The Haunted Mansion Tightrope Girl

I love the Haunted Mansion. I have since I was a kid. Our first trip to Disney World was when I was nine. I was fascinated by the ride and also a little scared. But once I was done, I wanted to go again. On Main Street there was a shop where I got a book and record of the Haunted Mansion - I loved it and listened to it a lot when we got home.

Even now as an adult the Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride. I also collect Haunted Mansion merchandise - mostly pins. One of the highlights of our last Disney trip was me going to the Halloween party by myself - and riding the Haunted Mansion in the dead of night is a trip.

We had planned on going to a horror con in March and I had been racking my brain for a horror-ish costume to wear when I thought of the Tightrope Girl. If you have never been in the Haunted Mansion, when you first walk in, you are in a large room with pictures. As the pre-show continues, the room stretches revealing horrifying situations that the people in the pictures are in. The Tightrope Girl is balancing over an alligator who wants to eat her.

Because of Todd being laid off in March, we didn't actually get to go to that convention. But I had already started working on the costume. I didn't work on it for a while, but started back up with gusto a while ago to get it finished for Dragon Con.

Yesterday I finished it and I'm pretty pleased with the finished product. I wish I could have made the sleeves poofier, but they are as good as I could get. My mother in law was kind enough to make the cowl for me as well!

If you are going to be at Dragon Con, look for me on Saturday as the Tightrope Girl! I'll be marching in the parade in the Disney section.

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!

My First Trip to Walt Disney World

Three months from today we are going to be driving down to Florida for our first family vacation at Disney World. I’m a huge fan of Disney and I've been dreaming of taking Emily to Disney World since I found out that I was pregnant. As we are getting to the last few months before our big trip, I’m going to be writing about my past trips as well as our plans to make Emily’s first trip unforgettable!

Me and my sister with the Big Cheese

My parents took my sister and me to Disney World for the first time in the summer of 1986. I was 9 at the time so I have a lot of memories of the trip that made me a lifelong Disney fan.

I think we drove down from Michigan and we spent part of the vacation visiting my uncle who was living in Florida at the time. Back then, there was only the Magic Kingdom and Epcot. We spent at least one day at each of the parks, starting with the Magic Kingdom.

Driving with my mom

The ride that made the biggest impression on me was The Haunted Mansion. It scared me but I was fascinated. After one ride, it was my favorite and is still my favorite ride to this day. Later in the day, we were in a spooky magic shop on Main Street where I found a storybook and record set for The Haunted Mansion. My parents got it for me and it was my favorite souvenir.

The Haunted Mansion

We rode a lot of the other rides that were around in the late 80’s. I really liked the 30,000 Leagues Under the Sea ride as well as Pirates of the Caribbean. We also rode on Dumbo, Tomorrowland Speedway and It’s a Small World.

Me and my Dad flying with Dumbo

Character meets were a lot different back then because the characters just roamed around the park. We got to meet Mickey, Minnie, some of the mice from Cinderella, Eeyore, Donald and the 3 Little Pigs. The character meeting that I remember the most was the Big Bad Wolf. This is because the Big Bad Wolf was big and bad and popped my sister's balloon. She was really upset about it.

Post balloon popping

Epcot was another day and it was a pretty new park at the time. I still remember joining in with some of the activities at CommuniCore. I also remember the Kitchen Kabaret, which was a fun show with singing food. But my favorite ride in Epcot was Journey Into Imagination. Figment the dragon was adorable and the story with the Dreamfinder as he took us into the world of Imagination was awesome. Sadly that version of the ride no longer exists but I am still a big fan of Figment.

Me and my sister with my dad in Epcot

I loved every minute of our time at Walt Disney World. It would be a long seven years before I’d be back at my favorite place in the world. You can read about my 2nd trip to the World here!