Why I Oughta...

Everyone always talks about how much Disney park visits cost.  And they do, indeed, cost quite a bit.  But, there's value all around if you look for it.  Most of the time, that value comes from spending quality time with your family.  Some other times, that value comes from the little things that you can pick up/get/do around the parks. I've written about these various 'freebies' around the parks here on the blog.  Full list is below.  Today, is the second day in a row posting about one of these things and they're both transportation-related.  These in the photo at the top are from Disney's California Adventure and are available at Radiator Springs Racers in Carsland.  If you ask the cast member, you can choose between Lightning McQueen and Stanley.  With three kids, we were able to get both! The kids wore these (the boy on his hat, the girls on their lanyards) all day.  Disneyland Resort does NOT do pin trading like they do at Walt Disney World (it is ha

I've written about 'freebies at Walt Disney World' over the years on the blog.  There's the business card that we got from the Mayor of Main Street USA .  He's dead now , so I don't think they're doing this any longer.  There's also an official 'guest skipper' license from the Jungle Cruise Skippers .  And a card from Soarin' that is labeled "Born to Soar" that allows little ones to 'fly' the ride as soon as they hit the height.   There are also plenty of character stickers from various cast members and DVC kiosks like Minnie Mouse  and Mickey Mouse.  And you can get a Celebration Pin everyday or special pins on other days like Mickey Mouse's birthday  or a special pin if you participate in the Star Wars Jedi Training .  If you look hard enough, you can also find 'job role' stickers like Honorary Custodian  or  WDW Monorail Pilot .  And there's, of course, transportation cards. Another one those is the

A couple of days ago, I posted a photo of #188 Walt Disney Comics and Stories book featuring Donald Duck and his nephews .  Inside the book were stories about Donald Duck, The li'l Bad Wolf, " and of course Mickey the Mouse in "The Case of the Hungry Ghost".  I haven't read any of them yet, but will get to them soon (I hope!).  In the meantime, I flipped through the book and came across the advertisement you see above at the top of this post for Disneyland "View-Master". The photo at the top of this post is via Google's Photoscan app .  The one at the bottom of the post is just directly from my phone.  There's pros/cons with each one.  Here's a link to the photoscan version on Google Photos that is full-size that you can zoom in/around on if you want the details. There are a few other ads worth sharing, but for now, let's focus on this Disneyland one.  This is from May of 1956 - just ten months after the July 1955 grand opening o

Last year, Nat's Mom gifted us a Disneyland Rose for our anniversary and this year she did the same thing, but gave us two of them.  They arrived recently in a box from Jackson & Perkins that you see above.  Here's the post showing the rose plant from 2017 and includes the description of the variety.  I revisited our Disneyland Rose in June when it came back for the year and produced some small, but spectacular blooms.  I ended up planting the first one underneath the kitchen windows amongst some hostas and grasses.  I think that ultimately, I'm going to have to transplant it next year to a different spot, but for this season, it did well. Below you can see the two new Rose plants that were shipped in the container. I ended up planting them on the south side of our house - on either side of the window well that is out there.  Again, I'm not certain that this is where they're destined to go, but it is pretty much a blank canvas out there and these t

I went to the Estate Sale that I've posted about recently on a Friday morning and took some photos of things that I've posted about here on the blog.  All of them, I was at least *comfortable* with passing on after saying my mantra to myself.  But there was one item that I wondered if I should go back for:  this Disneyland vintage felt pennant from Walt Disney productions.  After showing it around to Nat and her family, it seemed like I was drawn to this.  You can see that they were asking $5 for it on Friday - which I think (for me at least) is too much.  But, I went back Saturday knowing that they'd have 50% off of everything and more willing to deal.  The pennant was still there.  Marked down that 50%.  But, I offered $1 and they took it.  And now this vintage pennant from (what I think is) the 1960's is hanging in some of the blank space of my Disney pin boards hung in the garage .  I just tacked it up there for now to keep it from getting creased and folded,

Up in Wisconsin, I came across this totally adorable 1 Disneyland "California" tray.  It is about one foot in diameter and super thin with a shallow lip.  Not the kind of lip you normally see on the beer trays like this Schlitzerland one . You can see the price tag on this one:  $18.  And I thought about this thing for a bit, but then I leaned hard on my collecting mantra .  I said it out loud to myself: "It is enough to enjoy the existence of things without possessing all of them."   And after snapping this photo, I put it back for some other collector to pick it up, love it and (hopefully) use it. I'm guessing it is from the 70's, right?  Like the late 70's?  It is in really great condition and *feels* vintage, but isn't *old*. You can click here to see the same photo on Google Photos where you can really zoom in to see all the details.  Go ahead... go over there . Ah, you're back.  Still have that Google Photos tab open?  Gre

Late last Summer/early last Fall, Nat's Mom gifted us three plants: an Everlasting Revolution Hydrangea , a Tuff Stuff Red Hydrangea  and a Disneyland Rose .  I planted the two Hydrangeas along the south fence line where the plan called for them, but I stuck the rose in the rear foundation beds outside of our kitchen windows .  It is located right in between where I planted the teardown Hostas  last Fall and the Karl Foerster Grasses that I planted this Spring . What you see in the photo above is the Disneyland Rose - that has not only survived the winter, but is about to burst with it's first flowers.  What good news to see this thing flourishing in our first Summer here.  Those pointy buds are really quite cool, aren't they? Those of you who aren't familiar with the Disneyland Rose, check out this post I wrote when we acquired the plant .  Nat has expressed an interest in more roses, but our plan is really light on them, so we'll have to figure out how to

For our anniversary this year, we were gifted this beautiful rose bush from Nat's folks.  And at first look, it is just a nice looking peach/orange rose plant.  We don't have any roses and have never cared for one, but we've always admired them.  So, at first blush, it was a nice, simple gift.  But take a closer look at the tag and this suddenly becomes a really thoughtful gift: Yeah!  A Disneyland Rose.  Or a Disneyland Floribunda Rose from Jackson & Perkins to be precise.  I actually didn't even know there *was* a Disneyland Rose.  But it is a perfect gift for us, right?  Hits us right where we swoon:  in between our love for all-things-Disney and gardening in our #newoldbackyard.  As I said:  thoughtful.  Gift giving isn't easy.  But when you find someone who is good at it, they continue to surprise and delight you over time.  There are people who are 'good' at the internet.  They post the right comments on Instagram.  They send you the rig

I came across this print from Shag ( Josh Agle ) at Boutiki and it caught my attention because it reminds me of this Tiki Room one by Joey Chou that we picked up last year .  This one (above) doesn't have the Dole Whip reference, but is still pretty cute. The back reads: "On hot summer days, Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room offers a magical, cooling, and calming oasis for the Disneyland guest.  Unchanged since 1963, the Tiki Room still gets kids to squeal in delight and adults to relive their childhood."

If you pause for a moment as you go under the elevated train tracks as you enter the Magic Kingdom and look to your left or right, you'll come across some vintage posters hung up that represent various rides around the parks.  This one, featuring Carousel of Progress - was one of about four that I spied on our last trip.  *This one*, however, was worth the stop and photo.  Why?  Because..."It's a great big beautiful tomorrow..." What's that?  Oh...nothing.  Just one of my favorite experiences at the Magic Kingdom.  Sure, the last 'scene' needs updating, but with the oncoming rush of various VR headsets in the news these days, dare I say that what is old is new again?  Could they just update the clothing and claim the thing that the kid and grandma are wearing on their heads are just Virtual Reality headsets from Samsung? The little plaque below the poster reads: The carousel of progress first premiered at the 1964-65 New York World's Fair.  Th

The folks at Disney are always conducting consumer research on a wide variety of topics.  Everything from parks experiences to transportation to hotels and amenities.  In fact, earlier this year, a big part of the online Disney community was up in arms because of a few survey questions that probed on the consumer's willingness to pay for things like in-room Wi-fi and the Disney Magic Express bus transportation from MCO to the Disney Resorts in Florida.   We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel earlier this year, but have also stayed at the Poly and Bay Lake Tower in Orlando at Walt Disney World in the past months, so I am not sure which visit this specific survey is tied to, but it focused on 'amenities'.   The survey opened with questions about how important things like coffee makers, refrigerators, a digital safe, hdtv, usb plugs, night lights, open shelving vs. drawers, etc.  They asked on a scale of 'not desirable at all' to 'extremely desirable'.  Th

One of the girls scored this Miles from Tomorrowland pin on a trip to the parks in Anaheim recently.  I don't recall if this was traded for or purchased, but based on how 'new' this seems to be in the mix for trading, I am guessing that we bought it?  Have you heard about Miles?  He's pretty cute and a nice way to bring the land in the parks a bit closer to the kids on Disney Junior.   Now, if Miles and his family can convince my scaredy-cat daughter to go on Space Mountain?  That'd be something.

I was going through the girls' pin lanyards from our most recent trip to the parks and noticed that The Babe picked up a cute Yoda Valentine's Day one.   According to this post on the Disney Pins Blog , it is a new one that came out in November of 2015.  I know it is a few days past Valentine's Day, but I figured it was still worth sharing.  At some point when we get our place settled, we'll take these off the various lanyards (necklaces as the girls call them) and put them on a real pin board of sorts.  Oh...a guy can dream, right?!?  

Sure... the phone and internet guide featuring Walt is cool, but you know what is REALLY cool about the Disneyland Hotel?  The headboards.  Yeah...the headboards. That photo above is what they look like when you've turned off all the lights in the room but keep the headboard light up.  When you push a button, there's a music box sound of the song 'When you wish upon a star' and the fireworks flicker a bit. Here's a video on YouTube of it happening on someone's visit . This was a total delight for not just my kids but also for Nat and I.  I can't tell you now many times I hit the button to make the song go on and have the board light up.  This is just another one of those little touches that make strong memories for me at Disney. But...it also speaks to the details they've put into the Disneyland Hotel rooms. We listen to Pete Werner and the gang on the Dis Unplugged and Pete just raved about the rooms at the Disneyland Hotel .  After that ep

If you get a chance, stay at the Disneyland Hotel at the Disneyland Resort.  They really drape themselves in Walt and the place is themed to Disney itself.  Not far-away polynesia or 1920's New Jersey Shore.  But Disney.  Walt and Mickey.  Mickey and Walt. I posted a photo from the Tangaroa Terrace restaurant featuring Walt and the Tiki Room Birds before, but here above is the telephone and internet information guide that they leave on the nightstands.  When you open it all the way up, you get this cool photo of the man himself sitting as his desk with a Donald Duck standing there while he yammers away on the phone.  Pretty clever way to bring some history from the archives back to everyday use.  The touches - including the headboard (which I'll get to!) are just spectacular.  Can you get a cheaper room at one of the "Good Neighbor" hotels right across the street from Disneyland?  Sure you can.  But you can't match the magic of being in the Disneyland Hotel i

"Dad...I wanna be on the Dark Side!" The Bird here was the only one to be brave enough to confront Darth Vader on our visit.  He was VERY tall and VERY imposing.  He startled us when we arrived.  The queue is set up so you don't really see him until he kind of jumps out at you.  I jumped back a bit.  The Babe wouldn't come out from behind Nat's leg.  Totally different reaction from when we all met Chewy. They have Vader and Chewy (and now I think Kylo Ren??) set up in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in a place called the Star Wars Launch Bay that has various artifacts from the seven movies (helmets, sabers, vehicles, etc).  It is a nice little way to bring Star Wars into the Park at Disneyland while they're busy building the new Star Wars land.  Which...can't get done soon enough.  Pandora (Avatarland) is coming online sometime in 2017 and unlike some folks, that has me really excited. I'm a big Joe Rohde fan (even follow him on Instagram ) and he&

Both of these were in the hotel rooms during our stay(s) at both Walt Disney World (Bay Lake Tower) and Disneyland Resort (Disneyland Hotel).    The one on the right from Disneyland is particularly neat with the whole retro vibe and the original DL Hotel sign and monorail. Added these to the 'Coaster Collection' here on the blog .  They take a spot next to the other ones from Ted's and a brewery up in Michigan and others from our travels.

 One morning on a visit to Disneyland, we had breakfast with the kids at the Tangaroa Terrace at the Disneyland Hotel .  Besides the Mickey waffles, we were fortunate to be graced by this photo of Walt Disney himself with his animatronic talking and singing birds from the original Enchanted Tiki Room. I've already (gasp!) let my Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room-freak-flag fly by posting this print/art that we picked up on a trip to Walt Disney World last year.    I still maintain that it is my favorite experience in all of the parks.  Disneyland, and their 'inside the queue' Dole Whip line and cast members who kind of 'put on a show' at the beginning make it just about perfect. Those Disney nuts know that the Tiki Room was originally envisioned as a restaurant , so we *kind of* got the best of both worlds there at the Tangaroa Terrace.

When we were at Disneyland, we made a stop in for lunch at one of the restaurants in New Orleans Square.  While waiting for our table, Nat and I took turns going to the bathroom while the other watched the kids.  Nat went first and when she came back, she pointed out that the infamous Club 33 door was on the way between where we were sitting and the bathrooms.  Of course, I had to investigate. Turns out, there isn't much there.  Just this ornate doorbell/intercom with the number '33' on it.  The story of the Club is of course, interesting.  And, while everyone's imagination goes wild all around the Disney Parks, this secret place that so few get to go ilicits so much ooo-ing-and-ahh-ing from the savvy Disney park visitor.  For everyone else...they probably walk by the non-descript door and not think twice about the shrimp cocktails and manhattans that are being consumed upstairs will the great unwashed devours our Monte Cristo sandwiches at the New Orleans Cafe.  

Before the month gets away from us - and I have to turn over the wall calendars to August - wanted to call out this little Disneyland history nugget.  60 years ago today - July 31st, 1955 - the Casye Jr. Circus Train ride opened at Disneyland. That's exactly two weeks after the park opened.  Wonder why the train wasn't ready? As a side note, we've been to the Disneyland Resort three times and have yet to ride this thing.  Check out this POV video from MouseSteps: