After a late night on Monday, we knew we didn't want early morning plans on Tuesday so I'd booked a 10:45 brunch reservation. After our trouble with the transportation to Magic Kingdom earlier, we decided we wanted to be at the bus stop by 9 am. We didn't bother setting any alarms for Tuesday morning, since we're up by 6 am on school mornings.
Brady was the first one stirring Tuesday morning. When James rolled over and groggily asked what time it was, Brady answered, "9:10." YIKES! We popped out of bed and I think we were out the door by 9:30. Not bad!
We had another long wait for a bus before finally giving up and boarding a bus to Epcot. From there, we took the Monorail to the Polynesian for breakfast at Kona Cafe. We'd heard amazing things about the Tonga Toast. It was pretty tasty - a hug slab of sourdough, stuffed with bananas, and rolled in cinnamon sugar. The biggest disappointment was that the kids had to order off the kids menu = no Tonga Toast for them.
We could usually find this little friend perched somewhere around our door:
After breakfast, we made it back to the hotel and headed to the pool for a few hours.
After the pool, it was time for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. The event technically started at 7, but our tickets allowed admission starting at 4:00 pm.
We managed to hit a visit with Mickey with only a very short wait. Bonus was that this Mickey could talk! He even showed us a magic trick.
We hadn't eaten since brunch, so we were ready for a snack. James was in the mood for ice cream. For one snack credit each, we sure got our fill! Three sundaes and one ginormous ice cream sandwich:
We couldn't quite convince Rudy to ride Big Thunder Mountain the day before, but he was ready today. The lines were a lot shorter since the party was limited admission. Good thing, too - since both kids loved it so much! I think we rode it at least twice this time and several more times later in the evening.
After that, we worked our way around Adventureland and Frontierland. It was nice that we didn't have to wait in any huge lines and that we didn't have to follow any particular plan.
Brady - laughing at our Jungle Cruise guide.
He wasn't thrilled, but we made Brady get a picture taken with Aladdin and Abu. When he was a baby, his preferred sound was "Ahhhbooo." Mary Lou even bought him a stuffed Abu.
Swiss Family Robinson treehouse. The boys had read the book with James and we'd watched the movie, so this was fun for them to explore.
Phineas and Ferb were greeting guests when we exited Toy Story. There was a short wait, so Rudy went into energy conservation mode. He's not pouting or sleeping, just conserving!
Phineas and Ferb...
It's snowing!
We decided to grab dinner at Casey's and watch the fireworks. Easier said that done. Just like for the regular day fireworks, people stake out their places hours in advance. Brady and I ordered dinner and James and Rudy went to find a place to eat/watch. I sent Brady out with condiments and napkins seconds after James left. Somehow they never matched up. Instead of enjoying the fireworks, we had a few minutes of minor panic while we tried to find Brady. Thankfully, he used his head: stayed in one place once he realized we were separated, found a cast member, and called my cell. Crisis (mostly) averted...
We were planning to do some more exploring after the parade. After dinner, we headed back to Adventureland to find a viewing spot. We found a great one...and both kids immediately crashed! Combination of overall exhaustion and food coma. Brady rallied for the parade. Rudy actually fell asleep and watched the parade through half closed lids. He did get enough of a power nap to rally for a little bit more time at the park.
Cross country "skiers":
Disney is really taking the parade experience to whole new level. Several of the floats had their own smells! Peppermint, cookies baking...the one below was a sugary sweetness smell:
We were all quite impressed with the toy soldiers. Despite the giant round heads, they still played the bugles. And they clomped all the way through the park in these enormous shoes!
We chose a prime spot for making a quick getaway to Big Thunder Mountain...for another three rides!
We took a loop around to ride Peter Pan before heading out. The park was closing down, so we made until the official end on this day at least!
Just wow...that's a lot of lights.
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