Surprise…I’ll Be Home For Christmas! Trip Video Updated 4/17

Looking forward to reading more; plus excited your moving to Florida which means more trip reports!
 
Looking forward to reading more; plus excited your moving to Florida which means more trip reports!
I wish I was moving to Florida, sadly I am not...or at least not at the moment.
However I can say that there are currently 2 trips in the works and have been booked. So although I'm not moving there will be more reports!
 
Help I've Hit A Wall

We hardly ever make it over to the left side of the park, sad but true. It just is more deserted over there. But once Star Wars opens its probably going to be more of a death like situation going on. We decided to go to Muppets and I hit a wall…and hard.

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We managed to get to muppets right as the show was letting in, so we missed that show but got the whole pre show room to ourselves for a while. We headed up to the front on the opposite side of the doors, this way we could sit and relax and not have to worry about the crowd of people pushing us to get closer to the door. Also why be the first in the theater when you’re just going to have to go all the way down the aisle.

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My lovely sister was on her way to the park so we decided to head back to the front of the park to meet up with her.
Santa Spotting!

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As we were passing by Indiana Jones area some storm troopers came out of no where. Erin’s excitement was real, but not real enough to go up and take a photo. So a quick selfie would have to do.

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But with one sneaky selfie came a “I’m keeping my eye on you” from the storm trooper who know was standing right behind Erin. That was enough to give us a heart attack.
As we waited to hear from Alish, we decided to enjoy some christmas decorations around echo lake.

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Alicia texted me saying she was at starbucks, so we headed over there where Kiss gave her some mighty tacos from back home. Uber eats delivering all the way from NY, now thats some classy service.

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We had nothing to do, since we basically finished the whole park. So we headed down the strip of stores and browsed for a bit. AKA it was the part of the trip where Alish reminded us that she had her 40% off holiday cast discount. Let me take one of everything!
Nothing was screaming out too me…shocking I know. It was however still early in the trip and I like to browse before jumping on things to buy.
Erin I swear knows the star wars march times by heart because one minute we are in the stores walking around, and the next thing I know is that we lost Erin. After the march went through we were able to find her and we headed back to TSL. We had a FP for mania so why let that go to waste?
So on our way over Alish was telling us all about her upcoming cruise she was taking for her birthday. But honestly I am in a desperate need to getting back on a boat.

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I’ve done better…

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And Kiss I swear he cheats

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We were ready to leave this park. But before we did leave we had too figure out a time to meet back up with Alicia. Surprise this girl is always working, as is every CM during the christmas season. So trying to figure out when she can come get her suitcase of gifts from our room seemed to be a bit of a struggle. We were able to figure out a time, plus a special meet special greet (which has been a solid 2 years in the making)
We said our goodbyes and we were out of Studios for the day. On our way out we made a quick stop at the photo pass before making the long trek to the bus stops.

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It was FINALLY getting warm out. The only downfall to this was that my jacket was a bit to bulky for my backpack but you gotta do what you gotta do.
We weren’t going back to the room at all today, so no mid day break. The main reason for this was because we had lunch reservations over at MK, and when we decided to do dining the reservations were limited. Erin wanted Italian so today we were going to try out Tony’s (I’ve been here a couple years back)
When we got to MK the whole 10 security guards at bag check had “earning my ears” ribbons on. I have never seen such a chunk like this but cool. Now no matter what line you choose you will be there for a while. We made it through the gates and I was ready to finally be reunited with the kingdom.
We all love a good christmas overhaul.

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We ended up getting to the park earlier than planned, so I went and changed, cause while toy story is cute I had to wear my Jingle Cruise shirt. So i quickly went to do that, Erin said her Aunt and Uncle were in the park so she disappeared to Cosmic Rays.
I didn’t want to leave the main street area since we had lunch very soon at the front of the park. So that being said Kiss and I walked around the Emporium. There a CM called me out and told me I was in the wrong store, at first I was totally confused, but then realized he was talking about my arm of Alex and Ani’s as he pointed me in the direction of where they were sold.
While I do love a good Alex and Ani, thats not what I came here for today. Instead some things I found were…
This cute travel mug (but confused why it said Disneyland)

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This adorable Jack POP. First I LOVE Lin Manuel Miranda so much and secondly this movie was amazing, and I love Lin even more. Wow shocker.

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Then I found the most perfect pair of socks

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I was still in the mindset of “don’t pick anything up” “you know its here come back later” sort of thing. So I did just that, freaked out for a moment and then put them back (Later on I would regret this)
By this point we made it all the way to Casey’s so we turned it around and headed over to Tony’s

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Welcome to The Grotto, Start Guzzling

We met Erin outside of Tony’s and checked in. It was a crazy time inside, the parade was just about too start and so many people were walking up trying to get a table, which they were all turned away. I checked in, and we waited…and we waited some more. Just like yesterday we waited and watched so many people get seated before us. We ended up waiting so long that the parade passed through before we were called. So I’m king of glad I didn’t ask for a seat outside to watch it.
My name was soon called and I was just in need of some pop.

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Soon our waitress came over to take our drink orders, Kiss went first and got a beer she then looked at me and goes “Are you related? because it looks like you in this picture” Either she was telling Kiss he looked like a girl, or she was telling me I looked like a boy. So theres that. I just asked for a coke because I was in funk where all I wanted was something carbonated and sugar. Erin got the Wine Cocktail – Bellini with Prosecco, Peach Juice, and drops of Wild Raspberry, and honestly I wish I got this. Then of course our waitress goes “oh so are you the youngest” No I just wanted pop…the struggles man.
Next up was our meal, Erin got the chicken parm

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And kiss and I got the trio, which was alfredo, chicken parm, and spaghetti and meatball.

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There was a lot of pasta on one little plate and I was beyond full too even think about dessert. But alas dessert was what came next.
I Opted for the lightest option, so raspberry gelato was the way to go.

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Erin went with what seemed to look like the best dessert, the chocolate cake

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And Kiss got the tiramisu

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Overall experience at Tony’s…it was ok, not the best meal. But I knew that going into it.
If you like your basic pasta dish this is good, but honestly if we didn’t have the dining plan I wouldn't be willing to pay the price for what I get.
After lunch we had FP for pirates so we headed over to Adventureland. And while we didn’t have enough time for the jingle cruise, we did stop out front to take some photos. (Because we knew that once the sun goes down I’ll be bundling up.)

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Then it was time for pirates, where it seemed to play the role of splash mountain.

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After Pirates we headed out of the park…for a quick break. We try to make it to Trader Sam’s every trip, and I normally plan said trip to the grotto for an EMH night at MK. EMH were tonight so it only seemed right to head over to the poly before coming back to MK.
As we were leaving the kingdom I couldn’t help but laugh at the two group of guests walking out before us. One group was wearing shorts and t-shirts while another group was bundled to the max, winter coats and winter gloves, clearly everyone was confused about the weather. Personally it was an in-between of both, perfect weather for a sweatshirt.

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We headed to the monorail and as we were waiting for one to show up Erin goes “Does this monorail go to the Poly?” I think I just gave her a weird look, while honestly I’m surprised I didn’t throw a sarcastic Sam response to her because I truly thought I taught her better.
We made it too the poly a little before 5 and waited for Miss Sue and Miss Barb (our dance teachers who were also in Disney at this time). I texted them that morning saying we were planning to go to Trader Sam’s at 5 and they said they would meet us there. While we waited we checked into the grotto and with it being small there was a wait, so we put our name on the waiting list.
Once the whole group got together we decided to go sit outside on the patio, and as much as I love it inside, I love the quicker service outside. So while we waited for room to open up inside we got a round of zombies outside.

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Normally outside you get a boring plastic cup, tonight however they gave us an actual mug. This caused a problem when we got a text saying they were ready for us inside. So we had to track down our server, ask for plastic mugs so we could leave the terrace. While they all went inside to grab a table, I stayed back to get everyones checked….mainly because I used my card and couldn’t leave till I got it back.
Once we got inside the grotto, thats when the fun started.
It wasn’t too long before we were on round 2.

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Throughout our night here…

- Erin tried talking about her breakfast this morning and how she got tater tots but could not spit the words out “Potato tots….potato taters” poor kid, she tried.
- Miss sue leaned over to take a selfie but ended up falling
- Erin and I lady and the tramped a flower because Kiss told us it was edible
- Miss Barb kept pointing to the empty drink cups on the table saying “You’re going to get another one of that right”
And by the end of our time in to grotto, there were a lot of zombie heads.

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And one thing we may have learned tonight is that I may be a bad influencer. But in the long run if you want to have a fun time take me to Trader Sam’s.
We cut ourselves off after round 3 and decided to take the party over to Captain Cooks. Everyone was in need of food and I seemed to hype up the wonderful nachos they have, so it was a round of nachos for everyone…accept Erin who went with a plain old flatbread pizza.
We all have our favorite quick service on property and captain cooks is mine. More importantly these nachos and if they ever take them off the menu I will be heart broken.

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Everyone seemed to devour their nachos…so they must be as great as I say they are.
After our meal we were all off to MK for the rest of the night.





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Alicia texted me saying she was at starbucks, so we headed over there where Kiss gave her some mighty tacos from back home. Uber eats delivering all the way from NY, now thats some classy service.
Now I would tip a lot if they were still warm!

We were able to figure out a time, plus a special meet special greet (which has been a solid 2 years in the making)
I'm intrigued...

I checked in, and we waited…and we waited some more. Just like yesterday we waited and watched so many people get seated before us. We ended up waiting so long that the parade passed through before we were called.
Argh! I hate it so much watching everyone else get seated! I wonder if due to the parade people on the patio were taking their time and other people were just following suit?
 
Help I've Hit A Wall

We hardly ever make it over to the left side of the park, sad but true. It just is more deserted over there. But once Star Wars opens its probably going to be more of a death like situation going on. We decided to go to Muppets and I hit a wall…and hard.

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We managed to get to muppets right as the show was letting in, so we missed that show but got the whole pre show room to ourselves for a while. We headed up to the front on the opposite side of the doors, this way we could sit and relax and not have to worry about the crowd of people pushing us to get closer to the door. Also why be the first in the theater when you’re just going to have to go all the way down the aisle.

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My lovely sister was on her way to the park so we decided to head back to the front of the park to meet up with her.
Santa Spotting!

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As we were passing by Indiana Jones area some storm troopers came out of no where. Erin’s excitement was real, but not real enough to go up and take a photo. So a quick selfie would have to do.

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But with one sneaky selfie came a “I’m keeping my eye on you” from the storm trooper who know was standing right behind Erin. That was enough to give us a heart attack.
As we waited to hear from Alish, we decided to enjoy some christmas decorations around echo lake.

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Alicia texted me saying she was at starbucks, so we headed over there where Kiss gave her some mighty tacos from back home. Uber eats delivering all the way from NY, now thats some classy service.

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We had nothing to do, since we basically finished the whole park. So we headed down the strip of stores and browsed for a bit. AKA it was the part of the trip where Alish reminded us that she had her 40% off holiday cast discount. Let me take one of everything!
Nothing was screaming out too me…shocking I know. It was however still early in the trip and I like to browse before jumping on things to buy.
Erin I swear knows the star wars march times by heart because one minute we are in the stores walking around, and the next thing I know is that we lost Erin. After the march went through we were able to find her and we headed back to TSL. We had a FP for mania so why let that go to waste?
So on our way over Alish was telling us all about her upcoming cruise she was taking for her birthday. But honestly I am in a desperate need to getting back on a boat.

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I’ve done better…

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And Kiss I swear he cheats

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We were ready to leave this park. But before we did leave we had too figure out a time to meet back up with Alicia. Surprise this girl is always working, as is every CM during the christmas season. So trying to figure out when she can come get her suitcase of gifts from our room seemed to be a bit of a struggle. We were able to figure out a time, plus a special meet special greet (which has been a solid 2 years in the making)
We said our goodbyes and we were out of Studios for the day. On our way out we made a quick stop at the photo pass before making the long trek to the bus stops.

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It was FINALLY getting warm out. The only downfall to this was that my jacket was a bit to bulky for my backpack but you gotta do what you gotta do.
We weren’t going back to the room at all today, so no mid day break. The main reason for this was because we had lunch reservations over at MK, and when we decided to do dining the reservations were limited. Erin wanted Italian so today we were going to try out Tony’s (I’ve been here a couple years back)
When we got to MK the whole 10 security guards at bag check had “earning my ears” ribbons on. I have never seen such a chunk like this but cool. Now no matter what line you choose you will be there for a while. We made it through the gates and I was ready to finally be reunited with the kingdom.
We all love a good christmas overhaul.

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We ended up getting to the park earlier than planned, so I went and changed, cause while toy story is cute I had to wear my Jingle Cruise shirt. So i quickly went to do that, Erin said her Aunt and Uncle were in the park so she disappeared to Cosmic Rays.
I didn’t want to leave the main street area since we had lunch very soon at the front of the park. So that being said Kiss and I walked around the Emporium. There a CM called me out and told me I was in the wrong store, at first I was totally confused, but then realized he was talking about my arm of Alex and Ani’s as he pointed me in the direction of where they were sold.
While I do love a good Alex and Ani, thats not what I came here for today. Instead some things I found were…
This cute travel mug (but confused why it said Disneyland)

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This adorable Jack POP. First I LOVE Lin Manuel Miranda so much and secondly this movie was amazing, and I love Lin even more. Wow shocker.

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Then I found the most perfect pair of socks

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I was still in the mindset of “don’t pick anything up” “you know its here come back later” sort of thing. So I did just that, freaked out for a moment and then put them back (Later on I would regret this)
By this point we made it all the way to Casey’s so we turned it around and headed over to Tony’s

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Now I would tip a lot if they were still warm!

I'm intrigued...

Argh! I hate it so much watching everyone else get seated! I wonder if due to the parade people on the patio were taking their time and other people were just following suit?
If it was summer they could still be warm, so room temperate would have to work for Alish.
That I don't know, it seemed to be a trend for us though while we waited for basically every meal.

That Waldo thing in the Muppets creeps me out.
Yeah I'm not really a fan of waldo, his voice kind of bugs me
 
Running Around The Kingdom

We got to the kingdom around 8:30 but before we headed into the park we got a quick picture out in front of the train station.

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It was quite the process getting this photo, Miss barb was looking down at the ground the whole time and when she was asked why she just was seeing how everyone was standing. After a few laughs I ran over to the CM to get by band scanned and apologized…we just took them to Trader Sam’s. She laughed it off and asked if we were CMs…once a long time ago.
We finally got on Main Street and weren’t really feeling like watching the fireworks nor trying to fight the fireworks crowds so we opted to take the back way behind main street to tomorrowland.

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Since no one can ever make up their minds we ended up going on the people mover. Which honestly is a great go to in my opinion, plus going on while the fireworks are going off is great as well!

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On our trip around tomorrowland, we got to experience space mountain with it’s lights on. And right away I sent a snap to Brittany, the old space mountain CM, of me just saying asbestos. She always loved to tell me how dirty space mountain was and with the lights on one can easily see that.

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Once we got off of the people mover, we still had some time till the fireworks ended. So we decided to jump in line for Buzz, and thanks to the fireworks there wasn’t a wait.

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I wasn’t on my A game today, but still not a super awful score.

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As we were walking out of Buzz the fireworks were coming to an end. HEA is a bop, and as much as I wanted to dislike it for taking wishes away I love it and the music. That being said if you can’t dance around and sing along on the top of your lungs in the middle of tomorrowland, we probably can’t be friends.
Right after the finale we decided to head over to the whole other side of the park. We didn’t expect Miss Barb and Miss Sue to chase us all over the kingdom, because I am very aware of the high pace person I am when I come to the park, they were up for it…so the more the merrier.
We ended up making it to my favorite land, to enjoy some of my favorite creepiest bears in all of the kingdom.

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From there we headed over to Adventureland to join the pirates in some Yo Ho. The wait said 10 minutes but it was basically just a walk the queue and get in your boat kind of line.

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After pirates is when everyone decided to go their own way. Kiss was ready to call it a night and headed back to the resort. Miss Barb and Miss Sue went off to do their own thing. And that left me and Erin to figure out what we wanted to do. But before we made any plans we stopped in the pirate bathroom, because these are MK nicest bathrooms.

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Erin suggested splash, while it was no weather for splash mountain I was willing to give it a go. When in Disney. So we headed over there just to find out that it was closed for the night, and a rush of relief went threw my body because honestly I wasn’t in the mood to get wet on a chilly night. So instead we opted for Thunder, which is still a great choice. The wait said 20 minutes but the line seemed to say something else. Luckily it was just the mad crowd for EMH and the band scanning. So once we made it through that it was a quick wait.
The mist was ready to play today, the water seemed to be on full blast on the first hill and I was not having it, so I was beyond grateful that splash was down after just going threw a little mist on thunder.
After thunder we headed over to fantasyland. The other dance/ birthday group was also in MK tonight for their last night of their trip. So we decided to go meet them for one last ride. They were in line for Mine Train and honestly I was not impressed with the idea of waiting for it. But I sucked it up and jumped in line. From the moment I jumped in line my ear was talked off, from romance to break ups, to everything they did in Disney on their trip, and watching weird videos, the 30 minute wait seemed to go by faster then normal. The struggle I find with a big group is seating arrangements, who sitting with who? I just went to a row and whoever decided to follow behind me was who I would be ridding with, Abby was the winner for tonight.
While the ride seemed to be over in a flash, what I can say is that I was very thankful to be put in a cart with strangers who were all ready to start the swaying of the car.

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After mine train the park was about to close, so we all headed to Main Street where everyone picked up their last minute souvenirs. By midnight everyone was justing around in the emporium, I was to call it a night. It didn’t seem like anyone was going to be the first to move, so I found Erin said our goodbyes and headed out.
Our bus was waiting for us at the bus stop and I was very stoked about that. Once we pulled out of the bus loop the magic motor coach voice said “All Star Music” I thought I heard it wrong so I let it go. No need worrying Erin by telling her we got on the wrong bus. The worst thing we would have to do is walk next store to our resort.
We got to All stars and next thing I know we are pulling into Music…EVERYONE on the bus started yelling at the poor driver. I have never seen so many tired/angry guests all throw a fit like tonight. The bus driver stopped at Music still and then proceeded to Movies, then I over heard a guest complain about how she got the dining plan and she was told by Disney that it was by the day not the night…and now she didn’t have enough meal credits for her family for their last day. Pet peeve of mine is when people don’t know Disney, and going on a disney vacation you are always bound to run into many of those types of guests. When we finally made it to Movies and while we were waiting to get off, I watched a poor girl get slept on by a random kid and a mom who couldn’t for the life of her wake up her own kid. That seemed like a real struggle.
I was ready to get off the bus and away from everyone. Once we got back to the room, I let both Erin and Kiss decide the plan for the morning. There was EMH for Epcot at 8am, but by this time it was already 1am. So if they wanted to wake up early cool if not that would be ok as well.







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A Morning In Future World

Alarms were going off at 7, so it seemed that we would be trying to make it to the morning hours at Epcot today. I laid there for a bit to see if anyone was waking up….no one was making any effort to move. So I decided to start the day and get ready. And just like that the other 2 bums decided to start moving as well.
Before we headed out we had a few things we needed to do. First Erin brought down a hot glue gun so I could make her ears, so thats what I did today. Casual things, just glueing ears on a headband. Then we had our second day gifts in our stockings and by 7:45 we were making our way to the bus stop.
Once arriving at Epcot we had one thing in mind….Test Track. We didn’t have Fps so being able to get it done without waiting forever would be great. It was a quiet and gloomy day at Epcot and we could only hope that it rained this morning or not at all because we had the christmas party tonight.

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Spaceship earth was calling us because it had absolutely no line…and thats how they get you. So while we wanted to rush over to Test Track we decided to take a trip through time and too see our future.

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After spaceship earth the whole interactive area is normally packed and being able to play any of the games is usual slim. It was completely empty so we decided to give the “shuffle board” game a try. I have only done this one other time and what I remember it was a workout….and years later it was still what I remembered it being.
We finally headed over to Test track to see a lovely 45 minute wait. It didn’t look like that long, so we decided to just jump in line. Plus we didn’t really have anything else to do if we didn’t get in line. It wasn’t a 45minute wait at all, probably more of a 20 minute wait. Now one thing I wish they did was let me make my own car, instead of squeezing 3 of us on a circle while they left 5 open screens behind.
But heres to team work

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It was a chilly run on the track. But we were really on this ride to see the process for the upcoming space restaurant. This is already a must do for Kiss and he is constantly asking me when it is opening. So being able to see the building for it from Test Track was nice, knowing that it officially starting to be built.
Photopass hates us and never gave us our ride photo…but as we were walking out of the building we stopped at the Photo Booth and grabbed a free photo thanks to photopass.

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We had some time to kill before Soarin FPs, so we headed to mouse gears to get our AP goofy christmas magnet. Then we went to starbucks cause christmas is in full swing and I have to stock up on my gingerbread lattes before they go out of season.

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Then we were off to the Land Pavilion. Before we got inside it became a game to see who could find the secret maleficent green tile in the mural. Which let’s see who was paying attention from July when I pointed out the tile back in July to them. Well from the beginning they both thought it was on the other side. But Erin finally found it.
We were finally clear for take off

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And honestly I don’t think we will ever let Erin down for thinking Kronk was a TSA person.
Then just like that Soarin makes me wish I had a big trip plan somewhere on the other side of the world.
After soarin’ we had the land FPs but we still had 20 minutes…so we found a bench outside of soarin’ and just waited. When those 20 minute minutes of rest were up we headed straight for the land to check out all the cute holiday decorations added for this holiday season.

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And with that we were done with future world for the morning and we headed off to the showcase to try some more of the festival of the holidays booths.





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We're Here For The Snacks

We had some last minute snacks we wanted to try for the festival, but we didn’t want to spend to much time here since we wanted to get to MK by 4 for MVMCP and we still needed to go back to the room to change. So we got to the showcase a little after opening just to find out that the festival booths don’t open until noon. You live and you learn.
Truthfully this put us in a loop, which didn’t take very long to fix. We just had to plan accordingly to leave the park at a reasonable time. This trip we kept going to the right, which seems very unlike me but hey change is good.

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Since we didn’t have much to accomplish till noon we walked around and found ourselves in France. There we stopped to watch Pere Noel, who told the story of their traditions for christmas and the story of how kids put their shoes out for christmas.

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After the show we headed to the other side of the showcase to grab a school bread.

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Thankfully today they weren’t out of school breads, so today was a success. I decided to get it to go so I could have it later. So after norway we back tracked to Italy to be the first in line for the amazing four cheese pasta. After our first night we all became huge fans and decided we needed more of it before this festival ended.

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We were the first in line, because we had no time to waste, and we were probably the first guests those CM didn’t want. Please give me four of your pastas, as they were trying to open, set up and get ready for the day. Erin went with 2 because it was that good, I was still holding off to try something different at another pavilion.
We stopped to eat our pasta at a near by table and then headed back to Japan. I had the new years soba on my list of things to get and thats just what I did. It was a nice hot batch and the size of the noodle bowl was worth the $6 if I had to buy it out of pocket. As I waited for it to cool down we headed over to the UK so Kiss could get a black and tan from the pub. While he went to get that inside, Erin and I found a table by the water to wait.

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The noodle bowl was great! And it was even better on the windy day we were having.

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We were doing well on time and had two more stops before we left Epcot.
Next stop Refreshment Port, Erin was going to try the holiday poutine but ended up getting regular fries with gravy, hold those cheese curds.

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It was goodbye showcase, and off to grab the last snack of the festival near test track.

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Kiss wanted to try the christmasy cronuts at the taste track.
He ended up going with the Croissant Doughnut with Eggnog Pastry Cream. He lost me with the eggnog cream. However he raved about this and wished it was a year round thing.

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We finally made our way out of Epcot and got back to the resort around 1:30. It gave us enough time to get ready for MVMCP and thanks to the handy dandy my disney experience app (which honestly sucks most of the time) we were able to relax a bit till our bus came. The bus times are the best addition to the app.
We caught the bus to the kingdom early. And during every disney trip you will run into a lot of families, today we found the best well behaved little girl. She was on a trip with her mother and were heading to MK for some fun before they did the party. She had the best manners I have ever seen in a child and she was just the cutest.
We got to the magic kingdom earlier than 4 so we could go around the monorail loop to check out the gingerbread houses before headed to the party. So with that being said we headed straight to the contemporary. (the only downfall to this plan is now all the bag check points we had to go through)

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Kiss and Erin had a competition to see who could find the most hidden mickeys. But soon the area was getting a little packed so that game stopped. Somehow we lost Erin…I think in the shops but I found the cute little picture op backdrop area.

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We found Erin in the gift shop and we headed back to the bag check to get on the monorail. We decided once we got on the monorail that we would skip over the poly since we were just there the night before and we could cut out one of the bag checks. So it was of to the Gflo. And now normally the first thing people do when they walk in is go straight in too see the lobby. We had basin on the mind and went in to wash our hands, and every time its so worth it.
We made our way down to the lobby to get some pictures with the tree, we saw the photo pass CM out but there was a line. So instead we used our own photo pass photographer…aka Kiss.
Tonights theme for the christmas party…pajamas. This was planned very early even before we knew we were going, the idea of being able to just jump into bed after the party was a big selling point for me.

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And before we left we had to check out the famous gingerbread house.

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Leaving the Gflo was a NIGHTMARE! There was a huge crowd trying to get on the monorail and the line to get through bag check was not sufficient at all. I was waiting for a CM to come by and set up a line, no one ever came instead in guests kept the inward spiral line, so in order to get in line you had to be in the middle of the circle…how this even worked I have no clue. Why couldn’t we just make a straight line that went around the railing beats me.
Somehow we managed to get to the back check area and honestly I think the CM were just trying to push guests through at this point once a monorail arrived. It was quite the experience but we made it to the kingdom in one piece and arrived a little after 4 for the party.






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Not So Scary Very Merry Christmas

There’s always something exciting about the start of a party night, whether its halloween or christmas. You see all those CM dressed in their holiday costumes and you run to get a bracelet. The excitement some what comes to a halt when the CM puts that bracelet on the tightest it can go and you feel restricted, this ALWAYS happens too me. Excitement kicked in again when we joined the herd into the kingdom.
Our first stop was jump in line for Jack and Sally. I feel like this is always the case when coming to the special events. It wasn’t my first time meeting them, and while I might say its my last, it probably wont be. This year they were meeting in the town square theater, so we headed there and jumped into the already growing line. I’ve learned get in line right away and don’t waste your party time…and what I had read online was that they started meeting as early as 4:30-5ish.
So while we waited we used the handy dandy guide to figure out our night. It’s always good to have a plan of what people want to get done.

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This was Kiss’s first ever Christmas party, so he requested meeting the famous duo. That was fine with me because I knew it wouldn’t take that long….well thats what I thought. In their new location it was hard to know when exactly they started meeting. There was a huge movement around 4:45ish, then I felt like we were at a standstill forever, and when we did move it would be like ever 20 minutes. Personally I liked when they were outside when you could see them and see the process.
Along with the wait there was a crazy child! And I think I have a high tolerance when it comes to crazy kids, being in charge of a toddler room has helped me with this. But this kid made me want to walk out of line. He was running around the whole waiting room screaming on top of his lungs, playing with every rope that he could. After about 10 minutes of his screaming we started wondering where his parents were…don’t worry mom was talking to guests in front of her and at points just recording him.
At one point he started weaving through the line and going up to strangers. He found a nice family with two kids and by some miracle sat and played with them. The parents didn’t seem to care since the kid stopped screaming. After 5-10 minutes playing, the kid pushed the little girl into the wall and the dad LOST IT! Mind you mom is still recording the child and saw what happened. The other Dad shouted probably 20 people down to come get her kid right now and when she did she goes “What do you want me to do…put him in baby jail?”
The kid stopped screaming for a bit and we were all cheering once their group went into the “special” room. Around 5:30ish we were told to go through the door, and when your waiting you think oh my god this is it we made it….nope it was just another line.

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It was finally coming up to our turn and Erin refused to go first. They had a wall separating you and Jack and Sally. So when they came to get each group they would just pop out of no where and Erin wasn’t about that.
When it was our turn I learned very quickly why it was taking so long, Jack was one talkative dude. It first started with the topic of Kiss’s shirt. “Is that a blue elf on your shirt” “No it’s the Genie he grants 3 wishes” “Oh I have witch friends for that”

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We got our picture and I’m honestly not ok with waiting almost 2 hours just to stand normally with them. It doesn’t make an exciting picture, So I brought up how the last time we met Jack for Christmas we helped decorate the tree and they were beyond excited to take a more “fun” photo op.

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And with that we thought we were good to go. Just kidding Jack came running back from behind the tree and started talking again. Sally said she was going to stay sitting and questioned if Kiss didn’t get the memo for foot wear. Jack joined in with “No christmas shoes?” This somehow got on a topic of christmas in hawaii and trying to figure out some hawaiian songs. At one point Sally told jack how wise he is, too which he responded with “I am a couple of thousand years old, I’ve been around for the black plague” “Ummmmm….anyways”-sally.

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With that we said goodbye and headed out of the town square theater.
It did take longer than we thought to meet them, but once again we didn’t miss out on party time so it was still a win. And before it hit 7 we decided to go grab our first cookie and the party entrance.

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Our plan for the party was get all the shows done at the beginning and collect cookies at the end. So while maybe going to the first parade is not always the best we decided to do it. Then add the “we have to sit on main street for the snow” you better grab a sit before the party even starts.
Now I try to always have a plan, its who I am when it comes to Disney, so our plan was get some dinner at cosmic rays and eat on main street. So while we went to cosmic rays Erin volunteered to go to Main street to get a spot.
We got our nuggs and I received this photo from Erin….

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The walk from Cosmic Rays is quite a walk, Kiss was nervous about taking the tray but I told him I would return them to Casey’s when we were done. We found Erin and enjoyed a nice meal.

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We had a great family sitting next to us, we saved their spot while they ran to get a photo on main street. But then maybe 5 minutes later and big family came and tried pushing close to the close, we were still maybe an hour till parade time and I was already over them. Our new friends decided it wasn’t for them and left. As they were leaving the other family had no chill and basically pushed them out of their spot. “If you could wait, you can have our spot” Christmas brings out the best in people.

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While we waited, this was the time to take turns to do merchandise runs. Erin went first and purchased her party shirt. Then I ran across the way to grab my christmas merch. The best part about this was that we now had our trick or treating bags because this isn’t halloween and they don’t give you bags to collect cookies.
We were then in the home stretch waiting for the parade and the family next to me was testing my patience.


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Text Me Something Silly

As we were waiting we got to enjoy the land clear. And both Kiss and Erin got to see how they kick those guests without party tickets out. This year they seemed to have a way better idea and close the park to normal guests an hour before the party. So if you don’t know what land clear is CM are scheduled to stand in there land, normally near the attractions, they make a barrier and if you want to pass them then you have to flash your band. Then from time to time they start making their way closer to the hub and its quite the sight if you see them all making basically a wall at the hub. From there they go back to their lands and those in the Christmas outfits take main street and push non party guests out.

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The family next to me was beyond antsy…and it wasn’t even all the kids. It was the parents. They were constantly pushing their way to Main Street to get photos, and this felt like every 5 minutes. Then there was Georgia….she was the daughter who I got the joy of sitting next too. At times she was practically on my lap, and by the end of the hour wait she was crashing off her sugar high. From the moment she sat down she had popcorn, a chocolate bar, starbucks, and an ice cream sundae. So you could say I was ready for this parade to be over and to get away from them.
Finally the parade was coming down Main Street

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Once upon a Christmastime at Christmas
Families gather 'round the Christmas tree


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Once upon a Christmastime at Christmas
Moms and dads and children all agree


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This fairytale for all is the time you will recall
With stories told throughout the years


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So get ready for that night when Santa takes his flight
Cause Christmas time comes once a year


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Once upon a Christmastime at Christmas
Candy canes and chocolate fill the air


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Once upon a Christmastime at Christmas
Sleigh bells say it's time to prepare


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It's that very special time and the magic that you'll find
On that once upon a Christmastime


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After I watched Georgia reach out and try to pull on one of the dancers skirts while they were passing by and I was ready for the parade to end and never have to deal with that family ever again. So right as the parade passed we “ran” for the hub fast. We decided to try to get as close to the castle as we could for the next castle show. And then following the castle show we would stay for fireworks. Then we had the rest of the time to do whatever.
It wasn’t long before Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration started. This was my first time seeing the show, and while I did watch the video when it first started 2 years ago all I could really remember was Panchito being in it.
Overall the show was good, they could have done without the “Text me a merry christmas” section but then again we would have our favorite line in the whole show “Text me something silly, I promise I won’t tell” -Goofy. This was honestly a saying we said all too much for the rest of the trip, and I still now will say it from time to time.
The real star of the show was Panchito

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After the show the fireworks were going to start and while we probably didn’t have the best spot for fireworks I wasn’t really about trying to fight my way back in the crowds. Plus it was actually very roomie where we were standing.
Before the fireworks I remember Kiss telling me the party wasn’t as bad as I said it was. I personally prefer the halloween parties more, I enjoy the shows more. However I had to remind him that my first MVMCP was during my program and the sucky part was the fireworks. From Disney’s POV I can see the music choices, guests wanting to be at disney for christmas how magical, you’ll be at your home away from home and it will be magical. So lets add every song about being home for christmas into our fireworks display. Then you have the DCP POV, wow I’m not going to be home for christmas, I didn’t think that would effect me as much as it does, I’ll be working all day on the busiest day of the year away from family. So yeah my first MVMCP wasn’t


Now you can travel near or far,
look high or low,and you'll always find
there's no place like home for the holidays
Cause after all home is where the heart is


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The spirit of the season never has to end
As long as you keep your loved ones near,
And the holiday wish in your heart.


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It's the spirit of the season
You can feel it in the air


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By the end of the fireworks Kiss quickly understood where I was coming from.
And after every firework show at the kingdom it was full on hunger games after it ended. We did our best to make it out alive and headed for Frontierland.



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Attack of the Country Bears

We made it out alive and found some room to breathe in frontierland. There we found a treat trail….this isn’t halloween so we found the cookie stops? Golden Horseshoe had the ginger molasses which is what I was here for…and the snickerdoodles. The last party I went to was a spur of the moment trip with Erin back in 2015, she got to experience Disney with me and for some reason still agrees to come with me. Well back then we did collect all the cookies, which we just the snickerdoodles and I brought zip lock bags since this year was the start of the individually wrapped cookies.
I was still in denial that this wasn’t halloween so we treated the cookie stops as treat trails and kept getting back in line. Plus along with the cookies at this stop we also grabbed some go go squeeze applesauces. I’m a child? Apparently because I enjoy them.

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While Erin and I got back in line kiss wanted to go get his spicy yule log over at Pecos. And after another round or two we headed over to meet him. We got to Pecos to find a sad Kiss, they were sold out of the yule log…how? who knows but they were. And this was a snack he was talking about since the christmas treats were announced, so it was a major buzz kill.
There was no reason to stay at Pecos, so we headed next store to get some treats at Tortuga. This was a hoppin line. Everyone seemed to want their snowman pretzel and snow cone. Me on the other hand could do without both, I’m not a big pretzel fan and I didn’t know if I wanted to have a blue mouth for the rest of the night. While we were waiting in line, the guy behind us goes “That’s a good idea, they are like trick or treating” You best believe I’m going to get my moneys worth in cookies.
When we got up to the front of the line I grabbed 2 pretzels (both for Erin) and I for some reason got the snow cone, didn’t really want it but apparently I have no self control. But what I can say is that the snow cone was blue, but didn't stain your mouth because it was very watered down. Heres to some “free” ice chips to eat.

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After Tortuga, Kiss asked if we could head to Sleepy hallow so he could get a backup snack, the red velvet waffle sundae. So we headed over to liberty square on our way over they were getting ready for the second parade. But the best part was that the country bears were out and Big Al was directing traffic.

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Then next thing I know Liver Lips is behind us. Erin had a handful of pretzels and all he wanted was one. Erin was unimpressed with him being so close that she just made a mad dash through frontier land. Liver lips chased her from Pecos all the way to the edge of Liberty square and frontierland. And by the end of it Erin didn’t want anything to do with the country bears ever again.

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We found our way back to Erin and left the country bear infested frontier land and went to sleepy hallow. It took FOREVER for kiss to get his sundae but he seemed to enjoy it.

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We officially had only an hour left of the party…let the games begin!

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First stop Pinocchio’s, this had every cookie, so you could get 4 cookies in one round. This was the jackpot we went to each line which was maybe 6? and the best part was that you could ask for specific cookies. Kiss thought we were crazy for how many times we went through each time. And by the end of our Pinocchio run we could have probably opened up our own window and hand out cookies. Next we headed across the way to get some dove chocolate, they were kind of stingy at this location. so we maybe did it twice before moving on.
With a lack of chocolate in our bags, we headed over to tomorrowland. We found ourselves at Club Tinsel. And while there weren’t many people here this club was bumpin. They had 2 elves and 2 polar bears dancing like manics and it was very entertaining to just sit back and watch. But were we really for club tinsel? Nah we were here for cocoa and cookies. So with the cookies in hand, we were off to space.

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The perfect representation of how the whole night went.

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Now space was a walk on which is always nice. And tonight we got to see the new walkway at the end. I thought this would be so much better than walking outside around the building from the back and over the train tracks like over the summer. I was wrong, the walk after getting off the ride is extreme and a big reason why we didn’t jump in line again.
Instead we headed back to Pinocchio’s for Erin. She was in the mood to collect more cookies but by this point we were just getting cookies to get them. The cookie line was out side now and we weren’t willing to wait for that. So instead we decided to call it a night.
All I wanted was dream light castle pics but there was still another castle show to end the party but I didn’t want to stay and wait for that. So that was a bummer.

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We took our bag full of cookies and headed out of the kingdom. It was fun but I’m ready for halloween now.

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We caught the bus back to Movies and Erin practically took off on a full sprint to the room and passed out.
Tomorrow we had an Early morning, It was Kiss’s birthday and we had a date with some very popular ghosts!






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Walt Disney Marceline to Magic Kingdom Part 1

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KISS! It was an early morning after a long night but it was going to be so worth it. Were out of the room before 7am, because we had to be at MK and meet at Town Hall by 7:45 for our tour…Walt Disney: Marceline to Magic Kingdom Tour! After our last trip and doing the Aqua tour over at Epcot it got me hooked on doing tours. And after going to the parks so many times I like to do new things, so it didn’t take me too long to find the next tour I wanted to do. This time we wanted to keep it on the cheaper side and while I was looking up prices this tour seemed to be just right, its a 3 hour walking tour around MK for a nice price of $50 with a AP discount. Then once I did my research about the tour I was all in once I heard you go backstage and see the ballroom scene ghosts in the HM.

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We arrived to the park around 7:30 and since the park opened today at 8am for EMHs we had to wait till the park opened before we could get in. Negative part was that today was the only day we could do it in the morning, so we missed out on an empty park for the first hour of our tour.
We headed into Town Hall and saw all the plaids waiting for guests. Both Marceline to Magic and Keys to the Kingdom meet here. So we found our group, grabbed our name tag, our whispers (headset) and a bottle of water. Then we waited for the tour to begin.

*This is now the part where I will be going in detail of the tour and if you are planning on doing it and want to be surprised this is when you should stop reading*

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Our group all gathered outside of the theater and guide, told us a quick back story on Walt and discussed some things we will be doing on the tour. We proceeded onto Main Street, which while it doesn’t look anything like Marceline Walt wanted it to feel like a small home town, with the different transportation throughout the years as well as the gas lamps which change to electric.

Main Street:
While on main street there were 2 major stories we were told:
We stopped in front of the Art Of Disney cinema - here we talked about how Walt started his fascination with animation at a young age and used tar to paint on his family barn.
Then we stopped in front of the ice cream shop - Here we talked about Electric park. The park that Walt and his sister would walk too, they couldn’t afford to go in but he promised his sister that he would create a park they could enjoy one day. But at that point in life they would walk to Electric park to admire the buildings lined in lights. And this is said to be the reason why all of main street is lined with lights.
Next we made our way to the partner statue. Here we talked about his time in the Army, how he was close with Roy and how he faked his birth certificate so he could join Roy in the army. This then led to how patriotic walt was and how Liberty Square was created. It first started as just a little street off of Main Street that was planned for Disneyland but didn’t make it to the finally project. However Walt’s love for Abraham Lincoln started as a child when dressed up and quoted the Gettyburgs Address in school, then would lead to Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln for The New York World’s Fair.
But before he could create human animatronics he had to start smaller. And while Disneyland didn't get a liberty square they did get New Orleans square. On a vacation to New Orleans Walt found a souvenir of an animatronic bird. He realized it didn’t work properly so he brought it back to his imagineers and told them to fix it and thats how the tiki birds came to life.

Liberty Square
We headed into Liberty Square and went back to the Lincoln talk. Now that they had an idea of making animatronics they decided to give human animatronics a try and that’s when Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was born. When it made its showing at the World Fair everyone believed it was a real person.
Then it was time for the Haunted Mansion. This was the BIG thing for this tour, so if the HM is your favorite attraction I highly recommend this tour. So much information was thrown at us in our time here.
We stood outside of the mansion for a long time talking about the big imagineers on this project and how they got to where they were. The 2 Imagineers we talked about were the famous Marc Davis and Claude Coats, two names that are very well known when it comes to Disney Imagineering. Both started there Disney careers in animation but Walt could always see special talents and pulled both to work on concepts for an upcoming attraction and therefore join the imagineering team. When it came to the HM Marc Davis wanted to take a more silly approach to it while Claude Coats wanted to go more dark. Walt apparently did this on purpose, he would make people work together who had different views. So for the quick story, they came together and put both ideas in one, Coats did his dark storyline in the beginning of the ride and Davis fun silly approach can be seen at the end. (And for a baby sam who was never a fan of this ride as a child, I am very thankful for Marc Davis)
We headed for the line and our guide brought up a good question. Many guests believe they go through the front door or servants entrance of the mansion when the enter. However that isn’t the case, If you look at the mansion you see the front door and the servants entrance can be found at the exit of the attraction. So how did we really enter the mansion? It honestly isn’t all that exciting. You enter through the mansions side door, this was used for ladies with those long dresses back in the day. There buggy would drop them off where they would be able to walk under the covered walk way if it was raining.
We headed into the interactive queue and our first stop was the headstone game, she had us go through each riddle and found the matches in Cousin Maude’s hair. We didn’t head to far but stopped to talk about the tombstones right next to the busts, here there are two.
The first one is “In Memory of our patriarch dear departed Grandpa Marc” which is a tribute to Marc Davis
The second one “Requiescat Francis Xavier No time off for good behavior” Francis Xavier is a reference to X. Atencio and Imagineer who was again had a special hidden talent he didn’t even know about yet Walt did. Before HM is was working on the narrative for Pirates, during his time with pirates Walt gave him the task of writing a song for pirates although he didn’t know music. So while he might not have been a long time musician you can thank Atencio for Yo Ho a Pirates life for me. After his great work with Pirates he was put on the HM team where he scripted the ride and wrote Grim Grinning Ghosts.
Next up was the crypt with all the instruments. And if you have enough hands in your group, hold down all the instruments and a certain song will start to play. On the other side you can find not so normal instruments that are said to be Rolly Crump’s ideas. Imagineer Rolly Crump had a very different way and some strange ideas when it came to the mansion. He brought some weird ideas to a meeting with walt including, a man made out of wax, talking chairs, coffin clock. Apparently after said interaction Walt couldn’t sleep that night with the thoughts of all of Rolly’s ideas, so he came in the next morning with the idea Museum of the weird, which would be a walk through museum of all Rolly’s ideas at the end of the ride, however this never made it to the finished product.

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Then it was time to talk about the one and only wedding ring. For a long time the “wedding ring” seemed to be a hidden secret at mansion, many guests created back stories for it when in reality it wasn’t placed in the cement on purpose by Disney nor was is actually a ring. It was actually just part of a pole they tried pulling out of the cement. When Disney decided to pave over this guests freaked out and because of this you can now find a ring in the queue, that was actually meant to be placed there.
After walking through basically the whole interactive queue we had one last stop. This isn’t technically part of the queue, but it just goes to show the amount of details Disney puts into their work. In the back left corner near the book shelf game (?) there is what is real life is a gate leading to stairs for CMs. However in the story of the mansion it plays a part of something else. We were to guess what those stairs actually led too. It wasn’t the front door, side door or servants entrance. We then we all squeezed in the small area and told to look down. There we saw footprints and dog prints embedded into the cement. And with that we were told this was the entrance to the cemetery behind the mansion, and those prints on the ground were from the famous mansion caretaker and his dog that can be found right before the cemetery scene. This one of my favorite little things we learned. I never knew it was there and it blows my mind that they would take the time to add in details to an area that guests don’t really go to.
Around this time this side of the park was opening up to guests, so while we waited to enter the mansion, we had to make sure to stay in a group and she talked about more of the tombstones in the waiting area. The one that sticks out was the “Good old Fred, A great big rock fell on his head” This was the one tombstone I can always remember, even growing up. Like as a kid you think maybe this ride wont be so scary because the guy died from a rock. However this tomb was in dedication to Fred Joerger, the man who was in charge of creating all the rocks in the park.
Finally it was time to ride the attraction. When it came to the stretching room we were all the first to enter and the last to leave making sure our group was still together. And while to I think every guest who ride HM there isn’t much of a surprise when you look up when the lights go out. But apparently this was a whole new thing for Erin as she told me “I never knew there was a body up there” She never ONCE looked up in the stretching room and I was in disbelief.
During the ride thanks to our handy dandy whispers in our ears our tour guide would throw out some hidden things about the attraction. Before you even get on the attraction you can see paintings in the hallway once leaving the stretching room. These painting were some concept ideas for the mansion, Jack the reaper, and the famous sea captain. Throughout the ride you can find a raven/crow this is because before the ghost host idea came into the picture the ride was going to have this bird be the narrator.
When we came to the odd stair case room, which I honestly never understood the point of it, we learned that it was added after the lady in California who kept building random doors and stairs to confuse spirits.
The one thing when it comes to the mansion is the famous wallpaper. And once again going back to my childhood my one memory about riding this was closing my eyes for everything but the ballroom but my mother telling me to open my eyes “Look the wallpaper has eyes” And we all have to thank Rolly for his crazy ideas and his eyeball wallpaper.
When we got to the graveyard one thing that was pointed out was that every alive thing, such as the animals were lit up with an orange while all the dead things were lit in blue.
After out ride on the attraction it was FINALLY time for the best part. We had to walk to the tangle bathroom where we got to go backstage. There we stood between both HM and Small Worlds buildings. We waited for another CM to come get us, we were taken to a small workshop. It was a tight fit little room but on the other side of the door was the ballroom scene. And since the park was open to guests we had to turn that light off before opening the door. Now going into this I had an idea of what we might see and like always it never is what you think. There was glow tape on the floor of the area we could stand and after passing by a black backdrop we saw the ballroom ghosts up close and personal. The area itself is super tiny, you see this big ballroom and on the other side its not like that.
While we didn’t spend a lot of time here we did get to discuss some things, how they reuse animatronic faces, if you look none of the spirits have shoes on, this is for two reasons, 1 they didn’t want to have to worry about them whipping off when they were spinning and 2 back then they weren’t buried in shoes. And lastly we talked about the famous “girls leading the guys” because the mirror flips it. But what I thought was cool about this was that because the women lead the men in the ride, same goes for the Boo to You parade.
And after one last look at how they make the magic we were escorted out of the ballroom, the tiny work room and back to the tangled bathroom. Where we took a quick break before finishing the tour.




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After our last trip and doing the Aqua tour over at Epcot it got me hooked on doing tours. And after going to the parks so many times I like to do new things, so it didn’t take me too long to find the next tour I wanted to do.
Next time you are there at Christmas, try out the Yuletide Fantasy. You get to go back to the Christmas warehouse and it's soooo cool!

When we came to the odd stair case room, which I honestly never understood the point of it, we learned that it was added after the lady in California who kept building random doors and stairs to confuse spirits.
That is one of my favorite parts, especially because it's not in the California version!

And lastly we talked about the famous “girls leading the guys” because the mirror flips it. But what I thought was cool about this was that because the women lead the men in the ride, same goes for the Boo to You parade.
That is sooo cool!
 
Next time you are there at Christmas, try out the Yuletide Fantasy. You get to go back to the Christmas warehouse and it's soooo cool!


That is one of my favorite parts, especially because it's not in the California version!


That is sooo cool!
I will have to remember that!
Personally I never understood why is was there, I just felt like it was a filler room.
 
Walt Disney Marceline To Magic Kingdom Part 2

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Fantasyland

After a quick 10 minute break we got back into our group to continue the tour. Our next topic of discussion was It’s a Small World…but most importantly the Sherman Brothers. When this attraction was in the works the name for it was going to be Children of the World. However once the Sherman brothers wrote the famous everyone loves to hate it song, It’s a small world, Walt decided to change the name to go with the song. Then a fun little fact about the song, if the attraction is up and running at every park around the world then the song is playing 24/7.
After a quick talk on IASW we headed over to the Castle. At the time we got here the castle show was going on so half of the castle was blocked off.
Here we talked about the Cinderella Murals, but more importantly the imagineers that got their tributes here. The mural to look out for is when cinderella is trying on the glass slipper.
The Footman is Herb Ryman. He started his Disney career as an artist, but what he is best known for is working with Walt. Herb Ryman was the guy Walt went to when they needed to have plans drawn out for Disneyland for an investment meeting. The catch was he had 2 days to complete a map of the entire park when Walt himself didn’t even know how he wanted the park to look. After spending all weekend with Walt and drawing what he described, the map was completed, they got the investment and Disneyland was born.
Then there is the guy behind the footman who is John Hench. He also started his disney career in animation and moved his way up into Imagineering. But the one thing he is known for is the Hench purple…this specific color can be found in Epcot, and most importantly the famous purple transportation signs on the roads.
At this point it was drizzling a little bit so we stopped for shelter at Sir Mickeys. And here we went back to the discussion of Walt’s life. How he met his wife Lillian, who was a painter at the Disney studios. And once they were married, she hated the fedora Walt would wear and later on for her birthday he had the hat bronzed in a shape of a heart to give her for her birthday. And now you can find the hat in the San Fran at the Walt Disney Family Museum.
Then it was time for stories about Walt and his daughters how he would take them on father daughter dates, this story led to the carousel and the famous story of how he took his girls to a carnival and they rode the carousel and from that day he wanted to create a park where families can enjoy it together. Another story was how they never knew their dad was famous and the “walt disney” they just knew him as dad. So one day one of them came home from school and asked him for his autograph because the kids at school told them how their father was the Walt Disney.
We then headed towards the other end of Fantasyland where we passed Pooh. While it wasn’t too long, we learned that Walt use to read the stories his girls and from there he got the rights and the rest is history.
Then is was time for the last land for this tour…tomorrowland.

Tomorrowland

As we got closer to the main hub area for tomorrowland we learned how the imagineers came up with the style of tomorrowland. They decided to go with the fake future look, this way they didn’t have to constantly update the land. While we were in the tomorrowland we talked about Epcot, but most importantly how Walt wanted to create a community. But the Epcot idea didn’t work out the way he planned, Walt did however get to try out his idea of creating a community when he was in charge of the Olympics and had to build the living area as well as the shows.
Even though Epcot became a new idea, some old ideas still made its way to the parks.
The people mover, my go to attraction when no one came make up there minds. The People Mover was actually an idea of transportation for Epcot the community. There was going to be levels of transportation, for a relaxing ride you could just jump on the people mover to get you from place to place or you could take the monorail for faster transportation.
The monorail was a big idea for the imagineers and they couldn’t quite get it right while making it. But they had to get it to work before President Nixon came for the grand opening. Well when that day came the monorail had yet to make a successful trip around. So the monorail ceremony would only be for the President to look around the inside of the monorail. However once on board Walt asked the family if they wanted to go around once. And on that day it made its first round. The kids loved it so much that they asked to go again, apparently when the secret service saw the monorail go around a second time they started running after it. Since it wasn’t suppose to go at all, the kids thought this was so funny and asked to go again. On the third loop around the secret service cut the power.
We decided to get out of the rain and head over to one of my favorite attractions and another big selling point to this tour for me. Carousel of Progress. As we waited for our turn, we learned about General Motors sponsoring the attraction. Everyone knows the famous CoP song “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” written by the Sherman Brothers. When the attraction came to the park however, GM wanted them to change the theme song of the attraction, they didn’t think you should wait until tomorrow to buy their products. So Now Is The time, became the new song for the attraction. Once GM stopped sponsoring said attraction, it returned back with the original song we all know and love.
We got a theater all to ourselves and throughout the show we were given facts about the attraction.
The bird chirping outside the window is the bird that julie andrews used in Mary Poppins, and while this attraction was in the works Walt would always come in and put the bird on his finger…big kid.
For those who know CoP well we all know that there is a random little girl that shows up in the first scene and thats it. Who she is? Where did she go? Disney went back into the archives to see who this girl really is…and with all the plans for the attraction there was nothing about the little girl. So just like the HM ring, Disney said leave it up to your imagination on who she is.
During the scene when the power goes out, our guide flashed a flashlight to the scene where she showed us how the animatronics are still moving although its pitch black and no one can see them. Walt wanting this, he said when the power goes out you don’t just freeze and not do anything.
Rover wasn’t suppose to be in it. But when they were working on it Walt felt like something was missing. So they planned on having a female dog named Queeny.
The story I liked best was the story of the Grandma. Walt loved the Grandma animatronic so much that he refused to have her be shipped with the rest of the attraction after the World’s Fair. Instead he took her on the plane with him, he wheeled her around in a wheelchair and told everyone that she was sleeping. Lucky for him TSA wasn’t a thing back then.
Another thing I have never noticed was that while Rover is in every scene so is a cat.
Before the tour ended, we were told to switch one word in the famous song, Man with Walt.
“Walt has a dream and thats the start, he follows his dream with mind and heart. And when it becomes a reality its a dream come true” and while Walt always said it all started with a mouse. It really started with a boy from Marceline. And with that our tour ended, we handed in our whispers and all scattered around the MK.

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From an over obsessed Disney fan, who loves the details, the back stories and imagineering of the parks this tour exceeded my expectations. The 3 hours went too fast, but we were thrown so much information. Worth the money, the HM backstage part was super cool, and being able to ride two attractions while learning fun facts during them was great.



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