Rhonda Horinski & Family - December 2008

The Horinka Family - Disney Christmas
Day 2 – Saturday, December 20 - Magic Kingdom
Cast of Characters: Rhonda, 44 years young, single mother of 3 awesome punks and lover of all things Disney, Sharon, 19 year old DD, Morgan, 16 year old DD, and Payton, 12 year old DS.

The Magic Kingdom opened at 9:00 a.m. today, so we were at the bus stop at 8:00 and at the turnstiles by 8:25. The kids purchased some sunglasses and a bag of Chip and Dale pretzels as we waited for the park opening. I just love when the Mayor comes out and the train comes around the bend! The park opened promptly at 9:00 and we headed to Tomorrowland. After securing FPs for Space Mountain, we road Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and then headed to Fantasyland, making a stop to ride the Tea Cups. I have not ridden them since I was a teen, but the kids really wanted me to, so I hopped in with them. Three teenagers can really get the cups flying fast and furious, so I was grateful that I had not eaten yet! After the teacups we saw Donald at his "tree lot" in Fantasyland and there was no wait, so we went and said hi and got our first photo pass photos done. Donald was NOT happy as we were wearing our Mickey Mouse shirts, but he agreed to pose with us anyway. After the photos, we took a ride on Peter Pan's Flight and then headed over to Frontierland for Splash Mountain FPs. We rode BTMRR (always a family favorite) and then headed to Adventureland and rode Pirates of the Caribbean before heading over to Liberty Square for a ride on the Haunted Mansion. By now we had been in the park two hours and it was 11:00 a.m. so we went to Columbia Harbour House for lunch. It was early, so it was nice and quiet, the service was prompt and the food was great. I highly recommend a stop here. Great clam chowder! After lunch we headed over to Tomorrowland and got another set of Space Mountain FPs before heading in to the Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor. I had seen this before, but my kids had not. We all texted our jokes in, and were quite surprised when, during the show (where they tell three audience jokes total) two of them were ours! They read my joke (What kind of cheese isn't yours? "Nacho" (not your) Cheese!) and Morgan's (knock knock. Who's there? Cow says. Cow says who? No, silly! Cow says "Moo"!) so we were quite tickled! After we left the Laugh Factory, we headed up for a ride on the TTA and then bought the first of many frozen bananas. We munched on these as we walked to Frontierland where were used our FPs for Splash and our FPs for BTMRR. I'm still amazed at the number of people who don't realize you can use your FPs at ANY time after the return window. I like to stock pile them for use in the evening, especially during these busier times of the year. We got another set of BTMRR FPs to use later that evening and then caught the Frontierland Train for the front and break time. We left the park at 2:50.

Payton and I hit the pool while the girls got hair braids until around 4:45, then back to the room to change and head back to the park. We got on the MK bus at 5:10 and upon our arrival at MK, took the Monorail to the Polynesian for Sharon's dinner choice, and a perennial family favorite, `Ohana. We had 5:40 dinner reservations and did not arrive until 5:50 but were still seated immediately. I really love the "eat early" way! One of our favorite things about `Ohana used to be the pineapples with caramel dip that they served for dessert. They always bring them to us as we ask nicely, and they did again this year, but I also went ahead and got the Bananas Foster bread pudding and we all tried it. Wow! It was magnificent! I HATE bread pudding. This was not your typical bread pudding, however. To me it was more like a pudding cake. An awesome meal as always. It was definitely one of the top three dining experiences of our trip!

Around 7:15, After we "paid" (no more tips included in the dining plan), we hopped on the monorail to the MK and Adventureland where I got FPs for Jungle Cruise. We used our earlier-secured FPS for BTMRR and then used our Jungle Cruise FPs and then did the Enchanted Tiki Room. We then headed to Tomorrowland and rode Space Mountain twice using our earlier FPs and then took the "through the Emporium" shortcut route to leave the park as the fireworks were going off. We took the bus to CBR at 9:30 and the kids were surprised when we arrived at our room and there was a Christmas tree set up! I had ordered the Neverland Wishing Tree weeks ago through the Disney Florist and it was just awesome!

The cool thing is that they will also ship it to my house and I'll have the tree forever. It was a lot more than I would normally spend on pretty much anything, but the kids had been lamenting the fact that we had NOT decorations up at our house as we knew we would be at Disney, and I did want this to be one of those extra-special trips as it's the last one we will take as a non-adult family. Seeing the tree in the room made me realize that it was the right choice for us and it really made the trip that much more special. After spending some time checking out the tree, we grabbed our mugs and headed for Old Port Royale for drinks, some shopping and pin trading before heading off to bed at 10:30.

Tomorrow – Animal Kingdom

Page: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8