Old Key West - December 19

While still chilly, the weather has moderated some today. I start the day off pretty bundled up but find I soon remove a couple of layers and am quite comfortable.

Today we are headed to the Magic Kingdom. There will be another Mickey's Very Merry party this evening which may be why we do not find too many people in the park when we arrive.

I don't recall what order we ride things on this day but do know we go on Big Thunder Mountain (fastpass), Pirates of the Caribbean (standby), Mickey's PhilharMagic (literally walk right into the theater), It's A Small World (standby - about 10 minutes), Peter Pan (fastpass), Winnie the Pooh (about 15 minutes standby), Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (fastpass), and Tomorrowland Transit Authority (about 5 minutes standby). We skip over the Haunted Mansion which had low wait times early in the day but by time I was ready to ride, standby was around 40-45 minutes.

For lunch, we order hot dogs and fries from Casey's and find a nice, sunny table to sit at while we munch.

When we are ready to leave the park, we find ourselves walking behind the end of the parade as it makes it's way down Main Street. They won't let us exit the park by Tony's Restaurant but make us continue to follow the end of the parade until we are on the City Hall side of the train station at which point we need to backtrack in the opposite direction to get to the buses. I still can't quite figure out the sense in that?

We return to our room for a little bit. Because of the party, the fireworks won't be until 10 pm this evening plus the temperatures will be falling once it gets dark. So, once again, we opt to not visit Top of the World and, instead, take the boat to Disney Springs.

At Raglan Road, we find two seats at the bar immediately. Our seats have a good view of the stage area so while we have some dinner, we are able to watch the performances quite well. The performers are coming back on stage for a second set when we get ready to leave. There is nothing else I want to do at Disney Springs so we return to our room and pack up most of our things in preparation for driving home the next morning.

I always find exiting Magic Kingdom and having to walk all the way back to the buses annoying. I'm sure there is a traffic flow reason, but it still drives me crazy!