Fall Ball
Fall Ball at Walt Disney World, Florida, was great. It was a full week of vacation. Not exactly relaxing, but definitely fun. I’ll try to give a very brief account, and attempt to avoid rambling on as I usually do in these posts.
Thursday
Awoke very early for my flight out of Dayton. Found a hospitality area that I had access to and stocked up on hot chocolate. \o/ Flight went as scheduled (miracle of miracles!) and Ben had arrived from LAX and was waiting at my gate in Orlando. Took Disney’s Magical Express shuttle to hotel, room wasn’t ready, so we stashed our bags and headed to Magic Kingdom. Met up with Brian (Emp) & Miriam (Yveva), grabbed some lunch in Tomorrowland, and hit the rides. Mickey’s Philharmagic was fun, as was Peter Pan’s Flight, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, and the Tomorrowland Transit Authoritay. While on the TTA Valo decided it was his mission to high five one of the people movers going in the opposite direction. It didn’t happen.
Had the welcome reception back at the hotel. Got to meet all the new peeps - some great new folks! Had some gold, told the story (“…As the first Aes Sedai…”), hung out and gave the game plan for the weekend. Had some cheeseburgers with the group in the food court.
Friday
Group met for food in the food court and headed to Epcot. Here’s the group:
We split up a bit once we got there though, and found more of our friends too. Valo and I ended up with Yele, Kari, Jyneave & Bo (the people in red in the picture) for most of the day, and had an awesome time. We stuck to Future World in the morning and did Spaceship Earth, and The Land (Soarin’ is amazing!) and then headed to the Coral Reef for lunch with the big group. Lots of fun (and fun pictures later).
World showcase was great. Went to Mexico for a boat ride. Went to Norway, took a boat ride. Followed by an obnoxiously out of date filmstrip. Um, other countries after that and then got to the reception site around 6:30. It officially started at 7 and went well. Ceremonies were fun, food was yummy, drinks included brandy. :D
Epcot closed earlier than originally scheduled so we walked over to the Boardwalk. Explored the Disney Vacation Club, looked in on the Dance Hall and piano bar and decided to go to Downtown Disney. Ended up at the Irish Pub for some late drinks & food.
Saturday
Decided to skip Animal Kingdom for the time being and proceeded directly to Disney Studios. Went straight to Rock’n’Roller coaster, which we rode twice. Ben & Brian rode Tower of Terror while Miriam and I took a different elevator. We were at the new Toy Story carnival ride by 10:30 I think, but all of the fastpasses for the day were already handed out. Stand-by wait time was 70-90 minutes, so we skipped it. Saw Muppet Vision 3-D, the Great Movie Ride, Magic of Disney Animation and had some lunch at the ABC Commissary since the nicer restaurants were full. Walt Disney’s One Man’s Dream was closed early, which I was disappointed by. We then went to the group meeting point (Sorcerer Mickey Hat) at 3pm and had the fun surprise of a parade. Found Kari but she was with family, so we (Emp, Yveva, Valo & myself) decided to go to Downtown Disney early. Did a bit of shopping and had supper at Rain Forrest Café, and then went over to DisneyQuest. DQ was a lot of fun, more than expected actually, even though I have minimal gaming skilz.
Sunday
After a nice extra hour of sleep due to the time change, we went to the farewell breakfast in the hotel café. Lots of catching up with those who we hadn’t seen, and then we were off to Magic Kingdom. Big group rendezvoused at the Philharmagic store and even with a mighty effort we couldn’t manage to stay together to get to the Haunted Mansion. Eventually the group fractured and Valo, myself, Andra and Yele covered the park for most of the rest of the day. Avoided a bit of rain at Snow White’s Scary Adventure, and had a great time on the Tea Cups (video to follow :) ), Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear, Stitch’s Great Escape, the Monster’s Inc. Laughfloor, Space Mountain, and the TTA - And Ben got his high-five from the car in the opposite direction! I was sadly disappointed to find that the Hall of Presidents had been closed to refurbish the exhibit following the election. I had been especially excited to talk to the host on election day or the day after, so was majorly bummed that it wasn’t going to happen, but at least we got to stop in on Thursday.
In the evening we had a great time on the Jungle Cruise and of course searching for Pin Trading Opportunities, and then had a lovely dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. It was a fantastic finish to the Fall Ball part of the trip.
Monday
While touring through the castle on Sunday I had made an off-hand comment to the guest relations desk asking if they had any breakfast openings for Cinderella’s Royal Table. It was really a facetious comment because I had called the WDW Dining line dozens of times asking for reservations and everything was full. A nice man there found a way though and we had reservations for breakfast Monday morning!
When we arrived (which wasn’t easy because the park wasn’t open yet and we didn’t have instructions of how to get to the castle) we took pictures with Cinderella and then were escorted to our table. The best table in the whole place. Right in the center of the room, up against the stained glass windows overlooking Fantasyland. It was absolutely lovely. We had some food and took pictures with the princesses. I’m glad to have been able to show Ben one of my favorite spots. It really is geared toward kids though, and I don’t think I feel the need to go back in the future, this visit was enough.
I’m starting to ramble on like I was trying not to do. Back on track!
After a few pics in MK, we took the monorail to Epcot and really took aim at completing the whole park. Did all the Seas exhibits including the new Nemo ride, Turtle (tur-Tul) Talk with Crush, and some quality time with dolphins & manatees. Over to the land for another ride on Soarin’ (gifted to us by a benevolent man with extra fasspasses!), and then over through Innoventions to ride Test Track and Ellen’s Energy Adventure. The first half of the Energy Adventure was great, but sadly I can’t tell any more than that because the ride locked up and we had to all be escorted from the building. :( Ben rode Mission Space, but I didn’t think I could handle the motion (looking back this was the correct decision), and then we took another spin on Spaceship Earth and then visited with Figment.
Next on to the World Showcase! The new 360 film in the Canada pavilion is super fun (though they really need better signage!), and really makes Norway look even more pitiful. The highlight of the World Showcase though was the American Pavilion. We were there about a half hour before the “American Experience” show was scheduled to start, so we watched the David Cassidy concert which was part of the Food & Wine festival. Then we went back to the US pavilion and into the theatre. The show repeatedly wowed me and Ben. By the end we were laughing about how ridiculously good the show was.
We enjoyed some international cheeses and popcorn (after a lot of walking to find them) and then got a good spot for IllumiNations. Great show as always, and a great ending to the day.
Tuesday
We started election day with Animal Kingdom. Got a fastpass to Kilimanjaro Safaris, and did Rafiki’s environmental watch. Then back to Safaris to get another fastpass and use our first one for the ride. Saw some fun animals, pictures later. Also did the walking trails, the Flights of Wonder show, It’s Tough to be a Bug, and had a nice lunch outside the Yak & Yeti. We tried twice to see the Finding Nemo show, but both times it was full well before showtime.
Best ride at AK though was the new Expedition Everest. I was a little apprehensive because of the size of the drop that was visible, but I’d heard really good things. It turned out to be very very fun - and very surprising! They should really tell you ahead of time if you’re going to be traveling backwards for a fair part of the trip!
After AK we took the shuttle to Disney Studios, with three goals in mind. 1 - the Toy Story carnival ride 2 - Fantasmic 3 - Star Wars Pins. Toy Story ride was of course out of fastpasses again, but we waited the 60+ minutes and eventually made it on. Great ride! They really need to figure out how to get people through the line faster, but other than that, two thumbs up! (And I beat Ben’s score at the game! :) )
We didn’t find any pins we especially liked at Star Tours, but got some good pictures. And we also got some popcorn and hot chocolate before Fantasmic.
After the final show we busted over to the busses and got right on a shuttle back to the hotel. Then it was to the café to get a pizza and some soda and to the room to watch the election results! \o/
Wednesday
Our last day in Florida started with packing up our bags and having some leftover pizza for breakfast. We were happy with everything we had seen in the parks and felt content. But we had a few hours before we had to be back for the airport shuttle and so headed to Epcot (via a shuttle to MK, and then riding in the front car of the monorail to Epcot) to explore more of Innoventions. Turns out we’d seen most of Innoventions already so we went back to The Land and went on the Living with the Land boat ride, which was one of my favorites. On our way out we got some food and I decided to have an ice cream novelty which were quite good. I couldn’t decide if I should have the premium Mickey bar or the ice cream sandwich, and when I told the ice cream girl that it was my last thing I was getting before we went to the airport, she said I should have the premium for sure, and I agreed and she gave me it for free! =D
It was a great trip and there was so much more that I’d love to talk about but I know I’ll just never be able to say it all. We loved pin trading and got some really great pins, and we got wetter than desired on an indoor jungle cruise ride, and rode the real jungle cruise late at night which was lots of fun. Most of all though it was the people that made it such a fantastic trip. Love you guys!
Thursday
Awoke very early for my flight out of Dayton. Found a hospitality area that I had access to and stocked up on hot chocolate. \o/ Flight went as scheduled (miracle of miracles!) and Ben had arrived from LAX and was waiting at my gate in Orlando. Took Disney’s Magical Express shuttle to hotel, room wasn’t ready, so we stashed our bags and headed to Magic Kingdom. Met up with Brian (Emp) & Miriam (Yveva), grabbed some lunch in Tomorrowland, and hit the rides. Mickey’s Philharmagic was fun, as was Peter Pan’s Flight, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Space Mountain, and the Tomorrowland Transit Authoritay. While on the TTA Valo decided it was his mission to high five one of the people movers going in the opposite direction. It didn’t happen.
Had the welcome reception back at the hotel. Got to meet all the new peeps - some great new folks! Had some gold, told the story (“…As the first Aes Sedai…”), hung out and gave the game plan for the weekend. Had some cheeseburgers with the group in the food court.
Friday
Group met for food in the food court and headed to Epcot. Here’s the group:
We split up a bit once we got there though, and found more of our friends too. Valo and I ended up with Yele, Kari, Jyneave & Bo (the people in red in the picture) for most of the day, and had an awesome time. We stuck to Future World in the morning and did Spaceship Earth, and The Land (Soarin’ is amazing!) and then headed to the Coral Reef for lunch with the big group. Lots of fun (and fun pictures later).
World showcase was great. Went to Mexico for a boat ride. Went to Norway, took a boat ride. Followed by an obnoxiously out of date filmstrip. Um, other countries after that and then got to the reception site around 6:30. It officially started at 7 and went well. Ceremonies were fun, food was yummy, drinks included brandy. :D
Epcot closed earlier than originally scheduled so we walked over to the Boardwalk. Explored the Disney Vacation Club, looked in on the Dance Hall and piano bar and decided to go to Downtown Disney. Ended up at the Irish Pub for some late drinks & food.
Saturday
Decided to skip Animal Kingdom for the time being and proceeded directly to Disney Studios. Went straight to Rock’n’Roller coaster, which we rode twice. Ben & Brian rode Tower of Terror while Miriam and I took a different elevator. We were at the new Toy Story carnival ride by 10:30 I think, but all of the fastpasses for the day were already handed out. Stand-by wait time was 70-90 minutes, so we skipped it. Saw Muppet Vision 3-D, the Great Movie Ride, Magic of Disney Animation and had some lunch at the ABC Commissary since the nicer restaurants were full. Walt Disney’s One Man’s Dream was closed early, which I was disappointed by. We then went to the group meeting point (Sorcerer Mickey Hat) at 3pm and had the fun surprise of a parade. Found Kari but she was with family, so we (Emp, Yveva, Valo & myself) decided to go to Downtown Disney early. Did a bit of shopping and had supper at Rain Forrest Café, and then went over to DisneyQuest. DQ was a lot of fun, more than expected actually, even though I have minimal gaming skilz.
Sunday
After a nice extra hour of sleep due to the time change, we went to the farewell breakfast in the hotel café. Lots of catching up with those who we hadn’t seen, and then we were off to Magic Kingdom. Big group rendezvoused at the Philharmagic store and even with a mighty effort we couldn’t manage to stay together to get to the Haunted Mansion. Eventually the group fractured and Valo, myself, Andra and Yele covered the park for most of the rest of the day. Avoided a bit of rain at Snow White’s Scary Adventure, and had a great time on the Tea Cups (video to follow :) ), Pirates of the Caribbean, Buzz Lightyear, Stitch’s Great Escape, the Monster’s Inc. Laughfloor, Space Mountain, and the TTA - And Ben got his high-five from the car in the opposite direction! I was sadly disappointed to find that the Hall of Presidents had been closed to refurbish the exhibit following the election. I had been especially excited to talk to the host on election day or the day after, so was majorly bummed that it wasn’t going to happen, but at least we got to stop in on Thursday.
In the evening we had a great time on the Jungle Cruise and of course searching for Pin Trading Opportunities, and then had a lovely dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. It was a fantastic finish to the Fall Ball part of the trip.
Monday
While touring through the castle on Sunday I had made an off-hand comment to the guest relations desk asking if they had any breakfast openings for Cinderella’s Royal Table. It was really a facetious comment because I had called the WDW Dining line dozens of times asking for reservations and everything was full. A nice man there found a way though and we had reservations for breakfast Monday morning!
When we arrived (which wasn’t easy because the park wasn’t open yet and we didn’t have instructions of how to get to the castle) we took pictures with Cinderella and then were escorted to our table. The best table in the whole place. Right in the center of the room, up against the stained glass windows overlooking Fantasyland. It was absolutely lovely. We had some food and took pictures with the princesses. I’m glad to have been able to show Ben one of my favorite spots. It really is geared toward kids though, and I don’t think I feel the need to go back in the future, this visit was enough.
I’m starting to ramble on like I was trying not to do. Back on track!
After a few pics in MK, we took the monorail to Epcot and really took aim at completing the whole park. Did all the Seas exhibits including the new Nemo ride, Turtle (tur-Tul) Talk with Crush, and some quality time with dolphins & manatees. Over to the land for another ride on Soarin’ (gifted to us by a benevolent man with extra fasspasses!), and then over through Innoventions to ride Test Track and Ellen’s Energy Adventure. The first half of the Energy Adventure was great, but sadly I can’t tell any more than that because the ride locked up and we had to all be escorted from the building. :( Ben rode Mission Space, but I didn’t think I could handle the motion (looking back this was the correct decision), and then we took another spin on Spaceship Earth and then visited with Figment.
Next on to the World Showcase! The new 360 film in the Canada pavilion is super fun (though they really need better signage!), and really makes Norway look even more pitiful. The highlight of the World Showcase though was the American Pavilion. We were there about a half hour before the “American Experience” show was scheduled to start, so we watched the David Cassidy concert which was part of the Food & Wine festival. Then we went back to the US pavilion and into the theatre. The show repeatedly wowed me and Ben. By the end we were laughing about how ridiculously good the show was.
We enjoyed some international cheeses and popcorn (after a lot of walking to find them) and then got a good spot for IllumiNations. Great show as always, and a great ending to the day.
Tuesday
We started election day with Animal Kingdom. Got a fastpass to Kilimanjaro Safaris, and did Rafiki’s environmental watch. Then back to Safaris to get another fastpass and use our first one for the ride. Saw some fun animals, pictures later. Also did the walking trails, the Flights of Wonder show, It’s Tough to be a Bug, and had a nice lunch outside the Yak & Yeti. We tried twice to see the Finding Nemo show, but both times it was full well before showtime.
Best ride at AK though was the new Expedition Everest. I was a little apprehensive because of the size of the drop that was visible, but I’d heard really good things. It turned out to be very very fun - and very surprising! They should really tell you ahead of time if you’re going to be traveling backwards for a fair part of the trip!
After AK we took the shuttle to Disney Studios, with three goals in mind. 1 - the Toy Story carnival ride 2 - Fantasmic 3 - Star Wars Pins. Toy Story ride was of course out of fastpasses again, but we waited the 60+ minutes and eventually made it on. Great ride! They really need to figure out how to get people through the line faster, but other than that, two thumbs up! (And I beat Ben’s score at the game! :) )
We didn’t find any pins we especially liked at Star Tours, but got some good pictures. And we also got some popcorn and hot chocolate before Fantasmic.
After the final show we busted over to the busses and got right on a shuttle back to the hotel. Then it was to the café to get a pizza and some soda and to the room to watch the election results! \o/
Wednesday
Our last day in Florida started with packing up our bags and having some leftover pizza for breakfast. We were happy with everything we had seen in the parks and felt content. But we had a few hours before we had to be back for the airport shuttle and so headed to Epcot (via a shuttle to MK, and then riding in the front car of the monorail to Epcot) to explore more of Innoventions. Turns out we’d seen most of Innoventions already so we went back to The Land and went on the Living with the Land boat ride, which was one of my favorites. On our way out we got some food and I decided to have an ice cream novelty which were quite good. I couldn’t decide if I should have the premium Mickey bar or the ice cream sandwich, and when I told the ice cream girl that it was my last thing I was getting before we went to the airport, she said I should have the premium for sure, and I agreed and she gave me it for free! =D
It was a great trip and there was so much more that I’d love to talk about but I know I’ll just never be able to say it all. We loved pin trading and got some really great pins, and we got wetter than desired on an indoor jungle cruise ride, and rode the real jungle cruise late at night which was lots of fun. Most of all though it was the people that made it such a fantastic trip. Love you guys!