Little Girl Chairs at Disney's Boardwalk Resort

Little Girl Face Chairs
By: Barbie

"These face chairs, or "Nanny Chairs," were originally found on a 19th century European carousel. While children rode on the elaborately carved and moving animals, the adults were offered the still chairs to rest themselves between activities. Cast from the 1880 European originals, hand painted and gold leafed."

This is the statement on the plaque. I'd be hard pressed to call these little girls.
How about creepy men in dresses?

These two chairs, which reside at Disney's Boardwalk Resort, adorning the sides of the large fireplace in the lobby, are creepy in the extreme! I ask you, was there ever an adult who willingly sat on them without a shudder? Boo, to you!! Happy Halloween!

Vancouver to Alaska on the Disney Wonder, 8/26 - 9/2 2013 : Part 4

Guest Writer Wednesday

By: Gaylin

August 29, 2013
Day 4 of the cruise to Alaska

Accidentally setting the alarm wrong, sucks. We needed to get up at 10 to 7 to have breakfast before our excursion and when it went off at 10 to 5, no fun at all.

Went to Parrot Cay for breakfast this morning. I was happy to be able to order breakfast grits, the buffet has oatmeal and cream of wheat but no grits. The chef made me grain-free pancakes and they were beautiful to look at and horrible to eat. I made it through 2 bites and had to stop. Oh well, I did have enough other food to fill up on!

Today we are in Skagway and our excursion was called the Liarsville Goldrush Trail. We went to the Walt Disney Theatre and were put in the correct group so that we all left as a group, off the ship and right onto a bus. (or in fancy cruise lingo, a motor coach) The bus goes about 15 minutes into the bush to Liarsville.

Liarsville is set up to show what a gold rush camp would have looked like, with actors in character as well. They put on a stage show about what happened in gold rush days, part story telling, part hilarious puppet show! The actors were all very funny and entertaining and very well versed in their topic.

This feller was Okie Bob . . . because he is originally from Oklahoma. After he finished telling the story, we all got to pan for gold.

And while we were panning for gold, we had visitors! I convinced Okie Bob that I needed a picture of him with Dale, he was a very good sport about it.

After we panned for gold and got some tiny flakes of pure gold, we had another visitor. The duck himself!

This was another of our lovely gold rush characters. When the Disney tour is at Liarsville, she is a saloon girl . . . when other ships are doing the tours they are the town (ahem) whores. Really she was a very nice young woman, who is going to school to be an actress.

There is a lovely salmon bbq lunch that everyone chowed down on! After lunch it was time to go back to Skagway. We did wander about the town for awhile before going back on the ship.
I guess the fresh air was too much for me, I had another nap. My travel friend went for a walk on deck and she had a nap in a deck chair! It was sunny and warm, a lovely afternoon . . . after we both woke up.
Dinner was at Parrot Cay, this was a great meal for me. Caribbean chicken, sweet potato mash and veggies. Again, sadly dessert was not interesting at all. I have to say that the Fitzroy & Megan, our servers were awesome, along with the lovely women we had at our table, our dinners were so fun!

After dinner we were off to the movie theatre to watch the Lone Ranger. I am not sure why it didn't do well in the theatres, I thought it was great.

Back in the room there was this towel animal waiting for us . . . a lobster? We got ready for bed early and settled in to watch another movie, Pirates of the Caribbean. The selection of in room movies was pretty good, we did enjoy being able to snuggle in our wee beds and watch them.

Please check out Parts 1, 2 and 3 as well!

The Skeleton Dance, A Disney Silly Symphony

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The Skeleton Dance was released in 1929, the first Silly Symphonies animated short.

If you haven't seen it, it involves, well, skeletons dancing! There are plenty of sight gags revolving around the skeletons using various bones and a hapless cat as instruments.

I bought this Skeleton Dance Cinemagic Films Volume One figure along with several other capsule toys off of eBay.

Other capsule toys can be found here and here, and I will be sharing more in the future.

The Skeleton Dance is available on the Walt Disney Treasures - Silly Symphonies DVD collection, as a bonus on the video game, Epic Mickey 2, and can be found on YouTube. It makes for perfect Halloween viewing!

Trick or Treat, WDCC Lilo and Stitch

By: Barbie and Nick

Lilo and Stitch is one of our favorite movies and Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, so these figures are actually displayed in our house year round.

 Stitch is titled 'Trick", while Lilo is "or Treat." They have the "Glass Slipper" Production Mark, which  honored Cinderella's 55th Anniversary in 2005.

We bought these on eBay a few years ago, and I don't recall what we paid, but I know it was well below retail price.

Stitch came with the pumpkin. 

Lilo also has a lovely pumpkin.

Stitch made his Jack 'O lantern mischievous, just like himself, while Lilo carved hers to look happy, just like her personality! How do you carve yours? Boo!

A Bonus Ride on Tower of Terror: Great Disney Cast Members

By: Nick

My favorite ride at Walt Disney World is The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

I love the details the Imagineers put into the ride from the classic television series.

Back in November of 2007, after the pre-show video, Barbie and I stayed back in the library, taking photos of props referencing episodes. A Cast Member named Darren started pointing out details that we may not have noticed, such as these broken glasses, an homage to one of my favorites, "Time Enough at Last."

We chatted for a few moments, until we had to depart as the next group of guests entered the library,

We thanked Darren, and Barbie and I proceeded to our "service elevator."

After our visit to the Twilight Zone, imagine our surprise when Darren greeted us at the exit. He didn't say anything, except "Come with me." He then proceeded to bring us up on a real service elevator, back to the loading area. He spoke to another Cast Member loading guests, and within a few moments, we were placed on our very own elevator!

Once again, Darren met us on the other end, and asked if we'd enjoyed our ride. We couldn't thank him enough for this wonderful surprise!

It's wonderful experiences, and even more wonderful Cast Members, that keep us dropping by Disney Theme Parks!

Thanks again Darren!

Minnie Mouse Witchie Halloween Vinylmation

I bought this Minnie Mouse dressed as a witch in 2012.

Distracted at Disney : Story Behind the Photo

Barbie, Nick, Queen of Hearts, Tom and Pam

By: Barbie

This is a photo from our first Halloween together with Pam and Tom. Nick met Pam through the DVC News Forum and we arranged to meet at the Haunted Mansion and together we would enjoy Mickey's Not so Scary Halloween Party! 

So anyway, the story behind this hilarious photo!

There were many character meet and greets right around the trick or-treat-trail by Tomorrowland. The four of us were all gathered around the "Queen" ready for our photograph, when off to the right, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were just getting toppled over like a bunch of unstable dominoes by an overly enthusiastic and robust park visitor!

As you can see, Nick and Pam are posing practically perfectly, while Tom and I are way too involved by the hubabaloo! None of our other photos came out either! But the memories will last forever!

Mickey Mouse and Lonesome Ghosts

One of my favorite cartoons is a Mickey Mouse short from 1937 called Lonesome Ghosts.

 

It stars Mickey, Donald Duck, and Goofy as Ghost Exterminators. Essentially, this is Ghostbusters. In fact, the Ghostbusters theme song has the line "I ain't afraid of no ghost," echoing a memorable line by Goofy in Lonesome Ghosts, "I ain't scared of no ghosts."

Lonesome Ghosts can be found on the animated feature The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad on DVD, which I watch annually at this time of year, as well as several other cartoon collections.

As a child I watched Lonesome Ghosts over an over, literally forward and back, on my Fisher Price Movie Viewer. This little hand cranked toy was the DVD Player (or maybe more accurately, VHS) of it's day. The cartoon came in a cartridge you would pop into the player, and crank to watch. It being 1973 or 1974, when I was 5 or 6, I don't remember many details, such as if Lonesome Ghosts was included with the player, but I don't recall watching any other cartridge. I found this Fisher Price Movie Viewer and Lonesome Ghosts cartridge on eBay.

Just pop the movie in, and you can watch it forward, or, as I used to do, for whatever reason, in reverse.

There are several Disney movies available for this player, such as Cinderella, Snow White, and Bambi. But, as when I was a little kid, I'm fine just watching Lonesome Ghosts forward and back.

Vancouver to Alaska on the Disney Wonder, 8/26 - 9/2 2013 : Part 3

Guest Writer Wednesdays

By: Gaylin

August 28, 2013
Day 3 of the cruise to Alaska

Woke up to a very foggy, chilly morning. Today is the day we go up Tracy Arm Fjord to the glacier. The fog was very bright so we knew there was sunshine behind it, it just needed to burn off. Had breakfast at the buffet again and went out on deck, only to head back to the room for another layer of clothing! Being in a fjord that is salt water filled with slowly melting icebergs means it is cold out. We wandered around inside and out for the morning until finally the fog burned off at about noon. Our first iceberg!

On deck at the front of the ship there was a food station set up where they were serving soup in bread bowls and cookies all afternoon. Unfortunately I couldn't eat the soup (again, stupid allergies). But I could have hot chocolate! It is very interesting cruising up the fjord, the scenery is beautiful, some areas are tree filled and others are completely bare, this is where when the glaciers receded they stripped all the top soil off down to bare rock. Right at the front of the ship the wind was fierce so we never stayed out right at the front for long. There were other covered or protected spots on deck to watch from. There are lots of blue polar fleece blankets provided by the ship and many people were using them for wraps.

And finally, the glacier! There was lots of floating ice in the water but we didn't see the glacier calve.  

My traveling companion had mentioned that she was too tall to sleep in the bunk bed so we requested the queen bed be separated into two beds. If you do this, be prepared . . . they are very narrow beds.

It turns out that cruising to see glaciers is very tiring so I had a nice nap in the afternoon!

Dinner that night was in Animator's Palate again, only this time the walls did change to colour during the meal, so awesome. We had such awesome table mates, they made all the dinners we had together so much fun.

In case you were wondering if the weather stayed nice that day, this is me being a big goof after dinner! I won't be in the running for Top Model anytime soon.

After dinner we got changed and went walkabout on the deck. To our surprise on the pool deck there were two chunks of glacier ice! We had a great evening on deck, saying hello to people, admiring the view. Once the deck was nearly empty we walked around singing Hakuna Matata and laughing a lot. Such fun.

Sunset from deck, so beautiful.

This is the lovely hallway to the Walt Disney Theatre and on either side, stores! We chatted the the cast members and one of they gave us each a free Disney pin! A little touch of magic.

After we went to the stateroom, about 10:00 p.m. there was a great shuddering vibration, felt like it was right below our room. About a minute later the room filled with fumes, a lovely burnt diesel smell. I stuck my head out the door and there were quite a few people who were getting dressed and going up on deck. I was in my Mickey nightshirt and was in no hurry to get dressed . . . so we waited and the captain announced that one of the 5 turbines had over-revved and smoked up the engine room. There was no fire and they were venting the smoke. It took about 15 minutes to clear the air in our room. I did find out later that people up on deck were panicking, running on deck, looking for other people in their parties, worrying about their children . . .
We weren't worried, we settled into our new skinny beds and watched a movie!

Please click here for Part 1, and here for Part 2!

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.

Being Remembered: Great Disney Cast Members

By: Nick

This past January, while walking through the shops in Epcot's United Kingdom Pavilion in the World Showcase, we heard a very pleasant voice say "Hello again."

We turned to see Chloe, the wonderful Cast Member who had assisted us several months previously when purchasing a set of Epcot's Thirtieth Anniversary Mystery Pins.

To be remembered is pretty awesome, especially when you consider how many thousands of guests she must have encountered in the time between these meetings, and it made us feel special! We chatted for a bit, and learned that she would be returning to her home in England shortly. Disney is lucky to have had her, and we hope she is doing well.

It's been said before, but it is experiences like this that make Disney so special.
Thanks Chloe!

Disney Vinylmation Spooky Series 2

Last week I shared Spooky Series 1 which featured Mickey Mouse as Frankenstein, and Minnie as the Bride of Frankenstein.
Disney Vinylmation Spooky Series 2, released in 2012, ratchets up the horror level a few notches!

Pluto as a Werewolf.

Goofy is a very creepy Dracula! Dig those funky contact lenses!

And what is with the gold nail polish?! -shiver-

As with Spooky Series 1, I got these on sale after Halloween, which makes me wonder if they will release a 3rd series. Every collection needs a Creature From the Black Lagoon Donald Duck, after all!