Mon. Nov. 29
Today was our morning to have our traditional breakfast at Crystal Palace before the park opens. I always make a reservation at 8:05am so we can eat, see characters and be out of there before the rest of the park opens.
We've got this one down to a science:
Everyone is up at 7am
We leave the room at 7:15am.
Get in the car and drive to Magic Kingdom.
Park in the first row and walk to the monorail.
Funny thing happened this time. We were wearing matching shirts today - the painted Mickeys I had made for a past trip. As we were walking to the monorail, Cate was just plain wound up. I asked her if she was a little excited. Her response, "Of course, I'm excited. It's Crystal Palace Day." Of course, it was more funny because she was hopping along while talking. A Cast Member saw us and decided to play along. He said to Cate, "Ma'am this is the Magic Kingdom. We don't allow that kind of excitement before 8am here." It was classic.
Anywho...rode the resort monorail around to MK and it was 7:45am. They were already letting people through the turnstiles so we walked right in I have to say, there's nothing like walking down Main Street with all the Christmas decorations and like only 20 other people in your field of vision. Wicked cool.
Bryan checked us in at CP. I took some pics of the kids with the castle as a backdrop and then we were called in. We were actually the first family to be sat on the left half of the restaurant.
Food is always good here. We saw Piglet and Tigger, but didn't wait for Pooh and Eeyore so we paid for our meal and meandered off.
At this time, it was around 8:30am and still very empty in MK. Remember, official opening isn't until 9am and the only people inside the park are those with breakfast ressies.
Since we never really have time to see Walt and Mickey at the hub (because it's always so crowded), we took the time to do that. I never had noticed the smaller statues of eight other characters that surround the hub either. The benefits of it not being wall to wall people and being able to take in those details. I took a few pics of the kids by the poinsettia trees and Cate took a pic of Bryan and me. We also got to see the old time fire engine drive by. Very cool!
We always head for Frontierland, so I thought for a change of pace, we'd head to Tomorrowland instead. We took the roundabout way through the Rose Garden. I think I'd only walked through there one time before. Again, it was so nice to be able to do it when it was so quiet.
Tomorrowland was roped off so we just hung out there. I took a couple of pics of an empty Tomorrowland. We decided we'd get Fastpasses for Buzz, ride Buzz and then the other three would hit Space Mountain before we all did Buzz again.
Well those plans got pitched because as the Cast Members walked up to the rope, we were asked if we'd like to be the first family to ride Buzz Lightyear! Heck, yea!
So they motioned us under the rope and took us, and only us, through Tomorrowland and over to Buzz. We got on Buzz and rode by ourselves completely! At the end, they gave us souvenir ride photos, which we have never done on that ride. Very cool!
We went over and got Fastpasses for Buzz. The kids headed for Space and I suggested that Bryan and I shop. Well I ended up shopping by myself at the Merchant of Venus for a bit and I had five Cast Members falling all over themselves, asking if I needed help. Seriously, that needs to happen everywhere!
I found a few things that I put on my must-have list before Cate texted me wondering where I was. What was funny is that each of us, at that moment, was waiting for the male member of our party to get out of the bathroom. Talk about weird synchronization.
Anywho...we headed over to the Mad Tea Party and spun around before going to Philharmagic, which was fabulous as always!
Bryan has always wanted to head back to Tom Sawyer's Island so he and the kids headed over there and I went back to the ye Olde Christmas Shoppe and made some acquisitions. My favorite so far: Edible Pixie Dust aka Mickey Head Christmas Cookie Sprinkles!
I love my family, but it was nice to shop unencumbered or worrying about who was antsy to leave or what.
I wandered through Adventureland's shops and then came upon the Golden Goose of character meet and greets for Bryan - Ariel. And not just any Ariel...this was Ariel in her blue dress, which is not easy to find. I texted him about it and then headed down Main Street.
Did a little more browsing and identifying things for my own personal wish list while listening to a great acapella group singing Christmas carols on Main Street. Love. It.
By that time, it was approaching noon and we were bushed and ready to head home. Except for Bryan. He was still in line to meet Ariel. I took the kids home and Bryan came back on the bus.
We had some leftovers and then hit the pool. Great pool day. Temp was around 80 degrees and it was mostly sunny. Fun times.
Cate, Bryan and I made Mickey Tye-Dye T-shirts at the pool activities table. They're being washed right now. I'm a little disappointed in mine...not very distinctive ears. But we'll see what the others look like.
We came back and got cleaned up because we had another dining experience waiting for us. I made a reservation for the new La Hacienda de San Angel, the new table-service place in Mexico in Epcot that's right on the lakeside.
We walked around and got checked in. Nice open restaurant and very well themed. We were shown to a half circle booth facing the water. I had scoped out the menu earlier and we had decided to get both the mixed grill items that were for 2 people each so we could sample a lot of stuff.
I was a little leery because I don't do onions and I didn't want to be picking onions out of my food. No worries. The food was fabulous. Amazingly yummy. It had a bit of a kick, but it wasn't a four-alarm fire or anything.
It had been a long day and we were pretty bushed. Stefan headed home, but Cate and I thought we'd hit the Karamel Kuche in Germany for a dessert.
Didn't happen. We got distracted saving the world, a la Kim Possible style, got tired and headed home.
Bryan, meanwhile, made a stop and saw Mexican Donald before heading home, too.
All in all, a very fun day.
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