Trip Report 10/24-11/3

M

MassFan

New Member
Sorry it took me sooooo long to post.

I had such a great time at WDW this year. The last time I had gone was in April 2000 and the place was packed. I walked right on most rides this time. It was awesome!

Although I've been a member of this board for a few months now, I don't really post much.

I have pictures of my trip too. If the files aren't too big I'll try to post a few.

I hope you guys enjoy my report! :wave:

Day 1
We left from Providence's T F Green Airport on time (woo hoo) at 2:25. The departing flight from Delta was nice. We usually fly Southwest but we figured we'd give Delta a whirl. I recommend those plane cookies for a buck. The kids loved them.

When we landed in Orlando it was pouring! We picked up our bags and went straight to the Dollar window for our rental car. We were getting 2 passenger vans for the 11 of us (me, my bf, our 3 kids, 7, 3, 2 in one van... his mom and dad, brother, sister and her husband and their 9 yr old daughter in the other)

We were told there were none available! We had booked months prior and they had either overbooked or people were running late because of the bad weather. We waited an hour for our vans.

(Good thing I packed a whole suitcase with snacks... figured I'd put gifts in it for the flight back) When the vans finally arrived it was much later then we had planned.

Because of the weather and the delay at Dollar we went straight to the hotel, Days Suites Maingate East, and checked in. No pool for us because it was STILL pouring. We were exhausted, so we picked up dinner from the Checker's next door and got a good night's rest for our first day at WDW at Disney-MGM Studios.
 
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M

MassFan

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Original Poster
DAY 2: Disney-MGM Studios

The weather report said it would be in the mid 80s today. But it felt like 90. We arrived at the park shortly after opening.

I must say, all the bag checks at the park went very quickly and it wasn't really a big deal.

After some Character photos with Rafiki and Pooh in front of the Sorcerer's Hat :drevil: we headed straight to the Little Mermaid and got some fastpasses. We back tracked to The Great Movie Ride and rode that. I've been told that there's more than one version to this ride. We were on the gangster one where your host changes half way through and then your original host "saves the day" at the end. (Walked right on this ride)

We got off in plenty of time for our Fastpass for Mermaid and headed over there. Mermaid was full. Just as I remembered, bubbles and all.

After Mermaid we headed to Playhouse Disney (remember, I have little ones to keep happy :animwink: ) Now the last time I was in WDW this was strickly a Bear in the Big Blue House show. They've added some other Disney preschooler shows to the mix. The show still starts with Bear but then turns into a storybook show. With a 10 foot storybook on stage. Each page is a different show. For those of you interested, the shows included were: Roly Poly Olie, Stanley, and The Book of Pooh (my favorite). I say adding these other segments only made the show better. Bear needed a little boost. There's lots of dancing in this show too. GREAT for little ones.

After Playhouse Disney we kind of split up a bit. The kids who didn't make the height requirement for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster went to the Beauty and the Beast Show.

I'll take the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster first. My favorite ride at Studios. The rush from 0-60 at the beginning is THE BEST. Everyone should ride this at least once. We rode it 3 times in a row :D .

After that I headed to the end of Beauty and the Beast. Not my favorite show. In a really big theater, that I feel takes away from it. In a smaller theater you would feel so much more into the show. Just my opinion.

Next we headed to Star Tours. I like simulator rides and this one's best one Disney has.

After this ride some of our group was REALLY feeling the heat and decided to head back to the pool. I just wanted to make one more stop, at Millionaire.

Millionaire was JUST like the show. The host was really good. Made jokes about the prizes that they gave away. Which were pin sets, golf shirts and baseball caps. The best contestant on our show was a 12 year old boy from Wales. He made it to the $32,000 point. The other contestant only made it to $1000 (I think) or maybe one more level. The 12 year old was very impressive. I enjoy Millionaire at home so I liked it a lot. If you're a fan of the show, it's a must see.

After this we headed back to the pool also. We agreed to come back for the 7:30 Fantasmic! Spectacular.

We sat in Sebastian, in the 2nd row :D for Fantasmic! Great seats except for the pole that I sat behind. :hammer:

The last time we went to WDW I missed this show because my youngest was 4 months at the time and was exhausted by this time of the day. It was great to finally see it. And Disney got me for about $50 between the Buzz Lightyear spinning light-up toy for my son, the pink light-up Mickey headband for my oldest daughter, and the Mickey Sorcerer's Doll for my younger daughter. :veryconfu

They made out like bandits this trip anyway
:p
 
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Fido

Fido

Member
Great report!
I think there's only one version of The Great Movie Ride. Everytime I've been on it it's been the same (with different CMs of course). The gangster takes over then gets replaced by the original guide after trying to steal the jewel from the idol. Am I wrong? Is there another version? Anyone?
 
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M

MassFan

New Member
Original Poster
Yep, that's the version I saw. Maybe I'm mistaken and there is only one. :hammer:

Any who....

DAY 3: Magic Kingdom

I had decided even before we had left for our vacation which days we would spend at which parks. I knew the fireworks and SpectroMagic were only being done on Saturdays so we had to do the MK on a Saturday.

When we got to the park shortly after opening we headed straight for Adventureland. We pretty much walked on Jungle Cruise (I love October :D ) We had a great Captain.

Since Magic Carpets of Aladdin was new and the line wasn't too bad we decided to give it a whirl :lol: (sorry bad humor) Great for kids, and I don't remember this about any carnival type rides but the front seat controlled the up/down of the carpet and the back seat controlled the tilt of the carpet. I was the tilt :sohappy: I was really annoying my BF's brother in the front... it was loads of fun :animwink:

After Aladdin we headed to Pirates of the Caribbean, which I don't remember being so dark inside. We had one child who was a little frightened by the dark rides so maybe I just noticed it more.

Splash Mountain is not my thing but that was the next stop. I took a soda break while the others rode this one. I have riden Splash in the past but I guess I've become a scaredy cat. I won't ride anything without good restraints. I'm a big chicken:lookaroun

When they got off Splash we all rode Big Thunder. Was a bit of a line for this ride (about 10 minute wait) but not bad at all. The Miner (for the life of me I can't remember his name) was getting on the ride as we stepped off. He was loud and funny and probably made those people's ride a blast.

We walked over to the Country Bear show which was just going in. Have they changed the songs on this one?

After this we overheard a cast memeber say the park was full! We did notice the parks were busier on the weekend. All the locals probably. Part of our group couldn't take the heat again so some went back to the hotel pool again. We had PS at Liberty Tree Tavern so they were coming back then. They took our 3 kids and my BF and I had some time to ourselves. :sohappy:

We rode Haunted Mansion, which broke down a couple of times once we were inside. Just for a few minutes and it was the first time I had ever heard the announcement about the uncooperative spirits. Nice touch!

We decided to head over to Tomorrow Land and rode another one of my favorites, Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Walked right on, always do for this one, people who don't ride don't know what they're missing.

We got a Fastpass for Buzz Lightyear and headed over to Space Mountain. About a 15 minute wait and we were on. My BF loves this ride.

Over to Buzz Lightyear... I stink at this ride. I can't tell where my laser is pointing. Of course my BF gets about a 200,000 point game and I have about 7,000. Oh well!

Headed back to Fantasyland to ride Pooh. I hadn't gotten to ride this the last time either and I LOVE Piglet so I was so disappointed last trip. So happy I got to ride today. I took tons of pictures of this ride and couldn't wait to bring the kdis back later in the week.

Hopped across to It's a Small World. Hardly a wait. Didn't look like it needed a paint job to me. Looked beautiful as always... this is my mom's favorite ride. Took pictures for her.

We'd never done the Swiss Family Treehouse so we headed back to Adventureland (needed to get back to this side of the park for dinner). Not to do with little ones.... WAY too many steps. And I did it now, I probably wouldn't go again.

Had about an hour before dinner and headed to The Hall of Presidents (can't do this with kids either). So disappointing to see the theater barely half full for this. Great presentation. More people should see this. And the newest President George W. Bush is in there.

Now it's time for dinner. :slurp: All 11 of us were not going to go, some were going to the parade and fireworks, so our party of 8 was seated near a window :sohappy: The best salad I had at WDW was from Liberty Tree Tavern. Characters in attendance were: Goofy, Chip & Dale, Pluto, and Minnie Mouse. The food was great but the waitress we had was really slow with drinks and refills of food. We spoke to the Lead CM (or whatever they are called) He apologized and gave us a pass to enter the Hall of Fame and Judge's Tent in Toontown with no wait, for our whole party. WE used it later in the week.

I've always heard such great reviews about Liberty Tree but I'm weary to return. Anyone else have same/different experiences there?

By the time we were seated for our 6:30 PS it was just after 7. By the time we finished eating and saw every character it was almost 8:30. The kids were wiped out so we headed out.

It took us an hour to get back to our car! We rode the monorail to the TTC and then waited for 4 trams before we headed to our parking lot. The park was jammed! Disney can't complain about attendance for that day!

~~~COMING UP! DAY 4~~~
 
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M

MassFan

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I realize this is a thread about WDW but for 2 days doing my trip we went to SeaWorld. I included them here anyway.

DAY 4: SeaWorld

This particular weekend, SeaWorld was having "Shamu's Halloween Spooktacular" CAndy was available at special stations all around the park. They had a DJ near Wild Artic playing music and games for the kids (and adults too). AND it was included in the regular park admission.

The last time I had been to SeaWorld I had to be about 10. I remember it being kidna boring but I figured we'd give it a try.

We walked in and strolled past the pink falmingos at the Tropical Reef and headed toward the Stingray Lagoon. We all touched a couple of stingrays and went over to the underwater viewing area of Dolphin Cove.

With soooo many people feeding the dolphin it was difficult to spot any in the viewing area. We saw a few and continued up the path to the Alligators.

We kept on trekking to the Journey of Atlantis ride. The drop looked a bit steep to me but I took the plunge :lol: (more bad humor, sorry) and rode. I rode once. The drop is just too much for me but the rest of my party rode again. The best part of this ride is the surprize drop you can't see behind the building. After the first drop you go back up the hill and go down another hill. Nice touch... and a big surprize.

Kraken is right next door and I rode this 3 times in a row. One of the best coasters ever... IMO.

All the shows at SeaWorld this weekend had a Halloween twist to them. We went Clyde and Seamore's Pirate Cruise at Sea Lion and Otter Stadium. Now I'm not a show person but I enjoyed this one. The opening act, so to speak, for this show was a mime. Making fun of the guests as they enter. People on cell phones, the normal stuff. Nice way to make you forget there's still 10 minutes before the show starts. We had great seats too.:sohappy: 2nd row, left center (no poles:p )

After the show we went to Penguin Encounter then Shark Encounter. My son had to see sharks soooo.

Next we trekked, FAR... to the Clydesdale Hamlet and took photos with one of the Rosebud Budweiser Clydesdales. They put rosebuds (fake probably) in the horse's mane and you can stand in front of him/her and take hpotos with your own camera.

We went to the Anheuser Busch Hospitality Center for lunch. My BF had this huge sandwich that he said was very good and I had a chicken salad. They have great kids meals that come in a little lunch box.

We decided to go on the Flamingo Paddle Boats which, if I remember are $6 for 30 minutes. Nice but a lot of work and in the heat with the sun beating down on us we only used about 20 minutes.

Once again the heat was getting to some of us and we spent most of the remainer of the day at Happy Harbour, a play area for kids with water toys and jungle gyms.

We went to the 6:30 Shamu Halloween Thriller. Which had zombies at the end and a wizard for an opening. The normal night show is something like "Shamu Rocks America."

We sat in the Splash Zone and we got soaked. We were about 5 rows from the front and they say the first 15 rows are the Splash Zone. Soooo true

We left the park about 7pm and picked up some dinner on the way back to the hotel. :)
 
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Fido

Fido

Member
>>Hopped across to It's a Small World. Hardly a wait. Didn't look like it needed a paint job to me. Looked beautiful as always... this is my mom's favorite ride. Took pictures for her.
<<

I think I read that they just repainted it a little while back.
 
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M

MassFan

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Original Poster
DAY 5: A DAY OFF

I made a PS at Chef Mickey for 10 AM for a late breakfast/brunch and others in the group wanted to go to the Hoop-Dee-Doo Revue for dinner.

Brunch at Chef Mickey was awesome! When you check in they direct to a Disney Photo set-up where they take your photo in front of a huge Mickey dish (hard to explain) I purchased 2 magenet for my mom and dad back home and my BF's grandmother, who didn't come. They loved them.

Characters in attendance were: Goofy (in the waiting area... a great way to wait for your table to be ready), Chef Mickey, Pluto, Chip & Dale, and Minnie. All the characters were wearing chef hats and aprons except Minnie. She must have been taking a day off from the kitchen :lol: (they get worse huh)

They have a great pin trading store just outside Chef Mickey. At the beginning of this vacation I couldn't understand why anyone would spend $6-10 on a pin but I really started to get into it. More about the Build-A-Pin option in Downtown Disney later ;)

Some of the group went to Gatorland today. I stayed at the hotel, went in the pool, and did some laundry :hurl:
The laundry doesn't stop, even when you're on vacation.
 
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M

MassFan

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Original Poster
Originally posted by Fido
>>Hopped across to It's a Small World. Hardly a wait. Didn't look like it needed a paint job to me. Looked beautiful as always... this is my mom's favorite ride. Took pictures for her.
<<

I think I read that they just repainted it a little while back.
Click to expand...

I wasn't sure if it still needed one or they were planning to give it one soon. It looks great now:)
 
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M

MassFan

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Original Poster
DAY 6: Blizzard Beach

The rest of the group wanted to spend a whole day at a water park. I lost this battle. Half a day maybe... oh well.

We arrived before opening because we wanted a picnic table in the Tike's Peak area. We arrived about 25 minutes prior to the 10am opening.

I did ride Teamboat Springs (family raft ride)... once... and got soaked. Other than that I took pictures of the kids around the kiddie area for most of the morning.

About mid-afternoon we headed over to Ski-Patrol because my 7 yr. old was a little big for the kiddie pools. My 3 and 2 yr olds enjoyed this area too. the slides are a little longer and the iceberg walk was a big hit.

I must say the barcoded mugs for soda was a good idea. I found, though, is you got the barcodes too wet they wouldn't always work easily. I hardly found a line for the refill machine. Much better than last trip when you waited in the regular line.

We left at closing (5pm) and went to T.G.I.Fridays for dinner. I love those boneless buffalo tenders.... and celery and blue cheese. :slurp:
 
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Fido

Fido

Member
>>I wasn't sure if it still needed one or they were planning to give it one soon. It looks great now<<

Yes, apparantly it made a world of difference from what people have been saying. I'll be going again in February and I can't wait to check it out (haven't gone on IASW in a long time)!
 
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M

MassFan

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DAY 7: Magic Kingdom (second day)

Before I had left for this vacation, I had made a PS at Tony's Town Square (Crystal Palace is closed for rehab) to see **PIGLET**. Our breakfast reservation was for 9:00 am. We got to the gate before opening. Opening was posted for 9 but they dropped the rope at about 8:50. Only myself, my BF, our 3 kids and his niece came to breakfast and our table for 6 was right near the glass patio door. :sohappy: Great view of Main Street.

You had a choice of 2 pre-plated meal for adults. I can't remember the other but I chose the eggs, sausage and hash one. BF too, I don't remember what the other meal was. Kids had Belgian Waffles with fruit (blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries) syrup on the side.

Characters in attendance were: Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and ***PIGLET***. We got great pictures and headed straight to Fantasyland before the lines got too bad on our kids favorite rides.

First we met the rest of our group and HAD to do Dumbo for my youngest. Not a bad line at all and we probably rode the 2nd time around. Then we strolled over to Snow White. Again, scarier than I remember but probably because of our sensitive child. We went on the Carrousel next. Walked right on.

Rode Peter Pan, which I really enjoyed and didn't remember much of from last time. The scenes with you in the ship in the air over the town are really cute. Pleasant surprize!

They had left the park early previous day we went to MK so they hadn't ridden Small World and all those rides we had. We went over to Small World and noticed a large part of Fantasyland was roped off. There were movie cameras everywhere and Christmas decorations were up.

Now I don't know how many know who the Wiggles are but my 2 younger ones love them. I THINK they must have been taping a Holiday video. The song playing was "Hot Potato" for you Wiggle fans and look for us on the video. I'll probably purchase it just to see if we're on it. It was another great surprize and the kids really enjoyed watching the Wiggles ride the Main Street fire truck (along with Captain Feathersword).

We finally pulled the kids away from the Wiggles and got on Small World. Then we headed over to the Haunted Mansion. Pretty much walked on that too. Went to ride Pooh (that huffalump room is WILD) then the Mad Hatter TEa Party (I'm still dizzy), and Indy Speedway (which had quite a wait 20 minutes I think).

We had recieved that special pass for the Judge's Tent and Hall of Fame from the dinner at Liberty Tree and decided to head over there.

We were brought right to the characters, and there are quite a few in those rooms at the Hall of Fame. We got LOTS of photos and autographs.

The characters in the Hall of Fame were: Chip & Dale and Minnie Mouse in room 1, Pooh, Eeyore and Tigger in room 2, and Cinderella, Suzy & Perla (the mice from Cinderella), Belle, and Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) in the Princess room.

A cast member in room 2 was even nice enough to take a family portrait :drevil: (yep all 11 of us) with the 3 characters with my camera. Very nice... he even took 2, just in case one wasn't a good shot.

We were escorted to the front of the line at the Judge's Tent too and got some nice photos with Mickey.

We rode Goofy's Barnstormer before we headed back to Tomorrowland do do some more rides.

We rode Space Mountain, which was big deal for my 7 yr old because she didn't meet the high requirement the last time we were there. We rode Tomorrowland Transit Authority :sohappy: , then Astro Orbiter.

We rode Buzz Lightyear and I still couldn't get my score over 10,000 :cry:
AS we were leaving Tomorrowland the kids spotted Buzz Lightyear and we got photos with him. He doesn't do autographs though. I told him he needed to get a stamp or something.

We were cutting across the front of the castle in the middle of the parade so we watched the end and snuck around the back. We stopped at Tinkerbell's Treasures. My daughter is really into American Girl dolls and Disney has a Disney Girl doll that can have your hair and skin color. We decided that would make a great Christmas gift. They have some cute outfit for the doll too, Tinkerbell, Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, and others. REALLY cute!

They took oone more trip down Splash Mountain and another ride on Big Thunder. We took a round trip ticket on the Railroad and started heading out because the park closed at 6 tonight.

I had heard about the Character Cavalcade just before we left and wanted to catch it tonight. We watched Mickey and Minnie leave the castle forecourt in the Fire Truck. When we got to town square the place was packed with characters. My daughter was in the conga line right behind the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I have a great photo of that! All the characters, except Mickey and Minnie board the train to go back to Toontown because they wave you good-bye as you leave the park.

I love the character calvacade. Characters don't do autogrpahs at this time but you can get some great photos with some of the rarer chacters at Disney.

Time for sleep at this point.:snore:

**DAY 8 NEXT**
 
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Main Street USA

Main Street USA

Well-Known Member
Awesome report so far!

BTW there are two versions of The Great Movie Ride. One is the gangster scene you saw, and the other is a bank scene where it catches on fire.

If you are loaded into the back "car" then you get the gangster scene, if you are loaded into the front "car" you get the bank scene. In fact, if you stop at the gangster scene, the next scene is the bank scene, and you can still feel the heat from the fire, and sometimes smell the gas.:)
 
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Testtrack321

Testtrack321

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by Main Street USA
Awesome report so far!

BTW there are two versions of The Great Movie Ride. One is the gangster scene you saw, and the other is a bank scene where it catches on fire.

If you are loaded into the back "car" then you get the gangster scene, if you are loaded into the front "car" you get the bank scene. In fact, if you stop at the gangster scene, the next scene is the bank scene, and you can still feel the heat from the fire, and sometimes smell the gas.:)
Click to expand...

But if their runnig at half capacity, then they'll only do the Ganster scean.
 
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M

MassFan

New Member
Original Poster
DAY 8: Epcot

We arrived really early for the 9am opening. They allowed us in at 8:30.
At the gate they had Epcot Kid's Guides. Inside are cartoon pictures of the best rides for kids and mine really liked the booklet.

We walked right on Spaceship Earth and headed for the rope drop near Test Track.

At 9am we walked straight to Universe of Energy. I love Ellen. I think she's great for this ride. I had forgetten how long this ride lasted. 45 minutes is a long time for a 2 yr old!

We walked right on Body Wars. Almost had a personal showing too except for one couple. I like the Star Wars simulator a little better.

We walked on Test Track too AND my two little ones made the height requirement (woo hoo :sohappy: )
I missed this last trip because it broke down the day we went to Epcot. Near the end of the ride, in the Thermo room, we broke our car. The ride stalled and a "repair" man had to come and reset our computer. Our car was pulled after our ride. Pretty EXCITING!!

I HAD to see the new Figment ride becuase I had hated what they had done to Imagination the last time I was there. I love the skunk smell and Figment is BACK! I missed him!

We headed over to Living with the Land and in the greenhouses they were growing all sorts of squashes and pumpkins for the fall. Not the most exciting ride but I like it.

Last stop was the Living Seas. After we had been to SeaWorld earlier that week we kinda had had our fill of cea creatures. My BF loves Manatees and we really enjoyed that presentation but the rest is a big blurr.

Since we had little ones we skipped the lands this trip and decided to head back to the hotel for the pool and more laundry :hurl:

We had a 6pm PS at the Garden Grill (my BF's favorite rest.) I'm not a fish fan but everyone who tried the breaded catfish LOVED it. I liked the dessert. PUMPKIN CHEESECAKE :slurp:
I wanted to send some home!

The characters there were: Chip & Dale, Pluto, and Mickey Mouse (in farmer clothes... real cute) The had many empty seats for dinner and we saw some characters more than once. Dale colored my daughter's placemat with her and signed it. It's nice when it's not crowded and you get the special attention.

We viewed the 7:45 Tapestry of Dreams parade from Germany. I had never seen it before and we would have liked to stay for IllimiNations but my BF's niece wasn't feeling well and by 8:15 the kids were exhausted.

We decided to leave. Maybe I'll finally get to see IllumiNations next trip:veryconfu
 
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M

MassFan

New Member
Original Poster
Originally posted by Main Street USA
Awesome report so far!

BTW there are two versions of The Great Movie Ride. One is the gangster scene you saw, and the other is a bank scene where it catches on fire.

If you are loaded into the back "car" then you get the gangster scene, if you are loaded into the front "car" you get the bank scene. In fact, if you stop at the gangster scene, the next scene is the bank scene, and you can still feel the heat from the fire, and sometimes smell the gas.:)
Click to expand...

Thanks!

I knew I hadn't dreamed it. Thank's for telling us about both scenes.
 
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