We spent the rest of the afternoon napping and watching TV in the room. We decided to skip eating at Landscape of Flavors and thought we'd rather try something out in the park. I really wanted a Lobster Roll so our plan was to hit up Big Thunder Mountain again, then progress towards Columbia Harbour House and move in that direction for the night. Easy right?
We got to Magic Kingdom and the lines were moving. It was right at 7pm so they gave us a bracelet right away. But Main St?
While lovely it was a bit crowded.
So we made our way through it. Headed left at the castle and did a little back tracking I guess. We certainly stopped for some cocoa and cookies though!
But soon enough we were deciding who got to go first in the 5 min long line.
I wanted a salty snack by then so I let him go and I bought Vivien and myself one of these:
Which my daughter fell in love with. For the record the amount of popcorn in that bucket could end world hunger I think. There was a ton of it and I hate to say we threw most of it out. But we ended up putting the bucket to good use. On Christmas Day Vivien transferred the contents of her stocking (which was mostly candy) into that and it was a nice container for her.
So we both took a turn on the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And then another turn because why not? Then decided to see what Vivien thought of the pirates.
She wasn't thrilled but not upset either. Just didn't seem to have an opinion. I tried to take some photos (no flash!) but I just need more practice I think. I got pretty lucky with what i did take since the ride didn't stop once.
Next up? More cookies and cocoa!
We did the Country Bear Jamboree as the parade was starting. Then we weaved our way over to see Woody and the gang again at the dance party. I stood outside for a bit and watched the parade.
After the parade was over we decided we were finally ready to eat so we headed to Columbia Harbor House. Where we realized they weren't serving food. Just cookies and cocoa. So guess what we got? Then we took turns on Haunted Mansion. Then all of us went on Peter Pan. We had to wait about 10 min which wasn't bad at all.
We stared wistfully at It's a Small World while we were in line since it was closed the whole time we were there. After flying through London we strolled right on into the Philharmagic. Vivien got such a kick out of the whole thing. Especially the part at the end with Donald gets stuck in the wall. Too fun to watch her reaction!!
After we got out....
The fireworks were going on! Fun.
There still wasn't a wait for the Philharmagic so we went again since Vivien loved it so much. The line for the carousel however was insane when we got out so we headed over to New Fantasyland to see what Belle was up to for the night.
After Belle we were REALLY hungry and noticed that there was no wait at Gaston's so in we went.
We ordered the pork shank to share:
It was perfect! Lots of food for the three of us. We washed it down with another Le Fou's brew. And topped it off with most of this chocolate peppermint cupcake:
It was huge, and just as a cupcake should be. Not dry, not too much icing and a very nice combination of mint flavor to chocolate. One of the best $20 meals we've ever had!
While eating Gaston's suddenly go very crowded. We must have been ahead of some sort of crowd because the wait time for Ariel had shifted from 10 min before we ate to 40! Eek!
So we headed into Storybook Circus.
And I thought I liked this area during the daytime but at night? Wow.
It's like a real circus. Or what a Circus is like in your mind I suppose.
I think Dumbo at night is just stunning too.
Only I couldn't figure out where to stand to get a good shot. It's just an odd layout I think. I felt like I was in people's way. Which is silly since each time one of the rides went there were only about 5 people on each one.
Vivien loved it. And the fact that the CM's just let her stay on for 6 rides in a row!!
Eventually though we got off. We knew beforehand that Vivien was tall enough to ride the Barnstormer. And with the wait time being 10 min we thought it was a good night to do so. But...then we watched it a few times and second guessed ourselves. It just looked a bit too intense for her. So instead we decided to go see what Space Mountain was like.
It was awesome.
Then we took a little spin on what I only can refer to as the Peoplemover. Which was exiting because every time we went inside-it stopped for several minutes. It was always in the part of the tunnel or building with nothing to look at too. Not very fun!
We rode Buzz twice and this was the best of my scores.
It was disappointing to me because I can do better. BUT we all rode in the same car and Vivien loved that she could turn the car around. So I guess I did pretty well since I had no control of where I was aiming in most cases.
We decided it was time to start making our way out. So we headed towards Main St.
I'm a fairly passive pin collector so we decided to see what they had to offer for the party and ducked into the Emporium.
Nothing. We looked and looked and finally asked a CM about it. He confirmed that they'd sold out of the pins back in November. He thought there might be some t-shirts but didn't think there was much else other than that. And really we weren't interested in anything else since the only thing catching my eye was a Mickey Mouse nutcracker that I saw in EPCOT the day before too. But at $60 it was just beyond what I would spend on something like that. No money spent there!
Oh well.
It was really close to midnight so we headed out but had to make one more stop to see someone very important:
Vivien did really well this year!
I love this one:
And one of all three of us:
My only complaint when I saw the photos was that they wasn't better lighting there. I mean it's a fixed area right? You'd think the lighting would be better.
But it was definitely midnight by the time we were done. So that was that!! We headed to the bus stop, which seemed further than ever before. I totally get the paying such a premium price to be on the monorail loop now that we're touring with a wee lass like Vivien. Not that it's much work, but man we were tired by the end of the day! Next trip we're staying closer to Magic Kingdom I think.
We got lucky once again as a bus was loading up as we finally made it over there and headed back to Art of Animation.
Did I mention that I love this resort yet? I'm so not a big fan of Cars but seriously...how can you not get a smile on your face walking past this each night:
And then check out the detail in the Wheel Well Hotel. This thing is massive!
Love that place!
So next up....a steamy tour, witnessing an exceptionally talented artist and another pass at Be Our Guest Restaurant thanks to Fastpass+
I hope you guys had a good holiday this year!!
