Happy Accidents
Sometimes you are just in the right place at the right time.
On this morning, I attempted to “rope drop” Magic Kingdom during the Extra Magic window, a block of time available for Disney Resort guests to enter the park before it opens to non-Resort guests. We made it within the window, but by the time we were weaved around the already waiting crowd of non-Resort guests, we only had minutes to spare. I had some grand master plan that included getting to Adventureland by going through Fantasyland in an attempt to make it to Jungle Cruise before everyone else got there. (Jungle Cruise has been annoyingly popular lately.) I wasn’t even feet into Fantasyland before I realized some errors in my judgement and abandoned the plan. Knowing I’d be back later in the week for an After Hours Event (where one can basically ride anything without a wait in line), I was comfortable knowing I would get the Jungle Cruise (in its “Jingle Cruise” overlay no doubt) while on this particular trip. (Spoiler alert: I never did ride Jungle Cruise. Did I mention how annoyingly busy its been lately?!)
Once the grand master plan was abandoned, it seemed a good idea to just enjoy the emptiness of Fantasyland, a rare sight indeed. It was calm. The sky was this brilliant blue with not a cloud to be seen, and the morning light made every detail seem surreal. There were only a few groups of people around, most of them bee-lining it to Seven Dwarves Mine Train (which, by the way, I will NEVER understand). The famous background music played, and you could hear “Let the Magic Begin”, the welcome show that happens at rope drop, kicking off in the distance.
By the time we made it to Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel and the back of Cindy’s castle, I realized that I had never really seen this area empty before, at least not in the daylight. As we got closer, I remember saying out loud, “Holy crap” in response to the assault of light and color hitting my eyes. The Christmas decor and the 50th anniversary overlay on the castle gleamed in the sunlight and every small detail felt like it was etched, right down to the details of the coats of arms on the castle’s windows. I, of course, fumbled for my camera, framed it up, adjusted the light and — BOOM!
At the exact moment I snapped the shot, the fireworks from ”Let the Magic Begin” shot into the air, captured forever in the picture above.
Just goes to show you that sometimes the grand master plan doesn’t turn out to be what you thought it was (and at any rate, apparently does not include riding the Jungle Cruise).
