Thanksgiving at Disney: A Trip Report - Day 8 - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Two years ago I went on a December Walt Disney World trip with a friend, and we decided to shell out the dough to attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. (We'll call it MVMCP from now on in this post!) It was absolutely worth the money. This trip we realized that while there were no MVMCPs during Thanksgiving week, there was one the Sunday night after Thanksgiving. After much discussion, we decided to purchase tickets for the party. This meant we would fly back on Monday causing Randy and I to miss a day of work and the kids to miss a day of school. We'll discuss whether this sacrifice was worth it at the end of the party. (Remember as you read this post that this was still considered high level, peak season crowds. Check out what all we got done!)

Once we purchased our tickets, we quickly decided on a couple of absolutes:

1. We would not tell the kids that we were attending MVMCP until the day of or the day before the party. We thought it would be a fun surprise.
2. We would make the most of the extra cash we shelled out by closing down the park the night of the party. The only times we've done this successfully with the kids was when Epcot closed at 9 PM or we were at Animal Kingdom until close which is always fairly early.

LaRae and Randy told the kids our party plans by giving them Christmas mouse ears headbands we'd found at Walgreens.  They were predictably excited.  This helped encourage them to help us move resorts earlier in the day and convinced them to take naps that afternoon.

MVMCP officially starts at 7 PM. Guests can use their party ticket to enter the park at 4 PM though.  We entered Magic Kingdom around 5:30 PM, and we were given wristbands to wear to show we had MVMCP tickets. Around 7 PM cast members start checking for bands and shoo anyone without one out of the park. If you try to stick around without a wristband, you can't enter queues, get food, do anything. They'll escort you right out when they discover your lack of wrist-wear.

My family loves to ride the Jungle Cruise, but it closes for MVMCP, so we went there first to snag an evening cruise. If you haven't ridden the Jungle Cruise as night, you are missing out! Make sure to go after dark to get an entirely different experience.  After Jungle Cruise we rode Pirates of the Caribbean as a family. Prior to this trip the kids were too scared to ride it, but this trip we insisted we'd all ride together. They loved it! 

We wanted a new dining experience, so we tried to eat at Tortuga Tavern, but it was closed. Bummer. We went back to an old family favorite, Pinocchio's Village Haus, instead. Once there we discovered that the menu had changed from burgers, fries, and standard pizzas to flatbreads, and wow were they delicious! We got sides of fries because they still had the good honey mustard from the pump. ;-) We didn't find a seat close enough to wave at the It's a Small World boats, but we did go ride it afterwards.

I asked for a side of marinara for my pepperoni flatbread.
The crust was perfectly crisp. Loved this meal!

The GOOD honey mustard from the pump!

Bellies full, happily humming It's a Small World, we noticed the crowds were definitely thinning out. Wrists were being checked everywhere, and cast members we walking in lines down the street to sweep the park.  We split for a bit for Katelyn to go with Randy to meet Merida. It was a pretty long line, but Merida spent quite a bit of time with Katelyn. She met us later telling us all about the story Merida told her about Captain Jack (Katelyn showed her her pirate gold necklace) and her wee brothers. It was an amazing experience for her.

Showing her necklace & storytelling

Love the kiddo's smile :) 

LaRae, Josh, and I were able ride Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin twice before Katelyn and Randy were done. Once they joined us, we rode once more together! I decided to have a bit of fun taking photos in the attraction:

Riding alone, not impressed (this was after the Olympics...) - high score
in my family though thanks to lack of distractions. :)

Buzz! Look! An alien!

From there Randy, Josh, and Katelyn went to ride the TTA People Mover while LaRae and I ran to the restroom and grabbed a quick spin on the Astro Orbiter. This is another attraction that you've GOT to ride at night! The view with the park all lit up is to die for!

We met up again to stop for free cookies and hot chocolate. While I'm not a huge fan of the cookies, the hot chocolate was a welcome treat. From there we started to split up again. Some of us wanted to see the Holiday Wishes Fireworks, while others wanted to ride more rides. Then we realized we came as a family and had split up so much already that we should stick together a bit better. A quick moment of clarity helped us realize that while Wishes is amazing and Holiday Wishes is neat, the kids really just wanted to ride things, and if we stopped, they might realize how tired they were and want to leave! So we scrapped stopping for fireworks and went to ride the Tomorrowland Speedway. 

FastPass runner becomes hot chocolate runner...

Chocolate Chip Cookies were better than 2 year ago's Snickerdoodle Cookies

You won't believe this, but while we were in line the fireworks starting going. That was cool and all, but right as we all sat in our cars, the finale with the 180 degree fireworks went off. Cast member and guest alike stopped in their tracks to watch the fireworks! It was a totally different view than we ever would have experienced if we'd gone to stand in front of Cinderella Castle. Sometimes a new perspective is cooler than the one you're "meant" to see. Afterwards, we grabbed another hot chocolate. (Hey we paid for it in the ticket price! haha!)

No photos of finale because I was just being in the moment & taking it in!

I know we said we weren't going to split again, but the parade was going to start soon, and LaRae, Josh, and I wanted to ride the Haunted Mansion real quick before we found a spot. Katelyn decided she really didn't want to ride, so she and Randy went to find a good spot for us to sit. 

Next post I'll share the Once Upon a Christmastime Parade, and Friday your jaw will drop when you read and see the awesomeness that is closing down the Magic Kingdom on a party night! 

The Haunted Mansion Resort

A few years back I was still scared to death of The Haunted Mansion, and now I gleefully recite the script along with the Ghost Host as he guides me through the Mansion. Wanna join me on the ride real quick? Come on... join me!

As you're leaving the Library and heading to the Music Room and Staircase, the ghost host says this phrase:

They have all, retired here to the Haunted Mansion, actually we have 999 happy haunts here, but there's room for one thousand. Any volunteers?? If you should decide to join us, final arrangements, may be made at the end of the tour.
I think my friend James said it best when, in true The Hunger Games fashion, he posted how he wanted to react: "I VOLUNTEER! I VOLUNTEER AS TRIBUTE!!!"  A part of me REALLY wants to scream that next time I'm on the ride.  But... what if you could join along and be a happy haunt for a few nights?  This month we were supposed to write about what attraction we'd turn into a resort.  I threw around some ideas like 

• Swiss Family Treehouse - Disney already has tree houses.
• Pirates of the Caribbean - Who wants to have to invoke the right of parlay while they're on vacation?
• Spaceship Earth - What if you get stuck in the Ice Age section of the resort?!
• Tower of Terror - That could be fun, but I sure wouldn't be getting on the elevator!
• Living with the Land - I decided that one was lame, but I do like how Garden Grill rotates through it, so I'll happily go back to eat there again.

So that left me with The Haunted Mansion.  Can you imagine rooms and buildings they could have?  Not to mention the pools and recreation areas!  I bet some Imagineers could take this idea and really run with it.  

Ideally the common areas would not be too creepy, so guests with small children could enjoy the resort without their children being too fearful.  The pool would be the perfect place to pay homage to the Stretch Room.  The pool would be a wade-in pool so it went from very shallow to deep.  At the deep end would be a tall water slide themed around the drop from the attic, and there would definitely be a hidden wedding ring in the pavement somewhere.  The kiddy pool and splash zone would have a sea captain's crypt in the middle to splash water periodically.  Other busts would randomly spit water.

Marble busts and tombstones would, of course, be scattered throughout.  The busts and tombstones would lead guests through various series of riddles like the busts in the interactive queue area.  The food court would be themed around the dining/party scene complete with illusions of ghosts partying throughout.   Picture chandeliers and an organ playing constant Disney music.  

For recreation guests could take rides in horseless carriages (pre-programed to run through the resort on their own, like a self-driving car).  They could take dance lessons with hitchhiking-esque ghosts who would dance with them in a wall of mirrors.  Could it really be The Haunted Mansion Resort without a library of ghost stories?  In the evenings, cast members would hold special ghost story nights in the small graveyard scene set up along the outskirts of the resort.  (This would have to have different ages at different times, so young and old could enjoy it.)

Rooms could have special effects windows that as you passed certain ones, ghosts would appear to watch you or follow along.  You could stay in various rooms themed like the mansion with details pointing to which husband/wedding the room represents.  Other rooms could be reminiscent of the seance room with floating tables and lamps (all illusion and practice though).  Rooms could be a bit lighter in spirit (see what I did there?) by focusing on the more jovial parts of the Mansion like the ballroom dancing spirits and hitchhiking ghosts. There's so much that could be done with this!  The one part of the resort I can't quite figure out is the food court area.  I keep envisioning rotting food, and that just wouldn't do!  Even fake cobwebs and dust would be a bit gross.  So what do y'all think?  At a Haunted Mansion Resort, what would the food court be like?

When the Queue Fights Back

Some of you know that until June 2011, I had a very real fear of Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion. In fact, it was so bad that even as an adult, I would sit through the ride with my eyes partly covered! The one time I dared to ride it alone, I ended up so freaked out that the only way I made it through was by staring at my lit phone screen! Something about things jumping out at me (in the graveyard scene) or the chance of getting stuck in the Mansion just really got to me. Never mind that my dad thought my 4-year-old terror of it was hilarious back in 1987!  

June 2011 I rode with Kyle, and I my fears diminished as he pointed out neat details on the ride. By December 2011, I was begging him to hurry up, so we could go get in our Doombuggy!  Funny how fears can go away when you're with the right person. (Truthfully it also helped that I read a TON of facts on a Haunted Mansion fansite.)

Rewind to my first adult trip to Walt Disney World. It was January 2009, and my fear of the Haunted Mansion was in hyper-drive. I really wanted to go on the ride despite those fears though.

The grandparents-in-law agreed to watch the kiddos while the other adults went to the Haunted Mansion. This included me, my sister, my brother-in-law, his brother, and his brother's wife. I had already told everyone involved that I was NOT riding alone, and my sister would have to ride with me. Oh, another key point is that earlier in the day, the queue had been extended to start around the entrance to the Liberty Square Riverboat.

Finally plucking up the courage to face my fears, I, in typical Joanna style, decided to laugh it up with everyone while hurrying to the attraction. Laughter always makes me feel better, so I was making everyone laugh, while practically running to the ride and looking behind me to talk to everyone.  I just heard my sister yell, "JOANNA!" and barely registered an odd look on her face when something hit me so hard in the stomach that I doubled over!  Did someone seriously just punch me?!

Nope. Apparently even though the queue was no longer extended, and the ropes were down, the removable, waist height poles they used to extend the queue were still in the sidewalk.  I had slammed right into one and folded over it cartoon style! 

Imagine running into the pole above while jogging!  It knocked the wind out of me, and people around us were looking at me like I was crazy!  It didn't help that I was scared to death of the ride we were about to go on, but now I was out of air and laughing hysterically!  Fear was coming out as fits of laughter!  You know that kind of laughter where you start crying, and you're almost sobbing because you're laughing so hard?  Yeah, that was me!  Until we got in the Doombuggies I was wiping tears of laughter and giggling randomly. People gave me a bit of a wide berth.

Later that night I lifted up my shirt and noticed I had a silver dollar sized bruise right beside my belly button!  Of course I told my sister and that set off another round of laughter!  While I was mortified that I'd done something so silly, so publicly, it's actually a fun memory for me.  Every time I pass those poles, I giggle a bit remembering my most embarrassing Disney moment.