Happy Merry Hallo-mas!!!!!!

We set or trip up for Halloween because we thought it'd be fun to do the MNSSHP on actual Halloween and because we'd never been to Disney on my birthday before and this year it fell on a convenient Monday. We enjoy the Halloween decor and love the party, so we are fans of Disney in the fall. It didn't occur to us until well after booking that we might get to see a bit a Christmas on the same four and a half day trip, but we did!

These guys greet you as soon as you enter the park.

And if you're lucky, you catch a #WonderFALL song and dance number!

We Stiteses love the jack-o-lanterns on Main Street.

And the view up Main Street towards the castle is always a winner.

 So what changed between Monday night and Thursday morning? Plenty!

 The Christmas Spirit hits you as soon as you arrive outside the main gate!

I was speaking to another guest on our way in and she told me most of the Christmas stuff was up the day before (Wednesday), but not the big tree in Town Square. She was hoping it was installed Wednesday night. She was not disappointed!

The Pumpkin People left to make room for Toy Soldiers.

And the Mickey #WonderFALL wreathes were replaced with Christmas Mickey wreathes!

And there are also more traditional, less Mickey-fied wreathes.

Even at the Cinderella Castle!

And the Christmas decor overflowed into Tomorrowland!

I'm usually one to not want my Christmas season rushed. I'm usually in the "let's get Thanksgiving behind us first" camp. But I have to admit, this little burst of Yuletide has kick started my Christmas Spirit. I'm ready to dive right in!

Merry Christmas!

2 Days: Back To The Magic Kingdom To Say Good-Bye

I almost didn't write about our last day because it seemed kind of depressing to talk about leaving before we even arrived. But I was supposed to write it yesterday and didn't on account of getting caught up watching Season 1 of Agents of Shield with the lovely and talented Lisa and today it doesn't seem as bad, so here goes.

Thursday will be a half-day in Magic Kingdom before we head home. We'll try to fit in as many favorites as we can, but two things have me very excited about even this abbreviated day.

First, we'll be eating lunch at the Jungle Navigation Company's Skipper Canteen. This is a new place and a first for us, so that alone is exciting. But it's also an incredible menu featuring some unusual (especially for a theme park)  Asian-inspired dishes. I plan to get the whole, deep-fried Lion Fish, the lunch that smiles back. And as a bonus the whole place is Jungle Cruise themed with added throwbacks to the Society of  Explorers and Adventurers made famous in the old Adventurer's Club in the defunct but sorely missed Pleasure Island.

Second, we'll be leaving the Magic Kingdom Monday in full Halloween decor and entering Thursday morning to see it decked out for Christmas! The transformation is overnight and will allow us to experience two holiday trips to Disney in one week. I can't beleive how cool this is going to be!

Can you tell I'm excited?

10 Days: Hocus Pocus

It came out during some conversations with my podcasting pals that I'd never seen the movie Hocus Pocus. This fact horrified a few of the MouseLifers and they insisted that I remedy the situation. So when a schedule of showing of the film appeared on Twitter the other day, I knew I had run out of excuses and the family sat down to watch last night.

I have an unreasonable aversion to Bette Midler. I have no good reason, she's never said or done anything to make me upset. She has a wonderful voice and I'll even admit she can be very funny. SHe just annoys me. But I girded my loins and gave Hocus Pocus a try.

I'm glad I did. I truly enjoyed the movie, much more than I expected to. I mean, it's not Blazing Saddles funny or scary in the least, but it is completely entertaining, Bette Midler and all. She's actually very good as the lead witch dealing with two less competent little sisters. Sarah Jessica Parker's witch is the youngest and she was my favorite, always in the background doing something goofy with a look of complete buy-in on her face. The child actor leads were good as well, cute but not annoying-cute, if you know what I mean.

I was even surprised at the level of adult humor Disney threw at us adults watching. There's a bus driver that is super-slimey hitting on the witches to the point that when they tell him they want children (they need them to steal their souls and stay young(er) forever) he tells them it may take a few tries, but he's sure he can do that. I died. But then, I'm easily amused.

As an added bonus they say the word "amuck", and that amuses the Hell out of me, too (see? Easy.).

I've completed my podcast homework! I'm a little more Halloween Disney-fied, and I'm ready to appreciate the stage show at MNSSHP this year.

AMUCK!!!!

Day 28: Happy 45th Birthday Walt Disney World

For 30 days every year Walt Disney World and I are the same age, and that time begins today. Happily, it will end with my bad self right smack dab in the middle of the Magic on Halloween.

Between now and then, we will both be 45 years young. We have grown up together, me and Disney World. My parents took me the first time when we were both very young, 1972 I believe. I was there to share in the nation's bicentennial in the summer of 1976. I was back as a pre-teen and as a newly licensed 16 year-old. My parents celebrated my then girlfriend and now wife and I's college graduation by taking us and my sister to Disney World. We shared my son's first glimpse of the Magic at three years old with my parents, and Disney welcomed him with open arms and some of the most unforgettable moments of our lives as parents. We returned with John at about six and experienced the parks in an entirely new way, and again with an almost-teenaged John who reveled in the Imagineering details. We've been twice for Lisa's birthday and once for John's. We've celebrated our wedding anniversary in Disney twice, once with a full-fledged family vacation and more recently with an adults only non-parks weekend visit, both of which were magical in their own way.

In all those years I've ridden the Skyway and Mr. Toad and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; I've seen Epcot open, seen the Mickey hand and wand come and go, and seen Future World lose it's future focus; I've seen Disney/MGM Studios as an operating movie and television studio and Hollywood Studios as a very different and still evolving park; I've fallen completely in love with the "notazoo" Animal Kingdom and seen more and more come to a park that really shows what Disney can do with themeing; I've eaten breakfast at the Empress Lily in Disney Village, spent an evening at the Adventurers Club, shopped and eaten on our way in and out of "the bubble" at Downtown Disney, and enjoyed cocktails and squid on a boat at Jack Lindsey's Hangar Bar.

Disney isn't the same as it was when when I was a kid, but then neither am I. And that's a good thing. Are there things I miss about "classic WDW?" Sure there are, but there are things I  miss about being a carefree 8 year-old, too. That doesn't mean I'm  not
happy with who I am now and looking forward to where I'm going and who I'll be in the future. Same goes for Walt Disney World.

I can't wait to see what we are as we continue Moving Forward.....

40 Days: Moana, Halloween and "Cultural Appropriation"

First off, if you ever say the words "cultural appropriation" without sufficient sarcasm in your voice or making those little quote things with your fingers in the air, we need to have a long, long talk, my friend. I think if you Google "Psuedo-Intellectualism" the first link is a YouTube video of a poorly dressed college professor giving a room full of rich white liberal kids a lecture on "Cultural Appropriation."

So what's got my anthropology geek dander up you ask? This completely moronic article on the i09 website complaining about a Maui (the demi-god sidekick to Moana, the title character in the upcoming Disney animated feature) Halloween costume being not only an example of the dreaded "cultural appropriation," but also.....gasp....tantamount to "brown-face." You get it, right? They refer to the old Vaudeville and minstrel show trope of the white guy in exaggerated make-up known as black-face. Only Maui isn't black, he's Polynesian. Hence, "Brown-face".

This is black face. If you send little Johnny out as Maui, i09 thinks you're doing the Pacific Islander version of this

Only it's not the face that's brown in Disney's costume. The fine, sensitive folks at i09 assume parents will take care of that part themselves. No, what Disney did with it's Maui costume is make it look like, well, Maui in the movie. It's a body suit colored like a Polynesian with Maui's tattoos all over and an attached grass skirt. And that's the problem, well one of them, these morons have. It's, oh the horror, colored in a non-white skin tone! This is racist, you see. Don't ask me to explain, I'd lose brain cells trying.

Meanwhile, on Planet Earth, what Disney is doing is teaching about and paying tribute to the rich Polynesian culture in an entertaining and, my guess is, very popular manner. The film Moana is based upon one of the great cultural mysteries. Polynesians once roamed the Pacific Ocean in small sailboats, traveling hundreds or even thousands of miles of trackless sea with no compass, no chart, no astronomical book, no chronograph. They didn't get lost. They used tide and current and wind and weather and who knows what else to guide themselves. But then, for over a thousand years, they simply stopped. All of a sudden. No one knows why. Myths sprung up among the people of the South Pacific islands to explain the mystery, and this film is based upon a hodgepodge of those stories. Is it a stricly academic study of Pacific Island culture? No, it's a Disney movie with a pretty young girl as heroine and a big, strong, funny guy, demi-god played by  Dwayne Johnson as her sidekick. There is music and magic and anthropomorphic critters. But what it is NOT is making fun of or belittleing in any way whatsoever the people of the South Pacific.

Disney once was criticized, and probably rightly so, for all it's "Princesses" being white Europeans. Lately the company has been making a concerted effort to be more inclusive of other cultures, which is good and makes perfect sense. All peoples of this Earth have stories and myths and legends, and Walt would be proud that today's movie makers are exporing new things and letting curiosity lead them down new paths. And it has a positive effect on audiences. Quite the opposite of the complaints.

No 8-year-old in suburban America was dressing as a Hawaiian demi-god last year. This year, I'm thinking quite a few will, and it will be because Disney ignited that spark in them and led them to open their little minds to a culture they would otherwise be unfamiliar with. How that can be a bad thing is a compete mystery to me.

46 Days: Disney Costume Guidelines

Even though we won't be costuming ourselves for MNSSHP this year, I'm interested in how Disney handles costumes, particularly on adults, in the age of terror attacks and such. The word immediately after the Orlando nightclub shooting was that costumes would not be allowed for adults, but Disney has relented on that and instead issued some more restrictive guidelines than in years past. The Disney Parks Blog has a a short article about it, but the info is mostly in their little video.

My favorite part is that lightsabers are specifically allowed. However, long capes, full-face masks, dresses that drag the ground and real-looking weapons are not. For full details, follow the link the the video. It certainly looks like they've left plenty of room for creative Halloweeny fun!

57 Days: First Night of MNSSHP 2016

The boy will be taller than his momma in this year's photos :-)

Tonight is the first Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party of the year and to celebrate, I'm sharing two Disney Blog posts that have me excited to attend the last one of 2016.

The first is all about special treats available exclusively at MNSSHP. Who doesn't like treats? The cupcakes look delicious and while the lovely and talented Miss Lisa poo poos worms in her slushy, I'm looking at giving it a try!

The second post previews a few of  the Disney PhotoPass Magic Shots exclusive to MNSSHP. When we decided to purchase Memory Maker for this trip, we weren't even thinking about the Halloween party, but you better bet we'll have a photo made with the Headless Horseman! And those video things? How cool are they?

Is it Halloween yet?

69 Days: FastPass Dreamin'

Home from our end of summer trip and finally got the final (hopefully) schedule for John's high school marching band competitions. That finally settles which day of our trip will be spent in which park, and just in time as my window for making FastPass reservations opens one week from Tuesday! How exciting is that?

We'll be leaving straight from John's last competition on Saturday, October 29 in Cary, NC. Not ideal, as we'll be driving through the night and that will make Sunday a bit sleepy for us. Seeing as Hollywood Studios is very much under construction, we'll spend Sunday there. Monday will be Magic Kingdom Day with the Keys To The Kingdom Tour and then Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party. We'll hit Epcot and the Food and Wine Festival on Tuesday and Animal Kingdom on Wednesday. We'll leave Thursday, but are in no hurry so will probably be hitting Magic Kingdom again until lunchtime.

I'm thinking play it safe and secure afternoon FastPasses in the Studios, Rock-n-Roller Coaster for sure and also Toy Story if we can. We'll need to squeeze Monday's at the Magic Kingdom between the end of the tour and 7:00, so I'm think Seven Dwarves and Haunted Mansion (thinking it'll packed on Halloween). We may miss the new Frozen ride at Epcot in favor of the new movie version of Soarin', but definitely in the morning so we can hit the Food and Wine soon as it opens. I'm thinking we rope drop the safari at Animal Kingdom and use the FastPass for Expedition Everest later in the day.

This is just a basic, preliminary plan. I haven't even researched exactly how many we get in each park and what the tiers look like yet. I feel so behind already :-)

Any suggestions on the plan as it is so far?