Day 4 - Christmas Eve at Magic Kingdom

Knowing that Magic Kingdom is Jaime's favorite of the parks, (I knew this would be the case beforehand as Magic Kingdom is the most like Disneyland...) we decided to spend Christmas Eve there.  This was our first day to spend daylight hours in Magic Kingdom and, among other things, we wanted to see some characters that we either hadn't seen before or hadn't seen in a while. (Finding characters and getting a pic/autograph has always been a hobby of ours.)

When it comes to finding new characters to have pictures with, we count characters with new outfits as new.  For example, Pirate Goofy:

We own a Dub Video Dub that includes Disneyland songs including the Country Bears.  Disneyland has long since gotten rid of their Country Bear show but it still exists at Disney World.

This was the absolute craziest thing I have ever seen at a Disney Park. Songs that included lyrics like; "blood on the saddle, blood all around and a great big puddle of blood on the ground", "all the guys that turn me on turn me down" etc. was just plain weird...but fun.  Harris loved it and made us go see it again later on in the trip.

After this we saw the Disney World version of the Tiki Room. Here it is a little different in that Iago and Zazu (from Aladdin and Lion King) had taken over and revamped the show.  It was fun to see it a little more updated.

Zazu

Iago

At this point we headed over to Toon Town to check it out. They had a cool Character Spot that had a place for the Disney Princesses. Now, Jaime loves the Disney Princesses but Olivia feels that she is now way too mature for such things :).  As such, we haven't stood in line to see them for years so we decided to overrule Liv and give it a go.

So, I was in charge of photography and Jaime informed me that I had taken an inordinate amount of pictures of Belle.  For the record, I have no idea what she is talking about...

The kids in front of Mickey's house.

Keeping with the theme of meeting with Characters, we decided to do a Character Dinner with Winnie the Pooh and friends.

I liked seeing the characters this way (with them just walking around to each table), especially Tigger.  Tigger is one of the most obnoxious characters to get a picture with when he is walking around Disneyland. He usually ends up just walking away.

We spent the rest of Christmas Eve doing rides and having a good time.  Here is some picture evidence:

We almost never do the Teacups ride (both Jaime and I get a bit motion sick) but we made an exception here.  The kids here are wrestling me for control of the spinning mechanism ( I won, btw)

We saw parts of the Electrical Parade just about every time we were at Magic Kingdom.  Christmas Eve was no exception.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is one of our very favorite rides at either park.  We made sure to do it as much as possible.

Jaime's favorite ride is Splash Mountain, so we made sure to do it twice...

I thought this was funny.  The park was so dead late on Christmas Eve that even though there was no one on the ride they kept taking pictures of when the logs went over the big drop...

We liked not having to wait though, we especially liked that we didn't have to exit our log when we went on the ride for the 2nd time!

The Laughing Place outside the ride

After a very full day we headed back to our hotel room.  On the way out I snapped this cool pic of the castle:

I also thought this was a cool photo opp.

At this point  I should relay the story of the Christmas Tree. 

For months and months, Jaime has been bugging me to get this ridiculous Christmas Tree from the Disney Florist to have in our room.  It was a cool 4 foot flocked tree with a  monogrammed tree skirt.  While the tree was cool I would describe it as...cost prohibitive.  So, much to Jaime's dismay, I denied her request.  I definitely understood Jaime's concern about spending Christmas morning without a tree and decided to honor her request but without her knowledge. 

So, in the middle of the day on Christmas Eve we found an 18" fiber optic tree for sale at one of the little shops and Jaime asked me if we could buy it so we could "at least have something"...my wife is so dramatic!  Anyway, I had already purchased the tree from Disney Florist and arranged to have it delivered and set up while we were at the park on Christmas Eve and I really didn't want to spoil the surprise (for her or the kids) so I agreed to the purchase of the fiber optic tree and send her and the kids out of the shop so I could "arrange to have it sent directly to our room".  

OK, back to the blog journal.  Once we got back to the resort and headed to our room Jaime could see that our blinds were open and what looked to be Christmas lights were shining through the window.  As I opened the door for Jaime to walk in she caught site of the tree and started to cry.  That moment made it all worth it.  Here is a picture of said tree;

So, all in all Christmas Eve was a smashing success.