Well hey everyone.
We are onto Day 4 of our May/June 2025 Walt Disney World trip!! And this one finally has us doing what the normals do at Walt Disney World. We visit a park you guys!!
I know, right?
And yah, I know. I wrote about the first few days in kind-of-sort-of fast fashion and what not.
But like, a lot has happened since my last post so I just haven’t had the time to come up with really bad puns or search for gifs that are tangentially connected to what I am writing about.
Riiight.
First off, Bella and Kayce (who I KNOW you guys have met before) stayed with us for a few days!! Which was super fun. We made them love Love Island. Which obviously means it was a productive trip.
Annnnd we went to Cape Cod with them. And the Sigginses (Liam, Ayla, Suzanne, and Arty).
I am not 100% Sigginses is the plural of Siggins. Siggi?
Oh anyway, the Cape.
We also went to Ogunquit, ME with them. And also with Liam.
Ha “and also with Liam.” It sounds like a response to a prayer.
“May Smokey the Bear be with you.”
“And also with Liam.”
Sorry, inside joke. Liam likes Smokey the Bear. Hm. I guess that’s not much of a joke.
But you know. Maine.
ANNNNNND we had Owen’s graduation party! What??? Dude is heading to Northeastern in the Fall and we are so proud of him. Legit killing it. We hosted his party at Faces Brewing Co. https://www.facesbrewing.com/), a taproom right down the street. Was an awesome day.
Here are a bunch of pictures from that party.
And it’s only been like 12 days since my last post so I mean. That’s a lot to do. I am a very popular person. Is what I am saying to you now.
OK well, I don’t wanna make you wait any longer.
Let’s get on with it, eh?
Our 2025 “Celebrating Everything” Walt Disney World Trip: Day 4
G’mornin Day 4!!
And I don’t know if you can tell from that picture above, but Day 4 started all kinds of early. That picture there was taken at around 6AM.
Accurate, Craig.
Accurate.
But I mean. There was a reason behind all that nonsense. Today was a park day. Like, an actual park day. Which is really exciting stuff.
And all of us were in it today,man. We were up, dressed, and on our way to breakfast by 6:30AM. And breakfast today was just a walk away at the Polynesian’s Great Ceremonial House. Like that old song by Warrant.
…
…
Oh you know the one.
“Breakfast isn’t too far away. Oh oh. Closer to it everyday.”
No? That’s not how it goes?
Hrm maybe it was their other song?
“Sometimes she fries. When she would like some eggs. Sometimes it’s crepes. When she’s wanting something sweet.”
No.
That’s not it. So weird. I could have sworn Warrant wrote a song about food.
Eh. It’ll come to me.
Anyway. Wow, what a waste of words that whole thing just was. At least it was current.
So yeah – breakfast today was at Captain Cook’s, the quick service location at the Polynesian.
And I love this hallway leading down to the restaurant. SO KEWT.
But enough of all that. Let’s eat!
First things first – we finally had a chance to get our refillable mugs! And pro tip – if you and your family are getting mugs, they come in a bunch of different colors. So it’s a good practice to try and get a different color for each member of your family so you know who has what mug.
So naturally? Three of us got orange.
We’re the best.
Oh also – quick backpack shot on account of we wuz celebrating y’all!
For breakfast today, I went with the Breakfast Burrito (Eggs, Bacon, and Cheddar served with Breakfast Potatoes).
Which I thought was legitimately great. Plus, I went into breakfast not super hungry so this was the right amount of food happening here.
I also got a picture of Nickie’s Tonga Toast (Banana-stuffed Sourdough Bread, Battered, Deep-fried, and Dusted with Cinnamon-Sugar served with Bacon or Sausage), which was what I would have gotten if I was super hungry.
On account of it’s banana-stuffed sourdough bread, battered, deep-fried, and dusted with cinnamon-sugar. Shizz is good.
I mean, look, I am all for a big sit-down breakfast but sometimes a quick service hits.
After we finished up with breakfast, I ran back to the room real quick to drop off our mugs before heading out.
And by 8:00AM, we were on the monorail. Teal time!
And hey, do you love the smell of pee?
Well, urine luck then.
Because the Disney monorail? Thing smells un-pee-lieveable.
But eh. I love the monorail because it reminds me of taking the MBTA back home.
On account of the A/C never works and, you know, the whole urine smell thing. Like, they’ve legit captured the vibes.
But the views do elevate the situation.
I mean, it doesn’t elevate the situation completely above the smelling-like-urine situation, but it makes things a wee bit better.
A wee-wee bit better?
Because pee-pee.
Look where we were at 8:15!
AHHHH MAGIC KINGDOM!!!!!!!
We were quickly through the turnstiles and on Main St. by 8:18. Look you guys. Castle!!
Season 3 was really where Castle hit its stride.
Oh but also look – Cinderella Castle!
Insert obligatory kids walking down Main St pic!
Such a vibe.
So yeah, at this point it was like 8:19. Since we were staying at a Disney resort, we were able to take advantage of Early Entry today, meaning we can get in a little earlier than the rest of the rabble. Well, technically, I think even off-property guests can also get in to the park but they will be kind of stuck at the castle or on Main St until the park actually opens at 9AM.
Those of us staying on property could, at 8:30, start enjoying attractions!
But being it was still 8:19, we had a little bit of time to take pictures of our favorite people.
Ourselves!
Look at us – so much RAWR.
And the Falzones are no slouches either. Amirite?
We are a good looking bunch.
But like I said, we were able to make our way to attractions soon enough. We were diverted to the right of the castle past kind of on the way to Tomorrowland.
Our original plan was to get in line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train since that line can get inexplicably long during the day but even as we got there, the line was like ALLLLLL the way back around past Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid. IYKYK.
So we pivoted and headed back towards Tomorrowland to hopefully get on Space Mountain with little wait.
For those keeping track – we walked up Main Street, past Tomorrowland, into the heart of Fantasyland, and then backtracked back to Space Mountain.
Which would have been fine. If it wasn’t like 91 degrees with like 87% humidity.
Shizz was hot y’all.
But we did make it to Space Mountain. Like complete heroes.
And while we were in line, we ran into Pluto!!
Sorry. I know. That joke was ruff.
Since there were 7 of us (Me, Myles, Owen, Hannah, Tony, Larissa, and Mia – Nickie ain’t having any of that Space Mountain bullshizz), I was relegated to a spaceship by my lonesome. But here, look, here is everyone else that has friends.
And that was kind of our only Early Entry ride because by the time we got off, it was after 9AM. But no worries y’all – We all had Lightning Lane Multi-Passes and I had a 9:20 Lightning Lane already booked for Haunted Mansion.
At this point, though? It wasn’t quite 9:20 so on the way over to Liberty Square, we met up with Nickie to hop on the happiest cruise that ever sailed.
..
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Small World. We went on It’s a Small World.
See? Look – I called it that. I am a Disney adult.
Oh ha – I just remembered what I did for pics on Small World this time around. I made the conscious decision for some reason to ONLY take pictures of animals.
Why?
Don’t you question me. It’s my blog. I am a god here.
Well eh, I almost took pictures of only animals. Our boat stopped for a little while in the white room at the end, right underneath these creeps.
They kept bobbing up and down right next to us. And like, I am not usually afraid of these dolls coming to life, pretending to give me my paper boat but instead pulling me into the sewer and dragging me down to see the deadlights but today? Today I was kind of afraid of that.
I also did get my first glimpse of my MagicBand+ doing something cool – it lit up in all different colors when we were in the room with all the different language “goodbyes.”
Money well spent.
With Small World behind us, but the song living on in our heads rent-free, it was time to make it over to Liberty Square for our 9:20 Haunted Mansion Lightning Lane. And on the way? SMEEEEEEE. Just chillin out there.
Let’s. Get. Spooky.
I so go back and forth on which Haunted Mansion building I prefer – Disneyland’s or Walt Disney World’s. Today, I was really feeling the mansion here, just sort of beckoning off in the distance.
Spooktacular.
And once we all tapped our MagicBands in, I was able to start making more Lightning Lane reservations, tiers be damned. Which was exciting. But honestly, I don’t fully remember which ones I ended up making at this point. On account of I am a very talented blogger.
Annnyway tho. Haunted Mansion. Remains one of the best.
Remains one of the best rides to ride, that is. Not the best for the pictures.
Weren’t those great?
As you might be able to tell from those grainy, wait-are-these-from-a-security-cam-and-not-actually-someone-who-owns-a-camera-made-after-1940, photos, I rode with Tony. Now, Tony is not the biggest fan of being scared of things. So as we were making our way through the graveyard scene, he asked after a head popped up from behind a gravestone and made him jump slightly, “Are there any other jump scares?”
To which I replied, “No” with a smirk he could not see on account of how dark it was.
He sort of seemed to believe me, but he did keep an unflinching watch out the left side of our doom buggy for any potential scares, leaving his right side unguarded. As we moved past gravestone after gravestone, singing bust after singing bust, I thought to myself, “it’s now or never, old friend.”
And as the fat lady singing started to come into view, I made my move. Quickly extending my right hand to his right shoulder and yelling “BOO!”
Tony jumped and shrieked like I’ve never seen a grown man jump and shriek, hitting his head on the top of the Doom Buggy in the process.
Hilarious times, my friends. Hilarious times.
You can see his terror building in this on-ride photo from earlier in the ride.
I’m a really good friend, you guys.
Following the Haunted Mansion, we did have a Lightning Lane booked for Pirates of the Caribbean – sort of a 1,2 classic Disney punch situation – but unforch, the ride was down. Which meant they gave us an anytime Lightning Lane to use on another attraction within the same tier as Pirates. We decided to just let it lie for a bit and go see the newly-updated Country Bear Musical Jamboree.
Let’s head into Grizzly Hall, y’all.
So right. Updated. Basically, Disney went ahead and refurb’ed all the animatronics and also replaced the original songs with some well-loved Disney songs. And also with “Try Everything” by Shakira.
Actually? I love “Try Everything” but Myles, Owen, and Hannah don’t. And I was just trying to look cool.
I can’t bear to be thought of as lame.
So right. I kind of LOVE the update. Disney fans are all so resistant to change and what not, but I dunno – I thought the animatronics looked great and to see Grizzly Hall completely full of people singing along to Disney favorites like “A Whole New World” and “The Bare Necessities” is like my kind of Disney.
We were all ready for a treat after all that singing along so we walked on over to Aloha Isle to get some pineapple-y goodness.
And I am sure you’re all assuming, “Oh big whoop. You got a Dole Whip.”
But you know what they say happens when you assume?
It makes you look like a stupid idiot.
At least I think that’s how it goes.
But right – I DID NOT get a Dole Whip. I actually got a Tropical Serenade (Passion-Orange-Guava Juice, Coconut Soft-serve, and an Upside-down Pineapple Cake Pop), which is kind of GOAT status.
The whole thing works well together – the coconut ice cream, the juice, the cake pop – but I mean, the coconut soft serve is kind of the star here. That ice cream is SO GOOD.
Wait, you say you don’t like coconut?
George Bailey. I’ll love you til the day I die.
And while we were enjoying our sweet treats, Pirates of the Caribbean opened back up!!!
Technically, we still had that anytime Lightning Lane we could have used for Pirates but since the attraction had just opened back up, we decided to brave the standby line. It looked pretty long from the outside…
…we were pretty sure that was just because the doors had just opened and we would move pretty quickly through it. And afterwards, we would still have an anytime Lightning Lane. Just chillin.
And I mean – we got in line at around 11AM and were in our boat by 12:20. So, like I’d call that a win.
And while Haunted Mansion is not all that conducive to photo-taking, Pirates is a pretty photogenic situation.
It’s always kind of an internal debate for me – Pirates vs. Mansion. But while I do love Haunted Mansion so very much, I think I more often than not give the edge to Pirates. Mainly because boat > Doom Buggy. But both are good times.
At this point, we were approaching noon which usually means high heat / high crowds. So we made the decision to exit the park at this point and have lunch back at the Polynesian. But don’t you fret. We’ll be back Magic Kingdom.
So stop. With the fretting.
On the way out, I snapped a picture of the Emporium. Cuz she’s pretty.
To the monorail!
We took the monorail to the Transportation and Ticket Center (TTC) and walked back to the resort rather than ride the monorail all the way back to the Polynesian.
Why did we do this? Because Myles had the idea this might be easier.
Was it easier? Is that your question?
Are you asking me if it was easier to walk in the blazing midday sun back to our room rather than sit in sort-of-kind-of A/C and wait for the monorail to get back to the resort?
Doy.
But we did make it. And that’s all that matters. The plan was to get our bathing suits on and have lunch at the pool. And then go in the pool. And then swim in the pool. And then get out. And then dry off.
We had a lot of plans.
Our room was right next door to the quiet Oasis pool, which worked out since that also meant we were right next door to the Oasis Bar & Grill. For those not aware, Bar = drinkz and Grill = foodz. Two things we desperately wanted.
A cool thing about the Oasis Bar & Grill is that it counts as a quick-service meal credit but they have waitstaff to bring you your food. That’s like one of those life hacks or something. We found an open table and our waitress took our orders.
I ordered a Rose Gold Margarita (Lunazul Reposado Tequila and Cointreau with flavors of Mango, Guava and Ginger) for my drink.
SOOOOO good you guys. And so pretty too, right?
To start, we ordered some Fried Wonton Chips with Spicy Duck Sauce.
Surprisingly good stuff there. LURVED that spicy duck sauce. And in case you were wondering – everything tastes good dipped in it. Like, burgers, fries, chicken tenders. All of it. We researched that. For you.
For lunch, a few people ordered the Grilled Chicken Avocado Wrap (with Lettuce, Tomato and Garlic Ranch Dressing) with Fries.
Which everyone seemed to enjoy. I didn’t get to try it so I have no opinion.
But what I DO have an opinion of is the Angus Chuck Cheddar Cheeseburger (with Cheddar, Lettuce, Onion, Tomato, and Pickle) with Fries that I ordered.
You.
Guys.
This was SUCH a good burger. Cooked perfectly, super juicy, all kinds of flavorful. I just remember being like…
Five stars. Recommend.
I also did finish off my meal with a Tito’s and Soda.
Which I mean. Obvs was good.
Post-meal, the pool was calling us.
And right. It hadn’t been even close to 45 minutes. But cramps be damned. We had some swimming to do.
By swimming, I mean just sort of standing there in the water drinking a beer. Wait though. I also read for a little bit too. Drinking a beer.
But while I was reading, I noticed how sparkly my toes were looking in the sun and I tried my best to capture it. Because I am a ridiculous person.
Yup. More feet. For the freaks.
We probably spent about an hour at the pool. Two hours if you include lunch.
At close to 3PM, though, we decided it was probably time to pack up and start getting ready for dinner.
Ha, just kidding, we decided it was time to hit the bar.
We walked on over to the Tambu Lounge at the Great Ceremonial Hall.
Because while, yes, in my last post I said I have kind of been leaning more towards the Backscratcher as my Polynesian drink of choice, you know we still loving that Lapu Lapu life.
For those that don’t know, a Lapu Lapu is Planteray Original Dark Rum, Orgeat (Almond), and Tropical Fruit Juices topped with Goslings 151 Proof Black Seal Rum. And as you can see in the picture, thing is served in a legit full pineapple.
So I mean. It’s kind of healthy. If you think about it.
Or if you don’t think about it.
One of those.
Now we were ready to head up and get ready for dinner. I took zero pictures of this. But I mean, to be fair, I had a whole pineapple in one hand. How did you expect me to both get ready AND take pictures?
Hurr durr.
By 4:15, we were on a monorail back to the Magic Kingdom. As evidenced by this picture of Nickie and Larissa. With um. With juice in their Tommy Bahama Disney Corkcicles.
Yup. Juice. Mia and Tony 100% approved of this juice.
Wait hold up…when we got to the gate, we stumbled on a real life model photo shoo…
Oh wait. It’s Hannah!
And it’s Myles!!
Annnnd we couldn’t let Hannah and Myles have all the photoshoot “look at me” fun. So we asked a PhotoPass photographer perched to indulge our vanity. I mean, we couldn’t let all this go to waste.
She even got all fancy on us with Larissa’s ears and a magic shot.
And being the total snacks we were, we continued this paparazzi-palooza on Main Street with the PhotoPass photographer there.
And ah look!! STITCH!!!
I mean. Live-action Stitch. But still….STITCH!!!
Dinner was a little ways off at this point. So like, journey with us…to tomorrow!!
Land!!!
Tomorrowland!!!
First stop – The Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover!
And for some reason, the Falzones ended up in one train and the rest of us ended up in another. I say “for some reason” because there were three Falzones and five of us.
Also. When I say “for some reason” I actually mean “because of Myles” as he was kind of directing everyone to their seats with a very odd certainty as to how this all should go.
We crammed our five people very snugly into our train.
While the Falzones had a nice comfortable trip.
I’m obvs squad being dramatic. I love the PeopleMover so much.
And it did its job. We were people. And it moved us.
Physically, of course.
But emotionally as well. I mean we really grew as people on that ride. Transformative experience.
Also shout out Paging Mr. Morrow.
Once we were done being moved as people, we made the short walk over to Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin.
Alas, I DID NOT achieve Galactic Hero status but know that I am a hero in the eyes of…
…
My kids?
…
My wife??
…
Myself?
…
Hrm. I swear there was someone.
Anyway, it’s dinner time.
Dinner tonight was over in Liberty Square so it was a walk across the hub to get there. Which meant we got another look at this girl.
Since we were heading over to Liberty Square, I am sure some of you Disney’ers knew exactly where we were going for dinner tonight. On account of it’s like a Magic Kingdom favorite.
We were having dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern!!
Liberty Tree Tavern is an all-you-care-to-enjoy sort of restaurant with everything served family-style. And yeah, guys. It’s a fave squad.
Here’s a look at the menu.
Our meal started off with those rull good Liberty Tree rolls.
These rolls are legendary situations. Like, I don’t know if you guys remember Myles’s and Owen’s friend Liam from previous posts or not, but that dude? He LOVES these rolls.
And the rolls were served with the Declaration Salad (Mixed Greens, Apples, Cranberries, and Cheese tossed with our House-made Dressing).
So look. I don’t get all that excited about many salads. I am a firm believer in the old maxim that you, in fact, don’t win friends with salad.
But I get why this thing is called a “Declaration” salad because I do declare that this salad is delicious. That dressing just sort of slaps to a high degree. It’s such a simple salad but that dressing really elevates it. Two thumbs up.
I also started off my meal with a cold Bud Light.
Let’s get on with the main event though. Bring on the gluttony.
As I said, this meal is an all-you-care-to-enjoy experience served family style, which means they bring out heaps and heaps of food and if you need more of anything, you just ask.
Spoiler alert – we asked.
But yeah check this whole mess out.
Up there you have some Roasted Turkey, Pot Roast, and Oven-roasted Pork with Cranberry Sauce.
And this all was served with sides of Mashed Potatoes, Herbed Stuffing, and Seasonal Vegetables (we had Green Beans).
And some Macaroni and Cheese which, rightfully so, got its own bowl to shine like the star she is.
I pretty much dig everything here, though the pork is always a little dry. In terms of the main three meats, the turkey is fine but the pot roast is definitely the leader of the meat pack. And allllll the sides are legit. I probably ate more stuffing and mac and cheese than anything else, but they all pulled their weight.
They also pulled my weight. In the up direction.
Look at Nickie and Larissa. They were happy!
Was that because of the food? The wine? I’ll never tell.
…
…
Also, it was the wine.
I was also happy.
Even though I do kinda feel like I was giving off Robert-DeNiro-in-Casino vibes.
“Back Home, They Would Have Put Me In Jail For What I’m Doing But Out Here, They’re Giving Me Awards.”
That quote feels very relevant to the amount of food-eating I was doing. It felt real illegal.
And thing are about to get even more happy time. On account of it was dessert time. And Liberty Tree continues to hit hard here too – their dessert is all kinds renowned. Behold the Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake (Vanilla Toffee Cake, Chocolate Sauce, and Vanilla Ice Cream).
Oh guys, this dessert. It’s like soooooo good. I mean, look back at that description. Of course its good.
After dinner, we walked outside to a pretty threatening sky. I also took this opportunity to snap a picture of the Liberty Belle Riverboat and the Rivers of America since next time we get down here, this whole thing is gonna be gone.
I know I only rode you like once or twice, but I will miss taking pictures of you Liberty Belle.
When I was making everyone’s Lightning Lane reservations for today, the one I wanted to ensure we all got was Tiana’s Bayou Adventure on account of this was a new attraction for most of us. I ended up getting a Lightning Lane for after dinner so it was finally time!
We made the short walk over to Frontierland.
But like I said, the sky was threatening tonight and it had started to sprinkle here and there so we were a little worried we wouldn’t be getting on. It was still operating, though, as we were walking over. I know this because I was checking my app like constantly. We made it to the attraction by 7:00PM…
…and just as we were about to walk over to the Lightning Lane check-in, I got a notification that my Lightning Lane had switched over to an anytime Lightning Lane, signaling the ride was not operating due to bad weather on the horizon.
Womp-a-domp.
With Tiana’s not happening and the weather not looking great, most members of our party decided to call it a night but a few of us (me, Myles, Owen, and Hannah) decided to stay.
First stop – Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room, one of my personal favorites.
I love the Country Bears and all, but I give the edge to the Tiki Room every time.
It’s where all the birds sing words.
AND the flowers croon.
The sky was looking cray you guys. I snapped this on our way over to Fantasyland.
But Nickie also took a couple on the monorail back to the Polynesian.
Both pretty and scary at the same time. Like Huda on Love Island USA.
Right, so like I said, we were on our way to Fantasyland. To stop in at one of my favorite attractions – Mickey’s Philharmagic.
Man oh man – I love me some Mickey’s Philharmagic. It’s like one of those attractions that just sort of always brings me back to our early-stage Disney trips. We have been taking Myles and Owen to Walt Disney World since 2007 and this one opened up in 2005 so it’s like that attraction I heavy connect to our old-school trips.
Also, have you actually visited Mickey’s Philharmagic if you didn’t take a picture like this?
While we were in Mickey’s Philharmagic, we could literally hear the storm raging. Nickie also captured it as they were walking back to the room.
And yeah, it was crazy out there. Those of us still in the park donned our ponchos and raincoats and were left with a decision – stay and brave the storm? Or leave. And brave the storm?
And guys, the ponchos. They did nothing. I was SOAKED. So I left the kids to head down Main Street. I wanted to check in at Guest Services to see if there was anything we could do to recoup on that Tiana’s Lightning Lane we couldn’t use because of the weather. I went in with no expectations but figured it couldn’t hurt to try.
The sky continued to be kind of a crazy person.
Myles, Hannah, and Owen trekked over to Tomorrowland for another ride on Space Mountain.
And they did…this.
They sure did. They did…that.
There was a line at Guest Services for sure, but it moved real quick. And I gotta say, I really wish I could remember the cast member’s name that helped me. Because she was like some sort of angel. I explained our situation to her – buckle in. Story time.
I told her we had booked Tiana’s a while back for our whole group and the rain stopped us from enjoying it. But there was more – our next day at the Magic Kingdom had us hanging with a lot more people. The Pittmans (Steph, Mikey, Sophia, and Scarlett) were going to be there and had their own Tiana’s Lightning Lane booked. Also, Jeff and Shannon (my brother and niece) would be there too and they had no Lightning Lanes beyond the one we all had for Tron. And in addition to all of this? Hannah was going to be gone by Saturday so this was her only day at the Magic Kingdom.
So this cast member you guys. She not only gave us an anytime Lightning Lane for Tiana’s for Saturday, but she also gave Jeff and Shannon one as well, which meant we could all ride together. She also extended our existing anytime Lightning Lane so we could use that on Saturday as well. Annnnnnd since Myles, Hannah, Owen, and Mia were going to Animal Kingdom tomorrow, she got them all a Dinosaur Lightning Lane to use to make up for Hannah not being able to experience Tiana’s.
Amaze.
And just as I was finishing up at Guest Services, the kids were on their way out, which meant we could all meet up for the monorail ride back. That’s quite a series of awesome events.
We were on the monorail by 9:15 and back in the room shortly thereafter. And not much happened beyond that. Looking at this picture, I assume I poured myself some bourbon (we had a bottle of Bib and Tucker in the room) and watched some basketball before going to bed.
And that was kind of it you guys. Day 4 was pretty great, right? I kind of loved Day 4.
4 Real.
Hope to see you all at Day 5!!
Or whatever.
You do you.
I ain’t thirsty.
…
…
Just kidding.
PLEASE read it?
Last post – Day 3!
Next post – Day 5!
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