Final touches of a Disney Fall

Here is the last most to share the last bits of my Disney trip--Disney's Hollywood Studios Park and the hotel we stayed at this time--the Carribean beach.

Let's start with the park.  There were a couple of surprises.  The first one was outside of the gates:

Elsa and Anna topiaries!  Very cool.

The next surprise was just in the gates...an unobscured view of the Chinese theater (the location of the Great Movie ride, my favorite ride at this park.

I was actually a little sad.  There used to be a giant version of Mickey's blue sorcerer hat in front of the theater, but I guess they no longer wanted that to be the symbol of the park, so they took it down. 

We now headed to where we always start, with the Beauty and the Beast show!

I saw that show for the first time 18 years ago...and it is still as magical as it was then.

We then wandered towards the other side of the park, and passed some characters in their Hollywood finery:

Chip and Dale,

Movie star Daisy,

and Goofy!

At this point we were walking by a theater and it just so happened that the next showing hadn't started yet and there were still a few seats left, so we got to go in without waiting in line at all!  So here is the next surprise of the day...the new Frozen show!

I really enjoyed seeing Anna and Elsa and Kristoff!  This was a sing-a-long show, which of course my sister and I were belting out the tunes.  At the very end, Elsa even made it snow in the theater.

After a quick snack (with Mickey ears of course),

And a bit more wandering,

I found this replica of Mr. Gold's pawnshop store front in the Streets of America and totally had a fangirl moment for my favorite television show, Once Upon a Time.

(Emma's baby mobile)

(Henry's book)

(it's Chip!  This is the cup Belle dropped while serving tea to her "Beast")

Now it was dinnertime at Hollywood and Vine.

This restaurant is a buffet with all sorts of good food...especially my favorite, dessert!  Any (or all) of these were definitely pretty enough for a tea party.

 My mother had gotten us all the dinner package that included assigned seats for the nighttime show at Hollywood Studios--Fantasmic!  Every time I go, I try to get pictures, and this time was excited that so many of my shots of the boats used in the show came out:



Before we leave Disney World, I wanted to share a bit about our hotel for this trip, Disney's Carribean Beach Resort.  My family enjoys staying in the Disney hotels, both because it extends the Disney fun to the hotel, and because Disney provides transportation and other benefits to those that stay in the resort.  This is the first time we have gone back to a hotel again, but we last stayed at this one the first time I saw the Beauty and the Beast show, so we figured it was time to see it again.

We were in the Martinique section of the resort, 

(the room)

which was pretty close to the main building (the one with the food), Port Royale.

(One of many Mickey waffles from this trip.  I love the Mickey waffles).

The different sections of the resort (each named for a Caribbean island), surround a lake,

with beautiful views at sunset.

We could even see the fireworks at Epcot over the lake at night.

There are many pools throughout the resort, but the fanciest is near Port Royale.

Right outside the pool they even showed movies at night--a great way to unwind after a long day at the parks. 

Here ends my 2015 trip to Disney World.  Now to plan my next trip :)!