Living the Disney Life: Just Keep Swimming (11/9/06)
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Living the Disney Life
Just Keep Swimming
November 9, 2006
Today was another Animal Kingdom day. We arrived around 11:30 with the goal of seeing the 12:30 Finding Nemo - The Musical preview. Unfortunately, when we got there we learned there was no 12:30 show today, only a 3:00. To go or to wait around for 3 extra hours? Easy decision...
Headed over to Camp Minnie Mickey to take pictures of the Christmas decorations there. If you haven't made your way to that corner of Animal Kingdom during the holidays, you should. That's the place where the characters decorate their own trees. I saw the Fab Five, Lilo, Stitch, Brother Bear and Nemo. Pretty cute.
Lilo's Tree. That's an Elvis record towards the bottom
Next was my favorite spot to eat at Animal Kingdom, Pizzafari. Arriving there at 12:30p we quickly realized what a benefit it is to have experience touring the parks. On a normal day there's no way we'd end up at a lunch spot at lunch time. The first rule of touring - when everyone is doing something (eating, watching a parade, etc.), you do something else. But we had time to kill so I waited in line. About 20 minutes later I had my pizza and bread sticks and I was happy. Each room has a different theme in Pizzafari and the restaurant is huge, so the next time you're at Animal Kingdom, do some exploring and pay close attention to the animals on the walls. It's a fun place if you like little details.
Back to the Theater the Wild to wait for the show. While waiting Rebekah and I talked about our plans for LaughingPlace Radio (shameless plug - it's back). While waiting in line we ran into one of the more famous Disney fans out there, George. You may know him better as the "Disney Tattoo Guy". While I've seen George at many Disney events, this was the first time I've talked to him for any length of time. He's a pleasant guy.
George the Disney Tattoo Guy
Finally, it's show time. Finding Nemo - The Musical is still wonderful. I know there were some minor changes from our first viewing on Sunday, but I couldn't tell you what they were. Disney's VP of Creative Entertainment Anne Hamburger wasn't there to introduce it this time, but the director of the show did introduce it and reminded us it was only a preview. You could've fooled me, the performance looked flawless. Having seen it three times now I'm starting to settle on some favorites. Big Blue World is still the best song but Go With the Flow (Crush's song) is really growing on me. The first time I saw it just struck me as very strange, but now it really works for me. Another great thing is the show has a good ending. I was a big a big Aladdin musical fan at Disney's California Adventure, but my problem with it was after A Whole New World the songs were pretty much over and the action ending was just kind of silly. Nemo manages to carry the songs all the way to the end. The only action is combined with a song and it comes off really well.
Walking out of the park we ran into two more Disney friends from California. Between George, these two friends, our LP friends and so many more, it never ceases to amaze the vastness and diversity of the Disney fan community. And even with 47 square miles to play in, we often manage to all find each other.
As I'm writing this I can hear Reflections of Earth starting at Epcot. Last night, sometime after 11p, they were really going crazy over there, testing for the holiday finale, I presume. You could see the sky light up red and green over the area. It always makes me happy hearing Illuminations while sitting in my home. A pleasant ending to a very pleasant Disney day.
Discuss It
-- Doobie Moseley
-- Posted November 9, 2006