It's CHRIIISTMAAAS...........Day 4

[hildasmuriel]

Tuesday 23 December

Dtr woke up early with earache, but I gave her paracetemol and fortunately it went and did not reappear that day. (She had it on and off over Christmas but it went each time she had painkiller, so didn’t spoil her Christmas).

We semi-packed and set off for EMH - it was even busier today and took some time to get in. We went on Buzz twice and then went into Constellations for a bit of retail therapy (Hi Britchic family). When we went into Fantasyland the queue for Peter Pan was right back to the bridge so we decided to give that a miss and go back to the Holiday Inn to check out.

I made 2 mistakes at this point. Firstly, while waiting for the bus, I was composing the part of my trip report that was going to go “we were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to use the shuttle buses and how frequently they ran”. My second mistake was in not reading the sign on the front of the bus. We got on - it went to Explorers, Dream Castle then turned round and went back to the Park! We didn’t realise that at that time of day the buses go to 2 hotels only. So we had to get off and re-queue for the one that went to the Kyriad and Holiday Inn.

At last we checked out and headed back to the Park once more. The queues to get in were now so long that we worked out it would be quicker (after putting our luggage in Guest Storage) to go into Salon Mickey, have a doughnut for breakfast and then enter the Park that way, than to queue for the normal turnstiles. So that was what we did.

We just had time to get to Frontierland to see Mickey’s Winter Wonderland, which was great fun. It was the first time I had seen this at Christmas, rather than at February half term and, although it is not specifically Christmassy, it still seemed more fitting to watch it at Christmas.

After this it was nearly time for our lunch at the Auberge de Cendrillon. The food there was delicious and we saw a good number of characters.

We took a few photos

and then we went to Adventureland to see how our old favourite was looking - POTC was showing a 60 minute wait. We had nowhere else that we needed to be, so we joined it. It was 45 minutes until we actually got on. We did some more browsing in the shops and then decided to get our place for the parade.

More to follow.....

 

[hildasmuriel]

So.......we stood on the same side as Casey’s Corner, just a bit closer to the Central Plaza. We were there 75 minutes before the parade began and were amongst the first to be sitting on the pavement keeping our places. I was NOT going to give up that place for anybody - although a good few people tried. About 25 minutes before the parade some chap tapped Dtr on the foot and gestured that she should move out of the way so his child could stand there. Well that wasn’t happening. There was only 10 minutes to go and we were all standing by this time when a man pushed his little child right through from the back to stand next to me. I know many of you on here say you let children through - but this child was about 3 and I just knew the rest of the family were going to follow and I was going to be pushed out of the spot I had been sitting and standing on for over an hour. I’m afraid I didn’t budge. The poor lad who had been next to me for about 50 minutes moved out of the way for her, off the pavement and almost immediately a CM came and moved him because he was on the parade route. Way I see it - you want to see the parade 2 days before Christmas - you get there early and wait and I don’t care HOW young your children are - if they are too young to wait that long then I’m guessing they are too young to care that much about a parade. Anyway…finally the wait was over and the parade started.

It was worth the wait as we had a great view and were right where the dancing took place.

It had been full daylight when it started but was dusk by the time the parade had gone past.

BTW the family didn’t get through, so the little girl spent the whole of the parade clinging on to my jeans so she could lean forward and watch the parade. I found that quite amusing, but the treading all over my feet in her excitement got a bit wearing!

Believe it or not we found some more shopping we wanted to do - I bought some mugs as last minute Christmas presents and a Mickey wooden spoon and also got myself a Mickey bracelet with my birthstone on it. The shops were ABSOLUTELY heaving, as the parade had only just finished but I persevered and made my purchases. We thought we may have time for one final ride, so decided to try Phantom Manor, as that often has a reasonable queue but it was very long. We went instead……wait for it……. to Last Chance Café.

I have hardly ever seen this open and have NEVER bought anything from there, so was quite excited to buy 2 hot chocolates - I’m easily pleased, aren’t I?

After a final look around the Curious Giraffe we made our way down Main Street and said goodbye to DLRP for 2008. We were soon checking onto Eurostar (hi Britchic family!) and on our way home.

Conclusion:
We had a fabulous time and we were both so pleased we had gone. The Holiday Inn was a very nice hotel , especially considering how cheap it worked out,. The Park was very crowded, there was no doubt about that, but with use of EMH, a midday break and staying until it closed at 10 pm, we managed to get lots done. I won’t be doing it again this year as I found it just too much of a rush beforehand to get ready for Christmas, but I would hope to return at Christmas again some day in the future.

 

[DLPdaft]

Thats a tired but very happy looking DD there in that last pic .

Another fabulous trip report, I'll be reading over this one from the start again tomorrow .

 

[marcus.ka]

Thank you for all the great pictures. Especially the Fantillusion pictures are great.

And also the pictures here of the parade. It gets darker and darker with every float. Great.

 

[angel girl]

Great trip report, thanks, and even better not long at all now until you go back

 

[joolz1910]

Great trip report. Thanks for sharing!

 

[torsie24]

Wonderful trip report!!!

Glad you both had a wonderful time and achieved so much during such a busy time!!

Can't believe how often you bumped into Britchic!

 

[britchic4]

Wonderful trip report!!!

Glad you both had a wonderful time and achieved so much during such a busy time!!

Can't believe how often you bumped into Britchic!

I keep thinking I'm going to see them both round every corner even now!
But it was a lovely experience to share

 

[Boo-Boo]

Lovely trip reports....it brought it all back for me.....

 

[tennisfan]

An awesome report. I'm glad you enjoyed it & pleased you managed to fit so much in considering how busy it was

Thanks for sharing

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Fantastic report, i really enjoyed reading it.

 

[giuly09]

Great report Hilda, i have loved reading every single bit of it

 

[A Small World]

Brilliant report - you have some lovely pictures

 

[Rachie B]

wow fab reports & pics as usual

grrr @ the parade pusher - inners! drives me meeeental!!

i am thinking that the way to go is leaving the hubby behind!
i am sure me and the boys would get tonnes more done, that way too !

xxx

 

[hildasmuriel]

i am thinking that the way to go is leaving the hubby behind!
i am sure me and the boys would get tonnes more done, that way too !

The meals work out much cheaper without husbands there too!

 

[poppie123]

Brilliant report with some fab pictures, i've really enjoyed reading it all.

 

[Ware Bears]

I've really enjoyed reading your reports ~ as always. Roll on the next one!