like the one that’s in the movie. Men in Black is in the other park, and there was no way we’d make the train all the way back and get there before the park closed! Plus, I had held off on buying my Gryffindor scarf all day and wanted the one with the logo and house name, not just the colors. So I wanted to head up into the store at the end of the Forbidden Journey to grab that, but Bill wanted to go get his thing too. We had misjudged the amount of time we had left and the park was closing rather early, so after much whining ( by Bill ), we split. Kim and I went up to get my scarf, Bren did some shopping of her own in the area, and Bill took off to go get his things in the other side of the park. We were to meet up at the main store for package pickup.

By the time we made it there, the park was almost closed for the night. Bren and I walked around, bought matching shirts ( although hers is Slytherin, of course ) and found the others. Bill was in a bit of a bad mood because by the time he made it to his destination, the store was closing. He was, however, able to get what he wanted ( and had to deal with it ). After we made some purchases and picked up packages, we left the park, danced through CityWalk, and hopped into the taxi line. We made it to the resort by 7:40pm and I was pretty happy to just get in and relax.

Bren had been talking about going in the hot tub for a few hours to relax and warm up, and while it wasn’t a long walk from our room I was a little weary about it being so cold once I got OUT of the water and had to walk back. Once she had gotten in, I put my feet in since I hadn’t gotten changed into my swimsuit. Putting my feet in turned into rolling my pajama pants up and getting in up to my knees, which quickly turned into “I’ll be back, I’m putting my swimsuit on!”

We spent about an hour there, relaxing and talking about the trip. We spoke a little about the slight drama that had gone down and quickly resolved things. I don’t like it when I think people are upset with me, so I wanted to make sure we were okay. We also had a good laugh about things that had happened on the trip so far. The water was warm, calming, and relaxing but eventually a family with small children approached and we decided to bail. After picking up our things and wrapping in towels, we decided to stop for mug refills and that’s when we got distracted.

We walked into the community hall and realized the woman in there was watching Toy Story, all by herself. After making sure we could be in there because we were slightly wet from the hot tub still, she welcomed us in! We probably spent an hour in there with her and eventually another worker and then a woman and her little girl, all sitting at the round table and coloring.

I colored a photo of Rapunzel and a keychain of Belle on one side and Rapunzel on the other. Bren colored a gothic Belle which I don’t have a photo of either but she had a pink streak in her hair and it was pretty amazing. We chatted for a while before deciding to call it a night.

It was a little odd to be in bed by 10pm on a Disney day, but we had big plans for the morning!

Up Next : Friendship Day... with FRIENDS!
​

 

[Catvondita]

This is awesome. I'm love the Baymax plush and am super jealous you got to meet Flynn Rider. I didn't realize you could meet him at Meet and Greets!

 

[jwjulie]

This is awesome. I'm love the Baymax plush and am super jealous you got to meet Flynn Rider. I didn't realize you could meet him at Meet and Greets!

Thank you! The Baymax plush is my favorite thing that I've gotten in a long time. Flynn only meets at WDW during parties ( Halloween and Christmas ) and some random special events. So, you know I had to be there!

 

[BellaBaby]

Found your TR last night and I'm up to your Universal Day. Sounds like you had a ball (minus the drama)

DD13 (will be 14 at time of our next trip) wants to dye her hair pink this summer. Yours looks cute! What did you use?

Yay for the Memorial Day trip!! We will be there the day after Memorial Day to start our trip!!

Love, love, love the Baymax plush…really want one too!!

Looking forward to the rest of the TR!!

 

[jwjulie]

Found your TR last night and I'm up to your Universal Day. Sounds like you had a ball (minus the drama)

DD13 (will be 14 at time of our next trip) wants to dye her hair pink this summer. Yours looks cute! What did you use?

Yay for the Memorial Day trip!! We will be there the day after Memorial Day to start our trip!!

Love, love, love the Baymax plush…really want one too!!

Looking forward to the rest of the TR!!

Thank you! I really did have a great time. Drama aside, we're a fun group of people!

I use Manic Panic, which you can get at Sally's Beauty Supply ( if you have those where you are! ). It's reasonably priced, and temporary. The pink shade I use is a darker pink ( Hot Hot Pink ) since the other lighter shades don't turn well on my hair.

That's awesome! I'm really looking forward to my upcoming trips, one is with my parents and one is with my friends.. so it's the best of both worlds for me.

They have a lot of Baymax plush on the disney store website! When I was in WDW they were really hard to come by!

I'm glad you're enjoying it, I'm working on the next section now!

 

[BellaBaby]

OK, I think I have heard of Manic Panic. Yes, we do have Sally's. I will have to check it out. How quickly does it fade?
I may have to check out our Disney store for the Baymax plushie!

 

[disneyguy4life]

Bill was in a bit of a bad mood because by the time he made it to his destination, the store was closing

Oh Bill! He needs to learn to let it go! It sounds like he was not the easiest person be on a vacation with.

 

[jwjulie]

OK, I think I have heard of Manic Panic. Yes, we do have Sally's. I will have to check it out. How quickly does it fade?
I may have to check out our Disney store for the Baymax plushie!

It really depends on how often you wash your hair. Also, it fades rather quickly if you get your hair wet in a pool. The chlorine helps it fade quicker. Once I dye mine, I try to wait a few days at least before washing my hair again, to give it time to "soak in more". I don't know if it actually helps, but that's what I do! Baymax is worth it!

Oh Bill! He needs to learn to let it go! It sounds like he was not the easiest person be on a vacation with.

He really wasn't. Great guy, honestly, but very hard to be around for multiple days at a time. I had a warning going in, since he was Bren's friend and I'd never met him before, that he could be difficult... but I had no idea how difficult.

 

[jwjulie]

Day Eight :
"I much prefer life in my Disney bubble."

We woke up super early the next day because we had to be off to the Magic Kingdom! We had plans to meet Pooh & Friends and celebrate Friendship Day, even though the entire week was like one gigantic friendship day celebration. Bren and I had stumbled across this gem back when we were given free dining in 2013. I had never eaten there before at the time, always thinking it was too expensive, but I realized it really wasn’t and I quickly fell in love with it! I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for Eeyore, anyway. It was another place that I loved so much I made my family go with me in July! We were out the door of our room by 7:55am and in the park by 8:20am! I’d say we made pretty good time.

I think this is the day that we had an amazing bus driver, too. I’m not sure what his name was, but he had us laughing the entire ride by telling stories and doing trivia. I specifically remember him telling us to all smile, because he "really loved the group that was on the bus" and wanted to take a picture. He told us to say ‘Cheese!’ and flicked the inside lights on and off like a camera flash! I couldn’t stop laughing.

Anyway, before long it was time!

Of course, I had to take a few photos because we did have some time to kill…

Once we were checked in and taken in to be seated, I was super giddy. While I’m not usually a morning person ( except in Disney! ), I’m definitely a breakfast person. So this had been the meal that I wanted to do as part of the trip. Not long after we started eating, we were joined by Tigger, and then Piglet. Piglet was super excited because we matched, but sadly I hadn’t worn it to match him ( oops! Sorry, Piglet! ).

Eeyore was next! I have an Eeyore bow that I made sure to wear on mornings we go to the Crystal Palace. Over the summer, I had numerous people ask where I had gotten it and Eeyore had loved it! So he was the only one that I didn’t take a selfie with, because I had other plans!

This has become quite a tradition!

Oh, and Pooh came over too.

When we were done, Bren needed new sunglasses and since she refused to pay an absurd amount of money, we found a sunglass stand near the bridge in Adventureland! I decided to be stealth. When Bren saw this photo uploaded on Facebook later, she had no idea I had even taken it!

From there, it was almost time for something I looked forward to the entire week : the Jingle Cruise!!

~Exotic.

I forget the name of our skipper, but they sat us in the back so we couldn’t really heckle as much as we would have liked. I will say though that I thoroughly enjoyed her joke about Inspiration Falls being “the only part of Disney World that is NOT frozen!”… ba-dum-chhh.

After the ride, I’m pretty sure this is where Kim decided she wanted to leave and go to Wal-Mart. Yes, Kim was taking the bus to Wal-Mart. I had no idea how she was going to do it, but apparently she had done some research and knew the way to get there. It would take her a while, but she'd get it done.

I can’t remember if she rode Pirates of the Caribbean with us or not, but Bill stuck it out with us a little longer, and we were waiting for our friend Erika to find us again for another fun-filled day!

I’m not sure the order in which these events occurred but there are photos on my phone, so it happened :

- We visited Gaston’s Tavern.

The entire set of these Gaston photos are terrible, so… you get one.

- Erika joined us.

- Bill made us meet Ariel again.

- We met Anna and Elsa ( I have a random Elsa selfie on my phone… )

See?

- We went into Storybook Circus.

Goofy really stole my heart on this trip.

- I GOT A BLUE SLUSHIE. ( Okay, it’s a Goofy’s Glacier if we’re getting technical, but… blue. slushie. )

Bill bailed on us at some point, so it was just us girls for a while. Since Erika is a pass holder and lives locally, she had driven to the parks this day and asked if we minded going with her on an errand.

On the parking lot tram! The only time I’m ever on these is when I’m with Erika…
YAY for transportation selfies and my mouth not being entirely blue!

That errand included Walgreens ( yay, Olaf keychain! ) and McDonald’s ( yay waiting 15 minutes for fries! No, really, YAY FRIES! ) and she drove Bren and I back to the resort. We were meeting up with some friends later that night and I wanted to make sure I was dressed nicely. Bren and I both wanted to freshen up at this point and Erika didn’t mind. Plus, she knew it would be easier to get to her car if she parked at the resort.

So we headed back to OKW, freshened up and changed, and were at Hollywood Studios by 4:30pm. The three of us decided to take a picture by the big Christmas tree.

You see this trio? This trio is dangerous.

We decided we wanted to meet Baymax ( and Hiro! ) again, so we made our way over. Bill had been waiting in line for us, so we caught up with him ( so maybe he was good for something... ). When we got up to the front, I had a hard time taking a selfie and being able to get Baymax in. Hearing Hiro giving him directions to move back was hilarious, and when Erika did it, he started leaning back and we thought he was either going to fall over or his head would fall off!

Walking out of there, we realized we hadn’t done Muppetvision yet, so that was next on the agenda! Followed by another visit to… the Frozen sing along!

We were seated all the way to the right of the stage if you were facing the stage, and we had my favorite male historian. We danced in our seats, sang along, and had the cast members laughing at us when we did all the hand motions for Let It Go and cat called Kristoff. ( Sorry, but I’m not sorry. )

From there, it was time for the seizure lights! I mean, the Osborne lights!

We got a few pictures taken together, because let’s face it… it’s the perfect Christmas card!

I could spend an entire night on the Streets of America dancing around and looking at all of the lights. I’m so happy I was finally able to see them, because it really is something else. There was one thing I NEEDED to do, though, and that was meeting Santa Goofy! So we jumped in line! I had a good time singing and dancing to the music playing, and Bren even had a dance party with Santa Goofy when it was her turn!

When the night was coming to a close, we decided to bail out and headed out to transportation.

We took a picture at the tree again! One with Bill…

And one without.

Obviously, we tried recreating our photo from earlier in the day but I had to face the wrong direction. OOPS.

Bill headed back to the resort, while Bren, Erika, and I were off to get on the Friendship boat. It was off to the Boardwalk for us, to meet some of our other friends ( Jenny and Char ) at Jellyrolls! I had never been there, but we’d been wanting to go so we took this chance. There was a cover charge, yes, but it’s well worth it. For those that have never been, or never heard of it, Jellyrolls is a dueling piano bar. You write your requests on a napkin and take it up and place it on one of the pianos. If you give a tip, your song is more likely to be played. The bigger the tip, the better the chance! If the one pianist doesn’t know it, he’ll ball up the napkin and toss it to the other guy. If neither of them knows your song, they’ll give you your money back ( if you tipped ). They switched out between two sets of guys all night to give the others a break.

We had such a good time, singing along and dancing in our chairs.

We even got them to play a certain boyband song ( *cough*BackstreetBoys*cough* ) because we all have inner fangirls. Knowing we couldn’t stay until 2am even if we wanted to, we headed out of the bar a little before 1am to catch the bus to Downtown Disney and make the connection to OKW. We waited for about ten to fifteen minutes before a driver pulled up, asking if we were going to DTD to get our car. When we told him no, that we were using it to make a connection, he got on his radio to call in to ‘Mickey’ and a few moments later told us that he was going to take us directly to our resort! Praise being the only ones waiting on the bus!

It was a long, but amazing, day. One that was well needed to forget any of the drama and just have a good time.

But you know, that can only last for so long.

Up Next : Our last park day, park hopping back and forth, and a slight meltdown ( but not by who you think! ).

​

 

[disneyguy4life]

I had a warning going in, since he was Bren's friend and I'd never met him before, that he could be difficult... but I had no idea how difficult.

I don't know the guy at all. I am sure he is a great guy but you can't try make everyone do what you want to do all the time. It is not okay. Still being able to break off from the group helps to ease the constant struggle. Lata playa.

 

[disneyguy4life]

I think this is the day that we had an amazing bus driver, too.

I love awesome cast members. They make the experience so much better! I love it when they love what they are doing even if it driving a bus or sweeping up main street. If I had to sweep up someone else's trash I would want it to be on Main Street but I digress. I look forward to the next post. Keep it coming!

 

[BellaBaby]

Waiting patiently to hear about the last park day…..!!