Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho. It's off to the Grand Floridian We Go! (Update: TR Started)

[MarbleBob]

An interruption to the interruption... Our Magic Bands Arrived today!!!

When I got home from work today, this package was waiting on the counter.



Hmm... What's this? Oh wait, I think I know what it might be...



Magic Bands!!!!



We opted to append the year next to our names (I blurred out the kids names), as I'm sure that we'll each end up with a bunch of these before our Disney days are done. Figure this would help with the memories.

It's sort of weird to think that collecting a stack of cards may become a thing of the past. Here's a good portion of our room keys and park tickets through the years...



Well, what are we waiting for? Let's try them on!!



I felt like yelling, "Wonder Twins Powers Activate!!".

OK. Next up, the final installment of the Treasures of the Archives Exhibit...


.

 

[MidnightParade]

I love the idea of an Adventureland/Tiki themed dining room! That's going to be great and so much fun! Looking forward to your product review!

I'm so envious! The exhibit looks fantastic. The picture of your wife and Pickle with Annettes costume is so good. They look happy and gleeful!

It is very cool thinking that Walt personally handled some of those things(oh man thats such a fangirl/fanboy thing to say) but still very neat. Makes me very excited to make it to Disneyland some day and actually get to be in "his" park.

Looking forward to more!

 

[annegirl]

Joining!
There are so many awesome things about this trip report!
I would LOVE to someday stay in the Grand Floridian. It is definitely my dream resort.
That is a lot of family going on this trip together. I am majorly impressed at all the planning that must be going into getting everyone organized. And sounds like it is going to be SO much fun.
Also, I used to skateboard. I haven't done it for probably 15 years but reading your report made me miss my skater girl days. And made me think about the day I met Tony Hawk! That was a great day.
The Walt Disney exhibit looks amazing. Makes me wish I still lived in the area so I could have gone to it. We just moved to Utah about a year ago from Kenosha, WI. So we spent a lot of time in Chicago.
Your trip is getting close! I am sure you guys are getting so excited.

 

[MarbleBob]

I love the idea of an Adventureland/Tiki themed dining room! That's going to be great and so much fun! Looking forward to your product review!

I'm so envious! The exhibit looks fantastic. The picture of your wife and Pickle with Annettes costume is so good. They look happy and gleeful!

It is very cool thinking that Walt personally handled some of those things(oh man thats such a fangirl/fanboy thing to say) but still very neat. Makes me very excited to make it to Disneyland some day and actually get to be in "his" park.

Looking forward to more!

We ended up placing a second order at disneystore.com It actually arrived yesterday. The main order is still on it's way, so I'll probably hold off the review until they all arrive, but I've got to say that this stuff is incredible!!! Stay tuned

I love that picture of DW and Pickle too. I'm blessed to have such a great family

Joining!
There are so many awesome things about this trip report!
I would LOVE to someday stay in the Grand Floridian. It is definitely my dream resort.
That is a lot of family going on this trip together. I am majorly impressed at all the planning that must be going into getting everyone organized. And sounds like it is going to be SO much fun.
Also, I used to skateboard. I haven't done it for probably 15 years but reading your report made me miss my skater girl days. And made me think about the day I met Tony Hawk! That was a great day.
The Walt Disney exhibit looks amazing. Makes me wish I still lived in the area so I could have gone to it. We just moved to Utah about a year ago from Kenosha, WI. So we spent a lot of time in Chicago.
Your trip is getting close! I am sure you guys are getting so excited.

Glad to have you joining in!

It's awesome that you used to skateboard and that you got to meet Tony Hawk. I've been a big fan of his since I started skateboarding in the 80's. Never got meet him, but I did get to meet a couple of his Bones Brigade teammates, Rodney Mullen and Tommy Guerrero back in the day.

Girls skateboarding has come a LONG way in the last 15 years. My DD14 has been following a lot of the female pro's on social media, and it's cool to see some of them (like Lizzie Armanto) entering "guy contests" and actually beating most of them. If you have Amazon Prime, you can stream a movie called "Underexposed" for free. It's a documentary about girls skateboarding... where it's come from in recent years, and the direction it's going. I watched it recently with DD and DW and we all really enjoyed it. Here's a link to the trailer on Vimeo.

I sometimes miss living in the Chicago area too. I went to high school in Libertyville, which isn't too far from Kenosha. We used to go up to the outlet mall in that area before Gurnee Mills opened up. Hopefully, they'll make the Treasures of the Archives a traveling exhibit and it might make it's way closer to Utah. If so, I highly recommend it.

 

[DisDancerina]

So glad I had time to look at some trip reports today! Yours was the first up! Fun to see you on your own grounds rather than visiting mine!

That Disney Store Frozen event was crazy... I work at Build-A-Bear and that really affected our sales that day; everyone had spent all of their money on Frozen swag! It was nuts! I'm so glad you got a dress for your DD!

Can't wait to keep reading your PTR! Sounds like you guys are going to have an awesome time with such a large crew! Challenging, but I'm sure it'll be rewarding.

 

[MarbleBob]

So glad I had time to look at some trip reports today! Yours was the first up! Fun to see you on your own grounds rather than visiting mine!

That Disney Store Frozen event was crazy... I work at Build-A-Bear and that really affected our sales that day; everyone had spent all of their money on Frozen swag! It was nuts! I'm so glad you got a dress for your DD!

Can't wait to keep reading your PTR! Sounds like you guys are going to have an awesome time with such a large crew! Challenging, but I'm sure it'll be rewarding.

Hi DisDancerina. Glad to have you following along over here too. We stopped at the Build-A-Bear after we got the Frozen stuff. They were teasing us about the Disney Store bags, but they also mentioned that they were expecting to get a Frozen line this fall. I bet the Build A Bear marketing team sure wishes they could join in on the craziness right now!!

 

[KCmike]

Loving this trip report. So excited to see the magic bands come in for you!

We are headed to Boston this year and half of us are driving. I wonder if I stop in Chicago to see this traveling museum is something we should do? It looks like a blast.

Loved the GoPro on the Toy Monorail. AWESOME. Also fun was the gathering of everyone's favorite's list. This is such a fun report!

 

[MarbleBob]

Loving this trip report. So excited to see the magic bands come in for you!

We are headed to Boston this year and half of us are driving. I wonder if I stop in Chicago to see this traveling museum is something we should do? It looks like a blast.

Loved the GoPro on the Toy Monorail. AWESOME. Also fun was the gathering of everyone's favorite's list. This is such a fun report!

Hi Mike! Glad to have you here!!! If you could pull off a stop at the museum, I would strongly consider it. I'm really glad we did it. Stay tuned, I'm about to post a bunch of photos from the last portion of the exhibit.

 

[MarbleBob]

A visit to "Treasures of the Walt Disney Archives" in Chicago - Part 3

OK, so we left off with the theme park attraction memorabilia. Next up in the exhibit were some maquettes and items from the Beauty and the Beast era of animation.



They had a bunch of interactive exhibits fueled by iPads. Had a hard time pulling the kids away from these.



They had a bunch of art hanging on the wall over here too. If you weren't paying attention, you might think that these are just random posters... but the three on the right are the actual paintings used for the movie posters. Cool!!!



Next, you had a choice... You could turn left and head over through a hall of movie costumes, or you could move forward and participate in an animation academy where you learn to draw some Disney characters. (and then you could see the costumes) We've done something similar to this in Disneyland and on a Disney cruise, so we decided to pass on it. But, I did step in for a few photos.



They give you paper and a drawing board.



You could grab a seat and follow along.



They hadn't really started yet, so I walked up close to the instructor for a snap shot. He didn't seem to mind.



At that point, it was time to pull the kids off the iPad exhibits and move on.

The last section is a series of movie costumes. Some of it was extremely cool and some was sort of lame.

First up was Bette Middler's costume from Hocus Pocus. Yawn....



Costume from the Rocketeer. OK, that's pretty cool.



A couple of Cruella De Vil costumes from 102 Dalmations. Cool costumes, but lame movie.





Captain Jack Sparrow. Nice!!!!



Costumes from Enchanted. I actually liked that movie. Cool!







Oz. Cool!



The Mad Hatter. Darn cool!



Jewels from the Princess Diaries 2. LOL



Tom Hanks' costume from Saving Mr. Banks



Princess used to LOVE this movie.



Teen Beach Movie. I almost really liked this movie. It the bad guy wasn't just outright stupid, it could have been so much better!



At that point, we had been in the exhibit for about an hour and a half. DW and I could have spent more time, but the kids were ready to move on and explore the rest of the museum.

On the way out, they try and get you to purchase the photo that they took of you in the beginning.



Ours wasn't anything special, so we decided to pass on it and move on...



We ended up exploring the rest of the museum for the remainder of the day. Even if they didn't have the Disney exhibit, Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry is an outstanding place to visit. We all had such a great time. Very cool stuff!

Towards the end of the day, we went back and visited the gift shop for a while. We ended up getting enamel pins for our collections.

And the cool clock on the way out of the museum...



So all in all, the exhibit was better than I expected. Very well done and worth the trip up from St. Louis. I highly recommend visiting it before it moves on if you have the chance.

 

[DisDancerina]

Hi DisDancerina. Glad to have you following along over here too. We stopped at the Build-A-Bear after we got the Frozen stuff. They were teasing us about the Disney Store bags, but they also mentioned that they were expecting to get a Frozen line this fall. I bet the Build A Bear marketing team sure wishes they could join in on the craziness right now!!

That's too funny! That's exactly what we said over here. We are, indeed, getting some Frozen stuff in the fall! I'm so excited!


Also, so jealous they had animation academy at yours! When it was in Simi Valley, they didn't have that, so that's really cool!

 

[MidnightParade]

Looks like such a great day! lol, that Sebastien maquette looks like he's about to put the moves on some unsuspecting angelfish or something.

 

[MarbleBob]

Looks like such a great day! lol, that Sebastien maquette looks like he's about to put the moves on some unsuspecting angelfish or something.

Hahahaha

 

[annegirl]

Again, this looks like it was so much fun. I love looking at the costumes. The last time I was at the Science and Industry their traveling exhibit was Star Wars. It was pretty cool.

We did the animation class at DHS and had so much fun.

 

[KelleyK75]

Thanks for posting all of your pictures. I am definitely considering a trip to see this in the summer. Can you do both the animation academy and go through the costumes, or could you only pick one to do?

Yay for your magic bands!

 

[MarbleBob]

3 Weeks to Go. What do we do now? How about decorate our dining room Disney style?

So we depart 3 weeks from tomorrow. Getting so close, I can almost taste the dole whips! As far as remaining plans go, stay tuned for at least some posts related to:

• Things that I want to photograph
• Treats and Snacks that we want to try (looking at MidnightParade's list on her PTR has me thinking about being more deliberate on my snacking this time around )
• Activities for the kids during the drive (If any... They'll probably be glued to their iPads anyway.)
• I might rig up some games/chores for them to earn extra souvenir money before we leave.
• Packing lists
• Anything else I should be thinking of?

In the meantime, the rest of our DisneyStore.com order arrived today. As I mentioned a few posts back, we plan to decorate our dinning room in a Adventureland/Tiki theme. The new Adventureland line is AMAZING! (But we couldn't resist throwing in a few retro Disneyland related items too.) Also, happy that we made the order last week because some of these items are sold out already.

I love the Disney Store boxes, so much fun to open. Happy to see Mickey waving at us since we had Tink last time.



It was so much fun opening and inspecting each and every item!!!



Starting with the Adventureland Home Collection

So they have a new Adventureland Home Collection. There are still a few items missing online that I hope that they have in the parks next month. In the meantime, this stuff is classic!!!

Enchanted Tiki Room Ceramic Bowl

This is a medium sized bowl. Should be great for a large bowl of salsa or better yet, guacamole!! We decided to purchase two of these. The dimensions are 3 1/4'' H x 6 3/4'' Diameter. I love the color!!!




Jungle Cruise Elephant Figure

This one came in red, orange, and white. We decided to go with the red one. It's ceramic and the dimensions are 6'' H x 4 1/2'' W x 4 1/2'' D. It doesn't really do anything except for just sit there and generally look awesome! It's the only ceramic item in the lot that came with protective pads under it.



Enchanted Tiki Room Mini Glass Set

These things are tiny and cute! Not really practical, but who cares They are ceramic with dimensions of 3'' H x up to 2 1/2'' Diameter. They are supposed to hold about 2 oz. I guess you could put toothpicks in them, or just use them as shot glasses to serve rum straight up. Pickle will probably have fun drinking orange juice out of them





They stack!!!



Let's move on to some of the dishes, shall we?

Adventureland Bamboo Enchanted Tiki Room Plates

We ended up with two each of these. They are both made out of bamboo with a glossy glazed finish. I love that the one has Fritz on it, and the classic Adventureland pattern of the other is awesome! They are both about 9" in diameter. On the smaller side to eat a meal off of, but that's OK. We'll probably hang one of each on the wall. The wood is a really nice touch!!!





Enchanted Tiki Room Salt and Pepper Set

Who can have a tiki party without themed salt and pepper shakers? Probably anyone! But we won't have to. These are also really cute. They are ceramic and are 3'' H x 2 1/4'' Diameter.







Moving on to the Tiki mugs!!!

Enchanted Tiki Room Ceramic Tumbler

We purchase a three souvenir mugs when we visited Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar in Disneyland last October. Love them. So, now we have a couple more mugs for the collection. Time to shake up some Mai-Tais and Zombies! They are also ceramic and measure 7'' H x 3 1/4'' Diameter. They hold 20 oz.





Wow, I've hit the 25 images per post limit already. Time to hit "submit reply" and keep on keeping on

 

[MarbleBob]

3 Weeks to Go. What do we do now? How about decorate our dining room Disney style? - Part 2

OK, how about some more dishes?

Adventureland and Enchanted Tiki Room Dinner Plates

These are just too cool! Both are 9" X 9" and are made of ceramic. Looking forward to serving appetizers on these. Or maybe they'll go on the wall too. Decisions, decisions....





The next item isn't from the Adventureland collection, but I think it belongs!

Orange Bird Figure

The little Orange Bird from the Sunshine Tree Terrace. Oh. My. Goodness. This is so cool!!! As much as I love a good dole whip, Stephanie loves a citrus swirl and happy to see Orange Bird back on the scene He's also ceramic with 6'' H x 4'' W x 4 1/2'' D dimensions. He doesn't do anything either, except for sit there and taunt the red elephant with his coolness.







Up next is one of Stephanie's favorites.

Enchanted Tiki Room Appetizer Tray and Bowl Set


This is a set of 4 ceramic snack bowls plus a fitted wooden tray. José, Pierre, Michael, and Fritz are inside the bowls. Bowls 5'' x 5'' x 2 1/2'' D. Tray 12'' H x 11 3/4'' W x 1/2'' D. I think it would be hard to put any snacks in here because they would cover up the sweet looking Tiki Birds.







Well, that's about it for the "Adventureland Home Collection" stuff. How about we move on to the Disneyland stuff?

Magic Kingdom Map Tableware Collection

Fantasyland Castle Ceramic Miniature

This came in teal, white, and red (I think). We went with the teal color. Like the elephant and orange bird, it's just a little statue to display. But a cool one at that! Also ceramic and comes in at 6'' H x 4'' W x 3'' D.





Frontierland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, and Tomorrowland Plates

I LOVE the retro theming on this stuff. So cool. These ones are all 8" melamine plastic. Top rack dishwasher safe. A bit on the small side. You might eat a piece of cake on them, but not really a meal. I really wish they were ceramic for long term durability. Oh well, they were fairly inexpensive at least. And pretty darn cool. I love that they each have a different colored bottom side.





Magic Kingdom Map Plate

These are large 11" sized dinner plates. Also melamine. The design is about as cool as it gets! Enough said...



Magic Kingdom Map Bowl - Fantasyland

Same pattern as the larger plates. Also melamine and top rack dishwasher safe. I love that they have the castle hidden inside the bowls. Not too small, not too big at 2 3/4'' H x 5 1/2'' Diameter





OK. Moving on to these sweet shakers...

Frontierland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland, and Fantasyland Trash Can Salt or Pepper Shakers

What in the heck are we going to do with these?!?!? I don't know but they had an Adventureland one, so we HAD to get it. They aren't too expensive, so lets just get the whole set? DW says, OK. Click, Click, Click, Click (adds to "shopping basket"). Done!

Now that they are here, I'm glad we pulled the trigger. These are amazingly cool.

As with most of the other stuff, they are ceramic. They are supposed to be used for salt, pepper or, "any granular spice". They come in at 3 1/2'' H x 1 7/8'' W x 1 7/8'' D.







OK. So up to this point, I haven't been disappointed in the least. Everything is amazing and probably better in person than I would have expected. Very happy with this order!

Except......

The last item arrived damaged. Wah. Wah. It was the Mad Tea Party Salt and Pepper Set. The saucer is cracked in half. We've had issues with damaged merchandise from DisneyStore.com in the past and they took good care of us, but this item is sold out. I'm afraid that they won't be able to replace it. So sad, because it really is cool. That being said, since we are going with the Adventureland theme... if one thing was to get broken, I guess this would have been the least disappointing. Fingers crossed that they'll get some more in stock soon.





So, we'll be waiting until we get back from the trip to decide how to arrange and display all this stuff. Hoping that we can pick up a couple more desirable items in Downtown Disney.

Also, need to figure out what will go on the walls. We purchased the "Poster Art of Disney Parks" book last fall, with the idea of tearing some of the pages out and framing them. The pages are 14" by 11". Not bad for framing. When the book arrived, we were so impressed and afraid to cut out any pages, that we purchased a second copy to keep for our bookshelf. LOL.



Anyway, we planned to use some of the Fantasyland posters in another area of the house, but we'll probably frame up a couple Adventureland ones too. Here are some of the full page posters. We'll probably frame up two or three, it's going to be tough making the final call.



If you recall from earlier in the PTR, I'm a big fan of Swiss Family Robinson



Did anyone see that you can order the following posters as T-Shirts at DisneyStore.com starting today through May 15th? Hmm... I might need to place another order. I wish free shipping started around $25 instead of $75.



Well, that's about it for the Disney store purchase! I'll probably include a photo of how the room turns out in the post trip report later in June or July.

 

[KCmike]

First things first. Thanks for more pictures from the Exhibit in Chicago. It really looks like fun.

Nice collection of goodies there. I follow several weekly reports from the parks and saw these become available. I haven't pulled the trigger but they sure do look like fun. We have Disney silverware that we picked up from WDW last year and so many throws from all the parks. Usually my wife loves to hit the parks for Christmas items (wreaths, ornaments, cups).

3 weeks is so exciting.

 

[MarbleBob]

Thanks Mike. I'm glad to see at least a few people enjoyed seeing photos of the exhibit. It really was outstanding. If you end up making a stop one your way to Boston, I'd be interested in knowing what you thought about it. And seeing some photos. Looking at your Flickr stream, you have some some outstanding photography skills. Personally, I've just got the basics down with my little Micro 4/3 camera. I still have a lot of practice to do

 

[MidnightParade]

Waaahoo! 3 weeks! The kids must be starting to bounce off the walls....and you too! lol

Love the merch! Okay that purple tiki bowl looks to be a perfect ice cream bowl! I might have to get one for myself. Not sure if you guys are popcorn people but something fun might be able to put popcorn seasoning in the trashcan shakers if you want to actually use them. You can always use certain seasonings in each one too. Sweet&salty = Fantasyland. BBQ = Frontierland. Nacho = Adventureland. Dillpickle =Tomorrowland. lol, okay I think I'm thinking about this too much!

I don't know the Orange bird very well, or at all except for its recent revival but I think that figure is super cute and would to have it on my kitchen window sill myself!

Looks like you made some fantastic choices! I love the book/poster idea! I think its going to turn out amazing!

 

[MarbleBob]

Oh my gosh. That's such a great idea for putting the different seasonings in the appropriate shaker! You rock!!!