Disney Trip 2016 - Magic Kingdom and Departure Day!

This is the 7th post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

Our day dawned very early because I wanted to get to Magic Kingdom as close to rope drop as possible. We got dressed, finished packing up the car and checked out of our hotel. We hopped on a bus and got into Magic Kingdom just as the morning rope drop show was finishing up.

We headed right to the Crystal Palace and got seated very quickly. The food was good and the characters were really great! Emily had especially wanted to meet Eeyore, but loved Tigger, Pooh and Piglet too!

From there, we to Fantasyland. Emily wanted to ride on the Carousel and there was no wait for it. Then we went to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Since this is the newest ride in the Magic Kingdom, it's a long wait for standby. I had had a fast pass for it on hurricane day, but sadly none to come by on the

day we actually got to the Magic Kingdom.

Thankfully the queue was pretty cool so Emily was amused. But it was the longest line of the whole trip since we waited over an hour. The ride was cool and Emily loved it. It was her first roller coaster! I'll definitely want to ride it again, but not with an hour wait!

We did a few Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom stops. Emily loves that game and had fun fighting the baddies. We headed to Adventureland because I had gotten a fastpass for Pirates of the Caribbean. This was Emily's first time riding pirates and she loved it.

While in Adventureland, we also rode the Magic Carpets and had our very first Dole Whip! It was getting close to noon and getting really hot out. It was honestly the hottest day of

our entire trip. So we headed back to the front of the park.

We did one more Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom stop and then rode our last ride, which was The Haunted Mansion. We left my favorite place in the world behind and got back to our car to begin the long journey home.

Because of the hurricane, we took the longer way home through Atlanta. I use my GPS on my phone to get directions and I was a little freaked because it took me on a toll road and I had no change. Thankfully the tolls had been suspended because of the hurricane.

I really wanted to get back home so we drove the whole way back to NC. I did manage to hit my head pretty hard. I went to the back of my car which has a hatch, and misjudged the distance when I was closing it and brought it down on my head. It hurt a lot and once we got home, I spent the next few days in bed. Afterwards, I'm pretty sure I managed to give myself a minor concussion.

Besides injuring myself, I managed to get us safely home. We got home right around midnight so at least I had been awake for 18+ hours. It was a long day!

Up Next - Final Thoughts About the Trip!

Disney Trip 2016 - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!

This is the 4th post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

Our day dawned bright and sunny, which made me happy. Today was the day we were going to go to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and I didn't want it to rain. I've been to the party twice and had good weather, but I had heard horror stories about trying to do the party in torrential rain. In fact, that had happened earlier this Halloween season. This was what Emily was most looking forward to so I wanted it to go well.

But the party wasn't until the evening. We slept in a bit and then headed back over to Ohana for our breakfast with Lilo and Stitch, since this is the only place you can meet Lilo. It took us a while to get seated but we were pretty much in the same spot we were when we had dinner a few nights previously.

The food was very yummy, and we had a chance to eat before the characters arrived at our table. It took them a while to make their way around. Emily was very excited to meet Lilo and Stitch. Mickey and Pluto were also there in their finest Hawaiian attire.

After we had eaten our fill and met all four characters, we headed back to the resort. Emily swam a bit and then we both took a nap. She tried to tell me that she didn't need a nap but I knew she wouldn't make it halfway through the party without some sleep.

I dressed up in my Tightrope Girl costume and Emily put on her Jasmine costume, then we headed off to the bus stop. We had to wait a bit, but then we were on our way. We got into the Magic Kingdom a little before 4 pm and got our wristbands for the party!

We got our picture taken with the Castle behind us, and then used our Fastpass to meet Tinkerbell who was really sweet. We also went to get our special party Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom card.

After watching some of the castle stage show, we went to Fantasyland. We rode on the Teacups, which made me very dizzy, and then went on the Pooh ride.

Then it was time to go to the Haunted Mansion. I had Emily take pictures of me outside of it while I was Tightrope-d up. I got compliments on my costume all night which annoyed Emily a little. She had gotten used to get all the attention!

It was nearing party time but Emily wanted to ride on Dumbo. It's one of her favorite rides and I love the view as we soared way up high. The music tolled while we were in that area of the park to let us know the party had officially begun. The gift shop right by Dumbo was the one that was selling the pins you could only get at the party.

They had several to pick from, but I chose the Hocus Pocus one. It's really awesome! We headed to the hub to get a spot for the parade. We nabbed a really close one that was right in front of the castle. Emily held our place and I went to get us a snack.

Thankfully the weather held out and we got to see the Headless Horseman take his ride in front of the parade. Emily loved the parade even though Dr. Facilier talked to her and freaked her out. I thought it was interesting since he's from one of her favorite Disney movies.

We didn't have to wait too long before the Hocus Pocus stage show started up. Even though I'm pretty short, I could see fine. Sadly, Emily is still a kid and she couldn't see very well. So I had to pick her up. My kid is eight and she's heavy! But I managed to hold her for most of the show (I had to take some breaks), so all that weight training I did paid off in a big way!

There was some time before the fireworks were going to start, so we went to Tomorrowland to have some dinner. When we had entered the park, we had been directed to a treat or trick spot and we got a special bag that already had candy in it. So Emily wanted to check out her loot as well.

After we ate, we had a bit of time left so we went on the Tomorrowland Speedway. Those cars are really hard to get in and out of when wearing a hoop skirt and a corset. Emily is a very poor driver, though she started getting the hang of it. She had a blast being able to drive, though I had to push the pedal because she's too short.

We got back to the hub right as the castle projection show started. It was really awesome, and neither

Emily  nor I had seen it before. Then it was time for Hallowishes, the fireworks show. This is my all-time favorite fireworks show ever, and Emily loved it as well.

I had wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion but Emily said that it would be too scary. So we pretty much hung out in Tomorrowland. We hit some trick or treat spots, a couple of them several times. At one, the cast members gave her several big handfuls of candy because she was wearing her birthday button.

We did pretty much all the rides we wanted to in Tomorrowland. We went on Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, which seemed dated to me, but Emily loved it. Partly because she ended up kicking my butt by a large margin.

I wanted to ride the PeopleMover but Emily wasn't too sure. Once we were on it, she loved it! PeopleMover is really really relaxing, and the views of Tomorrowland are really great especially that late at night. We got to see the dance party from up high, which was fun, though Emily didn't want to go and dance with the characters from Monster's Inc.

The last thing we did was the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, which was funny. Emily thought it was much funnier than I did but it was enjoyable. There was about a half hour left of the party at that point but Emily was tired and wanted to go back to the resort.

I was actually surprised at how well she had done because it was well past her bedtime. The party was wonderful, and we didn't get rained on at all. I'm really thankful that I had picked that party because the ones later that week got canceled because of the hurricane.

Up Next - Rest Day!

Pinocchio Village Haus

Image: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com

On the day we were in the Magic Kingdom last October, we stopped at a counter service restaurant in Fantasyland. As I sat there, eating my lunch I realized that I had eaten at this restaurant every single visit to Disney World.

Growing up, we went to Disney World twice. Once when I was 9 and once when I was 16. Both times, we stayed off site and didn't eat at any of  the table service restaurants. For my honeymoon and this last trip, we stayed on site and got the Dining Plan which gives us one table service, one counter service and one snack for each person each day.

My childhood trips were magical because I was a kid at Disney World, but different from the ones I've taken as an adult. This is the only thing that is the same over all the trips. Not even Mickey was consistent since I didn't get my picture with him on my 2nd trip or my DisneyMoon.

Now it's a tradition and when Emily and I go back in 2016 for our girl's only trip, we'll make sure to have a least one meal at Pinocchio Village Haus. Besides, the food is pretty good there!

Disney Trip 2013 - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

This is the 6th post of my Disney Trip report – click for  post #1, post #2, post #3, post #4, and post #5!

On our Disney honeymoon, my favorite thing that we did was Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. I love Halloween and the party didn’t disappoint. I knew I wanted to do the party again this trip and originally wanted all of us to go. Todd felt that Emily was too young and instead of fighting about it, it was decided that I would go solo.

Since I love costumes, I knew I wanted to wear one to the party. Since I wanted to ride the rides, I knew my Kaylee layer cake dress was out even though it would have been so fun to wear. I ultimately decided on my Petit Charat costume since it was fun, comfortable and I could remove my tail if need be.

The party ticket is a separate cost and while the party starts at 7 pm, partygoers can gain entry into the Magic Kingdom at 4 pm. I got dressed and was down at the bus stop in time to get to the park right at 4.

Not all the rides and attractions are open for the party so I decided to use my three hours of regular park time to ride some things I didn’t get to do the previous today. I hightailed it to Tomorrowland so I could go on the Carousel of Progress, which is one of my favorites.

From there, I went to Adventureland to ride on the Jungle Cruise. The line was really long but I decided to

wait for it anyway. After the Jungle Cruise, I caught the last showing of the Enchanted Tiki Room.

It was nearly 7 pm and the start of the party, so I went back to Main Street. I had decided to find a spot and

sit there for the parade, the Villians show and then the fireworks. This wasn’t the best idea because I spent a lot of time sitting. I did have an awesome front row spot for the parade – I even got high fived by Tigger! The Villians show happened after that, and it wasn’t that exciting. They did a couple of songs and then went down in front of the Castle for a meet and greet.

Since I was sitting right in front of the Castle and Main Street was getting really crowded, I opted not to move before the HalloWishes fireworks. The hour arrived and they turned off all the lights on Main Street and the fireworks started. I love the Halloween fireworks and really enjoyed them this year as well.

Once the fireworks ended, I got caught in a brief traffic jam to get out of the hub. I headed off and stopped at the first trick or treat location I saw since I had promised Emily I would bring back candy. I waited for about 5 minutes to go through the trick or treat line. I went to other candy stations and didn’t have to wait at all.

I headed first to New Fantasyland because was really thirsty and I wanted to try LaFou’s Brew. It was really good but really sweet after I had gotten about halfway through. I made my way to my favorite ride, the Haunted Mansion which was awesome as always.

I got caught by the 2^nd parade going through Frontierland, so I ended up doing another trick or treat trail and then some shopping. Once the path was clear, I headed over to ride Pirates and hit a few more trick or treat trails. By this time, it was past 11 pm so I decided to start heading towards the exit. I did some shopping on the way out, finding the Maleficent Ears that I had been searching all evening.

I got back to the room around midnight and I fell into bed. It was a long but really fun evening.

Up next post - Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney Trip 2013 - Magic Kingdom Part 2

This is the 4th post of my Disney Trip report – click for post #1, post #2, and post #3!

After we all got some rest, we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for a few more hours. As part of the new Fantasyland expansion, there is a new restaurant called Be Our Guest that nearly everyone wants to eat at. For lunch, its counter service so you can just walk up, though the lines can be very long from what I’ve heard.  For dinner, its table service so you have to have a reservation.

When it was time to make our reservations (which was six months before our trip), my travel agent warned that she might not be able to get a reservation for Be Our Guest. I was fine with that but luckily she got us one for 4:05 pm on our Magic Kingdom day.

There were other people waiting when we got to Beast’s castle (where Be Our Guest is located) but it didn’t take us long before we were seated at our table. We were in the room that had a giant music box of Belle and Beast.

Dinner was really good and for dessert Emily got The Grey Stuff, which is a grey pudding that they only give to guests who are having a celebration. There is a dessert that has the grey stuff on top because it was so popular. Emily also got a special birthday card signed by Belle and the Beast.

After dinner, it was time to go meet the Beast who only meets guests at Be Our Guest after they have had dinner. The Beast was huge! Emily got a little freaked out and wouldn’t take her picture with him. I love Beauty and the Beast so I got my picture with

him. Beast tried to come over and say hi to Emily but she just hid behind Todd.

From there, we headed to ride some more rides. Since this was Emily’s birthday trip we decided to let her decide what we rode. She knew that my favorite ride is The Haunted Mansion so she wanted to ride it. I thought she would be fine, Todd though she would be really scared. Emily decided we were going to ride it.

Since the last time we were at Disney World, they re-did the queue area for The Haunted Mansion. Now it’s interactive where the kids can go up and touch some of the busts. There is a big organ with music instruments on the side. If you touch theinstruments, it will play spooky music.

Finally we got inside the stretching room and I knew that this part

could be scary so I picked Emily up. She didn’t seem very scared even when the lights went out (though I don’t think she looked up either to see the ‘surprise’ in the ceiling). We got into our doombuggy and off we went.

After we got off the ride, we looked at her and she looked at Todd and told him that it wasn’t scary but fun. So I won that one! We were near where Tiana does meet and greets so we went over there to see if we could meet Tiana. The handler said that Tiana and her prince, Naveen, were going to take a break after the current line was done and the queue usually filled up fast.

Because Tiana is Emily’s favorite princess we got in line behind some people who were already waiting. They ended up leaving so we were first in line. Emily had gotten a Woody doll earlier in the day and had brought him with her. So she had something to

amuse herself. Todd and I both took turns going to look in the nearby gift shops.

Finally it was time to meet Tiana and Naveen. This was best character meeting we had. Tiana and Naveen sang Emily a very short birthday song. Emily told Tiana that Emily was Tiana’s favorite (instead of the other way around), Tiana just gave her a big hug and told her yes, Emily was her favorite.

It only lasted about five minutes but it cemented Tiana as Emily’s favorite princess. She liked Naveen too and said later that he was very handsome. It was a very magical moment.

Since it was getting dark and Emily was silly tired, we headed back to our hotel. Emily had kept her hair up all day and it still retained its shape even once I got the crown and hair ties out. We gave her a bath and got a lot of the sparkles out. It took another bath before the majority of the sparkles were gone.

Up next post – Downtown Disney!

Disney Trip 2013 - Magic Kingdom Part 1

This is the third post of my Disney Trip report – click for post #1 and post #2!

Magic Kingdom has always been my favorite park. I also think it’s the most magical park since it’s the one with the giant castle in the middle of it. Because the trip was for Emily’s birthday, I wanted to do something really special for her. I gave her some options and she picked getting turned into a princess at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. My travel agent scored us an 8 am appointment on a day that the Magic Kingdom didn’t open until 9! So both Emily and I were really looking forward to this day.

We got up early because we had wanted to get to the buses by 7 am. The dresses at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique are very expensive so I had gotten Emily a Sophia the First dress before we had left home. She was very excited and very awake due to a

good night’s sleep.

We didn’t have to wait too long for a bus and we were on our way to the Magic Kingdom. It was a little bit of a walk to get to the front of the park and then we took the walk down Main Street. The park was very empty since the only people allowed in were people with reservations. It was getting close to eight so we just made our way to the castle. I got very teary eyed as Emily saw the castle for the first time. I had been waiting for that moment for years!

Once we were in the castle and at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, it didn’t take too long for Emily to be assigned a fairy godmother-in-training (FGIT) to do her hair. She picked the hairstyle that was a bun because it was the one that came with a crown.

I was concerned that her hair wasn’t going to be long enough and that she’d want to take it out right away. Luckily I was wrong on both counts. The FGIT teased her hair and was able to get it into the bun. While she was working on the back of it, another FGIT came over to do her makeup. Finally a crown was put in her hair and a Mickey head barrette in the back. Then came the glitter. Lots and lots of glitter hairspray in her hair.

She was so excited to see herself in the mirror once she was done. It was only about 8:30 when we were all finished. Since the park didn’t actually open until 9 we had some time to kill. Luckily there was a gift shop right behind the castle that was open. They did have photopass photographers there, but Emily didn’t want to get her picture taken. She wanted to look at the toys. She spotted an Ariel / Eric dress up toy like the Minnie Mouse one she bought the day before and she just had to have it.

Once we were done in the store, we just waited by the rope and looked out at Fantasyland. I went to the front of the castle to see about taking some pictures but then I heard the music start up. I hurried back to Todd and Emily, and a few minutes later we were on our way.

An aside here, planning and knowledge is really helpful when you go to Disney World. There is so much to see and do, plus some rides / shows fill up really fast. Even though we used a travel agent, I like reading up on Disney World. So I knew some things that really helped make our trip go smoother.

Because I had read up on all things Disney, I knew that we should head to Enchanted Tales With Belle first thing. I’d heard that this attraction could get backed up with long wait times really fast. Since we were already in the middle of the part, we were one of the first people in line. It’s more of a little show than a ride, because the premise is that we are going to go

back in time to the day that Belle and Beast fall in love through a magical portal in Belle’s father’s cottage. We surprise Belle by acting out the story of how she and Beast first met.

Emily and I had watched the YouTube video of this attraction so we knew what to do. We were taken through the portal and into Beast’s castle. The cast member in charge helped the Wardrobe give parts to everyone. Todd was picked to be a knight and because of my lovely soprano voice I was picked to be the wardrobe. Emily wasn’t picked but was able to get a part and she was a dish. We did the story and then we all got our picture with Belle (I didn’t get mine on our camera and we weren’t using Photopass +).  I had to rush to the back of the room so I could get Emily’s picture with Belle.

From there, we went walked onto It’s A Small World and Dumbo. We also got to ride on the new Little Mermaid ride which was cool. Emily wanted to ride on the Tomorrowland Express, so Todd took her on that because I

had no desire to ride one of those little cars by myself. Apparently, Emily is not a very good driver and kept

crashing them into the walls.

For my Fastpass + selections, I opted to use them for meet and greets. Our first one was over at the Fairytale Hall to meet Snow White and Rapunzel. It was neat to touch our magic bands to the Mickey head and have it turn green. We had a very short wait before we were taken in to see the princesses.

I had arranged the Fastpass + so we had another one to meet the other pair of Princesses, Cinderella and Aurora. All the Princesses were really sweet, though my favorite (and Emily’s) was Rapunzel. After we finished with the princesses, we got some lunch.

Since we were still in Fantasyland, we went to Pinocchio Village Haus for lunch. I think I’ve eaten there every trip I’ve ever taken to Disney World. Emily was starting to hit that wall, so we decided to head back to our room. Emily napped, Todd vegged out and I took a swim. We headed back over to the Magic Kingdom in the late afternoon for more park time.

Up next post – Magic Kingdom Part 2!

My Disney World Honeymoon - Part 1

I love Mickey Ears!

This is the 3rd post in my series of Disney trips I've taken in the past. You can find previous installment here -  part one and part two.

Since I remember more of this trip, it will be in several parts.

I always wanted to go back to Disney World after my trip when I was 16. I spent seven years in college after I graduated from high school. My college roommate and I talked about taking a trip down to Florida, but it was just too expensive.

After I graduated, I moved back home because my mom was sick. She died less than a week after I moved back in. My life was in serious flux then so I didn't even entertain any thoughts of Disney. I met and started dating Todd. We moved in together and then as time progressed we got engaged.

We moved from Michigan to North Carolina about six months after we got engaged. Because we were still going to get married in Michigan, we decided to wait a year after the wedding to take our honeymoon.

Planning a long distance wedding is hard so we hadn't really talked about honeymoon destinations. One day, when Todd was sick with the stomach flu, the subject came up. He gave me a choice of Las Vegas or Disney World. Can you guess what I picked?

Even though I was still in the midst of planning a wedding, I started to look up information about planning a Disney World honeymoon. I started to realize that it was going to be more complicated that I had originally thought.

I found disboards.com which is a forum for planning Disney trips. It was and is an invaluable resource. It was there that I found my travel agent with Mouse Fan Travel. She helped with the planning, made all our dining reservations and even got us a discount that saved us nearly a thousand dollars.

Neither Todd nor I had ever stayed in a Disney resort so we decided we wanted to do that for our honeymoon. We also opted to use the Disney Dining Plan, which was pretty new then. On the dining plan, we got one fast food meal and one sit down meal a day, plus one snack a day and a refillable mug.

Since we only live about nine hours away from Disney World, we decided to save money and drive. We made pretty good time and got to our resort, Caribbean Beach, in the late afternoon. We didn't make any dining reservations for that night because we didn't know what we were going to do. We ended up eating at the restaurant at the resort, Shutters. It was good and they gave us free champagne because of our honeymoon.

The next day, we went to the Magic Kingdom. Originally we were going to use that day as a rest day but Todd’s favorite ride, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, was going down for rehab and this was the only chance we were going to get to ride it. We spent about half the day at the Magic Kingdom, riding all of our favorites. Then we spent a little time back at our resort before we went to our first dinner reservation.

I had spent a lot of time on the restaurant section of the disboards forums since I hadn't eaten at any of the table service places before. One place that was highly recommended was Ohana in Disney's Polynesian Resort. I had heard that you could watch the Magic Kingdom’s fireworks right from the restaurant and the music would be piped in.

We waited a while to be seated but we were able to explore the resort which is beautiful. Finally we got our table which had a perfect view of Cinderella Castle out of the window.  The food is served family style and it’s all kinds of meat – ribs, smoked turkey, pork loin and more. It was so yummy!

It’s all you can eat so the server would come every once in a while to refill our food. When Wishes started, I was entranced by the fireworks show. I didn't hear our server behind me and he scared me so much that I nearly jumped out of my chair. Todd thought this was really funny.

After dinner, we went back to our room and passed out. We had an early day in the morning as we were spending our first anniversary at Epcot.