A sold out Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party – our experience

My daughter had an orchestra concert at Downtown Disney, so we planned to stick around a few days longer to take in all the exciting Christmas activities at the resorts and parks.  We had purchased our ticket to the final Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party of the year far in advance and fully aware it would become a sell-out.  I’ve attended other sell-out parties at Disney World in the past, but this one was just packed with people.  It felt like a very busy day in the park.  We know that a good plan always beats the crowds though, so we pre-planned our important activities.

We began the night a little late as we ran into some problems before we could reach the park.  It was about 8:30 p.m. before we actually entered.  The parade was passing in Town Square and we opted to jump in and meet Mickey and Minnie with no wait.  My daughter wasn’t interested in the Princes/Princesses because she had seen them at the Halloween Party in the same costumes.  Mickey and Minnie were in festive attire and excited to see us because there were no guests around.  They were all watching the parade.  Our original goal was to dress as Grinch and Max, but it was FREEZING, so we opted for Santa and Reindeer, sort of.

Because there was no one around, I asked Mickey and Minnie if I could shoot some photos of them.  The silly CMs thought I was asking them to pose, so I got this fun photo of a couple of wonderful, hard-working ladies.

I had to coax Mickey into proposing to Minnie.  We had to convince him that he was merely playing a role onstage.  I ended up with this great shot.

From there we decided to take a crazy photo of Jordyn pretending to be a Toy Soldier.

I took a few shots of the festive Christmas lights on Main Street before heading to meet Periwinkle.

There was insanely long lines for cookies and hot cocoa throughout most of the night.  Perhaps it was the abnormally cold weather?

I didn’t realize that Jordyn had never had the opportunity to meet Periwinkle.  I thought we had seen her together at the Halloween Party.  The line for the Fairies was only about 15 minutes.  Tinkerbell and Periwinkle loved Jordyn’s reindeer ears and that became a common theme among the characters, including ones that stopped during the parade to comment.

I told Jordyn she could be friends with Tink one day based on her height, but Jordyn told me she can’t because she isn’t able to wink.

Next on our list of must do’s was the Country Bears and Santa Duffy.  Unfortunately, they were on break, so Jordyn asked to see if Bullseye was dancing.  Bullseye didn’t even appear for the SOLD-OUT party?  Oh well, we took a few shots of Jessie and Woody and walked around until our must do’s were out.

We found a photopass photographer appearing near the Riverboat Landing and being veterans, we knew that meant that a character would soon appear.   In this case it would be Santa Duffy.  Duffy comes from a unique background but he gives nice hugs.

Remember, I told you the characters were really fond of Jordyn’s special reindeer ears?

While searching for the Country Bears we stopped to listen to the Notorious Banjo Brothers and Bob who had their instruments decked for the season.

While I was enjoying the music, Jordyn found Big Al and Liverlips wandering around.  It’s rare to get these guys to stop for photos these days.  They usually only appear for the Frontierland Hoedown.

I miss seeing Shaker and Wendell as well as the Brers out for the parties!

We found a nice, front row spot for the parade and then had to resist some guy trying to push his way to the front.  I enjoy  Once Upon a Christmastime Parade.  It’s one of my favorites.  There’s so many characters and colorful floats and the music really adds to the season.

After the parade, we sought out Peter Pan and Wendy.  Peter is a lot of fun for interaction and it’s the only time of the year to meet Wendy these days.  Peter asked Jordyn if she could fly with her reindeer ears.

We saw Cinderella’s bunch over by the new castle wall, but Jordyn wasn’t interested in meeting them because they had a fairly long line, so we headed over to see Scrooge McDuck who had no line at all.  Scrooge didn’t seem very interested in interacting and having fun.  It was just a photo op unfortunately.

Winnie the Pooh and the gang went to sleep REALLY early.  They were gone for the night by 10:30 pm.  So, we headed over to the Cosmic Ray’s Dance Party to dance with Santa Goofy for a bit.  After some calories were burned with all the dancing, we consumed some cookies and hot cocoa.  Don’t tell anyone, but we took about a dozen cookies home with us.  Hey, we paid over $70 for that cookie :)

After a spin on the Peoplemover, we chose to meet Phineas and Ferb in their Christmas attire.  They wore the same costumes at Hollywood Studios but had a nice backdrop and much shorter line toward the end of the party.

We finished up the party with A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas show.  It’s a hokey, nerdy type show that pokes fun at itself, Stitch and Santa.  Stitch wants to capture Santa, but the perky hostess dissuades him from doing so.  The show involves Buzz, Mike Wasowski and Santa Stitch makes an appearance at the end.  The hostess of the show kind of reminds me of the blonde chick from High School Musical, but it was a fun way to end the night.

We ended our night with a few shots of the beautifully lit Cinderella Castle.  I wish they would leave the lights on the castle throughout winter, not just Christmas.  It really adds to the park’s nightime glory.

We had a fun night and the only thing we missed that we really wanted to do was the castle Christmas show.  Oh well, I guess we’ll just have to go back next Christmas!