"Dead Men Tell No Tales...No. Really." 8 Days at ASMu! - October 2010 Trip Report

[terbethk]

We slept in a bit and didn't even head out to the bus stop until 10:45. This is like unheard of for us. We stopped at the gift shop on our way out to trade pins at the pin board. Ryan was exclusively looking for Stitch and Jessica Rabbit. I decided to collect pins from a few of my favorite rides - Splash Mountain, Tower of Terror, Haunted Mansion, and Dinosaur.
The bus came right as we walked outside, and the line wasn't bad at all. It also wasn't sharing with any other resorts, so we got there quickly. The first thing we did upon arrival was stop to watch a small bit of the "move it shake it celebrate it" parade.

Then we headed right over to Princess Tiana's Garden to go meet her and Naveen. The line wasn't too bad, maybe 15 minutes, and they were a BLAST!!!

Prince Naveen wanted to dance so we appeased him.

We had so much fun talking with them. Tiana asked us where we were from, then proceeded to tell us all about how she gets her cheese for her world famous mac and cheese from wisconsin. She also asked us if we're Disney know-it alls, and I showed her I was. Here's me instructing her when and where she can find the 3:00 parade

I think that's probably when she realized she shouldn't have questioned me. lol.
But they were a total blast, one of my favorite meet and greets from the trip!

I also love this picture, because I feel like we look like kids <3

By this time we were STARVING and I was itching to eat at Columbia Harbor House, which luckily was close by to where we were, so we headed on over, and I finally got to try the delicious tuna sandwich I'd heard so much about here on the boards. Ryan got the fried fish and fries basket, and we both got an apple crisp for dessert.

The food was soooo fantastic!!! Ryan has never really had tuna before, and was opposed to the idea, but he tried a bit of my sandwich and LIKED IT!!

After we finished lunch up, we grabbed fastpasses for Big Thunder, and then it was time to go play on Tom Sawyer Island!

We had SUCH a blast over there, taking pictures of everything, recreating pictures I had taken when I was 13, running through caves, searching for paintbrushes, crossing the barrel bridges, shooting guns, and basically acting like little kids. Sooo much fun!

After we headed back to the mainland, we used out Big Thunder FP's - thank goodness too, because it was STILL crowded! After we rode, we picked up some Splash Fastpasses, then ate more Mickey Bars!! We had another "must do" to do that neither of us had ever done - The Enchanted Tiki Room! I must say, I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would, it was cute! And of course, since we were over there, we HAD to ride pirates again. It said 10 min wait, but it was a walk on. Ryan got a nice picture of the skeletons.

After we got off the ride, we were gonna go on right away again, but we noticed Pirate Goofy was out, and the line wasn't obscene, so we got some pix with him.

THEN we rode the ride again. Still a walk on. I really wanted to get pictures in front of the partners statue, so we went and did that, before using our splash fastpass.

 

[terbethk]

After getting those cute shots, we headed back to do Splash, pansy style.

This ride is always so much fun!!

There was one more thing I wanted to do before leaving, and that was to ride the FULL loop on the train. Ryan was nice enough to oblige me, so we did that, starting at the main st. station. There was a guy in the toontown station who was celebrating his 19th birthday, so we all yelled "HAPPY BIRTHDAY ETHAN" as we pulled into the station. It was cute. Ethan was happy.

But once we made it back to Main Street we hopped off and headed for the busses. Except I went the wrong way, because I really DON'T know everything. We were trying to get to Hollywood Studios (meeting John for Fantasmic!), and instead of taking the monorail to the TTC, we headed for the resort busses. Whoops. Oh well. We grabbed the first bus we saw, which was for the boardwalk. Cool. I wanted to check out the boardwalk anyway. When we got to the hotel, we thought about staying at the bus stop, to catch the bus to DHS. I wondered aloud to Ryan that I thought there was a shuttle boat and we should see if we could find that. Well a bunch of people in the bus station overheard me, and started following us, thinking that this was a good idea! lol, at that point I wasn't even sure if I was right! But of course, I shouldn't have doubted myself, and there was one. The dis has taught me well. And somehow I....and all my followers found the boat launch. Sweet. The boardwalk was pretty cool.

So for some reason I thought the boat launch would be a fun, quick way to get to the studios, and if we were being leisurely it would have been. But Ryan was getting tired and cranky and we were starting to get a bit pressed for time. We wanted to play around the studios for awhile before going to see Fantasmic. We had been planning on seeing the 7:30 show on Halloween for awhile (its what we did last year and it wasn't crowded at all).
Anyway, it took quite awhile for the boat to get there, then what I didn't realize is that we were the first of four stops. After the boat picked us up, it also went to the Yacht Club, The Beach Club, and the Swan and Dolphin. And it was VERY slow moving. But we finally got there, and also learned they added a second fantasmic show that night, but we didn't want to change our plans, so we still planned on seeing the earlier one. So we headed into the park, and met up with John, along with his dad's girlfriend's son's family. lol. And they all told us about their day. Ryan and I decided we DEFINITELY needed to see the western scene in the Great Movie Ride. Before going in, I took the pic of Macaulay Culkin's hand and footprints that I have to take every year. We asked the castmembers working the outside of the ride, and they weren't sure if they'd still be running the western scene. They told us to ask someone inside. So we did, and voila! We were escorted all the way into the front of the line, and onto the front row of a tram, sweeet!!!! I love disney magic!

Here we all are looking a little frazzled and tired.
BUT. we got to see the western scene, and it was freaking sweet!!

So...yay! Then we all decided to go on Tower of Terror. Couldn't tell you how long we waited in line, but it probably wasn't more than 10-15 min. It was starting to get a little darker out, and I was noticing things in the Tower of Terror lobby I'd NEVER noticed before! SOOOO weird. Ryan was trying to convince me I was crazy and he must have been right, because I've been on the ride SEVERAL times. Idk.
I felt really bad on the ride, blocking the people behind us. That's why I didn't lift my arms. Not because I'm a wimp (second row, right side).

Once the ride was over, we pretty much booked it to the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater. It's a good thing Rock 'n Rollercoaster was closed that day, because it would have distracted us from our mission.
We headed in around 6:45 I want to say, for the 7:30 show and we were WAAAAAAY down on the end. so lame.

the place was freaking packed. I went to go get food and drinks for all of us (which took AT LEAST a good half hour). By 7:05 the show was COMPLETELY FULL! Not even any standing room. Yikes.
We of course enjoyed the show, especially John, who had never seen it.

Afterwards, of course, it was NUTS getting out of there, and somehow we came out right by Tower of Terror. The boys suggested going again, but I (of all people) didn't want to wait. Well the sign said ten min, so we got in line. I already could tell it was going to be longer than that and it did take about 25 minutes, but it was worth every second.

Ryan and I in line.
Of course it was SUCH A BLAST!!!!

After that John left, and Ryan and I walked around and tried to do a little shopping, and bought a Minnie oven mitt and Mickey ice cube trays. So we headed out, and our bus was already there and waiting for us. A couple people had to stand but at least we weren't sharing busses. When we got back to the resort we ate a little, and went swimming - at TEN PM. But it was COOOOLLLD, so we weren't in the pool for very long, and it was torturous walking back to the room. brrrr. Plus we wanted to get to bed early, because we wanted to make it to Epcot by opening the next morning.

Up next.... Epcot and MNSSHP!!

 

[Aburns8]

Love your trip report! I could comment on so many things but there is so much here already! We went to WDW in October as well for our 5 year anniversary. Your FastPass pics are wonderful. We decided to a lot of them as well. But yours are way better than our!

 

[terbethk]

So we headed out to the bus stop just before 8:30, we only waited about ten minutes, and we only shared with the Movies Resort. We arrived at Epcot at 9:02 on the dot. Trekked over to Soarin' to grab some FP's, and debated going standby, because the sign said it was a 20 minute wait, but it looked more like 40-60 min. So on our way over to Test Track we stopped by the Character Connection, because I still hadn't met Pluto, plus, the line looked short. So we hopped in line, and it was about five minutes and we got to meet all of the fab 5!

After we finished up there, we continued on our trek to Test Track. The wait said 20 min, but lucky for us it was a walk on! Score!

And as always, the ride was a total blast!

Since we were right there, we decided to check out Innoventions. Ryan played with all the little experiments, we did Stormstruck (which I did last year as well), and we finally got to check out The Sum of All Thrills. Of course, despite my motion sickness, Ryan felt that doing the most intense ride would be fun. Lucky for me, it wasn't too bad, it was actually pretty fun. Here's a picture of the simulators.

And the wait for that wasn't bad at all. Maybe 5 min total.
When we were done playing in there, it was time to go use our Soarin Fastpasses and we decided to wait for front row, which of course was AMAZING. here's some waiting in line pix.

By the time we got off the ride, it was after 11, and we wanted to make it into the World Showcase asap. We started in Canada, and since John told us we should see the circlevision film, we did. canada was Beautiful!!! I'd never really explored it before, but it was really pretty. The film was really good too, but it did make me feel a little sick, but since the room was stationary, I just closed my eyes and I was fine.
On our way to the UK, we passed an Ireland booth, there for the food and wine festival, and I heard about the Bailey's Chocolate Lava cake,so I of course HAD to have a piece. This was the day when Ryan and I realized we had a TON of food credits left on our card, and we were leaving the next day, so we were fully using them up in Epcot, woohoo! Ryan actually suggested we share the cake, but I told him Hell no, if he wanted any, he'd better get his own. Which was good, because it was SMALL, and secondly...it was quite possibly the best thing i've ever eaten in my entire life!

Then we puttered around the UK for a bit, exploring and taking pictures, and talking in British accents.

Then, we headed on over to France.

...where we met MARIE!!

 

[terbethk]

We also saw Belle out in her blue dress, but I met her there last year, so I passed. They did have nice topiaries celebrating the rerelease of Beauty and the Beast.

I also wanted to check out the Patisserie in France, while we were there, and the line was kinda long, but how often do you get to eat french pastries? I got the Napoleon. It took me awhile to get adjusted to it, but it was great! Artery clogging, but great!

on our way out of France we also spotted Princess Aurora, with NO LINE, so we grabbed a quick shot with her. Just because we could.

We wandered through a few more countries, with our primary focus on meeting Jasmine and Aladdin in Morocco. We plopped down in line to meet them.

They were pretty funny. I showed Aladdin the Jafar pin on my lanyard. He didn't care for that at all. He took it off my lanyard, then put it back on backwards, and said "There. Now he's "Ja-far" away" lol.

After that we found a photopass photographer in Morocco, who took a few pictures of us on this fountain. I liked him, he kept calling me the queen.

Then, after exploring our way through Italy and Japan, we ran into the same photographer AGAIN in Japan, so he took more pictures of us, continuing to call me the queen.

Ryan's whole quest was for a brat in Germany, so we eventually made it there, and ordered a brat and apple strudel with vanilla sauce. Both were really really good. and I don't even like brats -this was only the second I've ever had in my whole life.

At this point, I called my mom and we were gossiping about certain things, so I missed out on seeing the rest of the world showcase, except America, where there were a couple things we wanted to see, but they weren't starting til later in the day, and we were ready to head back to our hotel. I did take a picture of the American Gardens Theater, where Hanson played one week later (I forgot to mention I'm a HUGE Hanson fan - I've seen them 51 times to date, and would have scheduled my trip while we were there, but I LOVE LOVE LOVE Disney at Halloween, and am not a huge fan of the Christmas deccor).

We did stop at the pin trading station in Future World and Ryan managed to trade for a Jessica and Roger Rabbit pin. I also got a few Haunted Mansion pins. It was pretty cool to talk to the locals/avid pin collectors. But we spent WAY more time doing that than we probably should have. We needed to make it back to the hotel, because we had to pack and we wanted to get a nap in before the Halloween Party.
When we got back to the hotel, we were apparently, hungry AGAIN. So we grabbed some chicken nuggets and fries, with a ice cream sundae for dessert. That thing was HUUGE! Not even both of us could finish it.

At this point I was getting real emotional about having to leave the next day.
I decided, while Ryan napped in the room, I'd snap a TON of pictures of our resort.

From out on the balcony you could see part of All Star Movies, which is where we stayed two years ago.

This was OUR view.

^^View from the third floor, where we'd get on the elevator.

To be continued....

 

[terbethk]

The Rock Inn section....

And onto Country Fair (which I'm forever grateful I didn't have to stay in)

And Broadway.....

Our building:

The Piano Pool - the one we used

And our building again :

After a bit of repacking, showering and napping we headed back out to the bus stop to the MK at around 5:00. The bus was about to pull away as we got there, but we made it on! Phew!

To be continued....
Up next....MNSSHP!!!!

 

[terbethk]

Love your trip report! I could comment on so many things but there is so much here already! We went to WDW in October as well for our 5 year anniversary. Your FastPass pics are wonderful. We decided to a lot of them as well. But yours are way better than our!

Thanks! I started reading your TR last night, but didn't get very far
My laptop is broken at the moment so my computer access is limited, lol. Haha, which is why I've had to put my TR up in such big sections at a time, lol

 

[Aburns8]

Thanks! I started reading your TR last night, but didn't get very far
My laptop is broken at the moment so my computer access is limited, lol. Haha, which is why I've had to put my TR up in such big sections at a time, lol

Sorry to hear about your computer! I hope it gets fixed soon.

 

[luckylady]

Last days are always sad. AsMu looks like a fun place to stay.

 

[terbethk]

Sorry to hear about your computer! I hope it gets fixed soon.

It's in the process of getting fixed!
yay! Then I can finally get my Disney fix!

 

[terbethk]

Last days are always sad. AsMu looks like a fun place to stay.

I was dreading going home even before we got to WDW. ugh, every day that ended, I knew we were getting closer to the end of the trip. We were both sooo depressed.

AsMu was a blast!! We both loved it, and I doubt I'll be able to convince DH to ever stay anywhere else.

 

[Aburns8]

It's in the process of getting fixed!
yay! Then I can finally get my Disney fix!

Thank goodness! I know how I feel when I don't have technology to look up my Disney information!

 

[terbethk]

Alright, I think this is where I left off....

After a bit of repacking, showering and napping we headed back out to the bus stop to the MK at around 5:00. The bus was about to pull away as we got there, but we made it on! Phew!
Right away when we got there, I think we went to the bathroom first, which is when we noticed Winnie the Pooh was out. Sure, what the heck!
So we got in line, he had to take a break, but quickly came back out accompanied by Tigger (who I accidentally called Eeyore. Whoops).
It was cute. Pooh liked me.

Ryan looks jealous over the fun Pooh and I are having together

they were just TOO cute!

Then we grabbed a couple pix on main st. before the photopass photogs got too crazy busy!

After that, we headed straight back to Fantasyland, on a misson to ride Dumbo. The reason for this, primarily, was so we could see over the construction wall. We only had to wait 15 minutes, not too bad. It was soooo exciting, and we took video. Yay! Buildings have been erected!! After that Snow White still had no wait, so we did that again, meanwhile carefully keeping an eye on the Seven Dwarves line because Ryan was determined to meet Grumpy.
When we got off Snow White, we went to check the line again, and there were probably about 15 people in line, so we hopped in and sat down, ready to endure a 40 minute wait to meet some dwarves.

The line got soooooooo long. It weaved in and out about four times. Yikes! But of course, it was worth it.

lol, I had to crop and decorate this one for Ryan

After that we spent a little time wandering around looking for the hag from Snow White, but we couldn't find her anywhere (we later found out that she was in the princess tent with snow white and snow prince). But we did stumble upon Lady Tremaine with Anastasia and Drizella. Even better! The line wasn't too long for them either, so we hopped in.
They were a HOOT! Anastasia asked me if I wanted to trade Ryan for Lady Tremaine and Drizella. I said no because "they scare me" they thought that was funny. Yikes! they were too much fun though.

After meeting those ladies, we headed back to the castle forecourt to see the Villains Mix and Mingle show, stopping by the Sleepy Hollow to grab a slushie - soooo good! There was already a roped off line to meet Malificent, so we watched the show from in Malificent's line. Good thing we got in line early, because we were like the third group in line and it went on and on and on. Yikes! We also wanted to meet Dr. Facilier, Jafar, and the Snow Queen. The show was...ehhh. I saw it last year. I still think it's a little too risque for Disney World.

After meeting Malificent, we quickly got in line for Dr. Facilier, who was next over. While we were in his line they announced that the lines would be closing soon! Holy crap. Last year we got in four villains before they sent them all back in, and this year we only got two per show. I also later found out that this Halloween Party was sold out.

Then we quickly wedged ourselves into a spot in the hub to watch the parade from. On either side of us were families from Wisconsin. One was from Muskego. Small world. I got a semi- decent shot of the headless horseman flying by.

the Haunted Mansion part is always my favorite!

 

[terbethk]

After the parade was over, we headed back over to the castle to see the Villains show AGAIN, this time we watched it from the other side of the stage, from the Snow Queens line. We were the first people in line, and I could tell it was going to be a problem, when the father of a family started wedging himself in front of us (the line was MAYBE six people deep at this time). When the Snow Queen came out, he acted surprised and asked us if it was okay if his family went first, since they were already standing there. Ugh. Like he didn't know. This annoyed me soooo bad. To make matters worse, the cm that took our picture started taking my camera down before it was even done taking the picture, so now we have two very crappy pictures with the Snow Queen AFTER we got cut off in line. So I was in a pretty bad mood after that.

After all this, we went over and got in Jafar's line. He was terribly frightening. When I stood next to him, he turned slowly and just GLARED at me. All I could utter was a high pitched "I'M AFRAID OF YOU!"

Then we we went to Caseys Corner and got some food. I think Ryan had a hot dog and fries, with cracker jack, I got corn dog nuggets and cotton candy.

Then we grabbed a spot across the street from Casey's, in front of the plaza over a garbage can to watch Hallowishes. SOOOOOO good!!! Even better than I remembered!

At this point I was SOOO sick of being in the hub, where we had pretty much been since 7:30 or 8, and it was nearly 10 at this point, and I was itching to get in some rides/trick or treating, etc...So we headed into tomorrowland and got our candy bags ready. We got some candy in tomorrowland, then back into Toontown, then walked Alice's Treat Trail, but skipped the meet and greets, just grabbed the candy. We stopped at a few more candy stops, before making our way over to the haunted Mansion. We quick grabbed a picture in front of the haunted carriage, as I knew the line for this gets pretty long, but there was nobody there, so we quick got in there.

I don't remember how long the line was, but I'm pretty sure this might have been the longest we waited for it all trip. Maybe 10-15 minutes.

Then i was on a mission for aother ghost picture, which I was pleased to find right away

Then we headed over and got our last rides on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Splash Mountain. We were wimpy yet again, on splash.

Then, to bookend our trip, one very last ride on Pirates.
Sooo sad. But we took a ton of pictures on the outside, hahaha

We then grabbed our one last dole whip, and happened to stumble upon the indoor part of the veranda, where character meet n greets were happening. Woohoo!!! a spectacular find!! We found some Aladdin characters (I forget who, but I think the Genie was there), perhaps some Tarzan characters (?) and BALOO AND KING LOUIE!!!!! I was SOO excited, and so was Ryan. We saw them at Animal Kingdom, but the line was always soooo long, so we never did it. But here they were with like two people in line! score!! Perfect way to end the day!

PERFECT!!!
We grabbed one more photopass picture on the way out

We look way too happy to be headed out of the last park of the trip

We worked our way down main St. and I remembered I wanted to get a picture on the bench with Roy and Minnie. Ryan's not the best photographer, but here's what he got.

I did a little better with this pic of Ryan

I was feeling decently okay with leaving, we were both EXHAUSTED! On our way out, we were stopped AGAIN, watching some of the wet broom creating Disney art. Magical! Sooo cool. So we headed back to the busses, and only had about a five minute wait. awesome. Passed out as soon as we got back to the hotel.

Up next...Day 8...now its time to say goodbye......

 

[terbethk]

Worst day of all. We were both REALLY upset about coming home. We both agreed the vacation was MUCH NEEDED. I don't think we realized how much we needed it until we were there. It was magical and perfect. Everything was so wonderful. I always hate leaving. In fact, on the day before, we got our magical express stuff delivered to our door about our leaving, and Ryan quickly hid it in a drawer, so we wouldn't have to think about it.
We had every intention of going to Epcot this day, because even though we'd seen more of Epcot than we ever had, we still missed a TON! Specifically Universe of Energy (?), Captain EO, Innoventions, seeing more of the World Showcase, etc.. But we were WAY exhausted, and needed the time to get our stuff together and such.
Here we are taking our bags up to the lobby.

See all that stuff in Ryan's back pocket? He lost it. haha. And he wouldn't let me hold ANYTHING the whole trip because on our '07 trip I lost my boarding pass. And on our '08 trip I lost our park tickets, room keys, photopass, etc... So he was in charge of holding on to everything. neener neener.
After we went and got checked in with Magical Express we went to grab a quick breakfast. Then we also wandered around the gift shop. And took some sad pictures.

RRRRRRRRR for Ryan

Between all the eating and searching the gift shop for last minute things, like I said, Ryan lost our Magical Express paperwork (to get us on the bus), as well as our boarding passes. ugh. Annoying. So we went back to the desk to get everything reprinted. Boarding passes reprinted. no problem. Magical Express- now if we didn't have that sheet to get us on the bus, as long as I had the booklet we'd be golden. Of course my idiot self wasn't thinking and packed the booklet into our checked luggage, which we already checked in with them about an hour prior, and was already on its way to the airport. However, the dude just wrote up a slip of paper and got us on a bus. In fact, we got onto a bus, even before OUR bus was scheduled to arrive. At that point, we were just torturing ourselves by being at the hotel, so we wanted to get to the airport asap. Once on the bus, I was getting emotional watching the goodbye video and I cried a little. Ryan laughed at me, but I think he felt my pain inside. But he was exhausted and fell asleep for most of the bus ride back to the airport.

He looks more sleepy than grumpy, don't you think?
Once to the airport, things were uneventful. We found a place to sit, since we still had over two hours til takeoff. I wandered the gift shops - universal and disney. I only bought one thing, and its probably my favorite thing I brought home from this whole trip (other than the pictures). I got the Four Parks, One World CD, which is AMAZING. I love it! As soon as we landed in Milwaukee, and my dad picked us up, I popped the CD into his cd player, and immediately Ryan and I both got nostalgic.
Overall...It was the greatest Disney trip EVER. EVER.
We're already itching to go back...planning for Jan/Feb 2012...Stay tuned!

The End!

 

[Hoosier Mom]

Thanks for the great trip report. I have a question about the photo pass photos. Our last two trips we never saw a photographer, but I guess we didn't know to look for them.

Do they automatically put all the nice borders on, or is that something you log in and do after coming home? Thanks for the info.

 

[Aburns8]

I can't believe it is already over! I loved your pics! We took a ton on our trip as well. I wished we got some more with the characters like you did! It is funny that you took sad face photos, so did we. I just need to get to that part in the trip report. I am glad that you enjoyed your trip! Hopefully you get go back soon!

 

[terbethk]

Thanks for the great trip report. I have a question about the photo pass photos. Our last two trips we never saw a photographer, but I guess we didn't know to look for them.

Do they automatically put all the nice borders on, or is that something you log in and do after coming home? Thanks for the info.

There were photographers all over the place, you'll definitely see the majority of them on Main St. in the MK. But we also found a lot of them in places we'd never seen them before. Just look for the CM's with all the camera equipment. Sometimes they'd have long lines, but sometimes they'd be standing around looking bored. We stopped at almost all the ones we saw, just to ensure we were getting our money's worth

After you put your photopass id in on the photopass website is when you can edit the pictures and add borders and things. VERY time consuming, but also fun! Hope that helps!

 

[terbethk]

I can't believe it is already over! I loved your pics! We took a ton on our trip as well. I wished we got some more with the characters like you did! It is funny that you took sad face photos, so did we. I just need to get to that part in the trip report. I am glad that you enjoyed your trip! Hopefully you get go back soon!

haha, Ryan was sooo opposed to doing characters at the beginning of the trip, but towards the end, we wanted to meet everyone we possibly could! It was his idea to wait nearly an hour in line to meet the dwarves!

 

[Aburns8]

haha, Ryan was sooo opposed to doing characters at the beginning of the trip, but towards the end, we wanted to meet everyone we possibly could! It was his idea to wait nearly an hour in line to meet the dwarves!

I don't think my hubby would wait an hour to meet any character. But we would take a pic with any character that didn't have a long line. I can't wait to talk about the Duffy Bear when I get to that point in my trip report. We had a lot of pics taken there.