We pick up our coverage of Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party with a look at one of the key components of the event with Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade, which steps off in Frontierland to the left of Splash Mountain at 8:30pm and 11pm on Party nights through December 21st. Beginning December 22nd and continuing through December 31st, the Christmastime Parade steps off at 12pm and 3:30pm for all Magic Kingdom guests. Click any image for a larger version.

Anyone will tell you that the second Parade is less crowded than the first and that remains true, even if Disney instructs cast members to pass that tip along to as many guests as possible. Main Street is still crowded – the picture above was taken during the second Parade and you can see that there’s six or seven people crammed into each row along the narrow, roped-off viewing area that lines the sidewalks on both sides. Still, front-row spots on Main Street furthest from Cinderella Castle in the Town Square area are typically available about 45 minutes before the second Parade steps off. Any time after that and you’re going to be in the second row or further back. Front row Parade spots closer to the Hub in front of Cinderella Castle fill 90+ minutes before the second Parade steps off and as many as two hours before the first Parade begins. If a front row spot on Main Street is what you’re after, then I recommend seeing the second Parade and probably finding a spot to see it closer to The Confectionery no later than 10:30pm. With Holiday Wishes beginning at 10pm and running until about 10:15pm, there isn’t much time to do anything else between the end of the fireworks and the start of the Parade, anyway. So you might as well stake out those Parade spots.

Continue reading “Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime Parade 2018 Viewing Tips and Pictures”

Tony’s Most Merriest Town Square Party is a new “Enchanting Extra” added to this year’s Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party that offers a holiday spread of food and drink at Tony’s Town Square Restaurant along with reserved viewing for the 11pm Mickey’s Once Upon A Christmastime (at Christmas) Parade.

Here’s how Disney describes the event:

Tony’s Most Merriest Town Square Party will set you back $99 per person, in addition to the $95-$125 cost of each ticket to the Christmas Party. Just about anyone will tell you that it’s pretty dumb to book a dessert party on top of the high cost of the Christmas Party. That’s typically how I feel about the Christmas/Halloween Fireworks Dessert Parties, which cost $84 for adults and $50 for kids, or between $15 and $49 less than the Tony’s Party. For more of the official word and to check on availability, see Disney’s site here.

HalloWishes during the Halloween Party and Holiday Wishes during the Christmas Party are not particularly difficult to see – this was our spot for the nighttime spectacular during the first Christmas Party of the year that officially “sold out.” We left Tony’s Town Square five minutes before the fireworks started and made our way up Main Street to my favorite spot in the street near Casey’s Corner without much trouble.

Continue reading “Review: Tony’s Most Merriest Town Square Party at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party”

We’ll stop by Disney’s Hollywood Studios on the morning of November 6, 2018 for a “first look” at this year’s holiday decorations and other happenings.

2018’s holiday program here officially gets underway on Thursday, November 8th, but the majority of the Christmas decorations went up overnight on the 5th. The nighttime projection and fireworks show that replaces the Star Wars Fireworks, Jingle Bell, Jingle BAM! debuted on November 6th along with a preview of the Sunset Seasons Greetings.

Continue reading “Disney’s Hollywood Studios Holiday Decorations 2018 – Day One”

Plaza Restaurant began serving breakfast with seatings from 8am through 10:30am on Sunday November 4th, 2018. The Plaza is currently scheduled to continue breakfast service through March 2nd, 2019, though you’d expect that the most important meal of the day would continue to be served after that if it proves successful. You’re probably familiar with the restaurant that sits at the end of Main Street on the Tomorrowland side across from Casey’s Corner for its relatively-inexpensive sandwich fare that continues to be offered from 11am onward. You can pull up my most recent lunch/dinner review from earlier this year, here. You can check out the official word and search for reservations on Disney’s official site, here.

The current lunch/dinner menu is virtually identical to what we saw earlier this year, though prices are up one to two dollars since the most recent price increases in early October.

Here’s the current menu:

Continue reading “Disney’s Plaza Restaurant Breakfast Review at Magic Kingdom”

As part of our construction and projects update from yesterday, we took some time to enjoy the changing of the seasons inside Magic Kingdom, when the Halloween and Christmas decorations were changed out over the course of about six hours.

In this update, we’ll take a look at the holiday decorations around Main Street on a morning that was a little cloudier than I would have liked. We’ll get back on a sunnier day, but it’s possible that some of the reds and greens look a little more vibrant against a grayer backdrop. And when they don’t, we can always turn up the colors manually.

Continue reading “Disney’s Magic Kingdom Christmas Decorations 2018”