Alan's photo trip report, Jun/Jul 2009

[alan]

And then we got to the viewing gallery, and ahead of us we could see Endeavour on the launch pad. The inspiration was there 100% by this point, it was thrilling.




On to the next bus, and it was the Saturn gallery. On the way the bus driver was very keen to point out how "green" the entire centre is, how there is only a tiny fraction of the land concreted over and the rest is a huge nature reserve. Which is nice.

The Saturn gallery had a mock-up of an actual launch in a room made up from desks and terminals from the original Saturn launches. That was extremely well done, and then you went into a huge area with a real Saturn rocket, various other pieces of equipment, a real piece of moon rock you could touch


Then there was a gift shop and the "Moon Rock Cafe". From the sublime to the crass.

By this time the weather had changed pretty badly, the wind had gotten up and the rain was a torrent. I stepped out from the gift shop to take a photograph, and the wind snatched the door away from my hands. The door banged open against the wall, someone inside screamed and loads of lightweight merchandise blew off its shelves and onto the floor. I sheepishly closed the door and helped put things back...

When we eventually left the Saturn gallery, the rain had lightened a bit, but was still pretty heavy


And we went to the final stage. This was a viewing gallery over the work area where equipment is being assembled for the International Space Station. But it was 6pm on a Sunday, and there was nobody there, so that wasn't terribly exciting!

And then we got the bus back to the main centre, and that was it.

I think it's only when you look at this - something that's far from badly done - that you realise just how well Disney presents their parks. And I know that visitors are more a nuisance than anything else in a working Space research area, but if you're going to have visitors I feel you could do a it a lot better than this.

But I still got a heck of a buzz out of seeing Endeavour on the launch pad!

We drove back via the Crossroads shopping mall, where we bought some odds and ends. We managed to find beer at a reasonable price, and breakfast sugar that wasn't excessively sweetened! While there, however, we also noticed a Fox News camera set up at Crossroads so that it would have a wonderfully clear view of the Disneyworld sign. I suspect they weren't allowed onto Disney property, so were repoting from jsut outside it.

And then we drove back to our hotels, had dinner and went to bed.

 

[alan]

Day 10 - 06-Jul-2009 - Lazy Day, Hoop-De-Doo Revue

Don't be silly, we cannot possibly be on day ten of our holiday. It's only just started!

Today was planned to be a day for shopping, followed by the Hoop-De-Doo revue in the evening. To my great surprise, nobody except for me wanted to go shopping. So much of the day was spent lazing around the pool.

I did do a little shopping. I almost bought myself a new camera - the "Camera Center" just beside the Wyndham Resort on I-Drive was offering the Canon 40D at a stupidly low price. But I reckoned that (i) there had to be a catch and (ii) it wouldn't give me a lot over what I already had in my existing camera. What I really want is a Canon 5D Mk II, but I think that that is going to be a long way in the future!

At the resort, we rented a pedal boat and puttered up and down the lake for a while. These things take a lot of pedal power! The kids told us we were far too lazy, so we pulled back into the marina and let them do some pedalling. Suddenly they reckoned that our pedalling was pretty good

Then it was time to get changed and go to the Fort Wilderness resort. We did this the scenic way, taking the car back to the Car Care Center on the way. We were taken in the shuttle bus to the resort, and dropped outside reception.

The Fort Wilderness resort is simply huge, and we had to get a bus to take us from the reception area to "Pioneer Hall" wheree the revue was taking place. The theiming here was the Wild West, near the Frontier, where all we Pioneers were gathering for a night's entertainment.

I can't say that the horses looked all that impressed by us:


But a nice lady opened the doors and let us in to Pioneer Hall for the show!




Our appetiser was salad, and I chose some beer for my complimentary drink




And the show got underway






The servers were very much into the spirit of the event. Food was bashed down onto the table, drinks sloshed into the cups. This wasn't rudeness; this was being part of the atmosphere of the place and it worked very well.

As for the show itself, the performers were excellent but something about the show just failed to grab my attention. I think that the performers were so good at creating the atmosphere of a rough-and-ready show that it actually came across as being rough-and-ready, rather than a polished imitation of it. If you see what I mean!

Anyway, the main course arrived - half-chicken, ribs and a glass of beer for Marie






As you'd expect from Disney, there were lots of alternatives available for the kids, who really didn't see a lot that they wanted to eat here.

 

[alan]

The performers came out and chatted with the audience, which helped bring the evening alive a little.




Jenni wasn't entirely sure of the whole thing,


when the show came to an end


she really loved the audience participation


And that was it! As we left, the queues were already gathering for the next performance. We turned left and went to get the water bus across to the Magic Kingdom.


We were very lucky to have just missed the boat, because while we were waiting for it to come back and pick us up, we came across something magical.

This was the "Electric Water Pageant". It's a parade, on water, of illuminated barges. I am pretty sure that they are the barges we saw back on Day 02 when we were travelling on the monorail to the Magic Kingdom. But now, in the night-time, they were illuminated. I'm going to put in quite a few pictures because I think this is perhaps not something that so many people know about.

 

[alan]

At the end of the parade, all the animals morphed into Star or Stars-and-Stripes, and that was that




Soon thereafter, the boat arrived and we sat in the open area at the front - it was a beautiful evening. The boat started chugging its way across the Seven Seas Lagoon, and we had our second magical suprise of the evening. We passed the Magic Kingdom just as Wishes came to a head



















It had been a lovely and relaxing day, and we went to bed feeling extraordinarily lucky to have finished it off with these two beautiful displays!

 

[alan]

Day 11 - 07-Jul-2009 - Magic Kingdom, Cinderella's Royal Table

My original plan had been to book Cinderella's Royal Table for the very last day of our holiday, as a nice send-off. Further, I had planned that we would all get dressed up - Marie and Jenni in nice frocks, and Cameron and me in kilt outfits. The pictures would have been wonderful! But all of a sudden we were packing, and those things were just not ready, so they didn't happen.

So instead we found ourselves in distinctly normal cloths, having had a bit of a lie-in and a light breakfast at the hotel, arriving in the Magic Kingdom around 1pm. I was sent to rush on ahead to get Fastpasses to Peter Pan, but on the way of course I couldn't resist taking a picture or two.

Everything seemed fine when we started; the sun was in the sky, the clouds were light and fluffly and the balloon seller was doing great business.


Then half way up Main Street USA, I got stuck behind a very loud procession and a large group of Brazilian kids (I love seeing these large groups of kids in their matching T-shirts!). But note the sky behind the parade float...


By the time I got through this crowd and up to Peter Pan, the rain was bucketing down...


No matter, because we had ADRs for


We checked in, then had to wait for a short time before being called into the ante-room. While we were waiting, the rain continued unabated


but after a short wait (ten to fifteen minutes) we were called in to wait for our photographs with Cinderella. As we waited for the photographs to be taken, the kids had a look at the theming


In truth, I think they were a little disappointed at this point. We live within very easy driving distance of Stirling Castle and Linlithgow Palace, and often kill a half-hour or so in one or other of them (Historic Scotland membership is a wonderful thing). No matter how good the theming was, it was still theming and not a patch on the real thing!).

I began to get the feeling that Cameron had had enough of eing asked to pose for photographs...

(in spite of appearances, they're not sitting on some kind of mediaeval cludgie!)

I have to say that some of the cast members seemed a little nervous about the people they were looking after. When we got the kids to stand on the stairs to pose for photographs, we were told none too gently that they had to come down now and wait in the queue. Well, I suppose they have a lot of people to marshal.

Anyway, we were soon called through for our photographs with Cinders which, as with Akershus, were presented to us at no charge during the meal.




Once the photographs were taken, we had another short wait before being invited upstairs to the meal. This was served in a rather attractive banqueting suite

 

[alan]

Cinderella's Royal Table was, I think, my favourite meal of the entire fortnight. The pace was much more relaxed than Akershus, the server was really great. The Princesses came round, but there was a decent gap between them and the pace was never rushed.








Even Daddy got in on the act


And Mummy didn't seem too upset!


The food was lovely too


And the children were given gifts - a wand for her and a sword for him, with both being given a "Wishing Star" on which they were encouraged to make a wish.

So Cinderella's Royal Table gets a huge thumbs up from all of us. It was one we would undoubtedly recommend!

But sooner or later it was time to leave, and after using our Peter Pan Fastpasses we wandered around Fantasyland.


I was sent off to get Fastpasses for Splash Mountain, and agreed to meet everyone else back at the Haunted Mansion. I went for the tickets, but by the time I got back nobody else was in sight - I guess they had gone on ahead so I went in by myself.

The theming here was very cleverly done indeed






and the ride itself very clever indeed - how did they do those 3D semi-opaque dancers?

 

[alan]

We met up afterwards went slowly towards Adventureland. On the way we stopped at the Liberty Bell


and "enjoyed" the newly-revamped Hall of The Presidents.

This shop caught my eye; how dare they take a photo of me before I've had my morning coffee and print it on a nightshirt?


We joined the queue for The Pirates Of The Caribbean. This was a ride I hadn't been on before, but I was very impressed - how did they make the sky look so high? Beautifully done!

It was of course raining was we waited...


These next two were taken with the G10, no flash, and ISO1600. With apologies for the technicalities, I was quite impressed at how usable the pictures were (albeit at a small size). But I do feel from all of today's photos that the the G10 might be a nice compact, but it just isn't as good as the SLR.




Anyway, as I said above, I loved Pirates of the Caribbean, but the rain certainly hadn't stopped while we were on the ride


Luckily enough the Tiki room was just opening for another show, so we went in there and enjoyed the music.

By now it was dry and time for Splash Mountain. Marie, Uncle John and I went on and sat about half-way down our car. I repeatedly reassured everyone that you didn't get very wet when you splashed down the mountain at the end - the water you see comes from concealed pipes at the sides of the run. Near the start of the run, our car stopped just beside the "Splashdown" point, and everyone understood exactly what I had been trying to tell them - when we got soaked by water from the descending car!


I felt so good, knowing that they appreciated and understood my patient explanation of how the water spray worked!

We tried to dry off with a coffee in one of the cafes (actually the cafe was closed but still accessible, and a nearby stall provided us with the coffee). Why is it that the coffee in Disneyworld is so awful? Have these guys never heard of Starbucks?

Our next stop was Aladdin's Magic Carpet, and then the Jungle Safari - which was a hoot! Jenni was especially pleased to be able to shout out the answer to the driver's joke ("Why is Cinderella a lousy soccer player?") and we all had a great time on Zambesi Zelda


Our final attraction with the Swiss Family Robinson's house - a lovely clamber through the trees!






It is so nice to have these smaller, quiet attractions to balance up the bright, flashy rides that everyone seems to talk about - we really enjoyed the more relaxed pace.

By the end of the day, however, I was feeling so tired that when Marie dared to ask me again whether I would carry the bags, I snapped


Fingers crossed they don't find the blood-stained blade. Heck, it's the quiet part of Magic Kingdom - nobody ever goes there, do they?

Thereafter, it was back to the hotel on the bus, a quick snack and off to bed!

 

[alan]

Day 12 - 08-Jul-2009 - Blizzard Beach, Caribbean Beach Resort and EPCOT

We got up quite early this morning and Marie, the kids and I went to Blizzard Beach.

I knew that I wanted to try Summit Plummet; nobody else was interested. So we agreed that the kids would play with Marie in the kids' area, and I would do Summit Plummet. That would get the kids relaxed about being in the water park (which still slightly intimidated them) and then we would meet up again and go to other parts of the park.

This, as it turned out, was a mistake.

Anyway, off I went to the cable car that took you up to the Summit Plummet queue. I joined the "fast moving" single rider queue, but it wasn't fast. Come to think of it, it wasn't even moving! After around fifteen minutes, the cast members came round saying that bad weather was on its way and so the cable car was closed. But we were still okay to walk up to the summit.

Walk? If only I'd known we could walk, I wouldn't have been waiting in this queue for all this time! Aargghh.

I walked to the top and got into the Summit Plummet queue. It was a long queue. A very long queue. And that queue was just to the base of the stairs - there was another queue there that took you to the actual start of the ride. While I was on those stairs, the rain came on and it was remarkably chilly rain. I joked with the Scottish family standing in front of me that it was so cold and wet it felt just like being at home!

However I eventually got to the top. Summit Plummet is a waterslide. But not just any waterslide... it's a big waterslide, and fast too. People come hurtling down it at over fifty miles per hour, which is faster than the human body is really supposed to go unaided!

I was wearing running shorts at the park and if asked I would have said that there was no "stretch" in them at all. Yet when I was hurtling down that water slide I am sure that the back of them managed to stretch all the way to my ears I can certainly understand why the cast member at the top made sure I had my ankles crossed before starting... a young man could come to a lot of harm if he forgot that!

How steep is it? It's this steep:


I got off the slide and went to find everyone else, aware that I'd been away for a while. I hadn't realised that it was over two hours, and that Jenni wasn't allowed to swim in the kiddies' pool (she's a couple of inches too tall, and unlike Typhoon Lagoon the staff weren't willing to cut her any slack). After a previous experience of getting separated in a water park, Marie wasn't wanting to go to a different part of the park from where we'd agreed to meet... the summary was that "we" decided that if I want to do any fancy rides by myself in future then I'll do them after everybody else has done what they want!

We played for a while in the pre-teens area, with the kids particularly enjoying some "Total Wipeout" themed challenges. No pictures from here, though.

Time was creeping on, so we went home and got changed. The Parents-In-Law were wanting to take the kids to Downtown Disney and spoil them there; the idea held no appeal to me. So we agreed that they would go, and I would take the opportunity to have a serious photo session of the fireworks at EPCOT.

Firstly, I had to make sure that everyone was left comfortably at home



And then, since it was still way too early for the fireworks, I went for a wander round the hotel and its grounds




Watch out for that pizza delivery van!


Where do they find the energy?


One of the "village" pools


At the entrance to the hotel, a mother leads her brood across the road


This is the main reception area of the hotel, Custom House. This is where you check in


These next two show the boat yard, where you can rent a boat

 

[alan]

The poolside bar where, for just $6, you could have about 2/3 of a pint of lager


And the entrance to the main commercial area of the hotel. As you can see, it had been raining recently and it looked as if it might do so again


This is the crossing from one side of the hotel to the other, across an island in the middle of the lake


And these fellows graced one the beach at one of the Trinidad villages


I got some food from Old Port Royale, and went back to our room. Then I made a stupid mistake of sitting on the bed, with a glass of beer in one hand and a decent novel in the other... wow, I came very close to just staying put in the room for the entire evening.

But hey, I'd paid a small fortune to get here, so I was going to use every penny's worth. So I was going to EPCOT!

 

[alan]

I sorted out the camera, checked the lens, cards, batteries, then got the tripod out of the suitcase. As I did so, I noticed a strange piece of black plastic fall out of the case, but gave it no mind. I certainly couldn't see where it had come from (you can just tell that that's an ominous comment, can't you?). I walked to the bus stop and after a short wait boarded the bus to EPCOT.

The bus arrived about 2045, and with the fireworks at 2100 I knew that I had to run. I dashed through Futureworld, and was then horrified by the number of people standing at every conceivable vantage point around the lagoon. Where was I going to take my pictures? Desperately I dashed clockwise round the lagoon until I found one of those handy little "lay-bys" just beyond China. Great - I could see the lake, and there was some space at the wall.

So I opened the legs of the tripod, then winced in pain as something heacy landed on my (sandal-clad) foot. It wa bloomin' sore, but what was it.

Ah.

Well, two of the legs of the tripod were functioning properly. The third was lying beside my poor, tender foot. That was where the piece of plastic had come from. The leg was grinning malevolently at me, sneering and laughing at how much it had hurt my poor tootsies. But I got the last laugh - I picked it up and ran to the bin, where I imprisoned it, along with its treacherous tripod buddy, for ever. You'll never get out, you hear me? Mwahahahah...

Erm. Oops.

So then IllumiNations ran, the firworks played and I took lots of photographs. And I was very impressed inded - they were beautiful.

If you look carefully into the gloom you can see there were lots of people watching. And they were all laughing at what had happened to my tripod!

 

[alan]

And that was about it, really. I snapped off a couple of extra pictures on the way back to the bus, which carried me back to my hotel. Everyone else appeared about half an hour later, as I supped my second tiny little can of beer and enjoyed my book

 

[alan]

Day 13 - 09-Jul-2009 - EPCOT

Today was planned to be a late night, so we had a long lie and a leisurely breakfast at the hotel before going to EPCOT. This was a photography-lite day, since I had spent a serious session yesterday shooting the fireworks.

We started of with just the four of us going there - Marie, the kids and me. When we got to the park, the weather was of course:


So we went straight to the Land pavilion, grabbed a Fastpass for Soarin', and went for lunch. I do so like the Garden Grill - it offers about the healthiest food I've been able to find in the whole of Disneyworld!




I think that both the adults had Chinese food with noodles, though I rather let myself down by having a huge Key Lime Pie. So much for "healthy foods"!

We went on Soarin', and after that Cameron saw a tag-engraving machine. He wanted to get a tag to take home as a present for one of his friends, so we fed in our money and let the machine make the tag

By now the weather had improved a little, so we went out to go over to "The Seas". We posed for the obligatory photographs outside the Pavilion


before going indoors.

I was very impressed by the technical wizardry of the Nemo ride - how do they manage to have a very 3D-looking projection into an aquarium?

Then we had a look at the real fish

and took some photographs at the standard photo-op sites



before making our way back to the entrance of the park to meet Uncle John and the parents-in-law

On the way back I went for a pit-stop, and was rather bemused about the placement of this mailbox

 

[alan]

We met up, and went on to the World Showcase. I've had the good fortune to visit China a couple of times, and really love much of the place and its culture. So we ended up spending quite some time in the China Pavilion



A big scary monster, beside a marble... no, wait. I don't think I'll bother finishing that sentence



The Chinese garden


A nice one of Jenni


Then we had an interesting experience. Cast members blocked the pathway at a bridge, and the entire bridge lifted up to let the fireworks barges (and the Earth) through to the lagoon



After stopping for a coffee, we carried on around the lagoon, stopping at various places on the way

These trains really move fast on the model railway

and they have huge birds!

 

[alan]

Back to Futureworld, where the Parents-In-Law wanted to see Homey I Shrunk The Audience. I wandered around taking photographs while they waited in the queue (aargghh! does that make me a queue jumper?)





And then it was time for dinner. We had booked into the Rose and Crown in the UK, hoping that we would be able to sit outside and enjoy the fireworks. So when we arrived and were told that we would need to wait about half an hour, we asked if it would be possible to be seated outside.

The lady who was organising the reastaurant explained that she didn't have as many tables operational as she normally would have because of the weather, and that she wasn't really able to make any promises - we'd get what we'd get. So we went for a wander, waiting to see where we would end up.

We watched a Beatles tribute band playing for a little while, then the buzzer sounded and we went to eat. And to our delight we were outside, with a clear view of the lagoon!

We ordered and ate a delicious meal, washed down with a pint of real cider (well, Strongbow, but it was better than nothing).

After the main course, I was sent out to go to Canada and get the final "stamps" on the kids' Kidcot funny faces - we had run out of time earlier in the day - and when I returned one of the staff was chatting to my father-in-law. I thought no more about it as we ate our dessert.

Then, everything started to go quiet in preparation for the evening's fireworks display. A cast member came up to the table and asked if "Jenni" and "Cameron" were at the table. Of course, they were and they acknowledged that to the cast member.

"We've got a problem," he explained. "Mickey Mouse has been delayed on the monorail and can't start the fireworks. Would you be able to start them instead, please?"

The kids were delighted. The cast member brought two brightly-coloured light sabres, and encouraged the children to make a wish. At just the right moment he said "Wish now"; the kids wished and the fireworks started! They were absolutely delighted. He carried on through the show, getting them to bring the world in, start the song and so on.

By the end of it, Jenni was seeing through it. But Cameron asked us at the end if we might buy a newspaper tomorrow "because Mickey being late for the fireworks will be on the front page!".

Afterwards, the kids were presented with a certificate signed by all the cast members at the Rose and Crown
and believe me, they were much happier than they looked in the picture!

And then, it was time to make our way slowly home.

I didn't have the SLR with me, but I thought I'd have a quick try at a couple of long exposures of the fountains... NOt sure how well they came out



and then we grabbed a couple of shots on the new Spaceship Earth, which the kids love. The vista as you see the earth from space is just breathtaking, and they enjoyed the exhibits once you've completed the ride too.


And that was our penultimate day...

 

[alan]

Day 14 - 10-Jul-2009 - Hollywood Studios

And so we reached the last full day of our holiday. How quickly it has gone! I’m already wondering whether I can think about booking another Disney holiday

We woke closer to ten o’clock than nine, and ran around panicking for a little while trying to get ourselves organised for the day ahead. We had decided to go to Hollywood Studios for the day, and since the sun was splitting the sky I persuaded Marie not to bring the umbrellas. Instead we just walked over to the bus stop and, after a few buses had gone by, got the Hollywood Studios one.


It was warm - the first order of the day was to try to cool down.




Soon, we split up. Marie took Jenni to American Idol while I took Cameron to lunch, followed by Lights, Motors, Action!




They picked a Scots lass to drive the remote control car



The show was very impressive indeed.






I know that most people think of Disney as a corporate monolith, but I was thinking of these guys doing the same show twice a day, every day for years. How do they keep their concentration? Yet they must, for a little lapse of concentration could easily result in injury or death.

 

[alan]

Once the show was over we met up again. Since Marie and Jenni hadn’t had lunch, I took Cameron to see the Jedi Training Academy while they ate. He was hoping to be picked, and since he wasn’t, he regaled me with tales of how he would have done a much better job at fighting Darth Vader than those who were on stage had done!






<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/atp/3796561186/" title="2009-07-10 350D Disneyworld Holiday 121_filtered by atp, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3418/3796561186_4fdeea215a_o.jpg" width="682" height="1024" alt="2009-07-10 350D Disneyworld Holiday 121_filtered" /></a>

Our next stop was the Backlot Tour, but when we got there it was closed for “technical reasons”. We strongly suspected that these technical reasons were the imminent rain – maybe leaving the brollies in the hotel room was a bad idea – but there wasn’t much to do for it. Instead we headed for The Voyage Of The Little Mermaid.

We were stuck in a queue for this show, but were under cover. I was glad of this as the rain came down in torrents. It became even more exciting when the lightning got closer, and the thunder and lightning arrived simultaneously. It was loud, I can tell you! But soon after we were let into the show, and I was once again impressed by the ability of the performers to focus. The girl playing Arial was excellent, and as far as I could tell she was singing, rather than miming, her songs.








After that, it was still raining. Heavily. We forced our way out of the theatre, the exits being blocked by people taking half an hour to don ponchos and erect umbrellas, but there was nothing much to do. Everything was full or closed. Eventually we gave up and got the bus for the resort.

Once there, we went to the arcade and played a few games. We had bought pre-paid cards earlier in the week and had totally messed up, buying rather more games than we needed. However, it worked well to be able to let the kids play for a while and leave us in peace to have a well-deserved coffee!
Sad to say, the next step was to get most of our packing done. We got everything except tomorrow’s clothes and our toiletries into the cases, but I have no way to weigh them. I do wonder if we’re going to hit trouble for over-weight cases when we check them in tomorrow.

There was a Harry Potter film on TV, which we let the kids watch while we finished packing. Then we had dinner in Old Port Royale, and played a few more arcade games. Then it was back to our room, and time for bed. Neither of the kids seemed ready for bed, but wnet to sleep quickly enough once we put them down for the night.

Tomorrow, we go back home. It’s been a great holiday (albeit with one or two fraught moments) and I am already missing the place. It’s a beautiful hotel, and we have really enjoyed the theme parks. I truly hope that we will be able to manage another holiday or two to Disneyworld before the kids no longer want to go on holiday with their old, boring parents.

Time alone will tell... time alone will tell.

Thanks for staying with me through this; that's it!

 

[roselark]

Great trip report! LOL, I need to stop reading these; they are making me too anxious. My trip is still 50 days away.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Just before we ate our main course, the meagre story behind the show was explained - there was a girl returning to the island and there was to be a celebration for the event

OMG! I know these 2 young ladies! What a small world! In real life, they are sisters. The one with her back facing you is the cute gal in the photo with the Ti Leaf skirts and the feather rattle gourds in the middle of the photo in your post after this one...
I'm really enjoying your TR! Lots of great photos! I especially liked seeing my friends in your report. I saw that you had posted about the fireworks once before and asked about it because I wondered if you had seen them dancing. I liked your report and photos before I saw my friends though!

ETA: The one with her back to you in the photo above is the cute one in the middle of this photo: . She also was the gal that lead the teaching of the hula dancing in the photo you took. Her back was to you in the blue print dress... Small world...

 

[Golf4food]

Thanks, fellow Alan. I enjoyed it.

(I agree with you about the Finding Nemo musical - staging and all is fantastic but the music is horrible. If I were deaf it might be my favorite Disney show, lol.)

 

[alan]

OMG! I know these 2 young ladies! What a small world! In real life, they are sisters. The one with her back facing you is the cute gal in the photo with the Ti Leaf skirts and the feather rattle gourds in the middle of the photo in your post after this one...

How wonderful! But I'm sorry, you can't pick out just one of these girls and call her cute - they were all beautiful!

I've got a few more from the show, so if you - or they - would be interested then PM me an email address and I'll send them on to you. I had unfortunately left my camera on the wrong setting and so had to resort to using flash in some, but there are some nice ones of the poi and the dance at the end, as well as various other parts of the show.

I really enjoyed the show - I love to watch dance (I could never call myself a "dancer", having seen what real dancers go through. But I love trying!) and the show was very "up" and happy. I've done enough shows to know how hard it can be to keep that going night after night, but they did a great job. If you happen to come across them, do please tell them that I had a lovely evening and thought that everyone did really well.

And I'm convinced that there is something unnatural about them being able to move their hips in that way... But I'll happily watch again to verify my observations ;-)

regards,
/alan