It’s 11:45am on December 22nd, what have you been doing for the last 24 hours?
Well, if your are the Brifraz clan... you hosted/ran a concert in downtown Baltimore with 220 of your closest low brass friends. Yes, you guessed it, I am one of the coordinators for Merry TubaChristmas TuBaltimore. The event started with us setting things up in our rehearsal area at 1230 and then checking in those 220 friends, a brief rehearsal, and then the concert outside at the Baltimore Inner Harbor. While an obnoxious shot of all those tubas would be interesting for sure, I decided that I like this one of @MeffysMom watching the event.
The concert wrapped up at about 4pm and we hoofed it back to our car and hit the road. Yes, direct from the concert to the road. Which, for those who haven’t followed us before, means about 14 hours of I95 goodness. Despite some really tough traffic (and a couple accidents) in Northern Virginia, we made pretty darn good time and were piling out of the car at Hollywood Studios at 6:15am.
Turnstiles opened at about 6:45am and once inside, we (along with a few thousand new friends) sat on the MDE App waiting for 7am to hit and a chance at Rise of the Resistance boarding groups. Score! Group #28, booked at 7:01am. Heard from others that they were all gone by about 7:20am this morning, but I haven’t corroborated that information with any sources!
Knowing that boarding group would likely be called between 8am and 10am, we decided to stay in Studios. First up, we headed back to Tower of Terror and enjoyed a ride with almost zero wait.
After the ride, we debated doing Rockin Roller Coaster or waiting for something else, but decided food was a priority! In case I haven’t said it before, mobile ordering on MDE is the way to go. We headed to Woody’s Lunchbox, where there was a pretty decent line and since we ordered on the walk, our food was ready to go when we got there and we didn’t have to wait a minute. And we happily shared the holiday ‘pop tart’ and some tater tots.
Now it was time for our first visit to Batuu. We had decided to just try to walk the area this morning and pretty much stuck with that. Get the lay of the land, get a few pictures, walk through some shops, etc. I’m currently reading the Black Spire novel which sets up the land, so it was fun to see a number of connections. And, of course, we had to get the PhotoPass picture.
Oh, yeah. It was raining - not heavy, but consistent annoying drizzle. I’ve got our poncho trio hiding behind my back in this picture. Our boarding group was called at about 8:40am, so off to the ride we went. And, yes, what a ride it is. Pretty amazing stuff and thoroughly enjoyable.
After the ride, we had some FP+ to go enjoy at Animal Kingdom!
FP+ for Expedition Everest was first up at about 10:15am, then we had FP+ (not really needed) for Finding Nemo, which we always love. And, for a change, we sat up toward the front.
And were very pleasantly surprised to realize that the actor doing Bruce and assorted others was one of the old CMs from Adventurers Club, which we truly loved. Glad to see him still entertaining folks at Disney!
So, at 11:30am, we had hit a couple headliners at Hollywood Studios and a headliner and a major show at Animal Kingdom. Must be time to eat! See you soon.
Well, if your are the Brifraz clan... you hosted/ran a concert in downtown Baltimore with 220 of your closest low brass friends. Yes, you guessed it, I am one of the coordinators for Merry TubaChristmas TuBaltimore. The event started with us setting things up in our rehearsal area at 1230 and then checking in those 220 friends, a brief rehearsal, and then the concert outside at the Baltimore Inner Harbor. While an obnoxious shot of all those tubas would be interesting for sure, I decided that I like this one of @MeffysMom watching the event.
The concert wrapped up at about 4pm and we hoofed it back to our car and hit the road. Yes, direct from the concert to the road. Which, for those who haven’t followed us before, means about 14 hours of I95 goodness. Despite some really tough traffic (and a couple accidents) in Northern Virginia, we made pretty darn good time and were piling out of the car at Hollywood Studios at 6:15am.
Turnstiles opened at about 6:45am and once inside, we (along with a few thousand new friends) sat on the MDE App waiting for 7am to hit and a chance at Rise of the Resistance boarding groups. Score! Group #28, booked at 7:01am. Heard from others that they were all gone by about 7:20am this morning, but I haven’t corroborated that information with any sources!
Knowing that boarding group would likely be called between 8am and 10am, we decided to stay in Studios. First up, we headed back to Tower of Terror and enjoyed a ride with almost zero wait.
After the ride, we debated doing Rockin Roller Coaster or waiting for something else, but decided food was a priority! In case I haven’t said it before, mobile ordering on MDE is the way to go. We headed to Woody’s Lunchbox, where there was a pretty decent line and since we ordered on the walk, our food was ready to go when we got there and we didn’t have to wait a minute. And we happily shared the holiday ‘pop tart’ and some tater tots.
Now it was time for our first visit to Batuu. We had decided to just try to walk the area this morning and pretty much stuck with that. Get the lay of the land, get a few pictures, walk through some shops, etc. I’m currently reading the Black Spire novel which sets up the land, so it was fun to see a number of connections. And, of course, we had to get the PhotoPass picture.
Oh, yeah. It was raining - not heavy, but consistent annoying drizzle. I’ve got our poncho trio hiding behind my back in this picture. Our boarding group was called at about 8:40am, so off to the ride we went. And, yes, what a ride it is. Pretty amazing stuff and thoroughly enjoyable.
After the ride, we had some FP+ to go enjoy at Animal Kingdom!
FP+ for Expedition Everest was first up at about 10:15am, then we had FP+ (not really needed) for Finding Nemo, which we always love. And, for a change, we sat up toward the front.
And were very pleasantly surprised to realize that the actor doing Bruce and assorted others was one of the old CMs from Adventurers Club, which we truly loved. Glad to see him still entertaining folks at Disney!
So, at 11:30am, we had hit a couple headliners at Hollywood Studios and a headliner and a major show at Animal Kingdom. Must be time to eat! See you soon.
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