Sorcerers, Spies and Superbowl Adventures - A February Trip Report

This trip began a very long time ago. In fact, over 15 months ago, I assumed that this trip would be our first trip back to WDW in over a year. But that hasn't been the case! Never the less - we were super excited to join my husband in Orlando for a conference Feb. 6 - 11. The reservations were made for the Beach Club (conference rate.) My husband's ticket was purchased for Tuesday and we were all set........ or so I thought.

Two weeks ago, my husband called and said he wanted to go to an additional 'meeting' in Orlando on Tuesday - the day he was supposed to arrive. He said we should all just drive down together on Friday.........so that he could go to the meeting on Tuesday...........hmmmmmmmmmmm.......... a meeting he 'had' to go to..... that we 'had' to arrive 3 days early for...... sounds like someone figured out they'd get more park time by arriving early! So we booked the Caribbean Beach at a great rate and added on a few more nights.

Friday, we left home, stopping overnight in Georgia. On Saturday, we pulled onto Disney property promptly at 3 pm. We only had time to check in quickly and throw our bags into the room, before we had to rush off to my son's 4:30 haircut appointment at the Barbershop in the MK!

Hey! I know that place:

We were getting ready to walk out the door when my daughter spilled a bottle of water on her outfit. She insisted she HAD to change clothes, so I told my husband and son to head on to the bus stop without us and to get on the first MK bus. I told them we'd be right behind them.

They were right on time to their appointment, but sadly, I missed the whole thing. It took my daughter and I a good hour to catch up with them with the whole outfit changing, waiting for the bus, etc.

(Pictures of haircut to come - all are on my husbands phone at this time.)

It was a perfect evening in the MK though, so who can be sad???

 

[erstwo]

Then it was on to the next conservation station for us -

(Which I see now is actually called Discovery Club. )

Again, themed so well -

Disney fun all around -

Then we all headed to the Boneyard -

 

[erstwo]

This is normal right?

Even the picnic table in the Boneyard was themed/ carved:

The boys headed back towards Asia to ride EE, and my daughter and I headed toward the safari - the long way.

Along the way - we found some friends -

 

[erstwo]

And then it was on to safari!

Much more to come - we make it to the Magic Kingdom today, I swear!

 

[tiaragirl]

Your daughter is just the cutest - I know I say it every time, but truer words have not been spoken. Those bows just get me!

It's so weird to have been on here for 3 years and see all these kids grow up through TRs.. I find it with Kelly's kids too. Eep!

Keep 'er comin =)

 

[erstwo]

Your daughter is just the cutest - I know I say it every time, but truer words have not been spoken. Those bows just get me!

It's so weird to have been on here for 3 years and see all these kids grow up through TRs.. I find it with Kelly's kids too. Eep!

Keep 'er comin =)

Hey! Aren't you supposed to be cruising?? Must be next week!

Thanks so much! I know, I feel the same way - they grow up so much from TR to TR.

I'm going to update more now - had to upload more photos.

 

[erstwo]

I thought this safari was our best one ever. Turned out that this one would pale in comparison to our final safari, but we had no way of knowing that!

We had to wait a few minutes for the boys to catch up-

No problem though, it was walk up. The wait said 10 minutes - but of course, I think they meant 10 minutes to walk up the queue. :lol:

Bye, bye Little Red. I'll be happy to see the Zebras again, but I'll miss you - even with your terrible storyline.

After Safari, we were all feeling a little tired. It was about 3, and we decided we wanted to head back to Caribbean Beach and swim in their awesome pool.

When we got to our room, Mousekeeping had visited:

Sorry - no pictures of the pool. I never take my camera with me, as I always just want to enjoy the pool and I always promise myself that I'll visit later and take some pictures, but I never do. But the pool at Caribbean Beach is awesome! 3 slides, a huge kids pirate ship, water play area, 2 hot tubs. Great stuff.

 

[erstwo]

We stayed in the pool for an hour or two. While we were in the pool the CM's at CBR set up a huge inflatable screen for viewing the Super Bowl, just outside the pool area, next to the bar.

It was great! Lots of tables and chairs in that area and people began to gather. I dried off and went inside Port Royale to get dinner for everyone. We grabbed a front row seat and ate during the pre show. We stayed until half time. Now, my son LOVES football, he was totally into it. My daughter? Not so much. Plus it had started to rain a little. So we gave my son full access to his father's ESPN app and headed for the MK after we changed into dry clothes. We figured the parks would be somewhat empty with the rain and the Super Bowl.

MK had EMH until 1am this night. We arrived well after the fireworks, just as the 2nd Magic, Memories, and You show was ending.

I didn't bring my camera, only my phone. I knew from experience I wouldn't be taking many pictures in the rain.

We were about to walk down Main Street when something caught my attention.... the Firehouse was now open, and there was some kind of sign outside. I went over to check it out while everyone else watched the end of the show.

 

[erstwo]

This is going to be a mixture of photos - taken at different times during the trip. On this night, I had no idea what was going on in the Firehouse and no idea how much my kids would love it.

I walked in - straight to the kiosk type stand. I was the only one there.

(I hope you can see the kiosks behind the people?)

I totally bypassed the Merlin screen explaining the game -

See those horse harness hanging on the far back wall in the background? They're magic! See two photos below. It's totally amazing stuff.

I asked what was up with the 'Sorcerers Needed' sign outside. The CM explained that it was a new interactive game in the MK. They needed sorcerers to help defend the MK against the evil villians who were trying to steal the crystal that contains all the magic for the Magic Kingdom.

They took my ticket (in reality my AP) and swiped it. They then issued us 5 spell cards and one 'key.'

They took us over to a 'stall' in the back and showed us how to activate the portals using our key. (You just touch your key to the lock next to the portal.)

This portal also showed us which area of the MK to report to - ours was Fantasyland.

They also showed us the circles on the ground to look for. You have to stand on this circle when casting your spell.

My son was immediately intrigued, but we had dessert on our minds. So we headed to the Bakery first.

They had Super Bowl Cupcakes!

I had the cheesecake and my son had the NY Giants cupcake.

 

[erstwo]

After our dessert, I am almost certain my husband and my son rode Space Mountain, but I'm not 100% sure. But I do know the whole family ended up on Buzz

The wait was more like walk on.

We did wait about 20 minutes for Astro Orbiter

My son had been looking forward to this for a long, long time. A CM once told him that when he was 8, he could ride in a ship all by himself. Astro was down when we went for his birthday trip last October (it was actually the week it shut down for fire and the firetrucks rode through MK) so this was his first chance!

The view up top is so pretty:

I had forgotten how fast Astro Orbiter is! Much different than Dumbo or Aladdin!

 

[erstwo]

After Astro Orbiter, my son asked to do the 'Key' thing. So we headed toward Fantasyland to try our hand at some magic.

This was our first time trying this game, so we went to the wrong portal at first. We thought we were just supposed to find any portal in Fantasyland, so we wandered around, without really consulting the map they had given us. We finally found a portal hidden next to Sir Mickey's.

It was so amazing. It looks like stone, until you press the key to the lock and then all of the sudden the wall comes to life!

It was a total "Wow!" moment. I know I'm supposed to be finding all the things that are wrong with WDW. I know that I'm supposed to be all upset about maintenance issues on Splash and the fact that Avatar doesn't fit in with AK, but I have to say - WDW is doing something very, very right and they are still doing things that are imaginative and innovative and very, very much the things that I expect out of a Disney experience. This is one of them.

The portal beside Sir Mickey's told us we were at the wrong portal. We were supposed to go to the one near Cinderella fountain behind the Castle. That's when we figured out that each portal had a symbol on the map.

They are all so well hidden, you don't even know they are there if you aren't looking for them. Most look like a regular display or display window or artwork, until you unlock it with the key. It's even more dramatic to unlock them at night, because they all have some amazing lighting that switches on at night.

After we defeated Malificent in Fantasyland, my husband and son decided they were ready to head back to the room. My daughter and I were still ready to ride rides, so we stayed behind.

We rode several things in Fantasyland, Haunted Mansion, and then we circled back to Fantasyland to ride IASW.

The rain had let up, but still we were practically the only ones there.

When we got off the boat, the IASW clock struck midnight:

Luckily we didn't lose our glass slippers or step on any pumpkins!

We did ride the carousel:

Again, kind of lonely:

Before taking Owl back to the Hundred Acre Wood (we had just purchased Owl earlier that day in AK.)

We played around in the Pooh queue for a while before heading to Main Street to try and finish off another villan.

But we discovered that we couldn't finish this mission because one of the portals was inside the Emporium, which was closed during EMH. Boooo...... but we were tired anyway. And we were coming back the next day for the Super Bowl MVP parade! :sohappy::sohappy:

Up next.........more sorcerer work and a MVP Parade, Disney style!

 

[mr_braver23]

Very cool tr!!

 

[erstwo]

Very cool tr!!

Thank you!

 

[erstwo]

I must have been tired last night when I wrapped up Day 2, because I discovered this morning I forgot to mention 2 fun things we did before visiting Main Street/ exiting the park:

Pirates!

And DOLE WHIP!!!

Never, never forget to mention a Dole Whip float, right???


Anyway, we collapsed into bed at about 1:30 am. The bus stops had been shut down on the right side by the time we exited the park and we were put on a bus with guests from other resorts, but lucky for us, we were one of the first stops.

My daughter took this with my phone. I don't typically take pictures on buses at night.


Day 3! MVP Parade!

Today we slept in until about 10 am. I thought the boys would be up earlier, but it turned out they had been up pretty late watching ESPN recaps of the game. so they were pretty tired too. We got up, go dressed and decided we wanted to eat breakfast at the Bakery in the MK. We wanted to get a good spot for the MVP parade.

Warm, hazy morning at the bus stop:

Another beautiful day at the Magic Kingdom!

 

[erstwo]

It was already pretty crowded, and you could already see many Giants shirts/ jerseys.

By this time it was just after 11. My husband and son decided they wanted lunch, instead of breakfast. They headed to Casey's. I had my mind set on coffee and hot dogs and coffee don't mix well. :lookaroun so I ordered them to eat in front of the castle to find a spot to sit for the parade, rather than joining us in the Bakery to eat. My daughter and I navigated the scrim:

You go in the out way:

And the entrance and window are covered with beaded board:

Yummy, yummy!

 

[erstwo]

When we finished breakfast, we joined the boys in front of the castle to form a plan.

People lined up:

TV equipment:

The Castle show was on:

The girl in the white/purple/gold shirt in the side of the photo ended up sitting next to us. She was another College Program CM who had just started her job, she was there with several other CP CM's and my husband had a good time talking to them about their assignments/ schools, etc.

It was a little hot in the sun that day and my daughter wasn't too keen on waiting over an hour for some football player to drive by - plus we had heard the parade doesn't always happen on time. I guess 2011's parade was up to 3 hours late (possibly due to rain.) My daughter wanted to go do something. My son was so excited about the parade he didn't want to go anywhere!

So my husband and son decided to stay put, and my daughter and I decided to go see the Princesses.

The wait said 10 minutes, but we walked right up - we were the only ones in line. When they let us in the room - we were the only ones there! Cinderella came and took my daughter by the hand.

They were all so sweet to her!

 

[erstwo]

We exited through the gift shop (of course)

I like the new display/ set up where it looks like costuming is working on Mary Poppins costume. Just another one of the ways Disney is always tweaking things to make them better/ new/ fresh.

I promised my daughter an autograph book, so we picked one up and headed back in line for Minnie and Mickey. The wait said 10 minutes and it really was. They had added a TON of theming/ details to the first room you enter when waiting to meet and greet the Mouse.

I was so glad, because that room always seemed so empty and plain -very unDisney like.

The details now are AMAZING! You can't see it, but every letter is addressed perfectly, and even the cancelation marks say things like "Tomorrowland USA", etc. It really looks like the backstage office of a theater!

Loved this!

There were already people in the room when we got there, or I would have taken a picture of the room overall. I'm always hesitant to take pictures of other people (at least in a 'room' like that) don't want to weird them out! :animwink:

 

[erstwo]

While we were in this waiting room, my husband called to say they were going to be interviewed any minute for some sort of TV spot. He told me to come right away if we wanted to be in the interview. I told him we were still all the way at the start of Main Street and it sounded like we'd never make it.

The interview went really well without us, and my husband and son ended up being in the Disney Parks Blog video spot!

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2012/02/walt-disney-world-resort-parade-celebrates-super-bowl-mvp-eli-manning/

They are the ones speaking (or rather, my husband is speaking) near the middle of the video.)

After we met the mice,

we headed across the way to City Hall (to ask if the parade would be running on time - They said as far as they knew, it would still be on at 1:20)

They were about to put the trolley horses away. They are so beautiful!

We went to join the boys for the parade!

 

[erstwo]

Is he here yet?

Looks like he is!

Yep, it's him!

Hello Mr. Manning - so glad you get to be the Super Bowl winning MVP!

No pictures of him looking at us, I was clapping instead.

But I got these guys!

 

[erstwo]

And these ladies -

My husband and I remarked that it must have been nice that they didn't have to make 2 sets of costumes this year - they were safe with red, white and blue either way! (This is assuming they always wear the colors of the winning team?)

Guys in jerseys carrying balloons

Cute kids carrying balloons:

And just like that, it's over:

Clean up time

Now it was time to finish off the villain on Main Street.

 

[erstwo]

Here you can clearly see how Disney has 'hidden' these portals -

We were all ready to head to Hollywood Studios, but we took a trip around the MK on the train first: