| After our ride on Peter Pan's Flight, we continued our
stroll through the park. We picked up a few more of the free snacks,
including at Storybook Circus in Fantasyland (another area of the
park we tend to skip) and at Gaston's Tavern. We were still hungry,
though, as we hadn't eaten since around noon at Disney's Hollywood
Studios. We stopped into Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café for the free
snacks, and ordered dinner while we were here. Because I had a
hamburger at lunchtime, I opted for the chicken strips and fries
tonight. Grandma Terry went the green route, ordering the Classic
Ranch Salad (mixed greens with tomato, cucumber, croutons, shredded
monterey jack, and house-made ranch dressing). Although not a
gourmet meal by any stretch of the imagination, it was something to
fill our bellies! Feeling a little better after eating, we headed
to Tomorrowland to take a ride on the lightcycles of TRON Lightcycle / Run.
This ride is always cool to ride at night (extra cool tonight, with
the low temperatures and all!), but I must say I was a little sad
that they didn't have a Christmas them on it, with the canopy lit up
in red and green instead of the usual blue, and the current
occasional red for the Tron: Ares movie overlay. Oh well, the ride
was a blast regardless, and one I look forward to in the future.
At this point in the night we were getting tired, and aside from
the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, we had ridden pretty much
everything that we wanted to. Since we were in Tomorrowland already,
we decided to take a turn on the
Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. We got some nice
views of the park and some of the rides, but the long day was
definitely getting to us.
After completing our ride on the the
Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, we decided to call
it a night. My knee was hurting (more than usual) by this point of
the night anyway, so we made our way towards the exit. We decided to
take the monorail back to the Transportation and Ticket Center, and
things were going smoothly. It was just before we pulled into the
Transportation and Ticket Center that Grandma Terry remembered that
we had the popcorn buckets back at the Magic Kingdom in the lockers.
Doh!
We stayed on the monorail, taking it back to the Magic Kingdom
station once again. We waited to get off, but the normal exit side
doors never opened. We ended up getting off the monorail through the
same doors that we entered through, and explained to the workers our
situation. We made our way up to the park exit, and once again
explained what we had did. They pointed to an entrance point
(apparently you could still go in to the party after 11pm, who
knew!) and we scanned through. The workers offered us the party
Christmas ornament, and we managed to snag a couple extras. We were
successful in getting the popcorn buckets out of the lockers, and
headed back to the monorail one more time. When we finally made it
to the car, we made the drive back to the All-Star Sports resort,
where we promptly crashed for the night!
Hopefully I get the chance to do this again in the future, maybe
even the Jollywood Nights at Disney's Hollywood Studios! I know the
kids would love this one... Grandma Terry? Perhaps not so much.
Merry Christmas everyone! |