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Day Two
Well, Mickey called bright and early Christmas morning, at 6:30 am. We got up and finished packing up the stuff we brought (did I mention we overpacked?) and got ready to head out for the day. When Chris opened the door to see if the express checkout tag was there he found a bag with candy and stuff in it from the resort. No express checkout tag, though so he called the front desk and had them check our account. There were no charges so we headed out.
The plan was to start the day out in the MK, with a PS at Crystal Palace for breakfast. We'd then do whatever struck us, maybe see the parade, and probably head out to another park or a resort for a while. We had a dinner PS at Crystal Palace for 7:40, and then we figured we'd watch the fireworks then head for home.
It was a little chilly when we left the hotel, I had checked the weather before we left home and it was supposed to be in the high 70's with a chance of rain, so we'd put on shorts, tee shirts and sandals. When we arrived at TTC, we parked the car, took the tram and hopped on a monorail.
I was expecting hordes of people outside the gate, as by this time it was 7:40 am, and the park officially opened at 8:00, but there really wasn't anyone around. We quickly got through security and into the park. We decided to have a picture taken by one of the Disney people wandering around. They actually took two and we got our little slips to pick them up later. We headed to Crystal Palace and checked in for our PS. We were seated shortly after that, and ate.
Pooh came around and we got a picture with him, then we hit the buffet. Chris loves breakfast food, and he loves buffets. I'm not much of a morning eater, so I sort of picked at stuff (I have a habit of getting stuff, then taking two bites and not touching it again.) Chris had a big meal, paid the check and then we headed out.
There still weren't a lot of people around, so we wandered into Adventureland. Chris went to get on Pirates of the Caribbean, while I headed to the gift shop. We had worn our Mickey and Minnie Santa hats, and mine refused to sit on my head. It kept falling off the back, so I hit the gift shop and bought some hair clips. Then, it was off to the bathroom to clamp the hat onto my head. They worked well, and I didn't have any problems with it for the rest of the day.
I was waiting for Chris when he came off the ride, and we decided to keep walking around for a bit. We headed around back to Frontierland, where Chris decided to ride Big Thunder Mountain. The wait time was listed as 5 minutes, and I passed the time in the Briar Patch gift shop.
When he came back, we headed towards Liberty Square, and ran into all four of the Country Bears. We split up and got all of their autographs in about 5 minutes, then ducked through the passageway back to Adventureland.
We headed out to the hub, to meet up with Joanie and Bob Novak from this list. It turns out that they live in one of the towns close to where Chris grew up. When we were emailing about that, I found out that Bob helps out with the drum line at the high school Chris graduated from, so they know many of the same people. Bob also was my best friend's percussion instructor, and one of Joanie's close friends is a relative of mine, as is her husband. So, since we were all going to be there for Christmas, we decided to meet up.
At 10:00, we met up with them at the outside corner of Casey's. Chris and Bob started chatting away about the various people we knew and what they've been up to. We had a good chat, and met Joanie's daughter Marie, then all headed out to Tomorrowland to ride the Carousel of Progress. At this point, the people were swarming into the park. I don't think Chris really believed me when I told him how crowded it would get, especially when it was so empty in the morning.
After riding Carousel of Progress, we all went on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, then it was time to split up. Chris and I decided that since it was getting colder, we'd head up to Main Street to pick up some sweatshirts. Since the walkway from the hub to Tomorrowland was jammed, we wandered back through Fantasyland, to come up around the Castle that way. When we were passing through, we saw that there were characters in the Character Festival area, so we took a peek and saw Maleficent, whose autograph we didn't have.
We got in line, and when it was our turn to enter, Maleficent had left. We asked the CM when she would be back and were told 11:40. That was about 20 minutes away, so we decided to sneak behind the crowd, leave and then come back. As we got to the last character area, the Evil Queen came out. We didn't have her, so Chris went over, and after bowing to her, got her autograph. Then we headed back toward the Castle and sat down on a bench to rest for a bit. We went back to the Character area, but the line was stretching out toward the Tea Cups, so we decided to skip it.
We headed back up toward the Castle, then passed through it to Main Street. We headed into the Emporium, where we looked for sweatshirts, but didn't find any that we really liked. We left the Emporium and crossed Town Square, to go to the Exposition Center. There were some characters out in the corner, so we checked out who was there. It was Lilo and Meeko. I'm not sure why they paired those two, but we didn't have Meeko, so we hopped in the short line and quickly got his autograph. Then, we headed into the Exposition Center to look at our pictures from earlier. We decided that we liked one of them, so we got it in a 5x7. Then, we took a break and sat on a bench outside to decide what we wanted to do.
It was very cold, and it was only going to get colder, so obviously, the shorts and tee shirts weren't going to cut it. We decided to walk to the Contemporary, then take the monorail to the TTC, go to the car and get our coats and jeans. (As a side note, I almost always have a jacket in the backpack, but since I "knew" what the weather would be, I'd left it in the car.)
We headed out, making sure to get our hands stamped, then took the path to the Contemporary. On the way, I realized that we had a small problem. Well, not we, just me. When we'd returned to the hotel the night before, our shoes were soaked. This was not the first time that had happened to my sneakers, which weren't in all that great shape to begin with. The smell coming from them was less than pleasant, so we decided to throw them out. This left me with only sandals to wear, and my toes were cold!!
We headed up to the concourse and decided to check out the shops to see if we could find a pair of sneakers for me. We did, but then it occurred to me that I'm very prone to blisters in new shoes and that I wouldn't really have a chance to take them off and rest my feet. So, I decided to do something that I can't stand and wear socks with my sandals.
I did find a purse that I sort of liked, and Chris found a Chernabog tee shirt that he loved, but we decided to think about it and if we still wanted them, we'd come back later.
We were both tired and needed a break so we sat on a bench for quite a while. Chris gave his mom a call while I wandered into the gift shop and picked up a bottle of soda and some Twix, to share with Chris.
Eventually we decided it was time to go, and we got on a monorail. We made it back to the TTC and hopped on a tram out to the car. We changed quickly into our jeans and put on our coats. Then we decided not to wait for a tram and walked back up to the TTC. We still hadn't decided what to do next, so we figured we'd go check out Animal Kingdom for a bit. (We've made 7 trips this year, for a total of 10 trips together since 2000 and we've never once gone to Animal Kingdom. At first it was because we didn't have the time, now it's almost a running joke. Chris's father is always telling us we should go because we'd love it, and generally whenever he says that we hate whatever it is, so we haven't been in too big of a hurry to go there. Plus, it seems to irritate him when we tell him we're back and didn't go again.)
We headed over to the bus stop for the park, and sat on a bench. About 10 minutes went by and still no bus. So, Chris said forget it, let's go to Epcot.
Back to the monorail we went, and soon we were in the park. We decided that it was time for lunch, and headed over to Electric Umbrella. It was packed. Chris got in line to order our food and I staked out a table. It took about 5 minutes for one to open up, but when it did, I grabbed it. Then I sat, and sat. I had to defend our chairs, since people kept trying to take them. I let them take the two we didn't need, but people kept trying to take the one for Chris.
Eventually he made it back with the food and we enjoyed our burgers. Of course, as soon as he got to the table with the food, the crowd immediately thinned out, and tables were open all over the place. After we ate, we headed out to the World Showcase. We started off in Canada and wandered around and through the various countries.
We stopped for a while in Japan to watch Miyuki make some candy. We'd never seen her and Chris hadn't even heard of her, so we were impressed. Then we headed into the shop to look at the Hello Kitty stuff. When we hit Germany, we got stuck by the Tapestry parade. We were able to duck across the street, to the lagoon side and continue on our way.
When we hit Norway, we decided to stop so I could get a rice cream. While standing in line, I decided that I wanted strawberry cream cake instead. I got my cake and started eating it while we made our way to Mexico so Chris could get a churro. I asked him to get me some hot chocolate too, and sat on a bench to finish my cake while I waited. He came back with two hot chocolates and no churro. He said he changed his mind. So, we wandered our way back to Futureworld, and settled down on a bench behind the fountain for a while. We finished our hot chocolate while we sat there and talked, then decided that it was time to head back to the MK.
We made a quick stop in the Gallery, where I saw a framed poster of the castle, done in blue and white, called Cinderella's Winter Dream. I loved the poster and Chris offered to buy it for me. I thought about it, but we already have a stack of stuff to be framed and not all that much wall space. It would be wonderful to have in our bedroom, but we already have a 25.00 poster in a 170.00 frame. I did let him buy me the post card, though.
After that, we headed out of the park and back up to the monorail. We got on and took it back to the TTC. Then, we decided that we didn't want to take the monorail to MK, and got on a ferryboat instead. It was so beautiful to see the Castle all lit up along with the lights on the train station as we came across the lagoon.
We headed back through security and into the park. We made our way to the Emporium to look for lip balm for me. (I have a lip balm fetish. I can't go without it, I have it everywhere. But, somehow I'd only brought one with me, and when I'd went to put it on earlier, the little thing that holds it broke off and rolled away. By now, with the cold and all, I desperately needed it so we set off in search of some) You'd think it would be an easy item to find, but it's not. We ended up going to Tinkerbell's Treasures, where I had to settle for lipgloss that was grape scented and glittery. Definitely not my usual, but it would work in a pinch. (I love Burt's Bee's lip balm) It was pretty crowded, so Chris told me to go wait outside while he paid for it.
I went out and sat down on a planter behind the Castle. Chris came out of the store a short while later with tears in his eyes. He told me that there was a little girl, about 3 years old, who was lost. I had actually seen her wandering around the store while I was in there, but I just figured her parents were nearby. Anyway, he said he felt so bad and that she looked so scared. He offered to go buy her some ice cream or a cookie to distract her until her parents came back, but the CM said that they can't do that because they don't know if the child has any allergies or is diabetic, etc.
We sat there for a little while, to see if her parents came to get her, and after another 5 minutes, she was still sitting behind the register playing with a pillow. We decided that the least we could do would be to buy her a toy to play with while she waited, so we went back in and bought her a Princess Minnie beanie. Her name was Heidi and we talked to her for a minute or two, and the CM told us that they were just waiting for security to come and get her. When parents get lost (in Disney, kids never get lost, just parents) the kids are taken to the baby center if they aren't found within 5-10 minutes. In this case, though, security was delayed. We headed back out of the shop and waited for a while again, but no one came for her.
We had to get over to the Crystal Palace to check in for dinner, so we headed that way. We arrived 15 minutes early, as recommended, and were handed a pager. We then sat for 45 minutes, freezing. I wasn't very happy, since no one had told us that it would be that long of a wait. Also, if we were 15 minutes late, they would have cancelled the PS and we would have been charged the cancellation fee.
While we were waiting, though, we saw a security person taking Heidi in a wheelchair back toward the Castle, so we figured her parents had finally come back for her (this was about half an hour after we'd left Tinkerbell's)
Eventually we got in and were seated. We had a nice dinner, but decided to skip the fireworks. They had started while we were still inside, and then as we were leaving Crystal Palace they made an announcement that there was a problem with Tinkerbell and that the show would resume shortly.
We decided to stop in the Baby center to make sure that Heidi had been found. She wasn't listed in their system, so the CM told us that she must have been found before they entered her.
Then, we headed back to the Emporium. We looked to see if they had the purse that I wanted and the shirt for Chris, but they didn't. So, we headed out to Town Square, I headed to the bathroom, while Chris went to the Exposition Center to buy the cd from the Candlelight Processional.
I met back up with him on the steps, and he told me that the line to see the pictures was huge and that he was glad we'd gotten ours earlier. We then left the park and walked back over to the Contemporary. We went up to the Concourse and bought the Chernabog shirt and the purse, then headed up to the monorail. We got on for the last time and took it back to the TTC.
We decided not to wait for a tram and walked out to the car and set out. We stopped at the Car Care Center to fill up the gas tank, then headed home. We got in a little after 3 am and unpacked everything. Then, it was time for bed.
Day One, Day Two
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