Showing posts with label Walt Disney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Walt Disney. Show all posts

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Carolwood Foundation: Riding the rails!

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Me, in the Combine

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Passengers on the Combine

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Jeff in the baggage section of the Combine - that's where we took our first ride!

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This train carries some dangerous freight!

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Train pulling in.

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Train leaving the station! All aboard!

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All together now! The cars from the original train hooked up (minus the 'Belle).

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Taking a curve on the train!*
*This was a special treat! We hadn't thought we'd be allowed to ride the trains once they were hooked up but, the engineers assured us we could! Everyone filled the last three cars and we took a single spin 'round the property. Such a great way to end the day!

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Fill 'er up!

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Roger Colton conducts us to our seats.

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To see the entire photo album, peep them on my Flickr page.

Friday, September 09, 2011

Carolwood Foundation: Riding the Retlaw 1

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Also in May, Jeff and I took a trip with the Carolwood Foundation to ride the Original Disneyland and Santa Fe Combine - a part of Disneyland's original railroad!

The trip started in Oakland where Jeff and Mr. Floyd Norman were the 'guests of honor' on this leg of the trip. Animation (and Disney) Legend, Floyd Norman gave a great talk about working for Walt Disney as we chugged our way down to San Luis Obispo.

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That evening, Floyd, Jeff, Tony Baxter and Ray Cadd gave a great talk called "Story is King: The Magic of Disney Storytelling". Jeff and Floyd focused on story in film and Tony and Ray focused on Story in the theme parks. Fantastic stuff!

To help raise funds for the Combine (for more info on that, check out Carolwood's website) - they had a auction. I love auctions! I love helping with auctions!

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Bookends that used to belong to Walt.

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Oh, I wanted this poster!

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The next day we all arrived at Santa Margarita Ranch in order to ride the rails ALL Day!

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Lunch was a BBQ on the ranch. Yum! And then we had MORE rail fun. I'll post additional pics of that later.

Destination D: Walt Disney World!

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So, it's been YONKS since I've posted - with very good reason (you'll get more of that as I get around to updating - soon!).

I did a full on TR over at the Dis: ATG does WDW Han Style...SOLO you can peep out all the deets and photos there. For the full on photo blast from that trip, here's my flickr link: Destination D: WDW

Waiting for the start
I've been doing a LOT of travel, gang. Whew. You'll be sick of all the pics I'll be posting in NO time!

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Walt Disney World Day 2: Epcot!

Breakfast in (EPCOT) Paris

My first full day in Florida was a scorcher! I headed for EPCOT - my favorite park - to explore and have fun! However, I do NOT do well in the heat so this day was a real slog for me. I had on a sundress, a GIANT hat, AND I was carrying a parasol. I looked ridiculous! The cherry on this outfit was the lace fan I was carrying to TRY to keep my self cool. I lugged my camera around but, it was just to hot (and I was carrying too much crap) to bust out.

My first stop was Paris for a breakfast pastry. It was very good. The coffee slushie was NOT.

Next up I took my bear, Berrie, to the 'cool zone' to sample the Beverly soda. Lemme' 'splain. I took Berrie to Disneyland with Jeff a bit ago and we had a blast. I snapped pics of the day and laughed and laughed. It was almost like seeing the park again for the first time. So, I thought it would be fun to take Berrie to WDW and take lots of pictures. Something to fill the time and keep me busy since I was going all by myself!

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What's this?
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It smells weird.
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*slurp*
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EEEWWWW!

Poor Berrie! I'm really the only person I know who likes that weird soda! Apparently, it's quite the game to take a newbie to the 'cool zone' and video their reactions to the very first sip. I witnessed a pretty epic one while I was there. A couple of teachers line their students up against the wall (like a soda firing squad) and gave each of the kids a little cup of the Beverly. The teacher got the camera set up and then instructed the kids to sip. The looks of horror on their little faces! (we'll never trust again!).

My other 'mission' for visiting EPCOT was to 'Race Around the World Showcase'. A "Cars 2" promo. You picked up a little passport and visited marked 'countries' for a sticker. When you get the whole set, you picked up a little prize.

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Yeah, not really worth the hike around the world.

Hot and disappointed, I called it a day and began the trek to my afternoon ADR at Coral Reef. I'd never been there before and wanted to sample it to see if it would be a good stop for our nieces next year. I got a seat RIGHT next to the tank, which was lovely. The service was very good as well. I'm just not sure the gals would enjoy this place without that same seat by the tanks.

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There ARE fish here, right?

It was so boiling hot that I just wasn't really hungry. I needed to EAT. I hadn't eaten a thing since that pastry in Paris. I ordered the appetizer sampler for two as my entree. It came with fried shrimp, crab cakes, and lobster bisque. The food was all very good. I especially liked the shrimp! I would not, however, recommend eating the sampler as an entree except on a occasion where you're not starving. It really was not a lot of food for the money.

Coral Reef lunch
If you're a Smurf, this food overload will cause your stomach to explode! If you're a normal person, this is a drop in the stomach bucket!

After nursing my iced tea and soaking up the arctic death blast from the A/C, I decided to begin my trek to the Contemporary Hotel to meet some friends for dinner. I had heard that the transportation could take quite some time.

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Berrie rides the Monorail

I really liked that resort. I wandered the shops and grabbed a coffee. Then I headed over to the ballroom to pick up my Destination D packet for the weekend. I met my friends for dinner at the California Grill. It had a beautiful view of the Magic Kingdom

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I ordered the filet with the mascarpone mashed potatoes.

California Grill cuisine

One of my Disney vet pals suggested I sub the potatoes for the goat cheese polenta. I had a hard time with the thought of NO potatoes so, I ordered the polenta on the side.

Goat Cheese Polenta
Oh, goat cheese polenta, where have you been all my life!

My dessert was a latte!
Coffee for dessert
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Berrie is STUFFED ! Wokka-wokka!

After all the food, I was too tired to do anything but crawl back to my hotel. Which is exactly what I did.

Next: Destination D - Day one!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Destination D: Walt Disney World

California Grill view

So earlier this month, I jetted off to Walt Disney World for "Destination D: Walt Disney World". It was a solo trip - No Jeff this time and would last about 5 days (including travel). It was a whirlwind!

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I hopped on a Virgin America DIRECT flight from SFO to Orlando (Oh, Virgin America. How I love you!) and snagged a upgrade to "Main Cabin Select" seating. Best way to fly! Free movies, free food, priority boarding...it's like a cheapie version of First Class. I like it! Pictured is my 'travel bear', Humphrey. He keeps me company on trips when the Mister can't come along. That would be him enjoying his free headphones and free entertainment aboard Virgin America. (end unpaid commercial).

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Arriving in Orlando, I caught a 'Magical Express' bus to my resort, Coronado Springs.

Coronado Springs Casitas room
The room
Coronado Springs Casitas room
From the closet area.
My snuggle bear.
Where Humphrey spent his week. Lazy bear.

The room had some really nice touches, too:
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I finished off my evening at Portobello at Downtown Disney for dinner. Meatball sliders and pistachio gelato are the perfect way to start a trip (and end a travel day).