Friday, December 5, 1997(continued)
I had seen the regular version of the Country Bear Jamboree many times on my trips to Disneyland as a kid growing up in California, but I had never seen either of the alternate versions of the show (the vacation hoe down , and the Christmas Jamboree). Since the Bears Christmas show was showing that was our next stop. It was nice seeing this version, and it's a cute show, I'd like to see it again sometime. After that we had a light lunch at the Mile Long Bar, where Carmella thought she saw a red radp button, but it was a false alarm. Since Splash and Big Thunder mtns. were not on our itinerary (not the kind of things Carmella would ride), we headed for the Hall of Presidents. It was going to be a good bit before the next show so we headed to the Haunted Mansion (one of my personal favorites).
On the way there we saw some characters headed for the river boat . It's nice to know they are still doing this, having a few characters on each steamboat trip around the rivers of America (nice opportunity for pictures and autographs) . I've yet to ride this and will have to remember to do this next trip.
While we were in line for the Haunted Mansion there was a Disney tour group behind us getting lots of good Disney trivia from their tour guides. From the little bit I heard I'd certainly consider doing one of the tours sometime. After the Mansion we headed back to the Hall of Presidents and I think its safe to say we all three enjoyed both of these.
As you come out of the H.O.P. you're near a path that leads to the castle courtyard so we took the path and went into the souvenir shops their getting some things for the folks back home. From there we went to It's a Small World the ladies were a bit underwhelmed by this one I think, but after the Hall of Presidents and the Haunted Mansion I can sort of see why.
The Fantasyland dark rides had some lines so after seeing the lion king show we headed for Tomorrowland stopping along the way to spin ourselves crazy on the teacups. I had a cup to myself and the girls shared one. When we exited the cups there were a couple of Alice characters signing autographs, and quite a crowd around them. (The queen is the one I remember).
In Tomorrowland we did a little more shopping before riding the TTA and we still had time to ride Dreamflight too before we headed to the Crystal Palace for our priority seating. On the way there we took a couple pictures.
The Dinner at the Crystal Palace was a very good buffet and an excellent desert bar. Of course, the main attractions here are the characters who make a circuit of all the tables If you stay long enough you'll meet Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore. Carmella and her friend are both pooh fans so we took our time and met them all.
If I had known we were not going to take a break and leave the park I would've made the latest dinner reservation possible so we could've stayed in the restaurant while they got the park ready for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. Oh Well next time maybe.
On the way out of the park I stopped to get our sweaters out of the locker only to discover I'd lost the key. They had to get a security person and some sort of supervisor together to open lockers to look for me. I did remember where the locker was but when they opened it and it was empty I figured I had remembered wrong This was the only big downer of the trip . I felt so dumb for losing the key. A few days later I called l central lost and found and somebody had turned them in.
After that we found a bench by the exit and sat down by the floral mickey for a while, then took a few pictures, before heading out the exit, where we found another bench. After a few minutes people started forming lines for mvmcp so we got in line more and more cast members were appearing wearing holiday hats and scarves and they started us singing Christmas carols in the lines. The holiday spirit was infectious and I really wanted to get some pictures of all the cast members in there holiday garb but since my camera wasn't winding right I came out with some unusual double exposed shots WE started with the 12 days of Christmas with each line taking a day, also we sang frosty the snowman , Rudolph the red nose reindeer, jingle bells... good fun for all. They had little handouts for the party events (like the normal daily park guidemap handouts, click here to see the inside and outside of it *CAUTION* the images are a bit large) and looking at the brochure trying to decide what to do first Carmella said we should go ahead and ride Splash and she'd wait for us.
As we walked up Main Street it started snowing (it sure looked like snow anyway). This was one of those really nice moments.
We headed on back to Splash Mountain walked on and enjoyed the show there were four in our boat me and Stephanie in the front row and two guys right behind us. Loaded like this the boat was front heavy so we probably got a bit wetter than usual. When we got to the top of the big drop the guy behind me ( who had mentioned that we'd keep him from getting wet) said "don't duck." When we got done no one was in line to get on so I asked "can we ride again?" and away we went! Then when we got to the top of the big drop again the guy behind me said "don't duck again." I bought the second photo.
Then we headed onward to Fantasyland and hit the dark rides pan, snow, toad 1-2-3 with very short waits! Then into Tomorrowland for Mickey's Twas the Night Before Christmas.
by this time the ladies were getting tired so we decided to leave after the show but as we got to the entrance to tomorrowland we realized it was almost time for the fireworks so we stopped and sat in the benches by the base of the Tomorrowland sign it was cold, we were tired but it was defiantly worth the wait! Tinkerbell made her flight right over our heads and the 360° fireworks! Awesome! Sitting in that hard cold bench snuggled up next to my warm soft wife watching the fireworks is one of the nicest memories of the trip.