Trip Report Oh, the Places We go, The People We See

Welcome to my newest Trip Report. For those who don’t know me, I am Jen.

That’s my Daughter Claire with me.



We just got back from an amazing vacation with several family members.

We traveled Nov. 1st thru the 15th, 2012. We rested our headed at 6 different places on this trip, and though it wasn’t always easy to keep moving from place to place, I am happy to have tried some new resorts out and stayed at some familiar ones as well.



This trip came about over a year ago. My Mom’s cousin Vicki wanted to take a trip with her and my Aunt Mary. Her Daughter Katie also wanted to come along.

After some talking and planning it became a group of 16 traveling. I was elected ring leader since I have quite a bit of Disney experience.

Plans were made, some were changed, and some were a little slower at making decisions than others.

My husband Skip is what is known in the Disney groups as a resistor and he decided NOT to come along. He was not so happy about the amount of time I was going to be gone.



The dates for the cruise were set first, Nov 4 through the 8th on the Disney Dream. We all planned to arrive a day early and stay at the Residence Inn near the port. Soon I decided that I must add a few Disney days, and so did everyone else eventually. I thin decide…heck lets add some more, and Claire and I ended up staying 3 more days after the rest left.

Then after doing some research and with a heads up from my good Dis-friend Carey, I was alerted to the fact that the last Halloween party was on Nov. 2nd. How could I pass that chance up? So Claire and I decided to fly in a day earlier than everyone else to hit that party. Claire and I also decided to fly out of Columbus. My family lives near the Toledo, OH area, and the best direct flights are out of Detroit. My youngest sister, who was not going on the cruise, lives in Columbus, and I was able to get a decent priced direct flight from there, so Claire and I drove down Nov. 1 and spent the night before our early flight.



Plans were finally all set in stone and we just had to wait for our time to arrive. Not an easy task, but we all managed.



Let me introduce you to the crew. This is a picture of a picture. My sister has the CD with the actual digital copy, but hasn’t yet loaded it to the computer, so I had to go with this for now till I can get a copy.

In the back row, left to right, we have my parents, Joe and Paula, next to them is my Uncle Geoff. Next to Geoff is cousin Vicki and her son in law Thad. Next to Thad is Pete, Vicki’s husband and then me. Aunt Mary is on the end, she is married to Uncle Geoff and my Mother’s sister.

Down towards the front, left to right, is my nieces Alexis and Abby with their parents Rob and Gail. Gail is my sister. Front and center is Claire. Behind Claire are Jude, and Katie. Katie is married to Thad and is Pete and Vicki’s Daughter. And then we have baby Luke in the stroller. He is only about 9 months old and what a cutie he is.



This trip had the usual ups and downs that most every family will have, but I have to admit things went much smoother than I planned. We never felt the need to kill each other for the most part. LOL

We had several cruise newbies and several Disney World newbies as well.



Please join me in reliving a very magical trip with all the places we traveled and all the people we met along the way!

 

[jenseib]

I love your AKL pictures! We wanted to explore the resort after we ate at Boma, but it started pouring!

Oh no! That was my worry for the day. I knew our plan was to swim till the room was ready, and if it had rained that would've not made for a very fun day. It was actually perfect though for us. I was happy.

 

[PolynesianPrincess]

Such a bummer the text about the room being ready didn't come through I have read from several people about that same issue but luckily when we went in May the text came through when we checked into WL and when we checked into Sports in Sept our room was already ready (thank goodness!)

Love the pics of Claire from the pphotopass where the fireworks from the show are going off. Such perfect timing!!

 

[jenseib]

Such a bummer the text about the room being ready didn't come through I have read from several people about that same issue but luckily when we went in May the text came through when we checked into WL and when we checked into Sports in Sept our room was already ready (thank goodness!)

Love the pics of Claire from the photopass where the fireworks from the show are going off. Such perfect timing!!

I had no luck with any texts this trip and I stayed at 3 resorts. My sister got one for hers though. Usually our room is ready when we arrive too, so I don't have issues with even having to worry about texts.

 

[jenseib]

After our Magic shots, we continued up to the hub. There we stopped and waited for Carey and her family. I think we sent a few texts back and forth. While we waited, I took a few pictures of the area. Claire jumped in some of them.

Hey! There’s Tomorrowland!

Looking to see if we see Carey.

Nope!

We decided to get in line for a photopass picture here then.

 

[jenseib]

Not long after the picture we got a text from Carey saying she too was near the Partners Statue. Hunh? So are we. So we walked around and kept looking, and there she was in plain view!

It was so nice to meet her. We met on Dis a few years ago and hit it right off. She loves to take pictures, which was one of the first things that drew me towards her. She also has an older daughter that is close in age to my older DD Paige. Then her younger DD, Kadence is about a year older than Claire. Claire was super excited to meet Kadence. She had seen pictures of her previous trips online and we have talked about her a LOT! Claire knew that this trip was a complete surprise for Kadence. (I think Claire was secretly jealous about that part) Claire and I will take walks to get in shape, and often on these walks we have to talk about every detail of our upcoming trip. These walks included a lot of talking about Kadence.
So the big moment has finally arrived. According to Carey, Kadence was very excited to find out she would be meeting up with Claire too. Well this big moment, was a DUD! Both girls immediately became shy. Almost hiding behind us. Seriously, after all this planning, you are NOT even going to talk to each other!
Well that didn’t matter, as Carey and I started talking right away. I had a gift for Kadence that we gave her and they had one of Claire as well. Claire kind of peeked in the bag, but I think she was too shy to really take a look, same with Kadence. Carey pulled out a journal from the bag she gave Claire and said it was for me. She said it was a gift from her and Janet (The dress maker who we were borrowing outfits from). OH Gosh! There was no need for either of them to do that. But it was so nice! I have to admit, I have only written about half a days’ worth in there and I need to get at it and finish it up. She also made this very cute autograph book for Claire. I loved it, and so did Claire. But as the trip went on, we forgot to bring it with us on a few key days and it only got a few signatures in it. I may take this with us again next trip. It’s too cute to waste and it has spots to put pictures in too.

Now it was time to get a group shot. We made Carey’s husband, John, take our pictures. Carey warned that he is not the best picture taker, but they came out OK.
The first one looks like we are cringing. We are probably smiling and giving him instructions on how to use the cameras. LOL

And of course we have the bright sun in our eyes too.

We chatted a bit more and then it was time to head off. We would be meeting up in a week’s time, as our girls were going to do the Wonderland Tea Party together.

Claire and I headed back towards Fantasyland. We stopped and asked if the new part was open for previews, but no such luck. I did ask if it would open during the party and she gave me a knowing look and said to check back then once it started.

It was time for a snack. We weren’t quite ready to eat dinner (and honestly we were hoping to eat in new Fantasyland), so we went to get a Dole Whop Float. This is a new favorite for us, just having our first try of these last March.

We got in line and it was moving kind of slow. I think the guy we had was new, because he seemed to not understand what we wanted at first. In line I said we should share one now, but Claire was insistent that she needed her own. She said I was a pig and would eat it all. LOL.
So we decided that she would get the pineapple one and I would get the orange one.

It took a while, but we finally walked away with one in our hands and took a seat across the way,

Claire obviously is mad that I made her wait for a picture before she could eat hers.

They were darn good!
A picture of our view.

 

[jenseib]

After a bit, I asked Claire if I could have a bite of hers and she could have one of mine. This actually worked out great, and we ended up trading then. We got half of one we loved and then another half of another we loved.
After we finished up, we headed out again towards Fantasyland.

As soon as she spotted the sword, we had to stop. She learned about this on our April 2011 trip. She knows it “may” pull out for some lucky strong kid, and she wants to be that kid.

She kept telling me she could feel it move and was sure it was ready to come out.

Anyone out there? Help me!!

We had no such luck, and we headed off again.

 

[jenseib]

After our failure at trying to get the sword out of the stone, we moved on.

I did a quick check to see if we could get into the new Fantasyland, but it was still a no.

I did ask them for a shot though, as they had the cutest outfits on.

So we headed off to Storybook Circus.

We had been lucky to already visit parts of this last spring when we spent the day here on our Universal trip, but more has been added since then. Only 1 Dumbo was running and Barnstormer was up and going then as well. This time around it was pretty much completed, though I suspect that more may be added or enhanced in the next year or two.

We got in line for Dumbo. The wait wasn’t too long.

This was the first time we went into the tent with the interactive stuff, which we passed by and just glanced at.

I still haven’t gotten the gist of how this works. I guess you can ask to play and then you get a pager when it’s your turn to ride? Correct me if you know how this works exactly. Anyways, just passing by this play area, it was unimpressive to us. The first thing Claire said was that it looked like it was for babies. And I have to agree. It really seemed to be more geared towards younger children, not for the very mature 7 year old with me! LOL But again, we only glanced in and we might have missed something good.

The longest part of our wait was actually back outside, so in all the wait time in whole was not bad at all.

 

[jenseib]

And then it was our turn.

Claire gave me strict instructions! She would be controlling the flying and I was not allowed to touch it at all. I told her she better get us up high, as I wanted to take pictures. She failed!

For some reason she just wasn’t getting us very high. I did find out one disturbing thing. They planted trees all around this ride. TALL trees!!!! It’s impossible to get any shots of the rest of the park with trees in the way. I gave up on that idea real soon.

When we got off we walked over near the new splash train.

I am not impressed with this either. Now on a very hot summer day, I am sure Claire would like it, but for the rest of the year, I could see her getting wet and then complaining all day long about being wet. If you plan to visit this area, bring along another outfit to change into as kids appeared to be getting soaked!

 

[jenseib]

Claire wanted to ride Barnstormer next. I don’t remember the posted time, but I do remember the line looked longer than I cared for, but we still jumped in.

The theming in the queue is very cute.

We stalled out for a few minutes so I looked back and took another shot of the train.

And we got moving again.

These would provide shade on a hot sunny day ….though not much.

I believe at some point in time I texted Carey and asked if they wanted to sit together and watch the late parade and she said sure.
Also another co-worker of mine, Stephanie, was at the World this week as well. She had spent the day at Epcot with her son and some friends. She was coming over for the party and had just arrived. So we were sending texts back and forth as well. We planned to meet up at some point too. We had never officially met in real life yet, as we both do our jobs from home and online, so though we talk daily, we have never seen each other face to face.

More theming.

And finally it was our turn.

I tried to get a few shots as we were rolling all around.

 

[jenseib]

It’s fun, it’s fast, and it’s way too short.

As we walked off I got this shot of a car going up. I thought it was neat and I had a poser in there …see the guy smiling for me!

I am still kind of curious what they will end up doing with this area.

Right now it has fast pass machines for Dumbo and Barnstormer. But it’s a big area for just that. And when the new system takes over I am not sure if it will be needed for that anymore either.

We headed towards Pete’s Silly Sideshow and for a moment I had a brain freeze and couldn’t remember what this area was for. Then it dawned on me …character meets!

And we came across some water art too.

 

[jenseib]

We decided to go in and see Minnie and Daisy. The line wasn’t too long. I texted Stephanie again. We had been texting back and forth about meeting up and I let her know we were making a stop here first.

The line moved pretty fast and soon we were meeting Miss Daisy.

Lighting in here is not too great and it’s hard to get decent pictures.

Daisy has always been a hit with Claire. One year we had to get up extra early to find her at DHS. Claire was not about to leave without seeing her. Luckily we found her first thing that trip.

I have to admit something dumb here. I had thought the characters were already dressed in their Halloween costumes. It was till we went back outside and I saw the signs that I realized they dress this way all the time. Oops!

 

[jenseib]

Next up was Minnie. I like that you can see 2 characters, but only wait in 1 line.

Minnie’s area was even worse for lighting. And many of our photopass pictures came out bad or just a complete blur.

 

[jenseib]

We said goodbye to Minnie and headed out.

Surprise, Surprise! We were let out into a dump shop!

It was really neat in here though!

And this is when I realize that the characters are dressed for a theme and not in a Halloween costume.

Claire had noticed basically no line for Goofy and Donald at all either, so we went back around, and yes you have to go outside to get back in, and got in line ….only to find them gone! But we were told they would be out soon. We also sent out another text to Stephanie to let her know we were seeing more charaters.

Next thing we know, we see Carey, John, and Kadence come walking in. They were only a few people behind us so we chatted a bit while we waiting. Of course Claire and Kadence were both excited to see other and showed it by eyeing each other up and down. LOL

Soon it was time for the Great Goofini and Donaldo! Do you see what I see?

TaDa!!!!

The Great Goofini!

Notice Donald’s giving the thumbs down from behind the curtain in this next picture.

 

[jenseib]

Donaldo was NOT about to be outdone. You know how that duck loves attention.

And then he noticed I had a camera and came over to ham it up.

And then he saw Carey and hammed it up for her.

Don’t believe me? Here’s her shot!

Finally Donaldo settled down and went off to his spot to wait for us humans.

 

[jenseib]

We didn’t have to wait too long and then it was our turn to see the Great Goofini!

Goofy then gave Claire a spin. Claire LOVES when characters do this. Sadly the photopass photographer didn’t even take one picture of this interaction.

I really liked this picture.

 

[jenseib]

We had to wait a few seconds for our turn with Donald.

Then it was our turn!

 

[jenseib]

We said a final good bye to Donaldo.

We noticed that Carey’s family was just getting to Goody as we were leaving. I believe we waved goodbye and headed out to the dump shop once again.
Claire wanted to wait for Kadence, but if I remember right, they were taking a bit longer than we expected.

Even the flooring here is themed!

We really loved this Dumbo stuff, but we knew it would just collect dust, so we didn’t buy anything.

I wish this nightgown came in a real dress and slightly bigger.

I believe we gave up on Carey and headed out, texting Stephanie once again too.

 

[jenseib]

As we walked it out of the Big Treat Tent, we noticed a lot of CM’s in their Halloween party uniforms. I think they had just come from a meeting.

A nice look at Dumbo and his tent.

The Mine Train Crane. Yeah it’s a new ride. LOL

We thought about riding Pooh. Actually before the character stop, that was our intentions, but the line was too long and it was now nearing 7 PM, so we decided to head up front and get our costumes out of the locker and change.

 

[jenseib]

We spotted the Wishing Well.

And Claire had to jump in.

We spotted the Brave meet area.

It was starting to get dark ….fast!

Now this was one of my dumbest ideas ever. I knew that at 7ish Main Street would be busy. We had guest exciting and others coming in for the party. If I was smart, I would’ve made it up front before 6 to change. I knew this info a head of time …but I just didn’t apply my knowledge to myself. LOL!

We struggled to get to the locker and there we a ton of people doing the same thing and standing in the way and changing right in the locker room as well. We grabbed our stuff and headed off to the bathroom to change, where we found many other people changing as well. Claire refused to change in front of others, so we crammed into a small stall and changed. I was literally working up a sweat trying to do all this. I was cursing myself here.
Finally we got finished and headed out. Claire and I both dressed up as Mary Poppins. Her dress used to be fantastic, but she has really outgrown in and this was our last chance to wear it again. I was very basic, but it made Claire happy to think we were both the same character.

And it was crowded. We swam upstream and finally made it to Fantasyland area.

Again, we had to try our luck.

We made our way straight back to the new Fantasyland. Now for you professional party goers, you are going to cringe, but I didn’t do much party research for myself. I had planned to do it closer to my trip, but I just didn’t have enough time to do it. I did know basics though and what I was about to do was not what a pro would do. I did not even think about anything to do with the party and went straight back into the new Fantasyland and I was going to explore back there before I even gave another thought about the party going on over on the other side of the walls.

And yes, we were allowed back. We just had to show our party bands.

And we saw the incredible Beats Castle!

 

[jenseib]

We headed straight back to Be Our Guest. I asked if they were serving food and the CM told me yes, but only to those who had a reservation. How the heck do you get one of those????? Oh well, BUT we were allowed to take a quick tour. That surely is better than nothing.
Now I am a little mad because what the CM did not tell me was that at the podium they were taking walk up guest and giving them pagers to wait for a table. I would’ve done that in a heartbeat had I known.

My pictures are just AWFUL. This place is soooo dark. The whole new Fantasyland area is dark and the interiors aren’t much better.

These are for ordering the quick service lunch.

A view into the dining room. I was so jealous!