We went to the party last night.
We arrived to the park shortly after 4pm. It had just started sprinkling. Unfortunately it kept getting worse and worse so I was glad we chose to bring the umbrella. Short line at the turnstile and then we got our wristbands and went on our way. We did Haunted Mansion which was a walk on, then went and did Space Mountain, then did TTA four times back to back while the rain slowly started to slow down.
Shortly after 6:30, we got off and went to Fantasyland to figure out where characters would be in the rain. Took quite a few cast members for us to find out Mary Poppins would be near the Philharmagic exit. We followed the CMs deciding the location and they told us where to stand. We were first in line. They came out shortly after 7. My only complaint was that the entire meet and greet was rushed. There was no photopass photographer there yet and we were rushed to take our picture.
After that, it was just about 7:10 so we went to Pooh. We were about the fifth family in line. Had a really great interaction with them- however, photopass didn't capture much of it. I don't know what their policy is but you'd think if they want people to buy photos they would take more?? We were bouncing with Tigger and my boyfriend had a toy Optimus Prime that Eeyore was holding. They completely missed all that which made me sad.
It was now nearing 8pm so we went over to Fantasyland Train Station to meet Donald, Scrooge, and Daisy. Long line. We waited 45 minutes or so and they left about three times. The third time they came back, Scrooge didn't join them. We asked the attendant and luckily he came back just in time for our group. By now it was about 8:40pm.
We then went over to get the Country Bears. I went over to Columbia Harbor House to get some apple slices and cookies before our meet. They came out shortly after 9. Again, GREAT interaction. We were dancing with them while the band played and it was great. However, photopass didn't capture any of that again. It stinks that it's only the two of us for the parties and we didn't have anyone to photograph other special moments.
After having fun square dancing and group hugs, we went to the hub for the fireworks. My boyfriend and I are local so we enjoy taking photos of the fireworks and comparing shots, so we took pictures. I have to say I prefer Hallowishes but it was still a good time. Afterwards, we moved down Main Street and got a spot across the street from Uptown Jewelers. We had almost an hour to wait so we sat and looked through photos and watched the snow.
I left to get more apple slices from Crystal Palace. I was eating my apples on the curb when some tasted weird. I eat apples all the time and didn't think they could taste strange. I looked at the bag and it said "best used by November 15." It was November 21. :/
Anyways, the parade started and we watched that. It was cute but I prefer the Boo to You Parade. We took some photos again and enjoyed looking at everything.
Afterwards, we went to Adventureland and joined the line for Aladdin and Abu's last set. We were one of the last groups to meet them. Had a good discussion with them. We hopped right back in line and got Jasmine and Genie. Afterwards, we had about 15 minutes so we grabbed some cocoa, apple juice, and cookies and walked over to Big Thunder to close the night.
All in all, we enjoyed ourselves and were very happy that the rain cleared up. We had never done the Christmas Party before so it was interesting to see the differences between the two. We will probably end up only doing the Halloween Party next time. I think we did good - got 19 characters (if I did my math right); a chunk of which we hadn't met before. Fun times!
