TCD's Pre-Halloween 2012 Trip Report

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I'm sure we could spend a lot more time talking about the girl in the shorts, but we really must move on.

We left off with me about thirty five bucks lighter after what amounted to just a snack.

Actually, the pork shank was more than a snack. In fact, after gnawing on that and the big lunch the girls had, we decided to not even have a real dinner. We would just grab another snack later.

For now, it was on to the land of the mermaids.

Which, conveniently, was right next to where we were.

I used the new men's room in the village to wash the pork grease off my hands. Those new restrooms are very nice. I wanted to take a photo, but there were a lot of guys in there, so I didn't. I'm not a creep, you know.

Maybe I will have another chance later.

Here is our first look at Ariel's corner of the Fantasyland expansion:

What is cool about this is that it has a tropical feel. Look at the trees and plants. This is right next to Belle's village, but immediately upon entering, you have the sense of being somewhere else. Near the beach.

This is the entrance to the new mermaid ride:

We didn't know it at the time, but they were using the Fastpass line as the main line that afternoon.

We headed on in. The detail of the queue is remarkable. Even for Disney:

The roof tops you see above the trees are the roof tops from Belle's village. I guess it is intentional that you can see them:

I think between Twin #1 and I, we have 50+ photos of the ride itself. But, after looking at all the photos, I think they do not do the ride justice. The photos look like a bunch of photos of some cheap robots. But, that is not how the ride felt at all. So, I am not going to post 49 of those photos, I'll just post this one. This robot was a pretty good robot, the eyes, mouth, tail and even the hair moved on it. You can't tell that from this photo. It just looks like a mannequin. But, that is not what it looked like on the ride:

We all loved the Ariel ride. When you get right down to it, it's just a dark ride, and it is very similar to the Nemo dark ride over at Epcot. But, the ride is much longer than the Nemo ride, and the detail in all of the scenes as well as the music is so much better. They did a great job on this. I think it will be a huge hit.

That is the only photo I will post of the ride itself. You will have to go and see it.

Here we are back outside:

Ariel's Grotto was also open. I asked the girls if they wanted to go. But, we will be coming back for a passholder preview of this area, and that is one of the things we will see then. They said they would like to leave some new things for the preview, and I thought that was a good idea, so we headed on out of the mermaid area.

We had not stopped inside of Belle's gift shop when we visited the village, so we popped in there on our way out. If you want some Belle stuff, this is your place:

We noticed something odd in the gift shop.

This portrait:

Who the heck is that?

We didn't know.

So, I asked a Castmember who is that guy?

The Castmember gave me some strange answer like it is one of the ancestors of the people who founded this gift shop.

I asked her what the heck she was talking about- this is a brand new gift shop that has just opened. There aren't any people who founded it. It's owned by Disney.

She repeated herself.

So I found another Castmember and asked him.

He said the same thing as the first one.

Something fishy is going on here.

So, I studied this thing.

There is an open book on the shelf next to the portrait, but it looks like it is written in French:

Luckily, Twin #2 is in AP French in High School, after having taken it every year in school. I asked her to tell me what it said. She said she could just tell me the names of animals, food, colors and numbers, and a few other things, including some curse words, but she couldn't read that book. Public school.

So, I looked at the portrait again. There is some weird stuff going on here- there are peanuts on the table, an apple, and a lamp that looks like Aladdin's:

The book you see in the lower right corner is opened to a page that looks like a map of WDW:

This guy is somebody.

And, he ain't an ancestor of the family who founded the gift shop.

As luck would have it, one of those solo travelers that we talked about earlier came in to the gift shop and walked right back to where I was standing looking at the portrait. He said outloud, to me, I guess. "Looks just like him, doesn't it?" I said "I don't know, who is it supposed to be?" He said, that is Phil Holmes, the Vice President of WDW and head manager of the MK. Oh, I said, yes I see the resemblance. Actually, I never heard of Phil Holmes. But, I made a mental note to remember the name. And, I have since used the power of Google to confirm that the fellow in the portrait is, indeed, Phil Holmes. Not much of an ego, there, Phil, eh? Whenever they get around to unfreezing Walt's head, Phil is going to have some explaining to do. Dude's mug does not belong up there on the wall. Last I checked, this isn't Phil Holmes World.

So, that was interesting.

Let's see how long Phil's ode to his greatness remains.

Guess who was still prowling the village?

Gaston:

It was still a free for all for anyone trying to meet him.

I wasn't going to have any of that .

So, on we went.

Guess, who else we found wandering around all by herself?

Cinderella!

Look:

Not only that, but Prince Charming was there too:

Now hang on just a second.

Why was Prince Charming taking a photo of Cinderella?

That doesn't seem very royal.

Silly me, these were guests in costume for the Halloween party.

Crazy.

Twin #1 offered to take their photo.

The Prince handed over his camera.

Which gave me a chance to take a photo with mine:

Isn't that a sight?

Regular folks dressed up like that.

The only thing is, I don't know how regular them folks are.

I mean, who has costumes like this?

And why?

Twin #1 is a great photographer. She took a bunch of photos of the happy couple. She even told them how to pose. As she got near the end, she suggested that Cinderella take off one of her shoes, and let the Prince kneel down and pretend like he is putting it on her. You know, like the movie? Cinderella said, no, they didn't want to do anything weird like that.

Classic.

The Halloween party officially starts at 7, and the girls had planned our first two stops for the party.

They first wanted to meet the princesses with the their princes, who would be in the meet and greet area near the park entrance.

So, that is where we headed. Word is that you can get in line for them around 6:30, be let in right at 7, and be on your merry way.

That sounded good to me.

Plus, you wait inside in the AC.

Did I mention it was a warm afternoon?

Well, it was.

So we made it up to the meet and greet area.

It wasn't quite 6:30 yet, so we waited outside and watched people coming in for the party.

That was fun.

I would love to do just that again.

The things you see!

I'll share a few photos.

This group made costumes themed on the Where's My Water game:

This group was Snow White, the evil Queen and the Dwarfs:

I can say this because I am fat myself. . .was there a dwarf named Fatty?:

There goes a really old Tinkerbelle:

Not everyone had on costumes. We didn't. And neither did these people:

These ghost ladies were good:

And there's an Alice in Wonderland group:

This was the second Mother Gothel and Rapunzel pair we saw:

I thought that was an odd choice by those moms. I mean, what is your little girl supposed to think about you dressing up like a kidnapper?

Here's that classic couple Snow White and Woody:

And a lady with a moustache who didn't like me taking her photo:

And this is Belle and Gaston:

I seriously could have stood here for another hour and watched the guests stream in.

But we had to go line up.

So we did.

This is not our first Halloween party. I would say that more than half the guests wore costumes. It didn't used to be like that. We used to be in the majority when we didn't wear costumes, but this time we were definitely in the minority.

Next up, we meet some princes and then head out for some Halloween fun.

TCD

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

Love mustache lady!

I see what you mean about the people watching.....that might be worth the price of admission by itself.

WTF is up with Phil? UM....nobody knows who you are dude and nobody cares after they actually figure out who you are. Damn...what a stupid way to decorate the shop.

He either severely lacked self esteem before putting up the photo or totally didn't. Not sure.

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

Some of those costumes seemed to me to be more scary than not-so-scary, if you know what I mean. And one more comment about the shorts/diaper lady - was anyone else bothered by the way the young boy coming in was looking at her???

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

Can't wait to see the Ariel section. If it's only half as amazing as your pictures it must be truly spectacular in person.

I'm going to cut Phil a little slack maybe his mommy insisted on a portrait of her boy! :rofl2:

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I just joined this board mainly because of your trip reports. Long ago I read your TRs from another place.

I look forward to the continuation of this one as well.

Glad to have you along!

Thanks for posting.

I always like getting a little feedback on my reports.

And hearing that someone reads them.

Love mustache lady!

I see what you mean about the people watching.....that might be worth the price of admission by itself.

WTF is up with Phil? UM....nobody knows who you are dude and nobody cares after they actually figure out who you are. Damn...what a stupid way to decorate the shop.

He either severely lacked self esteem before putting up the photo or totally didn't. Not sure.

Anyone with a regular admission can do the people watching, as they start letting MNSSHP guests in at 4, and the regular guests don't have to leave until 7.

I would love to go back on a couple of MNSSHP nights just for the people watching.

When googling Phil, I saw some posts on another board suggesting that Phil did not ask for the portrait to be painted and put there. I say BS. He is the chief officer of the MK- and he obviously approved of the painting being there. I don't know a thing about the guy, but the fact that this painting exists and is on display tells me a lot.

Some of those costumes seemed to me to be more scary than not-so-scary, if you know what I mean. And one more comment about the shorts/diaper lady - was anyone else bothered by the way the young boy coming in was looking at her???

Yes, I know what you mean.

There were plenty of other interesting costumes, including a teen girl dressed as the work-out Barbie doll from Toy Story- in a skin tight body suit. But, I couldn't take her photo as the twins had already called me a creep for taking the photo of shorts girl.

Can't wait to see the Ariel section. If it's only half as amazing as your pictures it must be truly spectacular in person.

I'm going to cut Phil a little slack maybe his mommy insisted on a portrait of her boy! :rofl2:

The Ariel section is amazing. You may see it in person before I get to posting the photos, but we went back the next day and went through the regular queue just so we could see all the detail. I have a lot of photos from that, which I will post when we get to that part.

I wouldn't be surprised if Phil is a Momma's Boy.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Right before we headed in to the princess meet and greet, a balloon guy came by with special Halloween party balloons:

Cool.

But I had already wasted enough money on those plastic mugs at Gaston's Tavern, so we just looked.

The line for the Princesses was short.

And in the AC.

So I liked it.

The Princes are not usually out with the Princesses. But tonight they were.

I hope DaveinTenn doesn't see his girlfriend hugging up on the dude in tights:

The twins with Ms. White and the Prince with no name:

According to Twin #1, who is usually right about such things, Snow White's prince is never given a name in the movie.

Watching Flynn Rider interact with the guests is worth the price of admission for the MNSSHP alone:

Cinderella's prince had a bad wig:

We were out of there by 7:15.

We headed over to the Fire Station next.

They had a special edition SOTMK card made just for the Halloween parties. We each got one.

Next, we hit some of the trick or treat stations.

And then the Haunted Mansion.

Outside the Haunted Mansion, we met up with that stupid Duffy:

The girls always get a kick out of Tarzan, and as far as I know, this is the only time you can meet him.

So, here we are:

Tarzan sniffed Twin #1. Right in front of me. No respect. I have to cut him some slack, though, he was raised by apes, you know:

The Tarzan gang:

We hit up a couple of other trick or treat lines, and then headed over to the castle hub. The plan was to watch the Villians Mix and Mingle, and then the special Hallowishes fireworks.

On the way to the hub, we ran right into Gaston.

He was all by himself.

And the girls got to meet him:

This guy is a riot. He has major attitude. He told the girls how lucky they were to meet him. When he raised his arms for the second photo, he told the girls to get closer so they could smell the scent of Gaston. He went on and on like that. Really funny.

Here we are at the villians show:

The deal here is that after the show, the villians come down into the audience to mix and mingle.

There are no set lines at first, but castmembers kind of organize the lines. If you know who you want to meet, it is best to go toward that character first. We didn't know how things worked, so we ended up meeting Frollo (from the Hunchback movie). Who wants to meet Frollo? Not us. But we did anyway:

Next we got on line to meet Dr. Facilier. The girls met him in Epcot once by chance, and liked him. The line for Maleficent was next to us, and there was no way we would be able to meet her as it was a very long line. But, I was able to get a photo in between her meeting guests:

And here's Dr. F:

And the girls say I'm creepy?

We hung out here for the fireworks. We were right in front of the castle, and that seemed like a good idea. It actually wasn't the best spot to watch, as we couldn't see a lot of the fireworks that were shot off behind the castle. The end part, with the fireworks surrounding us, was really cool though.

I know a few fireworks photos go a long way, so I'll just share three:

After the fireworks, the plan was to go find a spot for the parade.

We at one time had hoped to find a spot on Main Street.

But, it was ultracrowded, and we figured that we wouldn't be able to get a spot, so we headed over to Frontierland.

We will pick it up from there in the next post.

TCD

[mouseketab.....Carol 1,261]

The Halloween party looks like fun!! I probably won't pay the extra on top of my AP to see it again, but if I ever find myself there in October in between passes, I might consider it.

[Judy in Texas 150]

I found one person's explanation is the symbology in the picture.

http://www.themagicinpixels.com/2012/10/phil-holmes-tribute-painting/

"In this photo you have Phil Holmes, president of The Magic Kingdom with all of the following (I found all of these items myself but explanations are credited to Kevin Yee): Haunted Mansion plaque and wallpaper sketches, Donald Duck statue (40th Anniversary Service Award), 40 ring for 40 years of Magic Kingdom, peanuts for Dumbo expansion in Fantasyland’s Storybook Circus, apple from Snow White – new roller-coaster coming soon and classic attraction shutting down -, Genie’s lamp from Aladdin, and a map of Magic Kingdom and Toontown.

This is in the Bonjour Village Gifts shop of new Fantasyland in the Beauty and the Beast section near the restaurant and Gaston’s Tavern."

[stefa70 205]

So much good stuff I can't begin to comment.

I love your idea of hanging out and watching guests in costume come in. I can people watch all day with "regular" folks.

As for Phil, if he's going to be pompous, why not just own it? Why didn't the CM tell you proudly who and why it was there?

The picture of Twin #1 with Rapunzel made Trevor and I crack up. That face she makes just screams trouble.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

The Halloween party looks like fun!! I probably won't pay the extra on top of my AP to see it again, but if I ever find myself there in October in between passes, I might consider it.

The Halloween party is a blast. But, it is hard to justify the cost.

You can see all of the decorations for free during the day.

The things that are special are pretty good, though- the fireworks, the parade, and the character meet and greets.

We didn't go last year- but the girls are Seniors this year, and who knows when or if we will be able to go again, so I splurged this year.

I found one person's explanation is the symbology in the picture.

http://www.themagici...ibute-painting/

"In this photo you have Phil Holmes, president of The Magic Kingdom with all of the following (I found all of these items myself but explanations are credited to Kevin Yee): Haunted Mansion plaque and wallpaper sketches, Donald Duck statue (40th Anniversary Service Award), 40 ring for 40 years of Magic Kingdom, peanuts for Dumbo expansion in Fantasyland’s Storybook Circus, apple from Snow White – new roller-coaster coming soon and classic attraction shutting down -, Genie’s lamp from Aladdin, and a map of Magic Kingdom and Toontown.

This is in the Bonjour Village Gifts shop of new Fantasyland in the Beauty and the Beast section near the restaurant and Gaston’s Tavern."

Thanks for the link. I actually went back for more photos another day, and got some more close ups of some of the symbols in the portrait.

The 40 is not just symbolic of the MK being 40 years old- it turns out old Phil is an original castmember-like from day one. He was 18 years old when he started working at the MK in 1971, and he has worked there ever since. So that 40 on his ring is in recognition of his 40 years as a castmember. Supposedly, 40 year castmembers got Donald Duck statues as a gift from Disney, and you can see one of those on the bookcase behind Phil. His first role was at the Haunted Mansion, which is the reason for the HM wallpaper.

So much good stuff I can't begin to comment.

I love your idea of hanging out and watching guests in costume come in. I can people watch all day with "regular" folks.

As for Phil, if he's going to be pompous, why not just own it? Why didn't the CM tell you proudly who and why it was there?

The picture of Twin #1 with Rapunzel made Trevor and I crack up. That face she makes just screams trouble.

I agree with you about Phil- put a plaque there with your name on it so we all know who you are.

Yes, Twin #1 is trouble. I'm sure I will see a photo like that some time next year on Facebook, only she will have a beer in her hand and a frat boy next to her

TCD

[shoreline99 137]

Great fireworks photos! One of my friends was there on the 16th and had a great time at the Halloween party. She even took the time to run over to the Fort and pick me up a FW t-shirt, so it must have been a good trip.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

Thanks for getting so many updates in today..... like stef said too much to comment on but i can't wait for the next update.

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

It's not Twin #1 you should worry about. It's the quiet one.....

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I am pressing on in hopes that we will soon be through the first day of the trip, and on to Fort stuff.

But, we aren't going to quite make in there with this post.

I hope nobody's in a hurry.

After the fireworks, we found a good spot for the parade in Frontierland.

We had an ulterior motive for going there, too.

This:

Remember how that pork shank was our dinner?

Well, Mickey pretzels were the second course.

As we waited for the parade, the Cadaver Dans came out to entertain the crowd.

As luck would have it, they stopped right in front of us:

What talent these guys have!

As they sang the first song, I kicked myself (figuratively) for not videoing this.

Then they started in to a second song, and I got it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F-Pcyo_O98&feature=plcp

The guys moved on.

And then we heard the sound of horseshoes hitting pavement.

Look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMu_EefxTlY&feature=plcp

A still photo:

The Cadever Dans and Headless Horseman were awesome!

Then the parade started:

There are loads of characters in the parade that you don't ordinarily get to see:

Go Gators! :

We love seeing this dog from the Haunted Mansion:

And the gravediggers:

This band is awesome to watch:

The hyenas from the Lion King are great:

The parade ends up with Goofy's train:

By now it was already almost 11 pm.

We had just an hour left.

We decided to hit some of the candy lines in Adventureland.

After that, the twins had a deadlock. One wanted to go back to meet Flynn (there is another CM who plays him and she wanted to see if he was there) and the other wanted to go back to see the new Fantasyland stuff at night. I had to play King Solomon. The only problem is that I don't have his wisdom.

TCD

[doodlebug....Cherie 461]

I love the Halloween Parade. Thanks for the videos.

Which twin wins? I will stay tuned for the further adventures of the TCD Gang duke it out in the MK!

[Nicki aka Rebelstand 272]

So I am thinking that Twin who wants to see new fantasyland at night wins or did we have a dual split with TCD going back to see the new fantasyland at night with a single twin.....hmmmmmmm

[ftwildernessguy 778]

Thanks for the picture of Jasmine.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

I vote back to new Fantasyland.....oh wait it already happened didnt it?

I am guessing you were able to do both somehow.

The parade picks and headless horsemen were cool as I have never seen the MK at Halloween.

I loved that the Florida Gators mascot was there too. :clint:

[ftwildernessguy 778]

I seem to remember back in 2004 that the Headless Horseman went down main street at a much faster clip. Some kid probably got trampled.

[Family of Bears 98]

Does anyone else think Gaston is kind of a hottie?

Annnnnyways....

[BuckeyeFortFan 35]

Does anyone else think Gaston is kind of a hottie?

Annnnnyways....

Sorry to bust your bubble but dudes who are that good looking usually only like other dudes who are that good looking. Plus, that hair and those muscle don't look real. That guy apparently didn't really eat 5 dozon eggs every morning to be "roughly the size of a barge."

[Big Kahuna aka John 71]

Some of those costumes seemed to me to be more scary than not-so-scary, if you know what I mean. And one more comment about the shorts/diaper lady - was anyone else bothered by the way the young boy coming in was looking at her???

I figured the little boy was her son, the daughter is at the ticket machine and that is proud daddy behind the little girl in flip flops

[dellasgirl 7]

WOW so many interesting costumes

Looks like a lot of fun

[Judy in Texas 150]

I think Gaston looks like Dudley Do-Right of the Northwest Mounties.

[Gots2pitt.. Jeff 64]

Does anyone else think Gaston is kind of a hottie?

Annnnnyways....

I bet Gaston does. :)