Halloween, Food & Wine, and a Birthday, Oh My!-A Sept/Oct 2011 Trip Report

I can't believe 2 weeks ago I was in the Magic Kingdom for my first MNSSHP, my how time flies. I hope you all are ready because here starts my first attempt at a trip report!

Introduction:

Welcome to my very first attempt at writing a trip report! I’ve been reading everyone else’s trip reports for some time now, and have been inspired to write one of my own!!! So let’s start with a little introduction!

The cast for the trip:

(Left): Mom (Diane)-The greatest mom EVER because she’s taken me on 13! WDW trips and she got me into this website so if not for her I wouldn’t be writing this right now! Mom's favorites are Mickey, Stitch, and Tigger and her favorite ride is definitely Toy Story Mania I couldn’t tell you how many times we’ve gone on that!

(Right): Me (Jessica)-22 year old Walt Disney World fanatic (thanks to Mom) who is currently seeking a job as a Mechanical Engineer (if you guys know of anything open let me know! Sorry had to put in the little plug there ) My favorite ride is the Tower of Terror and my favorite characters are Ariel, Prince Eric, Goofy, & (newly favorite) Flynn Rider.

As mentioned above this is my 13th trip to the world and Mom's 14th. She went once when she was a little girl in ’74.

Details about the trip:

When: September 26-October 3 This is the first time we’ve ever gone at this time of the year, because I was always in school.

Resort: Pop Century We’ve stayed at this resort many times and have always loved it, even though we talked about changing and trying a different resort, we didn’t. But are looking into it for next trip!

Just a FYI: the pictures in this report are taken by both me and my mom. (There will be many, many pictures in this report since I took over 800!) The ones that I have taken were mainly in Aperture and Shutter Priority mode. I wanted to go manual but realized that I would have a much harder time with it. Av and Tv mode proved successful and I had fun playing around with the settings a bit. Thanks to Tom Bricker (wdwfigment), he has inspired me to take better pictures during my trips and in everyday life! (I was able to tell him this in person as you will read later in the report!)

We also ordered the photopass CD because we knew we would be getting a lot of photopass pictures this trip. We haven't looked at them yet, so I will add in some of those pictures at the end of the report once we go through them and get the CD.

Now let the memories and trip reporting begin!!!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

After lunch, we walked around and these citizens struck me a nice pose!

We cashed in our fastpasses for TSMM (Where I won again of course, I am undefeated in the Mania!) then travelled on over to one of my favorite shows: The Voyage of the Little Mermaid.

After going under the sea, we decided to head on out and get changed for MNSSHP!!!!!

Bye Hollywood Studios!

Sorry, I got to get ready for work, but up next is the best part of the day: MNSSHP!!!

 

[LuLaSue]

You and your Mom are way to cute!!!
Can't wait to see MNSSHP!

 

[muse1983]

I'll be sad if I don't get to see Vladimir Pooey, Melvin Macheezmo, Joodie Patootie and Percival Peabody when we are there Sunday!

 

[Ella's Mommy]

Great start!! I have a similar situation with my mother:ROFLOL: We are both Disney fanatics and we have taken every trip since I was 8 years old together. Next week will be our 24th trip Great pics as well :sohappy:

 

[Matt and Kelly]

Great start to your report! A lot of cool pictures. My wife ate at Earl of Sandwich twice on our past trip but I missed out both times. Looks like a must do on the next trip.

Looking forward to more!

 

[HollyBelle]

Hi Jess! :wave: So excited to see the report! It's been a busy work day and it's keeping me from the fabulousness - that being said, I finally finished Day 1 and wanted to comment on how adorable you and your mom are before I read further! Hooray for mother/daughter trips!!

Love that shot of the empty DME bus. But my favorite has to be the mirror shot! Surprise, surprise. :lol: Mirror shots for the win!

Okay, time to read all about Day 2.

 

[tiaragirl]

Hollywood is my fav too - glad you're back 2 more times. I miss my Tower already and it's been less than two months..

 

[tink729]

Great TR so far! I'm really looking forward to seeing more, it sounds like you and your mom had a great time!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

You and your Mom are way to cute!!!
Can't wait to see MNSSHP!

Thank you! Posting right after I respond to these!

I'll be sad if I don't get to see Vladimir Pooey, Melvin Macheezmo, Joodie Patootie and Percival Peabody when we are there Sunday!

I hope you'll be able to see them!!!!

Great start!! I have a similar situation with my mother:ROFLOL: We are both Disney fanatics and we have taken every trip since I was 8 years old together. Next week will be our 24th trip Great pics as well :sohappy:

Thank you!! :sohappy: Awwww isn't it really great? I love trips with my mom! Have fun next week and tell Mickey I miss him!

Great start to your report! A lot of cool pictures. My wife ate at Earl of Sandwich twice on our past trip but I missed out both times. Looks like a must do on the next trip.

Looking forward to more!

Thank you so much! And yes you definitely must eat there on your next trip..the sandwiches are just AMAZING.

More coming up right after this post!

Hi Jess! :wave: So excited to see the report! It's been a busy work day and it's keeping me from the fabulousness - that being said, I finally finished Day 1 and wanted to comment on how adorable you and your mom are before I read further! Hooray for mother/daughter trips!!

Love that shot of the empty DME bus. But my favorite has to be the mirror shot! Surprise, surprise. :lol: Mirror shots for the win!

Okay, time to read all about Day 2.

Hi Holly!! :wave: Thank you!!! Glad you got a chance to come on and read it!!

:lol: I figured you would like that! Actually there are plenty more where those came from!

Hollywood is my fav too - glad you're back 2 more times. I miss my Tower already and it's been less than two months..

Glad to see I'm not the only one that loves Hollywood!! I miss it and it's been two weeks

Great TR so far! I'm really looking forward to seeing more, it sounds like you and your mom had a great time!

Thank you! And we definitely did!!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

MNSSHP

This was the very first time we have ever attended MNSSHP and we were doing it twice this trip!!! The first night we decided to dress up and the second night we would be wearing party shirts. So here are our costumes to MNSSHP!!

Cinderella in rags and Jaq the mouse!

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom around 5:00 and wandered around until it was time to get in line to meet the 7 dwarfs. The Halloween decorations around Main Street were just beautiful I couldn’t get enough of them. These pictures are just a taste of what was there. It was incredible.

We took a few photopass pictures along the way and started wandering through Liberty Square to get to Frontierland. This is where my mom realized that she forgot the key she had made somewhere on a bench in the hub. So I told her I would go look for it while she went to the 7 dwarfs’ line. Luckily someone had placed the key on top of the trash can next to where we were sitting. I decided to make the trek to Frontierland through Adventureland, and wow was that a mistake. The sun was beating down hard over there and I walked very slowly because there was just a lot of heat bearing down from the sun. When I finally arrived to the 7 dwarfs line it was about 6:00 and my mom had already been in line for 15 minutes and we were the 4th family!

To make the wait go by faster I hopped onto Splash Mountain for the first time in a few years! (We’ve been coming to WDW in January for the past 4 years and Splash is always getting a refurb) It was just as great as I remembered and I got wet just enough to cool me off.

After a bit more waiting it was finally time to meet the dwarfs!!!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Once we finished up with the super cute dwarfs we wanted to make sure we got our t-shirts to wear on Sunday night. So off we hoofed it to the Emporium since we were going that way to get in line for the princesses and their princes! The princess line showed to be only a 30 minute wait so on we went! I was most excited to meet Flynn Rider, since I didn’t get a chance to meet him in January and he was now only out at hard ticket events.

This supposed “30 minute wait” turned out to be 45 minutes to an hour because the cast member said that Flynn Rider was spending too much time with guests. We stood in the same spot for at least a good 20 minutes. Luckily we chatted it up with a nice family from Pennsylvania who had honeymooned in the Boston area to pass the time, but during this time no cast member came to inform that the wait would be longer than expected. Also, the cast member at the door wasn’t very nice because she was sort of huffy with me when I went to ask what was taking so long. I wasn’t mean or anything, I was just curious she didn’t have to be huffy with me.

It was finally time to meet the princesses! First up was Cinderella and Prince Charming. They were really excited since me and my mom dressed up as Cinderella and Jaq the mouse. Unfortunately, neither of us have any pictures with them it is all on the photopass so we are hoping those came out really good. I also think it was Cinderella who was impressed that my mom made the key herself.

Next up was Snow White and The Prince. I always wondered why he never had a name. I guess he’s just not that popular.

And last but not least were Flynn Rider and Rapunzel!!! The almost 1 hour wait was worth this encounter alone. These two were the best character interaction I had all trip; they fed off each other perfectly. When they saw my mom was Jaq the mouse Rapunzel started talking about how she and Pascal (I think that’s how you spell it) have mice friends and Flynn was saying how mad he was because they make a mess in the castle. She also started talking about how she understand’s Chameleon talk and Flynn thought she was crazy. But he just didn’t understand Pascal like she did! It was really cute. And of course Flynn loves the ladies because when I approached him he must have saw how excited I was and the conversation went like this:

Flynn: Have you been waiting to see me?
Me: Yes!!
Flynn: All day?
Me: Of course!!
Flynn: All your life?
Me: YES!!!

It was really cute. And might I add he was really good looking too!! Also during this whole time I kept wondering if I should ask for a hug. I saw all the little girls before me ask for one, but I wasn’t sure if because I was older if it would be inappropriate or what not. But what the heck I didn’t care I asked for one anyways and of course he wanted to make sure his princess got some love to so I hugged Rapunzel also. As I was leaving I told them both I loved them, and then they got all sweet with each other (it was really cute) and he told Rapunzel he loved her. Then called me back and said he loved me too and gave me the smolder. :::SWOON:::

Once we finally got out from meeting the princesses we hopped on over to Minnie and Mickey’s line because there was no wait at all and they were so cute dressed up as a Pirate and Princess! Unfortunately, that picture is also only on our photopass so hopefully soon I will have those!

We ventured over into the hub and ended up catching the end of the Villain’s Mix and Mingle and I was lucky enough to meet the one and only Maleficent!

Frollo as well:

After the mix and mingle we snagged a spot near the Crystal Palace to watch Hallowishes!!! This fireworks show was really really well done, I love the perimeter fireworks and it gave wishes a run for its money, but personally I like the soundtrack to Wishes better. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures because I wanted to make sure that I just enjoyed all that Hallowishes had to offer. Here was our view of the castle though:

We were able to interact with the evil step sisters and step mother after Hallowishes. They were really great with our costumes, my evil step mother was teaching me how to clean and telling me to watch after my mouse. She also tried to steal the key back because it was HER key. It was really great. Again, this picture was taken with photopass so hopefully it came out well!

Right next to them was Gaston, whom I have never met before and was really excited!

We ended up staying around the hub to watch the Headless Horseman Ride along with the Boo to You Parade which has now become my favorite parade in all of WDW! The Haunted Mansion Gravediggers definitely make this parade. And of course that song was stuck in my head for the rest of the night!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

After the parade we walked around to try to find Suzy and Pearla but according to the character CM’s they were not meeting tonight But we did find this stud all dressed up!

We headed off towards Cinderella’s Coach and got a picture with that, and then found the hitchhiking ghosts and horseless carriage photopass spots! I am really excited to see how those came out!

And to close our first night ever at MNSSHP, we rode the Haunted Mansion. Definitely a must do!

And I forgot to mention the candy! They gave out great candy at all the different stations: I had a bunch of Tootsie Rolls, Smarties, Twix, Candy Corn, Skittles, and a bunch more! We still have a ton of it at my house!

We left just after midnight and I was surprised to see that there was no wait for a bus! We were able to catch one right before it left, which was great!

Up Next: EPCOT and Hollywood Studios again!

 

[jesemeca]

We didn't get to meet the Princesses and their Princes at MNSSHP. We did go to a sold out night, though. It was very busy that night. Just an excuse to go back again. Like we need an excuse.

Our next family trip is planned for next May/June. I will be getting my 1st Annual Pass! :sohappy::sohappy:

Which, we all know, means I will be trying to get as many trips in as possible. I would love to go around Christmastime. So I will have to keep you updated on if I can convince someone to go then. Maybe our trips will overlap.

Great pictures so far. Can't wait to see more!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

We didn't get to meet the Princesses and their Princes at MNSSHP. We did go to a sold out night, though. It was very busy that night. Just an excuse to go back again. Like we need an excuse.

Our next family trip is planned for next May/June. I will be getting my 1st Annual Pass! :sohappy::sohappy:

Which, we all know, means I will be trying to get as many trips in as possible. I would love to go around Christmastime. So I will have to keep you updated on if I can convince someone to go then. Maybe our trips will overlap.

Great pictures so far. Can't wait to see more!

I can just imagine what the line was that night. I had seen on Twitter that the party was sold out that night. Never need an excuse to get back to WDW!

:sohappy: Yay for annual pass!!! Definitely go around Christmas, it is just so beautiful.

And thank you!

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Your costumes are so cute!!

I'm so jealous of everyone getting to go to MNSSHP this year!! We are hoping to hit it up next year when we're there for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon. Halloween is my fav and I love dressing up (I'm actually going to be Minnie Mouse this year!)

And Flynn.... what a HUNK!! I would have asked him for a hug to!! :lol:

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Your costumes are so cute!!

I'm so jealous of everyone getting to go to MNSSHP this year!! We are hoping to hit it up next year when we're there for the Wine and Dine Half Marathon. Halloween is my fav and I love dressing up (I'm actually going to be Minnie Mouse this year!)

And Flynn.... what a HUNK!! I would have asked him for a hug to!! :lol:

Thank you!!!

Awesome I hope you can go!! WDW definitely gave me a new appreciation for Halloween, it was never one of my favorite holidays but now it definitely is!

Good, I'm glad I wouldn't have been the only one asking him for a hug!

 

[Princess.Dayna]

What a wonderful TR so far! I am loving all of your pictures! I LOVE the picture of you and Flynn and Rapunzel! I absolutely love them too ... they way they interact with each other, and also with the guests, is wonderful. It looks like you had a wonderful time ... Halloween time is one of my favorite times to go to WDW. Can't wait to read more!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

What a wonderful TR so far! I am loving all of your pictures! I LOVE the picture of you and Flynn and Rapunzel! I absolutely love them too ... they way they interact with each other, and also with the guests, is wonderful. It looks like you had a wonderful time ... Halloween time is one of my favorite times to go to WDW. Can't wait to read more!

Thank you so much! That picture is actually my profile pic on facebook! It was just so wonderful, I've never seen a Princess/Prince ever interact that good with the guests and each other before. And I have to agree, Halloween at WDW is just awesome. I loved it!

And more will come! Hopefully sometime tonight or if not tonight definitely tomorrow morning!

 

[jessfriends]

Great trip report! Loved your pics! I am going for MNSSHP/F&W festival in 2 weeks! First time for both! So excited!