It took long enough!!! Glad you have it back.
Aww
Yay!!!
Hooray for Calvin pics and The Return of the Luggage!
Very Good Dog
I mean, I guess this would have been stranger than your bag getting left in Miami.
Feels a little strange to see this thread so quiet after weeks of struggling to keep up! I hope you are well.
So apparently DM snuck in this morning and dropped these on our counter and left? Plausible deniability?
Absolutely!! They certainly won’t have any calories in them under those circumstances 
Ok I don’t love having donuts more than once in a blue moon, but I wish I had a donut fairy!
It would be fun if it wasn’t a multiple times a week thing… 
COVID update
I think I told you that Sarah — the angel who looked after Calvin while I was away — tested positive for COVID the day after I got back. Since she and I had been in relatively close proximity (though I was outdoors and she was indoors) I had to take a PCR test. The result came through this morning: negative. (It took so long, because I took so long in taking the test. I was pretty certain I didn’t have COVID and I’d taken three lateral flow tests already.)
Which also means, of course, that we can be pretty certain that I didn’t contract COVID in Orlando, either (and certainly didn’t do so in Canada).
There was a number of things I did in Orlando that were not exactly COVID cautious. I was in close proximity with @JuliaMc many times, and drove in the same car as her frequently. I shared an unventilated minibus with her snooty, rich friends during the VIP tour day, and had quite a long conversation with one of them which was very much not socially distanced (albeit outdoors) and featured hugging. I chatted to the friendly chap from Fort Lauderdale, circumventing the Disney-erected barrier. And I chatted to the two nice young Disney CM chaps in the line for Hagrid at UOR.
Were those things reckless? Or were they an essential part of the COVID recovery process. We’ve all lived in fear for so long. Now? Not so much. Mask-wearing aside, my North American vacation was as close to normality as you could hope for. And it was, frankly, wonderful. Definitely a tonic for my mental health.
Funnily enough the interaction that stands out the most was with the Floridian in Teppan Edo. On one analysis I allowed my British reserve to be overwhelmed by a brash American who thinks the rules don’t apply to him. But on another analysis — and the one I choose to prefer — it was a genuinely human moment that I really valued after over a year and a half of almost complete isolation. A warm and friendly stranger engaged me in the most natural thing in the world and, for a few moments, we made a real connection. And it was great.
There have been too few of these in the last 20 months. Glad you’re safe and you had a great time with other humans on your trip.
This is going to be the first in a series of concluding comments about my trip.
HARMONIOUS
I saw Harmonious three times from three different vantage points. Two of those I picked myself very shortly before the show started. One was the VIP viewing area. While the VIP area afforded me a view entirely unobstructed by other people (or anything else) all three gave me a great view. The action is mostly high up, so nothing’s in anyone’s way. And the huge and intrusive tacos are sufficiently huge and intrusive that it’s not difficult to get a decent view of them.
I liked the show more each time. The ending is really excellent and there are a few sequences during the body of the show that I especially enjoyed. I have no emotional connection to Illuminations — I wasn’t a massive fan (I didn’t hate it, I just didn’t love it, other than the Christmas ending, which is the most thrilling fireworks experience I’ve ever had). So I don’t have any baggage holding me back from endorsing Harmonious. Also, because I’ve barely seen any Disney movies, I don’t care that the music is not sung by the original performers — indeed, the recasting (and rewriting in more appropriate languages) is a real strength of the show, and super-appropriate in World Showcase.
I think Harmonious is a great show. And I claim that it’s not difficult to find a good spot very close to showtime. Of course, I was solo on the non-VIP occasions and that does make it easy to sneak into small vacant spaces.
In terms of picking a viewing spot, the ideal is to find somewhere where you are square on to the tacos. The projections on the stargate are onto a water screen — they’re not that great. The tacos are really where the action is.
ENCHANTMENT
I saw Enchantment four times: twice from the VIP viewing area in the Hub, once from the roof outside CG, and once from a pontoon on Seven Seas lagoon.
This time I am heavily encumbered by having seen — and adored and taken into my heart — Happily Ever After.
Enchantment is objectively just not as good a show as HEA, and I really hope I’m not being one of those “I miss Wishes” bores.
BUT that does not mean that it is not a good show. The projections are the highest quality WDW has ever produced. They are not necessarily as immersive and clever as the HEA ones, but they are still a dazzling and impressive visual spectacle. It is an incredible feast for the eyes. I’m often a bit meh about fireworks, but there were certainly a number of times when I thought the choreography was superb.
Tink successfully flew twice out of the four times I saw the show — luckily the two times that really mattered: when I was in the Hub. I’m never not going to gasp in astonishment when she flies, but HEA set the flight up so superbly well and Enchantment, well, just doesn’t.
If you judged Enchantment on its own merits and don’t seek to make any comparisons, it’s a hell of way to end a day at Magic Kingdom. As I said in one of the my other threads, a problem many of us on these forums have is that we know too much and have seen too much. If Enchantment is the first Disney night-time spectacular you’ve ever seen, you’d be blown away by it.
If you are going to compare Enchantment with HEA, it’s primary failing is that it has no emotional heft. HEA genuinely moved me as well as making my jaw drop. It was an overwhelming experience. Enchantment is “just” really, really pretty, with some quite nice music (some sections are really nice). But it won’t make you cry (well, except if you’re sobbing “I miss HEA so much”.)
What I can’t advise on is optimal viewing location. The VIP area in the Hub is pretty awesome. And the dessert party area in the Hub will be almost as good — but that requires a dessert party ticket, and those are more expensive and of lower quality than they were in the before times. I cannot recommend the dessert party as a dessert party: it was overcrowded, with a much more limited selection than before. I think there’s probably more alcohol, but I have very little interest in that. If you want to get wasted at the end of your night at MK, maybe you’ll love it. As a way of getting relatively stress-free primo viewing, maybe it’s worth it. But it’s a lot of money to pay.
Talking of which, what about the view outside MK? Well, then the whole thing reduces to a fireworks show. The view from Seven Seas lagoon was better than the view from CG, and it was better than I was expecting. You’re slightly closer to the Castle — you don’t see any detail of the projections, but you see it changing colour and looking pretty, albeit small and pretty. I really enjoyed the fireworks cruise but if I could only choose one experience, it would be watching from the Hub.
But what about Main Street, now that it has projections, too? I don’t know. I’d love to try it. I did keep looking backwards from my spot in the Hub to check them out and I think it might be really immersive being somewhere on Main Street. Others will have to advise.
Oh yeah. One last point. Why is it called “Enchantment”? It clearly should be called “You are the Magic”.
My rankings are:
- HEA
- Harmonious
- Enchantment
- Illuminations
That’s an amazing photo!! 
You did not share this, but now it explains your absence since you’ve been home. I hope she is well now. I’m sure that added significant mental strain to you after already having a few questionable encounters with strangers on your trip.
That’s a really great point that I did not take into consideration as it had bothered me it wasn’tthe original versions.
It’s not and you’re not. It’s still a good way to end the night, but it’s not elevated from it’s predecessor which is what you would expect when retiring a show.
HOW IS SARAH?!?
I have only watched it on YouTube about ten times, but agree. What the hell? 
Yesterday was her first day back at work. She said she felt pretty tired by the end of the day but otherwise OK.
To my surprise she was not required to take another COVID test (as she no longer has symptoms) but she does get temperature checked at work.