Why I Oughta...

This is the third in a series of posts about my attempt to recreate some twinkling lights that used to be inside of Disney Parks (and...I think are still at Downtown Disney/Disney Springs).  While this project has come together in the past few weeks, this has been something that I've been thinking about for a number of years.  For background, here's the outline of the idea from last week .  Then, a couple of days ago, I posted about the bulbs and the specific fixtures that I'm using .  Now that I had the bulbs and the fixtures, I wanted to see if I could figure a way to get them going without making the investment in the larger, outdoor transformer, the run of low-voltage wire and the waterproof connections.  I wanted to see if I could get them to power up and to see how "random" they actually were. Each of the bulbs are 4 watts.  And they run on 12v power.  I went to the Google machine and searched to see what my Lionel transformers were running at power-wi

A couple of days ago, I posted the first part - in a series - about my journey to replicating some twinkling lights that Disney uses (or used to use) in their parks.  In that post, I mentioned that by reading various forum posts from the past 10+ years, I came to find the bulbs and then what I thought were the right e10 miniature lamp bases. These are the bulbs that I bought - you can see a photo of the box above.  Looks vintage, doesn't it?  Bought 15 of them - just to have a few spare on hand. (NOTE:  I do NOT run any affiliate links - so I'm not making any money on sending someone to any Amazon/other seller items.  So, click away...and no need to strip out any ref?/affiliate tracking codes when you buy. ) Below, is a photo of the box and some of the bulbs - quarter on the desk for size reference. Side of the box stamped "258". And, here, below is the package of 10 lamp bases that I bought from Amazon .' Here, below, is a close-up pho

These garbage cans are just beautiful, right?  There's all sorts of Mary Blair kinda-stuff going on with them as they are lined up along the route to the ride. I took this photo on the way to It's A Small World After All in Disneyland and you can see the little 'stage' that I mentioned in the post with the Disneyland espalier photo I shared recently .   The visual design on the cans is striking, of course.  But the whole idea of the garbage cans at Disney Parks are a concept with a huge amount of attention on them as a topic.  First...there's the notion that Walt Disney and Imagineering (or WED as it was likely at the time??), invented this 'style' of garbage cans. From Theme Park Tourist : As he planned Disneyland, Uncle Walt examined the trash cans of the era. They were mesh cans that had a couple of major design flaws. The first was that a can with holes in it allowed goop to seep out. Yes, gross. The second is arguably worse. A can with holes in

Back in April of 2018, I posted this photo of one of our kids celebrating the upcoming Star Wars land at Hollywood Studios .  Go check it out here .  That land is currently open to cast members and will be opened to the public before the end of the month.  But, being "Disney People" (with air quotes), we couldn't wait for that and had to squeeze in a visit to the California version of Galaxy's Edge/Black Spire Outpost/Batuu/Star Wars Land 1 during our recent trip to the park.    And we really liked it.  There's only one ride open (The Falcon) and yes...everything is expensive. But, the imagineers really did an amazing job on the land.  It certainly feels *immersive* and that seems to be all the rage these days.  Now, we haven't been to Universal Studios to see any of the Harry Potter land(s), but what I've read about it, that word (immersive) comes up over and over.  And, between Pandora in Animal Kingdom and now SWGE, I think that Disney - and

Documenting this here on the blog as part of my Disney Parks ephemera collection.  This is the Disneyland Park Map from July 2019 when they opened Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and features a couple of people piloting the Millenium Falcon.  A little bit over a month ago, I posted the map for Disneyland Park and Disney Studios at Disneyland Paris .  This Spring, I posted a photo the map and guide celebrating the 35th anniversary of Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea . At the beginning of 2019, I posted the Holiday park map for Disney's California Adventure . And one with snowflakes from Disneyland in Anaheim .  In 2017, I posted the special Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party guide and map from the Magic Kingdom.  The first Disney Parks maps that I shared were back in the Spring of 2017 with both guides/maps from Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea .  

In my mind, Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland Paris is a hybrid of the two US park castles.  It has the 'feel' of the OG Sleeping Beauty Castle but it is built at the scale and style of Cinderella's Castle in Walt Disney World in Orlando. But there's something different about the castle that is, kinda awesome. There's something called "La Tanière du Dragon". According to the Disneyland Paris Parks page : Tip-toe through the dark dungeon "La Tanière du Dragon" underneath Sleeping Beauty Castle, where a monstrous prisoner lurks. Once the ruler of the skies, this defeated dragon lies chained against jagged rocks. It may be dozing, but tread carefully, as one false move will lead to a hot, rumbling surprise. Here's that 'prisoner': This was a really neat experience that we just kind of wandered in to as we wandered on some of the park paths near the castle.  I remember being inside here, seeing the dragon and looking a

There are a ton of familiar details at Disneyland Park.  The hub layout.  The castle...that is kind of a combination of Disneyland's castle at Disney World's scale.  But, I noticed one little detail that is different.  They don't two-finger point.  This is a photo I took of this Cast Member who was directing people around Disneyland Park.  I was sitting at a restaurant waiting for Nat and was able to watch this guy tell people where to go and what-have-you.  After seeing him one-finger point for about five minutes, I had to snap a photo. What's the two-finger point?  From Travel + Leisure : Disney is all about the details.  Sure, every Disney fan knows that the rides, snacks, and the parks themselves are meticulously designed and maintained so visitors can be delighted at every turn, but did you know that this very thoughtful mentality also extends to the park’s staff as well?  Take, for example, the fact that Disney park employees are banned from ever pointi

We spent most of our time at Disneyland Paris trying to take in some experiences that felt familiar (walking down MainStreet, etc) and some that are unique to the Paris parks.  One of those unique experiences that we took in during our visit was a ride through the Phantom Manor in the Frontierland section of Disneyland Park.  Phantom Manor is the close cousin of one of our favorites:  Haunted Mansion.  AllEars.net has a nice feature on Phantom Manor .  From that AllEars piece (go read the whole thing here ): Phantom Manor is Disneyland Paris’ version of the Haunted Mansion. It is neither better than nor inferior to its cousins around the world. It’s simply different. And these differences make it very intriguing for those of us familiar with the original version.  Phantom Manor has a more complete storyline than the Haunted Mansion. It goes something like this.  Henry Ravenswood made his fortune in the Big Thunder Mountain gold rush. With his money he built an elegant Victori

I've posted some Disney Parks maps on the blog here over the years.  Mostly for posterity sake and because the parks have been doing a nice job of tailoring the maps to specific windows in time.  Most recently, I shared this Tokyo DisneySea map and guide that celebrates the 35th anniversary of that overall park.  And earlier this year, I posted a holiday-themed parks map from Disney California Adventure and a similarly-holiday-themed one from Disneyland .  And here's one from a Halloween-time Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party . Today's post shows off a map (or as they call it a "Guide to the 2 Disney Parks" at Disneyland Paris.  The cover shows the dates of January 7th --> June 28th of this year and features some legacy Disney Parks characters (Mickey the Mouse, Cinderella, Buzz Lightyear) and the two new, shiny objects:  Marvel (Spiderman) and Star Wars (Darth Vader). Inside, there's a double-sided map.  First for Disneyland Park - which i

If you've been to a Disney Park here in the US, you can't swing your double stroller around in a store like the Emporium on MainStreet USA without seeing some form of merchandise with the name of the park on it.  There's shirts and mugs with Magic Kingdom on them.  There's tons of items with Epcot Center on it - including some vintage logo things like hats.  Same with Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.  Then there's all the merchandise that have the opening year of the entire resort on them like WDW '71. But, one of the things that I noticed during my trips to the Tokyo parks was that there isn't a lot of stuff that they sell that actually has the name of the parks/resort on the merchandise.  There's ONE shirt that I found - a plain grey shirt with blue words on it that has the park names on it in each of Land and Sea parks.  No kids clothes with the name of the resort/parks what so ever. What they DO have is what I'd describe as character-foc

I've now been on three different Pirates of the Caribbean rides in three different parks.  The first one I ever rode was down in Walt Disney World.  And it is great.  Has just one drop and what I thought was a really nice show.  But then, I rode the one in Disneyland.  Woah.  Totally different and ummm...better?  Like, first there's the pre-pre show.  The whole seeing the boats come around the Blue Bayou restaurant into the loading area.  Then the whole bayou scene with the guy playing the banjo and the fireflies buzzing around.  Then the drops.  There's more than one!  That was nuts to me. And now I have these (admittedly) blurry photos of the Pirates of the Carribbean at Tokyo Disneyland.  The reason they are all blurry is that there are tons of signs advising one to NOT take photos on the rides and so I wasn't sure what to do.  I was worried about the brightness being seen from my phone screen on the ride, so I pressed the phone against my body, tried to put my

Of the course of the past week or so, I've shared a bunch of details of my trip to the Tokyo Disney Resort including a stop at Tokyo DisneySea.  My trip there coincided with a unique celebration called "Duffy's Heartwarming Days 2019" that was taking place in the Cape Cod section of the park that seemed to be a particular draw for some guests. The Heartwarming Days celebration features Duffy the Bear and his friends Shellie Mae, Gelatoni and StellaLou.  They had this display with little characters set up that you see above that had a super long line of folks waiting to take photos. The Heartwarming Days celebration ran simultaneously with the 35th Birthday celebration of the resort so they had situations where you could get a photo of a 35th Birthday marker (like this nautical Mickey themed one) and the Heartwarming Days banners (on the roof and on the next building).  This had a shorter line - but was still having people take photos (I blurred this little gi

What do you think?  Bathroom sign in Italy?  Or at Tokyo DisneySea?  Here's the setting right outside the bathroom.  And those of you looking closely, pay no attention to the group of people wearing headgear featuring Experiment 626 .  Squint a little bit and tell me that you're not transported to Italy, right? That little detail of the men's restroom sign is just another data point on *why* Tokyo DisneySea is the most impressive of all the Disney Parks you can visit in the world.  Or at least...the most impressive one that I've been to so far.  I know Galaxy's Edge is going to change that, but for now, I'll stand by Tokyo DisneySea as the top dog. Also, all of my posts featuring Experiment 626 - or who you might know as Stitch - can be found here .   Turns out, before now, they were all posts about Disney Pins that we either purchased or traded for during our trips to Walt Disney World. 

In the past couple of posts, I've talked about my trip to Tokyo DisneySea.  Today, I'm sharing a look at the Park Map that they were giving out while I was there.   During the month of February, they were having a 35th Birthday party for the resort.  Or as they call it their '35th Happiest Celebration! Grand Finale'.  Compare this with the park map I picked up on my first trip to Tokyo DisneySea a few years ago .   DisneySea is much younger than 35 years.  It opened on September 4, 2001 , so it hasn't even reached 20 years old yet, but the 'resort' - which includes Disneyland - opened back in 1983.   I've added this post to the [ Disney Parks Maps ] tag page here  where you can see the rest of the parks maps that I've shared including the most recent two from Anaheim that were holiday-themed earlier this year.  

Yesterday, I shared some of the details from my second visit to Tokyo DisneySea including how their "Mainstreet" is different than the typical Disney Park.  But, as you can imagine, there are quite a few *other* ways that the Tokyo parks are different from the one you visit in Orlando or Anaheim.  Of course, part of the difference is the guests and their behavior.  From the amazing costume'ing that guests wear at the Disney parks in Tokyo to the food items (the popcorn flavors!), there's so much to take in that is big picture stuff. But there's also little tiny details that caught my eye.  One of them is this sign in the men's room.  It says:  Clean Hands, Happy Faces!  That's a nice sentiment, isn't it?

This was my second trip to Tokyo DisneySea in as many years.  The first time I went was during Easter time in April of 2017 .  This visit didn't disappoint.  There's plenty of Disney bloggers out there who will tell you that Tokyo DisneySea is * the best* Disney Park in the world .  And I won't disagree.  It certainly is unique and at the same time, a little familiar.  On my last trip, I posted some photos of the place and took in the entire place.  This trip, I was on a little bit more of a mission to do some specific things (spend time in Cape Cod, ride Journey to the Center of the Earth , and buy a couple of Duffy and friends items for the kids).  Upon entering, you're greeted with this view of Mediterranean Harbor.  And the Bella Notte boat moored near the entrance.  There are guys rowing gondolas and people milling in and out of various places around the port.  This is a different kind of "Main Street" than the rest of the parks have:  it is more

A couple of weeks back, I added a photo of the Holiday Season Disneyland Park map to the collection here on the blog and today, I'm adding the companion Christmas/Holiday Season Disney California Adventure Parks map.  You see Minnie and Mickey in their winter gear in from of a big Christmas tree in the cover photo.  The holiday decorations at DCA are fine, but they're not quite as special as the ones at Disney's Hollywood Studios.  The vintage tinsel-laden decor that they put up in Orlando is the best in any of the parks. The full series of posts showing off various Disney Parks maps including both Tokyo DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland along with some seasonal/special holiday party maps from the Magic Kingdom can be found here .

Continuing on the recent Disneyland-centric posting journey, here's something we came across:  props from the movie Mary Poppins Returns.  In the photo, you can see both Mary's coat and blue shoes along with the kite and suffragette tail.  This post on the Disney Parks Blog shows all the props including Mary Poppins' bag . A proper kite needs a proper tail, dontcha think? Not from this version of the movie, but still makes me smile every time I hear it.

Having now recently posted about seeing *in real life* the Disneyland Roses in Anaheim and one of the espalier'd trees/shrubs in Fantasyland, I've now think it is worth creating a curated post about all the trees/plants that I've cared enough about in Disney Parks to post about here on the blog.  Consider this my "Growing in Disney Parks" roundup.  Before I get to the posts I've created, in searching about some of the trees, I came across this site: Plants of Disneyland .  Pretty incredible stuff - including a nice look at the Belgian Fence espalier that I posted about last week.    Here's the archives related to plants inside of and around Disney Parks on the blog: 1.  Disneyland Roses .  In a bed near the Disneyland Resort Gateway along Harbor Blvd in Anaheim.  2.  A Belgian Fence Espalier at Disneyland .  Turns out it is made out of Firethorn.    3.  A beautiful Life Oak tree at Epcot in the World Showcase .  4.  There's an inc

Putting this photo here in the ole' online diary to note the inclusion of this seasonal Parks Map.  I've posted other Disney Parks maps/guides including both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea here .  And a guide for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party from 2017 here .  Over the past ten days or so, I've posted some items from our recent trip to DLR but really didn't mention the trip. We've been to Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Park a few times over the years, but this trip was just a little interlude before a larger Disney-centric vacation.  We stayed for a few nights and spent a good chunk of the days at the Parks in Anaheim.  Would we do things differently?  I think so, but we decided to try something new and NOT take my own advice.  What was that advice? From this post on Disneyland in 2016, I said : 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 Di