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]

We wandered back towards Adventureland and grabbed fastpasses for the Jungle Cruise because there was a bit of a wait. Then headed for a ride on Pirates!

And it was time to head back for a cruise in the jungle!

After our cruise, we decided it was time to stake out a spot for the fireworks. We were going to go find Jessica (Jesemeca) and her dad, but the hub was already so packed that I was worried we wouldn’t find them and then lose a chance at a good spot. So we decided to stay put in the hub.

I tried so hard to get a good picture with the balloons and the castle, but never got it quite the way I wanted. The second one is the best one in my opinion.

The beautiful Crystal Palace

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

The castle and it’s many different colors. (I missed the orange one!)

So, I had a blackthidot moment here and took of picture of what someone is wearing..don’t they look at themselves in the mirror in the morning? There was a lady who walked by this lady I’m about to show you and did a double take and the face she made after was priceless. It had all the people around us cracking up. So note to everyone: please check to see what you are wearing before you head out to the parks:

We were able to see the Main Street Electrical Parade from a distance, and after seeing it for the second time in a year, it really made me miss the SpectroMagic parade. I like the floats from that nighttime parade a lot better.

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Well, unfortunately after the parade they kicked us all out of our spot..I forgot we couldn’t stand against the railing on the perimeter of the hub. So we all just pushed up, no big deal. But there was this one lady who kept yelling at a CM and got mad at the family next to us because they kept yelling at her to stay on the other side of the tape because they needed to keep the walkway open for emergencies and she was all ticked off because no one would move for her and blah blah. Some people just have no respect, it is pathetic. I felt bad for the poor CM but he handled it well.

Up next was the Magic, Memories, and You castle show which I was so excited to see! We missed it in January by just days so this was something new for us! Mom took a few pictures, but I just wanted to soak up the whole show. It was a really great show and I would love for the Magic Kingdom to keep it for a long time coming.

Finally, it was time for Wishes! I was excited to see the perimeter bursts they added for the 40th. And it did not disappoint…it was an AMAZING show. They had many more perimeter bursts than I had expected. It was the best Wishes show I had ever seen!!! I thoroughly enjoyed it (and of course got teary-eyed a bit) and also managed to get a few pictures!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Once Wishes finished, the hub was a MADHOUSE. I mean you couldn’t even move an inch. Finally we decided to make headway to the closest bridge we could find, which was the Liberty Square bridge just to get somewhere. But even when we got here you couldn’t move. Luckily, I found myself behind this really tall guy who was just parting the crowd, so we followed close enough and easily made our way through after that. So to the tall guy who was in front of me, Thank you!!

We made our way over to Frontierland so I could try to score a ride on Big Thunder at night, because it is just so much better at night. But there was still a long wait for stand-by so I hopped on Splash Mountain which had no wait at all! The view from the top is just so beautiful at night.

Next up was a spin on the classic Haunted Mansion!! The line still said a half hour wait, but we made our way on through. And from what I remember I don’t think it was a half hour wait, because we just skipped the interactive queue.

Awesome light in the queue

Love this picture, a different angle on the Haunted Mansion

Finally got an awesome picture of the chandelier inside! (No flash don’t worry!)

Then we headed over to Fantasyland for a ride on Prince Charming’s Carousel!

And went to visit Winnie the Pooh!!

Love this sign

To close out the night, I wanted to go on Big Thunder. So we went all the way back to Frontierland and I went to wait in line even though it still posted a 30 minute wait! It wasn’t even close to that, but it was still pretty long for almost closing time. I waited probably around 15 minutes. But it was so worth it because that ride is so much better at night! And I even got to go on a second time right before the park closed at midnight!

As we headed on out I took one more beautiful night picture of the castle

I figured the bus stop would be crowded seeing as it was just after midnight…

Surprisingly, there was absolutely no one at the bus stop! We had a safe trip back, and hit the sack right away because we had an early breakfast reservation at O’hana in the morning!!!!

Up Next: EPCOT and MNSSHP Night #2!

 

[Fashionista007]

Ahhh I'm so jealous, you had such a good spot for the 40th anniversary ceremony! I teared up just seeing the pictures of the Dapper Dans...that sing along was more than I could bear. I was downright sobbing!! I'm so glad we were there

Tony's is now on my list of places I have to eat!! My mouth is watering...

Can't wait to read more!! :sohappy:

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Ahhh I'm so jealous, you had such a good spot for the 40th anniversary ceremony! I teared up just seeing the pictures of the Dapper Dans...that sing along was more than I could bear. I was downright sobbing!! I'm so glad we were there

Tony's is now on my list of places I have to eat!! My mouth is watering...

Can't wait to read more!! :sohappy:

I know! It was very moving. It was just so awesome being there. To me it just felt like a completely different atmosphere being the 40th, knowing that 40 years ago everyone was enjoying the park for the very first time.

:sohappy: I just started writing our Sunday adventures!! Can't wait to finish so I can post it!

 

[fractal]

Thanks for the reporting and pictures of the 40th anniversary! Made me feel like I was there.

 

[Mrs.Skellington]

Beautiful Trip Report. I love the fact that ya'll were there for the 40th anniversary. I told my husband we will definitely be there for the 50th! Can't wait to finish reading the rest of your days!:sohappy:

 

[jesemeca]

After the show ended, the hub was a madhouse! You couldn’t walk anywhere!!! We finally started to make our way down Main Street opposite of everyone else. And I happened to run into Jessica (jesemeca) from here on WDWMagic! It was pretty awesome she happened to be there just as we were walking down.

Hey, it's me! That was kinda odd that we just ran into each other like that. After the show ended I had gone to the smoking section in front of The Plaza. I just happened to be walking back to find my dad. I completely understand about the crowd before and after Wishes. That was just mass confusion. My nerves were so bad by the end of the night. We rode one more ride and that was it. Ya'll rode alot more rides than we did. It just seemed that everything we came across had such massive waits. I did see you, when ya'll were getting off It's A Small World. We were a boat or two behind you.

Can't wait to read more!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Thanks for the reporting and pictures of the 40th anniversary! Made me feel like I was there.

Welcome! :wave:

Beautiful Trip Report. I love the fact that ya'll were there for the 40th anniversary. I told my husband we will definitely be there for the 50th! Can't wait to finish reading the rest of your days!:sohappy:

Thank you! And I will be right there with you and your husband! Definitely can't miss that!

Hey, it's me! That was kinda odd that we just ran into each other like that. After the show ended I had gone to the smoking section in front of The Plaza. I just happened to be walking back to find my dad. I completely understand about the crowd before and after Wishes. That was just mass confusion. My nerves were so bad by the end of the night. We rode one more ride and that was it. Ya'll rode alot more rides than we did. It just seemed that everything we came across had such massive waits. I did see you, when ya'll were getting off It's A Small World. We were a boat or two behind you.

Can't wait to read more!

I know it's pretty funny how you were just standing there and I recognized you! I can imagine that place was packed that day. How were the crowds the rest of your vacation? They were pretty low the week leading up to the 40th until about Friday. I definitely will agree, everything had crazy waits. We didn't do anything in Tomorrowland except the TTA and Space Mountain but I got a fastpass for it, because without it I would have never waited in the line that was in there! Haha that's wicked funny! You must have gotten in line right after us!

 

[WDW_Princess24]

It is so funny how we were in the same areas of the park at the same time on the 40th and nothing! I too seen Mr. Tom at HS one night, he actually almost ran me over with his tripod. By the time I realized what had just happened he was gone although I wouldn't have had the nerve as you did lol

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Love the pics from the 40th ceremony!! You guys had a great spot!! Seems like everyone was there for the 40th.. I'm so jealous!!! lol I def want to go for the 50th though!!!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

It is so funny how we were in the same areas of the park at the same time on the 40th and nothing! I too seen Mr. Tom at HS one night, he actually almost ran me over with his tripod. By the time I realized what had just happened he was gone although I wouldn't have had the nerve as you did lol

I know right? There was crazy amounts of people there that day. I figured it might possibly be the only chance I get so I had nothing to lose lol

Love the pics from the 40th ceremony!! You guys had a great spot!! Seems like everyone was there for the 40th.. I'm so jealous!!! lol I def want to go for the 50th though!!!

Thank you! It was so great being right in front of the castle. I bet there will be tons of more people for that one, but that won't stop me either! See ya there! :wave: lol

 

[enchanted_belle]

Ok, I'm all caught up so I'm commenting!!! :ROFLOL:

I am loving all of the pictures, can't wait for the next update (then maybe I'll actually comment on something inside the report! lol). :wave:

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Ok, I'm all caught up so I'm commenting!!! :ROFLOL:

I am loving all of the pictures, can't wait for the next update (then maybe I'll actually comment on something inside the report! lol). :wave:

Thank you!!! Still working on that next update but I'm almost done! It should be finished by Monday!

 

[enchanted_belle]

Thank you!!! Still working on that next update but I'm almost done! It should be finished by Monday!

Oh good! That will give me something to look forward to for work on Monday! :lol:

 

[WDWFigment]

Great report thus far!

It was nice meeting you as well! (No, you didn't startle me; there would be absolutely no need to apologize even if you did. BUT, my name is Tom, not Mr. Bricker--that dude is my dad .)

 

[ladydi]

I'm glad you made that comment about the afternoon parade seeming shorter. I thought the exact same thing and was wondering if I was losing it! We left Epcot on Saturday to make the afternoon parade and I was really disappointed. I've been wondering if my memories of the parade seeming longer was just wishful thinking!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

Great report thus far!

It was nice meeting you as well! (No, you didn't startle me; there would be absolutely no need to apologize even if you did. BUT, my name is Tom, not Mr. Bricker--that dude is my dad .)

Thank you very much Tom!

I'm glad you made that comment about the afternoon parade seeming shorter. I thought the exact same thing and was wondering if I was losing it! We left Epcot on Saturday to make the afternoon parade and I was really disappointed. I've been wondering if my memories of the parade seeming longer was just wishful thinking!

Now I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one!

 

[PartOfYourWorld]

An update should be here most likely tomorrow night, and if not then Monday!