allie5
<font color=blue>WARNING! DHL men should be cautio
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2002
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Part Florida Mall, Mickeys Very Merry (but cold) Christmas Party
Main Players
Allie
Neil
Jessamy (4)
Daniel Noah (2)
Nanny Sylvie
Tuesday December 14th 2004
Today, both Nanny Sylvies Pinecone and the Weather Channel agreed it was going to be FREEZING. Way back in August when I booked my tickets to Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party, I had visions of a balmy evening spent sipping cocktails on the beach at the Poly before zipping over to MK on the monorail to part-aaaaay
!
Thoughts of chuckling heartily at the fake snow on Main St whilst wandering along dressed in shorts and a vest top fanning myself with a park map was what I had in mind. Unfortunately this cosy little fantasy was looking none to probable today. A trip to Ski Suits R Us was looking much more likely.
In light of the weather, none of us fancied a park this morning my itinerary had laughingly got Blizzard Beach till lunchtime pencilled in. I dont think so! To cheer ourselves up, SHOPPING was required and where better but the Florida Mall.
We were all in the Jeep by 8.15am so decide on a teeny detour to find the Target store that many think is miles better than the Wal-Mart. After driving around some dubious trading estates for the best part of an hour we give up and pop into a MacDonalds for breakfast. I have a particular fancy for one of their tasty Ham and Cheese bagels and the kids devour an Egg Mcmuffin each. Ah, a nice healthy start to the day!
Refreshed, we do manage to find the Target on the return leg, but it looks a bit puny to be honest and as we are pushed for time today, we leave it. Arrive at the Florida Mall at 9.30am.
Kids make a beeline for KB Toys and are at once confronted by a plethora of toys they cant possibly live without. Fortunately, with Christmas only days away, they are told that they will have to Ask Santa and this works, though I can see Jessie feverishly memorising at least 78 items to tell Santa she wants.
Neil takes the kids out whilst I buy some Thomas the Tank Engine bits that are incredibly cheap here. Kick myself that they have the same ones I bought in Early Learning in the UK for about half the price. Decide to buy them anyway and return the ones I got at home!!
My face drops somewhat as only yards away from KB Toys, the wise men (possibly all 3 of them
) that are the Florida Mall Management have placed Santa in his Grotto.
Look shrieks Jess, SANTA! I can go and tell him about the toys I want. Oh joy to the world.
Being early in the day, there are no other children waiting and Santa is there all smiles and open arms how can I say no??
Santa is a tad gob smacked by Jessies latest list and glances with sympathy in my direction as she gets to item number 78. Santa diplomatically tells Jessie he doesnt have all that much room in his sleigh and Rudolf would get ever so tired if all the boys and girls wanted that many toys. Jessie sighs and resigns herself to reducing the list a wee bit.
Nice one Santa, I like you.
Kids get to spend ages here and both get a toy and gingerbread man to eat. Obviously, we buy yet another set of photos, fridge magnets and key rings as well! I did get a Christmas bauble that you can put your own photo in for only $3.50 which is cute. Everything came to $13.50, so not too bad.
Next the Disney Store, where there is a pre Christmas sale
. Any sentence with the words Disney and sale in, is bound to make every woman reading get a little fluttery butterfly feeling in her tummy
Im right arent I girls?? Get Jessie a very cute Tinkerbelle baseball style jacket with leather sleeves for only $30. Plus a bundle of stocking fillers from the bargain bins!
Onto the Playmobile Store where the little uns spend a worthy 15 minutes playing. Well, Daniel spends the time destroying most of their lovely displays, but less said about that the better.
Leave hastily and grab a quick bite to eat at the food court. Jess and Neil have noodles, Nanny Sylvie and Daniel have a KFC and I pinch a few of Daniels fries as Im not that hungry.
We need Daniel to have a sleep this afternoon, in readiness for tonights MVMCP, so we leave at 12.30pm. Manage to catch every single traffic light from Sandlake Rd to the 192 and it takes an hour to get home.
Daniel sleeps best after a nice warm bath, so hastily slosh some water over him and tuck him up warmly. This does the trick and he is out like a light within minutes.
Neil and Jess go out to the Games Room (erm, I mean garage really
) for a game of pool. Jessie is being trained in the art of hustling, as Daddy has visions of his little girl needing these skills in Reception Class.
Major excitement ensues as they both burst back into the lounge seconds later proclaiming loudly THERES A SNAKE IN THE GARAGE.
You know that Australian bloke that prods highly venomous snakes with poles for a living? Well, Neil has always quite fancied himself in that role and knowingly declares its a Florida Coppermouth well, probably.
Nanny Sylvie is also quite the intrepid adventurer and immediately goes to investigate, armed with a broom. Her analysis is somewhat different.
Its a worm, and its dead she informs us. Dead by her broom or by the mind numbing cold is uncertain at this point, but its most definitely dead.
There now follows quite an amusing battle betwixt Neil and Nanny Sylvie over the species of snake now lying dead in the garage. Neil still maintains its a highly venomous serpent as he has seen it on the Discovery Channel and Nanny Sylvie insists its a slowworm. I dont have a clue and as long as its no longer shuffling our mortal coil Im not overtly bothered either way.
Time passes quickly after the snake incident and soon we are waking Daniel and wrapping ourselves up in the many layers we need to brace the elements.
Rest assured, how ever many layers we thought would be enough, they didnt even come close!
Get to MK by 4pm and are surprised at the amount of people leaving! It is very cold, but I expected it to be quite busy. Manage to park only 3 rows back from the front row of the parking lot, so are quite chuffed about that. Tuck Daniel into his buggy with a big warm fleece and set off for the monorail. Once again we are held up here for sometime and it seems to take forever to reach the entrance.
It seems that everyone is leaving and no one is coming into the park! I noted that the TTC were still trying to sell tickets for tonights party so maybe it will be quieter than I imagined.
Use those very nice plastic MVMCP tickets for the one and only time and we are all given wristbands as well.
First stop is Santa and the kids insist on another visit just to make sure he hasnt forgotten those final presents! Santa is lovely and we get some great pictures. I pop into Guest Services to get a party itinerary and ask if Wishes is still scheduled for 7pm tomorrow. It is, so our plans for the Wishes Cruise dont need to be altered.
It really is bitingly cold now, so we decide to see if we can be seated a bit earlier for our dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. Unfortunately, they said no, so we had an hour to kill.
First stop was, most obviously a gift shop. Weigh up whether looking incredibly silly in a Mickey Santa hat was preferable to being freezing cold Silly? Cold? Silly? Cold? Aw heck, Im going for silly! Jess and I both pick out matching ones so we can be silly together! Daniel refuses to wear one and Nanny Sylvie refuses to pay $17 for one, so its just the two of us!
Wander down to Splash Mountain there is no one here and a CM practically begs us to ride! Im game, but Neil points out that I could well get wet and did I really want to be wet AND cold? Good point, we pass on this! Big Thunder is also a walk on but just as we decide to ride, a CM says it is closing for an hour due to the transition from park closing to MVMCP starting.
OK, cant do the Mountains, so what other thrill a minute attraction shall we do instead?? We do the Country Bears Jamboree. Ive always managed to avoid this in previous years, but tonight it was kinda inviting and warm so in we went. With the Christmas theming it wasnt nearly as bad as I thought, and needless to say the kiddiewinks and Nanny Sylvie were enchanted. Neil and I sat there checking our watches and yawning, but hey, it WAS warm in there!
Decide to go back to the restaurant and plead frostbite, which works a treat. We are invited into the lovely warm lobby to defrost.
We notice Karen high on a balcony above us and assume they have a lovely table upstairs, overlooking the lobby. I later found out it was the toilets up there though
Carry out a conversation a la Romeo and Juliet and look forward to meeting up tomorrow for the Wishes Cruise. Surely it would be warmer tomorrow, wouldnt it??
Not long after, we are seated and warm rolls are brought to the table straight away. I had read that you had to request the rolls here now but tonight it seemed they were bringing them to all of the tables automatically.
The starter was a salad with the famous Strawberry Vinaigrette. I didnt mention to anyone what it was Neil wouldnt have touched it as he has the culinary palette of a 5 year old (and I mean that ever so nicely
). As it happened, everyone loved it and I showed off by telling them what they were eating. Ooooh, strawberry you never would have guessed. 
The platter was brought out soon after, which had a nice selection of carved turkey, ham, steak, mash, stuffing, carrots and mac and cheese. Kids wouldnt touch a thing for some reason, but undeterred, the adults managed to clean the platter!
The characters were again, a little rushed here and Mickey was conspicuously missing. This annoyed Jessie greatly as its MICKEYS Christmas party, so where is HE?. Good point, kiddo, I was thinking the same thing!
I checked out the party itinerary for tonight, and it looked like Belles Enchanted Christmas was due to start in 10 minutes. Neil doesnt eat Apple Crumble (the dessert on offer) so offered to take Jessie to the show.
I stayed with Nanny Sylvie and Daniel (who was behaving rather badly again tonight) and we shared some of the crumble. Paid the bill and left at 7.30pm.
Catch up with Neil and Jess at a surprisingly quiet Belles fairytale garden and only missed a minute of two of the show. Neil and Jess had front row seats and had both been approached to be in the show. Jessie was too shy and Neil didnt want to leave Jessie on her own (he didnt know we were at the back). Neil was totally gutted he missed out on playing The Beast and on getting a Christmas smooch with Belle. He whinges about this for the rest of the evening!
It was now only 25 minutes to the parade. We find a great spot on the bend in front of the castle so set up base camp. Kids pester for a balloon - $8, then 5 minutes later one of those spinning light things - $13 then some cotton candy - $3!! It takes a well oiled marketing machine to extract this much cash from a stationary tourist!
We are stood next to a family from Ohio who are most interested in Tony Blair (Isnt he just AWESOME?) er, no. We ask if they voted for Bush and they laughed as the wife did but the husband didnt. It was quite interesting hearing about how they saw Tony Blair and about the war in Iraq from an American point of view.
I offer to go and get some cocoa and cookies for everyone and zoom off to the nearest stand.
This was a bit of a disaster. There were only about 15 people in each row, so you would have thought it would have taken seconds to serve each person.
Disney, with all their infinite wisdom, had taken to employing an army fifteen year olds who had no clue how to A. Use an urn. B. Refill an urn. C. Put lids on Polystyrene cups. D. Wrap cookies in a napkin. Each task took a great deal of thought, a consultation with another fifteen year old behind and finally the necessity to disappear after serving each person for a period of around 5 minutes.
It took 20 minutes to reach the front of the line by which time I was seething. I was going to miss the parade because of this fiasco! Luckily, the parade started late and I did get back in time. Everyone spat the cocoa out on the first sip declaring it too sweet ( I dont drink the foul substance, thank goodness) and the cookies were 100% pure sugar. Well, at least it was all free, so it didnt matter too much.
The parade eventually starts and WOW! Its fantastic! There are some things that Disney does so incredibly well (yeah, its not serving cocoa and cookies!) and this parade is just the essence of DISNEY in my opinion. It was fabulous and we all enjoy it. The only spoiler is that when it has finished, both the little ones are freezing. Jessies face is ashen with cold and Daniel is shivering. We take Daniel from the buggy and Neil holds him inside his fleece. Jessie is put in the buggy and wrapped up. The fireworks are due to start in less than 25 minutes, so we head to the shops on Main Street to keep warm.
Buy Jessie a Ballerina Minnie to take her mind off the cold. I remember to buy the limited edition Party Pins, but nearly choke when I find out how much they are! Foolishly, I thought I would buy 2 with each wristband as they would make nice cheap souvenirs of the night. I didnt realise the Limited Edition pins were $11 (with tax!) and I had asked for 6!! Ooops pretend to the CM that hubby had, ahem, gone off with my purse and I only had enough cash for 2. That will teach me!
Outside, its snowing on Main Street. At this point, there is intense debate as to whether its real or fake. Its definitely cold enough for the real thing!
Fortunately, Wishes starts promptly at 9.15pm. What can I say? This is something you HAVE TO see for yourself. Utterly incredible, I could watch this every night of my life and not get bored of it. Even the kids, cold as they were, watch it totally mesmerised. Wonderful, truly wonderful.
After the fireworks we have the choice of going to see Mickeys Twas The Night Before Xmas show, but the kids are in a real state now. Daniel has started to cough, so we head back to the car. There is a resort monorail waiting to go, so we are back at the TTC in minutes. Once in the car, we crank the heating up to max and sit and thaw out. Kids dont say a word and are put to bed as soon as we get back. I have a nasty feeling they have both caught a chill tonight.
Tomorrow. Race Rock, I-Drive, Wishes Cruise, Ohana.
Main Players
Allie
Neil
Jessamy (4)
Daniel Noah (2)
Nanny Sylvie
Tuesday December 14th 2004
Today, both Nanny Sylvies Pinecone and the Weather Channel agreed it was going to be FREEZING. Way back in August when I booked my tickets to Mickeys Very Merry Christmas Party, I had visions of a balmy evening spent sipping cocktails on the beach at the Poly before zipping over to MK on the monorail to part-aaaaay

Thoughts of chuckling heartily at the fake snow on Main St whilst wandering along dressed in shorts and a vest top fanning myself with a park map was what I had in mind. Unfortunately this cosy little fantasy was looking none to probable today. A trip to Ski Suits R Us was looking much more likely.
In light of the weather, none of us fancied a park this morning my itinerary had laughingly got Blizzard Beach till lunchtime pencilled in. I dont think so! To cheer ourselves up, SHOPPING was required and where better but the Florida Mall.
We were all in the Jeep by 8.15am so decide on a teeny detour to find the Target store that many think is miles better than the Wal-Mart. After driving around some dubious trading estates for the best part of an hour we give up and pop into a MacDonalds for breakfast. I have a particular fancy for one of their tasty Ham and Cheese bagels and the kids devour an Egg Mcmuffin each. Ah, a nice healthy start to the day!
Refreshed, we do manage to find the Target on the return leg, but it looks a bit puny to be honest and as we are pushed for time today, we leave it. Arrive at the Florida Mall at 9.30am.
Kids make a beeline for KB Toys and are at once confronted by a plethora of toys they cant possibly live without. Fortunately, with Christmas only days away, they are told that they will have to Ask Santa and this works, though I can see Jessie feverishly memorising at least 78 items to tell Santa she wants.
Neil takes the kids out whilst I buy some Thomas the Tank Engine bits that are incredibly cheap here. Kick myself that they have the same ones I bought in Early Learning in the UK for about half the price. Decide to buy them anyway and return the ones I got at home!!
My face drops somewhat as only yards away from KB Toys, the wise men (possibly all 3 of them

Look shrieks Jess, SANTA! I can go and tell him about the toys I want. Oh joy to the world.
Being early in the day, there are no other children waiting and Santa is there all smiles and open arms how can I say no??
Santa is a tad gob smacked by Jessies latest list and glances with sympathy in my direction as she gets to item number 78. Santa diplomatically tells Jessie he doesnt have all that much room in his sleigh and Rudolf would get ever so tired if all the boys and girls wanted that many toys. Jessie sighs and resigns herself to reducing the list a wee bit.
Nice one Santa, I like you.
Kids get to spend ages here and both get a toy and gingerbread man to eat. Obviously, we buy yet another set of photos, fridge magnets and key rings as well! I did get a Christmas bauble that you can put your own photo in for only $3.50 which is cute. Everything came to $13.50, so not too bad.
Next the Disney Store, where there is a pre Christmas sale

Onto the Playmobile Store where the little uns spend a worthy 15 minutes playing. Well, Daniel spends the time destroying most of their lovely displays, but less said about that the better.
Leave hastily and grab a quick bite to eat at the food court. Jess and Neil have noodles, Nanny Sylvie and Daniel have a KFC and I pinch a few of Daniels fries as Im not that hungry.
We need Daniel to have a sleep this afternoon, in readiness for tonights MVMCP, so we leave at 12.30pm. Manage to catch every single traffic light from Sandlake Rd to the 192 and it takes an hour to get home.
Daniel sleeps best after a nice warm bath, so hastily slosh some water over him and tuck him up warmly. This does the trick and he is out like a light within minutes.
Neil and Jess go out to the Games Room (erm, I mean garage really

Major excitement ensues as they both burst back into the lounge seconds later proclaiming loudly THERES A SNAKE IN THE GARAGE.
You know that Australian bloke that prods highly venomous snakes with poles for a living? Well, Neil has always quite fancied himself in that role and knowingly declares its a Florida Coppermouth well, probably.
Nanny Sylvie is also quite the intrepid adventurer and immediately goes to investigate, armed with a broom. Her analysis is somewhat different.
Its a worm, and its dead she informs us. Dead by her broom or by the mind numbing cold is uncertain at this point, but its most definitely dead.
There now follows quite an amusing battle betwixt Neil and Nanny Sylvie over the species of snake now lying dead in the garage. Neil still maintains its a highly venomous serpent as he has seen it on the Discovery Channel and Nanny Sylvie insists its a slowworm. I dont have a clue and as long as its no longer shuffling our mortal coil Im not overtly bothered either way.
Time passes quickly after the snake incident and soon we are waking Daniel and wrapping ourselves up in the many layers we need to brace the elements.
Rest assured, how ever many layers we thought would be enough, they didnt even come close!
Get to MK by 4pm and are surprised at the amount of people leaving! It is very cold, but I expected it to be quite busy. Manage to park only 3 rows back from the front row of the parking lot, so are quite chuffed about that. Tuck Daniel into his buggy with a big warm fleece and set off for the monorail. Once again we are held up here for sometime and it seems to take forever to reach the entrance.
It seems that everyone is leaving and no one is coming into the park! I noted that the TTC were still trying to sell tickets for tonights party so maybe it will be quieter than I imagined.
Use those very nice plastic MVMCP tickets for the one and only time and we are all given wristbands as well.
First stop is Santa and the kids insist on another visit just to make sure he hasnt forgotten those final presents! Santa is lovely and we get some great pictures. I pop into Guest Services to get a party itinerary and ask if Wishes is still scheduled for 7pm tomorrow. It is, so our plans for the Wishes Cruise dont need to be altered.
It really is bitingly cold now, so we decide to see if we can be seated a bit earlier for our dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. Unfortunately, they said no, so we had an hour to kill.
First stop was, most obviously a gift shop. Weigh up whether looking incredibly silly in a Mickey Santa hat was preferable to being freezing cold Silly? Cold? Silly? Cold? Aw heck, Im going for silly! Jess and I both pick out matching ones so we can be silly together! Daniel refuses to wear one and Nanny Sylvie refuses to pay $17 for one, so its just the two of us!
Wander down to Splash Mountain there is no one here and a CM practically begs us to ride! Im game, but Neil points out that I could well get wet and did I really want to be wet AND cold? Good point, we pass on this! Big Thunder is also a walk on but just as we decide to ride, a CM says it is closing for an hour due to the transition from park closing to MVMCP starting.
OK, cant do the Mountains, so what other thrill a minute attraction shall we do instead?? We do the Country Bears Jamboree. Ive always managed to avoid this in previous years, but tonight it was kinda inviting and warm so in we went. With the Christmas theming it wasnt nearly as bad as I thought, and needless to say the kiddiewinks and Nanny Sylvie were enchanted. Neil and I sat there checking our watches and yawning, but hey, it WAS warm in there!
Decide to go back to the restaurant and plead frostbite, which works a treat. We are invited into the lovely warm lobby to defrost.
We notice Karen high on a balcony above us and assume they have a lovely table upstairs, overlooking the lobby. I later found out it was the toilets up there though

Carry out a conversation a la Romeo and Juliet and look forward to meeting up tomorrow for the Wishes Cruise. Surely it would be warmer tomorrow, wouldnt it??
Not long after, we are seated and warm rolls are brought to the table straight away. I had read that you had to request the rolls here now but tonight it seemed they were bringing them to all of the tables automatically.
The starter was a salad with the famous Strawberry Vinaigrette. I didnt mention to anyone what it was Neil wouldnt have touched it as he has the culinary palette of a 5 year old (and I mean that ever so nicely


The platter was brought out soon after, which had a nice selection of carved turkey, ham, steak, mash, stuffing, carrots and mac and cheese. Kids wouldnt touch a thing for some reason, but undeterred, the adults managed to clean the platter!
The characters were again, a little rushed here and Mickey was conspicuously missing. This annoyed Jessie greatly as its MICKEYS Christmas party, so where is HE?. Good point, kiddo, I was thinking the same thing!
I checked out the party itinerary for tonight, and it looked like Belles Enchanted Christmas was due to start in 10 minutes. Neil doesnt eat Apple Crumble (the dessert on offer) so offered to take Jessie to the show.
I stayed with Nanny Sylvie and Daniel (who was behaving rather badly again tonight) and we shared some of the crumble. Paid the bill and left at 7.30pm.
Catch up with Neil and Jess at a surprisingly quiet Belles fairytale garden and only missed a minute of two of the show. Neil and Jess had front row seats and had both been approached to be in the show. Jessie was too shy and Neil didnt want to leave Jessie on her own (he didnt know we were at the back). Neil was totally gutted he missed out on playing The Beast and on getting a Christmas smooch with Belle. He whinges about this for the rest of the evening!
It was now only 25 minutes to the parade. We find a great spot on the bend in front of the castle so set up base camp. Kids pester for a balloon - $8, then 5 minutes later one of those spinning light things - $13 then some cotton candy - $3!! It takes a well oiled marketing machine to extract this much cash from a stationary tourist!
We are stood next to a family from Ohio who are most interested in Tony Blair (Isnt he just AWESOME?) er, no. We ask if they voted for Bush and they laughed as the wife did but the husband didnt. It was quite interesting hearing about how they saw Tony Blair and about the war in Iraq from an American point of view.
I offer to go and get some cocoa and cookies for everyone and zoom off to the nearest stand.
This was a bit of a disaster. There were only about 15 people in each row, so you would have thought it would have taken seconds to serve each person.
Disney, with all their infinite wisdom, had taken to employing an army fifteen year olds who had no clue how to A. Use an urn. B. Refill an urn. C. Put lids on Polystyrene cups. D. Wrap cookies in a napkin. Each task took a great deal of thought, a consultation with another fifteen year old behind and finally the necessity to disappear after serving each person for a period of around 5 minutes.
It took 20 minutes to reach the front of the line by which time I was seething. I was going to miss the parade because of this fiasco! Luckily, the parade started late and I did get back in time. Everyone spat the cocoa out on the first sip declaring it too sweet ( I dont drink the foul substance, thank goodness) and the cookies were 100% pure sugar. Well, at least it was all free, so it didnt matter too much.
The parade eventually starts and WOW! Its fantastic! There are some things that Disney does so incredibly well (yeah, its not serving cocoa and cookies!) and this parade is just the essence of DISNEY in my opinion. It was fabulous and we all enjoy it. The only spoiler is that when it has finished, both the little ones are freezing. Jessies face is ashen with cold and Daniel is shivering. We take Daniel from the buggy and Neil holds him inside his fleece. Jessie is put in the buggy and wrapped up. The fireworks are due to start in less than 25 minutes, so we head to the shops on Main Street to keep warm.
Buy Jessie a Ballerina Minnie to take her mind off the cold. I remember to buy the limited edition Party Pins, but nearly choke when I find out how much they are! Foolishly, I thought I would buy 2 with each wristband as they would make nice cheap souvenirs of the night. I didnt realise the Limited Edition pins were $11 (with tax!) and I had asked for 6!! Ooops pretend to the CM that hubby had, ahem, gone off with my purse and I only had enough cash for 2. That will teach me!
Outside, its snowing on Main Street. At this point, there is intense debate as to whether its real or fake. Its definitely cold enough for the real thing!
Fortunately, Wishes starts promptly at 9.15pm. What can I say? This is something you HAVE TO see for yourself. Utterly incredible, I could watch this every night of my life and not get bored of it. Even the kids, cold as they were, watch it totally mesmerised. Wonderful, truly wonderful.
After the fireworks we have the choice of going to see Mickeys Twas The Night Before Xmas show, but the kids are in a real state now. Daniel has started to cough, so we head back to the car. There is a resort monorail waiting to go, so we are back at the TTC in minutes. Once in the car, we crank the heating up to max and sit and thaw out. Kids dont say a word and are put to bed as soon as we get back. I have a nasty feeling they have both caught a chill tonight.
Tomorrow. Race Rock, I-Drive, Wishes Cruise, Ohana.