Tuesday: The One Where We Have Rumblies In Our Tumblies, and Delicious Hallowishes Pt. IV

Believe it or not, I haven't forgotten what this TR is supposed to be for! On with the Disney goodness! 

When I left off we were on our way to MNSSHP! In our room I was so excited as I put my costume on! I had my costume made over a year before our trip, I just knew that if we were going to MNSSHP, I wanted to be Belle. My only dilemma was blue, or yellow? I’m lucky enough to have a friend who is an amazing seamstress and costume designer, and runs her own fancy dress shop, so whichever I chose wouldn’t have been a problem. Then New Fantasyland opened with the fountain, and Gaston’s Tavern, and Be Our Guest…that sealed the deal! It HAD to be the blue.

I couldn’t believe I was finally there, in my outfit, finally heading out to a MNSSHP! My excitement lasted at fever pitch for at least for a few paces. Then I realised how HOT it was outside with long sleeves on! Did not think of that on a chilly spring morning in England when I was ordering my costume! Whoops! We got to the bus stop just as the MK bus pulled away. That was bad timing! We had a fun wait though, watching all the other families in their costumes. There was a Toy Story family, Woody, Jessie (Mum and daughter) and Buzz, a Cinderella family, and one with Elsa, Anna, and the Duke of Weaselton...sorry WESSleton! I was glad to get onto the nice air-conditioned bus when it pulled up, there is no room for a water bottle in a book bag! Getting off the bus and walking towards the bag-check, it was fun to see all of the other costumes, and to say hi to the people leaving the park for the day, who were all admiring our costumes! Quite a few people recognised me as Belle, and I only had one “It’s Ariel!!” which made a change, at Comic-cons over here it tends to be 50/50 whether people will think I’m Belle or Ariel! I always think it’s so exciting when people recognise your character.

John usually skips the bag-check line as he never carries anything, but this time he chose to come with me (I know, rule-breaker!! Sorry we slowed it down by one person). I soon realised why. We got to the front very quickly, and said hi to the bag check guy...who looked very confused to be presented with a book! John was giggling the whole time. The security guy said that it was the first book he’d ever searched, and it was a very clever idea. Thanks, bag-check guy! Up-cycled it myself!

Lots of people had stopped for photographs in front of the park, but as we had another party later in the trip, we decided to skip it this time. This party was mainly for the Hallowishes Dessert Party. We were early though, so we collected our wristbands and treat bags and headed inside. We stopped for a quick photograph with the welcome sign on our way in.



We really don’t have many photographs of that night...I know that’s not what you want to hear, sorry! We were just having such a great time in the party spirit! Plus it was a PITA trying to get the camera out of my book as it was quite intricately packed with a camera, camcorder, phone, purse, Magic Band, tiny first aid kit, etc. Yes, all in that one volume! I really needed a set of encyclopedias! I played a LOT of Tetris as a kid, it helps with the packing!

We went to Frontierland and collected our MNSSHP SotMK cards, pretty much by accident actually as we wandered past the spot and the lady called us back! We headed to BTMRR, but it had a really long queue. No time for that now! We spent a while wandering around, admiring people’s costumes and taking in the atmosphere. Coming from somewhere where Halloween is just really starting to be a big deal, and still nowhere near on a par with how massive it is in America, it was quite the experience! John decided that we had to ride Haunted Mansion at a Halloween party, so off to Liberty Square we went. Liberty Square is my MK blank spot. I can NEVER remember the name of it. “Liberty Island”, “Libertyland”, “Ye Olde Worlde America Land”….Anything but Liberty Square! So if I mis-label it from now on, you know where I mean! On the way past we headed into Memento Mori. It was PACKED! I love that shop. It has the perfect title for a HM-themed shop too. “Memento Mori” literally translates as “Remember that you can die”...There’s always room for one more! I love how Disney add these details. I actually have a very old French book on how to make authentic memento mori brooches/lockets using locks of hair to make tiny flower bouquets, etc to seal under glass in mourning jewellery. I’ve never tried it though! Maybe if I have a major trim in the future I’ll save a few locks of hair to experiment with. Anyway...

Given how terribly busy the gift shop was, I was expecting everyone to have had the same idea about heading to HM, but when we got to the gates the queue for the photo op was longer than the queue for the ride! They were doing Magic Shots by the hearse, and the beautiful spectre of a Southern Belle was talking and singing away on the lawn, it was lovely! We decided to take advantage of the 10min queue and not keep our (ghost) host waiting any longer. As we got to Mme Leota’s resting place I heard someone call out “Hey! Sweet costume choice Belle!” I turned around and there was a girl wearing practically the exact same outfit! We chatted and compared notes as we waited for the doors to open, she was very impressed with the book bag! She had her beast with her and he was carrying all of her stuff for her (which, in hindsight, is a much better idea and much easier on the arms...My arms, anyway! Duly noted for next time!). Soon our host sent his staff to let us in, and we filed into the Mansion. As we headed to the lift I recognised one of the staff. Who’s that girl? Who’s that girl?

It’s JESS!

DISboards Jess. PrincessJess. I was fangirling. I followed all of her TRs and her DCP TR especially was what got me into reading the DIS more regularly. John, of course, had no idea whatsoever who or what I was talking about. I wasn’t sure if it was OK to talk to her when she was in character at work, especially as it was a party and so all the HM staff were all SUPER in character, and we were IN the stretching room already so it might spoil it for other people if I tried to chat with her, but would I get another chance...By the time I had decided that yes, it was definitely her and yes, I probably had freaked her out with my frantic whispering to John the whole time we were in the stretching room, we were being shooed into our doom buggies and it was too late to say anything! I regret my choice, we never saw her again! Boo!

By the time we left the mansion the line for photographs was much shorter so we joined the back of it and waited for our magic shots. We’re terrible at cheesy poses though. You’ll notice that throughout the PP shots! I felt like I had a really good scared face going, but then the guy made me laugh and ruined it. I like how they turned out though.




See what I mean about the poses?! Oh well.

Then we looked at the clock and realised that we should probably be heading to the party. Now was not a time to be fashionably late! The Happy Hallowishes Dessert Party begins at the flagpole, so we had quite the walk. We made it in good time, and got a nice spot.



It felt like we were waiting an age for the parade to start. The Headless Horseman was wonderful! Then we had the odd Phineus and Ferb section...Not the biggest P&F fans! I gave up on trying to take photographs as they were all terrible, but I did get a video:


After the parade there was a mass exodus! If you want the genuine Mufasa experience, stand at the flag pole after a parade when people are trying to leave the park and look up Main St USA! Oh my goodness! Stampede! Fortunately we didn’t have to fight our way back up Main St as they opened a little back way for us party people beside The Chapeau. We were at Tomorrowland Terrace in no time!



Our table was excellent, right at the front! The skull mugs of sweets were for us to take away. Sadly the lantern was not. Though I did see someone stash theirs in a bag, I never managed to see if they got away with it. Why would you steal something like that? If nothing else stops you, perhaps the fact that they have your card details because you paid in advance should ring alarm bells!

Those of you paying attention will have noticed that we ate breakfast quite some time ago...And nothing since. This was John’s master plan to get the most out of the Dessert Party! He managed at least 2-3 trips to the buffet and the same to the sundae cart. I did not. I did try at least one of everything though, and it was all delicious!

It was here that I discovered the secret to the Disney dessert buffet: The cheese plate. Seriously, the cheese is the key. Otherwise everything is so sweet you will never get your money’s worth before you feel too sick to eat any more (if you’re anything like me, that is!). But, if you alternate desserts with a half-cube of cheese, it’s not a problem!

I took a video of the fireworks from the party, I think we had a pretty great view!






Apparently the sundae man is the finest sundae maker in the world. John should know. He sampled his wares multiple times.

After the fireworks were done we decided to head out. The original plan had been to watch the later Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular, but my feet were killing me, we were stuffed with dessert and I needed that sugar high to last long enough to carry me back to the hotel or I would never have survived the trek to our room! I figured the sugar rush would last long enough to stop for a photograph or two though.


What is that sugar-crazed face of mine?! Will someone puh-leeeeeease stop me having pictures taken! I don’t even know what went wrong there. I propose that PP photographers all wear hats with “SUCK IN THAT GUT!” on the front, and have a mirror stuck on their tripods so you can see what the heck your face is doing before they take the photograph!

They told him to pose like Gaston…and me to make the appropriate face!

His outfit actually worked out pretty well, a lot of people thought he was Disneybounding as Gaston. Nope! Just didn’t bother to put his actual costume on that night!

I stayed awake long enough to take some photos of our goodies.


 

 

Then we collapsed into bed. We had an early start the next day! Where will we head to next? 

Tuesday: The One Where We Have Rumblies In Our Tumblies, and Delicious Hallowishes Pt. III

After many, many (manymanymany) great big beautiful tomorrows, the carousel started turning again. On with the show! I really do love Carousel of Progress, I don’t know why, it just really makes me happy each time we ride it. Yes, it’s a bit out-dated and the “future” still isn’t quite here yet, but what the heck, I really enjoy it. I think we only did it once this trip though, which is odd as last time we did it 3-4 times. After a longer than usual ride, it was time for more shopping. I love browsing, I love air-con, I swear even if there were no rides at all in WDW I would still go just for the gift shops (Florida State Law: Exit Through The Gift Shop! The guide at Kennedy said that on our last trip, I want it on a T-shirt!). We went in Merchant of Venus and spent a while looking at all the new merchandise that had appeared since our last visit. I found an adorable Jiminy Cricket keyring that I really wanted for my car keys but, sticking to my usual shopping plan, I opted to buy it later in the trip, just in case I saw one that I prefered somewhere else. I have a thing about keyrings, I used to collect them as a child (along with bookmarks, and stickers...Now I’ve added pins into the mix too), now I still buy really nice ones, which I then don’t use in case they get damaged.


Our next FP was Big Thunder Mountain. It’s the one ride that John remembered going on from his trips with his family as a child, and last time we went it was closed for renovations, so we were both really excited to get to ride it at last!! We’d left it a bit late with all our wandering and shopping and the odd trip to the bathroom. To save time and repeating myself, I’ve left out all of the many bathroom visits we (read: I) made during the trip. I’m an over-hydrator, what can I say?! With 20mins to go we decided to go around the castle and make a run for Frontierland. By “run”, clearly I mean “sweaty amble”. As we came to the front of the castle, we stumbled into some HUGE crowds!


I could say that sadly another darn parade got in our way and thwarted our carefully laid plans and months-ago booked FPs, but who would think like that in WDW?! (OK, we came across a LOT of people who thought like that. Including one later on in our trip who thought I was a CM in my Halloween costume and full-on yelled at me because he and his family couldn’t cross the parade route...but I can’t think like that!). Instead, I say YAY!!! We got to see Festival of Fantasy parade!! I’ve seen the parade on Youtube, but I could not wait to see it in real life. I love dragons, and I was so excited to see Maleficent in all her steam-punk fire-breathing glory. We got there just as they closed access to Frontierland, which meant we were pretty much right at the front of the standing people! 

Photobucket decided to rearrange my photos for no apparent reason, so if these are in the wrong order, I apologise now!






I love the little mice!


Ta-daaaaaa!



http://s27.photobucket.com/user/hoc...202919583_n_zpskkfz6ole.jpg.html?sort=3&o=189






I love how Flynn and Max are swinging on the same hammer!






Sebastian! Ariel! Flounder circling above! I love it!


I love this little guy!






Derpy crocodile!!




Here she comes!!






She didn't blow fire until she'd passed us by  I got the smoke though!










Baby Dumbo!! 


Look how excited he is!!


Because there's his Mama!!  Also, there's Hyacinth the Hippo. Hyacinth is my spirit animal. Not hippos in general...Just Hyacinth.




There are so many Festival of Fantasy outfits that I want for Halloween costumes. This is one of them!!




Ch-Ch-Ch-Chip and Dale!


There's my girl!


"The best way of travel, however, if you aren't in any hurry at all, if you don't care where you are going...is in a balloon. In a balloon, you can decide only when to start, and usually when to stop. The rest is left entirely to nature."


TTFN!

Amazing!! I really loved it, and it was totally worth missing our FP for! The parade was wonderful. We decided that, as we were so close to Main St USA that we would follow the parade and head back to the hotel. It was time to get ready and head back to the park for MNSSHP!

As we walked to the bus we saw people heading into MK in their costumes. I wished that I’d planned ahead and brought my costume with us that morning, but it just wasn’t practical. So, back “home” we went. I even did some ironing! Yes, on holiday! I don’t know how people do laundry when they’re away, I resented having to get the iron out to do four pieces of costume! But, I did my ironing and packed my book, and then we were off for some Not So Scary Fun!