First Day - Polynesian/MNSSHP - September 20, 2013

So, we've I've been counting down the days since around the 365 day mark. And 'the day' is finally here! With our house/pet sitter at the wheel, we start our 11 mile journey to the Memphis International Airport around 8am. Thank you again, Bethany! Before leaving home, I had already put the tags on our luggage. Checking our luggage at MEM with the tags on meant that we won't see them again until we arrive in our hotel room later. Plane took off at 10:37am sharp, right on schedule with no delay - even though it was raining. Smooth flight :)

Before leaving home (months prior) I had made reservations through Disney's Magical Express for transportation to our hotel (free of charge). Great service! About 3 weeks before our trip, I had seen online that we could also order our Magic Bands because we were staying at one of the participating test resorts. Magic Bands were ordered and arrived in about 4 days!

So, we arrive at MCO right on schedule! The Magic Band information sheet said to have our bands on as we land in Orlando, so we put on our bands as were getting ready to deplane. I couldn't even imagine what the airport had to do with Magic Bands, but whatever - we put them on and made our way to the DME desk downstairs with our paperwork in hand. As we approached the DME area, a representative was standing at the opening of the stanchions. She said "Oh, you have your Magic Bands on and ready! Right over here..." So, the nice lady scanned my Magic Band and pointed to the bus lines. COOL! She didn't even need our paperwork or IDs. Steve is now starting to admire my Disney planning skills at this point. He looks at me, "Cool!" As we walk away from all of the people standing at the DME counters, he says "Suckers..." LOL! First bright moment of the trip right there.

We then make our way down the correct stanchion lane for the Polynesian. Boarded the bus and we were on our way to The World!

They show their cute little movie with the characters showing all there is to do around Walt Disney World. Now I start getting depressed that we are only spending less than 24 hours here! Look at all the stuff we are going to miss out on!!! But then it hits me...we are going on a DISNEY CRUISE TOMORROW! That was close.

We were the first stop to get dropped off. So, off the bus with only our carry ons, we made our way inside the Polynesian. As we walk up, a cast member got our name and escorted us to the Online Check In desk. I had checked in online weeks before leaving home and requested a 3rd floor room in the Aotearoa building (thinking I could be able to see the monorail from our balcony). Both requests honored and we were given room #3202 in Aotearoa! So, we received our complimentary Hawaiian leis and headed to our room to check out our view. As we passed the Tambu Lounge, we contemplated stopping for our first Mai Tai. Naw, it can wait a second. With a short walk past Captain Cook's, the arcade and the marina, we were the second building on the left. Perfect! Right up the elevator, off on the 3rd floor, our room was right in front of us. At first I panicked thinking that the elevator and ice machine would be too loud at night. But then I thought 'I sleep with ear plugs, no problem!' LOL! Waved our Magic Band over the lock and we were IN! Second MB moment of awesomeness.

Ok, if you look all the way to the right off the balcony and if you were to look straight ahead... BAM! Monorail! Mission accomplished.

 Monorail Lime!

The elusive Iron Man 3 Monorail!

I packed our Mickey tie-dye Halloween t-shirts on my carry on. So, we made a quick change and out the door we went! We stopped in the Tambu Lounge for that Mai Tai.

Forgot to take a picture before I started. I was a little excited... Then we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom so we could catch the bus to the Animal Kingdom Lodge where we were to have dinner at 5:30. While boarding the bus, we saw many people already arriving for the Halloween Party. Cute costumes. Arrived at AKL right at 5pm, so checked in a little early at the podium for Boma. While we were waiting with our buzzer, a woman approached me and said that she loved my t-shirt and asked where she could get one. I told her I made them. She asked if I had a card and I was so surprised, I said no. Later, I remembered that I had some in my lanyard! Proceeded to have an awesome dinner at Boma. Here is a photo of our shirts and the awesome Chicken Corn Chowder at Boma. Well worth the buffet price, if you ask me.

 

After dinner, we made our way over to the park bus stop. Saw quite a few people heading to the party in costumes again. Arrived at the Magic Kingdom, scanned our Magic Bands (I had loaded our MNSSHP tickets one there, as well) and we were ready to party! I made a bee line straight for the new Little Mermaid Under the Sea Voyage ride. Again, had loaded Fast Passes on my Magic Bands - just in case we were arriving in time for the last hour of regular park hours. We made it! But, it didn't impress me enough to ride it a second time. I must be getting old... Then headed over to my favorite, The Haunted Mansion! Got our photo taken in front by the horseless carriage. Again, no Photopass card needed...went straight on the Magic Band! Rode a few more things and then it was time for our cruise friend meet up in front of the Partners statue. We were on time, I looked around for anyone that I recognized or that was wearing our lime green color. No one. I did, however, see some women that looked like they had just met - but they didn't look like they were looking for anyone else. I was a little disappointed. So we went and rode more rides. 

I panicked when we walked over to Frontierland and saw that the parade was about to start. Missed the Headless Horseman. Later, I realized that it wasn't THAT parade I wanted to see but the one at 10:30... Missed that one later. But saw the fireworks from in front of the Crystal Palace and called it a night. Left the park around 11:30. We had a big day tomorrow and needed some rest!

The planning has finally paid off!

Another Disney vacation is in the books! It was a great trip and I certainly learned a lot in the process. We I booked this cruise exactly a year out. So, there was indeed a lot of planning that had to be done. Certainly, you have to plan if you want everything to be perfect. You never know if there will be a NEXT time, right?!

I have a few hobbies.
The main one: planning Disney trips. Whether they are real ones that will be carried out or not. Thinking of going on a Disney vacation? CALL ME! Really, I enjoy it well enough to call it a hobby.

hob·by¹

ˈhäbē/

noun

1. 1.

   an activity done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.

   "Lydia's hobbies are reading, writing, planning, listening to, watching and partaking in anything related to the Disney travel franchise"

   synonyms:

   pastime, leisure activity, leisure pursuit

It's a real entry in the dictionary, see?!

My other hobbies include crafting and sewing. So, of course, I did my fill of crafting and sewing before this trip.

These are just some of the things I made for this trip. I actually made some other magnets for the door to go around the room number plaque. I also had Captain Mickey, Birthday Mickey (for Steve's birthday), Pirate Mickey, Goofy, The Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat. And another shirt for Steve to wear at dinner, like the one's above, but with Monsters Inc. I didn't get to wear the pirate dress I made because it was too small. I had made a t-shirt to wear instead.

I even got Steve to help me on one project. He covered a cardboard drink carrier with Mickey duct tape. I think he used the carrier one time to bring drinks to the room from the buffet area upstairs.

So, thanks to the DIS community, planning for your Disney trips really do pay off!

My next entries will take you on a day by day journey of our Disney cruise :)

See ya real soon!

One of My Favorite 'Disney' Web Sites

Eyes On Ears

Now playing - Disney's Boardwalk Inn. It's GORGEOUS!
Pick one! Click on 'load in main frame' underneath your chosen view. Enjoy!

Disney Parks Blog Trick or Meet-Up - Thursday, September 29th, 2011

Finally...I introduce to you the long anticipated, highly procrastinated, most requested review of our experiences at the Haunted Mansion Meet-Up in the Magic Kingdom! Excited? I sure was. I picked out one of my favorite Disney costumes at home, Jeri did a FANTASTIC job on my Maleficent make-up and was all cute in her leopard costume, made it to the pre-travel meeting place with no problems and in a few minutes flat. We were told by email to meet in the Blizzard Beach parking lot between 8 and 9pm to get checked in. We arrived at 8pm and there were a few cars in the parking lot already. As we walked up, I started to panic a little inside. At first it looked like we were in the wrong place. I didn't see anyone else dressed up! We walked up to the check-in table and the woman checking us in studied my drivers license and couldn't tell if it was me or not. But she took my word for it and we were all set. Whew! They had some kind of vehicle there all tricked out with neon lights and a loud bumping stereo. You would think they would have had Halloween, scary, or even Disney music playing. Nope, it was all dance along music. Electric Slide, Locomotion, Cupid Shuffle...like a really bad wedding. They had some trivia contests going on, too.

More and more people were showing up. Only a few were dressed up. A line from the web site and email explaining the directions for the evening kept coming to mind. "Costumes are STRONGLY encouraged". I kept reciting that over and over whenever I felt uncomfortable, embarrassed or angry about the lack of costumes I saw. Which was very often. Mind you, only 150 people received tickets for this event and each person was allowed one guest.

How many costumes do you see in this crowd? Ugh... Anyway, there were a few really cute ones. Apparently, there is a new merchandise line with Nerd Disney characters. There was a woman with a cute 'Nerd Mickey' costume. A couple dressed as 2 of the Hitchhiking Ghosts (very well done) and a woman that was dressed up like a Disney parking lot space. But there was a couple that I just had to ask if I could take their picture. I liked them most of all (if you know anything about the Haunted Mansion, you will recognize them)...

9pm came and we were still waiting to board the buses. Five Disney Cruise Line coach buses were waiting to whisk us away. I think we finally left around 9:20pm.

Lou Mongello was on my bus, but do you think I would get to meet him? Nooooo. I didn't bother him :(
Some might find this interesting...the route we took was up World Drive, left on Seven Seas Drive and along Floridian Way. This took us to a guard shack that let us into the backstage area of the Magic Kingdom on the west end. Passing by the open buildings that store the parade floats - including the Main Street Electrical Parade's Elliott float!!! That was by far the coolest float I spied :o) Then we unloaded and walked to the Frontierland parade entrance gates, near Splash Mountain.

As we walked 'on stage', you could hear that they still had the Splash Mountain water on. Glanced over and all of the lights were on as well, just like you would see on any evening in the park. It was pretty eerie walking down the middle of the deserted Frontierland street. They had all the same colored lights and spotlights on that they have for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. First stop was in front of the Hall of Presidents so Gene Duncan could photograph everyone that was in costume (all others were ushered past us, straight into the Hall). Gene is an official Disney photographer :o) Inside, we got our first glance of some of our hosts. The blog staff was dressed up as a turkey leg, Indiana Jones, a flapper and Boo from Monsters Inc. The turkey leg blew me away! Very hilarious... Social Media director, Leanne Jakubowski was escorted in by Mickey himself. It was during this short presentation, that we were introduced to Jason Surrell (escorted by Minnie, of course), a Walt Disney Imagineer. He also apprenticed under Imagineer Blaine Gibson. It was in this room that I lost count of how many times I was blown away :o) Jason explained the history of the Haunted Mansion and gave a very comical presentation. Click here for Jason Surrell's complete presentation, if you are interested. Here's the rest of the schedule:

As we exited the Hall of Presidents theater, we were handed treat bags with some candy. Donald and Daisy were standing by Goofy's candy truck for photo opportunities.

Next stop, refreshments! Canned drinks, bottled water, Mickey rice-krispie treats, chocolate spiders and eyeballs. The Cadaver Dans were also out to entertain the guests. By day, they are known as the Dapper Dans, an a-capella singing group.

After listening for a few minutes, I was anxious to get over to the Haunted Mansion queue to get in line for the tour. Tours were leaving in groups of 25 with an Imagineer that would explain the new additions to the queue. I believe these were added in March of 2011. As we approached the queue, Haunted Mansion butlers and maids were welcoming us to the mansion. Madame Renata was on the front lawn talking to guests as they walked up and while we were waiting for our turn in the tour. She explained how she ended up in the mansion and a little bit of her back story. Jeri and I agreed that Renata was the highlight of the whole night! She reminded me of a very animated version of Paula Deen, her southern accent was perfect! "Gail! Gail! I've got a live one here for ya!" Lol! And if you have ever spent any time in this area during a MNSSHP night, you know that lightning and thunder go off every 10 minutes or so. Renata would be telling her story, the lightning would flash and the thunder would sound, and then she would exclaim "Hush Momma, I'm gonna tell the story anyway!" So very funny... This is a better pic of her later in the evening:

 

Halloween party lights lit the outside of the mansion and the cemeteries. Lots of green, purple and orange - very eerie (and pretty). Along with some rolling fog. Pete Carsillo, Walt Disney Imagineer show designer and art director, took us on our tour of the queue. Click here for a video of Pete's complete tour.

I learned some pretty interesting facts, very informative. Then it was on to the Mansion itself. Seeing that the whole stretch-room was filled with HM fanatics, we all recited - word-for-word - the dialog to the preshow :o) And then it was time to step aboard our doom-buggy for our ride where 999 happy haunts await. As we exited, I snapped this pic...

It's the pet cemetery, to the left as you exit the mansion. Note that you can see Mr. Toad in the upper left corner. I guess he died the day he was replaced by Pooh and his friends... Anyway, after the ride I headed over to the Diamond Horseshoe where Jason was doing Q&A with individuals and a graphic designer was signing selected guests prints of the Hitchhiking Ghosts. I headed outside where they had some treat-or-treat stations set up, Mickey and Minnie doing meet and greets and then I found Dr. Facilier from the Princess and the Frog!

After a little while, Disney folks started to rope off the street and I had a hunch about what was about to happen. It seemed like we were standing there for a very long while, then the narrator spoke... Click here to see - the Headless Horseman Rides Tonight!

As he disappeared over the bridge towards the Cinderella Castle, Madame Renata exclaimed: "Come back and see us. Now get OUT!" Lol! As we walked back to our buses, we were all handed our Hitchhiking Ghost posters and a Nightmare Before Christmas Vinylmation.

Then it was back to the Blizzard Beach parking lot and back to reality, yet again  :o(  BUT! In the 35 years that I have been going to Walt Disney World, THIS was by far the coolest opportunity I have ever had!

Some YouTube highlight videos:
InsideTheMagic
OrlandoAttractionsMagazine

The Responsible Party...

...my parents.

My very first visit to Walt Disney World was in 1975 when I was 5 years old. Very few resorts were open back then, I believe it was the Polynesian, the Contemporary and the Golf Resort. We stayed at the Polynesian for most of our earlier visits. And I remember at one point, I lost my first tooth before the Luau. I basically wasted money on the meal because I ended up only eating a piece of bread.

I can't recall how many trips we made before I finished school. I remember bits and pieces and have snippets of memories throughout the years. The trips I can count all started after I got married in 1989.

• 1989, September: Honeymoon on a Premiere Cruise (before it was the Big Red Boat and the Disney Cruise line) then a stay at Caribbean Beach.
• 1992: My oldest daughter Mandi's first visit, she was 4 years old. We stayed at the Polynesian.
• 1994, December: My youngest daughter Brooke's first visit, she was 2 years old. Wilderness Lodge with 11 family members. This was the first trip using my cast member discount, working for the Disney Store in Cleveland, Ohio.
• 1996, February: Cast member visit with 5 co-workers. Stayed at Fort Wilderness in a cabin.
• 1996, October: Couples visit with me, my husband Steve, and friends Susan and Rick. Stayed at the Grand Floridian.
• 1997: Stayed one night at the Boardwalk and a week at Dixie Landings (Alligator Bayou).
• 1998, October: Trip with a fellow cast member from Cleveland (Colette), right after I moved to Mississippi. Stayed at All-Star Sports.
• 1999, April: Indians/Braves baseball game trip at Wide World of Sports. Stayed at Dixie Landings (Mansions).
• 2002: Trip with my parents and Brooke. Stayed off property in a time share.
• 2005, December: Trip with 2 friends (they are sisters, Rebecca & Jamie), also co-workers of mine. Stayed at Pop Century.
• 2007, September: Trip alone with the hubby, anniversary #18. Stayed at Coronado Springs.
• 2008, December: Trip with Mandi and my parents. Stayed at Pop Century.
• 2011, September: trip with a different co-worker, Jeri. Staying at Coronado Springs. Haunted Mansion Halloween Trick-or-Meet Up (see blog post).
• 2013, September: First Disney Cruise on the Fantasy. One night at the Polynesian pre-cruise and MNSSHP.
• 2014, September: Disney Cruise on the Fantasy. One night at Port Orleans Riverside, Royal Guest suite pre-cruise and MNSSHP.
• 2015, September: Bay Lake Tower with Rebecca & Brian.
• 2016, November: Disney Cruise on the Fantasy with Rebecca, Brian, Nancy & John with 2 nights post cruise at Saratoga Springs.
• 2018, July: Luke's first trip to WDW! Stayed at All-Star Music in the Rock section. Opening weekend of Toy Story Land.
• 2019, February:  Birthday trip (with Steve)! Stayed at Coronado Springs.
• 2020, February:  Back to Back Disney cruises on the Dream, with pre-cruise 3-night stay at WDW (Animal Kingdom Lodge).

People have always made me feel a little funny for visiting so many times. It doesn't really bother me, but I always feel the need to explain myself. Usually I just give up on the subject. One of these days, I will have to explain in detail, my personal love of Walt Disney World.