Alice, Mickey, and Pooh Bear ... Oh my! A First Timer's Trip Report -- Updated 8/19 - Page 9 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
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There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
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Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
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To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
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If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Good call on not going into the World of Disney store. It's definitely not a "let me just take a quick look" kind of store Seriously, I think I could spend days there!
What a cool window scene your mousekeeper left for you, awesome balloon! Looking forward to what you thought of MNSSHP!
What AWESOME CM encounters you have had! I think CM's that go out of their way to make a guest day far better than a ride experience and one that will be forever remembered. We had a great mousekeeper on our last trip too...my girls loved her so much they wanted to take their picture with her before we left. She was so suprised, but it's true. She helped make our trip magical. Love CM's like that! Thanks for sharing!
You seriously packed a lot in your Mr. Potato Head! I saw a family there trying to do the same and they kept getting so frustrated that it wouldn't all fit.
I love all of the Mickey ears you picked out, that sounds like a good MNSHHP costume to me!
How nice of mousekeeping havent had much luck with that on our trips maybe its because we are two adults
I wasn't expecting so much myself. I wonder if it was because the first day I left a tip I gushed about how it was our first trip and I knew she would be a special part of our trip. That was before she even did anything!! LOL then each day she did something special, I made sure to write her a note thanking her so much. We were very very lucky. (I also think you may not find this at every resort, they may feel more playful at the value resorts .... not positive on that, but that's my feeling anyway)
Quote:
Originally Posted by elbodans
there are so many things i love about that last post i'm afraid i won't remember to comment on them all! well, obviously the first thing is the mousekeeping surprise. that's hands down the coolest mousekeeping related thing i've ever seen (and i read a lot of trip reports! ) how wonderful! and i love that your son took the balloon with him to the halloween party!
i super, SUPER love the photo of your husband and son in DTD. what a GREAT shot. seriously--love.
speaking of things i love--is that a MICKEY BAR in mr. potato head's hand? with a bite taken out? that's definitely the best potato head accessory i've ever seen!!!
i can't wait to hear about the halloween party!!!
Thanks!!! we were so lucky with mousekeeping, she was truly special. That picture of my son and husband is funny because I happened to be walking on the other side across from them and they stopped to look at the balloon thingy, hubby looked over at me and saw I was taking a picture of them, so he assumed the "nice picture position" as we call it. LOL Not totally staged, but maybe just a bit.
And yes that is a Mickey bar in that picture!! I know you affection for those pictures as well as mine. Do you have a Mr. Potato head? I would be happy to mail one of the bars along to you, I think I ended up with 8 of them since they were small and filled in the extra spaces. Just PM me if you'd like.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Colexis Mom
Glad you had a great time at DTD and that your mousekeeper did such a great job on the windows! Great costumes! Can't wait to hear about the party!
Thanks!! We had fun with our "costumes", more on the party coming real soon!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cam22
The pick a brick at Lego always looks fun! Ada was an exceptional mousekeeper for you all! Can't wait to hear how you all liked MNSSHP!
We did have fun with pick a brick, I guess we were on a roll with the "fill a container" things that day!! Hehe
Quote:
Originally Posted by JKnott17
Good call on not going into the World of Disney store. It's definitely not a "let me just take a quick look" kind of store Seriously, I think I could spend days there!
What a cool window scene your mousekeeper left for you, awesome balloon! Looking forward to what you thought of MNSSHP!
OMG .... we went back there another day and it is HUGE! I am very glad we did not go in that day.
Quote:
Originally Posted by saibot0001
What AWESOME CM encounters you have had! I think CM's that go out of their way to make a guest day far better than a ride experience and one that will be forever remembered. We had a great mousekeeper on our last trip too...my girls loved her so much they wanted to take their picture with her before we left. She was so suprised, but it's true. She helped make our trip magical. Love CM's like that! Thanks for sharing!
We were so lucky on this trip with GREAT experiences with CMs, we were truly honored by that. You will see in an upcoming post we did the same thing to Ada. How could we not wwhne she made our trip so special!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by lexiemom
I just found your TR and I am now all caught up!
You seriously packed a lot in your Mr. Potato Head! I saw a family there trying to do the same and they kept getting so frustrated that it wouldn't all fit.
I love all of the Mickey ears you picked out, that sounds like a good MNSHHP costume to me!
Can't wait for more!
Glad you found my TR!! Hope you don't get bored easily as there is quite a bit more to come!!! I am rather long winded. LOL
On the Mr. Potato head, you seriously have to have good spatial skills to makes that work well. It was funny because as I brought it to the desk, I was looking at it and I saw a little gap where I could have fit another Mickey bar and I was sooooo tempted to take a few things out and throw one in there. LOL But I left well enough alone. Hehehe
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awww...you are so sweet! my mr. potato head has been willed to a colleague (it lived in my classroom--and i'm not teaching this year) so no, but thanks so much for the offer!
you have a GREAT husband--he knows the 'photo position'! love it!
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I have been AWOL for a little bit. After my last post, I took some time to get things together for some upcoming craft fairs, then we lost power for a whole week in the snow storm that happened in the North East. It took a while to come back from that, and I still had craft fair stuff to do and of course Thanksgiving. Needless to say it has been a very busy month!! But I still want to be sure to record our wonderful trip, and of course share it here with all of you as well. I hope you can forgive my tardiness and that you enjoy my next installment of our trip!
Party Like It's 2011
So once we were ready to go, we hopped the bus and headed down to the party, even though we were leaving a little later than I would have liked (around 5:30), I knew we would be there in plenty of time to enjoy the festivities. There were a few additions to the decorations as we drove up.
And while we were there a bit earlier than the start time of 7:00, they had signs up welcoming party goers, and we were given our wristbands and let right in.
The first thing we stumbled upon when we entered was the tail end of a parade, I believe it was Celebrations. We chose to stop for a bit and watch the end of it. Well, let's be honest, we had no choice but to stop since there were WAY too many people watching to even try and walk by!
We never caught this parade from start to finish, but even the little bits that we watched, got me a wee bit emotional.
I think it's the music and just the pure joy of watching a parade in the middle of the day! Who doesn't love a good parade??
Once the parade was done and the crowds dissipated (that happens so quick!!), we made sure to stop at one of the photopass photographers to get a picture of all of us in costume.
We even got a bit of magic! I love the expression on my son's face here. The photographer told him to smile, and this is what we got. Whenever we tell him to smile we get the weirdest faces, though i can't blame him, I had the same affliction when I was a child.
Once we were done there, we booked it over to the Seven Dwarves. I knew from reading the boards here that this would be the longest line all night, so I figured we'd get in line early and get it done and over with. We got to the line at about 6:30 and we were already probably the 40th family in line. We started chatting with the family behind us who were dressed as pirates and had just come from the Pirate's League. They had two kids and both their kids, and Kolby, were playing in a play area that wasn't too far from where we were standing.
Finally at 7:00, the Dwarves came out and the line started to move. We called our kids over, but the little boy of the couple we had been talking with was NOT happy to be back in line instead of playing. He was pitching quite a fit, and the parents were doing their best to ignore/placate him without being the type of parent that promised everything to get him to be quiet. I really respected what they were trying to do, as that was how we used to deal with our son's outbursts too. I thought I might be able to help, so I squatted down to his level and asked him if he would like a pin from my lanyard. At first he didn't respond (he was throwing quite a fit), but eventually he calmed down and understood what I was asking. He picked out one of his favorite pins and gave me a big thank you. I then asked if he would stay in line with me now since I really enjoyed hanging out with him. He nodded his head and the fit was done. I could tell the parents were SO relieved. In fact the father gave my son his pirate medallion necklace as a trade for the pin. It was such a kind gesture back, and my son was BEYOND thrilled with it as he had been asking for one of these since before we got to Disney.
With that little problem solved and the kids happy all around, we continued moving up in the line. They were real quick about getting people their pictures, though we saw that there was no passport photographer with them, which we were disappointed about. Luckily just as we walked up to get our pictures done, so did a passport photographer, so we were able to get our own pics and some "professional" ones too.
I actually don't like the picture very much, as I think I look like a midget back there, but oh well, it's still a picture with the dwarves!!
Once we left the dwarves, we were right next to B'riar Rabbit's candy patch, so we hopped on through and collected some of the goodies.
Our plan for the night was to catch the second parade since the crowds would be lower, watch the fireworks from where ever we were at the time, and try and get as many signatures and as much candy as possible. But before we could do all that, we had to eat dinner.
We made our way over to Peso Bill's, since we hadn't tried that one before and it was close by. We tried the computer ordering system for the first time, and I thought it worked really great. We were able to order right away and our food was ready pretty quick.
I ordered the chicken ceasar wrap, Kris ordered the taco salad (which was cool with the toppings bar), and Kolby ordered the children's burger and fries.
We ate our dinner inside, and once we were finished we checked what time it was. It was right about time for the first parade to start, so we stepped out to the outside deck to see if we could make our way to some characters while everyone watched the parade. Once we stepped out though, we realized that the parade route was going to pass right by us. We happened to find a little slot right along the road and we ended up with front row spots for the parade.
My son had a lot of fun waving to all the characters, and as usual, they did a great job interacting with the crowd.
It was neat to see all the characters dressed up in costumes.
We actually caught the parade right from the very beginning and were able to see the whole thing start to finish.
It was great to see so many characters that we would not normally see, especially in parades. Jack Sparrow was of course one of our favorites.
But we enjoyed all the creepy,
and fun characters we saw!!
Including the Villains!
Goofy even tagged along with some treats for the kids, they were happy to collect some pops from his helpers.
We felt so lucky to catch the parade from such great seats, but now it was time to get serious about finding some characters and some candy! Did we succeed in our mission?
Yay! Your back! I was just thinking the other day that it had been a while since I saw any posts to your TR Sounds like your off to a great start at the party, you scored a great spot for the parade! I love watching the parades from Frontierland, it's not as crowded back there as it usually is around the castle and Main Street. Can't wait for the rest!
Yay! Your back! I was just thinking the other day that it had been a while since I saw any posts to your TR Sounds like your off to a great start at the party, you scored a great spot for the parade! I love watching the parades from Frontierland, it's not as crowded back there as it usually is around the castle and Main Street. Can't wait for the rest!
Thanks!! I have so much to type up, so I can't fall too far behind. The parade spot was just perfect.
After the parade, I decided that I wanted to find some characters to get pictures with, so we started heading towards Fantasyland. Along the way we hopped into line for some candy in front of the Haunted Mansion. The line was actually pretty long, but the candy lines moved very fast, so we were out of there a lot faster than I thought we would be. As we passed by the Small World ride, my son decided he wanted to give it a try. Since we haven't gotten him on many rides, we decided to go ahead and hop on. Luckily the line was very short and we were on the ride in minutes. I loved the ride as it really does bring you back to classic Disney. Luckily he really liked it too, in the end this ride opened him up to be more willing to try other rides later on in our trip and I was very happy we did this one.
After the ride, we wandered by the Toy Story dance party. Kolby had an absolute BLAST dancing for a bit with Woody.
The music was very loud though, so we moved on after just about 10 minutes. I was glad we stopped in though as Kolby did really enjoy it, I mean how many chances do you get to dance with one of your favorite characters?
We kept wandering along and saw a line for some pictures with Donald and Daisy. I got the boys to agree to hop into line with me, but just as we got in line the characters walked away for a little break. We decided to stick it out anyway, and we had a pleasant surprise while we were waiting.
The fireworks went off all around us. Since we were behind the castle, we had fireworks in front of us and behind us.
Finally Daisy and Donald returned and we were quickly on our way to autographs and pictures.
As we were leaving the picture taking, Kris saw this guy dressed as Wolverine and he couldn't resist getting a picture with him!! I thought it was a bit weird, but at least Wolverine looked like he was enjoying it.
We kept wandering around looking for some more characters to get autographs with. In Tomorrowland we came upon the Mad Hatter and Alice, so we got in line. It was getting pretty late by this time, and we were getting pretty tired, but we didn't want to quit just yet. I knew the crowds would start thinning out now, so we stuck it out. While we were waiting in line for Alice & Mad Hatter, the Mad Hatter took a little break leaving Alice behind. There were a few of us that wanted to wait for the Mad Hatter, so we let everyone else go in front of us. It actually turned out to be a bit of a mess, but in the end we were first in line for both of them once he reappeared.
Right next to us was a candy trail, so we got in that line and got our candy. By this time of night the CMs were giving out handfuls of candy, so even though we hadn't done very much candy gathering yet, we still had quite a bit of candy. We continued on through Tomorrowland. We decided to make our way to the front, but we took it slow since we also knew the next parade would be starting soon and we didn't want to deal with that crowd right then. We happened upon Buzz Lightyear signing autographs, so we decided to get one of those since we hadn't had luck getting his the other day while we were at MK. Buzz stamps his autograph, so he has a little table to put the book on.
Kolby was doing a great job of interacting with him, which was way too cute. Luckily there wasn't anyone in line behind us, so he got to spend a little extra time there.
And of course Daddy had to hop in as well.
Once we were done, we hit one more candy trail. By that time the second parade was done, so we headed back to the front. Along the way we had a few pictures taken by some photopass photographers. (These are the actual photopass pictures)
We tried really hard to get a lot of photopass pictures since I had pre-ordered the cd. I think we ended up with over 400 pictures, which was awesome!! Even though I prefer less posed pictures myself, it was nice to have great pictures with all three of us in them.
On our way out, I stopped in the photopass place and had a picture of all of us with the balloon printed out.
We planned on giving the picture to Ada, our mousekeeper, as a big thank you for her gift of the balloon.
We finally hopped a bus at 11:50, so we practically made it the full time. The waits for the buses were off and on this trip, sometimes the lines were long, so we didn't always get on the first bus that came around. I have a really hard time standing for long periods, especially after a long day of walking, so if it was standing room only, we often waited for the next one. It was nice to not have to worry about driving ourselves, but it would have been nicer to have a little less of a wait for the buses. I can't even imagine what it would be like during peak season! Anyway, we made it home safe and sound,
albeit a little tired! We conked out as soon as our heads hit the pillow, but we had dreams of Epcot the next day. We only planned one day for Epcot, but there was a lot we wanted to see. How did that work out for us?
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Great costumes! Can't wait to hear about the party! 
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Can't wait to hear how you all liked MNSSHP!
Seriously, I think I could spend days there! 
) how wonderful! and i love that your son took the balloon with him to the halloween party!
Do you have a Mr. Potato head? I would be happy to mail one of the bars along to you, I think I ended up with 8 of them since they were small and filled in the extra spaces. Just PM me if you'd like. 
Great pictures from the party! 
back! Great start to your MNSSHP night! 
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