Magical Days

Our Walt Disney World annual passes were due to expire March 15, and since we would be leaving the Orlando area a couple of weeks after that, there was really no point in renewing now but rather waiting until we returned at the end of the year. Of course, this meant we’d need to cram in as much time at Disney as possible over the next 5 days! Epcot’s International Flower & Garden Festival had started a couple weeks earlier with this year’s theme “Epcot Springs To Life”, and as you may recall from previous years’ posts, part of this annual event is the Flower Power Concert Series featuring entertainers from the 60s & 70s. The concerts are only held on weekends with three 35 min. performances held each night at the outdoor American Gardens Theater. This weekend featured The Guess Who (American Woman, These Eyes, No Time), with original founding member, Jim Kale (below left in the vest), and what a concert! We arrived for the middle show, stayed for the next one, and then caught the Illuminations fireworks before heading home.









The next day we didn’t arrive at Magic Kingdom until late in the day since it was open till midnight so we could catch the fireworks and one of their newest shows called “The Magic, The Memories, and You!”, which is tied in with the park’s theme this year of “Let the Memories Begin”. But first we walked around the park, caught Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, Carousel of Progress, Country Bear Jamboree, and rode a few rides including of course everyone’s favorite It’s A Small World.


It was now 8:30 and time to find a spot for watching the fireworks which would be immediately followed by “The Magic, The Memories, and You!” It was actually being shown twice that night and as we got closer to Cinderella’s Castle, we could see that the early performance was already underway so we got to see the last part of it and see what all the fuss was about. It definitely encouraged us to want to see more from the beginning! We moved to a better location, and after the fireworks, we were able to do just that…watch it from the beginning. There are 16 high-powered state-of-the-art projectors casting images from about ¼ mile away that seemingly bring the Castle to life during this 10 min. show. Nearly 500 images of guests that were taken that day by the PhotoPass photographers are the main focus but also included are video snippets and photos from Disney’s past. Though basically a 2-dimensional show, the Castle comes to life with color, dancing skeletons, bricks that seem to fall from the building, balloons that burst upwards along its face, and so much more timed to music that make it seem more 3-dimensional. Towards the end there’s a giant mosaic of all the day’s images, and the finale features a burst of fireworks that seem to start on the face of the Castle! This amazing spectacular is hard to describe and these few pictures definitely do not do it justice. We have been amazed by so much of Disney’s magic, but this is the most spectacular thing we’ve ever seen them do. It is truly a magical event that must be experienced.

Sun. we returned to Epcot early enough to see many of the topiaries during the daylight hours, and we’ll simply share a few photos with you.

We stayed long enough to catch the first two shows of The Guess Who, and since it was their last night, they seemed even more wound up! At one point lead singer, Derek, and lead guitarist, Laurie, carried the show out into the audience and up the aisle to the delight of everyone there. The Guess Who are truly master musicians and entertainers!

There were only two days left on our annual pass so we returned to Epcot late Mon. to watch the Illuminations fireworks, and then made a mad dash to catch the monorail to Magic Kingdom one last time. We arrived in time for the fireworks, another showing of “The Magic, The Memories, and You!”, the updated show at The Hall of Presidents, and some last minute rides as well as enjoying a yummy Dole Whip. We also finally used the rest of our gift cards from last year, and one of the things Russ bought was this cool shirt honoring Disney World's 40th anniversary! This was our last day at Walt Disney World as we were too tired to return to any of the parks the next day. Oh well, it’ll all be there next year!