First day at Disney World!

Traveling again! This time I’m meeting Jules in person after being online friends for almost 5 years! She’s in Orlando at Disney for a conference and she knew I’d never been, so she invited me to stay with her after the conference was over. We’re staying at the Port Orleans French Quarter the weekend through Thursday, then changing to Universal’s Royal Pacific for the last 2 days to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potter too!

After a very long travel day including seeing lightning storms from above the clouds, almost an hour waiting for luggage, then another half an hour on Disney’s Magical Express bus service, I made it to our hotel just around midnight. Jules has been here since Wednesday but she left my towels in the Mickey formation so I could see. Port Orleans is definitely Disneyfied but very cute, with Mardi Gras color bedspreads, cute headboards, and teal and aqua iron railings. After chatting way too late for Jules’s early morning we got to sleep, and I enjoyed a leisurely morning of sleeping in after Jules left. She was free from the confernce at lunch so we headed to the Magic Kingdom and found a real sit-down restaurant to start our day. I asked what I could have besides fries with my Reuben and discovered a good portion of broccoli slaw. I think I’ll try making some at home.

We met up with two of her co-workers also at the conference and spent the rest of the day with them. Here we are having fun wandering around Fantasyland: Britta, Melanie, Jules & Brooke. Most of Fantasyland is under construction, maybe the Agrabah castle from Aladdin, and definitely the Beast’s castle can be seen over the fence. After some quick line fun with me pegging a high score on Buzz Lightyear Blasters, Monsters Inc Laugh Factory & Snitch Encounter, it was time to go back for our Fast Pass to Space Mounatin. It’s Cinderella’s castle here instead of Sleeping Beauty’s in Anaheim, and we had just enough clouds in the sky for a nice sunset on our way to the Haunted Mansion. Amazingly the line said 35 minutes but was probably shorter. I refrained from taking photos my first time through but the Escher staircase room was awesome, and I liked the library even though the bust illusions didn’t work as well in there, but I like the waiting in line portion better at Disneyland. Sure it’s a short line, but the spooky paintings are completely unlit so you cannot see them at all. Even just a subtle black light fading in and out could illuminate portions of them and not ruin the later black-lightning -revealed portraits later. Wish I could be a Haunted Mansion Imagineer!

Back in Tomorrowland our group was approached by a cast member offering us a trial program for a Fast Pass area for fireworks, so that was lucky! We were stuck behind the parade for a bit but we did reach our designated area in time and even though we had to stand, we had a great view. Before the fireworks there was a projection show on the castle, integrated with the architecture…very cool! Of course the fireworks were awesome with the castle changing lighting along with them.

Pirates was broken for awhile so we did the tiki room with some pineapple soft serve then headed for Splash Mountain. Since the parade was going again, after I got thoroughly doused, we were asked, “Would you like to stay seated and ride again?” YEAH! I didn’t want to get wetter so I ducked further the second time but still got my backside doused. As we left the Disney Mobile Magic app finally worked saying 15 minute wait fo Pirates, so we got there right as it reopened! We got stuck right by the dog holding the keys, so maybe it shouldn’t have been opened yet? The ride is surprisingly much shorter than Disneyland though.

We saw the last show of the Country Bear Jamboree but missed the Hall of Presidents, so we headed back to the Haunted Mansion. We should have taken the new cemetery line path in daylight since it was hard to see all the new interactive stuff! Lots of photos in the full gallery below. We ended the day by getting back to Space Mountain before they closed the doors, and I swear the other train is faster…whew that was fun! My favorite Space Mountain is still the Jules Verne steampunk style one at Disneyland Paris though.

A few technical notes…Getting the photos into the iPad was the easy part, but you can only file them into an album from the first camera import, nowhere else I can find, and I’m juggling iPhone pix too so I can’t put them in one place or reorder them. The WordPress app only allows individual photo uploads one by one and the browser version has a missing scroll at so if more than about 15 photos are in the same post, I can’t edit or rearrange them in the gallery view. If I’d had my laptop with me at would have taken about 15 minutes instead of well over an hour to upload, caption and reorder about 40 photos. Lessons learned!

Keep reading for more photos, especially new Haunted Mansion interactive crypts at the end! Day 2 will be Epcot until it closes, then back to the Magic Kingdom since its open late!

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Mickey ear towels on purple green & gold bedspread and cute headboards

View out our hotel room front door (and window)

Teal & aqua railings!

Decently healthy sit-down lunch to start the day…I think I’ll try making broccoli slaw at home!

Color-coded sweeteners (sucralose yellow, aspartame blue, saccharin pink) but all by NutraSweet

My pegged high score on Buzz Lightyear Blasters

Monsters Inc needs jokes

Cunderella’s castle

Agrabah castle?

Fantasyland under construction

Beast’s castle

Fantasyland under construction

Girls having fun! Britta, Melanie, Jules & Brooke

Show at Cinderella’s castle

Fantasyland at sunset

Cinderella’s castle at sunset

Haunted mansion only 35 minutes!

Haunted Mansion!

Electric Light Parade

Pete riding Elliot in the electric light parade

Lucky special Fast Pass

Fast Pass area for fireworks

fireworks

fireworks

fireworks

fireworks

Soaked after Splash Mountain

Ride again? Yeah!

Soaked again but Pirates has finally reopened

Dog with keys

Coonskin cap is a whole coon

Country Bear Jamboree finale

Haunted Mansion again – new busts who killed whom? Answer inside the ride…

touchpad crypts played music!

Touchpad pipe organ played organ music

If you stood on the captain’s grave it squirted water

Books popped out of the library crypt but we couldn’t see the coded inscriptions at night…we will be going back!

Madame Leota’s gravestone’s eyes open, move and head nods

Space Mountain to finish the day

Travels orlando2012, travels