Ok...so where did I leave off??? Ah yes... we had just headed into frontierland! So I had decided that since I was going to head back here for the evening extra magic hours with Evan and also attend the Very Merry Christmas Party with Sarah, I wouldn't do any of the rides that my mom can't do and waste precious time at the park! We skipped over Thunder and Splash and headed towards those lovable Country Bears.
On the way we saw the tail end of Woody's Cowboy Camp or whatever it's called..
Oh...and have I mentioned that we've walked on to EVERY single ride so far?! NO WAIT....AT ALL!! yayyyy!!!
So I love the Country Bears...I really do. Even though it needs a serious makeover and it's just old and the same old show every year (I'm a little mad they didn't have the Christmas Country Bears this year! BOO!!!) so here's a little glimpse...
After the Bears we realized we finished up with frontierland (at least with everything we wanted to see!) so headed towards Liberty Square. The smell of pizza caught our noses and since we weren't STARVING and had an early dinner at 4:30, we split a pizza just to hold us over. Pizza wasn't too bad! Definitely better than Dominoes!
Glanced over at the Haunted Mansion and people were just walking right in so off we went! Ohhhhhh sooooo excited to see the changes!
OK...I LOVED the changes!! LOVE LOVE LOVED them! The new bride room with the headless husbands was awesome, as were the upside down staircases. When you're in the stretching room definitely hang out in there until everyone leaves and listen... you'll hear all whispering voices telling you to 'getttt ouuuuutttttt!!!!', etc. Definitely cool! I could ride this all day!
After we got out, my mom spotted someone eating the Mickey ice cream bars so we decided to continue gorging ourselves and picked up an ice cream bar for mom (no pic..sorry!) and my all time favorite... a cookies n' cream Mickey sandwich!!! mmmm!! sorry... I had to take a bite before taking a pic...it was calling my name!
Sat over by Hall of Presidents to gobble up the ice cream and yet again, must have timed it perfectly 'cause there was a show about to start just as we finished up!
Now ever since I was a kid I was always pretty bored with the Presidents. Only recently I've actually been able to sit through it without falling asleep! Today wasn't too bad, I really didn't remember a whole LOT of it so it was nice to see it again! I think mom might have taken a little nap though!
After Presidents we wandered over to fantasyland and the back of the castle, which I really don't think I've EVER taken photos of before?!
After a little photoshoot we headed over to Snow White's Scary Adventure. My mom was like 'Why is it called scary?! Should I not go on it?!' Ha...after reassuring her she'll be fine we jumped on after about a 15 minute wait.
Got off the ride and as I was snapping away some more pics of the castle I saw over in the corner Cinderella's wicked stepmother and stepsisters! RUNN!!!!!! Hurrryyyy before they leaveeeeee!!!!!
They were AWESOME!! The wicked stepmother (who I later found out her name is Lady Tremaine?! seriously? you learn something new every day!) was great with the kids...snapping at them and everything. When we got up there she was like 'Do you want a picture?! Well get over here now then!'. I tried to give my best mean face but I couldn't hold in the smile.
After our meet n' greet we decided to hold off on the rest of the rides since the lines were really long and just wander around and finish the rest of the park the next time we were there. As we headed towards Main Street we saw a tiny piece of the parade and again...decided to watch it again later (which we never did! oh well... I'm not a HUGE parade person anyways!)
Jumped into the first store on Main St and just started browsing... oh! can someone please tell me the whole deal with Crocs!? I tried them on and really? Wasn't that much of a fan! But they do make pretty Christmas wreaths! hahaha!
Stopped by Roy and Minnie for a quick hello..
Oh! If you notice in the pic..there's no big Christmas tree behind Roy!! When we came back the next time to the MK the tree was in it's right place. Apparently they moved it to tape the Christmas parade!
We still had some time before our dinner reservation at Tony's so we continued to browse a little more and look who we ran into...the Dapper Dan's!!!
They were all so nice! There weren't too many people in the store when they were there so they came over and were talking to us for a bit. I had borrowed my fathers pretty nifty camera for the trip (thanks dad!!!) and one of the Dan's came over and was asking me about it.
Oh...and does anyone have $37,500 laying around they want to give me? Cause I want to buy this castle... WOWWWW!
Almost time for dinner finally so we started towards Tony's and snapped some pics of the decorations on Main Street...
Checked into Tony's a few mins early and bummed around for a bit until our table was called. ok ok....Who's ready for some food porn!?!? WOOHOOO!!!!! Oh... so I might be a little harsh on this food report section... my father is Italian and we're all preeettttyyyyy picky about the Italian food we eat! My mom on the other hand is Greek soooo... she's really not that picky when it comes to Italian food! hahahaha!!
First our waiter brought out the sun dried tomato, cheese, and pine nut (?) dip which I LOVED and ate almost all of...sorry..forgot to take a pic!!
Mom then started out with the spinach and artichoke dip... (is that Italian?! lo)
She realllly liked it and couldn't get enough of it. I tried it and honestly? Wasn't that much of a fan!! There wasn't really any spinach in it and the cheese didn't have much flavor! It tasted like it was mostly heavy cream or something instead. So much for the three cheese blend they talked about on the menu!
I started off with the tomato and fresh mozzarella salad...yummy!
I totally wasn't expecting grape tomatoes but it was good! The cheese was decent and the dressing and balsamic drizzle made it pretty darn tasty! I left the poor onions behind though.
For an entree mom ordered the eggplant rotini which she again liked a lot..
(if you read my day 1 report... you'd know she was a picky eater so I was thankful she liked all this stuff! score!)
If you're wondering where all the sauce on the pasta is? I wondered the same thing so I ordered a size of marinara so I can pick at her pasta. I don't like eggplant so I can't tell you how it was! I think the pasta was a TAD overcooked but I like mine perfectly al dente. That's the Italian food snob in me coming out. The sauce wasn't bad though! It passed my test!
Onto my meal.... I ordered the chicken marsala..
Totally didn't expect it to come out this way either but that didn't deter me from devouring the chicken. The chicken was cooked perfectly and the sauce had some nice flavor. I just wish they had cooked the chicken in the sauce to give it that extra kick. The mashed potatoes on the other hand were downright GROSS. They were thick and heavy and pastey. Bleh! And they had no flavor. I took one or two bites and stopped trying to like them. I also didn't really eat the asparagus so I was a little hungry (how? I don't know) still and picked at mom's pasta.
And now? drumroll please...... DESSERT! woohoooo! I've been eyeing the pistachio creme brulee on the menu since before we got to Florida so I was excited to try it. And I loved it! It wasn't too pistachio-ish and was just downright yummy.
Mom had chocolate and cinnamon gelato (2 separate flavors) and she LOVED the chocolate and I LOVED the cinnamon! Totally forgot to take a pic of the gelato (either that or I just didn't want to waste time not eating my creme brulee) but I think I got a pic of it the 2nd time we ate at Tony's! Ohh..and I had a yummy cappuccino!
We finished up dinner and headed out back to Main St and saw that the train station was empty so we headed up there to grab a seat for the castle lighting. There were a few other people up there but we pretty much had it all to ourselves.
I had to do a little maneuvering around the huge flag pole in the middle of the street but I was able to snap a few decent shots of the castle. Although we didn't get to really see the show before the lighting, we heard it all..
TADA!!!! All lit up and pretty!!
The castle with the annoying flag pole in the way...
hmm...I think I hit my limit again!!! On to part 3!!!