Allie's Exhausting, Crazy, Super Fun October Trip Report

Day 5

Despite another late night, we woke up bright and early again for rope drop at Hollywood Studios. We arrived there at 8:30ish for 9am opening, but didn't have to wait long as they started letting people in at about quarter to 9.

We sped walked back to Toy Story Mania, laughing as we watched a guy with a stroller get stopped and scolded by a cast member for sprinting through the park. We grabbed a fast pass for TSM for between 9:30am and 10:30am and then jumped in the standby line with only about a 3 or 4 minute wait. Despite it being pretty awesome to get through the line so fast, I was a little disappointed we didn't have more time to admire the queue. A lot of the pictures I took ended up really blurry because I was trying to take them as we walked.

This was DH and my first time on the ride and we both LOVED it! Jon is a big gamer so he was in heaven and he kicked my butt pretty hard. Both of our arms were super sore at the end from pulling the trigger so fast. When we got off we checked the standby wait time which was already up to 45 minutes! Score!

Next we headed over to Tower of Terror with about a 5 or 10 min wait and got front row. It was even better than I had remembered it and I could have ridden it about 12 more times, but the line was starting to get long and we wanted to get on Rock 'n Rollercoaster before the park became busy.

As we walked past the fastpass pickup to get on Rock 'n Rollercoaster, a cast member stopped us and gave us two fastpasses for the ride for 10:05am to 11:05am. Sweet! We still got in the standby line which was posted at 20 minutes but couldn't have taken us more than 10 and most of that was from walking through the queue. Jon had never ridden this one and I had talked it up so much I was worried that it wouldn't live up to his expectations, but he came off giggling like a little girl. It was pretty adorable.

It was now a little after 9:30am which meant our TSM fastpass window was open which we realized meant we could get another fastpass, so we went over and picked up Tower of Terror fastpasses for 10:35am to 11:35am. We couldn't believe our luck, we were rocking fastpasses for the three biggest attractions at DHS at the same time!

We were getting pretty hungry so we stopped by Starring Rolls for breakfast where Jon got a sticky bun and then also shared my bagel and red velvet cupcake. The cupcake was freaking delicious and I'm getting all worked up just thinking about it. Drool.....

We passed by the Disney Channel Rocks show and decided to take a chance on getting through the Great Movie Ride with enough time to still use our fastpasses at TSM since the current wait for GMR was only 10 min and I knew that's probably the shortest we'd see it all day. We moved through the line quickly, but unfortunately I had forgotten how long that ride is! We got the gangster storyline which was fun, but I was pretty anxious the whole ride because I was worrying about getting off in time.

When we stepped out of the theater Jon checked his phone, 10:33am. Dangit, 3 minutes late! We decided to rush over and give it a shot anyway. We handed our fastpasses to the cast member and as we walked past her, we saw her double check them and then look up at the time of the current window, but by then we were already inside. I felt slightly guilty, but couldn't pass up the opportunity to get this epic trio of rides done twice in two hours, plus breakfast and GMR. We walked right past the now 75 minute wait and hoped right on. I got a better score this time, but so did Jon so he still whooped me. Oh, well.

We headed back over to the other side of the park again to use our RNR and TOT fastpasses in hopes we'd get through both rides by the 11:30am showing of Beauty and the Beast. We got off TOT at about 11:32, decided to try and sneak into one of the back rows of the show anyway, but when we got over there they had ropes up and a cast member told us they were at capacity. We wandered back to the center of the park to come up with a new game plan, but stopped to watch the Citizens of Hollywood for a bit.

We wandered past Voyage of the Little Mermaid but were told the next show wouldn't be starting for another hour, so we went to explore the Magic of Disney Animation studio until the first American Idol show of the day. Frozone and Mr. Incredible were hanging out so we stopped to take our picture with them and Mr. Incredible put us in this pose:

After looking around a bit more and putting our voices to the Aladdin animation, we trucked over just in time to catch the American Idol Experience. The guy at the beginning came out and pumped us all up, then ran backstage for the start of the show. The music kept repeating over and over but nothing happened. Apparently there was some sort of technical difficulty and it was another 10 min or so before the show got going again. Now I've never watched a single episode of American Idol, but both DH and I really enjoyed the show and thought the experience was really cool for those performing. The first guy that went had a great voice but didn't really have any stage presence, the second girl was decent but had a really young, undeveloped voice, and the third girl was pure awesome. She sang Reflections from Mulan and I thought rocked it better then Christina. I would have liked to have seen if she won the finale, but I knew we'd be spending the evening at Epcot.

We were hungry again so we decided to catch a boat over to Epcot to do some more F&WF grazing for lunch. DH took a nap and I checked out the resorts on the trip over. Once there we started our lunch at the Florida booth and got the White Corn Arepa with Mangalitsa Pork Rilette and Zellwood Sweet Corn Salad, Florida Shrimp Ceviche with Fire Roasted Vegetables, Fried Plantains and Cilantro, and Florida White Sangria. All of it was good but the ceviche was the winner for me at this booth.

Next we hit up the Hops and Barley booth for the lobster roll. Maybe we're just inexperienced with lobster rolls, but we weren't expecting the lobster to be served cold and it really threw us off.

We stopped next at the Italy booth for an Italian margarita (delicious!) and cannoli which I was sorry we had decided to split because it was so small! I grabbed us a spot on the steps overlooking the lake while Jon grabbed us the Zapiekanki-Toasted Mushroom, Caramelized Onion and Cheese Bread with House Made Ketchup from the Poland booth.

We headed toward the China pavilion next, but stopped along the way to snap a picture of a giant lizard attacking the citizens of the poor miniature town.

We picked up the Seared Filet of Beef with Smashed Sweet Potatoes and Braai Sauce at the South Africa Booth...

...then enjoyed the Lettuce Wrap with Roast Pork and Kimchi Slaw and Black Raspberry Wine from the South Korea booth. I loved the lettuce wrap even though I couldn't really eat it as a wrap since the lettuce was so limp.

We finished our lunch at the China booth with the Mongolian Beef on a Chinese Steamed Bun. This was one of Jon's favorite things at the F&WF and I enjoyed it, but the steamed bun's texture was a little doughy for my taste.

We planned on coming back to Epcot for the night, but we still had a few things we wanted to get in at DHS so we caught the bus back to the Studios, but not before taking a touristy picture in front of Spaceship Earth.

Up Next: Hollywood Studios and Dinner and EMH at Epcot

Gotcha, that makes sense. We had just never had one so for some reason both of us had it in our heads that it would be served warm so it really threw us off. I'm sure we would have enjoyed it a lot more if we had known what to expect...I'll have to try it again next time!

Day 5, Cont.

Back at Hollywood Studios we veered left this time and caught a couple minutes of the Jedi training. I think Jon was slightly jealous of all the kids that got to fight Darth Vader, but we soothed his pain by picking up a fastpass for Star Tours.

We made our way to the back of the park for the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show, stopping to catch the end of a Mulch, Sweat, and Shears performance and then a showing of Muppets 3-D on the way.

We arrived about 5 minutes before Lights, Motors, Action and boy was it packed! I was grateful to sit down for a while though. I should mention here that earlier in the week we discovered that I apparently walk on the inside of my left heel when I walk and in my Toms I do it so much that I literally walk off the side of the sole. Well we'd been walking so much this week that I walked right through my favorite pair of Toms

Because of this my heel was hurting really bad, which was causing me to try and correct the way I was walking which then caused the rest of my foot to cramp up really bad. There were several points toward the end of the trip where I was limping along in so much pain, but still determined to not let it slow us down! So anyways, Lights, Motor, Action was a nice break and Jon's jaw was on the floor for most of the show.

When the show was over we walked (well I limped) over to use our fastpasses for Star Tours, which were hardly necessary as the standby line couldn't have been longer than 5 min. I've never seen any of the Star Wars movies so I didn't really understand what the big deal was, but everyone else around me seemed to really enjoy it. After the ride, we were just in time to catch the last Indiana Jones show of the day, so we stuck around for that before heading back over to Epcot.

Despite my hurt foot, I really wanted to take the walking path over to Epcot, so we took it really slow and easy and admired all the hotels along the way.

As we walked along the Boardwalk, a guy on a bike rode up and stopped right in front of us to do a magic show in the middle of the sidewalk that we stopped to watch. The guy was hilarious and it was such a fun surprise.

We also stopped to watch a juggler, but it was getting dark so we kept moving and added the Boardwalk to our list of "must do" hotels we had started making this trip.

It was almost 8:00pm so, although we weren't super hungry, we started in on our dinner grazing since the booths would all be closing in an hour. We started at Greece this time where we enjoyed the Griddled Greek Cheese with Pistachios and Honey and didn't so much enjoy the Chicken Souvlaki with Tzatziki.

The Ireland booth was our next stop where we got the Lobster and Seafood Fisherman's Pie and Warm Chocolate Lava Cake with Bailey's Ganache. The lava cake was delicious but we both thought the fisherman's pie was a bit chewy.

We made for the Morocco booth next for a Kefta Pocket and Baklava, and on the way I stopped by France again to try out the Eiffel Sour Cosmo Slush which was perfection.

We finished up dinner by grabbing a Crispy Shrimp Taco with Chipotle Lime Mayo and Cabbage, Taco de Filete with Cascabel Pepper Sauce and Scallions, and a Lime Strawberry Margarita on the rocks just in time for the start of Illuminations. I thought all of it was delicious, but Jon hated the taco de filete which was fine by me because it was my favorite thing of the night so I didn't mind not sharing.

We curled up on an empty bench to enjoy the fireworks and the remains of our dinner before heading over to Norway to ride Maelstrom, then back into the Mexico pavilion to ride the Gran Fiesta Tour, both with no wait and both with no one else on our boat.

We walked back into Future World to try and check out Universe of Energy and Innoventions, both of which were closed for EMH, so we picked up some souvenirs for Jon's family at Mouse Gears instead. On the way to Mouse Gears I found a slug in the almost pitch blackness of the street leading away from Universe of Energy because I had thought it to be a leaf and almost stepped on it, but caught myself in the last second. Look, you can see his slime! Gross!

We went over to the Land Pavilion and rode Living with the Land with one other family who was trying to convince their kid the entire time that the ride was exciting. It was pretty funny to listen to. Next we went over to the Seas and rode the Nemo ride again and checked out Crush one more time. By this point my foot was really hurting, so we decided to call EMH quits and head back to CBR. We had a busy last day ahead of us!

Up Next: Rocking our last day at WDW from Magic Kingdom to Epcot to Hollywood Studios to Magic Kingdom for the MNSSHP!

I know, I know, I know...I haven't seen Lord of the Ring either, and trust me this is not from lack of trying. I've had a ton of different people try and make me sit down and watch it with them but I just can't get into it, I'm sorry! I get to antsy!

Day 6 Our crazy, wild last day at WDW!

So our original plan for this day was to start at DHS again, finish up at Epcot in the afternoon, and then go to MNSSHP in the evening. However, since we had only done evening EMH at MK so far that week, we realized if we waited until the Halloween Party we wouldn't get to spend any daylight hours at our favorite park. I revised our schedule to get us up bright and early for morning EMH at MK at 8am. Unfortunately, we missed rope drop by about 3 minutes which I was really disappointed about, but got over it quickly when I reminded myself it was just another reason for us to come back soon.

We started our day with taking some pictures, then headed over to Space Mountain and walked right on. I love that ride, but I definitely only have to do it once a trip!

We got off and went over and rode Buzz Lightyear, another walk on. I remembered really loving this ride, but after TSM it felt kind of outdated. My main complaint was how little the guns rotated and how it was really hard to tell where you were shooting. It was still fun, but I remember going on that ride 6 times in a row last time I was there because I loved it so much and this time it was kind of "meh".

It was now about 15 min before regular park opening and I really wanted some Disney princess pictures, so we decided to head up front to the theater to get in line early for the Princess meet and greets. I got ridiculously excited when I saw that Rapunzel would be there since I heard you don't see her often anymore now that Merida is out. We were 5th in line so once it finally opened up, we got through pretty quickly.

By this time we were getting pretty hungry so we headed over to Sleepy Hollow for one of the things I had been most looking forward to: waffle sandwiches! We decided to split the nutella and fruit waffle and boy did it not disappoint! It was so yummy! Jon ate all the bananas though since bananas are disgusting and he likes to eat disgusting things.

Next we headed over to Frontierland where Jon ran and grabbed us a fastpass for BTMR and then we walked on to Splash Mountain. Oh man, I love that ride!

When we got off, BTMR only had a 10 minute wait so we decided to forget our fastpasses (we ended up giving them to another couple after we got off the ride) and wait it out. Another great ride, and I loved the refurbs!

After BTMR, we hopped on the train over to Fantasyland where we explored the Storybook Circus in the daylight and got some pictures with the Fab 5 (less Mickey).

We wandered around Fantasyland some more and then went on a hunt for Merida.

When we finally found her the line was 45 minutes long and she was just about to go on a break according to the CM, so we took some creeper pictures of her and skipped the line.

It was almost lunch time so we decided to head over to Epcot, but stopped to jam at the Move It, Shake It parade. I can never pass up a good dance party!

On our way to the exit, we saw that Mickey only had a 5 minute line so we detoured over to the theater to finish out our Fab 5 photos. 5 minute wait turned out to mean only one person in line ahead of us so we quickly snapped a few photos and headed over to the monorail for Epcot.

Next Up: Finishing up our F&WF Tour, Dinner at 50's Prime Time, and MNSSHP

Thanks, Jess and Mase!

Vettelover - Jon took that picture and that same thing drives him absolutely crazy!

Becca - Thank you! But I definitely will not be telling Jon that or I will never hear the end of it!

Day 6, Cont.

After a quick ride on the monorail to Epcot, we headed straight back to the World Showcase to finish off our checklist of F&WF dishes (which we DID finish by the way!) starting with the Terra booth. On the way we stopped to admire the fountain and the cranberry bog.

Once at the Terra booth we got our vegan on with the Chili Colorado with House Made Chips & Cashew Cheese, featuring Garden Beefless Tips and Chocolate Cake with Passion Fruit Sorbet and Coconut Foam. Both were surprisingly really good! I loved the Chili Colorado...the texture of the "meat" was the only giveaway that it wasn't real.

Next up was the Caribbean Islands Booth where we sampled the Ropa Vieja with Cilantro Rice, Jerk Spiced Chicken Drumstick with Mango Chutney, and Bacardi Frozen Dragon Berry Colada. All of it was good, but I got a really rubbery, inedible piece of chicken off the drumstick on my first bite so I didn't eat any more of that one. While we were eating, this bird kept trying to come steal our food. My sweet, caring DH laughed at me as I cowered and inched away from the table, offering our food as a sacrifice, but I think I was justified. That beak looks like it could do some damage.

Next in line was the Argentina booth where we got the Grilled Beef Skewer with Chimichurri Sauce and Boniato Puree and then Australia for the Shrimp on the Barbie with Pepper Berry Citrus Glaze and Grilled Lamb Chop with Mint Pesto and Potato Crunchies. They were all ok, but nothing earth shattering and the shrimp was cold.

We circled around to hit up the Germany booth as our last stop where we got some Apple Strudel with Karamel-Vanilla Sauce and then creeped on Snow White.

Our F&WF journey complete, we headed back into Future World and did some exploring of Innoventions. We watched the StormStruck show and then wandered around the Test the Limits lab. We considered getting into the 25 min line for Sum of All Thrills, but my foot was really beginning to bother me again so we called it quits on Epcot and caught a bus to Hollywood Studios to finish up the shows we had missed there.

Once at DHS, we made a beeline for Voyage of the Little Mermaid. I love Little Mermaid and I love this show. Unfortunately, standing shoulder to shoulder in a cramped room for 20 min waiting for the show to start was making my foot very unhappy. Just when I thought I couldn't stand it any longer, the doors opened and we were let into the theater. Yay!

After Voyage of the Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast was the only show we had left at DHS. The next show started 30 min before our reservations at 50s Prime Time, though. Seeing how disappointed I was at having to skip B&B, my amazing husband parked me outside of the VotLM theater, ran over to Prime Time to get their ok on us showing up 20 min late for our reservation, and brought me back a bag of ice for my foot. What a guy!

After I took an ice break, we went to the Animation Academy to train our inner artists. The instructor narrowed down the characters we would draw by asking who had already drawn characters on her list. By the end it was down to Donald and Rapunzel and Rapunzel lost by one vote, dang it! It was probably for the best because I struggled with Donald who is a much simpler character to draw. DH's turned out really nice, though!

By the time we were done drawing we had 5 minutes to run (or hobble) over to B&B and we got there just in time to get some back row seats before the show started. Our Belle was a little too "pop singer" for my taste, but our Gaston was awesome!

After the show, we speed limped over to 50s Prime Time where I was scolded right off the bat for not coming when I was called because we didn't hear our name being yelled by the host. Whoops!

I got the Electric Lemonade from Dad's Liquor Cabinet and we split the Fried Herb and Garlic Cheese with Raspberry Sauce for an appetizer and the sampler platter of Meatloaf, Fried Chicken, and Pot Roast. Everything was delicious! Well...except the collard greens which I made Jon finish off for us so we didn't get scolded for not clearing our plate!

Our waitress was the perfect "Mom". She called me Princess for most of the meal and yelled at me for playing with my toys (camera) at the table, checked in often to make sure we were sharing nicely, and even popped through the window next to our table once and shouted, "You didn't think I was looking, did you?! Get your elbows off the table!" Jon was in seventh heaven watching me be the one in trouble for once

After dinner it was time to say goodbye to DHS and head back to CBR to get ready for the Halloween Party. On our way out we stopped to watch some of the streetmosphere characters fighting over how to decide on a union president. It was a great end to our time at DHS.

Next Up: Our last night in the World celebrated at MNSSHP!

Of course! Hope it's getting you geared up for you trip in two weeks!

Day 6, Cont.

Back at CBR we quickly got cleaned up and changed into our costumes. The mustache that came with Jon's Mario outfit didn't come with any adhesive though so he couldn't wear it, but he was nice enough to lay down so that I could get one picture of him in the full Mario gear.

We hopped on a bus back to MK at about 6:15pm where I sat next to a little girl dressed up like Snow White, too. I told her I liked her costume and she beamed at me the rest of the trip

Once at MK we took a picture in front of the castle decked out in Villains flags, then detoured over to Tomorrowland to go on People Mover.

I love this ride so much and Jon had never been. His favorite part was cutting through Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear.

After we got off People Mover we stopped to chat with a couple of cast members that were commenting on our costumes. They said that Princess Peach must be really jealous since he was out with Snow White (we actually had several people throughout the night say this!) so we came up with a story that he was actually Prince Charming dressed up as Mario for Halloween.

Next up was our first time on Monsters Inc Laugh Floor. This may have been one of my favorite "rides" of the whole trip! I loved it! There were 4 guys in KISS outfits in our group sitting a row away from us and almost the entire show they kept coming back to these guys and referring to them as the monsters' cousins. It was really funny!

We headed over to Adventureland next and on our way saw that Tiana and Prince Naveen had just come out and had only two groups in line. We hopped in line to get a picture with our last Princess of the trip and boy am I glad we did! These two were our favorite characters that we met the whole trip, they were so funny and great to talk to. Tiana was so sassy and Naveen had a big head, just like in the movie. They chatted with us for about 5 minutes since they barely had a line. Here we decided that I was actually wanted to dress up as Tiana but I didn't want to embarrass us both and wear the same outfit as her and then Prince Naveen rolled with that and him and Jon joked about wanting to make sure they didn't match either. When we left Prince Naveen called after Jon as he was starting his next set of pictures asking him what color he was going to wear tomorrow so that they didn't have to worry about wearing the same thing.

By now the first parade was about to start and we really wanted to make sure we saw the Headless Horseman so we found a bench to stand on and catch the start of the parade. He was awesome! Once the horseman was past we jumped down and finished our trek to Adventureland, saving the rest of the parade for later that night.

We moved on to Pirates of the Caribbean next to do some trick or treating and, of course, ride the ride! Jack Sparrow was outside for pictures but his line was kind of insane so we skipped him. When we finished the parade was just finishing so we cut over to Cinderella's castle to get front row spots for the Villains show. Best. Part. Of. The. Night. Jon and I are both huge Villains lovers and this show was so fun!

When the show was done, the villains made their way down for pictures and cast members began forming lines for each of the individual characters. Turns out we could not have picked a better spot to be standing because one of the cast members formed the line for the Evil Queen right in front of us so we only had 2 sets of people ahead of us in line for the character I had wanted most! When we got up to her, the Evil Queen looked me up and down and simply said "Poor choice of costume...you are familiar with the story, are you not?" It was great!

Because we had gotten through our line so quickly, we decided to try our luck and getting another character even though they were starting to cut lines off so that the fireworks could start. We hopped into Cruella's line and the cast member next to us told us about half way through the line that they were going to try and get as many people as they could, but they only had about 3 min left until the villains had to go back inside. I was crossing my fingers though as we got closer and closer to the front and then they cut the line off....after the person behind us! Wohoo! The Cruella was so funny! She made the best face when she was taking a picture with a little girl, she looked like the girl was made of dog poo.

When we were done with Cruella and the villains lines were being cleared away, we grabbed a spot a little back from the castle to watch the fireworks. It wasn't the best spot since most of the fireworks were right behind the castle so were hard to see from where we were sitting, but we had already seen most of them earlier that week after our Kona reservations and it was nice to spread out and rest my foot since there were not many people around us. We loved, loved, LOVED HalloWishes and that is coming from two people who don't really get too jazzed about fireworks.

When HalloWishes was over we made our way through the crowds to ride BTMR and Splash Mountain in the dark. Splash Mountain we got an empty log on and BTMR we almost got the front row but gave it to a little girl and her mom who wanted front really badly.

The second parade was about to start so we grabbed front row seats and sat down towards the beginning in Frontierland. For some reason we didn't see the Headless Horseman this time so we were extra appreciative that we caught him during the first parade.

When the parade was over we continued on to Liberty Square and rode Haunted Mansion again where we got stuck...again (2/2 this trip!) this time just as we entered the first hall but again only for a minute or two.

We finished out the night with Peter Pan's Flight (10 minute wait), Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (no wait, walked right on), Tomorrowland Speedway (5 min wait, Jon drove), and then got in line for Astro Orbiter at 12:00am right on the nose. There were two groups in front of us, but they still let us ride and we finished our last night in the World 20 min after park close. We got out to the buses where CBR's line was HUGE and new that there was no way we'd get on the next bus. Luck would have it though when the next bus finally showed up about 15 min later that most of the people in front of us wanted to wait for open seats, so we were able to move forward since we were willing to stand. I'm pretty sure I was asleep standing up by the time we got back to our hotel.

Next Up: Leaving and wrap-up