Dec 16 - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

The Magic Kingdom was back on our itinerary today. Up nice and early, we headed straight for Spaceranger Spin and went on twice. Seeing the boys were lucky enough to go on most "thrill" rides twice on account of rider swaps, we dedicated this morning to the girls and the babies. Fantasyland it was with Dumbo, Snow White, Teacups, the carousel and Toontown Fair.

The children enjoyed Spaceranger Spin from beginning to end. Err...can we keep them in there for the whole day? Please...

In the meantime, I had a chance to take photos of things I forgot to or was not able to on our earlier visits to the Magic Kingdom. I also had a chance to stroll down to Main Street by the horse drawn streetcar, listening to the Dapper Dans caroling. Ah...what a relaxing experience. Oh so nice not to have to do head counts every 3 seconds. The destination I was aiming for was the Emporium. I was desperate to browse the Disney merchandise but was so overwhelmed by choice that I didn't end up making any purchases. My parents would have been ashamed of me.

It was 11am and we had to go home to rest for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party (MVMCP)in the evening. We grabbed lunch enroute from the Bakery, picked up our MVMCP tickets and hopped onto the Riverside bus. All 3 children fell asleep! Hallelujah! Probably from exhaustion through parental Disney madness but nevertheless this was a great achivement. We were up and ready to hit the Magic Kingdom again by 4pm. The bus was jam packed.

Some Christmas images from the Magic Kingdom

The Dapper Dans with their oh so sweet voices!

We arrived at the park to find it all lit up. The atmosphere was magical. We were also in time for the flag lowering ceremony. It was fun to be part of the fanfare. We swung by the quaint Barber shop with the intention of getting Jonah a hair cut. With multiple bribes, a roll of stickers and some pixie dust, it was still no cigar. Oh well. So the Haunted mansion as half of us had not been on it. The rest stopped for chicken and wild rice soup at Sleep Hollow to use up our snack credits followed closely by multiple funnel cakes. Mmmmm...We were fortunate to be seated with a beautiful view of the castle.

Getting our bands put on for...

...Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

Waiting patiently for the others with Minnie and Roy

The very quaint barber shop

and the roll of stickers that didn't work!

Hot chocolate and cookie

Our very own store...

The next task was finding a spot to view the Holiday Wishes fireworks. This was again difficult. With our numbers, we didn't have the option to be too picky. In the end, we had good views of the castle and the fireworks and what a wonderful way it was to end the evening. The fireworks were simply spectacular. There were smiley faces, love hearts, pixie dusts, and many others, all exploding in time to beautiful music. My photos though, turned out to be horrible. Despite all the reading up pre trip, it was still more difficult then expected. The lack of a tripod as well as numerous heads in the way did not assist me in my quest for the perfect fireworks and castle combination shot. Another reason to return I told Malcolm!