Definitely a fun memory here – taken during the 2014 Disney World Half Marathon (as part of the Goofy Challenge) which my wife and did together (our first race together). The photo was taken after we had looped through Tomorrowland and part of new Fantasyland on our way to run through Cinderella’s castle.
You can see the excitement on Heather’s face as we spotted the castle and got closer. The picture wasn’t staged, I caught her when she wasn’t expecting it and I got her natural and awesome reaction. The photo is a touch blurry but the excitement comes through anyway!
I haven’t had a chance to do one of these posts in a while but now that everything has settled down after the Goofy Challenge in January and our family vacation to Disney World in early February I hope to get a chance to do more…
On our most recent trip to Disney World we had what was probably one of our most memorable nights at the parks. Specifically late at night in Epcot.
We stayed at the Beach Club Resort on this trip and there were late night Magic Hours at Epcot this night but it was a touch cool and the park was pretty much deserted at the end of the night. When I see the pictures of that night I remember the peacefulness of the walk through the park out the World Gateway exit. It really felt like we were alone there exploring and able to take all the time we needed to see what we wanted. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt more relaxed in one of the Disney parks.
There were so few people around that we were able to get some great pictures of what the park looks like all lit up at night without a whole crowd of people being in each shot.
The night had a great feeling and this shot really helps me remember it.
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
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
Today’s day late Magic Memory Monday post / image comes from the area just outside the International Gateway at Epcot in Disney World. We walked there from the Beach Club and had to delay our entrance when the kids saw grass. “Green grass in January? Everything stops until we frolic!”
Once again it is the simple things and the little details that bring back some of the best memories.
I’ve missed a couple posts in the past week as we have had company over and I haven’t been able to get at the site and still do my Goofy Challenge training. But that should all be sorted now and I can get back to putting up some more posts.
For the Magic Memory today this picture caught my eye as I was reviewing some old pics from our December 2010 family trip to Disney World. We were wandering out of Epcot to take the monorail to Magic Kingdom when we randomly ran into Stitch and Daisy doing greetings. A bit of a strange combination but it was good – plus there wasn’t any wait so we were able to come up and visit them really quickly.
Our daughter couldn’t get to Daisy fast enough – basically flew into a hug. I managed to snag a couple quick pictures and our daughter was just so excited. She was less than a month over 2 at this point and getting that hug from Daisy was a huge highlight for her. Any time we went anywhere for the rest of the trip and we saw characters she would ask for “Daisy hugs”.
It is pretty amazing to me how much the Disney characters can touch people (kids and adults) and become such a big part of them. Our daughter still loves Daisy to this day 3 years later. Considering what kids could latch on to instead, I’ll take my daughter looking for “Daisy hugs” any day.
Following in the theme of the post from earlier today of our daughter K’s meeting with Cinderella in Magic Kingdom – this next pic was from a few minutes later when K met with Rapunzel.
The cast member playing Rapunzel really captured the fun of the character from Tangled and spent a lot of time laughing and joking with K. The laughter and fun seemed very genuine and our daughter certainly had a lot of fun with her.
I don’t know if it was because it was pretty quiet or just what, but K got to spend a lot of time with the princesses that night and she loved every second of it. She was so happy and excited and this picture seems to capture it.
I love seeing moments like this where the kids can just let go and have fun. Awesome.
Today’s memory comes from our last family trip to Disney World (in Jan/Feb 2013) – our daughter (K) had a few Disney Princess dresses with her on this trip and it was a bit of an imperative to see as many of the Princesses as possible on the trip.
We got lucky a few times during the trip where the meet and greet area in Magic Kingdom for the Princesses was pretty much a walk up with only a few families in front of us. Both times we stopped in they had Rapunzel, Aurora and Cinderella (with the order reversed one visit to the next) meeting with folks.
The cast member who was playing Rapunzel both times was awesome, she really captured the energy of the character as portrayed in Tangled. But today’s memory was of Cinderella.
We were next in line and while we were waiting the PhotoPass photographer had some issues with her equipment and quickly wandered off stage to fix it. Once Cinderella had finished with the people she was visiting with she noticed the photographer wasn’t there and wandered over to us in line and took our daughter’s hand and walked her over to the greeting area to talk.
Luckily I had our camera out ready to go – even still I almost didn’t get this shot – luckily the Canon T4i I use frequently is a pretty quick camera and good with lower light conditions.
It was a big moment for our daughter and the cast member playing Cinderella really made her day. It was a pretty cool.
