Our Prep and Landing elves are ready to go. Ian decided his code name would be "Candy Cane".
Alli wasn't enjoying her hat, and didn't keep it on very long whenever we did put it on her.
Ian kept his on though, and was getting a ton of "oh my gosh, that's so adorable" comments all day.
To start, we'll take 2 trips on Gadget's Go-Coaster. On the walk back to Toontown, we passed the Matterhorn. He pointed to it and said "I want to go on that ride." We need to do a little bit more growing before he's there, but I was happy to hear that he wants to try more rides.
Haunted Mansion Holiday is always a favorite.
Sally's picnic basket
Everyone enjoying the ride.
As we were walking out, of course Ian reminded us that he wanted to go see the floating doggie. Something tells me that Santa is going to bring him one of these for Christmas.
Since we were so close, of course we took a spin on Winnie the Pooh. Alli giving her brother hugs and kisses.
I had hoped to get some pictures of the kids with Santa. The line back in Critter Country didn't seem very long, but after waiting for 10 minutes in line, I asked a cast member if they had a guess at how long it might take. 35 minutes. Yikes! Another time perhaps.
So instead, we are headed to Fantasyland. On the way, Ian saw the ducks so of course we had to feed them.
Let's go on the carrousel! Jingles! We've been having really good luck lately riding on Jingles.
And here's Uncle Ruston! He's got to check in at 2pm for the 5:30pm show, so he's got a little bit of time to hang out with us.
Alli loves her carrousel rides.
Anyone know any tricks to getting two kids to look at the camera at the same time?
We had intended to get lunch at Rancho del Zocolo, but it's crowded today and the line stretches well out the door. Instead we enjoyed lunch and a show at the Golden Horseshoe.
The kids enjoyed their chicken nuggets and fries while watching the performance of A Christmas Carol.
Aww. Giving Wayne a big hug. I really wish they made more Prep and Landing tv specials. I can't think of any Christmas special that I like more, and every holiday season we watch the two 30 minute specials and the shorts multiple times.
Despite having a super long line, I was really wanting to see it's a small world with the holiday overlay. Shortly after we started riding, Ian asked why it was different. The boy doesn't miss much.
I didn't remember this, but look, Ian has his name on Santa's list! It's unknown at this point whether he's on the Nice List or Naughty List.
The Christmas Fantasy Parade was coming from Main Street back towards it's a small world as we were exiting. From past experience, we knew that meant we needed to hurry up and get to Main Street to line up for Candlelight. After the parade runs though, they close off more sections and let people line up.
I liked that Disney opened the back stage area to get to the front of the park.
Getting a view of the steps leading to Walt's Apartment.
We arrived in this area and noticed that it was still a walkway. See that yellow tape on the ground? That denotes the "waiting" area. Cast members were keeping people moving, so T asked when it was going to be blocked off. "There's no viewing from this area tonight." Hmm. That didn't sound right to us. About 60 seconds later, another cast member came by with more ropes and started blocking the area off. And here we are, right in the front! Well, right behind a row of backpacks... Chatting with the owner, I learned she arrived at 10am and has been parked here since then. She's got family singing tonight from a school choir.
I made this chart last year. Near as I can tell, it's still accurate this year too. Just replace Paid Seats with VIP seats.
There's 2 hours to go before the show starts. Ian happened to be sleeping in the stroller and would continue for the next hour. T and I kept Alli distracted the whole time.
She really liked watching the live view on the phone. She'd look at the screen and see herself. Then she'd laugh and lean in to give herself a kiss.
And there's our Candlelight friends Armand, Robbin, and their dog Duchess. They're lined up for the 2nd showing, but they wanted to come drop off some cookies and say hi.
We threw a little blanket on the ground and enjoyed a hot dog, chips, and some fruit that T brought from home.
Just a few minutes before the show started, the people who were in front of us decided to move over and be closer to the rest of their group. Sweet! Front row in our section!
At 5:30pm, the choir started playing and the voices of the choir could be heard coming down Main Street.
I was told that there's something like 700 people that perform (across 2 nights and 4 shows). And I don't know about all the school choirs, but I know Ruston and the rest of the Disney Cast Choir start rehearsals in September.
I love seeing the trumpeters on the top of the rail station.
This year Ruston is not in the green robes on the Cast Choir "tree" in the center. Instead he's a row leader in another section. During the Friday rehearsal, he told us where we should stand to have the best shot at seeing him.
And wouldn't you know it, this is probably the best view we've had of him in all the years that we've been coming here. Good thing too. Ian wanted to see Uncle Ruston singing. I was able to show him on my camera and then point to the stage where he was.
The show is always beautiful. I thought the child soloist did an amazing job singing.
This year, the guest narrator is Ginnifer Goodwin. She was introduced as the star of Zootopia, though she's also known for Once Upon a Time.
I thought she did a great job reading the narration.
The whole Flowers family watching the show. Alli slept through the first part of it, but woke up around the Hallelujah chorus.
Thank you to all the featured singers.
And to Ginnifer Goodwin. Nice work tonight.
As the choir was filing off the stage, and because the show was over, we waved really big at Uncle Ruston. Later he told us that he could see us all the way from the stage.
While we waited for Ruston to come back out, I took Alli up to the stage to get a few more pictures. There's Conductor Nancy Sulahian who has been the conductor for all the years the I've been coming here. Always a great job!
There's Ruston! Great seeing you tonight! Candlelight always adds to our holiday experience. Thank you for all the time that you and everyone else volunteers to be a part of it!
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