PTR/TR October 6-10, 2010--we're back! TR starts page 11!
- Thread starter Mommy2PrincessAbby
- Start date
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
The crowd reports are making me a little nervous... I am really glad we have Wed & Thursday to get a lot done, then we can go with the flow the rest of the time...
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
I printed my boarding passes... less than 24 hours from now we will be in the air!!
PrincessMaleficent
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 9, 2010
Your trip is here, well okay tmorrow. I am so excited for you. I can not wait to see your pictures and how it goes.
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
Thanks guys for following all this time!
The weather looks great... I just double checked:
Wed: 72/54 (possible t-storms!)
Thu: 71/55
Fri: 77/58
Sat: 83/61
Sun: 84/62
So they've cooled it down a tad for Saturday and Sunday...
I'll probably not post again before takeoff! I hope to maybe add a quick update or two during the trip though!
The weather looks great... I just double checked:
Wed: 72/54 (possible t-storms!)
Thu: 71/55
Fri: 77/58
Sat: 83/61
Sun: 84/62
So they've cooled it down a tad for Saturday and Sunday...
I'll probably not post again before takeoff! I hope to maybe add a quick update or two during the trip though!
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
we're having a blast! highlights:
wed-rain, pretty short lines. saw ppp & celebrate
thu-mm and dd rode smgg & did not like it-i liked it tho. saw woc with dinner passes. amazing-not to be missed.
today-busier. almost nap time. mhp tonight.
more later from a real computer!
wed-rain, pretty short lines. saw ppp & celebrate
thu-mm and dd rode smgg & did not like it-i liked it tho. saw woc with dinner passes. amazing-not to be missed.
today-busier. almost nap time. mhp tonight.
more later from a real computer!
kaoden39
<font color=peach>Prayers and pixie dust from your
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
Sounds wonderful!! I am thrilled you are having a great trip!!
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
at mhp-its awesome. short lines-rode peter pan with 5 min wait, snow 3x in a row, hm walked on. met jack sparrow & sally. now sitting 20 ft from partner statue for screams in 15 minutes!!
kaoden39
<font color=peach>Prayers and pixie dust from your
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
Sounds wonderful!!
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
Trip report is coming, and I will finally figure out how to do pictures!
Highlights:
MHP was a blast, we saved the candy gathering for later and rode as many rides as we could--all with very short lines!
WOC is amazing, I highly recommend doing Ariels to get the WOC passes. We lined up at 6:30 for the 8:15 show, and got front rail in our section.
F! was awesome, so glad we had dessert tickets... again, we lined up at 6:30 to check in at 8. Came back at 8:30, watched RDCT from our seats at 8:40 and F! afterward. It was the only time we have ever heard them announce that the viewing area for F! was at capacity and they wouldn't let anyone else into the ROA area. It was insanely crowded!!!
The Paradise Pier Hotel was lovely... I would pick it over the DLH now... felt like a shorter walk with the shortcut through GCH to me. We were on the 14th floor with a theme park view. Do run the room fan & bring a white noise machine (we needed both!!) to block the construction noises from DCA--which go all night. With both going, we slept great.
Highlights:
MHP was a blast, we saved the candy gathering for later and rode as many rides as we could--all with very short lines!
WOC is amazing, I highly recommend doing Ariels to get the WOC passes. We lined up at 6:30 for the 8:15 show, and got front rail in our section.
F! was awesome, so glad we had dessert tickets... again, we lined up at 6:30 to check in at 8. Came back at 8:30, watched RDCT from our seats at 8:40 and F! afterward. It was the only time we have ever heard them announce that the viewing area for F! was at capacity and they wouldn't let anyone else into the ROA area. It was insanely crowded!!!
The Paradise Pier Hotel was lovely... I would pick it over the DLH now... felt like a shorter walk with the shortcut through GCH to me. We were on the 14th floor with a theme park view. Do run the room fan & bring a white noise machine (we needed both!!) to block the construction noises from DCA--which go all night. With both going, we slept great.
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
Okay, the pics are taking forever... so I am not going to put many on here... but I'll put a few to make you pic crazy people happy!
Okay, so the alarm went off at 3:30 am, and I woke dd up at 3:45 am. She was still trying to sleep, and I asked her if she wanted to go on vacation with me instead of school. She nodded. But kept trying to sleep. I then asked where would she like to go? She shrugs, but then says "I'm listening."
By, now dh is dying and about ready to pop... so he says "How about the happiest place on earth?" DD rolls over, sits up, and slides out of bed, and says "I'm up, let's go!" 
So, we were off to the airport a few minutes after 4. Had no issues parking and catching a shuttle. Even had time to sit and eat a little something before going to our gate. At the gate we met another family with a 3 year old who were also headed to DL, we took turns watching each other's stuff for potty breaks before the flight. A short 2 hours later we landed at LGB, gathered everything up (1 carryon, 1 stroller, 1 carseat, 2 backpacks) and crossed the street and got a cab. It was a $45 flat fee, and took about 20 minutes to get to PPH.
By now it was 10 am, and we headed up to the concierge lounge, check in went smoothly, but of course our room wasn't ready. We relaxed a bit and then dropped half our stuff at the bell desk and headed into the park. It was POURING down rain!!
Okay, no problem, we're from Oregon right? Then, my cell phone rang--thought maybe our room was ready. Nope, it was Disney Dining, cancelling our 2:30 pm Carnation Cafe ressie. Crap!
So, I asked if anything was open for that time, where we could sit down, and she said due to the rain almost all the sit down restaurants were closed... and the ones that weren't did not have any ressies available. Okay, fine, plan B.
We toured Sleeping Beauty's castle, and rode the Carousel, then decided to go check out Pixie Hollow, since all the lines we could see were super long. Surprise!! No lines for Pixie Hollow... well, maybe 20 people in front of us, and yes, fairies are out in the rain.
We got to meet Vidia and Tink, and Vidia was awesome! She asked dd if she had seen her new movie "The one where I save Tinkerbell's life?!" It was great!
By now we were starving, so we grabbed a corndog, and thankfully it was only sprinkling at this point. Pretty soon, we gave up on DL, and headed over to DCA. DCA was pretty quiet. We got Soarin' FPs, rode Monster's Inc (twice!)--Roz sang Happy Birthday to me!
Then we did Bug's Land, and got a little dinner at Cucina Cucamonga (good, but not great), and then caught the PPP from across from the Bug's Life entrance.
After that we rode Soarin, then we walked back to DL, bought a bat shaped chocolate cookie, and a steamer for dd and a decaf latte for me, and planted ourselves near Carnation Cafe on the curb to wait for Celebrate.
DD loves both parades... PPP is a favorite of ours, and Celebrate was fun because she got to dance, do the conga line, and they gave her a drum to beat during another part of it. After the parade we were beat, and we finally went to check out our room at the PPH.
Okay, I did concierge for the 1st time ever this trip. But, because of the short hours, we barely took advantage of it. However... our room on the 14th floor had a killer view. We walked in right as WOC was starting, cracked the windows and could hear perfectly (there is a channel on tv for audio too though), and watched some of the show. We could see the fountains and the water effects really well, but the screens were just blobs of color.
Daytime room view:
WOC room view:
The bad part was, even that high up, the construction around where the boat used to be in DCA is noisy--and goes all night long. I did bring a white noise machine. And we used that, but figured out that it in combination with the room a/c on "fan mode" was perfect for drowning out the "beep beep beep" of the construction equipment.
We've now stayed at all 3 on-site hotels. Have not yet stayed in the renovated rooms at the DLH however. But, I would rank the hotels like this: GCH (for how close it is to the park), PPH (loved that it really felt close since we cut through GCH and avoided DTD mostly--and our view was awesome!), then DLH--which just seems soooo far away, even though it is supposedly the same to the PPH if you use the short-cut.
Okay, I need to do some work... Day #2 coming later!
Okay, so the alarm went off at 3:30 am, and I woke dd up at 3:45 am. She was still trying to sleep, and I asked her if she wanted to go on vacation with me instead of school. She nodded. But kept trying to sleep. I then asked where would she like to go? She shrugs, but then says "I'm listening."
By, now dh is dying and about ready to pop... so he says "How about the happiest place on earth?" DD rolls over, sits up, and slides out of bed, and says "I'm up, let's go!" So, we were off to the airport a few minutes after 4. Had no issues parking and catching a shuttle. Even had time to sit and eat a little something before going to our gate. At the gate we met another family with a 3 year old who were also headed to DL, we took turns watching each other's stuff for potty breaks before the flight. A short 2 hours later we landed at LGB, gathered everything up (1 carryon, 1 stroller, 1 carseat, 2 backpacks) and crossed the street and got a cab. It was a $45 flat fee, and took about 20 minutes to get to PPH.
By now it was 10 am, and we headed up to the concierge lounge, check in went smoothly, but of course our room wasn't ready. We relaxed a bit and then dropped half our stuff at the bell desk and headed into the park. It was POURING down rain!!
Okay, no problem, we're from Oregon right? Then, my cell phone rang--thought maybe our room was ready. Nope, it was Disney Dining, cancelling our 2:30 pm Carnation Cafe ressie. Crap!
So, I asked if anything was open for that time, where we could sit down, and she said due to the rain almost all the sit down restaurants were closed... and the ones that weren't did not have any ressies available. Okay, fine, plan B.We toured Sleeping Beauty's castle, and rode the Carousel, then decided to go check out Pixie Hollow, since all the lines we could see were super long. Surprise!! No lines for Pixie Hollow... well, maybe 20 people in front of us, and yes, fairies are out in the rain.
We got to meet Vidia and Tink, and Vidia was awesome! She asked dd if she had seen her new movie "The one where I save Tinkerbell's life?!" It was great!
By now we were starving, so we grabbed a corndog, and thankfully it was only sprinkling at this point. Pretty soon, we gave up on DL, and headed over to DCA. DCA was pretty quiet. We got Soarin' FPs, rode Monster's Inc (twice!)--Roz sang Happy Birthday to me!
Then we did Bug's Land, and got a little dinner at Cucina Cucamonga (good, but not great), and then caught the PPP from across from the Bug's Life entrance.
After that we rode Soarin, then we walked back to DL, bought a bat shaped chocolate cookie, and a steamer for dd and a decaf latte for me, and planted ourselves near Carnation Cafe on the curb to wait for Celebrate.
DD loves both parades... PPP is a favorite of ours, and Celebrate was fun because she got to dance, do the conga line, and they gave her a drum to beat during another part of it. After the parade we were beat, and we finally went to check out our room at the PPH.
Okay, I did concierge for the 1st time ever this trip. But, because of the short hours, we barely took advantage of it. However... our room on the 14th floor had a killer view. We walked in right as WOC was starting, cracked the windows and could hear perfectly (there is a channel on tv for audio too though), and watched some of the show. We could see the fountains and the water effects really well, but the screens were just blobs of color.
Daytime room view:
WOC room view:
The bad part was, even that high up, the construction around where the boat used to be in DCA is noisy--and goes all night long. I did bring a white noise machine. And we used that, but figured out that it in combination with the room a/c on "fan mode" was perfect for drowning out the "beep beep beep" of the construction equipment.
We've now stayed at all 3 on-site hotels. Have not yet stayed in the renovated rooms at the DLH however. But, I would rank the hotels like this: GCH (for how close it is to the park), PPH (loved that it really felt close since we cut through GCH and avoided DTD mostly--and our view was awesome!), then DLH--which just seems soooo far away, even though it is supposedly the same to the PPH if you use the short-cut.
Okay, I need to do some work... Day #2 coming later!
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
Okay... so while photobucket is downloading forever, I'll tell you all about Day #2!
Today was MM day... we did concierge for breakfast and were out the door and on the way to the line at 7:30... now, this I was a little grumpy about, we were moving slower than I like--I wanted to be in line already at 7:30!! But we got there, and in a fairly short line (50 people in front of us?) and as soon as we were let in, we headed straight for Peter Pan (first, always first!!)
This is when it got funny! We rode Peter, then went to Alice, I had my birthday button on, and these two ladies were in front of us on Alice, then we headed to Toady, and yep, they were in front of us on Toady, then Pinocchio--but they walked a bit faster than us, so there was a family between us... by now, we'd talked a few times--they knew my name thanks to the button, and I was trying to assure them I wasn't a stalker!! Then we hit Snow--yep right behind them. By now it was getting close to 9, and I wanted to be in front of the 9 am regular crowd for the FPs for SMGG... so off we went.
We got to SMGG just in time to grab FPs and get over to Buzz as the 9 am-ers came strolling in. Whew!!
After Buzz, we did Small World, and then headed to HM to get FPs for that... I was already getting tired of all the walking!! We stopped at Indy because it was a 10 minutes wait, and DD finally got to ride Indy--she liked, but did not love the ride (a bit bumpy for her.) Okay, now we had 2 sets of FPs in my pocket, so we backtracked and rode SMGG--it was scarier than I thought it would be. DD was fine, but declared it a "not fun" ride. Okay, reverse course... back to HM... by now the wait for it was over an hour, but we sailed right on with our FPs. Then we did Pooh to make up for SMGG.
By now it was 11 am and we had 11:40 ressies at Ariels, and I wanted to swing into the store there and get dd a WOC shirt to wear that night... so off we went.
Adorable Ariel WOC shirt purchased, and then we headed in to the princesses... and had a lovely lunch with the big 5 (Ariel, Cindy, Snow, Belle, and Aurora.) By now it was really nap time... phew! But, just in case, we stopped by Soarin and got FPs for after nap!
We had a lovely nap, and needed to head back into the park for dinner. Hit up Soarin' using the FPs, and then were racing back to Ariels (yes, twice in one day.) Our ressies were at 4:30 pm (and it was now 4:29 pm.) And there was this crazy line out the door. Okay, so here I ticked off a few people in this one group.
So I got in line, asked the people in front of us if they were waiting to check in. They said yes. So, we waited 5 minutes--and I swear the line was not moving. Then another group went rushing in to the front and were sent straight downstairs. So, now I am worried that we'll lose our ressie. So, I grabbed dd, and went around the line to check to see if we needed to do something, since it was now past our check in time. I rudely interrupted (oops!) and the cm gave me a pager... but oh boy, the people in the front of the line were shooting serious daggers at me!! And I heard their ressie wasn't until 5 pm.
Okay, so I promise I behaved myself the rest of the time!!
We had a great dinner... the appetizer and dessert are different than the Ariel's meal (just a little), and we ordered different entrees, so it was all good. We got done with dinner at 5:45 and went and bought some glow cotton candy, and strolled over to the general WOC gathering area.
So, we hung out in back of the WOC standing area, and this nice CM was chatting with everyone, kindof giving a headsup... and pointed over to the side (where all the pathways converge behind the standing area) and said that we would need to move there soon. So, at 6:15 we joined the beginnings of the crowd there...
Pretty soon, it was a large crowd and they were keeping walkways open etc... and we were about 1 group behind the front. Then they explained that we would be "lined up" more or less between these crowd control fences in 4 lines, and that it didn't matter which line we were in--as long as we didn't have "red passes", they wanted those people to go elsewhere...
So off to the cattle guard area we went next... still about 1 group back... I figure they did this to make it easier to check everyone's passes. Then at 7:15 they started checking passes, and you could go to your section which were marked with signs... DD and I hurried, and were the 5th group or so into preferred dining. I had her jump out of her stroller, and we headed down to the bottom rail (she wanted to be close.) Then she sat in the stroller and I sat on the ground and leaned against the rail for 45 minutes, before standing up for a few minutes before the show started.
All I have to say about the show is AMAZING!!!!
Phew! After the show (which we were only lightly misted), we were zonked... it took us quite awhile to manuever through the crowds. But we eventually made it to the PPH and were in bed by 10 pm.
Today was MM day... we did concierge for breakfast and were out the door and on the way to the line at 7:30... now, this I was a little grumpy about, we were moving slower than I like--I wanted to be in line already at 7:30!! But we got there, and in a fairly short line (50 people in front of us?) and as soon as we were let in, we headed straight for Peter Pan (first, always first!!)
This is when it got funny! We rode Peter, then went to Alice, I had my birthday button on, and these two ladies were in front of us on Alice, then we headed to Toady, and yep, they were in front of us on Toady, then Pinocchio--but they walked a bit faster than us, so there was a family between us... by now, we'd talked a few times--they knew my name thanks to the button, and I was trying to assure them I wasn't a stalker!! Then we hit Snow--yep right behind them. By now it was getting close to 9, and I wanted to be in front of the 9 am regular crowd for the FPs for SMGG... so off we went.
We got to SMGG just in time to grab FPs and get over to Buzz as the 9 am-ers came strolling in. Whew!!
After Buzz, we did Small World, and then headed to HM to get FPs for that... I was already getting tired of all the walking!! We stopped at Indy because it was a 10 minutes wait, and DD finally got to ride Indy--she liked, but did not love the ride (a bit bumpy for her.) Okay, now we had 2 sets of FPs in my pocket, so we backtracked and rode SMGG--it was scarier than I thought it would be. DD was fine, but declared it a "not fun" ride. Okay, reverse course... back to HM... by now the wait for it was over an hour, but we sailed right on with our FPs. Then we did Pooh to make up for SMGG.By now it was 11 am and we had 11:40 ressies at Ariels, and I wanted to swing into the store there and get dd a WOC shirt to wear that night... so off we went.
Adorable Ariel WOC shirt purchased, and then we headed in to the princesses... and had a lovely lunch with the big 5 (Ariel, Cindy, Snow, Belle, and Aurora.) By now it was really nap time... phew! But, just in case, we stopped by Soarin and got FPs for after nap!
We had a lovely nap, and needed to head back into the park for dinner. Hit up Soarin' using the FPs, and then were racing back to Ariels (yes, twice in one day.) Our ressies were at 4:30 pm (and it was now 4:29 pm.) And there was this crazy line out the door. Okay, so here I ticked off a few people in this one group.
So I got in line, asked the people in front of us if they were waiting to check in. They said yes. So, we waited 5 minutes--and I swear the line was not moving. Then another group went rushing in to the front and were sent straight downstairs. So, now I am worried that we'll lose our ressie. So, I grabbed dd, and went around the line to check to see if we needed to do something, since it was now past our check in time. I rudely interrupted (oops!) and the cm gave me a pager... but oh boy, the people in the front of the line were shooting serious daggers at me!! And I heard their ressie wasn't until 5 pm.
Okay, so I promise I behaved myself the rest of the time!!
We had a great dinner... the appetizer and dessert are different than the Ariel's meal (just a little), and we ordered different entrees, so it was all good. We got done with dinner at 5:45 and went and bought some glow cotton candy, and strolled over to the general WOC gathering area.
So, we hung out in back of the WOC standing area, and this nice CM was chatting with everyone, kindof giving a headsup... and pointed over to the side (where all the pathways converge behind the standing area) and said that we would need to move there soon. So, at 6:15 we joined the beginnings of the crowd there...
Pretty soon, it was a large crowd and they were keeping walkways open etc... and we were about 1 group behind the front. Then they explained that we would be "lined up" more or less between these crowd control fences in 4 lines, and that it didn't matter which line we were in--as long as we didn't have "red passes", they wanted those people to go elsewhere...
So off to the cattle guard area we went next... still about 1 group back... I figure they did this to make it easier to check everyone's passes. Then at 7:15 they started checking passes, and you could go to your section which were marked with signs... DD and I hurried, and were the 5th group or so into preferred dining. I had her jump out of her stroller, and we headed down to the bottom rail (she wanted to be close.) Then she sat in the stroller and I sat on the ground and leaned against the rail for 45 minutes, before standing up for a few minutes before the show started.
All I have to say about the show is AMAZING!!!!
Phew! After the show (which we were only lightly misted), we were zonked... it took us quite awhile to manuever through the crowds. But we eventually made it to the PPH and were in bed by 10 pm.
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
The princesses were all really great... I also think that the families are the best behaved at the princess meal. No character hogging, or bugging the princesses out of turn. DD was a little starstruck, and hardly talks to the characters, so I kind of feel silly holding up her end of the conversation. But, we really look forward to that character meal each trip.
kaoden39
<font color=peach>Prayers and pixie dust from your
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
Maybe it is the atmosphere of Ariel's Grotto? Or maybe it is the Princesses themselves? That is interesting. I know what you mean though, I find the way that people go out of their way to grab the characters and don't wait for a turn sort of ticks me off.
When our son was 5 his strategy with the characters was he pretended that they weren't there. That way he wouldn't have to talk to them. We were at Goofy's Kitchen and Goofy wouldn't not leave him alone until he got him to laugh. It took about 5 minutes for it to happen it was great.
When our son was 5 his strategy with the characters was he pretended that they weren't there. That way he wouldn't have to talk to them. We were at Goofy's Kitchen and Goofy wouldn't not leave him alone until he got him to laugh. It took about 5 minutes for it to happen it was great.
Mommy2PrincessAbby
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2007
That is funny about your son with Goofy... Stitch is like that for dd... won't leave her alone till she is laughing... We have mixed feelings about Minnie's due to the guests... we see a ton of characters there... but this trip (I'll get to it on day 5!!) I actually had to tell a 10 year old to wait her turn.
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