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Walt is the man, Mickey is the mouse but Minnie is THE WOMAN
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Here's the extract from our trip Report thread:
ORLANDO, FLORIDA 2006.
10th October, DAY 10
“Happy Birthday to me…” Firstly, guys, thanks for all the cards I received – A very pleasant surprise and much appreciated – Thank You!! Well, as you will be aware, we hit MK and stayed into the night for MNSSHP Due to this, we had a late start. Now, I know a lot of you would have ‘gasped’ at that, but I am always considerate and have to think of Ann – who needs her sleep!!
After our normal morning BritCast and showers, we headed on out to MK arriving around noon. First port of call was Guest Services to make another ADR for later in the week over at MGM and I also let them know it was my Birthday – yep, 21 (again)!! Once done and after picking up my Birthday Badge and a map for MNSSHP, we headed up through the Main Street shops towards Crystal Palace. We checked in and had to wait a little as firstly, our ADR was not until 1pm (it was only 12.50pm) and secondly they were very busy. I also let them know it was my Birthday – thanks for the tip Melis!! We finally got in around 10 minutes after 1pm and were shown to our table that was all decorated up for me – what a great touch!!
The food and ambience in the Crystal Palace is excellent and we both thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere; the meal and meeting all the characters. We certainly ate very, very well!! Just to top of the meal, I received a birthday cake and a card from the characters, which I thought, was a lovely touch. I saved the cake and asked for a little box to take it away in to eat later!!
Meal over and now 2.30pm gone, we headed back down Main Street and had some retail therapy – having the goods we bought sent directly to our hotel like we always do!! Ann bought some scrap-booking stuff along with other bits and bats!! She is very keen to give the scrap booking a whirl having never done it before!!
We now decided to head on up to Main Street station and catch the train round to Toontown Fair. As we entered the station we were greeted by a CM and upon seeing my birthday badge, gave us both special Mickey Ears – free!! They are light blue in colour with a cloud effect on them and it says on the front: “The Year of a Million Dreams“ along with a picture of Cinderella Castle. They are apart of the Million Dreams give away. We were dead chuffed at receiving these as we had seen other people with them on!! There was a slight delay in the train leaving – not because I was driving – but because the parade had just started over at Frontierland. Once on our way, we had a pleasant journey round.
We couldn’t believe how quiet Toontown was – we could actually see quite a way in front of us!! First of all, we went into Mickey’s Country House and then round to Judges Tent – but he wasn’t there and the CM couldn’t tell us how long he would be? Moving on, we went next door into the Toontown Hall of Fame Tent. Here we waited in line to have our photo taken with Donald, Chip & Dale and Mary Poppins. We then re-queued to have our photos taken with Minnie, Pluto and Goofy. For Minnie, we had taken off our ears, but she noticed them and noticed it was my birthday and so I got lots of hugs and kisses from her!! We also had to put our new ears back on for the photos!! Most of these you may have seen courtesy of Melissa and our Photo Pass.
Once done, we headed next door into Minnie’s Country Home followed by Donald’s boat – working our way out of Toontown as we went. The time was just after 4pm and we were now able to collect our wristbands for MNSSHP. The nearest place we could do this was at the Rose Garden in front of the Castle. Along the way, we picked up some FPs for Winnie the Pooh. These had a return time from 5pm – 6pm. Wristbands sorted (a bright blue colour – a very Halloween colour?!!!) we took a break and had a drink in Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café and awaited our time to go and ride Winnie the Pooh. At this point, I also ate my Birthday Cake I received earlier.
5pm soon came round and we headed back into Fantasyland and straight on to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Like I said earlier, the park was fairly quiet and we worked our way along to Liberty Square. First stop was Mickey’s PhilarMagic (I just love this 3D show – poor Donald!) followed by “it’s a small world” and finally Peter Pan’s Flight. We also checked out the shops too and asked a CM about Halloween T-shirts: We were told that they would be out after 7pm in the Emporium when the park closes to the ‘day’ guests.
Since it was 6.45pm, we headed back up Main Street and hung around for 7pm. This came and went and so we asked another CM who told us they wouldn’t be out until 7.30pm! Arrrgggghhhhh!! 7.30pm fast approached and we asked yet another CM who looked to be a Manager of some sorts. She informed us that they were having problems clearing the park from the day guests but they were just putting them out in the shop towards Casey’s. We moved fast through the store and found them on the racks.
Having purchased our T-shirts and put them on, we were off to enjoy the Halloween Party!! We headed towards Adventureland having our photo taken on the way out side Crystal Palace looking towards the Castle. We were going to ride PoTC but there was a 50 minutes wait! We did however have our picture taken under the PoTC sign. Our plans changed and we headed over to BTMR instead which had no line at all. This was fun to ride in the dark and everyone was screaming with ‘Ghoulish Delight’ as we went round!!
BTMR ridden, we wondered back into Adventureland to have our photos taken with some of the characters. These were Timon, Tarzan & Terk. It was great because after each photo was taken, there were CMs with large barrels full of Goofy’s Candy and to get some we had to answer to “Trick or Treat”! The candy was then put into our ‘Trick or Treat bag we were given when we got our wristbands.
All this candy was making us hungry and so it was of to Aloha Isle for a Dole Whip Float. Ann wasn’t hungry and so didn’t have one – besides she doesn’t like pineapples!! The float was absolutely yummy to say the least!! We then headed towards the front of Cinderella Castle for “Villain’s Mix & Mingle’ – Disney Villains dancing to some remixed favourite Villain songs. It was a really fun show that lasted around 10 minutes.
Ann was now hungry and we headed towards Casey’s Corner so that she could get a Hot Dog. Once bought, we hung around this area for “Happy HalloWishes” – a Halloween firework spectacular – starting at 9.30pm. WOW!! What a display it was!! If you have seen Wishes, multiply it by 10!! I have seen fire works behind the Castle before but not a display, which lit the whole sky up from beyond Casey’s Corner to beyond Plaza Ice Cream Palor.
The whole of Main Street – and the rest of the park for that matter were decked out in different colours that made the whole place look superb. One added extra for Main Street was they had MickeyBats, Witches and Ghosts flying along the walls of the buildings using various lighting effects which worked ‘a treat’!!
We now decided it was time to find Mickey and friends: He was, as we found out, in his house. Toontown was very, very busy. We had a Photo Pass picture taken against the Toontown sign and changed our minds. Instead, we went to find a spot to watch the parade. We found a spot in Liberty Square half way between Sleepy Hollow and The Hall of Presidents but on the opposite side of the street.
The ‘Mickey’s “Boo-to-you” Halloween Parade’ started with a ‘Headless Horseman on a black horse which looked superb!! The parade was brilliant too: We got loads of candy during it too!! It was now closing in on 11pm and so we headed back to Mickey’s House. He was in the garden at the rear of his house with quite a queue to see him.
Photo Pass done, we were going to go and see Minnie and find Donald but time was against us. Instead, we headed back to Main Street Station to where we had our final MNSHHP shot done with a ‘Ghostly Mickey’.
After photographing the front of the park which was suitably lit up too, it was time to take the Monorail back to the Contemporary for a bus transfer back to DTD followed by the short walk across the road to our hotel.
Well, what else can I say? I had the best birthday ever: The Cards; Crystal Palace with the card & cake; MNSSHP and generally being in WDW!! MNSSHP comes ‘Highly Recommended’ and if anyone gets the chance to do it, they should!! I think I have written enough here – time to sign off for another day!!
Originally Posted by ImaMouser 
Sufferer of Disney Vacation Depression 
was singing Happy Birthday to him. The male CM did not go over to the female CM by the door and we never told him we were from Wisconsin either so we never found out when the discussion happened between the two CMs, but that was one of the many "magical" memories on our trip.
