{"id":919,"date":"2011-01-03T09:28:31","date_gmt":"2011-01-03T17:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desoren.com\/?p=919"},"modified":"2026-03-25T15:41:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T23:41:38","slug":"epcot-and-the-candles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desoren.com\/?p=919","title":{"rendered":"EPCOT and the Candles"},"content":{"rendered":"

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We woke\u00a0the next day to frigid temperatures. The overnight low was 29, a\u00a0bit of which we felt up close and personal at Mickey’s Very Merry
\nChristmas party. So we had to really motivate ourselves to get up\u00a0and get back into the weather. Today marked the first day WITHOUT
\nhaving to wear long johns. The high was suppose to get up to 60’s,\u00a0so we felt a bit confident. We had breakfast reservations at the
\nGrand Floridian Cafe, inside the Grand Floridian Resort at 9:00am.\u00a0So after showering and dressing we jumped in our little Kia rental\u00a0and drove over to the\u00a0Grand Floridian.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>The Grand Floridian\u00a0is known for it’s life-size holiday Gingerbread house that they hand\u00a0make each holiday season. So after we checked in at the Cafe and<\/p>\n

got our buzzer we spent a few minutes exploring the gingerbread\u00a0house and the rest of the amazing resort decorations. The Grand
\nFloridian’s holiday decorations made our own hotel’s christmas swag\u00a0look like they had just hung a bunch of cheap junk from the dollar
\ntree and called it good. The resort and decorations were\u00a0amazing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once we got to the restaurant, it\u00a0was shocking to see how many people got turned away for not having
\ndinning reservations, yet we got right thanks to Anthony. <\/span><\/p>\n

We like\u00a0simple breakfast places that do traditional american breakfasts\u00a0well. We love places like Biscuits here in Portland. Every trip to\u00a0Disneyworld we find ourselfs looking for a Biscuits type place on\u00a0Disney property. Turns out the Grand Floridian Cafe is not. It was\u00a0a nice breakfast but a bit high brow and poshy weird. Example,\u00a0Joshua ordered the Steak and Eggs special. It came out looking all\u00a0arty, the steak was a bit too charred but the frittata, (ohh the frittata) which was\u00a0served as an after thought filler was super yummy.<\/span>
\n\"\"
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>After our Posh\u00a0breakfast we drove down to EPCOT. EPCOT is hands down our favorite\u00a0park, we love world showcase. This visit we tried to get in all the
\nnew things they had added since our last visit. First up was\u00a0Kim Possible World\u00a0Showcase adventures. You sign up and get a converted flip cell phone. A
\nlittle cartoon game then sends you to one of the countries in World\u00a0Showcase on a secret mission to help Kim Possible catch the bad
\nguy. <\/span> It is\u00a0really well done. The game is interactive with objects and place in\u00a0the park. Like window displays will change to fit the story line,
\nflags will raise ect, all activated from your phone\/communicator.\u00a0It was really cute although not really aimed at our age bracket,
\nbut still fun. We did 2 of the 7 adventures, England and Norway. We saw a lot\u00a0of parents working with their kids to solve the puzzles. We also\u00a0saw a few kids fighting over who go to hold the Kim Possible\u00a0Communicator aka cell phone, it was pretty funny.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0other neat new event going on was the Santa’s around the world.\u00a0Each country would have a storyteller come out and tell about the\u00a0Christmas Traditions of their country. Morocco was interesting\u00a0since they don’t do Christmas and China had a very expressive\u00a0storytelling telling the Monkey King story. That evening we had\u00a0Candle Light Processional Dinner reservations at the Nine Dragons\u00a0restaurant in China.<\/p>\n

How to discribe Candle Light Processional….\u00a0Well here is what Disney says:<\/p>\n

Candlelight\u00a0Processional is a special holiday event held nightly at\u00a0the American Gardens Theatre in Epcot theme park as part
\nof Holidays Around The World. The event retells the stirring story\u00a0of Christmas with a special celebrity narrator accompanied by a
\n50-piece orchestra and a mass choir.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\n<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Before we flew down we signed\u00a0up for the dinner package, which gives us guaranteed seating for\u00a0the show. But do to our last minute trip planning all they had left\u00a0was headed over for dinner Nine Dragons restaurant. So think of it\u00a0as The Christmas Story Christmas dinner, just with out the smiling\u00a0duck. Well that was our spin on it. Dinner was ok, Nine Dragons is\u00a0a very very tamed down American Chinese food restaurant. Not bad,\u00a0but not really good. The meal was a bit forgettable so we will talk\u00a0about dessert. Anthony likes rice pudding, Joshua LOVE LOVES it. So\u00a0when we saw rice pudding on the menu we both jumped for it. What\u00a0they brought to the table was black. Rather two bowels of black\u00a0food substance, with sugared wonton chips on the side. Seems the\u00a0chef wanted something different for desert. So he made the rice\u00a0pudding with black rice kernels still in their uneatable hulls.\u00a0Taste? Bland. Texture? Well imagine rice pudding with quarter inch\u00a0long strands of straw in it. It was a textural disaster. Straw\u00a0wallpaper paste.<\/p>\n

After “dinner” we walked up towards the Candlelight\u00a0theater area. The first show was just wrapping up so we figured we\u00a0should get inline for the next. The line turns out wrapped all the\u00a0way down to Japan, many of the people in line with us didn’t think\u00a0we would make it in. As we waited passersby’s would ask what the huge line\u00a0was for. The best response we came up with “Oh this line? This is\u00a0the fastpass line for Soarin’ ”<\/p>\n

Even at the back of the line we got\u00a0great center row seating for the show. The special guest\u00a0narrator was Steven Curtis Chapman (never heard of him, but apparently he is famous or something), he\u00a0read the story of the birth of Jesus Christ straight from the\u00a0Bible, Luke’s version. What we and about 25% of the crowd had\u00a0expected was going to be a nice mix of traditional holiday\u00a0favorites with some Disney Characters and movie tie-ins (Like every\u00a0other Christmasy thing in the park). Turned out to be a very religious\u00a0event. It was like going to church or mass, which is ok but NOT\u00a0what we were expecting at all in a theme park. It was funny\u00a0to look around and see other peoples faces and reactions to a religious event in a theme park. It reminded us a bit of the Blackadder Christmas\u00a0special…….<\/span><\/p>\n

Blackadder:<\/em><\/strong>
\nShall I begin the Christmas story?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Prince\u00a0Regent :
\n<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/span>Absolutely, as long as <\/em>it’s not that terribly depressing one about the chap who gets born <\/em>on Christmas Day, shoots his mouth off about everything under the <\/em>sun, and then comes a cropper with a couple of rum coves on top of <\/em>a hill in Johnny Arab land. Edmund<\/em><\/p>\n

Blackadder:<\/em><\/strong>
\nYou mean *Jesus,* Sire… ?<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The Prince Regent:
\n<\/em><\/strong>Yes, that’s the fellow!
\nKeep him out of it. He always spoils the X-mas\u00a0atmos!<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The music was great. There was the\u00a0main professional Disney Choir and then flanking them on each side\u00a0were local high school choirs. It was pretty moving. One\u00a0funny thing was as all the high school girls sang out with all\u00a0their might and the high school boys… well they moved their lips.\u00a0So you had this very powerful and loud female sound to the evening.\u00a0It reminded Anthony of his Choir in High School, all the jocks\u00a0pretending to sing, because singing was gay. As the\u00a0temperature dropped down to 31 our resolve to stay for the whole\u00a0event started wane. We also started to regret the lack of thermal\u00a0underwear. In fact the theater started to clear out as it got\u00a0colder and colder. We started to feel very sorry for the orchestra\u00a0who had to play in the cold. We did make it to the end, many did\u00a0not. Now we sure a few of you will call us Philistines or worse.\u00a0But when the choir got to the last song, the hallelujah chorus, the\u00a0couple in front of us stood up. Which completely blocked our\u00a0view of the stage. At first we though “Hey, would you mind sitting\u00a0down or moving down the row and out, we still want to see the\u00a0show?” But then a few more stood and then some more. At this\u00a0point it was clear half of the audience was unsure why the other\u00a0half just stood up. There was some real confusion, which totally\u00a0took our attention away from the performance. It took about a full\u00a0minute for everyone to cave in and stand up as well. We like dorks just sat there, not\u00a0sure what the heck was going on and we were sure we did not want to stand like sheep in the\u00a0cold. <\/span><\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Seems many years ago\u00a0on March 23, 174, The musical score “The Messiah” was performed for\u00a0King George the II. Now at the end durring the final Hallelujah\u00a0Chorus, for some reason the King stood up. Some say it was his gout\u00a0bothering him, some say the though it was the start of the National\u00a0Anthem being played so he stood so people could see and praise him\u00a0better, some say he was moved by the music. But regardless of the\u00a0why, royal protocol dictates that when the monarch stands, everyone\u00a0in the monarch’s presence is also required to stand. Thus, the\u00a0entire audience and orchestra stood when the king stood during the\u00a0performance, some say initiating the tradition in English speaking\u00a0countries. The post\u00a0event irony of this is our contemporary audience all stood directly\u00a0in front of the US revolutionary war themed American Experience\u00a0pavilion, you know the one celebrating our nation’s break from the\u00a0King of England…. not sure if our founding fathers would have\u00a0approved. After the show we headed out of the park,\u00a0skipping the fireworks. The cold finally won.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/address>\n