It really is a magical place

I took a little trip to Florida last month to spend some time with my sister. One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to Disney World. I didn't think we were going to get to go, but my sister surprised me with a ticket as an early Christmas present. Isn't she the best?

My last Disney park encounter was when I was 5 and our family went to Disneyland. Suffice to say, I was long overdue for a magical Disney experience.

Leslie lives about and hour and a half from Orlando. On the way, I knew we were getting close when I saw this:

 

Here we are on the bus on the way to the park. Who do you think was the most excited to be going to Disney World? (Leslie, I'm sorry for posting this, but I just couldn't resist. And it's the only one I got of both of us.)
 

 

We were there in the late afternoon and late into the night for Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party. The whole place was decked out for Christmas.

 

 

Here is Splash Mountain. I'll admit that I'm a bit of a wuss when it comes to rides, and after seeing people shoot down out of that thing, I decided I wasn't brave enough to ride. But I liked standing in front of it and watching.

 

 

Here is the riverboat. Pretty.
 

 

 

cenes from It's A Small World. It's hard to take decent pictures in there because everything moves so much.

 

 

 

 

There is a new area in Disney World that just opened last weekend called Fantasyland. We missed it by a couple of weeks, but were able to see some of it. The Beast's castle is there and so they have a lot of stuff from Beauty and the Beast. This is a fountain with Gaston and his little sidekick, whose name I can't remember.

  

 

Around 9 o'clock that night, there was light show at the castle, followed by fireworks. The castle was all lit up with Christmas lights. It was pretty magical to look at by itself, even without all the lasers and projected images.

 

 

At one point in the program, Tinkerbell flew out of the castle on a zip line with the help of fairy dust and disappeared over the edge of the park. See her?

 

 

Then the fireworks started. It was beautiful.

  

 

 

 

 

Even later that night, there was a parade. During the parade, Mickey Mouse waved at me.  

 

 

So did Prince Charming.
 

 

And the Beast.
 

 

I'm not sure what this guy was up to. I don't think he knew either.
 

 

Since we were celebrating Christmas and since we were in a magical place, they made it snow during the parade. Fun.

 

 

It was very late after the parade and things were beginning to close down, so we left. I was sad to go. Hopefully there won't be too many years between this visit and my next.