A night at the Magic Kingdom

The main reason to go to the Magic Kingdom after dark is to see Cinderella's Castle lit up. And after doing it, I felt it was not only worth the trip, but I want to do it again!

When we got there, the castle was bathed in dark blue lights. Very dramatic!

They weren't going to light it up right away, so I used the time to good purpose by riding on the big carousel behind it. I have a soft spot for carousels, and this one is such a beauty.

The first lighting show was shorty thereafter. Queen Elsa and the rest of the gang from Frozen did a short skit, culminating in covering the castle with "ice". And just like that, the most beautiful castle was even better!

For the rest of the night, everywhere we went, I kept looking over my shoulder to see it!

We went on the Jungle Ride again, where the boats have been temporarily renamed in honor of the holiday; ours was the Reindeer Ruby. The captains all tell the corniest jokes and puns possible, which are so bad they are actually funny. Some of the sights were half obscured by the darkness, but it was fun anyway. 

We went through the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House, where I was a little worried about tripping in the dark, but it wasn't a problem. 

We had some time to kill before the night show so we went to the 3-D PhilharMagic Show. It wasn't amazing but it was a nice way to spend a little time. And the gift shop was fun.

We had reservations for an 8:00 dinner at the Liberty Tree Tavern, but they were running at least 20 minutes behind. That meant we might be having dinner when the fireworks started, so instead we went to Casey's for a hot dog. Even there it was swamped, and Randy stood in line for a half hour to get our food. We finished up just a few minutes before the firework show started. It was more than fireworks, of course. The castle was used as a canvas to tell short bits of many of the Disney films like Frozen, Tangled, Brave, Aladin, and too many others to count. It was amazing; they altered the look of the castle with lights to match the music.

And behind it, with the castle appearance still changing, the fireworks went off. An amazing number of them looked like big mouse ears! And some took me back to the opening sequence of TV's "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color".

I even think they had fans to control the firework smoke; it only obscured the castle once, then cleared away for another scene!

After the fireworks ended, most people headed out, including us. In the lot we all learned that both Monorails were down. And since the Magic Kingdom is located across the lake from it's parking lot, everyone had to take a ferry or a bus to get back to their cars. The line for the ferry was huge so we headed for the bus. And although there was a big crowd there too and we had to wait, everyone took it well, and the staff did a fine job of moving everything alone.