Welcome back everyone! I hope you enjoyed the first part of the first day of my trip! LOL! Let's get straight into part 2. You might want to take a bathroom break, grab a snack and a drink because this is gonna be a loooooong one =)
A couple things you should know. Every night when we got back to the room I would transfer all of my photos off my camera and on to my computer. I didn't realize until I got home that not all the photos from this night transferred. =( Not only that, but Kendall had something go wonky with her memory card and she lost ALL of her photos from the Halloween party. It was a fiasco. Lol. Thank goodness for Heather and our photopass photos. I want to give her a shout out because if it wasn't for her I wouldn't have any photos from half the night! Thanks for being YOU Heather!! =) Also, in case you were wondering about our super cute shirts, I made them for us!!
Sept 23, 2011 - Part 2
On the way back to the Magic Kingdom I texted Kendall to see if she was at the front gate yet, and she wasn't. She said she had fallen asleep and was running a little behind but was about to leave the room. I forgot my umbrella and my autograph book pen, so I asked her to grab those for me. I told Heather to go ahead and head into the park and I would wait for Kendall. When she texted me to say her bus had just pulled into the park I headed over to the gate and got in line since it was starting to get a little backed up with partygoers. I got in and got my wristband and just a minute later Kendall was in and ready to go as well. Heather had gone to buy some clips for her already starting to frizz up hair and came back to the gate so we could take some photo pass photos at the front of the park in front of the Flower Mickey.
When we started to head under the train onto Main Street we were handed bags for our Halloween candy. A few steps later, Heather and Kendall thought I was a total weirdo because I was amazed at the fact that you could go under the Main Street Station! Not only that, but it is where you rent strollers and wheelchairs for the day. It was awesome.
Right past that, Kendall stopped to buy herself a pen for her autograph book and Heather and I took photos with the welcome to MNSSHP sign.
Then I was in full blown photo mode. The buildings on the Magic Kingdoms Main Street are just soo gorgeous! They are massive too! The first thing I saw was The Town Square Theater where you meet Mickey & Minnie.
The courtyard next to the Theater, called Curtain Call Collectables, is so cute!
Then on the other side of the Theater is Tony's Town Square Restaurant. It is Italian food and is supposed to be like the restaurant out of the movie Lady & The Tramp. So much to see and this is only one side of Town Square!
Next we headed to the center of Town Square to take photos of all the fun pumpkin scarecrows they set up. Each was themed in a fun costume. Under them there were scattered pumpkins and orange planted flowers. A photographers dream!
As we made out way around the circle I looked back to get photos of the Main Street Train Station because it is seriously HUGE! I loved the grand staircase and how they were underneath the station. The whole thing was just gorgeous.
After that I snapped some photos of the remaining Town Square buildings: the Chamber of Commerce, City Hall, the courtyard in between them and the Fire Station. All the buildings were decked out in Halloween colored banners, decorations and carved pumpkins.
My favorite decoration though had to be the pumpkins carved to say "See Ya Real Soon" as you are leaving Town Square. So adorable.
We headed to the photo pass photographer in the middle of Town Square so we could get those basic shots out of the way while the crowds were still light.
Then we started heading down the rest of Main Street. It was SO humid so we stopped in the first shop we saw to grab a bottle of water. I grabbed some napkins as well because I was already a sweaty mess! I also snapped a cute photo of Kendall with the Mickey ghost cookie that matched her shirt!
It was after we left this shop that I was finally able to get a good look at Cinderella's Castle. Oh man, it is huge and soo gorgeous! I was simply blown away by the size of it.
We stopped to get a bunch of photo pass pictures and moved on to take photos of the fun statues around the hub and of course the castle.
There is a super cute spot when you start walking towards Tomorrowland that has a pretty view of the castle and a set of Mickey & Minnie topiaries that we took some photos with.
One of my favorite parts of the hub area was the sprawling landscape and water in between the entrances to all the lands. These were perfect spots to take photos of all the ducks and bunnies running around.
We decided, according to the plan Heather laid out for us, to head towards Adventureland. This is where I got to meet my first WDW character, Peter Pan! The interaction was great and the line wasn't too long so it was a good start. There wasn't a photopass photographer with him and of course we took our photos on Kendall's camera. So we lost most of those photos. Luckily Heather took a couple candid shots of us!
We continued on into Adventureland and Heather and Kendall wanted to stop and meet the Faeries. I decided to sit this one out so I could call home and let everyone know how my trip was going so far. Of course this would be the moment it decided to start raining, so I had to find cover near the entrance to the faeries.
After Heather and Kendall were finished we continued on so we could get in line to meet Pirate Goofy near the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean. On the way I took some scenery shots and was super excited to see Aloha Isle since I knew that was where I was eventually gonna be getting my Dole Whip. I really liked the Tortuga Tavern building too. The theme was perfect for the area.
Pirate Goofy was just adorable. I loved the area he was meeting in and though the light was kinda icky our pictures turned out super cute.
One of Heather's requests on this trip was meeting Captain Jack Sparrow. She already knew where he was gonna be meeting and at what time so we were the first people in line waiting for him when he got there. This was another super fun interaction! He was perfect and hilarious! There was this hilarious moment when he was waiting for Kendall to set her stuff down and take her photo with him. He was standing behind her and she bent down to set her stuff down, RIGHT in from of him! OMG, his face was PRICELESS! I really wish I had thought to take a photo.
We noticed that once we were done with Captain Jack that the line behind us was so long! We had claimed our spot at just the right time.
After we left Captain Jack we noticed that no one was in line to meet Timon so we stopped there very quickly to get a photo.
After Timon we headed back to the hub area so we could wait to meet Gaston. MNSSHP was the first time Gaston had been making appearances so Heather was super excited about this one. We sort of started a line before he even got there not knowing that he was supposed to be a roaming character. The poor guy had to come over to us since there were now quite a few people waiting to meet him. Gaston was another character that played the part perfectly. At one point he accidentally bumped me in the head with his arm and instead of apologizing or anything he says "well, I DO have biceps to spare!" HAHA!! So far I was super impressed with the interactions we experienced!
After Gaston we headed into Frontierland. One of the characters I really wanted to meet was Bullseye. I was told that he would be at Woody's Happy Harvest Roundup dance party with Jessie and that he wasn't supposed to stop for photos so you kinda had to work your way into getting a photo. They weren't kidding about that! He wouldn't stop dancing so I kinda just had to dance along with him and hope that I could get a good photo. It was hilarious!! I am pretty sure his hoof almost smacked me in the head numerous times.
We roamed around and took photos of the area for a little bit and Heather and Kendall stopped to buy some of the MNSSHP special pins before we headed over to the Haunted Mansion to take some photo pass photos that Heather said we had to get. We took some magic shots with the Hitchhiking ghosts and with the carriage ghost in front of the ride. Around this same time, lightening had started to really pick up and we were hearing that they started pulling the characters! Oh no! Heather was starting to go into character freak out mode and this was the last thing we needed. Luckily, the lightening went away after a little while and the characters would come out at scheduled.
Now it was time for us to find a spot to watch the parade. I know we kinda wanted to get a spot in Frontierland, but everything was filling up very quickly so somehow we ended up at the very beginning of Main Street right in front of the train station. I swear that parades bring out the worst in people and this parade was no exceptions. It didn't take very long for a family to sit behind us and for their kids to start pushing us and trying to break through. Besides the footmarks on my back from the child in the stroller behind me, the parade was super cute! I loved the Headless Horseman that rides before the parade and the array of character the parade contained.
Here is a video clip of the Headless Horseman:
My favorite part was definitely the Haunted Mansion portion. The Gravediggers were awesome when they hit there shovels on the ground to make sparks fly, the Hitch Hiking Ghosts on the float and the ghost ballroom dancers. So awesome. The last float of Goofy on the Goofy's Candy Co. train was fun too because CM's came around and passed out candy to everyone!
Here is a video clip of the Headless Horseman:
My favorite part was definitely the Haunted Mansion portion. The Gravediggers were awesome when they hit there shovels on the ground to make sparks fly, the Hitch Hiking Ghosts on the float and the ghost ballroom dancers. So awesome. The last float of Goofy on the Goofy's Candy Co. train was fun too because CM's came around and passed out candy to everyone!
After the parade ended we gathered up our things and got in line to meet the Pooh characters. They were seriously adorable all dressed up in their Halloween costumes. I loved Eeyore as the clown. His clown nose just about did me in!
After that, we headed back up Main Street to watch Hallowishes. I think we had a pretty good spot and it was a really good show. I loved the parts where the fireworks were going off all around us. It was so fun!
I still hadn't gotten the chance to meet Lotso yet. He was the one character that I was most excited for, so we headed over to the hub to see if we could find him anywhere. We didn't see him so we got in like to meet The Tremaines. Right when it was about to be our turn I saw Lotso come walking out! So I left Heather and Kendall to get their photos with the Tremaines while I went and hopped in line for Lotso.
There was NO WAY I was gonna miss him and oh man, he did not disappoint! I tried to run up to him and give him a hug when it was my turn, but he crossed his arms in true Lotso fashion and just looked at me with that "no" stance. So I pouted and told him that it was my birthday and he was the ONE character I was waiting to meet all night!! Then he gave me the greatest Lotso bear hug I could have ever imagined! I just love him! I am so mad at myself still for not taking a moment to check if he smelled like strawberries or not.
After this my night was complete, but there was still so much to do. We headed over to the castle to wait for the next Villains Mix & Mingle showing. It was fun seeing all the Villains in a show even if the show was super silly. It was all the villains putting on a runway show. I don't even know what to say about that. LOL.
After the show the Villains come out to meet and greet people and we all knew that we wanted to meet Malificent, so we hopped in the line to meet her. She is by far my favorite villain. Her outfit was amazing and I still can't stop looking at her makeup. It was all so perfect.
After her, we had enough time for Kendall to meet the Evil Queen before the characters headed back in. Of course that photo was taken on Kendall's camera so there is no proof, but I swear she DID actually get to meet her =)
When we were walking away we saw Frollo walking around with no line at all to see him and Heather hadn't met him yet so we tried to get a photo of her with him. It was hilarious because he just would NOT stop to take a photo with her! He even shooed her away at one point. We all laughed pretty hard over that one.
After the Villains Mix & Mingle, we headed back down Main Street again so we could get meet Mickey & Minnie. Lucky for us, the line for them wasn't very long. I just loved the costumes they were wearing too! Princess Minnie was so fun.
After Mickey & Minnie we got in line to meet the princesses. This was the longest line of the night for sure. We had about a hour wait ahead of us. I was starving by this point was I was gonna hop out of line, grab some food and come back. Of course, right when I go outside the parade just got to Town Square and my mom called me. After waiting for the parade and talking to her for way too long, I got a text from Heather that they were getting close to the front of the line. So I went to go back into the building only to find the doors shut because they closed down the line! Ack! I was standing outside the doors texting the girls that I wasn't going to be able to come back in when another family tried to open the doors. The CM told them the line was closed and when they walked away she saw me and recognized me and let me back in the line. Phew! I was getting sad there for a moment thinking I wasn't going to get to meet the princesses! I loved getting to meet the princesses along with their princes.
I love these candid shot of me with Prince Charming and Snow White. I totally don't remember what we were talking about, but it looks like I was telling them a pretty fabulous story =)
That was such a treat. They were all super nice, but I think I liked meeting Rapunzel and Flynn Ryder the most.
After that we were able to get in a quick meet with Duffy in his costume before the party ended.
Then it was back up to the castle to get some night shots in front of the castle with the photopass photographers. If you haven't already noticed, the shirts I made us were TOTALLY falling apart as the night went on. Lol. I didn't take into consideration the fact that there would be bag and camera straps strung across us the entire time, so the designs started to peel off. Not only that but I had glittered the shirts as well. I do not recommend that. Glitter and sweat are not a good combination. Ha!
The whole time we were at the party we never went into Tomorrowland or Fantasyland, so we did a quick run through those areas to get some photos of the Halloween themed elements.
The cast members were excited to have their photo taken!
It was a pretty amazing night. We got to see and do pretty everything we had wanted to. It was about 1am when we finally left the park and we were utterly exhausted, but it was totally worth it!
A couple night photos Heather snapped of the hotel.
Stay tuned for my next installment! EPCOT! Woot!
Thanks so much for reading =)
Thanks so much for reading =)
1 - Finally Being Able To Scrap A Album
5 - Tower Of Terror
7 - France
8 - Figment Merchandise
9 - Illuminations
10 - Rock N Roller-coaster
11 - The Tree Of Life
12 - Phineas & Ferb
13 - Vinylmation Trading
14 - Test Track
16 - Yak & Yeti
17 - Tomorrowland Transit Authority
18 - Extra Magic Hours
19 - Boma
20 - Splash Mountain & Space Mountain
21 - The Big Hat
22 - Finding Nemo The Musical
23 - Kilimanjaro Safari
24 - World Showcase
25 - Sci-Fi Dine-In
26 - Country Bear Jamboree
28 - Pressed Pennies
29 - Spaceship Earth
30 - Earl Of Sandwich
31 - 1st Visit & Happy Birthday Pin's
32 - Haunted Mansion
33 - Dole Whip
34 - Animation Academy
35 - Seeing Heather in action on Toy Story Mania
37 - Expedition Everest
38 - Meeting Heather & Kendall
39 - First Vacation On My Own
