Dsnygirl
11-03-2012, 06:48 AM
Friday dawned bright & sunny... much to our surprise!! It was still wet out there after a night of rain, but by the time we were headed to BLT to check in with Mikki, it was sunny & lovely. We took a few pics around OKW while she checked out, and we were off!
We've never been anywhere near BLT, so we were curious and excited to see what it would be like... suffice to say that after mere moments in the lobby, we were thrilled. We wouldn't see our room 'til later, as it was only about 9am at this point, but from what we'd seen so far, it was VERY cool.
We walked over to MK, I picked up my MNSSHP ticket and we were off to meet whoever was joining us for a game of Sorcerer's of MK. At this point, I started to meet a whole GANG of new faces - other moderators I'd yet to meet, new I'cotees - so cool!! To finally put faces with names after so many years... it was weird, too, though... you associate a name with a certain avatar, not a real person and I had to keep repeating people's screen name with their real one to get it in my head! (Dan and I had been to the 10th anniv pty, as well, so this process was familiar...)
We played for a little bit, after I so graciously was given (grabbed? stole??) Gary & Ian's cards... :blush: ... but after multiple attempts at various stops with people, we all realized it was going to be a time-consuming excercise, and opted to stop and ride rides instead. My DH had taken off almost immediately for some much-coveted "alone time" in the park... he NEVER gets that while we're here as a family, so he was really looking forward to it. Of course, I'm not sure we gave him the amount of time he was hoping for, but he was kind when we showed up...
BTMRR was our first ride of the day, and we got on it twice, with almost no wait. Awesome! Then we headed to Splash.... but unfortunately, got walked off halfway through the ride. :( I was all excited at first, thinking I'd get some deep, dark secrets exposed... no such luck, they basically got us out of the logs, opened a door in the "earth" and led us down very boring, very basic stairs that felt like you were in some regular old business building in the city. Blech. But, we did get some "front of the line" FP's to use at any other MK ride... which... we never used. :rolleyes:
From there, it was almost time for lunch & the Scavenger Hunt/Trivia meet at CHH... Dan and I decided to give the HM a spin beforehand as we had a bit of time, just LOVE this ride, every time. Lunch at CHH was wonderful... I never get anything but the Lighthouse Sandwich, and this time, it was perfection. I always enjoy it, but sometimes it's better than others... this time was 10 out of 10. (of course, that also meant I could still taste the garlic in the hummus 5 hours later... ;))
After sending all the I'cotees who came on their way, we decided it was time to check out whatever we could see of the new Fantasyland... the fact that it had taken us 5 hours to get to it is testament to our busy morning!! We weren't able to see anything really of Belle's area, just a bit of the landscaping... but even that was amazing. So we headed into Storybook Circus and took some pictures before giving the Great Goofini a spin... not something I will feel the need to do again unless my girls beg... VERY quick ride, and NO leg room for adults, if you have any kind of height to you. But, we can say we did it. Honestly, the area is cute, but we weren't all that impressed... we're not big circus fans, and still can't believe Disney chose to get rid of Mickey and Minnie's house for this. You're a kid, you're at Disney, Mickey lives here. What could be cooler than visiting his house?? Not much!! So... to have a meet and greet area and an area that spits water at you instead... okay, the Dueling Dumbo idea is cute, and we didn't check it out, our bad... but we miss the houses in Toontown. Enough said. :(
At this point, it was getting close to time for the Dole Whip meet... we decided we had JUST enough time for a quick spin on Space Mtn before heading over there, so off we went. Love, love LOVE this ride... as always.
As much as we enjoyed the Dole Whip meet, I felt bad -- I was enjoying my float so much that I really only spoke with the people I was sitting with, and didn't get around much to meet others. I blame it on the fact that I don't get enough Dole Whips when we're at Disney, and I was thus just too engrossed in mine to speak... :blush: Finally got to meet some people I've been waiting ages to see, though,(Patrica, Ed & his lovely wife) so that was awesome and probably the best part... other than the Dole Whip, of course!!
At this point, Mikki had heard that our room was ready at BLT, so we headed over there to check it out & freshen up for MNSSHP... plus, she told us we could check out the Top of the World Lounge before heading back... not something we'll probably get to do very much, if ever again, so we wanted to be sure to do that with her!! We also had to start the process of working with the weather (aka Sandy... ) and were on hold with Jet Blue for almost 45 minutes getting my DH's flight re-scheduled. He'd booked his flight about a month after I'd booked mine, and had to fly thru JFK to get back to Syracuse... and at this point, we knew that was going to be a SERIOUS issue on Monday. So, we moved him to Sunday night... made me sad to have him leaving a full day ahead of me, but we knew one of us had to get home, just in case, and my flight wasn't able to be re-scheduled at that point, as it was still deemed a "safe" flight directly into Syracuse.
So, after dealing with his flight and changing - me into my pirate hat, Duffy into his new pirate costume (much to my DH's chagrine, although he secretly DID like it) - we were off to MNSSHP!! One of our VERY favorite things to do at Disney, and as we hadn't been since '09, we were really excited. We got there RIGHT at 7pm and made our way immediately to Frontierland to get our MNSSHP AP pins... then it was time to head to IASW to do battle with our fellow Intercotees and the :thedolls:!! I think we won... not sure, but I think maybe!! GREAT ride-thru... we were mostly well-behaved. Mostly.
From here, Dan and I decided we wanted to check out the new Fantasyland - we'd heard it was open during MNSSHP's this week, so we were definitely going to take advantage!! We were AMAZED by BoG... just... WOW. It felt amazing to be walking through some place NEW at Disney.... to be seeing new things, to be feeling amazed at what the Imagineers have done... it's been a LONG time since we've felt that way, and we soaked it in. (and decided that it would be our #1 goal as a place to eat next summer... I will be on that computer at 6am Feb 18th!!) Then we ate at Gaston's Tavern... Dan got the pork shank, I got hummus & chips and the Lefou's Brew (sp?) I REALLY liked it... and we got a complimentary extra one, not sure why... so we really had a good taste of it, and I'd definitely get it again. Yumm! At this point, we wanted to go see Ariel, but they were shoo'ing us all out to get set up for the fireworks - it was VERY windy, and I think they were taking every precaution. So, we rode Peter Pan's flight, and headed over to the Rose Garden to watch Hallowishes with everybody. Wonderful, as always... although I STILL miss the ending with Malificent, and always will. :(
From here, it was time to mix it up with the Villains at their Mix & Mingle - I wanted to see what had changed, and although I wasn't fond to see the last song different, the rest was great. The dancing was really good, and Dr Facilier was GREAT. And seeing the same, wonderful Cruella deVille that our DD's had seen with us in '09 was terrific... she is amazing, and SO good with the guests.
The rest of this story will have to wait for later, as I am writing this at work, and it is 6:40 am... almost time to go home & sleep... very thankful for a night where I had the time to do this!!
Back at work - time to try to finish this so I don't have to start a new post!
So, after the Villains M&M, we watched the parade... just love it, the music, the costumes, having the villains and the Haunted Mansion out en force... and the Headless Horseman!! Absolute favorite, and my DH got an AWESOME shot of him this year. Woohoo!
Once it went by it was time to head back to Fantasyland and try to get in to see the new Ariel ride... and it was open again! Score! Wow, just LOVE the theming... and the ride was very cute, my girls will love it!! So strange to see the new animatronics with more lifelike expressions, but very cool.
To be honest, I can't remember what we did after Ariel... I think maybe one more spin thru the HM and then it was getting time to head out of the park, as the party was almost over. But one last stop for my DH - he HAD to have an ice cream at the Parlor on Main St, it's a tradition of his, and we weren't going to be back to MK this trip. So, one American sundae later, I had a very content DH and I was happy to steal some of the hot fudge.
We slowly wandered Main St, enjoying the lights and sights and sounds of Halloween... it's our favorite season at MK, and we wanted to soak it in. Then it was off to the Contemporary to see what was happening at The Wave... unfort., by the time we got there, the restaurant was closed so we couldn't order anything... but we WERE able to catch the tail end of the party, which was quite fun, and then it was off to bed for everyone... Epcot was going to come VERY early!!
We've never been anywhere near BLT, so we were curious and excited to see what it would be like... suffice to say that after mere moments in the lobby, we were thrilled. We wouldn't see our room 'til later, as it was only about 9am at this point, but from what we'd seen so far, it was VERY cool.
We walked over to MK, I picked up my MNSSHP ticket and we were off to meet whoever was joining us for a game of Sorcerer's of MK. At this point, I started to meet a whole GANG of new faces - other moderators I'd yet to meet, new I'cotees - so cool!! To finally put faces with names after so many years... it was weird, too, though... you associate a name with a certain avatar, not a real person and I had to keep repeating people's screen name with their real one to get it in my head! (Dan and I had been to the 10th anniv pty, as well, so this process was familiar...)
We played for a little bit, after I so graciously was given (grabbed? stole??) Gary & Ian's cards... :blush: ... but after multiple attempts at various stops with people, we all realized it was going to be a time-consuming excercise, and opted to stop and ride rides instead. My DH had taken off almost immediately for some much-coveted "alone time" in the park... he NEVER gets that while we're here as a family, so he was really looking forward to it. Of course, I'm not sure we gave him the amount of time he was hoping for, but he was kind when we showed up...
BTMRR was our first ride of the day, and we got on it twice, with almost no wait. Awesome! Then we headed to Splash.... but unfortunately, got walked off halfway through the ride. :( I was all excited at first, thinking I'd get some deep, dark secrets exposed... no such luck, they basically got us out of the logs, opened a door in the "earth" and led us down very boring, very basic stairs that felt like you were in some regular old business building in the city. Blech. But, we did get some "front of the line" FP's to use at any other MK ride... which... we never used. :rolleyes:
From there, it was almost time for lunch & the Scavenger Hunt/Trivia meet at CHH... Dan and I decided to give the HM a spin beforehand as we had a bit of time, just LOVE this ride, every time. Lunch at CHH was wonderful... I never get anything but the Lighthouse Sandwich, and this time, it was perfection. I always enjoy it, but sometimes it's better than others... this time was 10 out of 10. (of course, that also meant I could still taste the garlic in the hummus 5 hours later... ;))
After sending all the I'cotees who came on their way, we decided it was time to check out whatever we could see of the new Fantasyland... the fact that it had taken us 5 hours to get to it is testament to our busy morning!! We weren't able to see anything really of Belle's area, just a bit of the landscaping... but even that was amazing. So we headed into Storybook Circus and took some pictures before giving the Great Goofini a spin... not something I will feel the need to do again unless my girls beg... VERY quick ride, and NO leg room for adults, if you have any kind of height to you. But, we can say we did it. Honestly, the area is cute, but we weren't all that impressed... we're not big circus fans, and still can't believe Disney chose to get rid of Mickey and Minnie's house for this. You're a kid, you're at Disney, Mickey lives here. What could be cooler than visiting his house?? Not much!! So... to have a meet and greet area and an area that spits water at you instead... okay, the Dueling Dumbo idea is cute, and we didn't check it out, our bad... but we miss the houses in Toontown. Enough said. :(
At this point, it was getting close to time for the Dole Whip meet... we decided we had JUST enough time for a quick spin on Space Mtn before heading over there, so off we went. Love, love LOVE this ride... as always.
As much as we enjoyed the Dole Whip meet, I felt bad -- I was enjoying my float so much that I really only spoke with the people I was sitting with, and didn't get around much to meet others. I blame it on the fact that I don't get enough Dole Whips when we're at Disney, and I was thus just too engrossed in mine to speak... :blush: Finally got to meet some people I've been waiting ages to see, though,(Patrica, Ed & his lovely wife) so that was awesome and probably the best part... other than the Dole Whip, of course!!
At this point, Mikki had heard that our room was ready at BLT, so we headed over there to check it out & freshen up for MNSSHP... plus, she told us we could check out the Top of the World Lounge before heading back... not something we'll probably get to do very much, if ever again, so we wanted to be sure to do that with her!! We also had to start the process of working with the weather (aka Sandy... ) and were on hold with Jet Blue for almost 45 minutes getting my DH's flight re-scheduled. He'd booked his flight about a month after I'd booked mine, and had to fly thru JFK to get back to Syracuse... and at this point, we knew that was going to be a SERIOUS issue on Monday. So, we moved him to Sunday night... made me sad to have him leaving a full day ahead of me, but we knew one of us had to get home, just in case, and my flight wasn't able to be re-scheduled at that point, as it was still deemed a "safe" flight directly into Syracuse.
So, after dealing with his flight and changing - me into my pirate hat, Duffy into his new pirate costume (much to my DH's chagrine, although he secretly DID like it) - we were off to MNSSHP!! One of our VERY favorite things to do at Disney, and as we hadn't been since '09, we were really excited. We got there RIGHT at 7pm and made our way immediately to Frontierland to get our MNSSHP AP pins... then it was time to head to IASW to do battle with our fellow Intercotees and the :thedolls:!! I think we won... not sure, but I think maybe!! GREAT ride-thru... we were mostly well-behaved. Mostly.
From here, Dan and I decided we wanted to check out the new Fantasyland - we'd heard it was open during MNSSHP's this week, so we were definitely going to take advantage!! We were AMAZED by BoG... just... WOW. It felt amazing to be walking through some place NEW at Disney.... to be seeing new things, to be feeling amazed at what the Imagineers have done... it's been a LONG time since we've felt that way, and we soaked it in. (and decided that it would be our #1 goal as a place to eat next summer... I will be on that computer at 6am Feb 18th!!) Then we ate at Gaston's Tavern... Dan got the pork shank, I got hummus & chips and the Lefou's Brew (sp?) I REALLY liked it... and we got a complimentary extra one, not sure why... so we really had a good taste of it, and I'd definitely get it again. Yumm! At this point, we wanted to go see Ariel, but they were shoo'ing us all out to get set up for the fireworks - it was VERY windy, and I think they were taking every precaution. So, we rode Peter Pan's flight, and headed over to the Rose Garden to watch Hallowishes with everybody. Wonderful, as always... although I STILL miss the ending with Malificent, and always will. :(
From here, it was time to mix it up with the Villains at their Mix & Mingle - I wanted to see what had changed, and although I wasn't fond to see the last song different, the rest was great. The dancing was really good, and Dr Facilier was GREAT. And seeing the same, wonderful Cruella deVille that our DD's had seen with us in '09 was terrific... she is amazing, and SO good with the guests.
The rest of this story will have to wait for later, as I am writing this at work, and it is 6:40 am... almost time to go home & sleep... very thankful for a night where I had the time to do this!!
Back at work - time to try to finish this so I don't have to start a new post!
So, after the Villains M&M, we watched the parade... just love it, the music, the costumes, having the villains and the Haunted Mansion out en force... and the Headless Horseman!! Absolute favorite, and my DH got an AWESOME shot of him this year. Woohoo!
Once it went by it was time to head back to Fantasyland and try to get in to see the new Ariel ride... and it was open again! Score! Wow, just LOVE the theming... and the ride was very cute, my girls will love it!! So strange to see the new animatronics with more lifelike expressions, but very cool.
To be honest, I can't remember what we did after Ariel... I think maybe one more spin thru the HM and then it was getting time to head out of the park, as the party was almost over. But one last stop for my DH - he HAD to have an ice cream at the Parlor on Main St, it's a tradition of his, and we weren't going to be back to MK this trip. So, one American sundae later, I had a very content DH and I was happy to steal some of the hot fudge.
We slowly wandered Main St, enjoying the lights and sights and sounds of Halloween... it's our favorite season at MK, and we wanted to soak it in. Then it was off to the Contemporary to see what was happening at The Wave... unfort., by the time we got there, the restaurant was closed so we couldn't order anything... but we WERE able to catch the tail end of the party, which was quite fun, and then it was off to bed for everyone... Epcot was going to come VERY early!!