Adventure In The Great Wide Somewhere

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. One of the wonderful ways to bring simple emphasis to a photograph is to capture the patterns around you.  Thankfully Walt Disney World, in it's attention to details, leaves beautiful patterns everywhere. Repeating lifeboats around the Promenade Deck. Reflective tiled floor patterns. Sorcerer's Apprentice Broom, multiplied   “I do not like to repeat success, I like to go on to other things.” ~Walt Disney So get out there, make mistakes, try a ...

Welcome Favorite Food Friday Blog Hoppers! Gluten Free Muffin and Donut Plate Location: Animator's Palate, The Disney Magic Cost: Complimentary with cruise fare   We left our stateroom neat and tidy that morning, carrying only a single backpack down to wander deck four to watch the dock workers scurry about their business below. Huge crates of bananas, apples, and other produce waited in orderly rows as the enormous bins of luggage stuffed chock full of a weeks worth of memories exited from the lower decks. Our perambulating eventually interrupted by the realization that our tummies may need a spot of tea, or better yet a full breakfast. Rejoining our familiar servers and selecting our favorites for the meal, Chris suddenly looked down as his eyes brimmed with tears.  He hated this part. This would be the day of "sad last breakfast." Now only one thing lifts the doldrums of "sad last breakfast."  Okay, one thing aside from knowing that we al...

Did you know each of the four Disney ships is watched over by an official fairy godmother? While other cruise lines make due with (non fairy) godmothers, Disney designated Patty Disney the first fairy godmother at the christening of the Disney Magic in 1998 . Her husband, Roy O. Disney shares godparent duties as the only designated "godfather" of a Disney vessel. The Disney Wonder followed in 1999 with a first, as Tinker Bell became the first animated character to be the fairy godmother of a vessel. The Disney Dream launched in 2011. Jennifer Hudson , who began her professional singing career aboard the Wonder, filled the fairy Godmother slot this time around. Mariah Carey took up godmother duties at the Big Apple christening of the Disney Fantasy in spring 2012. If they launch another ship who do you think should be sprinkling the pixie dust?

I have never...as a kid on my first afternoon of sleep away camp those words opened the door to a whole world of friendships and revelations. There are simply a load of things I have never ever done or hope to do. For the sake of brevity, we're going to stick to Disney and for the sake of my wrists and fingers, we'll be limiting today's post only to attractions at the World. Disclaimer!!! This I Have Never was inspired by Melissa Sue, so here's a pixie dust thank you to: Melissa Sue's  post Never Have I Ever Post she was inspired by Katherine Katherine of Food Fitness Fantasy who wrote about those things she's never done at the World  on the inspiration of Sarah Sarah of Running at Disney  had blogged originally about parts of EPCoT that were new to her . Please Blog Hop on over and check out their posts too!   My first trip or two we tried to hit every single "original" attraction that my mom remembered from her childhood trips to Walt Dis...

If you are a fan of the Limited Edition Disney Store Exclusive Halloween costumes, it may not be too early. During D23, the new Snow White Fairytale Designer dress costume for adults released in a limited edition of 100 (not a typo, just 100). This magically detailed costume, resplendent in golden embroidery on velvet, satin and sequins is available online through the Disney Store.   $349.95 (also unfortunately, not a misprint) I love all the tiny embroidered details and will proudly don this gown for my Halloween 2014 cruise. My birthday is in September.  Size 4. Just saying. Sadly they are already out of my size.  If you're more into leaving the fancy dress up clothes to your little princess, the Limited Edition Ariel also released (Limited Edition of 2500.) Last year, Kylee enjoyed her Limited Edition Rapunzel Wedding dress practically to death. The Limited edition, although $149.95, are beautifully finished and in our experience, have excelle...

weenie (plural weenies) 1.(diminutive) A hot dog, wiener, wurst or sausage, often cut into pieces for children. Or a canine in the Texas sun.  2.(slang) A nerd. Totally geeking out meeting Marisol, the DCL Mom 3.(slang) Someone considered weak, shy, cowardly or unimportant. Chris being uncharacteristically shy around Minnie Mouse 4. (Disney term) Something to draw a guest into the park experience much like a pet trained with pieces of hot dog. See also Cinderella Castle, Spaceship Earth, etc. A ship model of the Disney Magic toward the latter part of the terminal and the Mickey head entry to the gangway draw guests toward the far end of the terminal.   part of the Disney Wordless Wednesday blog hop

So take a good hard look at the hull of the Disney Magic. Despite the original intent to match the red, yellow and black of Mickey Mouse during the design of the Magic and Wonder, they settled on a color known as "Monica Blue." In using a blue rather than a black, they reduce the cooling costs and let the ship "breathe." As the Art of the Theme Show Tour explains, this color originated from a pair of slacks one of the imagineers' secretarys named Monica wore to a meeting during the hunt for the perfect not too dark but not too blue shade. This dark blue can be found in many of the interior furnishings as well.  On the classic ships, the porthole seats on deck three as well as the chairs in the Promenade Lounge both sport Monica Blue. Now you know!

I sat drenched in stale sweat, tired and sore from carrying my four year old brother on my back as we trudged from the last ride to our appointed parade and fireworks positions. Briefly resting on the curb at the hub as we pushed through our tenth hour in the parks, my slightly melted Reeboks tipped up to allow my feet to uncramp into a more natural position. As the eldest of four, my dual roles as carrier and occasional navigator helped our military strike team of "vacationers" hit every single ride in the Magic Kingdom in clockwise order, hopefully without contributing to the inevitable whining of the younger kids in a single day. Several years later, on the occasion of our Disneymoon, my new husband came away amazed and shocked that you can hit almost everything in any given park in a single day as he hadn't been raised in a " Dumbo or Die " style Disney family. As a matter of fact, he hadn't even heard of a Disney Commando or that this vacationi...

 After picking up pointers from Marisol, I finally let her go enjoy her cruise. We picked up the kiddos and took them back to the room for some rest and snacks. While they play with them endlessly, the counselors don't feed snacks in the clubs. If we hadn't picked them up they would've gotten hungry and super grump-tastic. I talked to a very kind lady at the room service number, who said that we couldn't order vegan cookies through room service. Well I knew (based on previous Disney trips) that perhaps I'd only caught the wrong cast member. I called right back and got someone else who said they'd be delighted to make us a plate of cookies, but that it takes a couple hours since they don't keep allergy free foods on hand. I asked if we could just order a plate for four the following afternoon. She said yes. But the kids still needed snack...so I ordered Chris his first ever Mickey Bar as well as one for Ben and a bowl of fruit for Kylee and me to split....

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. One of the first things you learn when taking pictures is that, ideally, the light should be relatively behind you and your subject in front of you. In this way the light shines on the subject and you get a clearer view of whomever you are photographing. Which is nice idea most of the time but sometimes, it's a good idea to take a trip to the dark side. At the beginning of this basketball game, I took a few action shots of Chris shooting some hoops. Nothing is really...

Welcome Favorite Food Friday Blog Hoppers! Tomato, Marinated Tofu and Micro Green Salad with Asparagus and Cantaloupe Spears Location: Palo onboard the Disney Magic Cost: $20 for entire meal. Plus, of course, cost of cruise. Wait!  Don't leave!  I know I said tofu and salad, but look at the picture then come back up and read! Did you look? Okay, then on with the review. Since it is super hot and late summer, I was looking through my old trip photos for a meal that is both cool and refreshing as well as filling. This more than fits the bill. Since I went vegan over two years ago, I have eaten extremely well at Disney both on land and by sea. Although all the Disney chefs I have met seem eager to rise to the occasion of an alternative diet, one particular plate stands out as the most visually stunning. On May 2, 2013 I had the privilege of dining in Palo the adults only restaurant during our eight night itinerary. Chef Silvio Jr., head chef at Palo, pr...

Monday morning, aka sea day take two, I decided against going for a run (shock! horrors!) and instead slept in for a teeny tiny bit. In the interest of hopefully keeping the kiddos sleeping and not up and hungry before our turn at Mickey’s Island Jam Breakfast. Now we knew to expect a character breakfast, but not when exactly, so I poked around until I found the line on the bottom of our dining tickets…oh. See the teeny tiny print at the bottom? Really obvious once you’ve seen it, but is really tiny if you didn’t know it was there. Anyway we had plenty of time to get dressed and wander around to take a couple pictures as we waited for breakfast… Oh, look it’s all of us with Helmsman Mickey! Yep. And then we headed into Parrot Cay for some breakfast. And what do you do after you order food and you’re waiting around for Mickey and his friends to show up? You take some goofy photos. Total spaz moment Show me how you'll smile when Mickey get here! I wish ...