This pic was taken during our January 2010 family trip to Disney World at Magic Kingdom. We were down for 3 weeks that January staying in a townhouse off-site and I did the Goofy Challenge during that trip.
It was bloody cold there that year. It snowed at the starting line for the half marathon that year… Most of the time Disney has the Christmas decorations down prior to when we get there for the marathon weekend but they were up this year. With it being so cold it was kind of surreal to be in Orlando with jackets and Christmas decorations everywhere.
Cold aside, Disney holiday decorations are awesome – including how they light up Cinderella’s castle.
I could stare at the castle in this pic for hours. Peaceful.
For this one I decided on a pic of our son on an excursion to the Kennedy Space Center. We were staying near Disney World in a townhouse rental for 3 weeks in January 2010. During that trip we did a few different runs away from the core Disney World area and one of those trips was the Space Center.
Our son was 3.5 at the time and our daughter was about 14 months – needless to say they got a bit bored after a while…and maybe a bit loopy. As highlighted by this pic.
I did get a nice pic of the boy just standing there smiling but this picture is just more…well…him.
We didn’t through the whole center in one day so my brother and I came back just ourselves to finish it another day and I went crazy with the camera but this was definitely a good capture that first day.
Calling this one as a “trip” item and not Disney took a bit of thinking but since it is a Landry restaurant even though it is at Downtown Disney at Disney World I am going to make a call of convenience and it say this is not truly Disney. It can be argued the other way but I am in a hurry so I am making the call.
I took this shot with our video camera between the “meteor storms” that happen every 15 minutes or so. We were seated in the ice cave area that is made to look like the inside of a big glacier with a big T-Rex skeleton frozen in the ice. There is a cool blue glow most of the time when the meteor storms aren’t happening – when they are though the room gets very red and yellow. It is a pretty cool effect.
I remember the food being decent but the place is really about the theming and the atmosphere – the kids love it and I have enjoyed it the couple times we have gone.
Look how happy she looks! Today’s Magical Memory Monday comes from our December 2010 family trip to Disney World. We split that trip between Caribbean Beach Club and the Yacht Club Resort. This picture was taken at the magnificent kids’ pool area of Stormalong Bay.
Stormalong Bay is the very large pool area shared between the Yacht and Beach Club Resorts and features a small kids’ splash pool, a larger sand bottom kids’ pool with a big sand island in the middle, a lazy river and another large pool area that has a spot to play various pool games and an area where the large water slide empties into. The entrance to the water slide is in a separate area that is made up to look like a beached sailing ship and that area also features another little kids’ pool. The whole area is fantastic and beyond the actual water parks it is probably the best pool in the area. Wonderful place.
This picture was taken while I was in the water of the kids’ sand bottom pool and K came running off the sand island with just a fantastic smile on her face. These kinds of memories are why we keep coming back to this hotel complex. I can’t help but smile when I look at the pic.
Sitting here typing this while watching the MST3K presentation of Santa Claus Conquers the Martians – awesome stuff. A fun and happy show for a fun and happy picture!
The photo / memory for today is from our list trip to Disney World. We stayed at the Beach Club and while we were there we decided we were finally going to get around to renting one of the Surrey bikes which you can do at a few places at Disney World. I can’t remember all the spots but definitely at Port Orleans Riverside and the Boardwalk Inn. In this case we wandered over to the Boardwalk Inn Resort and renting from there.
We got one of the ones with 2 adult seats and 2 kid seats out front. We did a couple trips around the Boardwalk area just enjoying the exercise and fresh air in a quiet and picturesque setting. Definitely a good memory and well worth the cost of the half hour rental! Highly recommended.
Heather and Ted riding a Surrey bike at the Boardwalk Inn
Thinking Disney Thursday today comes from our family trip to Disney World in January/February 2012. We stayed at the Beach Club Resort and really enjoyed being able to walk to Epcot and Hollywood Studios from the hotel. Today’s pic was taken at Hollywood Studios just outside Star Tours.
Our daughter spent a fair bit of time that trip in her Minnie Mouse dress which created some interesting pictures that you wouldn’t get anywhere else – such as someone sitting on a Star Wars speeder bike while wearing a Minnie Mouse dress?
Now, granted this picture was taken before Disney purchased Lucas Film and the rights to Star Wars so you will probably start to see more things like this as time goes on but before that you really wouldn’t see places where franchises mixed. Hollywood Studios is a special place where you can see Disney, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Muppets, etc – most places you see one franchise. The mixing of franchises is pretty cool and allows for some cool mashups and images.
Basically – Why can’t you wear a Minnie Mouse dress on a speeder bike? Frankly from a child’s perspective it makes perfect sense and they will mix and match franchises all the time when they are playing – it is only as adults that we feel the need to keep them compartmentalized and that limits our imagination.
That is my Thinking Disney Thursday thought for today – don’t place limits on imagination.
K on speeder bike at Hollywood Studios wearing Minnie Mouse dress
One of the great things for us Winnipeggers when we head south to Disney World in the winter is seeing all the flowers and the colours. I find that I will rarely take photos of flowers here at home but when I get to Disney I tend to take many, many pictures. The one today was taken during our December 2010 trip where we split our nights between Disney’s Caribbean Beach and Disney’s Yacht Club Resorts. This photo was taken at the Caribbean Beach Resort.
I love grabbing pictures of flowers at Disney World. The flowers are always are always in great condition and the light ends up being fantastic so much of the time.
For the pic today there had been a light rain in the morning and then the sun came out – so on the picture you can see the rain drops on the leaf of the flower. I am not a professional photographer or even a very good amateur but with photos like this one I somehow manage to sometimes get a picture that takes me back to that moment. With this pic I can almost smell the flower and I can feel the heat of the sun after a couple cool days.
Similar to the Magic Memory Monday post for this week – this pic comes from our first trip as a family of 4 in February 2009. We decided this trip to grab a cab from the Port Orleans French Quarter Resort to Sea World to check things out.
I have a whack of pictures from that day that are the back of people as they were looking at things like the turtles, the rays and the dolphins but this one is one of the good ones where the family faced the camera!
Our daughter doesn’t look too impressed at this point but a lovely smile from our son here. It was a pretty good day, although I do remember getting rained on heavily for a little while. This was the last time we had gone to Sea World though – maybe on our next trip we will think about getting there again?
Today’s Magic Memory Monday post comes from our 2009 trip to Disney World. It was our first trip as a family of 4 with our daughter having been born just a few months before. We stayed at Port Orleans French Quarter and absolutely loved the place. It provided great convenience with the ability to hop a boat down to Downtown Disney, a very good on-site pool, great places to walk around and an awesome little park for our son to play when my wife and daughter needed to rest.
The trip was in late February so by this point we had been trapped inside for a few months already by a wonderful Winnipeg winter and T was just overjoyed to be able to get out and run around like a maniac. I was just happy he could do it outside and not in the house.
The picture is a capture I got as he hopped off the playground slide and ran full tilt back to the ladder to give it another go. You can see just the sheer joy on his face – I can’t look at this picture and not smile. Wonderful.
My Magic Memory Monday picture today comes from our first ever character meal at Disney World in January 2012. We had done quite a few family trips to Disney World already by this point but we wanted to wait and save the expense of a character meal until the kids were old enough to enjoy it more.
We were staying at the Beach Club Resort and made the trek to the lobby to the Cape May buffet. It was a good breakfast buffet and the characters in rotation were Goofy, Donald and Minnie all in water / beach / nautical themed outfits.
The kids really enjoyed themselves and the characters did a very good job of keeping the kids entertained and interacting with the kids when they got to our table. But the second time Goofy stopped at our table is the part of the experience that I will really remember. Our son was kind of distracted but Goofy’s act and mannerisms got our daughter laughing and playing along in a great way. She is a bit of a goof herself (can’t imagine where she gets that from) and she had a blast.
T, K and Goofy at Cape May restaurant in Disney’s Beach Club Resort
