Trip Report *DONE!* Take a dash of Food & Wine, a 30th birthday, some crayons, a 10 mile run and what do ya get?

.. A Tower of Terror 10 miler trip report of course!!! :)

Aloha boys and girls and welcome to my fall 2012 trip report!! I’ve decided to stop the trend of losing my vacation pictures starting with this TR. If you read my last 2 trip reports (well, one and a half since my May TR still isn’t finished… oops!!) you know that my sister accidentally deleted the last day of pictures after our November 2011 trip which included our Crystal Palace character breakfast, meet and greets with Aladdin, Jasmine, Davy Crockett Donald as well as a couple others.. Then while in the process of writing my May 2012 TR I lost my memory card and only the first 2 days worth of photos were saved :( Obviously, I don’t have good luck with vacation photos. HOWEVER - When I got home this time, I immediately saved them to my sister’s external hard drive and put the memory card in a safe place. We also ordered the Photopass CD and I took over 1300 pictures so needless to say this will be a picture infused trip report for sure!

If you’d like to read my PTR, you can find it here:
http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/...-crazy-a-tower-of-terror-10-miler-ptr.848349/

At first it was just going to be a long weekend trip to run our first Disney race: The Tower of Terror 10 Miler. Yes, you read that right. 10 miles! And I’m not a runner by any means but my sister and I signed up for the race in February. Clearly we are just crazy. Or we were just cold up here in snowy, frigid Maine and the thought of getting out of Maine for any reason seemed appealing at the time, even if it meant running (or fast walking) 10 miles. Training didn’t go as well as we had hoped and there were times we thought of dropping out cause let’s be real here, 10 miles is no short distance. The longest run I put in before the race was 5 miles. My hip acted up here and there and it hurt me to run sometimes. But we decided to give it a shot. The worst that could happen? We get swept but at least we could say we tried it. Besides, my gal pals Jess, Courtney and Shelley (@PartOfYourWorld @enchanted_belle and @Fashionista007 respectively) were going to be running as well. So I had some motivational support right there. I’m sure by now you’re probably wondering… Did I finish the race? You’ll have to read all about it to find out!! So who’s with me? Alright then… let’s get this thing rolling!!

Monday September 24 – Arrival day and our trial of Fast Pass Plus!
My alarm went off bright and early on Monday morning. Actually, it was more like dark and early since it was 3:20am. Mom and my grandmother would be there at 4am sharp to pick me up for our 1 mile commute to the airport. Our flight was at 5:40am and after researching the outgoing flights that morning and finding that 6 flights were leaving within 30 minutes of each other at our small little jetport, I decided we should be there by 4:15. That would give us a solid hour and a half before our flight to check our bag, get through security and maybe grab some breakfast. A little before 4, I let my pup Luca out and gave him lots of kisses as I would miss dearly while I was gone. I mean who wouldn’t miss this face?!

luca-1.jpg


Mom and Grams showed up and we loaded my stuff into the car and we were on our way (I should mention here that Ashley would not be flying in until Wednesday evening due to her not being able to get as much time off from work) I had already checked us in for our flight with AirTran so all we had to do was check our one bag, print our boarding pass and get through the security line…. Only there were no lines. No line to check the bag and maybe 3 people ahead of us at security. And here I thought the line would be huge with so many people traveling early. Oh well. Better safe than sorry. We had an hour and 15 minutes to kill so I grabbed a magazine and read.

It was still dark out when we took off and we made it to Baltimore without issues. We landed in BWI at 7:10 so we had about an hour or so before the next leg of the trip so I went and got us some Jamba Juice. Mmm….. yummy!!

When we went to board the plane to Orlando, the ticket lady scanned my ticket and then she told me that our seats had been changed. She handed me and my Mom new boarding passes and told us “Here sit in these 2 seats. They’re in business class” A free upgrade to business class? Heck yes!! The extra leg room was nice and we got some Milano cookies as opposed to mini pretzels. You didn’t get anything additional other than a little extra leg room and priority boarding. The extra leg room was DEFINITELY nice but the fact it was about $300 more each way than what we paid, it just didn’t seem worth it. The only thing separating business class and coach was a curtain behind the seats so it wasn’t like you were really secluded. Sorry but the additional $600 that business class cost could be better spent elsewhere… like a stay at the Polynesian :) It was nice though to try once, especially since it was free. Since we were close to the front of the plane, we were first to disembark when we landed in sunny Florida 14 minutes ahead of schedule. No waiting at the back of the plane. That was nice…

We headed straight for DME and there wasn’t really a long line. We hopped on the bus headed for the All Star Resort and at promptly 10:38am we were bound for the happiest place on earth!!!

mom-d-1.jpg


DSC_0005-1.jpg



Getting closer……
DSC_0006-1.jpg



We’re here!!!!!
DSC_0007-1.jpg



We stopped at Coronado Springs first and then All Star Sports. We were finally there and I was super excited. We walked right up to the online check in and checked in with a CM name Sena. At this point I realized I did not have my ID on me and it must have fallen off my lap on the bus. FAIL! Good thing I brought my old ID with me. At first the CM seemed ok. We had requested the football section, ground floor and our requests were met. But when I asked her about our 2 day base ticket that we had to purchase in order to get free dining, she started talking to me like I was a moron. Sorry lady, but I don’t understand how it all works. I DON’T WORK HERE! YOU DO! Which Is why I’m asking you. Basically I asked her if our tickets were on our Key to The World card and if I could get them taken off that and put on a separate ticket, like when you just buy your park pass from guest services. She told me “No, the tickets are on there. It’s a package!” with a very snarky attitude. I told her I figured that would be the case but told her we have annual passes. This was where she rudely interrupted me and said “Then just don’t use the room key to get into the parks!!” Ummmm, ok, but how would I use the tickets in the future? Just bring that same room key when I wanted to put it towards my annual pass next year? “You would save it! Just like you would any other ticket!” At that point I was sick of her attitude and I sharply said “OK! Thanks!” took my packet and walked away. She did NOT have the friendly attitude I would expect from a Disney employee. There was no need to talk to me like she did. I’ve never booked a package so I don’t know how it works. I understand you get asked the same questions every day probably but this is the first time I am asking it. No need to be nasty with me. I think they need to sprinkle her with some pixie dust or something, make her a little more friendly.

So after a not so nice first encounter, we took stopped in the food court to pick up our refillable mugs. We have 4 mugs already at our house and if they weren’t free with the dining plan, we probably wouldn’t have gotten them. Honestly, we probably would have brought our ones from May and used those. Don’t hate. I know you’re not supposed to use them past your stay but we just got them 4 months ago. And we don’t use them that often. At least we’re not using the old ones from like 5 years ago or even older ones back when they had resort specific mugs (both of which I saw being done.) We then took our stuff to the room.

football-1.jpg



We were room 121, a corner room. We were super close to the main building so that was awesome. I don’t think if we had booked a preferred room that we would have been much closer. We actually could have even been further away so I’m glad we saved our money, switched to a regular room and just requested the football section so thanks John @blackthidot for suggesting that. I’ll review our room and the resort in full at the end of the TR.


DSC_0008-1.jpg


DSC_0014-1.jpg


Of course I took a picture of the room. Just one. Because what trip report would be complete without at least one room picture! :)

DSC_0012-1.jpg


DSC_0011-1.jpg



After a quick change and a phone call from a CM at the front desk letting me know our DME driver had found my ID, we headed to the bus stop for our first park: Magic Kingdom! We had some Fast Pass Plus cards to trial!!
 

Joshua&CalebDad

Well-Known Member
I took a Powerade and drank a bit. It was at that point I realized just how tired I was and that I did not feel good at all. We headed up to the restrooms by Fantasmic as that's where they were herding everyone to. I went in to the bathroom to go pee but I knew as soon as I got in there I was going to be sick. I feel like death. My knee was killing me, the back of my heels were starting to hurt and I was so nauseous.

You finished the race before I check in at WDW, in 2 days (Woohoo), for my 10 miler next Saturday! You rock! I started to get a little worried there.

On a side note, I now know what to look forward to at the end of the race, feeling like death. :eek:

That's just great. I'm paying almost $150.00 to feel like that. :p

The humidity was probably the greatest factor. If your not used to it, it will kick your tail. Now the question is were you smart enough to stretch before you collapsed and how did you feel the next morning.
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
You finished the race before I check in at WDW, in 2 days (Woohoo), for my 10 miler next Saturday! You rock! I started to get a little worried there.

On a side note, I now know what to look forward to at the end of the race, feeling like death. :eek:

That's just great. I'm paying almost $150.00 to feel like that. :p

The humidity was probably the greatest factor. If your not used to it, it will kick your tail. Now the question is were you smart enough to stretch before you collapsed and how did you feel the next morning.

Told you I would finish the race part before you left!!! :D

If you've been training, you should be fine. Mine was probably A - lack of training or B - over or underhydrating myself. Or C - both. I'm going to go with option C! haha. In all seriousness, I would do it again. It was lots of fun!

I did stretch a little bit bfore I fell asleep and honestly, I didn't think I would wake up the next morning at all!! I was like "this is it. I'm going to fall asleep and never wake up! oh well, at least I'm at Disney! No one will probably ever want to stay in this room though since someone died in here..." but in reality I woke up and was perfectly fine. I wasn't sore, wasn't sick.. nuthin!!
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
What a great finish to the race! Between "Let's Go" (love that tune, it's on my workout playlist!) and "Don't Stop Believin" who wouldn't have cried? LOL

Right? lol two very emotional songs!!

PS - I saw in your signature you're going on the Dream on Feb 13... Ashley and I will be disembarking the day you get on!! Two ships passing in the night! (See what I did there? Ships! lol)
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We slept in on Sunday since we were so tired from the race. I wasn't sure how I would feel when I woke up. Thankfully, I felt fine! Wasn't sore and didn't feel sick. The ay was off to a perfect start!! Actually, let me take that back..... there was one imperfect thing..... THIS!!




That's right. We were leaving tomorrow so the dreaded DME envelope was on our door. YUCK!! DME was scheduled to pick us up at 3pm. We decided to make the most of our last day and a half. I mean, we still had a Halloween party to attend and some Food and Wine Festival fun as well as celebrate a birthday. Still lots of exciting fun to be had!

We got ready and headed out around 11:30. We stopped at End Zone Food Court for lunch. I got a chili dog and Ashley got a chili cheese dog. Mom got a turkey sandwich I think. Everything was good.












Oh and I got a brownie for dessert. Yummy!!




We headed out to wait for the bus.




We didn't wait long and were off to Magic Kingdom!












We headed over to Tomorrowland and scooped up some FPs for Buzz.




We didn't really have a plan of action so we decided to head over and ride Haunted Mansion.






Dream Along with Mickey was going on when we passed by the castle so I snapped a few pictures.



 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Can never have too many pictures of the castle. How pretty is it??




I spotted these awesome shoes and had to take a picture for @blackthidot - I knew he would appreciate it!




Honestly though, I love heels. I'm always wearing heels if I'm not wearing flip flops. But how the heck can you wear them to a theme park and walk around all day?!? OUCH!!!




HM was great like always. I always forget how much detail is in this ride. Definitely a favorite.




We wandered up through Fantasyland...








It was time to use our Buzz FPs so we headed to Tomorrowland. I think I won. Not sure since I obly have a picture of my own score. But I think it's safe to say I won. I always win!






Carousel of Progress was our next stop. All three of us love this ride.






Next up we decided to take a spin on the Peoplemover.






We headed over to Storybook Circus and decided to ride on an old favorite..... Dumbo!!






This was our first time seeing the new queue and I thought it was really cool. I love that they give you the pager and the kids have an area to play in and the grown ups have an area to sit down and just chill out in.



 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Pretty soon our pager went off and we were escorted to the queue line. We were then let outside where we waited for one more group to ride. Definitely easier than standing and waiting the whole time.










Big Top Souvenirs had just opened that day so we went inside to look around. I found a book I really wanted to get for our cousin Emily who we would be taking next November (well, now, THIS November... 37 days to go!!) so I picked that up for her and had it sent to the front of the park. Couldn't opt for the resort delivery since we were leaving the next day. I also got a Disney tumbler. We looked at all the sweet treats they had. Yummy!!




We headed over to Adventureland and took a spin on Pirates and then stopped to see Pirate Goofy!!

Hugs for Goofy!!






Goofy was asking Ashley where he autograph book was. He was mad she didn't have one. lol








We wandered back through Adventureland and used our PPF FPs.






The one semi decent picture I have ever taken on PPF...



By the time we got off the ride, it was time for us to head to our dinner ADR so we headed to the front of the park.





 

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
Right? lol two very emotional songs!!

PS - I saw in your signature you're going on the Dream on Feb 13... Ashley and I will be disembarking the day you get on!! Two ships passing in the night! (See what I did there? Ships! lol)

LOL!!

Offered a number of dates in February, Mr. Romantic chose to be onboard the Dream for Valentine's Day. ;) While you're at sea, we'll be at BLT :eek: with plans to dine only at monorail resorts. Sound familiar, @plaz10? He's going to try to recreate our awesomeness. :p I'm gonna make him buy me bubbly at Top of the World, too. :D

Never know, depending on what time we have to get to the PC terminal, our paths might cross, unless you're heading for the airport from the ship. ;)
 

plaz10

Well-Known Member
LOL!!

Offered a number of dates in February, Mr. Romantic chose to be onboard the Dream for Valentine's Day. ;) While you're at sea, we'll be at BLT :eek: with plans to dine only at monorail resorts. Sound familiar, @plaz10? He's going to try to recreate our awesomeness. :p I'm gonna make him buy me bubbly at Top of the World, too. :D

Never know, depending on what time we have to get to the PC terminal, our paths might cross, unless you're heading for the airport from the ship. ;)

Sure you guys can go to BLT and sure he can buy you bubbly at Top of the World...BUT will he split a cupcake with you? Will he highly suggest you eat a cinnamon roll for breakfast?! I THINK NOT!

I hope he wears a lanyard...I hear they are cool.
 

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
Sure you guys can go to BLT and sure he can buy you bubbly at Top of the World...BUT will he split a cupcake with you? Will he highly suggest you eat a cinnamon roll for breakfast?! I THINK NOT!

I hope he wears a lanyard...I hear they are cool.

!! Y'know, it's not fun when Chardonnay gets snorted out the nose.

No shared goodies for me next trip, and if he doesn't wear that frickin' lanyard, he may hang from it, ha!

WDWMagic Girls=totally awesome
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We left the park and took the monorail over to the Poly for dinner at Ohana! At the time of this trip, this was really our only MUST DO since Le Cellier turned signature. We had a 5pm ADR and were pretty much seated right away. I ordered my go to drink here: The Lapu Lapu!!




Ashley ordered this. I can't remember what it's called... Something Sunset?




The food came out hot and it came out fast. We pretty much devoured it like the carnivores that we are. Welcome bread, salad, chicken wings and pot stickers...




LOVE these noodles!




Heeey Ashley!!




I handed the camera over to Ashley for a bit and she had a fun time taking my picture. She took about 12 but I'll spare you and only post a few.








It was a mini photo shoot! And speaking of photo shoot, I had a little photo shoot with the dessrt. SO. GOOD!



Ashley photo bombing this one!!






Dinner was great but we were ready to change into our Halloween costumes and get over to that party!!

 

diddy_mouse

Well-Known Member
Congrats to you guys on finishing the race!! 10 miles at Disney is certainly an accomplishment and those medals look awesome! Sorry to hear that you weren't feeling so hot after all that work, but glad to see you were better the next day so you could enjoy the park before heading home.

Always love seeing the Magic Kingdom decorated for fall. My faaaaaaavorite time of year :)

Ohana looks delicious as always. :D
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Wow that dessert looks yummy! I have Ohana booked the night of the Princess Half...celebratory dinner!!! :) can't wait to try that dessert!!!!!

Great choice for your celebratory dinner! 'Ohana is great! We are skipping it next month, mostly because once we switched around our park days, they were fully booked the day we had MK scheduled. Meh.

Congrats to you guys on finishing the race!! 10 miles at Disney is certainly an accomplishment and those medals look awesome! Sorry to hear that you weren't feeling so hot after all that work, but glad to see you were better the next day so you could enjoy the park before heading home.

Always love seeing the Magic Kingdom decorated for fall. My faaaaaaavorite time of year :)

Ohana looks delicious as always. :D

Thank you!! It definitely stunk, not being able to stay around for the party afterwards. But I think it was for the best since it seemed really crowded. And I honestly was shocked I woke up the next day pain free. It was like I hadn't even done a 10 mile race (aka 10 mile fast walk lol) No soreness, nothing.

MK in the fall is amazing. I will say I am excited to see it in all it's holiday glory next month though :)

What is up with those heels? Love the pics - I can almost taste the bread pudding ala mode! Ohana just rules.

haha seriously... those heels... yikes! I want some Ohana right now!!
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
We changed after dinner in the bathrooms down by Captain Cook's. We hopped on the monorail and headed to the MK for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party! :) This would be our first experience at MNSSHP and I was really excited, as was Mom. Ashley is not a big fan of Halloween so she took a bit longer to get into the spirit of things. (But I think she really likes Halloween now after 2 successful years at MNSSHP :) - we went again this year)

We got a lot of compliments on our costumes. They were costumes my Mom had made us a few years prior. What were we? Crayola crayons! :)




We stopped for a couple photopass pics in front of the castle and headed back to Fantasyland. We had some pals from the Hundred Acre wood to see!! We joined the line, which was pretty short at this point, and right after we got in line, it started to sprinkle. We took out our trusty ponchos and threw them on. A few minutes later, the gang arrived. Well, minus Tigger. He was MIA. Ashley was sad as Tigger is her favorite.








Piglet pointed out that both of us were wearing pink and Eeyore pointed out that we all had on party hats (Our crayon tips were party hats with fabric covering them) The group shot of this might be my favorite picture from the trip.




We wandered over and saw Merida had a short line so we decided to meet her. The tip of my crayon had broken at this point (the string kept coming unglued from the hat) so I was a broken crayon in this picture. haha.




The rain started to let off at this point. It was REALLY dead there. I'm wondering if the rain kept some people away. I texted back adn forth with @ShookieJones and I was hoping our paths would cross but they never did. Booooo!!! I always love meeting the folks of WDWMagic at the parks! :)

We headed to find our furry friend Duffy. He was dressed as a pumpkin so I really wanted to see him!



He was asking us why we weren't leaving colorful marks on the ground since we were crayons. That Duffy is one smart bear!








We decided to use the party to get pictures of characters in their costumes as opposed to go on any rides. The rides are always there. Characters dressed in awesome Halloween costumes are not. We decided to walk over to Adventureland to see Jack Sparrow but his line was pretty long. We headed over towards Main Street and came upon these guys. We have only met Terk like 10 years ago, so check Tarzan and Jane off our Character Bucket List!




I don't even remember what we discussed but I do remember it was pretty funny.






Tarzan started picking bugs out of Ashley's hair haha






We headed towards Main Street because we wanted to see the Princesses and their Princes and we wanted to do it during the first parade so we wouldn't see it. We were going to do our usual stand on Main Street for Wishes then immediately sit for the second parade routine. The rain had let up and it had turned into a nice night..

 

Tiggerish

Resident Redhead
Premium Member
Love the Crayola costumes! Broken crayon, HA!!

You guys make MNSSHP look like such a good time, I just may have to consider going to my first one after next year's Girls Cruise...
 

PolynesianPrincess

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Love the Crayola costumes! Broken crayon, HA!!

You guys make MNSSHP look like such a good time, I just may have to consider going to my first one after next year's Girls Cruise...

The parties are a blast. And you get to go trick or treating. What can be better than that?!? :)
 

LuvsTheMouse

Active Member
Hello...... I love the crayon costumes. Glad you had a great time. We did two MNSSHP parties a couple of years ago, they are a blast! Boo to you is my favorite parade! Now waiting for more.
Tell Mom I said hi!!!! Have fun on your next trip!
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom