It seems we had the same idea. On Friday night, we made our way, through the drizzle, to the Opera House for the last Dickens show. The middle seating was full, but the sides were virtually empty. The actors' timing seemed a little off to me.
When the show was over, we headed to see Santa. There was no one in line, and Mr. Claus was just standing in front of his chair, waiting for us.
Afterward, we put out the fire at FitH, before heading up the hill to watch the tree, hoping to see it again on Saturday, when all forecasts said it would be warmer and drier.
Saturday, we arrived after noon and went straight to
It's a Wonderful Life. It is a great show, but doesn't have the same "authenticity" as Dickens. I was impressed with the scope of the production, though. The
Times claims this is a million dollar show. I was struck with the idea that it really wasn't very Christmassy. I suppose the movie wasn't either, except that it happens to happen at Christmas. I really enjoyed the music and the fact that it looked like an old Crosby/Kaye movie.
We rode FM, which has not really been changed outside of updates and maintenance.
Then we sipped our hot chocolate while watching the glass blowers.
We made the Frosty show, which was extremely disappointing. Outside of the brutal cold, the new show is not very good at all, and the Sugarplum Fairy/Genie character is an embarrassing rip-off of the Ghost of Christmas Present. Bring back the old show if you can't make meaningful changes.
We had to go underground with about 57 other visitors (some of whom were quite rude). Some of them did not seem capable of listening to the guide. I could only understand every third word our guide said, since she seemed to have trouble enunciating. This was my first time in 40-50 years that I've ever been in the cave at Christmas.
I took some pictures of both days, but the family tends to rush me, so I didn't get as many or get to frame the shots like I would have liked.
We put out the fire a couple more times before getting back to our condo. As I said before, I think Manby was at the turnstiles when we arrived on Friday. I wonder if anyone can confirm that it was him.