Food Fest 2005!

Okay, let's be real, every day in 2005 was typically a food fest for me...but this is different. Way back when I worked for the mouse, my most favorite perk was always the Holiday Cast Party. Each December, Disney picks a few nights to close the park early, boot the guests out and bring the cast members (employees) in with family members or a guest.

The best part of this night, other than the relaxed atmosphere, was always that the food was severely discounted. We are talking 50 cent churros. HELLO!? So the tradition came to be that attractions took a back seat to food consumption, and we'd spend the majority of the evening snacking our way through the park.

It's been a long time since I worked there myself, but Tuesday night, the tradition resumed. Kristine and I were able to attend the Cast Party as the Twins' guests.

We got lucky and had the chance to meet up with Joanne and Russell at DownTown Disney before we went in the park. (Our schedules so rarely line up.) So we caught up over coffee because we didn't want to take up room with non-party food. (With all the excitement, I forgot to take a picture. Der...)

Anyway, shortly after 8, we said our goodbyes and headed into a park with a plan in hand.

First up, Bengal BBQ...

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Then we headed on for our churros. This stop brought on discussion about the changing face of Disney, etc. Blah blah blah.... Anyway...Churros were $2 last night (I still got 2.) It turns out that they have actually started setting the food prices to make a profit on Cast night, hence the disappearance of the 50 cent churro. It kind of took the force out of my appetite. (Kind of...)

We still made a few more snack stops...popcorn...apple bites...etc.

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But we didn't end up having anymore complete meals. (Our Mexican food adventure was foiled with an 11 pm closure of Casa/Rancho.) Oh well. BUT! We did make it around to a number of rides, including the newly opened Buzz Lightyear and freshly refurbished Space Mountian. We even made it over to visit with the sleepy reindeer.

I hadn't been in the park in a really long time. So last night was the first time I really had the chance to appreciate some of the special 50th anniversary details. There are gold Mickey ears everywhere. (If you haven't been to see the fireworks yet, you should go. We went one night over the summer just to see the show. I seriously could have watched it 10 more times.)

And I don't know when they added this, but there is now a music and projection element to the front area of Holiday Small World. Very disco! Very cool!

So anyway, despite the not-so-discounted food, we had a great time! Thanks M & M for letting us tag along! Good times!