Disney 2013 Day Eight

Today we did Mickey's Magical Christmas Party. The way this works is that you buy a ticket (about $55), and in return you get to stay in the Magic Kingdom as everyone else is kicked out from 7 PM to 1 AM. And you also get free cookies, hot chocolate, apples, and apple juice. At first, I'll admit that I scoffed at the price, but at what ended up being less than $10 an hour, the atmosphere really is special. It's not just the thinner crowd (although that's part of it); Some combination of less people, how surprisingly dark the Magic Kingdom gets at night, and the atmosphere of a brightly lit up distant castle and dark walkways punctuated by giant glowing candy canes where you can get free food and drinks really does something to you. I'll return to this theme a little bit at the end, but it's something to keep in mind as we strolled from ride to ride actually feeling cold for once in Florida.

But before all that we hopped the monorail and went to the Polynesian resort, where we stayed last time, for a nostalgic dinner at the Kona Cafe. We both got the pan-asian noodles, which is basically a heap of onions, peas, peppers, noodles, and chicken (me) or tofu (katie). After that was the famous banana creme brulee, which was just as good as I remembered, but I had too many pan-asian noodles to finish it all. 

One monorail trip later and we were at the Magic Kingdom, where we got our plastic wristbands that marked us out was one of the 1% allowed to stay while the rest of the plebes returned to their hovels and makeshift mud huts. We arrived at around 6:30, and to get out of the crowd we ducked into Pirates of the Caribbean. In a Christmas miracle, there was nobody taking flash photographs (!!!!). Also, in the bathroom there was a loop of steel drum covers of Christmas songs going. 

We both got jackets - I got a black Pirates one while Katie got a truly impressive light pink Pirates jacket emblazoned with pictures of the Black Pearl from the first movie and fake I (heart) JACK tattoos. 

And guess what was fixed and running???

IT'S A SMALL WORLD

it's a world of laughter, a world or tears
it's a world of hopes, it's a world of fears
there's so much that we share
that it's time we're aware
it's a small world after all!

it's a small world after all!!
it's a small world after all!!!
it's a small world after all!!!!
it's a small, small world!!!!!!!

In all seriousness, I shouldn't have eaten those magic mushrooms before going on this ride. Also, there was someone behind us lustily cursing on It's a Small World. I don't even know how that happens.

Peter Pan's Flight

This is one of the rides that's normally just about impossible to get on; during the day it's usually never below 90 minutes. I can see why the wait time is long as it's pretty unusual - you get in pirate boats and fly over scenes from Peter Pan. The ride is all in the dark and there's a lot of day-glo paint that makes for a very neat effect. I'm not the biggest Peter Pan man myself, but it's hard not to feel at least a little exhilarated at the beginning of the ride as you fly through Wendy's window (also a good name for an art supply store) over a dark London rendered in such detail that there are moving cars over the bridges. 

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

This is a cute ride where I couldn't understand anything that was happening. I think Winnie the Pooh wanted honey and got stuck in a tree and Tigger bounced around being manic. You know, that one.

Mickey's PhilharMagic

We tried to see this on our second day and the "magic piano" broke. With the Christmas party in full swing, there was no line (the theater was maybe 1/15th full and one of the employees dryly noted that "we're not expecting a full house"). This is a 3D movie where Donald steals Mickey's magical hat (apparently Mickey being a sorcerer is canon now) and ends up on a montage through songs from the 90's classic Disney movies (Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Lion King). It's cute, and at the end Donald gets blown out of a tuba, and if you look at the back of the theater you can see his big duck butt sticking out of a broken section of wall. My only issue here is that Donald is huge at this point; his butt is as big as a car, and he could do some real damage if he got loose. I think this is where I make my apparently trademark "concern" face.

Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid

Why yes, I am typing the names of these rides directly from the park map. I don't have much to say about this; this is the fourth time we went on the ride this vacation, and it still looks great. It was very strange seeing a row of empty clamshells behind us. Mickey's Christmas Party, y'all.

Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover

On our way to this ride fireworks started going off. It was kind of scary since the first firework sounded like a gunshot, and they didn't get any quieter as we wandered over to Tomorrowland and got on the PeopleMover. (No, I'm not going to keep typing it like that.) I'm afraid Disney has spoiled me for fireworks; the sheer amount of them they send up is truly impressive, and watching them from the People Mover was quite relaxing.

Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin

I forgot to mention that we went on this with the Webers way back on Day 3. Seems like so long ago. This is another one of those rides that normally has a massive wait time we were able to get right on thanks to the smaller crowd. In this ride, you sit in a little car with two laser blasters and shoot at targets. You can use a little joystick to spin yourself around, usually to the amusement of the people in the car behind you, and as we found out, you apparently get points for shooting the space rangers in the car ahead of you in the back, as I definitely got at least 100 points by keeping the trigger held down and strafing the Webers. Weather that means you get points just for shooting or that the Webers are agents of the evil Emperor Zurg I'll leave up to the reader, but it probably doesn't pay to take any chances.

Oh, I almost forgot - this is also one of those rides where your picture is taken and you can see it up afterwards. Both times I looked "concerned," although the Webers looked great on the first go-round, and at the Christmas Party the hands down winner were two teen girls taking a selfie where one had her tongue sticking out. (I think I got 100 points for shooting her earlier; her tongue may be working for Zurg.)

Stitch's Great Escape!

This is a cute theater show where you're a guard at your first day of training and Stitch is captured and (checks title) he escapes and then he teleports away and the head guy is like "Good job," even though you didn't do anything and the space slug police officer played by Kevin McDonald is like "If you come back tomorrow turn off your cell phone!" (because nobody ever turns their cell phone off. Stop texting during the ride!). The end.

After that we wandered back over and did Haunted Mansion and Pirates again. By this time it was midnight and the park was emptying out as the park closed at 1 AM. As we ambled down main street under Christmas carols and Disney-generated snow, I have to admit that this was money well spent; Mickey's Magical Christmas Party isn't really a "party," but it does live up to the rest of its name.

Tomorrow: EPCOT one more time!!!!