Previously on Midlife Crisis Crossover:

Each year Anne and I take one (1) road trip to a different part of the United States and see attractions, wonders, and events we didn’t have back home. One thing we rarely do is fly. We’d much rather drive than be flown unless we absolutely have to…or are given some pretty sweet incentives to do so. Fast-forward to December 2022 and a most unexpected opportunity: The Powers That Be at Anne’s rather large place of employment recognized her and several other employees nationwide for outstanding achievements in the field of excellence. Their grand prize was a Disney World vacation! We could at last announce to friends and family, “THE GOLDENS ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD!”

For Anne it was officially, legally a business trip. Much of the time, she’d have to work. Not ME, baby…

As glimpsed in previous chapters, in 2023 Disney World celebrated its fifty years in business, one year younger than me. Among the myriad commemorations was the “Disney Fab 50 Character Collection”, dedicated September 15, 2021. 36 gilded statues starring 50 characters from the biggest brands in the Disney IP portfolio were scattered throughout all four parks. The “Disney Fab 50 Quest” encouraged fans to see how many familiar gold faces they could spot throughout their vacation(s). Any superfan who splurged on a Disney MagicBand+, an electronic bracelet designed to unlock special features throughout the Disney World lands, could wave it at each statue for interactive responses.

Full disclosure: we did not achieve 100% on the Fab 50 Quest. For starters, we only had time for three parks on this trip. (Sorry, Animal Kingdom.) I didn’t research the statues before we left home or bother pulling up a walkthrough from any of the millions of Disney blogs offering one. I wasn’t interested in distracting from our very first Disney World trip with an oddly specific fetch quest. To me that’s something you might do if you’ve been there, like, five or six times and are looking for ways to revivify the magic. As for the MagicBand+, Anne received one as part of her prize package, but it was temperamental and required more hands-on management than either of us cared to devote to it. Mostly Anne used it as a backup key to our resort room.

All told, we located 26 out of 50 characters, 21 out of 36 statues. Our lead photo was the first discovery during my one-man exploration of EPCOT on Wednesday morning, which we’ll dive into headfirst in our next chapter. I spent a half-day with my attention stretched in a zillion different directions and the Fab 50 not on my mind. We returned later that evening for an event that will be the subject of its own chapter, which will contain more drama than any other in this miniseries, but somehow we caught more gold statues in the darkness than I had alone in broad daylight.

Thursday morning was our big adventure at Hollywood Studios, where we saw the following:

Through the power of Disney World Park Hopper passes that were also part of her prize package, Thursday afternoon we journeyed to the Magic Kingdom, where a plethora of polished personalities posed for park patrons.

To be continued!

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