The Disney Store 25th Anniversary Ornament Set

by: Nick

The Disney Store celebrated it's 25th anniversary on March 28th, 2012, and my wife and I were at our local store to celebrate. We picked up a few items including this ornament set.


Jiminy Cricket.


Sorcerer Mickey.


Pinocchio.


Tinker Bell


Buzz Lightyear.


Minnie Mouse.



Winnie the Pooh and Piglet, along with a Certificate of Authenticity for each individual ornament, which is limited to 2500!



The original price was $79.50, and everything was 25% off, plus we had a $20 discount from pre-ordering The Muppets Blu-Ray.



It was a great day, and this set reminds me of how much I love the Disney Store, a piece of the magic close to home!

Merry Christmas!

Ceramic Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket Cookie Jar

By Nick
 
We picked up this Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket ceramic cookie jar at a fine cookware retailer, Kitchen Kapers, for $10. There was a minor problem. There is no top. 

  My wife immediately saw this could be used as a planter. 

This wonderful piece has graced our home for many years now. 

Marked down from $49.99.

So if you come across a great item that perhaps has an issue, try to figure out if you can repurpose it.
Just let your conscience be your guide. 

McDonalds 100 Years of Magic Disney Glass Set

by Nick

In 2001-2002, Disney celebrated what would have been Walt Disney's 100th birthday with the 100 Years of Magic Celebration.

McDonald's released this glassy, er, classy, set of glasses to commemorate this occasion.

Each of the four glasses featured a park icon, with movie and character trivia, and even a quote from Walt!

This first glass features Spaceship Earth.
Park Trivia: EPCOT originally stood for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow
The Walt Disney quote: "Today we are shapers of the world of tomorrow."


Movie Trivia: Buzz Lightyear said "To Infinity and Beyond" only 2 times in "Toy Story"


Character trivia: Belle is the French word for beauty.


The inside bottom of the glass.


This glass displays Cinderella Castle.
Park trivia: Tinker Bell starts the fireworks nightly at the Magic Kingdom.
The Walt Disney quote: "Fantasy...lies beyond the reach of time."


Pinocchio had to be "brave, truthful and unselfish" to become a real boy.


Dumbo's real name was actually "Jumbo Jr.".

Bambi was taught that "twitterpated" meant falling in love.


Park Trivia for this next glass: There are 325 animal carvings on The Tree of Life at Disney's Animal Kingdom
The Walt Disney quote: "...nature herself writes the most interesting stories"


Goofy-first known as "Dippy Dawg"-stars in "Mickey's Jammin' Jungle" Parade.


"Simba" is the Swahili word for "lion".


The outside bottom of the glass.


Mickey's Sorcerer Hat at the Disney Studios is 122 ft. tall.


"Kiss Me" were the only words ever spoken by Pluto.
Donald's middle name is "Fauntleroy."


"...it was all started by a mouse." Walt Disney



Happy New Year, and here's to the next 100 years of Disney Magic!

The Christmas Touch at Walt Disney World

By Lisa Green

 

As I’ve mentioned many times, Disney’s all about details.  That’s what makes a Disney vacation so amazing and keeps bringing people (like US!) back time after time.  No matter how often you visit a Disney park or resort, you will always notice new details, big and small.

The Christmas season brings on a whole new level of Disney detail magic.  It gives those Disney magicians the opportunity to go all out and delight you with their imagination, style, humor, and flair for presenting guests with unexpected surprises.   If you’ve never been to the World during the holidays, you’ve been missing out on some wonderful experiences guaranteed to fill you with holiday spirit.

We’ve had the privilege of visiting Disney World twice during the holiday season – and yes, because we went during the school break, the crowds were huge!  Except for trying to get out of Epcot once after dinner on New Year’s Eve, the throngs of visitors did not detract from our enjoyment of all the special Disney touches we found.  I’m sorry we aren’t able to visit this year – I hate to miss out on the Jingle Cruise – a new Disney magical surprise this year at Disney World that gives the Jungle Cruise a holiday overlay and seasonal Skipper dialogue!

I’ve put together a list of five of the special Disney holiday surprises we experienced once upon a time:

Chocolate sculpture at the Contemporary - this was an amazingly extravagant scene from Pinocchio entirely made of chocolate.  I’m sure this was a one-time-only bit of magic and I felt very lucky to have been there to see it!

Main Street USA and the streets of Disney’s Hollywood Studios all decked out in their holiday best.

Christmas Trees!  Everywhere and each one had its own design and special ornaments; themed for each tree’s particular location.  I was especially taken by the ornaments on the large tree outside the entrance to Animal Kingdom – fantastic!

Santa hats – on everyone!  Even the Spitting Stitch at Downtown Disney and the gigantic Dinosaur at Dinoland in Animal Kingdom.

Best of all – Cinderella Castle.  Pictures (mine, at least) cannot do justice to the beauty that is the castle covered in 200,000 lights.  Some people say it looks dipped in sugar – I think it looks like Elsa from Frozen covered it in ICE!  Stunningly gorgeous and completely breathtaking – for me, this is the very best holiday touch at Disney World.

If you’re been to Disney World at Christmastime, what was your favorite bit of Disney holiday magic?

This article was originally posted on the Living a Disney Life Blog.

Disney's Famous Faces of Halloween Hallmark Ornaments

By: Nick

I bought this terrific little set of ornaments, "Famous Faces for Halloween", off of eBay recently. I say little, because the ornaments are only about 2 and 3 inches tall.

Released by Hallmark in 2007. I'm not sure what they sold for originally, but I paid $10.99 on eBay.

What I love most about this ornament set is how perfectly the characters match the personalities of the classic motion picture stars they are portraying.

Mickey Mouse is a terrific Peter Pan, as he is eternally young.

Minnie Mouse is wonderful as Wendy.

Goofy as the mischievous but good-hearted Pinocchio is great.

Finally, Donald is an obvious Grumpy! Love it!

They are currently hanging on the garland that is in our living room, which gets decorated for the appropriate season throughout the year.

There is another set of ornaments I purchased this year from the Disney Store Online hanging with these, and I'll share them in a future post.

Do You Remember : Pleasure Island?

Pleasure Island is / was  a section of the Walt Disney World Resort within Downtown Disney's shopping, dining, and entertainment district. Pleasure Island officially opened May 1, 1989.  A misconception is that the island completely closed on September 2008, but only the clubs closed.  The island's stores and restaurants remained open.

The site is often mistakenly thought to have been named for 'Pleasure Island' from Pinocchio, where unsupervised children misbehave and are eventually punished by being changed into donkeys that have to work in salt mines. But there was an interesting back-story created by Walt Disney Imagineering, that had nothing at all to do with Pinocchio.

The island's nightclubs were once home to a shipping company owned by adventurous businessman Merriweather Pleasure. A great storm destroyed the business and Mr. Pleasure disappeared with the warehouses remaining behind. Years later, these warehouses were refurbished and converted into nightclubs.

This button is likely from 1992, the first year I visited Walt Disney World.

This shot glass is from that same time. Both feature the Pleasure Island mascot, the Funmeister.

There was much fun to be had a Pleasure Island. Every night was New Year's Eve for instance, with a countdown and fireworks.

Speaking of fireworks, there was a restaurant called Fireworks Factory, with a pyrotechnics theme.  According to the island's fictional backstory, Merriweather Pleasure manufactured fireworks in the building until one of his cigars caused an explosion. The restaurant was decorated with authentic pyrotechnic props.

I also enjoyed the Comedy Warehouse, a nightclub which featured improv comedy. But the best thing about Pleasure Island was The Adventurers Club, which I would visit on multiple evenings during my trips. Stop back soon for a look at this beloved and very much missed spot.

Vintage Disney Story Books

These 2 books from the early 1940's belonged to my Father-in-Law, Dan.

Pinocchio. Given as a gift to Dan from his mother in 1944.

Copyright 1939, 1940 by Walt Disney Productions, Hollywood, California. D.C. Heath and Company, Boston.

Nice spot illustrations are throughout the book.

A very well loved book, several pages are loose.

Walt Disney Story  Books.

 
Bambi was given as a gift to Dan from his Grandmother in 1945.

Copyright 1944 by Walt Disney Productions. D.C. Heath and Company, Boston.

 

 

This book is in better shape.

 

 

These wonderful books were passed on to my wife, and then her younger sister. He recently re-discovered them, and has passed them on to me.