Summer's Trip Report 12/1-12/3 (photos!)

[SummerInFL]

If you would like to see all of my trip photos, please see this link. http://family.webshots.com/album/556244033BQKnal

Day 1

Last weekend arrived with much anticipation, my daughter Christina was literally counting the days leading up to Friday when we headed off to the Contemporary Resort. This was an extra special weekend for me as I had grown up staying at the Contemporary every year my family would take a vacation and it was very nostaligc for me. Thank you again Cmash for the beautiful invitation. I am going to try and make this as brief as possible with a few exceptions, but here goes!

After arriving and meeting up with Cmash and Figment in the room, we decided to head over to Epcot for the EMH and have some fun!

As we only had a few hours we only did a few things, ate the Electric Umbrella and just enjoyed each others company.

We went on the following rides:

Soarin
The Sea with Nemo
Spaceship Earth

Here are some of the photo highlights from the evening :

[kelly]

great trip report so far summer

[SummerInFL]

Day 2

After waking up in our gorgeous room, C and I caught the monorail to Magic Kingdom to get a head start on the parade crowd.

We headed over to Adventureland first to ride pirates and we met up with Peter and Wendy




Afterwards we went on pirates and I broke the no flash rule to get a photo of the famous bird hat from VMK that I am so obsessed over. :P





Since Christina is to afraid to go on most of the "big kid" rides, we tend to skip most of Frontierland and we headed toward the Haunted Mansion, another one of her favorites. She will ride Haunted Mansion over and over but get her near a roller coaster and the girl freaks out, go figure.



Since this is one of my favorite rides that I am sooooo grateful they will be refurbishing, its very sad to see when things don't work. Like this painting for example, my flash wasn't on and its supposed to be a picture of a man who ages right in front of your eyes. I'm not one to be picky and I mostly enjoy things for what they are but when Leota's face is almost sideways on the bust it makes me sad. The good news though was the singing busts in the graveyard were right in line with the audio.



After the Haunted Mansion we headed over to Fantasyland and grabbed some Fast Passes for Peter Pan, as this is probably my favorite ride in FL, we never miss it.

While we were waiting we went on the Carousel and Dumbo, it usually takes a while waiting in line for Dumbo but to me 20 minutes isn't that big a deal.

At that point I was wondering where Cmash and Figment were as Figment wouldn't get up that morning so they came in after us.
I knew they were on Main Street getting parade video and photos so we headed through the castle only to discover that you couldn't get to Main Street because each side was blocked with electrical wires for filming.

Got a few good photos here as the parade was stopped for filming, most of the characters were being very interactive with those around them.

Claribelle posed for me:



I got this great shot of Space Mountain from the castle:



And Donald and Daisy were hanging out on their own float.



WARNING!! BACK STAGE PHOTOS AHEAD, IF YOU DON'T LIKE SPOILERS, PLEASE DON'T SCROLL DOWN!


At that point since the only option was to go all the way around, we ended up going back through the castle, through Liberty Square and then down Main Street. Now here is where it gets cool. They were rerouting traffic because they were filming on Main Street, so they had cast members directing people behind Main Street at the entrance near Tony's Restuarant and then exiting again at either the end of Main Street or in Tomorrowland. Knowing this would probably never happen again anytime soon, I started snapping photos. I took about 6 pictures before I was told I wasn't allowed to take anymore pictures back there. Oopsies!















And my favorite photo is of course the guest service rules:



After we left back stage we met up with Cmash only for them to announce that in about an hour Andrea Bocelli would be performing live in front of the castle. Now some of you may not know who that is, he is a famous opera singer who is blind and has and UNBELIEVABLE voice. For me, I was giddy like you wouldn't believe. So I grabbed Christina and we headed over to the front of the castle!

Well to my surprise they were only letting a few people in with wristbands who registered ahead of time. (Will have to do that next year) and then after all of those people got in, they let in the filler crowd. C and I ended up about 2 rows deep from the front. There was a woman who was standing next to me who said it better than I ever could, she said, "We are at Disney World, in front of the castle, about to hear Andrea Bocelli perform live, for free, does it get any better than this?" After waiting for about and hour and 15 minutes, he showed up and sang the same song for a few takes. We were told not to look at the camera and just react to him singing (like that was hard) but the really great thing was the camera passed right over us all three takes for the crowd shots. So we might end up on TV! So everybody tune in on Christmas Day and watch the parade, when Andrea Bocelli sings and they do a crowd shot, you will probably see me holding my daughter Christina on my side. LOL

It was one of the best moments I have ever had at WDW. And for your viewing pleasure, I was able to snap photos between takes Enjoy!











So after that wonderful experience I will treasure FOREVER, we headed back to Cmash and Figment. They were speaking to someone I had never met before but I learned it was DisneyMagic! He was very nice and our meeting was very brief but he seemed like a nice guy. Since I was tired for standing like sardines in a can for an hour, C and I headed back to the hotel to change and freshen up.

While we were there, the maids had stopped by, so I took that opportunity to snap pictures of the room. It was really beautiful. They gave us a corner room in the South Wing, if you ever have to get a wing room, I recommend the deluxe, its so much more for not much difference in price. Here are the photos I snapped.












Forgot to add this picture in~! It was the first time I got C locked up! I have to say it was nice to see her holding in one place. LOL



After we went back, my camera battery sort of died so I don't have anymore photos of the rest of the evening. We had gone back and met up with Cmash and Figment again and had Peco's Bill for supper. I was super exhausted at that point and Figment has a picture to prove it! LOL

So after catching the fireworks in Fantasyland we headed back to the hotel and got some sleep for the last day at Animal Kingdom.

Stayed tuned for Day 3.

[Hakuna Makarla]

Loving your report Summer!!!!

[kelly]

me tooooooooo

[barfownz]

Awesome trip report!

[hollywood1939]

Awesome TR! Is that Family Guy that you guys are watching?

[figment1986]

You know.. Mellow Yellow sugar highs are nice

[SummerInFL]

Awesome TR! Is that Family Guy that you guys are watching?

LOL Oh my goodness no, I wouldn't let C watch that. Kim Possible was on, hard to believe the first channel that is on the TV is the Disney Channel.

[hollywood1939]

LOL Oh my goodness no, I wouldn't let C watch that. Kim Possible was on, hard to believe the first channel that is on the TV is the Disney Channel.

Oh, haha, ok. Going back to your TR, I can't believe they let you all walk back there with those cars.

[SummerInFL]

You know.. Mellow Yellow sugar highs are nice

LOL I figured I would let you decide if you wanted that photo shown to the world.

[figment1986]

LOL I figured I would let you decide if you wanted that photo shown to the world.

$5 your backstage main street east photos will get pulled.. lol

now that i think about it... I have been on main street east, adventure way, the only spot left is utilidors and fantasy land area.. lol

[SummerInFL]

$5 your backstage main street east photos will get pulled.. lol

now that i think about it... I have been on main street east, adventure way, the only spot left is utilidors and fantasy land area.. lol

I wouldn't doubt it. If they aren't allowed then they should be pulled. I wouldn't want to get MC in trouble.

If you don't want them there, I will be glad to take them down.

[SummerInFL]

Woke up tired on the third day but its Disney, who isn't? We had reservations at Boma's at Animal Kingdom Lodge for breakfast. If you haven't eaten there I highly recommend it. In my opinion its the best breakfast on WDW property, but that's me.






I almost never take photos of food, but I figured what the heck, it would make a great visual for the TP. LOL

The sausage is unbelievable! and the fruit juice they have is soooo good. I keep forgetting to ask what its made of. I'm sure I could look it up somewhere though. LOL





After filling up our tummies with great food we headed over to Animal Kingdom.

Since I hadn't seen It's Tough To Be a Bug in a long time, I wanted to check it out again. It's a little noiser than I remember but C did okay, she doesn't really like loud noises but if she covers her ears she's fine. The bugs crawling underneath you at the end was creepy but fun. LOL

We didn't get to eat until late so it was around noon at that time and we wanted to catch the Nemo Musical at 3pm for the last show. So we headed in that direction, meeting up with Figments friend, who posts on here but I can never remember his handle. Sorry! LOL

Since I had promised C I would get her some character autographs that weekend we stopped at the character greet with Pooh and Friends. I have to say that Tigger was REALLY great and interactive with everyone around him, even the adults! He had this family with five children all get down on their knees like a soccor team and he stretched out behind them, it was the cutest thing ever!

When it was my daughter's turn he didn't disappoint with a great pose.



After waiting for that we headed over to get in line for Nemo as it was around 2:30 and the line was already stretched around the building!

The show was really great! I have to say it was put together better than I expected but I wasn't wowed like I thought I would be. Chalk it up to me being exhausted I guess. LOL

After we left there we headed toward Everest which was broken down at that time and we decided to skip it because the line to get on was just crazy.

So we decided to head over to the Safari and we had a wonderful time rounding out the day there. Didn't see a lot of animals but I figured they were sleeping about that time, or eating, one of the two.

We ended the day at Rainforest Cafe where C was starting to get a little cranky, so we knew it was about time to go home.



After the meal I discovered that I had left my autograph book my parents bought me when I was about 5 on the table. Went back only to find out it wasn't there. Turns out C had put the books in Cmash purse. WHEW, I was bawling to the manager who was so nice and literally took out the table to help me find it.

All in all it was a great weekend, Day 2 being my favorite. I will definitely have to go back next year for the the 07 taping and see if I can find out who will be there. It was a lot of fun and I appreciated it so much because without Cmash inviting us, we wouldn't have been able to go. So thanks sweetie, I relived some memories, made some new ones and enjoyed WDW with some great friends.

[wedway71]

Great pics.I love the backstage pics the best. I do have a question-the 3rd backstage pic down shows a building with light green roof with 4 windows with miniblinds halfway rolled up-Is that an office or attraction?