Day 2, Part 2: Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party

We started getting ready for the night around 2:00, and at 2:30 I called for a Minnie Van.  We got lucky and got one almost immediately, and it was only 8 minutes out, so we quickly finished getting ready and headed downstairs. 

We arrived at the Magic Kingdom just before 3, and quickly made our way in through the non-party gate.  As we were entering the skies were starting to look really ominous, which was odd since earlier that day the forecast noted there was only a 3% chance of rain, but I guess Florida is going to Florida. 

Since it looked like it was about to pour (and the radar tended to agree), I quickly booked us a DAS for Buzz once we scanned in, and since the wait time was super low, our return time was in only about 10 minutes. 

On the way over to the ride, we of course took pictures!

After our photos we again started to head back to Buzz, but as we were passing Monsters Inc Laugh Floor we saw the next show was in only 5 minutes, and we thought my dad would love it so headed there first. 

My dad was oddly nervous, as outgoing of a person he is, it turns out he REALLY didn’t want to be called on during the show.  Meanwhile I had my fingers crossed he’d be “that guy”! 

But since he was looking really concerned about it, I told him we’d grab seats in the way back since they don’t call people back there (at least we’ve never seen it).  This seemed to appease him.

Well, as we entered we were shocked to see the CMs were not letting anyone sit back there!  They were forcing everyone to sit in the front of the theater.  I could tell my dad was getting really nervous! 

So we settled into seats as far back as the CMs would let us, and soon the show started!

It was a fun show, not the funniest we’ve been to, and my dad was not “that guy” sadly for me!

Just as we thought that we were going to escape from the show without being called upon, suddenly the spotlight was on us! 

My dad immediately started to squirm in the seat next to me, I was doing everything I could to keep from bursting out laughing.  Luckily for my dad though, they called on my mom, who absolutely LOVED being called on. 

She was called on for the “telepathetic” skit where she had to think of a number from 1 to like 40.  My mom, apparently outsmarting the monsters (and myself), somehow realized they would ask her to share her number with the audience, so she purposefully picked a number she could hold up with her fingers!  She picked 5.  So when the monster asked her to share her number to the audience (which funny enough the monster covered her eyes to not hear it), instead of saying it, she just held up five fingers!  I was so impressed, if it were me I would have picked like 20 and would have said it out loud. 

The skit lasted a bit longer, and my mom was loving every second of it!  I’m so happy she got called on!

Once the show was over we headed back outside and were not too surprised to see massive puddles everywhere!  Apparently, a holdover from our September trip, we once again were having phenomenal timing with the rain, it poured while we were in the show, but stopped by the time we exited! 

Our next stop was Buzz Lighter’s Space Ranger Spin!  Since my dad and I are super competitive, we decided this ride I would ride with him. 

I actually got Galactic Hero here, and super early in the ride too, so I spent the rest of the ride pointing out the high point targets for my dad.  He didn’t make galactic hero his first time around, but his score was decent for his first time riding, I think it was 200,000 and change. 

On the way out I swung by the counter to pick up my galactic hero button, which was just an I’m Celebrating button with galactic hero printed on some tape stuck onto it.  It was actually funny wearing it that evening since so many CMs saw the I’m Celebrating and asked what I was celebrating since the print for galactic hero was so small and most thought it was hilarious they realized it was galactic hero. 

After the riding Buzz is was about 3:45, so we decided to go find a place to pick up our party credentials in the park.  I knew they had them over at Tortuga Tavern, but I was hoping they would have them near the entrance to Tomorrowland like they do at the Halloween party, and I was happy to see as we headed that way there was a credential distribution point there!

So we got in line, and were surprised when only a few minutes later we started to move!  We ended up getting our wrist bands by 3:55! 

After getting our wrist bands, map, and ornament, we headed back up to the front of the park because I wanted to head down the bypass to get pictures with the toy soldiers back there.

There was a massive line by the time we got there, but it moved relatively fast.  I was a bit bummed that with two groups ahead of us they had a changing of the guards, and it went from being two soldiers to just one.  Oh well, at least we didn’t miss out on the shot with the rain, which was once again on its way!  I was actually really worried after waiting ~20 minutes for the picture that we would miss it since the rain was so close, but fortunately we made it just in time!

We then made our way out of the bypass to get some more pictures in front of the castle.

By then it started to drizzle, and it was still a bit too early to check into our dinner, but we headed that way in hopes of finding a roof to hide under.

We totally forgot about the covered porch in front of the restaurant, but were glad when we arrived and saw it and that it had empty benches!  So we headed there to keep dry and wait for dinner.  At about 4:40 I did the online check-in for our reservation, and about 4:55 I got the notification that our table was ready!

So we headed to the CM outside and he ushered us inside, where another CM told us to find a seat to wait.  There was a bit more of a wait once inside, about 10 minutes, before being brought back to our table.

Dinner was really good, we figured this would be a good place for my dad since it’s basically Thanksgiving dinner again, and as noted before, the more basic the food the happier he is. 

Also of note, my dad usually hates salad, but he could not get enough of the salad here!  He was obsessed with the dressing, which was apparently a honey shallot vinaigrette, so now I’m on the hunt for  recipe to make it.  He also loved the beef, he ate almost the entire portion of it!  Glad he enjoyed himself here.

After finishing up with dinner, we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean since the wait was really low at that point.

Once off Pirates, we headed back towards the hub for some pictures.

It was a bit after 6, and as we were walking through the hub we saw the Olaf show was just starting, so stopped to watch!

It was cute, but I missed the dream lights on the castle, the projections on the castle were so dark and just don’t seem super festive compared to the dream lights.    

After the show we discussed what we wanted to do, and dad really wanted to ride Buzz again, so we headed over there.

This time I spent the entire ride showing dad the high value targets and giving him pointers, and he did really great!  He went from like 200,000 on the first ride up to almost 600,000 this ride!

Once off Buzz, we decided to head over to ride Haunted Mansion (HM).  On the way it started to drizzle just a bit again, so we ducked under the peoplemover track where we saw the Stitch step in photo, so headed there to get a shot!

We then made our way over to HM, the drizzle slowly died off as we made our way over. 

We were just arriving at HM when the cookie station across the way opened (super early, it was only like 6:40 at that point), and since no one was there we headed in and got our first cookies of the night!

Finally we headed over to the HM.  There was a bit of a wait here, maybe 15 minutes, but soon we were on, and I was so excited to finally see the hatbox ghost! 

By the time we got done with HM, it was just past 7, FINALLY party time!

At this point I booked us a DAS for Space Mountain so mom could ride it and see the overlay.  The line was pretty long at this point, so our return time wasn’t for almost an hour. 

With plenty of time to kill, we did our favorite activity, took pictures!

After taking a ton of pictures mom decided she wanted to get more cookies, so we headed to the lunching pad to get the cookie, and the apple cider which was so nice and refreshing!  Seriously, why was it so hot at night in December?!?

We decided to go sit and eat these cookies and enjoy the drink for a bit while waiting for our return time for Space. 

The timing was great and just as we were wrapping up with our snack, it was time for Space! 

We headed over and scanned into the LL after SOOOOO many people.  Seriously, I have never seen the LL utilized this much during a party before, it was shocking.  The group ahead of us had like 15 people in it too, so not DAS users, guessing maybe Golden Oak?  Then, when we were in the line almost at boarding, three separate VIP tours came in through the exit to get right on the ride.  We actually got one in the car ahead of us, which I actually loved since the plaid with them was sitting in front of me and posed for the camera so for the first time EVER I knew which side the camera would be on! 

Mom loved Space with essentially the lights on, I did not.  I prefer it in the dark, I like not seeing the beams that are about to take my head off. 

Next up:  Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, Part 2!