**Our December of Dreams!! Honeymoon at the Wilderness Lodge TR FINISHED**

Hillary12.8.07

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 15, 2007


December of Dreams!!! Our DISNEYmoon at Wilderness Lodge!

Table of Contents
Introduction and Day 1
Day 2 Part 1-MK morning
Day 2 Part 2-Some pixiedust and FANTASMIC!
Day 3 Part 1-Epcot!
Day 3 Part 2-Magic Kingdom!
Day 3 Part 3-Dinner with Pooh and WISHES!
Day 4 Part 1-A few firsts at Animal Kingdom!
Day 4 AK cont.
Day 4-A most romantic evening out at the Grand Floridian!
Day 5-A relaxing day at the pool!
Day 5 Part 2-KONA! and MORE romance!
Day 6-Epcot and Coral Reef!!
Epcot Part 2-Spaceship Earth andIlluminations!
Epcot Part 3-Our final walk around World Showcase continues...
Last Disney day part 1-Magic Kingdom/Ohana
Last day part 2-Ohana, and our last night at Disney
St. Augustine Part 1!!!
St. Augustine Part 2!!!
St. Augustine Part 3!!!


I have never done one of these, so please, be nice. I have grown ADDICTED to these boards, and couldn't wait to do my OWN trip report, amongst all the great writers and picture takers here!

This is also a honeymoon trip report, and I also have a wedding planning journal with all that stuff here...


http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1510931


in case anyones interested.

For those of you who don't know the story, let me introduce ourselves..

Me, Hillary-age 25, graduate student in School Counseling. We live in Augusta, GA, home of the Masters golf tournament, and James Brown.

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I have been going to Disney since I was about 3. We had annual passes for 2 years in a row when I was in middle school, and I've been obsessed just like my parents raised me. I love everything about it. I've stayed many places, although Ft. Wilderness will always have a special place in my heart. It's the first place I really remember staying, and my parents love it. The first place I ever stayed was the Buena Vista Palace though, way back in 1985, and I hardly remember it. My dream though, has always been Wilderness Lodge, as long as I can remember. So, this was the only place I could imagine spending my honeymoon :cloud9:

DH, Andy-age 24, works as a Network Administrator. Had never been to Disney, and was super excited to be going for our honeymoon. Well, back in May, we were planning to go to St. Augustine with my parents for Mother's Day. But after hearing us go on and on about going to Disney, my mom's love got the better of her, and she decided we'd be going there instead of St. Augustine, as long as that was ok with us. And it was, of course. We stayed at Ft. Wilderness, Saturday to Wednesday. We only went to MK, MGM and Epcot, and it was very rushed. So DH's first trip came early, but I was glad. Even though it wasn't our honeymoon, it was good, because he got to see alot, which let us relax more on our honeymoon w/out having to worry about missing alot.

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SO, that brings us to the trip. We left Monday, December 10th, 2 days after our wedding. And stayed until the next Monday, December 17th. We drove straight there on the way down, and then the following week we stayed overnight in St. Augustine on the way back. Just to break up the trip of course. It was my first real trip w/out my parents at Disney, and my first trip alone with my DH. Year of a Million Dreams indeed.

And it begins....


Saturday night after the wedding we spent the night at the B&B where our reception was held. My parents had paid for the room for us to get ready in before the wedding, and so we'd all have a place to leave our stuff. AND we did some bridal portraits and pictures there before the wedding as well. Anyway, as much as we didn't really want to stay there all night, we decided heck, free room, might as well. Then Sunday morning we got up and got ready, they brought us breakfast in bed, which was super nice. Then headed over to my parent's house that afternoon to open the rest of our wedding gifts. All of my family was still there, and DH's parents and brother came over as well. We had a great time, just relaxing and spending time with everyone before we left. We were both so full of excitement, from the wedding and knowing we had the whole week at Disney ahead of us! We left around 5 or so, and rushed home to finish packing and get ready to get to bed. We wanted to leave EARLY the next morning. It's about an 8 hour drive from here, and I wanted to be there already! We were like the kids in the commercial, too excited to sleep, but finally around 10 or so we both drifted off to sleep, full of anticipation for the week ahead.

The alarm went off around 4:45 am, and for the first time probably ever, I jumped out of bed and hit the shower. I was READY TO GO!!! I got myself ready, and got DH up, and he showered and finished loading up the car. We were pulling out of our driveway at 6 am on the dot! One stop at the gas station for lots of soda and we were off!!

We were making great time, we made it to I-95 in record time less than 2 hours, at Yemassee, SC. We stopped for the first time there, right before we got on the interstate. From there it seemed like we were time traveling. I got an XM radio for my car for my birthday in November, and boy was it nice! I played with it pretty much the whole way, and it kept us very well entertained. I forgot to mention what my car looked like on the way down...thanks to my bridesmaids, they did it while I was getting my hair done Saturday.

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We got lots of honks, and thumbs up from passing cars. Very fun. We were in such good spirits, and in the best moods. It was a beautiful day, and we were on the way to Disney. Nothing can beat that. We got to the Florida line in what seemed like NO time. We stopped again near Daytona, at one of those little roadside stands that sells fruit and tacky souvenirs. I really just wanted DH to experience that. We also filled up on gas again, and were on our way! Before we knew it, we were going through downtown Orlando. We had made awesome time, just a little over 7 hours and we were there. And soon coming up on DISNEY! I admit, this was mean, but I was so excited, and had to take a picture and send it to my mom, to make her jealous. She's as big a Disney nut as I am, so I took this on my camera phone, so thus the bad quality.

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I started bouncing up and down in my seat as we went under the sign, and I started seeing Disney buses and signs for everything. Seriously, nothing can beat that feeling, just getting there, and wanting to just get out and do everything at once. I LIVE for that feeling. I can remember how ecstatic I was.

Soon we were pulling into the Wilderness Lodge. I was seriously, about to burst out of my seat. I took another picture to send to my mom, just to be nice, of course.

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We pulled up under the big awning, and I was just more excited than words can say. The sky was blue and sunny, and I had not a care in the world. The valet guy unload our car, and then DH decided to save the money and just park the car himself. I went in and checked in, pretty much dancing the whole way there.

Check in was a breeze, and the lady helping me immediately gave me 2 of the Just Married pins. I think it really started sinking in then, that I was married, and on my honeymoon at Disney. She told me our room was ready, and handed over our keys and the Disney folder with all our stuff in it. DH still hadn't come in yet, so I just walked around a few minutes, in awe of how BEAUTIFUL the lobby was. The tree, the carvings, all those little details, EVERYTHING. Finally I saw Andy come in, and we took the elevator up to the fifth floor. We found our room, RIGHT off the lobby, on the left side. I was SO excited, mistakenly thinking that not only did we have courtyard view, but also a room off the lobby??! We slid the key in, but nothing happened. 2, 3 more tries, and nothing. DARNIT! Should have known it shouldnt have been that easy. So we went back down to check in, luckily there had been no line since we'd been there. Another girl helped us, said they had given us the wrong room, and told us our new one. I said that I'd really liked that one, off the lobby. Well this girl didn't speak English very well, and seemed very confused. Another girl came over and said that we'd paid for courtyard view, which was more, but she'd see if they could get us another room off the lobby, which was less. I was confused, thought that was what it was. Then she explained to me that the only rooms that were both lobby and courtyard are the ones directly facing the lake, and of course they were all booked. AGH. So, we decided to just stick with what we'd wanted initially, so they gave us another room, again on the fifth floor...

Room 5119, our home away from home for the week...

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This was waiting for us on the bed...

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I immediately went to the balcony and pulled back the drapes and went outside to check out the view...

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DH had other plans...

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We sat around for a few minutes, about that time our parents called to check on us. Ah, it never stops. We tried calling bell services to bring up our luggage, but our phone was not working. The little buttons would not do anything. So we went downstairs, decided to go ahead and get lunch, and just stop by the bell services counter. It was now about 2:30 pm or so. We headed down to Roaring Fork, and both just got cheeseburgers and fries and just paid out of pocket. And here is my stolen food porn picture...

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We also got the refillable mug, and filled up on coke. We sat outside and watched the ducks, and kids swimming, and just relaxed.

After eating, we stopped by bell services and asked for our luggage to be brought up. They got there just a few minutes after we did. After receiving everything, we decided to wait to unpack that night, and head on out for some fun!

It's a family tradition to go to Downtown Disney our first day, since we don't usually waste a park ticket that day. DH is not a fan of the buses, and LOVES water and boats, so we decided to make it more fun. We rode the boat to the Contemporary, which was very fun. Then walked around there for awhile, and decided to then ride the monorail, MY favorite. We got off at the Polynesian. We didn't stay too long, knowing we'd be back later in the week twice. We then rode a bus to DTD. Time consuming? Yes, but fun. We walked around most of the stores, but waited to buy anything. When we went back in May, we never went to the Westside so we walked from DTD over to Pleasure Island and the Westside. By this time we were both starting to get tired, it was probably around 7 or so, and it seemed very crowded. It was pretty hot too. So we agreed to get out of there, and go back the WL for some swimming.

What a GREAT idea. The pool was virtually empty when we got there. DH was disappointed that the slide was closed, but we would be back later in the week. We just floated around, and enjoyed the evening. This was the first time we'd ever been swimming in a pool together, strange as that sounds. My parents have a lakehouse and we have boats and jetskis, and we've been to the beach together a lot, but never a pool. Strange much? Anyway. We also waited around until people got out of the jacuzzi...I'm weird about being in there with strangers. Somewhere in there we decided to split some chicken fingers and an ice cream from Roaring Forks using our first CS credit. “The Fork”, as it became known as throughout the week. And filled the mug up with our first hot chocolate of many. We sat near the pool at a table and ate, and talked about everything we wanted to do that week.

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After an hour or two we headed back to the room and showered, and started unpacking. I also decorated, and got our room in the Christmas spirit. Again, dorky, yes...

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During this time, I had the door to the balcony open slightly so we could hear the boat horns on the lake. I heard a familiar tune, and got all excited. It was the Electrical Water Pageant, which Andy LOVED in May. LOVED.

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We ran out there and watched it from our balcony, and soon after went to bed, exhausted, but ready to get up and see the World!
 
Subscribing to your trippie :) I love your decorated car, so cute! WL is our second favorite resort after Poly, nice pics of your view from the room.
 
Hi Hilary,
Loved everything so far. First I want to say that I live only a couple of hours away from Disney, and I still bounce around and clap my hands when we get under the sign! So, I know what you mean. And also doesn't disney have the best hot cocoa ever??? Its so good! Can't wait to hear more!!!
 


Aw! Loved the first installment....I've been dying to hear about the trip! Thanks for the WL pics..I do miss "home"! Hope you thought about me when you walked in!
 
Subscribing to your trippie :) I love your decorated car, so cute! WL is our second favorite resort after Poly, nice pics of your view from the room.

Thanks for reading!! and subscribing!!!
I LOVE the Poly too, and DH fell in love with it as well. That's prob next on our list of places to stay!

I loved your first installment! Your car looked adorable :)

Thanks so much! Glad everyone likes me car, lol. My friends did good, but if only you knew how long it took us to get that crap off, after leaving it there all week. ugh.

Hi Hilary,
Loved everything so far. First I want to say that I live only a couple of hours away from Disney, and I still bounce around and clap my hands when we get under the sign! So, I know what you mean. And also doesn't disney have the best hot cocoa ever??? Its so good! Can't wait to hear more!!!

Seriously, I don't know what it is but Disney DOES have the best hot chocolate. We filled the mug up at least once a day with it. I make it at home alot, but it's just not the same. Must be the Disney water!
Thanks for reading!

Aw! Loved the first installment....I've been dying to hear about the trip! Thanks for the WL pics..I do miss "home"! Hope you thought about me when you walked in!


Thanks!! I'm so glad you're reading!
And I TOTALLY thought about you while we were there. DH thought I was nuts when I was talking about my "online friends" , when I'd say "Oh so and so did this", and "oh my friend was here". haha. I LOVED WL, it def became home to us.
 
And I TOTALLY thought about you while we were there. DH thought I was nuts when I was talking about my "online friends" , when I'd say "Oh so and so did this", and "oh my friend was here". haha. I LOVED WL, it def became home to us.

B.F. thinks I'm nuts like that too.

I'm so glad you liked WL! I know I'll hear about it in the trip report, but did you eat at Whispering Canyon or Artist Point any time?
 


Love everything about your report so far! Can't wait to hear more! :thumbsup2
 
Signing on!:thumbsup2

Love the car and also love your tree! Did you participate in a tree exchange or do all that on your own?
 
ok just found this. sounded like a good start to your trip.
 
Looks like the beginning of a great trip report. I had to blink twice when I saw a picture of your husband; he looks like a younger version of my sister's husband. :confused:

Looking forward to more.
 
B.F. thinks I'm nuts like that too.

I'm so glad you liked WL! I know I'll hear about it in the trip report, but did you eat at Whispering Canyon or Artist Point any time?

We didn't eat at either. We did have ADRs months ago for Artist Point, but decided not to go this time b/c we were already using 2 TS credits at Narcoosee's, and I wanted to go there alot more.
I have been to Whispering Canyon lots of times with my family, that's how I came to fall in love with WL, just going to eat there.

Count me in

Yay! Thanks for reading!


Again, yay!! I'm so glad I actually have readers!

Love everything about your report so far! Can't wait to hear more! :thumbsup2

Thanks so much!!! I'm going to try to add more before the weekend is over!

Great report!

Thanks so much!

Signing on!:thumbsup2


Love the car and also love your tree! Did you participate in a tree exchange or do all that on your own?

YAY!
I did the tree on my own...I found a thread months back that showed how to make those tree ornaments with styrofoam balls, it was SUCH a good idea I had to do it. I've had that little tree for years, in my room at my parents house so I decided we HAD to take it, I needed to decorate since we'd be there for Christmas. I'm so glad I did, it was so nice to come back to at night!

I love your trip report! Can't wait to hear more!

Thanks so much! I'm glad you're joining in!

ok just found this. sounded like a good start to your trip.

Thank you!

Looks like the beginning of a great trip report. I had to blink twice when I saw a picture of your husband; he looks like a younger version of my sister's husband. :confused:

Looking forward to more.

Thanks for reading! Hm, how strange. He gets comments all the time that he looks like the guy from Superbad and Knocked Up, can't think of the guys name. I'll have to tell him he has another twin somewhere!



Thank you everyone for reading! This is so fun, my first TR, I didn't know if anyone would read or not! We're busy this weekend cleaning and moving more of my stuff from my parent's house, but I'm going to try to get another installment up this weekend before I go back to classes on Monday!!

Hope everyone is having a fantastic Saturday!!! :goodvibes
 
Tuesday, December 11

We didn't set the alarm this morning, or all week actually. But I think I popped up out of the bed by 8 am just about everyday! Some days we didn't get in a huge hurry to get out, which is new for me, my family always was out early in the morning, and stayed out alllll day. We didn't enjoy this in May, so our plan was to take things slower and relax. That being said, I was ready to GO!!! We fell into a pattern of me taking the shower first, then I would eat my morning peanut butter crackers and apple juice out on the balcony while DH showered. That was one of my favorite parts of the trip I think...just sitting out there, first thing in the morning, watching everyone walking around, going to get breakfast, and hearing the horns on the boats starting to blow. I also noticed just about every morning, when they would switch on the music outside. It would be so peaceful, I could hear the water in the falls flowing, and ducks quacking, and then all of a sudden the music would come on. Anyway...this was how just about every morning would go. It would end with us making sure we had everything packed into the Baggallini, and me rushing DH out the door!

This was the only day we had no ADRs to make, so we had the whole day ahead of us and no real plans. Well...that's not entirely true. I got Tour Guide Mike months back, and am SO glad we did. We really did find that waits were unusually short, and it was just awesome. I'll totally be doing that again. So I used his best days, and we had plans to go to Magic Kingdom that morning, and then MGM sometime in the day, to catch Fantasmic that night.

So off we went!! We practically skipped down to the boat dock. It was a magnificent day, the sky was blue and the weather was beautiful. We got on the boat, it was one of the bigger ones with the big deck in front. There was the cutest family sitting in front of us, the dad and the son and daughter were in front of us, and the mom and another son on the other side. I guess the dad saw our “Just Married” pins, and he said something to his son about how shiny and nice DH's ring was. He asked how long we'd been married, and we said just 2 days. He was like, WOW, congratulations. Some of the other people on the front with us told us congratulations as well. He said something else about the ring and the marriage being shiny and new, and then asked his son if they should tell us the awful truth. It was very cute, and they talked to us the rest of the way to the MK. Eventually, we made our way around the bend and I could see the MK coming up.

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There really is nothing like seeing it the first time on the trip. I get goosebumps, and a little teary everytime...

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We got in through the gates pretty quickly, and stepped onto Main Street.

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I always want to stop and take a ton of pictures and go in the shops, but I knew we'd be back, and I could tell it was fairly empty so we should take advantage and get on some rides! We did stop to take a Photopass picture, and were on our way!
It has always been almost a tradition for my family to start on the left in Adventureland, so we decided to start in Tommorowland, for the first time. We went right on Buzz Lightyear, NO wait. AWESOME! I LOVE this ride. It's funny, since the ride opened, we'd been probably 3 or 4 times, and I refused to ride it. I get motion sickness and can't do anything spinny...the teacups is my worst nightmare. Well after reading on here before our May trip, I figured it wasn't that bad. So we all went on it in May, and I LOVED it. We rode it like 4 times in a row that trip. It's crazy that all that time I was so terrified of it, and its one of my favorites now!! Anyway, DH kicked my butt as usual, I just never could get the hang of how to get the most points. So off that, we went to Carousel of Progress. We skipped this in May, and I had a feeling DH might like it. He likes educational stuff, so off we went. I must add, we were getting “Congratulations” left and right this morning. Very cool. Anyway...not surprising, DH LOVED this. He kept talking about it after we got off. Crazy. Then we had to do my favorite, the “Peoplemover”. I will call it that FOREVER. This is one of my most favorite pictures...


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After we finished in Tommorowland we headed off to Mickey's Toontown through the “secret walkway”. I love this...there was no one back there, and I just enjoyed walking with my husband, on the first day of our trip, knowing we still had the whole week ahead of us.
We walked through Mickey's house, and took a few pictures, but it was pretty crowded so we hurried through.

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We just kinda walked slowly, went through the gift shop, and headed toward Fantasyland.

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We also missed out on Pooh in May, so DH really wanted to ride this. LOVE that ride. He cracked up at the bouncing with Tigger part. For a guy who tries to be Mr. Cool all the time, I just love seeing him get such a kick out of the most RANDOM things.


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We also went on Snow White, another new one for DH.
Next was Mickey's Philharmagic. Its one of my favorites EVER. Love it, everytime. We got so lucky again, we walked up and there was no line, and they were still letting people in for the next show. SCORE!!! After that, we went on It's a Small World. Now, I used to get all offended when people talked crap about this ride. It's always been one of those MK traditions for me because its one of the few rides I actually remember riding when I was really little, but I think this trip I really got it. It is kinda lame, and boring, and I think I'm losing my fascination with it. It will always hold a special place in my heart, and I'll probably always ride it once every trip, for sentimental reasons. But, I was ready to get off! We went from there over to the Haunted Mansion. This is my most favorite ride, EVER. Now I was DYING to ride this, and I purposefully saved it for last, just because I love the anticipation. I had heard and seen about the renovations, and could not WAIT. Again, NO wait. We walked up and they were just shutting the doors, but we were in within five minutes. I was almost jumping up and down excited. And it did not disappoint. I noticed all the changes, the best were the new room with the staircases, AWESOME, and the new Madame Leota. SO COOL. I just love that ride.

After that we were getting hungry so we went to get some lunch...

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Now, while stealing pictures off the food porn thread, I could NOT find a picture of what I had to eat. I don't know if it's new or something, but seriously, it was the best counter service food we had all week. It was a Philly Cheesesteak sandwich, which I'm not normally a fan of, but wow, it was good. DH got the pepperoni pizza, and it came with a side salad, which I ate half of, and gave him my chips. I also gave him the other half of my sandwich, he's my little human garbage disposal. This is when I began to realize that while this dining plan was very convenient...I liked just handing over our card..it was wayyyy too much food. We hardly ever get dessert, so that was new. DH got the chocolate cake, and I got the strawberry cheesecake thing. We both just managed a few bites. And that is a pet peeve with me, wasting food. But oh well, what can you do.

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Around this time my mom called, just trying to make herself miserable and jealous by hearing how much fun we had. We talked to her for a little bit, I wanted to make sure my kitty was ok. After that we talked about what to do. We had gotten SO much done, it was just about 2 pm or so, and had done pretty much over half of the park. We were coming back the next day, so we decided to head over to MGM, so we'd have a few hours before Fantasmic.
Of course we had to figure out the most fun way to get there. So we rode the monorail. We were going to ride it to the Contemporary and ride the bus to MGM, but we somehow went up the wrong side, and went to the Express monorail directly to the TTC. Not a problem, they have busses too. Well, this was probably the longest line we encountered, waiting for that bus. Eventually it came though. We got to MGM, and I was so excited seeing all the decorations again.

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Fantasmic wasn't until 6:30 so we had some time to play with. We went straight towards the Muppets, this was DH's FAVORITE ride in May. Along they way, we passed the Jedi Academy going on, so DH had to stop and take pictures.

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He is OBSESSED with Star Wars.

This is from our May trip...

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We also had to go in the store to see if there was anything he needed. He got a tshirt on sale in May there for like 9.99, but they didn't have anything that good, so we just went to the Muppets.

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It was great as always. We got there towards the end of the preshow, which is the best part, but oh well.

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We walked around some in the streets, saw some of the Osbourne lights. We talked about maybe seeing them after Fantasmic, if we weren't too tired. Then we headed towards The Great Movie Ride. I really think this was the longest ride wait we saw. It always is so long. After that we were a little tired, and decided to just head over towards the amphitheater and relax. We walked in a few stores, and took our time, just enjoying the atmosphere. We were just about to get our first dose of pixiedust for the week...


Well I NEED to get to bed, I was going to do the whole day but dang its taking awhile. I will try to get the rest up tommorow, or later this week!!! Thanks for reading!!!
 
Sounds like you had a fabulous time at the MK and MGM so far! Your report is awesome...keep it coming! ;)
 

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