Two New Events and One Big Surprise!
October 8-12, 2015
Another trip to WDW for our family, but this one is packed full of first time experiences and one big surprise!
Cast of Characters: My immediate family (DH, myself, DS-18, DD-15, and DD-9)
Extended Family (Sister-in-Law, Brother-in-Law, Niece and Boyfriend, Niece and husband staying at campground. Sister-in-law and Brother-in-Law visiting for our lazy day at the campground)
Back Story:
We have been going to WDW as a family since 2001, but this trip would be our first trip without our oldest child. He started college this fall, and he just wouldn't be able to join us. At least that is what the rest of my family thought…I couldn't believe that my daughters were actually getting a long weekend in October off from school and that it actually coincided with my son's college fall break. The wheels started turning…
Well, I received a WDW discount pin code in my inbox and the rest is history! I have always wanted to go to WDW in October and enjoy a MNSSHP and the Food Wine Festival so without hesitation I started planning the trip!
I booked two nights at POR princess room using the discount code and two nights at AoA Little Mermaid room. I also booked three nights at Fort Wilderness Campground for our extended family that lives in Florida and convinced them they needed a little Disney fix too! I hid my son's arrival in their reservations and asked the CM not to send any e-mails to our house so as not to ruin my surprise! I booked airfare for us all and secured DME transportation. I added one day park passes in time to make fast pass reservations at the earliest date possible for our Epcot day. I bought our MNSSHP passes and then did the agonizing wait until the trip!
October 8, 2015 Arrival Day!
Hubby came home early from work. We picked up the girls early from school. My dad had graciously offered to drop us off at the airport. Slow day at the airport…We were the only ones going through security. No issues there. We got to our gate and decided to eat a little snack at the grill there. We shared some nachos and queso and a few chicken tacos. We had a great flight into MCO. We could see the flooding in South Carolina from the plane, and said a little prayer for all that were impacted with the weather. Our plane landed on time at 6:30 pm, and we were off to ride the "monorail" to catch the DME bus. When we arrived at DME, we got out our colored magic bands that we had picked out for this trip, only to find out that they weren't linked. This was confusing to me as I thought I had done all this at home. They had also sent us a set of gray ones. I had those packed in our suitcases. The CM explained to me that we should be using the gray ones. Huh? I thought we could use any of our magic bands, but he said no. He made us wait until he printed out paper boarding passes for DME. Strange! More on this later! Once on the bus, our bus driver announced we would be stopping at Old Key West resort, Saratoga Springs resort, Port Orleans French Quarter resort and then finally our resort, Port Orleans Riverside. We enjoyed the Disney propaganda movie and the trip really didn't seem that long. We received a text that our room was ready…#9090 Oak Manor. When we arrived at the resort, we went to online check-in to pick up our packet. I explained to him the confusion with our magic bands at DME, and he said the previous CM was incorrect about our magic bands. He could have done something to fix our bands and that any bands that we have in our names can work…even the ones from previous trips. He also had another set of gray ones for us with our luggage tags. Disney really loves to give away those magic bands! I reset my pin code. We sang along with Bob Jackson for a song, and then we were off! The girls (and me) were excited to see our princess room! We were on the first floor of our building facing a quiet pool. It was a beautiful room and we just loved all the details. We took lots of pictures! We headed to the food court for another "snack." We had purchased some gift cards ahead of time and used these to pay for our food. We bought two refillable mugs as hubby and oldest daughter are soft drink drinkers. I don't remember what everyone else had, but my flatbread was terrible. It was very soggy and cold. We also find this food court to be loud, especially when the CM's lead a parade around the restaurant with the smaller kids shaking tambourines and beating sticks. We ate fast and went back to enjoy the peace and quiet of our beautifully royal room! We had packed a carry on with our swimsuits, but decided we were content hanging in our room watching the fireworks above our heads! Our room was a quick walk over the bridge to the main building. It really was a great location. Bell services brought our luggage to our room a little before 10:00 pm. As soon as they came, we got into our jammies and went to bed. Well, first I decorated our window for Halloween. The orange lights were the perfect night light! Our room didn't seem to have any soundproofing as we could hear lots of toilets flushing and mechanical noises.
October 9, 2015 MNSSHP Day!
My youngest takes after me. We can't sleep in when we are at WDW! She and I were up early so we quietly left the other two in bed and explored around the resort. Of course, she was ready to explore the gift shop. We headed there first. Today was our MNSSHP day! Our plan was to get to MK a little before 4:00 pm. While we were at the gift shop we found some Halloween embellishments for our magic bands so we decided to make our first purchase. Once again our magic bands failed us. The CM told me I would have to go the front desk to get it fixed so we did. I scanned my band and was assured this would be the last time I would have a problem. Hmm…
We headed back to the room to get the other two up so we could all eat breakfast together before they started serving lunch. We all had a tasty breakfast. We love those Mickey waffles! We hung out in the room for a bit, and then decided to walk around the resort. We headed to the main pool to check it out and continued over to POFQ. My husband and I just love this resort! We wanted to stay at POFQ this time, but our youngest daughter convinced us we just had to see what the royal rooms were like at POR! While we were at POFQ, we took some pictures of the girls and the alligator band. We have some cute ones of when they were smaller and we stayed at this resort. We thought it would be cute to compare them once we got home. Our smallest daughter doesn’t remember what a beignet is so we just had to let her try one. We got four freshly made…super yummy! We also shared a cup of chicken gumbo, and it was really good too! We walked through the gift shop and traded some pins. The rest of our family was checking in at Fort Wilderness so we called them to see how that was going. It was decided we would all just meet up at MK around 4:00 pm. We took the boat back to our resort, and started to get ready for the Halloween party.
We had made my hubby a Mr. Potato Head shirt for his costume. We ironed felt on it to look like his face. I found him a black derby hat to wear at a costume store that was going out of business. He looked great! My daughters and myself were going as the three aliens that follow Mr. Potato Head around and say "we are eternally grateful." We were dressed in royal blue. We had green head bands on that we had attached three googly eyes to. My oldest daughter had made us pins to wear that look like the patches the aliens have on their shirts. They are actually planets that have pizza toppings on them. We didn't know they were actually "pizza planets" until we started researching them on the internet. I thought we looked pretty darn cute. We headed out to the bus stop. Our oldest daughter (age 15) was concerned we would be the only ones dressed up. She did not want to go this early. I was all about having the maximum time in the park. Our youngest daughter (age 9) was concerned no one would know what we were dressed up as.
Well, we were the only ones dressed up at the bus stop. I love the electronic monitor that told us the next bus would be there in 12 minutes! My oldest daughter was still a little embarrassed that we were in costume. In no time at all, another family came up all decked out as the Incredibles…red tights and all! We exchanged cameras and took family photos. I couldn't wait to get to MK! I had our ponchos, but was praying for no rain! I really wanted to see the headless horseman and the parade.
Once we were at MK, we were met with a rather large crowd going through security and getting their party bands. Thanks to a kind stranger who told us we had to be in a different line because we had paper passes, we got in less than 10 minutes! Once inside, we headed to the Emporium to get a Sorcerer's card that is only available during MNSSHP. We have never participated in a sorcerer's game, but we hope to do it next time we are in MK. After picking the card up, we headed to Tomorrowland to ride Astro Orbiter. Hubby had never ridden this ride, and the girls wanted him to experience the g-forces! ;-) We got a little sidetracked when we saw Buzz was out greeting guests. Since we were dressed as some of Buzz's friends, we decided to wait in line to see him. When we greeted him, he kept pointing to the souvenir kiosk that looks like the claw. Our nine year old was thrilled that at least Buzz knew who we were! We took our ride on the Astro Orbiter and walked over towards Fantasyland. We went under the sea with Ariel, and continued to Gaston's Tavern. There we got two Lafou's Brews and scored a table inside. There is not much seating here, and the people that were there didn't look like they were moving any time soon so we considered ourselves lucky. We chilled here for a little while. We then continued on to Frontierland where we rode Big Thunder Mountain two times in a row. The posted wait was about 30 minutes, but I think the actual wait time was about 20 minutes both times. It is tradition we eat at the Columbia Harbour House when we are in MK so we made our way over there. We even have a table we call our table. While hubby and I ordered, the girls went upstairs to see if they could snag our table. They got it! It was here that everyone started talking about how they missed their big brother not being with us. I tried to act sad too, but on the inside I knew he would be joining us tomorrow…
The party was beginning. We decided to walk towards the hub via Adventureland. CM's were making people hold up their arms to show their wristbands. We went through two trick-or-treat stations. The lines look long, but they move quickly. We wanted to ride PotC, but the ride was down. It stayed down for the entire night. Our extended family had texted us to tell us that they were trying to get down Main Street USA, but it was very crowded so we found a spot on a curb in the hub to wait for them. They were all dressed up as characters from Monsters University. My sister-in-law had made my brother-in-law a Mike shirt. She even gave him a retainer! My sister-in-law and nieces were three sorority girls from PNK, and my nephew-in-law was a member of Roar Omega Roar…the one with horns! They looked great! Once we all got together, we went to Tomorrowland and enjoyed the Laugh Floor and rode Buzz. We also hung out at the dance party a little and watched Mike and Sulley get their grooves on. At this point, our extended family was starving so some went to grab a table at Cosmic Ray's while the rest of us rode Space Mountain. After Space Mountain, the ones that hadn't eaten yet claimed the table at Cosmic Ray's and the rest of us went to ride the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. Right when our train ride started the fireworks began. It was really beautiful seeing them and riding the train together. After our ride, we watched the rest of the fireworks and waited for the rest of our family to catch up. We headed over to Frontierland to stake a spot out to watch the parade. I did not want us to miss the headless horseman! Some of us staked out a spot on the curb while some of us sat on the steps of the front porch of the gift shop there. I went through the shortcut to Adventureland and surprised the girls with their very own Dole Whips! The person in front of me asked the CM what was in a Dole Whip. His answer was ice cream. She asked him what exactly was a Dole Whip. He said ice cream again. What we have here is a failure to communicate. I stepped in and told her that I wasn't sure if was ice cream or not, but that it was frozen and it tastes like pineapple. She was okay with that explanation and she ordered one! How could the CM working there not know what to say to someone when they ask what a Dole Whip is!
Back to the curb…as we were waiting for the parade to start, the Cadaver Dans stood right in front of us and sang the Haunted Mansion song. They did an awesome job! I videotaped them on my phone, and now when I need a Disney fix, I watch them!
The headless horseman made his appearance and the parade was super! I especially enjoyed the Haunted Mansion dancers!
After the parade, some of us rode the Haunted Mansion. Madame Carlotta was not out. We were the last group that was allowed to go in. When we got out, the photopass people had already closed their line off, but I asked the CM if she could sneak us in the line. She was very polite and let us in. We got a picture by the carriage with the effect of the ghost driving it. Some of us hurried to the hub to get a spot to watch the last Hocus Pocus show of the evening. Some of us, just strolled through Adventureland and found a spot on the bridge there to hang out until after the show. After the show, we had a group picture made on Main Street USA, and we shopped in the Emporium. I had heard of a book that was in there that was made to look like the potion book from the movie Hocus Pocus. My sister-in-law loves that movie so I asked a CM about it. She said that a mother of one of the CM's actually made it, and that it is not "officially" Disney, but she would see if it was still there. She was gone for awhile, and we joked that she was really just hiding in the back hoping we would leave! She finally appeared with the book, and my sister-in-law and nieces fussed over how great it looked. I am not familiar with the movie so I told them I would take their picture with it. We left the park at 1:02 am. We went back to POR, and the extended family went back to Fort Wilderness.
I really enjoyed the party. I would love to do it again! Just the vibe of being there during a special event was really great! Chances of rain were 50%, but one drop didn't even fall. It was a super night!
October 10, 2015 Surprise Day!
We woke up around 9:00 am this morning got our stuff together and took our bags to bell services so they could take them to Art of Animation for us. It was moving day! We ate breakfast at Port Orleans and took the first bus that came to the bus stop. It was a MK bus. Once we got to MK, we took a boat to Fort Wilderness. The plan for today was to hang out with our family at the campsite, enjoy some college football on the big screen and eat some bar-b-que! My son's plane was supposed to land at noon so I thought we should see him around 2:00 pm. I couldn't wait to see everyone's reaction! My sister-in-law (the one with the camper) knew he was coming because I put him on her reservation. She had told her whole family. My other sister-in-law and brother-in-law did not know. They had come up from Port St. Lucie for the day to hang out with us. We all just hung out and watched college football snacking and taking turns napping for the day. My son had been texting me throughout the day and giving me updates about where he was. At about 2:30 pm, I noticed my sister-in-law had quietly left on the golf cart. I was hoping that meant she was picking up my son from the front. She returned without him. Hmm…after a few minutes he walked around the corner of the camper and asked who was winning the game. My husband was actually speechless. He couldn't believe it. My youngest daughter started jumping up and down. My oldest daughter turned red and just gave him a big hug when she saw him. It was a great surprise! My husband said it was the best surprise he had ever had! We spent the rest of the day still just hanging out. At one point, my husband and I went over to Art of Animation (brother-in-law let us borrow his truck). We got a text saying our room was ready. We got our room request. We wanted in the building with Ursula. My husband teases my daughters that she is his favorite princess. Before we went to our room, we went by the front desk just to make sure our magic bands would work at this resort. We explained to the CM that we had experienced a few glitches. She got out a device that looks like a cell phone and scanned our bands and told us she had added some extra pixie dust. We went to our room and waited on the luggage and took some pictures before we made a mess.
We headed back to Fort Wilderness. After supper, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law left to go back to Port St. Lucie. My husband, youngest daughter and myself took the first bus that came. It was a Hollywood Studios bus and we got off there and caught a bus to Art of Animation. My two oldest went to Disney Springs to enjoy Disney Quest one last time before they shut it down. We let our youngest swim in the Big Blue Pool. We didn't know we were supposed to bring towels from our room. The water was quite chilly, but she worked through it to finally go under. She wanted to see if she could hear Nemo. She said she didn't hear him, but she did hear music. We ordered a pizza to go and ate some of it poolside. They closed the pool at 10:00 and we were forced out. I went into the gift shop and bought a Mickey beach towel so she wouldn't freeze going back to the room all wet. Who doesn't need another Mickey beach towel, right? The two oldest got back around midnight. We had saved them some pizza, only to find out they had taken a pit stop at the Cuban restaurant in Disney Springs. They said the food wasn't really that good so they each had a piece of pizza! My sister-in-law came over to pick up my son. He was staying at the campsite so he could have a bed to sleep in! Our goal was to meet at Epcot at rope drop in the morning for my family's first time at the Food and Wine Festival!
October 11, 2015 Epcot Food and Wine Festival!
I woke up to a wake-up call from Baymax from Big Hero 6. We got to Epcot at about 9:15. We headed straight for Soarin'. The wait time was 40 minutes. There was a mom behind us that kept crowding us in line. She kept invading our space. She kept encouraging her family to get as close to us as they could. My husband finally told her that standing that close did not speed the line up. She said it was just better for everyone if we crowded in because it made the wait time faster. Huh? At least after my husband said something to her, she quit hanging out in our space. We have never ridden stand-by on this ride so we got to "interact" with the big screen games they play to keep you entertained while waiting. We chatted with a really nice CM before we saw the pre-board video. They had miscounted and we were in pre-loading before we were supposed to be. Her goal after college graduation is to run Castaway Cay. You go girl! While we were in line, my son kept texting me to say no one was awake at the camper. I told him to grab some breakfast and head on over to Epcot and meet us at the exit of Soarin'. He did just that, but instead of being at the exit, he was in Sunshine Seasons eating some breakfast. He is a bottomless pit. If there is food to be had, he is going to have it!
We then proceeded to our first fast pass for the day: Test Track. This was the only fast pass we actually made it to. We did girls vs. guys. The girls' car was faster, but the boys' car was more efficient. This would be the only fast pass we actually used. We headed to the Food and Wine Festival Center to pick up a passport. I thought you had to get them there, but in reality we saw them throughout the festival. We decided to come back and look around later. Uh, that never happened.
We headed to World Showcase. We stopped at the Port of Entry gift shop and let my youngest daughter pick up Remy's Ratatouille Hide and Squeak placemat. We also talked her into going ahead and picking out her "completion" pin now instead of later. We headed towards Canada to start our munching trip around the world. We had looked at the menus ahead of time and sort of planned which kiosks we wanted to stop and try. The Canadian booth was high on the list. We ordered one of every entre they served. All were very yummy! We continued to eat until we made it to the American Pavilion. I wanted to check out the Chase Visa Lounge. I thought you had to go in there to get wristbands to be able to reserve a special spot to watch Illuminations, but I was wrong. You only have to go in there to get wristbands for special seating for the Eat the Beat music sessions. The CM told us, you just go to the special Illuminations viewing area about 30 minutes before Illuminations is to start and show them your Disney Chase Visa to be admitted. We hung out in the lounge for a bit as our extended family had texted to say they were entering the park. We enjoyed the free soft drinks and soaked up some air conditioning. Once our extended family was in "America" we met them outside by the fountain and continued around the world. Our extended family wanted to head to Germany so we all headed over there. We hung out here for awhile and enjoyed each others' company and the food, beer and wine! We continued around World Showcase stopping when someone wanted to try something. We took some time to look in some shops that we hadn't visited in some time. My son wanted to check out the Pokemon offerings so we spent some time in Japan. He bought himself a hat. I teased him about being in college, but still liking his Pokemon characters. We also spent some extended time in Italy and China. The entire family enjoyed helping the youngest find Remy in all the countries. Once we made it to Mexico, we just had to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour. The line was all the way out into the restaurant! I have never seen it that long, but it continually moved so it wasn't so bad. We all decided to ride Spaceship Earth. The line for that was the longest I have ever seen it, but it seemed to be about a 30 minute wait…not sure what it was posted. My family decided to go get our free Disney Visa picture made, and I am not sure what my extended family did during that time except at this time, my niece and her husband left because they had a long drive in front of them. There is nothing left in that building but the Disney Visa picture op. They were handing out wine glasses to AP holders that commemorated the 20th Food and Wine Festival. The line for that was insane. Lots of crying babies. We had to wait about 20 minutes to get in to have or picture taken. We got to meet Mickey and Goofy. When we got out the line for the picture was very long!
Once we were out of there, we met up with the family again. We headed over to Canada for trip number two around World Showcase. This time we continued to eat our way around and we spent time an extended time in Morocco and China. It was here that my son met a young lady in line at one of the food booths…seems she likes Pokemon too. She made a comment she liked his hat, and just like that he had a new friend. ;-) He now teases me that his hat was a great purchase!
Food Booths we (my immediate family) tried: Brazil *, Canada*, Dominican Republic, Germany, Japan, Poland*, South Korea
*denotes our favorites…only disappointment was the Apple Strudel from Germany
We finished finding Remy in some countries that we had missed the first time around. We needed a clue from the CM in Italy to see where he was hiding out! We timed it so we got a table overlooking the water in Mexico so we could watch Illuminations. We were too tired to make it back over to Italy. We haven't sat and watched Illuminations since our very first visit in 2001 so it was a real treat for me to get to see it again. We usually are walking out of the park when it is going on, or we watch it from the Boardwalk. Before it started, I went to the Camera Center to pick out our free picture so I wouldn't have to fight the crowd at closing. My other niece and her boyfriend walked over that way since they had to leave because they also had a long drive home.
While I was in the Camera Center, the family that was in line behind us was in there too. The mom was upset because she had lost her voucher for the free picture. I told her to go with me through the line and maybe since we were together in line they could find her pictures by using my number. We told the CM her situation and he told her no problem. He could look them up with her magic band. I was glad for her!
When I got back to the table, there were nachos and a margarita waiting on me. Wow! That was sweet! I was too full for the nachos, but I shared the drink with my hubby. The show was fabulous! We took time on our way out of the park to dance on the twinkly sidewalks and look up my two oldest picture on the Leave a Legacy display. We couldn't remember where they were so I had to go back to the Camera Center to have them look it up for me. I swear they moved them because I seriously don't remember their picture being on the very first one! Haha!
We headed back to the buses, and my son went with my sister and brother-in-law back to their camper.
Another great day at WDW!
October 12, 2015 Going Home Day!
The plan for today is there really is no plan! We have to meet DME at 2:30 pm. There was no wake up call this morning. We got our stuff together and took our luggage to the DME location. We went to the food court and got a little something to eat. We were still full from yesterday! At 11:00 am, we went to the animation lesson. There is an area right by the check-in stations where they have animation lessons at 11:00 am, 2:00 pm, and 5:00 pm. We got to try our hands at drawing Simba. We were excited to be able to do this since they have discontinued this attraction at Hollywood Studios. It really is a nice quiet family activity while you are WDW, and it makes for a great souvenir! After the class, we went back to the food court. Hubby and my oldest daughter played on their phones, while I took the youngest to the gift shop to look around. My son eventually made it over from Fort Wilderness, and you guessed it…he was hungry! The detail in the food court at AoA is really special. Each section is themed after the movies that the resort highlights. This time we sat in the Lion King section. We headed back over to the 2:00 pm animation class. My son wanted to participate in one too. This time we got to draw the Genie from Aladdin. After we were finished, it was time to head out to the DME bus stop. We had a great bus driver that really interacted by making jokes before he had to start the good-bye video. He made the sad ride to reality a little bit happier! ;-) MCO’s security lines were really long, but we made it through and settled into the waiting game at the gate. Our ride home was pleasant, and it was cool for the kids to see how it was to land after dark. Home Sweet Home!
Thoughts from this trip:
I loved MNSSHP! I love the decorations, parade, and getting to be in costume in Magic Kingdom!
I loved the Food and Wine Festival! I am upset that we didn’t go back and explore the festival center, but I guess I will just have to go back again! ;-)
I loved the Royal rooms at Port Orleans-Riverside! If you have a princess or you are one, you should stay at least one time!
I have stayed at Pop Century, All-Star Music, All-Star Movies, and now Art of Animation. If you go the value route on your resort, Art of Animation is the way to go. The theming is great! The pool is great! The food court is great!
I loved being able to have my son join us on our trip…couldn’t imagine being there without him!
I still love those twinkly sidewalks at Epcot!
Thanks for reading!
October 8-12, 2015
Another trip to WDW for our family, but this one is packed full of first time experiences and one big surprise!
Cast of Characters: My immediate family (DH, myself, DS-18, DD-15, and DD-9)
Extended Family (Sister-in-Law, Brother-in-Law, Niece and Boyfriend, Niece and husband staying at campground. Sister-in-law and Brother-in-Law visiting for our lazy day at the campground)
Back Story:
We have been going to WDW as a family since 2001, but this trip would be our first trip without our oldest child. He started college this fall, and he just wouldn't be able to join us. At least that is what the rest of my family thought…I couldn't believe that my daughters were actually getting a long weekend in October off from school and that it actually coincided with my son's college fall break. The wheels started turning…
Well, I received a WDW discount pin code in my inbox and the rest is history! I have always wanted to go to WDW in October and enjoy a MNSSHP and the Food Wine Festival so without hesitation I started planning the trip!
I booked two nights at POR princess room using the discount code and two nights at AoA Little Mermaid room. I also booked three nights at Fort Wilderness Campground for our extended family that lives in Florida and convinced them they needed a little Disney fix too! I hid my son's arrival in their reservations and asked the CM not to send any e-mails to our house so as not to ruin my surprise! I booked airfare for us all and secured DME transportation. I added one day park passes in time to make fast pass reservations at the earliest date possible for our Epcot day. I bought our MNSSHP passes and then did the agonizing wait until the trip!
October 8, 2015 Arrival Day!
Hubby came home early from work. We picked up the girls early from school. My dad had graciously offered to drop us off at the airport. Slow day at the airport…We were the only ones going through security. No issues there. We got to our gate and decided to eat a little snack at the grill there. We shared some nachos and queso and a few chicken tacos. We had a great flight into MCO. We could see the flooding in South Carolina from the plane, and said a little prayer for all that were impacted with the weather. Our plane landed on time at 6:30 pm, and we were off to ride the "monorail" to catch the DME bus. When we arrived at DME, we got out our colored magic bands that we had picked out for this trip, only to find out that they weren't linked. This was confusing to me as I thought I had done all this at home. They had also sent us a set of gray ones. I had those packed in our suitcases. The CM explained to me that we should be using the gray ones. Huh? I thought we could use any of our magic bands, but he said no. He made us wait until he printed out paper boarding passes for DME. Strange! More on this later! Once on the bus, our bus driver announced we would be stopping at Old Key West resort, Saratoga Springs resort, Port Orleans French Quarter resort and then finally our resort, Port Orleans Riverside. We enjoyed the Disney propaganda movie and the trip really didn't seem that long. We received a text that our room was ready…#9090 Oak Manor. When we arrived at the resort, we went to online check-in to pick up our packet. I explained to him the confusion with our magic bands at DME, and he said the previous CM was incorrect about our magic bands. He could have done something to fix our bands and that any bands that we have in our names can work…even the ones from previous trips. He also had another set of gray ones for us with our luggage tags. Disney really loves to give away those magic bands! I reset my pin code. We sang along with Bob Jackson for a song, and then we were off! The girls (and me) were excited to see our princess room! We were on the first floor of our building facing a quiet pool. It was a beautiful room and we just loved all the details. We took lots of pictures! We headed to the food court for another "snack." We had purchased some gift cards ahead of time and used these to pay for our food. We bought two refillable mugs as hubby and oldest daughter are soft drink drinkers. I don't remember what everyone else had, but my flatbread was terrible. It was very soggy and cold. We also find this food court to be loud, especially when the CM's lead a parade around the restaurant with the smaller kids shaking tambourines and beating sticks. We ate fast and went back to enjoy the peace and quiet of our beautifully royal room! We had packed a carry on with our swimsuits, but decided we were content hanging in our room watching the fireworks above our heads! Our room was a quick walk over the bridge to the main building. It really was a great location. Bell services brought our luggage to our room a little before 10:00 pm. As soon as they came, we got into our jammies and went to bed. Well, first I decorated our window for Halloween. The orange lights were the perfect night light! Our room didn't seem to have any soundproofing as we could hear lots of toilets flushing and mechanical noises.
October 9, 2015 MNSSHP Day!
My youngest takes after me. We can't sleep in when we are at WDW! She and I were up early so we quietly left the other two in bed and explored around the resort. Of course, she was ready to explore the gift shop. We headed there first. Today was our MNSSHP day! Our plan was to get to MK a little before 4:00 pm. While we were at the gift shop we found some Halloween embellishments for our magic bands so we decided to make our first purchase. Once again our magic bands failed us. The CM told me I would have to go the front desk to get it fixed so we did. I scanned my band and was assured this would be the last time I would have a problem. Hmm…
We headed back to the room to get the other two up so we could all eat breakfast together before they started serving lunch. We all had a tasty breakfast. We love those Mickey waffles! We hung out in the room for a bit, and then decided to walk around the resort. We headed to the main pool to check it out and continued over to POFQ. My husband and I just love this resort! We wanted to stay at POFQ this time, but our youngest daughter convinced us we just had to see what the royal rooms were like at POR! While we were at POFQ, we took some pictures of the girls and the alligator band. We have some cute ones of when they were smaller and we stayed at this resort. We thought it would be cute to compare them once we got home. Our smallest daughter doesn’t remember what a beignet is so we just had to let her try one. We got four freshly made…super yummy! We also shared a cup of chicken gumbo, and it was really good too! We walked through the gift shop and traded some pins. The rest of our family was checking in at Fort Wilderness so we called them to see how that was going. It was decided we would all just meet up at MK around 4:00 pm. We took the boat back to our resort, and started to get ready for the Halloween party.
We had made my hubby a Mr. Potato Head shirt for his costume. We ironed felt on it to look like his face. I found him a black derby hat to wear at a costume store that was going out of business. He looked great! My daughters and myself were going as the three aliens that follow Mr. Potato Head around and say "we are eternally grateful." We were dressed in royal blue. We had green head bands on that we had attached three googly eyes to. My oldest daughter had made us pins to wear that look like the patches the aliens have on their shirts. They are actually planets that have pizza toppings on them. We didn't know they were actually "pizza planets" until we started researching them on the internet. I thought we looked pretty darn cute. We headed out to the bus stop. Our oldest daughter (age 15) was concerned we would be the only ones dressed up. She did not want to go this early. I was all about having the maximum time in the park. Our youngest daughter (age 9) was concerned no one would know what we were dressed up as.
Well, we were the only ones dressed up at the bus stop. I love the electronic monitor that told us the next bus would be there in 12 minutes! My oldest daughter was still a little embarrassed that we were in costume. In no time at all, another family came up all decked out as the Incredibles…red tights and all! We exchanged cameras and took family photos. I couldn't wait to get to MK! I had our ponchos, but was praying for no rain! I really wanted to see the headless horseman and the parade.
Once we were at MK, we were met with a rather large crowd going through security and getting their party bands. Thanks to a kind stranger who told us we had to be in a different line because we had paper passes, we got in less than 10 minutes! Once inside, we headed to the Emporium to get a Sorcerer's card that is only available during MNSSHP. We have never participated in a sorcerer's game, but we hope to do it next time we are in MK. After picking the card up, we headed to Tomorrowland to ride Astro Orbiter. Hubby had never ridden this ride, and the girls wanted him to experience the g-forces! ;-) We got a little sidetracked when we saw Buzz was out greeting guests. Since we were dressed as some of Buzz's friends, we decided to wait in line to see him. When we greeted him, he kept pointing to the souvenir kiosk that looks like the claw. Our nine year old was thrilled that at least Buzz knew who we were! We took our ride on the Astro Orbiter and walked over towards Fantasyland. We went under the sea with Ariel, and continued to Gaston's Tavern. There we got two Lafou's Brews and scored a table inside. There is not much seating here, and the people that were there didn't look like they were moving any time soon so we considered ourselves lucky. We chilled here for a little while. We then continued on to Frontierland where we rode Big Thunder Mountain two times in a row. The posted wait was about 30 minutes, but I think the actual wait time was about 20 minutes both times. It is tradition we eat at the Columbia Harbour House when we are in MK so we made our way over there. We even have a table we call our table. While hubby and I ordered, the girls went upstairs to see if they could snag our table. They got it! It was here that everyone started talking about how they missed their big brother not being with us. I tried to act sad too, but on the inside I knew he would be joining us tomorrow…
The party was beginning. We decided to walk towards the hub via Adventureland. CM's were making people hold up their arms to show their wristbands. We went through two trick-or-treat stations. The lines look long, but they move quickly. We wanted to ride PotC, but the ride was down. It stayed down for the entire night. Our extended family had texted us to tell us that they were trying to get down Main Street USA, but it was very crowded so we found a spot on a curb in the hub to wait for them. They were all dressed up as characters from Monsters University. My sister-in-law had made my brother-in-law a Mike shirt. She even gave him a retainer! My sister-in-law and nieces were three sorority girls from PNK, and my nephew-in-law was a member of Roar Omega Roar…the one with horns! They looked great! Once we all got together, we went to Tomorrowland and enjoyed the Laugh Floor and rode Buzz. We also hung out at the dance party a little and watched Mike and Sulley get their grooves on. At this point, our extended family was starving so some went to grab a table at Cosmic Ray's while the rest of us rode Space Mountain. After Space Mountain, the ones that hadn't eaten yet claimed the table at Cosmic Ray's and the rest of us went to ride the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train. Right when our train ride started the fireworks began. It was really beautiful seeing them and riding the train together. After our ride, we watched the rest of the fireworks and waited for the rest of our family to catch up. We headed over to Frontierland to stake a spot out to watch the parade. I did not want us to miss the headless horseman! Some of us staked out a spot on the curb while some of us sat on the steps of the front porch of the gift shop there. I went through the shortcut to Adventureland and surprised the girls with their very own Dole Whips! The person in front of me asked the CM what was in a Dole Whip. His answer was ice cream. She asked him what exactly was a Dole Whip. He said ice cream again. What we have here is a failure to communicate. I stepped in and told her that I wasn't sure if was ice cream or not, but that it was frozen and it tastes like pineapple. She was okay with that explanation and she ordered one! How could the CM working there not know what to say to someone when they ask what a Dole Whip is!
Back to the curb…as we were waiting for the parade to start, the Cadaver Dans stood right in front of us and sang the Haunted Mansion song. They did an awesome job! I videotaped them on my phone, and now when I need a Disney fix, I watch them!
The headless horseman made his appearance and the parade was super! I especially enjoyed the Haunted Mansion dancers!
After the parade, some of us rode the Haunted Mansion. Madame Carlotta was not out. We were the last group that was allowed to go in. When we got out, the photopass people had already closed their line off, but I asked the CM if she could sneak us in the line. She was very polite and let us in. We got a picture by the carriage with the effect of the ghost driving it. Some of us hurried to the hub to get a spot to watch the last Hocus Pocus show of the evening. Some of us, just strolled through Adventureland and found a spot on the bridge there to hang out until after the show. After the show, we had a group picture made on Main Street USA, and we shopped in the Emporium. I had heard of a book that was in there that was made to look like the potion book from the movie Hocus Pocus. My sister-in-law loves that movie so I asked a CM about it. She said that a mother of one of the CM's actually made it, and that it is not "officially" Disney, but she would see if it was still there. She was gone for awhile, and we joked that she was really just hiding in the back hoping we would leave! She finally appeared with the book, and my sister-in-law and nieces fussed over how great it looked. I am not familiar with the movie so I told them I would take their picture with it. We left the park at 1:02 am. We went back to POR, and the extended family went back to Fort Wilderness.
I really enjoyed the party. I would love to do it again! Just the vibe of being there during a special event was really great! Chances of rain were 50%, but one drop didn't even fall. It was a super night!
October 10, 2015 Surprise Day!
We woke up around 9:00 am this morning got our stuff together and took our bags to bell services so they could take them to Art of Animation for us. It was moving day! We ate breakfast at Port Orleans and took the first bus that came to the bus stop. It was a MK bus. Once we got to MK, we took a boat to Fort Wilderness. The plan for today was to hang out with our family at the campsite, enjoy some college football on the big screen and eat some bar-b-que! My son's plane was supposed to land at noon so I thought we should see him around 2:00 pm. I couldn't wait to see everyone's reaction! My sister-in-law (the one with the camper) knew he was coming because I put him on her reservation. She had told her whole family. My other sister-in-law and brother-in-law did not know. They had come up from Port St. Lucie for the day to hang out with us. We all just hung out and watched college football snacking and taking turns napping for the day. My son had been texting me throughout the day and giving me updates about where he was. At about 2:30 pm, I noticed my sister-in-law had quietly left on the golf cart. I was hoping that meant she was picking up my son from the front. She returned without him. Hmm…after a few minutes he walked around the corner of the camper and asked who was winning the game. My husband was actually speechless. He couldn't believe it. My youngest daughter started jumping up and down. My oldest daughter turned red and just gave him a big hug when she saw him. It was a great surprise! My husband said it was the best surprise he had ever had! We spent the rest of the day still just hanging out. At one point, my husband and I went over to Art of Animation (brother-in-law let us borrow his truck). We got a text saying our room was ready. We got our room request. We wanted in the building with Ursula. My husband teases my daughters that she is his favorite princess. Before we went to our room, we went by the front desk just to make sure our magic bands would work at this resort. We explained to the CM that we had experienced a few glitches. She got out a device that looks like a cell phone and scanned our bands and told us she had added some extra pixie dust. We went to our room and waited on the luggage and took some pictures before we made a mess.
We headed back to Fort Wilderness. After supper, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law left to go back to Port St. Lucie. My husband, youngest daughter and myself took the first bus that came. It was a Hollywood Studios bus and we got off there and caught a bus to Art of Animation. My two oldest went to Disney Springs to enjoy Disney Quest one last time before they shut it down. We let our youngest swim in the Big Blue Pool. We didn't know we were supposed to bring towels from our room. The water was quite chilly, but she worked through it to finally go under. She wanted to see if she could hear Nemo. She said she didn't hear him, but she did hear music. We ordered a pizza to go and ate some of it poolside. They closed the pool at 10:00 and we were forced out. I went into the gift shop and bought a Mickey beach towel so she wouldn't freeze going back to the room all wet. Who doesn't need another Mickey beach towel, right? The two oldest got back around midnight. We had saved them some pizza, only to find out they had taken a pit stop at the Cuban restaurant in Disney Springs. They said the food wasn't really that good so they each had a piece of pizza! My sister-in-law came over to pick up my son. He was staying at the campsite so he could have a bed to sleep in! Our goal was to meet at Epcot at rope drop in the morning for my family's first time at the Food and Wine Festival!
October 11, 2015 Epcot Food and Wine Festival!
I woke up to a wake-up call from Baymax from Big Hero 6. We got to Epcot at about 9:15. We headed straight for Soarin'. The wait time was 40 minutes. There was a mom behind us that kept crowding us in line. She kept invading our space. She kept encouraging her family to get as close to us as they could. My husband finally told her that standing that close did not speed the line up. She said it was just better for everyone if we crowded in because it made the wait time faster. Huh? At least after my husband said something to her, she quit hanging out in our space. We have never ridden stand-by on this ride so we got to "interact" with the big screen games they play to keep you entertained while waiting. We chatted with a really nice CM before we saw the pre-board video. They had miscounted and we were in pre-loading before we were supposed to be. Her goal after college graduation is to run Castaway Cay. You go girl! While we were in line, my son kept texting me to say no one was awake at the camper. I told him to grab some breakfast and head on over to Epcot and meet us at the exit of Soarin'. He did just that, but instead of being at the exit, he was in Sunshine Seasons eating some breakfast. He is a bottomless pit. If there is food to be had, he is going to have it!
We then proceeded to our first fast pass for the day: Test Track. This was the only fast pass we actually made it to. We did girls vs. guys. The girls' car was faster, but the boys' car was more efficient. This would be the only fast pass we actually used. We headed to the Food and Wine Festival Center to pick up a passport. I thought you had to get them there, but in reality we saw them throughout the festival. We decided to come back and look around later. Uh, that never happened.
We headed to World Showcase. We stopped at the Port of Entry gift shop and let my youngest daughter pick up Remy's Ratatouille Hide and Squeak placemat. We also talked her into going ahead and picking out her "completion" pin now instead of later. We headed towards Canada to start our munching trip around the world. We had looked at the menus ahead of time and sort of planned which kiosks we wanted to stop and try. The Canadian booth was high on the list. We ordered one of every entre they served. All were very yummy! We continued to eat until we made it to the American Pavilion. I wanted to check out the Chase Visa Lounge. I thought you had to go in there to get wristbands to be able to reserve a special spot to watch Illuminations, but I was wrong. You only have to go in there to get wristbands for special seating for the Eat the Beat music sessions. The CM told us, you just go to the special Illuminations viewing area about 30 minutes before Illuminations is to start and show them your Disney Chase Visa to be admitted. We hung out in the lounge for a bit as our extended family had texted to say they were entering the park. We enjoyed the free soft drinks and soaked up some air conditioning. Once our extended family was in "America" we met them outside by the fountain and continued around the world. Our extended family wanted to head to Germany so we all headed over there. We hung out here for awhile and enjoyed each others' company and the food, beer and wine! We continued around World Showcase stopping when someone wanted to try something. We took some time to look in some shops that we hadn't visited in some time. My son wanted to check out the Pokemon offerings so we spent some time in Japan. He bought himself a hat. I teased him about being in college, but still liking his Pokemon characters. We also spent some extended time in Italy and China. The entire family enjoyed helping the youngest find Remy in all the countries. Once we made it to Mexico, we just had to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour. The line was all the way out into the restaurant! I have never seen it that long, but it continually moved so it wasn't so bad. We all decided to ride Spaceship Earth. The line for that was the longest I have ever seen it, but it seemed to be about a 30 minute wait…not sure what it was posted. My family decided to go get our free Disney Visa picture made, and I am not sure what my extended family did during that time except at this time, my niece and her husband left because they had a long drive in front of them. There is nothing left in that building but the Disney Visa picture op. They were handing out wine glasses to AP holders that commemorated the 20th Food and Wine Festival. The line for that was insane. Lots of crying babies. We had to wait about 20 minutes to get in to have or picture taken. We got to meet Mickey and Goofy. When we got out the line for the picture was very long!
Once we were out of there, we met up with the family again. We headed over to Canada for trip number two around World Showcase. This time we continued to eat our way around and we spent time an extended time in Morocco and China. It was here that my son met a young lady in line at one of the food booths…seems she likes Pokemon too. She made a comment she liked his hat, and just like that he had a new friend. ;-) He now teases me that his hat was a great purchase!
Food Booths we (my immediate family) tried: Brazil *, Canada*, Dominican Republic, Germany, Japan, Poland*, South Korea
*denotes our favorites…only disappointment was the Apple Strudel from Germany
We finished finding Remy in some countries that we had missed the first time around. We needed a clue from the CM in Italy to see where he was hiding out! We timed it so we got a table overlooking the water in Mexico so we could watch Illuminations. We were too tired to make it back over to Italy. We haven't sat and watched Illuminations since our very first visit in 2001 so it was a real treat for me to get to see it again. We usually are walking out of the park when it is going on, or we watch it from the Boardwalk. Before it started, I went to the Camera Center to pick out our free picture so I wouldn't have to fight the crowd at closing. My other niece and her boyfriend walked over that way since they had to leave because they also had a long drive home.
While I was in the Camera Center, the family that was in line behind us was in there too. The mom was upset because she had lost her voucher for the free picture. I told her to go with me through the line and maybe since we were together in line they could find her pictures by using my number. We told the CM her situation and he told her no problem. He could look them up with her magic band. I was glad for her!
When I got back to the table, there were nachos and a margarita waiting on me. Wow! That was sweet! I was too full for the nachos, but I shared the drink with my hubby. The show was fabulous! We took time on our way out of the park to dance on the twinkly sidewalks and look up my two oldest picture on the Leave a Legacy display. We couldn't remember where they were so I had to go back to the Camera Center to have them look it up for me. I swear they moved them because I seriously don't remember their picture being on the very first one! Haha!
We headed back to the buses, and my son went with my sister and brother-in-law back to their camper.
Another great day at WDW!
October 12, 2015 Going Home Day!
The plan for today is there really is no plan! We have to meet DME at 2:30 pm. There was no wake up call this morning. We got our stuff together and took our luggage to the DME location. We went to the food court and got a little something to eat. We were still full from yesterday! At 11:00 am, we went to the animation lesson. There is an area right by the check-in stations where they have animation lessons at 11:00 am, 2:00 pm, and 5:00 pm. We got to try our hands at drawing Simba. We were excited to be able to do this since they have discontinued this attraction at Hollywood Studios. It really is a nice quiet family activity while you are WDW, and it makes for a great souvenir! After the class, we went back to the food court. Hubby and my oldest daughter played on their phones, while I took the youngest to the gift shop to look around. My son eventually made it over from Fort Wilderness, and you guessed it…he was hungry! The detail in the food court at AoA is really special. Each section is themed after the movies that the resort highlights. This time we sat in the Lion King section. We headed back over to the 2:00 pm animation class. My son wanted to participate in one too. This time we got to draw the Genie from Aladdin. After we were finished, it was time to head out to the DME bus stop. We had a great bus driver that really interacted by making jokes before he had to start the good-bye video. He made the sad ride to reality a little bit happier! ;-) MCO’s security lines were really long, but we made it through and settled into the waiting game at the gate. Our ride home was pleasant, and it was cool for the kids to see how it was to land after dark. Home Sweet Home!
Thoughts from this trip:
I loved MNSSHP! I love the decorations, parade, and getting to be in costume in Magic Kingdom!
I loved the Food and Wine Festival! I am upset that we didn’t go back and explore the festival center, but I guess I will just have to go back again! ;-)
I loved the Royal rooms at Port Orleans-Riverside! If you have a princess or you are one, you should stay at least one time!
I have stayed at Pop Century, All-Star Music, All-Star Movies, and now Art of Animation. If you go the value route on your resort, Art of Animation is the way to go. The theming is great! The pool is great! The food court is great!
I loved being able to have my son join us on our trip…couldn’t imagine being there without him!
I still love those twinkly sidewalks at Epcot!
Thanks for reading!