The Candlelight Processional

Another one of those "don't miss" events...

     Once the schedule of celebrity narrators was released, I looked down the list and made my decision on who I wanted to see and when pretty quickly. I passed over the A list stars since I was not looking to deal with the mass of attention they would draw and chose Chandra Wilson, an actress from one of my favorite shows, Grey's Anatomy. I got real excited when I was talking with one of my friends at work one day talking about The Candlelight Processional and the guest narrators, we hit it off when we both said we wanted to see Chandra since we were both huge fans. Right there we started planning out the day and how we would attack it from beginning to end, and right there a true friendship was created.
     When the day came, we were starting reasonably early and knew we would be going for a full day of park hopping. We started around 10 AM and kicked off at Magic Kingdom, and both started kicking ourselves when we got out of the car and it was raining and NEITHER of us had any rain gear to fend it all off, but we just did not care. This was one of those days where very little could bring us down and ruin our day so we just powered through. Kicking off our day we rolled over to Space Mountain and used our first Fastpasses, moved over to Buzz Lightyear, next headed to Fantasyland for Mickey's Philharmagic and The Little Mermaid then wrapped up with the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain. It was a little after midday at this point and we still had plans of doing EPCOT for the candlelight and then going to Hollywood Studios afterwards. So we stopped at Starbucks on our way out of MK to grab some Frappuccinos for a sugar/caffeine boost and stopped to watch the Dapper Dans on our way out.
     Got back to the car and drove to EPCOT and had lunch out in World Showcase before waiting in the single rider line for Test Track. We waited long enough for Test Track that we had a little more than an hour before the candlelight began, so we went back to the amphitheater to wait in line. In retrospect, we could have wandered around a bit more before getting in line but we were not going to put that risk in play. So we were finally allowed in to be seated and the performance was incredible. This is an event at Disney that you CAN NOT miss, no matter who you see narrate or when. We LOVED it and had a blast watching it, so you will have the same experience. Between the narration and the choirs singing, it was unbelievable especially if you enjoy and appreciate excellent choir music.

     Upon the conclusion of the candlelight, we went to the International Gateway to take the Friendship Boat to the Boardwalk Resort. We grabbed some food there before walking to Hollywood Studios to round out our day. When we got into the park we went straight for the Osbourne Lights and just took our time enjoying them since we had a lot of time until Fantasmic started, which we were planning to see as well. After we finished at the lights we went single rider for Rock N Roller Coaster and then went to see Fantasmic. I have heard a lot of mixed opinions on Fantasmic, but in my opinion it is a great nighttime show to see, although the fireworks I will admit are preferable, if you are at Studios, seeing Fantasmic at night is no pushover of a performance.
     Once Fantasmic ended, we were BEAT! Both of us were struggling to function since we had been going nonstop ALL DAY. But we had no regrets, we had the time of our lives and were ready to call it a day and headed back to Chatham.