December Layoff 2023 Part 1
On Monday I groaned awake at 4am and dragged myself down to the hotel lobby to catch the airport shuttle.
It was me, five pilots and one flight attendant. We chatted a bit, and they were interested to hear about tromboning and My-Fair-Ladying. For my part I was intrigued to hear them discussing today's headwinds and misc airport drama! Which I will not repeat here (it was all Greek to me in any case!)
The flight out of Omaha was normal. I had some disappointing bao for lunch at the layover in Charlotte (they were soggy and sticking to the bag.)
There were huge shiny deer decoration at Charlotte airport. My theory is that airport decorations are always gigantic so that pilots can see them from 35,000 feet up lol.
The flight to Orlando was normal and we arrived on time. Jameson had to work, so I Ubered home. It was good to hug Jameson and hear about his doings! But he had Jollywood at night, so I unpacked and got groceries and we had dinner together before he had to scoot. Then I CLEANED. As much as I could, as hard as I could. Cleaned both bathrooms, wiped down the kitchen, vacuumed, dusted, mopped, degreased the stove, hit the sink with Bartender's Friend, took the trash out, washed the sheets. Put out the drip coffee pot for Jameson's dad, who was flying in to stay with us tomorrow. It took about three hours, if you count rest breaks and whatnot. But now the house is clean and I don't have to worry about it until I'm about to go back on tour.
Jameson got home from the gig around 1am, and we went right to sleep.
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I woke up feeling like I'd been run over. Not uncommon for me after a long travel day.
Breakfast and hydration, and a few small errands before Jameson's dad arrived. We got caught up and got our Disney tickets all sorted out; for on Wednesday we're going to spend the day at Epcot, and the night at Hollywood Studios to see Jameson perform!!
When Jameson was done with work at 5pm we drove to Agave Azul for a fantastic dinner. We sat outside near a heater; it was about 63 degrees and I felt like a total wuss for feeling cold. But I quickly forgot the cold with a nice paloma and a raspberry chipotle salmon filet with grilled veggies and rice.
A great start to a great first week home!
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Wednesday was a day at Disney with Jameson's Dad!
We did Epcot and Jollywood. Right off the bat we had issues with Jameson's dad's ticket, because Jameson had to be there to let him into the park (it says this in the fine print but with two of us jetlagged and the third having only had 4hrs of sleep recently we all three missed this detail.) But it was fine, because as a result Jameson came to give his dad his ticket, walked into Epcot with us, and we got to enjoy fish & chips from Yorkshire County Fish & Chips in England!
It amazes me how perfectly the fish is cooked EVERY time I've eaten here. I've never gotten overcooked fish, or soggy batter. It's always crips and golden, always tender and flaky. Amazing.
After that fabulous lunch Jameson went back to work and Jeff and I had the park to ourselves. We rode Test Track, which is some Chevy-sponsored ride where you are pretending to be on a test track for one of their vehicles that you supposedly design yourself. Here is our weirdo design (not as weird as some others that we saw!)
The ride was fun and quick. We enjoyed window shopping in all of the different Epcot countries--Italy, Germany, China, Japan, Canada, etc--and we discovered that the backside of the Morocco area is quiet and underpopulated, which we both noted. It would be a good place to get away from the crowds, take a tantruming child, or otherwise decompress from the excitement of the parks.
Anyway, we hit another snag when Jeff wanted to ride the new Guardians of the Galaxy coaster. I'm not into coasters any more sadly (motion sickness, boooo) so I chilled outside, people-watched, hydrated, and explored the new Connections Eatery area that was recently unveiled and that has a playground for kids, a casual fast food sit-down restaurant, and a bakery that makes baumkuchen on-site!! I didn't get any today but will certainly go back!!
(photo from wdwnt.com)
Back to the snafu: Jeff had joined the virtual queue for the ride, and his ride time kept getting delayed. Finally around 4pm he was called, and I waited patiently outside...and quite a while later, maybe 45 minutes, he texted to say that the line wasn't moving and a "delayed" announcement had been made. I checked the Disney app and saw that the ride queue had been suspended, and the conversation went toward "How to get out of this queue," lol. When there's a new ride, it's always very popular meaning more riders, longer queues, more stress on the ride, and more technical difficulties. Sadly he had to leave the queue and lost about 90 minutes waiting in line, but afterward we checked again and the ride had been closed until further notice, so leaving had been a good choice. Ah well, maybe next time!
Spaceship outside the Guardians ride:
We were able to catch a performance of the Voices of Liberty! Jeff is a vocalist himself, and performing with the VoL is his dream job! Their costumes are pure eye candy, and they sound wonderful. They had a nice big crowd under the rotunda, and the sound of their voices echoed under the dome.
Somewhere in there we got snacky, and went to one of the holiday food stalls where Jeff got a soft-serve salted caramel cone and I tried the nitro chocolate cake.
I thought this would be, I don't know...a cold chocolate cake? Maybe a bit like a brownie on a stick? And I thought it would be premade. But no, they dip it and decorate it right in front of you! We didn't realize this until the process had already started and we saw others behind us in line watching intently, so I only managed to see the tail end but they pretty much dip a chocolate Mickey cake in fudge, then in a chocolate coating, then in chocolate sprinkles, and nitro the crap out of it! The result is CHEWY, and crunchy, and fluffy, and as the cake warms it gets more and more fudgey and wonderful. This was honestly the best thing that I ate all night!
As we got ready to head over to Hollywood Studios, we stopped at the vintage mailbox (made in Danville, PA which is very close to my hometown) so I could mail a letter to my grandparents. It felt such a Christmas-stereotype thing to do, but I really wanted to send a letter from this special mailbox :)
And as we were leaving, some custodial Castmembers had swept these fallen leaves into a "temporary Mickey!"
This is a common practice, usually done with water during the summer, creating a small temporary magic moment.
See, even sweeping up debris can be magical at Disney World :)
We took the Boardwalk to Hollywood Studios, and stopped in the Grand Californian to see the gigantic gingerbread house that Disney makes each year! Here are all of the ingredients that go into the house, and the house itself!
I was also taken with the ceiling chandelier in the hotel lobby:
We went upstairs to the bar to enjoy a drink because there was still time to kill. I had a nice red wine from South Africa and Jeff had an Old Fashioned. Really nice to warm up with a drink before the festivities!
Then it was finally time for Jollywood! We queued up at the entrance and didn't have to wait long to get scanned in and get our wristbands and lanyards!
The lanyard card had a QR code on the back to help you navigate the night's activities through the Disney app. It was very useful, but a bit troublesome because the page would not stay open, you had to constantly scan the QR to reopen the Jollywood page (just a note in case any developers are reading, this was a pain in the butt throughout the night lol.)
We first visited Toy Story Land, which was beautifully decorated.
We rode that shooting game (I forget what it's called already) and I won, barely! Then we tried a new ride, Mickey's Runaway Railroad. The style of the ride is based on the new 2D Mickey cartoons which you can see HERE on YouTube for free. I absolutely ADORE these cartoons, they're hilarious and fun, and the ride was a blast and had lots of impressive projection technology. If you want spoilers a ride video is HERE.
We decided to have some real food as we'd walked over 10 miles at this point(!) and had only really eaten lunch hours ago. We both had our hearts set on the stuffed popovers available at Fairfax Fare. It's a popover stuffed with turkey slices, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. The popover has herbs baked into it as well. It was very good and just the right size!
Later on after some more walking around and such we got mini chicken empanadas with elote corn cups, and split a Mexican spiced chocolate cheesecake. The empanadas were nice, but that cheesecake was awesome!
Soon after that it was time for the show! We checked in at a Guest Services umbrella to claim the VIP seats that Jameson had arranged for us. Right down front!
What can I say, the show was incredible. The audience reaction when Miss Piggy and Kermit appeared was adorable, a big gasp and cheers. They are such beloved characters :)
Tiana from Princess and the Frog got a similar reaction, she was just stunning in her white dress, and she was an incredible singer and actor. Jameson says that she does lots of other roles in the park, which is WOW, you've got to be very talented to cover multiple roles! I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't get footage of her, but you can watch the entire show HERE if you like.
Some stills. The dancers were incredible. The female dance outfits were beautiful, it was just a white leotard and they kept changing jackets/tops, but everything looked so crisp and classy. And it amazes me that Minnie could do complex dance numbers in those honkinig great clog-shoes!! LOL!!
Here is some of the footage that I took (very Jameson- and live band-centric, sorry but this was my POV and if you want another you can search YouTube or TikTok yourself). At the end of these clips are two parts of the Nightmare Before Christmas sing-along, which we just barely managed to squeeze into before our night was over! The clips are of the Boogie Woogie number, and Jack Skellington closing narration. It was a cute show with excellent staging, a bit hokey but aren't all sing-alongs? It was very fun and I'm glad we got in to see it!
TikTok by @tromboneontour
On the way out of the park we picked up souvenir t-shirts (this was the ONLY souvenir available unfortunately, they had sold out of everything else on opening night, so I've heard) and we were given complementary Jollywood Nights coasters too!
We had an absolutely wonderful and magical night. Although I was sad to leave tour early (not for this, but to be available for Candlelight), I am so thrilled that it allowed me to be here to see Jameson perform, and to experience this amazing Disney holiday event. We made some great memories!
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Now it is Thursday and I'm SUPPOSED to be doing data entry but I'm filling out this massive blog post instead :p
Jameson's dad is golfing, Jameson is working, and I plan to do data entry all afternoon before we have dinner together.
It was me, five pilots and one flight attendant. We chatted a bit, and they were interested to hear about tromboning and My-Fair-Ladying. For my part I was intrigued to hear them discussing today's headwinds and misc airport drama! Which I will not repeat here (it was all Greek to me in any case!)
The flight out of Omaha was normal. I had some disappointing bao for lunch at the layover in Charlotte (they were soggy and sticking to the bag.)
There were huge shiny deer decoration at Charlotte airport. My theory is that airport decorations are always gigantic so that pilots can see them from 35,000 feet up lol.
The flight to Orlando was normal and we arrived on time. Jameson had to work, so I Ubered home. It was good to hug Jameson and hear about his doings! But he had Jollywood at night, so I unpacked and got groceries and we had dinner together before he had to scoot. Then I CLEANED. As much as I could, as hard as I could. Cleaned both bathrooms, wiped down the kitchen, vacuumed, dusted, mopped, degreased the stove, hit the sink with Bartender's Friend, took the trash out, washed the sheets. Put out the drip coffee pot for Jameson's dad, who was flying in to stay with us tomorrow. It took about three hours, if you count rest breaks and whatnot. But now the house is clean and I don't have to worry about it until I'm about to go back on tour.
Jameson got home from the gig around 1am, and we went right to sleep.
---------------------------------------------------------
I woke up feeling like I'd been run over. Not uncommon for me after a long travel day.
Breakfast and hydration, and a few small errands before Jameson's dad arrived. We got caught up and got our Disney tickets all sorted out; for on Wednesday we're going to spend the day at Epcot, and the night at Hollywood Studios to see Jameson perform!!
When Jameson was done with work at 5pm we drove to Agave Azul for a fantastic dinner. We sat outside near a heater; it was about 63 degrees and I felt like a total wuss for feeling cold. But I quickly forgot the cold with a nice paloma and a raspberry chipotle salmon filet with grilled veggies and rice.
A great start to a great first week home!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday was a day at Disney with Jameson's Dad!
We did Epcot and Jollywood. Right off the bat we had issues with Jameson's dad's ticket, because Jameson had to be there to let him into the park (it says this in the fine print but with two of us jetlagged and the third having only had 4hrs of sleep recently we all three missed this detail.) But it was fine, because as a result Jameson came to give his dad his ticket, walked into Epcot with us, and we got to enjoy fish & chips from Yorkshire County Fish & Chips in England!
It amazes me how perfectly the fish is cooked EVERY time I've eaten here. I've never gotten overcooked fish, or soggy batter. It's always crips and golden, always tender and flaky. Amazing.
After that fabulous lunch Jameson went back to work and Jeff and I had the park to ourselves. We rode Test Track, which is some Chevy-sponsored ride where you are pretending to be on a test track for one of their vehicles that you supposedly design yourself. Here is our weirdo design (not as weird as some others that we saw!)
The ride was fun and quick. We enjoyed window shopping in all of the different Epcot countries--Italy, Germany, China, Japan, Canada, etc--and we discovered that the backside of the Morocco area is quiet and underpopulated, which we both noted. It would be a good place to get away from the crowds, take a tantruming child, or otherwise decompress from the excitement of the parks.
Anyway, we hit another snag when Jeff wanted to ride the new Guardians of the Galaxy coaster. I'm not into coasters any more sadly (motion sickness, boooo) so I chilled outside, people-watched, hydrated, and explored the new Connections Eatery area that was recently unveiled and that has a playground for kids, a casual fast food sit-down restaurant, and a bakery that makes baumkuchen on-site!! I didn't get any today but will certainly go back!!
(photo from wdwnt.com)
Back to the snafu: Jeff had joined the virtual queue for the ride, and his ride time kept getting delayed. Finally around 4pm he was called, and I waited patiently outside...and quite a while later, maybe 45 minutes, he texted to say that the line wasn't moving and a "delayed" announcement had been made. I checked the Disney app and saw that the ride queue had been suspended, and the conversation went toward "How to get out of this queue," lol. When there's a new ride, it's always very popular meaning more riders, longer queues, more stress on the ride, and more technical difficulties. Sadly he had to leave the queue and lost about 90 minutes waiting in line, but afterward we checked again and the ride had been closed until further notice, so leaving had been a good choice. Ah well, maybe next time!
Spaceship outside the Guardians ride:
We were able to catch a performance of the Voices of Liberty! Jeff is a vocalist himself, and performing with the VoL is his dream job! Their costumes are pure eye candy, and they sound wonderful. They had a nice big crowd under the rotunda, and the sound of their voices echoed under the dome.
Somewhere in there we got snacky, and went to one of the holiday food stalls where Jeff got a soft-serve salted caramel cone and I tried the nitro chocolate cake.
I thought this would be, I don't know...a cold chocolate cake? Maybe a bit like a brownie on a stick? And I thought it would be premade. But no, they dip it and decorate it right in front of you! We didn't realize this until the process had already started and we saw others behind us in line watching intently, so I only managed to see the tail end but they pretty much dip a chocolate Mickey cake in fudge, then in a chocolate coating, then in chocolate sprinkles, and nitro the crap out of it! The result is CHEWY, and crunchy, and fluffy, and as the cake warms it gets more and more fudgey and wonderful. This was honestly the best thing that I ate all night!
As we got ready to head over to Hollywood Studios, we stopped at the vintage mailbox (made in Danville, PA which is very close to my hometown) so I could mail a letter to my grandparents. It felt such a Christmas-stereotype thing to do, but I really wanted to send a letter from this special mailbox :)
And as we were leaving, some custodial Castmembers had swept these fallen leaves into a "temporary Mickey!"
This is a common practice, usually done with water during the summer, creating a small temporary magic moment.
See, even sweeping up debris can be magical at Disney World :)
We took the Boardwalk to Hollywood Studios, and stopped in the Grand Californian to see the gigantic gingerbread house that Disney makes each year! Here are all of the ingredients that go into the house, and the house itself!
I was also taken with the ceiling chandelier in the hotel lobby:
We went upstairs to the bar to enjoy a drink because there was still time to kill. I had a nice red wine from South Africa and Jeff had an Old Fashioned. Really nice to warm up with a drink before the festivities!
Then it was finally time for Jollywood! We queued up at the entrance and didn't have to wait long to get scanned in and get our wristbands and lanyards!
The lanyard card had a QR code on the back to help you navigate the night's activities through the Disney app. It was very useful, but a bit troublesome because the page would not stay open, you had to constantly scan the QR to reopen the Jollywood page (just a note in case any developers are reading, this was a pain in the butt throughout the night lol.)
We first visited Toy Story Land, which was beautifully decorated.
We rode that shooting game (I forget what it's called already) and I won, barely! Then we tried a new ride, Mickey's Runaway Railroad. The style of the ride is based on the new 2D Mickey cartoons which you can see HERE on YouTube for free. I absolutely ADORE these cartoons, they're hilarious and fun, and the ride was a blast and had lots of impressive projection technology. If you want spoilers a ride video is HERE.
We decided to have some real food as we'd walked over 10 miles at this point(!) and had only really eaten lunch hours ago. We both had our hearts set on the stuffed popovers available at Fairfax Fare. It's a popover stuffed with turkey slices, mashed potatoes, gravy, and cranberry sauce. The popover has herbs baked into it as well. It was very good and just the right size!
Later on after some more walking around and such we got mini chicken empanadas with elote corn cups, and split a Mexican spiced chocolate cheesecake. The empanadas were nice, but that cheesecake was awesome!
Soon after that it was time for the show! We checked in at a Guest Services umbrella to claim the VIP seats that Jameson had arranged for us. Right down front!
What can I say, the show was incredible. The audience reaction when Miss Piggy and Kermit appeared was adorable, a big gasp and cheers. They are such beloved characters :)
Tiana from Princess and the Frog got a similar reaction, she was just stunning in her white dress, and she was an incredible singer and actor. Jameson says that she does lots of other roles in the park, which is WOW, you've got to be very talented to cover multiple roles! I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't get footage of her, but you can watch the entire show HERE if you like.
Some stills. The dancers were incredible. The female dance outfits were beautiful, it was just a white leotard and they kept changing jackets/tops, but everything looked so crisp and classy. And it amazes me that Minnie could do complex dance numbers in those honkinig great clog-shoes!! LOL!!
Here is some of the footage that I took (very Jameson- and live band-centric, sorry but this was my POV and if you want another you can search YouTube or TikTok yourself). At the end of these clips are two parts of the Nightmare Before Christmas sing-along, which we just barely managed to squeeze into before our night was over! The clips are of the Boogie Woogie number, and Jack Skellington closing narration. It was a cute show with excellent staging, a bit hokey but aren't all sing-alongs? It was very fun and I'm glad we got in to see it!
TikTok by @tromboneontour
On the way out of the park we picked up souvenir t-shirts (this was the ONLY souvenir available unfortunately, they had sold out of everything else on opening night, so I've heard) and we were given complementary Jollywood Nights coasters too!
We had an absolutely wonderful and magical night. Although I was sad to leave tour early (not for this, but to be available for Candlelight), I am so thrilled that it allowed me to be here to see Jameson perform, and to experience this amazing Disney holiday event. We made some great memories!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Now it is Thursday and I'm SUPPOSED to be doing data entry but I'm filling out this massive blog post instead :p
Jameson's dad is golfing, Jameson is working, and I plan to do data entry all afternoon before we have dinner together.