Lisash
Knows all the words to 'It's
- Joined
- Sep 5, 2005
- Messages
- 1,994
Cast Members
Me: Looking forward to midnight has tissues at the ready going to be an emotional one!
DH: Looking forward to talking footy with his brother
DD: Looking forward to going home where she can consume lots of alcohol
DS: Looking forward to meeting up with his cousin & partner in crime
Sunday 31st December
Well the big day has finally arrived its New Years Eve, our last full day and we are meeting up with DHs brother and family the smallest of whom is also celebrating his 9th birthday today. I set the alarm for 6.30 as we need to be up and out early if we are to make anything of our day. The natives are complaining but I tell them they can sleep tomorrow on the plane home!
Its a quick breakfast then straight off to MK. We arrive at 8.30 and although busy it doesnt seem as bad as last year. As we are here for the duration (if we can stand it) we have quite a lot to carry so we hire a locker for the day and stroll off baggage free
DBIL is phoning us on arrival so we head off to catch a ride or two before we meet up with him. We do our usual left at bottom of Main Street heading for BTM then POTC both have 15/20 minute waits which for NYE is excellent. As we finish Pirates we get text from DBIL so arrange to walk back and meet him at Xmas tree.
People are pouring in now and it takes a while for them to get in but they are soon with us and we all sing Happy Birthday to DN much to his embarrassment. As it his his birthday he gets to call the shots so to speak, so decides he wants to get FP for Space Mountain then we join the queue for Buzz Lightyear as is only 20 mins. From there we go on to ride the Teacups, Small World and Philarmagic. We go back to use our FP on Space Mountain and stop off at Auntie Gravitys for a delicious hot fudge sundae. We are all enjoying having somebody different to talk to after nearly three weeks of it just being the four of us and DS is really enjoying having his cousins with him to fool around with him (game of loudest burp anyone!)
DS & his partners in crime
We head back to Frontierland where we FP Splash Mountain & in the spirit of New Year even I agree to go on. We head back to Haunted Mansion then across to Columbia Harbour House for lunch. The queue for food seems endless but when we get upstairs to the seating area it is absolutely empty (just like last year) I think people just see that its busy downstairs and never bother trying. We grab a couple of tables by the window and watch the crowds go by.
(an idea of how busy it was)
By mid afternoon the park is rammed but I dont think its as bad as the previous year and apart from a long wait to use the ladies its bearable. The girls sit gossiping while the boys ride the Indy Speedway. A CM notices DNs birthday badges and has all the queue sing Happy Birthday to him. Having DBIL & family with us probably meant we took less notice of the crowds as we were chatting and somebody had gone to a great deal of trouble to divide all the walkways with masking tape to form a sort of one way system for walking round which helped a lot.
We head over to Main Street to watch the afternoon parade. Its the Christmassy one today so Im pleased and from there its back to do Splash where we put the boys at the front and get at FP to do BTM in the dark. Its a longish queue for POTC but its just started raining (a very short shower in the end) so we dont mind. As we exit we notice lots of people have their NYE toppers and horns so we head into Adventureland and join the queue. As its getting late at home we find a quiet (I use that term loosely) spot where we can all ring home to wish our respective parents a happy new year. Then we ride the TTA & Carousel of Progress and head off to our locker to pick up our warmer evening wear & video camera for our last ADR at the Crystal Palace.
As we had no idea when I booked it that we would be with DBIL for the day our ADR was just for the four of us. As their children were getting tired they decided that they were not staying on till midnight and were going to catch Spectro and the early Wishes and leave so we bade them farewell and headed off to the Crystal Palace.
Well what can I say .... maybe I should just let the photos speak for us. It was wonderful. I was a bit worried that the kids would be a bit too old but as ever that old Disney magic and they loved it. The buffet was absolutely delicious particularly the deserts and the staff were delightful. I dont know whether the fact it was New Years Eve helped but the atmosphere was great and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. We watched Spectro & the fireworks from our table it was magical. I shed more than a few tears as we left there a combination of sadness about it being New Years Eve, our last day and probably most importantly DDs last holiday with us as she would rather go on clubbing holidays with her friends now.
With DBIL and family headed off into the night we went off to BTM to do our first ever ride in the dark. It was great fun except for the fact that Id put my top hat on my lap with all the hooters in it and they all flew out on the first drop and into the darkness. I had visions of the next train being derailed in some freak hooter incident. As I have never heard anything I presume they landed somewhere safe (oops!)
Anyway from there we decided to do a last ride on Carousel of Progress and TTA before finding a spot to see in the New Year. There was a DJ doing a set on the High School Musical stage DD wasnt impressed she was at her most homesick I think that last hour or so. Its not much fun knowing all your mates are clubbing when you are stuck with your parents even if where you are stuck is WDW.
Everywhere was now really crowded as people tried to get as close to the castle as possible. The one way system which had worked so well all day seemed to be breaking down as one cast member would be yelling at the crowd to go one way and the next one would be yelling the opposite. We saw it lead to several angry confrontations as people got frustrated with each other. We headed to Main Street and tried to find a good spot near the tree so we could beat a hasty retreat to the monorail.
We spent the last half hour before midnight chatting to the people around of us finding that most of them were English too. DD called her best friend from work as promised and held up the phone so she could take in the noise of the crowds.
(just before midnight)
The fireworks started with Wishes at 11.50 stopping for Mickey's countdown to midnight as ever I was bawling my eyes from the start until finish. The atmosphere was fantastic as we hit midnight the noise was terrific, everyone was shouting and singing as the fireworks continued. We huddled into a big family hug with DD & I clinging to each other sobbing. Soon enough it was time to go and holding onto each other as best we could we sprinted for the monorail making good headway as we were so far up Main Street which put us at the head of the queue and in no time at all we were tucked up in bed at the hotel
Me: Looking forward to midnight has tissues at the ready going to be an emotional one!
DH: Looking forward to talking footy with his brother
DD: Looking forward to going home where she can consume lots of alcohol
DS: Looking forward to meeting up with his cousin & partner in crime
Sunday 31st December
Well the big day has finally arrived its New Years Eve, our last full day and we are meeting up with DHs brother and family the smallest of whom is also celebrating his 9th birthday today. I set the alarm for 6.30 as we need to be up and out early if we are to make anything of our day. The natives are complaining but I tell them they can sleep tomorrow on the plane home!
Its a quick breakfast then straight off to MK. We arrive at 8.30 and although busy it doesnt seem as bad as last year. As we are here for the duration (if we can stand it) we have quite a lot to carry so we hire a locker for the day and stroll off baggage free
DBIL is phoning us on arrival so we head off to catch a ride or two before we meet up with him. We do our usual left at bottom of Main Street heading for BTM then POTC both have 15/20 minute waits which for NYE is excellent. As we finish Pirates we get text from DBIL so arrange to walk back and meet him at Xmas tree.
People are pouring in now and it takes a while for them to get in but they are soon with us and we all sing Happy Birthday to DN much to his embarrassment. As it his his birthday he gets to call the shots so to speak, so decides he wants to get FP for Space Mountain then we join the queue for Buzz Lightyear as is only 20 mins. From there we go on to ride the Teacups, Small World and Philarmagic. We go back to use our FP on Space Mountain and stop off at Auntie Gravitys for a delicious hot fudge sundae. We are all enjoying having somebody different to talk to after nearly three weeks of it just being the four of us and DS is really enjoying having his cousins with him to fool around with him (game of loudest burp anyone!)
DS & his partners in crime
We head back to Frontierland where we FP Splash Mountain & in the spirit of New Year even I agree to go on. We head back to Haunted Mansion then across to Columbia Harbour House for lunch. The queue for food seems endless but when we get upstairs to the seating area it is absolutely empty (just like last year) I think people just see that its busy downstairs and never bother trying. We grab a couple of tables by the window and watch the crowds go by.
(an idea of how busy it was)
By mid afternoon the park is rammed but I dont think its as bad as the previous year and apart from a long wait to use the ladies its bearable. The girls sit gossiping while the boys ride the Indy Speedway. A CM notices DNs birthday badges and has all the queue sing Happy Birthday to him. Having DBIL & family with us probably meant we took less notice of the crowds as we were chatting and somebody had gone to a great deal of trouble to divide all the walkways with masking tape to form a sort of one way system for walking round which helped a lot.
We head over to Main Street to watch the afternoon parade. Its the Christmassy one today so Im pleased and from there its back to do Splash where we put the boys at the front and get at FP to do BTM in the dark. Its a longish queue for POTC but its just started raining (a very short shower in the end) so we dont mind. As we exit we notice lots of people have their NYE toppers and horns so we head into Adventureland and join the queue. As its getting late at home we find a quiet (I use that term loosely) spot where we can all ring home to wish our respective parents a happy new year. Then we ride the TTA & Carousel of Progress and head off to our locker to pick up our warmer evening wear & video camera for our last ADR at the Crystal Palace.
As we had no idea when I booked it that we would be with DBIL for the day our ADR was just for the four of us. As their children were getting tired they decided that they were not staying on till midnight and were going to catch Spectro and the early Wishes and leave so we bade them farewell and headed off to the Crystal Palace.
Well what can I say .... maybe I should just let the photos speak for us. It was wonderful. I was a bit worried that the kids would be a bit too old but as ever that old Disney magic and they loved it. The buffet was absolutely delicious particularly the deserts and the staff were delightful. I dont know whether the fact it was New Years Eve helped but the atmosphere was great and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. We watched Spectro & the fireworks from our table it was magical. I shed more than a few tears as we left there a combination of sadness about it being New Years Eve, our last day and probably most importantly DDs last holiday with us as she would rather go on clubbing holidays with her friends now.
With DBIL and family headed off into the night we went off to BTM to do our first ever ride in the dark. It was great fun except for the fact that Id put my top hat on my lap with all the hooters in it and they all flew out on the first drop and into the darkness. I had visions of the next train being derailed in some freak hooter incident. As I have never heard anything I presume they landed somewhere safe (oops!)
Anyway from there we decided to do a last ride on Carousel of Progress and TTA before finding a spot to see in the New Year. There was a DJ doing a set on the High School Musical stage DD wasnt impressed she was at her most homesick I think that last hour or so. Its not much fun knowing all your mates are clubbing when you are stuck with your parents even if where you are stuck is WDW.
Everywhere was now really crowded as people tried to get as close to the castle as possible. The one way system which had worked so well all day seemed to be breaking down as one cast member would be yelling at the crowd to go one way and the next one would be yelling the opposite. We saw it lead to several angry confrontations as people got frustrated with each other. We headed to Main Street and tried to find a good spot near the tree so we could beat a hasty retreat to the monorail.
We spent the last half hour before midnight chatting to the people around of us finding that most of them were English too. DD called her best friend from work as promised and held up the phone so she could take in the noise of the crowds.
(just before midnight)
The fireworks started with Wishes at 11.50 stopping for Mickey's countdown to midnight as ever I was bawling my eyes from the start until finish. The atmosphere was fantastic as we hit midnight the noise was terrific, everyone was shouting and singing as the fireworks continued. We huddled into a big family hug with DD & I clinging to each other sobbing. Soon enough it was time to go and holding onto each other as best we could we sprinted for the monorail making good headway as we were so far up Main Street which put us at the head of the queue and in no time at all we were tucked up in bed at the hotel
BTM in the dark is very scary
Loving your reports (especially your DS who makes me laugh - i thought it was only my kids who had burping competitions!!)
