Weird and Ninja’s Pre-Disneymoon [Completed!]

[RachelNinja]

Wednesday, April 7: Double the Mountain!

As we walked back to Frontierland through Fantasyland, the Sword in the Stone was free. I had to give it a try. Haha, or I had to take a picture with it.

In Virtual Magic Kingdom, sometimes you'd get a magic Sword in the Stone pin (we called it a SITS pin) after riding one of the dark rides (Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland). If you got a pin, you could go and see if you could pull out the sword. If you did, you got a prize for it! It was so much fun. I remember getting the Mr. Toad magic, which was basically the ability to ride around in the vehicle from the ride. I totally digressed.

I think I saw it on a TR or read it somewhere that if you take the picture from the opposite direction, you'll then have the castle in the background, so I had to do that too! What a great background! Of course, it's not as fantastic when they're fixing part of the castle or if there's a crane in it. Even so, it's still a nice change of pace.

I had also read about how the designs of the ground by the SITS look like the blade of a sword. We were looking at the really small things around it, and we just couldn't see it. After we took the pictures, we realized that it's much bigger than we thought! Haha, I was too close, so I didn't even get it all in the frame.

As we passed by Liberty Square, I saw a tea crate that I was looking for before. Yay! It's to signify the Boston Tea Party.

It was cool to see the Tom Sawyer rafts docking. I still haven't made it over there yet.

Well, what was our ride destination? Splash Mountain! I know Sarah (wdwgirl03) and her dad (wisblue) were wondering if Matt rode. At our DIS meet, they were trying to convince him to go on. Well, you can see in this next picture what his decision was.

Yeah, he chickened out. Haha. We actually split up from my mom and Matt at this point. Matt had wanted to drive the cars. It was fine though because Howard and I had some time to be by ourselves. Our log was stalled at this part, so that's why I was able to get a clear picture of the two of us. I tried getting a good picture of Br'er Frog too, but that darn frog kept on moving. Haha.

I looked around a lot to see more of the details since we were paused, and behind us, I saw that a door was open! Haha. What an interesting sight!

The couple in the front of our log probably got a better picture because someone else took it for them. Haha. No need for one-handed shots.

Well, pretty soon we were on our way. If you saw in the pictures, Weird and I were sitting in the back of the log. Um, that probably made everything worse. I know that when you sit in the back of a rollercoaster, you feel it the most and are whipped around more, but I figured that in the log, it wouldn't be the same because it was just one chunk. This ride was probably the "worst" one because of the fact that the drops felt more extreme! They were crazy especially that double drop in the dark! Weird told me that it was because we were in the back, but I was like, OY. I didn't want to ride it again even though we had another set of FP from my mom and Matt's ticket.

Here's that Hidden Mickey at the end of the ride. He's lying down on his back.

These animals are a bit creepy!

We were paused a bit at the end of the ride so I wanted to get a picture of the "It's the truth" part. Of course, every time I wanted to, the boat moved a bit. Haha. It took a few tries to get a clear one.

The other didn't work though.

Despite what I said about not wanting to ride it again, Weird wanted to. I said, "I don't want to ride it again, but if you want to, I will." He felt bad making me go on, but I was willing to suck it up! So back we went to the FP line to ride once more! I was feeling nervous this time! I tried to occupy myself with the thought of taking pictures I didn't get the first time we rode, like this one of the clothes line.

When we went down the first few drops, I immediately realized that it was much easier when NOT riding at the back of the log! I was much happier this time. I said to Howard that it's a good thing we went on it again because otherwise I would've had the crazy drops in my memory for the next trip! Phew!

Although this picture is blurry, I like that you can see the windows at the top where the train passes by. It's really cool how your attention is drawn to the big showboat and everything else around you that it's not as obvious that there are windows up there.

I got the shot again of the Hidden Mickey.

One of the best parts of the ride is this ... it was only until I took this picture (or right before) that I realized there was an actual bluebird in the scene. Um, I've been on this ride many times since even before there was FP (3+ hour wait anyone?). Haha, I must've been so out of it to not notice it! I pointed it out to Weird, and he thought I was a silly for not realizing he was right here! I guess I've always looked at Br'er Rabbit!

The other thing I noticed at the end of the ride was the light fixtures hanging agove the wait area. I know it's difficult to see, but right where the sun hits the wall farthest to right, there's an acorn! How cute!

Oh right, seeing this picture reminded me how much of a better ride it was! You can see us sitting in the 2nd row (haha with our crazy smiles or mouths agape). Behind us, there were 2 women, but they also had a little kid with them! They were so good with him, pointing out everything in the scenes around them and not making a big deal about the drop so that the little kid wouldn't be scared. When we first got on the log, I was thinking, "This little guy is on it; it can't be that bad!" We also really enjoyed the company of the two boys in front of us. They actually didn't know each other, but I guess they kinda talked or commented on things while they were riding. When we got to the bottom of the drop, they were the ones that were soaked the MOST. We were cracking up about it together. I like that at Disney, strangers are not strangers for long! It's very unlike NYC where you can be sitting next to people for a commute and not even know what they look like because we avoid eye contact.

Ok, one mountain conquered. Let's get back on that other mountain! The good thing about the Guest Assistance Card is that we were able to ride Thunder Mountain again with no problem. As you can tell from the past few updates, I still wasn't 100% comfortable using it since we still got Splash Mountain FP. If the line is short enough, I'll probably still wait in the standby line.

During the brief wait or the actual ride or after it, I got a call from my mom asking where we were because Matt was grouchy or something. The plan was to meet at Aloha Isle for an after dinner snack, so after our ride (which definitely was faster later in the day due to that melted grease on the track!), we snapped some pictures outside.

This also reminded me that my mom had Howard's camera since he didn't have a bag that day and didn't want to get it wet on Splash Mountain. This is why we make a good couple. He has a big camera for better pics, but I have the point and shoot (haha, which actually used to be his) for everything else ... including the one-handed shots!

I did want to see if I could find the hidden Tinkerbell. It was difficult to find it because we were initially looking at the wrong spot, forgetting that there are 2 exits to the ride. Finally we found it because it by the overturned mine cart!

It's a side profile shot of Tinkerbell's entire body. You can see it better in this picture.

As we walked towards Aloha Isle, we also stopped to take a picture in front of Splash Mountain.

Yay, the 2 mountains were definitely some of the more memorable parts of our MK day!

 

[wdwgirl03]

NOOOO, I can't believe Matt chickened out! Oh well...next time.

I like how you include all the hidden stuff in your TRs too. I really had no idea there was a hidden Tinkerbell. Too cool!

 

[Bridora]

I don't think I've ever been in the Philharmagic Store. I can't even remember if I knew there was a store!

Seeing that guy walking on the castle must have been so strange.

I'm glad you re-rode Splash Mountain and had a better experience!

I'll have to look for the hidden TinkerBell next time...I had no idea it was there! I will never remember where all the hidden Mickeys and such are that you have pointed out, though!

 

[RachelNinja]

NOOOO, I can't believe Matt chickened out! Oh well...next time.

I like how you include all the hidden stuff in your TRs too. I really had no idea there was a hidden Tinkerbell. Too cool!

Yeah, I had a feeling he would. I didn't want to pressure him into doing it because he doesn't like drops. I made sure he saw the last drop so that he knew what he was getting into earlier in the day. I guess he had time to think about it more. I'm glad he didn't only because Howard and I got to go twice and have fun by ourselves!

I love the hidden stuff! I love reading about all the back stories and such too. Howard loves that stuff a lot too because it goes back to the designing stage.

I don't think I've ever been in the Philharmagic Store. I can't even remember if I knew there was a store!

Seeing that guy walking on the castle must have been so strange.

I'm glad you re-rode Splash Mountain and had a better experience!

I'll have to look for the hidden TinkerBell next time...I had no idea it was there! I will never remember where all the hidden Mickeys and such are that you have pointed out, though!

You gotta look for Donald in the store! See where he fell out when he crashed into the back of the theater!

I'm SO glad we rode it again. I'd be so nervous thereafter! Can you imagine waiting a little over a year and having the nerves build up that long? Oy!

I remember where a lot of HMs are only because we find a few new ones each time. I point out the same ones all the time, haha.

 

[RachelNinja]

Wednesday, April 7: Best MK Snack and a Trip Through the Jungle!

After Howard and I rode those 2 mountains, we headed towards Adventureland because my mom had called. She said that Matt was kind of grouchy or something. What's new. Maybe he regretted not riding Splash with us and having a ton of fun, haha. I don't really remember what they did other than driving the cars. Anyway, our meeting destination was Aloha Isle!

Mascot Mickey was also super excited to give it a taste!

I was excited for Weird to try a pineapple float! I had only tried it during our previous trip in 2008 with my mom (my dad and brother were riding Thunder Mountain twice, but I had a headache, so we took a snack break). This was one of the reasons I was upset that my dad wasn't there that day though ... I wanted him to try Columbia Harbour House and the Dole Whip! He loves pineapple too!

Look at all that juice! What's fantastic is that fresh pineapple and pineapple juice isn't sour. It's just nice and sweet. It's not a very strong flavor like the canned pineapples are. I truly appreciate pineapple more now!

I love the float AND Weird. Hehe.

Haha, one-handed shots are difficult and not always good, but they're worse when the camera is set on a zoom. Whoops!

Silly us, my mom was right there to take the picture for us! Weird and I split one.

I bought one for my mom and Matt to share too. It was just the perfect kind of snack to share after we had that early dinner at Cosmic Ray's. I could have probably downed the whole thing by myself as could Howard, but we didn't want to stuff ourselves. Plus, there are plenty more snack opportunities at WDW if necessary!

I love this picture of my mom because underneath the red circle, she's making a face like she's so excited to be drinking it, haha.

When we finished, Mickey wanted some more. Sorry Mickey!

He said it was okay. He enjoyed being able to sit there and just relax and people watch!

Since we were in Adventureland, our next stop was Jungle Cruise! We made a bathroom stop first. I really don't like the bathrooms in Adventureland. I don't really know why. I don't know if they're dirtier than others because it's a high traffic area or if it's because I don't like that it's so dark there or something.

We don't really look at the shops in Adventureland either. I guess we just don't spent that much time there.

I think now that I've read the Adventureland article in the Celebrations magazine, I'll appreciate this land more. In 2010, it really wasn't a place I appreciated that much.

Jungle Cruise is a ride that I didn't really like as a kid because even though nothing was real, it still scared me a bit. I wasn't a fan of the temple part! Now though, I like looking for secrets or just knowing back story. I like knowing that Walt initially wanted real animals for this ride! Because I had the GAC, we went on the FP line so we didn't get a chance to really look at the queue.

This isn't a clear picture, but doesn't something happen with this spider? Does it move once in a while or something?

We did get to see a few big things in terms of the queue decorations.

I'm hungry. Haha, it has nothing to do with this picture. I'm just hungry, and I"m watching Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives as I type this ...

I'll spare you all the blurry pictures, haha. I didn't take any, but Weird did. Remember, this is right after he got his DSLR, so he was still learning his camera.

This was our skipper. She was funny but considering how long ago this was, I don't remember a thing! Jungle Cruise skippers can be hit or miss, as you know. They can make or break your ride. I think this one had just the right amount of sarcasm to make it a fun ride.

Okay, I admit this atmosphere is pretty cool in terms of showing just how great Adventureland can really be! Maybe it's because we always end up in this land during the hottest part of the day. This'll probably be a pretty interesting place at night!

I don't think I had ever noticed the skulls until Weird pointed it out!

I really need to look up a lot more than I do!

Seems that Weird had fun taking pictures of everything as it started getting darker!

Do you see the animal head on the top of the building on the left? You can see it from Frontierland, so it was specifically designed to look like an Asian water buffalo or a longhorn cattle thingie. I know about animals, can't you tell? Haha, I just know that it was designed to fit into both lands.

Well, we were heading to another attraction. Stay tuned for the worst ride experience of the entire trip.

 

[RachelNinja]

Wednesday, April 7: Worst Ride Experience

Dead Men tell no tales! You can see we were on our way to Pirates of the Caribbean!

Great place for pictures if you actually know how to hold steady! This is Weird's first picture ...

And this was when I asked him to take a picture with Mickey in it too. I couldn't stop shaking! Haha.

There was something totally funny when we arrived. There were 2 CMs just standing at the front, all stoic. As I passed by, all of a sudden, the big CM turned to me out of NOWHERE and scared the heck out of me! I don't remember what he said, and I HATE that I don't remember it (neither does Weird), but he was like, "MADAME!" or something like that. As in, staring straight ahead and then out of nowhere, calling my attention really loudly and being right next to my face. Oy, I can't believe I don't remember it! Of course, it had to happen to me who gets scared of pretty much everything, haha. Weird and I were cracking up about it afterwards though.

My mom didn't ride because she doesn't like the drop even though it's small. It probably doesn't help that it's in the dark, so we took Matt. Mickey was excited to ride too. It was funny seeing other people's reactions as I held out Mascot Mickey for pictures! I wonder if they thought we were a little crazy.

I was so excited for Weird to see the Davy Jones on the fog curtain thing!

Well, the title of this update is "Worst Ride Experience," and I'll tell you why. We were on with this big family that took up most of the boat. They were sitting behind us in 3 rows or so. Despite the rules of the attraction, they kept on taking FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY. I admit that there was a time when I was a flash photograph culprit too. In 2008, I have 2 pictures of Jack Sparrow from POTC that was clearly taken with flash. But there weren't many people on the boat with us, and I only did it once. Since then, I don't use flash at ALL. This family didn't just do it once or twice or even just five times. They were doing it literally every 3 seconds. FLASH, FLASH, FLASH. Constantly!

Okay, so maybe they just didn't know that you were supposed to use flash on dark rides. I mean, maybe it just didn't bother them like it bothered us. I was getting really irritated because our eyes were being bombarded with this bright light. Weird was saying that it was dangerous because the constant flashes would be bad for those with epilepsy. He said that his coworker would've had a seizure already at this point with just the flash of a camera on that dark ride. But again, give them the benefit of the doubt.

Well, we turned around and said something about the fact that they weren't supposed to use flash photograph BUT the man did not STOP. He just kept going. So we turned around to look again, and one of the younger girls that was there didn't like the fact that were interfering and trying to correct the man, so SHE STARTED TAKING FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY TOO JUST TO ANNOY US. Yes, she did it on purpose. We heard her say it to her mother or whatever. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? We were SO irritated by the time we got off. We couldn't believe that no one came on the system to say stop using flash because seriously, once or twice ... okay, I'll deal. But this messed up our ride to the point that we couldn't enjoy anything because we had to squint or close our eyes to block off the light.

As we got off the ride, we were so grrr with them, that on the way up, we took flash photography of them. They're in front of the family directly in front of us.

Howard got a better flash shot of them when we were in the store. ANNOYING. This was only part of the group. The girl (not pictured, I don't think) was the one who really got me angry just because she started on purpose.

We met up with my mom, and we told her what had happened. She asked us if we wanted to ride it again since there was no wait, but we didn't want to deal with it. I quickly showed Weird the things from the movie. Gotta look at it each time now!

Definitely time to leave POTC!

Let's go do something fun!

 

[RachelNinja]

Wednesday, April 7: Tomorrowland Tonight!

After Adventureland, we headed back to Tomorrowland. We passed by the castle and noticed this. Do you see what we see in the lower part of this picture? I don't know that we even noticed it earlier in the day! I like how that even when Disney has to fix things, you don't always see it so easily.

BRIGHT castle!

We really needed to forget about the POTC drama!

Our next stop was Monsters Inc Laugh Floor!

I had to think a bit to pick which snack I wanted for the show.

You gotta love the little things that are added in the queues. Haha, Lost Eye!

I haven't looked at these things carefully yet.

It's on my to do list to really examine and read these.

Time to head in, and we all know that means no more photograpy!

I actually wrote notes on this show, so yay! I'll use my trip report notes to let you know the highlight of the show! One of the monsters pointed out two boys and made a joke about their being the Jonas Brothers and said they should get up and dance. Instead of being like the obnoxious college kids we saw in the pre-show being obnoxious by making noises, these high school age kids got up, put on their sunglasses, and DANCED. It was AWESOME! They were so into it, and I love that even though anywhere else it might not have been "cool" of them, in Disney World, it was a-okay! They were called on at least 3-4 times, and they got up and danced to the same music each time! A few days later, my mom saw them at DTD. She was so funny; she was like, "I saw the Jonas Brothers!"

Even though the place wasn't packed and filled due to it being later at night, it still was a fantastic show because of those that were chosen. The little girl they chose to be Boo was SO cute, and later in the night when we left, we were waiting in line behind her for the monorail, so we were excited because it was as if she was a celebrity! Haha.

After hanging out with the monsters, we went to Buzz Lightyear for one last spin.

Weird and Matt rode together, and these were their scores.

Here's their ghetto picture!

Mom and I rode together, and I was thrilled to get this as my score!

I was telling Howard about my score in this picture!

Fun times! We can go on this so many times, and it doesn't get old. I would like to try it at Disneyland though to see what it's like to have the ability to move the gun around freely.

Are we going to keep on riding? Isn't it late? Oh, it's just the perfect time for Wishes! Stay tuned for that update! Weird and I were so excited to watch this together!

 

[RachelNinja]

Wednesday, April 7: End of the Night Wishes

It was almost time for Wishes. We didn't get a spot earlier because we wanted to do more rides. We actually tried finding a place to watch on the bridge from the hub to Tomorrowland, but it was so crowded. There was a spot right after the bridge by these fake rocks that we decided to watch because we had a good view of the castle. Of course, we totally didn't realize that the fireworks weren't right by the castle, so we ended up missing a lot of it! Haha, whoops!

Weird still took pictures of the castle. He used the rock to brace his camera.

I didn't care so much about castle pics because I knew they wouldn't come out that great, so I just took a pic of the decor around us.

This is what we saw to the left of us.

Mickey wanted a picture with the castle.

The really annoying part about our spot was that other people thought they could stand in front of us. Um, this is the most obscure place ever. You really don't have to stand IN FRONT OF US especially if it means blocking my brother. You see the rock in front of us in this picture? Parents put their kids ON that rock. I don't know what's in front of it, but uh, do you not care that your kids could just fall off?

Weird was VERY annoyed with the people who were doing that and standing in our way. He did say something to them and said that we were there first and that they were blocking Matt. I mean, we were late in getting a spot for Wishes, which is why we didn't stay on the bridge to block people who could've been waiting there much earlier! I know one family listened to Weird and apologized, but another family didn't. A CM did come by and told the other family to move out of the way though because it was dangerous how they were standing. Some people were trying to go through a gate to see better, but they were reprimanded as well.

When the show started and we realized we were missing most of it, it was disappointing. However, the music was great even though we didn't see a lot of the actual fireworks. At home, I got excited hearing the music on DIS Radio. Oh well, next time!

After Wishes, we actually didn't want to deal with the mass exodus. I hate crowds like that because some people get so pushy or try to separate families. Instead, Weird and I went on the TTA one last time. For whatever reason, Matt didn't want to ride, so my mom had to wait with him. I think they might've gone to a souvenir shop or something.

Finally we decided to leave. It was still crowded because there was still Spectromagic planned for the night. I had fun watching the CMs clean the streets with their vacuum cleaner-type things! You can see them on the right side of ths picture.

Main Street has such a different feel at night! The Emporium! In Virtual Magic Kingdom, we'd check the Emporium for the latest releases.

We then went to Exposition Hall because I wanted to take pictures with all the cardboard cutouts that were set up.

Alas, we couldn't find it! I asked a CM where it was because maybe I had remembered it incorrectly, but they were already redoing it, so there was a wall added there already. Sad!

We passed through the downstairs of the train station. There are definitely back stories to these. I do remember that there's something important regarding Kimball.

There was one last thing that we had to do before we left the park. My first DIS friend Kirsten (irky416) had asked me to get the flattened penny from the Mexico pavilion, and I wanted to mail it to her from Disney even though it wouldn't say so on the envelope.

Even though it wouldn't be marked, there'd be the picture of my putting the envelope in the mailbox! This is outside the gates, I believe, by the souvenir shop.

Bye!

My dad was called earlier, and he was waiting for us at passenger pick-up after we had to wait a LONG time for the monorail. It was definitely a great day with plenty of moments that weren't the absolutely best (our fight and bad some annoying guests!), but there were so many memories from this first time at MK together that we'll remember forever!

Fun day, but boy, did we need a rest day!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Great update!

As much as I love WDW, I have to remind myself every day that I am on vacation, not in a rush, and not to let other people get to me. I used to get so annoyed at the inconsiderateness of other people at WDW, but I really try to ignore it now (or remove myself from the annoyance) as I really can't do anything to stop it and it just ruins my time. My Mom's really bad at this, so I try and tell her in the moment that it doesn't matter. My blood used to boil over people who push their way to the front (especially in the pre-show instructions of rides like Dinosaur and Test Track, practically pressing themselves into the doors that will open ahead of everyone else they were behind) or to the monorail (I think they need a better line system or something here anyways, but I digress). I take a deep breath, but it's hard sometimes to restrain myself .

This is my bf and my first WDW trip together in December (and our longest trip together). I'm keeping my fingers crossed for no fights, but I know we both start getting cranky when we get tired or hungry...

I can't tell you how many times I *think* I got a great spot for Wishes only to be blocked by something . Once we watch Wishes (or any of the firework shows) on our trip, we usually never stop to watch them again. Sometimes the mass herding of people can be too much!

I've never been to the Laugh Floor Comedy Club, but I LOVE when people are really good "volunteers". It makes any show so much better. It would drive me crazy not to read every one of those notes/papers posted on those boards, though!

 

[Jennifer48]

That is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves at WDW, people who use flash photography on dark rides! Ugh! So sorry you had to deal with that. I had a similar situation once on PoTC and I turned around to the woman and asked her to stop, she didn't. I turned around, turned my flash on and took a photo right in her eyes. Yes it was childish but guess what? She got the point and stopped doing it. She was very upset, needless to say. Her friends kept telling her to shut the flash off and she didn't. Its getting to the point where I wish cameras would be confiscated on dark rides.

 

[RachelNinja]

Great update!

As much as I love WDW, I have to remind myself every day that I am on vacation, not in a rush, and not to let other people get to me. I used to get so annoyed at the inconsiderateness of other people at WDW, but I really try to ignore it now (or remove myself from the annoyance) as I really can't do anything to stop it and it just ruins my time. My Mom's really bad at this, so I try and tell her in the moment that it doesn't matter. My blood used to boil over people who push their way to the front (especially in the pre-show instructions of rides like Dinosaur and Test Track, practically pressing themselves into the doors that will open ahead of everyone else they were behind) or to the monorail (I think they need a better line system or something here anyways, but I digress). I take a deep breath, but it's hard sometimes to restrain myself .

This is my bf and my first WDW trip together in December (and our longest trip together). I'm keeping my fingers crossed for no fights, but I know we both start getting cranky when we get tired or hungry...

I can't tell you how many times I *think* I got a great spot for Wishes only to be blocked by something . Once we watch Wishes (or any of the firework shows) on our trip, we usually never stop to watch them again. Sometimes the mass herding of people can be too much!

I've never been to the Laugh Floor Comedy Club, but I LOVE when people are really good "volunteers". It makes any show so much better. It would drive me crazy not to read every one of those notes/papers posted on those boards, though!

I try not to let people bother me either at WDW because it can really change my mood and attitude toward the rest of the day if I do. However, the flashing on POTC was just too much because we really could not see anything at all. We almost had to sit there with our eyes closed or staring straight ahead because moving it ever so slightly to the left or right would mean a blinding flash in the eye. The flash is annoying as it is, but in such a dark ride, it hurts a lot! The attitude of the girl was what really got to us.

I'll cross my fingers that you guys don't fight either! Just make sure you schedule your meals then. Like have lunch early at 11 before crowds get bad and before you get really hungry! I hate when you're starving and it's crowded!

I think during our Disneymoon, we'll find a nice spot near Casey's and order corn dog nuggets (we've never had it before!) to enjoy while waiting for the fireworks. I think it'd be fun to wait with a treat of some sort. Maybe from the bakery!

You really should try Laugh Floor! It's SO FUN! When you go a few times, you realize that part of it is repeated each show, but the stuff with the interaction can be hilarious! I like it better than Turtle Talk.

That is one of my BIGGEST pet peeves at WDW, people who use flash photography on dark rides! Ugh! So sorry you had to deal with that. I had a similar situation once on PoTC and I turned around to the woman and asked her to stop, she didn't. I turned around, turned my flash on and took a photo right in her eyes. Yes it was childish but guess what? She got the point and stopped doing it. She was very upset, needless to say. Her friends kept telling her to shut the flash off and she didn't. Its getting to the point where I wish cameras would be confiscated on dark rides.

Haha, I love your response to that woman! I think I would've wanted to turn around to flash the people behind us too, but they clearly outnumbered us! I wish they clearly watched the cameras to reprimand those using flash. I still like being able to use cameras on dark rides though because Howard's working on getting good ones without flash! I love 'em!

 

[RachelNinja]

Thursday, April 8: Resting with 49 Cent Pins

Think I can fit everything that happened in one day in ONE update? Let's see if I can! Haha, obviously this was a rest day because there's no way that I can do that with a regular park day. I mean, park days require one update per ride! Rest days with my family are more like, "Ugh, if we're not doing a Disney park, can I just stay in bed?" Haha. I say that now especially since I experienced 2 rest days during the February 2011 trip with my fiance/friends/cousins, and they were FUN! Well, what can I say ... I guess it wouldn't be vacation with my family if we didn't hit Costco (oh, and we have a Costco about 5 minutes from our house ...).

Well, before we made it to Costco, we did stop by an outlet. I saw the Mickey bar bag that DISers were loving like, 3+ years ago. I saw it and felt like I was seeing a celebrity, so I took a picture of it. They didn't have any bags I liked though.

They had merchandise that was on sale, but they also had funny merchandise like this sweatshirt with a funny looking Tink! Look at the red!

I believe it was this outlet where I bought a Disney coloring book (yes, I'm 4). When my older brother was a kid, he had a Disney coloring book that I wanted for myself! It had pictures of Disney characters (old ones, including Huey, Dewey, and Louie) on the rides. When he moved out, I inherited that coloring book! Well, I bought one at this outlet store to have an "updated" version of it (ex. Buzz on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin, if I remember correctly) and to have one that wasn't colored in at all, haha. It was only a few bucks, so I was happy. I also picked up a binder and a pack of folders that I planned on using for my lesson planning for the next year. That didn't actually happen though because I didn't want to get it dirty and messed up. It's actually the binder I'm using for wedding planning now! Not that I'm doing much wedding planning, but that's an entirely different story. I took pictures of my souvenirs on our last night, so I'll post those pics then.

We did finally go to lovely Costco. We sat and had lunch first. I had a hot dog, which I thoroughly enjoyed because of the chopped onion. It wasn't that strong, which is why I put a lot of it on. Haha, I really didn't walk around with strong onion breath.

I did, however, walk around and found a little home that was very cozy and inviting!

Costco is synonymous with taste-testing, so I took an eggplant dish to try.

I was not a fan of said eggplant dish.

This was pretty cool to see because it was just so large! Haha, I know that Costco wasn't built for tourists, but I was just imagining how it'd be bringing that home from Florida to NY. I'd like to bring home that guy though!

Matt found something he actually wanted ... a BOOK! Of course, I don't consider it a book-book because it the Diary of a Wimpy Kid (the movie one because he had all the others already). I thought it was funny to see my mom and Matt trying to find a good one because some of the copies they had had messed up pages. Does anyone else do that too? When I'm at book stores, I usually take the copy that's further in because they're not messed up (especially at B&N when everyone takes them to read in the store!).

Look how teeny-tiny Howard is compared to the vastness of Costco!

I found some cute outfits for my non-existent child.

Want to know what was in our cart? These things. THESE things were the reason we had to go to Costco. I mean, it was Thursday already, and we were leaving Saturday, so we clearly weren't going to be stocking up on groceries.

Hehe, I took this as we were leaving.

Oh, let's not forget the caesar salad that was purchased as well.

It was finally time to leave, phew! Matt was excited. Of course, to you, it just looks like he's a green circle.

This cracked us up! We were like, "Go to Florida to buy a plant and shove it in your car!" Yes, like I said above, we know that it wasn't meant for tourists, but still, it's funny thinking that they were there on vacation and buying a plant!

Walking back to the car, I saw this!

It was empty though.

I just had to get a pciture of Matt reading in the car. He HATES reading. I still don't consider this reading-reading, but at least it's something. I mean, this past summer, all he did was complain about his summer reading book, The Wednesday Wars. That's an AWESOME book. I should know. I've read it at least 4x in the past 2 years ... haha, and I'm also the one who assigned it for the summer. But he's also the kid who thinks The Hunger Games is boring. Uh, how can you think The Hunger Games is boring?!? Issues. Clearly.

(continued in next post)

 

[RachelNinja]

(continued from previous post)

We went to another outlet at that point, and Howard and I spent time at the Character Warehouse. I was excited when I saw these!!! Long time readers will know that Howard and I were big fans of Virtual Magic Kingdom. The thread at the bottom of my signature links you to a thread of our flats outside in the real world. When I saw the pins, I wanted to get one to commemorate the game and our memories. It would've been cool if I got the burning wall pin, but I don't think they were on sale or they weren't that cheap, so I didn't get it. Part of me even now regrets that decision as I looked for them this past trip in February.

Don't worry though ... Howard and I really scored with pins for $.49!!! We were like, "Huh, how could this be?" We asked a CM there if these were all tradeable, and she said yes. She said this was the BEST way to get into trading! Well, yay for that!

Howard and I were sitting on a bench looking at the pins, and I peeled away that $.49 sticker to reveal one for $12.95.

Then I pulled that one away to reveal the first one, which was $10.95. Haha, uh, that's weird. Did they mark it UP at one point?

Back at the condo, we laid out all of our treasures! Stupidly, we didn't buy ALL of them! I don't know why we didn't buy every single one of those 50 cent pins!!! We could've even sold them on eBay for $1 to make a profit, but more realistically, we could have traded them ALL for ones we actually wanted!!! We STILL regret it to this day, but at the time, we just didn't know how much we'd get into it and whether it'd interest us.

Here are close-ups of the actual pins.

That night, we had a cooked dinner. That included the asparagus we got from Costco. I like asparagus now for the most part except for the stinky pee you get afterwards!

THe entree was filet mignon with yummy garlic! Haha. In the back, you can see Fuzzy Navel (we learned that Howard cannot take any bit of alcohol at ALL because there is next to NOTHING in those wine coolers!). We also had baked potatoes that you can see wrapped in foil.

Fun and slow day. Howard and I spent that night thinking about whether or not we were up to going to DHS the next day like we had planned originally. We weren't sure if we wanted to wake up early the next day and deal with the whole park thing again, but of course, we knew it was just our tiredness getting to us and we decided to go! My dad would drop us off, so there'd be no parking fee, and we'd get to have a day at the parks by ourselves!!! FIRST TIME EVER! And it was worth it. Trust me, it was WORTH IT! Stay tuned for the BEST park day of this trip!

 

[NeverlandClub23]

$.49 pins?!?! What a steal! I used to be really into pin trading, but I had a lanyard that I filled with pins I loved. I didn't want a book or a bunch of lanyards, so I stopped trading and stopped taking my lanyard to WDW. However, Vinylmation has now pulled me in! I love the excitement right before you're about to open the box or trade.

How funny you went to Costco to just get meat and asparagus! That's SO something my parents would do. I had to laugh at those people shoving in the plant. We go to Lowe's/Home Depot just about every weekend and we go to what we call the "shelter plant section", where all the plants look sad and unloved, but are being sold at deep discounts. I almost ALWAYS find a plant I love for a couple of bucks or less, we buy it, get out to the parking lot and it's always then that it hits me that I drive a Prius . We've driven down the road with palm branches dangling out of car windows before .

Can't wait for the next update!

 

[RachelNinja]

$.49 pins?!?! What a steal! I used to be really into pin trading, but I had a lanyard that I filled with pins I loved. I didn't want a book or a bunch of lanyards, so I stopped trading and stopped taking my lanyard to WDW. However, Vinylmation has now pulled me in! I love the excitement right before you're about to open the box or trade.

How funny you went to Costco to just get meat and asparagus! That's SO something my parents would do. I had to laugh at those people shoving in the plant. We go to Lowe's/Home Depot just about every weekend and we go to what we call the "shelter plant section", where all the plants look sad and unloved, but are being sold at deep discounts. I almost ALWAYS find a plant I love for a couple of bucks or less, we buy it, get out to the parking lot and it's always then that it hits me that I drive a Prius . We've driven down the road with palm branches dangling out of car windows before .

Can't wait for the next update!

We didn't know much about pin trading at that point to think about how we should've bought them all. It would've been fun to trade for pins that other people liked to gift them too! Very inexpensive souvenirs!

Haha, why we couldn't just go to Publix right outside the timeshare is beyond me, but we HAD to go to Costco to get it!

How cute that you like the "sad and unloved" plants! It's like buying the sad Christmas tree and bringing it home!

 

[RachelNinja]

Friday, April 9: DHS Just for Us!

Howard and I ... wait, this is the 2010 trip report, and I've been calling him Weird ... okay. Let's start this over again. Weird and I woke up early to explore DHS, which was the first park we visited alone! Knowing just how great it was to be in MK by ourselves when we split up from my mom and Matt got us pumped for this day. We were excited!

My dad drove us there and dropped us off, so it was pretty nice to not have to park and walk. It was especially pleasant because the weather was a little dark and dreary.

The pictures don't look as great when it's so cloudy and a bit gloomy.

I hadn't read much about DHS beforehand, so I didn't know all the history and such, but I did remember that the Mickey at the top of the Crossroads is positioned in such a way to be a lightning rod.

Weenie anyone?

You can probably guess where we headed first.

Not quite One Man's Dream at this time of day, but we were set for Toy Story Mania! So excited to ride for the first time! We did get in line for FP first. We didn't get there at rope drop, so we were thinking the FP would be late in the afternoon, but thankfully, they weren't that bad.

We hopped into the standby line right after because we knew we wanted to ride at least twice. I wanted to see the queue too, so I was willing to deal with the wait time.

I was a fan of this little umbrella-like overhang made out of playing cards.

And we both loved this because we played Lexulous and such on Facebook.

How could you not love that huge nightlight?!? My mom still sets up a nightlight when we're on vacation so that she can leave that on to go to the bathroom or anything like that in the middle of the night.

Mickey knew he'd never be afraid of the dark with this nightlight. Haha, when we took this picture, people stared at us.

Howard had to take a picture of the back of this toy package because of the price in Canada! Haha, he has relatives in Vancouver and Toronto, so he wanted to show it to his cousins.

Let's start this TSM queue adventure!

Had to love the Viewfinder stuff! I had one of these (well, I shared it with my brother) and it was filled with pictures of animals. Seeing the discs reminded me of my childhood! My brother Jonathan and I used to pack it in my duffel bag when we went on our pretend adventures or when we built a fort with my kitchen set and my blankets (because he didn't want to mess his up or get his dirty, haha). When Matt was a baby, he had one too, but it was totally different than the original red one. It was yellow/purple (?) and much bigger. It could also be switched to be used as binoculars.

The drawings were an excellent touch. I really enjoyed those and wondered who drew them! I mean, yes, I know Andy did, haha, but which Imagineer!

The first time I played Candyland was when I was actually in my double digits. I went over to my cousin's house, and we played. I had so much fun since I had never played it before despite knowing about it.

Gotta love how some crayons are more used than others and that Andy used putty or something to hold things together.

I really liked THIS one better than the Peter Pan on because it showed Tomorrowland! I know it was Disneyland, but I liked being able to see the original Peoplemover. In VMK, Weird traded with someone to surprise me with the Peoplemover pin, and it had the original cars from DLR with the covered top.

Had to get a close-up shot of that!

I've only done this splatter art ONCE in my life. I forgot when I did it; it might have been at church during Vacation Bible School or something, but I kept it for a long time. I actually might still have it, I'm not sure. Mine actually looked a lot like this one with the bigger splotch.

Boy, it looks like my hair is just dead. Haha. And you can see that I still had my track jacket on. It was that chilly in the morning, but I really did enjoy the cool weather.

Chutes and Ladders is another game I didn't play as a young kid but only when I was older. I think I played this with my cousins Danielle and Nicolette (they're in my 2011 TR). I dreaded the longest slide that went from like, the second to the top row almost to the bottom! What a stressful game! Haha, the funny thing is is that I didn't really like all these games because it was all up to chance.

The teacher in me really had an issue with the spelling of general! And the girl in me is really having an issue with my hair in this picture. What is with that?

(continued in next post)

 

[RachelNinja]

(continued from previous post)

This is more of a game for us right now! Well, right now as in then right now in 2010. Weird and I played Scrabulous and Lexulous on Facebook. I know they changed the name a few times and now there's actually a Scrabble app on FB. Weird was trying to highlight that triple word score!

Haha, is this an actual game? Dr. Malpractice Pumpin Heart?

Barrel of Monkeys! We had a barrel growing up, but it was yellow and we only had the red monkeys. My brother Jonathan and I had fun hanging them one by one. It's funny how something so simple provided lots of entertainment. Mickey was feeling kind of monkey-ish and decided to hang with them for a bit.

How CUTE that there was a picture of Woody! See the cloud on the upper right of the picture? Is that a Hidden Mickey?

On the other side, Weird was able to get a BAM, IN YOUR FACE shot of the triple word score. Best used with a Q, X, or J!

One thing I was wondering about was the yellow green. Why were they two different shades?

Tinkertoys are actually something that I didn't have and didn't play with. It probably required TOO much creativity to use anyway, haha. I feel like this is a bit "older" than the other toys. Am I correct in making that comment? I also wonder if that girl was on the original packaging. If so, it'd be pretty cool for her to be in the TSM queue. If not, i wonder who was the model for that girl.

Love the Toy Story movie references!

It was pretty cool to see Mr. Potato Head! When we got up to the front though, he wasn't doing anything at the time.

Gotta love how those puzzle mats spell out ANDY! I'm used to those because at the church nursery, they had those things lining the floor. I think they still do; I just haven't been in the church nursery in a while.

This is probably my favorite toy reference in the whole queue! SPIROGRAPH! My mom had a Spirograph set (with one circle missing), and I just absolutely loved playing with it. I didn't do many of the fancy ones; most of mine tended to look the same, haha. I wasn't that good with using the outer part of the ring. What a great toy because it can still be used today!

We passed by the map, and Mickey wanted to take a picture of his hometown ... NY! That's his hometown because that's where he was purchased, haha.

Lincoln Logs! Am I the only immature one that things of poo when I hear "Lincoln Logs"?

Anyway, the line took much longer than I thought it would be. I don't know why it felt like it was taking forever. I guess once you've seen one big crayon, you've seen them all. I was fading really quickly being on my feet for so long. I really should have used the GAC at that point; I don't know why I didn't think to use it. I think I was so used to not having it that it didn't cross my mind. Oh well, now I know for next time. Thankfully, when we got to the bottom of the stairs, the CM there asked if we were a group of 2, and we said yes. We were then allowed to go up the staircase on the right. We soon were able to see the actual ride vehicles! NEW RIDE VEHICLES! I love them ALL!

Gotta love the Christmas lights on the Tinkertoys.

Don't you love how the CM costumes are so distinct in comparison to the other rides? I think it was AllEars that once had this little game that showed the CM costumes, and you had to guess where they were from. I think you can still find it on the blog.

And of course, we were excited about Tin Toy! Haha, can't forget the baby in that short!

I got excited to see Chinese Checkers. That was probably one of my favorite games as a child (that and Boggle). I got a Chinese Checkers set one year for Christmas from my Sunday School teacher (the boys got checkers and chess, so I was extra happy with what I got!). I think I played with my dad, and he did all the longer jumps (the ones with the spaces in between), and I had to play with my mom so she could teach me. I then used to go to the playroom and play by myself. Yup, I'd play Chinese Checkers against myself. I clearly wasn't competing (although part of me was always rooting for a certain color), but I practiced because I wanted to be able to recognize all the longer jumps. When we lost power from the recent storm (Hurricane Irene), Matt played against my mom with flashlights, so I love how this is also a game that lasts forever.

I pointed out this light to Weird as I had read that it was an indicator light for the CMs to know that it was okay to get the ride moving. You can actually notice a bunch of them on certain rides, but this one is so well disguised!

We wondered if there was anything special with the CUPGOL blocks.

Despite being allowed to go to the FP lane because we were only 2, it actually took us a while to get in a car. The CM there kept apologizing to us, but we were absolutely fine being able to enjoy the queue. Thankfully, when we're together, we're actually very patient. I guess it's because we like each other and don't mind waiting as long as we're together! When we did make it on a ride vehicle, we were thrilled and ecstatic! This was going to be so much fun!!!

The whole entire ride was filled with laughter. I knew it was 3D, but those spurts of air and those splashes of water surprised me! I loved those extra effects! The moving from scene to scene was also a really fun part of the ride because I liked swinging and moving that quickly. These were our final scores. I was on the right so my accuracy was better, but Weird had the higher score. We both got sore arms after it though! Next time I know not to shoot during the practice round!

What a fun first ride for DHS!

We got off, dropped off our glasses, and then just took a peek at the store across the way. We really like the Battleship board! I used to play that all the time with my older brother.

After reminiscing, it was time to move on to something a bit more current!

 

[Jennifer48]

Can I just tell you how much I absolutely LOVED that update?! I love how you described all the detail in the queue. Fantastic morning at DHS!

 

[Bridora]

That's too bad about that family on POTC ruining your ride.

I love the Adventureland area...those night pictures are great!


I'm glad you decided to still go to DHS after your rest day!

I love TSM! We have somehow not ridden it the last two times that we've gone to Disney, so I'm glad you had so many pictures from the queue.

 

[LilAnn]

So I don't know how you can keep your two TRs straight, I can't!

Been away for a bit, but catching up now. What a score with the $0.49 pins! I was kicking myself for not buying more pins at the outlet a few years ago, especially now that DD is so into trading them. If only I had known!

Loved this most recent update because I just absolutely adore the theming for TSM. I love the sense of nostalgia that I get when going through the line. So many fun things to look at.