A Magical Day

No matter what, I always like to start my trips to Disney World off in the Magic Kingdom. I mean, it's the Magic Kingdom! That's where Cinderella Castle is and that's where the magic really begins. With all the music and beautiful "lands" and the yummy scents. Magic Kingdom is the most crowded and congested park, but it's also the one everyone thinks of when they think of Disney World.

So of COURSE we had to go there on our first day. We got there just when it opened and when we walked through those gates, all was right with the world.

Falandos and I have the sort of relationship where we tease each other relentlessly. So when he asked "Can I just say something?" while we were walking down Main Street, I was expecting him to say something smart. But instead, he grabbed me and hugged me and kissed my cheek and said "Thank you." That made me feel like a million dollars.

We took loads of pictures!







After all that, we headed back to the new Fantasyland to ride the new Little Mermaid ride. Everyone liked it. Then we made our way over to Storybook Circus, where Aidan and I rode Dumbo while Mommy and Falandos hung out in the souvenir gift shop. Oh, we also made a stop to meet Minnie and Daisy!



We met my friend Dara for lunch, and then headed to the Hall of Presidents. After that, we got stuck under an awning to wait out some major rain!


It could have been a bummer, but it wasn't. We just waited it out and hung out and chatted. We dodged the rain a lot as we made our way back over to Tomorrowland for Carousel of Progress, the People Mover, and Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor, which has been updated to include Monsters University stuff!

We ended up missing the parade, but with the weather so bad, I wonder if it even showed. We were watching part of the Dreams Come True show but it got rained out. Eeek.


Falandos and I got Dole Whips. Yum. Not sure what we were thinking, having them so close to dinner, but who can resist them right? I had one for breakfast once....

We ate dinner at The Crystal Palace. My mom loves her hot sauce and managed to get a tiny bottle.


We had fun meeting our friends from the 100 Acre Wood!




After Crystal Palace, we headed over to First Aid and the bathroom. I'd taken a yucky fall and needed a Band-Aid. By the time we got done, it was raining AGAIN. Aidan really wanted to ride Pirates, so we braved the rain drops and went for it. My mom and Falandos were wary of Pirates--for some reason, they were under the impression that it was outside and they were sick of being wet. When I explained to them how the "waterfall" worked, they were still a bit wary but went for it. (Falandos was actually terrified, but don't tell him I told you that.)

My mom LOVED Pirates of the Caribbean!

Then we made our way to It's a Small World, and watched Wishes, from behind the castle. Then we made our way to the front of the park--we were all getting tired and we were pretty tired of the damp.


But as we were leaving, a Cast Member stopped us and talked us into staying for the Main Street Electrical Parade. Which Falandos really, really loved.


the one picture i really liked!

Attractions Experienced:
The new Little Mermaid ride (I can't remember the name for the life of me!)
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
Mickey's Philharmagic
Peoplemover
Carousel of Progress
Pirates of the Caribbean
Dumbo
it's a small world

We didn't ride a whole lot, but we still had a lot of fun. And for your viewing pleasure...here's a short (44s) video of some of our morning at the Magic Kingdom!


And with that, I bid you good-bye for now. More soon! :D

A Few Of My Favorite Things

There's no question that I think Disney World is amazing. I wouldn't keep going I hated it, right? People often ask me what I like the best, but I don't think I've ever broken it down in a blog post. Therefore, inspired by this week's All Ears newsletter, I decided to make a list of my favorite things to do at Disney World.

Arriving. There's nothing like getting to Orlando International Airport, hopping on that little tram, and rushing down to the Magical Express. Once you're on that bus, the vacation really begins. They play a video as you take the long journey to the resort, and then once you drive under that gate, the rest of the world falls away. All I can think, when that happens, is, "I"m here! I'd better check in on Foursquare! YAY I'm here! And I have XX number of days left! YAY!!!" The anticipation is delicious!

Eat! I love the food there. Our favorite place is Garden Grill, but I also really like Columbia Harbour House, ABC Commissary, and Pizzafari. Yummy!



Listen to the announcements on the buses. I love it when they say "You'll be home soon." The funny music they play on the buses when we pull into Magic Kingdom. And I always laugh because they're so formal, calling the buses motorcoaches and saying they "depart" instead of "leave". In Chicago, I am no stranger to buses and they definitely don't call them motorcoaches here!

Take in the atmosphere. I love to smell the scents, hear the music, look at the people. So many different types of people. Every time I go, I am more amazed at the things Walt Disney thought of, and the things the Imagineers continue to do. Just little things, like the ground changing as you go from land to land in the Magic Kingdom, to there never being more than 30 steps between trash cans because Walt actually counted how many steps it took people holding trash before they'd throw it on the ground. That meticulous attention to detail amazes me because that means there's always something new to discover on a Disney trip.

Meet the characters! I've definitely calmed down from this, but I used to be a HARD CORE character meeter. I used to stalk them. Now that I've met most of the characters I wanted to meet, I don't see any reason to stand in long lines now... unless it's someone rare. For example, on Valentine's Day, the princes were out with the princessess. So even though I'd met Aurora and Snow White before, I'd never met Prince Philip or Snow White's prince.



I'll also go meet a character if there is barely any wait, and I ALWAYS have to meet Mickey Mouse at least once when I go to Disney World. I mean, how can you go and NOT meet Mickey every single time, right?



Experience the attractions. There are a few attractions that are must-dos for me. Like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. I missed it my last trip, as it was closed for refurbishment. There are some that I just have to do at least once, like the Carousel of Progress.

See the parades. I used to wonder why people would sit and stake claim on parade spots up to an hour before the parade even started. I mean, they could be riding rides or seeing shows or buying stuff, right? But then, one night, I lined up to watch Spectromagic. And THEN I GOT IT. Just so you know, Spectromagic was this huge light parade that ran nightly, sometimes twice nightly. IT WAS EPIC. And let me tell you, that's a heck of a parade to experience as your first one. The music STILL GIVES ME CHILLS and I even have it as my ringtone.


full spectromagic video

Everything is lit up. The costumes! The floats! Everything. It's beautiful! And when they replaced it with the Main Street Electrical Parade, I was like "OK. I've never seen this one, so I'll give it a shot, but I hope they go back to Spectromagic before long!" Well, they're still running MSEP, so I have no pressing need to stay late for the Magic Kingdom parade until they bring Spectromagic back. I love that parade so much that I bought the soundtrack as soon as I could.



So yeah. Parades are the thing. Especially when you get to BE IN THEM!!!



Shop. Duh! Gotta get some souvenears (you see what I did there?) and pick up postcards to send to friends and family back home, right? I buy at least one new pair of earrings every trip. I also collect pins, ornaments, and magnets commemorating that particular trip. I always get one for the year we're there for sure, but if I fall in love with a new attraction or something, I'll get a pin for that as well. I love to look around the shops and let myself get tempted to buy things I don't need. :)

Being immersed. There are many reasons we stay on site at Disney Resorts, even though it's usually cheaper to get a suite off site. Those reasons are a.) Dining Plan b.) Disney transportation c.) Extra Magic Hours d.) Total Disney immersion. That means no chain stores or dirty sidewalks. No fast food chains to tempt me or dog poop all over the place. It's a complete and total escape and I LOVE IT.

I hope to get back really soon!



That's all I can think of for now. Hope you enjoyed this glimpse into a few of my favorite things about Disney World!

New Disney Ship Christened!

I know, I'm like 4000 years late with this but yay!



I've never been on a Disney Cruise. I KNOW RIGHT? What is up with that?

Adam says he has no interest in going on a Disney Cruise, to which I say WHAT? How can you not be interested in having food available 24 hours a day?

Maybe he's not interested because there is no Haunted Mansion on the ship, and he's not into islands and beaches and things like I am. Because I can think of plenty of things I'd want to do on the ship AND on the island excursions, and I think a cruise would be a lot of fun. In addition, I think I'd feel less pressured to do too much because a cruise is supposed to be relaxing. Laying by the pool on deck? Yes please!

So maybe one day I'll be able to talk him into going on one, but I won't let that stop me from eventually getting on a Disney Cruise myself, even if I have to go on my own or if I have to talk a girlfriend into going with me.

The Wonders of Disney Animation

Awesome video is awesome.
This is increasing my excitement for I WILL BE THERE IN LESS THAN TWO DAYS!!!!!!!!!!

Funky Style!!

I know I have blogged about this before, but watching YouTube today brought it back to the forefront of my mind.

When I was in high school, I LOVED LOVED LOVED the all new Mickey Mouse Club. This is the show that spawned Britney Spears, Keri Russell, and Justin Timberlake. I was a fan from the beginning--well, once we got The Disney Channel installed in my house. Back then, I had to beg and plead for us to get cable in the first place, and The Disney Channel was a premium channel, like HBO or Showtime! My parents knew how important Disney was to me, so they sprang for the premium. Back then, my cable life revolved around The Disney Channel, MTV, BET, and VH1. I loved music videos and there was no shortage of them in the early 90s.

I started watching MMC when I saw the video for Summer Vacation by The Party on MTV. I thought Damon Pampolina was the hottest thing on TV. I was ready for a new crush--I was over my New Kids on the Block phase, Joey Lawrence and Kirk Cameron did nothing for me, and Dino and Glenn Medeiros were just too old. I am not sure how I figured out that The Party had to do with The Disney Channel, but once I realized that The Party was made up of Mouseketeers from MMC, I was hooked. My crush on Damon was short-lived, though. I started watching MMC in its third season, and that's the season that Ricky Luna started. More on that later.

The show, to me, was so different from any other show. It wasn't a typical multi-camera sitcom filmed in beta. It was a variety show, with skits, singing, and dancing. My favorite was the musical numbers. I liked learning the dance steps and I liked singing along. The cast members used their own names, and at the end of a taping, they let the audience come down and dance with them, which made them seem more approachable than say, the kids on Blossom. I really wanted to be friends with all of them.

My life back then mostly consisted of school (ugh), an after school job at the deli, marathon phone conversations with my best friends (our record: 13 hours), writing (mostly fanfic), and music. I wasn't getting out much nor was I participating in a lot of school activities. My life was MMC and those kids. I wrote fan fiction about them before it was cool. If I wasn't planted in front of the TV at 5:30pm Monday through Friday, then the VCR was recording the show. That show was the reason I got up some mornings, the reason I got dressed and did my hair. Maybe I was just going to be in front of the TV all day, frantically rewinding the VCR so I could learn yet another dance step, but I was up and moving. And that was a good thing.

There were two Mousketeers who inspired me the most. One was Mylin Brooks. I thought she was absolutely beautiful. She had this gorgeous dark hair, this beautiful face, and she was on a TV show that was filmed at Disney World. She was smart and talented and I desperately wanted to be her.

It was this video here that started my fascination with Mylin:

Please refresh if the videos aren't showing up. YouTube is being a pain in the rear.



Ah yes, Disney Channel's watered-down pop lyrics. I didn't care. I watched the video all the time. I even learned the steps. I can still do most of the steps. I NEVER in a million years would have imagined that one day, this would happen:



Through the wonders of the Internet, I reached out and asked Mylin to be my friend on MySpace back when MySpace was cool. She accepted, and we began talking back and forth. When everyone moved to Facebook, she and I kept in touch on there. I was part of her "American Girl" street team back in 2006. It was amazing to get to work with her.

In July of 2010, I finally got to meet and spend the day with this woman, and let me tell you, she is just as sweet as she is beautiful. My mom is tickled pink because she knew how important MMC was to me, and she knew how important those kids were to me.

The other Mouseketeer that changed my life was Ricky Luna. I had an obscene crush on him when I was a teenager, and I didn't care. Every single day from 5:20-6:00pm, I would sit in front of my TV, VCR remote in hand, ready to tape anything with Ricky in it.

When the MMC came on, the Mouseketeers would pop into a circle and say their names. He popped into his circle, yelled "Ricky!" and I was instantly head over heels. Well, as much as a girl can be with a guy whose first name is the only thing she knew about him. But we don't need to worry about that. Look at this video:



He's the one in the red shirt and the suspenders. I dare you to say you don't understand how teenage me could have fallen for that total Mr. Hottyness.

I got to meet him for the first time in 1993, when MMC came to Cleveland to do a tour. Boy did I make a fool out of myself. I grabbed him and yelled "I'M IN LOVE WITH YOU." Mortifying. Forgive me. I had no social skills and I was face-to-face with the object of my teenage fantasies OMG what was my life??? Don't judge me.

Here are a couple of pix from that weekend:



Forgive the blurriness. I scanned these back in 1997 when I had no idea how to really work a scanner.

In late 1997, Geocities came out. I could make my own web page, what! So I did. I made a Ricky Luna fan site. If you google "Ronni's Ricky Luna Fan Page" some old, old, old mirrors of that site will come up. Good times. I made that site in hopes that Ricky would do a search of his name and find it. He did. That site was the top hit in all the search engines. He contacted me and we kept in touch on and off over the next several years. MySpace and Facebook kept us even more in touch. Back in 2009, this happened:



Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I got to hang out with him and his manager's family. It was a really fun day. He lived up to the crush that 17-year old me had on him and then some because he's just an awesome, kind, and warm human being. We laugh about my declaration of love for him at Tower City mall back in 1993. I still can't believe I did that. Anyway, now he's a super talented producer and he makes really good music, which you can download for free from his site. I recommend the Electro Bomba mini mix. You can get it here. :)

I'm proud to call him my friend.

I leave you with this video. I just watched it again and it gave me chills because I loved it so much back then. And as I belted along with it, remembering all the words, I realized that I still love it today.



If only The Disney Channel was still this awesome. Oh well. At least they have Phineas & Ferb.

This is cross posted at my personal site. Feel free to visit and follow! :)

Trip Report!!!

Finally, I'm going to do my trip report. It's a long one, so settle back with a snack and a drink and dive in. And please comment for the love of God! :)

So, Disney World came upon us FAST. We had a blast. I spent most of that first day in denial and in a daze, but that might have been because I was so darn tired 'cause I couldn’t sleep the night before! (I was excited, but also because I'd left all my packing and organizing to the last minute as I am wont to do.) I didn’t start to feel like it was real until after the Celebrate A Dream Come True Parade!

We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter, which is one of the moderate resorts. OK, I got spoiled. The bus stops were close to the parks, the resort was small and quiet, there was a hot tub, and it was just pretty! (Check in was super slow, but we ended up meeting some people from Columbus OH who just happen to be now living in the house that Chris--my ex-husband and good friend--grew up in. How is that for coincidence? Guess who was singing “it’s a small world” all afternoon after that?) Anyway, Adam and I decided that it’s worth the extra $$ a night for all the extras we got out of it. We’ll be staying there this June as well.

(God, imagine if I ever get to stay in the Polynesian! Talk about spoiled rotten, right? But that won’t happen for a long time, not with rooms starting at $400 a night. Yowsa!)

Almost every character I met hugged (or kissed) me, some more than once! I even got a hug from Tinkerbell. The hugs from Princess Tiana and Prince Naveen (the highlight of my trip) were the best, though.

Did I mention that Tiana is my favorite Disney princess? Oh well, now you know. On Sunday, our first day there, we were going around Magic Kingdom, and I’d mentioned to Adam that meeting Tiana and Naveen would make my trip. It would make my YEAR. We couldn’t figure out where their meeting place was, but we’d been planning on hitting MK the next day, so we decided we’d look for them then. Well, Adam and I got to the park at Rope Drop (I highly recommend doing that–it’s awesome so early in the morning!), and we ended up RIGHT BEHIND THEM as they walked down Main Street. When we got to their meet and greet place, they let me take pictures with them and chatted with me and it was like, amazing. I was like this when it was all done:

Yea, that was a pretty awesome day in the Magic Kingdom, even if it did rain quite a lot. It was warm, and I rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice (ended up riding it five times total during the trip), and it was the day of the Main Street Electrical Parade, where Adam and I were quite entertained by a total brat who was 11-years old and acting like a spoiled princess (she had visited the Bippity Boppity Boutique at some point during the day–she was ALL done up). Adam and I nicknamed her Veruca Salt.

Although we had a great trip, I don’t know if I’ll go in January again. The crowd level was pretty great for the most part, and soaking in the hot tub in the evening was nice, also. But a couple of days, it got pretty cold, and that’s not what you want to have to deal with when on a vacation in FLORIDA. We only had one day of rain, though, and one day it was absolutely perfect out. So the weather was hit or miss, and a lot of things were being refurbished or fixed up. Tarpilicious! Not that I noticed…too much. I was too busy gawking over the fact that Christmas stuff was still up for the first few days of the trip. I was thrilled, to be honest, because dude, I still had my Christmas decorations up, and I figured if DISNEY didn’t have theirs down, then I shouldn’t feel bad. (Of course, once I came to this conclusion, all the decorations were gone the next day. Even the poinsettias that had been planted were changed to purple and pink and yellow flowers.)

Here are a few picture highlights:

And you can see many more pictures here: Disney World 2011

(YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO LOOK AT THEM!)

It was nice seeing Adam’s family at various times throughout the trip as well. Eli ran the Goofy (in case you don't know, the Goofy is when you run the half-marathon AND the full marathon in the same weekend--we saw a lot of people wearing their marathon medals and limping, let me tell ya), Melissa ran the half-marathon, and Adam’s parents were there for cheers and support. Also, Cassidy brought little Lola which was awesome because she seemed to enjoy the park in the best way a little baby could:

We ate good food (Liberty Tree Tavern, Garden Grill, and Boma FTW), saw parades and shows, rode rides (yea Expedition Everest, Tower of Terror, Rock N Rollercoaster [twice], Space Mountain [twice], and of course, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad), and really had an amazing time. I cannot wait to take Aidan this summer. Because OH YEAH we are going again! Twice in one year for me, and Aidan too, because his father is taking him in August. ROCK.

Oh yeah, I have six words for you: GIANT CHOCOLATE AND M&M COVERED MARSHMALLOW.

So getting another one of those when I go in June. Mouth is watering just thinking about it.

And now, some lists:

New Experiences This Trip

* Port Orleans French Quarter (staying in a moderate resort)

* Expedition Everest

* Country Bear Jamboree

* Meeting Pocahontas, Meeko, and Flik

* It’s Tough to be a Bug

* Captain EO

* Boma

* Flame Tree Barbeque

* Meeting Frozone

* Seeing the JaMMitors

* Mission Space: Green

Things I Wish I’d Done But Didn’t Get Around To

* Buying bath bombs at Basin White

* More of the dark rides

* Visiting the Japan pavilion in Epcot

* Mailing Aidan’s package from Disney World

* Sending Aidan an autographed postcard from Mickey Mouse

* Sending postcards in general

Lessons Learned

* Don’t schedule more than one character breakfast. Too dang early to get up, or they interrupt Rope Drop advantages (little to no ride lines!). Go for character DINNERS instead.

* Crystal Palace > Chef Mickey’s

* Avoid shopping in the Emporium. That place is a mad house!

* I would probably go later in the winter next time. The weather in early January is too unpredictable. I’d go for February. Should still be low crowds as long as I avoid Valentine’s Day or President’s Day.

* Port Orleans French Quarter has pretty good bus placement at the parks! Close bus stops, and bus service is really good. We rarely had to wait for a bus and if we did have to wait, it was never very long.

OK, that’s enough for now. Hope you enjoyed my short recap. Talk to you soon… but first, I leave you with some LOLz for days:

Okee dokee, artichokie. Signing off for now. Hope you enjoyed my trip report. I'll be back soon!

Byeeeeee!