Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom (with apologies to Cory Doctorow)

It’s time once again for the favorite of posts: my trip photo recap! Hotcha!

And this was a bit of a historic event, because it was my 10th lifetime trip to Walt Disney World (assuming you don’t count last January when I went to Downtown Disney for a few hours, which I don’t). Why Jenn, you say, aren’t you tired of it by now? To which I reply: WHY AM I NOT THERE RIGHT NOW?!?! I just collapsed over my keyboard sobbing. Way to go.

Let’s relive it through some of my musical WDW experiences while I attempt to stem this tide of bitter tears, shall we?

As always, I tweeted about the trip as I went along. The hashtag was #baroquewdw, but I won’t bother linking it because Twitter will deny you. I’m afraid you’ll have to dig back through my Twitter feed if you want to find them. Oh, and to see larger versions of the below photos and some bonus photos not included in this post, check out the latest AB Facebook album.

Lunch our first day was at the Biergarten in Epcot’s Germany pavilion. It is, as you might have guessed, an Oktoberfest-type joint, with a buffet that offers such Teutonic fare as schnitzel, spaetzel, Bavarian cheesecake, and ALL the sausage. And of course there’s beer.

Oops, that’s not musical; how did that get in there? (WHY AM I NOT IN EPCOT RIGHT NOW, DRINKING GERMAN BEER?!?!)

I’ll tell you what is musical: a traditional German oompah band! Yes!

Consisting of three guys, one of whom had such a deep, authentically-accented voice we wondered if he was putting it on — but he was not the tuba player. Ah well. So much for “you are what you play.”

This guy played bells! And a glockenspiel!

And these guys played the alphorn!  (Found that link by searching “Ricola horn.” I’m such a philistine.) And it actually sounded quite beautiful — very mellow, maybe even a little mournful. I was extra impressed by the fact that the alphorn has no keys, and they elicited all the notes by the changes of their lips alone.

This super awesome guy in the Animal Kingdom assembled a bunch of guests around him to play the drums while he rocked out on the marimba.

At Raglan Road, an Irish pub in Downtown Disney, this legit pair of Irishmen played Celtic music on an impressive variety of instruments which they switched among themselves — drum, recorder, guitar.

Funny story — my fellow traveler Scott and I were sitting at a table to the side, and the musicians kept glancing over at us. Then for some reason they dedicated a song to us. It was “Only Our Rivers Run Free.” Thanks…?

Here’s a better look at the musicians’ loft at the Grand Floridian, and with actual musicians in it this time.

Off Kilter! They play in the Canada pavilion and I ❤ them. The guy partially obstructed by the pole on the right has a very nice voice. They like to end with the guy in the middle singing “Taking Care of Business,” though, which doesn’t strike me as particularly Celtic OR Canadian.

Taiko drummers! They are called Matsuriza, which means “festival of drums.” Or drumming. Something like that. I took a ton of pictures of them, largely because the guy on the left was hilariously expressive.

Behold the JAMMitors in Epcot. They are exactly what the name implies.

Here are some tigers from the Animal Kingdom, because they are awesome.

Here I am, before and after Mickey. (WHY AM I NOT HANGING WITH MICKEY RIGHT NOW?!?!)

And here is Scott as Sir Galahad in the UK Pavilion in Epcot. Because I can.

Thanks for following along on my Walt Disney World journey! (WHY AM I NOT IN WALT DISNEY WORLD RIGHT NOW?!?! ;_;)