Call me crazy, but I wasn’t exactly champing at the bit to try and create something newsworthy out of “We rode a train and checked into our Airbnb.” But we had such a harrowing experience trying to buy tickets at Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy Station that maybe our tips can help future Disneyland Paris newbies who want to strike out for real Paris.

Plus, you have GOT to see the adorable little pied-à-terre we rented on the Seine, which turned out to be one of my all-time favorite stays. Read on…!

The post Disneyland Paris Trip Report UPDATED! appeared first on Disney Travel Babble.

I know a lot of people think IllumiNations is boring, and maybe I’m sentimental about it because the first time I saw it was my wedding day. But it is my all-time favorite Disney fireworks show—because of the music, because of the real fireworks and, most of all, because of the message. So many of Disney’s nighttime spectaculars are just intellectual-property fests with as many characters as they can cram in and generic lyrics about dreams, wishes and magic that seem to have been spit out by a random-Disney-phrase generator. IllumiNations is actually about something, and I love the idea that sharing our individual human stories can help us achieve a better future collectively.

So I’m sad that I’ll never be able to see IllumiNations again, but I’m even more sad that it probably means the end of this type of show at Disney. The closest thing left is Rivers of Light—and that’s legit boring! But at least it isn’t just a bunch of Lion King and Finding Nemo clips all strung together.

After watching Disney’s lackluster live stream of IllumiNations this spring, with all its awkward cuts and weird framing, I tried to figure out how I could get a good, straightforward recording of the show so I could watch it whenever I wanted. I know there are a few on YouTube, but I couldn’t find one that I really liked (and could keep).

That’s when my pal Mary Angelini of Key Moment Films stepped in and offered to shoot the show for me—from our wedding dessert party location of UK Lochside, no less!—and sync it with the audio track (no chatty strangers talking over my favorite bits!).

She has generously posted the finished video on Vimeo and allowed me to share it here with you. So, if you’re like me, you can now weep along to IllumiNations whenever you like!

Illuminations at Epcot from Key Moment Films

The post Farewell to IllumiNations: Full Video! appeared first on Disney Travel Babble.

But if you are as nutty about Downton Abbey as I am, stick around to read the interview I got to participate in with Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern and Allen Leech to celebrate the opening of the Downton Abbey movie last week!

I’m also going to throw in some photos from our visit to Downton Abbey: The Exhibition, which is wrapping up its run in Boston before a Christmastime engagement at the fabulous Biltmore Estate. Except for the first room, which is super-crowded in Boston, it is really, really well done and contains a ton of iconic costumes, props and sets. I highly recommend it!

First, I gotta say this movie was fan service in the BEST way! Not pandering or shoehorned in—more like a bigger, posher double episode of the show, minus the more cringe-worthy melodrama we’ve been subjected to over the years. You get to see so much more beyond the tiny frame of a TV screen, too. I almost started crying when the first sweeping drone shot of Highclere Castle appeared! I think if you’re a fan of the show, you’re going to love this movie.

I was lucky enough to attend a screening of Downton Abbey that included a Q&A with Leech (Tom Branson), McGovern (Lady Cora) and Bonneville (Lord Grantham) after the movie. It was slightly surreal to see three people we’d just watched waltzing around in 1927 evening wear step off the screen in 2019 casual wear!

Here’s a transcript of the Q&A so you can hear everything we got to—including a question asked by ME!

The movie was outstanding. What are three things that you would like audience members to walk away with from this movie?

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  Entertained. Reassured.

ALLEN LEECH:  Happy. And we want them to walk away as well. We don’t want them to, you know, die in the theaters.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  And then come back again.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  Yeah, I think that’s a fair… I think that sums it up, really, doesn’t it? It is to escape from the hassles of our current world. It’s pretty nice and it’s a nice place to go. And you sort of know you’re going to be looked after, because I think the characters in Downton Abbey look out for each other in some way, shape, or form. And I don’t think we need to apologize for that. It’s just pure escapism. And so it’s a nice place to be for a couple of hours.

This question is for Elizabeth. You were nominated for best supporting actress in Ragtime. And you’ve been doing Downton Abbey for ten years, right? And now the big screen version. What is it about period pieces that makes you intrigued as an actress?

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN: Well, that’s a very interesting question, because I seem to end up in period pieces quite a bit. But the fact is, I really don’t care about that. I’m really drawn to great stories and great characters. And the fact that they happen to be in that period is irrelevant to me. I really hope that they spring out to a modern audience as if they are not in the period. And that what’s kind of remarkable is that people in that period are just like we are today. Things really don’t change all that much. That’s kind of the extraordinary thing if you read books that are set way in the past, right? Just happened to finish reading Don Quixote. And I couldn’t believe that the things that are written in that book are still so relevant today, because the fact is, people don’t change all that much. And when you do something that’s set in a period, it’s always a kind of funny thing about convincing people that it is actually the period. Because people talk about the way you move and the way you speak and the way you hold yourself. But nobody really knows. I mean, nobody was there if it happens to be something said in 1801. It’s just we have a kind of an agreed understanding of what we accept as the way people moved or spoke or sat or ate. And we want the audiences to believe that they’re in that period. So if we do that, then nobody questions it. But of course we might be completely wrong.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  Yeah. We actually had a historical adviser who was the sort of continuum of that or made sure that these standards were maintained. And there was sort of a house style, wasn’t there, that was established very early on, that the women wouldn’t cross their legs and the men wouldn’t put their hands in their pockets. It was simple as that. Now how do we know that the girls didn’t cross their legs or indeed the men didn’t cross their legs? But it was just decided that in our world, the fictional world of Downton Abbey, that wouldn’t happen. And I suppose that did lend it to certain if not grace, then a certain look to the thing.

How does it feel to revisit characters that were untouched for almost four years?

ALLEN LEECH:  I think when we read the script, we all had a certain level of trepidation going in. As you say, can you go back and you revisit it and can you be as precise as you were originally? And the funny thing is, the minute you start reading the script and then when you start getting into your costume, you realize actually that it’s almost muscle memory. That it’s just sitting below the surface, because you play these characters for so long. And even when you weren’t playing them, you were probably talking about them. And then suddenly you had a little break and you got to go back. So it was a really happy discovery for me that it didn’t take a huge amount to get back to being Tom Branson at all.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  It’s a luxury in some ways, because the fact that you don’t have to think about all those things that you think about when you’re just creating the character to begin with. How do they talk? How do they walk? How do they sit? And since it’s so deeply in our bones, you can just play it. You can just be it. And perhaps go to a deeper more confident place for that reason. So it’s a luxury because it doesn’t happen very often that you get a chance to revisit a character that has just settled in your bones for years without you even thinking about it.

What was the atmosphere like when you all reunited on the set?

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  I think really the moment that sticks in my mind is when we joined together for the read-through. Now obviously we had six of these events in the past. But there had been a gap of three years. And it was a small miracle that Gareth Neame, our executive producer, had managed to get all of us around the table again. Plus our new characters as well. But obviously the main challenge was to get the core of the cast back together. But I do remember looking around the table at this big old square table that was erected around the studio. And basically having sort of a wry grin on my face. Sort of, I can’t believe that we’re here again. And also I can’t believe in a good way that we’re here again, that we’ve actually made this happen, we all linked arms and decided to jump in together. Because I think if we hadn’t done that, then it wouldn’t have happened. If four or five or six characters had said, “Actually, I’m done with it,” which everyone had the right to do, so I think it’s a great testament to the audience really as much as anything. Because it was the audience who drove the enthusiasm and the constant questioning. “Is there going to be a movie?” And I think if they hadn’t been asking that, then we wouldn’t have done it. It’s as simple as that really. And again, a testament that we were a good band of friends over the six years and that we didn’t end up punching each other and we’re happy to spend another ten weeks together.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  Something just occurred to me this minute, actually, that I haven’t thought of before, of course, because that question has come up quite a bit. But I feel like we all quietly grew in confidence a little bit in the best way. Like when somebody is quietly more confident, they’re just more fun and more relaxed. I feel like across the board, you could apply that to every member of the cast. Maybe because of the experience of the show or the opportunities that it had brought people. And I think that pervaded the atmosphere when we were making the movie. There was a kind of quiet, peaceful confidence that wasn’t brash or arrogant. It was just kind of there.

(ME!!!) If each of you had the opportunity to play a different Downton Abbey character for an episode, who would you want to play?

ALLEN LEECH:  I would start by saying I don’t think I could play it half as well. I think everyone is incredibly well cast in the show. But I would love just to be Thomas Barrow for a day. An early Thomas Barrow. Like evil, smoking, have the conniving Thomas Barrow.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  I think I would like to play Lady Mary. Because then you can shag a Turkish diplomat, have incredible sex, and then you don’t have to see them for breakfast!

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  I cannot follow that answer.

When it comes to playing characters from a completely different era, how has that changed you as actors or how has that even affected your personal lives? Have personal habits changed after embodying these people from another world for so many years?

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  It’s made me appreciate the freedoms that we enjoy as women and the power that we enjoy as women, which I might have taken for granted otherwise. I am so happy at the end of the day to come back to 2019 and know that I can vote, I can control my own money, I can control my own destiny. And we’ve come a long way, baby.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  I think something that has grown out of the show, and I hope I’ve taken into my own life, is a greater sense of tolerance, actually. I think that this show, all the characters are really based in a world in which tolerance and compassion, they’re not expensive. And it’s found quite frequently. And I think we’re so quick to judge these days and so quick in the pace of life to make rash decisions. I think that just the general pace is obviously inevitably so much slower in the world where the telephone is about the fastest means of communication or the way of getting in touch with people. And I think just the common courtesies that everybody in the estate is used to expressing. I think they aren’t bad things to hold onto now.

ALLEN LEECH:  I would say the manners and the way people took care of themselves, and kind of I suppose the way that people treated each other. It’s a very similar issue. Actually, Hugh’s answer. Yeah. [LAUGHTER].

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  Ditto.

A couple of years ago, I went through a tough time. My father passed and my mom and I binge watched for a couple of months. So you guys really helped us through a tough time.

ALLEN LEECH:  Oh, thank you. Thank you for telling us.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  We hear stories like that sometimes. And I can’t tell you genuinely how much it means to us. Because sometimes in the world of show business, you get just so sick of the bulls***. Sorry. But then when you’re reminded that you’re actually doing something that has helped somebody. It does really genuinely mean a lot.

I wanted to ask you guys if you had a favorite line or scene from this movie? The writing is so good. There were a couple like really amazing lines. But did you guys personally have one for your character?

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  For my own character, that’s really interesting, because I think we all immediately go for one of Maggie’s lines.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  Yeah. We all want Maggie’s lines. Let’s not mince words. I like the way… we were talking about this the other day. I really like the way the arc was written after the death of Sybil, I think it was series three. I think it was… for my character. And Robert’s character. It was beautiful writing in the sense that it really delineated the process of grieving and the impact that a trauma like that can have. And I just think that Julian did an especially good job for our characters in that episode.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  Well, I think as a series, a line I’ve always loved where Tom Branson I think embodies Tom as he says, “I don’t believe in types, I believe in people.”

What are the differences that you’ve noticed between fans in the UK and fans in the US of Downton Abbey?

ALLEN LEECH:  Rob James-Collier I think summed it up brilliantly when he said in the US, fans will, just people in general will cross roads and risk being knocked down to tell you they love your show. [LAUGHTER]. And in the UK, people will cross roads and risk being run down just to tell you they don’t watch it. [LAUGHTER]. Which is very true. Yeah. So the enthusiasm and the excitement that we experience from American audiences is so refreshing.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  You’re much more comfortable with your emotions.

ALLEN LEECH:  It’s so exciting. And then obviously in Britain, the movie comes out and you get this face [BLANK EXPRESSION]. It’s just like [SOLEMNLY], “I was very excited to see that. One of the best cinematic experiences I’ve ever had.” [LAUGHTER]. Whereas in America, they’re like, “[SQUEAL]!!!” [LAUGHTER]. That happened in New York when I opened the door of Starbucks. And someone walked out.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  Translation: Starbucks. Go on.

ALLEN LEECH:  What did I say?

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  Starbooks. [LAUGHTER].

ALLEN LEECH:  I had to put up with this for ten years. StarBUCKS. Okay. So I held the door anyway. And the woman said, “Oh, thank you, what a gentleman. Oh holy f***, it’s Tom Branson!!!”[LAUGHTER].

Since everything is wrapping up, what will you take with you? What’s going to be in your Downton Abbey heart?

ALLEN LEECH:  I had a very poignant moment with Hugh actually. We snuck in at the New York premiere. And we stood at the back of the theater for the last 20 minutes of the movie. And for me, I’ll take this incredible journey that we had over ten years. And the amazing family I have.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  I agree.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  Me, too.

What’s something for each of you about your character that really means something of quality about your character?

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  I would go back to something I said earlier really. It’s to do with compassion and tolerance. Just when you think a typical father, if you like, patriarchal character, would explode at something that his daughter has done, some misdemeanor or bringing the shame upon the family name. You think he’s going to cast her out into the snow or something. And actually, he basically in a couple of cases says, “Well, we all make mistakes. So long as you’ve learned from it.” And I think that taught me something as a father apart from anything else, a father of a teenager. That actually we’ve all made our own mistakes. So long as you as a parent are there as a safety net. Allen, I’m talking to you now because you’re about to be a father. I think so long as you are there as an unconditional safety net, then that’s something that I actually learned some of that through the character of Robert and the relationship with Cora. That they do have their ups and downs, but they’re there for the long haul.

I would love to know who your favorite Downton Abbey character is and why. Whether it’s yours or another character.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  I always tend to gravitate to Mr. Molesley. But that’s as much a testament to Kevin as an actor as to the character. Because the character was I think originally commissioned, if you like, for two or three episodes in Season One. And then Kevin brought something so remarkable to the character, the sort of almost Chaplin-esque hangdog quality, which can be utterly heartbreaking and very fun at the same time. And as you’ve seen in the movie, it’s brought to the perfect peak in the movie. So I always love watching him work. Because you know you’re going to get a little bit of jewelry.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  I’m with Allen. I like early Thomas Barrow. I think that it was a very complex character who acted in ways that weren’t always the best way to act, but you could see that it was coming from a place of pain and frustration. And I always thought that was really interesting.

ALLEN LEECH:  I’ll go with an unsung hero oftentimes in Downton, who is Isobel Crawley. Because Maggie Smith is as good as Maggie Smith is, but she can only be as good as who she is fighting against. And I think Dame Penelope Wilton, as she is now, is a very worthy adversary for her. And I think she does a wonderful job. I think the people really enjoy Maggie because they enjoy Penelope as well.

Have you guys had a chance to meet the royals? Are they fans? Have you had any interaction like to where they’ve seen the movie or you had any feedback?

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  I don’t know if they’ve seen the movie. But we had a dry run of the film plot, because the Duchess of Cambridge came to visit the set.

ALLEN LEECH:  Kate Middleton.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  Kate Middleton. Yes. [LAUGHTER].

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  To you.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  Sorry. So she came to the set in our final season at Ealing. And that was a great day. She was due to stay for an hour or so. And her detectives were checking their watch because she was there for about three hours because she was having such a good time looking around the wardrobe bus and learning how everything worked. But we also had a couple of visits from the Countess of Wessex. Sophie Wessex came a couple of times, incognito. There was one occasion when we were filming outside Oxford, I think it was at a house that Winston Churchill used for sort of war plans during the war. And we knew that a dignitary was coming to visit sort of by coincidence. Was it a Brazilian or an Argentinean? Argentinean ambassador and her entourage were coming to be escorted by the Duchess of Wessex. Unfortunately, my good lady screen wife didn’t really take all this on board and thought she had met this blonde-haired lady in the supermarket recently.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  No. I thought she was an extra wardrobe person that had come on. Didn’t recognize her.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  Okay. So that was Sophie Wessex. Yeah. Just so you know for next time. Member of the royal family.

ALLEN LEECH:  No wonder she found us so weird when you said, “Can you sew this part of my dress please?”

So the dinner scene with Molesley and the ballroom scene. You guys had to have had some moments where you cracked up and they had to redo the take. You had to. Especially the scene with Molesley.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  Well, normally those dining room scenes, we can’t wait to get out, because they take a long time, those dining room scenes, for sort of obvious reasons. And that’s the one time that we actually just wanted to stay in the room and see them there, because, take after take, he was just sublime.

ALLEN LEECH:  It was a lovely moment where Maggie saw him do it for the first time. And she just turned. And there was a bit of applause. And she just turned and went, “Well, that’s delicious.” [LAUGHTER]. And I think it’s a lovely way of describing that moment. Because he’s such a comic genius. And the ballroom was fun. Because obviously I sat on the sidelines and watched these guys do their job. And every so often myself and Imelda Staunton, we would go in and we would give our judging scores. Like Dancing With The Stars. We would go in and everyone would line up and then we would walk up and down. And then we go, “You guys were the best this time. Well done.” And so everyone got to win at different stages. Except for the king and queen. Now that wasn’t Geraldine and James’ fault.

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  They sucked.

ALLEN LEECH:  They sucked. [LAUGHTER]. For royalty, they really couldn’t dance.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  And over the years, Elizabeth and I have had quite a few dances in the TV show. And Diana Scrivener, who is our choreographer, has always been very patient, because we often may start at the bottom of the class, but she gives us incentives. And it will go little badges each way. And we finally ended up with gold. We were very excited. We got a gold star.

ALLEN LEECH:  And you deserved it.

Do you feel like this is really the end? Because I feel like there could be a whole another series spun with the younger generation. 

ELIZABETH MCGOVERN:  Oh. Me being Maggie.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  Oh.

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  I think realistically, it’s certainly the end for us in terms of the TV show. Of course there could be, because let’s not forget that the central character is the house. And the house is still standing and will be standing in another 100 years. So absolutely. And knowing a little bit of the history of Lord and Lady Canarvon’s family, the current Earl who lives there, his grandfather was quite a character. And if those walls could talk in the 1960s, that was one heck of a party house. So some fascinating shenanigans would have gone on over the years. So of course, I think they absolutely could do spinoffs in that way. In terms of our section of the history, I think if you can just persuade all your friends to go and see the movie, then maybe we’ll do another one.

ALLEN LEECH:  Yeah. Absolutely. If the appetite is there. [APPLAUSE].

HUGH BONNEVILLE:  Thank you.

ALLEN LEECH:  Thank you very much.

httpvh://youtu.be/gQ_70Ad0Jfc

The post Downton Abbey Movie Interview + Exhibit! appeared first on Disney Travel Babble.

Our whole trip—this once-in-a-lifetime tour of London, Disneyland Paris, real Paris and Scotland—came about solely because Netflix gave The Jim Henson Company money to create a prequel to The Dark Crystal. Honestly, Disneyland Paris would otherwise have been the last international Disney park we visited. As I mentioned in the intro post, I was just not that into it. And no trip gets planned around this joint unless I’m into it!

But, as you’ll see in the documentary, not only did Netflix give Henson the money for a prequel, they insisted that all the characters be puppets—not the originally pitched idea of half puppets and half CG characters. Which meant that Patrick got to spend nine months working at the Jim Henson Creature Shop in Burbank making hands, arms, bodies, neck sleeves and “brains” (foam head inserts) for Podlings and Gelflings! And it meant that we were able to arrange a visit to the massive set of the show, just outside London.

To read the full day’s report, including transportation tips, where to find a clean public restroom in the village of Slough, and photos of the glamorous Tom Dixon-designed restaurant where we had dinner, check out the complete installment HERE. I’ve excerpted just the set visit below…

When we arrived at the studio, a really nice fellow named Juan gave us hard hats and chic neon yellow vests and led us through a labyrinth (ba-da-bing!) of key-carded corridors to start our tour with the production areas before eventually making our way to set.

We entered through the red door at the back of this shot…

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Jasper is one of Patrick’s building buddies from the Creature Shop who was lucky enough to be sent to the London shop for a few months to help out. You can bet I was asking Patrick why HE didn’t pull this duty!

Here’s a nice overview shot of the main costuming room featuring three people who were NOT there the day we visited: executive producer Lisa Henson, Dark Crystal conceptual artist Brian Froud and Dark Crystal puppet sculptor and builder Wendy Froud.

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However, I will take this opportunity to brag that we have been to a few holiday parties at Lisa Henson’s place and they are AWESOME. One time Debbie Gibson was there singing Christmas carols!

I also love to point out that Brian and Wendy Froud’s son, who worked with them on the series, was the adorable baby in Labyrinth!

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The production area is a warren of rooms for every creative department on the show, and Juan made sure we saw EVERYTHING. We saw where they did armatures…

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…and where they styled the wigs….

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….and where they painted the faces….

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… and where they made Gelfling hands following Patrick’s patented method developed in Burbank!

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Here are some Podling bodies and brains Patrick built…

And here are some finished Podlings!

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You can see some of the neck sleeves Patrick made in this shot.

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We saw the mold room…

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…and the paint room…

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… and the prop room…

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…and the mech room…

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…and wherever this was…

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… plus this place…

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…and a room where they were building crazy suits of armor that didn’t make it into the documentary! But here are some amazing swords that did…

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Another room that I sadly cannot find a shot of was filled to the brim with big worms and little worms, creepy breathing creatures with robotic eyes trapped in cages, and other little crazy things that I didn’t know what they were. Most of them turned out to be for The Scientist Skeksis’ laboratory, like this guy…

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We even saw a Fizzgig, which, never having seen the original Dark Crystal at that point, was the first item to pique my interest in the whole thing (on account of cuteness)!

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In every room and at every station, all of the craftspeople we met were so kind to us and so enthusiastic as we told and retold the story of our anniversary trip and got all kinds of congratulations. All of the women in the wig room went, “Awwwwwwwwww!” when they heard our story. 

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After that, Juan led us through to the sound stages, where they were shooting what turned out to be scenes from the very first episode!

Patrick took great delight in surprising all his friends on set who didn’t know he was coming over to England. He got particularly great reactions out of puppet wranglers Jürgen Ferguson and Scott Johnson, whom I’d heard so much about from Patrick over the years but never had the opportunity to meet until all of us flew across The Pond. And when Kevin Clash spotted Patrick, he enveloped both of us in huge hugs—so now I’ve gotten to hug Elmo the puppet AND Elmo’s performer!

Patrick introduced me to Dave Chapman, who is  one of the puppeteers for BB-8, and Warrick Brownlow-Pike, who—in addition to having THE most British name of all time—performs The Chamberlin Skeksis.

Jürgen and Warrick made it into the documentary, though you can’t see the latter under all that Skeksis!

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Alice Dinnean—who performs Brea and Maudra Fara, among others—has always been an easy person to talk to at those Henson holiday parties. This time she graciously let me pass several hours chatting with her in between remote-controlling Deet’s eyes and ears for the big scene I’ll show you in a second.

You can see her performing Deet’s eyes and ears in the back of this shot from the documentary!

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And here’s what the remote looks like in somebody else’s hands…

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While he was on break, Warrick cheerfully escorted us on a private tour of both sound stages and introduced us to more puppeteers. I got to meet the legendary Louise Gold, who performed the Gourmand Skesis in the original Dark Crystal and in this prequel AND has done a ton of Muppet stuff over the years.

Everyone we met kept apologizing that it wasn’t a “big set day,” but we were pretty dang impressed! For one thing, we got to wander around the massive forest set…

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…and get up close to the amazing matte paintings!

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This wasn’t happening when we were there, but here are a couple shots of the set in action…

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We also got to see the exterior passage of the Skesis’ Castle of the Crystal, where a lot of action takes place in the first episode.

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But maybe the coolest part was getting to see them film a series of scenes that made it into the first episode of Age of Resistance: Deet’s encounter with a magical flower that shows her visions of the future, her farewell to her family as she sets out on her quest, and the moment when she ascends from the Caves of Grot to begin her journey.

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I learned that when a puppet falls off a cliff, they don’t just drop it like a rag doll! The performer’s hand is inside the whole time.

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The coolest part was that puppeteer Beccy Henderson was on the camera crane for this shot! As Deet is lifted up and away from her family, Beccy has to keep performing her while Alice is remote controlling her eyes and ears, so they strapped her into this crazy rig. So far, Patrick has had to puppeteer underwater and from inside a fridge, but not on any cranes yet!

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The other thing that really impressed me was getting to see the director, Louis Leterrier, in action. He does his own steadycam work, and he spent most of the time we were there dashing around the set getting the shot. His enthusiasm for the project was almost palpable: This is not a film director who’s slumming in TV for a paycheck—he genuinely seems to love the material. Watching him work, I began to feel that Age of Resistance wasn’t going to be a soulless corporate retread or a slavish fanboy re-creation but something new and exciting.

And, having now seen both the original movie and the series, I gotta say that Leterrier’s shooting style is the best thing to happen to the Dark Crystal universe. Where before the Skesis were lumbering and labored, they have now leapt to life with thrilling menace just from the way he shoots them. The Gelflings are trickier (I dunno if they’ll ever be able to overcome the uncanny valley with faces like those), but they are certainly much more dynamic and watchable in the new series.

We didn’t get to see this being filmed, but it’s a good example of Leterrier in action!

© Netflix

You can watch The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance and The Crystal Calls – Making the Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance now on Netflix. And click here to read my entire The Lurkyloos Do Disneyland Paris in the Snow (So You Don’t Have To) trip report (so far)!

The post Behind the Scenes: Dark Crystal – Age of Resistance Set Visit! appeared first on Disney Travel Babble.

If you have already booked a trip to see Galaxy’s Edge, STOP READING THIS RIGHT NOW! (OK, maybe just scroll through the photos to make Patrick feel better about all the time he invested). In fact, stop reading anybody’s opinion and just go experience it for yourself.

But if you’re on the fence or waiting a year or 10 for the crowds die down, here’s what Patrick and I thought of the place.

Galaxy’s Edge model in Star Wars Launch Bay

1. A Regular Visit Will Probably Be Way Better Than The 4-Hour Preview

Don’t let those photos from the cast member previews and the first few reservation-only days fool you: Galaxy’s Edge was NOT an empty paradise for people lucky enough to snag a reservation.

We had a reservation for 5pm–9pm on Saturday, June 16, and this is the line to get in at 4:30pm.

For reference, this is how far we were from Batuu at that point:

The one good thing about standing in this crowd was getting to talk to a pro who’d already been 3 times and learn that, even if we dashed straight to hot-ticket Oga’s Cantina to make a reservation to return during our window, there was a good chance we’d waste nearly half of our 4 hours in the line, only to have it cut off before we could make a reservation (as happened to him).

I’m sure the Cantina will be just as busy when Galaxy’s Edge opens to the public, but at least you’ll have an entire day’s worth of reservations open to you if you’re willing to get there early and wait in line. (Though apparently Touring Plans thinks they’ll still sell out within an hour!)

The 4-hour windows also overlap, which means that your first and last hours are crazy-crowded, so you really only get 2 hours in the land with a sane crowd level. So there’s extra pressure to see and do everything rather than just soak up the experience.

2. They Still Don’t Have Crowd Control Figured Out

I’d read all these glowing reviews of Disney’s crowd control during the reservation period, but our experience was decidedly different. Each new group is only permitted to enter Galaxy’s Edge along a prescribed path that skirts the edge of the land, then turns left to pass Oga’s and head toward the Millennium Falcon. But our 5pm group got stopped for 10 whole minutes right around where the blue milk stand is, and nobody—cast members or guests—knew why we weren’t moving. Meanwhile, guests from the previous reservation period were weaving in and out of our crowd as CMs extended their arms to keep us herded into the bottleneck. It was extremely frustrating to a group who just wanted to see the dang Falcon already!

Someone finally figured out that the stationary line for Oga’s was mixed in with the rest of us who just wanted to explore and separated out the line. At last, we saw the dang Falcon already!

At that point the wait time for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run was 35 minutes, and the line stretched outside the building but didn’t fill the entire exterior queue, so we jumped in it. The exterior portion lets you view a great deal of the Falcon, and then there are windows along the upper level of the indoor queue that give you different vantage points on the ship, which is really nice.

This is supposed to look like a face, right? It’s not just me?

So my favorite Tweet from the Grand Opening of Galaxy’s Edge was by @MattSchiavone75

…AND the dish really is wrong! Any kid who had a Millennium Falcon toy growing up knows that!

Some Stormtroopers came out a door next to the exterior queue and started awkward interactions with a few people in line. It seemed like they hadn’t got a handle on which pre-recorded lines to access and when. Sometimes they would even repeat the same question after you answered it! But this seems like it has the potential to be a really fun element of a visit to Galaxy’s Edge once they get the hang of it.

There is a lot of junk to look at in the lower portion of the queue! They also have audio of some mechanics working on the ships that sounds like it was recorded by two bros who just walked across the hall from a voiceover session for a Geico ad. This seems like a missed opportunity for that classic Star Wars gag of an English speaker conversing with a creature or a droid in such a way that we know what they’re talking about even though we only understand half the conversation.

PUSH, is that you…?

I dunno who this guy is, but his animatronic moves really well!

Disney mercifully decided to forgo the half-dozen video pre-shows (um, I’m, uh, looking at you, um, Flight of Passage) and cut right to the chase. After PokeyFace here gives you a quick introduction to his smuggling operation, you wait in one more line before being assigned your duty on the Millennium Falcon flight crew. I’d read that some cast members shuffle the card deck before handing out roles, but on all 3 of our rides, they just went in order of who entered the chamber first. So if you were first or second, you got Pilot; third or fourth, you got Gunner; and fifth or sixth, you got Engineer.

Then you get to spend a few minutes exploring the Falcon’s main room before your group is called to board. It is a very painless process and I love it!

I feel like they really missed an opportunity here to have a closet full of Lando’s capes. Heck, they could have a whole Calrissian Capes boutique!

Still, I didn’t ever feel like I was actually aboard the Millennium Falcon until we walked through this hall on our way to the cockpit.

That’s the stuff!

3. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run Is a BLAST!!!

Patrick and I were either lucky or unlucky enough to snag Pilot duties on our very first ride. I chose Chewie’s seat (duties: move the ship up and down, take it into light speed) and Patrick took Han’s (steer the ship right and left, have a bad feeling about “this”). For someone who doesn’t play video games, it is a bit overwhelming to be plopped into the most demanding role with almost ZERO instruction on your first ride. There are flashing green boxes around the things you’re supposed to touch, when it’s time to touch them, but I found the control stick to be pretty unresponsive—I could never seem to maneuver the ship high enough to avoid all the obstacles they throw your way. Still, there was one thing I knew how to do: Getting to punch the Falcon into light speed might be some of the most fun I’ve ever had at a Disney park!

Also, being a terrible pilot is a hoot! Pryncess Chrysty and I were laughing hysterically as the ship careened into walls and smashed through the black spires. The things that PokeyFace shouts when you’re doing an awful job only made us laugh harder, and we were practically crying by the time we crashed our smoldering wreck into the dock.

Unfortunately, the two single riders who were added to our party of four were NOT amused. They got really upset when the cast member handed them Engineer cards, and then they didn’t do ANY of their duties, which meant none of the fires got put out and they made our scores even worse. I actually liked being an Engineer when I later had the chance. It’s very clear what you’re supposed to do (mash any button that has a flashing green box around it!), and you don’t feel as responsible for the flight’s success or failure. Gunner was my least favorite because you get Toy Story Mania-style arm fatigue from punching the firing button over and over. Also, how can they say I only had 35% accuracy when I wasn’t given any way to aim my gun? Is it cuz I started firing basically from takeoff and never stopped…?

Here’s one of the control panels. If it turns green, MASH it!

Yes, this is my Engineer score. I am 100% accurate as an Engineer!

I do wonder about the repeatability of this ride once you have mastered the controls.  Will it be as frustrating for me to take a non-pilot role and watch someone else screw up as it was for those two guys on our first flight? When your pilots are kids, it’s fun to encourage them (and marvel at how much faster they get the hang of things). But it seems like as a single rider you’re doomed to be an Engineer because you’re always entering the assignment room last. On the flip side, it also appears that couples have a better chance of riding together via the single rider line because of the 6-person seating configuration.

I want to exit via that ladder!

Sarlacc in carbonite!

We got a bit turned around in the exit tunnels, just like the first time we rode Flight of Passage. Trapping us in the bowels of a ride must be Disney’s new strategy for keeping walkways clear!

Angular kids be like…

We had preordered our dinner at Ronto Roasters while in line, but it wasn’t quite ready yet, so we had time to wander around Galaxy’s Edge and not get into places.

4. You Will Not Get to Experience Everything in Galaxy’s Edge…

…Unless you are willing to camp out for Oga’s Cantina AND spend $200 on a light saber at Savi’s Workshop that I guarantee you will never use again after that first Instagram photo session. This was galling to Patrick. We had our Galaxy’s Edge reservation. We paid our $300 to get into Disneyland. But because you have to pre-purchase a light saber (or be the sole guest of a purchaser) just to see the show inside Savi’s Workshop, we were not allowed to experience everything the land had to offer without spending an additional $200!

Patrick thinks there should at the very least be a window through which you can view the show, and that letting people experience it as non-buyers would probably end up selling even more light sabers because folks would get excited about coming back to participate. We bought wands at Ollivander’s in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter after seeing the show, and we’re not even Harry Potter fans. If this can work at Ollivander’s, why can’t it work at Savi’s?

5. The Role-Playing Element Is Super-Annoying

When we first approached Savi’s, the area pictured above was roped off. Because nothing is labeled in English except the restrooms, and the app that can translate signs is apparently a huge battery drain whose sign-scanning feature doesn’t always work, you have to ask cast members what stuff is. And is that ever a painful process!

Patrick: “What is this place?”

Cast Member: “Savi’s Scrap Yard.”

Patrick: “Oh, OK. Is this where you make a droid?”

Cast Member: “No…. What else do you make?”

Patrick: “Uh, OK… Is this where you make a light saber?”

Cast Member: “Shhh… We must keep it quiet for the Resistance.”

Patrick: [epic eye-roll]

Or try asking for the restroom…

Patrick: “Where’s the nearest restroom?”

Cast Member: “Are you looking for a ‘refresher room’?”

Patrick (hopping): “Uh, I guess…?”

Cast Member: “Walk 15 paces down this—”

Patrick: “Too late!”

Also irritating: All the dumb made-up phrases they have for everything. Stop trying to make “Bright suns” and “Rising moons” happen, Disney! We’ve been Star Wars fans since the beginning, and they are not a thing!

“Uh, full moons to thee… Dost thou knowest whither I mayest find the thrones?”

We decided to kill time in the Marketplace. You could spend the better part of a day here and still not see everything, it is so detailed!

Surprisingly, the Porg stuffed toy doesn’t  even look as good as the talking one we got from Target last year. But I love all the other super-weird stuffed animals they had. I eventually adopted a mini mooing Bantha cuz I loved its wall-eyed stare.

Another favorite touch was the animatronic animals in cages. This is the kind of thing that’s missing from Pandora: World of Avatar.

Why can’t I buy THIS guy?! I want this guy!!! Lookit him all smiley and sleepy….

By the time Patrick was ready to try the blue milk, we knew better than to ask a cast member where the stand was (“What is this ‘blue milk’ you speak of? I know only Moof Juice!”). Instead we asked a passing guest where she got hers, to which she replied, “Around that corner. It tastes like Pepto!”

Both colors of “milk” are fruit flavored, so I took a pass. Patrick said it was, “OK. Like throat coat!”

When it was time to pick up our preordered food at Ronto Roasters, Patrick went to get it while we looked for a table. Which turned out to be harder than we thought—there just aren’t that many!

This droid from Jabba’s Palace operates the jet engine that cooks your mall-food-court-style shwarma-and-sausage wrap. Eating it with warm yogurt sauce took some getting used to, but it was pretty tasty. And they let you easily nix the sauce and/or the coleslaw when you order via the Disneyland app!

Are those the rontos that get roasted?

We couldn’t decide if we were allowed to sit in the seating area behind these arches because it opens to the other restaurant, Docking Bay 7 Food and Cargo. Patrick was on edge about this, but it might also have something to do with the fact that he had to return to Ronto Roasters FIVE TIMES to get all the components of our meal because they don’t have trays (??!!??). And because they messed up our drink order—twice!

It was nice to sit down and take stock. At that point in the visit, Patrick was pretty disappointed in Galaxy’s Edge. After the Falcon ride, he felt like everything we wanted to do either had a long line or was off-limits to us. He also didn’t like feeling so disoriented in a land that is supposed to be based on his favorite movies. But things began to look up after we got some food in our tummies!

First, Patrick spotted this. He said it was the first time he actually felt like he was inside the Star Wars universe:

Is this the Black Spire of Outpost fame?

We stumbled on yet another long line and asked the cast member what it was for. When she said “A store” (hooray for our first straight answer!) my initial reaction was, “No way am I going to waste more precious time standing in line just to get into a store!” But when we realized we’d already seen pretty much everything else we were allowed to see, we gave in.

Our view from the line…

Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities ended up being the turning point for Patrick. When he walked in and saw a whole shop full of things he knew and loved from the movies, he was sold!

Next we stumbled upon the Droid Depot. When we learned that we were not required to purchase a droid to enter AND that we didn’t have to wait in that long line, the heavens parted and the angels sang!

After that, we’d seen all there was to see. Time to wander around! This is when we noticed…

6. You Will Not Hear Star Wars Music Unless You Pay $200 for It!

That’s right. Despite the fact that John Williams’ scores contain some of the all-time greatest movie themes and are integral to the success of the Star Wars films, you won’t hear a single melody from any of the movies unless you shell out for the light saber-building experience at Savi’s Workshop.

Even more of a headscratcher is that John Williams actually did write a 5-minute symphonic suite of new music for Galaxy’s Edge but, according to this article, Disney purposely does not play it anywhere in Galaxy’s Edge!

Says Matt Walker, executive in charge of music for Walt Disney Imagineering, “We’ve done deconstructed versions, so you’re not suddenly saying, ‘Wow, there’s the 90-piece [London Symphonic Orchestra] playing this incredible piece of symphonic music.’”

Um, hello, I would LOVE to be saying, “Wow, there’s the 90-piece London Symphonic Orchestra playing this incredible piece of symphonic music!” while I’m walking around Galaxy’s Edge! Instead we get what Walker calls “weaving in musical textures, being careful not to overuse John’s thematic material” (Overuse?!! Has he even SEEN a Star Wars film? Those things are wall-to-wall score!) and arranger William Ross describes as, “It’s going to be more like the small group of musicians you might hear in some exotic and faraway village marketplace.”

Believe me, I’ve got nothing against plucked sitars and banging trashcan lids, but I can get that at Animal Kingdom! There’s a reason “When You Wish Upon A Star” plays as you walk through Fantasyland. The Star Wars universe has time-honored musical themes that immediately elicit emotion and nostalgia, and Disney refuses to use them!

Anyway… here’s some other stuff we saw…

Patrick was over at the entrance shooting photos when he spotted the ginormous crowd waiting to enter for the 8pm slot and came running back to warn us….

And by “running” I mean “stopping every 3 feet to take a picture…”

This was when we hopped on the Falcon for a second ride before the crush of newcomers entered the line. When we got out, Batuu’s single moon was out!

And the hordes had descended….

We sought refuge in the Market.

Patrick had yet another cringe-worthy cast member interaction when he went to buy one of these adorable Jabbas at the Toydarian Toymaker.

Cast Member: “Do you vow to take good care of this animal?”

Patrick: “Sure.”

Cast Member: “I need a yes or no answer.”

Really, guy?! What, are you not going to let us buy the dang thing if we say no? Also, why the heck would a Jabba toy need care anyway? Wouldn’t that be something to ask over at the store that supposedly sells “real” animals, not the toy shop?

“Actually, I’m gonna stuff this thing in a giant basket full of overpriced Disney plush at the back of my wife’s closet… Am I still allowed to buy it?”

One thing Pryncess Chrysty noticed was that a lot of the merchandise she’d seen online and planned to buy was already sold out. I overheard a cast member tell another disappointed shopper that they had no idea when they would get more merchandise or what would be in the box when they did. So I guess you have to buy all the really good stuff from some dirtbag on eBay.

Seeing a lightsaber glow in the dark of a Batuu evening alllllmost makes the $200 worth it.

All of a sudden, Patrick had the Galaxy’s Edge equivalent of a Bigfoot sighting!!!

Was it really Chewie? We’ll never know…

Right before our time was up, Patrick and I dashed over to the Falcon for one last ride via the single-rider line. We were put on the same crew!

Looks like this will eventually be the site of Kylo Ren’s Funktastic Dance Party!

“Go Kylo! Go Kylo! It’s ya birthday!”

And then our time in Galaxy’s Edge was up! We walked out the gate, up the wooded path and through some kind of magical portal that deposited us back in the glory days of the American frontier.

Our Thoughts…

What I’ve been trying to figure out is… Why are Patrick and I, people who were born with Star Wars and grew up steeped in its culture and lore, so disappointed in Star Wars Land? We were made to love this place! We want to love this place!

Could it be because I still have the same question I had when they announced the land: Why isn’t this Tatooine? It looks just like Tatooine. If you’re not going to come up with a unique-looking new land, make this be Tatooine!

Why can’t I go see the physical representation of anything I loved in the movies except a couple of ships? Why isn’t there a Jabba’s Palace dinner show or the actual Mos Eisley Cantina with an animatronic band, à la Sonny Eclipse? Why can’t I visit the Lars Homestead, perhaps elevated to shrine status by family-history buff Kylo Ren? Or what about a pod-racing ride?

Disney owns all the Star Wars IP—why does Galaxy’s Edge feel like the “Space Wars” rip-off? “If you loved Mos Eisley Cantina, you’ll love our version, Oga’s Cantina!” “Ever wanted to visit Watto’s junk shop? Too bad! All we have is Resistance Supply!” “You won’t be able to meet Darth Vader here, but you will be able to boogie with his whiny grandson!”

Can you imagine if Universal had built Wizarding World of Harry Potter with only Durmstrang Institute instead of Hogwarts and some generic tavern or candy shop that’s “just like” The Three Broomsticks or Honeyduke’s? On the flip side, you have Cars Land, a place that is impressive even to those of us who rank the Cars franchise last among Pixar movies, because the place so fully immerses you in exactly what you’ve seen on the screen.

If it’s true that Black Spire Outpost was hatched so Disney can save the real Star Wars locations for a future all-Star Wars park, that’s a specious excuse. If they can write a story to support some made-up place like Black Spire Outpost, they can write a story to explain why Tatooine is at Disneyland and not inside this hypothetical all-Star Wars park. Plus, if we’ve learned anything about Disney’s current good-enough mentality of theme park operations, they will probably NEVER build a standalone park because the popularity of Galaxy’s Edge will be sufficient.

Patrick and I are pretty well aligned on our opinions, but his disappointment is palpable — Star Wars has been woven into the very fabric of his being since birth. And because of this, he seems to be wracked by guilt that this $1 billion feat has left him with such negative feelings. Maybe eventually we’ll be able to experience it enough times that we stop remembering what we hoped it would be and settle for Disney’s “good enough.”

UPDATE: Al Lutz just weighed in on Galaxy’s Edge, with lots of behind-the-scenes details on what was originally planned for the land and where things went wrong. CLICK HERE to read his fascinating analysis.

The post Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Photo Tour + Review appeared first on Disney Travel Babble.

So here’s the first installment in my Is It Worth It series, covering the Disney After Hours events we attended at Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom.

Disney After Hours: Animal Kingdom

We are the absolute last Disney fans on the planet to see Pandora: World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom. In fact, the whole reason we planned our anniversary trip for WDW was so 1) I could see IllumiNations one last time and 2) Patrick could finally see Pandora. I might have to do a whole separate post on that, cuz he had a LOT to say about it!

I was very stressed out about scheduling enough time in our trip for Patrick to fully enjoy Pandora, especially with the horror stories I’d heard about lines for Flight of Passage. So when reports came back that Animal Kingdom’s After Hours event was a ghost town, it seemed like a really good way to ensure we got our fill of the rides in Pandora.

I scoured the DISBoards’ **Disney After Hours-Animal Kingdom** FAQ & Discussion Thread for tips so we could maximize our time and then threw them all out the window when we actually got there. Instead of showing up at Animal Kingdom at 6:30 pm or 7:00 pm and beginning to rack up rides, we had a leisurely dinner at Jiko with the Roots and ambled over to the park around 8pm.

This is what our feet saw as they ambled….

Here’s that night’s schedule:

Instead of knocking out all the rest of Animal Kingdom’s attractions in the party’s first hour to allow crowds in Pandora to die down, we walked straight to Navi River Journey when the party started at 8:30pm. We’d decided to focus our time on new-to-us Pandora instead of running all over Animal Kingdom doing rides we could get on pretty much whenever we wanted during a normal day.

We rode Navi River Journey twice in a row. They made us get off the boat for the second ride but let us use the cast member gate to cross directly from the unloading area to the loading area.

Then we rode Flight of Passage twice in a row. It was a walk-on both times, but, as others have pointed out, each ride takes at least 20 minutes (24 for us — I timed it!) by the time you walk through the In queue and the Out queue and do both preshows. Weirdly, they’d let us skip almost the entire first preshow when we rope-dropped FOP the previous day, but they ran the full pre-show AND the extra decontamination bit during After Hours.

We did learn that Line 3, Door B2 and numbers 7, 8, 9, and 10 is supposedly the best combination for a view of FOP, according to the CM who sent us there.

After that we hadda walk allllllll the way out of Pandora, across the bridge and down to Tiffins to find the snack cart and get our free Mickey Bars. Supposedly this is because only Pandora-themed food is allowed inside Pandora. Thanks for wasting our precious After Hours time, Joe Rohde!

I shake my fist at you, Joe Rohde’s handprint!

Then it was back for one more ride on Flights of Passage and two more on Navi River Journey before the clock ran out. The only other thing we had time for was a quick tour of the coolest parts of the standby queue, thanks to a kind manager who heard us and another couple pestering a cast member about taking a peek.

I know it would be a criminal waste of time, but if you did want to shop Pandora undisturbed by the rabble, Disney After Hours would be the time to do it!

Imagineering: “In Pandora we could have an Ollivander’s-style attraction where a baby banshee chooses a guest and then all the other guests are encouraged to choose banshees that fit their personalities!”

Accounting: “Orrrrrrr…. we could just throw all the banshees on a shelf. But it’ll be shaped like a tree!”

On the way out we finally stopped to watch the Pandora Drummers. I was expecting those audience-participation drums to be rubbery, if not actual drum heads, but they are hard, hard slabs of resin or something that will give you the injury known as “Pandora Hand.”

Is It Worth It?

Animal Kingdom’s After Hours is great for knocking out a few rides multiple times, but with only six attractions open and a price higher than that of a full-day ticket, it is NOT a replacement for a full day in the park. I think for us it was the perfect way to really get our fill of the rides in Pandora on our first visit, but I don’t think we’ll ever do it again.

Disney After Hours: Magic Kingdom

This time we did better at following expert tips and started the evening with a 6:30pm reservation at Jungle Cruise Skipper Canteen.

After dinner, we walked down to the distribution spot across from Pirates of the Caribbean and got our wristbands for the After Hours party. We forgot to get a paper schedule, so here’s the list of attractions on the app:

We were still in the “bonus” period before the park closed and the event started, so we got a totally useless FastPass for Barnstormer that saves you about 3 feet in line before dumping you into the general queue. As usual, the ride was the best 90 seconds of my life.

Here’s a random photo of Space Mountain!

Next we satisfied Patrick’s curiosity about the interactive wait-in-a-playground queue over at Dumbo before hopping on that ride with no wait.

Dumbo photo bomb!!!

Then I had what I thought was a brilliant idea but turned out not to be as brilliant as the next idea I got, a little too late. We were walking past Star Traders when I thought, “Let’s try to get on the Peoplemover in time to watch fireworks from it!”

We even waited a few minutes at the bottom of the speed ramp so that we’d be boarding our car right as the show started. I had this vision of us whipping around the corner for that one great 5-second view of the castle right as fireworks exploded behind it—completely forgetting that, from that angle, the fireworks are actually nowhere near the castle. And that the Peoplemover is under a roof. And that 80% of the track is indoors or facing away from the fireworks.

But what you CAN see from the Peoplemover is the Astro Orbiter, and that’s when the real genius struck: We should watch the fireworks from up THERE! So as soon as we got back into the station, we scrambled down the ramp and ran to the elevator for the Astro Orbiter loading platform JUST as the cast member closed the doors and sent the cars up. We stood there vibrating with impatience as a breezy Muzak version of “Girl From Ipanema” played on a loop in my brain. At last the doors opened, we bolted into the elevator and then…. waited some more for the loading and the button-pushing. At last, we reached the top and dashed to the gate just as the last blasts of Happily Ever After filled the sky.

So…. that’s my hot tip for next time: Get in line for the Astro Orbiter at closing time!

After that we had to actually ride the dang thing, which may be the only Disney attraction I’m actually scared of. You’re up so high with nothing but a stretched-out plastic strap keeping you inside this tiny little thing that feels like it could fling you out at any minute!

Next we headed to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and were disappointed to learn it was down. Hidden in the shadows across the way was the only line-less snack cart we saw all night. If we’d known then what a hassle it would be to get our free snacks, I woulda tossed it over Hulk-style and grabbed all my popcorn and Mickey bars then!

We almost turned up our noses at Peter Pan because the line was already to the entrance, but I’m glad we didn’t. With Seven Dwarfs Mine Train down most of the night, Peter Pan had a huge line for the rest of the event.

This is about when I started getting a hankerin’ for free Mickey bars, but every cart we passed had at least 10 people lined up. With only 3 hours to ride as many rides as possible, we couldn’t be wasting valuable time in snack lines!

Next we rode Haunted Mansion behind some jerks who took flash photos and were glued to their super-bright cell phones the whole time. Like, why are they even on the ride?!

Then we trekked across the park to ride Big Thunder and Splash Mountain. Poor Patrick never gets to ride the latter cuz I’m not a fan of having soggy undies the rest of the day (call me crazy!). But it was pretty warm that night and such a short event that I sucked it up. And then HE got drenched!

We looped around to Pirates but decided to skip it because our time was so short. Across from the Tiki Room we finally found a snack cart with only one couple in line, so we stocked up on popcorn and ice cream. We had a fun ride on the Jungle Cruise and took what may have been our first-ever flight on Aladdin’s Magic Carpets, just because we could!

Because we are dummies, we then walked all the way across the park to see if Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was open, thinking that the Disney Parks app wouldn’t show wait times after regular operating hours had ended. But apparently we could’ve just looked in the app to see the dreaded “–” instead of a wait time. It was still down. But that sent us back to Haunted Mansion for a MUCH better ride. This time we waited to board until at least 4 empty cars had passed, and we enjoyed the perfect dark, distraction-free ride!

At this point, our 3 hours were almost up and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was still down, so we decided to concentrate on the next-best E-Ticket, Big Thunder, instead of wasting time walking between a bunch of rides. We hunkered down over there and rode it 5 times in a row, til the park closed. I made the mistake of attempting to get a bottle of water for the road at the cart outside Big Thunder. At 11:02pm they cut off the 20-person deep line (whereas at the AK After Hours Event, the Pandora-adjacent cart was practically throwing drinks and treats at exiting guests well after the event ended).

So we trudged toward the exit, and as we trudged I stewed, and when we got to City Hall, I swerved right and spent 30 minutes in line waiting to complain to anybody who’d listen about how this party had been our only chance to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train on the whole trip.

This gave Patrick time to take these lovely photos for you!

The cast member I got kindly let me run my spiel out and then did the only thing any of them are empowered to do: Throw FASTPASSes at it! This did not seem like the ideal restitution because we only had one full day left on the trip, and it was scheduled to the hilt at Epcot. But the promise of 6 FASTPASSes apiece enticed me to move around our plans on departure day so we could make a banzai run on Magic Kingdom to take advantage of the “free” rides.

Is It Worth It?

Much hay has been made about how Animal Kingdom After Hours features only six rides and attractions, whereas Magic Kingdom’s offers, by our count, at least 20 (but this may have been compensation for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train being down all night)—at the same price.

I feel like more attention needs to be paid to the fact that After Hours only lasts 3 hours, at a price higher than that of a full 11- or 12-hour day in the park. Which means at Animal Kingdom you have plenty of time to do and see everything offered, especially if you stay in Pandora for most of the night. But at Magic Kingdom you spend most of your time crisscrossing this ginormous park trying to get to the next thing. We spent the entire event breathlessly racing to grab the next ride but still only managed to do about three per hour.

The next day we were sharing our experience with family members who have been to Disney World annually for at least 15 years, and they told us tales of past after-hours events that lasted til 2am or even 4am!  Which of course made me even crankier about our experience.

So Magic Kingdom After Hours may be slightly more of an alternative to a full-day park ticket than Animal Kingdom After Hours is, due to the higher number of available rides. But I still think that three hours is just not enough time to get your money’s worth, due to the size of the park and the number of people filling the queues.

Maybe we should’ve tried the one at Pixar Playland…?

The post Disney After Hours: Is It Worth It? appeared first on Disney Travel Babble.

Please read it so that I will not feel that I have ruined my Wednesday for nothing.

Also, here is more pictures:

Love,
Carrie

The post 2019 Disney Weddings Bridal Showcase Recap! appeared first on Disney Travel Babble.

If you’re interested in complete details on planning a private event anywhere at Walt Disney World, check out this post or this podcast episode. I also have  pricing and booking details for every private event venue at Walt Disney World in Carrie Hayward’s Fairytale Weddings Guide. And you can see photos of every venue available for private events at Walt Disney World HERE.

Here’s a Table of Contents, in case you want to skip ahead…

• Inspiration
• Event Venue
• Anniversary Cake
• Dinner Menu
• Floral & Decor
• Frozen Ever After Ride Mix-In
• Transportation
• IllumiNations Fireworks

Inspiration

The moment I learned that Disney would be replacing Epcot’s fireworks show, IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, I knew our next anniversary party had to include one last viewing of this sentimental favorite from UK Lochside. The first time Patrick and I ever “saw” IllumiNations was during our wedding-night dessert party at this venue, although we spent so much time facing The Roots’ cameras that we hadn’t really seen the show until we went back to Epcot on the first night of our honeymoon!

But as I started to plan this party, I felt daunted by the prospect of topping our last event, a Tiki Dino-versary Party under the brontosaurus animatronics inside Universe of Energy (also a farewell-to-this-attraction party, unfortunately).

Top THIS!

So I bombarded my Disney Catered Events sales consultant with crazy, apparently impossible ideas: First it was dinner inside the Imagination Pavilion DVC Lounge (possible, as long as you start after 8pm) with an appearance by the Dreamfinder character with Figment puppet (not possible, according to the Entertainment Department and the guy Patrick knows who oversees all the puppets for WDW).

NO Figment for you!

Then it was dinner inside or on the upper terrace of the Mexico Pavilion with an appearance by the Three Caballeros. But the only place they will allow you to do an event in Mexico is a random spot on the main walkway facing the wall of La Hacienda de San Angel and the shop—no view or anything!

I mean, maybe this would have worked if they’d allowed us to use the character meet-and-greet spot in the lush jungle across the way, but dining in this location seems like tailgating in the parking lot of an El Torito…

So eventually I admitted defeat and settled for just dinner and just fireworks at just UK Lochside. But I do love UK Lochside! And I finally got that ride mix-in on Frozen Ever After we’d missed at the last party! And, thanks to Disney Catered Events’ minimum expenditure requirement, I got to/had to add all the flashy floral and decor I wasn’t able to afford when we planned our wedding reception!

I’ll break everything down by category for those who are interested in planning their own events at Disney. All photos of the party (except the first five of the cake) were taken by Kimberly Mitchell of Portrayable Photography, who did a great job stepping in on the recommendation of the Roots when they were unavailable that night.

Event Venue

Besides being beloved for its role in my wedding, UK Lochside is one of my Top 3 spots for viewing IllumiNations. I love that it’s set so far back from the main path and right on the water, which makes for amazing photos and feels like the show is happening just for you. This location technically has a 20-person minimum, but if you are trying to book a Disney Catered Event here with a smaller group, keep checking with your sales consultant as the date approaches. They will usually move you there if no one has booked it 30 days out.

The one drag about UK Lochside is that they replaced its benches with a trio of permanent umbrella tables a few years ago. This limits what you can do with table linens and chairs (and makes the tables SO dark!), so I wasn’t able to have full-on glitter linens and silver Chiavari chairs like I wanted. More on that in the Floral & Decor section…

I love how close the Friendship Boats pass to the location (although, really, Disney…? You hadda leave the bussing tray right out next to my fancy highboys?).

I cannot WAIT to tell you about this cake…

Since the benches are gone, they can set up part of the buffet against the front fence. The rest was set up against the back fence.

Anniversary Cake

I’m gonna skip right to the cake now because it was my favorite part of the whole event! Originally, when I was planning for the Imagination Pavilion Lounge with Dreamfinder and Figment, my theme for the party was “Crazy ’80s Epcot,” based on this photo:

This is how nerdy I am about cake: I started to get an idea for a metallic silver anniversary cake with puffy fondant rainbows like the ones on these costumes, and I was so excited about how cool it was going to look, I actually couldn’t sleep that night!

Usually Patrick helps me draw the inspiration photos I send to Disney’s pastry teams for all the elaborate cakes I want, because he’s a professional artist and I draw like a 2-year-old. But this one was a surprise, so I had to muddle through on my own. Luckily, I was able to find a line-drawing of a basic 2-tier cake shape online to start with, or else the cake probably would have turned out like a saggy trapezoid! This is what I sent to the Grand Floridian’s Wedding Cakes team (yes, I used ALL the red arrows!).

As you can see, I’m a bit Type A when it comes to cake designs—I’m pretty sure there are JPL rocket schematics that have less detail than this!

But what really helped was that the Grand Floridian assigned my cake to a pastry chef I actually know! We met when I interviewed her for the Disney Wedding Podcast, and she very kindly kept me updated on the progress of my cake as it was being made. She also helped me know what to ask for in the BEO (Banquet Event Order: The bible of your event followed by every Disney cast member who works on it) and on the design so that the cake would turn out how I’d imagined.

In fact, it turned out even BETTER than I’d imagined because she used her own creativity to improve the design, adding a Hidden Mickey belt buckle to the back and elegantly solving the problem of hiding the light below the Spaceship Earth topper!

But maybe my favorite thing was something I didn’t discover until the next day, when I opened a box of leftover cake to find the top tier had slid off its cake board, revealing a FROSTING SMILEY FACE!!! It turns out her signature is to make a smiley face out of the frosting used to secure each cake to its board, and nobody has ever noticed before!

Oh, and the flavors! So, my favorite Disney cake flavor combos are…

• Red Velvet with Cream Cheese Buttercream Frosting (not Disney’s Cream Cheese Mousse Filling, which tastes like cheesecake to me)
• Chocolate Chip Cake with layered Chocolate Ganache and Peanut Buttter Buttercream Frosting (again, not mousse)

But a few years ago, Disney introduced a Churro flavor for wedding cakes, and it has been a huge hit with all the brides. It’s a cinnamon cake filled with white chocolate cinnamon mousse that has milk chocolate feuilletine (flaky pastry crunch) mixed in. I was skeptical, imagining something like a dry coffee cake or muffin. But I had to try it, so I asked Disney to make the smaller top tier churro.

You guys. It was AMAZING! The cake is so moist, and the filling tastes like Cinnabon smells! I barely even touched the leftovers of the red velvet tier, but I almost single-handedly polished off the remains of the churro tier over the course of our vacation.

Now let’s see a few dozen more photos of that cake, shall we?

Dinner Menu

I briefly toyed with the idea of doing a Crazy ’80s-themed menu (Handwich, anyone?) the way we did a ’50s luau party menu at our Tiki Dinoversary. But when I started brainstorming ideas with a friend who is a caterer and private chef, she reminded me just how awful most ’80s food actually was. You can bring back the leg warmers and fanny packs and big hair all you want, Gen Z, but I DARE you to eat sun-dried tomatoes as much as we did in the ’80s!

So I put in one nod to the ’80s (see: Bacon-Wrapped Dates) and then filled out the rest of the menu with things the brides on my podcast have been raving about for years. Also, fruit for Patrick and a beef short rib suggested by the chef because apparently it’s déclassé to serve only starch at your party!

• Bacon-Wrapped Dates
• Cheeseburger Spring Rolls with Tomato Curry Aioli
• Tropical Fruit Salad and Mint Drizzle
• Food & Wine Festival Schinkennudeln from Germany (ham and cheese noodles!)
• Mashed Potato Martini Bar: Mashed Yukon Gold Potato, Sweet Potato and Peruvian Purple Potato with a topping bar to include gravy, bacon bits, cheddar cheese, sour cream, butter, steamed broccoli (??!!??), sautéed mushrooms, brown sugar, marshmallow and candied walnuts (yeah, I dunno what the deal was with the broccoli, but I kept it in case Patrick felt like being weird)
• Rosemary and Red Wine Demi-Braised Beef Short Rib

Because we needed to meet a food and beverage minimum for our venue, my planner suggested adding an ice-cream-based action station (yes, on top of cake) instead of the scoops of vanilla ice cream I had requested for the cake. I decided to add the Nitrogen Fried Spheres that have been so popular with brides, which I’d tried at one of Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings Bridal Showcases.

Here’s what it all looked like!

Toppings for the Mashed Potato Bar

Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Mashed Peruvian Purple Potatoes—so pretty!

Mashed Yukon Gold Potatoes and …Green Beans? What the…? I didn’t order any green beans! If this was the chef’s idea of extra Disney magic, he shoulda just filled that side of the bowl with CHOCOLATE!!

Bacon-Wrapped Dates and Cheeseburger Spring Rolls

Rosemary and Red Wine Demi Braised Beef Short Rib with Stewed Eyeballs

Food & Wine Festival German Schinkennudeln moves very quickly when startled and can be almost impossible to photograph!

Toppings for the Nitrogen Fried Ice Cream Spheres

Fruit Salad for Patrick because I love him and forgive his fruit-eating ways

I give you…. ROLLS!!!

Patrick loved the Bacon-Wrapped Dates. I thought the Cheeseburger Spring Rolls were definitely better than the sorry little ones served at the Magic Kingdom’s Fireworks Dessert Party but not as amazing as I’d expected based on rave reviews from brides. I think the problem was that they’d been steaming in a covered pot, so the wonton wrappers were soggy and chewy instead of crispy and flaky. The Schinkennudeln could’ve been improved by the covering of molten cheese it had when Epcot’s catering team made it for my birthday party menu tasting a few years ago. But the DIY mashed potato bar was fantastic, especially after we discovered that the big white cubes were not cheese but PURE BUTTER! I didn’t even try the Braised Beef Short Rib because I needed the tummy space for more mashed potatoes!

There was a mix-up with the Nitrogen Fried Spheres, and the ladies who served them left the party before we had a chance to try them. So after the fireworks, our catering contact radioed and got them to come back. This was kind of a big deal, since they usually hustle you straight off to your ride mix-in after the show at Epcot. It also makes me feel bad to say I kind of didn’t like them…

They were not the same as the ones at the DFTW Bridal Showcase. Those were a pure chocolate shell filled with yummy things like marshmallows and graham crackers and topped with hot caramel. This was scoops of ice cream dropped in liquid nitrogen to make them all clumpy, almost like astronaut ice cream, but not crunchy. I didn’t think it was possible to wreck ice cream—turns out is IS! But it was no big loss, since we had two flavors of a 50-person cake to eat too!

Oh yeah. Also, there were drinks. I’m bad at drinks. All I drink is water and—when eating cake (so, like, half my life)—milk. I wasn’t sure what to offer to drink, so we did lemonade, water and bill-on-consumption sodas. (Bill-on-consumption means you only pay for the drinks people actually drink, instead of paying for an unlimited package and wasting a bunch of money). It looked like this:

What, no New Coke? What kind of Crazy ’80s party IS this?!

Floral & Decor

As I mentioned, every party I’ve had since our wedding has been an excuse to have all the amazing floral and decor I couldn’t afford when we had our wedding. I keep getting to work with our wedding Floral Coordinator too, so she remembers all my preferences. (“Strangely obsessed by dahlias, hates creased linens!”) And, since Disney Catered Events’ minimum expenditure is now so high, and our tummies can only contain so much food, I needed to add a LOT of floral and decor to this party.

However, this was the place where the Crazy ’80s theme really started to go out the window, because I wanted “pretty” over “cheesy.” Covering Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings for the last 13 years has shown me so many gorgeous floral and decor ideas, and I’m always longing to use some of them. Someday, I will get to do a Disney party full of sequins and crystal and gilt and glamour like this one. But this was not that day, thanks to UK Lochside’s $#@&*! permanent umbrella tables and their &*$#@^! wrought-iron chairs.

Silver chiavari chairs were out because the venue already has chairs and even I wasn’t paying a hefty fee to remove and replace them. The sequined linens could only be placed on the highboy tables because umbrella tables require specially made linens with a big ol’ Velcro strip down the middle to help them fit around the umbrella poles. You can’t do candelabra or any type of traditional centerpiece on an umbrella table either, thanks to that pesky pole in the middle.

So I ended up with kids’ birthday party polycotton tablecloths and pull-apart centerpieces that wrapped around the umbrella poles. And I paid for centerpieces and napkins on every table even though we only used one table, because I am shallow and wanted them to look good in photos.

The centerpieces actually turned out really nicely! I asked for a color-blocked look based on the rainbow colors of the cake and Mickey’s outfit. I also asked for more exotic flowers so it wouldn’t be all carnations and mums. And I paid a little extra to have them in vessels I could keep, so that I our resort room would look like a funeral parlor for the rest of our trip.

Hope you’re not tired of looking at centerpieces yet, cuz I have a bazillion more photos. I paid for these babies, and by gad you’re going to look at them!!!

The one bummer was that the centerpieces were supposed to have rice lights (a.k.a., fairy lights) intertwined throughout, but they didn’t make it. You can’t tell from Kimberley’s long-exposure and flash photos, but it is DARK out there at night, especially since the umbrellas block the light of the single lamp in that area. When I mentioned it to my event planner, she got on the radio right away to bring back the floral people, but after about 20 minutes they finally ended up having to poke light-up drink cubes into the centerpieces (I’m guessing because it would be too complicated to wind the wire of the rice lights through fully assembled floral arrangements).

So that looked like this:

For the highboy tables, Disney usually just plunks down a cylinder filled with gel and a color-changing light. But I had these fancy sequined linens and didn’t want it to look like they’d just plunked down a cylinder filled with gel and a color-changing light! So I asked my floral planner to come up with floral rings that complemented the centerpieces and cost $35 each. I loved them!

One really cool thing was that, because they used succulents for the green part of each centerpiece, we were able to take them home and pot them for our Moroccan-Fantasy-Turned-Lilly-Pulitzer-Garden-Party patio!

Frozen Ever After Ride Mix-In

If your event is held inside a theme park, you can pay $15.75/person for what’s called a “ride mix-in,” where your party is escorted directly onto the last ride of the day. No waiting! This must occur at the end of the park’s operating hours and in the same park where your event is held. Back when we did our Tiki-Dinoversary party, we were supposed to have one of the first-ever Frozen Ever After ride mix-ins. But the attraction was down by the time our party ended, and we had to do Test Track instead.

So I was thrilled when it actually happened this time. And I gotta say… Rides are so much better when you’re the only ones on them! We’d had our second-ever ride on Frozen earlier that day, and I came away wondering if I’d been wrong to be so enthusiastic the first time. But when we rode it a third time as a mix-in, I fell in love with it all over again!

I feel like we need some pictures, so here are a couple Patrick grabbed of the empty queue as they hustled us onto the ride.

Transportation

The most boring (and frustratingly expensive) part of planning any Disney event is arranging transportation. Whether or not you are required to hire transportation for your in-park event depends on its location. Usually Epcot venues close to the International Gateway do not require transportation because everyone can meet the event guide included in your venue fee at International Gateway and walk in. Some people have also arranged to have the guide meet their guests at Epcot’s main gate.

If your coordinator requires you to book transportation, this does not have to be a pricey chartered motor coach unless you have a large group. Groups of about 35 or fewer will find it cheaper to take multiple $42 one-way SUVs backstage.

In our case, we entered the park using our own admission and walked to UK Lochside on our own. After the party we hoofed it over to Norway for the Frozen ride mix-in. But a few days before the party I realized we would then have to schlep two giant boxes of cake and five floral arrangements back to the Beach Club on foot if I didn’t hire transportation. So I added a one-way SUV to pick us up backstage at Epcot, behind Norway, and boy were we glad to have it! Plus, the glimpses you get backstage as you walk to the vehicle are a fun little bonus!

IllumiNations Fireworks

At this point you might be wondering, “Gee, I sure did love those 8,734 photos of your centerpieces and rant about sun-dried tomatoes, but what about the fireworks?” Well, my friend, I have no photos of the fireworks. I sent Kimberly home just before we devoured all the food and rumpled all the linens and demolished all the cake because I wanted us to really experience IllumiNations for the last time, not stand around posing for more pictures as it exploded behind our backs.

I know a lot of people think IllumiNations is boring, and maybe I’m sentimental about it because the first time I saw it was my wedding day. But it is my all-time favorite Disney fireworks show—because of the music, because of the real fireworks and, most of all, because of the message. So many of Disney’s nighttime spectaculars are just intellectual-property fests with as many characters as they can cram in and generic lyrics about dreams, wishes and magic that seem to have been spit out by a random-Disney-phrase generator. IllumiNations is actually about something, and I love the idea that sharing our individual human stories can help us achieve a better future collectively.

So I’m sad that I’ll never be able to see IllumiNations again, but I’m even more sad that it probably means the end of this type of show at Disney. The closest thing left is Rivers of Light—and that’s legit boring! But at least it isn’t just a bunch of Lion King and Finding Nemo clips all strung together.

If you do want to see some amazing photos of IllumiNations, check out the ones the Roots shot at our last anniversary party!

OK, I’ll put in just one…

Farewell, IllumiNations!

The post Our Crazy ’80s Epcot Anniversary Party! appeared first on Disney Travel Babble.

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Below is the story of how I assembled a complete collection of the songs that make up Disneyland’s and Magic Kingdom’s Christmas music loop from Main Street, U.S.A. I apologize to those of you who’ve been around Disney Travel Babble since the beginning, but each year I get lovely comments from new people who are thrilled to discover you can actually bring home the beloved Christmas music heard at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

So scroll down to find MP3s of every song on Disney’s Main Street, U.S.A. Christmas music loop, plus CD tray art if you want to make a keepsake version. Happy holidays!

Several years ago, MiceAge.com’s Al Lutz posted a complete listing of the songs played on Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. at the holidays. Even better, he dug up exactly which album each song came from. However, because Disneyland’s Christmas music loop was created around 1972, most of the tracks on it are from albums that are long out of print and have never been released on CD.

As a former college radio DJ and record shop rat, I zealously took on the challenge of tracking down every single song in the Main Street Christmas loop. Starting in the spring, I spent six or eight months combing local record stores, trawling the web, and stalking eBay. Along the way I may have overpaid for a couple of records, but I also enjoyed the thrill of discovery every time I came upon another rare gem.

After I’d collected all the albums (some of which, I realized, may once have been in my Lawrence Welk-loving grandma’s record collection), I had to digitize the songs with a complicated setup involving my record player, a 4-track recorder and my computer, since they hadn’t invented those USB turntables yet. Some of the records were not in the greatest shape, so a few of the songs have quite a bit of authentic hiss and pop that was impossible to filter out.

Next I spent an inordinate amount of time sequencing the songs so that they flowed seamlessly and there were no duplicates of songs or artists back to back (tricky to do when there are two versions of “Jingle Bells” and of “White Christmas,” plus five songs by the same artist). I’m not sure now why I didn’t go with the actual in-park sequence that Al documented…. I guess the me of all those years ago thought she knew better than whichever cast member slaved over the very same task back in 1972!

The last project was creating packaging for my new compilation album, which I’d dubbed The Fabulous Sounds of Christmas at Disneyland! I used the various Christmas albums’ art as inspiration and found these blank CDs designed to look like 45s, with plastic grooves in the top and everything!

I was so pleased with the results that I made copies of my album for everyone I knew who was even remotely interested in Disneyland and/or Christmas, and it’s become an annual tradition to search out new people on whom to inflict my pet project.

Which is why this year I’m giving The Fabulous Sounds of Christmas at Disneyland! to all of you. Posted below are all the songs, plus a PDF file of the cover art, if you feel like burning the album to a disc. To grab the MP3 file, right-click on the song title and select “Save Link As…” or its equivalent. Note that the songs on my version are not arranged in the order in which they play at Disneyland—for that sequence you’ll have to check out Al’s article. But I did include a bonus track not found on the original Main Street Christmas loop…

The Fabulous Sounds of Christmas at Disneyland

1. White Christmas – Lawrence Welk

2. The Christmas Tree – David Rose

3. Zu Bethlehem Geboren – A Music Box Christmas

4. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Ed Sullivan Presents Music of Christmas

5. Twelve Days of Christmas – David Rose

6. Silver Bells – Raymond Lefevre

7. Caroling, Caroling – Hollywood Pops Orchestra

8. Still, Still, Holy Melody – A Music Box Christmas

9. I’ll Be Home for Christmas – Lawrence Welk

10. Jingle Bells – Raymond Lefevre

11. The First Noel – Ed Sullivan Presents Music of Christmas

12. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Lawrence Welk

13. Lobe Den Herren – A Music Box Christmas

14. Toyland – David Rose

15. Deck the Halls – Lawrence Welk

16. Petit Papa Noel – Raymond Lefevre

17. Ihr Kinderlein Kommet – Felix Slatkin

18. White Christmas – Ed Sullivan Presents Music of Christmas

19. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing – A Music Box Christmas

20. Carol of the Bells – Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra

21. The Christmas Song – David Rose

22. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Lawrence Welk

23. O Tannenbaum – A Music Box Christmas

24. Christmas Waltz – David Rose

25. Jingle Bell Rock – Hollyridge Strings

26. Ihr Kinderlein Kommet – A Music Box Christmas

27. Deck the Halls – Felix Slatkin

28. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing – Lawrence Welk

29. Jingle Bells – A Music Box Christmas

30. Do You Hear What I Hear? – Ed Sullivan Presents Music of Christmas

31. Believe… In Holiday Magic

Click HERE to download the CD cover + tray art!

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