Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party 2014

I am not usually this Disney-crazy, but

this year I have managed to go to

Disneyland Paris,

Disneyland in California for 

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party

and finally Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

This one started really early as we were there

this first week of November.  (I can't believe that month

has already come and gone!!!)

I went the night

before and trust me, if you can't get a ticket

to the Christmas Party, there was still plenty

of Christmas festivities going on.  

The Christmas party is a separate ticket

item but starting the 18th, all of the

Christmas festivities go on every night.

Of course, our favorite,

Disney's Frozen, is everywhere and

Elsa kicks everything off by lighting

up the Cinderella Castle and turning

it into an ice covered marvel.

The castle is where the action is

during Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

There were five stage shows almost right

in a row followed by the spectacular

Christmas fireworks show while the 

castle is changing colors and having

pictures projected onto it.  You could

just park there in front of the castle

for half of the evening.

We can't forget

Olaf and Anna and Christoff.

She and Anna are there for the

fabulous day time Christmas Parade too.

They pull out all of the stops for

parades and shows for

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party.

This reticulated dragon represents

Malificent and it breathes fire during

the parade - definitely a show stopper!

But I have to admit that night time is

where all of the Disney Magic takes place

for the Christmas Party.  The night time parade

was out of this world!

Look at Cinderella's carriage all lit up

pulled by six white horses and they are

real horses!  Just spectacular.

There are dance parties going on and

all of the workers are dressed in fun holiday

outfits handing out cookies and hot cocoa.

But what brought tears to my eyes was the snow on

Main Street.

After the fireworks end for the

last probably couple of hours,

it is snowing on Main Street, even

though the day time temperatures

were in the 80s!

My oldest daughter went with us

and she hadn't been to the magical

restaurant

Be Our Guest so of course I 

wanted to make sure she went

there.

To our dismay Disney World has a new

Fast Pass Plus system where you have

to reserve your fast passes online and

those who are staying in their hotels

get to reserve theirs two months in

advance.  I hadn't heard of their new

system and we weren't staying in a Disney

hotel, so of course a lot of the good

fast passes were gone (to their preferred

guests) so when we arrived to stand in

line for Be Our Guest we were told

that the restaurant was full and that all

fast passes had been given out.  When I

was last there, a little over a year ago you

just had to wait in line for about 30 minutes

to be seated.

There stood the Beast's Castle

tempting us and we couldn't get in!!

We were told to come back between 2:00

and 2:30 to see if there was any availability.

We were so frustrated with all of the new

fast passes that seemed to create extremely

long lines everywhere and were leaving

the park when I saw people being let

in the line.  We quickly headed over

and were able to get into 

BE OUR GUEST!

As you enter, enchanted coats

of armor entertain you while

you wait in line.  

The food is really good and

reasonably priced.  We had 

the roast pork and French onion

soup.

There are three seating areas and

she chose the ballroom that had the

Christmas tree up in it and it always

magically has snow falling outside the

windows.

She was thrilled that we made it in,

so I suggest that you go back about 

2:05 - when they let us commoners

have a chance to feast with the beast -

it is purely magical.

I have never had the opportunity to

see Gaston do his thing but he was

outside the castle being his cocky, chauvinistic,

hysterical self!  That was fun!!

The other hot new attraction is

the 7 Dwarves Mine Train roller coaster.

Forget even thinking about getting a

fast pass for that one and the lines were

usually an hour and a half but we raced

over after the night time fireworks and

even though the sign said a 30 minute wait

we were on in 20 minutes.  Talk about 

a smooth ride!  This roller coaster is 

the Cadillac of roller coasters!  So glad

we got to try it out.  They also have three

fun interactive entertainments as you go

through the line that make the line fun.

I was surprised at the crowds so early in

November but it was their first week of

the Christmas celebration.  I certainly hope

that Disney doesn't bring their Fast Pass Plus

system to Disneyland.  It is fraught with problems

and I have read all kinds of complaints about it

online as it created waits of 60 minutes at rides

like Haunted Mansion and Pirates all day long which

I have never experienced.  It also locks you into

one park and we had the Rockin' Roller Coaster

shut down so there was nothing we could do but

leave and were locked into those Fast Passes

so we couldn't get new ones

in another park until the time of our last

Fast Pass Plus was up so that wasted 

two of our three allotted Fast Passes.  We

were not feeling the magic!!

Our trip consisted of Universal and

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Diagon Alley

first, and then Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party,
and after our time in Orlando
we took off on a cruise on the Allure of the Seas

that Christine
from Christine's Home and Travel Adventures
introduced me to and ever since reading
her adventure I have wanted to go
on that ship.  My friend and I had daughters
who each went on it for their honeymoons
so we decided we should get to try it too.

This was our view out of the back of 

the ship. The lady who helped us on

Royal Caribbean suggested that we

stay in the inside balconies at the

very back where we could see

the Aqua Theater and the ocean.  We

were four rooms from the back on

the left side.  It was a fabulous room.

 What a wonderful way to celebrate being

empty nesters and to mentally prepare

for Christmas!!

Elsa's Frozen Party Tablescape

In the wondrous land of little

granddaughters, nothing is quite

as popular now as Disney's Frozen

and Elsa tops the list of popular

Disney characters

so when I volunteered to help with

the birthday parties of two

granddaughters, we of course

chose Elsa and Frozen.

I never planned on getting myself

into a huge party but I can blame

it all on this great ice cream cake

that I found at

Baskin Robbins.  

We weren't even in the market for a cake

but while getting an ice cream cone I

wandered over to the pre-made cakes

and saw this one and I just had

to have it, thinking I had some

granddaughters with birthdays 

coming in a month.

So I securely wrapped it in plastic wrap

and popped it in the freezer to await

the parties.  

Unfortunately, someone left that outside

freezer open and the poor thing melted

(only two things melted and it had to be

one of them!!)

So off to the store I had to go again.

The clerk and I had a good laugh over it.

She said she was at least glad I hadn't

put it in the fridge as some people had.

Grandma Jackie had been very lucky

in that she had purchased all the costumes

and a lot of toys before the movie

came out last year so I had lots

of Frozen items to decorate with.

If you have anyone interested in

Elsa costumes or toys you will know

how difficult it is to find them.

We count ourselves very lucky.

I purchased the Frozen castle

at Thanksgiving last year and 

decided to keep it at Grandma's house

so it is special when the kids come to play. One side is Elsa's 

frozen side

and the other is Anna's Erendelle side.

I told people that this was my first

(and probably last) full-on Pinterest

type party, where I went all out

on food, decor and theme.  

I hung a fabric tube between the two 

chandeliers and covered it with white

and then aqua fabric to make a

backdrop on the counter.  Then white

tablecloths went on the counter and they

were covered with aqua and purple

organza toppers to represent both

Elsa and Anna.

Posters that I purchased from Wal Mart

filled in the back side of the tablescape.

My niece Shaunna

created the food cards.

(Chocolate covered peanuts)

(Cotton candy - I had to buy a little

cotton candy machine, but the kids loved

it and I am sure we will get lots of use from it.)

I saw this at

Bubbly Nature Creations

I made blue Kool Aid and added

frozen lemonade concentrate and 

diet 7 Up and topped it with vanilla

ice cream.

She also told how to make these

darling cups on her blog.

I just used a Tulip puffy fabric

paint and while it was still

wet I sprinkled it with glitter.  

Andi made these white chocolate

dipped strawberries.

and these mini cupcakes.

We made sparkling fondant snowflakes

to top the cupcakes.

Jessica made these wonderful 

Ham and Swiss Sliders

and she made snowflake

cookies to decorate later.

(Sparkly bubble gum from Zurchers)

Grandma found these huge Elsa dolls

at Toys R Us a while back so 

after they decorated the tablescape,

each

birthday girl received one.

Here Jacquelyn is looking at the

tablescape.  She just turned 2!

I was lucky enough to find napkins

and plates and cups at Zurchers

and Partyland.

The first guests arrive dressed as Elsa

and they are surprised to find 

Grandma has made an Elsa dress for herself

too.

More Elsa granddaughters arrive.

We were so lucky to find a

singing Elsa who also face paints.

She was amazing and the girls

were enchanted.  

She also appears as other

princesses.  Find her at 

facepaintingkat.com.

And see her sing as she

sang to the girls on

youtube.  You have to

search Let It Go Kat Nelson.

I couldn't get my video to upload

and I couldn't get youtube's to link

but she is fabulous.

She wears these amazing

contacts to make her eyes

unbelievable.  What a great

singer and performer besides

facepainter!

The girls were just clustered around

her, pushing in to be close to Elsa

and asking her questions about

herself and Arendelle.

This is one of the birthday girls, Goldie.

Elsa first sang to all of the children and

asked them to sing on "Let It Go's"

chorus.  Then she had a coronation

ceremony for the birthday girls

where they both got crowns.

She was busy all night and

stayed in character the whole time.

She painted 28 faces!!

Whew, exhausting!

She was great with the boys 

at the party too.

Many happy customers!

Besides dinner and facepainting,

we had cookie decorating,

snowman building and

a game of pin the nose on Olaf,

but most of the kids had a hard

time leaving Elsa's side.

When all 28 faces were painted it was 

time for the birthday cake.  

We lit 2 candles for Jacquelyn and had her

blow them out and then 4 for Goldie and

she got to blow them out.

Yum!

The cake was a wonderful ice cream cake.

Finally both birthday girls got to

open presents with these huge

Elsa dolls from Grandma and Grandpa

which I found just two weeks before

at Toys R Us.

A fabulous

Frozen Party 

for a lot of special little children.

For more Frozen ideas

visit my Pinterest Page.

Thanks to everyone who helped!

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday