December 2010 WDW Trip Report, Part
Please see Part 1 for cast and plot summary...
Day 4: Dec 10th. Downtown Disney, The Grand Floridian
and Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.
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We have a date with Jenny and Cathy tonight at a MVMCP. Generally, PiC and I skip going into the parks in the morning, and just use the hard ticket for entrance into Magic Kingdom. Today is going to be no exception.
PiC sleeps late, I don't. I make some coffee and step out, call my mom to make sure everything's okay, and a very large bird flies through the porch and lands in a tree. I go inside and get my camera, and take a few shots of the bird and the room. The bird takes a dive toward the foliage near building 28 (I figure a lizard was for breakfast) and almost immediately another identical bird is attacking the first and they both fly away.
How Disney provides this sort of entertainment on cue fascinates me.
Morning in OKW
PiC is finally up, and we take the boat to Downtown Disney for food, because we can, and we've never done it. We check a few restaurants, and end up eating at Bongos. PiC had the strip steak with fried plantains and white rice, I had pork bites with sweet bananas and black beans and rice. I think my rice is a bit undercooked, but otherwise it's pretty good.
Stop at the candy store we could see across the way from our table, pick up a rice crispy bar and a couple of giant turtles.
The boat to and from OKW and Downtown Disney
Back to OKW, rest, drink some real coffee. Mousekeeping was there, and only left three towels. Again. I think I understand now, we get 7 towels in two days. 8 must be too round a number.
Off to the MVMCP. Make sure I have the tickets, and we take bus to MK, then just miss the boat to GF so we monorail to (the contemporary, the TTC, the Poly and finally) the Grand Floridian to see the gingerbread house. Pick up some gingerbread and take a few pictures, then it's off to MK by boat (which first has to go to the Poly) to meet Jenny and Cathy for the Christmas party! Needless to say, we were late. (Actually, I can't be late, I have the tickets!)
The Gingerbread House at the Grand Floridian
We all get our wristbands, and head down Main Street.
I want to do the Carousel of Progress, and bad boy that I am, I tape it. In widescreen hi-def, which is easier to get the entire stage in frame. I swear I will never get a tape of this attraction without some kid crying. Why do infants cry in this attraction? They don't like the 1920's?
We did the Peoplemover, because it's the peoplemover now, Monsters Inc, which is always fun so long as I'm not one of the honored guests, and Cosmic Rays for food (my obligatory Disney burger.) I go to the condiment station and I push the ketchup button and it gets stuck. So I switch from the first cup to the second cup (for PiC) while I decide what to do, and I make a mess before I find I can yank up on the button which stops the red flow. I have no such problem with the mustard dispenser. But I do become a Stupid Guest when my leftover garbage fails to make it into the garbage can. (sigh)
The Christmas Party officially starts and for the next hour standard procedure is to raise your arm in a wristband showing salute.
One of the first orders of business is to get to Main Street to get a 2010 MVMCP t-shirt. Cathy has never seen the castle in its lights outfit yet, and is thrilled. I'll send her a print. I get my t-shirt. They have some long sleeve tees, but they only have them in very, very small. I wonder why. Maybe because it's cold outside. Did I mention it was cold outside? It wasn't the frigid cold of a couple of days ago, but you still need a sweatshirt.
Jenny wants to see something in the jewelry store, so we go across the street and try two doors before finding the open one. And show our wristbands to get in. We go through the Christmas store in Liberty Square again (just in case they have a large long sleeve tee...nope) on the way to Haunted Mansion, where Jenny and I pretty much mimic your ghost host in the stretching room. We've probably embarrassed PiC and Cathy, but there you are.
Off to Pirates, and get sidetracked by Rusty Cutlass (with an Arrrr...), one of the shows for MVMCP scattered around the park. By the time we get through Pirates (a literal walk-on) the first Christmas Parade has started.
We're going to get on Big Thunder, but we can't cross to the other side of Frontierland because of the parade. So we wait. I soon see the dancing reindeers and that means Santa's next, and that's the end of the parade. I tell everyone to get ready, and they all grab my sweatshirt before we attempt the crossing of humanity that seems to follow the parade. We queue, experience and depart the runaway mine train safely. Jenny and Cathy are the type to throw their hands up and scream. PiC, as always, wants the ride to slow down so she can actually see the themeing. We make our way to main street for Christmas wishes.
The sea of Humanity has already filled the void the parade had created, so we decide not to go to main street, but to stay in front of the Crystal Palace. The Castle does look stunning tonight. I think I get a decent soundtrack, if not the show itself, and I can probably use it for the web site.
Of course, there's a Photopass photographer, so I can't really stand where I want to until 1 minute before the show starts. For laughs, I have the photopass photographer take our picture with my camera. She does a less than remarkable job, but I can fix it all in post...
2010 Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
We head on over to Main Street to tape the parade. I pick a spot right near the bend in the hub, so all the on-coming floats have the castle in the background. We'll see how it all works out.
2010 Mickey's Once Upon A Christmastime Parade
After the parade, Jenny and Cathy decide on the need to go on Buzz. We do! I end up with about 140K. I'm better at Toy Story than I am at Buzz. Maybe it's the larger targets.
It's been a long day, and the old man in me has to call it a night. And so does everyone else. We leave the park at 11:30pm, and don't get back to the room until after midnight.
Oooooo... Past midnight. Now, that's livin'.
End December 2010 Trip Report - Part 5.
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