I hadn't been to the Magic Kingdom in 8 or 9 years; the last time was to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party with none other than Miss Disney Magic herself, and Mitch. But this time was extra fun; a girls' day out, a last magical hurrah before the Baker's move to SC. We wandered around and did stuff you don't normally get to do with little ones in tow. Fun, magical fun! (yeah, she really said it alot)
Main Street, all decked out for Christmas. Yippee, so were we! Let the magic begin!
Look who we ran into, (ok, we knew they were there, but still) Meg, Ken, Kenny & Reese! The kids are little bundles of Disney wonder, which made me miss those days with our kids. But trust me, I still enjoyed myself!
Various performers are taped in front of Cinderella's castle all day. A lead guy with a mike gives lots of instructions, like "Ok, when so-and-so comes out, you all go crazy! And don't chew gum! And look really excited! And you all go crazy! And clap and shout! And go crazy!" Sheesh, if the performers are good, won't I be doing those things already?! (except for the gum, I'm not a chewer ; ) Justin Bieber, Scotty McCreery, Cee Lo Green & Jennifer Hudson were scheduled; we saw Cee Lo and Jennifer as we passed by numerous times during the day, but we had no desire to be an audience member for the tv cameras. We're at DISNEY for cryin' out loud! There's rides to be ridden, Mickey food to eat, and shops to spend all of our money in!
Haunted Mansion. The carriage and empty horse's harness reminded me of Harry Potter's thestrals. Anywho, the Mansion now has an interactive "haunted graveyard" to walk through before entering the ride (it's probably been there for years, but it's new to me), which was really fun. Pirates of the Caribbean had things I'd never seen, Space Mountain was done up differently, and we went to a new Monster's Inc. show called the Laugh Floor. I felt like a kid!
Jack was telling me that of all the times we'd been to Disney, he had only been to the Hall of Presidents once (which if you know Jack, you know he would've gone there every visit, but I guess we didn't because of the kids). So of course we had to be smart alecs and take our picture there ; )
Jennifer Hudson, performing with a choir for the finale. She is lovely, as is her voice, but... we swear she made a little mistake in her medley...but let's get back to running the park!
Plans for the new Fantasyland with all the princess' castles! Now I definitely want to go back : ) The restaurant will be called "Be Our Guest", from Linds and my alllll time Disney favorite, Beauty and the Beast!
See? We got to do stuff like this...listen to the Dapper Dans quartet! For all their songs. Without having to take a kid to the bathroom. Or hear a kid say, "Do we HAVE to watch this?!" They were great, singing and telling silly jokes. For their final song, they sang "Christmas in Killarney" and played those bell things. So cool!
In and out of the shops we went. This original Thomas Kincaid of the Princess and the Frog was in the theatre gallery on Main, and I was smitten! I'm not a Kincaid fan, but this was so....magical! There. I said it again. See the other princesses on the left beside the tree?! Darn clever.
My day came to an end by 3:30, since I had to be home to get ready for Jack's Christmas party. But that was ok, I was tired! (no wonder all those kids are napping in their strollers!) Thanks for a great day Mickey!
