Gryffindor's on tour 2017 Day 18 MNSSHP

[Excitedx4]

The day is finally here! I get to go to Disney!

I was so excited I was up at 7am and the weather looked really dull outside. I put on the weather channel and it was giving out really rubbish weather all day, showers non stop! I was gutted that this was going to ruin the party, but hey nothing I could do about the weather! I just put it to the back of my mind.

We just took the morning slowly as we knew it was going to be a late night. I let the boys get up and have a light breakfast as we were booked in at 1pm for lunch at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. We all loved this in 2016 so we had decided to come back for a few reasons. Obviously the food, the locabeing close to MK and we could leave the car there and use Disney transport after our ADR. Also the lunch time menu is a lot cheaper than the dinner time menu for the skillet and the only difference is the brisket beef!

We left the villa at 11.30am as Dave wanted to nip to the premium outlets to change his tshirts in the adidas shop for another size. We parked up and Dave ran in whilst I stayed in the car with the kids.

We drove over to LBV and came across these wonderful sights...

We got to the Wilderness Lodge at 1pm, I think our reservation was for 1.30pm. We had a little look around the hotel and it really is spectacular! I would love to stay here in the future, but it's just so expensive!

I went to check us in at 1.30pm and we had a greeter called John Paul. He was very abrupt and not very friendly. He reminded me of Leslie Jordan the small gay American actor! He barked at me asking how old the children were and I replied 6&13 he shouted back the 13 year old had to eat off the adults menu. Ok that's fine! No need to shout! He handed me a buzzer and I went back over to the boys who were all sat on the couches in the lobby area.

After a couple of minutes our buzzer went off. I was a bit worried about how many people would be here for lunch and if you would get the atmosphere we had last time at dinner. I needn't have worried as it was very full the restaurant.

Our server was called Craig. He was very nice and polite and when we told him we were paying oop he said that Evan could eat off the children's menu if he wished! Up yours John Paul Craig was a bit ditzy and was not really into the crazy character most of their servers were. He also took a long time to get things but I think he just had too many tables. We all ordered Coke Zero and they were all flat, we called Craig over and he said he'd get us some more. These came back and were also flat, he said this had happened a few times today (probably all day why not just change the mixer) so he said he would have to use the other one all the way down the other side of the restaurant 😂😂 seriously if you've never been to the WCC it really is not a big restaurant!

Jacob took part in all of the games and activities in the restaurant, the pony race he loved and won it (he didn't cheat at all like when they told them they could only walk, he didn't run, well maybe he did a bit, well actually he did a lot, he's a cheater &#128514 but he was made up he won!

We had a lovely meal and really enjoyed out afternoon, lining our stomachs ready for the night ahead.

The lovely cornbread! I've actually made this a few times at home now and it's so nice!

The leftovers! Me and Dave shared the skillet whilst the kids both ate off the kids menu and had cookies for dessert. Craig took about half an hour to get the cookies in a box to take away!

I don't think Jacob is trying to strangle Evan here but I could be wrong?

Whilst Dave was waiting for the cookies to arrive with the kids I nipped out to the car and got all of our costumes out. I came back to the restaurant and they were still waiting for the desserts. I hunted Craig down and we were soon on our way.

We went to use the disabled toilet to get changed for the night. These are located on the 3rd floor randomly, so if you have a wheelchair user in your party at WCC they would have to go to the 3rd floor up the lift to the toilet next to a conference room!

Anyway we all got changed in a cramped toilet 😂🙈. Evan still wasn't too pleased to be 13 and dressing up, the kids were arguing over who was tweedle dum as they both wanted to be tweedle Dee 😂😂

In the toilet, being a disabled toilet it was really spacious!

We headed to the bus stop at WL to get across to MK. We had so many nice comments on our costumes. Dave had been complaining about getting dressed up and after loads of people had commented on our costumes in such a short space of time he admitted to me he was pleased I'd gone to all the trouble to get the outfits as it had made the night seem more special already before we even got to MK.

A lovely lady took our picture at the bus stop. Because we only got the party tickets we didn't have the memory maker so no pictures from the photographers at MK.

A bus came along shortly and the bus driver strapped Evan into the wheelchair space. Sometimes to make it easier for the bus driver we transfer evan to a normal seat and fold his wheelchair up, we do this usually if there are already 2 wheelchair or scooters on the bus so we don't have to wait for the next one along. This really is the only downfall for disabled guests at WDW especially with the about of ECV's.

We got to MK at around 3.30pm, there was already lines forming so we joined one of them. We were the 4th family back from the front. It was really really hot even though it was cloudy. I'm actually glad it was cloudy as I don't think I could of taken it if it was bleating down with sunshine too. I had an Alice in wonderland dress on and the skirt party had netting on it, my a*se was sweating so much it was actually dripping down my legs! Dave even said to me at one point it looked like I was wetting myself 😂🙈. Luckily I had tissues in my bag. It was because we were all standing still in close proximity in a queue there was no air! I was really looking forward to an air conditioned ride 😂.

The queue was really building up, I kept telling dave to turn around and look how many people were in the queue now and he was really shocked! We were let in five minutes early at 3.55pm. We had linked out tickets to our magic bands from 2016 and we were unsure if they would work correctly so I did have out printed out tickets too just in case. We all received the green light no problem and made our way past the turnstiles to other CM's to collect our wristbands for the party.

We were then all guided down the right hand side of main street for our candy bags with our first lot of candy in them and came out at the right side of the hub.

I was so happy to finally see the castle after being so near for 2 weeks but yet so far, I snapped this as we were hot footing it across the hub as our first fastpass was 3.15-4.15 at POTC and we only had 10 minutes left on it.

We reached POTC and the wait time was only 10 minutes anyway but we used our FP and walked on. Jacob is really into Pirates of the Caribbean films at the minute so he really enjoyed the ride. A lovely gentleman asked Dave if he needed help getting Evan onto the ride but we said thank you but we can manage. It's always nice when people offer as Evan is getting really big and we think that after this year if might be our last time for this reason, well until he is older and doesn't want to holiday with us anymore.

After this we headed over to BTM as our next FP was open at 4.15-5.15. We use the exit as an entrance at BTM and the CM came out to greet us she was made up with our costumes. I'm not sure if we got lots of comments because it was the first party and obviously it was within the first hour of the party and quite possibly they hadn't seen many people dressed up yet but the CM's were making us feel very special.

Our next FP was for Space mountain at 5.15pm, we had a bit of time so we headed to GUest
Services to get a DAS put onto Evan's magicband. It was really busy but a CM saw Evan in his wheelchair and served us more or less straight away. The lovely CM even booked us a time slot with the DAS for splash mountain at the desk instead of us having to walk all the way over there to get a time. How lovely. She booked it for 5.42pm randomly.

Anyway we had a bit more time to kill before our space FP so we headed over to the Star Light Cafe for a little drink and some air con. We got 2 Coke zeros and 2 waters (free iced waters) $7. As were were sat there a group of CM's came over and asked us if we wanted to take a quiz which we said yes! We were asked 3 questions

What is Alice's cat called?

What animals are pumba and timon?

What season is Olaf excited for?

Answers, Dinah, warthog and meerkat and summer!

We won 2 mickey straws. Jacob was made up and this is my favourite picture of him from the holiday!

We had had more magic in an hour of being at Disney than we had had the whole time at Universal/IOA. Seaworld and Busch were a 100 times better than them too.

We went and rode Space mountain. This was Jacobs first time on space, he was literally just under when we went in 2016. He absolutely loved it. It is a bit of a difficult ride to get Evan on and off though, but we manage.

We headed over to Splash for our DAS return time and took a few pictures in the hub. It seems all we've done is zigzag across the park so far but we need to walk out dinner off anyway

Whilst we were waiting at the disabled entrance for splash we were talking to a cm who was giving us loads of tips for the party and he genuinely seemed so excited to be working and had a genuine love for Disney as a whole, it was so nice to see.

Yes I did put on my poncho! And sorry for the rubbish MM pictures but we didn't have the full package so screenshots you are going to get

When we came off splash is began to rain, we hot footed it over to the haunted mansion as I'd heard it gets busy later on. The cm serving the wheelchair area seemed a bit away with the fairies she told us to wait for the moving walkway to be stopped to transfer, she stood there waiting with us for around 5 minutes before I said are you going to ask them to stop the walkway, and her response "oh yes I forgot" seriously, she was stood with us 4 strangers, one of whom is clearly in a wheelchair 😂😂😂

Anyway we get on the ride and the dopey cm (maybe she should go and work over at seven dwarfs) took the wheelchair and put it in the wheelchair waiting area. Once we come back to unload off the ride they stop the moving walkway again to transfer and the cm operating the unloading bay tells us the cm will be here with the Wheelchair. So we wait... and wait... and wait some more. He radios her for the wheelchair and She comes literally running with the wheelchair like a bat out of hell. Once she gets there we begin transferring Evan and he goes ape at her. It was a little bit uncomfortable. She really was a sandwich short of a picnic though.

Once out of the ride it has stopped raining woohoo! We walk over to seven dwarfs for a return DAS time as the wait is still really long. We are given 8.21. It is now 7pm and all the wristbands are being checked at regular intervals.

We stop and go on the tea cups for our costume reasons! There is a meet and greet with tweedle dum and Dee but it's horrendously long and were really not bothered about m&g's so we carry on. We decide to start collecting some candy! We first stopped at Star Light cafe snd got a handful each before riding speedway.

Next we visit big circus treats, Pinocchio village haus and philharmagic for treats. We had some much candy. At big circus treats I bought a bottle of Coke Zero and asked for a couple of bags, big bags, we decanted the candy into them and put them into a rucksack on the back of Evan's chair.

Next up 7 dwarfs. It was so good at night and a lot longer than I remember. I remember it being short, but must of made it up to be shorter in my memory!

Kids wanted BTM again so we headed back over passing some candy stations along the way. At the liberty boast station there was a fella dressed as tigger in a onesie, he must of been sweating his a$$ off!

We rode Space mountain one last time before we went to get a space for the fireworks. We found a great space in the hub and everyone around us was all sitting down on the ground. As the fireworks started everyone starts to stand up (why they do this I have no idea) but everyone around where we were sitting all stayed seated and it was brilliant, we all watched the fireworks in the air seated, there literally is no need to stand, it was great. Hallowishes was amazing and we all loved it!

After the fireworks we watched hocus pocus on the main stage whilst Jacob and dave went off for a sneaky ride on the peoplemover, Evan can't access the peoplemover, they don't allow wheelchair users on it. Jacob loves it though, in 2016 every time Evan went on space Jacob would go on the peoplemover. They also had a sneaky ride on space as there was no wait time.

Me and Evan found ourselves some space for the parade in the disabled area. It began to drizzle a really fine rain and once the parade was over we found we were absolutely soaked!

Luckily we had our clothes from what we changed out of at WL so we all changed into our dry clothes before leaving MK at 12.15am after a thoroughly fantastic night!

We got to WL on the bus at 12.45am and home to the villa for 1.15am. We were all shattered but we'd had a fantastic evening and loved every single minute of it.

We got so much candy it was unreal! A can of Coke thrown in for reference to see the sheer size of the haul!

[i love jack]

Wow! So much candy! Sounds like a great night and your outfits are fab

[Excitedx4]

I'll tell you something now, we've still got some of it! We used it for Halloween and I have loads of it away, it's like Mary poppins bag never ending! Thanks for your comments about the costumes and for reading 🤗

[Goldia]

I've just booked WCC for our trip this August. The skillet looks awesome, I'm glad your server was better than the greater even if he was a bit slow. The party costumes are just amazing! How brilliant. I'm glad you got lots of comments. It sounds like you had a brilliant night, you managed to squeeze in lots of rides.

[mouselover22]

Lots of Disney Magic tonight 💫

You all look fab by the way! I would love to go around Halloween and see all the costumes

Wow! So much candy! How are you going to get it all home?

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by Goldia

I've just booked WCC for our trip this August. The skillet looks awesome, I'm glad your server was better than the greater even if he was a bit slow. The party costumes are just amazing! How brilliant. I'm glad you got lots of comments. It sounds like you had a brilliant night, you managed to squeeze in lots of rides.

See more...

We really like WCC but not booked for this year, we may add it on if we feel like it, they tend to have availability especially at lunch time! We were made up to get in all the headline rides and still get loads of trick or treating done.

Originally Posted by mouselover22

Lots of Disney Magic tonight 💫

You all look fab by the way! I would love to go around Halloween and see all the costumes

Wow! So much candy! How are you going to get it all home?

See more...

We thee quite a bit of the candy home like starbursts we don't really like them! But we put most of it in our hand luggage and we had loads of space. Thanks for reading 🤗

[MinnieMrsA]

Totally agree about the humid weather - we are just glistening on every picture lol. Still gutted we didn't bump into each other xx

[Custancia]

Ive got so used to MM being included with our ultimate tickets, I’d not thought we wouldn’t have it if we just have MNSSHP tickets for the day. A good point to remember if our dates ever line up with the psrty!

[Excitedx4]

Originally Posted by MinnieMrsA

Totally agree about the humid weather - we are just glistening on every picture lol. Still gutted we didn't bump into each other xx

See more...

I know strange being in the same park looking out for each other there and not seeing each other! I knew someone else in there and didn't see them either! Or Tim tracker for that matter!

Originally Posted by Custancia

Ive got so used to MM being included with our ultimate tickets, I’d not thought we wouldn’t have it if we just have MNSSHP tickets for the day. A good point to remember if our dates ever line up with the psrty!

See more...

Yeah it was a bit rubbish not having the mm when you are used to it in previous visits! Thanks for reading and commenting

[jothp]

I thought about doing WCC on both of our previous visits but have always booked something else instead.

Your costumes for MNSSHP were great. We would love to be able to go one year - maybe next time we'll go a bit later into August and hope they start the parties early again. That is certainly a lot of candy - the girls would love it as we try not to have a lot of that sort of thing at home.