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Day Three, Tuesday 11/30/04 </font>
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Part 2 - MVMCP </font>
Around 4:00pm we headed over to the Magic Kingdom for our Passporter meet at 4:45pm. I took this picture of Savannah as we entered the Magic Kingdom and we turned down Main Street and she saw the castle ahead of her.
I sat down outside Liberty Tree Tavern and noticed a family across from me on a bench. We kept eyeing each other so I started to wonder if it was Kathy (kathy320). I walked over to her and sure enough, it was Kathy!! Our daughters are very close in age so they had a great time running around together and playing tag while the adults chatted. Shortly after Kathy & I met, I saw two more women approaching us. I knew instantly from the pictures in her trip reports that it was Angie (poohsgal)!! She had her Mom with her. Also during this time Josh & Kelly joined us. We all chatted and took some pictures.
From left: Angie's Mom (holding Kathy's son), Kathy, Me, Angie, Kelly. In front are Kathy's daughter & Savannah.
Originally I had a PS for 5:15pm at LTT but at the last minute we decided to cancel it and eat somewhere less expensive. So I went into LTT and cancelled the PS (there were a lot of people trying to get in so I know I made someone happy by canceling). Kathy and her family were having dinner there so we said goodbye and parted ways.
Our group plus Angie and her mom walked over to Pirates of the Caribbean and went on that together. We had a good laugh when, during one of the dark parts of the ride, Lee reached forward in the boat and grabbed Angie and her mom on the shoulders and said "Boo!" really loudly. We all jumped when he did that!
After Pirates, we said goodbye to Angie and her mom as they were going to have dinner at Pecos Bills. Josh, Kelly, Lee, Savannah & I headed over towards Splash Mountain. You guessed it - Savannah is big enough to ride that now too. I just worked up the nerve last year to go on this ride for the first time and here's my 4 year old already going on it!
There was no line whatsoever so we walked right on the ride. Afterward, we purchased the photo of us on the ride and by that time all of the rides were shutting down and they started herding people over towards Tomorrowland. About halfway to Tomorrowland, a cast member walking past us said that the whole park was now open!
We immediately went and had our photo taken - again, no line. We decided that for our photo we would all wear our sunglasses so that we could remember being in warm sunny Florida while it's cold & snowy back home.
We had heard that the snow falls on Main Street between 7:00-7:30pm so we walked over to Main Street. It was so beautiful to see the snow coming down, the castle in the background, the shops all decorated for Christmas. Yes of course I got teary-eyed - I'm a sap for stuff like that. We grabbed some ice cream from the Main Street Ice Cream Parlor. Lee & I also stopped and bought Santa Mickey & Santa Minnie hats that we wore for the rest of the night. I had purchased Savannah's hat from eBay before the trip. It's a child-size Santa hat with a Minnie beanie baby stitched into the cap. It was originally sold in Disneyland (not WDW) so Savannah got LOTS of compliments throughout the evening from characters and cast members who told her they loved her hat. Everyone wanted to know where we had bought it, since it wasn't sold there. Even Fairy Godmother waved to Savannah during the parade later that night and said "I love your hat!"
Here's a picture of Josh & Kelly sporting mine & Lee's hats:
We sat down at the umbrella tables down by the water looking out at the castle and enjoyed our ice cream. After that, we went over to Tomorrowland. The first thing we did was try out Stitch's Great Escape. None of us were overly impressed with this attraction and Savannah didn't like it at all. She loves Stitch but she did not like this ride - she thought it was too dark and too scary (this coming from the kid who loved Dinosaur! Go figure
) After Stitch, Josh stayed with Savannah while Lee & Kelly & I went on Space Mountain. No line. When the ride was over we told the CM we wanted to go again so he let us go straight over to the loading area and we got right back on and rode it a second time. After Space Mountain, we took a ride on TTA. Then it was time for the next showing of Mickey's Twas the Night Before Christmas show at the Galaxy Palace Theater. We thought we were doing the smart thing by going to the show while the first parade was going on. Apparently lots of other people had the same idea because it was standing room only. We stood in the back of the theater behind the last row of seats. It was a cute show. After that, we hopped right on Buzz Lightyear with no wait. Lee & Josh both scored really well. Savannah & I didn't do too well. I think we only ended up with 41,000 points
When we got off Buzz, we noticed Wishes was about to start so we walked over to the benches in the smoking area where there was no one around and watched Wishes all by ourselves. It was beautiful, especially the special ending where the whole park is encircled with fireworks - 360 degrees all around. It was amazing!!
Next we walked over to Fantasyland and watched Mickey's Philharmagic. Josh & Kelly had never seen it before and they loved it. We noticed Cinderella & Prince Charming were out signing autographs by the fountain behind the castle but the line was very long so we kept going. We walked back over to Liberty Square and staked out a spot right across from the Liberty Bell to watch the Christmas parade. Lee & Josh went to get our free cookies and hot chocolate and we enjoyed those while waiting for the parade to start. Lee also got some popcorn for me because I love those souvenir buckets it comes in. The Christmas parade was wonderful!!! It was long, too. It took about 45 minutes for the whole parade to pass us. After the parade ended, it was getting late. We took a bathroom break and headed back over toward Splash Mountain and BTMRR. We rode BTMRR with no wait - Savannah loved this ride too. Afterward (par for the course)Savannah wanted to ride again so we ran back around to the ride entrance. The CM was just getting ready to close the ropes but he saw us coming and waited for us. We were the last group to get in the line so we got the last ride of the night on BTMRR!! More Disney pixie dust!
On our way out we caught the last show of the night on the castle forecourt stage. It was really cute with a Christmas theme. It was snowing again on Main Street.
The crowds exiting the park were really large so we decided to stop at Casey's for some famous hot dogs (we never did eat dinner earlier!). We sat outside and enjoyed our hot dogs and watched the snow falling on Main Street and the castle changing colors - I don't think it gets any better than this. Josh & Kelly kept thanking us for inviting them to join us for the party - they had a great time. We headed out and got back to our cars. Finally we made it back to the hotel and fell into bed around 2am. It was a long day but MVMCP was great!
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The best thing today was </font> MVMCP & meeting Angie and Kathy
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The worst thing today was </font> Stitch's Great Escape
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The funniest thing today was </font> Savannah laughing and screaming and having a great time on Test Track
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Firsts for today: </font> Savannah rode Test Track, we attended MVMCP, ate hot dogs at Casey's
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The most magical moment today was </font> seeing the snow falling on Main Street with everything all lit up for Christmas. Also, getting the last ride of the night on BTMRR.
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Coming up.....Day Four - Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a pirate's life for me (NOT!) </font>