We Defected to the West! DLR 2013

[Disney127]

Really enjoying reading your trip report. You are an amazing photographer, looking at your photos made me want to give it a try with my DH SLR. He is usually the photographer in the family while I do the point and shoot. But since DD and I are going during the Christmas holidays, I am going to give it a try and see how my photos turn out. I showed my DD your trip report and she commented that your daughter is beautiful and she loves all the dresses that you made. You are very talented! Can't wait to read more!

 

[petals]

Love the pic of Katie on the phone at the goofy statue. She looks so happy to be there

 

[mom2rtk]

It is possible to see both Suzy and Perla at the Plaza Inn during Minnie & Friends Character Breakfast. I haven't seen them together at the same time during breakfast but I have seen them one at a time during breakfast and later on they switch during the day.

A nice day at Main Street and to meet with Mary Poppins and Bert.

That is great that you were able to ride on the Lilly Belle during your trip. It is so amazing to ride the Lilly Belle around DL. Your pictures are very nice inside the Lilly Belle. It is too bad that regular park guests won't be able to ride the Lilly Belle anymore.

It's so rare to see Suzy and Perla at WDW these days that I'm just happy that I can see them apart.

And it was a beautiful day for a ride on the Lilly Belle, a remarkable experience. And I did see that regular guests can no longer ride. I'm sad about that, but so happy we followed through and did it that day. We ended up giving up most of our early entry just to be in line for that.

Really enjoying reading your trip report. You are an amazing photographer, looking at your photos made me want to give it a try with my DH SLR. He is usually the photographer in the family while I do the point and shoot. But since DD and I are going during the Christmas holidays, I am going to give it a try and see how my photos turn out. I showed my DD your trip report and she commented that your daughter is beautiful and she loves all the dresses that you made. You are very talented! Can't wait to read more!

Thanks so much! Glad you are reading along. Disney is such a visual place that if you have a nice camera, you really should bring it. There's SO much to see and photograph during the holidays.

And tell your DD thank you for the kind words.

Love the pic of Katie on the phone at the goofy statue. She looks so happy to be there

I know..... we all have our moments. I think we were waiting for someone ahead of us to finish up with the photopass photographer and I looked over to see Katie engrossed in her phone.

 

[mvf-m11c]

It's so rare to see Suzy and Perla at WDW these days that I'm just happy that I can see them apart.

And it was a beautiful day for a ride on the Lilly Belle, a remarkable experience. And I did see that regular guests can no longer ride. I'm sad about that, but so happy we followed through and did it that day. We ended up giving up most of our early entry just to be in line for that.

I see. You can also see Suzy and Perla during F! When they are in he Mark Twain.

It is amazing to ride the Lilly Belle. It is a shame that they no longer allow regular guests to ride the Lilly Belle. But at least they still let the guests ride in the tenders of the steam engines as well as the Caboose.

 

[mom2rtk]

It is amazing to ride the Lilly Belle. It is a shame that they no longer allow regular guests to ride the Lilly Belle. But at least they still let the guests ride in the tenders of the steam engines as well as the Caboose.

That would be fun to do too. We'll have to try that sometime.

 

[missangelalexis]

Such a cute picture of little Katie.

That first castle pic in the first update is gorgeous. All of those pics are almost like postcards with barely anyone around!

Wow, what an interesting FG!

Lovely picture of you and Katie at breakfast.

Suzy & Perla! I met them when I was younger but would love to meet them now!

Minnie's Christmas attire

And Mary & Bert! How I wish they were out together more often in WDW! Such a great pic of the 4 of you!

The Lilly Belle seems so impressive!

 

[PrincessInOz]

I love seeing your pictures of the Lilly Belle. What a fantastic way to travel. That Grand Canyon diorama is charming. I know it's dated; but I really like seeing it. You know.....I don't think I've gone to see it for a while.

Katie's teenage pose looks very similar to my DS' poses.

 

[jenseib]

Yay for seeing both Suzy and Perla...and I can never remember which is which.
We saw them a few times in years past. I know one year they were the first 2 we saw as we walked into MK on our first evening there. It was so much fun and that was back when Claire liked to see characters on a regular basis.

The Lily belle looks gorgeous!
What a great opportunity!
The whole train system was down while I was there so I didn't even get to ride the regular train. I think I'll put it on my list for the next time.

As always I am totally enjoying your pictures....especially the rebel Dumbo shots!

 

[mom2rtk]

Such a cute picture of little Katie.

That first castle pic in the first update is gorgeous. All of those pics are almost like postcards with barely anyone around!

Wow, what an interesting FG!

Lovely picture of you and Katie at breakfast.

Suzy & Perla! I met them when I was younger but would love to meet them now!

Minnie's Christmas attire

And Mary & Bert! How I wish they were out together more often in WDW! Such a great pic of the 4 of you!

The Lilly Belle seems so impressive!

It seems we used to run into Suzy and Perla a lot at WDW, but now they are pretty rare. I used to love seeing them at dinner at CRT, but that ended a few years ago when they went all princess all the time.

Mary and Bert are out at the Christmas party with the penguins. That's a group photo I would love to have. Bert used to be a regular in the MK on a daily basis, but I don't think that's been the case for a while.

And I agree, the Lilly Belle was quite impressive and charming. So glad we did it.

I love seeing your pictures of the Lilly Belle. What a fantastic way to travel. That Grand Canyon diorama is charming. I know it's dated; but I really like seeing it. You know.....I don't think I've gone to see it for a while.

Katie's teenage pose looks very similar to my DS' poses.

I think my husband will really enjoy the Grand Canyon diorama, so we'll make sure to take a ride when he's with us on our upcoming trip. I really had no idea what people were talking about when I heard it mentioned before. I'm glad I know now. It's pretty cool.

And I'm thinking your son is about Katie's age, so no shock there that they have similar poses. I try to let her have a little phone time when we're waiting for an extended period somewhere. But she's also really good about it when I say "hey...... that's enough. Why don't you put that away now." But I can't resist snapping an occasional picture before saying that.

Yay for seeing both Suzy and Perla...and I can never remember which is which.
We saw them a few times in years past. I know one year they were the first 2 we saw as we walked into MK on our first evening there. It was so much fun and that was back when Claire liked to see characters on a regular basis.

The Lily belle looks gorgeous!
What a great opportunity!
The whole train system was down while I was there so I didn't even get to ride the regular train. I think I'll put it on my list for the next time.

As always I am totally enjoying your pictures....especially the rebel Dumbo shots!

Bummer that you didn't get to experience the train. I actually found it to be more helpful for transportation than I ever found the train at WDW. That's probably because of that nice station over by Fantasyland/Toontown and the one in New Orleans Square. Maybe you'll get a ride when you go back in the spring? You know you're going. Skip just doesn't know it yet.

And yes, I am cherishing my rebel Dumbo shots! And you can bet I'll be taking some more this trip. I really seemed to have some interesting moments on this trip, what with the nasty lady at Aladdin, the persnickety Fairy Godmother and the CM at Dumbo. Maybe it's just me?

 

[mom2rtk]

Tuesday December 10th 2013 Continued:

We made it back to Fantasy Faire around 1:00. The posted wait time was an hour, which is almost exactly what it ended up being. About 10 minutes into the line, I knew I wasn't going to make it without a trip to the restroom. So I left Katie in line and ducked out under a chain. I caught a cute little band playing behind the castle on my way by and snapped a quick photo. I wish I had time to stop and listen, but I needed to get back. When we got near the front of the line, we finally dug out the gown and Katie put it over her camisole and jeans. It really did come together nicely. I had only put it on her briefly to check the length before we left. And it was nice to see it with the crown too. Thankfully Aurora was in, as were Ariel and Cinderella. Ariel noted
that Katie was almost as tall as her, and she was right! I really loved the new meet & greet setting. It was absolutely gorgeous.


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I still wanted some photos in front of the castle, but that glorious sunny sky was making that difficult. Taking them from the side path left Katie underexposed in the shade, and the sunny castle overexposed. Taking them out in front of the castle wouldn't work since Katie needed sunglasses to even open her eyes. So we bailed on the idea for now and headed down Main Street to see if we could find Cruella.

She wasn't out but we chatted with one of the character handlers we had seen at Minnie's that morning and she assured us she would be out soon.

I think the character handler's name was Leslie, but she was so friendly and helpful. She went backstage and double checked on Cruella and told us where to watch for her to come out.

Not a bad area to hang out and wait:

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When Cruella came out, she snuck around the corner toward us. It was just good silly fun. She and her handlers took a minute to look through Katie's autograph book and give us all sorts of grief about how she didn't have her own page. She was in a parade photo from DHS, and she signed there, but only after giving us a lot of grief. Cruella checked out Katie's gown and asked if I had ever worked in spots. Then she asked how I felt about endangered animal prints. Then she guided Katie down the path to a bit of shade and helped her learn some great poses.


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"Let's do the tiger claw!"


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Meeting Cruella by mom2rtk, on Flickr

We chatted a bit more with Cruella's handlers, and mentioned wanting to go find Genie to sign the book. One of them mentioned that he should be in Adventureland, but said if we didn't find him to come back and let him know so he could go backstage and find him for us. Both handlers looked through the book and one commented that she had seen the photo of Katie in her Lady Tremaine costume online before.

We headed up Main Street to try our photos again so Katie could change out of the gown. We stopped at the Partners statue first and got some lovely shots there. Then back up to the castlee. I'm so glad we waited and tried again on the photos, as just enough time had passed that the castle was shaded and I was able to get some evenly lit shots.

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I asked Katie if she wanted to change, but by then she had gotten so many fun comments on the gown she wanted to leave it on! So off to Adventureland we went, in search of Genie. They weren't there though. So back to Main Street to see if we could find Cruella's handler back. He was gone, but we found someone else and asked if he was around. When we explained, she offered to take the book backstage and look for Genie herself. Of course we knew what was going on but it was fun. It took a while though, and she commented that they had enjoyed looking through the book. I really have enjoyed that book and don't know what we'll do now that so many of the photos have already been signed. Maybe do another copy for me to keep?

 

[petals]

I love Katie's Aurora dress and what an awesome meet with Cruella!

 

[PrincessInOz]

What a fun set of pictures! I thought the ones with the princesses were brilliant until I got to the Cruella ones. That's a great interaction and Katie sure has some of those poses down pat.

That gown turned out stunning! What a clever seamstress you are. Glad you got those pictures of Katie in front of the castle to bookend your collection.

I vote that you get another autograph book started....for you.

 

[mom2rtk]

I love Katie's Aurora dress and what an awesome meet with Cruella!

Thanks Petals! We had tons of fun that day.

What a fun set of pictures! I thought the ones with the princesses were brilliant until I got to the Cruella ones. That's a great interaction and Katie sure has some of those poses down pat.

That gown turned out stunning! What a clever seamstress you are. Glad you got those pictures of Katie in front of the castle to bookend your collection.

I vote that you get another autograph book started....for you.

Thanks PiO! Cruella was one of our best character meets ever. And what was so fun is that it really came out of the blue. I was expecting a photo op but we got so much more. She was so interactive. I love anybody who can get Katie to have some fun an play along like that. That was all led by Cruella.

And thanks for the kind words on the gown. I was so happy to get the shots I wanted of Katie wearing it.

 

[Yzerbear19]

Great job on the gown! It is stunning. The photos are very pretty as well. And Cruella is always fun to meet.

 

[mom2rtk]

Great job on the gown! It is stunning. The photos are very pretty as well. And Cruella is always fun to meet.

Thanks Melissa! We had never met Cruella before, so it was great to have our first meeting be so awesome!

 

[mom2rtk]

Tuesday December 10th 2013 Continued:



It was almost 4 PM when we headed for Tomorrowland. We wanted to grab Autopia fastpasses and a bite to eat. We agreed to split a burger then make one last stop at EoS after leaving the park that night. While we were sitting down to eat, the Jedi Training Academy started. It was fun to just sit back and watch the little kids fight Darth Vader.

Look who came running out of the kitchen!

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After using our Autopia fastpasses, we headed back to Toontown. We wanted to try meeting another Mickey. We were treated to a nearly empty line and were there in meeting Mickey 5 minutes after entering his house. This time it was Sorcerer Mickey, and with no line, there wasn't much hope there was another room operating, so no need to try again. We'll have to try again to find Steamboat Willy next time.

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We also took a quick walk through Minnie's house. Sadly, there was no sewing machine like there had been at WDW, but it was still fun to see her "real" home.

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We both hoped to see Small World Holiday one more time, and because that area is so packed during the parade, we wanted to be there before the parade was over and all those parade watchers flooded into line. We made it there just before six and the parade still was not over since it was coming from the other end of the park. We enjoyed one last trip through the ride, and I shot it with my wide angle lens for the first time. It just seemed like the best place to end our trip.

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We had hoped to see the entire projection show on the face of Small World before leaving. So when our ride was over, just prior to 6:15, we waited. There was a group of people waiting on the stairway overlooking the loading area also waiting to watch. 6:15 came and went..... and nothing. 6:30 came and went..... and nothing. We asked in the shop. We asked at the ride entrance. Everyone had a different answer on when it would happen. When it didn't happen at 6:45 we gave up, along with the other people waiting. We never did figure out why it didn't happen, but I suspect some sort of a technical issue, as it should have happened at least one of those times. Still, sitting there for a while looking at those beautiful lights wasn't a bad way to end our trip.

I would have loved to try my hand at shooting the fireworks one more time, but I was just too worn out and was ready to go. We stopped at World of Disney one last time on our way to Earl of Sandwich.

 

[mom2rtk]

Wednesday December 11th, 2013: Departure Day


Departure day. Sigh. I knew I would be up early so I left the packing for that morning. I was up around 5 and quietly tried to pack up as much of my stuff as I could. I snapped photos of our Christmas Tree before taking it down.

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Eventually I got Katie up and we headed downstairs for our last little bit of Disney fun with breakfast at PCH Grill. Mickey greeted us and we also met Minnie, Daisy, Pluto and Stitch.

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One more shot from the 9th floor:

The View From Paradise Pier Hotel by mom2rtk, on Flickr

We made one last stop in the gift shop where I finally found a Haunted Mansion Holiday pin. I almost forgot I had a couple packages to pick up at the Bell stand. Thankfully Katie reminded me.

When we came back down to check out, I heard someone call my name. Sherry was in the lobby! It was nice to have one more DIS meet on our way out of town. How perfect was it to find the DIS holiday guru waiting for us right there in the lobby! She was kind enough to take a couple photos for me. I only regret that I didn't have Katie snap a photo of me with Sherry.

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Soon enough we were in our taxi heading for the airport. Thankfully the morning went smoothly and we were at the airport with a minimum of stress. It didn't take long to get through security and our gate was very close by. We decided to wander around and find a bite to eat, since we didn't know when we'd have a full meal again that day. We went with McDonalds and were surprised to find they had the sugar cookies Katie and I used to love getting at McDonalds but hadn't seen in a couple years.

I was really tired and hoped to sleep on the plane. I guess they shouldn't have put such great scenery under out plane! First we took out over the Pacific Ocean. What a great view! They explained that they had to take off in that direction to keep noise down over the area. I enjoyed the view, but I think Katie was a little spooked by being above all that water. We got to see lots of mountainous terrain along the way to Las Vegas. We didn't have to change planes at least, but it was nice to get up and stretch my legs while they readied the plane for the new passengers to load. As the new passengers loaded, I noticed Dr. Hinson came on board. He was school Superintendent up through the start of this year, and was the one to give Timmy his top 1% award at graduation. Thankfully he didn't look our way and see me sitting on the plane with my middle school daughter on a Wednesday afternoon.

Not long after taking off, the captain announced that those of us on the right side of the plane would get a view of the west side of the Grand Canyon. I was happy with that since we were on the right. Until he went on to say those on the left side would get a view of Zion, Bryce Canyon and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. I would have paid good money to swap spots with someone on the other side of the plane. It was a decent view, but being mid-afternoon, the sun was pretty bright and cast some harsh shadows.

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Another shot of Lake Mead:

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And the Las Vegas skyline:

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It had been really hard to leave California just as the weather was warming up. It was even harder to leave knowing it was bitter cold back home. And we hadn't brought winter coats. That morning when we packed, we put things we could layer into the outer pockets of our suitcases. So we stopped and added some layers and headed out into the cold. The worst part was standing outside waiting for the Parking Spot bus to arrive. Thankfully the car, which had been parked outside through an ice storm and bitter cold weather, started right up.

I was sad to be home, but Katie was excited that Christmas was still around the corner.

 

[YodasMom]

Beautiful, Small World photos, Janet! I would love to see the holiday overlay sometime!

And, you were really lucky to have a captain who pointed out the scenery along the way home on your flight! I have photographed that area with each trip, and was able to identify LV, Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon, but don't know if I ever had a Bryce / Zion view.

I really enjoyed this trip report! Do you have all your plans made for this year's trip? Looking forward to hearing about it!

 

[mvf-m11c]

Looks like Katie had a great time meeting the characters and all nicely dressed up.

A very nice night at DL. I always pass by the Star Wars Jedi Training Academy which is great for the young kids. Nice pictures when in Mickey's Toontown and to ride IASWH at night which is great.

I enjoy reading your trip report and seeing all your great photos. I will be looking forward to hearing from your upcoming trip along with your new toy.

 

[petals]

I love your little Christmas tree and the pictures from Small World are amazing. It looks fab all lit up!
Great trip report