8 hours at Magic Kingdom

Posted on by Ian C.

We headed to Magic Kingdom to celebrate our wedding anniversary, arriving about 10am and staying almost till the park closed to regular ticket holder at 6pm (it was then open for a separate and expensive Christmas event – which seemed to give us the benefit of being quieter than expected during our day!)

We took advantage of shorter lines to meet Disney characters – Mickey Mouse of course, but also Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel and Pooh & Tigger!

We also rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (replacing Splash Mountain!), Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid, It’s a Small World, and the Mine Train (longest about 50 minute wait for that one) … we additionally saw a very small parade, watched the Country Bears and Mickeys Philarmagic, and had good but $$$$ lunch at Be Our Guest!

A busy, fun, day!

Epcot at night

Posted on by Ian C.

We just gave Disney about $2,500(!) to have annual passes again, and our first visit was to Epcot getting there at about 5:30pm already nearly dark – our first stop was the Chinese restaurant Nine Dragons, always a favorite of mine!

We did the Spaceship Earth ride, which is always better at night because our eyes aren’t swamped with sunlight before going in! My iPhone 18 Pro did a good job of taking photos (even without night mode which is useless on a moving ride):

We also got to ride Remy’s Ratatouille Ride which was “temporarily closed” but apparently opened just before we went to check it, and we got in with a less than 20 minute wait! The ride has changed since we last rode it – you don’t wear 3D glasses any more, and it makes photos better because there’s no longer the dual image blurring effect (compare with this photo from two years ago):

We finished our evening watching the fireworks, enhanced by being across the lake and getting reflections!

To finish, here’s some video of the fireworks:

Cirque Du Soleil Drawn

Posted on by Ian C.

For many years there was a Cirque Du Soleil show in Disney Springs called La Nouba, which we saw many times (11, I think) but before Covid it was to be replaced – and Covid canceled the first showing of the replacement before it happened (we had it booked for April 2020, never went of course).

However the new show Drawn To Life did eventually open and of course we’ve seen it (5 times so far); it’s an interesting performance mixing Disney theming with Cirque acrobatics with a story that isn’t hard to follow (unlike some Cirque shows!)

Photography isn’t allowed during the performance, but there’s a pre-show that gives opportunities, as well as all the performers coming on stage at the end – so here’s some views to give a flavor of the costumes and colors, at least! The photos are from multiple visits, multiple locations – and interestingly hint at changes to the show (for example in last night’s show we did not see the stilt walkers!) … there’s also a couple of “accidental” photos of my favorite part of the show the “wheel of death” …