Good morning everyone! Checking in from the Boardwalk again.
Yesterday was a fun-filled day for us. We started our easy with breakfast in the room and then headed over to Animal Kingdom. We got there just a few minutes after opening so missed the opening crowds and walked over to the Safari. It was posted as a 30 minute wait but it was more like 10 minutes. After that we did the trails and headed over to see Nemo the musical. Fun show. We finished up the day with lunch at Yak and Yeti. We did the fast food side of it not the sit down. Mark deemed it very good. I'm the picky eater so had a kids meal of chicken bites.
Heading back to the room we opted to get off at the Swan, walk over the bridge and then up the stairs to our room. Much faster than if we had waited for the bus to get all the way over to Boardwalk and then had to walk to our room from there.
In the afternoon we headed over to Epcot for the Merry Member Mixer. Got there about 2:50 and the line was already pretty long. Dee Vee Cee was there in her holiday finery. What a funny lady. We got to meet up with some of our fellow cruisers from past cruises. Once inside we had our picture taken with Mickey and Minnie and then headed over to the back corner where the DIS group tends to hang out. Saw lots of old friends which is great. Karen and Mary were there which was really nice. We got to see Mary's grandson Christopher who has grown so much since I last saw him. We also got to see pictures of the engagement. Fun.
We left the mixer about 4:30 to head over to the Magic Kingdom. As we were getting near the monorail at Epcot we ran into Webmaster Doc and his wife (they had been at the mixer ealier and left maybe 10 minutes before us). So we rode the monorail over with them and then took the ferry to the Magic Kingdom. We had a 6 pm reservation at Tony's and got there a little before 5. We asked if we could check in early and the girl said we'd probably have at least a 25 minute wait which we were fine with. I don't think we had sat down more than a minute when they called our name. I guess they had a open table for 2 and not many parties of 2. Yeah! We haven't eaten here in forever and have wanted to for some time since we heard Ducky Williams talk about how he did all the artwork and designs for the room. Beautiful!
After that it was time for
MVMCP. We usually opt for the second parade but this year we camped out a spot in Frontierland for the first one. We ended up sitting right outside Diamond Horseshoe which was one of the cookie and cocoa spots. We spend an hour just people watching and talking to the families around us. The parade was a lot of fun. Seeing the wooden soldiers is always a highlight for me. Then after the parade we headed over to the castle (we missed the lighting during dinner - I forgot to mention how beautiful it was in person). Anyway the parade was still going through at this end so we found a bench between the hub and andvertureland and sat there watching the end of the parade again and looking at the castle. Beautiful!
At 9:30 Holiday Wishes started. Nobody does fireworks like Disney! Wow!
Then we went over to Tomorrowland and saw the stage show "Mickey's Night Before Christmas". Fun show and it was the first time we saw the charcters with the new head pieces that had moveable mouths and eyes. Very cool.
Heading back the line at the Boardwalk/Swan/Dolphin bus stop was pretty full and they were loading 2 handicap patrons. The Yacht/Beach club bus pulled up and there was hardly anyone in line there so we got in that line. There was one handicap person there but the bus driver got him in and starpped in quickly and we were on our way before the Boardwalk bus even started loading. Once at the Yacht club we walked over the bridge and up the back stairs again to our room.
All in all a great day.
We slept in a bit this morning. We'll head back to Magic Kingdom, then we have a late lunch at Le Cellier and the Candlelight Processional planned for this evening.
Have a great day everyone!
Winter is officially a pain in the butt.
We both have to work today.
Youo need to stay longer........... I would have loved to come up and hang with you for a while, but the week is crazy here. With the snow birds coming down, it is a busy time for the hospital and working in the nursing network, there is no holiday for that department. I'm being gone enough as it is with these cruises I have booked. 
