8th Anniversary December Trip Day 4

[eeyorepoohfan]

Monday December 13th
7AM wake-up call again. Grabbed our pastry at Everything POP then off to catch a bus to MK!! It's a very cold morning! And windy! Our friends will be meeting us here this morning. We arrive in time to catch the opening ceremony. Our friends called and said they got a late start with being at the party until midnight. They said they should be to the MK within an hour. We head straight over to Space Mountain today! We were in one of the first cars for the day! Next stop was Buzz Lightyear. Not quite as good of scores this time. I believe we went and rode Thunder Mountain next. Our friends called and were entering the park. We decided to meet at the carosel. We rode it too! Then off to IASW, it's one of their rides their daughter loves right now. When we got off, Maelea wanted to ride the carosel again. We opted to watch this time. We were all starting to get a little hungry. We ate at Columbia Harbour House, another yummy meal. Our friends are needed to hit the road soon. So we get a group picture in front of the castle.

We hop the monorail to the Grand Floridian. We all want to see the gingerbread house (they've never seen it). We took our time here. There was a gingerbread house demo going on. The only bad thing about this was that you couldn't see the whole house since it was happening right in front of it. So it was hard to get full pictures. Our friends needed to head to Downtown Disney to pick up a stocking they left to be embroidered yesterday, then they needed to get home. We gave hugs and said our goodbyes. Hopefully it won't be another 4 years before we get to see them!

My DH and I hop the monorail back to the MK. But it's so cold today! We are dressed in layers and have our hoods up on our jackets. Brrrr! We didn't get a chance to ride Aladdin last year since it was down for refurb. So we rode it this year. I can't remember the order, but here's what we were able to accomplish today. Monster's Inc Laugh Floor (missed it last year), Stitch's Great Escape (missed it last year), Haunted Mansion, Snow White, Minnie's House, People Mover, Rockets, Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain. Earlier we had grabbed fast passes for Peter Pan that were good from 6:35-7:35PM. We then got dinner at Sonny Eclipse, our first time here. It was pretty crowded but not too bad. My DH got the chicken and ribs, I got a caesar salad. It was all yummy! And more hot chocolate!! I think we had hot chocolate with nearly every meal!

We finished in time to go get a prime spot for the castle lighting ceremony and the parade. Right in the center hub with the castle behind us, looking down main street. Nice and close to see the lighting ceremony. We kept our spots and sat to wait for the Main Street Electric Parade. Boy was it cold sitting on the ground! The person next to us checked the weather on their phone and it was 30 degrees (I'm not sure if that was with wind chill). We enjoyed the parade. We hadn't seen it in a few years when it was at California Adventure! We then realize we still have Peter Pan fastpasses. We head over there and go to Neverland! We head back towards the castle. It's getting crowded now. We first stand on the side of the castle but we can't really see the fireworks. So we work our way to the center hub and have a great view! Once the fireworks are over, we decide we need to do some warm things. We end up seeing Carosel of Progress, Hall of Presidents and Mickey's Philharmagic. After walking through a few shops, we were still frozen. We called it a night before midnight, even though they were open until 1AM.

Oh, I forgot to mention that they had a wall up at the Haunted Mansion so you couldn't see the grave yard by the water. I'm not sure what they are doing, but you couldn't see the tombstone that opens its eyes. We also noticed scaffolding at Hollywood Studios on the Tower of Terror.

I also forgot to mention that we were able to see a talented CM in tomorrowland "painting" on the sidewalk with water on Saturday night! We created a Mickey head! It was so neat to watch. Many people were busy walking by, but would stop once they noticed what he was doing. He got a big round of applause when he finished!

I'm glad we took this day not to do any park hopping. It allowed us to really slow down and enjoy things we may not otherwise have had time for!

Up next our Anniversary! EPCOT and Magic Kingdom tomorrow!

[faline]

Brrrr! It certainly sounds chilly! Still, it was a very nice Magic Kingdom day!

[eeyorepoohfan]

It was pretty chilly nearly our entire trip! Friday and Saturday were the warmest days in the sixties I think. The rest of the trip was in the low 50s if we were lucky! I'm glad I had read the weather reports on here. He's pretty accurate! We planned appropriately and had lots of layers!

[pdrlkr]

Thanks for the Report!

[KylesMom]

You know, I simply can't wrap my head around the idea of Orlando being chilly like it has been the past couple of weeks. It doesn't sound like the weather is deterring you guys much, though!

What a short but sweet visit with your friends. Yes, you need to see them before Maelea changes too much! DS was her age his first trip, and they grow up way to quickly.

[eeyorepoohfan]

We had a hard time wrapping our minds around the temps for Orlando too! Luckily came prepared with lots of layers!

It is fun to see old friends and I love watching Disney through the eyes of little ones! Hopefully, we will get back to WDW within 2 years and can meet up with our friends and see Maelea and her new little sister!

[vizsla]

Thanks for the report.