Well, after being back for a while, it is about time to start up the trip report. For the past few years, my daughter has been beating me up to go to Mickey’s Not So Scary, but with her dance schedule and school, we have never been able to get there. This year with a Monday holiday at school and a weekend off of extra practices, a quick check of the party schedule was in order. We were in luck. Friday October 11th looked just perfect. We decided to stay at the Contemporary, which actually is one of my favorites. I love being able to walk to the MK gates. Once the Hotel was booked and Tickets bought, I realized that this could be our first experience with Fast Pass Plus and decided to check it out. Yep, I’ve read all about how it kills being spontaneous and people don’t like it, but what the heck we would give it a shot. More about the experience later. Also on this trip would be a chance for my daughter to explore her new hobby, photography. In last years trip, her and I were doing one of our extended hour jaunts through the Magic Kingdom when she decided to start taking pictures with my DSLR. Jokingly I said maybe we need to get one for you. Fast forward to the Christmas list…… yep top of the list. Now while I was excited about this, my wife was probably thinking oh joy now I have two of them to deal with. Santa delivered a Canon T3 to my daughter and even more to my surprise was how much she stayed with it. Even taking a photography class during her summer break. All joking aside, I was really excited to go on this trip and spend time with my 9 year old daughter both doing the things we love, spending time at Disney and photography. So the pictures for this trip report will be a combination of both of us.
We’ll jump ahead to the leaving day. So that my daughter would not have to miss an extra day of school we decided to leave on a Thursday evening. Delta had a flight that left at 6:00 pm and arrived in Orlando a little after midnight. Both my wife and I kinda cringed at the after midnight part, but it was better than flying all day Friday and then being tired for the party. As this was going to be a short trip, we figured already being there on Friday was a plus. Our flight out was without delays and went really well. We landed just a little after midnight and this is where the fun began. I had decided that we would just grab a cab to the hotel so we wouldn’t have to wait for a bus. Well the waiting part didn’t go away. It was about a 30 minute wait for a cab, little did we know that would be one of the shortest wait times for the trip. We finally got a cab and off we go. About half way to the hotel, we started to realize that our cab driver was using all available lanes at the same time. I didn’t realize that the new e-ticket for Disney was the cab ride to the hotel. A whole lot of swerving going on. If there were any sleepy eyes from the long plane ride, they went away by the time we got to the hotel.
Check in was smooth and off to our room we went. We had figured to sleep in a little and then hit the Magic Kingdom around lunch time.
After a few hours of sleep, (only a few, it took that long for me to wind down after the cab ride) we were up and ready to go. While waiting for my wife and daughter, I decided to take a quick look at facebook and something caught my eye. Much to my surprise a fellow blogger had just posted that they were there too. Now, being that he is much more eloquent than I, I will let blackthidot describe the fun of the crowds. Something tells me his version will be a little more elaborate and entertaining than mine.
We walked over to Magic Kingdom each of us equipped with our customized wrist band and looked forward to a day of fast pass plus, lunch reservations at the Crystal Palace and then eventually our first MNSSHP.
Once in the park, there is an ongoing tradition with me and my daughter that our first ride is always Pirates. Every trip has always officially started with a walk through that que and hopping into the boat for leisurely cruise through the world of Captain Jack Sparrow. But not this time, as we walked up, the cast members were informing all of the good folks that the ride was down. Hmmmmm, now where do we start. With cameras ready, we decided Haunted Mansion was our starting point.
After a few rounds of Haunted Mansion and Emily realizing that dark ride photography was not as easy as it looked, we were off to see if pirates was open.
We’ll jump ahead to the leaving day. So that my daughter would not have to miss an extra day of school we decided to leave on a Thursday evening. Delta had a flight that left at 6:00 pm and arrived in Orlando a little after midnight. Both my wife and I kinda cringed at the after midnight part, but it was better than flying all day Friday and then being tired for the party. As this was going to be a short trip, we figured already being there on Friday was a plus. Our flight out was without delays and went really well. We landed just a little after midnight and this is where the fun began. I had decided that we would just grab a cab to the hotel so we wouldn’t have to wait for a bus. Well the waiting part didn’t go away. It was about a 30 minute wait for a cab, little did we know that would be one of the shortest wait times for the trip. We finally got a cab and off we go. About half way to the hotel, we started to realize that our cab driver was using all available lanes at the same time. I didn’t realize that the new e-ticket for Disney was the cab ride to the hotel. A whole lot of swerving going on. If there were any sleepy eyes from the long plane ride, they went away by the time we got to the hotel.
Check in was smooth and off to our room we went. We had figured to sleep in a little and then hit the Magic Kingdom around lunch time.
After a few hours of sleep, (only a few, it took that long for me to wind down after the cab ride) we were up and ready to go. While waiting for my wife and daughter, I decided to take a quick look at facebook and something caught my eye. Much to my surprise a fellow blogger had just posted that they were there too. Now, being that he is much more eloquent than I, I will let blackthidot describe the fun of the crowds. Something tells me his version will be a little more elaborate and entertaining than mine.
We walked over to Magic Kingdom each of us equipped with our customized wrist band and looked forward to a day of fast pass plus, lunch reservations at the Crystal Palace and then eventually our first MNSSHP.
Once in the park, there is an ongoing tradition with me and my daughter that our first ride is always Pirates. Every trip has always officially started with a walk through that que and hopping into the boat for leisurely cruise through the world of Captain Jack Sparrow. But not this time, as we walked up, the cast members were informing all of the good folks that the ride was down. Hmmmmm, now where do we start. With cameras ready, we decided Haunted Mansion was our starting point.
After a few rounds of Haunted Mansion and Emily realizing that dark ride photography was not as easy as it looked, we were off to see if pirates was open.
