Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party 2017

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Last week, the Disney Parks Blog announced an opportunity to sign-up for a "meet-up" at the 2nd Mickey's Very Merry Christmas party of this year.  The TCD gang was on this, and I also posted a link right here on Fort Fiends.

Like always, I figured that all the spots were handed out to bloggers and friends of the folks who run the blog.

But, then my oldest DD told me that she had won a spot!  She was allowed to bring one guest.  Without me begging, the twins agreed that I should be the guest. They have CM tickets for a party this week, so they knew they'd be going soon.

So, last Friday, November 10th, I met up with the girls at the MK.

They had a spot for the contest winners to pick up their tickets.  We were there right around 4 pm, so we could all go in the park with our regular admission.  But, only my oldest DD and I got the party wristbands along with a special lanyard.

Here's the front and back of the lanyard:

And here's this year's special Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom Card:

Since I wasn't sure we'd all be going until that day, none of us had tried making FP reservations.  The pickings were slim on MDE, but I was able to get us four separate Jingle Cruise FP's with overlapping times, so we got to ride that together:

There's a change this year with the closing time for the MK for non party guests.  Supposedly, the MK closes to day guests at 6 pm, while the party starts at 7.  We weren't sure how this would work.  We heard that day guests were allowed to be on Main Street and around the castle from 6 pm to 7 pm, so the plan was for us to watch the 6:15 castle lighting show.  Then, my oldest DD and I would stay for the party, and the twins planned to head over to DHS to see the new Christmas stuff there.

As expected, the area in front of the castle was very crowded for the castle lighting.  Although we were not herded there by CM's, I think that is the plan, so it makes things much more crowded than typical.

But, this show is easy to see, and it's actually better to be a little bit back so you can see the whole castle and the projections they use for this show.

Here's what our view looked like before the show:

Once again, they are using the Frozen characters for this show. This really bothered me when they kicked Cinderella out of the show, but it's grown on me.  Also, I have definitely witnessed the actors lip-synching for this show, but these actors were actually speaking their lines and singing their songs:

The plot of the show is pretty simple- Elsa is convinced by the others to use her powers to decorate the castle with ice for the holidays.  There is some singing and some conjuring accompanied by projections on the castle and dramatic lighting:

Fortunately, they don't drag this out too long, and the castle lights are switched on:

I'm not going to lie, it was special to see the castle lit up with the dreamlights for the first time this season.

As soon as the lights come on, the cast takes a bow, and gets out of there:

It's a quick and painless show, and if there's anyone in your group who is a Frozen fan, it's worth stopping to watch.

After the show, the plan was for the twins to leave and for my oldest DD and I to head over to Adventureland to wait for the party to officially start.

And that's what we did.

The reason for us starting in Adventureland is that I wanted to make sure that we hit all of the treat stations during the party.  For reference, here's the part of the map where the treat stations are listed:

Those snowman soft pretzels they're passing out at Tortuga Tavern are a new item this year, and I wanted to try those.  So, the plan was to hit Tortuga Tavern, then the Liberty Square Ticket Office, then head to the hub area where we would find a spot to watch the show they do at the castle called Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration.  There was a performance of that set for 7:40 pm.

So, we headed back to Adventureland.  Since it was around 6:30 at this time, I expected that there would be CM's around the hub stopping non-party guests from heading into the various lands, but there were no wristband checking CM's on duty yet, and we were able to walk all the way back to Adventureland with no one asking to see our party wristbands.

I don't remember them doing a projection like this one on the side of the Pirates of the Caribbean before:

It was very crowded back in Adventureland.  There was a long line already for the Moana meet and greet, and another long line for Captain Jack.  We headed over to the outdoor seating area near Tortuga Tavern, and decided to wait there until the snack station opened, which we assumed would be at 7.

To my surprise, they opened the treat station a few minutes early.  I snapped this photo at 6:52 pm, and we were at the end of a pretty big line of guests swarming in for the treats:

As you can see from the listing in the map I posted above, this treat station was offering the snow man pretzels and sno-cones.

They use the Tortuga Tavern ordering lines to pass out the treats.  I could see that the sno cones being passed out in our line were already mostly melted, so we passed on those, and just got the pretzels.  By the way, the snow cones aren't actually cones- they're just a scoop of crushed ice in a plastic dish with the flavoring added on top.  Not worth the mess if you ask me.

Here's what the snowman soft pretzels look like:

They're on the small side.  But, that's a good thing- there are a lot of cookies to eat at the party, and we also were going to get some desserts in our private fireworks viewing area, so we didn't need big pretzels.  If you're concerned about the size, you can ask for more than one pretzel, and the CM's will probably hand them over.  If not, this was the only time of the night where the lines were like this, so just loop around and go back for more if you want.

One of the attractions for these special parties for some guests are the special character meet and greet opportunities. Currently, these parties are the only place guests can meet Moana or Jack Skellington.  Also, they have all the 7 dwarfs assembled in one spot for a photo opp.  I didn't really care about any of those, but it was sweet when I ran right in to Big Al!:

As planned, we stopped in the Liberty Square ticket office (the little building between the Hall of Presidents and Sleepy Hollow), and got some ginger molasses cookies and egg nog.  That was a good stop.

Then we headed to the hub.  It was past 7 now, and this was the first time we ran into CM's checking for wristbands.  They wouldn't let anyone without a wristband over the Liberty Square bridge into the hub.  I thought that was good, as it would mean the hub would be less crowded.  But, the hub was packed.  I think there were still a lot of non-party guests hanging out in the hub, and nobody appeared to be checking the guests already here in the hub for wristbands. 

The area in front of the castle was wall to wall people, and all around the partners statue was too.  As crowded as it was here, we decided that we would need to change our plan and not watch the 7:40 pm castle show, as it was unlikely that we'd be able to find a parade watching spot on Main Street after the show.  So, we skipped this show, and went hunting for a parade spot.

Everyone in the TCD gang agrees that it is important to watch the Christmas parade from Main Street, because this is the only place you can watch the parade with fake snow falling.

It's a good thing we skipped the show, because as we headed down Main Street, the curbs on both sides were already lined with guests, and it wasn't even quite 7:30. An hour before the parade is normal for claiming a spot on a regular day, but usually the parties aren't so busy.  Luckily, some people who were standing on the curb trying to figure out what to do stepped off the curb to walk away right as we were walking past them, and we were able to swoop in on those spots. 

So, if you want to watch the parade from the curb on Main Street, and not have to stand behind others, you need to be there at least an hour before the parade starts.

We all love this parade.

It starts with a group of characters in winter gear:

Then Mickey and Minnie:

There are also floats pulled by horses from the Fort:

Since there's a sequel on the way, Vanelope and Ralph have a big part in the parade:

Here are the ponies that live at the Fort:

If you like toy soldiers, they have plenty:

I'm leaving some stuff out, like elves and dancing people, and such.  The parade finishes with Santa and his reindeer:

It takes a while for the parade to finish up on Main Street, and it was past 9 pm before it was done.

And 9 pm was the time we were allowed to check in for our private dessert party.

So, that's where we headed next.

TCD

[djsamuel 322]

Great report.  Thanks!

[wdwpoohbear...Jennifer 40]

Yay! A TCD trip report!  It's a good day!

[rm0530 5]

Thank you for doing another trip report for us. I know they are a lot of work. Your effort is appreciated!

[WannaBeImagineer 98]

I really like MVMCP so thanks for the report, glad to hear they have new treats too!  I used to hurt myself on the cookies.

WBI

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

I'm glad your daughter was one of the winners for the blog contest and took you along as her guest. I am breaking my No Christmas before Thanksgiving rule to follow along on this report.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

1 hour ago, djsamuel said:

Great report.  Thanks!

Thanks.  There's a bit more to come.

1 hour ago, wdwpoohbear...Jennifer said:

Yay! A TCD trip report!  It's a good day!

Thanks.  It is a good day.

55 minutes ago, rm0530 said:

Thank you for doing another trip report for us. I know they are a lot of work. Your effort is appreciated!

Gee thanks.  This one isn't going to be much work- it's going to be pretty short.

54 minutes ago, WannaBeImagineer said:

I really like MVMCP so thanks for the report, glad to hear they have new treats too!  I used to hurt myself on the cookies.

WBI

You can still hurt yourself on the cookies.  I'm about to make a fool of myself at the dessert party.  Stand by.

50 minutes ago, momof3kids-Yvonne said:

I'm glad your daughter was one of the winners for the blog contest and took you along as her guest. I am breaking my No Christmas before Thanksgiving rule to follow along on this report.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 

That's a good rule.  I don't mind breaking it when I'm at Disney.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I have some more.

It was time for our Private Dessert Party.

The lanyard told us that it was in the West Plaza Gardens.

But, where's that?

I figured that must be what they call the Hub Grass in front of Casey's Corner.

And, I figured right.

I think we were the last guests to get there, as all the spots around the stand-up tables were taken.

But, there were plenty of desserts:

As you can see, it was very dark.

So, if you want to see some better photos, look at the Parks Blog Instagram page:

In case that doesn't work for you, here's some screen captures of their photos.  Photo credit on these five photos goes to the Disney Parks Blog:

These are Mickey Cupcakes:

These are Mickey Peppermint Mousse Tarts:

These are Minnie Cupcakes:

These are Mickey Sugar Cookies:

These are Mickey Brownie Bon Bons:

I helped myself to a Minnie cupcake, one of the peppermint tarts, and a bon bon.  I thought I'd enjoy those, and then head back for some more.

Nope.

Everything was so good and so rich, that it was all I could do to finish the three items I selected.  The Brownie Bon Bon was my favorite.

They also had urns of coffee and hot water set up with hot cocoa packets, and ice water to drink.

At 10, Holiday Wishes started.

It's funny that we were in the Hub Grass- that used to be where we always watched Wishes, and the view from here was great:

After the fireworks, we headed out.

They were passing out gift bags to the guests on the way out.  That's when I noticed that my lanyard was a different color than my DD's.  Only the blog winner got the gift bag, not the guest.

We stopped at a table outside of Casey's Corner to see what was in the bag.  There was a big Mickey nutcracker boxed up in the bag:

If you want one, it looks like some ingrate already has his up on eBay:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/DISNEY-SANTA-MICKEY-MOUSE-NUTCRACKER-14-COLLECTIBLE-/162758731933

There was also a small Mickey Mouse nutcracker poster rolled up in a tube in the gift bag.

Very nice.

So, now we had less than an hour and half left of party time.

We knew that we wanted to see the 11:55 show at the castle, and that we would need to get there a bit before to claim a good spot.

So, we decided that what we would do next is hit up all of the treat stops to see what they had at each one.

I had a ziplock bag in my backpack, so I wanted to go home with a collection of the cookies.

We headed back to Tortuga Tavern to start. We got some more pretzels there.  Then on to Liberty Square again.

Then up the walkway next to Sleepy Hollow that takes you behind the castle.

We were heading to Friars Nook, which is the little quick serve place across from the Mine Train ride.

But, as we headed there, I noticed one of the inflatable candy canes that marked the treat stops set up in front of Pinocchio's Village Haus.  And people were heading in there.

As we already saw, that's not a treat stop on the list:

 

And it's not marked as one on the map:

But, they sure were passing out cookies in there.  And not just one kind- they were handing out three cookies at a time- one of each of the cookies they had at the other cookie locations.  And they had hot cocoa too.  And, if you wanted to, you could sit at the tables in there and enjoy.

So, there's a secret tip for you- go to Pinocchio's Village Haus for your cookies, and save yourself a lot of walking.

They don't have the pretzels there, though.

This is the cookie assortment from the party:

Those are just the ones that I collected in our quick visit to each stop. The big Santa ones are passed out in the bypass behind Main Street at the start of the party.  There were also CM's passing those out along the parade route.

After our stop at Pinocchio's, we headed back to Story Book Circus. There was supposed to be a treat stop in Pete's Silly Sideshow, but they were set up outside.  I don't know if they had just moved out there, because we were in the last hour of the party, or if they had been out there all night.

As we were heading out of there, we saw this little person CM:

The reason I took his picture is that one of the twins had just been telling me about a friend of hers who works in Photopass who was telling her about this little person CM who works with the Seven Dwarfs on the party nights.  Apparently, this guy makes the whole thing about him, and has a joke routine that he goes through when he's working with the dwarfs.  It is apparently very cringeworthy.  I wanted to see if this was the same guy. It is.

Be on the lookout for him.

They have something they do called Club Tinsel in Cosmic Rays:

It's a crazy dance party with polar bears.

My girls might have liked this a lot ten years ago.

If you have some little ones, it might be a good place to blow off some steam.

And, they pass out cookies at all of the food windows.

After hitting all the treat stops, we took the bridge out of Tomorrowland toward the hub.

The 11:00 parade was just coming around the hub then, and we got to watch it from here.  Here are some photos of some of the floats that weren't in the last set of photos.  I like seeing the castle in the background:

Out of curiosity, I checked the ride wait times at 11:30, and this was what was showing:

I think some of those were inflated, too.

If you're wondering what was going on with the carousel, we later heard that a child was badly injured by a fall from one of the horses there.  Apparently, the child struck his or her head.  I haven't heard any follow up on this, and we probably won't.  I sure feel bad for that family.

A few more parade photos:

The end of the parade passed by here at 11:36 pm:

So, by the time it got all the way down Main Street, it would probably be 11:45.

We now had less than 30 minutes of party time.

We headed toward the castle to find a spot for the 11:55 castle show.

We will wrap this up in the next update with some photos from that.

TCD

[Seals 111]

Sigh... Some day....

Thanks for sharing!

[Tony 27]

Great Photos!! And what great a view for Holiday wishes...

Thanks for sharing it looks like you had a great time.

The snacks look yummy!

[Mrs.TN22 12]

Thanks for sharing! Looks like you had a great time!

[slices 16]

Thanks for sharing, never done the Christmas party but considering it for next year.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[BigTom 76]

Great seeing another report form you, never been to the Christmas Party and really enjoyed reading about it.

[ImDownWithDisney 342]

Woohoo a TCD report and we leave for FW tomorrow afternoon! It's good to be TCD

[kadancer 82]

Sounds like a great time!  The photos are fantastic and have ignited by holiday spirit.  Thanks for sharing.

[Starbuc71 162]

Great to see your done boycotting new trip reports. I'm not on here much anymore and it's probably been discussed, but how are you posting pics without Photobucket or did you cave in and pay their dues?  Great report so far. We did the MMSSHP this year and had a great time. 

[alexwyattmommy 181]

So pretty!!

Thank you for taking all the photos and sharing them with us.  You have the best daughters.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

17 hours ago, Seals said:

Sigh... Some day....

Thanks for sharing!

I hope that you do get to a Christmas party some day.

Sadly, I think that they have quadrupled in price since our first one, and they are way more crowded.

But, even to a cheapskate like me, they're worth it.

17 hours ago, Tony said:

Great Photos!! And what great a view for Holiday wishes...

Thanks for sharing it looks like you had a great time.

The snacks look yummy!

The old FP viewing areas are great spots for viewing the holiday fireworks.

In my opinion, they're not great spots for the new fireworks show, Happily Ever After.  They are too far back from the castle to appreciate the projections on the castle.  Plus, on a regular park day, one of the areas is taken over by a paid dessert party, and the other is typically overcrowded.

15 hours ago, Mrs.TN22 said:

Thanks for sharing! Looks like you had a great time!

We had an absolutely great time.

Like always.

14 hours ago, slices said:

Thanks for sharing, never done the Christmas party but considering it for next year.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk
 

The hard-ticket parties for Halloween and Christmas are something that everyone should try. 

They have become very popular, and are a lot more crowded than they used to be.

But, they're still a lot of fun.

13 hours ago, BigTom said:

Great seeing another report form you, never been to the Christmas Party and really enjoyed reading about it.

As I said above, you should give the Christmas party a try.  It is a nice thing to do as a family.

13 hours ago, ImDownWithDisney said:

Woohoo a TCD report and we leave for FW tomorrow afternoon! It's good to be TCD

Woohoo.

It's tomorrow!

Drive safe.

I'll probably see you there!

12 hours ago, kadancer said:

Sounds like a great time!  The photos are fantastic and have ignited by holiday spirit.  Thanks for sharing.

I'm generally against starting with Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving.

But, it is fun to start early!

9 hours ago, Starbuc71 said:

Great to see your done boycotting new trip reports. I'm not on here much anymore and it's probably been discussed, but how are you posting pics without Photobucket or did you cave in and pay their dues?  Great report so far. We did the MMSSHP this year and had a great time. 

Thanks, Dave.

I'm sorry that you're going to miss Thanksgiving at the Fort this year.

I already had some kind of paid Photobucket account before they instituted their changes this year. So, for now, I'm grandfathered in.  Some time in the next year, my subscription will run out, and I'll have to decide what to do.  I have to believe that they will need to back down on their pricing, but who knows?

Not surprisingly, Photobucket works a lot better now that they raised their prices and chased off all their customers. 

3 hours ago, alexwyattmommy said:

So pretty!!

Thank you for taking all the photos and sharing them with us.  You have the best daughters.

Thanks.

I really do have the best daughters. 

And wife. 

And dog.

It is good to be TCD.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

As expected, this is going to be a short little report.

This is the end of it.

After watching the parade for a second time, we made our way to the area in front of the castle for the final performance of the special stage show they perform for the Christmas parties. This show was revamped last year, and is called Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration.  We all love it- it uses unique characters and non-traditional songs, and it is very entertaining.

If you can stay awake, the 11:55 show is a great deal.  The party technically ends at midnight, but this show goes on for about 20 minutes, so you get a "free" extra 15 minutes in the park after the party.  And, it's easy to get a good viewing spot for this last show.

The show makes good use of the projection technology that Disney introduced a few years back- so it's good to be back far enough from the stage that you have a view of the castle as well as the stage:

One of the first songs is called "Text Me Merry Christmas."  Disney is trying to be hip.  Here we say Daisy with a cell phone:

There's a whole song and dance centered around this, and it's pretty funny:

There's a song that involves dancing reindeer and the song is sung by the kind of obscure Clarabelle Cow:

As I mentioned, this show was first performed last year, and one of the reindeer became kind of a viral sensation:

It's funny, and I do not think coincidental, that one of the reindeer in this costume is featured on this year's map for the party.

I think someone told the left reindeer to tone it down this year, as he was a lot calmer on the night we were there.

The Three Caballeros have a big part in the show where they come out and lead a song and dance number featuring Feliz Navidad:

There are a lot of costumed characters in the show, and some very good human singers and dancers- it's great:

What I like most about the show is that it's not a retread of classic songs and classic characters.  They stepped out of the box for this, and it works.

This show is one of the special things that makes the cost of this party worth it. 

When you have 20 minutes to spare, there's a video of the whole show on YouTube:

 

It was around 12:20 before that show was over, and we headed on out of the park then.

There were still a lot of guests in the park, but Main Street wasn't too crowded.  It's special to walk down toward the big Christmas tree with fake snow flurrying around.

And that is that.

Thanks for reading.

Maybe there will be a new TCD trip report coming after Thanksgiving. 

If the plan comes together.

TCD

[wdwpoohbear...Jennifer 40]

Thanks for the report!  I haven't been to the Christmas party in a lot of years.  Maybe I will try to get there this year.

[momof3kids-Yvonne 596]

Thanks again for taking the time to write this short, but great trip report. Hoping you do decide to write another one after Thanksgiving.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[lightbikes 73]

Thank you for the report and pictures TCD.  We won't be down this year and it's lovely to see the Parade and Castle.

[Memphis 105]

Great to see another TCD trip report.  Also great to hear that you thought the party was worth the hard ticket price.  We have not been to a party since about 2004.  It was a very cold night for Florida that required heavy coats, hats and gloves.  We had a blast.  Realy hope the plans work out for another TCD Fort Thanksgiving. 

[BradyBzLyn...Mo 2,023]

Thanks TCD! We're probably not going to make it to the Christmas party this year but my brother's family is coming down next week and will be going for the first time. I'm going to share your report with them so they can try and get the most out of it. :)

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[kadancer 82]

I have a friend that danced in the "premier" version of this show and really enjoyed it.  Looking forward to the next trip report.  Thanks.