Disney Meet Ups

So yesterday we attended another London Pin Meet/Trade event. I guess there was a good ten of us that met up in front of the Disney Store in Westfield Mall in London (Shepards Bush) and after buying up all their pins that were realsed that morning, we headed to a little cafe set up in the centre of the mall. We sat out all of our pins and Vinyls along a table and began to Ooh & Aah at each others collections.

It was nice to see the pin gang again and do some swaps, Mark more so than I, although I did trade for a pin for one of his Christmas presents and Gage a big Stitch with a glittery American Flag. 🙂

After this event went to Oxford Circus area for a meet with the London WDW Radio group. We had the downstairs floor of Candy Cakes all to ourselves and had some cake, a raffle and skyped with Lou Mongello of WDW Radio of course! From the raffle Mark won a lovely framed pin set, I got a 2004 Not So Scary pin and Gage won a £10 gift voucher for the Disney Store. It was lovely to meet new people and swap stories and holiday plans. From there we all headed to the Oxford Street Disney Store, to which I was the ‘tour guide’ holding up the D23 Expo fan to be sure everyone could see where we were heading. Emma, the events coordinator, had organised a group tour of the store which was fab. We were all given paper Mickey & Minnie ears, had a lovely group photo in front of the new Lion King display and were taken all around the store with lots of nifty interactive things pointed out to us as we went along. We played with the enchanted mirror which shows you your favorite Princess when you wave her wand in front of it and learned how to draw Simba.

It really was a lovely but tiring day out and I look forward to next time.

Happy Easter Everyone!

I know its been a long time since I’ve posted anything, but there’s just not that much going on at the moment. Our summer vacation is all booked up thanks to Vicki at MouseFan Travel. Hotels and ADRs are all sorted out, my convertible is booked for the two weeks my son and I have in Alabama before hitting WDW. Now we’re just waiting to hear about any dessert parties and such going on.

At WDW we are  staying at Port Orleans Riverside this time as I loved the French Quarter trip before last. Being from Alabama I just love that real southern look of Port Orleans, makes me feel at home. And after having two weeks in Alabama, having a week at Riverside will be lovely! We’ve got tickets for La Nouba in DD which Mark has seen but Gage has never been to Cirque and I’ve not seen La Nouba so this will be a real treat. We’re planning on giving Earl of Sandwich a try that day as well. Have you eatten there? What did you think of it? So what all do we have ADRs for…

Finally going to have table service at Yak & Yetti! We love the counter service foods but have really been wanting to get inside to enjoy even more food and some lovely decor. I’m leaning towards the Crispy Honey Chicken or Stir-Fried Beef & Broccoli for my lunch and a Pork Egg Roll and for dessert, the Fried Wontons sound nice as well. 🙂 We’ve also got Chef Mickey’s booked for dinner. Last year we had the character breakfast buffet and loved the service and atmosphere and the characters were all in matching chef outfits which was adorable. Really looking forward to this one! FINALLY got Beaches & Cream booked as well!! Ever since Lou’s Kitchen Sink Challenge during his 24hr vidcast we’ve been wanting to go and have a Kitchen Sink but just never got around to it. Now it’s booked!! I’ve not even looked at their menu, the KS is all I care about! I think the 3 of us will share a KS with a side of fries and that will be our lunch LOL. Another fave, 50s Prime Time is booked for a dinner and I’m looking forward to Aunt Liz’s Golden Fried Chicken again 🙂 We’re finally gonna have a day at Blizzard Beach and have T-Rex booked for dinner that night. I know a lot of people say its tackey, etc. but I love tackey! Plus they have ‘prehistoric pizza’ so we know Gage will be sorted food wise! We’re taking Gage to Ohana’s for breakfast with Stitch as a late birthday treat/surprise and then that night its back to Gage’s favorite place, Whispering Canyon Cafe. Sure there’s nothing on the menu he’ll eat, they do him a PB&J or chicken nuggets specially for him, but he loves the whole “WE NEED KETCHUP!” thing and riding the stick horses. And finally, Le Cellier Steakhouse in EPCOT’s Cananada. Yes I know I mispelt that…for some reason I can’t SAY Canada, it always comes out Cananada, so…

As for Disneyland, we don’t really have anything booked. Things are gonna be so busy with the D23 Expo and we’re sure there will be group events and such so we’re trying to be as flexible as possible. We will be staying at the Grand Californian during the Expo with the other D23ers and then we’ll be at the Paradise Pier which has a rooftop pool.

I am SO looking forward to meeting a lot of friends I’ve made online at the Expo, especially all the WDW Radio peeps. Gage and I were listening to the latest episode of WDW Radio and he sang along with the little intro jingle and I told Gage that we’ll be meeting Lou when we’re at at the Expo and the look on his face was priceless! I’ve even got some ‘business’ cards to hand out to ppl I meet so we can keep in touch. They are very funky 🙂

We are already planning next year’s vacation as well. We’re looking at doing the Disney Alaskan cruise on the Wonder, which is what we were on over Christmas last year, that leaves out of Seattle, I believe its a 7night cruise. It goes to a few ports in Cananada so I better learn to say it properly!  And then we’ll fly across to NYC for a few days there and then board the Disney Magic for the Bahamian Cruise.

And finally, we are thinking of doing the Disney Half Marathon in 2013 and Gage will do the kids marathon which is 400m. Obviously this is something I need to start training for NOW as its 13.1miles. Looking forward to it though! Be so cool to be running around WDW during closed hours, with Characters cheering you on, etc. 🙂 Sounds wonderful!

Count Down and Apology

Firstly for those who read my blog, I wanted to apologise for not having yet finished my latest trip report. This is mainly due to my university home course that I’m doing but I hope to finish it soon for you; especially the food part!

Also we’ve booked our next trip and I’m so excited I want to go now!! We have a week at WDW in August and leaving there to DLR/DCA the week after! I’ve never been to Disneyland before and neither has my son so it’ll be a first for us. I’m also very excited about attending the D23 Expo after being in Lou Mongello’s (chat) box for the majority of last years Expo! We’ve got our plane eTickets and (most likely) this weekend we’ll be booking our Disney Resorts and making our ADRs 🙂

Christmas on the Wonder and New Years in the Studios (P1)

Well after having two flights cancelled on us, we finally got off the ground and to Orlando after a few hours layover in Chicago. We checked into the Carribbean Beach Resort at 2am Tuesday…a good 26hr journey and without much sleep. Also managed to catch a lunar eclipse as we got settled into our room which was awesome as I’ve seen a solar eclipse but never a lunar.

Anyway, so we get into our room which was like 15ft from the areas bus stop…Sweeeeet! and it is awesome! We chose a Pirate themed room and it was just nifty!

The chest of drawers were chests and the fridge was a barrel…very well themed. We finally get settled and get off to sleep so we can face MK (Magic Kingdom) early in the morning.

Our first stop was to get to the ticket office and purchase our Annual Passes (for both DLR and WDW). I’ve not seen a smile on my husband’s face that big in a long time! You’d think he’d just won the lottery!

Mark and our Annual Passes

From there we entered Main Street USA, took lots of photos and headed to Its A Small World which is our 7yr old son’s (Gage) favorite ride. We met Peter Pan who was the first to sign Mark’s Vinylmation for this trip (he plans to do one for each trip) and Lady Trumane, Anastasia and Drusilla who signed my black ‘Villan’ Vinylmation.

Gage infront of Its A Small World

We stayed in Fantasyland doing Dumbo, Pooh Bear, Haunted Mansion, the River Boat…had a lovely lunch next to HM at the Columbia Harbour House (counter/quick service) which have GREAT chicken fingers and fish.

Then we headed into Tomorrowland where Gage joined in with Stitch, Chip & Dale at Stitch’s dance party before we hopped aboard the People Mover/TTA. We also bumped into Buzz Lightyear before heading over to watch the Once Upon A Christmas parade which had a preshow of a woman who’d lost her little girl and was running up and down the parade route looking for her, calling her name and asking if anyone had seen a little blonde girl in a pink shirt. As a parent with a small child it was heartbreaking and she did find her, she was fine…but you have to think…just HOW many little blonde girls at WDW are in pink shirts?!

For some reason this parade just didn’t do much for me. Could’ve been we were standing in a tight spot as it was packed and we waited too long to get a space and I was uncomfortable, but really it just seemed to drag on for me. I love parades but this one, I dunno, just didn’t sit right, felt a bit bland I guess. The Marching Soldiers/Nutcrackers were the BEST though!

Donald and Daisy in Once Upon A Christmas Parade

We then hopped aboard the Jungle Cruise and I SWEAR the REAL Santa was in line with us! Complete with a surfing Santa shirt!

REAL Santa!?!?

Of course either after or before the Jungle Cruise you HAVE to have……..say it with me folks…DOLE WHIP!!!

orange whip with pineapple juice

So once we left the park we got a boat to take us to the Poly and we had dinner at Ohana. While waiting for our table to be ready we saw Goofy and Pluto and had our photo taken with Minnie & Mickey. We were so tired our appetites were not up to par but we tried to enjoy the food as best we could.

The waitress brought around some lovely bread and then huge skewers of different meats that are cooked on these spitfires.

Needless to say we had no room to try and tackle this wonderul looking desert…next time! 🙂

On Day 2 we tackle the Studios! After getting there two hours before rope drop…thinking that it opened at 8am and not 9am…we headed up to the front of the crowd and as soon as the rope hit the ground Mark went running (well walking fast right behind the CM in the lead holding ppl back) and was the first person at the Toy Story Mania Fast Pass machines while Gage and I got into the StandBy line. This is basically what you have to do if you want to ride this attraction twice and not wait for 3hrs in line. We were in the like second group out and had passes for within the hour. After this we always head across the way to meet Buzz and/or Woody. That morning it was just Buzz there but on another visit both of the boys were there.

One mission I had, thanks to Lou Mongello, was to find the Writer’s Stop and have a Carrot Cake Cookie. This is a new FAVE hangout of mine now. Its just so quant and nice and comfy…almost like a coffee shop on campus. I could just sit there for ages relaxing. Anyway, this cookie was FAB!! Ok I could’ve shared it but being as neither Mark nor Gage like carrot cake I was happy to keep it all to myself but I found it a little too much due to the richness.

Since everyone gets a kick of photos of me eating....

We then headed to our usual M&G spot in the studios, inside the Art of Animation building (if you want to go straight to the characters go through the exit via the store) and there we met Lotso (yes he really does smell of strawberries; its like he’s eaten a LOAD of Strawberry Shortcake dolls!), Mr Incredible and Frozone and Mickey in his Fantasia outfit. We also went into One Man’s Dream which was loaded with like the history of Disney and Mickey. It was great. Even a mini diorama of “Granny’s Cabin” that Walt made himself.

Me and some original MMC stuff 🙂

We made our way back to the main street for one of the last Block Party Bash parades. Last time we had Toy Story stop in front of us, this time it was Monsters, Inc. also this time Gage was brave enough to get up and dance with the CMs 🙂

Gage dancing with a CM in the BPB parade

We continued on with all the usual attractions that we do, Great Movie Ride, Muppets 4D, Aerosmith, Tower of Terror. Eventually it was time for my favorite park show, Fantasmic! I just think its a great  show but I absolutely LOVE the music!! However, for some reason the snake didn’t move around chasing after Mickey…After that we went for dinner at one of our favorite places…50s Prime Time! Cousin Wendy served us and our cousins from Florida sat next to us. I had Aunt Liz’s Fried Chicken and OMG Aunt Liz makes some DELICIOUS fried chicken!! I also saw that they had Dan Aykroyd’s Chardonnay and I had a glass of that which went RIGHT to my head as always.

Aunt Liz's Fried Chicken

Now this fried chicken, you get HALF a chicken, I was not expecting that but I gobbled it down like no one’s business. It also comes with some lovely mashed potatoes and sweet corn. The meatloaf is also one of our favorites. We both had it last time but only Mark had it this time as I wanted some downhome fried chicken and that’s exactly what I got!

Dad's Traditional Meatloaf

The only complaint I have about the meatloaf is that you just don’t get enough, but I suppose if you asked for more they’d give you some more. But it is just lovely. Very tender and juicy.

 

Me and some of Danny's wine

The desert was also lovely. I had the cheesecake, Mark had the smores (not shmoes) and Gage had the kids ‘make your own sundae’. We were so stuffed though we couldn’t finish our deserts. Which is a shame but OMG that chicken was to DIE for…and well I guess it did. 😛

After dinner we headed over to see the Osbourne Family Lights. We could hear Phineas & Ferb talking and were like “Shit! Where are they?” thinking there was some sort of lighting show going on. But no, it was just an audio of  a ‘radio broadcast’ about the lights and such. It was good though, even Doof had a part. The lights were just amazing! Although at this point I was so sick and tired of hearing Christmas music but the dancing lights along with them were just…WOW!

On with Day 3!

We started the day off with breakfast at Chef Mickey’s at the Contemporary Resort. I was so excited because they had grits and scrambled eggs and biscuits! True I did eat with my eyes too much and put way too much on my plate, but there ya go. Go without some of your fave foods for nearly 2yrs and you just want to bathe in it.

 

scrambled eggs, grits, biscuit and bacon MMMMMMMMM

This place I did finish, the 2nd one was a bit too much, hehe. We really enjoyed this and plan to have dinner there next time. Gage being the fussy eatter he is, does good with buffets and loves fixing his own plate.

During our meal we were visited by Goofy, Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Donald. Mark was talking to Donald who was eyeing up his pin lanyard and when he noticed there were no Donald pins he got very angry. This is one duck who has an ego issue ineed. He put his hand in Mark’s face and demanded that he bow down to him. So Mark got on his knees and did the “I’m not worthy” bow, and that was good enough for Donald.

Mark bowing down to Donald

The food was great and its always wonderful to be in the presence of the Fab Five. What we also loved was that they were all in chef outfits. We love to meet all the characters in different outfits, so much so that we’ll bypass Mickey if we’ve already had our photo with him in ‘that’ outfit on that trip.

After the meal we walked to the MK entrance rather than the monorail as it was a lovely day and the monorail had other stops to make before going to the MK terminal. We went right to ToonTown and let Gage ride Goofy’s Barnstormer as that is one of his fave rides and since it had no line we just walked right on. Then we caught up with Mark in Mickey’s Judging Tent and saw him and Minnie. As always Minnie gave Gage a kiss and Micky was not impressed and told Gage that he was watching him. Shame that they’re going to tear down ToonTown for the Fantasyland expansion. It is such a good area and wonderfully themed. We will miss it. But at least its said that the Barnstormer is staying put.

It was a quick morning in the MK as we had to get back to our resort for the Cruise Line bus to pick us up and take us to Canaveral to board the Disney wonder!

 

Only 2 Days Till Christmas

 

 

Have you heard?

Yes the bird is the word, but that is not what I’m talking about.

I’ve now done two Mousecast Live Radio Shows and one podcast (not including doing my trip report on it back in August) and this week I’ll be doing it again. I’ve had SO much fun joining in with Alan and Kim (also a guest co-host with me) and I really hate for it to end but Steve and Chris will be back from WDW soon and I’ll have to hand my headset back over to them.

But if you missed them or want to listen again, here and the links…and of course the podcast is also available on iTunes, just search for Your Mousecast.

Your Mousecast Episode 5 (my DLRP trip report)

“The Girlie Show – Your Mousecast Episode 10”

Mousecast Radio Show 7th November

And be sure to tune in to United Kingdom Radio Sunday the 14th of November at 9pm GMT/UK for another Mousecast Live Radio Show!

 

Your Mousecast Podcast

I’m so excited because I’ve been asked to co-host this English-based podcast and their new live radio show.

I was on Episode #5 talking about my latest trip to DLRP and had a blast. So when Alan contacted me about helping out while Chris and Steve are both in WDW I jumped at the chance. So this podcast that I’ll be on next (episode 10 I think) will be released on Wednesday, November 3rd. It can be downloaded from iTunes and the website. On the podcast there is the Alpha Quiz that you can join in with. Each week there are questions featuring a certain letter of the alphabet…Example: Which ‘D’ flies around Fantasyland? A) Dumbo…you get the idea (I hope). So listen in to hear this week’s questions and email in your answers for the chance to win an Alpha Quiz trophy!

The Mousecast Live Radio Show is aired on the United Kingdom Radio…just click on ‘Listen’ at 9pm on Sunday October 31st and Sunday November 7th. If you miss it Live, it can be downloaded or listened too off the website as they are recorded. We will be doing some listener questions so just email into the show and give us your Disney questions!

Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic

We’re all going to see this tomorrow and we can’t wait. I’ve not seen or heard much of it, but seriously…do you need to?!?! IT’S DISNEY….ON ICE!!

Personally I’m looking forward to seeing Genie…ALL the Genies!!

You Ain't Never Had A Friend Like Me & Me & Me & Me, oh and him too

It is said to cover 18 of Disney’s most beloved films (hard to make the short list!) with 65 of the most ‘unforgettable’ characters. Obviously the Fab Five will be there in all their wonderfulness as well as the Toy Story Gang, Genie & his pals, Nemo and his friends, Pinocchio and even Jiminy Cricket!

It is at the London O2 Arena til the 31st of October and then it’ll move on to Birmingham (UK :P) for the 3rd to 14th of November. The tour started in September in Glasgow then went to Nottingham, Newcastle and Manchester.

If you wanna get a seat at one of the last remaining shows go to Ticket Mater…I mean Master. Hmmm, now that’d be funny to have Lightening and Mater on ice.

Well, I’ll try to get some great photos and I’ll write up a review tomorrow when we get back 🙂 Hope to see you there!!

Disney & Halloween

Wow! I can’t believe it’s been SO long since my last post! Sorry readers…there hasn’t been much Disney news on my end to blog about and I didn’t want to just rehash what other sites had posted, so…

But I couldn’t pass up the chance to blog about my favorite holiday…HALLOWEEN!! My first Disney Halloween was, I think, 2005…and we went to DLRP where there was a war going on between the Pink Witches and the Pumpkin-Head Men.

I'm in a witch's cauldron

This was my son’s first trip to any Disney park and I think it was the best place to go for him. DLRP is so much smaller than WDW (I can’t compare with DLR because as of writting this I’ve not been there yet) and is a great size for smaller children. There is less ground to cover for one thing so he didn’t get as worn out as he has at WDW. I wish I could spend Halloween at a Disney Park every year.

Ok so, aside from the awesome decorations…

The parade kicked @$$. The floats and dancers were just great and the music!!! OMG! We were singing the parade song constantly and luckily we found the CD in one of the shops with it on there and like 4-5 remix versions. I can’t find my video of the parade…its somewhere (must be on a DVD)…but here is a photo slide using the parade music. Anyway so this parade song called “It’s Halloween-lo-ween” is like my Halloween theme song now and I LOVE IT!!!!

Also, we found Minnie in her space outfit outside the Videopolis and had our photo taken with her…we’ve never seen her in this since in either park.

In 2009 we went to WDW for Halloween and for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party. This was our 2nd Disney Halloween and our 1st MNSSHP.

Entrance to MK

We flew out of London straight to Orlando and onto a Magical Express bus. Once we got sorted out at Port Orleans we got into our Halloween costumes and went to Magic Kingdom for the party. We were awake for nearly 26hrs straight. I think we each got some sleep on the plane but not much due to all the excitement. Poor Gage, our son, finally just fell asleep waiting for the parade that night and the dancers and people handing out candy kept coming up to him going like “oh poor little fella” and put extra candy in his bag that he was still holding onto for dear life.

Gage passed out in my lap

It was a great event, great Trick or Treating and we managed to catch Mickey in his Toon Town Judge’s Tent for photos with him and Minnie in their Halloween costumes.

Happy Halloween 2009

The Boo To You Parade was awesome…although I don’t know why there’s a barn with the big chicken in it…sorry can’t think of her name right now. I loved the Haunted Mansion part with the ghost dancers and the gravediggers with their shovels spinning on Main Street making sparks, and of course the three hitchiking ghosts which were people moving as animatronics…awesome.

It was so cool to see other people’s costumes and enjoy Mickey and all his pals dressed up as well. My family is big on Disney and I’m big on Halloween…I love the combo, just wish we could go to Disney for Halloween every year…even if its just DLRP.

14wks to go now!

Tomorrow marks just 14 weeks until we leave for WDW and a Disney Cruise. SO can not wait!! There’s a few perks to being on holiday over the holidays…one of which is not having to put up a Christmas tree! We plan on taking one or two small gifts for our son to open on Christmas morning while at sea on the Disney Wonder (I think that’s the ship we’ll be on) and otherwise Christmas will be all the shopping we do while at the parks.

I love going on cruises…if I could do it each year I so would! I’ve been on two cruises before with my parents (Cruise One Bookings) and younger brother but I’ve never been on a Disney Cruise (Mouse Fan Travel) I think we’re all planning to book a swimming session with dolphins while at port as well as other great things. If I’m looking at the right cruise on the website, our ports of call are Key West, Grand Cayman, Cozumel and of course Castaway Cay. I’m looking at port excurssions to do and one thing I’d like to do is to eat at Margaritaville again. I ate there on my last cruise with my parents and its lovely! My son has been going on and on about wanting to ride a horse and I did see a thing where you can ride horses along a beach…these are all just ideas at the moment. Just looking around to see what’s available.

I’m looking forward to getting some cruiseline pins for my collection, as well as buying more at the parks of course. I’ve not been at WDW at Christmas/New Years before and am really looking forward to experiencing that and seeing the Osborne Christmas Lights. We were in DLRP at Christmas time back in 1999 though, before we knew what we know now 😛

Stitch is Taking Over

Ok if you’re my friend on Facebook or have read my blog before, you may have picked up on the fact that I’m just not CRAZY about Stitch like most of the world seems to be.

Now…I don’t NOT like him…I just don’t see why he’s EVERYWHERE!! Now I’ve been told he’s not taken over in WDW like he seems to have in DLRP and Japan, which is nice to know. When I was pin shopping in Paris last month it was like for every Mickey pin I saw there were two Stitch pins…madness! And it’s not just pins, he’s just taken over merchandise in all aspects. He’s invaded nearly all ride merchandise and this is where my rant is going…

WHY IS HE ON TOWER OF TERROR MERCHANDISE WITH A WIRE IN HIS MOUTH?!?!

If you have any insight on this PLEASE share it with me. The ‘story’ is that lightning strikes the hotel back in 1939 sending the elevator carrying the five guests into the Fifth Dimension. So WHY does so much ToT merchandise have Stitch breaking, biting, cutting, etc. an elevator wire/cord?!?!

It’s a Twilight Zone themed attraction, its great and I’m not saying don’t use characters in the merchandise at all…I just don’t understand why Stitch is used as the one causing the elevator to vanish. Sure he’s cute, he’s funny…he makes a good Elvis…but don’t change the story in the merchandise. 😦