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

Here is the montage at the end of the Great Movie Ride,
in it's entirety, if anyone is interested in the movies it
currently represents:

After the Great Movie Ride we had FP for Fantasmic. We got in the FP line but it seemed
like they opened our line and the regular line at the same time. Everyone just ran for it.
Once we got in the arena area, there were no signs for the FP people. The very center
sections were marked off for the dining plan. I finally asked a CM where the FP were
supposed to sit. She said we could sit anywhere as long as it wasn't in the dining section.
Well that was very little help because the place was packed already. We did luck out
and find two seats just left of the dining section in an otherwise packed row. The viewing
was great except for the pole right in my field of view. While I liked the show, expecially
the dragon, I don't know if I would hurry to see it again. And I know I wouldn't "waste"
a FP on it if I did.

Sadly it's not, at least the one in Hollywood in WDW...it is Johnny Depp on a screen.
I have a video of it. As soon as I can speed youtube up, I will post it...

Next we had FP's for Amy's favorite ride, The Tower of Terror (and my least favorite)

Notice the look of pain on my face

After we made it thru that dreadfull ride, we took a pic with our "friend"

it was time for a late late dinner.

Amy's dinner was mint chocolate chip ice cream- delish!

I had wanted to try the Truffle Mac & Chz Hot Dog

It was very good-best eaten with a fork

We enjoyed a walk around, looking in stores, and enjoying the art deco
storefront displays..then we called it a night and left Hollywood.

WAIT! Oh my Gosh ! I forgot to add in there, we enjoyed the Osborne Lights !

How'd I forget that??????????????????????

mrhub that is a kind invitation...but I don't think my nerves could take 4x in a row!
I'm inclined to accept alicemouse's invitation- we will send amy, ben and mrhub to the Tower~!

Here is the 14 sec. video clip from the Legend of Capt. Jack Sparrow:

.be

yes, the projection is very good, has a sense of movement and depth to it
that is pretty impressive for a "screen"....my very first thought was that it
was an actor...but upon hearing Johnny, err Jack's voice I looked closer
and realized it was a clip.

I haven't forgotten you! I have been house/dog sitting for a friend so I only have the Nook with me
plus I just got bumped back to night shift so I am all messed up on my sleep patterns

I will get back at it soon!

Thanks girls~! I love to take pictures....I feel like I'm really stopping to notice
the details around me when I am snapping away, rather than running thru life
which is how it is most of the time for me.....I've been very lazy about learning
outside of auto settings..so hoping with this camera I will venture into the RAW
modes.

Well I seem to be surviving my flip back to midnight shift and we also survived
the arctic blizzard - so back to it I go!

We had just completed Hollywood Studios and headed back to the room.

We got back to the room and I went to open it with my magic band.
It didn't work. I tried it again, and again, and again, and (feel my
agitation yet?) when Amy tried hers and it opened. Sigh.

The next morning we were finally going to the Magic Kingdom!

But first, my dilemma. Due to having been sick right before we left,
I had not gotten my hair cut. It was really starting to bug me and
my bangs were hanging in my eyes which I hate. I remembered
seeing on this board that the Barber Shop cut adult hair too.
So while we had great expectations of getting up early, that didn't
happen...but we did make the gate to MK at about 10am.

I went right to the Barber Shop and checked in.

I inquired about an adult haircut and she said yes they certainly do them.
She said all their stylists have to maintain their hair style certification
to be able to cut anyone's hair, not just children.

She said I had about a 45 minute wait but it ended up being about an hour.
There were 2 ladies cutting hair and 1 male. There were about
3 different adults besides myself who came in looking for a hair
cut. The rest were children. The Barber Shop does the "first
haircut" for kids and if you tell them before they start cutting
they will save some hair, put it in a special envelope and present
you with a certificate. I was impressed with the patience and
creativity of the stylists and the amount of toys they had
to amuse the children while their hair was cut. It was running
about 15 minutes per child. I also found out they do take
a limited amount of reservations if you call ahead.

Amy had disappeared outside to get pictures of Mary Poppins
who was standing outside talking to people. We saw Mary
Poppins a lot while we were in the parks, no doubt due to the
soon to be released Saving Mr. Banks Movie.

While I was waiting a family before me had two children and a
husband who had signed up for haircuts. So the one girl gets
done and 2 stylists opened so the father and the other girl
are getting theirs cut. They are almost done when I hear the mom
start talking to the stylist about how she could use a cut, perhaps
she should have signed up for one, oh she wouldn't need much
just a bit cut off and she would feel better. The stylist kept
directing her to the check in lady at the podium.

The mom, getting no where with the stylist, walks over to
the check in and asks about just getting a quick cut, as they
are going on a disney cruise and she hadn't really thought about
it till now but she should have a cut. This lady had hair almost down
to her behind. I had started to grind my teeth. I had been
waiting almost an hour and I knew I was up next. If they
bumped me to squeeze her in I would not have taken it well.
But - silly me- I should have known that Disney knows its
manners, and the CM nicely as possible informed the mom
that was unfortunate but she would have to sign up and wait.
When the mom asked how long, the wait had gone up to almost
2 hours. Well the mom, quite rebuffed that she couldn't just
sneak in for a quick cut, got a little huffy and snappy and said
forget it. Then the CM looked at me and nicely re-assured me
I was next and sorry it had been longer than she had told me
(no doubt seeing the steam the mom had started smoking out
of my ears).

As I was sitting there waiting, I talked to a CM who said he
worked in the Disney Dept. that was currently testing the
Magic Bands. He asked my opinion of the band. I told
him he may not want to ask me that as I wasn't having such
good luck yet. He said no he really wanted to know. So
I filled him in. He was really interesting. He told me he
always came here for his hair cut and he always went to Michael.

In the meantime another man came in just to say hi to Michael
and chat for a bit. He was from California and said he had
been getting his hair cut by Michael since he was a child. Every
time he was in Florida he came for his cut and to talk to Michael.
You could tell how much this meant to Michael and he talked about
it later when he cut my hair.

So when it was my turn, all three chairs were open and I had
my choice. I took Michael because already I had heard all these
good things about him. He was so very nice!

The before:

My hair cut is pretty simple, a basic layer angled cut, but he
took time to ask what type of cut I wanted and then he snipped
away.

The after:

For those who don't know, anyone, adult or child, can swing by the shop and
get a free dusting of pixie dust (glitter) on their hair. With the children they make
a big deal out of it, calling them princess's and being very ceremonial about the
dusting. They top it off with a nice hazing of hair spray to hold it all on. The
sign for prices had said Gel & Glitter $5, but I never saw anyone get Gel
and those who came in for Glitter never was asked to pay.

So a handful of princess had come and gone for their free pixie dust and
my stylist asked if I wanted some. I had previously teased Amy that I was
going to do the whole Pixie thing and she had threatened not to be seen walking
around the park with me (jokingly of course). So I mentioned this to Michael
and Amy, standing in the doorway to take my pictures, said she didn't care-
and before I could confirm or deny- he had dumped the whole bottle of
pixie dust on my head! The whole place was laughing and there was glitter
flying everywhere in the shop. He sprayed me down with holding power-
and I was done!

While the picture looks tame, trust me, there was pixie dust buried
in my hair! Everytime I breathed, pixie dust was falling on me , the ground,
Amy, strangers, - Quite a sight I was for many hours!

I tipped him $6- more than 20% I know, but well worth it and it still
brought my total to only $25. Pretty cheap to have bragging rights
that I got my hair cut in the Magic Kingdom!

For those interested in having their hair cut, they do only cuts,
not styles- I didn't see any hair blower or curling iron- no wash
sink (they spritzed the hair down with water in a bottle) although
I did see a few hair products on the counter (Paul Mitchell Brand)
I didn't see anyone use it.

I told Amy I now have to fly back to Florida every six weeks
to get my hair cut. She's not going for it though. Bummer.

Now with my hair back in shape, we were able to stroll thru the Magic Kingdom.

We saw Mary Poppins had a short line so we waited to see her. I have never
had such a long character interaction! She caught me off guard as I was ready
for the basic hi, snap a picture and bye. She talked and talked and asked us
questions, to which I kept looking at Amy to answer who was totally at a loss
and was looking at me. I'm sure Mary Poppins was quite enjoying our blankness
as she kept talking and talking and talking..asking how we met, if the children
were here, if they had a good nanny at home and how it was perfectly all right
to leave the children with the nanny and we should enjoy ourselves (and we don't
even have children but I didn't have the wits about me to correct her)
and the rest, I was in shock so I don't remember. I felt like we were there for
5-10 minutes. Then we had our picture taken and we were off.
WOW! Thank you Mary Poppins- you really rock!

As we were walking we came across Cinderella's Step-Sisters and Step-Mother.
They must have just completed their meet-n-greet as they were trying to get
"off set". Little kids were swarming them, little hands pushing out autograph books,
parents desperately trying to get pictures. The Step-Sisters kept stopping, barely
getting two feet before they stopped again, the Step-Mother kept coming back
for them, putting her hands on their waists, trying to urge them to walk forward,
but they kept holding back, signing just one autograph..we watched them for a
bit, and then we moved on..as they were still trying to walk thru the crowds.

We had a FP for Peter Pan-Amy's request-so we arrived for
our Flight to Never Never Land. The line was running just
under a one hour wait-but with our FP we walked right on!

And now- it was time for FOOD!
Don't worry- I didn't let you down-
we have Food Pictures

Pinocchio Village Haus- The BBQ Chicken Flatbread & Tomato Basil Soup

It was incredible! YUM and for a QS, it was nice
to have a table inside to sit at.

and that Chocolate Gelato ?? VERY TASTY
I wish more of the QS had the Gelato as an option.

We headed over to Fantasy Land, excited to see the changes.

YIKES, it was packed! I think 90% of the people in the park, were in Fantasy Land.
There were still areas blocked off for construction of the Mine Train Ride, making it even
more crunched and difficult to get thru.

We squeezed thru, elbow to shoulder with all the people, and tried to take a few
pictures.

We were quickly getting tired of being elbowed, pushed and shoved. I saw the line for Journey of the Little Mermaid
was only 20 minutes so we jumped in line. I think they had forgot to reset the time clock because
we waited an hour. I appreciated the theme, great details, plenty of shaded areas, and they
did a great job of making the lines curve and turn in "hidden" areas so you could never really
grasp how close (or far) you were from the ride itself. They also made the walls so you could
rest against them or sit on some areas which was a nice break.

Once on the ride, it stopped 3 times. It wasn't down for long and we were moving again..
I'm not sure if it was because of the loading/unloading areas or what..but it interrupted
the flow of the ride. It was cute that they used the animals in the scenes, like the crab,
to tell you to sit in your seat and not get out and the ride would start again shortly,
but after an hour wait to get on the ride, having it stop/start/stop/start didn't add to
the experience. The wait area was more interesting to me than the ride.

As soon as we got off the ride, we ran out of Fantasyland and didn't look back. Such a shame
as I wanted to see Dumbo and the other areas. We even checked back a couple times later
but the area was still jam packed with people.

We ended up at the People Mover! Ahhh Space, Air and Serenity! Amy had never been on it..
and quite enjoyed our ride. I forgot it has a little bit of speed to it.. I remembered it being
slower for some reason, but we zipped right along....

No lines, No waiting- we walked on

From there we went to Monsters Laugh In- it was pretty funny, I'm glad we went

Then we had a FP for Buzz Lightyears Ranger Spin

Notice the look of extreme concentration on our faces..
no- we aren't competitive!

Now notice the score- yep- I'm the winner!!!

I never did get to try that spin lever- Amy forbid me to use it.

While it was a fun ride, it didn't feel like the targets were working all
the time. We loved Toy Story Mania and would pick that over Buzz
any time.

Next- off to see Buzz himself!

We walked back and thru the Castle-