MVMCP 2013 Magic Mirror's First Christmas in The World!

We had done all this and it was only noon!
We had a fast pass for Festival of the Lion King.
They let us in first and we had the choice of sitting anywhere
in the stands. Then they let in the people who had been
waiting in line. We were able to take the first seats (right
behind the wheelchair seats). Neither of us had ever
saw this show before. It was awesome!
I loved that it was loud, fast moving and the music,
incredible! It is now a "must do" on our AK trips!

And here is a very short video, 10 seconds, I wish I would have ran it a little longer

I really do like it~ The weight of it was comfortable enough to wear all day- I wish I had taken
time before we left to play with it more as I depended largely on the auto settings for most of the
pictures..I'm sure she has a lot more kick to her when I take the time to learn more. But it's a
keeper!

Now we were hungry~! Starving actually
So off for lunch.. we were pretty good about photographing
our food before we consumed it- I even have Amy trained
to hold and display for my pictures

Amy had the honey chicken- I had the sweet-n-sour- they were both very good.
You did get plenty of food- but I don't think we would have had enough if we had
shared just one. That is only because we weren't really snacking during the day-so
we were ravenous by the time lunch had come. The honey chicken was very mild.
I thought it might be too sweet but it was a great choice and not overwhelming.

and dessert was the chocolate mousse parfait:

You can't go wrong with chocolate! I thought it would just be pudding but it did have a
mousse consistency and taste-so they must use a cream cheese base of some sort.

We continued on....

We saw Finding Nemo the Musical. We had never seen this one before and I really wasn't excited about it.
I just pictured it being more of a kids program of puppetry. I also couldn't see how they could
have visible puppeteers working the puppets and not have it be distracting to the show itself.
We had time to kill before our fast pass for Everest and Finding Nemo was just opening for seating so we
went in. All I can say is WOW. I was really wrong. It was incredible. WE loved it!

It is amazing to me how the puppeteers become an extension of the puppet themselves.
It completely worked. It was colorful and moving, there were actors and puppets who would
come through the audience making it feel very dynamic. I can't say enough good things about it.
If you haven't caught it yet, make it a point to next time. WOW

On to Everest!

I don't remember the Monkey's at all last year.... were they there or did they add this?

The monkeys were very entertaining. A large one had gone to the
corner of the play house and sat on the ground. A little trouble maker
one had been swinging around when he got the bright idea he would
work his way down the structure until he was right above the one
sitting on the ground, minding his own business. As he would then
hesitate, then swing over the head of the one on the ground, he would
smack him on his head, then swing away. He went up, came down,
and repeated the whole thing again, exactly the same way. The third
time he tried it, the one on the ground had enough, and he gave chase.
So away they all went swinging crazily thru the structure.
Must be where they came up with the logo- Monkey Business

I have to say, we really enjoyed the Dinoland area so much more this time.
After reading about it on here and in some Disney books, we really "got it"
and accepted it for what it was meant to be. Last time it just felt
like it was a disjointed part of the park. It was also starting to get dark,
so while we were there the lights started coming on and it looked really
cool.

We split our very first Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bar! YUM Delicious!
We took a picture, but it blurred, so Sorry- we didn't waste time
trying to take another one-it was melting and well....yeah...YUM
I didn't realize the outside chocolate was a darker chocolate,
nice contrast with the vanilla ice cream.

We rode Primeval Whirl for the first time. We skipped it last time because we thought the motion
looked too much like the teacups...but we braved it and it was awesome! It was fun and it didn't
have that tight circle feel when it did turn. We talked about doing it again because it was just that
much fun, especially when you get to the turn in the track and you whip around it (yes we were laughing
in hysterics the whole time) but it was getting dark, we were getting hungry and there was more to do!
We went on and rode Dinosaur~!

The park was really getting empty by now. We noticed at 6pm there was a mass line of
people leaving. From 6-8pm there was hardly anyone around. It was getting dark so we went
to eat and then just walked around for another hour enjoying the atmosphere.

Dinner was at the Flame Tree BBQ... Amy had the chicken, I had the chicken and ribs.
The chicken was really good, the ribs were a little dry on the top but juicy underneath.
Overall, we would eat there again.

Before we had left Dinoland, Goofy Santa was out for photo's. We were standing behind
the photopass area and were just trying to get a picture of him alone before the next
group of kids ran up. He had looked up and saw Amy's shirt which said "Michigan" on it.
He pointed at her and gave her the thumbs down sign. Well this spirited Amy up
so we went to get in line so she could "talk" to Goofy herself. When we were next up,
the photo pass photographer said "on no its Michigan!" and she looked at Goofy with a look
like "You're in for it now". Goofy was very funny, kept thumb downing Amy and shaking his head no,.
She said I hope your not an Ohio State Fan and he shook his head no and made a "W" so she said
ohhh Wisconsin fan and he shook his head yes. It was pretty funny to watch and after our photo
he tried to make it up and then he gave her a big hug. It was a great interaction.

By now the park was really really dark. It was like being out in the country on a summer night
with only the stars to guide you. So we just walked around and snapped some photo's, enjoying
the cooling air.

Amy was really getting tired but I dragged her all the way back to Africa so
I could soak it up one more time. There was a band playing, I felt bad because
there was hardly anyone around, so we stopped and listened to them for awhile.

Then it was time to leave......

We were back to the resort in quick fashion. We had bought several souvenirs in Africa for
the re-do of the Global Travel Adventure Guest Bedroom. My Magic Band had worked for
my park passes and my fast passes but they wouldn't work for room charge. I had to start
using my KTTKC for anything we bought. And remember how our card didn't say on it
that we had room charging privileges even though we did? and it wouldn't be a problem?
Yeah- about that- it was a big problem.

First we would hand our KTTKC to the CM. They would glance at our wrist, see the Magic Band
and say "just put your Magic Band here" and we would respond

"we are having problems with it, please run it thru my KTTKC".
"We have had problems all day but it should be find now ,just try your Magic Band".
"Ok but we did that at the last store and it didn't work"
"that's ok try it again"
"ok"
"oh, yes its not working, ok we will try the KTTKC".
"thank you".

Every CM then said "oh you don't have room charging privileges".
"yes we do they said to tell you to run it thru anyway"
"but your KTTKC doesn't have the ...."
and finally, they would run it thru and they would say
"oh yes it did work~!"

I realize Disney is wanting CM's to educate and assist the visitors
in getting familiar with using the Magic Bands. But when you go store
to store to make purchases and it's the same conversation every time,
you're holding up the line and it's taking away from my park time
trying to ring up a transaction, it becomes very much a pain in the b**.
Not to mention it started to take away the fun of shopping because
I didn't want to go thru the circus just to check out. No matter how
many times I told the CM the Magic Band will NOT work they insisted on
my trying it. UGGGGGG

So first stop upon returning to the resort was the front desk.
They were very nice and I went thru the whole story and they checked my
account and somehow it had become disconnected but she couldn't get
any of it to go "green".

I'm starting to panic now wondering if my fast passes and my park passes
would get jammed up. After about 35 minutes she went to get the manager,
Brendan who came to help.

He said the problem they were having was when a guest checked out and checked
back in. The Magic Bands were wigging out. It took some time, he went back thru
everything and re connected it. He did offer to give us one of the gray bands but
he thought he could fix the ones we had. It was our decision to keep what we had
and he re-programmed them.

He wanted to make sure that they were working so he took us to the gift shop
and told us to pick out anything we liked as he was going to check the room
charging part and then he wanted us to keep it for our trouble.

This was so sweet and not expected and I did appreciate him just acknowledging that
this was a big hassle. We found a little Christmas ornament in the front and he rung it
up. It worked on our bands and then he deducted it from our room charge. The CM
who was ringing us out was so sweet! She specially boxed it, wrote on the box and put
Mickey Mouse stickers all over, apologizing the whole time about how we had this trouble.
Outstanding and I was glad her manager was there so he could see how helpful she was.

So with our Magic Bands "fixed" we headed back to the room and called it a night.
The next day was Hollywood Studios!

Canon Powershot G15

It is not a SLR - but it does have many great qualities including RAW. (not that I've tried it yet)

Up somewhat early, feeling re-freshed and re-energized- our Magic Bands in working order..
off we went to Hollywood Studios!

This balcony is over the bathrooms just inside the park. I loved the detail of Christmas Decorating that
even the faux upstairs apartment was decorated!

Amy went to use the restroom. It was about 10am and I was snapping away for photos when two
older men, probably in their late 70's walked up right behind me. They were having a heated
conversation, fairly loudly, about some disagreement. The one was really tiffed. They would walk away
and walk back and go at it again. I was starting to wonder if they were going to just have it out!
Finally they went and sat down on a bench when I noticed two younger children, probably around 9-11yrs
old, who were with them. Grandchildren? Regardless, I felt so bad for these kids. Here they are on vacation,
supposed to be having a joyous time, its only 10am and these two old geezards just won't let it go!
The kids were just standing there looking sad and staring at the floor. I wished I could have just taken them
with me. As we went by, the two grumpy men were still having an exchange of words. At least no profanity
but they were pretty passionate about whatever had ticked them off.

We went left and headed towards Star Tours. This is what we did last time, and it really works for us in this park.
We managed to avoid crowds all day. I took some pics of Gertie as she blew steam out of her nose.
It was like we had this part to ourselves.

We hit Star Tours, walked on, no wait, no lines.

We had the rebel spy scene.

As we walked off the ride thru the gift shop they had a make your own R2D2 droid out of LEGO's!
Yes, we are Lego fans.
There were boxes of parts and pieces and you just picked out what you liked.

They had a CM there and had it roped off so only a few people could make theirs at a time.
When you were done, they put it in a professional plastic container with stickers so you
could personalize & name your droid when you got home.
It ran about $10 a droid and was really great fun to play around with .
A fairly cheap way to get a momento from Star Tours.

We both decided on Mickey Ears, after all this is Disney!
Mine is the purple / white one... Evil Queen Purple of course.

I just love this little evil guy (bird? rat?) that sits on Jabba the Hut in the movie.
I came really close to buying it. It was around $30 and it was a gross plastic and
just so ugly it was cute. I settled on a photo, but next year, he might come home
with me.

Time for our sugar high, so off to our favorite little nook, the Writers Stop.

It was a hard choice but we finally settled on this:

HEAVEN! Ok so I said I wasn't going to drink anymore coffee unless it was Starbucks,
but Amy and I shared this one and it was really good. I made her keep her hand in the photo
so you can see just how big that chocolate delicacy was! I don't know what it is about this
place, but I wished it was closer to me, I think I'd go there everyday!

Next stop The Muppets! We love the Muppets and am especially fond of Waldorf and Statler

We headed around the Osborne Light area and looked forward to returning after dark.
Next up was the Catastrophe Canyon. I had been on this ride in the 1980's before it was
shortened but Amy had never been on it.

(SPOILER)I had a lot of fun with Amy when the semi caught on fire
and the floor gates opened-I had kept telling her to keep her camera ready
and she was like "for what? nothings happening" Then kaboom**
Oh that's COOL-!" hehehe,

It was ok, I'm good with skipping it for another twenty years. We did have a great time
in the after que area looking at the movie props.

This is one of my favorite lines in Titanic so it was cool to see the prop letter:

and Amy was in Heaven- two of her favorite movies, Batman and Gladiator~!

After that we went to Lights~! Camera~! Action~! This was a ridiculous line. For unknown reasons the
show was delayed for an unknown time, several times, while we were in line. Finally after what seemed like an
hour, we were let in for a mass seating arrangement with basically a free for all. We ended up with fairly
decent seats. I loved the show! Hearing those car engines race really gets my blood boiling...I wanted to be
down there with them! The precision in their driving is very impressive, amazing how close they come to each
other and stop with inches between them. My hat is off to the drivers!

I still have NOT tried that Carrot Cake Cookie!
I pondered it, I should have bought one to go and took
it for later.....I just can't stop leaning towards
chocolate when I have the chance, maybe they
could dip it in chocolate for me!
......but , just another reason to go back !

Lights! Action! Camera!

.be

Now,, time to eat! We went to the Studio Catering Comp.

We split the turkey sandwich. It was nothing special. It was basic lunchmeat, barely any lettuce and a plop
of mayo in the center. Pretty unremarkable. The banana pudding with vanilla wafers was considerably better.
It was light, not so sweet, and just the right amount of banana taste and some nice Heath Bar Toffee
crumb crunches. Thumbs down sandwich, thumbs up pudding!

They did have a nice drink menu at the stand next door. Sadly we never made it back for the pina coloda..

We had a FP for Toy Story Midway Mania- WE both Loved it! What fun!
I love that you actually stop when you shoot, and things fall over so you really feel
like you hit it. Great ride, really really long wait (line was about an hour) so FP
was a great use-and got us in with only about a 10 minute wait~! Whoo hoo!
And ...notice my score (HINT: I'm the higher one)

Ok so that score really sucks considering some of the other ones i've seen posted on here.
I could not remember the "secret" point shots at all~ But..I still beat Amy

We stood in line for the Pirates show for about 25 minutes. That was 25 minutes too long.
You walk into a cavern...candlelights flicker...the rest is a video screen with Johnny Depp
as Capt. Jack Sparrow. Must of it he is staggering around drunk on rum. After this attraction,
I wished I had been staggering around drunk on rum too. It might have made the show
more interesting. The whole premise is you want to join his ship as a pirate.
The video screen, while slightly interesting technology, was really a boring way out.
Perhaps smaller children would be excited by it and unable to recognize it was a video
screen but anyone older than 7 will most likely feel ripped off. I would have rather seen a
real person dressed as Capt. Sparrow come out and command his crew (or if Johnny Depp
wanted to be there that would be ok too ) . When it was done several people
were looking around like "that's it???". Yes, that was it. Do it once if you're curious,
then hurry on to something more...

Next we went thru One Man's Dream. I can't believe I never took time to go thru this before!
It was very nice. And of course, I cried thru the video. Before Amy even looked at me
she said "I know you are crying, aren't you?" Yes, blubbering is a better word.

We went to the character meet/greet for the Incredibles...they flirted with us and Mr. Incredible kept taking
my hand. Amy was really excited about this- she is the Incredible fan (remember the Magic Band had
"no capes" on it instead of her name).

Next was the Great Movie Ride. I love this ride and never get tired of it.

We had the gangster story and our gangster was very good.
She was sultry and sassy and had a good bronx accent.. Kudo's to her!

I've decided the Wicked Witch of the West is just like castles and balloons..you can never get
enough pictures!