Our Wedding,Shopping,Park Hopping Trip Day 3 PART 2 ; MVMCP Parade and Fireworks

[WileyCoyote]

Day 3 Friday 14 November Part 2

Ok – the soundtrack to this evening , ahem, do sing along :

Let it Go, I can’t feel my toe, never mind that fake snow, its flipping freezing

Let it Go, no more cookies no, they ran out some time ago , its flipping freezing

Do you want to build a snowman? No man, I need some time to thaw, this wait is such a chore

Andy’s turning blue, And I need the loo, who will keep my spot in this queue ? Its flipping freezing …

Ok, doesn’t quite rhyme, but you get the gist .

This was an evening of waiting . And I wish I liked Ugg Boots, then my feet might not have been quite so cold as I could have bought some earlier in the day.

We left part 1 at the Christmas shop and we were heading off to meet up with Rebecca near the Mine Train at 7pm

Remember – I am looking for a single lady and I forgot to tell her I have my bride ears on so we are both relying on photos from trip reports . Its getting darker by the minute and there is no obvious meeting spot. What can possibly go wrong ?

We settle down on the wall opposite the entrance to Mine Train and Andy gets us a coffee.

Forgetting there must be a Disney byelaw that insists all coffee is to be served at a lava melting temperature and that this one helpfully HAS A STRAW in it to transport the boiling liquid directly to the roof of your mouth .

I had a slurp and nearly went airborne with scalding coffee burning my mouth –

I spent the rest of the evening doing that annoying thing with your tongue when you have either a hole in your tooth or loose skin – you know, firkling about convinced there is a fissure the size of a moon crater in your cakehole when there plainly isn’t.

Ooooch, that was HOT. I managed not to spit the coffee onto my ( still) white trousers and once it had reached normal earth temperatures, it was quite pleasant.

Time was ticking and I still couldn’t see Rebecca. We passed on many temptations to pounce on unsuspecting peeps to see if it was her as I just couldn’t be sure.

About 7.30 the CMs formed a line and started to do a sweep of guests checking for wrist bands which I thought was a pretty orderly way of doing it.

It was also about now I had the genius idea of sending Rebecca an email – as I didn’t have her phone number with me ( I know, ace planning, you can imagine how impressed Andy was ..) but I knew her emails came up on her phone.

Bingo, 10 minutes later she appeared – apparently having been sat behind us the whole time in Friars Nook – but not on her own as her husband’s former co-worker Chris had come with her – so the whole time we were looking for her, she was in fact in a pair.

It was lovely to meet her and we exchanged cards ( for our wedding and her birthday).

It was a bit strange , meeting someone you have only ever corresponded with on social networks but we hit it off straight away and I am so pleased that we met up , she was such a warm and friendly person , putting us at ease straight away.

It turned out that Rebecca’s friend Chris is a Disney ride engineer – omg- amazing – who had just moved to Florida – and he was full of interesting facts .

Can you believe that as we walked round Andy said to him “ so , don’t you get bored going into the parks every day” – We just looked at him like “ did you just say that , really, ?”

We did locate some cookies ( at first they seemed almost as rare as SDMT FP+) and hot chocolate at the Village Haus – the cookies were ok – maybe a bit cinammony ? I made a quick stop at the Tangled toilets having heard about the amazing theming – its true, they are tres posh loos.

About 7.45 We headed over to the Jingle Cruise which was pretty much a walk on – it was really funny, I wish I had made a note of the jokes – it was really good fun and we laughed a lot. It was a great icebreaker actually as at first it was like being on some sort of weird blind date thinking of what to say next. But the CM was brilliant and we got chatting about the ride and the jokes and it was great. Really recommend it – they put some great touches on the ride for the Christmas theme and going in the dark made it even better .

From there we headed onto POTC which was less than a 10 minute wait – it was good fun

This is Rebecca and I at the end of the ride



You will see by now I have put on my jumper – but it was quite thin and I wish I had brought my proper Xmas Jumper with me

I think we then looked in on one of the dance parties at the Diamond Horsehoe but it was a slightly surreal experience and the fog effect is a bit weird on the photo.
Still lots of parents and kids were having a good time in there – and it was warm !
Ever seen a Crow and a Cow doing YMCA – me neither – it could leave you mentally scarred …



From here we went over to go onto Peter Pan – it was showing as 30 minute on Standby but Chris and Rebecca were sure it would be shorter and as I had never been on it, we stuck it out – in the end they were both right as it was more like 20 minutes . And its a lot of fun - I am glad I have been on it now

As There were waits at It’s a Small World , we thought it was time to stake out a spot at the Hub again for the fireworks at 9.30.

I have to say they were quite spectacular – I wish I was taller and I made more of an effort this time to look at the fireworks as well as trying to take pics – but here are the pics anyway.

You can tell the ones I took as people’s heads are in the way – then I gave the camera to Andy who had the height advantage and got some better snaps.

The official Disney person’s view look like this …



Ooh, aah

The 5’3”person’s view looks like this



I know, outstanding one of Tinkerbell isn’t it , rolls on floor laughing at totally feeble fail ..

They do get better I promise …









And the 6’4” persons view looks like this ……..

[WileyCoyote]

By now though, we are both undeniably cold – my back is starting to really niggle me with the standing ( and probably the bag carrying) and Andy’s legs are freezing ( he is still in shorts of course).

Undeterred we set off down Main Street to get a spot for the second parade – not thinking that the closer we got to the entrance, the later the parade would reach us – so whilst I was thinking it would be coming along in half an hour or so, it was more like an hour till we saw the first float.

People are leaving , but its still busy. There are people sat on the pavements but we get a second row spot which has a pretty good view and is a near a shop so Andy keeps disappearing to have a quick defrost every now and again.

I know its not real snow, but the effect just made us feel even colder !





We were both trying really hard to feel the magic but my back was killing me and Andy was so cold, it just didn’t feel a lot of fun – it was a long hour



Finally at 1045 the moments we had waited for




























Real time pic



The much better official photopass pic !



Real time pic ..



Much better photopass pic !



Just a final few ….





Very fitting to finish with Frozen – because that exactly what we were !

I found it hard to take pics and enjoy the parade but Andy did video quite a lot of it and its really good so I am pleased we have got that

The parade was good, so many different aspects to it and I am glad we stayed , its just such a shame we were almost desperate for it to finish so we could leave.

We decided that we had done enough and to stay any longer would just ruin the evening so we said our goodbyes to Chris and Rebecca – who being more sensibly dressed were carrying on a little longer.

We made our way out at 1115. It was very busy but amazingly we walked straight onto the monorail and found the car quite quickly – result !

Heater was set to a nuclear 85 degrees and we were soon defrosting.

I think at the time we felt quite underwhelmed by the whole experience and I had it as one of my lows when I first returned but looking back , I think it was better than I realised and that the cold definitely affected how we felt about it as we drove away. I am glad we went, but I wouldn’t rush back.

We get home just after midnight and put the shopping to bed



Andy was very pleased with his haul as you can see

We dropped into bed , tired, cold and a bit befuddled with it all I think
Bring on the

The next day is HERE

[disneymadhouse]

Really enjoying your report Amanda, thanks for sharing

I know what you mean about the cold. When we were there in 2012 we had an absolutely freezing day at SW. We would have left earlier but had booked dine with Shamu. I think by the time we got to eat dinner with Shamu I was totally fed up and that changed my opinion of the experience!
We were just discussing MVMCP today and was telling DD there will no falling asleep in the stroller this year - as we won't have it with us! She will see the parade live lol! Nice to see the Frozen additions, didn't realise they were in there! ( not talking about you and Andy lol!)

[meandmyboy]

Nice to read your experience of MVMCP. We did this last year but didn't bother this year. Your pics have reminded me of how nice the parade was though so might be tempted to try it again on another trip. Just hopefully it won't be as cold as you experienced!

[Cutiepie]

Lovely pics Amanda, sounds like an enjoyable day even though it was baltic and it put a dampner on it.

[KittyBlackDog]

Another lovely day. Ho great to meet up wit Rebecca and her friend. Shame about being so cold. It does makes difference on how you view everything. I know we feel like that whenever we visit DLP unfortunately as we always feel so cold no matter what time of year we've been.

Hopefully tomorrow more than makes up for it, along with Andys smiling face at his shopping haul

[gtyrel10]

Hi Amanda,

That was a mammoth day for you both and i can't believe how cold it got. I wonder if this was near the end of my holiday as i remember just how cold it was before we left. Funnily enough our MVMCP night was one of the hottest evenings of our entire trip!

That was fab finally meeting up with your friend, i had some awful planning and never found kayleigh the night we were due to meet but you just get so lost in the crowds of faces.

I love that picture of you and Andy infant of the castle it is a great shot actually you got some fab photos. Being 5 foot 2.5 myself its nice to see what tall people see i feel a bit jealous now seeing those lovely clear shots they get of things.

Loving Andy's wee happy face with all his shopping although i am confused by the giant Cath Kidston carrier bag where on earth is there a CK shop? xxx

[juliab]

It's just never occurred to me that it can get so cold in Orlando, I just associate it with warmth. You've got some great photo's of the parade, another one that we would love to see one day, it all looks so lovely.

Really enjoying your trippie Amanda

[mossyflossy]

great photos and shopping trip and lovely that you got to meet your friend but a shame it was so cold that you couldnt properly enjoy it. The picture of Andy and his shopping at the end did make me smile.

[Twentyyears]

Feel your cold- fab pics, lol at Tinker bell - that's the same sort of shot I always get too! We need DSLR cameras, or whatever they are called...
Great reading Amanda and nice for you to meet up with your network friend.