The night I had most been looking forward to was the December 30th "New Year's Eve Eve" fireworks at Magic Kingdom. When we saw them two years ago, there were literally the most magnificent fireworks I had ever seen. I also wanted to catch the last day of the Christmas parade (yay dancing reindeer and marching toy soldiers!). It was also William's first time to ride Tiana's Bayou Adventure. So an action packed day!
We got to Magic Kingdom bright and early to do it up right. No sleeping in for that park on a major holiday. Our plan was to ride the rides all morning/early afternoon (the Tiana VQ was for 1 or 2 pm) and then come back in the evening for the fireworks. Must dos are the holiday overlays: the Jingle Cruise and Space Mountain with the lights on/punk carols playing (probably my favorite ride of all time - just that version!)
University of Illinois band marching down Main Street, since the football team was playing in Orlando later that day (or the next day) in a bowl game.
For the parade, I stationed myself where I would have a head on view of the traffic. The guys were less interested and chose an obstructed view sitting in the sleigh outside the Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe. It was a good choice for each party. I learned that there are sign language interpreters for the parade, and enjoyed watching them during some of the pre-show.
Finally it was Tiana time. We made William (he chose?) to ride in front of us since seating is in twos. There was no one else in our boat which was really strange. I enjoyed splashing him when we slowed down. Turns out there was one other person in our boat behind me and John that none of us noticed, but because of our weight distribution, we got soaked on the splash down! It was pretty hilarious. We dried fast enough. It's a pretty lame ride but now we can all say we have done it. John and I rode on our October trip.
A few more photos on our way out. I wanted a particular snack at Grand Floridian but William was ready to head home, so he rode the bus to Boardwalk while John and I took the Monorail to GF to also see the gingerbread house. Turns out the lounge wasn't opening for another hour so we did pictures of the Christmas decorations and then took at Uber back to our resort for corn dogs on the Boardwalk.
I seem to have forgotten a corn dog photo but it was delicious. I did get a photo of our room, which was the first set of blue next to the red on the 5th floor. So we had a great view of both Epcot fireworks when we looked forward and right over Beach Club, and the Magic Kingdom fireworks when we looked left over Yacht Club. On NYEE and NYE, Magic Kingdom fireworks were at 6:30 and midnight so we caught the 6:30 show before we left for our dinner at California Grill and returned to the park.
Dinner was good but California Grill has not been the same since it went prix fixe. It's not a must do for me anymore. Back at the parks, we had William my all time favorite Disney parks photo from almost 10 years ago. Close. :-)
We got a little greedy with the rides (even snuck in old school favorite Astro Orbiter) and ended up cutting it too close on the fireworks as we were getting off the People Mover as they started. However, we did get to ride through a broken down Space Mountain while on the People Mover, so that's always cool! The show was spectacular and I think John likes watching me watch the show more than he likes the fireworks themselves! Not sure what it is that pulls as my emotions so much but I love a good Disney fireworks show!
