Once we were in the park (and after our usual bathroom visit from the long drive over) my first stop was at The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror for a solo ride, while Grandma Terry opted to do some shopping along Sunset Boulevard. I headed towards this ride first because the wait time was posted for a mere 13 minutes, which for this particular ride essentially equates to a walk-on. By the time I got to the queue the wait was up to 15 minutes, so still not too bad!

After I finished my ride, I met back up with Grandma and then we headed over to get in line for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, as this is one of Grandma's favorites. Our wait and ride went pretty smoothly, and we both enjoyed the ride itself. This ride typically has a long wait - I prefer not to wait too long for it, but for a short wait it is certainly worthwhile!

After our ride on Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway we headed over to the Backlot Express for lunch. I had the 1/3 lb Angus Bacon Cheeseburger on a brioche bun served and French fries, while Grandma had the Teriyaki Chicken Bowl (seasoned jasmine rice, teriyaki chicken, yuzu-pickled edamame, carrots, cucumber, and onions drizzled with House-made lemon-tahini-chipotle vinaigrette and sesame seeds). My burger was a typical quick service hamburger from Disney - good, but far from great. Grandma Terry seemed to enjoy her bowl, though, so that is good!

After lunch we hit up Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, as the wait was brief, and I really enjoy the ride. I believe that we, or at least I, have seen the scenes from this particular viewing before, which takes a little away from the experience, but I still had a good time and am glad we got the chance to give it a go during this visit.

We stopped to take in a viewing of the For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration show. I've seen this show a bunch of times, and I love this show for two main reasons: 1) I love the reaction from the little kids who are seeing it for the first time, as mine no longer react that way now that they are grown, and 2) The humor from the two storytellers on stage is usually very good, and often times a little risqué but obscure enough that it goes over the heads of the little ones. Today's storytellers weren't as funny as the usual pair we see, but they also didn't distract from the story. What was unusual about today's show (at least for Grandma Terry and I) was that the final scenes were different - today they were based on a Christmas gathering in Arendelle, with Christmas lights on the trees on stage as well as unique songs and backgrounds on the screen behind the characters. Olaf even made an appearance on stage, which I've also never seen before! It was a great surprise that we didn't know was coming!

After seeing the For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration show, we decided we would head back to our room at Disney's All-Star Sports Resort to take a nap before our long night at Disney's Magic Kingdom!

Once we arrived at the park, we received our bands indicating that we were there for the party, allowing us to stay after the park closed to the regular daytime guests. Because we had the bands, we were steered to the right side of Main Street, U.S.A., where we were guided to a backstage area. It was in this area where a DJ was stationed, playing Christmas music, as well as a couple of opportunities to pose with characters - gingerbread men and, what I can best describe as "angels". We were also handed a nice little Christmas ornament (a red truck with a tree in the bed) as well as a marshmallow snack.

After making our way through the backstage area and entering the park beside The Plaza Restaurant, we tried to decide what we wanted our first ride of the night to be. We ultimately decided to search out the party exclusive popcorn bucket, but the lines were extremely long. We ended up wandering around for a bit before eventually opting to just wait out a line. We found a stand near the castle and Adventureland, and thank goodness we did, as it wasn't long after we had secured the four we needed (one for me, one for Grandma Terry, one for Aunt Sherry, and one for my cousin Heather) that they were completely sold out! Whew!

After securing our buckets, we had to find a spot to store them. We headed back to the front of the park to rent a locker. Unfortunately all of the large ones were already rented, but we were each able to rent a small one, and two popcorn buckets just barely fit into one locker. At least we didn't have to carry around four of these buckets all night!

After stashing our buckets in the lockers, we headed back into the park. This meant going back through the backstage party entrance once again, with all of the same benefits as our first trip through! We certainly weren't expecting that little perk!

Back inside the park, we headed over to the Jingle Cruise, the seasonal transformation of the Jungle Cruise ride. We passed one of the free snack stands, but since it wasn't 7pm yet, that meant the party hadn't officially started, so we skipped the stand for now and got in the Jingle Cruise line. Although I don't truly care too much one way or another about the seasonal changes to the ride, I have come to appreciate the ride much more after dark. I love how the boat's lights focus your attention on the details that the captain is making jokes about, and the ambiance hits different.

Once we finished our ride through the jungles, we headed towards the back of Adventureland, where we picked up our second snack of the night (and our first since entering the park) at the Tortuga Tavern, where we were each given a cookie and hot cocoa! We circled around through Frontierland and Liberty Square before heading into Fantasyland to take a ride on Peter Pan's Flight. This is a ride I don't mind riding, but the wait is usually too long for my liking. Tonight, we waited just under 25 minutes to get on, so all in all not too bad!

The rest of our night can be found on page two!