A Poutine Less Trip Report: Four Days of Zoology, Deluxe Resorts and Lots of Rain

And so I am back. While I do love typing up these reports, to do so means that you have to be back from your trip . However this was another successful trip and my 10th to the World. So it is official, I have now hit double digits! So may consider that a bit much but I say the more the merrier.

Tim was at home this time, which was a bit of a bummer after introducing him to the World. Everything that we did, I wished he was there and wanted him to experience everything that we were. It just solidifies how much I want him to be by my side for all trips. However, he was extremely supportive of me needing a much needed break from what is currently my reality and the stress that is flooding my life. He had jetted out to Vegas a month or two prior and knew how much fun I would have down there. When the opportunity presented itself to have a mini getaway with one of my best friends, he did not hesitate at all. He told me to have fun, not think of work and enjoy myself.

So on this trip, we had myself. To refresh of those who don't really know me, here's a brief bit of info:

I work in Food & Beverage, am a massive Foodie, a HUGE kid and lover of all things Disney. Mary Poppins is my all time favorite Disney character and Disney movie, followed closely by Toy Story and then UP. I am also a big Star Wars and Pirates fan. I am by no means a girlie girl and would rather by a pirate then a princess any day.

Although Tim could not join me for this trip, I had the absolute next best option. I re-introduce to you...dah dah dah dah... Jennie!

Jennie and I have been friends for almost 15 years. We met at our Dance School and have stayed such great friends throughout the years. She dropped in during my last trip in October several times with her boyfriend and this time was a ladies trip! Jennie left for the Disney College program 8 years ago and had been bitten by the Disney bug ever since. She is now a cast member and loves all things Disney as well. Like me, a giant kid and the biggest Star Wars fan I have ever met. It is completely her fault that I am the Star Wars fan that I am. She took three days off to hang and play with me. It amazes me and thrills me that she still enjoys playing in the parks as much as I do. Thankfully she put up with my craziness for these days and all the photos that came with it.

So here we go! Because this here is the wettest wild in all the wilderness!!!! :sohappy:

 

[MillerPoppins]

omg a bagel? well ure stronger than me girl cause i'd be eating everything in that place omg I mean look at all the chocolate!!!:slurp:

I'm not the biggest chocolate fan in the world, or sweets for that matter. So it actually wasn't that hard to say no to actually. Give me french fries any day!

 

[accord99cutie]

Still enjoying the report!!! Can't wait for the rest!!!

 

[MillerPoppins]

Still enjoying the report!!! Can't wait for the rest!!!

Thank you!!! :wave:

 

[cowanfamily]

I am so ready for lunch right now. Great report!

 

[Sarabell]

Loving the TR! and the food! I'm getting fat just looking at it! imagine how I'll get when I actually eat it :ROFLOL:

 

[MillerPoppins]

I am so ready for lunch right now. Great report!

Thanks so much! :wave:

Loving the TR! and the food! I'm getting fat just looking at it! imagine how I'll get when I actually eat it :ROFLOL:

I always think I'm going to go insane with the food when I'm down there and I never really do. The most I ate was on the last trip, see trip report link on my October 2010. Thanks for still following along! :wave:

 

[MillerPoppins]

So we enjoyed our breakfast and discussed our last day together. Such a bummer, but we had over 8 hours of fun coming our way! So we finished up and headed out for some photo ops.

It was still mighty early for us, but we didn't care. Jennie had gotten time off from work so this was a mini vacation for her too! Next up was a shot of one of my favorite statues..

I love this statue because I feel it captures the true spirit of Hollywood Studios. I have always had a strong love affair of the movies and "old Hollywood". I grew up watching Shirley Temple & Gene Kelly movies, along with all the classic Disney films. As I got older, I became obsessed with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The idea of this glamorous Hollywood life was just so fascinating to me. Maybe that's against all hits and digs against HS, I still adore it.

So on that note, it was time for The Great Movie Ride. Because of how much I adore the movies, this actually is one of my favorite attractions. I don't think one bit of it should change. Ok, well maybe a new Tarzan, but other then that, keep the classics in it because they are the foundation of movies today!

In we went, and past Julie/Mary's horse...LOVE IT!!!

There was practically no one in the theatre at this point so we wandered down the lines and recited some of the lines from the movie trailers. I still get excited when they show the original Mary Poppins one. With that, we were escorted in for our grand debut! And off we went!

Still getting used to messing with my camera...but I finally got a Mary shot!

 

[MillerPoppins]

Got some Wizard of Oz shots for Tim as it is one of his all time favorites.

Hidden Mickey!

I'm pretty proud of this one actually!

And so out we went from the Movies and back in to reality. We headed over to Pixar Place at this point if there were any fast passes left by chance as we were up for another one.

Unfortunately, they were all gone. So we wandered around a bit and noticed the line for the Character greet was extraordinarily long.

I noticed an awesome Pixar Sweatshirt in the little shop here, but it was just a bit too small . And of course I can't find it anywhere online. Super bummer.

So with Pixar Place being mobbed, we thought this was a better time then ever to head in to One Man's Dream. It had been closed for refurb while we were there in October and I was anxious to see what they had done.

This another big favorite of mine. I think it is an exceptional attraction to have considering that this all began with the man...

Awesome...

 

[MillerPoppins]

Let the mush fest begin...and by mush fest, I mean the emotional tour of history.

The entrance was a lot like I remembered from the Original set up. There wasn't much changed here.

Walt's office was very much the same as was a few other things in this area.

A few things had changed here and there. A lot of the props from different shows had changed, including costumes and such. The most noticeable? Mary's white & red dress is gone! What has replaced it? Um, Fred Murray's suit from The gy Dog???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!??! Ok not that I am biased in any way shape or form towards Mary/Julie and/or the entire film, but that dress is iconic! Who the heck cares what the suit looks like that Fred Murray wore? It's a SUIT!!!!

Ok moving on...sorry. I'm just still bitter...clearly.

Jennie liked the area featuring the Jungle Cruise. She was a Jungle Cruise skipper for years!

There were still some pieces of Mary left though...

 

[MillerPoppins]

This is what the Abe Lincoln's insides look like...

One thing that was obvious to the change of things was that they don't directly address Walt's death anymore. It's only mentioned in the fact that Roy was there to open WDW, not Walt. The poster of Mickey as the World crying when Walt died is gone. It seems that after this point, a lot of the details have been taken out.

All the models are still there yes. And there are just walls with photos from all different Disney projects-ESPN, ABC shows, Pixar Movies, the Disney Channel, etc.

There are a lot of spots that still say "Coming Soon". I really hope that what is coming soon is awesome because I felt slightly let down after leaving this. Even the picture of Walt in front of the theatre was gone. Bummer. At least the film hadn't changed at all, including Julie narrating it. That part, always leaves me in tears. To see how hard he worked to fulfill something for his family and how much that has become part of ours. There aren't many families in this world that haven't been touched by his dream and that hits me every single time.

So after the mush fest, we made our way for Fast Passes at RNRC. As we made our way down Sunset Blvd, we had to make a quick little stop...

Jennie wanted to check for more vinylmations, I wanted more food ...

 

[diddy_mouse]

OMG I can't get over your food pictures! Everything looks so delicious! :slurp:

I was glad to see One Man's Dream a few years ago and loved looking at all the items that had been collected over the years. I still think one of my favorite parts was hearing Walt talk about EPCOT. Just the excitement he had about that vision...so great.

 

[MillerPoppins]

OMG I can't get over your food pictures! Everything looks so delicious! :slurp:

I was glad to see One Man's Dream a few years ago and loved looking at all the items that had been collected over the years. I still think one of my favorite parts was hearing Walt talk about EPCOT. Just the excitement he had about that vision...so great.

Thank you so much! There are more food photos coming! I love One Man's Dream and was really bummed that Tim couldn't see it in October. Glad it reopened and hope that the additions coming are good!

 

[MillerPoppins]

Can I just say how great these are?

I bought the gummy bears because obviously, with the Mary Poppins reference, I had to!

Really liked this one too!

So Jennie did some vinylmation trading while I took a photo for my niece.

She got her vinylmation and we headed on down Sunset Blvd. As much as I heart HS, the one complaint I do have is how it's laid out. Two of the biggest attractions are at a dead end. I just wish this area flowed to somewhere else in the park.

We made our way down and noticed that there were no photo pass people out along sunset like normal. I think this was due to the fact that there was still construction being done to the building itself. Not really sure to be honest.

So we wandered in, got our fast passes and looked at what the single riders line was looking like. It was actually closed so that was out. We made our way back up the street and decided to head over to see Sulley & Mike!

The park was thankfully moderately full at this point and not crazy. We were quite happy about this and enjoyed the atmosphere.

The area in front of the Hat was packed with character greetings: Donald & Daisy, Pooh & Eeyore among others. Being that we met many of these characters along the way, we kept on moving. But at this point, both of us were up for a snack. Jennie was craving a churro and I wanted a soft pretzel.

Our drink of choice for much of the trip:
SmartWater!

As we wandered through the park, we jokingly quoted different movies often as they applied to different parts of the day. The one quoted the most often?

Russell: "I'm tired and my knee hurts"
Carl: "Which knee?"
Russell: "...my elbow hurts and I have to go to the bathroom!"
Carl: "Russell, if you don't hurry up, the tigers will eat you!"
Russell: "There are no tigers in South America...ZOOLOGY!"

We must have repeated this at least 10 times over the course of our whole trip, particularly when we'd hear a kid whining at all. I must repeated this over and over in my head while that kid was whining behind me on the plane. It was awesome! :ROFLOL:

 

[MillerPoppins]

Although we both had snacks, we wandered into the Writer's Stop to oogle goodies and check out the books. It kinda makes me laugh. The store is surrounded by photos of and from the show "Castle", but they don't sell the Richard Castle books in there. Kinda odd.

Yet more food !

We headed our and down the New York backdrop area towards the backlot for Monsters Inc. We got there and were greeted with a small line. No worries...just meant I could get some photos of the surroundings!

Finally it was our turn!

Mike is so awkward to hug. Standing up straight, his eye hits right in the center of my ummm...ahem, chest. It's like hugging an apple with two pipe cleaners sticking out the sides. Sulley on the other hand just engulfs you in fur. It's hysterical. And for the life of me, I still can't understand why my girl Boo isn't here or why she doesn't even have any character greetings. I mean she's stinking adorable! Now the Pixar Weekend at Epcot is claiming that she will be out for character greetings. I wish I was rich and had a more forgiving schedule as I would be down there in a heart beat!

 

[fractal]

Great food pics and report!


The only complaint I have is that the pics have intensified my normal mid-afternoon hunger pains.

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

I love those little Mike Wazowski stuffed animals!!! I've never noticed those around before! (I'm a sucker for stuffed animals over half of the ones I own are from WDW )

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I caught up on your report a day or two ago and just read your updates. There was so much I wanted to say and then you hit me with the sweets pics and my thoughts drooled right on out of my mouth. MMMMMMmmmmm....my sweet tooth is a-twitchin! That gigantor chocolate covered crispy treat is the thing of my dreams. Oh how I long for thee, yummy-chocolatey-buttery-crispy-goodness........ :slurp: I'm hungry. But I gotta be extraordinarily good because I've been bad for so long that even my fat-clothes are snug.

Oh yes! The kids climbing all over the Nemo display. I think it was fairly new back when we took the boys the first time in January 2004 because it looks noticably different in the pics from that trip. I should scan one to show you. Seriously. It looked fresh and not like the thing had been trampled upon. The boys were like 7 & 9 at the time and certainly didn't think to run up and climb all over it. They hopped up and sat together on the rock ledge in front of it but wouldn't dream of climbing up in it. The little hellians climbing all over it totally perplexes me, too. If it those were meant to be climbing toys they would've been situated down on the ground...like the other play areas found around WDW. What's worse is that Disney took the railings down around the rockwork signage/splashy/AA gull area opposite the Nemo character display. Where are their brains??? How long before little kids are climbing IN that water and poking their grubby little fingers at the gulls??? Ya know??? :hammer:

On the same note as the Nemo characters, at POP I've seen pics where some of the oversized toys are now surrounded by little railings. Or they were. That's where we stayed on our first trip when the resort had only been open like a month. The railings aren't in our first trip pics. Then you get little climby kids and now there's little railing things in the pics. Frustrating.

Loooovin' this report! It's been so fun to read! I have no good excuse for being so late to the party other than the typical busy-Mom crap. Which I seriously would like to run away from sometimes. Your report has been such a fun escape. From a burnt, toasty momma: Thank YOU!!!!! :kiss:

Can't wait for more!!!! :wave:

 

[PhoenixSpirit]

We headed our and down the New York backdrop area towards the backlot for Monsters Inc. We got there and were greeted with a small line.

Finally it was our turn!

...I never knew they had a Monsters Inc meet and greet! I went last October, and must have missed so many opportunities :hammer: so it's near the backlot? *marks meet and greet down on 'to do list'*

 

[WDWFigment]

I can tell that I'm hungry, because all of these food photos really have me salivating! The Wolfgang Puck sandwich looks especially good!

All of that rain at the Magic Kingdom sure cleared everyone out. It stinks to have a rainy day on your trip, but having the parks less crowded certainly is always nice!

 

[MillerPoppins]

Great food pics and report!


The only complaint I have is that the pics have intensified my normal mid-afternoon hunger pains.

Yeah the pictures should come with a warning ..."Do not look at this if you are hungry!" Thanks for reading!:wave:

I love those little Mike Wazowski stuffed animals!!! I've never noticed those around before! (I'm a sucker for stuffed animals over half of the ones I own are from WDW )

I heart me some Mike Wazowski! I have the mug from my last trip that is him and I debated getting one of those little guys but alas, I did not! Kinda wish I had...thanks for reading though! :wave:

I caught up on your report a day or two ago and just read your updates. There was so much I wanted to say and then you hit me with the sweets pics and my thoughts drooled right on out of my mouth. MMMMMMmmmmm....my sweet tooth is a-twitchin! That gigantor chocolate covered crispy treat is the thing of my dreams. Oh how I long for thee, yummy-chocolatey-buttery-crispy-goodness........ :slurp: I'm hungry. But I gotta be extraordinarily good because I've been bad for so long that even my fat-clothes are snug.

Oh yes! The kids climbing all over the Nemo display. I think it was fairly new back when we took the boys the first time in January 2004 because it looks noticably different in the pics from that trip. I should scan one to show you. Seriously. It looked fresh and not like the thing had been trampled upon. The boys were like 7 & 9 at the time and certainly didn't think to run up and climb all over it. They hopped up and sat together on the rock ledge in front of it but wouldn't dream of climbing up in it. The little hellians climbing all over it totally perplexes me, too. If it those were meant to be climbing toys they would've been situated down on the ground...like the other play areas found around WDW. What's worse is that Disney took the railings down around the rockwork signage/splashy/AA gull area opposite the Nemo character display. Where are their brains??? How long before little kids are climbing IN that water and poking their grubby little fingers at the gulls??? Ya know??? :hammer:

On the same note as the Nemo characters, at POP I've seen pics where some of the oversized toys are now surrounded by little railings. Or they were. That's where we stayed on our first trip when the resort had only been open like a month. The railings aren't in our first trip pics. Then you get little climby kids and now there's little railing things in the pics. Frustrating.

Loooovin' this report! It's been so fun to read! I have no good excuse for being so late to the party other than the typical busy-Mom crap. Which I seriously would like to run away from sometimes. Your report has been such a fun escape. From a burnt, toasty momma: Thank YOU!!!!! :kiss:

Can't wait for more!!!! :wave:

Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed everything! The Nemo climbing thing drives me nuts! It's so frustrating trying to get a photo there. Whenever I have kids and we head down there, I don't care how many kids are crawling all over that thing, they aren't doing it! LOL

...I never knew they had a Monsters Inc meet and greet! I went last October, and must have missed so many opportunities :hammer: so it's near the backlot? *marks meet and greet down on 'to do list'*

Yeah it's tucked right by where the AFI exhibit exits. They are there for limited hours but it's worth it. Just wish Boo was there! Thanks for reading!

I can tell that I'm hungry, because all of these food photos really have me salivating! The Wolfgang Puck sandwich looks especially good!

All of that rain at the Magic Kingdom sure cleared everyone out. It stinks to have a rainy day on your trip, but having the parks less crowded certainly is always nice!

I would take a day less crowded any day over a packed one. It's funny that Disney is one of my favorite places but I HATE HATE crowds! And the Wolfgang Puck sandwich was amazing! I long looked at that sandwich on the menu and I'm thrilled that it was as good as I hoped it would be! Thanks for reading! :wave: