Obrins At WDW December 2006 Day 3

Sunday, December 31, 2006
Magic Kingdom

Another late morning start, it was almost 11:00 when we got to the Magic Kingdom. But, the park is going to be open very late tonight to make up for it. We were there well after the New Year. The weather was perfect. Nice and warm, but not hot, and dry.
	Main Street is extra special with the Christmas decorations. It is just lovely.
We stoped at Caseys for some good hot dogs, fries, and brownies. This was a decent use of our Disney Dining Plan (counter service). We sat at the Tomorrowland Terrace, because it was the closest place with a seat. There are lots of seats at the Terrace, not many at Caseys, and all of the seats by Carnation were full as well. It looks like the counter service at Tomorrowland Terrace is open again, it was closed when we were here before.
	Once again, we had a nice ride on the People Mover. It is surprising how much fun this is.
We saw a great show, Mickeys Night before Christmas, at the Galaxy Theater in Tomorrowland. Goofy played Santa, and there was Mickey, Minie, dancers, dancing hippos, good Christmas music, Chip and Dale, and neat decorations. This was a really fun show, perfect for the season.
	We rolled around almost twice on the Disneyland Railroad. We went from Toontown to Frontierland. We did almost nothing in Mickeys Toontown Fair this trip.
We wanted to try to stack our Fast Pass (we had pulled one for Space Mountain), but our window was not quite open when we were in front of Splash Mountain. We ended up not doing it.
	We did some snacking on the way down to the Haunted Mansion. The Haunted Mansion ride was just OK, it was marred by stupid screaming teenage girls. Debbie not on with us on the Haunted Mansion, she needed a break from the lines.
After the Haunted Mansion, we went into the Hall of Presidents. There was no rudeness this time. It was a very nice show. It is inspirational still.
	At some point in Frontierland, we went to the Country Bear Jamboree. We had not seen it for a while, and alll enjoyed the cute music, and corny country humor.
Nick did shooting gallery in Frontierland late at night. He said he always wanted to, be we could not remember ever doing it. He had fun, it is a clever little attraction.
	We enjoyed the great little show at the Tiki room. I still love this show, but would like the original again. I know that is not going to happen, at WDW anyway.
We had a really good ride on the Jungle Cruise. Our guide was a very funny girl, who was messing with Nick a bit. There was a long, long line. I think it was over an hour.
	Eating a turkey leg while trying to walk in a crowded park is impractical.
We spent a brief time with the free horns and hats, then got tired of them. We ended up discarding all but one horn. It was fun, though.
	Shortly before dinner, we spent 2 hours waiting on Space Mountain because of a break down. It seems foolish in hind sight, but we just did not know when to leave. We were right in front of the ride loader when it broke down. This was our fast pass from the morning!!
We had a good ride on Space Mountain. Finally.
	I really liked the spaghetti and meatballs I had at Tonys Town Plaza. The waiter started talking about video games, he had not played WoW but he talked about it. Nicks shirt started this all. The cinamon ice cream was the best part of the meal. Alfredos was a lot better, of course. But, Alfredos was a magnificent meal. We were all quite pleased with Tonys, and will make a point to eat there again. Nick had the ice cream bomb for desert, Debbie the tiara ma su again.
Shortly before the fireworks, we got on Splash Mountain in about 15 minutes. That was a good ride. We tried to get on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but they had a break down.
	The fireworks were very good. At first, I thought the terrace of Tonys was not a great place to view the spectacle, but it was really very good. This was such a spectacular show. There were fireworks all around the sky. But, that was really just the side highlights. The main show was over the front gate and the castle. If you stood just right, you could see either one of these from our vantage point.
After fireworks, we got on Pirates, after only about 15 minutes. Our late night luck was pretty good. We also got on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but that was about 40 minutes. This is a neat, neat, ride in the dark. Nick went went on Splash Mountain instead of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad with us. He claims he got on it 4 times.
	What is going on with the Fast Passes? Why are there so many people in the Fast Pass lines? Are they letting special groups get Fast Passes? It sure seems funny all those Fast Passes so late and those big groups always together. I also overheard some weird stuff in line at Space Mountain about DVC sales and Fast Passes. This is not how the FP system was supposed to work. It was supposed to make the ride experience better for all guests, not to be a mark of privledge for a few, at the cost of everyone else. Regardless, Happy New Year!!!