A Few of Our Favorite Things

It's been unseasonably warm since we arrived, but we’re not going to complain! Only down side is that it almost doesn’t seem like Christmas is less than a week away even with so many decorations at the campground and of course at Walt Disney World (WDW). As you can see, we put some decorations in our window front though not as many as last year. And one night some of the folks here at the resort drove their decorated golf carts around while singing Christmas carols!


One of our favorite things to see at WDW this time of year is the Candlelight Processional held three times nightly at the World Showcase area of Epcot in the outdoor America Gardens Theater. In a nutshell, the Processional features a celebrity narrator reading the story of the nativity backed by a mass choir and a 50-piece orchestra while an interpreter relates all in sign language. This is definitely a must see event, and we try to see it as many times as possible. The choir consists of a group of WDW cast members (employees) dressed in green forming a “Christmas tree”, and those dressed in gold are high school groups from over 20 states who arrive onstage by walking down the aisles as they sing. Different groups perform nightly, and they are joined by 8 members of the nationally acclaimed Voices of Liberty who perform at Epcot. The narrators change every 3 nights, and some are better than others because even though they all read the same script, some put much more emotion into the reading while others simply read the words. Some even sing along! No matter how many times we see the Candlelight Processional, we marvel at the beauty and majesty of the sound and the performers.

Last Fri. we took Scott to see Academy Award and Golden Globe winner, Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God, West Wing, Dancing with the Stars), and since she is deaf, she performed the narration in American Sign Language which was voiced by her personal interpreter, Jack. The WDW interpreter signed only the songs that night, but the whole thing was still quite moving. (This is Scott’s first visit to Disney World so we’ve been trying to show him some of our favorite things and highlights.) Afterwards we walked over to see The American Adventure, an inspirational story of America and its people, all very well done with animatronics figures. From there it was time to find a spot for watching Illuminations: Reflections of Earth, Epcot’s fireworks show that takes place every night in the World Showcase Lagoon. The show features fireworks, lasers, fire, and water fountains timed to a musical score. A large rotating globe of the Earth with curved LED screens is the centerpiece of the show and is used to project images of people and places. And at this time of year they tack on an additional few moments of fireworks timed to a beautiful rendition of Let There Be Peace On Earth. This is one of my favorite songs and is always quite emotional for me. Unfortunately I can never get any good pictures of Illuminations and words can never adequately describe it. It's simply fantastic!

Mon. Russ and I got to Epcot first thing when they opened. Arriving at any of the WDW parks at opening is always a fun experience as each park has something to entertain the crowds and get everyone ready for a fun and magical time. At Epcot, everyone is allowed into the park up to a certain point which is roped off, and while waiting the cast members will chat with guests and then Mickey and his friends show up to greet everyone! Of course, only those at the front of the line really get to see them up close, but then the count down begins and you’re ushered in. The place where 90% of the people head is for Soarin’, our favorite ride! (For more info on this ride and some of the other stuff I probably won’t delve into this post), you can go to our blog entries for Sept. and Oct. 2007.) First thing we did upon arriving at the ride was to get a Fast Pass so we could ride again (this is a very popular ride, the lines can be extremely long, and Fast Passes run out quickly.) The park opened at 9, and we are proud to say that we rode Soarin’ 3 times before noon…which is quite a feat!

That afternoon our friends, Richard and Shelly, came by the RV for a visit. We met them last year at Sunset King RV Resort in DeFuniak Springs, FL, where Richard was the Activities Director. They work a few months each winter at Disney World, so when they found out we’d be in town, plans were made to get together. After several hours of catching up, we decided to meet at Magic Kingdom the next afternoon. After going on a couple rides, checking out the shops, watching the parade, and getting a bite to eat, we decided to head over towards the castle. We had read last year that a new design had been created for lighting Cinderella’s castle for Christmas, and the pictures we had seen were beautiful. Let’s just say that the pictures do not do this spectacular sight justice. More than 200,000 tiny white lights are attached to netting that drape over the castle creating a glistening icicle effect. During the day, you cannot see any of the lights or netting and then magically at night they are turned on, and the sight is truly stunning.

















Thurs. morning we took Scott to Animal Kingdom. We rode the Kilimanjaro Safari twice, and then made it over in time to see the Festival of the Lion King, always an energetic and fun show. Afterwards while standing outside, Gi-Tar Dan sang a song customized just for us! Very clever how he comes up with this stuff off the top of his head based on some preliminary questions like your name, where you're from, etc. From there we ventured over to It’s Tough To Be A Bug, and Scott marveled at the advances made in 3D effects since the 50s and 60s.










That night Russ and I headed back to Epcot for the fireworks and the Candlelight Processional being narrated by one of Broadway’s greatest stars, Chita Rivera (Sweet Charity, Chicago). She looks amazing for 75! We actually made it in time for the 6:45 performance so were able to get back in line to catch the 8:15 show. One person who made this night’s performances even better than it normal was guest conductor, Jung-Ho Pak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jung-Ho_Pak). This American born conductor is very animated, sings along most of the time, and as stated by the NY Times “radiates enthusiasm”. We enjoyed watching him as much if not more than the rest of the performance!

Scott joined us Fri. evening at Disney Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM) to see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. Amid “snow flurries” and Christmas music playing through overhead speakers, more than 4 million lights drape buildings, trees, and everything in sight in the Streets of America section of the park. Back in the mid-80s Jennings Osborne of Little Rock, AR, began decorating his home with lights after his daughter made a simple request for some, but that simple request grew and grew each year into a display of nearly 3 million lights that could be seen from miles away! Unfortunately some of his neighbors complained, and in 1994 the Arkansas Supreme Court ruled that it was a public nuisance. But fortunately WDW heard about the display and in 1995 brought the lights to Disney World! Many of the three-dimensional and motion-based displays are those originally displayed at Osborne's home. A few years ago the Spectacle was enhanced to include choreographed “dancing” lights that move in time to the music every 15 minutes thanks to the magic of more than 400 dimmers. There is no extra admission charged for this display, and it’s definitely worth experiencing! From there we ventured over to Muppet Vision 3-D, which we always get a kick out of and figured Scott would, too, since he really enjoyed the "Bug" one at Animal Kingdom, and we were right!

This time of year is generally extremely crowded, and we have never been here this late in Dec. With the poor economy, we’d heard that attendance was down throughout Disney World. In fact at the hotel where Richard and Shelly work, occupancy that normally runs about 90% at the end of Nov. was running at 40%. And though crowd capacity is down, these few weeks before the first of the year will still be very crowded, and hotel occupancy is up. Of course it’s all relative…what may appear crowded to us is actually a slump to the Disney folks.

And in spite of the increasingly growing crowds, wild and crazy kids that Russ and I are, we decided to go over late yesterday to Magic Kingdom to take in the Spectromagic parade and the special Holiday Wishes fireworks. Wow, was it crowded!! Spectromagic is an incredible electrical light parade that combines lights, fiber-optics, and music. In the parade there are 36 floats and your favorite Disney characters are transformed into magical musical light forms. There are 600,000 miniature lights and over 100 miles of fiber optic strands. The lights are dimmed along the parade route, and the sights and sounds are truly amazing. Russ and I love the musical score that accompanies the parade. Afterwards we decided to walk towards the front of the park to watch the fireworks so we could make a quick exit when they finished. It was wall-to-wall people, shoulder-to-shoulder all the way down Main Street as you can see in this photo Russ shot! We’ve heard that this is how it is all day on Christmas Day, and as of this writing, we are not planning to be there that day!! The holiday version of the fireworks was pretty much the same as the those done nightly only these were performed to Christmas music instead, but still fun and beautiful nonetheless.

I’m sure it seems like we’ve had an incredibly busy week, but that’s the beauty of having the annual pass. We can go to any of the parks for just a couple hours or stop in just to see the fireworks. Not sure how much we’ll visit the parks next week though, because Christmas week will be a zoo! So where’s that recession?? ;-)