I thought I was done with stress for this trip, but I've officially found something new to stress about.
I was poking around on the boards during my lunch yesterday and realized that the Christmas parade taping will be happening the first day of my trip. My MK day.
I'm debating on trying to change my schedule around, but I'm a bit afraid that at this late point doing so will be difficult due to ADRs. Also, and I know this sounds a bit petulant, but I really like to visit the MK on my first day. It just starts the trip off on the right foot. At least now I know why the UG touring plans called for this to be a very busy day. I couldn't figure out why the crowd levels for all the other days were low, and that one Saturday was a high number.
Right now, after much deliberation, I'm planning on keeping my plans basically the same. Hopefully we won't run into any real problems.
Here's the plan. If things are too crazy at the MK, or heaven forbid we can't get in, we can just head somewhere else and just have a cs meal.
9:30 am. - Arrive in Orlando. Check in ME head to ASSp.
12:00 pm - (Hopefully I'm being a bit generous here). Check in AsSp. Catch a cab to POP.
12:30 pm - Find the Lady and the Tramp statues at POP - My BFF's favorite Disney characters are Lady and the Tramp. When we were originally staying at POP, she saw the pics of the L&TT figures and was thrilled. I hated that I had to change resorts to get the better discount, but I promised her a visit to POP to check out the figures. I figure this will be a good time to check them out.
2:00 pm - After visiting POP and grabbing something to eat if we are hungry we can head to MK. From what I've read on the boards, the parade filming will be over by early afternoon, so hopefully we won't at least run into the parade on main street, and really that's my biggest concern. It's easier to avoid the stage in front of the castle, but a parade running up main street multiple times? A bit more difficult.
Depending on what time we get in, head to Space Mountain for a possible ride - and/or fastpass for later. Check out Buzz Lightyear (a fave of my BFF) and the people mover (a fave of mine, although I'm a bit sad they did away with the spiel with paging Tom Morrow). Head back to Main Street.
5:00 pm - ADR at the Plaza
After that it's a question of the crowds and the time. Spectromagic runs at 7pm that night and Wishes at 8, and they are really the two things I want to be sure I see on Day 1. If it takes us about an hour for dinner, that only leaves us an hour before Spectro. That's not really a lot of time to do much before staking out a parade spot, and while I'm not usually a big fan of sitting around waiting for a parade spot I don't want a repeat of our last time watching Spectro.
My last Disney trip with my BFF we didn't bother staking out a spot, since it wasn't that crowded, but walked up and found a decent spot right near the roundabout at the end of main street about 15 minutes before the parade. There was a large group of people sitting on the ground in front of us, so standing we had a pretty good view. Until a group of people came behind us, that seriously were in the running for most annoying Disney guests ever. One woman kept whispering to her kid to just push me out of the way once the parade started. How rude!
At least the poor kid knew better. He kept telling her he didn't want to do it. I think she was a bit embarassed when I turned around and told the kid that I wouldn't mind if he stood in front of me for the parade so he could see.
Once the parade started another member of their party proceded to lean on my backpack for the entire show. It was just a tiny Vera Bradley style knapsack, and was nearly empty, so it wasn't taking up much room, but this woman was leaning what felt like her entire body weight on my back. I really am a nonconfrontational person so I tried nonchalantly shrugging her off, but she'd just put more and more weight on my back. Finally when I was convinced my back was going to break, I just jerked my body around about 180 degrees sending her almost toppling over, and she started to cop an attitude with me.
All the while the other woman is telling her son to go cut in front of the other kids.
The point of the story is that it really ruined Spectro for me that year, and last year I didn't get to see it at all since it wasn't running while I was there. I'd like to find a spot where we could possibly sit and enjoy the show. Possibly we could head to Frontierland to watch it there. That would also give us a bit more time, so we could catch a ride or two before the parade starts. Does anyone have any good parade watching spots? I
prefer the Main Street area, but am open to just about anything.
8:00 pm - Catch Wishes
I have my favorite spot for Wishes, and it doesn't usually get crowded until the last minute if at all. Still I'd like to get there about a half hour/20 mins early.
After that we can play it by ear. The park is open until 11pm. We'll probably be pretty tired from our travel day, so we might not make it quite that long. Plus leaving at an odd time might help avoiding some of the craziness at the bus stop. I've never stayed at a value resort before, but the lines at the bus stops for the values have always seemed overwhelming.
I think I'm just going to go into that first day expecting it is going to be crazy and expecting to do and see very little.
I'm hoping my friend likes it as much as me.
I'm sure it will work out great for just the two of you!!
When we are on vacation though we usually get asked a few times a day if we are sisters. Neither of us gets it as we don't think we look anything alike, but we're entertained by it. 
Also the way things are currently on Day 5, after lunch, if we go to Epcot as planned we'll have practically no time before we have to leave and go back to MGM for dinner. My current ADR is for 7pm, which is the same time that MGM is closing that day, so after dinner there will be nothing to do at MGM, leaving us having to hike back to Epcot again. I'm not above a bit of going back and forth, but it seems to be a bit much.
