Monthly Archives: October 2013

Magical Memory Monday – Loving Donald

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IMG_5202I must confess…while growing up, I was never a Donald Duck fan.  Watching Disney cartoons on TV, I thought he was always kind of crabby and pretty grumpy in general.  Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, and Daisy were so happy, Donald just suffered by comparison.  Based on those childhood feelings, It surprises me how much of a Donald fan I am now…He is, without a doubt, my favorite Disney character!

What happened to make me fall in love with Donald Duck?  Disney magic, that’s what!!!

It was during a spring break trip to Disney World in 2005.  We were staying at the Contemporary and were on our way out to the parks for the day when Megan realized she’d forgotten her key-to-the-world card.  Joseph and I waited on the monorail platform while Raymond and Megan ran back to the room to get it.  Joseph was occupying himself in the way 10-year-old boys tend to do as I looked down over the railing at the goings-on at Chef Mickey’s.  Donald was out in front of the restaurant posing with a family for pictures.  After the pictures were taken and the family went on inside, one of those magical Disney moments took place that changed my feelings about Donald Duck forever….

Donald glanced up at me as I stood there by myself looking over that wall on the monorail platform.  And when he saw me, he threw his arms wide and stepped back in surprise…one hand flew to his heart while he pointed right at me with the other…perfectly miming, “It’s YOU!”  Then he began madly blowing kisses to me with both hands.

At first I was so shocked I just sort of waved back a little, but Donald’s enthusiasm (at seeing me!) and those kisses he just kept flinging at me, quickly snapped me into the magic of the moment and before I knew it…..I was wildly blowing kisses back at Donald with, I’m sure, a ridiculously huge, dopey IMG_5201smile on my face!  Yeah…..so that was just about the time I heard, “Mommmmm?  What are you doing?”  And I answered the only way I could….”Oh, Joseph!  Donald and I are having a moment!”  Then, Raymond and Megan got back so Donald and I both went on about our day…but, in that one brief moment, grumpy, crabby Donald became special, magical Donald and had won my heart forever.

In the Disney Twitterverse

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I’ve had a IMG_1915twitter account for years. Like any normal parent, I set it up to stalk lovingly monitor my darling children as they used social media. I didn’t begin tweeting or following others until I realized how many totally cool Disney fans (of varied Disney interests) there are out there in the twitter-verse.  Now I’m following a big bunch of interesting, funny, informative, creative, athletic, crafty (I could keep going, but you get the idea) people on twitter….best of all, they’re DISNEY people like me.  

So, what was everyone tweeting about last week?  Here are some of the hottest topics:

  • Frozen:  Merchandise is arriving in stores, characters are appearing at the Disney Parks, and people are getting stoked about this latest Disney animated movie’s opening on November 27th.  I am one of those people!
  • DSCN3118The Disney Magic:  Disney Cruise Line’s ship, the Magic, has just undergone a major refurbishment that included a bunch of fantastic changes.  We just sailed on her in August and got to take one last look around the original version – can’t wait to see the new adult entertainment areas, the new restaurant, Carioca’s (replacing Parrot Cay), and a new water slide – The Aquadunk! and much more.
  • The Jingle Cruise:  It seems the perennial favorite for fans of the horrible pun (…”I’d like to point out this sandstone rock formation…most people just take it for granite.”  bah-dum-bum) will get to experience Adventure Land’s Jungle Cruise in a whole new way as it is made over for the holidays – if anyone is going to be there, I’d LOVE to hear more about this.
  • Magic Bands – still in testing and still causing an uproar.  I’m looking forward to finding out, IMG_1062after the testing is over, if you really truly can only have 3 fast passes in one day thatmust all be at the same park.  Being a huge fan of hopping, I’m hoping to hear this is not true.
  • The Epcot International Food and Wine Festival and Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party (MNSSHP):  Since I am planning to participate in both of these next year, I’ve been paying particularly close attention to all the tweets about the food booths, the beverages, the crowds, the entertainment and, of course, the touring strategies for enjoying the best the fall season has to offer at Disney World.

I can’t wait to see what’s hot with all the #Disneyfans on Twitter this week…I’ll be back next weekend to give you another update.

WARNING! Brand New Disney Blog! Read at your own risk….

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Hi there!  My name’s Lisa and this is the inaugural post of “Living a Disney Life”.  If you cruise on over to the (coincidentally, also brand new) About page, you can find out why I’m here.

 

The plan…I intend to post often – at least three times a week.  As you may have surmised, I will be posting about Disney-related topics.  I’d like to share things with you like trending Disney news and what I think about it (hopefully you’ll share you thoughts with me, too), Magical Memories from my family’s Disney vacations, things I’ve learned about raising and traveling with Disney children (at every age) that you might find helpful, and the many things I do at home to keep the Disney magic alive between Disney vacations.

I’ve always been crazy about Disney.  From my earliest memories of Sunday evenings spent watching The Wonderful World of Disney to singing along to all the songs from Mary Poppins while my mom played the piano.  I grew up with Disney movies, toys, games, and finally my first trip to Walt Disney World.  Disney’s always been part of my life and when I had children, I wanted to share my love for Disney with them too.

I’m just your average everyday Disney fan.  My husband and I live normal, average lives; going to work everyday to make enough money to pay the bills and hopefully still have enough left over to make sure we’re not just living, but Living a Disney Life.

Celebrating 25 years of marriage at Walt Disney World