Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

Welcome Tiggerific Tuesday Trivia blog hoppers.  Thanks again to Jodi from  +Magical Mouse Schoolhouse , Heidi from  +Heidi's Head , and  +Mike Ellis  for co-hosting! Let's imagine for a second that you wake up five minutes from now to find yourself on a Disney Cruise ship. How can you tell which one you are on? You could just ask one of the cast members, but where is the fun in that? Thinking back to the art of the theme show tour , you remember that the different ships embrace one of two differing art styles. That'd narrow it down to fifty-fifty on your guess of ship, and that's good enough for me. Can you guess or remember what art styles the ships pull their themes from? I'll get to that answer in a bit.  Much like the way that Main Street USA hearkens back to an idealized version of 1910 mid-western Main Streets of Walt Disney's childhood, the exterior look of all of the Disney fleet draw from that  golden age of the ocean liner.  Disney Mag

I really, really am looking forward to my vacation! My dear husband is out of town for work this week and within an hour of him leaving for the airport, our A/C went out. Just as an FYI for you northerners, it's still in the 90's with late afternoon thunder showers down in my part of Texas, so this is more than just an inconvenience. It got me thinking about the way that I just relax once I'm on board. My Happy Place How once I arrive everything is easy and the hardest decision I make all week involve whether the kids eat breakfast before or after swimming. Or both. How I don't even need to make my own bed and towels mysteriously appear clean and folded into cute critters nightly. How room service caters to my preschoolers whimsical eating schedule. How much Monday at Disney is a "WHOOP! IT'S MONDAY!" And wondering if I can recapture a bit of that through Mickey-ing up my Mondays. Mickey Waffle Monday! I applied for the Disney Parks Moms Panel

I excused myself to the hall to wrestle with technology and just generally start walking in the direction of the Club/Lab (since they were probably the ones trying to get ahold of me). It ended up Kylee almost  had an accident.   She made it just barely in time but got a little (insert body fluid euphemism here) on the lower part of one legging (still not exactly sure how that’s possible, but Kylee’s talented.) So the counselors had procured spare shorts for her to wear back to get changed in her room and then come back to the club. (Yay!) So I took her to get changed out of her top and skirt and leggings (no jacket!   Pretty sure this is when and where it was lost forever) and into a different top and leggings. I made it back to the Studio in time to see Ernesto’s M&M cream sauce risotto with beef medallions crush Sergei’s sweet potato mash, cheese shell, turkey creation (which had very high marks for presentation, but did not utilize the M&Ms in as many components of the dish

I think that the magic of a Disney vacation exists in three wonderful parts: the dreaming of planning, the pixie dust moments during trip itself and the memories you take with you for years to come. Since I can't live in the Cinderella Castle Suite or even on property year round, pictures help bring a bit of the fairytale back into my everyday life. In my enthusiastic pursuit of remembering the Magic, I take hundreds of my own pictures every vacation and hope to share a bit of my experience with you. Get curious with your iPhone's camera options and you will stumble across the option labeled simply "grid." I highly recommend you flip that option to the on position. Grid on "Okay, what's the big deal?" you say.  "Now I get to take pictures while looking at them with stripes. Is it supposed to help me center the frame or something?" Well no, not exactly. The grid is marking out thirds across the visual space that will be your

Welcome Foodie Friday Blog Hoppers! French Fries Location: Pluto's Dog House, The Disney Magic Cost: FREE! (Included in cruise fare) You climbed stairs all the way from deck three to deck nine, forgoing perfectly good elevators in an effort for mom and dad to offset all the yummy food. It's late afternoon; you emerge onto the open deck; you are starving from all the stair climbing.  The aroma washes over you.  French Fries!!! Now if you are my daughter (three at the time), you run over to Pluto's Dog House and hold your little hands over the counter to indicate that you are there. (Your braids still do not reach over the bottom of the counter, so this measure is actually necessary.)  Then ask for "Fries PLEASE!" They hand a basket across the counter of fresh, warm, salty perfect French fries. "Mom. Can I have an apple?" Never what occurs to mom when she has fries, but you're much more experimental with your food. Dip, Dip, Dip Y

As you may have guessed with a blog called "Adventures in the Great Wide Somewhere", I am a big fan of Beauty and the Beast ! Belle reigned as my favorite Disney princess for years and Beauty and the Beast the Musical goes down as one of the musicals I regret not being able to perform back in my musical theatre days. I always wondered about where this lovely story came from and after a bit of digging, and some fun with google translate, I am pleased to announce a brief history of the classic tale, La Belle et la Bête. So brush up your French and pull up a chair for the origins of this Disney classic! The fairytale storybook in the queue for Enchanted Tales with Belle is the French version of Cinderella, not Beauty and the Beast Once upon a time, in the eighteenth century a former school teacher and governess by the name of France Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont set aside her writing of popular moralistic novels to publish magazine collections of educational and mo

Welcome Wordless Wednesday Blog Hoppers! Once upon a time...

Welcome back for more fantastic Disney Trivia!  Thanks again to Jodi from  +Magical Mouse Schoolhouse , Heidi from  +Heidi's Head , and  +Mike Ellis  for co-hosting!   There's something a little bit unusual about the Disney Cruise Line. Something about the pools. Something you wouldn't necessarily notice if you mostly use the pool deck for sunning and French fries. Can you guess what is different about the pool water on the Disney ships? Whee! While most of the cruise ship industry employs salt water in their onboard pools, Disney decided to use chlorinated fresh water instead. And the water is heated. Disney is in the details and these little extras ensure that my kids enjoy splashing away in the dead of winter. Closed at night for cleaning.   Just something to think about next time you're lounging around poolside.

Before taking to the high seas, fear of seasickness stood between me and enjoying anticipating the my first taste of Disney Cruise Line. Mal de Mer held the potential of ruining our first child free vacation in years. Not that either of us knew for certain if we would even experience seasickness. As a kid, I got carsick at every turn practically, but at least I grew out of that and thankfully never got airsick. IMAX movies and the planetarium usually involved large parts where I would close my eyes to make the moving stop. Once I did get pregnant, morning sickness and vertigo became my new best friends. The one bright and shining spot in my gastronomic fortitude? Amusement park rides and foods that make others lose their lunch.  I gleefully polished off a funnel cake and hopped right on Mission: Space or finished off a cotton candy and hopped into a teacup at the Mad Tea Party. Not the slightest problem. I hoped my stomach believed the Wonder qualified as a ride. I packed every co

More than they care about frostbite. So I woke up extra early this morning to take some pictures around the ship of all of the cool things I’d learned about during the Art of the Theme Tour on Thursday, and of course, to put in five miles on deck four.   I really think that anyone could be a runner and learn to love it if they could run on a beautiful ship in the middle of the ocean during early morning and stretch at sunrise. I got a quick picture on the way out of our stateroom of the lovely FE that Jen of Stitches N Bows put together for us. (Thanks!   It’s exactly what I’d wanted!)   And an extra photo to show our pretty little Thanksgiving foliage inspired magnets, courtesy of me and all that free time I allegedly had since Chris was in Kindergarten. Then I headed up to deck ten for some nighttime stack pictures.     And of course a Mickey Pool picture or two…     And I also took some pictures of the lovely Chihuly chandelier from my