Chris's New Year's Trip Report Part 2

**chrisb26** · 01-13-2009, 10:20 PM

Day 3 – Sunday January 4th

Sunday was our first day we were going to a Disney park. We actually decided to do a few of the parks to make sure we were able to see the Christmas decorations before they decided to take them down. We started off at Epcot. We were greeted by pretty heavy crowds. So we took a spin on Spaceship Earth and saw the Jetsons future we had and then we headed over towards Ellen’s Energy Adventure to ride on that since it was about to go down for a rehab and we wouldn’t have a chance to ride it the rest of the trip. After we learned all about energy and how brain power would never run out, we decided to look for another ride to go on however everything had pretty long lines. Test track had 40 minutes and that was just for single rider, I believe regular was close to 90 minutes. We just decided since we were going to leave soon to talk a stroll around the countries. After we were done with the countries we then went and took a bus over to DHS.

When we arrived at DHS we were hoping for some shorter lines however no such luck. We first went on The Great Movie ride and just missed getting on the front car which was my favorite the western scene but we got a pretty good tour guide anyways with the gangster scene. After GMR we decided to go take a look at Toy Story Mania however that had over a 2 hour line so we decided we would skip that for now. We headed towards the Backlot Tour however it was closed for rehab which I had forgotten. We then took a ride on Star Tours and actually had a very empty car I was kind of surprised that this had no line considering the crowd level of the rest of the park. We then ate some dinner and headed over to the Muppets to see their show after that it was time for the Osborne Lights! I’ve always loved the Osborne lights they are really amazing especially when they dance to the music. We stayed and watched for a couple songs and watched the Disney snow fall which is of course the best snow there can be because it isn’t cold and it doesn’t stick around. After we watched the lights for a while we decided to head out before the crowds. We wanted to go check out Magic Kingdom we had our fingers crossed that they would still have the Castle Lights on since in the pictures it was amazing then when I saw it on Friday it was even better so I was really hoping I would get to see it up close. So we boarded our bus to the Magic Kingdom.

As we approached the TTC we could see that the lights were indeed on! We were very excited we were going to see it up close. We took a monorail over to the front gate and entered. Even though I really like the Osborne lights I must say with the edition of the Castle Lights Magic Kingdom probably have my favorite decorations. Last time I was at Disney for Christmas was in December of 2006 it was the weekend of the ABC Christmas Parade taping so the garland on the street wasn’t up and the Tree was near the castle not at the beginning of Main Street so it was cool to see the decorations as they should be.

We first made our way to the Emporium since when we arrived was also the ending of Spectro Magic it was very crowded as we left the store it was even more crowded on Main Street between the people leaving the park and the new people entering so we just stood for a while looking at the castle. As the crowds finally were slowing we headed towards Tomorrowland and took a ride on the TTA. We then headed towards Fantasyland right as Wishes was starting so we slowly walked through Fantasyland watching the show. It is actually pretty neat watching it from behind the castle. The in the park fireworks actually look a lot closer when you are watching them from back there. We then went on one of my favorite rides at Disney the Haunted Mansion. We then walked over to ride Pirates of the Caribbean. By this time it was near to park closing. It is fun this time of year with the decorations but the bad side is the parks close pretty early compared to the busier times of the year. We headed to the Christmas Store near Liberty Square since all the ornaments were half off we got some more. We then decided to go look at the Castle some more. We took some pictures and headed to the Castle Stage to look out towards Main Street at all the other decorations. After a while it was time to head out so we started walking towards the exit but first we went up on the Main Street Train Station area and took some more pictures of the tree which is a good spot except the flag pole was kind of in the way but it was still a nice shot. We then went over to the Monorail and took one back to the TTC and then Epcot and we were on our way home for the night.

Overall it was a fun day especially with all the decorations and the lights. The only real downside was the crowds it kind of prevented us from going on a whole lot as we don’t really like waiting in lines. But despite the crowds we still had a great time!

I have also uploaded all my Disney Pictures which you can view by clicking here.