Another Magical Year Ends

Our time the last two weeks of 2010 was generally spent hanging out at the RV, eBaying some stuff we had in storage, and of course going to Disney World. We finally ventured over to the Magic Kingdom to catch Disney’s Main Street Electrical Light Parade, a 20-minute nighttime procession featuring floats and live performers covered in half a million lights timed to a synchronized soundtrack. The parade made its return engagement this summer replacing the Spectromagic parade, and has been extended indefinitely. Tinker Bell leads off the parade waving to the crowd from the basket of a hot air balloon followed by Mickey and Minnie on the Electrical Parade train driven by Goofy. Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Pinnochio are just a few of the other floats, and the entire parade ends with a float called “To Honor America”. Though this is a very popular parade and fun to see, personally we still prefer Spectromagic and hope it returns.












We stayed to watch the Wishes fireworks spectacular that happen above and around the backdrop of Cinderella’s Castle. The Castle is stunning this time of year with more than 200,000 tiny white lights attached to netting that drapes over the Castle creating a glistening icicle effect. During the day, you can't even see any of the lights or netting and then magically at night the lights are turned on, and voila! The Castle changes colors throughout the evening so if you don’t particularly like the color it is now, stick around for a few minutes and the color will change!


During the holidays, the pavilions at Epcot’s World Showcase come alive with Holidays Around the World. Each country brings to life their unique holiday traditions and legends through decorations and Holiday Storytellers. We’d seen some of these in the past, but there were others we hadn’t. Russ didn’t really care one way or the other about seeing them, so one afternoon I went over by myself. It turned out to be a beautiful, warm Florida day, something we hadn't had for a couple of weeks down here. Though the telling of each tradition is only about 5 minutes long, there’s no real flow to the timing so that you can simply go from one country to the next. I had sort of mapped out a plan and managed to see 7 of the 12: Papa Noel – Canada, Pere Noel – France, the Daruma Vendor – Japan, Kwanzaa – U.S., Helga – Germany, The Monkey King – China, and Los Tres Reyes Magos – Mexico plus I passed Santa and Mrs. Claus with children lined up ready to sit on their laps. Unfortunately, the timing was just off to see the others. In fact I had planned to catch Julenissen and Sigrid at Norway even though I had seen them before. While waiting for their first performance of the day at 3:10pm, a cast member informed us that the 3:10 performance was cancelled but we could return for the 3:50 show. Well bummer!! I knew I wouldn’t make that one because I had to get something to eat and then get in line for the 5pm Candlelight Processional performance narrated by Thomas Gibson (Dharma & Greg, Criminal Minds). He was alright, pretty much just reading it straight and very dry, but the music is always incredible.




















We returned a few nights later to catch country music artist, Trace Adkins, narrate the Processional. Beforehand I wondered aloud if he would be wearing his cowboy hat, and sure enough he came onstage with it on, but before he started reading, he respectfully removed it till the end. His big baritone voice was perfect for the narration.

Our Christmas Eve tradition for the last couple of years has been to fight the crowds and attend the Candlelight Processional. Once again this year the narrator was Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver, Battlestar Galactica). He is another great one to see as he puts so much emotion and emphasis into the narration, sings along with several of the songs, and even translates small sections of it into Spanish. We were pleasantly surprised that even though it was Christmas Eve, the line was not too long for the middle performance nor the last one, both of which we attended. (Below are a couple of pictures to give you a little better idea of the scope and size of the Candlelight Processional.)










The last night for the Processional was Dec. 30 with guest narrator Marlee Matlin (Children of a Lesser God, West Wing, Dancing with the Stars), and of course we attended. Since she is deaf, she performed the narration in American Sign Language and was voiced by her personal interpreter, Jack Jason. The WDW interpreter signs only the songs on nights when Marlee narrates, and the whole thing is still very moving. At one point during each performance when the choir sings Silent Night, the conductor turns out to the audience and conducts us to sing along. As we sang, Marlee signed along, turning more towards the choir as if she was singing back to them, and it was very moving. During her remarks at the end, she credited the Walt Disney World Choir standing behind her with tapping their feet during the songs so she could feel the rhythm. We had no idea they were doing that and had been wondering how she was keeping the beat, swaying her body in time to the music, at times tapping her hand against her hip, and figured she was somehow feeling the music. Now we knew…very cool.

We stayed for Illuminations, and as we were heading towards the exit afterwards, we came across a party getting started right in front of the fountains near Spaceship Earth…DJ pumping music...people dancing and singing along...what a blast! It was New Year’s Eve Eve, and they were getting everybody ready for the big party the next night! We watched for a little bit but didn’t stay too long since we wanted to make it over to Magic Kingdom for the Fantasy in the Sky fireworks. We timed everything just right and arrived just as the Electrical Light Parade was finishing at the front of the park. This was perfect because we could follow along right behind as they made their way up Main Street, giving us an escort to the area where we wanted to be in front of the Castle. We found a great spot to hang out at 11pm, waiting for the fireworks to begin at 11:50….yep, we were going to have to wait that long, and we didn’t dare move from our spot! As the crowd grew around us, a DJ on the Castle stage made the time fly by with loud, pounding music, and encouraging everyone to dance and sing along. The Fantasy in the Sky fireworks are only performed a couple of times a year, and what we saw was spectacular, awesome, fantastic!! They began promptly at 11:50 as a normal fireworks show (well, as normal as Disney does!) timed to Disney music, and then a couple of minutes before midnight, Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy came on over the loudspeakers creating a New Year’s countdown. Right at midnight the grandest fireworks you’ve ever seen exploded 360 degrees around the park…absolutely breathtaking!!! I’m sure everyone felt like a little kid again…eyes wide with amazement!! Disney sure knows how to throw a party!!

Merry Christmas

“Although hundreds of years have passed, we still celebrate the birth of the baby in Bethlehem…and the joy of that first Christmas still lives in our hearts.” - from the Candlelight Processional

During this special time of year, we all take time to reflect on our lives. We remember those we have lost and those we have met along the way. We give thanks to those men and women serving in the military, protecting our country, and pray for their safety. And though miles may separate us from friends and loved ones, they continue to be close in our hearts.

Christmas is a season of hope and magic, a time to be thankful for the many blessings in our lives. It's a time to look in wonderment at life through the eyes of a child. For Christmas is not just a date on the calendar, it is a frame of mind and a way of life. May the joy, love, hope, and peace of Christmas be with you always.

Friends in Florida

Our home for the next 4 months is the same place we stayed 2 years ago, Lake Magic RV Resort in Clermont, FL, located just outside Orlando and about 15 min. from Walt Disney World. The past few weeks have been busy settling in, going to doctor appointments, visiting Disney (of course), and re-connecting with friends. Though we are at a different campground than Paul and Anne this year, we’ve gotten together a few times including an early dinner one night at Manny’s Chop House (http://www.mannyschophouse.com) for their buy one get one free fajita night and endless salad bowl! We also visited with Bob and Joanne at their new location this year, and in the “small world category”, we got a visit from Leslie and Vince, folks we met in Accord, NY, a couple of years ago. We had not seen them since then but had stayed in touch, and it turns out that while we were in Summerton, SC, they had arrived at the exact same campground the day before we left but neither of us knew the other was there. Not only were they at the same campground, but they were parked at the other end of our row, only 4 sites away! Then we found out that they were going to be spending the next couple of weeks just down the road from us here in Clermont…told you it’s a small world! We had a nice, long visit and hope to get together again when they're back in a few weeks.

We also discovered that Beth and Dick were going to be staying at the Disney campground, Fort Wilderness, for a couple of days and made plans to get together. Christmas is such a wonderful time to visit Disney World with all its beautiful decorations and annual traditions, and since this was their first time seeing the parks at Christmas, we were happy to act as tour guides. We met them at Hollywood Studios to see the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights (OsborneLights). We arrived shortly before 6pm, the time the Spectacle begins, and stood with hundreds of others in the middle of “Streets of America”. At precisely 6pm, more than 4 million lights that drape nearly everything in sight came on all at once accompanied by Christmas music and “snow flurries”…Beth and Dick were amazed. No matter how much you read about it or how many pictures you see, nothing compares with experiencing it!

Next we drove over to Epcot for the Candlelight Processional (Processional), another first for them. It’s held three times nightly at the outdoor America Gardens Theater, and 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. The narrators change every few 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! We make good use of our annual passes during this time and try to see as many as we can. This particular night it was being narrated by John O’Hurley (Seinfeld, Family Feud, Dancing With the Stars), and he did an excellent job. It seems that no matter how many times we see the Candlelight Processional, we marvel at the beauty and majesty of the sound and the performers. Afterwards we stayed for the Illuminations fireworks, and then drove them back to the campground. Quite a number of people go all out decorating their campsites at Fort Wilderness for Christmas so we drove through checking out the sights.

Our friend, John, called from St. Louis to let us know he’d be in Orlando on business the beginning of Dec. so we met up at Miller’s Orlando Ale House (http://www.millersalehouse.com/). This location had just opened a couple months earlier, and we enjoyed a great meal and a great visit. However, right after this picture was taken, John realized after all these years just how much shorter I am than him…too funny, John!

The weather here was beautiful when we arrived as you would expect Florida to be in the winter but then it took a turn. OK, so we haven’t had snow and it’s warmer than most places up north, but it dropped to the low 30s a few nights and even got down to 27 one night! What’s up with that?!

Otherwise, over these past few weeks we celebrated Thanksgiving by cooking a 22 lb. turkey (yes, just for the two of us!) and tried our hand at making homemade cabbage rolls, which actually turned out pretty good. We made a couple more trips to Epcot, and one of those trips was to see Whoopi Goldberg narrate the Candlelight Processional. We arrived at the park about 5pm with plans to see the 6:45 show, but when we got over to the World Showcase area, the standby line was already so long that a cast member was telling those of us in the back that we were in line for the 8:15 show! Now the decision was whether to stay waiting in line for 2-1/2 hours or leave, and though I had seen her narrate last year, we decided to stay (after all we had driven over specifically for that purpose). While Russ wandered around talking on the phone, I stood in line chatting with the gal in front of me who was saving spaces for her family and friends, and it made the time fly by. Whoopi did an incredible job, putting so much feeling and emphasis into the narration. Only negative would be that she obviously couldn't resist making a little funny when reading the part that says "a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed" to which she commented "some things never change". Yes, humorous, but there is time allowed at the end for each narrator to make any personal statements they'd like, and it just seems it would have been more appropriate for her to make a comment then instead of in the middle of the scriptural reading. Anyway, we finished the evening once again by watching Illuminations. We never seem to tire of this especially during the holidays when they add on an extra few minutes of fireworks performed to Let There Be Peace on Earth…one of my favorites.