Heart, We Did All That We Could

It's been a sad week of goodbyes and see-you-real-soons here in the most magical place on Earth. The more time I spend here, the more friends have to return from whence they came. It's a vicious cycle, but I suppose that's program life.

Before they left from this round of vacation, Merran, Amanda and I spent a lot of quality time at Magic Kingdom. We spent time there on the 7th with Daniel and Rachel, then we were back on the 8th for a romantic fancy dinner at Be Our Guest restaurant preceded by a Pirates Adventure to work up our appetites. I felt overdressed to be pirating but just right for Be Our Guest. 

Remember when this place was new on our
program in 2012? 

Matt and I spent the Sunday at Universal. No worries, Matt's not going anywhere soon (he better not) but we went and it was good times so it deserves a mention. Honestly, we spent most of our time in Islands of Adventure stalking the new Reign of Kong attraction. It hadn't technically officially opened yet but we had heard rumours of soft opens. So we'd do a ride (Jurassic Park River Adventure!) then go wait outside Kong for a bit. Then we'd go do another attraction (Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey!) then go wait outside Kong. Then we explored the entirety of Seuss Landing, and met the Cat in the Hat and the two Things, then we waited outside Kong for a bit. We had just given up and decided to get drinks when the gates open (as they do). So obviously we booked it and got in. My favourite park was the jump scares in the queue. Correction. My favourite bit was Matt's reaction to the jump scares in the queue. Priceless. We spent the evening cooling down with Mike and Rachael featuring Back to the Future part II. 

The happy faces of Guests riding the Seuss train twice.

Monday the 11th was Merran and Amanda's last day of their vacation. We spent time together at Hollywood Studios on Star Tours and on Toy Story Midway Mania before settling in for the spectacular Star Wars fireworks as the finale to their trip. Merran will for sure be back at Christmas. Amanda should be feeling the pressure to do the same. Just saying.

We have our own BB8 for this Star Tours trip!

Wednesday the 13th marked the last day of work for many of our beloved merchandise cast members, notably (for me) Kimberly from Canada, and Laura and Rachael from the UK, all of whom have been mentioned on multiple occasions on this blog this year. It was quite a blow and quite a day.

Do we look like the singing Von Trapps yet?

Kimberly and I are bringing princess-y back. 

 That evening was Wishes for the last time for Rachael and Laura. We were joined by Matt and Mike for some seriously sad fireworks (they were as stunning as ever, but last viewings of Wishes are the saddest).
The next morning bright and early, Laura and I were at Magic Kingdom for the break of 0930 for a very special Keys to the Kingdom tour. I had done this tour on my last program but obviously it's another chance to know more than your average bear about Magic Kingdom so I was there with bells on. Laura was very princessy and I was very Adventurelandy but luckily we spent a lot of time both under the castle and in Adventureland. The tour was fantastic as expected. We had an excellent guide named Amalie, with whom we spent our lunch break.

I think I'd rock this equestrian costume. 

We spent a few hous in the afternoon riding the People Mover, taking in Festival of Fantasy one more time (with Eric, Sarah and Kimberly!), and enjoying the new castle show, featuring the long-awaited return of Louis the Alligator from Princess and the Frog. It was obvious from the crowd's reaction that we were all pleased to see him for the first time since the incident that condemned most of the alligators and crocodiles on Disney property. We took many pictures up and down Main Street, and when we had had enough of the insane temperatures, we took off for the last time (for now) before the rain started pummelling down. Are you familiar with pathetic fallacy? I am. 

Mickey's Friendship Faire, new castle show extraordinaire. 

Unbelievably, I returned to Magic Kingdom later in the evening, after having showered and changed and generally freshened up. I may have even napped. It was time for Kimberly's last Wishes, and it was an event not to be missed.  There was ice cream, there was People Mover with the lights on during Space Mountain, and of course, there was sadness. There was also most of the attractions cast, bidding adieu to Leah, an extraordinary cast member. We were all able to cram into a few castle pictures, behaving like the South American tour groups we don't usually love.

Much love, much magic, much maple in this picture. 

Rachel (Canadian Rachel) and I spent the vast majority of the Friday poolside. She was staycaying at Pop Century, so after we spent an ample amount of time at their pool, we may have meandered over the the Art of Animation's Big Blue pool were we may have spent more time poolside (and underwater, listening to the underwater tunes) before inevitably, the pool was suddenly evacuated and closed. Darn you, small children. We went to Hollywood Studios in the evening for more Toy Story and Rock'n Roller Coaster, but were too tired from the sun to go much else. What a life.

The rest of my week has been spent working, sweating, eating and coping with missing some very special cast members and friends. Keep being magical, dearly departed Disney dead friends.

See you real soon!

Lindsey

Magical Moment: Ok, so Laura and I are big fans of the cones on the People Mover. The People Mover cones. They're just orange pylons that ride the People Mover again and again. For no apparent reason. They're MK celebrities in our eyes. WE SAW THEM ON WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY. It was magical to us.

OH MY GOODNESS A PEOPLE MOVER CONE.

Pixie Dust to: The table of Cast Members beside us at Be Our Guest who let me borrow their candle for a picture and didn't even ask why. Obviously it's cuz I wanted one in each hand so I could be Lumiere in the castle. But they knew that.