As I count down the 17 days remaining until my family’s Disney World trip, I am I walking through the agenda step by step. Once the trip is done, we’ll see how well the plan was executed. Because there’s no way everything goes according to plan. It never does.
When we left off, the girls got princess make-overs at the Bippity Boppity Boutique and we had dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern. In theory we have a little time to kill before the parade starts. Although if dinner does run into the parade, Liberty Square is a great place to watch. I am told you can usually step out of Liberty Tree Tavern into a great parade viewing spot.
“The plan” has us going back to Tomorrowland for minor attractions like the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor and Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Odds are we will visit these Tomorrowland attractions at some point in the trip. But they aren’t a priority. They are on the schedule largely as placeholders.
Last trip, Josie was picked from the audience for the role of Boo in the Monsters Inc show. It was a good time. With two cute girls to choose from, I figure there is a pretty high likelihood one of them will be chosen again this year. Perhaps it will be Kara’s turn.
With the girls all dolled up from their BBB visit, we probably won’t focus on rides or shows. They will have their full princess glam on. So, if we have time between dinner and the parade, we will probably take the opportunity to visit any princesses we may have missed up to this point. Josie in particular wants to visit Merida while wearing her Brave nightgown.
Since our previous day at the Magic Kingdom was cut short due to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, this will be our only night to catch the parade and fireworks. So that will be our focus this evening.
The Main Street Electrical Parade starts at 7:00. Kara is a big fan of the parades. Or at least she is when we watch them at home on YouTube. And the evening parades are always a little extra special.
Believe it or not, we have never seen the venerable MSEP. So we will make every effort to catch it this trip. Rumor has it that Spectromagic will be returning next year to celebrate the opening of the Fantasyland Expansion.
There is a little time between the parade and the fireworks. I want to see Wishes, but it is less of a priority than the parade. If there are any princesses we still need to pay a visit to, we’ll try to catch up with them between shows. If not, we’ll just settle in for the big finale.
One moment I am looking forward to is when Tinkerbell makes her flight around the castle. Josie is old enough that she asks me about whether or not things at Disney World are real. I take the approach that I’ll let her believe whatever she wants to believe. For whatever reason, she has decided that Tinkerbell is the litmus test.
In her mind, if Tinkerbell flies, it verifies the legitimacy of the whole shebang. So I can’t wait to see her reaction to seeing a live Tinkerbell circling the castle. That has the potential to be memorable.
The park stays open till 9:00. So in theory, we should have a little extra time for anything else we want to see or do before we end our last full day at Disney World. But we plan to come back for one final visit in the morning. So there’s a good chance we’ll head home after Wishes to avoid some of the crowd when the park closes.
Next up, breakfast at the castle.
When we stepped out of Liberty Tree Tavern last Halloween, we found ourselves in a very good spot to see the parade. We kind of wished we could’ve snuck around it, but that just wasn’t going to happen. For the Halloween party, they had stacked up bales of hay that we were able to stand on to get an even better look. Whether those will be there when you need them, I don’t know.
Cool. I think we’ll be out of dinner pretty far in advance of the parade. But you never know. The last Halloween party will be 11/01. So, I suspect the hay bales will be cleared by 11/05. Either way, we should be in a good position to either grab a parade viewing spot or just hang out and watch it go by. I have found it hard to plan our MK days for a few reasons. The big one is the FLE. The unpredictibility of soft openings has thrown everything up in the air. But also, we have enough time… Read more »
So far, it looks like my biggest planning challenge is EPCOT. It might be hard to keep 7 people happy and actually together enough to continue feeling “together.” All the walking necessary may be tough on my folks, and I have a few “must do’s” as well. Our probable late arrival after the Christmas party the night before further complicates the time outlay for both Soarin’ and Test Track. Thankfully, crowds are low that day, so some of our wait times look to be on the short side.
I remember seeing the crowd calendar for your date and being insanely jealous. I don’t think you will have too many problems based on that.
Soarin’ and Test Track are always the sticky spots. Obviously, FP will be in order. Especially since Test Track will just be out of refurb. Hopefully you can run, gather and manage FPs for the group.
Outside of those 2 attractions, I imagine you can just stroll around at your own pace and drink it all in. I hear Epcot looks great this time of year!