October 2010: Wizards, Pirates and Pixie Dust: *10/7/10: ready to go

[dzalice]

Just wanted to poke my head in and say hi. I'm enjoying your trip report so far. I'll be there as well next fall taking a girls trip with a friend of mine. Can't wait to hear about all your plans.

Welcome and thanks for the kind words.

 

[pixiepirate]

Just wanted to poke my head in and say hi. I'm enjoying your trip report so far. I'll be there as well next fall taking a girls trip with a friend of mine. Can't wait to hear about all your plans.

The more the merrier. I hope we can keep you entertained for the next 10 months.

 

[dzalice]

I put this on the Tech Support board, but I think I will put it here too, so maybe the moderators will see it. This is still a Pre Trip Report, note the October 2010 title. I think someone confused my back from Faeriecon note and moved us here in error. Maybe there is an edit that catches all the Back from... titles and i shouldnt have used that. But please, move us back to Pre Trip please.

 

[dzalice]

Thank you Thank you Thank you

 

[pixiepirate]

Disney magic can spring up in the most unexpected places. At Faeriecon this past weekend we met a very interesting fellow named Mark. He’s a storyteller, and quite an engaging one. While he was entertaining the crowd before the Costume Contest on Sunday he mentioned Pirates of the Caribbean, asking how many people had been on the ride. Of course, a goodly portion of the room raised their hands. Then he proceeded to tell us that his voice is used in 3 different parts of the ride. Where the pirate ship is firing on the fort he says “Man down on #4 gun, Cap’n.” He had another line too, and I apologize that I can't remember what it was. I just remember laughing heartily when he told us that he could never say the line without squinting one eye shut. In the market scene he says, “We wants the redhead. Give us the redhead.” And in the famous jail sequence his voice is mixed with several other saying “Here doggie, doggie.” plus a few other bits.

I don’t know if they use the same voices in both Pirates attractions. Mark is definitely in the Disneyland Pirates (he described the double drops). The telling of the tale was an unanticipated bit of Disney magic in itself. I’ve now learned another tiny bit of Disney lore. And I can't wait to be riding Pirates of the Caribbean again.

 

[If U Had Wings]

That's pretty cool. I can hear all those lines now.

 

[dzalice]

He was a fantastic storyteller and a genuinely nice guy. It was a lot of fun listening to him. And the extra Disney touch was just perfect.

 

[pixiepirate]

That's pretty cool. I can hear all those lines now.

The story's just not the same without the gestures and pirate voices. I wish I could remember the gingerbread man cookie story he told. It was funny, charming and touching all at the same time.

 

[dzalice]

You know, I’ve been seeing a lot of threads on the boards about losing the magic of Disney because of, well, a lot of different things, all of which could happen on any vacation (rude or uncaring CMs, poor food quality, room disappointments, non-working attractions). Now, Zig and I have not been subjected to any of the above, that I can remember. True, we don’t have a lot of interaction with CMs, other than the usual interaction you would get at any vacation destination. But everyone was polite, friendly and seemed to enjoy their work.

And then I see a lot of responses to these threads that say, in essence, suck it up, you have to make your own magic. By this, I take it to mean that what you put into your vacation is what you get out of it. OK, I can get that, but still……it’s Disney. Don’t we automatically expect it to be better than everywhere else? There’s always been a high standard set on all the Disney properties/brands. And it always seemed to hold true until recently, I guess.

So, I guess, what I’m trying to say is that there are 2 forces that need to combine to make your vacation “Disney magical.” One: the Disney experience itself, the CMs, the parks, the resorts, the attractions, the whole package. And two: you. You have to be the best vacationer you can be, courteous, pleasant and ready to enjoy all that is laid out before you.

I can’t say that Zig and I have always been the best vacationers around, there’s always something that gets you down or irritates you or just makes you react badly. But we always seem to have a really good time down at Disney and we’re planning on having a really good time next year too.

 

[pixiepirate]

I had a nice little chat with fairy artist Jasmine Beckett-Griffith on the last day of Faeriecon. Now I have a lot of fairy shirts but most of them are summer wear. Since I am always cold those just wouldn’t cut it in the chillier fall weather so I resorted to my Tinker Bell sweatshirts. On Sunday, Jasmine’s husband commented on my shirt, remembering I had worn a Tink shirt the day before. We started talking about Tink, who is one of Jasmine’s favorite characters. She is doing a line of Tink figurines for the Bradford Exchange, the first of which is called Kiss My Wings. I have seen the color artwork for this figurine, a spunky little Tink, and can't wait to see the finished piece. Jasmine will also be doing a line of Disney princesses for Bradford. I have seen a black and white drawing of the first princess, Snow White. Very cute, and again I can't wait to see the finished figurine. Rather refreshing too, that the first princess was not Cinderella, though I would have preferred it be Aurora, my personal favorite. Jasmine told me the line will also include Ariel and Jasmine so perhaps we will get all the princesses not just the Fab Four.

For any Wizard of Oz fans who might be reading, Jasmine is also doing the Fairies of Oz collection for Bradford. I actually had a flyer for this collection waiting for me when I returned from Faeirecon. Jasmine has reimagined the characters of Oz as adorable fairies. The collection will include Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion and an Emerald City display stand. Jasmine also told me the line would be expanding to include Glinda and the Wicked Witch.

 

[pixiepirate]

My Toy Story Mania Wii game arrived while I was at Faeriecon so my first chance to play was this past weekend. Whoa! What an addicting game. I should have guessed that because I love the attraction at HS. I played so much my arm hurt the next day. I still have games to unlock but so far I think the space ones are my favorites, except maybe the hoops one. Gotta love those aliens. I do like breaking those plates for the Army guys too. I can't say playing this will improve my scores at WDW. My accuracy ratings are so far down the charts you’d have to go to the basement to find them. Still, at least I don’t have to wait another year before I can play again, I just have to beat my sister to the Wii.

 

[dzalice]

Ha! She wishes, Wii is my favorite past time. Although I have not yet played the TSM game, couldnt get the controller away from Zig. We will have to play against each other one time. Awwww, now I want to be at DHS, riding TSM!

 

[dzalice]

Well, just want to wish everyone Happy Thanksgiving. We don’t really do a big meal with lots of family, it’s usually just me, Zig and The Mom. We’ll be having our traditional turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, peas and tomatoes, Brussels sprouts (for The Mom), home made bread, and cranberry sauce. I think we are going to have Seven Layer salad too this year, and a pie for dessert. Yum, cant wait. We have never been to Disney over the holidays (any holiday), but we are thinking of making a Christmas holiday trip in the next few years. We will of course be staying at the Wilderness Lodge, simply because we have seen pictures of it done up for Christmas and it looks spectacular. And, if we can swing it, we are going to go for a concierge room. I’m not totally sure what that all entails, other than being on the top floor of the resort, but it certainly sounds special. We will also be doing Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Christmas Party for the first time. We have already done the Halloween Party, so we would want to see what Christmas is like. Besides they gave out hot chocolate, who can pass that up.

 

[If U Had Wings]

The Thanksgiving plans sound lovely. Sometimes the quiet holidays are the best.

I'm so jealous of the Wii game. One of these days I'll own one, but I need to upgrade my tv first. I'm still using the same set I bought way back when I just got out of college. The thing just won't die and I can't justify buying a new set when mine works perfectly.

 

[dzalice]

The Thanksgiving plans sound lovely. Sometimes the quiet holidays are the best.

I'm so jealous of the Wii game. One of these days I'll own one, but I need to upgrade my tv first. I'm still using the same set I bought way back when I just got out of college. The thing just won't die and I can't justify buying a new set when mine works perfectly.

Oh dont feel too bad about the tv. I believe we are still using the tv I won in a raffle back in 1982. It's a 19 inch or maybe 22 in, not a flat screen, not even cable ready, so you know it's old. But we are planning on upgrading to a nice new 32 in flat screen before the end of the year. I think having the TSM Wii game had motivated Zig to get out and buy a new TV. She wants to be able to see those rings land on the little alien guys. Believe me this is one fun game. The only disadvantage I can see is that when I get back to DHS and ride TSM, I will be trying to push down the "A" button instead of pulling the string.

 

[pixiepirate]

The Thanksgiving plans sound lovely. Sometimes the quiet holidays are the best.

I love to take Thanksgiving to stuff myself, maybe write a few Christmas cards and just relax. It's the last day for that before the mad Holiday decorating frenzy begins. Hope everyone has a great and tasty Thanksgiving.

Zig

 

[dzalice]

Well, it’s almost time to start the mad Thanksgiving cooking frenzy. Then it will be time for the mad Christmas decorating frenzy. Then the mad Christmas shopping frenzy. And then next year, the mad working-overtime- to-finish-end-of-year-reports frenzy. :(This would be me. I work in accounting and there’s nothing like spending all of Jan and Feb working every Saturday to file state reports. The up side is extra money for Disney World!) Then we might finally have time for the official Schedule-the-Disney-Trip frenzy. That’s what I’m waiting for. We usually don’t start scheduling our trip/activities til just about 6 months out, so we might even have to wait til April. We’re hoping to see some nice deals come out around that time. It would be nice to get free dining one time, or another deal like the 4 and 3 one we had in March. It’s getting kinda hard to wait for scheduling time to start, but in the meantime, we are trying to think of some new things to try. (Before you even start, no to the Characters in Flight, at least for me, terrified of heights). But we are thinking about doing a tour, maybe the Keys to the Kingdom one. We’ve been checking out different posts about it, and it sounds like a lot of fun. I was interested to see that you get headsets to hear your guide better, this always seems to be a problem when on a tour. I always like the ones with the audio set ups best. We used one when we went to see the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago this year. They even had additional channels you could tune in to get trivia and other facts about the exhibit and the movies. But what other things could we try out? Any suggestions?

 

[pixiepirate]

Well, vacation is over but the frenzy is not. Diane and I were off from Thanksgiving Day until yesterday. It was a mad rush to try to get all the decorating done. We almost made it. Another day and we might have completed the last of it. All the outside decorations are up. We only have three small trees to finish indoors and assorted displays to arrange. Watched the Disney Holiday Special with David Bromstad. Wow! Can you believe all those trees?! Amazing! I wish they would have shown more. Now there’s a job I would like, decorating Christmas trees all year long. I sure have had plenty of practice. And now I see where people are complaining that there aren’t as many decorations at WDW as there used to be. I guess they don’t think Disney has been affected by the recession like the rest of the country. I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been to WDW during the holidays (was at Disneyland New Year’s Eve 2007 and will never do that again). I don’t think it would really matter to me because (a) I’m in WDW and (b) I’m celebrating the holidays and I didn’t have to do any decorating at all. We hope to make a holiday trip in the next few years and then we will see for ourselves. I hope all your holiday plans are well under way and moving along smoothly. I still have some shopping to do.

 

[dzalice]

Well, hello everybody! I see Zig has filled you in on our decorating extravaganza, which, of course, we are still working on. But, rest assured, it will be done by Christmas, sometimes it’s not done til Christmas Eve, but it’s always done by Christmas. You would think we had a huge house to decorate, but it’s just a modest bungalow, we just like a lot of decorations. This year we are going to have 8 trees set up. Now you can see why Zig would like a job at Disney decorating trees. I would prefer a job making the candy. We watched the Guy Fieri Disneyland special, and my mouth was watering by the end. Once the holidays are over, we will have to get into planning mode and make some decisions about our trip next year. And so, I splurged on myself and bought an iTouch, and have already downloaded a couple of Disney apps, Mouse Memos, and the Disney Checklist. Now instead of filling up little notebooks, I can just put everything into my Touch. Zig says she will be getting hers pretty soon too.

 

[dzalice]

Hello to all you viewers/readers and a big THANK YOU! from me and Zig. We are over 1000 and it's all good. I know it’s not much compared to some, but that’s 1000 folks who are reading about our trip plans and we appreciate it. Feel free to post any comments or suggestions you like, we are happy to hear from you all.