Why I Oughta...

This is the third post this week showing off a 'new to us' little freebie/item from down at Walt Disney World that we picked up on a trip.   The first was a new Transportation Card from the Friendship boats around the Epcot Resort lake area .  The second was the 'Honorary Custodian' sticker that the King of the Ball Tossers was given.   Today it is this sweet Walt Disney World Monorail pilot wings sticker. As we were walking up the ramp to board the Monorail at the Epcot Center, one of the Cast Members/Monorail Pilots directed us towards an open section.  Then, she whipped out a set of these stickers.  We've never seen them before, so they're totally new to us.  And the kids loved them.  All three of them put the stickers on - right after I took this photo. In terms of ranking the 'coolest' factor of these freebies, I think these Monorail Pilot wings come in right behind the business card of the Honorable Christopher George Weaver, the Mayor o

I have a soft spot for Lady and the Tramp.  With all the much newer, flashier Disney films/releases, I think this one moves to the back of most people's minds.  But, a movie with a Spaniel and a Schnauzer as the main characters?  Couldn't hit me more on the nose in terms of casting.  Well...I think that Lady is technically a Cocker Spaniel, but she's close enough to a King Charles that I consider her my own.  And growing up we had two dogs when I was a small kind.  Skipper and Max.  Both Schnauzers.  And both were barkers!  Max was a good dog.  Skipper, on the other hand, I don't remember much.  He was gone when I was a little kid, so I don't remember the end of his life.  Max was Vic's dog and he lived until she was a Freshman in college, so I have much fresher memories of him.  Max was a gentle dog. So, when we encountered a Disney Cast member with a Lady and the Tramp pin on their lanyard, I naturally steered one of the girls in that direction.  Now, we&

We picked up another Resort-specific pin during a stop at Disney's Yacht Club.  Just like the one from the Contemporary earlier this year .  Or the Port Orleans Riverside one .   This one has Mickey wearing his best beach/old-timey-boardwalk/sailor gear and seems to fit the vibe that the resort puts off.  Now that we're settled in, it seems like we should be doing something in the house with these pins and the various pin boards that are laying around in my office.  The resort-specific section would

That's Elliott from Pete's Dragon on a Hidden Mickey Cast Member's lanyard pin that one of the girls traded for at Disney's Yacht Club with the greeter right in the lobby.  There are plenty of scrappers that we come across that are Hidden Mickeys but a close look at the back/edges of this one, makes me think that this one is the genuine article. Over on PinPics, it says that this one is part of a series that includes other dragons/lizards like Mushu, Malificent , Figment  (and Figment chaser, which we own and that I've posted a photo of on the blog ), and Madame Mim .  

I had to look closely to be sure this sea dragon in one of the lakes/ponds at Disney Springs was, indeed, made out of Lego bricks, but after a closer inspection, I can confirm that it is, indeed, legit Legos.  I have no idea if they build these big installations from ONLY bricks (meaning all the way to the middle) or if there is some form they use and apply bricks to the exteriors?  Do you Lego folks know?   Seems some folks use Duplos?  Or, as you'd guess, other structures . I love how this Lego sea serpent/Loch Ness Monster is reminiscent of the topiary version from the Magic Kingdom  and we always stop at the Lego store at Disney Springs.  Despite having that HUGE World of Disney store just a little bit further down the way, the LEGO store is always my kids favorite stop and where they typically put their (very limited) spending power.

The Bird scored this "Future of the Force" badge after she went through Jedi Training.  Her older sister?   Not interested.  Well...that's not true.  She *was* interested.  If it was a private exercise with no one looking.  And on her own terms.  If that was the case?  She'd be all over it. But this should not come as a surprise if you've been following along.  This is the same exercise we went through when I posted about our visit to Raglan Road at Disney Springs .  The Bird danced on stage.  The Babe?  Not so much.

We were in Magic Kingdom recently and on our way out one morning, we saw this 2 horse coach charging right up Main Street USA.  This is a vehicle that we had never seen before.  And a few quick searches on the Googles, I think I've discovered that it is a rare sight? I've written in the past about meeting the Main Street USA Characters.  The latest of those posts featuring Bea Starr - who is the Chairwoman of the Main Street USA Thespian Society - is here from earlier this year . But this is the first time, I think, I've written about the vehicles of Main Street USA.  Turns out, it is a pretty common topic for various Disney World outlets to cover.   Here's Touring Plans page .   Here's MousePlanet's vehicle page . Just peek at this wiki listing of various Main Street USA vehicles .  They even have photos. The horse-drawn vehicles in that post and in the official Disney World posting about Main Street USA vehicles show the usual horse-drawn trolley

Just like the Port Orleans Riverside pin that I posted here on the blog in late February , above you'll find a Disney's Contemporary Resort pin that we picked up on our recent trip down to WDW.  I typically try to get the pin from the resort we stayed at during our trips, but sometimes it ends up being a holiday- inspired version like this Chip and Dale Christmas one from the Polynesian from the holidays in late 2015.   I kinda love how they've included the monorail buzzing around from the side of the hotel in this pin and at first, I didn't love the Contemporary.  What..with the real lack of theme-ing, right?  Well, I've learned to really like it...and not just for the easy walk to the Magic Kingdom.  (But, that is preetay, preetay, preetay nice, right??) Turns out, my parents stayed at the Contemporary during the first year of existence when they took my two oldest sisters down to WDW for a trip in 1971 during the inaugural year.  That's kinda awesome, r

This is - what I think will be - the final pin post for a bit as I settle back in.  But this one might be the best?  I mean....who doesn't love the Millennium Falcon and a bit of 'space-age' iconography? One of the girls traded for this but it might not end up on their board.  Let's leave it at that.

We can add this 'Drivers License' to the list of artifacts that we've been given/earned down at Walt Disney World. There's the business card from the Mayor of Main Street USA . Then there was the official 'guest skipper' license from the crew of the Jungle Cruise . We received one of these 'born to soar' cards , but I don't seem to have posted about it. And over the years, we've collected transportation cards like these from a boat captain on our trip back to the Wilderness Lodge one afternoon. And now, the Beef has this license.  Pretty cute, isn't it?  He had to get measured up for height to make it on the ride this trip and after he 'measured up', the cast member whipped out this card to mark the occasion.  Pretty awesome. As for the ride?  Not so awesome.  Between the jerky steering wheel and the not-so-great experience, it seems that this thing is past it's due date for an overhaul.  I mean...the chuck of land it

The Bird picked up this pair of 'safety pin' pins featuring Sully from the Monsters Inc/University movies and her favorite: Pooh Bear.  (Well...Ariel might be her favorite, but she's a princess, so that's different in her mind!). These appear to have been originally marketed to Hong Kong Disney Land so between the ratty enamel on these and that post on the Disney Pins Blog , I'm guessing that these are scrappers.  Doesn't make them any more fun to the girls, but they're still scrappers .

One of the things we seem to do on most trips to Epcot is a stop in France for some sweet treats.  One of the things that always manages to end up in our bag is the little six pack of macaroons.  And that's likely the reason why one of the girls was drawn to this pin and traded for it.  Just like the Figment one from late last week , this one is a 'chaser' too. It was covered on the Official Disney Parks Blog back in November of 2015 .  And it turns out that this chaser is from the same series as the Figment one ?!?

The Babe traded for this Ant-man pin from a pin board at the resort.  She's naturally drawn to 'big' pins and this this certainly *is* big.  It is heavy, but has only one pin back on it.  Surprisingly, after she plucked it off the board, I looked at it and figured out that it really wasn't a scrapper.  Someone, who had this thing on their lanyard found something that they liked better and gave this one up. My daughters have no idea who Antman is nor have they ever seen the movie, but they both liked the pin. Based on this eBay listing , it was part of a limited release of just 2000 pins from 2015 (a doy!  It says that right on the pin!) timed with the opening day of the film.  This guy has it listed for $19.88 - which is nuts, but it says he's sold 3 of them, so this seems to be a sought-after pin.

The Bird traded for this Stormtrooper Disney "Easter Egg" pin.  Turns out it is part of a six pin set that includes the usual crew that you'd expect in a Star Wars starter set . The retail price is $34.95 for the six pin set. Available early March 2016. Below is a closer look at the six different character pins featured.   1. Darth Vader 2. Stormtrooper 3. Boba Fett 4. R2-D2 5. C-3PO 6. Chewbacca And here's a photo ( from the Disney Pins Blog ) showing all six of them below.  That Chewy one is pretty awesome, isn't it? Via Disney Pins Blog

Ahh...the Disney College Program.  Something that totally was NOT on my radar at any point during my college years.  Heck...I didn't even study abroad.  That was done by a few dudes that I knew, but it was definitely the exception, not the rule.  These pins are 'from' the College Program, I think?  I say 'from' because I frankly don't know how they got circulated.  If you were in the College Program at Disney and were given these pins, I wouldn't think you'd trade them up for some ratty scrapper on a cast member's lanyard, would you?

Beyond mentioning it here in this post about Raglan Road , I don't think I've ever posted about the trip Nat and I took for the half marathon down in Disney earlier this year? Welp, that's a good, long story. But not for this post.   This post is just about a pin.  This happens to be one of the pins that they offered at the Race Expo that is a tiny replica of the medal they give you at the finish line.  This was the 20th running of the race, so that's why the double x's stacked on top of each other.  We scored two different half marathon pins, so I'll post the other one on another day.

I've posted a few times about Port Orleans Riverside down at Walt Disney World over the past few months.  First, I shared the sawn balusters on the luggage cart , then talked about the amazing Live Oak they built the resort around and then just this week, showed off the animated headboards in the Princess rooms .  All awesome. Above is the pin that we picked up from our stay there.  As we've done in the past, we always try to get the pin from our resort to mark the trip.  Here's one from the Wilderness Lodge , Animal Kingdom Lodge , and the Polynesian .  The girls pins have been accumulating in a zip lock bag because we've outgrown the one pin board we have and we're waiting for the new place to think about unpacking them even more. Oh, and by the way, that photo up top?  It was taken with the Google Photoscan app .  It is awesome.  I tried to take the same photo with my camera of the pin and it turned out all glare-y.  Photoscan gets rid of it.  

Just about one year ago today (February 12th of 2016), I posted about the really neat animated headboards at the Disneyland Hotel .  I've long thought that the little details like those headboards made spending the few extra dollars to stay at one of Disney's hotels was worth it vs. staying off property. Above you'll see a different headboard.  With different animations.  This time, it is in Orlando at Port Orleans Riverside in one of Princess Tiana's rooms.  We stayed there recently and loved it.   These headboards don't play music like the ones at DLR , but they're just as delightful.  The girls loved the little Princess touches around the room and I loved the price.  So let's call it a win-win, right?

On the left is Chief Smokey Miller and on the far right is Victoria Trumpetto - both of whom I've posted about already.  But, right next to me is a new one:  Beatrice Starr.  We met her on the same day earlier this year.  According to the DisneyParks Blog, she runs the theatre program around Main Street USA: Miss Beatrice Starr is better known as “Bea” (pronounced Be-uh), and is the Chairman of The Main Street Thespian Society. She signed one of the girl's books, too! So, that now makes Honorable Christopher George Weaver , Mayor of Main Street USA Scoop Sanderson , Main Street Gazette Reporter, Town Councilman and Pin-thusiast Chief Smokey Miller , Chief of the Main Street Volunteer Fire Department, Mayor George Weaver's “right-hand man” Ms. Hildegard Olivia Harding , socialite and suffragette, President of the Main Street Social Society, Women’s Auxiliary and Decorating Committee, and owner of the Emporium Victoria Trumpetto, the Main Street Choir Di

There are gingerbread houses and even castles.  But then there's this:  the gingerbread carousel that graced the lobby of Disney's Beach Club and Yacht Club's lobby earlier this year.  You can read the description above and know that this is the 17th year of them doing this and it *is* pretty impressive. And it moves! The kids loved it but, I stood and stared for a while.  It's no Mary Blair artwork, but as far as lobby displays go, this one is pretty incredible.