Evening 3: Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

Ever since we first booked our trip, Danielle's mom had been bugging us about if we were going to Mickey's Christmas Party. The answer was no because it was kinda expensive, and I had read that it was crowded and lame. But when my dad scored us free tickets, we could hardly pass them up, and we figured since they were free that we wouldn't feel like we had to stay if it was crowded/lame.

We were pretty exhausted from a funfilled day at MGM, but Danielle had promised someone a T-shirt that you can ONLY get at the Christmas party and since we did have free tickets we thought that we'd go, grab the T-shirt and maybe a cup of free hot cocoa and then bolt. We took a bus to the closest hotel to the Magic Kingdom and then got on the monorail. While we were on the monorail, a woman was talking as loud as possible on her cell phone in the car. Seriously heard every word she said and knew when and where she was planning on meeting her friend. At one of the stops, she starts frantically looking around and screaming "where am I? Where am I?" Pure comedy.

We arrive at the Magic Kingdom and all the "cast members" are dressed in their holly jolly best uniforms. I would seriously kill myself if I had to where something like that. I can't really describe it except that it was a dress that a five year old might wear for Christmas with holly all over it and a bow in their hair. Our plan was immediately derailed because a parade was supposed to start any minute and there was pretty much no where to move to. We figured we'd watch the parade (plus we had no idea where to find the special T-shirt). Unfortunately we were in the parade Nazi's section. Each section of the street has a staff member assigned to it to try to keep people off the parade route and keep some semblance of order. At one point a woman stepped back into the "walkway" area to take a picture. The parade Nazi marched up and with two wands that looked like the kind people use to direct airplanes (except blue) began waving in front of the woman's camera. The woman was obviously pissed, but went away as she was told.

The parade was the longest and slowest moving parade I have ever seen which was bad because Danielle had to pee and the bathroom was across the street. After the parade, and Danielle peeing, we went to look for the special shirt. Came across one problem. We were looking for a red T-shirt and green sweatshirt, but they only had green T-shirts and red sweatshirts (or vice versa, I don't really remember.) After sending Danielle to two other stores, while I reserve the coveted clothing in the first store, Danielle makes an executive decision and buys the green T-shirt and red sweatshirt. Also while waiting I pondered buying the "scratch and sniff" night shirt that smells like chocolate, because that's sexy, right?

After buying the shirt, I go and get my free scalding hot chocolate and sugar cookies (YEAH!!) and Danielle gets apple juice (boo!). We decide to pick 1 show to go to (Mickey's Twas the Night Before Christmas). As we're waiting for it to start, a woman plops down her five year old in our row (it's pretty crowded), and orders her to "stay here" while she goes and sits in the back. Danielle thinks that's a great move because "we all know that all shows at Disney World leave out in an orderly fashion and she'll have no problem finding that kid later." Luckily the kid was smart enough to realize that this was not a good decision and went back to sit with mom.

We went home exhausted.

Stay tuned: Day 4 -- Epcot Center and That's What She Said.