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 We
slept a couple hours, and then did a bit of packing. Tomorrow is
checkout day and we have an early breakfast reservation at 1900 Park
Fare - So its pack now and finish AFTER MVMCP.
Yuk!
 To continue
annoying me today, the boats took FOREVER to get to the
Wilderness Lodge for the MK. Two of the large boats passed right
by us
without stopping, and then we jumped on a small boat to the
Contemporary. And you guessed it, THIS one went to Fort
Wilderness
BEFORE the Contemporary! Arghhhh.... THEN the
monorail line was a
million miles long at the Contemporary because of some problem!
We
should have gotten to the MK by 5:30 or 6pm, and ended up there between
6:30 and 7pm!!! Not happy..., but shook it off and wanted to
focus on
having a fun time tonight.
 We decided to
DEFINITELY skip eating anything at Casey’s tonight... No
hotdogs for Maddy! ;-) We headed toward Tommorrowland
through the
Noodle Station and thought I’d try that - but it was only hot cocoa and
cookies. Which we grabbed of course! :-) We sat there
and enjoyed
our snack and watched the Celebrate the Season show from afar. It
was
actually quite nice! Then I did a MUCH better job of
getting a
picture of the girls in front of the Castle and the Christmas Tree in
the same shot. The girls even cooperated and stayed VERY still
for the
low light shot. I think we have a Christmas Card picture!
:-)
 Since
we already saw the Night Before Christmas show, we decided to
skip that, but did find Stitch waiting inside the old TimeKeeper
area.
He was fun, and even played with the girls a bit after we took their
picture with him. Then we did a quick ride on Buzz, and
grabbed a
bite to eat at Cosmic Ray’s.
After that the girls wanted to visit Toon Town at night.
They enjoyed
a nighttime walk-on ride on Goofy’s Barnstormer, and then we headed
inside to see what characters were around tonight. As we hoped,
it was
holiday themed, and the girls saw Holiday Mickey, Minnie and
Daisy!
And on the princess side was Suzy, Perla and Cinderella with Prince
Charming.
 We walked around
some more until it was time for the Special Wishes
Fireworks. Kristen found a nice ‘Lazy Butt Tourista’ approved
sitting
location on the Tomorrowland Bridge with Maddy, and I took Brinn up
into the hub to find a spot front and center of the castle. I
ended up
right against a cast iron rail (NOT comfortable to sit on!) but with a
great view of the castle. I’ve put my fireworks pics all
together
below - I think some came out pretty good and I really liked this
location.
 The fireworks were incredible as always, and you really
got the full
affect by being in front of the castle. I think it might have
been
even better if I had been even farther back. And my favorite is
when
the fireworks go off all the way around you! Amazing!!!
After they were over, we called Kristen on the cell phone and tracked
her down. We sat for a while letting the crowds disperse a bit
and
Brinn took a nice shot of Kristen and I. My little budding
photographer! ;-)
 Then we decided to split up. Maddy wanted to do
Space Mountain REALLY
bad, and Brinn wanted nothing to DO with Space Mountain. So I
took
Brinn to Big Thunder instead while Kristen and Maddy went back into
Tomorrowland. Brinn and I had a great time, and Kristen later
told me
Maddy just LOVED Space Mountain again! We met over in
Frontierland
where I had snagged some great benches to watch the parade. It
was
just outside where they were passing out hot cocoa and cookies, so we
had a good supply of hot drinks and some great Snickerdoodles!
Yum!
The girls had a spot right under the parade rope, and Kristen and I
could see fine from our seat on the bench (although pictures didn’t
come out so well from back there!)
 The parade was great and it was nice to sit and relax
while we waited
for it to arrive. There were carolers singing not far away, and
people-watching is always enjoyable.
After the parade passed, we headed over to have our photo taken, and
the lines were not too bad at all. It was getting late, so we
headed
back toward Main Street. The girls wanted some ice cream BAD, but
all
the stands had closed. So they were doing some shopping, and I
saw the
ice cream shop and suggested that. Just before we got there they
locked the doors! No ice cream for us tonight, and that is
probably
for the best! We enjoyed all the lights and snow on Main Street
and
then headed down to catch the boat back to the Wilderness Lodge.
The
line was too long for only one boat, so we ended up waiting a while for
the second boat to come. Then we finally got back to the room and
the
girls were quickly in bed while Kristen and I packed as fast as we
could. Packing at one in the morning is NOT fun, but gave us a
bit
more time to sleep in the morning. We piled up most of the
luggage by
the front door, and then turned in for some much needed shuteye.
Tomorrow we check out and then head to Universal!
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We were all up
bright and early for our Magic Kingdom (MK) day. But first, we
have our last meet this morning - WillCAD’s Kona Cafe Breakfast
meet. We needed to be there by 7:30am, and since we wanted
to spend the rest of the day at the MK - BriarRose offered to pick us
up on her way to the Polynesian. Thanks Kristen!
:-) 
We
arrived a bit after most everyone else, and the group was broken up
into three large tables. Our table was across an aisle-way from
the other two, which was just a bit disappointing. We didn’t get
to chat with the group too much during breakfast, but Tracy and her
group joined us at our table which was good because I hadn’t gotten
much chance to talk to Tracy yet. :-) We all enjoyed a nice
breakfast, and I did get to make a quick rounds to say hi, and hear
about all the fun that I missed by not going to the Karaoke meet the
night before! Wow - what a wild bunch! :-D From
the sounds of it - very little sleep was had by most of the group
staying at Pop! ;-) See MargaretJ’s trip report for lots
more details and all the incriminating photos! 
After breakfast there were many sad goodbyes and much
hugging. Since we had today and the next day to go, I hadn’t seen
this coming. But this was the last meet we would attend, and so
we took some time to say our goodbyes, and tell everyone how much we
looked forward to NEXT MouseFest! :-) Slowly we started to
separate, and go our separate ways. We followed MargaretJ, Alicia
and a few others to the Monorail. They were headed to the Grand
Floridian for a bit of Resort hopping, and we were headed to the
MK. As we made our stop at the GF, I waved to the group as they
walked off the monorail. Just as the doors closed a group of them
(lead by MJ of course!) come running back, bang on the glass, and start
yelling something... Couldn’t hear them at first, but with a bit
of pantomime, it call came clear! They were yelling for an
autograph!! LOL! Try explaining THAT to a car full of
other Monorail riders who don’t have a clue! :-D Have to
love such a fun final meet! Hope the Grand Floridian is still
there! ;-)
So, onward to the MK
where we arrived 
JUST
before opening! Have to love that timing! Soon, we
were in the park and as usual immediate headed back to Fantasyland
after a quick photo opportunity in front of the castle (which was all
decked out for the taping of the Christmas parade that day).
The girls still love Dumbo, so
that was our first ride. Then we pretty much walked on Peter Pan,
Snow White, Pooh, and then visited Donald selling some Christmas
Trees. And we ran into Alice near the teacups. 
Then it was on into
Toon Town. We hit Goofy’s Barnstormer first, and there was NO
line, so the girls ran around and did it again. After
that we saw a bunch of characters in the store photo area.
Minnie, Pluto and Goofy were there in one room. And then we
circled around to see Tigger and Eeyore in a second room. And
would you believe the girls PASSES on seeing the princesses!
:-O They wanted to see the others more! 
After
the characters we toured Micke
y and Minnie’s houses.
Mickey had a few decorations up (but NOT as many as he used to!) and we
didn’t notice ANY decorations inside Minnie’s house. C’mon Disney
- Mickey and Minnie would do it up RIGHT! I’d love to see more
added in future years. 
We walked back past the tea cups
toward the hub, and stopped to watch the Belle Storytelling show that
was just starting. None of us were selected to ‘help tell the
story’, and I
think that was fine with all involved! The girls are too shy for
that, and the kids they picked were so cute. Especially the
little tiny girl that played Gaston! It was a fun show.
As
we continued toward the hub, we found a Photopass Photographer on the
bridge and got some pictures taken with the castle in the
background. (both photopass and on our camera which was nice)
. Stopped for a bit of shopping in the Christmas store in
Frontierland. By now it was getting pretty busy in the
park. And even though there were a lot of people out watching the
parade taping, there were MANY people roaming around. Check out
that picture of the crowds in Frontierland! No desire to be
wet today, so we passed on Splash, and grabbed some Fastpasses for Big Thunder Mountain RailRoad.
Off we went to kill some time in Adventureland. During a bathroom
break in Peco’s Bills (I think that is where we were) we happened to
see Stinkerbelle and Ken eating their lunch. No time to chat, but it was good to see Ken again
this year, if only for a couple seconds! 
Then it was on to the Pirates of
the Caribbean. The left lane was open, so we headed down that
way. Wait was pretty short, and soon we were Yo-hoing
along. Brinn was afraid on this ride today, and seemed to
remember the drop being MUCH bigger than it was. She was a bit
embarrassed at her carrying on after the drop, but then enjoyed the
rest of the ride. She is getting worse about rides instead of
better as she gets older. After that we waited longer for
Aladdin’s Flying Carpets that even in the summer! It was
crazy! It didn’t take that long, but the line was really wrapped
around. Then the girls ran around with the water spraying tiki
gods for some cool fun. Not too much - it was warm enough, but no
need to get soaked today! ;-) 
The crowds were getting on my
tired nerves, so we decided to head out. As we passed through the
hub again, a CM directed us to the front of where they were taping for
the parade again. They did a bunch of crowd shots, so we MIGHT be
in there on Christmas morning. We were WAY on an end, so it is
less likely we were in the shots. I’ll have to watch and
see! We only stayed a short time - knowing how long these
things can drag on - and headed back for a rest at the resort.
Tonight we attend MVMCP #2 (Thanks Disney!) and if *I’m* cranky
tired already, then we ALL need a nice nap! :-) 
