December 2011 Trip, Part 6
D23's 2011 Magic and Merriment
Please see Part 1 for cast and plot summary...
Day 5b, Friday, Dec 9.
D23's 2011 Magic and Merriment. Day 1, Part 2
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But if there was any justice, the protagonist would swallow his whistle too.
We get to the restaurant, I have the lamb platter, Jenny has the Veggie Platter. There's actually something green on my plate, but I eat it anyway.
Serveur Amusant and Food Porn in Morocco
We are undecided on what to do, so we start to wander over toward Norway, when somewhere around Germany Jenny decides she wants to see the new British group.
In the UK? You mean the place that's the opposite way from which we're walking? Well, I haven't walked enough this week anyway.
The new group (British Revolution) is pretty good. It's more updated that the uh... group they replaced, doing tunes from later times. Like the 70's and 80's. So The Who and Led Zeppelin finally make it into the parks, and while the music is pretty good, the entertainment is the audience. Some of the kids could care less, but many are probably familiar with it from mom and dad.
It's the older crowd that's really rocking out to the music. The moms and dads. Even the old guys. Let's face it. If you were thirty when the music first came out, you're 70 now. Deal with it. By the time they're half-way through the set, the audience has become pretty big.
Some of the music was still before even Jenny was born. That's kinda sad. Well, like my Old Guys Rule t-shirt sez, the older I get, the better I was! I get a picture of the group post-show. There is an older lady (maybe 70-75?) there with her daughter. It's her birthday, and she really enjoyed the show. They get her name and tell her to come back for the next set and they'll have a song for her. Wonder if she went back... :-)
We saunter over to Norway via the Plaza. We are supposed to enter
through the left side of Maelstrom. We get there, and sure enough,
there is a hostess CM who unfastens a rope for us, and directs us
through a non-descript gray door. Oooh... You always wonder what's
behind these doors.
It's a truly non-themed stairway that leads up to the Hospitality suite. It's directly above Maelstrom and the gift shop, and if you look out the South window, you can see where the boats do their reverse in the ride before escaping the trolls.
It's a comfortable place, with lemonade, chilled water, coffee and the like. We stay for a while looking the place over, then exit, and in true Disney fashion, we must leave through the gift shop. Once again, Jenny must look at the $300 sweaters. We are heading for American Adventure.
Along the way in China, Jenny asks if there's going to be a Monkey King tale telling soon. Again. Only this time she's in luck, in 5 minutes. She plops herself on the ground. I can't sit like that. I wouldn't be able to get up until next Monday. Eventually, I do, and yes, I'm sorry for it.
The Monkey King is redeemed, and we continue our wander toward American Adventure. I would like a particular angle to get the Christmas Tree closer to Spaceship earth across the Lagoon, and find after I take the pic that I have to double back because of the roped off area in Italy for the Candlelight Processional this evening. Which already has guests waiting in line for it.
Candlelight Processional:
Now this is the reason why I never saw the CP. Lines would go back to
Germany. Even if you got a Dinner reservation, the line would go back
to Morocco. And if you saw the late CP, you'd not get good spot for
Illuminations.
But this should be different. We were supposed to have reserved seats. Jenny is pessimistic. She has done several CP dinners, and has been treated like cattle.
We arrive at American Adventure at 3:45pm, and park ourselves at an outdoor table at Liberty Inn. We are supposed to meet there at 4:15 for our 5pm Candlelight Processional. I notice the Gingerbread house in Liberty Inn on the obligatory trip to the bathroom, and take a few pictures. While we're waiting, Spirit of America does a set, with a larger than normal audience due to the crowds beginning to wait for the CP.
At a few minutes past four, I suggest we get up and go find out where we should be. A CM directs us to wait by the fountain, and someone will get us.
At about 4:10, we are gathered by guys with red flashlights (something we would get used to), and we are the first allowed into the theater, right off the center aisle and are just far enough back to get both Christmas trees in frame when taking a picture.
The family in front of us (who had have a dozen people in it, and were CP dinner guests) had someone take a family picture, and foolishly left space open, so I smiled and leaned over a little. They notice me in the picture and laugh over it. One guy takes a picture of me on their smartphone and zombifies me. Very cool. They also had apps to make one fat or old or... Obviously someone who can program a smartphone had too much time on their hands.
I'm sure I embarrassed Jenny. What was she going to do, leave? We have some pretty good seats. The narrator tonight is Isabella Rossellini. She's wearing whiteface in the picture in the Epcot "Holidays Around the World" guide. Great. Hopefully not another mime. On the other hand, it might be interesting seeing a mime do the life of Jesus.
I am so far removed from pop culture, that I only recognize two narrators, Geena Davis and Susan Lucci. I only know of Lucci because she is cause celeb in never winning a daytime Emmy. I ask if Trace Adkins was the one that invented the diet, and I get a mean look from Jenny. On the other hand, I did recognize several of the Cast from Voices of Liberty when they were onstage. What does that say? Hmmm...
Seeing the presentation this morning on the history of this event, was a very good way to introduce it to me. The why and way the show is put together, organized and choreographed was a great help in what I was seeing. It was even more interesting when I started hearing the scripture in stereo. Jenny's a Bible study person, donchaknow. It's handy to have an expert around when you have questions about what you're seeing.
It was a very enjoyable and moving experience. I would recommend it to anyone who likes to stand in line, or has even a remote like of traditional Christmas music. I might also wait until a later show if possible, to see the entire presentation in the dark. If you see the second show, you should still be able to find a good place for Illuminations.
This is a couple of clips from the 2011 Candlelight Processional.
Excerpts from the 2011 Candlelight Processional
But not tonight! The next event in Magic and Merriment was a Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!
Now, if D23 *really* liked us, they would have taken us backstage from the CP, put us on a bus and deposited us at Magic Kingdom, instead of having us do that little walk from the very back of Epcot to the very front of Epcot and catch the monorail to the TTC, and boat or monorail to Magic Kingdom...
Unfortunately, D23 didn't like us that much. I mean, I haven't walked enough this trip anyway. The full moon isn't officially full until tomorrow, but it's close enough for a couple of pictures over the World Showcase Lagoon.
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party
We arrive on Main Street about an hour later. (55 minutes.) Both
monorails were walk-on's, so the delay wasn't in transportation, but
traversing Epcot and transit time on the monorails. sigh.
This is our second time in Magic Kingdom. We haven't done Buzz yet. If you've read my other trip reports, you know that Jenny has to handicap me to make the score at least close. So far, I have the winning record. The brazillions are here, and get in line in front of us, backing the queue up a ten yards into Tomorrowland. This gives Jenny time to think. I can use my thumb to shoot, but with my left hand. I have to get in first, Jenny rotates the car, and I had a 10 second penalty before I can start shooting. She actually takes her cell phone out and puts it in timer mode. Halfway through the ride, we stop a couple of times with what was probably a load problem, negating my 10 second penalty and I still win 356,900 to 347,300.
Jenny gets up to leave, and has left her cell phone on the seat. I pick it up.
Having satiated our aggressive side by shooting Zurg and a few aliens, we're headed across the park toward Frontierland, and suddenly take a left turn and find ourselves on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover. I give her back her cell phone, with my luck, we'll get separated, and I'll be the one to blame because I didn't give her back her cell phone. As we exit Space Mountain, the Peoplemover comes to a sudden halt because some SG in another car stood up. They reset the system, and we motor... sorta... on.
We are back on course for Frontierland, when the thought of corn dogs at Casey's alters our course, and once we get there, realize the 20 minutes in line will assure we will miss the parade. sigh.
We were supposed to have a reserved area for the Christmas Parade by the Diamond Horseshoe, but by the time we got there, it was four people deep. Nope. Sorry. We walked about another 100 yards further up Frontierland, and found a place behind a family sitting down. Not only was the view better here, but I went to get a couple of water bottles, and the register froze up on us while doing the transaction, and was comp'd the two bottle of water. In which case I'll take a couple of churrios, another couple bottles of diet coke...
We have some construction walls across from us. It's not unusual, there's a lot of them all over. It's interesting to see how the different parade units deal with it. Some just play to the construction walls, as if there's an audience there. Others like the Toy Soldiers, start looking at each other like they don't know why they're starting at a wall.
We watch the reindeer dance by, followed by the fat guy in the red suit that I'm sure infuriates the health nazis, and are going to go on Big Thunder Mountain railroad. It is going to go down for rehab soon, and Jenny wants to ride it before it does.
But we need food first. We could walk all the way back someplace, but instead settle on...shudder...Pecos Bills. A cheeseburger and taco salad later, we are headed toward the wildest ride in the wilderness. As I feared, it is crowded due to DHS being closed. If AK was a late night park, it could have taken up the slack...
We're out of Big Thunder, and we aren't very far from the exit when Holiday Wishes starts up. (They've re-released the CD, and I have music to put to the video now...) It's very different watching Wishes from Big Thunder. Like watching it from the other side from the Contemporary, the Castle fireworks is removed from the large shells fired further back. The Castle here is actually behind some trees, so that part of the show is pretty much obscured for us. But we seem to be closer to the large shells, which are large and bright (and wind-blown toward you), and thump your chest when they explode. Aw, pretty...
Jenny's asthma has been pretty bad all week, and the smoke from the castle fireworks is coming right at us, so I try to move her through Adventureland, but we're still in the smoke aftermath for a while. We cut through Casey's, then the Main Street store. About halfway through the store, there's enough traffic in the store to justify bailing out to Main Street, where guests are already waiting for the second Christmas parade.
We get to the bus stops and there's a wait for a bus, but we are able to get on the first one that comes. We have another long day tomorrow!
Mickey's Once Upon A Christmastime Parade
End December 2011 Trip Report - Part 6.
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