We've been regular visitors to Central Florida for over 12 years now but so far hadn't been tempted to attend Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. What a big mistake that was!! Why haven't we done this before? It was brilliant.
On Monday December 4, at 5.30pm, husband Kevin, daughter Nadia and myself parked up, rode the tram, strolled through security and joined the Party. Officially it starts at 6.30pm, but when I collected our tickets from Downtown Disney, the very helpful lady told me that we could enter the Magic Kingdom any time from 4.30pm. She also suggested that we either made reservations for one of the MK restaurants or to eat before we went in. We chose the latter so that we could spend more time on the Rides.
On entry to the Park we were each given a wristband, our permit to enjoy all of the facilities for the next 6 or so hours! It certainly paid to arrive early as we got to see the Fireworks at 6pm which heralded the end of their visit for the Daytime guests. The performance was spectacular. Just how do they get fireworks to display as presents, smiley faces and all manner of other objects? Brilliant, colourful and inventive, this was well worth watching and fortunately for us we'd get to see another performance later in the evening.
Where to start with the rides? Well, as regulars this was not such a problem for us. We knew our favourite rides and also rides that for whatever reason we'd never been on before and determined to try and get to do all of these. So we started with Splash Mountain figuring that if we got wet then we'd dry off quite easily as it was still warm. Next it was on to Big Thunder Mountain, then the Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. We didn't have to queue for any of these rides - wonderful.
By now we were thirsty, so we popped into the Cookie and Hot Chocolate station near to the Haunted Mansion, where we enjoyed a very welcome cookie and drink at no charge. One tip here, if you don't like your Hot Chocolate extremely sweet then ask them to give you one without the marsh mallows!
We'd hadn't been to Fantasy Land for a good few years so decided to check it out and see what we might have been missing. It's A Small World beckoned so we clambered into the boat for our World Tour. Good fun, just like we remembered from when our children were much younger. Peter Pan's Flight and Snow White's Scary Adventures were two rides that we'd never done before, so we had to do both, and had a very enjoyable time. Next to Mickey's Philharmagic - wow, fantastic, a must do.
While we'd been playing in Fantasy Land the first of the two Christmas Parades was taking place. Everywhere around the Parade viewing area was really crowded, so unless you have to see the early parade because you can't stay all evening then I would recommend that you wait and see the Parade at 11pm.
Soon it was time for the 9.30pm Fireworks, so we moseyed on down to our favourite viewing place in Frontierland, obtained hot chocolate and cookies on the way, and were again entertained with a spectacular performance. Nobody does it better than Disney. A lot of families with young children leave the Park after this display, and it was quite noticeable that there were fewer people around. So, what better time than now to visit Tomorrow Land for a ride with Stitch and a trip to Space Mountain? We had a lot of fun just watching the Indy Speedway!
All too soon it was time for the 11pm Christmas Parade and it was easy to get an excellent view of everything. The attention to detail on the beautiful floats was incredible, the Characters were bright and bubbly. What a way to finish an evening.
MVMCP certainly gave us an excellent evening and is superb value for money. Will we do this another year? Definitely.
On Monday December 4, at 5.30pm, husband Kevin, daughter Nadia and myself parked up, rode the tram, strolled through security and joined the Party. Officially it starts at 6.30pm, but when I collected our tickets from Downtown Disney, the very helpful lady told me that we could enter the Magic Kingdom any time from 4.30pm. She also suggested that we either made reservations for one of the MK restaurants or to eat before we went in. We chose the latter so that we could spend more time on the Rides.
On entry to the Park we were each given a wristband, our permit to enjoy all of the facilities for the next 6 or so hours! It certainly paid to arrive early as we got to see the Fireworks at 6pm which heralded the end of their visit for the Daytime guests. The performance was spectacular. Just how do they get fireworks to display as presents, smiley faces and all manner of other objects? Brilliant, colourful and inventive, this was well worth watching and fortunately for us we'd get to see another performance later in the evening.
Where to start with the rides? Well, as regulars this was not such a problem for us. We knew our favourite rides and also rides that for whatever reason we'd never been on before and determined to try and get to do all of these. So we started with Splash Mountain figuring that if we got wet then we'd dry off quite easily as it was still warm. Next it was on to Big Thunder Mountain, then the Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. We didn't have to queue for any of these rides - wonderful.
By now we were thirsty, so we popped into the Cookie and Hot Chocolate station near to the Haunted Mansion, where we enjoyed a very welcome cookie and drink at no charge. One tip here, if you don't like your Hot Chocolate extremely sweet then ask them to give you one without the marsh mallows!
We'd hadn't been to Fantasy Land for a good few years so decided to check it out and see what we might have been missing. It's A Small World beckoned so we clambered into the boat for our World Tour. Good fun, just like we remembered from when our children were much younger. Peter Pan's Flight and Snow White's Scary Adventures were two rides that we'd never done before, so we had to do both, and had a very enjoyable time. Next to Mickey's Philharmagic - wow, fantastic, a must do.
While we'd been playing in Fantasy Land the first of the two Christmas Parades was taking place. Everywhere around the Parade viewing area was really crowded, so unless you have to see the early parade because you can't stay all evening then I would recommend that you wait and see the Parade at 11pm.
Soon it was time for the 9.30pm Fireworks, so we moseyed on down to our favourite viewing place in Frontierland, obtained hot chocolate and cookies on the way, and were again entertained with a spectacular performance. Nobody does it better than Disney. A lot of families with young children leave the Park after this display, and it was quite noticeable that there were fewer people around. So, what better time than now to visit Tomorrow Land for a ride with Stitch and a trip to Space Mountain? We had a lot of fun just watching the Indy Speedway!
All too soon it was time for the 11pm Christmas Parade and it was easy to get an excellent view of everything. The attention to detail on the beautiful floats was incredible, the Characters were bright and bubbly. What a way to finish an evening.
MVMCP certainly gave us an excellent evening and is superb value for money. Will we do this another year? Definitely.