DAY 1 Continued: Friday August 24th
When I left off, we were heading over to It's a Small World to stake out a spot for The Magic, The Memories & You show. We missed it last trip, and since we wanted to see World of Color on our next two nights, this was the only night for us to see the DL nighttime shows. We ended up arriving in that area of the park to find there weren't many other people waiting. So while DH played with the settings on the camera to find the best one for pictures, I grabbed a seat on a bench and listened to a couple having an argument behind me.
When they made the announcement that the show was about to began, I got up from my seat to join DH and we had a pretty good view of the whole show. There was almost no one there, so it wasn't hard to get a good spot.
"Hey, Ferb, I know what we're gonna do today!" (Got this one for DS
)
Lion King scene
My favorite, the lantern scene from
Tangled!
Fireworks at the finale!
I have to say, I really loved this show! It was really great on the Small World facade because it's so wide compared to Cinderella Castle so I think some of the scenes like the Lion King work better.
Now, why the title of this update? As we were watching the show, I immediately recognized the dancing Wolf family from their
YouTube video and turned to tell DH so! (Seriously, if you haven't watched their 2 Disney World vacation videos, you are missing out!). As we walked off towards the hub to find a spot for the fireworks once MM&Y was over, DH looked at me and said, "That's ridiculous how quickly you recognized a family you don't even know!"
Hey, DH, don't judge me, they are great videos!!
We made our way towards Main Street, and here we found ALLLLLLL of the people who were NOT over by Small World watching MM&Y, they were all packed in waiting for Magical! We noticed most of the crowds were up at the front of the hub almost directly in front of the Castle. I thought we should go back further, but again DH reminded me this was a lot different than watching fireworks in MK with Cinderella Castle. So we found a spot to squeeze ourselves in behind another group who was close to the makeshift pathway so we weren't squeezing in in front of anyone. It ended up being a great spot to see the fireworks, save for the lady in front of me who was almost constantly shifting over in front of me, so I'd have to shift over more to be able to see around her head.
Tinkerbell flying
My favorite part, Dumbo flying!
Of course, Magical was not as breathtaking as Wishes, but it was still a beautiful fireworks show! I especially loved that both Tinkerbell and Dumbo fly over the Castle, not just once but several times each. It's not like blink-and-you-miss-it-Tink at WDW. I have never watched Wishes from the hub at MK, so maybe it is just as packed as it was here at DL, but I found that a little uncomfortable. It is so much nicer to have everyone dispersed on Main Street instead of packed in like sardines.
We debated heading off to ride something else, but decided instead to do some shopping on Main Street instead of trying to fight crowds trying to get to an attraction. We ended up spotting the Halloween display and taking pictures of the stuff we wanted to get either when we came home or when we go to WDW. It was all way too big for us to get home with just 2 carry-ons and 2 backpacks.
At 10:15, we exited the park and hopped onto a tram to the parking garage. Although the park was open until 12 am, we didn't want to burn ourselves out on our first day. Besides we had an early date with Cars Land the next day that we definitely didn't want to miss!
UP NEXT: Welcome to Radiator Springs!