WDW, Disney Cruise, Disneyland Trip 2013

[KeithS]

Thanks for the daily updates. Have you done the new ride, Journey of the Little Mermaid.

No worries. We haven't done Little Mermaid here yet but we did it in California last year. We want to do it on Friday along with the Belle meet and greet. It is mega busy here at the moment as it is spring break but should be much quieter when we come back after the cruise.

[alice in wonderland]

I am LOVING all your updates!! Have a BALL on the cruise!!

[KeithS]

I am LOVING all your updates!! Have a BALL on the cruise!!

Glad you are enjoying it Jess. We are certainly enjoying being here to bring you all these updates! In fact, if you all band together and send us lots more money, we'll stay here longer and bring you even more updates, how is that for a great deal? LOL!

Here is today's update.

21 March 2013 – Rest Day
Today was our pre-planned rest and washing day. After breakfast this morning, we gather all our clothes together and headed down to the laundry. It took us about two hours to finish all the washing but during cycles, we just sat on the poolside in the brilliant sunshine drink from the soda fountain using our free refill cup. Della also grabbed some chips from the food court and we had a very enjoyable morning.

After all the cleaning, we heading to Downtown Disney for the rest of the day. First stop was the Earl of Sandwich for a late lunch of tuna melts (Della) and Hawaiian BBQ (me). We then stocked up of Ghirardelli chocolate drinks. Once we were full restocked with food, we headed to the far end of Downtown Disney near DisneyQuest, and then slowly made our way back going from shop to shop. I particularly liked D-Street as they had some amazing Vinylmations (even though I’m not a collector). There were a lot of strange little shops at this end of Downtown, with quirky things for sale, but nothing that really took my fancy.

Della found two nice handbags in Apricot Lane – they were by designer Vera Bradley who is about to launch a Disney series in September. Even I liked the bags (and I’m no handbag critic, but I could see they were nice).

We kept moving through the shops and of course ended up back at World of Disney where I bought a shirt for the Pirates in the Caribbean night on the ship. Finally, we went to the Art of Disney store to take a look at the collectibles. Della loves collecting the Disney by Britto figurines and we note that Romero Britto himself is releasing and signing new pieces tomorrow in the Magic Kingdom, so we are going to go to the event.

After going through all the shops, we caught the bus back to Pop Century because we wanted to have a look at what it looked like after all these years and compare it to Art of Animation. It still looks great but we had to admit now that the Art of Animation theme is better than Pop. We would still stay at Pop though because it is a great resort. We walked back to our resort across the bridge and dropped off our gear before heading to our food court for dinner. We also checked with the concierge about when we get picked up for the cruise and the guy told us that they will put the joining instructions on our door tomorrow with pick up time etc. so that is all sorted.

Following dinner, we headed back to our room to pack as tomorrow we intend to spend the whole day in the Magic Kingdom.

[churros]

-/

[churros]

Are you keeping up with Oz news? Specifically the leadership challenge you have when you're not having a leadership challenge!

[ajp]

So close to the cruise now Keith. -/

[KeithS]

So close to the cruise now Keith.

Almost there! Just one more sleep and a bit of packing to go!

Here is the final update - you won't get any more until we return to Port Orleans Riverside next weekend and I log back online - see you all then!

22 March 2013 – Magic Kingdom
It is our last day before the cruise, so we tried getting up early to be at Magic Kingdom for the opening. We were a little slow though, so by the time we had breakfast and had travelled out to the park, it was 15 minutes after opening.

The first thing we did was head down Main Street and into Fantasyland. We went to see how long the wait was for Enchanted Tales with Belle, but it was about one hour, so our first ride today was the Little Mermaid ride. The ride is the same as DCA, but the queue line was magnificent with interactive bits and great theming.

After Little Mermaid, we walked around to Dumbo and rode the clockwise Dumbo first (it was a walk on this early in the day). Then we headed next door to Goofy’s Barnstormer rollercoaster which is a fun little ride. And we followed that up with the anti-clockwise Dumbo!

We then walked over to It’s a Small World for our mandatory trip on that attraction. It is nice to see a version that doesn’t have the Disney characters added in. After Small World, we walked over to Frontierland to ride Big Thunder Mountain, however it had gone down, so we just jumped on the Railroad and travelled around to Main Street to get a locker. We then saw Mr and Mrs Easter Bunny in Town Square, so we jumped in line to get our photos with them – this was pretty exciting as they only come out for a week each year.

After Mr & Mrs Bunny, we grabbed a couple of big ice cream cups and ate them in the hub. We also got some castle photos and watched the street party celebration that happens around the Hub.

After the street party, we headed into Fantasyland so Della could do some shopping. She picked up three princess handbags and an Ariel shirt. I took them back down to our locker in Main Street before we headed back to Fantasyland to see the Enchanted Tales with Belle. This time, it was only a 40 minute wait, so we jumped in the queue. There is an awesome moment when the mirror on the wall expands and you walk right through it (I still don’t know how it works!) Once through the mirror, I was selected to be one of Belle’s suits of armour protecting the castle! It was pretty cool and I got to meet with Belle and received a bookmark for helping out.

After Belle, we went on the Carousel before seeing Mickey’s Philharmagic which is always a lot of fun. Next, we headed down Main Street to Uptown Jewellers to buy two Britto Disney pieces. Romero Britto himself was signing his pieces today, so we picked up Donald and Jiminy Cricket and Mr Britto signed the pieces for us. He was a really nice guy too, very friendly and told us he is working on a Duffy piece soon! After the signing, we took the pieces to the locker then we sat on the veranda at Town Square Theatre for half an hour as it began pouring rain. We never saw that coming as it had been a beautiful sunny day.

When there was a break in the weather, we headed to Tomorrowland and had dinner at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café. While we were there, we saw Mr Britto doing a photo shoot with Mickey in front of the castle. After dinner, it started pouring rain again and it looked like it was setting in again, so we decided to head back to the resort to pack for the cruise tomorrow. When we got to the room, there were Disney Cruise Line instructions lying on our bed – our bags get collected tomorrow morning at 8am! So we have to finish our packing right now.

[ajp]

See you after the cruise! Ahoy!

[calisota]

I see Keith is always saying how he has put purchases in a locker in the park. Isn't it possible to get them delivered to your room if you are staying onsite any more?

Greg

[churros]

Bon voyage -/

[churros]

If you follow the disney cruise line twitter it will keep track of Keith and Della's ship!

[ColinA]

I see Keith is always saying how he has put purchases in a locker in the park. Isn't it possible to get them delivered to your room if you are staying onsite any more?

Greg

Keith may not know about the service. I would play it safe and allow 2 days for the stuff to arrive at the resort.

[Mel]

I've just caught up on all of this and am eagerly awaiting to hear the report from the cruise -/

So jealous of a couple of things you got to do in particular. Things that can't be done with small adults like the Backstage Magic tour and the AK behind the scenes tour. Only about another 15 years until I can do these!!!

Keith, could you do me a favour when you get to Disneyland? Could you possibly pick up a spare park map of both DL and DCA for me? I want to make up a pass the parcel for the kids with the maps being in the centre as a part of the main 'prize'. I'm planning on giving it to them in Vegas to tell them we are going to Disneyland

[churros]

The forum's very quiet

[ColinA]

The forum's very quiet

All busy Cruising with no internet, we await the reports!