"...We'll thank the little stars that shine..." A GRAND week in WDW *UPDATED 8/1

[lala3291]

BIG NEWS!

We interrupt this TR already in progress to make an official announcement.

Our 2010 Disney trip has been booked.

We have booked 2 (!) 2BR villas at Bay Lake Tower from August 15-21 for 9 adults in a Grand Gathering!

How magical!

That's great! We almost booked BLT for March, but went with GF RPC-Theme Park View instead! Happy Planning

 

[heaven2dc]

How exciting! 2 two-bedroom villas?!! Don't you just love grand gatherings

 

[UncleOrville]

So amazing!! BLT looks gorgeous, and being that close to the MK will be so awesome! I've never been in any sort of villa, but I'm sure the 2 bedroom villas at BLT are as good as you can get!

 

[Scott MC]

I've been a BAAAAAD TR writer.....
All this time, and I haven't even finished day one! I'll attempt this now.

After the disappointing lunch at The Wave, we monorailed it back to the Grand....

As you can see, there was a bit of work going on involving the main entrance, but I never noticed it until I saw this picture after the fact.

Mary Willowtree was dying to see our digs, so she came and gawked, and then we decided it was time for some MK.

DPIC and I headed straight for the Barber Shop to obtain some Mickey sparkles, but were disappointed to find that there was a line longer than that at Splash Mountain. Hmmph!
Sadly, this scenario would repeat itself over and over, resulting in no Mickey sparkles on this trip.

Ahhh...
That first view of the castle...

Of course we all had to pose in front of it.

Obligatory postcard shot....

I have a thing for doing a classic Disney ride to begin the trip, so we headed to visit a rowdy bunch of pirates in Adventureland

On the way, we passed the Enchanted Tiki Room, which is a guilty pleasure of mine, that DPIC and DSBF had never been on. I was not successful in getting them in there at this point, or at any other point. Doesn't anyone else love those birds?

 

[KatMark]

I've been a BAAAAAD TR writer.....
All this time, and I haven't even finished day one! I'll attempt this now.

After the disappointing lunch at The Wave, we monorailed it back to the Grand....

As you can see, there was a bit of work going on involving the main entrance, but I never noticed it until I saw this picture after the fact.

Mary Willowtree was dying to see our digs, so she came and gawked, and then we decided it was time for some MK.

DPIC and I headed straight for the Barber Shop to obtain some Mickey sparkles, but were disappointed to find that there was a line longer than that at Splash Mountain. Hmmph!
Sadly, this scenario would repeat itself over and over, resulting in no Mickey sparkles on this trip.

Ahhh...
That first view of the castle...

Of course we all had to pose in front of it.

Obligatory postcard shot....

I have a thing for doing a classic Disney ride to begin the trip, so we headed to visit a rowdy bunch of pirates in Adventureland

On the way, we passed the Enchanted Tiki Room, which is a guilty pleasure of mine, that DPIC and DSBF had never been on. I was not successful in getting them in there at this point, or at any other point. Doesn't anyone else love those birds?

I had just about given up on you ever finishing your TR! And then you appear.

Actually, my darling DH LOVES the Tiki Room (although he misses the old one a lot).

Now, can we please keep these updates a little more frequent?

 

[kittyprincess]

i suggest we invest in our own disney sparkles if the line is that long!

 

[Scott MC]

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

I'd like to thank the dear moderators for unlocking this thread.
We won't discuss the fact that it's been so long that it was locked in the first place.........

Ahem...
Where was I?

Aaaah, yes, no Tiki Room for us.
I kept meaning to get to this, but we never did. It's now been '07 since I've been in. I'll have to take up residence here in August. It kinda looks like the Polynesian doesn't it?

I do love Aladdin, but we didn't meet him on this trip either.

It was now time for our first ride of the trip, and I have this thing for riding a Disney classic. It's a mini tradition of mine that the first park is always MK and the first ride can only be one of the following...
*Space Mountain
*Small World
*Peter Pan's Flight
*Snow White's Scary Adventures
*The Haunted Mansion
*Pirates of the Caribbean

On this trip, we decided to go visit some pirates. This decision was based on it being midday and there being a decent likelihood of there being lines elsewhere. Usually the Pirates aren't too crowded.

We weren't disappointed. It remains a masterpiece.

We waved at Splash Mountain and its horrendous line ....

Passed through Liberty Square....

...and headed for another classic and acceptable ride for early in the trip.

Who doesn't like 999 Happy Haunts?

At this point, the sky was looking ominous.

So, much to my delight, we ducked into yet another classic on my list!

Can I tell you that we have a restaurant in my neck of the woods that looks just like this picture? You can feel free to be the judge.

I'm glad my companions realized that these rides had to get out of the way before anything else could get done.

 

[burly]

SCOTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi!
Welcome Back!
yay!

 

[UncleOrville]

I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

I'd like to thank the dear moderators for unlocking this thread.
We won't discuss the fact that it's been so long that it was locked in the first place.........

Welcome back! Let's also not discuss the fact that my TR threads have needed unlocking several times in the past.

We waved at Splash Mountain and its horrendous line ....

Who doesn't like 999 Happy Haunts?

I don’t! I am seriously actually afraid of the Haunted Mansion. Maybe it was childhood Disney trauma?

Looks like you had a great start to your first afternoon in the MK, but that sky sure does look ominous!

 

[NessieBird]

Dear boy, I thought you'd forsaken us! So glad you're back on the horse. Can't wait to read more.
And! Nice parallel with Kowloon! Good call. If Mikey sees this, he's going to be begging for some Saugus Wings.

The big question I have: what are the sparkles you and Kitty Princess know all about and I haven't a clue? I must know.

 

[Scott MC]

Dear boy, I thought you'd forsaken us! So glad you're back on the horse. Can't wait to read more.
And! Nice parallel with Kowloon! Good call. If Mikey sees this, he's going to be begging for some Saugus Wings.

The big question I have: what are the sparkles you and Kitty Princess know all about and I haven't a clue? I must know.

Ahhhhh...
Well, when we went in August of '08, Tom and I went into the barber shop right at the entrance to the MK. The kind staff there bedazzled our hair with multi-colored Mickey-shaped sequins at no additional charge. I think all the gentlemans should take advantage of this opportunity. You do have to get there early though, as the line here can grow quite quickly!

 

[kittyprincess]

I am seriously actually afraid of the Haunted Mansion. Maybe it was childhood Disney trauma?

I too am afraid of the Haunted Mansion! Screamed into my dad's shoulder the whole ride when I was a child and then was bullied into going in 08 but kept looking ahead to see if anything was going to jump out. Not fun! Glad to know I'm not the only adult with this issue

 

[UncleOrville]

I too am afraid of the Haunted Mansion! Screamed into my dad's shoulder the whole ride when I was a child and then was bullied into going in 08 but kept looking ahead to see if anything was going to jump out. Not fun! Glad to know I'm not the only adult with this issue

Yes! When I have companions that want to ride the Haunted Mansion, I skip out and usually reward myself with a Dole Whip Float to pass the time. I did go on relatively recently for some reason, and also kept a vigilant watch to make sure nothing would jump out at me.

 

[NessieBird]

Ahhhhh...
Well, when we went in August of '08, Tom and I went into the barber shop right at the entrance to the MK. The kind staff there bedazzled our hair with multi-colored Mickey-shaped sequins at no additional charge. I think all the gentlemans should take advantage of this opportunity. You do have to get there early though, as the line here can grow quite quickly!

Awesome. I agree that all of the gentlemans in attendance should partake. You'll all look gorge, though I'm biased and think that Mikey's flowing mane will look extra spiffy.

 

[Scott MC]

I'm going to try to get back to this ASAP...I promise!

Don't give up on me!

 

[UncleOrville]

Nice to have you back! Looking forward to hearing/ seeing more! I really must get back to my summer trip TR, as well.

 

[Scott MC]

Argh...it's been so long!

At this point, my remembrances of exactly what happened on each day are foggy at best. I can say nothing in my defense except that this year, with me and possibly CorysMom and NessieBird tweeting our trip, it should be a lot easier to not only write a trip report, but remember what we did.

I can't believe we're still on the first day.

After Small World, (which I'm very upset will be shut down when we're there this year), we hit Mickey's Philharmagic, which is a favorite of mine. The only picture I have it this one, which delights me and DPIC with its delicious pun.

At this point, if memory serves me, we headed to the Studios, as evidenced by this picture.

While here, we hit the Rockin' Rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror hard and fast. I'm sure we also took a spin on Star Tours. As it was our first day, and already late afternoon, Toy Story Mania was in no way, shape or form an option.
Sadly, there is no further documentation of our afternoon/early evening at the Studios.

From here, we dashed back to the Magic Kingdom so that Tom could take in his first ever viewing of Spectromagic!

There's a great story that goes with this, but since the only photographic evidence of this is a hard copy due to Mary Willowtree's reluctance to sit down and upload her pics for us, I'll save it for later. No one will mind....right? I'll tell you this...it has to do with Specto, an ice cream cone, a not-terribly-disappointed child and 3 adults being lectured by a woman younger than any of us.

Tom loved Spectro (though I'm not sure it blew him away like it blew me away), and before retiring back to the Grand, we of course took obligatory night shots of the Castle.

After this, we retired to Mizner's Lounge at the Grand, and capped off the night with a couple of Glowtini's.

All I could think was, "I could get used to this."

 

[Scott MC]

I also wanted to add here that a few weeks back, Tom and I got the lucky opportunity to meet the LOVELY ladies of VBsHustla/UncleOrville. We were in their neighborhood for a wedding shower, and we arranged a breakfast. We look forward to seeing them again in August when we're back for the actual wedding, and dream of the day when our Disney trips may actually sync up. If they ever do...I don't know if Disney will be able to handle it.

Here are a few pics...(imagine our surprise when the gals pulled out their famous tiaras!)

 

[NessieBird]

Way to get back in the saddle! You get a pirate! Keep it coming while you're in stride.
PS--I kept staring at the second photo of your VBsHustla meet, thinking, "What kind of tiara is Tom wearing??" Then I realized it's the placement of the trees. Can I just say, based on that? Tom would look fab in a tiara; you know how to pick 'em.

 

[Scott MC]

I get a pirate?
Well...you get a dance party.