I think it was somewhere around 4:30pm by this time. A ride on POTC was in order! I had already been in the park for 6 1/2 hours and hadn't ridden yet. It was down during my trip with my husband in Nov. 2011, so I was feeling overdue to ride my fave.
I took a few pictures while in line. Here's a better one of my 6 year old's Jack hat.
My husband's Grumpy hat. There was a long white beard attached. The bill is extra large and the hat seemed extra tall in the back. The beard is removable but he almost always wore the beard. He said it was good protection from the heat, but I think he just enjoyed wearing it.
He liked acting Grumpy-ish when people would stare at him or comment.
My 8-year-old niece's Minnie ears.
The first time I saw pictures of this style of ears..I thought they were fancy bras!
Everyone enjoyed Pirates. The kids all enjoyed looking for Jack Sparrow.
Next up...my SIL really wanted to try a Dole Whip Float. Everyone headed over to the Dole line inside the Tiki Room courtyard. Everyone except me, my husband, and DS6. We went to Candy Palace to get my little guy a treat. Oops...I forgot to take a picture of the remodeled candy counter inside. I'm not sure which one I liked best.
On to the treats...
This is what DS6 picked out. I remember these ghost marshmallow sticks from 2 years ago, but the addition of Mickey ears is new since then. So much cuter! The ear broke off so I had him hold it up.
I got a piece of Chocolate Peanut Butter fudge, which was pretty good.
The plan was to wait on a bench near the tunnel to the right of the Main Street Train Station. We were going to hop over to DCA for the last 3 hours of the night.
I grabbed the stuff from our locker and then took a few pictures while waiting for the rest of our group to meet up with us.
One of my favorite things...when the lights come on at dusk.
After everyone arrived at the bench, we headed out of DL. The plan was to get our family picture taken by the Mickey Floral on our way to DCA. There was either no wait, or a wait for just one family to be done. Can't remember. We gave the PP Photographer just one camera. He took a couple of different shots. Unfortunately he didn't have us shift to the right a couple of feet. Several people in the group had washed out faces from the setting sun. The lighting on everyone else was great.
I wonder how they decide to do Masked Mickey or Normal Mickey. When I went 2 years ago it was Normal Mickey. I know last year was Masked Mickey. This year was Normal Mickey once again.
Off to DCA we go. This was my brother's/his family's first time to go to DCA. After we got through the turnstiles, most of the group used the restroom while I went ahead and picked up FPs for Soarin'. The plan was to then meet up at The Little Mermaid. This would be my first time to ride.
I took a few pictures in the area while I waited for the group to meet up with me.
I loved this Mickey-esque grouping of flowers!
Everyone made it over to The Little Mermaid and we walked right on. Sis38 told me that they'd already changed something from the original ride. I was on the lookout for the change. Even though I'd never ridden it, I had seen lots of pictures. I recognized Ariel's fly away underwater hair immediately as the change. Anyone know why they changed it? I really liked the ride. I thought it was really cute. I didn't really have any expectations one way or another, and I really enjoyed it.
From here we kind of made our way around. First we hit Golden Zephyr. That's not one that I do, so I stayed off with Sis38 and DS9. I could tell he kind of wanted to do it, but in the end just couldn't.
While they were riding Golden Zephyr I walked around with DS9 to see if he might like to ride Jumpin' Jellyfish with the group because that ride was up next. I thought it would help for him to see a round or two of it first. He said he didn't want to ride. I was surprised. He had ridden something very similar at Legoland 3 years ago. His head was down and his eyes were closed the whole time, but he did ride it. I thought that knowing he could do it when he was 6 might give him the courage to do something similar at 9. It was a no-go. He said the one at Legoland wasn't nearly as tall. I don't really remember.
So then we walked by Goofy's Sky School. I was surprised he wanted to try it. I told my sister to send the group over to Jumpin' Jellyfish without us when they got off Golden Zephyr. So DS9 and I rode Goofy's with a 5-10 minute wait. He closed his eyes the whole time, but he decided to ride again. We could see the others waiting in line for JJ, so we hopped back in line for GSS. They were waiting for us when we got off. This time DS9 kept his eyes open and really enjoyed it. He was somewhat proud that he was the first of our entire group (except Sis38) to ride GSS. (My first time was also his first time.) I liked the hills best. It really felt like we were going to tip right over the edge when we'd make the turns up top!
Silly Symphony Swings were next. I already knew he wouldn't ride that, so everyone else rode. I think I might have tried to get Screamin' FPs -- but it was closed for WOC. I think.
DS9 and I sat on a bench and watched Mickey's Fun Wheel.
When everyone was back together, half the group went to TSMM and half the group went to Screamin'.
Some members of our group were very anxious to try Screamin' for the first time. One of them was DS6. He REALLY wanted to ride during our April 2011 trip (just me, him, Sis38) but he wasn't tall enough. We measured him regularly and he was very excited when he hit that magic number of 48 inches! I figured my husband would ride with him, and I would stay with DS9 to ride TSMM -- Screamin' was definitely not in the cards for DS9 at this time, that's for sure!
I can't remember the wait time for TSMM. I want to say 30 minutes. Whatever it was, our Screamin' group got off the coaster before we got on TSMM. They saw us and came up and talked to us right before we boarded TSMM. I think we talked about meeting up at Soarin' to finish out the night. I suggested that they ride King Triton's Carousel while we were on TSMM.
So then this weird thing happened. Apparently a CM had seen them talking to us and thought they were trying to get in line with us, and then offered for them to get in line with us. We were just about to board TSMM and didn't see this interaction. I'm pretty sure my husband declined the offer, as they were just talking to us, not trying to get in line with us. But I guess DS6 and my 8 year old niece heard the CM's offer and then took off, trying to get in line with us. We didn't see any of this happen. I'm unclear on the details, but somehow the other 7 people ended up on TSMM shortly after we did! I'll have to ask my husband about it again, because I'm still not sure how it all went down. I told him he can't do that, and that we could probably read about that little incident on the DIS the next day! Anyway, I'll have to get more details. So we didn't know they were on TSMM. I was expecting them to ride the Carousel and then be waiting at the exit so we could all go over to Soarin' to close out the night. They were nowhere in sight and it was about 6 minutes to closing so we just took off toward Soarin'.
I texted my husband and told him where we were and to meet us afterward. I didn't get a reply and then I lost cell service inside Soarin' so I was sure they weren't going to make it. We made the last flight on our side. I love that ride. Still my favorite at DCA. After we got off my mom said it was her favorite ride in ALL of DLR. What?!? Traitor.
Then a text comes in from my husband saying they just got off Toy Story. That just didn't make sense, since we had barely gotten off of it ourselves and I knew they didn't have time to stand in the line and be done already. Then another text came in saying they were in line for Soarin'. Then the third one came in saying they were out of Soarin'. It was just all confusing to me. I told them to meet us at a bench on Buena Vista Street.
We met up and kind of got the scoop on what had happened. But apparently I'm still confused.
About Screamin' ... all the newbies loved it! My 6 year old sat next to his 8 year old cousin. I was shocked. I figured he'd need dad to be by him for his first ride. Nope! The picture was so funny. As if he'd been riding forever and it was old hat to him, in a fun way. You could tell he really enjoyed it.
I think this is my ONLY picture taken on Buena Vista Street this trip! My 12 year old son is giving his 12 year old cousin a piggy back ride. You can barely see some street lights in there.
WE INTERRUPT THIS TRIP REPORT TO ANNOUNCE THAT THE STAR WARS WALLET WAS JUST DELIVERED BY FED EX. ALL $114 IS STILL THERE. THANK YOU HOJO!!!
DCA closing time. We made our way out of the park and discussed the next day's plans. It was our MHP day. We decided before the trip that we'd spend that morning at Newport Beach. We made plans to meet at Mimi's parking lot at 9am and head off to the beach together. We would stay for a few hours, return to our hotels and shower and nap before the party. We'll see how that all panned out next time!
DH and I laughed when my sister said 'Why would you buy into a Disney Vacation Club when your sons are 15??' We both said, 'when they are older we will only have to pay to take ourselves to Disney so we can go more often'.
I know I saw some of your Catalina pictures in the beginning, but I didn't see them all. I know I didn't see the sunset pictures. I will definitely check them out.
It seems like they would have been told to not actually touch the guests.
Does that mean the trip is off?
I moved on forward with the kids and he made the trek back to HoJo in search of his missing AP. I knew this would put him in not-the-best-of-spirits, understandably. I gave him "permission" to stay back at the hotel and rest for a while before coming back. (He's big on resting...not very big on walking around. Especially not big on extra walking in the form of returning to HoJo and back.)
I'm finding out that I have a LOT more pictures to share than I had originally thought. 
when I saw the pic where your DS held the chocolate Kicked ear (I mean Mickey!) onto his ghost treat for the pic! Too funny. Loved the B&W sans ear.
