Thursday, December 22nd (continued)
We decided to approach the Christmas Party in the same manner as we do the Halloween Parties: we planned to have
no plan. Aside from catching the parade and fireworks (pretty much the only two must-do’s on our list), we opted to simply go with the flow for the balance of the night: with no Fastpasses to fuss with past 7 pm, it’s the way we have the most fun. No timelines, no deadlines, no stress
.
We poked around the park, hitting up pretty much all of our favourite rides at one point or another over the course of the night as we toured about. We rode the Peoplemover at least twice that evening (maybe even three times…..it’s hard to remember exactly after all these months). There’s never a wait during the parties and the views are so awesome after dark. It's a great place to rest weary feet while in Tomorrowland, and still have fun.
We took a spin on Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel, and can you believe this was the first time we’ve done so since 2009?
Steve is looking a bit annoyed in this picture, because there was a large family behind us with the most boorishly behaved kids
……they were seriously awful, and poor Steve had taken several whacks to the back during the mercifully brief wait in the queue. It’s a good thing the lines were short because I think he was ready to utter something less than festive the next time he got an elbow or fist in his side
.
I managed to get Steve on board It’s A Small World for one happy cruise
, and considered that a huge win: let’s just say that it’s not his favourite ride
. But, God bless that man, he humours me Every. Single. Time.
Steve, of course, rode his beloved Splash Mountain two times during the party. Me? Well, I must admit, I missed having the trick-or-treating stations of the Halloween parties as a diversion while I waited (does anyone else find that to be an exceptionally long ride???
).
He enjoys this attraction so much, though, that the waiting is all worth it when I see the joy on his face when we stop at the kiosk to have his ride photo added to our Photopass account
. That kind of fun is what the Magic Kingdom is all about: it brings out the child in each one of us.
After Splash, we hopped aboard Big Thunder Mountain for the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness
. I love the different feel of riding after dark….and now that the party was underway, that hour-long wait during the daytime had shrunken to a walk-on
.
As we made our way around the park……not overly efficiently as normal, just more where the flow happened to take us at any given moment…..we stopped occasionally for some of the festive treats that were extended to party guests. Unlike the Halloween parties (where they give out various types of candy at a multitude of trick-or-treat stations through the Kingdom), the Christmas food stations were less abundant and generally featured a holiday drink and a specific Christmas cookie. The sole exception to that was the station that offered blue frozen ice in lieu of a beverage: coupled with a similarly-coloured snowman sugar cookie, it made for an adorable pairing.
Adorable, but not that tasty (sorry
). Neither Steve nor I are huge fans of sugar cookies, so we ended up tossing the remnants of ours in the trash after sampling an initial bite or two. The ice seemed to make us thirstier than we started, so we ate a few bites of that and tossed the balance as well. It was all very festive looking and cute, but if they each got an A for presentation we gave them both a D for taste.
A few more random asides on the food: several of the stations were out of the flavour of cookies they were supposed to have (like Snickerdoodles) and the default was, apparently, the sugar cookie snowmen: perhaps because it was the final party of the season, Disney didn't feel justified in replenishing their offerings for that last event. Beverages were hot chocolate, hot apple cider, egg nog, and the frozen ice: we came upon each of those at least once in our travels that evening. The only other cookie flavour we encountered beyond the sugar snowmen, however, was gingerbread. That kept our snacking to a minimum, as fussy me doesn't like egg nog nor am I huge fan of gingerbread, and I already noted that neither of us were thrilled with the sugar cookies or the frozen ice. Steve is no lover of egg nor nor gingerbread either, so he too wasn't enamored with the assortment. Their Halloween candy is so good and plentiful that the Christmas treats definitely paled in comparison. First World Problems, of course
but I thought it was worth mentioning.
Moving on......
We hit up Pirates of the Caribbean twice during the party
: Steve said he felt under dressed in his street clothing versus his pirate costume
.
We also did the Jingle Cruise: I guess I lied when I said we really didn’t have any must-do’s aside from the parade and fireworks. I wanted to see how they achieved a holiday overlay on this very cheesy (but still somehow oddly charming) ride, and Steve was happy to indulge me.
It was cute, and I’m glad we did it, though it was just as cheesy for Christmas as it is normally. Despite the fact that our party was a sold-out night and the Jingle Cruise was only something you could experience during the holiday season, it too was a walk on…..we had expected heavier crowds but were, for the most part, happily surprised that wasn’t the case. Aside from congestion on Main Street
(and along the parade route ….. which is why you will see no photos of the parade in this report: without a good vantage point from which to capture pictures, I eventually gave up on trying to photograph it and just enjoyed watching without the camera in hand) the crowds were surprisingly manageable.
There were lots of festive Photopass opportunities scattered around the park, and we stopped at as many of them as we could (avoiding all that had any kind of line…..the party is way too short to stand around waiting for a photo op, regardless of how much we enjoy great pictures).
For this one, they had us stand still for several seconds while a second Photopass CM moved a tall pole on wheels quickly behind us, from one side to the other. While the photo was taken in the inky darkness of the night, the actual picture shows a printed Christmas-sweater background. Disney Magic
meets festive fun
.
This was probably the last photo I taken before my “accident”
:
One of the stations was offering cups of hot chocolate, which should have been a culinary highlight of the complimentary snacks being offered, but instead a poorly attached lid sent it gushing down my chest on the first sip
. And of course…..I was wearing white
. Thankfully the air had cooled just enough by then that a sweater, while not super necessary that early in the night, was still perfectly wearable without me being hot…..so after a trip to the washroom to clean as much off my shirt as I could logistically accomplish without the aid of detergent, I just donned my fleece and kept on rolling. Let’s just say we were super vigilant for the balance of the evening to double check the lids on any other beverages that we sampled
. Sigh.
We took in a few more rides, listened to Voiceplay perform on their stage
(which I, especially, enjoyed . I thought they were awesome, and it was all I could do to not sing loudly along ) ....
.......and then eventually made our way to the front of the castle as the time for fireworks grew closer. We didn’t secure a spot super early at all….maybe 15 minutes before the first flare lit up the night sky?....but managed a superb little square of pavement with a full frontal view of that magical, sparkling, stunningly beautiful Christmas castle
. We couldn’t have asked for a better vantage point, and we somehow didn’t even have to waste any precious party time in staking it out
. Sah-weet!
Fireworks, characters, ice cream, and the conclusion of our Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party is coming up next.