[Ears42]

Day Four: December 10, 2003 More Rain, A Jammie Day and MVMCP.

Another day to sleep in, if you call 7:30 sleeping in. Katie just doesn’t understand that concept yet. Oh well. We woke up to guess what, more rain! [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] Will it every stop? We had tickets for MVMCP so we turned on the weather channel for the bad news. With rain predicted for most of the day, clearing by evening, we decided to have a “Jammie Day”. Now a Jammie Day for those unfamiliar with the custom is a day that you never get dressed, you just wear your Jammies all day. We love jammie days at our house. [img]images/icons/grin.gif[/img] We watched some Disney Channel, ate some breakfast and I decided to do some laundry. We had gotten wet several times the day before and if I was going to dry wet clothes they should be clean, wet clothes. Don’t worry about me going to the laundry room in my jammies, my jammies are more like sweats than jammies so I put my flip-flops on and went to the laundry room. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] You'd never guess that I once worked for Vicky's. Since we were going to be out very late at MVMCP we also decided to take a nap today. Another exciting day at Disney! [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

Around five we decided to end jammie day and got ready for the party. We wore matching Pooh Christmas sweaters that I got at the Catalog Outlet in Rehoboth Beach two years ago at Valentine’s Day. I paid $7 for mine and $5 for Katie’s. What a bargain! We had dinner at Roaring Forks in the WL. We shared a personal pizza and a salad. Not bad for fast food. Off to catch the boat to MK.

We arrived at MK around 6:30 and the lines for security were pretty long already. They were efficient and were moving quickly. Some guests were still leaving MK and the shops on Main Street were closed until 7:00 p.m. MK was very pretty with all of the Christmas decorations all lit. We took a leisurely stroll towards the castle and had front row seats (on the ground of course) for the Christmas Show. Katie loved the singers and dancers and their lovely holiday costumes. It was kind of comical to watch the dancers sweating (you could see some of the male dancers visibly sweating) in their wool coats and sweaters when we were wearing shorts. I sort of felt a little sympathy for them. Mickey, Minnie, and pals all had parts in the show. I wouldn’t recommend being this close to the show if you wanted to take pictures or really see the whole effect but it was great for a four year old whom usually has to sit on her dad’s shoulders to see over the crowd. After the show we had to walk the long way around the castle through Fronteirland because they had the castle walk way blocked off. We headed towards, where else, Dumbo. We stopped to take pictures of Cinderella’s coach, which wasn’t very well lit. I don’t have the pictures developed yet but I’m almost sure they wouldn’t be very good. Snow White and Dopey were posing for pictures but Katie took a pass as she had already seen Snow White on this trip and really wanted to ride Dumbo. With practically no line, we got to finally ride Dumbo. It was fun, as all the Dumbo’s had Santa’s Hats on them. Quick spin around Fantasyland and we were off to get our picture taken. Again not a very long line, we had our picture taken at It’s a Small World. I was however, disappointed with the background of the picture. Just a green backdrop with some Disney Icons painted on them. Now I was really glad we had the Santa pictures taken in Epcot. The pictures did arrive about a week after we got back. And we got two copies. One for each person who had a ticket for the event. By now it was close to parade time. So we went towards Froniterland.

We found room on the rope right in front of the riverboat and as Katie would say, we “parked it.” The parade had lots of Christmas themed floats; Mickey and Minnie led the parade riding in an old fashioned open car. They were wearing their Victorian Holdiay clothing and I think Goofy was driving. Katie started at this time to claim to need to go to the potty. I kept trying to distract her because I knew if we moved we would never get our spots back. I was successful and we got to watch the whole parade. My favorite floats were the Chip and Dale bakery float that smelled like Christmas cookies baking and the marching toy soldiers. Overall I was rather disappointed with the parade. It’s not as interactive as other MK parades. They didn’t pull anyone out of the crowd to participate and some of the floats looked like they had been recycled from other Disney Parades. In fact I remember the princess float from the Magical Moments parade in 1999.

After the parade we ran down to the restrooms near the baby comfort station near Crystal Palace. We made our way down Main Street, as the parade was finishing up, by going through the stores starting at Casey’s and sneaking through the sportswear store in the back, and were able to enjoy the snow (soap bubbles) on Main Street. We had decided to head out after the parade. It was 9 o’clock and Katie was tired and starting to get cranky and whiny. I would have loved to stay and see some more of the shows but its no fun with a whiny child. We headed towards the boat dock.

We got to the boat back to WL only to find that we had to stay docked until after the fireworks. I had thought we would get to see the fireworks from the boat but I had hoped while it was sailing towards the WL. However, we got to witness that greatest fireworks I’ve ever seen. They were not your normal MK fireworks. The Grand Finale was 360-degree fireworks, with rockets going off all over the lagoon at the same time. It was amazing!

After the fireworks, the boats were allowed back on the lagoon so in no time we were back at the WL. We stopped at Roaring Forks for a cookie, as the line was way too long in MK for the cookies and hot chocolate, and headed off to our room for some much needed sleep.

I would probably do the MVMCP again but not until Katie is old enough to ride some of the bigger rides. I didn't think that they timing was very well thought out on some of the shows and there wasn't enought time to go from one to another. We rode the few rides that Katie could go on but if she were bigger it would have been fun to ride Big Thunder Mountain in the dark. This just wasn't a good idea with such a small one in tow.

Next Installment: MGM and Tea at The Grand, or “What’s that funny yellow thing in the sky?”