"Adventure is OUT there!" Rock Your Disney Side MK, 24-hour event 5/23

[The Batgirl]

So I know this isn’t VERY recent, but I’m new to the site (obviously), and wanted to write a trip review of my last Disney trip – a whirlwind Magic Kingdom visit for the Rock Your Disney Side 24 hour event!

A bit of background: my husband and I absolutely love all things Disney, which I suppose goes without saying. We are in our twenties and don’t have any children, but we do have two cats, Tigger and Roo (of course they’re named after Disney characters). And if anyone is disappointed that there won’t be any cute kid stories, I promise that we’re childish enough in our enthusiasm!

My husband, Phil, is an avid reader of Disney related blogs, twitter accounts, and the like. Seriously, if there’s a Disney relevant blog or account on any form of social media, odds are, he follows it. So one night, he says,
“Man! There’s this event happening at Disney World and in Disneyland on May 23rd, Rock Your Disney Side. It looks so fun. The Magic Kingdom and Disneyland are both going to be open for 24 hours straight.”
“24 hours, that’s crazy!” I replied. “They did that last year, too, right?”
“Yeah, but this year they’re encouraging guests to dress up as their favorite character. Also, there are going to be rare characters out throughout the day, and night.”
“Too bad it’s not happening when we’ll be there. It sounds awesome.”
“You know what? We should go.”
I started laughing. “Okay, babe.”
“No, seriously. Let’s be crazy and irresponsible for once in our lives and do it!”
“Really?! But we have to call off work and everything…”
“So? Why can’t we?”
“OKAY!”

Did I mention that this decision was made on May 21st? I should also add that we live in the Northeastern part of the United States, so we’d have to drive for almost a full day to get to Disney World. No, thanks. So we needed to make arrangements at our jobs, book a flight, get a hotel, rent a car, and buy tickets if we wanted to leave the next night.
CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

(to be continued!)

 

[CharityLynn]

Sounds fun! I'm in.

 

[The Batgirl]

Sounds fun! I'm in.

I like your style and happy tenth anniversary!

 

[The Batgirl]

The next morning, we tried to be realistic by not getting our hopes up too much. If, for instance, we got to our jobs and there was a huge workload, we weren't going to throw our coworkers under the bus by leaving them with whatever we couldn't finish before we left. Fortunately, however, we both didn't have a ton going on at work and also both have bosses who were both amused that we were going to Disney World and also had no problem with the short notice!
(Side note: apparently, texting the phrase, "THUNDERCATS ARE GOOOO!" isn't a clear way to convey that you've gotten the time off from work. The response was, "What? Did you get the time off, or what?")

Now, the planning. Round-trip plane tickets can be a beast, cost-wise. We have a good friend who works for one of the major airlines. While we've never asked if we can get tickets through him, because that has to get old fast ("Oh, so you work for an airline? Can you get me a discount?) we decided to ask this time. Because he is fantastic, he helped us get what they call a "buddy pass." You get your tickets through your airline contact, who puts them into the system. You're then on standby for whichever flight that you want to get on to. You may or may not make that flight, depending on whether or not the tickets for it get sold out, but here's the thing: in terms of pricing, you're basically getting two round-trip tickets for the price of one. We decided that the discount was definitely worth potentially having to take a later flight.

Between our discount on the plane tickets (and booking a hotel and rental car via one of those "you won't know what you've booked until you buy it" sites, we managed to keep things very affordable! So everything was "practically perfect in every way", until around 3:30 when the sky started filling with giant, ominous thunderheads. We weren't planning on flying out until around 8:30 that night, but any delay in the afternoon flights could carry over to our time and make us have to catch a much later flight. Obviously, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but the more time we had in Orlando, the better. I hoped that it was just a thunderstorm that would pass by quickly… and that's when the massive downpour of hail started.

This is what the ground looked like when I left work that afternoon (those are hailstones!):

 

[AlyssinWonderland]

OMG! Amazing! Planning a Disney Trip in less than 48 hours! I want to be like you!

I'm eagerly awaiting more...

 

[maddiebee]

ooo I like the sounds of this! following along!

 

[The Batgirl]

I intended to add more or finish this today, but it ended up being hectic... Tomorrow, for sure!

 

[The Batgirl]

So I got home after work, and we packed as quickly as possible. We knew that we’d have a better chance of getting a flight if we got to the airport early, whether there were delays or not. As we packed, we thought about how if we’d planned this trip out further in advance, we might have worn costumes. Honestly, though, we saw that the weather was calling for temperatures in the low 90s, with a UV index of 10. Given that we wanted to stay in the Magic Kingdom as long as we could, without succumbing to heat stroke, there weren’t too many costumes that would probably work. This is especially true since I would have wanted to dress as Mary Poppins and Bert, or a female Gaston. Okay, I know that a female version of Gaston sounds weird, but how many do you see? (We saw a couple in the park, actually, and they were adorable!) I mean, it’s easy, too: Hair in a ponytail, a red tunic, a short tied yellow handkerchief/neck scarf, a belt around the waist, black leggings, and black boots? Perfect! …but still way too many layers to be comfortable in that kind of weather. Really, though, we were going to go to Disney World, so we were too excited to be at all disappointed that we didn’t have costumes.

Who would you guys want to dress as if you went to a costume event at a Disney park? If you’ve been to a costume event and participated, who did you dress as?

Traffic on the way to the airport was bizarrely heavy. We weren’t too sure why, until we noticed that there were a lot of traffic nd lights out. That slowed us down a bit, but once we got onto the highway that went toward the airport, we were at a standstill. More power outages in the area? Nope. There was a massive tree completely blocking one of the lanes. Thankfully, it hadn’t injured anyone or caused any accidents. It was causing massive traffic delays, though. So it was a really great thing that we’d left early!
When we finally got into the airport, we checked into the kiosk (we weren’t checking any bags, thankfully, which made things a bit simpler), went through security, and checked in at the gate. We hoped that the terrible weather wouldn’t fill up the earliest flight, but weren’t too worried. If we didn’t get that one, we’d get a later one. We were just grateful that we had the time and opportunity to try to take this impromptu trip!

What’s odd about being on standby, if you never have, as we hadn’t, is that you’re the absolute last of the passengers to go on board. So you’re left standing there while everyone else goes on, hoping that you don’t look like you care TOO much about whether you get on board or not, but feeling like the little green men from Toy Story if you do: “We have been chosen!” Not only did we get onto the first flight out, we also got to sit together. This was an unexpected bonus, as you aren’t guaranteed consecutive seats with. I was on a plane – I love planes - headed to our Disney, to my absolute favorite state (I was born and mostly raised in Florida – I moved when I was 13. I still adore and miss it) with my favorite person. What could be better?

After a great flight – which actually landed sooner than anticipated, due to a tailwind – we were finally in Florida! In a few hours, we would be in the park! After getting off of the plane, taking that monorail thing to the other part of the airport (if you’ve been to Orlando international, you probably know what I mean), and getting our rental car, it was getting late. But we were absolutely starving, since we’d skipped dinner in our rush to the airport and subsequent flight. We figured that it made sense to head toward our hotel and see what was nearby. It was close to midnight on a Thursday, so there weren’t any restaurants open. There was, however, a 24-hour grocery store nearby. It was the most bizarre grocery store that I’ve ever been in. It looked like they’d taken an old department store, thrown down very thin carpet (a carpeted store that sells food sounds like a disaster to clean) and some shelves. It didn’t matter, though; we were hungry and we needed some sunscreen for the next day. We got some SPF 50 since I very much didn’t want either of us to end up burned (a very real possibility since we hadn’t been outside much – the winter had been absolutely brutal. We also got some frozen bagel bite pizzas, because there was a microwave in the room, and we’re classy.

We needed to get some sleep since the next day was going to be a very long one (although, technically, it was already the next day since it was 1:00 in the morning). We determined that since we wanted to stay in the park until 6:00 on the 24th, when the Rock Your Disney Side event ended, that we didn’t have to be at the Magic Kingdom when it opened at 6:00 on the 23rd. I know, I know - that’s crazy! But we’d had to get up at 5:30 that morning for work, and we didn’t want to be miserably tired. We decided to set the alarm for 7:00 so that we could be somewhat rested.

We didn’t sleep fantastically, really. The mattress was unusually firm (at least, we thought so), and the air conditioning unit kept shutting off and on. You couldn’t let the fan in it run by itself, so every time the AC cut off, it got REALLY quiet, and the difference in sound would wake you up. I’m fairly sure we wouldn’t have slept too soundly, anyway. We were way too excited! “It doesn’t matter that we didn’t get a ton of sleep, really”, mused Phil. “We’ll be kept awake from adrenaline and sugar!” He, of course, was totally correct!

Neither one of us were too tired when we headed down to breakfast. It was free with our stay, so we weren’t expecting much, but they had an impressive array of hot breakfast food. More importantly, they had honest-to-goodness Mickey waffles. MICKEY WAFFLES, GUYS. They were thick, Belgian-style and delicious. As it turned out, they were one of the Walt Disney World Good Neighbor hotels. This also meant that we could save ourselves some time and buy tickets in the lobby! We were informed that we were eligible to receive one of our Disney tickets for free. What?! Of course, it was further explained that we could only get the price of one ticket refunded to our card if we went on a 90-minute timeshare presentation and tour at a nearby resort. List of things ain’t nobody got time for? That. Normally, we might have just done it, but we were burning daylight! And while we didn’t care that we weren’t at the park when it opened, we didn’t want to waste THAT much time. So we deferred on the offer, and headed out.

Since we were going to be heading to the airport directly from the park, we made sure that we had everything that could melt if left in the car on our persons in the park (I had a backpack). We parked in the heroes lot, making sure to note in our phones where we’d parked – we weren’t sure we’d remember - got on the tram, and got to the transportation center. What is it about seeing Cinderella’s Castle for the first time each trip that turns us into kids? Maybe it’s just me, but seeing that castle and the Seven Seas Lagoon definitely brings out my Disney side!

Usually, we take the monorail over, since it’s generally faster (or seems like it is). Today, however, since we had a lot of time, and I have a penchant for boats, I was like, “WE SHOULD GO ON THE BOAT! LOOKATTHEBOAT!PLEASECANWE?IWANNAGOONTHEBOAT!”, or something equally as eloquent. That boat ride is lovely. Such nice views, and we were already loving the weather.

Sorry this image is so big! I resized it twice, but for whatever reason, it's still pretty large...

 

[The Batgirl]

Up next, in the park! This is us, ridiculously excited to be there:

 

[The Batgirl]

We were finally there! It was almost 9:00 am, which was fine with us, given that we still had 21 hours left!


I know I mentioned how nice the weather was, and how nasty the past winter was, (If you live anywhere in the United States, except the West Coast or Florida, I’m willing to bet it was just as brutal for you, too!) But seriously, it was heavenly. We managed to snag our fast pass+ selections via the Disney parks app on the ferry ride over, and ended up with passes for Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, and to visit the Talking Magician Mickey in the theater at Main Street. Good enough! We aren’t itinerary types when we visit the parks. We generally do whatever we want to and/or whatever we come across. We saw that Pinocchio was in the town square, so we decided to wait and get our picture taken with him, since he’s a character that we don’t have pictures with yet! Waiting in line? With that weather and so much time, no problem!

…except that after waiting for about 15 minutes, Pinocchio needed to take a break. And then a parade/impromptu dance party started (they were happening throughout the day because of the event). Not a big deal, but we were way too excited to wait around until he came back! So we decided to keep going.

We headed toward Tomorrowland, and ended up wandering through to Fantasyland. And that’s when we saw it. The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was open and running, even though it wasn’t scheduled to officially open for another five days! We were SO doing that.


Normally, there's no way that we would wait an hour for a ride, but given that this was a brand new not-officially-opened yet one? We probably would have waited longer than that! Besides, we weren't too sure how long it would stay open. We'd heard rumors that it was going to close around noon, so we happily jumped in line... and ended up behind the most fantastic non-official Mary Poppins and Bert I've ever seen!

I wish I'd taken their picture, because they were amazing. I don't know how they weren't burning up - he was wearing a blazer and she was wearing stockings - but the level of detail that they put into their outfits was impressive! He had a chimney broom thing (Is there a word for that? I have no clue what it is), and charcoal dust smeared, subtly but visibly, on his face. She not only had Mary Poppin's carpet bag, but an umbrella with a parrot head handle. Adorable! There were some other guests with clever costumes in the line, too - my other favorites were brothers dressed as Fix-It Felix and Wreck-it-Ralph (Felix was carrying a golden plastic hammer, and Ralph was wearing his hero medal!) and their father, who was wearing a full chef's ensemble... and carrying Remy (from Ratatouille) in his hand.

The costumes were entertaining on their own, but we really didn't need to be entertained much, because the queue design was both beautiful and interactive! There were games that you could play, and gorgeous details to notice - the Imagineers really outdid themselves with this one. Oh, I forgot to mention that there were very strong fans, which were an added bonus! Despite all that there was to look at, we didn't have to look at it for very long - the line moved incredibly quickly, and instead of waiting for an hour, we only had to wait for about 25-30 minutes!

Don't worry, I won't spoil anything (I promise!) for anybody, but I really did love the ride. It's like a combination of a less intense Thunder Mountain Railroad and a classic dark ride. A bit short, but very cute. I think most children wouldn't be too scared on this one, and if you have a fear of heights, this wouldn't be a problem for you, either. And Disney ride history buffs will have a lot to appreciate about this one, but you'll have to ride it for yourself to see what I mean!

 

[AlyssinWonderland]

I am loving your trip report!

 

[The Batgirl]

First, I want to apologize for such a long time lapsing between the posts - I haven't been feeling to great and have also been insanely busy! But back to the trip...

So after we got off of the ride, we were thirsty, since we’d finished the bottle of water we’d bought while we were waiting in line. Basically, we should have purchased stock in Dasani before we came, because we probably spent more on water than anything else! So we went over to Friar’s Nook to get a bottle of water and saw that they were selling Olaf’s blue raspberry slush in a souvenir cup! (We’re suckers for distinctive Disney souvenir cups, as I’m guessing most of you are, too.) We had to walk around for a bit, since the cup was super tall. It was delicious, but so cold it kept freezing our throats – but we managed to work through the pain! Disney strong, people!

As we walked around, we kept an eye out for cast member pins to trade, specifically any from the Pascal cast lanyard collection that was released this year. I’m a HUGE Pascal fan. He is one of my five (yes, I have five) absolute favorite characters. We didn’t come across any. Apparently, everyone loves the pins. Who wouldn’t?

If you haven’t already gathered, we’re not itinerary-type Disneygoers. It’s just not our style. We walk around, take everything in, and run to a ride we see with a short wait time, or a character we see with a short wait line. Since we were in Fantasyland, we saw that Journey of the Little Mermaid didn’t have a long wait. I adore The Little Mermaid, and I personally think that area is one of the most beautiful areas in the entire park:


And the ride is just… it’s perfect. As a child who grew up loving the movie, this ride makes me about as happy as the happiest crustacean that I’ve ever seen:


When we got off of the ride, we noticed that there wasn’t much of a wait for Ariel’s Grotto. This was exciting, since she’s one of the characters that we haven’t gotten to take pictures with yet! We want/like to take pictures with as many characters as we possibly can per trip. So we jumped in line! Have you guys noticed the adorable sea slug lights in the hallway outside of the grotto? They’re adorable! I want them!



Ariel, of course, was lovely and very personable, as always. We spoke at length about her collection, and she liked my “fish-fin” posing:

 

[The Batgirl]

Gaston’s Tavern is our favorite place to get a snack, so we went to check the lines. We decided we’d come back at another point, because it was completely packed, but I’ll talk more about the tavern later. On our way out of the area, near Gaston’s fountain (read the plaque on it sometime, it’s pretty funny), Gaston himself was there loudly exclaiming to guests, “I want to say that it really is an honor… for all of you, to be meeting ME. This has been the highlight of your day!” If you’ve never met him, do yourself a favor and do so – he’s hilarious and completely worth waiting in line for.

We walked past Enchanted Tales with Belle and were really surprised that the wait wasn’t incredibly long – it usually is. We hadn’t seen it yet, so we wanted to check it out. I won’t say much because I don’t want to ruin anything for anybody, but the special effects are really quite impressive! I also want a Lumiere for our place… oh, and our unbridled enthusiasm won us parts in the story! Phil got picked as Chip, and when I started cracking up, the CM was like, “Don’t laugh too hard, because you’re our Mrs. Potts!” This image is kinda blurry, taken in haste before the show began:


I don’t want to brag, but it took a lot of acting prowess to hop around like a teapot and teacup. I think we nailed it!

After our Oscar caliber performances, we needed to get more water, since we did NOT want to get dehydrated. We figured we should get some kind of snack. We didn’t want to eat any huge meals throughout the day/night/morning, but smaller ones, spread out. We ducked into Pecos Bill’s Inn and Café for some French fries and a strawberry lemonade slush. Delicious. I love the Adventureland architecture in this area.

I’m a sucker for Spanish tile roofs and architecture. And palm trees. So pretty.
Anyway, it was Pirates of the Caribbean time! The line was a little longer than we’d had to wait in before, but that’s because we had been exceptionally spoiled with wait times. Also, if I have to wait for any amount of time in a line, I’m okay with waiting in that one – it’s so nice and cool inside of the building! This time was fantastic because everything on the ride was working perfectly. Last September, the mermaids didn’t show up in the water, one of the cannons wasn’t hitting the water when fired, and Blackbeard showed up in the waterfall only half of the time. The irony was that we hadn’t even noticed the last time! It’s fun, no matter what’s working on it.

It was time for our first fastpass+, the Jungle Cruise!

“Ladies and gentlemen, the backside of water!”

 

[AlyssinWonderland]

Great update!

I hope you are feeling better!

 

[maddiebee]

Your picture with Ariel is so nice! I really wish they would fix the lighting in there. My pictures are terrible and really red!