A Very Cold and Character Filled SoloVacation/Birthday Celebration Extravaganza TR About This Page:

[KMB733]

I'm all caught up on the updates! Sorry about the cold, but sounds like despite a few bumps along the way, your enjoying your trip!

[TMWIlson7196]

We had a grumpy CM too at CM in 2008. You left a better tip then we did. It's hard to tour when it's so cold. It was really cold in dec 2008. Loving your tr. Can't wait to read more.

[nladams]

Originally Posted by TMWIlson7196

We had a grumpy CM too at CM in 2008. You left a better tip then we did. It's hard to tour when it's so cold. It was really cold in dec 2008. Loving your tr. Can't wait to read more.

Believe it or not that was the first grumpy CM I have ever experienced...1 in 11 trips to the World isn't too bad....I don't think I will give January another shot...It really made it different touring in the cold..im so used to going in late April when it's nice and hot...just something about wearing a winter coat in WDW seems so wrong.

[nladams]

Just a heads up that I will try my best to post another update tomorrow night. I was hoping to do it tonight but me and DFi are heading to our wedding venue for our menu tasting

and I want to upload my drawings from the animation class (which I did manage to get into the following day). They turned out surprisingly well! I cant draw and all four of my characters actually look like what they are supposed to look like!! It's a great free souvenir and fun family activity at MGM Studios that I wish I would have known about sooner!!

More to come very soon..stay tuned!!

[ferrazalves]

great trip report!!!

[Cam22]

Hope you have fun menu tasting! Can't wait to see your character drawings. I'm always amazed at how good mine look, not great, but at least they look like the characters they are supposed to.

[debrabrown]

Can't wait to see your drawings! That sounds

[stitchlover808]

Great trip report. I just started reading it. I especially love your photos great job with the new camera!

[islandgirl]

Hope the menu tasting went well! Can't wait to see your character drawings!!

[disney_duke]

Finally catching up here.... I'm so glad you were able to enjoy your breakfast at Chef Mickey's despite the grumpy CM. What a bummer. I hear ya about ToT!!! I couldn't do that solo either, although I did manage a trip in the Limo on RnRC. Thanks for the note about the fudge - we'll be stopping there for sure!!! Good thing you got to bed early, these solo trips can be exhausting!!!

[nladams]

Ok everyone here we go! Sorry for the delay...

Today the alarm went off VERY early again as I had an ADR at Tusker House for 8 am. But today all the Mickey Bars in the world just couldn't get me out of bed. I was exhausted and not feeling too great Since I was on my own I made the executive decision to have another hour and a half in bed and miss TH. I didn't wake up until just after 7:45 am. I was feeling a bit better so I hopped out of bed and tried to get ready as quick as possible. I made it on the bus heading to AK by 8:25 am.

I have to say I had the best bus driver in the world. He was so chatty. He had the whole bus playing Disney trivia but the kind where first time visitors could learn all of our "veteran" secrets...like "where is the best sushi place in Disney World" etc. and once some people got tired of that we all sang "the wheels on the bus..." all the way to AK and he even had the horn going and the wipers at all the right parts in the song...it was a great time! Made the trip go by much faster.

I made it into AK just after rope drop. Again a very cold morning. I went to almost every store in AK looking for gloves but they were all sold out. Since I was only an hour late for my 8 am ADR I thought about popping by TH and asking if I could still get seated but decided against it. I didn't want other ppl's ADR to be pushed back because I wanted a seat after showing up an hour late just because I wanted some more sleep.

On the way to Kilimanjaro Safaris I saw Lilo and Stitch...and all alone! I LOVE this movie when I saw it for the first time this past summer and just HAD to meet Stitch....unfortunately all my lilo and stitch photos are on my photopass..I can't wait to get ordering some photos...those were some of my favorite ones...

I grabbed a fast pass for the safari and headed over to ride Dinosaur. I really don't know why I still ride this one. I find it ridiculously loud. I almost have to keep my ears plugged the whole time....the dinosaur near the end ALWAYS scares the bejesus outta me. And this time I was sitting on the right side directly beside it ....There was a little girl riding with her mum and dad beside me and she did so good...until it was over. She was fine until we had to get out of the car and then she started crying and saying how scary it was...I think she was in shock.

After Dinosaur I found a great photo op with Goofy...again on the photopass...and then it was back over to EE to grab a FP (since enough time had elapsed since getting the first FP). I snagged some great photos today of EE...
Attachment 38142
Attachment 38143
It was just about time for my ride on Kilimanjaro Safari so I headed back in that direction. I wish I would have taken more pictures of that one but it was so cold my fingers were numb from trying to take pictures. Plus being out in the savannah it was really cool and breezy....By the time that was over I was dying for a place to warm up and decided on a late breakfast/early lunch.

To use up another CS I decided on Pizzafari. The pizza here was excellent...and..no whole wheat!!! I was thrilled...and the strawberry cheesecake I had for dessert was actually pretty tasty.

After my early lunch I headed back to EE for my FP ride...I love this ride but today I was dreading it. I knew it was going to feel really cold but I couldn't go home without riding it.

After a freezing ride on EE I really wanted to spend some time indoors. I decided to head back to MGM studios to try my hand at the animation classes I couldn't get in to the day before.

I did get stopped by a photopass photog on my way out the park and took some nice pics with him and also took some with my own camera.
Attachment 38149

And then I was on my way!

Coming up next...pics and info from my afternoon at MGM

[shnewell]

Great pictures from AK!

You know, sometimes you just have to listen to your body! Sounds like sleeping in was a good choice, though I'm sorry you had to miss your ADR at Tusker House.

We rode EE in the cold on our trip also. I tried to tell myself it just added that much more to the theming of the ride. LOL.

[nladams]

A short bus ride later and I was back at MGM Studios. I have to admit I never spend more than one day here but I just had to try out the drawing class.

I high tailed it over to the animation building being sure to skip the pre-show that I already watched the day before. There was a class just about to go in but I couldn't quite make it into that one as it was full so sat down and waited 25 min for the next one....meanwhile a husband and wife just about had a huge domestic in the middle of the waiting area for the class. The husband and son didn't want to wait 25-30 min for the next class. Even though this was the only thing the little girl had wanted to do all day. After a HUGE argument the mother and daughter decided to wait and do the class while the husband and son went on to do something else..then they started arguing who had the show time information for the park...this started to escalate so I offered them my park map and my times guide...this calmed them down and they decided to go off to the Stunt Show. Now you make think im a huge eavesdropper but it was pretty hard to not hear what was going on. And the sad thing is after all of this the little girl didn't even want to do the class anymore becuase of all the fighting and they left too. I wish everyone could just get along....it's supposed to be a vacation..and at a happy magical place nonetheless.

A few minutes later we were let into the class. We had a great animator and got started right away. We had one piece of paper on the lightboard and one pencil. No one was allowed erasers. This I thought was a great idea. The animator said that when they offered erasers everyone left with nothing on the paper becuase they weren't happy with what they had drawn. We were warned to draw lightly and go over our good lines at the end. The first character we drew was Donald.
Attachment 38150

It wasn't my best work....but I was surprised that it actually kind of looks like what it's supposed to look like . I was hooked. I loved art class in school so decided to go and do it again.....

this time around we drew one of the chipmunks...(I wasn't too happy with this one)
Attachment 38151

I was having some much fun...I thought why not do another.....in the next class we drew Carl from "UP"
Attachment 38152

After a quick check of the clock I had just enough time to do one more class, pick up the souvieners I wanted and make it to Epcot in time for my ADR at Tutto Italia. I am sooooo glad I did this last class....we did Minnie this time and I think that is the drawing that turned out the best....
Attachment 38153

I am hooked on this class...so much that I spend over two hours doing it!! I can't wait to take DFi here in September....I would have done more classes if it wasn't for my ADR at Epcot....

Before heading to Epcot there was one last thing I needed to do. When I was taking pictures of ToT the day before I had seen that in the gift shop they had the Tower of Terror DVD for sale. I loved this movie when it was on TV. It has a really young Kirstin Dunst in it ...it's a great movie if you haven't seen it try and rent it if you can...I made sure to pick up a copy of that DVD on my way out of MGM since it's so hard to find...well at least here in Canada.

Since I was cutting time short for my 4:30 ADR at Tutto Italia I took the bus to Epcot rather than the boat. I got to the bus stop just in time to grab a bus and made really good time to Epcot. After what felt like walking forever I made it to Italy and signed in at Tutto Italia.

I was actually sat 10 min early and had a half decent seat. I was sat near the server's area (again) but at least I was right next to a window so I could people watch outside. The server was actually really nice and attentive. I ordered a strawberry bellini for a drink along with a lemonade. The bellini was awesome. I quickly settled on the lasagna (sp?). It was ok. Not great. But not bad. The meal wasn't horrible but nothing really made me want to come back and it seemed over priced for the quality of food I recieved. I love italian food and enjoyed my meal at Mama Melrose way more than this one and it would have been cheaper (if paying OOP). Again I felt slightly rushed and was out the door by 4:50. A 20 min sit down meal at an Italian restaurant? That has to be a record!!

Coming up next....Epcot pics, shopping at DTD, and more rides?

[debrabrown]

First of all I just your drawings!!! Thanks for sharing them. They're great!

I am so sorry you are so darn cold . Bummer that you missed the TH ADR but at least you felt somewhat better after a little more sleep.

[nladams]

After supper at Tutto Italia I really wanted to get on TT one more time but even the single rider line was up to 30 min (regular was over 60 min) and I just didn't have the patience. Instead I headed over to spaceship earth (10 min wait) and gave it a go. I hadn't been on this ride since I was a kid so it was nice to see again.

After spaceship earth I was able to take some nice shots of Epcot at sunset...

Attachment 38156
Attachment 38157
Attachment 38160
Attachment 38162
Attachment 38164
Since tomorrow was my last day I didnt want to waste it shopping at DTD so decided to head there rather than do more rides at Epcot or MK.

Disney really needs to make it easier to get to DTD from anywhere. I picked up whatever resort bus showed up first which just happened to be for Saratoga Springs. Once at SSR I waited about 10 min for another bus to DTD. I could have taken the boat but again it was freezing.

Once at DTD I took a quick look in a few of the other stores but then grabbed a big basket and started my shopping at the World of Disney store. Here I picked up a lot of things:
Cute pink Mickey scarf (which I put to use right away)
Cute pens for those hard days at work
Stitch stuffed animal magnet
Two plastic green Mickey glasses
A pair of Mickey boxers for DFi to add to his collection
A mickey and friends key chain
A green team Mickey t-shirt

After World of Disney I head over to the "Art of Disney" store. Here I found two pictures for my office (when I get one in my house one day, in the meantime may take them to work and put in my cubicle) one says Magic at the bottom and has a quote from Walt and a black and white picture of the castle with a color tinkerbell flying overhead. And I also bought the one that says Vision. It's a picture of Walt on the flat land where they are going to build Cinderella Castle with a faint picture of the future castle overtop. It also has a cute quote about "vision". There was one more picture that goes in the set - Heritage but I didn't have enough money to get all three...I will pick that one up in September.

On my to the register I saw a small corner with all the David Tutera wedding stuff. I knew that I really wanted to get the Cinderella Guest Book from pics I had seen on the Disney website but wow was it ever beautiful in person! I picked it up right away since I didn't want to chance not having it for the wedding.

If you have a chance to look for it it's on the Disney Parks Store website under David Tuttera Wedding stuff and its the guest book...so pretty

After I had spent way more than I had planned I called it a night and headed back to WL.

I really did want to hit up MK at some point since I had already done the three other parks but I just didn't have it in me. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day and I wanted to be well rested.

I set the alarm for 7:30 am so I could be up and checked out of WL by 8 am and at MK for Rope Drop for the last day of my trip...

Coming soon ...Day 6
Will I make it to rope drop at MK?
Will I hit the princess jackpot at my CRT breakfast?
Would the ugly stepsister prove to be cold hard criminals?