As Mom and I left Animation and headed towards Echo Lake, it was clear than the blue skies of the morning had been replaced by gray skies and light rain.
Well, you knew with a title like “Wet Christmas” that the nicer weather wasn’t going to stick around forever.
Once we got to the 50s Prime Time Café, we found Buzz and Dad waiting for us. Apparently, you can’t check in there without having all of your party together. Once we did though, we were told there would be a little bit of a wait, so we headed into the waiting room.
Since the waiting area looks like a 50s living room, it was decorated for Christmas complete with retro-looking trees. I know Mom was hoping that the restaurant would have some 50s Christmas decorations, so she was thrilled that there were. Both she and Dad are really interested in these kinds of vintage/ retro things, so this (as well as the restaurant’s decorations in general) was right up their alley.
A closer look at some of the ornaments. As a fan of “I Love Lucy” for most of my life, I thought it was cool that Lucy got to be on the tree.
After a few minutes, our table was ready. Now, I’ll preface this by saying that the 50s Prime Time has never been one of my favorite restaurants. The décor and the TVs at the table playing clips from old shows are fun, but I’ve never been a real fan of the food or the server shenanigans (“Mom” telling you to eat all your vegetables, “Uncle Joe” making you stand in the corner for putting your elbows off the table, etc.). When we’ve eaten here before, most of the servers have been ok, but I’m always afraid we’ll get one that’s a little too in-your-face or annoying. This time around, we had a really good server. She didn’t pretend to be “Mom” or anything, but definitely treated you as part of the family. Best of all, she was able to be friendly and funny without being too much. The food was also a pretty pleasant surprise this time around. I had the Char-grilled chicken sandwich which was really a nice. It’s not the greatest thing I’ve ever had at Disney, but still pretty delicious. If memory serves, I think that most of the others had the chicken sandwich as well. I want to say somebody had the meatloaf too, but I can’t remember (why don’t I ever take notes about the food?) All in all, the meal I was most afraid I was going to dislike turned into a pleasant little lunch.
After lunch, it was still sprinkling a bit, so we decided to get out of the rain for a bit by seeing MuppetVision 3D. Buzz is a huge Muppet fan, so this is almost always on our list of things to see. On the way in, who can resist checking out the Miss Piggy fountain?
Inside the pre-show waiting room. There’s so many things to see in there.
In case anyone wonders just how many satin evening gowns Miss Piggy owns, this is only a few of the trunks she had lying around.
After the always-fun pre-show, she made our way into the main theater. For the most part, the show itself went off fairly well. The only glitch was that the animatronic Sweedish Chef in the back of the theater wasn’t working right and through most of the show just stood there with his shotgun for no apparent reason. Didn’t spoil the show though.
When we got out of the theater, to my surprise, the gray skies were gone and it looked more beautiful than it had before.
Maybe this Christmas wouldn’t be so wet after all? I thought the blue sky looked great behind Miss Piggy’s billboard.
The line at the new Cars meet-and-greet looked fairly short and fast-moving, but then again after waiting 45 minutes for the UP characters, almost any character line would feel short and fast moving. The theming of the area was pretty nice, but I do have to admit that I kind of miss it being Al’s Toy Barn.
After about 10 minutes, I got to see Lightning and Mater. The don’t interact too much, but do seem to react with revs and honks when you talk to them (which most people didn’t seem to do).
The lighting made it had to get a good picture of the two of them, so individual shots worked better.
I really liked the way that this one turned out with the Radiator Springs wall in the background.
After saying goodbye to the Cars, I went looking for the rest of the family who was checking out the shops and sights around MuppetVision. While exploring, I snapped a pic of the Happiness Hotel set in the Muppet Shop (remember this from
The Great Muppet Caper?)
Of course, at Christmastime, the main shopping attraction of the area is It’s A Wonderful Shop, the little Christmas store.
Nearby, Santa looks down at the shop. I always thought he came down chimneys, not fire escapes.
Decorated windows above the Christmas shop.
And the most popular part of the shop (at least for us) the snowman outside. Seems like most of us always have to get pictures of him when we’re here- even if it isn’t Christmastime. While the rest of the family wanted to check out the Christmas shop a little more, I decided to check out the rest of the Streets of America and look for some Christmas decorations and maybe a character or two.
Next chapter: The return of the rain
Seriously though, feel better!! 
Thanks LL. I'm feeling a lot better than I have for about a week. Hopefully that means I'll be able to get working up a new update soon.But we're all anxious for the rest of your report!
I'm feeling better and trying to get caught up with life again. I should have the next update up by tomorrow if all goes well.
It's just the luck of the draw, I guess.
It was some definite déjà vu from last August when the parade got rained out. Still we remained hopeful and found a somewhat dry spot on Hollywood Boulevard and waited. Even though it was postponed a few minutes from its 3pm showtime, the weather lightened up just enough for the show to go on! 
