We are here!

At MCO

Just landed in Orlando. Getting our rental and heading out to Cocoa Beach.

Hooray! We are here!!

Zz.

At gate

Our plane just arrived at the gate. We will board soon.

At Airport

We are at the airport having early lunch. Things are all on time so far. Donald is just flapping his wings ready to take off.

Zz.

Mickey Mouse Poster Sold For $101,575

Better go dig into your attic to see if you have any vintage Mickey Mouse poster! A 1928 Mickey Mouse poster sold at an auction for more than $100,000!

The poster was auctioned in Dallas, Texas and sold for $101,575. The name of the winning bidder was not disclosed.

Grey Smith, director of movie poster auctions at Heritage Auctions, in a statement called the poster "an important piece of pop culture treasure," and said it was likely to be the only Mickey Mouse poster created until 1930, when Columbia Pictures started distributing Disney cartoons.

Zz.

All Packed And Ready To Go!

I wish it was tomorrow already!

I am all packed and ready to go. I just have to figure out if I can sleep tonight.

I am not the only one who is excited and rearing to go. Donald help me packed everything we need, and he's all set to leave right this very minute! Not quite yet, Donald. We still have to sleep tonight and get to the airport tomorrow!

Zz.

WDW/Disney Cruise Trip

We are a day away from flying out to Orlando for our vacation. We plan on spending a couple of days on the coast visiting the Space Center before doing the Disney Dream cruise on Sunday. After that , we will have a few days at WDW to enjoy the holiday festivities.

As always, I will try to blog live from where ever we are except while we are on the cruise. Donald is all excited and ready to go already!

Zz.

Tokyo Disneyland curtails balloon sales

The Disney Blog reports that Tokyo Disneyland has stopped the sale of balloons due to a shortage of Helium. 

...the cost to import that precious gas to Japan has caused Tokyo Disney Resort to put the sales of the popular souvenirs on hold at the park.

 Follow this link for a story on the worldwide Helium shortage. Party stores are also feeling the effects of the low supply of Helium...

Not long ago you could find these canisters of helium for personal use all over town, but the supply has dried up and that means balloon parties may cost you more.

Loading Up Disney Ornaments Onto The Disney Tree

All these many Disney ornaments going onto a rather small Disney tree? How are we going to do it?

Stay tune to find out!

Zz.

No Penney's Snowglobes This Year?

Rumor has it that JC Penney will not have their Disney snowglobes to give away this year. I haven't seen any advertisements in the papers yet to say that they will have it.

If this is true, that this will break our annual tradition that we had done for the past many years. In fact, there is now no longer any reason to shop at Penney's on Black Friday. Not sure if they even realize this, but the few cents they spent making one of these globes got us into the store and spent quite a lot of money buying stuff.

We will know for sure by tomorrow morning. Maybe I'll write to them and let them know what a mistake it was for them to no longer do the snowglobes.

Zz.

Thanksgiving To Everything Disney

A day before Thanksgiving.....

I have plenty to be thankful for. But since this is a Disney-related blog, here's my Disney Thanksgiving.

Due to our love for Disney theme parks, and Disney pin trading, we have met some of the most wonderful people one can ever know. Our lives are significantly richer for it, and these people have become part of our extended family. We have shared laughter, tears, joy, and sorrow.

For that, I will always be thankful for.

Zz.

Disney Movie site closing down

Thanks to GM for passing this along.  Yahoo financial news reports that the Disney Movies Online site will be closing down on December 31.

Disney Movies Online did not attract many customers and had limited capabilities. Users couldn't download their digital movies for offline playback, there was no support for connected devices like game consoles, and it only offered movies for streaming on Web browsers.

Disney is the only studio of the six Hollywood majors that has declined to participate in UltraViolet, a standard that gives consumers the ability to view their movie purchases on multiple devices. It is developing its own technology called KeyChest that performs a similar function.

Star Wars Land rumor

Dan Madsen ran both the Star Trek and Star Wars fan clubs for several years.  In a recent Spacing Out podcast interview, Dan voiced his opinion that Disney has big plans for the Star Wars franchise, including possibly converting Tomorrow Land at WDW to Star Wars Land.  Dan had a brief cameo role in the movie Phantom Menace with Jar Jar Binks.  Disney isn't likely to include Binks in the theme park though since many people found Jar Jar rather jarring.

Celebrate The Magic

If you haven't seen it already, here's a video of the new castle projection show at the Magic Kingdom that replaces The Magic, The Memories, And You.



I must say that I'm a bit underwhelmed by the new show. Oh, don't get me wrong, I think the castle projection is spectacular, and they've definitely improved on the technology and complexity of it. However, the whole concept and theme is rather weak, and the accompanying original tune is utterly forgettable! The whole show feels more like a hodge podge of Disney movies stitched together into a commercial advertisement. It feels very disjointed.

Let's see if I change my mind about it when I see it in person this coming December.

Zz.

Where in Walt Disney World?

Where in Walt Disney World was this taken?

Zz.

Main Street Bakery and Starbucks

WDWMagic.com posted this story about the bakery at Magic Kingdom and the changes due to Starbucks. As the article states, opinion has been more on the negative side.  But it sounds like the bakery will not be replaced by a Starbucks store, rather it will serve their products.  A Starbucks store might fit into Downtown Disney, or even on the Boardwalk, but not very well in the parks.

The Main Street Bakery will keep its name and theming when it reopens in early summer. It’ll also continue to serve Disney favorites like cookies, brownies and seasonal cupcakes, in addition to Starbucks signature beverages and other items.

Test Track To Reopen Dec 6

Good timing. It has been announced that the newly-themed Test Track at Ecpot will reopen on Dec. 6. This is terrific because our cruise on the Disney Dream will end that day, and we will be spending the rest of the week at WDW. So we will certainly be in line to check this out.

Zz.

Random WDW Picture

I love fireworks. Don't you?

Zz.

Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party

WDWinfo.com posted this story about this year's MVMCP.  All dates and prices are listed, along with what attractions and dining will be open. For people who play the Sorcerer game, this news should be interesting...

Get a special Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom game card that is only available at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!  Just show your party ticket and wristband at the Main Street Firehouse to receive the special card!  The card features elves Wayne and Lanny from ABC's "Prep & Landing" Christmas special.

 You will only be able to use your party ticket once since they punch a hole in it when you get the special card.  To get more than one card you could try talking a total stranger into helping you.

Angry Birds Meet Star Wars

Oh, you're still in the funk with Disney buying LucasFilm, are you? Well, this should get you out of that pretty quickly.

It seems that Angry Birds will come out with a Star Wars-themed game! Yup!

To quote from Rovio Entertainment's press release, the game follows "a plucky group of Rebel birds in their fight against the evil Imperial Pigs." Players will get to "use the Force, wield a Lightsaber, and blast away Pigtroopers on an intergalactic journey from the deserts of Tatooine to the depths of the Pig Star."

"Angry Birds Star Wars" features more than 80 levels. Successful players will eventually face off against a porcine version of Darth Vader.

I'm sure this deal was inked before the sale, but this will be very interesting to see how Disney will handle it. Don't forget that Disney has at least 2 physics-based games with Swampy and Perry the Platypus.

Zz.

Random WDW Picture

Expedition Everest at night.

Zz.

The Donald Duck Effect

Ah, Donald Duck is highly respected in the academic circles.

In a book "Communication Systems" by Simon Haykin, we get this passage on signal phase distortion (see Pg. 100).

In the latter method, it is inevitable that there would be some phase error in the local oscillator output with respect to the carrier wave used to generate the incoming SSB modulated wave. The effect of this phase error is to introduce a phase distortion in the demodulated signal, where each frequency component of the original message signal under-goes a constant phase shift. This phase distortion is tolerable in voice communications, because the human ear is relatively insensitive to phase distortion.In particular, the presence of phase distortion gives rise to a Donald Duck voice effect. In the transmission of music and video signals, on the other hand, the presence of this form of waveform distortion is utterly unacceptable.

Well, now at least you know how you can get a Donald Duck voice without any kind of talent or training. :)

Zz.

Major Polynesian rehab planned

WDWMagic.com posted this news that Disney is planning a major rehab of the Polynesian resort. The post has a link to the building permit document filed with the Orange County Comptroller.  The project appears to include all the rooms at the Polynesian, in buildings 1-11, and the completion date is 12/31/2013. 

Random WDW Picture

I often like to take photos very early in the morning when I'm at WDW (I'm a morning person in general). I find that the lighting is as rich and amazing as it is for dusk, but with fewer people around.

Some time, when everything is very, very still, the water is almost like a mirror. This is one such case. This was taken at Old Key West resort.

Zz.

Speaking of food...

DisneyParks Blog reports that the French Market restaurant at DLR's New Orleans Square has made big changes to their menu.

More than a dozen new dishes have debuted at French Market Restaurant in New Orleans Square at Disneyland park, redefining fast-casual dining at the classic Cajun-Creole restaurant that’s open for lunch and dinner. Now, instead of an all-day menu, they’ve added a few more dishes for dinner.

Dinner adds panko-crusted red snapper with veggies, Red Bliss potato wedges and a sweet pepper sauce; and Creole shrimp pasta tossed in a smoked Gouda Creole mustard sauce

Phineas and Ferb's Campbells Soup

I don't normally buy Campbell's condensed soup. However, walking through the soup aisle at my local grocery store one day this week, I noticed this!

It's Campbell's Chicken Noodle soup with Agent P on the front! How could I resist? So I bought a can (yes, just ONE can).

The fun continues if you look at the back label. First, the nutrition information (always important):

But then, here's the fun part. The noodles all have interesting shapes!

Here's a closer look at those shapes:

No, I haven't opened it and ate it yet. Not sure if I will. I wonder how long I can keep this can of soup before it goes really bad and the can explodes? :)

Zz.

Oz the Great and Powerful

Link to this Disney site to see a trailer for the movie Oz the Great and Powerful, scheduled to open March 8, 2013.  One wonders if Disney might use this movie as a focus for an addition to the parks, much like they are doing with Avatar. 

Earl of Sandwich opens at Disneyland

DisneyParks Blog reports that the Earl of Sandwich will open in DLR's Downtown Disney on November 2nd.  This is good news for anyone who likes really good sandwiches and plans to visit Disneyland.  But if you don't like good sandwiches or don't plan to visit DLR, you probably don't care.

We are thrilled since this is the only Earl of Sandwich location in California, and we have many guests eagerly anticipating this new location.