Hello there, Im Cheri and I wanted to share my experience at the Disney A Christmas Carol train tour, which is a FREE interactive exhibit that is traveling by train through the United States. Yes, I said FREE!!
More info:
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/christmascaroltraintour/
I live about 45 minutes from New Orleans, so my cousin and I wanted to go and take her 7 year old son. The train was in New Orleans from Friday the 7th til Sunday the 9th. Saturday was perfect for us, so thats when we went.
This report will include some personal vignettes, largely due to my friends here on the DIS that are reading this (Im sure you all will be the first to read )
But it will also have a ton of pics, I wanted everyone to feel like they got to experience this themselves! So here goes!
My cousin lives just around the corner from me we had actually planned on waking up early (on a Saturday...yuck) and leaving around 8 so that we could be there when it opened up at 9 am. The word on the street was that the lines for this exhibit have been a couple hours, maybe more. After all, it IS free.
Well, I slept through my alarm, and she also overslept; I woke to my phone ringing at just before 8 amshe said she woke up late and was in the tub because she was too tired to take a bath the night before. I said, well thats fine, I just woke up anyway! So new plan: leave as soon as we are both ready (which I assumed would be just before 9). I let the dogs outmaking note of the beautiful sunshine outside--then got ready as quickly as I could. I wore a tank top, shorts, and tennis shoes (sneakers) because we also had plans to go to Chuck E Cheeses afterwards for lunch and games, and I didnt want any kids stepping on my toes in flip flops or sandals.
Christina and Nathan were eating a quick bite when I called, so I decided to do the same. Cereal it is! My mouth was already salivating for the pizza! LOL
We ended up leaving around 9 am as I suspected, grabbed the GPS from my car and hopped in hers. As this was a surprise for Nathan, he kept asking us where we were going and we kept telling him its a surprise!. One of his guesses was Chuck E Cheese but we both kept a straight face and said nope. As we got to New Orleans, uh oh it looks like bad weather! I wish I had snapped a pic of the sky on our way into the city.
We had a little trouble trying to find the Amtrak station, but asked a nice Audubon park representative in his work vehicle and he gave us perfect directions. By this point it was drizzling pretty good. Nathan seemed pretty excited that we were going to see something Disney related, although he really didnt know exactly what.
We got there and still raining, so Christina checked her trunk and found a small umbrellalike, one that is meant for ONE person. Luckily Nathan is a skinny kid. We had to park pretty far, so got out and huddled under the umbrella walking as quickly as we could whilst staying beneath it. It started to rain harder and harder, then became a total DOWNPOUR. (Did I mention I had my good sneakers on?) We ended up stopping underneath a tree so as to have something to assist the umbrella in blocking the rain. We were still getting wet, but hey at least our hair was dry!
Christina made the decision we should keep on moving. It just wasnt letting up. I prayed outloud that God would stop the rain. LOL If only you could have seen us trying to stay together under this teeny little umbrella. hahaha
At this point we had to cross over a lot of grass, call it a really big hilly lawn if you will. And it was a miracle the rain completely stopped, as if to give us just enough time to cross over and enter the line for the train! God heard my prayer!
Upon our entry into the line, the posted wait time was 45 minutes (Gotta love Disney and their wait signsif it wasnt about to pour again I would have taken a pic) I think we waited 45 minutes to an hour. The line was underneath a tent, but some rain still blew in a bit. (by the way, that little blue tent is not the line the entrance into the train can be seen to the right, and the line is to the right of thatnot shown in the pic) I didnt mind the wait, as I was glad they were only letting on a few people at a time so as not to crowd the train up and let people move at a slower pace through it. I knew it would pay off when we had our turn.
We talked to a nice mother/daughter behind us, who hadnt been to Disney since 2006 (I said its time to go back!) but they were obviously big fans. I will tell you this while in line both Christina and I were deleting unnecessary pictures from our cell phones to clear up space to take pics of this event! That sure passed the time. Haha
While we were in line, someone came to tell everyone that the 3D movie preview that was being shown in the blow up tent nearby was going to be shut down because it was full of water a few feet high! Bummer!! Then a few minutes later we were told that no one else was going to be allowed in line; they were closing down the train afterwards. I cant tell you how glad I was that we went EARLY! The exhibit was supposed to be open until 7 PM and here it wasnt even 11:00 yet! There must have been a lot of upset people that day, but what can you do, its a free exhibit.
I wonder if they were in the habit of closing down early in the other locations as well. It must have been due to the mud being tracked into the train?
Anyway, the last span of the line was SO full of standing water that we couldnt dodge it and my shoes and socks got SOAKED all the way through. We made the decision to stop at K-Mart next to CeC afterwards to buy flip flops or something. Finally we headed up to the line and showed them our pass which was given to us while standing in the last stretch of the line.
LOVED the Hidden Mickey holepunch!
The steps to get into the train also had a tent built over them, and one of the workers had a broom in his hand, presumably to get the water off that was sitting atop the overhead. He gave us the clear to get on the train so we did.
Backing up as far as I could in the little area after boarding, I struggled to get this picture:
which didnt come out very good. Then started to make my way into the first actual car of the train. And heard a big WOOOOOOSH!!! Then a voice saying Im SO sorry!!!!
I turned around and the man was indeed pushing the water off the top of the tent, but the girl behind us had walked up the steps (though I believe she was told to stay back) and she was DIRECTLY BENEATH the abundant waterfall that got pushed off! She got SOAKED! The mother was really upset, but the man was very apologetic. One of the other workers explained that they told her to stay back but she didnt. It was completely unintentional, but I still felt really bad for the girl.
Well, youve been waiting long enough. Time to see what you came here for!
It was so perfectly Disney I just started snapping and snapping
Did you know that Jim Carrey plays SEVEN characters in this movie? Its amazing what they can do with technology these days! Gary Oldman plays 3 characters I believe.
Scrooge:
Scrooge as a boy:
There were quite a few cases like this displaying materials and books, etc.
Teenage Scrooge:
uh adult Scrooge:
As you may have noticed, all 4 are played by Jim Carrey!
Gary Oldman as Bob Cratchit
Colin Firth as Fred:
Robin Wright Penn as Belle:
Belles daughter(Fan) & costume:
Mrs. Fred Scrooge:
Gary Oldman as Tiny Tim:
I believe this is Mr. Fezziwig:
And Mrs. Fezziwig:
This is much like a (very large) digital photo frame. There were several of these on the train
This one in particular depicted some of the scenes as they were drawn up in the beginning stages.
This video was playing on a loop on at least one screen in each room (car) of the train:
I managed to capture Mr. Carrey on screen. I just love him!
Then we enter the next car, which will be in a separate post. Plenty more pics to come later!
More info:
http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/christmascaroltraintour/
I live about 45 minutes from New Orleans, so my cousin and I wanted to go and take her 7 year old son. The train was in New Orleans from Friday the 7th til Sunday the 9th. Saturday was perfect for us, so thats when we went.
This report will include some personal vignettes, largely due to my friends here on the DIS that are reading this (Im sure you all will be the first to read )
But it will also have a ton of pics, I wanted everyone to feel like they got to experience this themselves! So here goes!
My cousin lives just around the corner from me we had actually planned on waking up early (on a Saturday...yuck) and leaving around 8 so that we could be there when it opened up at 9 am. The word on the street was that the lines for this exhibit have been a couple hours, maybe more. After all, it IS free.
Well, I slept through my alarm, and she also overslept; I woke to my phone ringing at just before 8 amshe said she woke up late and was in the tub because she was too tired to take a bath the night before. I said, well thats fine, I just woke up anyway! So new plan: leave as soon as we are both ready (which I assumed would be just before 9). I let the dogs outmaking note of the beautiful sunshine outside--then got ready as quickly as I could. I wore a tank top, shorts, and tennis shoes (sneakers) because we also had plans to go to Chuck E Cheeses afterwards for lunch and games, and I didnt want any kids stepping on my toes in flip flops or sandals.
Christina and Nathan were eating a quick bite when I called, so I decided to do the same. Cereal it is! My mouth was already salivating for the pizza! LOL
We ended up leaving around 9 am as I suspected, grabbed the GPS from my car and hopped in hers. As this was a surprise for Nathan, he kept asking us where we were going and we kept telling him its a surprise!. One of his guesses was Chuck E Cheese but we both kept a straight face and said nope. As we got to New Orleans, uh oh it looks like bad weather! I wish I had snapped a pic of the sky on our way into the city.
We had a little trouble trying to find the Amtrak station, but asked a nice Audubon park representative in his work vehicle and he gave us perfect directions. By this point it was drizzling pretty good. Nathan seemed pretty excited that we were going to see something Disney related, although he really didnt know exactly what.
We got there and still raining, so Christina checked her trunk and found a small umbrellalike, one that is meant for ONE person. Luckily Nathan is a skinny kid. We had to park pretty far, so got out and huddled under the umbrella walking as quickly as we could whilst staying beneath it. It started to rain harder and harder, then became a total DOWNPOUR. (Did I mention I had my good sneakers on?) We ended up stopping underneath a tree so as to have something to assist the umbrella in blocking the rain. We were still getting wet, but hey at least our hair was dry!
Christina made the decision we should keep on moving. It just wasnt letting up. I prayed outloud that God would stop the rain. LOL If only you could have seen us trying to stay together under this teeny little umbrella. hahaha
At this point we had to cross over a lot of grass, call it a really big hilly lawn if you will. And it was a miracle the rain completely stopped, as if to give us just enough time to cross over and enter the line for the train! God heard my prayer!
Upon our entry into the line, the posted wait time was 45 minutes (Gotta love Disney and their wait signsif it wasnt about to pour again I would have taken a pic) I think we waited 45 minutes to an hour. The line was underneath a tent, but some rain still blew in a bit. (by the way, that little blue tent is not the line the entrance into the train can be seen to the right, and the line is to the right of thatnot shown in the pic) I didnt mind the wait, as I was glad they were only letting on a few people at a time so as not to crowd the train up and let people move at a slower pace through it. I knew it would pay off when we had our turn.
We talked to a nice mother/daughter behind us, who hadnt been to Disney since 2006 (I said its time to go back!) but they were obviously big fans. I will tell you this while in line both Christina and I were deleting unnecessary pictures from our cell phones to clear up space to take pics of this event! That sure passed the time. Haha
While we were in line, someone came to tell everyone that the 3D movie preview that was being shown in the blow up tent nearby was going to be shut down because it was full of water a few feet high! Bummer!! Then a few minutes later we were told that no one else was going to be allowed in line; they were closing down the train afterwards. I cant tell you how glad I was that we went EARLY! The exhibit was supposed to be open until 7 PM and here it wasnt even 11:00 yet! There must have been a lot of upset people that day, but what can you do, its a free exhibit.
I wonder if they were in the habit of closing down early in the other locations as well. It must have been due to the mud being tracked into the train?
Anyway, the last span of the line was SO full of standing water that we couldnt dodge it and my shoes and socks got SOAKED all the way through. We made the decision to stop at K-Mart next to CeC afterwards to buy flip flops or something. Finally we headed up to the line and showed them our pass which was given to us while standing in the last stretch of the line.
LOVED the Hidden Mickey holepunch!
The steps to get into the train also had a tent built over them, and one of the workers had a broom in his hand, presumably to get the water off that was sitting atop the overhead. He gave us the clear to get on the train so we did.
Backing up as far as I could in the little area after boarding, I struggled to get this picture:
which didnt come out very good. Then started to make my way into the first actual car of the train. And heard a big WOOOOOOSH!!! Then a voice saying Im SO sorry!!!!
I turned around and the man was indeed pushing the water off the top of the tent, but the girl behind us had walked up the steps (though I believe she was told to stay back) and she was DIRECTLY BENEATH the abundant waterfall that got pushed off! She got SOAKED! The mother was really upset, but the man was very apologetic. One of the other workers explained that they told her to stay back but she didnt. It was completely unintentional, but I still felt really bad for the girl.
Well, youve been waiting long enough. Time to see what you came here for!
It was so perfectly Disney I just started snapping and snapping
Did you know that Jim Carrey plays SEVEN characters in this movie? Its amazing what they can do with technology these days! Gary Oldman plays 3 characters I believe.
Scrooge:
Scrooge as a boy:
There were quite a few cases like this displaying materials and books, etc.
Teenage Scrooge:
uh adult Scrooge:
As you may have noticed, all 4 are played by Jim Carrey!
Gary Oldman as Bob Cratchit
Colin Firth as Fred:
Robin Wright Penn as Belle:
Belles daughter(Fan) & costume:
Mrs. Fred Scrooge:
Gary Oldman as Tiny Tim:
I believe this is Mr. Fezziwig:
And Mrs. Fezziwig:
This is much like a (very large) digital photo frame. There were several of these on the train
This one in particular depicted some of the scenes as they were drawn up in the beginning stages.
This video was playing on a loop on at least one screen in each room (car) of the train:
I managed to capture Mr. Carrey on screen. I just love him!
Then we enter the next car, which will be in a separate post. Plenty more pics to come later!
