MillieHubbard's TR

Hey everyone!!

It's 1am and I'm exhausted...a good exhausted but must get to sleep. Will post more sometime in the next day or two. We're off to Studios and MK tomorrow. MK has EMH until 2 am...God Help Me!!!

We had a riotous good time at dinner tonight at Whispering Canyon Cafe with our friends Barbara and "Cowboy Chris"...he earmed that moniker at a previous Whispering Canyon Cafe dinner!!

Did lots of pin trading today all over the World...at least 6 different resorts and DTD.

More to follow...

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick drop in to say hi and that we are having a fantastic time. We were at MK last night for the EMH and didn't leave the park until 2:45 AM!! WooHoo...it was like having the park to ourselves. I'm not going to post the report yet since the Magic hours are waning...we check out of PO Riverside tomorrow and into a hotel near DTD for two more days. I'll be sure to post a nice loooooooong trip report when we get home. Never did get to do the Wishes Dessert Party but we had a GREAT time anyway. DH and I have been getting lots of Anniversary wishes all week and yester day was his BD so that was loads of fun too!

We're off to Citricos for dinner this evening and then to DTD after that for shopping and more pin trading...we're having a BLAST!!!

Hey Everyone!!

We're home safe and sound from our FABULOUS WDW vacation! We had as much fun as is humanly possible. We could not have squeezed any more fun or relaxation into one trip! We're already wishing/thinking about when we can go back!

I promise to post a lengthy and detailed TR but for now I just want to relax a bit after our 11 hr drive home. Why is it that the drive home is always more tiring than the drive there....yep, that's a retorical question!

More in a day or two...the nice thing is that I'm still on vacation, until the 28th!

Day 3 - Hollywood Studios

We arose early to get to the Studios for park opening. We both wanted to ride Toy Story Mania first...we're huge Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin fans and knew we'd love TSM too. It was weird to enter the park and have the crowd NOT make an immediate right turn to TOT, everyone was headed to TSM. We managed to get in line quickly, we were about 20 back...not too bad. We waited for awhile and then the bad news came...the ride was down with no estimated time of resolution...oh no, was this an omen of the remainder of the trip

We both looked at each other, disappointed and uncertain...should we go or should we stay? We waited about 10 minutes and then DH headed off for TOT. Before he could even get out of eyesight the cast members came out to say that most of the rides in the entire park were down, including TOT. Some sort of systems error that they were working to resolve. We had already gotten our fast passes so there was some hope of coming back later. I decided to wait a little longer since I'm not a TOT fan .

I tried calling him but with the crowds he didn't hear his cellphone so I just waited and in about 4 minutes they came out to tell us that the ride was back up. Needless to say, I took full advantage of the opportunity to get a sneak preview of the ride .

Just as I was coming out of the ride, DH was walking up to the entrance after discovering that TOT was down too. While I was waiting for him to return, I struck up a conversation with the CM at the FP entrance, telling him how much I'd enjoyed the ride and sorry that DH had missed the 1st ride with me. When DH walked up, the CM "Dreamed" us and let us in the FP edntrance and called ahead to ask the CM inside to move us to the head of the line (via disability line). We LOVED the ride and when we exited we immediately entered the FP line!! Exiting the 2nd time the CMs were having hysterics at us....we ran over and got another FP for later so we could get our 3rd ride in and decide the "Best 2 of 3" winner.

Did I mention that we are super competitive when it comes to rides like TSM and Buzz Lightyear?! We have a "trophy" pin for Buzz that the "Best 2 out of 3" winner gets to wear on their lanyard until the next competition (trip). Well we now have a TSM "trophy pin" too. Sadly on this trip I didn't win either "trophy". I had great hopes for TSM but no such luck this time!

After TSM we headed over to Animation Courtyard to do Animation Academy. Neither of could believe that as many times as we had been to WDW we had never heard about Animation Academy (thanks to WDW for Grownups!!). We waited for a little while for the next seating. When our turn came we discovered that we'd be drawing Sorcerer Mickey. It was lots of fun and we both did very well. The best part...Mickey was out in the gallery for photo ops and we were able to get him to sign our sketches. We'll be framing those for our livingroom.

While we were waiting in the gallery I spotted what I think is an unintentional Hidden Mickey. It's in one of the "original artwork" prints in the foyer. In one of the Peter Pan posters the bodice of one of the girls dresses has a very distinct shape. Round puffy sleeves and a roundish shape to the bodice. I don't find it in any of the Hidden Mickey books but it sure looked like one.

After we finished up in Animation Courtyard we did some pin trading....actually we pin trade all day long but this time we made a specific point of visiting the pin store and chatting with the Cast Members...just in time for one of the HOURLY performances of High School Musical 3...time to exit Stage Right. One of the cast members looked like she was ready to scream...I couldn't imagine hearing that every hour on the hour!!

From there we headed over to Studio Catering for lunch. We like to try and hit the restaurants a little ahead of "prime time" to beat the crowds and have a little more relaxing meal. We both enjoyed our Grilled Chicken, rice and beans very much. I had the Chocolate Fudge Cake and DH had the cheesecake for dessert. He also enjoyed his dessert...amazing since he's a born and bred New Yorker!! We relaxed for a little while at the restaurant, killing a little time until Lights, Motors, Action.

We both had never seen Lights, Motors Action...amazing since we've been to Studios so many times. We enjoyed the show but agreed that it wouldn't rank as a "must do" for us. Same with most of the other stunt shows we've seen over the years. Fun to watch once but not high on our list.

After exiting LMA it was time to head over to American Idol Experience. I was really looking forward to this attraction since I am a huge Idol fan. I have to say the Imagineers did a fantastic job with this attraction. It really did feel like we were in the audience at a competition. The 3 guests who were competing were all very talented. It was fun to encourage them on and vote for our favorite. We ended up leaving the park before closing so we never learned who won the competition for the day.

It was getting close to time for us to head back to our resort since we had dinner reservations at Ohana. DH had a TOT FP so I waited for him on the benchs near Min and Bill's Dockside and enjoyed a frozen lemonade to cool off a bit. July in Orlando is delightful . That said a hot rainy day on vacation at WDW is still better than a day at home!

Part II - Dinner at Ohana to follow...

We did complete the "Best 2 out of 3" and sadly I didn't win the "trophy"! No Mr. Potatohead pin for me

Counting my "preview" ride, I got to ride TSM 4 times that day!

On the rides being down....it wasn't for very long and I think it was rides controlled on a certain network. The CM did say "all the rides" probably meaning all the "popular" rides.

I did notice that there were more than the usual number of safety tests on the Monorail system...we arrived the day after the accident. Some guests were a little "testy" about the slightly longer waits...I felt like saying 'let's have a little patience folks'...the Monorail team had just lost one of their own.