Christmas in July is here! I held back my Thanksgiving Walt Disney World trip report due to time constraints, and I’m so excited to finally share it with you. Click here for the setup, and read all the posts in this report here. Onward!
I call this the Christmas in July trip report for a reason, you know. Things are about to get properly Yuletide-y around here: this was the day of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas party!
Long day ahead or no, I was still up at 7am for my sacred Lightning Lane duties. It being a half day, I only needed to snag an Individual Lightning Lane for Cosmic Rewind. Practically painless compared to the day before.
Pat went down to the lobby for lattes, and we enjoyed a bit of a coffee hang on the balcony as we watched the crowds stream into the Magic Kingdom. I wish I could do that every morning!
Coffee time being over, we headed down to the concourse level and met Egon and Ariel and the girls. Egon wanted to have the kids’ caricatures drawn, which is a much less time-consuming affair these days. Instead of sitting for your portrait, you can just give the guy a cell phone shot and pick it up later. Ah, modern technology.
DISNEY DAY PART I: EPCOT
This important task completed, we were free to take the monorail(s) to Epcot. For once, I got the Lightning Lane timing exactly right, and after a brief jaunt through the Creations Shop we were able to head over and jump into the Cosmic Rewind line. This time around we got “Conga,” which is #4 on my list but at least better than “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.”
Incidentally, if you’re wondering, we figured out where the Cosmic Rewind photo op camera is! Mild spoilers, but you know the initial backward bit where the music starts to play? Literally as you are turning back around, you’ll see flashes to your front left – that’s the camera going off. Needless to stay I have been using this knowledge to my advantage.
Obviously we had to commemorate our ride with a picture with Groot.
We took a brief touring pause for lunch at Spice Road Table over in World Showcase’s Morocco. And hey, since we were there, we continued to tour around the lake. We wandered through the Mitsukoshi department store in Japan and got snacks in Karamel Kuche.
It was starting to get crowded, so we decided to pack it in on Epcot and take the monorail back to The Contemporary. The groups splintered off to our respective rooms (with Pat and I making a pit stop at the Outer Rim bar) for some rest before our Christmas party evening.
PART II: MICKEY’S VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS PARTY
If you’re a Disney regular – and if you’re reading this, I think it’s safe to say you’re a Disney regular – I must ask that you go into this next portion of the trip report with a nonjudgmental heart. Look, if I were in charge, this isn’t how I would’ve done the party either. I would’ve been all about the special shows and parade and fireworks!
Alas, Alice and Cindy were all about those rides, and can you really blame them? It was their first Disney trip ever, and as much as it’s arguably not the point of MVMCP, the temptation to knock them all out was too great. A ride-tastic party it was to be!
So yeah! We walked to the Magic Kingdom from the resort, picked up our complimentary party ornaments, and headed over to Cosmic Ray’s for some snacks while the regular guests were shooed out of the park. Finally the party actually started, and we were free to tour!
Our first attraction of the day was Space Mountain, which had a special Christmas overlay: instead of the usual rocket noises, we got Christmas carols, and instead of darkness, we got special holiday lighting and projections? The carols were kind of novel, but Pat and I agreed the Space Mountain is much better where you can’t properly see where you’re going. The holiday lighting was just too much.
Given that it was just next door, we moseyed over to the Tron area to see if Cindy was in fact tall enough to ride. No one was overly optimistic… but by some miracle, she was exactly tall enough! Woohoo!
“Okay, great, let’s do it,” said Egon, to which Pat replied, “No, it’s another virtual queue thing. We have to wait to be called. Jenn got us in when the spots dropped an hour ago.” And that’s why I’m the designated virtual queue girl. 😉
After that we walked straight onto Seven Dwarfs mine train, if you can believe such a thing, followed immediately by the tea cups.
Totally underrated? A spin on the carousel. “Oh, are we riding too?” Pat said as I followed the girls aboard. Um, yes? Carousels are AWESOME, sir!
We stopped for holiday cookies and hot chocolate at Pinocchio Village Haus. With the aid of all that sugar, I then I did a little dance to Goofy’s seminal holiday hit, “I’d Like to Have an Elephant for Christmas.” I love how they eschew the usual holiday music loop in favor of the classics!
We voyaged on it’s a small world on our way to the Haunted Mansion, then scampered over to Big Thunder Mountain and rode that with no wait too! See, this all-rides-all-the-time method has some merit.
As we rounded the Kingdom, we found ourselves with a new mission: Egon is a big eggnog fan, and I happened to notice that one (1) cookie spot offered eggnog. Not only eggnog, but iced gingerbread cookies! I love those!
The cookie stop was in Adventureland night next to the Magic Carpets, which the girls decided they might as well ride – no lines, after all!
Well, there were a few lines. We considered the Jingle Cruise but alas, that was one of the few attractions that did boast a lengthy wait, and we had just received our boarding group call for Tron. Ah, well. The girls were v. excited for another roller coaster, so we chose lightcycles.
We backtracked across the hub to Tomorrowland, where we triple-checked Cindy’s height and had her try out the tester lightcycle. She checked out, so off we went to the grid! Once again, we were the winning team. My perfect streak continues. 😜
Incidentally, this is a pretty underrated spot for fireworks. We lucked into it!
There was still about an hour left of party, but Cindy and Alice did NOT have an hour left of stamina. That’s okay; we rode more than enough rides to get our money’s worth! Duly satisfied, we took the walkway back to The Contemporary and headed to bed.
In the morning: Thanksgiving in Walt Disney World!
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