A short notice November trip... with a twist! Day 8 - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

7^th November
This morning we woke up a bit later as we were still tired from our rollercoaster day yesterday. We headed across to get a light breakfast at the Contempo Cafe, I’m pretty sure that Rob had a muffin and I had French toast with cherry syrup.

We popped to the front desk to check on when our clothes would be returned and to send our remaining clothes to be treated. In a weird twist we discovered that Disney has a code word for bed bugs and also that they refer to the Contemporary as ‘the toaster’.

Rob wanted some more bike stuff so we headed to the Harley Davidson shop off I4. He got himself some new foot pegs which he seemed pleased with.

On the way back we got a late lunch at the Earl of Sandwich, this all took much longer than I had expected and we were heading back to the resort around 3pm.

We arrived back to find our suitcases and clothes back in the room, we quickly unpacked everything and checked that nothing was missing. As it was getting close to 4pm we quickly got changed and walked to the Magic Kingdom (this was the positive outcome of our move – no buses or boats to get to the MK.)

I had booked us some fast passes for the first 3 hours and wanted to get a few rides in before the party started properly. I started us off with Peter Pan using FP+ as we haven’t been on this ride for a couple of trips, and then we were off to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train as I had managed to grab a FP for this a couple of weeks before our trip :)

We had a little bit of time before our next FP so we decided to watch Philharmagic, this is a fun show but we don’t always make the effort to watch it.  Just love the ending when Donald crashes into the wall!

We then made our way across to Adventureland for our last FP; I had selected the Jingle Cruise as it’s a nice update for the Christmas period and seemed to fit with the party theme. Weirdly my favourite bit of this ride is when we get to see the wonder that is the ‘back side of water’!!!

Now apart from our first day which was quite chilly we had been having fairly warm weather but by 6pm it was already starting to feel cooler than it had been on previous nights and so we decided to pop back to our room and grab some jumpers (we would be incredibly glad we did later).

So, having checked that we would be ok to re-enter the park we took a brisk walk back to our room. Rob changed into jeans and we both grabbed our jumpers before briskly walking back....!

We re-entered the Magic Kingdom at around 6.30 and headed to Fantasyland to see how long the line was for the Seven Dwarfs, I forget the time but it was already much longer than I was prepared to wait so we decided to skip it.

Rob wanted some of the Christmas lights that you wear around your neck. We found a cart in Liberty Square which was selling them but they had ran out, we were told that they had them in the Christmas shop so we popped right across and got him a set. In the meantime I had decided I wanted a set of the light up ears with a Minnie bow so we got them next :)

 

By now it was 7pm so we got some cookies and hot chocolate in Columbia Harbour House and picked up a couple of the special party pins at the Trading Post. Rob noticed that the Haunted Mansion had a short line so we took a quick ride.

I really wanted to meet a special party character so we headed toward Storybook Circus looking for Minnie Mouse.

 

She was just outside the entrance and the ducks were opposite (I had met them last year), her line looked long but we actually only waited about 15 minutes. She seemed super excited about my bow :)

 

 

We decided to work our way towards Main Street for the fireworks and along the way took a quick spin on the Tomorrowland Speedway and then I challenged Rob to another go on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (I lost yet again!)

We got to Main Street around 9pm and found a spot just at the edge of the hub with a great view of the castle, we were behind a family who had children and they were at the front of the area (just behind the magic tape on the floor). Rob and I were stood behind the parents who were just about the right height so that we could see past them.

 

 

Celebrate the Magic started at 9.15 and I realised that there were some details that I had missed when watching previously, it was great having a clear view for once. Annoyingly there was a family that had arrived after us that were complaining the whole way through because their children weren’t at the front. I’m not entirely sure who they were aiming their complaints at but it took the shine off a little bit as they seemed to expect everyone to move for them.

Holiday Wishes started at 9.30 and they were fantastic, last year we got stuck in a slightly odd spot and had a tree blocking some of the fireworks whereas this year we had a great view. Being at the entrance to the hub we also had fireworks going off all around us which was amazing, I’m a big fan of normal Wishes (and viewing from outside the park) but Holiday Wishes is definitely better when you are right in the middle!

Fireworks over, we headed towards Liberty Square to find a spot for the second parade, my preferred spot was already taken but we found a front row spot opposite the Liberty Tree Tavern. We sat on the floor because we still had ages until the parade started, this turned out to be a slight error on our part because by the time the parade started our legs were starting to ache!

I definitely prefer the Halloween parade but the Christmas parade is still fun, although the Frozen additions are possibly a little bit of overkill (but I understand Disney’s logic). Unfortunately due to lighting issues I wasn’t able to get very many good photos.

 

 

 

 

After the parade we were really getting chilly so we decided to leave. We didn’t want to follow the parade so we walked through Fantasyland and Tomorrowland; I picked up some more hot chocolate at Cosmic Rays to warm up a bit. Then we wandered down Main Street in the snow and got a quick photo taken on our way out.