Night of JOY

  This weekend I'm working in Teletype (and did six hours on 911- putting my dual training to use), which was good, but wish I could have re-lived our previous weekend extravaganzaaa at Disney! **There are going to be a lot of pictures in this post.**

   Last Friday, September 9th, Michael and I spent most of the day at Blizzard Beach! I bought tickets for me and my mom to go to Disney's Night of Joy and since we bought tickets for both nights/ extra bands, it also got us a "free" ticket to one of the parks and one of the water parks! $120 for a weekend that would normally cost $250 per person is a great deal to me! Michael paid for his own Blizzard Beach ticket since he wasn't doing the other stuff with us. We did a handful of water rides together, then the last two hours he just wanted to float down the Lazy River. 

 

  Mommy met us at our house at 4:30 and we got to the concert early enough to get good seats (in the middle back area) for Francesca Battistelli and Chris Tomlin. Casting Crowns also played at Champion Stadium where we were, but they didn't start until really late and we left around 10:30pm. We were too far away to get good pictures on my phone (but I still took some), but a better distance since the speakers were still really loud. 

     On Saturday we got to Magic Kingdom at 10 (and actually into the park -I forgot about having to ride the monorail- and through the two security points at 10:30. We watched the 4D Philharmagic show and got Fast Passes for the Buzz Lightyear ride, Jungle Cruise, and Pirates of the Caribbean. Mommy was sad that It's A Small World was under construction, but we got to sit through the Carousel of Progress. I told Mommy that they need to make a new 2016 section (the most recent looks like early 90's?) where it's everyone just sitting around on their phones and nobody talks about anything until the end when they look up and they're like, "Oh, we have guests" but then it move us forward again! Baaahahaha. Michael said that is a really good idea!

   We went through the Little Mermaid ride in Fantasyland, which I hadn't been to even though that area has been open since the end of 2012. I guess we haven't been to Disney since 2011 when our friend Julie still lived in Orlando and could get us in for free bc she worked there part time. We got to meet Ariel, my favorite Princess, in her grotto. I wasn't expecting that and assumed we were in line for another ride. Mommy said I was so excited bc Ariel was popular when I was growing up. Now all the kids just want to meet Elsa. I've only seen Frozen once, but I definitely liked her sister, Anna, better. Being at Disney really made me want to re-watch all of the "good" movies: the Little Mermaid, the Lion King, Aladdin, Mulan (we watched that one a lot)!

   Michael said he always liked Beauty and the Beast the best, and it's Julie's favorite too. I was so-so about it. Gaston is so mean, but I'm definitely going to see Emma Watson as Belle when the live version is released in March!! Mommy and I got delicious Mickey ice cream and fruit pops for lunch. Mine was super good with real strawberry chunks! We watched the parade under the blazing sun in Frontierland and later in Adventureland we shared a pina colada slushie (also really good)! We watched the Tiki Bird show before leaving -taking the ferry boat back to the parking lot- to go to the second concert day back at ESPN's Wide World of Sports on Disney property.

   I really liked Hillsong Young & Free (and already got their latest CD reserved from the library since I didnt know they had a new one!) but their speakers seemed to be up too high so it sounded crackly and the singing was hard to hear over the band. Luckily they had the lyrics on the screen so everyone could sing along. I loved all the energy!! And For King & Country was sooo good! They even got off the stage when they sang "Middle of Your Heart" and walked through the crowd taking selfies with people while they sang. A ton of videos and pictures were added to Instagram after that! I bought one of their shirts (they were out of my size in the lion shirt I wanted) and necklace to get their latest CD for free. Their CD was an anniversary addition and of the 14 or so songs, only 3 were new. But its still a great one to listen to and I'll give it to Mommy next time I see her. The band is two brothers and one of them is starring in Affirm Film's newest movie, Priceless, out next month.

   Newsboys also played and I really like a lot of their lyrics, but felt like the main guy talked too much between each song. I would definitely love to do that whole weekend again next year, especially if Hawk Nelson and Tenth Avenue North are playing. (While looking up the link for the Priceless trailer I found this video of a cute 8 year old boy singing the main song to the movie. And his little speech at the beginning is so nice.)