"We've gone too far"-A sister trip with surprise guest Irma! Sept 2017 - Completed 4/16

WOWZA!!! I don't even care much for Star Wars, but I can appreciate what an incredible experience that must've been. How awesome for you!!!
I know! Totally amazing! I appreciate that my friends and family all recognized that if it happened to them it’d be cool, but they would have all thought-Lesley should be here!

That is so awesome! I️ also loved that you only took a couple photos then just enjoyed it!
Yeah, I wasn’t even going to take any, but then realized I needed something to prove to other people!

Amazing! I just watched that video on Twitter! I will have to go back and see if I can spot you!
Unfortunately the twitter video was from a different ride than mine! I think he went 2-3 times. But ours was much better because he chatted and joked more! So I’m thinking we were first? They also had a lot more blank waivers available to sign!

How freakin amazing to have Mark Hamil in your SW ride! I love SW so that would be so cool. I love how empty MK was on the eve of Irma
I still smile and start to tear up every time I think about it!

What an incredible afternoon!!! Definitely sounds like the best day ever!
It really was! Honestly it may have been one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had (I don’t have kids and not married, so don’t have to worry about competing with that)! I’ve actually been feeling really depressed lately-just the state of the world and general ickiness, but today I was all smiles! And got sooo much more done at work, because I was in a better mood!
 
Sorry for not updating much at all last week! It ended up being a busy week, with work and whatnot, including 2 Disneyland visits-Tuesday (with the awesome Star Tours experience), and Thursday (for a pin trading event, which I was soooo unprepared for)! I have to say, those pin traders are intense! They must seriously spend thousands and thousands of dollars on pins! I was at a table with a couple who each bought 10 mystery boxes for a new Aladdin release to try and collect every version (those boxes are about $15 each, so that was $300 alone, not including other pins they had bought that night, plus their huge binders full of pins). I mean, I definitely spend too much money at Disney, but usually get pins I really want or mean something to me. I do have smaller scale trading pins for CMs lanyards, but most of the actual traders don't even give them a second glance! I did add to my Tsum Tsum pin collection, and there was one awesome girl who liked a random pin of mine, but when I looked through her book I saw all of her stuff was so nice nothing was worth it. I mentioned she had this one Happily Ever After pin, which was released after we had left WDW, so I didn't get a chance to get it, and she went ahead and traded for it, because it didn't mean anything to her! So sweet!

Oh, and on the Star Tours front, Disney released the official video:

You can see me at the 6 second mark (on the far right side, 3rd row with the ponytail):
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Now, back to the trip report!

Day 2, Part 6 "Happy Birthday!"

Since we were done in Adventureland we headed across the hub to Tomorrowland. Mickey’s Royal Friendship Faire was going on, but we didn’t really care about stopping-we wanted to take as much advantage of the low waits as possible!

First stop-Monsters Inc Laugh Floor! Loved Mike’s mini door! Another walk-on and I think we didn’t have much of a wait until the next show.

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And then, Lauren was shown on screen! She was pretty excited and people sang her happy birthday and everything! Her boyfriend was so jealous as they did Monsters a bunch when they visited and neither was ever on screen!

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Next, Peoplemover for a delightful tour around Tomorrowland. As expected, walk-on and if people wanted to stay on for another round they were welcome to do so! And check out those "crowds" in Tomorrowland at 5pm on a Saturday!

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Afterwards, we decided to check out Buzz. A couple minute wait, but we got in right before a big group of Fastpass people.

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Can you tell how I felt about this ride from my photo? Yeah, not a fan! I already suck at the one in DLR where you can move the guns around better, this one was horrible! The scores ended up being Lauren-137,400 and me-45,900. On the Disneyland version it’s rare for Lauren to score below 500k and not uncommon to max out at 999,999. I’m not as good, but usually clear 100k.

Up towards Fantasyland and the Circus. First Dumbo. With quite literally no one else in line! We had a full ride all to ourselves! Pretty unreal!

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Of course we each took a video too!

I also really liked the children's play area! I think this is something WDW really does right that DLR doesn't seem to have. There were so many spaces where kids could just play; get out their energy while their parents sit down for a moment! I guess DLR just doesn't have the physical space for the playgrounds!

I thought the circus area was really cute, especially the splash pad and the peanuts in the ground! Including a hidden mickey

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Next, Barnstormer, because why not! Another private ride! The CM at first tried to have us go in the same row, but we just took the first 2 rows.

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Also, notice those sunglasses on my head in the individual selfie and how they are missing from the "group" photo. Yeah, that was a mistake!

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They slipped right off and under the ride. Of course the CMs couldn’t get them so they said to go to Guest Services after park close or the next day. They really tried to rush everyone out that evening, so we waited to go til Tuesday morning (the first day it was open), we were told they took everything to the TTC. We never ended up feeling like heading over there for a $5 pair of Target glasses (I had brought backups on the trip), so they remained with Disney until they threw them out…:confused3

Cont... Dinner with princesses!
 
Day 2, Part 6 " What type of cake do you like?"

It was around 5:45 now and getting closer to our 6pm dinner reservation so we headed through a bustling Fantasyland… :cutie:

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And onto Cinderella’s Royal Table! princess:
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This dinner was originally scheduled for Monday (during the fireworks), but obviously that was an issue with the hurricane closure. But I had no problem rescheduling for Saturday evening and actually had multiple time options. I think they were even taking walk-ups that night! Even though we arrived a few minutes early they checked us in right away. There ended up being one more family behind us but that was the last group that evening!

We were escorted right into the entrance hall, which I think was gorgeous! Unfortunately my photo of Gus and Jaq came out blurry but it was cool to see them!

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There was one family with 2 kids in front of us and they had fun with Cinderella. Then we came and she made sure to ask about Lauren’s birthday cake. When I explained she had brownies instead (Lauren isn't a big cake fan), she approved as it was at least sweet! [this starts to become a theme] :cake:

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It was funny at that moment because no one else came after us, so for a while it was Cindy just standing there alone with her photographer and us and the other family staring at her. The little kids kept smiling and waving and she played along. She eventually tracked down some papers and walked over to give each kid autographs. Then they were seated and it was just me and my sister. Cindy never broke character and kept swaying while talking to the other CMs. The final family came in (including several little girls (some in wheelchairs) dressed as Cinderella with Bibbity Bobbidi Boutique hairstyles), so Cindy had her hands full with them, but we were then called up to the main hall.

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We were seated upstairs next to a window which was so nice! I had originally hoped to eat here during the fireworks, but this worked, especially providing a nice respite to the amount of walking we had done that day! Our server was also great, with quick service and making sure the (soda) refills kept flowing! :drinking1

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I also noticed at this point my hands were getting very… um smurfy:scared1:? The shorts I was wearing were relatively new, and even though I had washed them, I should have done it a couple more times to get all the dye out (I actually think I have washed them about 5 times since and they still have dye coming out)! I think that morning at the check-out desk the girl had even asked if I had been tie-dying shirts, but laughed when I explained, nope, just my shorts!

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[the princesses visited us throughout the meal but I decided to post about all food first, then princesses]

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We both got the Charcuterie Plate [A Selection of Cured Meats, Cheese, and other specialty selections of the Castle] to start.


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I forgot exactly what cheeses and meats we had, but I know there was a blue/goat cheese option that I tried a bit of and gave to Lauren. I did like trying new combinations, with various cheeses, meats, crackers, etc. :thumbsup2

For our main meals, I got the Beef and Shrimp [Grilled Beef Tenderloin with crushed Fingerling Potato Confit, Shrimp, and Seasonal Vegetables] and Lauren got the Pan-Seared All-Natural Chicken [served over creamy Goat Cheese Polenta and Baby Carrots with a Madeira Mushroom Reduction]

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We both liked our meals and I tried her chicken which was good, but I preferred the beef. It definitely had its salty moments too, but not as much as Le Cellier. The shrimp was also good and nicely cooked (I was worried it would be that bland, frozen grocery store type since it wasn't grilled, but it was just nicely steamed instead). :goodvibes

For dessert, we both got The Clock Strikes Twelves [Dark Chocolate Mousse with a Dark Chocolate Ganache served with a Raspberry Coulis]; the server also brought out a cupcake for Lauren.

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I thought this was delicious! It was definitely hard to eat it all, and shockingly, I don’t think I finished! Also, so you know, the raspberry part is totally on the side. So if all you want is chocolate, it’ll be fine!:cloud9:

And a classy cupcake photo, because we’re totally class acts (Lauren's going to kill me if she finds out I posted this :love1:)!

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The princesses started arriving and we tried to be the first one to guess which one it was from the description. One thing about the princesses, because we were just 2 adults they definitely did a “hug and shove”, with a quick word, some photos, and move on. I understand with kids they probably spend more time. So it felt a bit rushed, but honestly we aren’t huge character people anyways, so we didn’t mind that much! But if you want more interactions be prepared to maybe be disappointed.

First, Snow White. She told Lauren she likes Apple or Gooseberry pie for her birthday.

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Next Aurora. She likes her Godmothers’ cake.

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Then Ariel, who likes Seaweed cake (a note-we never asked anyone about cake, I think this is just their base thing for birthdays!)

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And finally Jasmine, who assured Lauren she wouldn’t let Abu steal her cake…

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During dinner we got to witness a proposal, complete with the glass slipper and photopass photographer! It was really cute because it was between a middle-age couple. Ariel also came running over and examined the ring! :lovestruc

After dinner we noticed these two little brothers walking in the restaurant (followed by their dad). I got permission to take their photo and the older boy was so cute smiling. Lauren could see their table from her seat and he was always so excited to meet the princesses! When we left we also realized it was one of their birthdays (we thought it was the older boy but it turned out to be the younger kid). So before we left we went over and offered each of them any pin from our pin trading lanyards! The mom first tried to say, oh no we couldn’t, but when I explained I had a whole bag of them, it was totally fine, she said ok. Only the older boy picked one and it was a random Epcot symbol, instead of Mickey in a race car, but I guess he liked it! We would actually see them again at the Halloween Party (I recognized the younger boy in his prince costume)

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Cont... an empty evening!
 


Can you tell how I felt about this ride from my photo? Yeah, not a fan!

:rotfl: Nobody likes it because the guns don't work 70% of the time.

I also noticed at this point my hands were getting very… um smurfy:scared1:? The shorts I was wearing were relatively new, and even though I had washed them, I should have done it a couple more times to get all the dye out (I actually think I have washed them about 5 times since and they still have dye coming out)!

I've never had that happen before that's so strange!
 
I haven't read your latest update yet but just had to comment first on how AMAZING it is that you got to have that Star Tours experience with Mark Hamill!! Wow, I think I would go buy a lottery ticket after that because talk about luck!

ETA: Okay, I've finished reading your latest update and just have to say that it's making me envious of your Irma stay! Our flights home were early Friday evening, so we still had a great week crowd wise up to that point, but the parks really emptied out after that it looks like. How awesome!!
 
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Hi joining in here! Just binge-read your trip report, I'm enjoying it and I love all the great pictures!

Wow those were some low crowds!

What a thrill to see Mark Hamill, I'm a child of the 70s, so I would have been thrilled to see him!

Yep, that pretzel bread with the fancy salted butter is always fantastic at le cellier .

I'll keep an eye out for that holiday special with Kristen Bell on the 30th! I wonder what channel it's airing on?

Looking forward to reading more! Marina :stitch2:
 


Hi joining in here! Just binge-read your trip report, I'm enjoying it and I love all the great pictures!

Wow those were some low crowds!

What a thrill to see Mark Hamill, I'm a child of the 70s, so I would have been thrilled to see him!

Yep, that pretzel bread with the fancy salted butter is always fantastic at le cellier .

I'll keep an eye out for that holiday special with Kristen Bell on the 30th! I wonder what channel it's airing on?

Looking forward to reading more! Marina :stitch2:
:welcome:
The holiday special is actually on ABC at 9pm (set up my DVR yesterday)! I think they should have stuff from all the US parks, including Hanson at DHS-which I am actually most excited for!!!
 
I’ve had that’s happen with jeans before — so annoying and so hard to explain. I’m loving reading about your trip, and I’m super jealous you got to ride Flights of Passage 4 Times (did I read that correctly?). I rode it in August, and I have a FP for December, and i consider that pretty lucky.
 
Real Life Update 11/30

So, I swear I haven't been forgetting about this TR! It's just the internet at home is so horrible (and then I have to even compete with everyone else for bandwith), that it's easiest to update at work. Then, I've been busy with inspections/meetings, etc, so haven't spent a whole lot of time in the office! Before I finish up Day 2 (!), which I promise I will post tomorrow, I thought I'd give some real life updates with a busy Thanksgiving week.

Saturday, 11/18 - Hamilton!

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Somehow I was lucky enough to get Hamilton tickets when they went on sale! I was so surprised I got through, but I think because I was going for a matinee performance in mid-November, it wasn't as bad as someone trying to get opening night. I was also in shock I was able to get 6 tickets together! But anyways, we went and had a fun time. I loved loved Lafayette/Jefferson and wished I could have seen Daveed Diggs in those roles. The whole production was very impressive, with great singing, story, stage direction, etc. I also assumed it'd be more like other musicals I've seen, where it's talking then singing then talking, etc, but this was all song. I don't think anyone needs any convincing, but if you get a chance to see it, take it!

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Thursday, 11/23 - It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without family drama!

I was originally hoping to do a mini trip report for this, but there ended up being so many issues and drama, I don't feel like it, so here is a rundown of basic things. I think a big part of it was my sister being in a really foul mood and complaining about EVERY. SINGLE. LITTLE. THING I did. First, the week before she complained about going to Blue Bayou instead of just eating at the Plaza Inn (which is a counter service at DL); then complained about seeing Fantasmic; then about getting MaxPass (she already bought it with her AP); then about getting there early; then about me being a micromanager... and on and on and on. That morning I almost quit and ended up so frustrated I was actually crying in my room for a bit!

Anyways, we eventually got there and it was definitely busy, but I was able to convince my parents to spring for MaxPass for them and my brother. Totally worth it, as we were able to go on so many more rides and I was able to pull tons of FPs! At the end of the night I told them, we had 3 FPs good at that time: Big Thunder, Matterhorn, Star Tours; it was up to everyone what they wanted to do. Sister and her boyfriend went on Matterhorn, Dad, Brother and I went on Star Tours, and Mom went shopping on Main Street. In total we rode Pirates, Space Mountain, Small World, Star Toursx2, Peter Pan, Indy, Haunted Mansion. Not a whole lot of rides, but we also had a long dinner, watched Fantasmic/fireworks, and relaxed to enjoy the ambiance with Christmas lights on Main Street.

I think Pirates and Peter Pan were the only 2 standby rides we did. And PP broke down for a bit after we had waited in line! But they got it back going (it's my Mom's favorite ride, or else we wouldn't bother).

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Oh, we also went on Jungle Cruise and had the WORST SKIPPER EVER! Like, he would say "Look at that", giggle and move on... or "Look, it's a snake"...and nothing else. He was definitely new, and it was also an after-dark ride, but he left the side lights on for both sides for both sides of the boat, so it was distracting. It was just sooo bad!

While Lauren and Mom walked around toontown, the guys and I went on Space Mountain and took an awesome photo!
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We did see the parade (I'll post photos when I do a Disneyland Christmas posting)...Lauren and my brother weren't very amused (look to the right of my brother's knee)...
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For lunch, we ended up at Red Rose Tavern, which I suggested because I knew Lauren really wanted to try the Cauliflower Sandwich since she was salivating over it when it was announced. Bit of a mistake there, as even though there wasn't a huge line, they were SOOO SLOW! So she was in such a foul mood, she didn't enjoy her sandwich and continued to bring everyone down. To give you an example, she said she wanted to eat inside in the A/C; it was busy, so I suggested she tell us her order and she and her boyfriend could stake out a table. Well she then snapped "I can order for myself". Just like-whoa! My dad just rolled his eyes and gave me his order and found a table for us all.

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We did stop for one family photo in front of the castle. I think it turned out well. The photographer offered to do more magic shots, which I was totally game to do, but everyone else started to wander away! Oh well!
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Dinner actually turned out to be a highlight. I originally got us 2 different 4-person reservations, because I couldn't book a 6-person online. By the time I called there was no more availability for 6, but at the desk, they just combined to put us at a 6-top. We all ended up with the Thanksgiving dinner; Lauren is allergic to pineapple so she couldn't get the Ham and for some reason the kitchen refused to just give her another piece of turkey. She also didn't have any gravy at first because the kitchen was worried about cross contamination, but she decided to risk it, as her allergy isn't life threatening, just hives and itchiness. She ended up being fine.
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For the dinner itself, YUM! Probably the best turkey I've ever had (though I didn't say that to Mom). Mom also loved the cranberry sauce, so she gladly took mine when I offered!

The guys and Lauren got the Gumbo for a starter and Mom got the salad, while I ended up getting 2 desserts instead! It worked out fine though because they brought an extra bread basket, and I love their bread!
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For dessert I got the Sorcerer Mickey (though they ran out of the chocolate ears) and the pumpkin creme brulee (so good). Lauren was the only one to get the cake, and she loved it (but I didn't bug people for photos of their food).

Dinner was definitely pricey, but worth it! And my mom usually ends up spending so much money anyways on ingredients, it wasn't too much different.

After dinner my brother went out to Downtown Disney to get a drink, while the rest of us went on some rides (I think), and eventually went to get seats for Fantasmic (along with our Blue Bayou seat cushions). Brother met us shortly before the show started. We all liked the show, but agreed Peter Pan is better than Pirates. Unfortunately the dragon wasn't working, so we had to settle for projections on water screens. We stuck around for the fireworks and got to watch it "snow" afterwards!
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After a few more rides, we wandered out under the lights of Main Street, which is one of my favorite places to be!
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So all in all, the trip was fine, but frustrating. Lets just say, I am very very very happy my next Disneyworld trips will be solo!


And finally,
Sunday, 11/26 - Rams Game!

Went to the Rams v Saints game and the Rams won! So exciting that they are so good, especially the disappointment of last year. I am crossing my fingers they make it to playoffs, as well as get a home playoff game, as I could make a lot of $$ resale! And check out my seats-5th row, endzone! Love them!

 
Just catching up...the Mark Hamill video is so cool, just amazing!

It's funny how siblings can make or break a trip. Thanksgiving at DL seems like an awesome idea, I'm thinking about how I can manage that...my brother lives in LA and my daughter in Santa Barbara, so I think it could definitely be a reality.

And, those are some great seats in the endzone!
 
Oh, siblings!! UGH. Sorry you ended up having so much drama, but all in all, what a magical way to spend your Thanksgiving!! :)

I laughed at your sibs during the parade--that is definitely my Dad and my brother on our last family WDW trip!! My brother hasn't gone with us in 10 years. My Dad is a MUCH better sport without him there!!!

Your tix are pretty awesome!!!
 
One real life update from last night:
My mom, sister and I are watching Project Runway and Lauren suddenly exclaims "Guess what!". Mom shush's her because it is a dramatic part in the show (those twins-:mad:). Finally at a commercial, mom asks what did she want to show, thinking it was some sort of cute cat video or something. Lauren shouts "I just got into law school with a 50% scholarship!" Mom totally spit out her drink! And now she will never live it down!

Day 2, Part 7 "That mystery princess looks familiar!"

We headed out after a very filling but fun meal and saw they had some mystery princesses at Princess Hall. We decided to go ahead and check it out since there was no line for either side, just the wait for a princess to be available! princess:

First it was mystery + mystery, who ended up being Elena as well as Ariel from CRT (though looking at the photos, the 2 Ariels don't look identical, but I swear it was the same one)! We figured once they all visited with everyone in the restaurant they just moved some of them down to the Royal Hall and let other princesses go home early? And they probably only had 1 Elena so they had to make it a mystery.

We met with Elena, who was just adorable! She started planning Lauren’s whole birthday party with a cake and streamers and a piñata! So sweet!

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Then Ariel, who didn’t recognize us (or at least had to pretend like she didn’t) from about 15 minutes earlier! Don’t remember what we talked about.:earboy2:

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We decided to also check out the other line since it said Tiana + mystery. Tiana was excited when we said we were staying at French Quarter and told us to get beignets for breakfast!:thumbsup2

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Final princess was Rapunzel, so Lauren was happy! :bitelip:

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Ok, now it was time to head back and visit the dwarves again with our FP!

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Then, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, another literal walk-on. I was more excited to see the interactive queue though since the ride is so much like ours!pooh:
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The ride was so similar, but also not similar to ours! Little changes, like the order of things and it not being an actual birthday party at the end! Still very cute!

Again, a crowded Fantasyland :rotfl:
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Peter Pan Flight with a 15 minute wait-yes please!:tink:
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We let a couple groups go ahead of us so I could take photos of the interactive queue! Unfortunately they didn’t all turn out well because of the low light, but it was so cool to see!

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This was another ride that was similar but not the same as ours! This one was definitely smoother, as DLR can be very jerky, but I think that’s also an age thing. DLR also has more dips, which I realized later, this one doesn’t. But there are some slightly different scenes/props in the scenes. The queue here though is awesome, so it wins!


This day also impacted my plans for the rest of the trip, in the best possible way! I was originally planning on at least 2 rope drop days, specifically to see the Flight of Passage queue and the Peter Pan queue without the insane standby lines. Well, I had now gotten to experience both, without any sort of rush! It was great!
 
Day 2, Part 8 "When you give a photopass photographer a camera..."

We made our way over to the Tangled bathrooms, which had no one around! A photopass photographer was also acting as custodial, but she took our photo with my phone and actually moved us around like she would with her big camera so she could get the lighting right! She ended up getting a makeshift line behind her by the time we were done! She also said she has worked at WDW for 15 years and it was the slowest she had ever seen!

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Onto Haunted Mansion, another walk-on with only 2 other people in the stretching room with us. They had closed down the main queue part since there was no one in line so we didn't see the interactive elements (but we did get to see them a different night). This ride had some extras that DLR doesn’t have, with the stair room and library. But I still like our stretching room elevator better, because you can feel it moving. But the ghost switching our faces at the end was pretty awesome!

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Darkness has fallen, so got some evening photos, but it was humid too so my lens didn’t do the best.

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Decided to do Little Mermaid, which was again empty; I think we were literally the only people on the ride. I was hoping to see the queue because I heard there was something interactive/cool with Skuttle(?), but it was closed up. The ride itself is identical to DCA’s version.
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Aside: I do think WDI missed the mark with this ride. I mean, its a fine dark ride and all, but they could have done something amazing that actually made people want to ride it. When I'm at DCA that line rarely is more than 5-10 minutes. And for it being one of the newest rides at either DCA or MK, that is pretty bad!

At that point it was 8:40. Magic Kingdom was closing at 9. We could have gotten in another ride on 7DMT (20 minute wait), but decided instead to call it a night!

Headed out through the castle and admired the mosaics (sorry for glare from lights)

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Also had to stop for another photoshoot with a lonely photographer in the hub! Though I realized that was our only photo with the partners statue! I'll need to fix that in March!

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Day 2, Part 9 "You don't have to go home...wait, you do!"

We decided to make a stop at the confectionary to pick up some snacks/sodas. My sister doesn’t like sodas from the freestyle machine and I have started getting sick from fountain sodas, and we weren’t sure if the POFQ food court had bottles. Disney also had lots of vendors all along main street with water, snacks, etc. The line at the confectionary ended up being the longest of the night as my sister decided she also wanted chocolate covered strawberries!

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While she waited I stopped over to the emporium to see if they had any good board games, but everything was too expensive (as expected). I also admired the huge pallets of water for sale!

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When I was in the emporium it hit 9pm and the park closed. Rather than doing what they normally do, where you can go into shops for a while, Disney (understandably) really just wanted to get people out of there, so they started closing doors and preventing people from coming in. The doors also had latch bolts which prevented people from exiting (a bit of a life safety hazard), so it was a bit of a comedy of errors, with me trying to go to one door, finding it locked. Heading to the next door, which they had just closed and locked. Going to the next one just as they closed it. Until finally I made it to one and got out! The CM at the door to confectionary tried to stop me from entering but when I said my sister was in line, he let me in!

Anyways, we got our stuff and were at the bus stop at 9:19pm. At 9:20pm a bus pulled up! :worship:I think they were just watching to see where people went and then sending a bus after them!


Around 15 minutes later we pulled up to Port Orleans French Quarter for the first time! We were greeted at the door by the greeter (I never did get a photo of him) with Welcome Home and I just felt immediately at ease-POFQ was really love at first sight! :lovestruc

We could see a huge commotion in the lobby and at first I was worried if those were the hurricane food lines I had heard about. Nope-it was just Chip and Dale having a pirate party! I think we had a lot of “DCL Refugees” from the cancelled cruises so they had turned this into their own Pirate Night! Everyone was just so happy and relaxed, even with a hurricane looming, so it was awesome! :sail:

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While I was checking in (I had never gotten the room ready text), Donald and Pluto also came out. Another thing about the hurricane-the Governor of Florida asked hotels to consider relaxing their no pet rules so evacuees could bring them along. So Disney allowed pets at all its resorts! There were dogs everywhere at POFQ, and I know Boardwalk had a dog talent show in the lobby! It was great and all the CMs loved being able to have dog cuddles! Pluto especially would take every opportunity to meet any dogs he saw! (I think this was the start of Disney allowing dogs at resorts, which I'm totally ok with!) :dog2:

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I took care of the room and asked for our bags to be brought up, while my sister went over and got some of the bag lunches. I have to say, these were an exceptionally good value, especially for Disney. It was $6 for a sandwich (decent sub sandwich, either ham and cheese or club), piece of fruit (banana or apple), bag of chips, granola bar, cookie, and bottle of water! My sister went ahead and got 2 each for us to have, just in case everything shut down!

I went up to our room, 4236. I loved this room location! It was so close to the main building and could get there while walking under cover for all but 15 ft. It was so close to the transport with stairs that led right to the walkway. It was calm and relaxed. The only one noisy thing was during the evening movies, they happen on the lawn outside and can be relatively loud, so if you were trying to sleep, you wouldn’t be able to very well. :ssst:

*Also, one thing I can’t recommend enough is a subscription to Touring Plans. Touring plans has room views from most rooms on property (for Deluxes with balconies though, the view may be from a room nearby). You can search by room type (Standard/preferred/garden, etc, and number of beds), as well as distance from lobby/transport, and noise level, and they’ll show you all the rooms that meet that criteria. Then you can check the view from each room and pick your favorite. If you’re a TP subscriber you can fill out the fax request form and they will automatically send it to Disney 5-days before you leave. For POFQ, I ended up in the room adjacent to the one I requested (originally I asked for a corner, but with the hurricane it was probably a good thing we didn’t get it). For Pop, I didn’t get the exact room, but it was only a few doors down, pretty good considering I booked and sent the request less than 48 hrs before we would arrive! I will be renewing this year so I can try to request a partial Savannah view for the AKL march trip, as well as the various resorts in December!

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The actual room was awesome, great size with plenty of space for everything. Bathroom was big enough for us. It was great! A note though-they didn’t have any clock. Luckily I had brought a travel one in case we didn’t have one, so I was able to use that at night.

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There was also a ceiling fan, which was awesome! You know how stuffy hotel rooms can get, and if we had the air blowing it was a) noisy and b) too cold. So I think whenever we were in the room we had the fan going, which was very much appreciated! :lovestruc

Only a few moments after getting to the room, my sister showed up along with the bellman (she met him in the "street" to our room and recognized our suitcases; good thing too, because she was starting to get lost-apparently my directions of go out of the lobby, turn left, go to the first building and second floor, find the room, were too confusing:duck:). We were able to start getting unpacked. While unpacking we found the Disney movie channel (they said all movies were free during the hurricane which we originally thought there’d be an on-demand option, but instead it was just a looped channel). So we watched half of Disney Movie #1: Brave.

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That ended and we watched the first 10 minutes of Disney Movie #2a: Tron: Legacy. Wait, after 10 minutes it switched to Disney Movie #2b: The Santa Clause (weird in September). Then after 10 minutes of that it was back to Disney Movie #2a: Tron: Legacy. We gave up at that point and went to sleep around 11:30 with no alarm set for the next morning!

Health data (via app on my phone, not Fitbit):
Walked: 24,308 steps (9.3 miles)
Flights climbed: 10 floors

Attraction count:
Kilimanjaro Safari – 1
Expedition Everest – 1
Dinosaur – 1
Flight of Passage – 1
Mad Tea Party – 1
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – 2
Peter Pan Flight – 1
It’s a small world – 1
Haunted Mansion – 1
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad – 1
Pirates of the Carribean – 1
Jungle Cruise – 1
Magic Carpets – 1
Monsters Inc Laugh Floor – 1
People Mover – 1
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters – 1
Dumbo – 1
Barnstormer – 1
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – 1
Under the Sea – 1

Characters: Cinderella, Snow White, Aurora, Jasmine, Arielx2, Elena, Rapunzel, Tiana (8+1)
Magic Shots: Tinkerbelle flying (1)
Plus videos w/Cinderella, Elena.
 
Holy moly! This is QUITE the trip and it's only Day 2!

Just joining in and I'm loving your TR! I am always fascinated to read about people's experiences during a hurricane. Dare I say, I'm almost jealous of those low crowds…makes me want to plan a hurricane trip :rotfl2: Not really, but the silver lining and all that ::yes::

I usually have a rule that I don't quote when I start reading a TR that's 6 pages long, but I had to make an exception in this case…
A CM stayed up at the front, with a clipboard. I don’t remember his full spiel, but once he started talking more about Star Wars I started to get suspicious. He then pointed out the empty chair and called over our last passenger. Because of where I was sitting I had a perfect view down the front row catwalk and almost immediately recognized Mark Hamill’s silhouette! I definitely gave a loud gasp and my jaw dropped to the floor!

Everyone went crazy! Just sooo many screams and phones being pulled out! I did take a couple quick photos, but wanted to be more in the moment, so didn’t film the whole interaction.

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Mark was sooo nice! Constantly making jokes, and just seemed so genuinely happy to make us so excited! He took a selfie and Disney took some more photos. I will have to see if I end up in any of those, but I was sitting all the way to the end of a row, so maybe not! (He also rode it a couple times-I think twice because the CMs at the end said there will only be 100 people who ride with him.)

THAT is SO COOL that you were on Star Tours with Mark Hamill! My DH and DS are huge SW fans and we were talking about this at dinner one night. Now I'l get to brag that I "know" someone who was on the ride with Mark Hamill :rotfl:

Also, I'm loving all your talk of DL…It's my dream to go there someday (SOON!). I love reading about the making of DL and I listened to the whole, Connecting With Walt podcast and the Disneyland at 60 podcast about Walt and how it all started and I'm just fascinated. I can't wait to see it myself someday!

Can't wait to read more of how your hurricane turned out!
 
The line at the confectionary ended up being the longest of the night as my sister decided she also wanted chocolate covered strawberries!

I approve of your sister's hurricane snack choices. :thumbsup2

There were dogs everywhere at POFQ, and I know Boardwalk had a dog talent show in the lobby! It was great and all the CMs loved being able to have dog cuddles!

So cute!

*Also, one thing I can’t recommend enough is a subscription to Touring Plans. Touring plans has room views from most rooms on property (for Deluxes with balconies though, the view may be from a room nearby). You can search by room type (Standard/preferred/garden, etc, and number of beds), as well as distance from lobby/transport, and noise level, and they’ll show you all the rooms that meet that criteria.

I'm trying this for the first time this next trip. I requested refurbed rooms at Pop and CSR, I hope it works!
 
What a fun trip so far! We haven't eaten in the castle in YEARS but it was definitely one of our favorite places when we did it years ago. It's just to cool to be up there!
 
Update 12/6 Disneyland Christmas!

Christmas is definitely my favorite time of the year and obviously, Disneyland does it right! I've definitely headed there a lot in the past month to try and see as many decorations and entertainment offerings and I've gotten almost them all! So, I will definitely need to split this up into multiple posts.

I also have videos I'm trying to embed, but finally figured out how to make my own gifs from videos, so I'll try to post those in case you don't want to watch the whole video!

Part 1: Decorations

Main Street.
I realized I don't have many pictures during the day, so maybe I'll try to fix that later this week. But the lights are so pretty! I love just standing under them at the end of the night, hearing the Christmas music piped through the speakers. You can also see some photos were taken before they put up the garlands and others after garlands (those went up about a week before Thanksgiving).
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The same shot pre-garland and after-garland
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Window display (the others had too much glare)
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Horsedrawn carriage has bells all over so makes a lovely sound!
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Candycanes (didn't get there early enough to get a wristband but did get to see them pulling them!)
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Sleeping Beauty Castle & the Hub
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gifs of final lighting and the twinkle lights in the Hub
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And full lighting ceremony, with music

it's a small world
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The approach to the ride is so lovely and filled with lights and wreaths.
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The actual lighting is so amazing!

And all the topiaries are lit up too!
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They do a mini projection show on it throughout the night, which I actually had never seen before (you can see the railroad going by in the video)
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cont, due to image limits...

 
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Christmas decorations, cont

Toontown
I actually think this place is one of the coolest because each and every building has its own decorations that match it's "use"!
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The "town"
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Mickey's house
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Minnie's
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Donald's boat
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Goofy's house
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New Orleans Square
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Love the music theme for all the wreaths!
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Frontierland
Pretty basic, but that fit the land! I know there were decorations by the Mexican restaurant, but I forgot to take photos.
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I haven't taken any photos of Adventureland (don't think there were many decorations this year) or Critter Country yet...
 

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