Trip Report from October 2010

Thanks for the compliments! We had gotten a new camera just before this trip, so I had so much fun testing out all the different settings and taking hundreds of pictures. It's been so much fun for me to flip through them and choose which ones to add to the trip report.

The morning we did the Keys to the Kingdom tour, I woke up at 6:30 AM so I could get a shower and make sure I had plenty of time to get ready early. Mr. Arb got up around 7 and went to the food court to get us some water/bagels for breakfast. We got to the bus stop by 7:30 and arrived at Magic Kingdom just before 8:00. We walked up the to gate where we told them we were part of the KttK tour, and they let us into the park and told us to go to the package pickup area to check in and get our name tags (and some much needed coffee).

Our tour didn't begin until 8:30, so we took advantage of our extra time to get pictures of the nearly deserted park!

While we were there, we also spoke with one of the cast members about the Headless Horseman we had seen the night before. He told us that the cast member riding the horse can't see anything, and completely relies on the horse to know where to go and to stop if someone runs out in front of them. It takes about 3 years to train the horses, and the practice between midnight and 6 AM with all the lights/music/noise that would typically be heard during the parade. I thought that was pretty interesting!

Our tour got started right at 8:30, with Claire as our guide - she was excellent. I'm going to talk a bit about what we did on the tour, so if you plan on taking the tour at some point and want it all to remain a surprise, you may want to skip over this section of the trip report! I won't give away too many details though, I promise!

We started off the day by talking about the history and stories behind the names on the windows of the buildings on main street. We also stood off to the side at 9:00 AM, and watched what Claire called the "running of the park" as guests were finally allowed to enter. I should have gotten a video of this, it was great.

After we were done talking about Main Street and the castle, we moved on to Adventureland. Claire asked if any of us had ever had a dole whip (OF COURSE!) and mentioned that they are only available at Walt Disney World, Disneyland and the Dole plant in Hawaii. And after all that, she didn't let us stop to get one. Darn.

In Adventureland, we took a ride on the Jungle Cruise.

While riding, Claire and the cast member in charge of the boat told us some facts about different parts of the ride, and pointed out some details you might not pick up on unless you are specifically looking for them. After the ride, we went towards Pirates of the Caribbean - we didn't get to ride (although I've heard some tour groups do), but talked about the ride as well as some of the details Imagineers used to develop Adventureland.

We continued on through to Frontierland, and spent time talking about Walt Disney's life, and recommended a book (Walt Disney - An American Original, by Bob Thomas) and DVD (Walt - The Man, the Myth, the Legend) that come highly recommended if you wanted to know more about Walt's life and as a person.

Then, we got our first glimpse of backstage at Disney, near Splash Mountain.

I don't want to give away too much about what we got to see back there, but it was pretty awesome. And eye-opening.

After our brief backstage tour, it was around time for us to head to lunch, which was located at Columbia Harbour House. We put in our lunch orders that morning, so the food was already waiting for us when we arrived.

Anchors Aweigh Sandwich - white tuna with lettuce and tomato on toasted multigrain bun

Chicken Breast Nuggets - Served with French Fries or Apple Slices

While there, we also received our Keys to the Kingdom pins.

After lunch, we stayed in Liberty Square and took a walk towards the Haunted Mansion. We learned some of the history of the ride, and how they perform certain special effects and some of the hidden details that make the experience amazing.

Poor Mr. Toad.

After riding the Haunted Mansion, we continued to stay in Liberty Square and discuss some of the design details and the Hall of Presidents.

We then headed back towards Main Street, and got our second backstage experience, including seeing where they keep the candy bins for MNSSHP. Oh, and the utildoors. (!!!)

The tour ended at 1:30, and after that much walking, Mr. Arb and I were both ready for a break, so we took a ride on the WDW Railroad to Toontown.

I was eager to visit Toontown, since I knew it would be my last chance to see it in it's current incarnation due to it's impending closure for the Fantasyland expansion. Not knowing what would become of Mickey and Minnie's houses, I also wanted a chance to walk through them once more, just in case it was going to be my last opportunity ever to do so.

We were both pretty hot and tired by this time, but since we were pretty certain this would be our last chance to visit Magic Kingdom during this trip, we powered on and took a walk through Fantasyland. The lines for the rides were all a little long, so we just wandered through and I, of course, took pictures.

I was excited to finally see Cinderella's fountain for the first time.

We made one last stop in Adventureland for a Dole Whip Float and to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. Then back to Port Orleans to rest, then get ready for our dinner at Yachtsmen Steakhouse.

We decided to take the bus to Epcot, then walk through the park to the International Gateway towards the Boardwalk.

We arrived at Yachtsmen slightly before our reservations. The food was delicious, as always.

This dessert is to blame for my sudden fascination with all things pistachio.

After dinner, Mr. Arb wanted to head to Downtown Disney to pick up this print we had seen earlier on our trip but did not purchase, so he took the bus to DTD from the Yacht Club resort, and I went back into Epcot to watch Illuminations.

After the fireworks were over, I spoke to Mr. Arb on the phone, and he was leaving Downtown Disney at the same time on the ferry. I actually managed to get back to the resort before he did, so I waited for him by the dock, then we went back to our room to get some rest for our last full day in Orlando.

It's a Canon Powershot s90 - I think they may have a slightly newer version called the s95? It was more than I had previously spent on a camera, but I think it was a good investment.

That looks awesome!!! I'll have to show my husband when I get home, maybe I'll send you the full res picture to work your magic.

I had to do some searching, since it doesn't appear to be on the menu any longer. But I believe this was the description:
A Tasting of Pistachio - Chiffon Cake, Gelato, Valrhona Chocolate Mousse and Panna Cotta

So our last full day at Disney was not actually spent anywhere at Disney. We got engaged over in Universal Studios back in 2008, so we always make sure to spend a day at their parks while we're in Orlando. I was also extremely excited to have a chance to check out the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!

We had tickets for Halloween Horror Nights over in the Universal Studios park, so decided to spend the first part of our day in Islands of Adventure.

I knew the crowds would get extremely heaving in the Harry Potter area as the day went on, so we went straight there. But first, we had to walk through Suess Landing, which we dubbed "The Land of Faded Paint."

After walking through Suess Landing, you enter the Lost Continent

As we made our way through Lost Continent, something magical appeared!

I'm just going to let these pictures speak for themselves:

The line for the main attraction, Forbidden Journey was quite long, so we grabbed a tasty treat to hold us over while waiting in line.

Oh my goodness. I cannot even begin to tell you how delicious this is. I have read so many different recipes online that claim to taste just like this Butterbeer, but none of them seem right. Pardon me while I wipe the drool off my face before it hits the keyboard and I cannot continue this trip report.

I was able to get some more castle details/angles as we waited in line

Something we learned after the long wait in line? It's not for the ride, it's the line for the lockers to store your items. Tip for those of you going on the ride - walk up towards the exit/giftshop area, and you can enter the lockers from the side. You'll probably cut 45 minutes or so of waiting.

Now, this little picture is something I like to call "Disney Does it Better"

See that large white building behind the fence? That's the back of Hogwarts, and where the ride is contained. It was definitely a bit of a let down to see that and took away slightly from the experience. But there were a lot of amazing details they did incorporate.

In the greenhouse:

Walking through Hogwarts

The ride itself was amazing. If any of you have ridden the Spiderman ride at Universal, it's kind of like that, but on speed. I was sad we only got to ride it once, because there was just so much to take in, and so much action happening. Just a fantastic ride.

Neither of us had eaten much for breakfast, so we decided to have an early lunch. The restaurants in Hogsmeade were all looking a bit crowded, so we ducked back towards Jurassic Park to find food.

After we ate, we went back into Hogsmeade to check out the shops, send some Owl Mail, and get some more pictures.

In Honeydukes

Zonkos:

In the queue for Dragon's Challenge

I decided to ride Dragon's Challenge, and that was a huge mistake. My head knocked around so much on that ride, I had a headache the majority of the rest of the day. I decided I needed a break from Harry Potter at that point, so we went to Marvel Island to get a ride on Spiderman.

Neither of us was really feeling up to riding the Hulk (the green coaster in the background), so we decided to walk back through the other side of the park to head towards Jurassic Park again so I could go on the River Adventure.

(Not the ride I went on - this is the other water ride at IoA, Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls)

Mr. Arb is not a big fan of water rides, so he decided to go get another Butterbeer while I rode the Jurassic Park ride. It was nearly 3:30 by that time, and we decided to head into City Walk and kill some time there and grab dinner before it was time for Halloween Horror Nights. Saw this sign near the exit and it made me laugh.

That is freaking awesome! Nice to see they didn't leave Stu and Pete off either, haha.

This reminds me that I didn't finish posting about my last day and a half. I should do that this weekend.

After we left Islands of Adventure, we had a little while before Halloween Horror Nights was going to start, so we browsed around some shops at CityWalk and grabbed dinner. I had to get this picture of Mr. Arb, since he has a tattoo of Curious George as a space monkey on his arm.

We saw a line starting to gather for the opening of Halloween Horror Nights, so we stood there, and talked with some of the people in line about which houses were good this year.

We got into the park right around 6:00, and decided to head over for the first showing of Bill & Ted's Excellent Halloween Adventure, since it was one of the highlights of our trip last year.

When we noticed the first Bill and Ted show wasn't until 7, we decided to go ride the Men in Black Alien Attack, which is very similar to the Buzz Lightyear right in the Magic Kingdom. NOW, NOBODY BELIEVES ME about this part, because you have to store you bag in a locker before getting on the ride so I had no camera for photographic evidence, but somehow I managed to completely max out the points and had a score of 999,999! I SWEAR IT HAPPENED.

After I kicked my husband's butt in Alien Attack, we went back to the Bill and Ted stage show. The premise of the show each year is to make fun of elements of pop culture that were very prevalent over the past year. This year's show included Jersey Shore, Lindsay Lohan, the Shake Weight, Twilight and Justin Bieber references, along with overuse of autotune and the number of movie and television remakes in 2010. You can find some clips on YouTube if you want to check it out. We enjoyed it again this year.

After we got out of Bill and Ted, our next stop was over to Jaws, which has special meaning for my husband and I, since that is where he proposed back in 2008 (as an homage to the movie Mallrats, if any of you have seen it). This was the first time we'd gone on the ride at night, and it's SUCH a different experience than during the day. Made me love it even more.

We decided to walk enjoy some of the scare zones and haunted houses. We first went through the "Zombie Gras" scare zone.

Then....we went to the Zombiegedddon haunted house.

That was a big mistake. Now, I'm not a huge fan of haunted houses, because I don't like people running out in front of me and screaming, and as you can imagine with this being held at Universal Studios, they really go all out with the character actors, the environment, the props, everything. But Mr. Arb likes them, so I just grab on to him, stay close and move through as quickly as possible. One of the rules they give to the actors is NOT TO TOUCH THE GUESTS. Apparently, someone didn't listen to well, and the ran up from behind me, grabbed my arms and hit Mr. Arb in the eye. To say we were not happy was an understatement. We were close to the exit, and found a staff/security person as soon as we got out to tell them what happened. It definitely put a bit of a damper on the rest of the night, and also means there's less of a chance we'll be going back to Halloween Horror Nights in the future. We figured we may as well enjoy the rest of our night in the park, and just avoid the haunted houses. But first, Mr. Arb stopped into Finnegan's (Universal's Irish bar/restaurant) to grab a beer, haha.

We were close to the Revenge of the Mummy ride, which neither of us had gone on, so once again, put our bags in a locker and got on the ride. It's definitely an amazing roller coaster, and I'm looking forward to the chance to ride it again.

We walked through some more Scare Zones, then made our way to the Simpson's area of the park.

Inside the Kwik-E-Mart

I always wanted an I <3 Grandma shot glass!

We grabbed a Duff Energy Drink, then got in line for the Simpson's ride

We decided to leave the park around 10:15, because we wanted to be able to get back to the hotel by 11 to pick up all the souvenirs we had delivered from Downtown Disney and the parks to the Port Orleans gift shop.

After we got back to the hotel and retrieved our souvenirs, we decided it would be a good idea to start packing since our flight was leaving the next afternoon, and we'd have to check out of the hotel before we went to the parks for a few more hours. =(

Last day at Disney =(

We had done the majority of our packing when we got to the resort the night before, and we were out of the room by 8 to the luggage room so they could hold our bags until we came back to get on the Magical Express. All I was bringing with me to the parks were our room keys, Disney gift card, photopass card, cell phone and my camera (of course).

Since we STILL had not gotten an opportunity to ride Toy Story Midway Mania, we decided to spend our last morning at Hollywood Studios, and get in line to ride it, no matter how long it was going to take.

70 minute wait? Let's do it!

Sorry Canada.

Once we got through the first room, after about a 20 minute wait, a castmember came through and asked how many people were in our party. When we said "two," she directed us to go ahead, and we went into another line that led to the wheelchair loading area, and we only had to wait about another 5 minutes before we were on the ride. WOOHOO!

Wow, I sucked on this ride. A far cry from my 999,999 the night before at Universal.

Earlier, Scott had seen a shirt he wanted to get for his dad in the Muppet store, so we headed back in that direction, and I took some more pictures of the Christmas decorations, since they added some since we had been to DHS earlier in the week.

After Scott got the shirt, we left DHS and got on a bus to the Ticket & Transportation Center to get on the monorail to Epcot, since we had a lunch reservation at Le Cellier at 12:45.

Since we hadn't gotten breakfast, and there was still a little over an hour until our reservation, I decided to use one of our last snack credits to try the lamb slider from the New Zealand booth

We continued walking around World Showcase, and I was excited to look at the Beauty and the Beast topiaries.

We also realized that our last day was the FIRST day for Duffy in Walt Disney World parks.

We spent some more time walking around World Showcase, then went to check into Canada at 12:30

After lunch, which was fantastic, we went to MouseGears to get some Mickey ears for our friend's son who absolutely LOVES Mickey. Then, sadly, after another short walk through FutureWorld, it was time to head back to Port Orleans. We arrived around 2:30, and just relaxed River Roost Lounge for 20 minutes until we had to retriever our bags. Our bus finally arrived close to 3:30. Once we got to the airport, we found our gate fairly easily, then went to Nathan's to get our traditional Farewell Orlando dinner of two chili dogs with fries.

Now, you might think our trip was over at this point, but the universe had one final bit of excitement left for us. Our plane was at our gate, but they were running a little behind with getting the previous flyers off. So in order to load us onto the plane faster, they were going to have us enter the plane from both ends. Our seats were towards the back of the plane, so we got walk down to the tarmac to another flight of stairs, where we would enter the plane.

And thus concludes our October 2010 trip to Disney! I hope you enjoyed reading along, and can't wait until I have another trip to report to you!