Oh god there's the yeti! Siblings do WDW - THE TRIP REPORT! *NEW/FINISHED 3/10/15!*

[stindall]

Oh hello! It's been a little while! I bought a new-to-me car which I love, it was filthy when we bought it but instead of waiting to have the man clean and detail it, we took it from him and took it somewhere ourselves. I've had a cold and it's been so cold here I've just been wrapped up when not working! Now I shall start again and hopefully finish our 3rd day for you!

We last left off after a nap before the Halloween party. After we were all ready we headed out towards the bus stop. When we arrived an MK bus was just leaving and the line was already full enough to fill another bus. We took a seat and once we decided it was time to get up and get in a line another bus had pulled up. Perfect!

When we arrived for some reason we both started to freak out that our party tickets weren't linked to our bands. That was a silly worry because we had no issues! We grabbed an event guide and some treat bags and hopped in line for a photo!





We got stopped for the tail end of the parade and at the point in time we realized our one fast pass+ for the day was expired at 6:05, it was 5:56 so we made a b-line for Peter Pan and ended up right in line at 6:03! After Peter Pan we got in line for Pooh and the other family in our honey pot were dressed as Buzz, Woody, and Jesse! It was a perfect Pixar pot, wish we had gotten a photo.











When we disembarked we knew we wanted to ride Haunted Mansion as many times as we could so we went there! It was a bit drizzly at this point.
















After mansion we wanted to head to Splash Mountain but it was down. We decided to grab some dinner instead and we ended up at Cosmic Rays. We both really wanted one of the Skull mugs so I bought one (unfortunately something happened to it on the way home and it got ruined. ) It was really too sweet, we poured water in it to make it more palatable. We love love love Cosmic Rays for the cheese sauce (because it isn't nacho cheese! We hate nacho cheese!) and for Sonny Eclipse...but the cast members are never very nice. :/ Regardless, we had a nice meal and laughed at Sonny more than we should for people who have heard the songs many times.







We also took some photos on the bridge near Cosmic Rays sometime early in the evening. I think after we ate?


I love this one!

After that we were going to go towards Tomorrowland but Aaryn finally let it out that he wanted to meet Ariel so we turned around and went to get in line! We went right in and had a lovely time! Aaryn was beaming. Of course we had to ride her ride after! When we got off of it the mine train line was only 10 minutes, too good to pass up. It was a short wait after as well and we got back in line to do it again! It was pretty rainy but it made the ride even more fun!











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[stindall]

We thought it would be best to find a spot for the fireworks but when we got to the Liberty Square bridge it looked so full. We managed to snag a pretty good spot on the bridge though and watched the tail end of Magic Memories and You. We stood back for a little while but made our way closer to the castle side of the bridge for a better view.








Getting spooky!















I took a video of the show!


At some point we went back to ride Mansion again and take some of the photopass photos. I think it may have been pre-fireworks but I don't remember. I didn't take very good notes this day.








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[stindall]

We fought the crowds towards Splash Mountain and rode it twice! We took one our of favourite pictures on the second ride. The last parade time was coming up and we were at the start of it so we had the perfect location...so we thought. There were two incredibly rude guys in front of us, on of them had an ipad held up the entire time and the other wasn't even watching! He kept turning around. It kind of ruined it for us.











Big Thunder had a low wait and of course was close and that's what we hopped on next. When we disembarked we stopped at a candy trail.
We went to Pirates next and saw Jack Sparrow had a short line, both still excited from meeting Ariel we went towards it only to be turned away. We were both bumming so we went on Pirates, both sulking in silence. We stopped for candy after.









Tomorrowland was the only land we had not visited yet and there we went. We stopped at Buzz and after and hopped on the TTA; from the TTA we saw Mike and Sully at a dance party and both couldn't wait to get off! We danced with them both and snagged some photos! It cheered us both up a little bit















The party was almost over! Our last ride was Space Mountain and we made our way to the exit after, both incredibly parched and beat! We arrived back at our room around 1:00am and passed out! That's the end of our 3rd day! Tomorrow we head to Hollywood Studios!
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[DisneyFreak06]

Wow! What a great time you had at the party. That's something I've never done. Because I'm limited to travelling in March or summer, I've never been to any parties or even Halloween or Christmas.

I love your costumes too! So perfect!!!

 

[stindall]

It's studios day! A day we were both looking forward to, though I didn't know just how much until much later in the day.

I set an alarm for 8:45 and 9:30...but we didn't get up with either of them. We ended up rising at 10:30 and were at the bus stop by 11:00. I'm a bit sad we didn't get up earlier because it was our sole studios day, but we were so pooped from the party fun the previous night it was much needed rest!


Taking full advantage of our "texting only on the bus, in the hotel, or while eating" rule!

After entering the gates we stopped for a few photopass photos. Our first stop the photographer told me to kiss him on the cheek, just one of many times people thought we were a couple. I love my brother and I have no problem hugging him or linking arms etc but I was't down for a posed photo like that and our photographer was really rude about it! So we stopped a little further down for a better experience.







We got these fans, cute but we didn't want to carry them around all day so we ditched them quickly.

Starring rolls was calling my name and Aaryn was so hungry he didn't argue so there we went. It was very good, very filling.



The Great Movie ride was first up, a classic. Not before stopping for a few photos though! We saw Stitch on the way and that nearly made my day! I think this was the hottest day we had so going inside the cool "theater" felt great! You can even see the fog on my lens in our selfie!















It was still early in the day and we didn't have a fast pass until 2:00. Aaryn wanted to see the Little Mermaid show (shock surprise!) and it was close-ish so that's where we headed next. We were first in line so it was a little wait to get in. I feel like the show was really short, but we enjoyed it. I didn't take any pictures in this area for some reason.

We decided to mosy down Hollywood Blvd afterwards. I managed to spot a photographer doing Magic Shots and made a beeline for him.













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[stindall]

Wow! What a great time you had at the party. That's something I've never done. Because I'm limited to travelling in March or summer, I've never been to any parties or even Halloween or Christmas.

I love your costumes too! So perfect!!!

It was a lot of fun, I'd love to meet more characters but the lines are just so long. Thank you, we liked the simplicity!

 

[stindall]

We had a fast pass for TOT later but the wait was a whopping 10 minutes and we got in line. Aaryn hadn't been on it, he said he's never felt the desire but I think he was scared! When we got up to the loading area our elevator we were about to board had a malfunction or something so we had to re-stage elsewhere. It made it creepier! When we got in we both got really scared! Our ride sequence was great though, I think it was perfect for a first time. Aaryn said he liked it, but didn't love it.













Here are our two videos from the ride via the magic of memory maker! 1 and 2!



He needed to use the wiz palace and I called Mark for a bit. RNR had a very very short wait so we rode it twice! After our FP+ for Tower of Terror was up. Aaryn liked it more the second time. I wish we had ridden it again.









Our next fast pass wasn't until 3:40 but it led us in the direction of Toy Story Midway Mania. Since we had time to kill we stopped into One Mans Dream, something I had never experienced. I really loved it, but I love museums.





It was not time for TSMM yet so we went to the backlot tour. Turns out it was our last ride on it ever (RIP although it died long ago when they put in the stunt show).







Finally it was Toy Story time! I hope the rumors are true and the build a 3rd track because the line was so incredibly long without a fast pass! Sadly our "guns" didn't work 1/2 of the time so we did not fare so well. I ended up letting him beat me.









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[DisneyFreak06]

Fun morning so far! I love One Man's Dream too! It's just such a tribute to Walt. Parts of it totally make me cry.

I totally love all the rides at DHS too, and the shows too, but I agree with LM being too short.

And Starring Rolls... just YUMMY!

 

[stindall]

Fun morning so far! I love One Man's Dream too! It's just such a tribute to Walt. Parts of it totally make me cry.

I totally love all the rides at DHS too, and the shows too, but I agree with LM being too short.

And Starring Rolls... just YUMMY!

I learned some new things from the film they show after the museum. I was surprised I cried a bit too, must be my getting older.

I remember not being able to find that delicious little place last year and I'm so glad I did. I think it's a great value and it's all so delicious!

 

[stindall]

Passing through the area towards muppets we stopped for some of the Frozen photo spots. Those were a lot of fun and had virtually no wait! After that we were able to walk right into Muppets queue and had a short wait. I love love love that queue, so much to see and laugh at!









I can remember staying up late when Aaryn was younger and watching Toy Story with him in his room. The house that we lived in at the time had just three rooms upstairs. My room on the left, the bathroom in the middle at the top of the staircase, and Aaryn's room on the right. I would sneak in there all the time and lay on his floor watching movies or late night Disney Channel reruns. The point of this story is that we ended up having lunch at Pizza Planet. Medicore food but eating at Pizza Planet is special.







We took to the Streets of America next and happened upon a Photopass photgrapher that was literally gone when we were back in the area 5 minutes later. I'm telling you, we had some luck! I had remembered I wanted to find the Singing in the Rain umbrella. We really enjoyed finding it, I'll be sad if they demolish the area!






What I love about this picture is we just switched sides of the street but the sky makes it look like we traveled. Dark in one, light in another.









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[stindall]

Star Tours was up next which we had a fast pass for. It wasn't needed but we liked using them up. Aaryn had the idea to see Indiana Jones but we arrived too late to see the last show. Bummer!


I am a late 80's baby and I had never seen the Star Wars movies until a few years ago so I am not a HUGE fan, but I can appreciate them.

I seem to have lost my notes for the rest of the evening but looking through my photos I think we rode Star Tours 3 or 4 times in a row and then had to sit down for a while! I think we went back to Pizza Planet because we wanted to sit inside and relax but they were closing up so we left.

I'm fairly certain we made our way to The Great Movie Ride for one more ride. We had the cowboy scene earlier and were hoping for the gangster scene this time....and we got it!












Of course we had to stop here and pay our respects to one of the greats.

We had decided to head towards Fantasmic! We were not going to go in at first but we did anyway and ended up getting pretty great seats! We were left-middle and I think the 3rd row back with no one directly in front of us. The show still had over an hour until it started and we had started to mildly regret not going on TOT once more, later we both agreed we were glad we went in when we did.













When we exited the park and made it back to the bus stop the line was very very long. A second bus pulled up it started boarding before we other one was full, there was a bit of an argument between bus drivers and they stopped loading the second one until the other was full. We decided to hop on and stand so we could get back quicker. I had never seen any cast member get upset with another, it was a strange situation!



This is the last photo from the day and if I remember correctly I took it after calling Mark and sending a video to my mother. We both fell asleep pretty quickly, the heat wiped us out! On the walk back to the room Aaryn had mentioned he was bummed it was our only Studios day and over the next few days I agreed! Next time, we shall make more time for that park!
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[DisneyFreak06]

Wow! I really love all those fun photopass/MM shots! Too amazing! I am just a little jealous of all the Frozen ones!

And you waited IN the theatre for Fantasmic!? That has never happened to me, but I guess I usually go to the second show, and I wait in the street for an hour! Next time, I'm going early, with my journal and my camera, along with a snack (maybe popcorn?) and I'm just going to hang out and wait it out. Thanks for the tip.

And you know, I've never even been INSIDE Pizza Planet. I guess that's something I'll have to do too!

 

[stindall]

Hello! I'm sorry I haven't been around for a month-ish! It was a busy holiday season, and I was ill for a while. Even 2 weeks into the new year and I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things. Oh and my brother got into Ball State University! It was his first choice so we're all very excited for him! I hope you all had a good holiday season! This year we are still shooting for a trip to California including a day at Disneyland!...but I have the WDW bug and need to go back asap.

So we last left off with the end of day 4 so here we go with day 5!

We slept in a bit this day. I remember housekeeping knocking around 8:45 and I'm pretty sure I never fell back asleep, but we didn't get up until 11:30! Epcot was closing at 9:00 and since Epcot wiped us out so much the other day, we thought sleeping in was best.


Man I miss his teal hair! He dyed it back shortly after we came home. He said it was a lot of upkeep which was funny because he's always using hair products and making sure his hair looks "cool". Teenagers!

When we left the room and arrived at the bus stop we waited less than 10 minutes.We sat in the back raised up area, that's always fun for us. (I want to add here that even though the room wasn't terribly close to the main hall, it was pretty close to the buses. We were glad for that!)






I don't remember taking this?

We took a few photos before heading to The Land for lunch; since we enjoyed our meal so much the other day of course this is where we'd eat again. I got a chicken ceasar salad and a giant coconut macaron, he got fish tacos and tiramisu? We both enjoyed our meals, though he said his tacos were a little spicy. After lunch we saw the Soarin line was only 20 minutes! I do remember getting stuck behind a family who was fairly annoying to us both, luckily we took different concourses.









After we disembarked we had to do Living with the Land. I love that ride a lot, I think I rode it maybe 7 or 8 times in 2013. I think it was at this point when Aaryn mentioned he wish we'd signed up for Behind the Seeds and I did too! We left the land and went towards Nemo. I still get freaked out by the Angler fish! Aaryn needed to use the bathroom so I sat and people watched.



We had a little time to kill before our Soarin' fast pass, so we decided to head to Figment. I don't remember the old Figment so I don't hate it now, but I'm not terribly attached to it. I wouldn't hate seeing an update. I do remember the exit area being cooler. We were a bit warm so we went to Club Cool for a refreshment. Before we knew it it was time for our Soarin' fast pass!





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[stindall]

I just remembered my Mom printed a bunch of our vacation pictures up and gave them to me for Christmas! I need to get a big frame for them soon!

Test Track was our next stop, and it was a pretty long wait thanks to a tour group in front of us. It was a good ride though! I don't remember our score, I don't think it was too far off the high score. I think the ride photos were down so we didn't get one for this ride.



We took a quick video on the ride!



I think we stopped in MouseGear on our way back to SSE. It was our last ride in Future World before heading to World Showcase. From my pictures I see we went back to Club Cool! Haha we loved it in there!






I'm pretty sure I've never played any of the games in the exit. This racing game was pretty fun!



We opted to take the right side first and I had remembered the Cronut (I'm sorry, croissant donut...) I wanted to try so we stopped at the stand that sold them. It was so delicious! I think Aaryn took a bathroom break so I just waited nearby. I noticed tiny pineapples growing in a little garden area, so neat!





I can't ever remember going in to the Canadian Pavilion and neither could Aaryn so we went to see O'Canada. What a pretty pavilion it was! At this point Aaryn was being a big grump and I wasn't sure why. He said he was tired but I didn't buy it since we got up so late. I think after the film he had cheered up a little bit.



After Canada we walked around the UK a bit, and then stopped for a photo shortly before France. The photopass photographer was super friendly and we chatted with him a little bit about The Avengers and Arrested Development. From there we decided to stop for ice cream. This was maybe a bad idea but I desperately wanted a macaron ice cream sandwich! It was, of course, delicious but I now wish I had gotten the brioche sandwich instead, or at least Aaryn had. He got coffee and it was good too.






I don't like this picture at all, but Aaryn said it was one of his favourites.

Because we are gluttons, we made our way to Japan for dinner at Katsura Grill. But not before a quick stop in Morocco, another pavilion I can not remember exploring fully. At Katsura Grill Aaryn got Sushi and I got shrimp tempura and udon. We both got the strawberry red bean ice cream (I think that's what it was) and were both surprised at how much we liked it. We were too stuffed to finish it though. Both meals were good, I can't ever remember going in there before. It was tiny and kind of awkward but I liked it!






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[stindall]

Wow! I really love all those fun photopass/MM shots! Too amazing! I am just a little jealous of all the Frozen ones!

And you waited IN the theatre for Fantasmic!? That has never happened to me, but I guess I usually go to the second show, and I wait in the street for an hour! Next time, I'm going early, with my journal and my camera, along with a snack (maybe popcorn?) and I'm just going to hang out and wait it out. Thanks for the tip.

And you know, I've never even been INSIDE Pizza Planet. I guess that's something I'll have to do too!

Hah the Sven one is one of my favourites. I hope they keep some around!

Yeah I'm not sure I've ever waited inside either, I think it was because we got there so early! It was pretty cool being in there and checking out the stage when it was so light out. I think you'd probably like the downtown and atmosphere!

Pizza Planet I think is one of those place you love or hate. Unfortunately all of the arcade games have now been taken out so it loses a bit of what it had going on inside. They could have done a lot better job with it, but it's usually pretty empty and a nice spot to relax.

 

[ElsasMom]

Just joined and caught up. So much fun!

I love your costumes! I laughed really hard at your ride photos from MNSSHP & I LOVE the one where you guys are hitchhiking with the ghosts. Did Mike & Sully love your costumes?

Also, my husband has that Bluth's Banana Stand Shirt (his awesome wife gave it to him) & he wore it to Disney too. We got more compliments/commentary on that shirt then anything else including our kids costumes. Yay, Arrested Development.

 

[DisneyFreak06]

Staying in bed until 11:30? Wow! I've never done that. I've gone back and slept and had naps, and gone to bed early, but I've never stayed in bed that long... now I want to! Hahahahaha

And I want ice cream from France.

 

[stindall]

Just joined and caught up. So much fun!

I love your costumes! I laughed really hard at your ride photos from MNSSHP & I LOVE the one where you guys are hitchhiking with the ghosts. Did Mike & Sully love your costumes?

Also, my husband has that Bluth's Banana Stand Shirt (his awesome wife gave it to him) & he wore it to Disney too. We got more compliments/commentary on that shirt then anything else including our kids costumes. Yay, Arrested Development.

Welcome! Thank you! We liked the simplicity of them for sure. I tried so hard to get Aaryn to look scared on Space Mountain since it's such an anti-climatic place for a picture but he only went for it once! I love the hitchiking ones too, that photographer was a lot of fun. I know Mike did, I didn't really get a chance to interact with Sully.

I love love love that shirt. I bought it for my husband originally but ended up wearing it a lot more. I wish Target still sold it, I'd buy another! It's funny how a show no one watched originally gets you noticed so much now! That's too funny!

Staying in bed until 11:30? Wow! I've never done that. I've gone back and slept and had naps, and gone to bed early, but I've never stayed in bed that long... now I want to! Hahahahaha

And I want ice cream from France.

In our defense we're both really poor sleepers so we probably didn't actually sleep the whole way through! My sleep schedule at home is bed around 11:00pm and wake up at 8:15am every day, my fitbit tells me I only sleep about 4 hours. But you know, Disney can wipe you out!

The ice cream is SO GOOD! The things the can do with it too, many. The brioche thing was literally ice cream in a brioche bun and pressed in a warm sandwich press. Wowzers!

 

[stindall]

I am determined to finish this trip report before my birthday in March!

Norway was the next stop because we had a Malstrom fast pass. Little did we know it would be our last ride on it ever. I'm on the fence about the Frozen addition. On one hand I think it doesn't really belong since it's only vaguely Nordic, but on the other I don't think Disney will do a bad job with it. It'll just be nice for the showcase to finally just some sort of update.





We stopped at Mexico next for a quick ride and then a little shopping. I wish I had purchased some items here, oh well there's always next time! I think after we left the pavilion we saw the Soarin' wait was only 10 minutes so we booked it over there. I remember us both being in better moods by this point. We also saw Donald! We didn't stop for a picture though, we were on a mission!






I have never been in line and played these games, have you?

I know by this time I had wished we had gotten up just slightly earlier. We noticed the Test Track line was down to 20 minutes too so we ran over there, but not before Aaryn went to the bathroom and I decided I would not go back into MouseGear. I knew Aaryn didn't want to shop more and I had SKU code photos. In the end this was a good decision because we wanted to do Spaceship Earth again and it was already 8:10. We ended up choosing French for the SSE language by accident!











We got off SSE right at 9:00 I believe, and we made our way quickly to the bus stop. As soon as we walked up one had arrived and only one other family was on it. Perfect! We took it easy when we returned to the room, I showered and we just watched more tv and had some MNSSHP candy! I think we fell asleep around 11:30!



And that's the end of day 5! We were pretty satisfied with the day, even if we did wake up a little late. Tomorrow brings another Magic Kingdom day and a special meal!

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[DisneyFreak06]

You got a lot done! Hee hee on the French.

I have tried to play the games but usually the screen I got stopped at wouldn't work, so that was no fun.