Sunday, September 12, 2010

Day 10, February 1, 2010

We packed everything up and called for help with our bags because you cannot take your luggage on the bus to get to the checkout counter. We flew Airtran so we could check into our flight from our hotel and we could just go to security when we arrive at Orlando Airport.
Here is the inside of our room:





So once we were checked out of the hotel and checked into our flight we went back to Magic Kingdom to ride Space Mountain. This ride was being refurbished last August and then it was broke down the year before when we were there so Kirk had never rode it. I rode it in 2000 I think. This is not one of my favorite rides but it’s a thrill.

We got off and I felt nauseated, I normally do ok on rides but this one got me. We walked around and it wore off. We headed towards the Teacups and the Queen of Hearts was out with the White Rabbit. We waited to photo’s and signatures.

It was raining on and off all morning and we heard an announcement that the Dream Along with Mickey show would not take place but if you wanted to meet the characters from the show you could line up in front of the castle so we did. They did not sign but I got photos with Cinderella & Prince Charming:

Peter Pan & Wendy

Snow White & Prince

Aurora & Prince Phillip

It was pretty cool to meet the dancers. It started to rain like crazy at this point so we went to Pinocchio’s for lunch. We have never ate here and it was good, plus we got a seat where we could watch the people on It’s A Small World.
After lunch we decided to head back to our hotel and catch our Magic Express bus to the airport. As our bus pulled away from the resort, I started to cry and Kirk kept saying we will be back. Then when our plane lifted off, I really lost it. We slept on the plane on the way home and got home around midnight. I went to get my kids at my mom’s at 7am the next morning! A great trip and I cannot wait to go back.

Day 9 - January 10, 2010

Today was our free day. We never planned anything for today so that we could finish up anything we missed. Kirk said let’s character hunt some more. This was originally my thing but it had him very determined. This was the coldest day so far. We bundled all up in sweatshirts and coats. The wind was very cold. Our first stop was going to be Epcot, International Gateway to see what characters would appear. This park was empty. I think we might have seen 20 people walking back towards the UK.

We found a bench nearby and Kirk got us a Danish and hot chocolate, that was awesome. We sat there for about an hour then Kirk went to grab a time sheet and it said that no characters until 1pm so we left.

Magic Kingdom was our next stop to catch Jessie. She was out with Woody by Splash Mountian. We got her signature and photo. Then we left MK.

Hollywood Studios to the Animation Studio was next up. We grabbed some lunch at the Backlot Express. Kirk and I had chicken strips. This is where we decided to start calling ourselves “Character Stalkers”. A CM in Magic Kingdom said that on fantasmic days you can catch the characters at 4pm well that person was very WRONG. It is on non fantasmic days! Ugh. We did see Mrs. Incredible and I did not have her signature. She was funny. She kept showing how flexible she was by doing the splits.

On our way out we seen Quincy from Little Einsteins

We planned on seeing Fantasmic while we were there but by 5pm, I was froze. I knew that there was no way I could sit with the wind blowing in my face to watch this show. We have both seen it a couple of times so we went back to Caribbean Beach for dinner.

We head home tomorrow; I am sad to be leaving but at the same time excited to see the kids. This place makes me believe that DREAMS really do come true. We decided to shop tomorrow before we leave at Magic Kingdom, plus I have to say goodbye.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Day 8 - January 30, 2010

We woke up around 9am this morning. It is funny that we get up later and later every day. It was cold this morning and looked like it could rain but hopefully it won’t. We have had a beautiful week. Kirk and I decided we were going to character hunt today and then later that night see Illuminations at Epcot. We have seen this show many times but it is still amazing.

Off to Magic Kingdom we go, our plan was to catch Cinderella’s stepmother and stepsisters since we had never seen them. The Fairy Godmother told us to head to story time with Belle and we would find them, so that is where we headed. We got in line and I do not think any characters are as funny as these three. I loved the way they interacted with the guests that came up to them. So funny. I told Kirk I could be one of these gals because they get paid to be funny and rude.




We heard from another character handler that Genie had been seen in Adventure land with Jasmine so we walked that direction and Jasmine was just going in for a break and the CM said that at 11:30am Genie would be coming out. We had some time to kill so we rode Pirates of the Caribbean ride again. Again, there was no Davy Jones mister in the beginning. When we got off the ride I asked the CM if they took it out and they said they were having trouble with the misters. We went back over to where Genie was going to come out and we waited for him. At one point, when no one was in line, Jasmine waved us over to her and we told her we were waiting for Genie. I had already gotten her picture but she still acted like she was hurt. That is the hard part about characters being out with other characters but that’s just how it works. Here we are with Genie & Jasmine.

We decided to brave the line for Tinkerbell and her friends. Every time we have seen her the line has always been long. We got in line and 45 minutes later we were finally in Pixie Hollow. We did not know who the other fairies would be but we knew Tink was back there. First fairy was Rosetta, which I had never met so it was a new signature for us:

Then Tinkerbell

And lastly Silvermist


It was lunch time so we decided to eat at Cosmic Rays in Tomorrowland and I think that is where everyone was eating lunch. It was hard to find a table. Kirk and I had burgers because they have the toppings bar and it was great, as usual. This is one of my favorite quick service.

My favorite show in Magic Kingdom is Mickey’s Philharmagic so we went to that again and on our way we seen Alice and the White Rabbit near the Teacups. I did not have White Rabbits signature so we hopped in line.

Then we headed to the Philharmagic…so love this. We decided to head off to Epcot for Illuminations. I wanted to find a very comfortable and good place to sit and take pictures. We walked through all the worlds looking for the perfect spot and finally found a spot in the UK down past the fish & chips place on some benches. It was great. After we sat down, Kirk said he was going to look for popcorn. He had to walk back to the America’s to find some. We settled in and I started clicking:











After the show we grabbed our bus and went back to Caribbean Beach. We got off at the Old Port Royal stop for dinner. We were having the best time ever. We just kept talking about our love for Disney and we are glad that we share it with each other. Although we miss our kids, we needed this adult time.

Monday, August 30, 2010

Day 7 - January 29, 2010

I cannot believe that it is already day 7. Every trip goes by so fast. Our plans for this day had also changed because we had already covered so much the last time we went to Animal Kingdom. Our plan was this morning to do Rafiki’s Planet Watch and the Lion King show plus pick up a few characters along the way then off to Magic Kingdom. We were hopping this afternoon to see Kirk’s sister, brother-in-law, and niece who planned their vacation for the same time. We wanted to meet up with them at least once on this trip. We planned our trip to avoid extra magic hours and they planned their trip to go to the parks on the days that they had extra magic hours so it was making it tough to meet.

We made it to Animal Kingdom around 10am which is a little late for my liking but we are on vacation, right? We went right to Rafiki’s Planet Watch on the train. We did see some kangeroos & flamingos:





I really like the train ride because you ride facing sideways. I had not been back to Rafiki’s since 2000 so I was courious to see if it had changed and it was the same. We got back there and seen Jiminy Cricket and got a signature and photo.

We checked things out, rode the train back, and walked to camp Minnie Mickey to catch the Lion King show. We did see Thumper this time with Miss Bunny.


I watched a little boy with Thumper and Miss Bunny and it was so cute. He was making the Indian noise by hitting himself in the mouth and he thought it was so funny when Thumper and Miss Bunny would pretend to do it back to him. It was so adorable. It really made me miss my boys.

We had some time to kill so Kirk said he was going to get us something so he left me for a few minutes and then came back with a strawberry topped funnel cake. It was so great and we enjoyed sharing it.

We headed into the Lion King show and sat in the lion section. We had great seats. I have seen this show many times and I love it. It always gives me the chills. I skipped out on photos because I really wanted to just watch it without a camera.

Anyway we headed to Magic Kingdom and wondered back to Frontier land to eat at Paco’s Bill. We wanted taco salads. They were very good. They give you a shell & meat then you add all of your toppings. It hit the spot. Our next plan was to watch the parade. On our way out of frontier land we did a little shopping, I really wish they had more cowboy or western looking things. I am a cowgirl at heart. Then we went up to Main Street for a seat.

We had about a hour wait but that was fine with us. They did a small parade about Disney’s Give A Day Get A Disney Day. It encourages people to get out and volunteer. We are planning on volunteering so I thought this was really cute. Then came the parade – here are some pictures:











We called Kirk’s sister and they went cocoa beach for the day and they were heading to downtown Disney. To get to Downtown Disney from Magic Kingdom we were told to hop a resort bus and transfer so we picked the bus to Old Key West but little did we know that this would take forever. It was really cool to see the resort but we waited about 45 minutes for a bus to Downtown Disney.

The bus dropped us off at Market Place and we went into the T-shirt making store which is really cool but costly. Then we walked into the Art of Disney store and seen Kirk’s family. We decided to meet at Planet Hollywood at 7:30pm, because Kirk & I had some shopping to do and they were heading to have some drinks.

After spending too much money we headed towards, Planet Hollywood and as we made it out of the marketplace we seen a huge snake on the sidewalk. A few people were watching it and waiting to animal control to arrive. I wish I would have pulled out my camera but I was FREAKED out.

Planet Hollywood was crazy busy, we waited about an hour for a table but the food was good as always. The company we were with was awesome too. If you have never been to a PH, I highly suggest it. We celebrated Kirk’s nieces’ birthday. They brought out a cupcake and we all sang to her.


After a very fun evening we headed back to Caribbean Beach and crashed.

Day 6 - January 28, 2010

We decided that today we were going to go off schedule a little. The weather was beautiful and they are calling for rain on Saturday and that was the day that we were planning to see Spectromagic so we thought we better go to Magic Kingdom tonight to see the parade. I need to see this parade because I have never seen it, not even when it was Main Street Electrical Parade. So, we changed up our plan for a full day of Hollywood Studios, nap, and then Magic Kingdom. We had reservations at Sci-Fi for lunch at 1:10pm so we had to be at Hollywood for that long.

So we got up and around – taking our time of course, no rush. Off to Hollywood we go. Our first ride was Aerosmith’s Rockin Rollercoaster. I was nervous about this one, I can’t lie. Kirk kept telling me it was not that scary, he rode it with a couple of the kids last August. He said if I can do Everest, I can do this. By the time we got to the loading area, I was freaking out. It goes 0-60 in under 3 seconds and I could tell from the other people that this was intense. You get into the seat, pull down the bar over your head and then wait for the countdown! And then HOLY MOLY that was a fast take off. It does lopes too. I loved it and the intensity was perfect. I told Kirk that was a must do again for sure.


We walked to the Animation building for some pictures with the UP characters too:



We did have to wait about a ½ hour to see them but we visited with the family that was in front of us. A great thing about Disney, we chat with everyone in line, on the bus, everywhere.

So after pics with Dug, Carl, and Russell we headed back to the backlot tour. This was a first time for us. And we really liked it. The first part of the tour was a walking tour along a movie set and they showed us how they do water scenes with bombs, shooting, and flooding.

Next we walked through a building full of props. I am a horse person so that was all I took pictures of, horse related items.




Then we boarded a tram and it took us past more props from movies. I do not know what movies everything came from because I did not write it down as we went. I loved the ears on the water tower.






We drove past two buildings, the first was costuming and the second was props. We could see employees in them working on projects.




We then entered the canyon scene – this is really awesome. You can feel the heat from the fire and we did get a little wet but that is only cause I sat closest to the water.





Just as we were ending the tram ride, we seen where Mike & Sulley were from Monsters Inc. We have looked for these characters many times and never found them. We were not looking in the right place I guess. I love this movie. My son wore out a VHS tape when it first came out, I know every word!

The tram lets you off so that you walk through another building of props from movies. We love Pirates of the Caribbean and Narnia so I took some photos of those props.




Obviously we headed right for Monsters Inc.’s Mike & Sulley next:



Our lunch reservation was for at SCI-FI so we headed in that direction. We realized we had enough time to see Muppets in 3D so we walked right into that show, no wait. I think this is one of the dumbest shows in Disney World. It needs to be referbed seriously. Kirk does enjoy it but he agrees that it needs some changes.

This was our first time at SCI-FI and it will probably be my last also. The building is very cool and I loved all the convertibles. Each car sat three rows of 2 people each. A very large movie screen was in front of us showing old Sci-Fi clips of movies. I loved the cheesy commercials about going to the snack bar and getting refreshments. The menu only had about 8 items on it. Kirk had a burger and I had a grilled chicken sandwich. We had spinach & artichoke dip as an appetizer. Overall we both thought the food was very over priced for the quality of the food.

We agreed a nap would be good at this point – we must be getting old because it felt so refreshing.

After our nap we decided to head back to Magic Kingdom since we wanted to see Spectromagic. We made our way onto Main Street and they were doing the flag lowering ceremony. We stood there and watched, it was actually a really great presentation. We did some shopping and then found a spot for the Move It Shake it parade, even though we had seen this parade already this trip. We also got some popcorn.

It was not long before the castle was lit up and changing colors and the street was buzzing with people looking for the best place to see Spectromagic. You must get here early – that is the key.



Here are a bunch of photos.





This was a jaw dropping parade. I loved it.




This was the first time we have ever seen this parade. Just amazing.




We skipped out on Wishes. It was funny every night we said we were going to stay for them and as soon as the streets flooded with people we left. We got back to the resort and dropped off our stuff at the room. We walked up to Old Port Royal for dinner. We both had caesar salads and these were really good. Kirk got chicken on his but I did not. After dinner we went into the gift shop to grab a couple of pops before we headed back into the room. We love to walk to and from Jamaica on the bridge, especially at night.