Tuesday: The One Where We Have Rumblies In Our Tumblies, and Delicious Hallowishes Pt. II

When I left off last time, we were ready for our first FP+...

We were still rather early for our FP, so we went for a stroll. It was lucky really that we were so early, as we walked straight out of Crystal Palace and into the crowds for the Move It Shake It Dance And Play It! Parade.


I can't help it. I'm addicted to castles and Mickey pumpkin wreaths.

Don't think that having a terrible view at the back of a crowd will stop me taking photos. Oh no. There will be photos. Jus not very good ones!













Fortunately they were busy "Vamos!"-ing so they were soon out of our way. To New Fantasyland!!

I'd seen Disney and Youtube shopping videos in the circus tent, so I had to see that! Well...heaven!! So much Disney goodness in one place. I'm actually pretty restrained when we're away, last time we didn't buy a single souvenir until the second week of our trip, and this time we pretty much did the same thing. Both times with the same result of flying around on our last day searching for items, because apparently I don't learn. Anyway. We wandered around browsing for a while, we only had one Disney souvenir request, and that was from my Grandparents who had banned us from spending money on extravagant souvenirs for them, all they wanted was a nice calendar. So obviously I had to find the very best one ever.  Sadly all I found today was one with ride posters on it, which for people who've never been to the parks probably wouldn't be all that exciting! My Nana just had cataract surgery in the weeks before we went, so I had to make sure I found the nicest calendar, now that she could see it! A lovely CM brought over a tray of treat samples, and told us to take whatever we wanted, as she had two or three different kinds of treats available. We don't need telling twice!! We tried a piece of Olaf cake-pop, a white chocolate marshmallow (ear? I can't remember now!), and a chocolate brownie of some description. Clearly I was not yet into holiday mode of photographing every morsel that passed our lips, as I don't have pics of them! My tastebuds were still in English Mode, so it all seemed SUPER sweet.

We hung around by the MagicBand supplies for a while eating our free treat samples, while I debated what to buy. MB extras were one of those things that, before we set off, I had picked out exactly what I wanted, but when I was stood there in front of them, I don't know...I wasn't so sure. It seemed an awful lot of money to spend on something I would only use for two weeks, and had no use for at home. I'd already asked before we set off and there was no way the gym could make my MB replace their faux-MB as a locker key, so I wouldn't really be using it when we got back at all. I wish they'd made the MagicBandits so that they fitted onto other things, maybe make them as a pin, where the rubber back was flat with a tube that came through the MB hole, and the pin clipped into it, so that you could wear them with a regular pin back at home (hey Imagineers...Are you listening to this?! Because if you ever do this, I will accept free samples of everything by way of payment, thank you very much).

Nicely topped up on treats, our FP time was fast approaching, so Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off we go! First up, Seven Dwarves' Mine Train!! I'm so glad we decided to FP 7DMT. Every time we passed it our whole trip, the queue was well over an hour. Perhaps we just have bad timing! It's a shame as I would have liked another ride on it, but never mind. Add it to the list of reasons we need another trip! 7DMT is my kind of roller coaster, I loved it! It felt like such a short ride, I think you should get two trips around the track rather than one! I also love this adorable video that came with our PP/MM package:



You also still get the ride photos too.

That's my "I'm having fun!" face, it really is! I absolutely loved it! You can see on the photograph how much further down my lap bar is compared to John's. The guy loading us into the mine train was NOT satisfied with my lap bar! I put it down to a just-barely-comfortable-but-still-pretty-tight setting. Safety first! He still wasn't happy! He kept ramming and ramming it, trying to get it to go down further. Seriously! I'm not that thin! Stop cramming! I know I'm short, but I'm hardly at risk of flying out if an emergency brake goes on. I had bruises!


I was in two minds about signing up for MM. I will say this: If we'd paid $170 for it, I wouldn't feel like we'd got our money's worth out of it, as a couple travelling with no children. We got plenty of photos, but some of them are awful (blurry, out of focus, bad lighting, etc), lots of duplicates, and we got one regular Magic Shot in two weeks. A lot of times we were told that they weren't doing them that day, one guy even implied that they were just for kids, and a few said that they couldn't do them. I'm fairly certain you can take a photograph of us all pointing at the ground, or looking shocked at our own hands. Hmmm. Perhaps there's some science that I haven't grasped yet. I really wanted the balloon magic shot, I know that, and we never got it. However, we joined a MM group, paid $30, and I feel we definitely got value for money out of that! I can see it being worth $170 if you have kids, or you do a lot with your photos (cards, scrap-booking, whatever), but we don't. It was nice to have someone take photographs of both of us without having to trust random strangers with my camera, but I would never pay $170 for the privilege. They take more than enough of my money for other things that I don't feel too badly about joining a larger online family and spreading the cost of MM. We got one absolutely stunning photo (I love it, anyway), that I would happily have paid $30 for on its own, that is headed for a frame in our lounge sometime soon!

Next Stop: Space Mountain!!


We were racing through the To Do List this morning! That's not to say I wasn't a little apprehensive about my first blast-off...


Do I look nervous? I was a bit nervous.


Again, that's my "I'm having fun!" face. Doesn't show, does it?! That and the fact that John looks like he's on the Magical Express rather than being blasted off into space. We really were enjoying ourselves, honest!

After we touched back down and collected our ride photos on our MagicBands, it was time for something altogether more relaxing. Time for a great big beautiful tomorrow! On our way through Tomorrowland we spotted Chillin' Phil, just chillin' by the misting blasters.


Why is he Chillin' Phil? No idea. He just looked like a Phil to me!

I love Carousel of Progress. Sure, it broke down for about 15mins, but you can never see the exact same scene over and over too often, right? Did you notice that we have the same names as the husband and wife? I didn't until this trip! I guess when you hear something that often you notice new things! We should SO have done that for one of our MNSSHP costumes. Next time, maybe. I know someone went as the whole family in their 4th of July outfits, they were in my Trip Planning group on FB. Their outfits were amazing!!

Will we ever escape Carousel of Progress? Will July 4th become our Groundhog Day?! Find out next time!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had lovely Christmas and New Year (or whatever you were celebrating…Or just really awesome Friday!). The Trip Report posts stopped a little before I expected them to, I thought I had them scheduled until Jan. 3rd, but it was Dec 3rd. Whoops! Sorry about that. I will go back to regular(ish) ones ASAP. 

 But first thing's first, and by far the most exciting news of the festive season…

WE ARE GETTING A PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't had a dog for the last 5 1/2 years, since my first dog Sassi passed away at the grand old age of 13. Here he is:


My puppy! With 13yo me.


With his beloved teddy bear. We took it with us when we went to collect him from the breeder, and it never left his side for the rest of his life (even after that, actually, because they cremated it with him). When we had to have him put to sleep, the vetinary nurse remembered how much he loved his bear and how he used to sleep with it, and tucked it under his paw when she tucked him up on the table under his blanket. Broke my heart all over again.


Gorgeous boy!

For a long time I didn't want another one, then I did and we couldn't afford one, then our work schedules weren't compatible with a pet (yay for responsible pet parenting, however miserable it makes you at the time to be sensible!)…The list went on. Well, now we are in a better place financially and work-wise, and our new fur baby will be coming home with us at the end of January/early February!


The white one is ours!

We have been looking to adopt for months, even before our Disney trip, but the area we live in is pretty much all Staffordshire Bull Terriers, or some mix thereof, German Shepherds or other large breeds in the rescue centres, and our house and garden just aren't big enough for a large dog. So, we made the choice to buy instead.

Speaking of buying…I had little Disneystore.com shopping spree before Christmas. I thought I would try and do a haul video. Well. That ended abruptly…

Yup, 9 seconds before I got stopped. :S That went well! My second try got a little further!

I apologise if my shaky camerawork makes you queasy! Fortunately you don't have to experience it for long! I did have a very good reason for stopping the filming though (no, not because I am terrible at it): Disney called! I was so shocked to see a Florida number pop up on my phone (which I was filming with) that I nearly dropped it!

When we were away we decided to collect autographs for a friend of ours who is too ill to travel. She adores Disney, so we thought we'd take some magic home for her. Well, we decided to go one better than that, and had a few of our new friends say hello!


Everyone we asked made such wonderful messages on the spur of the moment that I thought they deserved some special praise for their amazing work, so I wrote an email to Disney, including the video URL. The phone call was from a lovely lady at Disney, calling to let me know that they were able to track down everyone in my video, show it to them and their supervisors and tell them how wonderful they are!  She was getting teary watching the video again on the phone with me! She also let me know that she had passed on my compliments about Anthony who checked us in at CBR too, which was good to know.

So as the haul video failed, here are some photographs instead:


Bernard and Bianca!! I loved The Rescuers when I was little (all together now… #R-E-S-C-U-E, Rescue Aid Societyyyyyyy…#) so when I saw this ornament online before our trip, I had to have it. Well, I saw it, didn't buy it, and remembered later that I wanted it. Story of my holiday shopping!! It's a little heavy for the tree, that Devil's Eye is solid, but I have a nice ornament hook it will go on.



My favourite calendar! *SPOILER ALERT* this is the one we ended up buying for my Grandparents. Flicking through the pictures with them when we gave it to them, I decided I needed one too! I love that the gang are wearing their Star Wars attire for May (May The Fourth be with you!). We are big celebrators of the Jedi holidays in our house. Fun Fact: My husband decided to wait until we were sat outside the vicarage waiting to go in and speak to the reverend about planning our wedding to tell me that he had recorded himself as "Jedi" in the religion space on the recent census form. Fortunately that did not hinder our wedding plans!! But ever since we have joked about May 4th being his religious holiday.


How wonderful are these keys?! I plan on hanging it in a box frame by the door, with a photograph from our trip.


Love it. Wish I'd ordered more!


My Mickey Santa hat! I haven't managed to wear it yet, as it's VERY warm! Hats off (pun totally intended) to the people who make it through an entire MNSSHP wearing one of these bad boys. They are seriously cosy!


My GORGEOUS tree skirt!! I fell in love with this at the Christmas shop in Magic Kingdom, but it was so heavy I daren't buy one there and try to get it home. Also, by waiting until I got home and mail ordering it, John had forgotten how much it cost. 


I also ordered this little fella! Wow, his ticking is LOUD!! Like, you can hear it over the TV level of loud. I love him though. Actually, the one in the video is my second Cogsworth.

The first one that I unpacked with this haul was damaged, his glass was cracked. It wasn't much, but it was enough that it would have bugged me no end if I kept him like that. I emailed Disney to find out how I went about returning him, and what their policy was on import duty (I paid 20% of the total cost including shipping to get them through customs). They replied to say the new one was on his way, duty free, and to pass the old one along to a charity to spread the Disney magic!!! Instead of just giving him to a charity shop, I listed him on eBay, so he went to someone who absolutely adores Disney, and 100% of the proceeds (£72) went to our local children's hospital charity. Win-win, everyone's happy! 

Regular trip reports resume on Thursday! :)

WDW Trip Report 2015: Tuesday: The One Where We Have Rumblies In Our Tumblies, and Delicious Hallowishes Pt. I

Tuesday: The One Where We Have Rumblies In Our Tumblies, and Delicious Hallowishes Pt. I

Are you ready for the pictures? I hope you’re ready for the pictures.

Our first full Disney day! Fortunately...I was feeling much better!  I’ve never been more relieved! I thought it was maybe a migraine (I rarely get them, but when I do I’m usually sick). I took it sooooo sloooowwwwwly getting ready that morning, so as not to set myself off again, which seemed to do the trick. Soon we were both ready to start our trip for real! There is only one place, to us, to start a trip to Walt Disney World. The heartbeat of a holiday. The main (st) House of Mouse. We were headed for MAGIC KINGDOM!!!


Magic Kingdom is my very favourite park. When I would watch the planning videos as a child (that I would call the hotline and order when my parents weren’t in the room, either that or beg them to call for me, even though they told me a million times that we couldn’t go, because I just wanted to watch the video), everything that I added to my little kid bucket list was in Magic Kingdom. On our last trip we spent two full days there before John reminded me “There are three other parks, you know…”, I was in my element! I was so excited to be going back to my favourite place to attack our latest bucket list (which I just realised, I never shared with you all...Hmmm...Seperate post, I think!).


It was no cooler than the night before (shock, horror) so I was slathered in sun lotion. I HATE sun lotion. If Ambre Solaire shares skyrocketed the first two weeks in October, they have me to thank. Ugh. I did take an appropriately named solution to the sticky skin feeling that I hate though: Lush Fairy Dust dusting powder! As I learned in MCO, you can buy this in America too. It smells like cotton candy and sugary treats, and it contains a healthy dose of lustre dust. This does mean that, if you are as pale as me, you look like some kind of twinkly vampiric extra from Twilight. Unless your in Disney, of course, and then you look like a magical, sparkly fairy being (because, of course, you look wayyy too happy and un-constipated to be in Twilight!). It’s like getting pixie dusted every morning and because you’re sticky, it lasts all day! I am not on commission. It’s just awesome. Anyway...


The bus arrived quickly, we barely had time to check out all the posters in the bus shelter, and soon we were on our way. Our first Disney bus trip! The first time I have been excited to be on public transport since learning to drive over a decade ago! When we walked to OPR the night before I wasn’t really paying attention, and we walked around the lake, so this was my first time really seeing all the other islands of CBR. They were all very pretty, but personally I preferred Jamaica! There’s just something about the blue and yellow and white combo that I love.


When we arrived at MK I was SO excited to see the Mickey pumpkin wreaths on the toll booths. That has been the iconic image of our trip planning for me, I love it. Disney, yet seasonal and oh so cute. I tried to make one as a room decoration, but it went horribly wrong, so it got left at home! One thing I wasn’t expecting on the bus was the “Welcome to MK” fanfare/speech. I nearly cried!


We both had rumblies in our tumblies, so we hurried towards the gates. We actuallly hurried so fast that I didn’t even take a photograph of the MNSSHP sign under the monorail track. When I’m in too much of a hurry to snap pictures, it’s serious. We got through the bag check line, and then went to put our Magic Bands to the ultimate test. They got us into our hotel room, but would they get us into the Kingdom? Or would we join the Blue Light Brigade and have to go and get them fixed? Fortunately they worked first time and we added our fingerprints no problem. Here we go!! I’m sure by now you might have guessed where we were going, but this should give the game away and get you in the mood! I was so happy when they played the instrumental version of it while we were eating!




Yup...We had a breakfast reservation at Crystal Palace! 


As it was our first experience of the bus system we had set off early for our 10:35am reservation. Fortunately we made it to Magic Kingdom with time to spare, and just in time to see the Trolley Show! I loved their Autumn outfits!



Sorry, that’s a terrible picture. There are better ones later on in the trip, I promise.


There’s my castle! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh! I may have shed a happy tear or two. It’s just so beautiful!




I can’t believe how pretty MK looks decked out for Autumn/Halloween.






I loved how it looked when we went last time so I wasn’t sure if the colour change would spoil it, but nope, I loved it!! We dawdled in The Emporium and a couple of other shops, mainly because it was SO hot I didn’t know what to do with myself other than seek out the nearest air-conditioning, spotting the new merchandise along the way, and heading into Arribas Bros. Soon John dragged me away from the shiny things to get to our reservation. I have a real case of the “Oooh, shiny!-s”, as Ariel called them later in our trip (spoiler alert. Oops. Too late) so that was no mean feat. But a breakfast buffet with one of my favourite bears was calling. We checked in and got our pager, and just had time to snap a quick castle shot before our table was ready.


Ahhhhh, stunning.

This was our first time at Crystal Palace, what a beautiful place! When we were shown to our table Tigger was already making his way around our section. Now...I don’t know precisely why I put myself through character dining. At anywhere other than Disney, I have a major fear of fur characters/mascots. I HATE them, even if I know the person in the suit, I’m not happy unless they take the headgear off. I just can’t be around them. In Disney, well, all the characters you meet are the real deal obviously, so my irrational fear does not apply!!! I am always still a little on edge though, especially when multiple characters are milling around near me and I can't see where they are at all times. So character dining was quite the experience!

Our server was lovely, I can't find the bill at the moment and I can’t remember his name, but he was from NY. He was very attentive, keeping our glasses filled and nipping over to tell me where the characters were and who was coming next (I think maybe he heard us discussing me not being keen on not knowing if the characters were sneaking up on me!). He was lovely!


Very excited to get his breakfast at last. This is a man who never eats breakfast at home. Holidays are a different matter, however!


This was my view from the table. 

I made my trip to the buffet first.


There was an exclusive Crystal Palace item on our To Eat bucket list: Pooh's Puffed Toast. Let me tell you I was not disappointed! The only thing that made me sad was that I only had room for one plateful (but I was grateful for that plateful...Hum-hum de dum, hum de dum-dum…). John managed a second trip but I was just too full! Though obviously I fulfilled my wifely duty and had a taste of anything that he brought back that I hadn’t already tried! What with being ill the night before (always makes me a bit wary to eat again, “Am I prepared to experience this food in reverse?” kind of thing), and carefully watching what I ate before we left and losing 1/2st, I think my rumbly tumbly had shrunk a bit! This was no good for two weeks on the DDP! Still I really enjoyed what I did eat, it was all delicious. One by one, the characters made their way around to us, by the time we finished eating there was only Piglet keeping us waiting.













As we left I noticed the cute topiaries in the entrance that we’d rushed past on the way in. They are adorable! I had to go around and get a picture of each of them before we went.









And an extra one of Eeyore’s beautifully beribboned butt. 



This will be the last trip when I book so many (expensive!) ADRs on our first full day. We weren’t ready. I in particular wasn’t ready. Early start, 8+hr flight, restless night’s sleep, 5hr time difference, all within 36hrs. I was desperate to get out there and play and stuff my face with Disney treats, but I don’t think we got full value for money out of either of our ADRs today. I don’t mind, we really enjoyed them and that’s what matters, but next time I would book for later in our trip.

We also had a full complement of FP+s booked, so off we went for the first one...