"Si-i-ilent Night, Ho-o-o-oly Night, All is calm, All is Bright....." [Part Deux]
....after such a wonderful dinner [THANK YOU, oh thank you, dear sister of mine.....!]....okay, you are probably wondering why I am thanking someone who, to date, has not even been mentioned in my tale. Well, originally, my DSis and her family had tentative plans to visit WDW for the first time during the Christmas Holidays. She too, is always in search of the perfect vaca - although our families are, but aren't, a 'mirror image'....While I am the mother of three boys, she is the mom of three darling girls [...okay, so I MAY be a tad prejudiced about this....]. If you can recall from the first part of my story, it was an "on-again-off-again' situation regarding going to WDW, to which I failed to make any ADR's. Luckily cooler heads prevailed when she had originally booked her rooms. Since they were no longer going to be travelling to WDW for the holidays, she obligingly called CRO and changed the name to ours, so that we would have SOME dinner ADR's available to us,
Tutto Italia being one of them. I have to admit that I was not a fan and had heard so many negative stories regarding the previous Italian restaurant, L'Alfredo's - needless to say, I was hesitant, but decided to keep her ADR anyway to ensure that we would be part of the Candlelight Processional. Looking back, it was a sage decision that I would not hesitate to do again, given the chance.
Since we did have well over an hour to arrive in
Japan[our performance was starting at 6:45PM]to line up for optimum seats at the Candlelight Processional, we decided to take it easy and ride
Soarin'!; we did have Fastpasses for it and the Fastpass time was about to expire..
...this was the Fastpass line - not too bad, considering the Stand-by line snaked all the way to the entrance
...I highly recommend for everyone to try this ride at least once - for those of you who are fearful of heights, you may want to sit near one of the rear rows. It really is a very gentle ride and kids of all ages love it too...
....we ( let me clarify,
I) decided to take a chance of seeing the
Finding Nemo ride, but it was wa-a-a-a-y too crowded for our taste. Besides, it was getting late and show time was drawing near, so back to World Showcase we headed...
[..sorry for poor quality - I was suffering from TCS - 'Throwaway Camera Syndrome' !]
...without any argument, we high-tailed it back towards
Japan, via
Canada and that side of the lake to try to save time. When we had paid our bill at
Tutto, the CM, giving each of us a voucher, instructed us to be sure to arrive at the queue for CP at least 45 min. in advance, located in
Japan. Hurriedly, we drew closer to our destination - a little too close it seems, and we were forced to walk BACK to Morrocco, as that was where the END of the line was! For those of you planning on experiencing the CP
next Christmas, be sure to take note of the dividers along the lake's edge for those folks who ARE waiting on line so as not to pass it right up - OR, get there earlier!
After what seemed like an eternity, the queue line began moving forward, as the guests were slowly ushered into the audience seating area. We were nearly the very last people on line (again, I can't stress this enough - GET THERE EARLY!) but, since we were only a party of four, the CM let us move towards the front of the stage, handing us our programs, as we were seated in the 4th row - left of center! I knew it was too good to be true - the show was about to start and I had to errrr, uhhhhh, 'make a pit stop'...
...on the bright side, I did get to see the performers line up moments before they make their grand entrance while I waited for my turn in the Ladies' Room....
The
Candlelight Processional is a wonderful performance, featuring an orchestra, three choirs, and a guest celebrity, who is the narrator of the story of the Nativity. We were so honored to have witnessed famed actor, Gary Sinise [
"...Lieutenant DAN, Lieutenant DAN...!"], offer this evening's readings. The choirs are separated into three colors - gold choir members [the tinsel and lights] are guest members from more than 20 different states, green choir members [representing the 'tree'] are WDW CM's who volunteer their vocal talents for the shows, and the red and black choir members [the 'base' of the tree] who perform as the
Voices of Liberty. Remember the part of the cartoon
Charlie Brown's Christmas where Charlie Brown asks if anyone knows the real meaning of Christmas and Linus proceeds to recount the story of the Child Christ and the Three Kings? Well, it was sorta like that, but BETTER...throw in 6 trumpeteers, an ever-changing giant Christmas tree with a dramatic light show, and fantastic singing, great musicianship, and that's kinda what it was like...
...it lasted not quite an hour, but it seemed like it was over nearly as soon as it began.....what impressed me the most was that Mr. Sinise seemed to be enthralled and in awe of the powerful voices surrounding him - he seemed quite touched and moved by the whole extravaganza....
.....we couldn't have asked for a more perfect way to end this perfect day....BTW ~ in case you are wondering, both my DH and I called home [first thing in the morning and when we were leaving for Epcot] to wish our DS's a Happy Holiday, wishing they were both there with us to celebrate....
Since we were walking towards
France, we decided to return to the room to relax, but not before doing some shopping. Technically, I guess it'd really be considered 'browsing' since we didn't actually BUY anything (not yet, anyway....
). Rather than take one of the friendships ,y DH and I decided to walk along the lake, via the BW for a beautiful evening stroll. My DS, however, had other ideas. He was set on making a beeline towards his X-Box.....
...we stopped long enough to 'check out' this comedian's act (more on that in another installment...) and, of course, make a purchase at
Seashore Sweets (
hey, we're on vaca! ), and admire the BW Christmas tree..
.....finally back at our room, thoroughly exhausted, we relaxed before falling asleep with dreams of another WDW park looming in the not-to-distant future....
[...Next installent - Post #275]
he is the only reason I ride Mission Space. 
Glad to see more pictures and trip report 
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