So since I won't be around to post, I've invited Curly to give his impressions of his recent trip to Disneyworld. (If you write YA, he's 18, and this might give you an idea of how this 18 year old boy/man thinks, what he notices. Oh, and he did comment that he enjoyed the days when there were more girls in his group than guys. And the pictures seem to show it (not in today's post but in tomorrow's.) In case you think he doesn't look very happy, he is, that's just Curly being cool.)
So welcome Curly!
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Florida. Disney World to be specific. Wide eyed children dream about going to this paradise, adults go there to feel like kids again, and apparently teenagers go there on band trips.Last fall, our conductor/teacher told us that this year’s senior band trip would be to Disney World if we all came to all the practices and could manage the price tag. The tag was steep, being a very, let’s say conservative (cheap), man myself I assumed I wouldn’t be going. I told mum, Leah to you I guess, about the trip in a hypothetical tone. It was the kind of tone we usually use when talking about winning lottery tickets and getting gold bars for Christmas.
I can’t remember exactly what went through my head when she told me I could go. Maybe it was “YIPPY!”, maybe it was “Oh crap this is going to take some doing.” Thanks Mom and Dad, I couldn’t ask for better parents.
Waking up at 1:30 in the morning as a teenager is like watching the sun rise over the western horizon, it just doesn’t happen. However, I was able to stomach it and Mum and I braved the repulsive cold to get to school for 2:00 AM. We loaded the bus, I gave Mum one last hug and boarded.
An hour later we were at the airport; I don’t like airports. Maybe it’s the fact that there are security guards everywhere and looking at them wrong can get you a cavity search. That being said I got through customs in less than three seconds. Luckily I like planes just fine, so the next three hours passed quickly.
When we landed in Tampa we were, for lack of a better word, flabbergasted. We could actually take off our winter coats, heck we could take off our sweaters. Twenty-two degrees Celsius in February! I was so amazed I took some pictures of the lack of snow.
From Tampa we were off to Lake Buena Vista to the glorious Fairfield Marriott “Village” resort. Pretty much all that happened that day other then a band practice was swimming and tanning, we were all so tired and our Disney tickets weren’t valid yet.
Even though we were in Florida we still had school to do. On the second day, the first day we left the hotel, we were to play at the dockside stage in Downtown Disney, Disney World’s massive outdoor shopping centre.
So early the next day we woke up and got shipped to downtown Disney wearing a full dress tuxedo. I don’t remember too vividly the details, but I had forgotten to sun-block my face and it burned something terrible during the performance. Everything comes back clear once we were on the bus again being congratulated.
People who work at Disney World are called cast members. For performing for the shoppers at their stage we were named honorary cast members. Of course because of this whenever I saw a door to a power station or kitchen that said “Cast members only” I felt terribly tempted. Our band was given a “Mouscar” a trophy of Mickey tipping his hat and a cinch bag that said “Disney Performing Arts” on it.
After that we were taken back to the hotel to change out of our spiffy tuxedos into something more appropriate. From there we were off to the magic kingdom.
Yeah, I wear a sweater and coat in summer weather. It’s just a thing I do. Right after this shot, I took an identical picture of a girl in our group, she texted it back to one her friends back home with the caption “So… what are you doing today?”
Every half hour there was a parade of some sort and every time I passed the magic castle there was a play or musical being performed, usually involving Peter Pan. Everything there was awesome, maybe not the prices but you get my meaning. I went to a bunch of shows, took in the scenery and rode a couple rides. Oh and the monorail was awesome too. I actually got to ride in the spacious nose compartment.
On the third day we were to take a class called “You’re Instrumental” at the Saratoga Springs resort. So we rode to Saratoga and took a class from a Disney director. We learned a lot about performing music for movie soundtracks and how professional music is recorded. They even put the music we played to “The Beauty and the Beast” as background music.From there we headed off to Hollywood Studios. There were comedy acts and parades every few blocks here as well, each one of them well worth the time. My group and I rode “The Movie Ride” and watched the 3D Muppetvision show (if you go to a 3D show in Disney, you will get wet) among other things. Oh, and there was Fantasmic. That show was amazing, they were able to project light onto a fountain like a movie screen. The fireworks and lightshow was unbeatable.
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Tomorrow, I'll post some more of his observations about Epcot - and his opinion of how Canada is portrayed.
