Disney Planning – Disney Cruise West Coast Land & Sea Adventure

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We love Disney Cruise Line and we love Disney theme parks – There’s nothing better to us that a vacation that combines them both!  What better way to celebrate wedding anniversary #29 than by sailing on the Disney Wonder before heading to Disneyland for the very first time.

Disney Planning – Disney Cruise West Coast Land & Sea Adventure

This vacation was a bit unexpected.  I was in the early stages of thinking about what we might want to do for what has become an annual anniversary getaway.  I’d been imagining Hawaii or maybe someplace else tropical that would not put us too much at risk of yet another hurricane season vacation disaster.  Unbeknownst to me, Raymond was busily shopping the Disney Cruise Line website.Disney Cruise Line / Ship

I remember bringing up the aforementioned potential tropical destination while he was typing away on his computer.  He suddenly got excited about the prices for a repositioning cruise from Vancouver to San Diego on the Wonder…so excited, in fact, that before I knew it, he exclaimed, “These prices are awesome!  This sounds fun!  I’m booking it!” (Okay, if you’ve ever met Raymond, you know he’d never speak with all those exclamations…It’s called artistic license.  I can’t help myself.)  And boom!  Part one of our vacation was in the bag.  We’ll sail from Vancouver for a four-night cruise with a stop in Astoria, Oregon before arriving in San Diego.

Now it was my turn to plan.

I didn’t waste any time.  Researching our options for getting to Anaheim from San Diego and places to stay at Disneyland, I decided on a rental car and a Good Neighbor hotel.  Three-day Park Hopper tickets will hopefully allow enough time for a decent first visit.  Our hotel is within walking distance of park entrances.

I took to Twitter for dining suggestions and booked reservations for breakfast at the Plaza Inn, lunch at Blue Bayou, and dinners at Napa Rose, Carthay Circle, and Steakhouse 55.  I realize there are incredible quick service choices and I know we’ll want to give some of those a try too.

So, it seems like we’re all set.  The biggest challenge so far is packing for both cool and warm weather in one vacation.  My suitcase is nearly packed and I’m proud to say I didn’t go overboard.  (Give me a shout if you’d be interested in what I packed an/or wore for this trip.)

Having never been to Disneyland, we would welcome your suggestions for what you consider the most important things for us to see and do!  Rides?  Attractions?  Snacks?  Shows?  What do we need on our must-do list?  I feel like a complete Disney rookie this time!  If you’ve got tips, I want to hear them.  We’re leaving in just a few days, so please leave your thoughts in the comments or over on Twitter or Facebook.  Thanks in advance for your help.  Can’t wait to tell you all about it when we get home!

 

Update! Living a BUSY Disney Life

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Where have I been?  What have I been doing?  Why don’t I write posts regularly?  Have I run out of Disney things to say? Great questions, all of them.  Allow me to explain…

Update!  Living a BUSY Disney Life

Of course, I still love Disney and still have plenty to say!  So much great stuff is happening right now, I have let this blog (and you beloved, faithful readers) fall by the wayside.  It’s not personal, you still mean the world to me.  A number of factors have distracted me and I fully expect to be back to my usual post-writing self in the very near future.  We’ve got three Disney trips in the works and I couldn’t be more excited!

I have a day job (that I love).  I’ve been with the same company for 16 years and have enjoyed many interesting, challenging, and rewarding opportunities.  Recently though, the career that’s been fairly easy to balance with my non-working hours has required a bit more attention.  I used to spend many a lunch hour working on blog posts and that has not been possible lately.  Everything’s great and I expect this crazy-busy time to even out a bit in a couple of months.

Preparing for Megan and Grant’s new arrival!  I had no idea that becoming a grandma would be this exciting!  About a month-and-a-half ago, Raymond and I became grandparents for the first time.  We loved helping to set up the nursery, which is lovely (with quite of few Disney touches).  And are so fortunate to have Megan, Grant, and their darling baby girl living nearby.  Our granddaughter, while not ready to make her public debut on the internet, is as sweet, precious, healthy, and adorable as can be.

I’ve embraced my inner farm girl!  Hello, heirloom tomatoes and squashes galore.  I made Eggplant Parmesan with eggplants straight from the vine (plant? shrub? you get what I mean) and homemade tomato sauce!  Also, those baby chicks that arrived while we were at Walt Disney World in May (Thanks again, Tyler) are growing like crazy and have been integrated into the existing (perhaps I should say “remaining”) flock of five.  Chickens…simple and difficult at the same time.  A sucker for Tractor Supply ads, I also picked up some teeny tiny baby chicks on a recent Saturday during “Chick Days” which added six more females – three Cinnamon Queens and three Sapphire Gems.  Yup, that’s 16 chickens of various ages and breeds.  Here’s hoping my track record improves for their sakes.  The May hatchlings are named Scotch, Soda, Bubbles, Moe, and Bart Jr.  The newest six will get names as soon as I can tell them apart.

We Said Farewell to The Disney Exchange – After 190 episodes, Nick, Dave and I decided it was time to end the show and our last episode was released a few weeks ago.  We’re still very good friends and we still love every one of our listeners and the friends we made from doing the podcast.  I had no idea when we started we’d get 3 1/2 years of weekly recordings simply from talking to each other about Disney.  I had such a fun time and if you’ve listened to even a single episode, you’d be able to tell.

Finally, I’d like to add that for the past several months, I’ve been working out extra hard and trying to eat in a way more focused on macros than calories.  I’ve fully embraced protein shakes as a breakfast food and have added much more weight training to my routine.  I’m pleased with the results so far and am running and bicycling better than I have in a couple of years.  After an MRI in 2016 revealed some arthritis and two bulging disks in my neck, I convinced myself that too much strength training would cause a nerve pain flare-up.  I was totally wrong!  My neck feels better than it has in a very long time.  We have lots of running and cycling events planned for this fall and winter and I cannot wait!

Still here?  Thanks for reading and if you’ve been here before, thanks for following along with Living a Disney Life.  I’ve been scarce lately, but I’ve still got lots of plans for this little blog.  Please consider follow along over on Facebook and Twitter too.  Be back to my regular posts soon, I promise…Lisa

 

Ups and Downs of a Very Rainy Disney Vacation (Part 1)

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As expected, after months of planning, our Disney vacation went by in a flash!  It was mighty rainy, but hey!  We survived Hurricane Matthew at Disney World when they closed all the parks, so we poncho-ed on!  And had a fun time in spite of the showers.

Ups and Downs of a Very Rainy Disney Vacation (Part 1)

Bear in mind, we were expecting perpetual rain having obsessively watched the forecast for a 70% (or more) chance of rain everyday.  When we arrived early on Saturday, it wasn’t raining and we headed straight for Animal Kingdom and got busy!  By 3:00 pm, we’d found the Yeti, eaten lunch at Harambe Market, explored wildlife via Kilimanjaro Safari and Gorilla Falls, and took a little boat ride through Pandora.

By this time, that early morning wake-up (3:00 am!) caught up with us, so we headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge and relaxed by the Uzima Springs Pool Bar.  Refreshed by cocktails and lulled into a restorative nap, we were jolted awake by a band of children on a mission to catch lizards and pull their tails off!  I am not kidding!  Then they would take the squirming, disconnected tails and carry them around until they found a place to throw them near the flamingos.  Recovering from our horror (barely), we stopped them by yelling, “Hey!” all at once.  Stupid response, I realize, but we’d been sound asleep and it worked.

Demon children banished, we pulled ourselves together and headed inside.  Dinner at Boma was great and day one was almost over.  We needed to catch a bus from Animal Kingdom Lodge to Magic Kingdom so we could walk to Bay Lake Tower from there – the (seemingly) easiest and quickest way to get to our rooms.  Unfortunately, we had to wait for a long, long time for that bus – way more than 30 minutes.  We were so sleepy!  Eventually, the bus arrived and we called it a night.

On Sunday morning, I did two things I’d never attempted before at Disney World.  I went to the fitness center in The Contemporary with Raymond and Joseph and worked out for a solid hour.  Ran on the treadmill then did weight training and felt like I eliminated those Boma calories completely. Then, in a completely unprecedented move, I cooked breakfast for everyone with the groceries I’d ordered.  Scrambled eggs, toast, bagels, and a protein shake for me.  We took our time getting ready and headed for Epcot in the rain to catch the very end of the Flower and Garden Festival.

Ponchos on then off then on again, we made our way around World Showcase sampling the kiosks’ offerings.  The food and beverages were great!  So was the musical group at the Germany Pavilion – and they posed for a picture with us!

We rode Frozen, headed to Future World for Living With the Land, caught Turtle Talk and visited the aquariums and manatees in The Seas.  Finally, right before dinner, we rode Spaceship Earth.  We hadn’t been to Rose & Crown for many years and I was really looking forward to dinner there.  I’d forgotten that the menu is relatively limited, but the food was fantastic!  We had a great time.

So far, the taking-it-easy plan was working splendidly and the rain had been completely bearable.  We still had so many great plans ahead!

Please come back soon for the next installment of our Very Rainy Disney Vacation and watch for detailed restaurant reviews!

Finding Donald at Walt Disney World

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Today I was invited to collaborate with some fellow Disney fans in posts about our favorite Disney characters and where to find them.  When Livy at hollywoodlassie.com emailed me about participating, I immediately responded with an enthusiastic YES!  Donald’s my guy!  How he went from a grumpy duck to my most favorite character was a story from another day (here) but he’s held a special place in my heart for a very long time.  When I’m at Walt Disney World, I find ways to add Donald to my vacation on nearly every visit.

Finding Donald at Walt Disney World

The best (okay, only) ways to locate my most beloved member of the Fab Five are 1) on purpose and 2) by accident.  The first takes a bit of pre-planning and the second just takes some careful observation.

To guarantee a brush with Donald-greatness, I schedule a meal at either Chef Mickey’s (Disney’s Contemporary Resort) or Tusker House (Disney’s Animal Kingdom).  Both places are great, but I’m partial to Tusker House for both the food and the fact that Daisy is there instead of Pluto, who’s at Chef Mickey’s.  Otherwise, guests will meet Mickey, Minnie, and Goofy in those restaurants as well.  In both places, the character interactions and photo ops are fantastic!

Meet-n-Greets are a fun way to see Donald, but can use up big blocks of time and only work out well if you make it in line before the queue is shut down.  Sure, you can check a park’s times guides for Donald appearances, but what fun is that?  I prefer keeping a lookout for Donald and try to catch up with him on the spur of the moment.  Finding Donald at Walt Disney WorldI’ve met Frontierland Donald, Fiesta Donald (Mexico Pavilion), Baseball Donald (runDisney event), and Donald and Daisy in the Studios.  I’ve also seen Donald around and while I wasn’t able to get in line to meet him, I was able to snap pictures of his adorableness.  My kids also love Donald!

Can’t do a character meal?  Don’t feel meeting by happenstance is reliable enough?  You can always count on seeing Donald in the Festival of Fantasy Parade in Magic Kingdom.  The parade is absolutely wonderful and there’s, you know, DONALD!  At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you can now catch Donald and other beloved Disney characters in DinoLand U.S.A. at Donald’s Dino-Bash!

Shout on out if you’re a Donald fan too!

Be sure to check out these blogs for more Disney character love…

Hollywood Lassie – (Rapunzel)

Disney Insider Tips – (Ariel)

Zip A Dee Do Dah Travel

Luxury Disney Travel Blog – (Cinderella)

So Cal Style – (Alice)