Seriously, I really do mean to post more often. Work has been crazy busy, and I've been really down lately so coupled together it hasn't been a really good mix. Right now I'm trying to focus on gettting my act together before I go on vacation at the end of the month. I had a more productive weekend than normal, so hopefully I can keep that up.
In the meantime
When we last left this pokey trip report, me and my bff had just finished eating at the Crystal Palace and were all set to head out and enjoy
MNSSHP. Already we were miles ahead of last year's Christmas party fiasco. We were in the park, before the official party start time, dressed up, fed and ready to go. I'll never chance eating outside of the park on a party day again.
All along I had been planning on making this a more relaxed trip. I had come up with a loose touring plan ahead of time, but over dinner we sat looking at the party maps and decided to go with a whole new approach. We tossed all the touring plans out the window, except for a few points. We wanted to see Hallowishes, we wanted to see the 2nd parade, and we wanted to meet characters as long as the lines weren't too crazy. That was our whole plan. It felt good. It felt better than good, it felt great to be freed of a real tourning plan.
Our first stop was to meet the seven dwarves. We headed back there right away, and with a good half hour or so before the party officially started we were still about 25-30 people back in line. We had fun chatting with the other people in line, and once it turned 7pm, the line started moving right along.
I had to stand near Grumpy. He's one of my favorites. He reminds me of my dad.
After the dwarves, we headed over to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz and Space Mountain. Luckily we didn't get stuck in line for an hour this year. From there we headed over to Toontown. There was a huge line waiting to get into Minnie's house. I don't know have any idea what was going on there, but it was a bit too long for us to wait for. We headed over to see what the wait for the characters was. Tinkerbell and the fairies had an hour+ wait. We passed. I would have loved to meet Tink, but I didn't want to waste that much party time. The princesses though only had a 15 min. wait. We hopped in line and started chatting with the family in line in back of us. They had a little girl who was refusing to put her Snow White costume on to the consternation of her mother. We lent a hand and helped talk the little girl into putting her costume on before she met the real Snow White. Her mother was eternally greatful for our help, and the look on the little girl's face when she saw Snow White up close was just magical.
As for us, we had a blast chatting with the princesses and their princes. First up was Aurora and Philip She really liked my pirates necklace.
Then it was Cinderella and her Prince Charming.
And finally Snow White, who checked in with us to be sure that Doc was making sure that Grumpy was behaving himself.
After we were done we headed over to Mickey's place, which was dead. (Minnie is much more the party girl). I was half convinced that Mickey had to be over at Minnie's place meeting people, but we wandered out to the barn to double check and we walked right into to meet Mickey with barely a wait at all. I was shocked there was no one there. While we were waiting our turn, there was a baby that had no interest in being there. He was sobbing like crazy, and his dad was going to take him out of the room, while the wife stayed with the other kids. Right before the father was going to walk out, Mickey left the rest of the group and went over to the baby. In about a minute the baby was laughing and completely infatuated with Mickey. It was amazing. Everyone kept telling Minnie she had herself a real keeper. She'd nod and make swooning gestures. I would too. I love Mickey in his pirate gear. Look out Captain Jack!
Afterwards we headed to the Alice in Wonderland Trick or Treat trail. (Brought way too much candy thanks to that trail). We had just missed the Red Queen, but we managed to meet both Alice and the Mad Hatter before she had to leave. It was one of my favorite meetups from the night. The two of them were so funny together.
While we were on the trail, I thought I caught a glimpse of a glowing, decorated
ECV, but it was too far away to investigate.
We wandered back towards Fantasyland after that, taking advantage of the non-existent lines to ride the rides. My only regret was that when we saw the evil hag from Snow White we didn't go over right away to meet her. We went on the line, got stuck for while when the ride broke down, and when we got off she was gone. In the end we spent quite a lot of time looking at this:
By the time we got off the ride it was time to head over to the hub to watch Hallowishes from our favorite spot. We did a bit of wandering before heading back towards Liberty Square to watch the parade. I'm not a huge parade person, but I love MNSSHP. We got there early to snag good spots. The only bad thing about that is that once I sit down to wait, I feel I need to keep sitting so I don't get in the way of the people behind me. We had a perfect view of the parade as it passed by.
Captain Jack! I wish they still had him as a meet and great character.
While we were watching the parade I saw the glowing ECV again a bit down the ways from us, so as soon as the parade had passed by, I went over to investigate. Sure enough I had a DIS meet. It was Maroo, in her Main St. Electrical Parade decorated ECV. It looked great! I'm so glad that I got to meet her.
By now it was started to get late, but we couldn't let a trip to MNSSHP go by without a ride on the Haunted Mansion. The mansion looked great for the party. All goulish lighting, and smoke. The woman out front interacting with the crown was great. I tried to take a few pictures, but none of them really came out. We did stop for one of the specialty pictures on the way out though in front of the castle.
IMG]http://i194.photobucket.com/albums/z126/Seastorm2/Disney%202010/Photo0098FourBySix_opt.jpg[/IMG]
Then they told us to look scared. Obviously, I'm no actress. I think that's looking a bit more shocked than scared.
Hm scared
The night nearly at an end we wandered slowly out to the front doing a bit shopping, and finishing up the night by being one of the last people on Pirates. (My favorite way to end up a night at the Magic Kingdom!)
My post-race day went wonderfully, but how long was my energy going to last?
A day by the pool sounds lovely. 
Normally I hate giving up any of my work, but I've finally hit the point when I just can't handle it.
Yeah for sewing.
