We started off realizing we weren't going to be going on It's a Small World (and as I said, this was a disappointment to Brooke) as it was closed for repairs indefinitely. Bummer. So first we went and watched Mickey's Philharmonic show while we waited for our Fast Pass to come due for Peter Pan's Flight. The show was funny (Brooke had remembered the ending even!) and Peter Pans' Flight was loved by all. Then we headed over to the other side of FantasyLand and started in on the teacups. Gosh, how the girls love this ride. We must've done it 100 times I swear!
After leaving the teacups, we ran into Alice and the White Rabbit.
And then the girls wanted to the teacups another 57 times before we left that area.
We followed into the back section of the FantasyLand section again (the new part) and went into the Storybook Circus area (another new section). There we rode another favorite, Dumbo. The girls always love the Dumbo ride. (have you seen a trend? they like the up in the area, going in circles, able to move it up and down and even better if water shooting out you happens)
The Dumbo ride moved into the new section, so now there's actually TWO rides of Dumbo. Its that popular. They also did this cool playground area your kids can play in while waiting. Pretty cool, huh?
From there we walked around the Circus area and saw some of Mickey's friends...
Brad wanted to stop at the store/gift shop/snack area...just cuz they had a cool look to it.
We finally left Storybook Circus and got Fast Passes to see the princesses. This was where Snow White's ride used to be that I guess they did away with. :( You had to pick two (there were 4 available)...we chose Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Of course you could go back and do the other two as well...but the girls weren't excited about whatever the other princesses that were there so we didn't.
We finally left Fantasyland and went to check out Frontierland and Adventureland. We happen to get in the middle of the parade (that we had already seen the day before) and noticed in front of the parade today was a thousand dancers. Literally, I really think there must've been a thousand. They just kept coming and coming and coming.
After we could cut through, we had just a few snacky things for 'lunch in the area. Then we went and did Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion (the girls freaked out on this at first...but alls well that ended well. Getting trapped in a locked dark room is quite scary for a 5 yr old), and checked out Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. We also got the famous pineapple floats. Oh my goodness...I can still taste it. Such goodness. We did the train ride for a 'break' somewhere in there. And skipped Splash Mountain, etc. While it was definitely warm, it had a chill to the air that if you got wet you could be cold.
After making our rounds through all those 'lands' (also noticing that they did away w the New Orleans section of Magic Kingdom?), we rode the train, we went back through to Fantasyland and did the teacups (yes again!) while we waited on Fast Pass to Winnie the Pooh.
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party was starting at 7p going until 12a. We had tickets for that. Unbeknownst to us though, was that you had to 'turn in' your tickets and get wristbands to stay in the park. Then whoever does not have a wristband has to leave by 7pm. Seems crazy to make this work, but somehow it does. So by the time we realized we needed wristbands the line to get it was super long. Also seems like they could just mail you the wristbands and skip the step of a 'ticket'. Whatever. Brooke took a nap while we waited - haha! (proof that kids are never too old for a stroller nap)
Brenna and Daddy took a quick photo pass pic while I waited in line and Brooke napped...
Afterwards some fun treats...
Some more pictures during my favorite time of day!
Another castle show
Another Celebrate It street parade
Then the countdown was on. 6p - party at 7p. I knew that Captain Jack Sparrow would be out and about so I wanted to be sure we caught him. We lined up to see him right at 6:40 or so. To be close to first in line. Then the idea was to get him in before all the other festivities started. I don't know why I thought it would be much more lazy than it was. We were really darting from one thing to the next to try to see all the cool Christmas Party stuff. Anyway, first up. Captain Jack Sparrow (from Pirates of the Caribbean). He was quite impressive!
The girls thought it was great. They LOVE those movies now and think he is hilarious.
Then we darted over just to catch the tail end of the castle show where they light the castle up
Next was the nighttime Christmas parade. Because we didn't have good 'spots' the only person who could really see was Brooke. On top of Daddy's shoulders. Which was ok. I tried to get a couple of pictures and Brenna napped. :P Too bad though, b/c it looked like quite a good parade. Had I known how good and how long and how important to be there, I would've done this before seeing Jack Sparrow and scouted out our 'spots' better. Oh well. Live and learn.
Almost right after that was the show where they put the pictures on the castle. This is so cool. It might be my favorite part. Better than fireworks. ITs just really neat and something you have to see to appreciate.
From there, pretty much was straight into fireworks. Brad took video of all this, but I haven't seen the videos yet, so I'm just posting without video. Sorry.
After the fireworks, we still had a couple hours left in the park. There was another show in Tomorrowland that we were told the kids would just love and is really great (several ppl told us that). So we walked over and were the front row seat for that. I think the idea was to stand up and be part of the party (think concert stuff) but by this time of night everyone was so tired of standing and walking everyone was sitting on the concrete in front of the stage - haha!
It was a cute show though! Afterwards and before the park closed, I wanted to get a couple of pictures in front of the 'icy' castle...even better if it was during a 'snow storm' (every so often snow would fall on Main Street USA. So I promised the girls if I got a good picture quickly, we could go back to Tomorrowland or Fantasy land and do a couple of rides before we left.
Mission accomplished!
With just a half hour before the park closed, we did the Tomorrowland raceway cars again.
Then we walked over and did the teacups as our FINAL ride. We were the only ones on it in fact. Right as we were getting on, the cast members were getting reports to shut down the rides. But we got one last ride in. A good way to end it I guess! No pictures there - just memories. :)
We walked back through the park and I was a little disappointed all the shops and stores were closed (same thing happened to us at Hollywood Studios). A lot of times the actual park (Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, or Animal Kingdom, etc....) are THE only place you can get park specific souvenirs. So, for instance, you cannot get a shirt that says "Epcot" at just the regular downtown disney gift store. You have to go TO that park. Same thing goes with the flattened pennies the girls collect. So we missed out on a lot of that. But we had fun. We had a lot of fun. And that cannot be replaced. :)
(note: the above picture was taken at approximately 12:15am - we look pretty good for being after midnight huh? ;)
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