[Willbegone]

I love the ice cream at Beaches! My DH has had the Jose and loves it. I love the milkshakes oohhhh sooooooo good! Can't wait to read more!

[MissDisney]

Best.
Pictures.
Ever.

Beth, these are some rocking good pics!!! Really satisfying... you and I love the same little details, and I feel like I am at WDW with you!!! Thanks!

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by MissDisney

Best.
Pictures.
Ever.

Beth, these are some rocking good pics!!! Really satisfying... you and I love the same little details, and I feel like I am at WDW with you!!! Thanks!

Thanks so much! I've got more, baby!

[packerbeth]

This next one made me pretty sad and homesick.

My little DD2, Kate, loves Pooh, and Teega, too! When I saw Pooh in the parade, it made me realize how much she would have liked seeing him and made me wish – just for a moment – that she were here with me.

I knew how blessed I was, being able to take this moms-only trip, but really missed my family at that moment. It was the first time tears would be shed on this trip, but not the last!

Next, we made our way down toward Star Tours and the Streets of America area. We stopped to pay our respects to Walt along the way.


The Cars characters were supposed to be coming out at 4:00. I didn’t have to have my picture taken with them, but since we didn’t see them at all on the last trip, I at least wanted to take a picture of them! The CM who was organizing things at the Cars meet ’n greet took his job a little too seriously. He instructed those who wanted to have their photo taken with the Cars to stand in a line, and then started telling the rest of us to basically beat it. We were all just standing on the sidewalk, waiting to take our photos and hit the road, but he insisted that we all leave the area. We all just laughed at him, waited for the opportunity to take the photos, and left.


It was pretty cool, though, because Lightning McQueen’s engine made the same sound that it does in the movie. My family loves that movie, so I was really glad to get the chance to bring photographic evidence of their existence at MGM back to them.

As an aside, you can see one of the robed men I was talking about in the bottom right hand corner of the Pooh picture. Anyone recognize what kind of a group they're from? Stacy and I didn't know, and my dh thought maybe they were Hare Krishna?

[packerbeth]

Here are some more MGM pics I took along the way.



I took this one because this show is being redone, and the sign will probably be changing soon!

We were getting close to our ADR at Mama Melrose for the Fantasmic package, but I really wanted to try to make it over to see Frozone in the Animation Courtyard. Normally, this would not really appeal to me, but Rowdy Raider was supposed to be helping Frozone, and I wanted to say hi. We had to ask where to find Frozone and the Incredibles, as I’d never seen them. Turns out, they're way in the back of the Magic of Disney Animation building.

We were really cutting it close to our ADR, so we kind of rushed past all the gorgeous artwork and figurines, thinking we’d be back later to take a better look at it all. There wasn’t much of a wait, and although at first we felt a little silly, being two grown women with no kids, it ended up being really fun. I don’t have any regular photos of this, but will add some from our Photopass CD when I get it.

Now, at this point, I should probably explain the title of this trip report. When Stacy and I were planning this moms-only extravaganza over the months prior to September, one thing I told her was that I didn’t really need to see any characters. We’d done the whole character thing when I was there with the kids, and I didn’t feel the need to stand in line for characters unless there was no line, or a character was particularly important to me.

Well, it seems that the minute we got to WDW, this philosophy went right out the window. Standing in lines – short lines, mind you, not long ones – without children sounded like a really good idea. I’d made autograph books for three of my kids, and took their photos with the characters to fill those books right up. I didn’t realize at the time that deep down, I wanted MY picture taken with the characters, too! Our moms-only trip gave me the perfect opportunity to do this, and I only felt a little stupid doing it! Stacy reminded me of my “no time for characters” stance on one of our last days, and we started talking about making the title of the TR reflect my change in attitude. Be prepared for a lot of pictures of us with characters!

[roxie]

Originally Posted by packerbeth

As an aside, you can see one of the robed men I was talking about in the bottom right hand corner of the Pooh picture. Anyone recognize what kind of a group they're from? Stacy and I didn't know, and my dh thought maybe they were Hare Krishna?

We saw them too...at Epcot.

They were everywhere we were. We got tickled though and took pictures.

[WishIWasThere]

The pictures are awesome! Great trip report, I look forward to reading the rest. Thanks for posting it!

[packerbeth]

Next we headed to Mama Melrose for our early Fantasmic dinner package.

Our ADR was for 4:20, and we were about 10 minutes late, but we were seated right away. I took a picture of the inside of the restaurant, which turned out a bit dark, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Our server’s name was Sam, and he took very good care of us. We were able to order off of the regular menu, and Sam made some recommendations for us. I had the Artisan Breads and Spreads - freshly baked breads served with an arugula and chive pesto, sun-dried tomato, roasted vegetable and roasted garlic spreads, Spaghetti Fra Diavolo with clams, calamari, mussels and shrimp, tossed in a spicy Marinara sauce, and the Crema Limone - no sugar added lemon custard topped with fresh whipped cream and berries. Stacy had Bruschetta - with marinated tomatoes and crostini, pork marsala, and tiramisu. Of course, I only took a photo of one thing: dessert!


It was an enjoyable first meal at WDW, though I don’t think I’d rush back, with all of the choices there are to be found. We did get out little card to get us into the reserved section for Fantasmic, though, so it was worth it in that respect. It was still early, so we had time to do some more exploring before it was time to head to Oscar’s. We took a few photos around Mama Melrose’s, then went in for a showing of Muppets 3-D, which I’d never seen.

[packerbeth]

One last picture of this area of MGM. You can barely make out the "ANDY" on Woody's boot. I love details like that!

Next, it was off to the Great Movie Ride.

I’d never done this one, either, and was looking forward to it. I enjoyed it, except for the Alien part, which I was expecting but did not realize it would be so scary! I could definitely NOT bring my chicken DD8 on this ride, even though she would enjoy the other aspects of it. Our driver’s name was Stephanie, and she was cute and cheesy at the same time. We had a female gangster who played her part well, also. Only got one decent shot on this ride; darn no-flash photography rule!

The people behind us were having a who-can-name-the-most-movies contest during the movie clips portion of the ride; it was pretty funny to listen to. I think it was at this attraction that I heard a woman say "That's from Finding Nemo!" but actually pronounced it "Neh-mo." We laughed about that for the rest of the trip. Yes, we're easily amused!

[packerbeth]

I ran into my friend and fellow Disney fan, Tina, this afternoon at the grocery store. She told me she was reading my TR, so I wanted to say hi and thanks!

Hi Tina!

Thanks for reading!

[Dopey]

I am finally caught up with your fun trip report. You two had such a good time. When will you post more?

[packerbeth]

Originally Posted by Dopey

I am finally caught up with your fun trip report. You two had such a good time. When will you post more?

I've got the rest of our first day to tell you about; I'll get to it tonight, and start Day 2 tomorrow. Glad you're enjoying it!

[packerbeth]

Forgot to mention that our meal at Mama Melrose's would have come to $98.31. Totally not worth it if we'd paid OOP, but of course, we were on the dining plan and it was FREE!

At some point, we rode Star Tours, which I liked more than I thought I would. I’ve seen all of the SW movies, and while I’ve never been a big fan, I could appreciate the attraction and enjoyed the effects of the motion simulator. I think we’d picked up a FP when we first arrived in this area after the parade, so we had little to no wait before we boarded our StarSpeeder.

Let me take a minute to talk about crowds. It seemed like the parades and major shows (Illuminations, Fantasmic, etc.) were really crowded, but there was almost never a wait for any attraction in any of the parks. We often saw the standard 20 minute wait posted, but I don’t think we ever waited that long for anything. A couple of times, the wait was less than five minutes, so the wait time sign didn’t have any number in it at all! For example, here’s the sign for “it’s a small world” on an EMH morning.

Here’s the line for said five minute wait:

It was basically a walk-on. I know some of you really hate this ride, but I love it. I’ve always loved it, and I will always love it! I probably have about 40 pictures from this ride alone, but they’re mostly for my scrapbook. I’ll only post them if they’re particularly good, or just to irritate those of you who hate it!

Back to MGM. It was getting close to Fantasmic time, and it seemed like our time at MGM had just flown by. We were told to be at Oscar’s for our reserved seating by 7:30 for an 8:00 show. Now, I was really looking forward to Fantasmic. We’d missed it on my last trip, and it was a priority for me to see it this time. However, Tower of Terror was calling my name. I think we’d picked up a FP earlier, but didn’t really end up needing it because the stand-by time was so short. We made the choice to go on ToT, and then either sprint to Oscar’s or just take our chances with the regular seating.

I loved ToT even more the second time I rode it. I really wanted to get back to MGM later in the week just to ride ToT, but I knew it was going to be impossible. We were going to be doing enough running as it was, without adding an additional trip to MGM into the mix. I’d ridden RnRC twice last time, and missed ToT, and this time it would be the reverse, and I would have to be okay with it.

By the time we got out, it was very close to 8:00. We didn’t really have time to go all the way to Oscar’s, and we were right by the main entrance to the seating area, so we headed on in there. I second guessed it afterwards, but we'd made our choice. We ended up way down on the far end, about 10 or so rows from the bottom. It was decent seating with an OK view, but I was just glad to be at Fantasmic. We were going to try to head over to Epcot afterwards, not for Illuminations but for Soarin’, so I was a little distracted during the show, but it didn’t stop me from getting the full effect. I loved it. I think it may be too intense for my kids during most of it, but hopefully they’ll be ready for it when we’re in Disneyland in 2009, when they’re 8 and 10. I love Sorcerer Mickey, and think it’s so cool when he directs the music and the water comes shooting up. I really enjoyed the music, also, and look forward to hearing it on the CD that Stacy bought.

We boogied out of there a little before it ended, just as the big boat was heading for the front of the staging area. I had no desire to be in the middle of this crowd as everyone exited at the same time. I do have some claustrophobic tendencies (thanks, mom!) and prefer to have my own space. I don't feel like we missed anything, but if we hadn't been heading to Epcot, I probably would have just waited for the crowd to clear out before leaving.

[packerbeth]

We found Flip without too much trouble (for once!) and drove off to Epcot to try to catch a ride on Soarin’ before it closed. Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we were not able to get there in time. So instead, we found a fairly decent spot for the fireworks portion of Illuminations. We were supposed to be coming back early the next night and find a good spot to watch it, but I figured while we’re here I might as well try to get some good fireworks pictures. My camera has a fireworks setting, and I’d purchased a gorillapod which you can wrap around a pole to stabilize your camera so you can get good shots. Here are a few of mine:









We were ahead of the exiting World Showcase crowds, so we went off to find Flip again, and were back at the ASMu in no time. We were pretty tired after a very long day, but it had been an awesome one and we couldn't wait for the next morning!

[Tyffni]

Wow! You make me antsy for my November trip! I'm compromising with DH and only doing Epcot and DQ since we are only there for a weekend. Now I want to go to MGM!