Characters and Chocolates: A February 2014 Report

[Khara]

Characters and Chocolates: The Story of a Mother-Daughter WDW Trip
February 7th to 14th, 2014

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Do you need a break from modern living?
Do you long to shed your weary load?
If your nerves are raw and your brain is fried
Just grab a friend and take a ride
Together, upon the open road!

Hey howdy hey, everybody! I'm Khara, new to posting on the DIS, but I've been lurking here for years. Never did I ever think that I would actually consider anything about my trips worthy of a report. The idea made me really anxious! But with some help from you friendly folk, I've realized this is the one place I can share my character stories in a format where they really belong! And I love my character stories so much that I feel the burning need to write them out and share the pictures! (Yeah. I'm one of those character hunters )

Right, so I'm probably getting ahead of myself a little! Here's what you need to know about me to know if this TR is of any interest to you: do you like character talk? Do you like dessert talk? If the answer to both of those questions is yes, then I'll be writing a lot that caters to your interests.

But if you're more interested in dramatic stories of trying to cram in an overstuffed touring plan, family conflict, or relatable stories about the silly things kids do? Then this report doesn't have much of that.

(There is an instance of a kid saying a silly thing in Epcot on Day 2, but it's not my kid. I am so not ready for kids!)

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Your cast:

Here we are, Mom and me! (There's paint over Mom's face because she would prefer not to show her face online.) We're with our pals Woody and Buzz because they're part of a very special story in this TR. That'll come near the end, so stay tuned!

This trip was my belated college graduation present, because I have the most wonderful mother in the world. I earned my bachelors' degree with straight As, so...yeah. I was definitely ready to visit my favorite place, to take a short break from the endless grind of the working world.

All my memories of two awkward trips with extended family then went into the planning of this most recent trip: the third time's the charm! This time I wanted to graduate into a full-fledged character hunter, take the hobby to heights I'd never reached before! I knew there were a lot of characters and I likely wouldn't see them all, but I set myself a goal list of my most beloved characters from Disney films.

I was definitely aiming for as many characters as possible, but this was my must-meet list:
-Mickey/Minnie/Donald/Daisy/Pluto/Goofy
-Peter Pan (and Wendy if possible)
-Belle
-Gaston
-Mary Poppins
-Ralph and Vanellope
-Woody and Buzz
-Whoever's at Characterpalooza. I didn't care who, I just wanted to be there!
-Aladdin and Jasmine
-Dug and Russel
-Anna and Elsa
-The Tremaine family
-My super rare stretch goal: Max Goof! I love love LOVE A Goofy Movie, and I'll swear to the end of the earth that its absence from the official Disney animated film canon is a crime. It's one of Disney's best musicals. Seriously. I can't believe its Rotten Tomatoes rating is only 53 percent!

I knew in advance that Max only appears very rarely at character training spots in Epcot. I would need a heavy dusting of pixie dust to pull it off. But seeing him would totally make my trip complete.

Did it happen? And how'd I do on that list? You'll have to read to find out!

 

[quigs3]

Hi, Khara! I'm looking forward to reading more about your trip! Congratulations on graduating from college!

 

[Khara]

The Table of Contents:
(Shooting for updates every other day or so.)

*February 7th: Starry Night, Parade So Bright

*February 8th: Epcot the Water Park ft. life-changing cupcakes

*February 9th: The Arendelle-Hollywood Circuit

*February 10th: A Really Wild Safari

*February 11th: Little Town in a Magic Kingdom

*February 12th: Character Hunting Around The World Showcase

*February 13th: Crying About Toys Since 2010

*February 14th: One Last Valentine's Wish

 

[Khara]

Hi, Khara! I'm looking forward to reading more about your trip! Congratulations on graduating from college!

Thanks so much! I really enjoyed college and I had amazing experiences...and that definitely made me appreciate this trip much more! Can't wait to share what I brought home.

 

[Khara]

(This episode is rather picture-light---my apologies! Mom and I are both kinda forgetful about using the camera.)

Our journey begins in the frozen land up northeast. Anyone up north knows how absolutely terrible this winter has been---sub-freezing temperatures every day for months on end, heavy snowstorm after heavy snowstorm. I really thought we were cursed to an eternal winter! (Thanks, Elsa.)

Given these conditions, I was terrified that a snowstorm would keep our flight grounded and we'd lose time from the trip! I watched the forecast with plenty of lip-biting for two weeks, but thankfully we managed to catch a lull in the storms! We departed Philly International at 11:30 AM, right on schedule, and by 3 we were on our way to the Magical Express desk!

The ME counter was my first test: a moment of truth for an argument my mom and I had been over for the weeks leading up to the trip. At the advice of DISers on the community board, I had taken to painting my Magic Band with a lovely navy and chrome nail polish coat.

I read everyone's experience with MB painting and insisted that it would be fine, and that I could paint Mom's too if she wanted. But she kept saying the polish would interfere with the scanner. And given all the problems I've read about, maybe I should've been a little more cautious. But we reached the first MB reader...and my band worked perfectly! It continued to work perfectly all week. Score one for the MB painters!

I'll also say this about painting your MB: even if you don't want to do some of the fancy designs seen on that thread, painting the Mickey head a different color than the rest of the band is really helpful when you're trying to align it to the reader at night. So we usually used mine to enter the room at the end of the day.

What room, you ask? We stayed at the same resort as our 2011 trip, the Port Orleans French Quarter? Yeah, okay, so the Mardi Gras decorations are a little hokey, and the food court doesn't look the nicest, but it's nice and cozy. And beignets are delicious!

Unfortunately, by the time we reached the resort it was not yet dessert time. We instead retreated to the food court for a late lunch. Mom had some kind of pasta from the station, and I had a po'boy---delicious, but I would've used more cole slaw, personally!

After dinner, it was time for our first park: the Magic Kingdom! I was bouncing in my seat at this point. I'd never been one to make plans for arrival day before. I really don't want to get into the whole FP+ debate, but one thing I really liked was the ability to schedule rides for arrival night.

I kept my plans simple so I wouldn't be too disappointed in a delayed flight: meet Mickey, maybe ride Pirates or Haunted Mansion, and get a nice viewing spot for the electrical parade. Space Mountain was our last FP.

Well...when we arrived, we were about two hours too early for the first FP, so it was time to take in shows and maybe ride some of the less popular attractions! Unfortunately, the 'shows' part was disrupted by misting rain. But we did get a nice shortened version of the castle show. What I remember most about it is standing right in view of the Snow Prince...and I remember thinking he was really cute. Heehee. I'd never get to see him up close, I knew, so away we went.

First stop: New Fantasyland! I'd heard that the line for the new Little Mermaid attraction was likely to be short, so I gave it a shot: and it was! It was a cute little ride, but I dunno...there are definitely other dark rides I like much better. It just seemed like were riding through a black room set up as someone's art project.

We then turned to Belle's Village, gaping at the huge crowd for dinner at Be Our Guest. We'd be returning with a lunch FP later in the week, so I grinned and moved on. And of course the best attraction in New Fantasyland had retired for the night. More about him later! So it was off to Adventureland for us.

On a random whim, I thought it might be fun to ride Jungle Cruise at night! Mom protested that we wouldn't be able to see anything, but the line was short. Why not, right? Fortunately, my instincts were right on again: Jungle Cruise is AWESOME at night! It's so neat to sail through the jungle with just the little light at the tip of the boat, and I loved our skipper Rebecca. She played the 'blonde skipper' role, obliviously wheeling us into danger with a cheerful grin. I'd never seen that one before. Best JC ride ever!

We then stopped for a nostalgic trip into the Tiki Room. Oh how I still love that song! Pirates was next, along with another classic song! I love that little trip into pirate waters. Then came the legendary Dole Whip! I sampled the orange swirl, and it was delicious. But I don't know, I wasn't crazy about it. Maybe citrus and ice cream aren't really for me? I'm more of a chocolate kind of girl.

Finally, it was getting close to Mickey time! We cut back to Town Square Theater, where we met a very short line, followed by a talking mouse.

This was my first encounter with the talking mouse, and I'm still not sure how I feel! He was as sweet as ever, but I'm so used to the characters communicating everything they need to through gesture alone. He was very interactive, though: he did the Hot Dog dance and sang with my mom for our little princess back home! That video's private between us, but it was sweet.

After this, we popped out in time to see the castle light show. It was a lovely little tribute to Disney movies, and most of the crowd loved singing along to Let It Go! Soon after, we waited through the mist for the Main Street Electrical Parade. It was delayed about a half hour due to weather, but when it came...wow.

I love the look of it! It's a classic parade. But boy oh boy does that music grate at my ears quick. It was definitely worth seeing all those little bulbs light up the night, though. I'd love to have an outfit that did that! Though I'd probably go for more Tron-style lines than all those lightbulbs.

And speaking of futurism...that led us to our final destination of the night, Tomorrowland! After a quick trip on Buzz (boy oh boy do I stink at that game), we reached our last stop: Space Mountain! Shooting through the stars in the dark is still amazing, though I always have this random fear of hitting a too-low ride rail and dying. Mom agreed, and it's still a little too rickety for her. It was fun, though!

After this, it was finally time for the bus back to the resort. Surprisingly, it was nice and quick! Once there, we stopped for some late night cocoa and beignets, and off to settle into our room. ME delivered the luggage just fine this time! Phew.

Our first stay at POFQ had been during the refurb, but we'd been placed in an unrefurb-ed building, so this was our first time seeing the new decor! It was bright, but tasteful and cozy. So we did some last minute packing for the first full day to come, then drifted off to sleep! And what a wet and wild ride the next day would be.

 

[quigs3]

Sounds like you had the perfect first day at MK! I love how you decorated your band! My daughter and I are going in May, and I think we are going to pretty up ours as well!

We love POFQ, too! It's so cozy and intimate, and the atmosphere is wonderful! I can't wait to read more of your report !