MAW Trip Day 3 - Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

After cleaning up a bit and a quick change of clothes we got ready to meet mom & Brittany at Magic Kingdom. We had reservations at Tony’s. Mom’s favorite Disney movie is Lady and the Tramp so when I found out that was the theme for this restaurant it was a much do. Besides, who doesn’t like Italian food :-)

Somehow I had overlooked how incredibly long it would take to actually get to MK. I didn’t even think about lines but there were huge long lines just to park. Everyone else was headed into the park for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party too.

We got parked and headed up to the monorail. Mom and Brittany had called a few times to see where we were, we were late for our reservations. Thankfully the restaurant was understanding and got us seated about 15 mins after we finally arrived.

The restaurant was great. Our server did wonderful with such a big party. I was so glad they had sat us in a corner. That makes it easier when the little ones like to get up and “visit” the adults they aren’t sitting by. They food was very yummy and more than we could finish.

The kids got drinks with light-up Tinker Bell for the girls and light-up Captain Hook for the boys. They thought that was great fun.

As we were leaving I had everyone stop by the restroom. This would start a trend for the night. Drew’s tummy was still feeling a bit yucky but honestly I thought it was probably due to swallowing some bath water from the night before. But then it started moving down the line. One by one the other boys started complaining of a tummy ache.

Thankfully Goofy sat for some pictures while we waited for everyone :)

Finally we had rescued everyone from the bathroom and we made a mad dash up Main Street before someone else announced the need for a stop.

We headed straight for Pirates.

On our way we got some Country Bear loving :-)

We made it to Pirates– it was closed. We then headed for Thunder Mt Railroad but got stopped by the parade so we stopped and watched.

We finally made it to Thunder Mt and stood in line for a good 10 minutes before we found out it too was closed – someone had gotten sick. I couldn’t believe it. So we headed back to see if Pirates was opened again. Thankfully it was.

They boys love that ride and I was excited for Ryan & Madilynn to ride it. Ryan was a bit hesitant still because of ToT the night before but after showing him we had no seat belt (so it had to be a fun ride) he was fine too. They loved the ride.

Then we made a quick stop in for cocoa and cookies.

And headed for another bathroom break. Thankfully the bathroom we stopped at had a playground by it. We played here for a good half hour waiting for everyone.

Next up – the Haunted Mansion. Ryan and Madilynn were so scared to go. Gramma said she would sit out with them. She doesn’t really like the ride. I decided to sit with them too. We walked up into Fantasy Land to wait for the rest of the family.

We rode Peter Pan first. It was a huge hit for the little ones. They were 2 & 3 when we went to Disney last so they didn’t remember riding on this before. Ryan thought it was the best ever and asked to ride it again every day for the rest of our trip.

After that we headed across the way to It’s A Small World. Madilynn was in absolute heaven. She loved all the “Golly’s” This was by far her favorite ride of the trip and every time Ryan asked to ride Peter Pan again Madilynn would quickly chime in “And the Golly ride”

We stopped into Mickey’s Philharmonic. Cute show. Meagan and Brittany were ready for some bigger rides and with all our frequenting of the restrooms the night was winding down. So the big girls were sent off to see what they could see and we would meet them in front of Tony’s at midnight.

Steve and the kids rode Dumbo and then we all headed for Winnie the Pooh. Eeyore is mom’s favorite and Pooh has a special place in our hearts because of how he treated Drew on his first trip to Disneyland in 2001. We spent a lot of time browsing the shop there.

Scrooge was at his tree farm when we excited the store so we ran to get quick pictures with him. At first the photographer said the line was closed but then saw Drew’s MAW button and let us in. I thanked her over and over. The kids were bummed they weren’t going to get a picture. They love Scrooge.

We started our trek towards the front, stopping to take pictures and video of the castle. It was one of the most beautiful sites ever. Standing there on that bridge, looking up at that castle was AMAZING! There was no hustle and bustle. You can feel the magic. You can feel the love Walt Disney has for family.

Thankfully the girls were there waiting for us when we got back to Tony’s. They had ridden the cars at the Indy Speedway and Space Mountain.

Mom & Brittany caught the bus back to their hotel and we caught the monorail out to the parking lot. Somehow we ended up taking a wrong turn and ended up on some dang toll road. We were so lost. I kept telling Steve to make a u-turn in the area that says “No u-turn.” He kept driving. I was getting irritated. We were the only car on the road – in the middle of NOWHERE. Finally we saw a road sign. Somehow we had looped around and Kissimmee was the next exit. Thank Heavens!

The kids had all enjoy a little nap while we were exploring that dark, scary road. It was after 1:30 when we finally walked through the door of our villa. Sleeping little ones were carried into bed and the older ones walked in and dropped (with a little help). I started a load of wash, wrote my notes of our day and climbed into bed just after 2am.