POST #10: SUN NOV 27- REST DAY + MVMCP
TONGA TOAST, ERRANDS, AND A MERRY (BUT NOT VERY MERRY) CHRISTMAS PARTY
Sunday was setup to be a day of rest (mostly). We'd be able to enjoy our new resort, rest our legs/feet/bodies, but still scheduled our Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party for this evening.
In a previous post, I'd mentioned that our extended family took diverged breakfast plans for Sunday-- with Topolino's reservation available (and a later one at that allowing them to sleep in), my brother #1 his wife and daughter decided to eat there. The rest of us-- party of 7-- kept our original pre-trip plan of breakfast at Kona Cafe. Nice and simple walk from our rooms to the Great Ceremonial House, perfect fit for a casual rest day. Our reservation was for just after 9am which also wasn't terribly early. The restaurant had just re-opened a few weeks before from their renovation, so it had a nice refreshing feel that IMO felt integrated with the other resort-wide recent renovations and the guestrooms. The food at Kona was, delicious! I think 4 or 5 of us got the famous Tonga Toast. While I did really enjoy it quite a bit, in my own opinion it's maybe a little over-hyped. I am a sucker for POG juice though!
With no clear agenda until the Christmas Party which allowed a 4pm park entry, we were free to diverge again as all of us felt fit. Brother #2 and his girlfriend went over to Disney Springs (I neglected to mention in the post for Saturday, that they spent part of their arrival day there as well). I believe my mom went back to her room to simply rest. Brother #1's family with their later breakfast reservation I think ended up having that eat into their early afternoon with travel and all that.
As for our family, as per usual whenever we had a break from the parks, the plan was going to mostly be POOL TIME. After getting back to our room after breakfast, wife and kids did start by resting in the room, and I needed to finish a one more load of laundry so I started on that. This morning, my wife and I had also had a fun idea to hang some Christmas lights in our room window, so since we hadn't brought any my plan was to make a quick trip out to Target/other to get some while the laundry was in the dryer. One other "errand" would be added to my little mini-trek off-property-- on our drive down from PA, right around once we entered Florida, our car's A/C seemed to stop working. This had led to my wife "suffering" a bit every time we got into the car during the last week, so while all I had the capacity to try during vacation was to swap out the cabin air filter to see if that would do it, that was on the list. In heading out to the Poly parking lot, I discovered a parking spot that apparently had seen a car fire the previous day and had also spread to heat damage on the two adjacent cars (man, can't imagine the enormous headache of something like that happening while on vacation at WDW!) Hope everyone was ok and that their insurance dealings were hopefully not too painful.
My errand trip took much longer than I'd hoped. I had started by GPS'ing to the nearest Target, which turned out to be one of their smaller-scale stores that had reduced offerings. So, no Christmas lights there. I had to drive a bit further to a Lowe's (where I DID find Mickey Ear christmas lights! perfect!) and slightly further yet to an Advanced Auto Parts for the car filter. The filter swap was a quick task but did NOT solve the A/C issue, oh well. All told it was about 90 minutes and about 1pm by the time I returned to the Poly and picked up my dry laundry. Meanwhile, wife and kids had already started off at the pool and my mom joined them. It was time for me to get my own pool time in too! I'm too active of a person I guess, I took 90 minutes out of my rest day to do all this!! We loved the Lava Pool, and I myself enjoyed the waterfall which felt therapeutic to have the water fall over my legs. My wife, mom, and I also each, of course, got ourselves a frozen drink from the poolside bar!
The pool time seemed to go quick, as by 3pm or so we wanted to be starting to gather to head over to the Magic Kingdom. Our full group had ordered matching Disney/Christmas shirts for the occasion, so we got into those and planned to meet at the GCH monorail stop. But first, I stayed behind in the room a few extra minutes to hang the Christmas lights in the window, since we decided it'd be a nice surprise for our kids for when we got home from MK (you'll see a photo of the lights later on from after-dark!).
We did end up getting to MK, I dont remember exactly, but slightly before the 4pm allowed entry time perhaps, and the line to get in was massive as they had the line snaking around every which way and the end of it was all the way over on the walkway towards Contemporary. But, it moved quickly and we were inside relatively quickly.
There wasn't a specific game plan for how (and what) to tackle at the Christmas Party. Brother #2 and girlfriend were just now getting their first taste of park time, and its just the 2 of them, so their priority was going to be rides and less-so on Christmas offerings. Brother #1 and family really wanted to see Jack Skellington and Sally, along with other party-specific offerings. Our family, and my mom, were also more about seeing what was party-specific to try to feel as festive as possible. The parade, show, etc. To start off, there were no dinner plans so everyone was going to just be getting quick service at MK. So, while we walked up Main Street and got in line for our coveted group family photo, I started a mobile order for my 4 at Casey's Corner. The line for the photo took slightly longer than I expected even though we were 3rd in this particular line, so I had to work with the cast members at Casey's a little bit to get my order straightened out (I had been confused by the harsh notices in the app that told me I was too late and that I'd still be charged-- so in haste/panic I re-ordered it again not wanting to have a hungry family waiting, when really I could have just talked to the staff to work it all out; they fixed it all for me!). So, the 4 of us ate our hot dogs while Brother #1 headed to the Jack/Sally meet and Brother #2 and mom headed to Haunted Mansion, where we would meet them.
Oh, and here's the full group!
Since they let Party-goers in at 4pm which I think was 2 hrs before non-party goers would be sent out of the park, my daughter's
DAS pass still had a little bit of effectiveness (I wasn't sure whether it would stop for the party-- it did). So, we were able to quickly get onto Haunted Mansion after eating. A few of us actually ended up doing the ride twice due to DAS making it a quick opportunity, while my wife decided to skip that and brother #2 and his girlfriend hopped over to get Splash and BTMR in.
I don't know how time goes so quickly, because around this time I remember cast members starting to usher non-party guests out and checking our wristbands and all that. But it also was I think another hour before the official party time at 7pm. We head over towards Frontierland where we would again re-assemble as a full group, my mom got some food at Peco's Bill, and that would allow us to start the party-specific offerings in Adventureland (hot cocoa station, Jack Sparrow meet). 7pm hit and we did those couple of things, but Pirates of Caribbean was down, and Jingle Cruise line was too long. So, we'd try the nearby Moana meet & greet. That line proved too long for our desire, so Brother #2 and girlfriend split off to go do rides, while the rest of us met Aladdin & Jasmine. Genie came out right after so Brother #1 and his family did that, but my family chose to do the Magic Carpets ride instead. I believe it was at this point we decided to try Moana one more time and the line seemed more palatable at this point, so we hit that.
Next, with our immediate family's (and mom's) priority being the parade and fireworks, we decided to stake out a spot for the 830ish parade. I knew that it would be lower crowds if we waited until a later one, but I just knew my kids/wife/mom were just not going to make it super late, so this is what needed to happen. Brother #1's family went off to do rides and other character meets. Plan was to then immediate segue over to a spot for the early fireworks show in the hub. We made our way over to Liberty Square so that we'd be near the hub, and found a decent spot next to the Christmas Shoppe with just a few people in front of us.
Unfortunately, mom's feet just really couldn't take much more. She sat on a bench behind the Shoppe while my immediate family and I watched the parade-- WHICH was enjoyable, but really IMO was not all that different from a normal Magic Kingdom parade. Which, is fine, but perhaps a bit underwhelming given the emphasis we placed on it.
Things did not really improve for the fireworks. The crowds were less for the party fireworks than they were for Enchantment a few nights prior, but not by a ton. Even 40 minutes or so ahead of the show, there really wasn't anywhere where my mom was going to get relief from her feet. We found a spot to stand that had a perfectly good view, but both of my kids were starting to get VERY tired, younger daughter was even starting to let her eyes rest while we waited. My wife was not doing well with the crowds, and even walked away to try to gain a break from the other people (somewhat spurred by a guest in an ECV backing up their vehicle to within inches of us).
Maybe 15-20 minutes before the show, my mom decided she needed to remove herself from the crowds as well, and to seek out a place she could sit. She also decided her night would be over after the fireworks. With my younger daughter not even really awake, I asked if she wanted to go with my mom so that she could leave and go sleep right afterwards. She decided yes, she wanted to do that. SO, although I briefly thought about encouraging her to stick it out so she could see the MK fireworks closeup (recall, attempt #1 at this was less than ideal) but I didnt want her to force her to stick around if that was her choice. So, my mom and younger daughter head towards the front of the park and would simply catch what they could see from there. While this was all going on, we were taking in the castle stage show from afar which was cute enough but overall, just FINE. The theme/story was pretty cheesy.
Wife, older daughter, and I watched the Minnie's Christmas party fireworks from the middle of the hub, had a good view, and it was, FINE. Maybe it was dampened a bit by not having our full family there, but it was also somewhat overcast/cloudy so not the best night for fireworks.
I also knew that after the fireworks were over that my wife and older daughter had had their fill as well. And, indeed, they did leave right after the fireworks and met my mom/younger daughter on the way out. Wife agreed she had no problem with me staying to meet my Brother #2 and his girlfriend to hit a few more rides. I learned later that mom and younger daughter didn't really see much of the fireworks from where they were. So, FAIL #2 for my younger daughter to really get the full Magic Kingdom fireworks experience. I ALSO learned in texting back and forth with wife on her way home that they accidentally got off at the TTC and experience some additional stress in trying to figure all that out.
As mentioned I met up with Brother #2 and his girlfriend to join them for a few more rides. I recall doing Space Mountain and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I also remember getting 1-2 more of the party cookie/treat offerings, but was highly underwhelmed by that also. Brother #1 and their family ended up staying literally as long as you possibly were allowed to be in the park, with their ball of energy 5yo. I dont know how they do it.
So, all in all, the Christmas Party was QUITE underwhelming. I would not pay that amount of money for it again, if I were to ever do it again at all. It just was not different enough from a normal Magic Kingdom experience. I dont know what it was about our whole trip, but being in Florida maybe with their climate, just never really got us into the level of "Christmas"-y mood that we were hoping for on this trip. But anyway, we still had some fun, we experienced what we experienced and we paid what we paid, and we move onto the next day. Which would be a return to Epcot!
Sorry if some of the last few posts have expressed too much disappointment. I do think we kept our expectations mostly in check during this entire trip but having some disappointment I guess was just inevitable. Like I said we still had fun, and we still had most of a full week in front of us!! And at the end of the night, after all, I was returning to this... (see the lights for our room!)
NEXT POST...
Dole Whips, Loving the Lights, and a Harmoniously and Generally Disappointment Free Epcot Day
with the arrival of our last of 3 Magic Kingdom days. The priorities were pretty clear, focusing on the rides and attractions that we'd either not done yet, or wanted to be sure to ride one last time. We'd take 
