Living with the Land – ahhh peaceful! Wishing Disney Wednesday July 2nd, 2014

After quite a long hiatus on this subsite I am going to take a stab at getting back into it. As I am about 27 weeks out from our expected travel day to Disney World for the Disney World Marathon and Goofy Challenge / Dopey Challenge I wanted to kind of help settle my nerves and build some patience as I am pining for Disney World already!

So for Wishing Disney Wednesday for this week I am going to go with something nice and peaceful. Disney World can be quite hectic of course with huge crowds and lots of noise and stress sometimes…but, in Epcot at least, they seem to be able to have peaceful spots where you can just sit back and relax and get some peace.

With that in mind I am going to go with Living with the Land – it is an often overlooked ride especially sitting beside Soarin’ and all the crowds that go there and there doesn’t seem to be much of wait most of the time. The lack of wait alone can help with the whole peaceful thing too…

The ride itself is an easy going boat ride with a story about preserving and of course living with the land but for me the most relaxing part of the ride is where you go through the green house areas on the boat. You get to see many different kinds of plants and different ways of growing them but for me the biggest draw is the sense of peace and quiet I get while on the ride.

My favorite time to ride the ride is during the day when the sun is up, the air is nicely balanced and isn’t too hot or cold, humidity is at a good level. The sunlight coming through the dome is great, there is the sound of water gently lapping against the boat/ride and with the sand base of the plant areas you can almost imagine you are on a nice peaceful beach somewhere. It is fantastic as a place to sit and refocus for the rest of the day.

Snow Man / Sand Man in Living with the Land in Epcot
Snow Man / Sand Man in Living with the Land in Epcot

Wishing Disney Wednesday – Cinderella’s castle – ahh soon, soon – Jan 1, 2014

So Wishing Disney Wednesday for New Years Day 2014 is from the Magic Kingdom in Disney World.  Specifically it is of Cinderella’s castle at night glowing a nice blue with some refection in the canal beside the castle.  It is a week tomorrow until my wife and I head to Disney World Marathon in Disney World and a month today before we take the kids to Magic Kingdom for a family trip.  A good chunk of time will be spent in Magic Kingdom on both trips and the castle will feature prominently in the running races we will be doing besides.

One of my favorite times to be in the Magic Kingdom is night – especially when it is warm and calm without a lot of people around – just a great atmosphere that really speaks to me.  We love late night magic hours at the Magic Kingdom when we can hit them – midnight at the Magic Kingdom is fantastic!

Cinderella's Castle in Magic Kingdom at night - blue
Cinderella’s Castle in Magic Kingdom at night – blue

Wishing Disney Wednesday – Magic Kingdom Christmas decorations – Dec 25th, 2013

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.

Magic Kingdom Christmas decorations
Magic Kingdom Christmas decorations