One of our promises when we bought our MVMCP tickets was that to justify the price, we'd try to close down the park. That means we'd stay at the park, having a blast, until the park closed, and we were forced to leave. It should come as no surprise that the kids were having so much fun that they didn't really notice the late hour too much. We made sure to keep them moving and full of hot chocolate. There was a moment after the parade where I think they were confused that we weren't making them leave the park to go to bed!
Before the trip we had heard post-parade rumors. People said if you stayed after the final parade of the night (there are two) that the park would practically empty. Queues would be non-existant since the tickets are already limited and families with small children clear out of the park after the parade. We were a bit skeptical, but we were determined to see how the night unfolded.
After the parade there was a definite crowd surge toward the front of the park. We went the opposite direction to New Fantasyland to ride Under the Sea Journey of the Little Mermaid. As promised, the queue was empty. (What sorcery is this?!) Then we made a quick hot chocolate stop because sugar needed to keep flowing in everyone's veins to make this work.
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| New Fantasyland |
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| Prince Eric's Castle |
From there we walked on to every single ride for the rest of the evening. Yeah, you read that right. We walked on to anything we wanted to ride in the Magic Kingdom during a time period that was usually high, peak season crowds. Thank you MVMCP!
We walked on to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This ride features an interactive queue, and the kids were more than happy to play and pose for photos!
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| When the queue is empty, it's even more fun to play in! Eeyore's House |
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| The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh Rabbit's Garden |
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| Do you see Gopher? |
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| Something is hidden in the honey! |
We started to stroll by the Tea Cups and stopped to walk in and ride them. We rarely attend the Tea Party, so this was a fun change.
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| Practically empty! |
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| Tea Party with Daddy |
At one point Randy saw Scrooge McDuck all alone, so he stopped and got a photo. His boss thought it was pretty cool since he works with accounts.
Then we went over to Dumbo. The double Dumbo with the new play area queue was still pretty new at this point. We had only been through the FastPass line, so the kids had not been able to play in the new queue. It was empty. As in ghost town... no one around but cast members... empty! The kids got quite a bit of time to enjoy the play area alone, and then we rode Dumbo. (Actually Katelyn was having so much fun playing that we accidentally left her in the play area and went running back for her just as a cast member came running to us to see if the little girl playing belonged to us! Whoops...) Now this is the point where something I've never seen happen on Dumbo happened to us: we rode once (me taking photos of everyone and everything) and when the ride stopped, they announced that we could just stay seated and ride again! This ride is usually so crowded even in non-peak season that this is unheard of! We were amazed to say the least!
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| Dumbo Selfie! |
On the way out of the park we were able to get photos on Main Street USA with a remaining PhotoPass photographer. See, it's snowing!
We left the park at 12:15 AM, 15 minutes after the park closed, and waited for the Ferry to get to the parking lot. We only had to wait for a ferry to arrive and were even able to find a bench to sit on for the ride. Joshua fell asleep on me (see the photo at the top of this post). As we headed back to the hotel we proclaimed this entire trip, Disney cruise and parks, a major success! We once again beat the Peak Season Thanksgiving crowds!
Next week I'll sum up a few key points from the trip. Monday I'll share a full tour of the new Dumbo play area. Wednesday we'll look at whether the MVMCP is worth the extra cash, and finally Friday we'll look at the PhotoPass CD's worth.
Coming soon: A new series - 30 Magical Moments, a small giveaway, and a giveaway so big I had to partner with multiple Disney bloggers to make it happen! You won't want to miss what's coming on the Amazing, Technicolor Interwebs in the months to come!
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