2012 Night of Joy- Night 1

We planned our annual September trek to WDW around NOJ this year. We had missed the even the year prior to attend Food and Wine Festival and Magic Kingdom’s 40th anniversary but with the great line up being offered I couldn’t resist. Some of mine and my husband’s favorite bands were going to be there and the opportunity to see them all in one event was great. We had a big trip planned with 2 nights of NOJ, an Ultimate Tour of Disney’s Hollywood Studios with a large group from www.touringplans.com Lines app and KennythePirate of www.kennythepirate.com and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party.

First up was Night of Joy. We hit the parks half the day on Friday, spending some time in Magic Kingdom before heading back to Animal Kingdom Lodge to rest up for NOJ. We returned to Magic Kingdom around 6pm to get a ride in and a snack before lining up for the first concert. As we walked in MK the crowds were pouring out, with a 7pm park closing Magic Kingdom is the place to be for park touring on NOJ nights with some of the lowest attendance numbers of the year.

We lined up for my must do concert NEEDTOBREATH around 7pm. The crowd at the castle stage was already pretty big, we were about 15 rows deep from the stage. We chatted up our crowd neighbors and met a new Cast Member, a local 19 year old girl who had just started at MK that week. She shared some insider info about the upcoming first Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween party and although we were all miserable, hot, and covered in sweat the time passed quickly till the concert started.

As anticipated NEEDTOBREATH was awesome. The crowd was great and into a lot of the songs but there was not a lot of jumping about and craziness. In such tight quarters I was a little concerned about that, I didn’t bring my steel toed boots and the though of walking around the rest of the week with sore toes was not something I wanted to entertain! It had been a few years since we had seen them and they played a lot of my favorites including. Lay ‘Em Down,  Something Beautiful,  and Shine. The performance was approximately half an hour. It was hot and stuffy and we did see a few people pass out from the heat. The other disadvantage to being so close up to the stage is even if we did want out early you really can swim you way back upstream thru crowds that tight.

Hot, sweaty, and already a little tired we decided it was time for dinner and a break. The humid mugginess had progressed and the skies looked ready to open up. We headed to our favorite MK quick service location, Pecos Bills, for some burgers and fries. During dinner it poured down rain but quit before we were done. After dinner and a spin on Big Thunder and Haunted Mansion (no line at either) we headed back to get a spot for Chris Tomlin when the skies opened up again. We ducked in a shop to wait out the rain. It didn’t let up for a while and time for the concert was already passed. We considered staying put but since it was just a drizzle we headed for the stage. There were some guys setting up a pop up tent on stage when we arrived and a few minutes later Chris Tomlin came out with his guitar and started playing. The rain let up more and it was just a soft sprinkle, the crowds didn’t mind one bit. Chris put on an awesome low key acoustic concert. He wanted to play despite the rain to spend some time with his brothers and sisters in Christ. As with all Chris Tomlin concerts it was a time of praise and worship, most of the crowd knew the lyrics to every song and sang along with him. Looking around from toddlers to teenagers to thirtysomethings and well beyond all together all singing along with the light rain coming down was surreal. It was a little taste of Heaven right here on Earth. It’s one of the best concert experiences I’ve ever been a part of.

We switch gears quickly to head over to see if we could see some of the RED concert. Wow. I had heard some of their songs but did not quiet know what to expect. That is some ‘heavy’ metal. They came out on fire with lots pyrotechnics, loud booms, and high energy. It was a sight to see, not really my kind of music but an experience. Our late arrival meant we were locked out of the Galaxy Theater as it was jam packed but we watched from the broadcast at RockerTower Plaza. While I was frustrated there was no way to get into the theater after watching I’m kind of  glad we didn’t. There were some really energetic fans in the crowd and it was 90’s style mosh pit (do kids still do that now?).

We took off early to go back to get an up-close spot for Casting Crowns, Matthew favorite band of the night. We had seen them before but it is so much grander on the stage in front of Cinderellas Castle. They always do a wonderful job and played a nice mix of old favorites and new songs. They put on a great show and it was a wonderful way to end the evening.