Dec 19 - A Knightly Affair

Today was our last day at World Disney World. We farewelled Kwan as he headed home to Canada and the rest of us revisited Disney's Hollywood Studios. The first order for the day was fastpasses to Rock'n Roller Coaster. That initial exhilirating acceleration was simply addictive! We then entered the nearby theatre for the Beauty & the Beast Stage show. When we first saw the Prince, I had to stop myself from bursting out laughing. He really looked like he should be flipping burgers at McDonald's. I was relieved when he was turned into the Beast. Gaston was good value and Belle's voice was awesome. The Prince returning to human form made the ending somewhat of an anti-climax. The show was otherwise a great condensed version of the movie!

We used up our fastpasses for Rock n Roller Coaster and had an early lunch at the Pizza Parlour. We tried to register the children to be Padawans but alas, it was already booked out until 445pm. We had to be content just watching the Jedi training academy which was hilarious and good fun. We simply couldn't resist the lure of the dark side. Once we saw Darth Vader, we were satisfied and rushed to the Lights Motor Action stunt show. It was awesome! Nothing beats crazy stunt driving. I loved it!

I've been shot!

The man...er machine that we've been waiting to see

The awesome stunt show

The group split up to cover various things that they hadn't already done and then hurried to the front of the park. We were picked up by our Happy Limos minivan. We were taken to Medieval Times dinner and tournament for some good old fashion fun. Malcolm, with a stroke of genius, bought 2 swords and shields. Jonah went crazy whacking everyone in his sight with a sword.

Before long, the lords and ladies were seated in the arena. The tournament began and we cheered loudly for our knight. The red knight had the swagger, he had the looks and he had the crowd going for him. We really thought he was going to go all the way but then he died a dramatic death under the hands of the red and yellow knight. We ate with our bare hands on pewter crockery. The simple fare of tomato bisque, garlic bread, half a roast chicken, spare ribs and castle pastry was plenty to fill our stomaches. We left the castle sated and were glad to be able to board our minivan back to our resort.

The Castle

Awaiting to be seated

Dec 18 - Food, Food and More Food

Breakfast at Chef Mickey's was the first item on our agenda. The breakfast buffet was like any other buffet but the children, as always, were so delighted to see the characters that it was all worth it. Jonah kissed Mickey!

With predicted showers, as well as park crowd ratings of 9, we decided to forgo the Magic Kingdom and spend the morning shopping yet again. So back to Downtown Disney it was. Browsing for merchandise was a pleasant way to while away the hours of miserable rain. It certainly made the morning go by very quickly!

Lunch was at the Earl of Sandwich where 2 counter service credits were again enough to feed the whole family of five! The holiday season sandwich was YUMMY with turkey, cranberry, stuffing and gravy on a toasted roll. This was finished off with a Ghiradelli triple chocolate brownie and chocolate mousse. We rolled to the bus stop to squeeze in an afternoon nap back at the resort. By the time we awoke, the rain had mostly cleared and we were off to Epcot.

We FINALLY managed to complete a Kimpossible mission! Whilst the children were busy doing missions, the adults were busy sampling various "snacks" from the various pavillions. Pastries from Norway, curry puffs from China. Mmmm...An absolutely amazing acrobat show entertained us at the China Pavillion. We had to run all the way to Canada to make our dinner reservation at Le Cellier's. The food was absolutely divine. The cheddar soup wasn't too bad but it was a rather heavy starter. The fillet mignon was heavenly and absolutely to die for. It just melted in your mouth. By the time my maple creme brulee came, I could hardly fit it in. Sorry, but I forgot to take photos of the food! We rolled out for the second time in the day.

Dec 17 - A Day of Rest

Today was our dedicated rest day. We got to sleep in...until 815am! It was also the first day that the temperature went over 20 degrees! When the children woke up, we filled ourselves up with bagels for breakfast trying to use up our remaining 26 snack credits, and dressed ourselves in shorts and T-shirts (because we can!) before our shopping expedition at the Disney Store at Downtown Disney. We had another 20% discount coupon that we wanted to use and it had to be used between 9-12am. We decided that we'd get what really appealed to us now and then buy more if they are a great bargain at the outlet malls when we come back to Florida. It was chaos at the shops, but that was not to deter us tenacious shoppers. We walked out with a suitcase, earrings, cuff links for the cruise, a pin each, a wine bottle topper, Christmas ornaments, a cap, a mickey-head pancake maker, an ice cube maker, a Goofy baseball, a mug, an antenna topper, sunglasses for the children, and croc ornaments.

We strolled across to T-Rex for lunch. We were pleasantly surprised at what we got. Perhaps it was because I wasn't expecting much but the ribs were tasty and melt in your mouth and the shrimp skewers on rice was fantastic. The children were thrilled to get their "Discovery Blast" in a great bone shaped cups that they got to keep. There were dinosaurs everywhere in various themed areas with the occasional meteorite shower. All in all, a whole heap of fun!

If you were wondering why there were no photos in the daytime, it was because I forgot to bring my dSLR and the point and shoot had no battery or memory card...

Boarding area at POR

A view of our dinner venue on the way in

The photos that were not taken earlier in the day...

We made a quick detour in the Christmas shop. Once again it was packed and crazy. It was all getting too tiring so we caught the bus back for a nap, a swim and to do some laundry. We returned to Down Town Disney, this time by boat, for dinner at Fulton's Crab House. It was a pleasant and relaxing journey. Much smoother than the buses! The Seafood scioppino at Fulton's was out of this world. Malcolm ordered Crab claws which were a specialty of the house. They weren't too bad but was nowhere near as tasty as Dessert at Ghiradelli's! The children had a blast at the disco dance party during dessert.

The madness starts again tomorrow as we try to finish off what we haven't covered.

Seafood scioppino

The children dancing away! Note the difference between the attentive styles of the girls versus the wild movements of the boys...

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!

Dec 15 - MK Mk II

Please insert afore mentioned short cut here. We got up early again for rope drop, this time at the Magic Kingdom. It was warmer but still cold with a predcited high of only 13! However, it was nice and sunny. The Yeohs joined us for breakfast but then attended a special private clinic to get Sam's foot checked out as he was still limping. There was no fracture! They reported VIP treatment which was good to hear. I digress...Rope drop was a spectacular ceremony with songs, dancers, and then characters arriving on the steam train. The children counted down enthusiastically before we made a beeline for Adventureland. It was empty. We walked straight onto Pirates of the Caribbean followed by Aladdin's flying carpet. There was also no line for photos with Aladdin and Jasmine who were all decked out in their winter coats! We then walked onto the Jungle Cruise. The Tiki room was under new management and I was very disappointed with the change. It had lost all its charm and I couldn't sing along the the tune that I loved. However, all in all it was an extremely productive morning!

One of the firsts to be in Adventureland

Let's go on a carpet ride

Trying to take photos of each other

Getting ready to fly

More empty rides

At Tomorrowland, I took the older children into Stitch's Great Escape. The men took the littlies for an early lunch at the Lunching Pad where we had our first hot dogs in America! We met up with Yeohs after their clinic visit and lined up for Speedway. The boys were only 53 inches tall! One short of the requirement for them to be able to drive solo. Andrew insisted that his hair "obeyed" him. However, despite all the scrunching and rearranging, we couldn't make that hair any higher. All that practice with standing with the heels just off the floor also came to no avail! They simply had to share a car.

Our next destination

They came to terms with this fairly quickly withe the knowledge that Space mountain was next. The People Mover was next. I really enjoyed it and was seriously considering going around twice. It was so relaxing. To our surprise, Spaceranger Spin was full. The fastpass line was longer than regular line!!! The others were not appreciative of my suggestion of Carousel of progress. They slept inside while I snoozed outside. My short nap in the sun with Jonah outside of the Merchant of Venus was bliss!

On the people mover

One of the last photos I took before I fell asleep...

I stupidly then asked Malcolm to get an iced coffee float forgetting that they used horrible American style coffee. It was disgusting. But I finally got to eat some churros! After such a long lead up, I was disappointed. It was not how I remembered it to be. The churros in Spain were infinitely better. Even the ones in Melbourne were more delicious. However, it was an opportune time for a snack as the parade was about to start. I still enjoyed it despite the disappointment. Through a stroke of luck, oops I meant genius, we managed to get a prime spot where the parade headed towards us front on before making a turn. We had great views! Again the children oohed and ahhed and clapped. I thought Aladdin was so very handsome I wished I were Jasmine!

Churros!

Waiting for the parade to start

Look Mum, I can fit through the hole...Daddy said so

The lovely Minnie

Pinocchio dancing away

My handsome Prince...sigh. So annoyed I didn't get a better close up.

Lara's favourite, Belle

After the parade, Splash mountain was a surprise walk on! We then utilised our Big Thunder Mountain Railroad fastpasses before we hopped onto Mickeys railroad back to the front of the park to head home. It was the men's turn for dinner at California Grill at the Contemporary Resort. I fed and put children to sleep, grateful that they succumbed quickly. Rest was paramount for yet another big day tomorrow at the Magic Kingdom with Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. It certianly was nice to be home and in bed by 730pm for a change!

The sign that means that bed is that much closer...