An Imagineer Fell For Bill - **New 10/19 Last 2 installments**

[mrsksomeday]

Another awesome Update Tracy! I really need to get a D23 membership.

Thank you!

What a fun time y'all had!!! Love the picture of Donald and all the ducks. Too funny!!!

That story was so funny to hear.

Great update! I love that Bill got his wheel signed! How awesome.

It was amazing!

What a great guy! Getting down on the ground and signing Bill's tire! I think if I were there you would have had to pick my jaw up off the ground!

Shame on the 1st Disney Family for taking advantage of their "winning". That is the kind of stuff that upsets me. Makes you really want to take the winnings away from them. There are so many families that would have appreciated the lifetime passes... and just the lifetime passes.

It sounds like you and Bill got so much information and opportunity to interact with some well known Disney crew! What a great time! Can't wait to hear more!

I was sickened by that story of the first family, I mean be grateful for what you got.

Absolutely love the Imagineer falling for Bill! How cool was that???

Sometimes we still can't believe it.

That story brought tears to my eyes! Bob Gurr sounds amazing!

He is such a great guy. I can't believe we talked to a man that worked with Walt .

I'm thoroughly enjoying reading about the D23 events! How awesome that Bob Gurr signed Bill's tire!!!!!

We love the D23 events.

Fabulous updates! How awesome that he got on the floor to sign the wheel. I would take the wheel off too!

It's not off yet, we have to get another wheel. It looks the same as it did the day he signed it.

peep

Bob Gurr sounds like such a sweetheart! What a wonderful memory for you and Bill to have. Loving the updates and pics.. I can't wait for you guys to finish up!

All the imagineers had such great stories. Walt surrounded himself with some great people.

Great updates! As D23 members you get to do the coolest things!!!

You could be a D23 member too .

That is awesome!!!! What a guy!!!!

and this is hilarious! Look how much effort they went to just for this short moment! The ducks with that hats are completely priceless.

The duck story was hilarious.

peep. peep

 

[mrsksomeday]

After dinner we got back in line to go back into the event. We had gotten to the session that I had been dying to see.

Magic Journeys: A Flight of Fancy through 40 Years of Walt Disney World Musical Memories
8:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
As a spectacular conclusion to Destination D: Walt Disney World 40th, Disney Legend and Oscar® winner Richard M. Sherman, who along with his brother Robert has contributed a multitude of tunes to the Disney parks songbook, headlines this unforgettable tribute to the melodies that helped shape the World.
They opened the evening with the Magic Kingdom Marching Band

Tim O’Day and Richard Sherman took the stage and Richard began to sing lots of his hit songs. He started out with Parent Trap “Let’s Get Together”:

I never realized there were so many songs that I loved that Richard and his brother Robert wrote:

Winnie the Pooh:

The Wonderful Thing about Tiggers:

The Jungle Book’s “I wanna Be Like You”:

Songs from Bedknobs and Broomsticks:

They did music for other people besides Disney, Chitty Chitty, Bang Bang:

He and his brother wrote Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Chim Chim Cher-ee:

You could tell he really cared about, respected, and missed Walt. The sound of his voice would change a little when he talked about him.

Feed the Birds - Tuppence was Walt’s favorite song. He would have the Sherman Brothers come every Friday to his office and sing it. Richard said he went to Walt’s office after he died on Friday to sing it again for him.

He told the story of playing this at Walt’s 100th birthday party in the hub at Disneyland. As he played Feed the Birds a single bird flew down over the piano and left as soon as the song finished. Tim O’Day told him at the time it was Walt’s way of saying “thanks”.

He said Walt would come to them wanting them to write songs for the attractions to explain the story. He wanted them upbeat and simple. Walt showed them Small World, Carousel of Progress, and The Enchanted Tiki Room and they asked him what the attractions were about. Walt said (paraphrasing here) “you tell me, tell the story”. Small World was actually written slower, a prayer for peace. Walt wanted it more up tempo. He said you either loved him or hated him for writing that song LOL.

When these pictures came up on the screen the crowd clapped loudly:

Then Dreamfinder walked out with Figment and the crowd went INSANE:

They put the words for the “One Little Spark” on the screen and we all sang it together ending Richard’s show:

Becky Cline came back out with Tim O’Day and they talked a bit introducing the next singers that sang “Golden Dreams”. The Encore Castmembers ended the show with “When You Wish Upon a Star”. I was in tears.

After it was over we found Becky Cline and thanked her over and over for how wonderful the event was and told her how much Laura had helped us. We thanked Laura one last time as well. On the way out we stopped Tim O’Day for a picture:

We were so happy we chose to go to this event. We love all things Disney and this was AMAZING!!

Next installment… Magic Kingdom bound

 

[piglet50]

thanks for the great update. this looks like a wonderful event to attend. it's so great that you share with us. i always look forward to your posts.

 

[Tinker_Tam]

What a fun time!! When I was in 6th grade my choir teacher was a HUGE fan of the Sherman brothers. That year for our spring concert we only sang their songs (not just Disney). At the time I thought it was kind of hokey. Now I think, wow! That is where I learned the words to all those cool songs!

It seems like these days must have went really quickly for you and Bill. I wish Walt would have devised a machine to make time stand still when you were at Disney... after all he did just about everything else!

 

[Tinkermom76]

what a great day!!!!

Maybe I will have to look into a D23 membership

 

[jordanyosh]

Awesome update!!!!

I think I would've cried seeing Dreamfinder and Figment as well...

Hope all is well with you.

 

[jcc0621]

Feed the Birds - Tuppence was Walt’s favorite song. He would have the Sherman Brothers come every Friday to his office and sing it. Richard said he went to Walt’s office after he died on Friday to sing it again for him.

He told the story of playing this at Walt’s 100th birthday party in the hub at Disneyland. As he played Feed the Birds a single bird flew down over the piano and left as soon as the song finished. Tim O’Day told him at the time it was Walt’s way of saying “thanks”.

I got chills reading this

He said you either loved him or hated him for writing that song LOL.

How true!

What a great evening!

 

[IheartDDuck]

I would have loved to be able to see the Dreamfinder and Figment! That brings back some way back memories!

 

[mrsksomeday]

thanks for the great update. this looks like a wonderful event to attend. it's so great that you share with us. i always look forward to your posts.

We loved this event, thank you so much for reading along and posting.

What a fun time!! When I was in 6th grade my choir teacher was a HUGE fan of the Sherman brothers. That year for our spring concert we only sang their songs (not just Disney). At the time I thought it was kind of hokey. Now I think, wow! That is where I learned the words to all those cool songs!

It seems like these days must have went really quickly for you and Bill. I wish Walt would have devised a machine to make time stand still when you were at Disney... after all he did just about everything else!

Great choir story!! I love it.

what a great day!!!!

Maybe I will have to look into a D23 membership

We really loved their events and the D23 castmembers are fantastic.

Awesome update!!!!

I think I would've cried seeing Dreamfinder and Figment as well...

Hope all is well with you.

People went insane when they came out. It was such a great energy in the room.

I got chills reading this



How true!

What a great evening!

I got chills hearing that story of the bird, it was so sad to hear Richard talking about Walt dying. It was a great evening.

I would have loved to be able to see the Dreamfinder and Figment! That brings back some way back memories!

The crowd was so happy to see them.

 

[Lesprivate]

That is awesome, I saw something on the Sherman Brothers and they really love creating for Disney. I remember Dreamfinder - while I love Eric Idle Dreamfinder was so much better.

 

[KathyRN137]

Amazing way to end the event; I'm so very glad you were able to attend the Richard Sherman session!

I got goosebumps reading the one little bird story, too!

Glad to see you picking up the story... hope all is well with you!


Kathy

 

[JolllyHoliday]

What wonderful music the Sherman brothers created! Their music is timeless. It must have been awesome to be there and hear all the wonderful stories about their time with Walt. Thank you again for sharing with us.

 

[jenseib]

LOVE the Sherman brothers....and Ironically, my BIL's name is Robert Sherman! My sister doesn't realize what a legend she's married.

 

[okw19]

Another great update! What you don't realize is that you're slowly selling us all on D23 memberships!

 

[DisMomAmy]

What a fun way to end the event!!

 

[GeminiAngel]

Great update! Who needs to go, we have you doing such a fantastic job of reporting back to us. LOL.

What a sweet story about the bird. I wish Walt was still here.

 

[mrsksomeday]

That is awesome, I saw something on the Sherman Brothers and they really love creating for Disney. I remember Dreamfinder - while I love Eric Idle Dreamfinder was so much better.

There is a documentary about the Sherman Brothers, I think it is called "The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story".

Amazing way to end the event; I'm so very glad you were able to attend the Richard Sherman session!

I got goosebumps reading the one little bird story, too!

Glad to see you picking up the story... hope all is well with you!


Kathy

It was amazing!! I got goosebumps too hearing that story, I was misty eyed. You could tell Richard really cared for and respected Walt.

What wonderful music the Sherman brothers created! Their music is timeless. It must have been awesome to be there and hear all the wonderful stories about their time with Walt. Thank you again for sharing with us.

I could have listened to him talk and sing all night.

LOVE the Sherman brothers....and Ironically, my BIL's name is Robert Sherman! My sister doesn't realize what a legend she's married.

That is hilarious about your BIL's name.

Another great update! What you don't realize is that you're slowly selling us all on D23 memberships!

That membership has given us some fantastic memories.

What a fun way to end the event!!

It was wonderful!!!

Great update! Who needs to go, we have you doing such a fantastic job of reporting back to us. LOL.

What a sweet story about the bird. I wish Walt was still here.

It was a great story, I think it touched everyone in the audience.

 

[mrsksomeday]

We slept in, I packed up the room, and then we went to eat at the food court. By the time we got to the bus stop it was afternoon. You can’t really tell in this picture Bill has no shoes on, he was in major pain that day. This is one of the newer busses that has 3 wheelchair/ECV spots:

We had a dinner reservation at Tony’s:

I just loved the floor:

We were seated fairly quickly and Bill got his pasta:

Here is mine:

I know they have to do refurbs, but the tarps annoy me LOL:

Right beside the Emporium we saw a cast member drawing with water, we just loved watching the creative process:

I always like taking pictures of Bill going through the crowd:

Bill wanted to see the Country Bears Jamboree:

Next we went to the Hall of Presidents:

Then the real reason Bill wanted to go to Magic Kingdom:

On the way to the Jungle Cruise we ran into a DISer/Enchanter Lesprivate and her husband. It was so great to finally see her. Sorry for rambling on and on I was just so happy to meet you. After we talked to them we went for our cruise for the first time at night, we really liked it in the dark.

We went towards the hub to try to catch Wishes. I adore this show, I know they will change it someday and it will make me extremely sad. It was time to leave. Good bye Magic Kingdom:

Next installment… Time to leave our Happy Place

 

[mrsksomeday]

We have a tradition to always spend our last day in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We watch the Streetmosphere people, try to ride Toy Story Mania one last time, and try to fit in Beauty and the Beast if we can.

We called and had our luggage taken to hold for us then hopped a DHS bus. I picked up a times guide and we could make a Beauty and the Beast show if we went straight to it. On the way we ran into this:

What to do?? Go around it and go see Beauty or watch the sho?. Paige Turner won out, she is the one in the blue sitting. We had talked to her in November 2009 when we took my son and his then significant other Abbey and her kids. Paige is a hoot. They were doing the dating game, it was hilarious.

It was too late to get to BATB, Bill suggested we grab a bite to eat. I can’t for the life of me remember what we ate. I will say I don’t make a habit of taking pictures of strangers, but well just look:

Apparently Santa was vacationing the same time we were. So many people with their children came up to him and some even asked it their kids could have pictures with him. I found it a little odd, but not my kids.

Any time Toy Story Mania says there is a huge wait time but there isn’t a line outside, take a chance and peek your head in. The wait time said 90 minutes when we got there. It was more like 15 if that, look at how many people were in the queue when we were going up the wheelchair ramp:

There was hardly anyone there. From now on we will just take a look no matter what the standby time says. After our last ride it was time to go back to Pop Century. We got our luggage and waited for the Magical Express. This looks so sad to me:

I never remembered the cameras before but I understand the need for them:

The Orlando Airport had a wheelchair/family line set up, so much easier because they gave you extra time through security. I went through the regular line, Bill got put in a box, then felt up:

He is such an easy going guy and takes everything in stride it makes me love him even more than I thought possible. The flight was delayed about an hour and the ride back to Nashville was uneventful. We got the van and went back to the hotel. The next day we were going to meet Bill’s parents in Pigeon Forge, TN. We had a good trip with his parents. I won’t bore you with any of it, but I am going to share one last picture with you:

We went to Parrot Mountain, when they said mountain they meant it, not very easy for a wheelchair to get around. Bill is cracking up in the picture because his bird was fascinated with the joystick on his chair the handlers had to make him stop nipping at it.

Thank you so much for allowing me to share our trip with you. I have enjoyed writing about it.

 

[piglet50]

what a great report. thank you so much for sharing your trips with us.