Trip Report (Sept. 11-22)- The Magic is Back!... ish! (The Trip Summation)

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As you can see, it was immensely hot out, lol.

MERIDA:
-Oddly, despite learning to love Meet & Greets in 2019, I never once met Merida! It's a strange combination of not remembering her movie as much and the odd placement of her M&G- she is literally right next to the castle, which means there's often a parade or Friendship Faire going on very close by, and on the way to Fantasyland. In addition, she's got weird hours, popping up in the early morning (when getting on the rides is more important, as the lines are shorter), then an extended break with intermittent early afternoon times, and that's it. Unlike other characters, you can be met until past 5pm most days, Merida seems to disappear. Honestly, 90% of the time I walk by here and don't see her at all, or the line would be too prominent. The rainy weather doesn't help.

But this time, I figured I had the time so I FINALLY hunkered down and met her on two separate days. And I learned that I can only follow about half of what she says, lol- her exaggerated Scottish accent is so wild that I'm half a step behind the entire time- "So did tha' WISPS send ya here, then?" and I realize what she said halfway through my response- stuff like that. It's kind of hilarious seeing all the Princesses with their "perfect, practiced poses", which means that Belle is moving exactly like the movie character, and all the other Princesses have dainty poses and mannerisms... and Merida's like "HEY 'SUP?" and leaning aggressively on stuff like a total tomboy! I bet she's a hoot to play for this reason.

Merida goes in for a hug and I'm like "Wait, what?"

The first interaction was a bit funny, as an old dude was ahead of me with his own camera, and he went in for a hug! I later saw him do the same with Cinderella- I was like "oh, dude, I don't think that's cool..." but sure enough, Merida did the same thing to me (despite the absolute horrifying amount of sweat on the front of my shirt) so I guess she's just a hugger.

I have two of this shirt and washed them each day! I swear!

On my third day at MK I met Merida again, with a different girl with a much rounder face. It occurs to me that Merida's a bit strange to meet, given how the movie character is barely a teenager while the performers in the parks are in their early 20s or so. This one asked about transforming into a bear or somesuch thing (sadly a better response came to me later- "I've never been, but a gay friend of mine insists I'd make a good one!") and we did a mutual "bear claws" pose into the camera.

https://jabroniville.smugmug.com/Princesses-2022-Day-4-7/i-4VSkscq/A A video!! Not sure if this works.

This location, like Belle, actually has PhotoPass- it seems that only the Fairytale Hall and EPCOT "outside princesses" are lacking PhotoPass at this point. I actually got a bit distracted talking to the photographer before I met Merida on the second day!

 

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TIANA:
-Disney's pushes for Tiana continue, as she is the "headliner" of the left side of the Fairytale Hall. Pretty much every Tiana conversation involves food (these poor girls must be STARVING- they gotta go on about food all day AND they have to stay thin for their jobs!)- one suggested I shouldn't eat beignets with my black Wicked shirt on. I congratulated a couple on hearing about her TV series starting- I actually kinda ran out of new ideas so I copied conversations from one I met in 2021 (I didn't see her here, I think)- that "I hope you get to stay human in this one more often!" (controversially, the "Black Disney Princess" movie featured her in non-human state for most of it) to which she agreed. A past Tiana had actually told me she was hoping that, so I swiped her comment!

We talked about the various outfits she wears, too- she LOVES the "flapper dress" look. I will say that Tiana is maybe the most impressive performer in terms of "acting"- Cinderella & Aurora do generic "soft princess voices", Rapunzel & Anna are just goofy, and Elsa almost never attempts to match the voice of Idina Menzel... but Tiana ALWAYS has that Southern accent. The only other one to maintain a "voice" consistently is Belle, who does a very prominent rendition of her movie voice (oddly almost capturing Susan Egan's Broadway performance more than Paige O'Hara's animated one).

Neatest bit was a middle-aged black woman who was just in tears on meeting Tiana, wiping them away while her husband took a picture- one of those "SEE!? It matters!" moments.

Baby Raps! Man some of the Face Characters are young, lol.
RAPUNZEL:
-Rapunzel, like Elena, actually has a TV show with shockingly deep lore, giving me lots ot talk about... but oddly I found that most of them barely mentioned the show at all even when prompted. When I congratulated Raps on making friends with Cassandra (who went evil and turned on Rapunzel, but went back on her side) again, I was mostly greeted with "... yes, well friends are important!" like they didn't even watch the show. I didn't press the matter. The first Rapunzel I met might have been super-new, because she stalled out on the conversation repeatedly and *I* had to keep it going- this is usually the opposite in most meet & greets. I felt kinda bad for her, because the attendant watching could have totally tattled or something- you never know. Another Rapunzel did the usual thing and noticed my side-satchel (as she and/or Flynn use them as well)- this inevitably turned to the uses for satchels. I believe a couple of times Pascal was brought up, and at one point we discussed our mutual artistic ventures- I referred to the difficulty of catching Flynn's nose properly.

 

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[URL]https://photos.smugmug.com/Princesses-2022/i-8sfQWtM/0/2f896e9c/X2/B07DDC86-184C-4E72-A069-97AB2638413F-X2.jpg[/URL][img]
[IMG]https://photos.smugmug.com/Princesses-2022/i-qfFvTmK/0/562b1eba/X2/B6267C49-F4F3-426B-9B7D-7B67E997F9BB-X2.jpg

See, looking at these now, I can which one I later met at Cinderella's Royal Table. The outfit here is so all-encompassing they kinda blend together.

CINDERELLA:
-Cinderella is apparently the most popular princess in the world (though I'd imagine Elsa surpassed her in a few places), and this is HER castle, so she's a big deal here, partnering up with Elena. I dig Elena more because Cinderella is usually portrayed as a very "generic" Princess, always acting nice and charming and very calm. I've still had some fun conversations with her (one time she was VERY emphatic in suggesting we dance together at some point and I deflected to asking about her very available stepsisters, lol). Again we talked about their availability, though oftentimes the convo went to talking about her mice friends. I even drew Elena lore into things with the aforementioned bit about the Jacquins. Another time Lucifer was brought up.

Cinderella, for some reason, is hard to tell apart in terms of performers- usually they're the ones who recognize me, not the other way around! This only happened once here, though, as when I went to her Royal Table, the one taking photos suddenly said "Oh- we've met before!".

The best bit was on Day Three (my second MK day) when Cinderella had the attendant taking pictures and then went "Would you like to dance with me?", THEN DID. Naturally I handled this with all the charm I could muster (translation: I sputtered and got flustered) as she took my hand, insisted I put my hand on her hip (as I tried but was like "where is the hip on this thing?"- their dresses are HUGE), then she leaned over to grab the edge of her skirt and the attendant took the video. This made me a hero to my Facebook friends temporarily- I can tell I have a lot of nerdy friends when most of the comments were "Oh my god, I could NEVER do that! I'd be way too nervous!" or "Wow I'd be afraid of stepping on her feet- dancing is the one black man superpower I don't have".

This is pretty remarkable- you can probably ASK Princesses to do this, but I find it kind of not okay to do that, I guess? Mostly as a heterosexual male meeting Princesses at their job, I find there's a "power differential" at work where they're not supposed to say no, which can make things awkard if they don't want to put their hands on a male guest or vice-versa. Like I don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable at work (nor am I outgoing enough to ask strangers to dance in the first place, lol) and don't want to have people backstage going "OMG did you get that weird bald guy trying to DANCE with you?". Even better, the attendant must have been clued in and switched to video at this point so I was able to show people properly. Vacation MADE.

https://jabroniville.smugmug.com/Princesses-2022/i-ms8h5nt/A: Proof this actually happened, lol.

 

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ELENA OF AVALOR:
-Elena of Avalor is actually one of my favorite characters to meet- in part because she has a cool look and a really good TV show that actually has incredibly deep lore. I was concerned Disney would dump her from the parks, especially with Encanto also starring a Latina character who was a big hit, but as Elena is a real PRINCESS (well, Queen), she still fits in here. Though the joke is often "So, who are you?" with adults in particular not recognizing her, apparently the show started doing very well on Disney+ during the pandemic, to the point where she's gotten a new lease on life as a popular-ish character. And there's a lot to talk about, as that show ran 79 episodes, featured tons of unique animals (like the flying cat Jacquins)

I actually picked this up a bit while at the parks- while I heard one parent go "Look- it's JASMINE!" a lot of people were "Look- it's ELENA!". The one time in all my years I've ever seen a non-Elena princess in that spot, hilariously the more famous princess (Aurora) was meeting a little girl dressed as Elena who just wanted to talk about Elena stuff! I saw a handful of mini-Elenas around the parks. I also saw the clear delight in a group of Spanish-only speakers when the character who met them heard them stumble in English and went "Habla Espanol?" and began talking to them in their own language. She introduced herself as "Reina Elena", as she's now Queen in the finale of her show.

In my 2021 trip, I met the same Elena twice in one day, later encountering the same performer as a puppeteer at Animal Kingdom- she wasn't here this time but in the seven times I went into this part of the Fairytale Hall (what? It was a long trip!) I met about five different Elenas. While I couldn't tell you every conversation, I'll say that one was particularly good, having met her three times over the course of a week. I met her first on Day Two, where she saw my Wicked shirt and asked if I was a wizard- I explained I was training with her friend Mateo from the show (indicating I actually watch it), then again on Day Three, where a few seconds in she's like "Wait! We met before- you're the wizard!" Usually I get recognized quicker than that, but this time I namedropped even deeper lore, like how Mateo defeated Fiyero via a cool wall-kick (Elena is a surprisingly action-packed show- Elena is the only Disney Princess other than Mulan to KILL someone!).

This time, she decided to tell me a joke, regarding why someone never races Cinderella's mouse Jacques- I anticipated seconds ahead of time she was gonna say "Because JAC-QUINS" and openly cringed (POLITELY so- I was at least chuckling, I swear!) and said "That's a dad joke, Elena" and brought up how Elena & Mateo are infamous for laughing at horrible puns in the show. When meeting the same performer repeatedly I often wonder if they think I'm some crazy person (or worse, a creeper) coming in endlessly but I appear to have left a positive impression, because the third time I saw this one she actually ran up and hugged me, calling me "My wizard friend!".

This Elena was having some kind of an issue with her wig- I saw a rare "off-stage"-ish moment when she twirled part of the hair (Elena has a LOT of hair, and 1-2 side-tails that twirl around), gesturing to it at the character attendant and shrugging despondently like it looked awful- just SO defeated, lol. I didn't call attention to it, but during the conversation she felt the need to add "I've been JACQUIN RIDING- it messed up my hair, tee hee!" so it was obviously on her mind, lol. She looked INSANELY young, too- people who saw videos of her on TikTok even commented on it. The character DOES go from 16-20 during the course of her show, but it's still pretty noticeable when someone is barely even twenty.

One Elena went into what is probably a "filler conversation" asking about how they should celebrate a parade in Avalor- I suggested pinatas of her enemies Ash & Shuriki. She'd rather not remember those two, apparently. Another time I mentioned the Sunbirds, and she clearly remembered the name of Qita Moz in particular. I asked one if Cinderella's mice were afraid of the Jacquins, given how scary Lucifer was (they are not; apparently the Jacquins are quite friendly to them). One Elena was one I'd actually met last year- the other three I met then weren't around (one I know was on vacation then, having seen her IG).

This one I'd actually seen in 2021. And it looks like my lips stopped being chapped this day at least, lol.

The last time I went into the Hall, I met the youngest-looking face character I've ever seen as Elena- after talking with her, there were still a family or two waiting for Cinderella so I turned around and asked the only question of the convo I really remember- "So do you outrank all the other Princesses now that you're Queen?" She giggled and was like "I think my crown's a little TOO new just yet".

One thing I always find kinda funny is how there never appears to be any "face rules" for Elena- other Princesses have to have long faces (Aurora), round ones (Belle), or other similar dimensions (most Cinderellas look a LOT alike). But with Elena, NOBODY seems to look very similar- you just have to be Latina and young enough, I guess. I've seen some very young-looking ones- the one I met on my final day looked like she could have been 13 years old, lol. The one I met thrice was much more striking than the others, with prominent features.

 

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You can tell which ones were PhotoPass, lol.

BELLE:
-The Belle meet & greet has seen better days- "Enchanted Tales With Belle" was a really neat attraction with a great "Magic Mirror" effect, leading to "gold dress Belle" in the only time you'll see her like that in a meet & greet outside of the Akershus dining hall. This was killed with the pandemic, and oddly has yet to return (maybe the repeated handling of the props is a no-go) (until Jan. 2023, actually). Instead, they instituted a distanced meet & greet for the first time during my 2021 trip (it was "scooped" the next morning; the one time I was able to see Disney news as it happened). Nowadays they just have a regular meet inside the cabin (which was just a queue and way into the main room), with Belle in her peasant dress. I met her three times this way- one time the attendant was a big Broadway fan and we nerded out over Wicked, and he high-fived me when I finally made it back to the queue shortly before it closed ("Yes! You made it back!"). A different Belle every time, and this one actually had PhotoPass (which was kinda weird, as the Fairytale Hall, a bigger M&G with more importance, did not).

Here were some fun conversations: Belle is usually the best overall CHARACTER and has some real spirit (though isn't as snarky as the movie version- they always have to be polite). Looking at my shirt once, Belle theorized I must love adventure stories. Another time, the cogs on the Wicked logo (yes I have multiple Wicked shirts, lol) inspired her to ask if I was an inventor, and we commiserated over that. I was like "Yeah! ... they don't always TURN OUT right, though!" (this is probably the source of me making weird faces up there, lol) and this naturally led to her talking about her father and how HIS don't always work. I theorized that "Having a smart daughter probably helps a lot!" and this blatant flattery got her to do the "Princess Blush" pose and "Well thank you very much!". I believe I mentioned eating at the Beast's castle and commented on how adventurous escargot is by my usual standards. Another time she suggested we go adventuring or reading together or something and I did double thumbs-up like a total dork, so I'm glad the PhotoPass didn't pick up that one. One did capture me mimicking back Belle's "Talk with her hands" thing so apparently I really just subconsciously respond to body language by mirroring it (this might explain my "hands clasped in front of me" pose with so many Princesses).

 

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I already shared the picture of this one, lol.

AURORA:
-And then, wonder of wonders, the most mind-blowing thing happened: In all my past trips where I entered the Hall, which would be twice in 2019, four times in 2021 and seven times in 2022, I have only EVER met Elena of Avalor alongside Cinderella. So imagine my surprise when I prep my "Elena conversation", walk into the room at last... and there's PRINCESS AURORA!! Humorously having a conversation with a girl in an Elena dress who was probably there to meet Elena (dark irony given how Elena's stereotyped as not being well-known). I think even I just brought up Elena to her, which is funny given how Aurora's fairly popular. When I mentioned this to an attendant she was like "OH WOW! Lucky- you NEVER see Aurora in there!". I figure they must have run out of Elenas and called in an alternate for the other room (Face Characters often have fully-dressed "alternates" who might not even work that day, just in case).

 

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THE TRIP HOME:
-This one was mostly uneventful, I think... THANKFULLY, as many of my trips home have been complete disasters (WestJet ripped up my suitcase on one, and on at least two I only BARELY made my gate thanks to having to go through Pearson- which is again the worst). Most impressively, I found the "Angry Birds" game on my viewscreen and ended up playing through the entire thing for the majority of the flight from Toronto to Edmonton, which is more than three hours. Given how boring this flight usually was since I'm too cheap to shell out for movies and my headphones were broken, that was a surprise. The game feels miserably random at times, as a miraculous first or second toss will be impossible to replicate when you replay it, but I FINALLY finished it... like 20 minutes before landing, lol. But hey- hard to beat not being bored on your flight home.

And that's it! The whole trip! Granted that took like 4.5 months to write out in its entirety but it was a 10-day trip, lol.

Next up... the trip summation!

 

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THE TRIP SUMMATION:
-So with all that, I'm at last done. I figured this would be my last trip for a bit, so I'd make it count. Though I do find it funny that I somehow increase the length of my vacation every single time I go- despite the first trip being the "get EVERYTHING done!" one, it was only just enough time to do everything (2 MK, 1.5 Epcot, 1 AK, 1 HS, 2 Universal) and all the subsequent ones have been longer. This time was a crazy ten days in the parks in a row, going opening till close every time (except the last one, which I arrived at just as it opened for the non-resort guests).

This one ultimately reminded me the most of WHY I choose to spend all my dang money at this place- now that I've visited all of my desired vacation destinations already, it's a steady way to revisit things with a place that doesn't get "old" for me. I mean, to enjoy a vacation the same way the 3rd or 4th time compared to the 1st is pretty nuts. Maybe it'd be different if I could go every year or did monthly trips like some do, it'd be different. It also kinda made me regret going in late 2021, as so much was closed then... I was like "man, why did I go when there was no Magical Friendship Faire and parades?", but 2021 was a big "man I HAVE to go back!" trip no matter what, and it was still pretty great as they'd just brought back Meet & Greets and I got to spend a lot of random time in the parks and got recognized by staff and characters repeatedly.

This one gave me some of those irreplaceable vacation things: being specifically called out by cast members is cool enough, but a CHARACTER? ON-STAGE? Meeting a character performer's family in the audience and having them tell her about how I was a big fan, then getting the "heart with the hands" reaction and the wave? THAT is an outstanding vacation memory.

That said... it cost a fortune, and I sorta added it up later just HOW much it cost, and boy did THAT change how I might do these in the future. Until 2022, I was thinking I could afford to do "yearly trips" and not have to worry that much. But with the cost of everything skyrocketing now and airfare and the longer trip, this was closer to $6000 all in all- roughly double what it cost in 2014. And that's WITH taking advantage of a big hotel discount in the cheapest resort! I mean, it's "only" an extra $210 a day or so after a point to spend extra days. Unfortunately this trip cut me down to the point where I couldn't afford to go again right away (the first time that's happened- I usually have more saved up), and so I decided to take 2023 off at WDW and save up for Spring 2024. And even then it's been slow going- dental work has popped up as well so it'll be another couple months before I start turning a profit again. I mean another 12 months and I'll be good to go for sure, but it's sobering. I make decent money but am decidedly lower-ish middle class so it's a killer.

THE BEST STUFF:
1) Meeting an Elsa performer's family, seeing their reaction to finding out she's my favorite (her mom hugged me, lol!) then hearing about how she said "Wow, that guy beside you was REALLY excited!" and then having Elsa single me out specifically from the stage? That's an A-tier Disney memory.

2) Meeting that extra-fun Elena (I've since discovered she started in early 2022 so it's pretty fresh for her) and seeing her three times over the course of a week, so we kept a "story" going and she even hugged me the last day. A good reminder I wasn't weirding her out by going repeatedly, lol.

3) Dancing with Cinderella WOOO!!! Totally not something I've done before, since I'd never asked. I didn't even know she'd do this kind of thing.

4) The eternal "LOVE your shirt!" bits. Being a guy, you don't get to hear that very often, but it's the ultimate Disney Parks icebreaker since you're gonna meet a LOT of crossover fans in Broadway and Disney circles.

5) Finally doing all the stuff I end up not having time for on past vacations. Like doing Tom Sawyer's Island, the Country Bear Jamboree, and more.

6) I guess the last time I'll ride Splash Mountain, until I do Tokyo again.

7) Meeting the former Cast Member and talking about the parks, having worked there, how COVID broke everyone's hearts, etc. Then her lecturing me about my lack of preparedness for the rain, lol.

8) Finally seeing all the parades again. Being there enough days that a day of "rained out" parades didn't matter.

8) Being able to just walk around and take things in without having to rush. Doing the Haunted Mansion and other attractions enough times to not care about long lines (I could just skip 'em and go somewhere else), and trying to find specific things in the queues or on the rides that I'd never noticed before.

REGRETS & STUFF I'D DO DIFFERENTLY:
1) Space 220- while it's a great experience and I don't regret GOING, I regret not looking at the menu and prices beforehand, lol. No reason I had to get a full meal and spend like $120 just on that- I should have probably eaten before or after and had a more appetizer-y thing.

2) Not seeing the Mexico Pavilion. Really no excuse, as I had TONS of time (2 days plus 1.5 hours at the end of another), but the sprawl of EPCOT and me repeatedly circling the World Showcase for characters just meant I never had a big chunk of time spared. I mean, I even like the ride in it!

3) Genie+ every day. Probably not THAT required, especially given the length of my stay.

4) Not seeing the Adventure Cavalcade more. I mean I saw it twice two days in a row but I'm sure it was around on SOME of the other days (it was often rained out, though).

5) Maybe next time I'll consider buying a poncho or something. It's kind of a pain to haul stuff around by yourself so I pack light, but I got a bit tired of being soaked to the skin in cotton shirts and blue jeans for 1-2 hours a night.

I'd list the cost, but that's not so much a "regret" as something that just happens here. Though that's the major reason I can't do this again for a bit (and might have to wait a WHILE, given how hard it is to save money right now).