Category Archives: Everything Else

Disney Wonder Pacific Cruise September 20-25, 2011–Part 1

9 Comments Posted by on September 26, 2011

How’s that for a title?

I loved our cruise. LOVED IT. I know, that’s a shocker–me loving something Disney–but it’s true. I have to say, if you have kids and are thinking about a cruise, Disney is THE way to go. And I’ve been on other boats too, all very nice, but there’s nothing like the Disney cruise. Let’s throw in a picture:

I can't remember why this was an important picture to take

In this entry I’m going to talk a little bit about the kids stuff. Just to warn you, this isn’t all chronological and stuff. In true MYWTM fashion, it will be disorganized and random.

*ahem*

There are a few things that make a WORLD of difference between Disney and other cruises when it comes to kids, and I’m not just talking about the kid’s programming (which looked very awesome but Theo was ever-so-slightly too young for it). But first I’m going to toss in another picture.

Foolin' around

Now anyone who has ever vacationed with a child can tell you that being together in cramped quarters like a hotel room or cruise cabin can get pretty grating. Theo absolutely needs space of his own to be able to fall asleep, or else we’re reduced to laying on the bed in the dark waiting for him to fall asleep in our shared room, which kind of bites. So that brings me to our first really awesome thing about the Disney cruise:

Curtains!

No, seriously–there’s a curtain cutting the room in half, so you can create a quiet, dark kid space, draw the curtain, and still have some lights on in the rest of the cabin, and most importantly, bathroom access, so you never need to disturb your sleeping darling(s). This is so awesome that, in fact, it was pretty much one of our biggest deciding factors into whether or not to take this cruise in the first place. But while I’m speaking of the bathroom (in the sentence before that last one), another Disney bonus:

Bathtub!

Yep, a small but handy bath tub for all of your kid-bathing needs. Theo is still at that age where showers are kind of scary and he’d prefer not to take them, so the bath tub was awesome. And the tub/shower is in a separate little room from the toilet as well. It’s these little kinds of details that make a huge difference when you’re actually onboard and needing these amenities.

Eating is fabulous. Like all cruises, you are assigned a “seating” time for dinner–we were in second seating so our dinner was at 8:15. That’s pretty late for a lot of people, but for a family of night owls like ours, it was perfect.

First night

Also like all cruises, you have your designated server who stays with your table. Our assistant server (the guy who does all the grunt work), Goran from Croatia, was just amazing. He was SO good with Theo and had a great memory for all of our preferences (remembering that I prefer water without ice, for example). One huge kid amenity was…

Kid’s meals are served instantly!

I know, this is something that non-parents don’t even think about, or at least I didn’t think about until I became a parent, but it’s SO hard for a little one to sit down, order, and then have to wait for everyone else’s food to be ready and brought out at the same time. The kids had kid’s menus of course, from which you could order whatever you like–standard fare of mac and cheese, mini burger, pizza, chicken strips, etc. plus some “chef’s choice” closer to the adult menu of the evening. The kids menus were for coloring, and they cleverly used washable crayons so coloring on the nice white tablecloths was no problem. But back to the food–so you would order for the kids and within just a few minutes the kid’s plate would appear–one of those nice partitioned plates too, so foods don’t mix. The adult food was served in a more leisurely manner, but it was really helpful to have Theo get started and not have to wait for us. Plus, dessert!

Chocolate pudding--Theo is a fan.

I forgot to add up there that there are actually 3 different restaurants (plus one adult-only restaurant), and you rotate between the three of them. You actually keep your same server with you the whole time, so that was really nice.

We did a couple of things that really helped Theo with the sit-down dinners, which can be a challenge for a busy boy like ours who so rarely sits still. First, we strapped him into a high chair. I know many kids his age are out of the high chairs but believe me, when he’s not in a chair we spend the entire meal getting him to sit down. Second, we used bribery–that is, Theo is really into toy cars, so we got a 10-pack of Matchbox cars and every night, right before dinner, he got a brand-new car. The novelty of a new toy really held his attention and he loved showing each new car to our server, Goran. The third thing I was so glad we did was bringing sleeved bibs. The ones we got, made by Bumkins, are really the best–great coverage and really waterproof. I also love that they tie in the back instead of velcro. For us there’s no choking danger with the tie and it’s a bit harder for Theo to rip off on his own. I did dress Theo up a bit for each dinner and it was so nice to have maximum coverage to give his clothes a fighting chance to get clean again.

Speaking of which, my new favorite travel item is the Oxi Clean Max Force Pre-Treater Gel Stick. It’s in a bottle and is, obviously, a stain stick. The nice thing is that you can apply it when the stain is fresh and then wait up to a week to launder. When we travel, I bring this bad boy along and whenever we get a stain I rub it in and then toss the item with the rest of the dirty laundry and it works SO well once we get home instead of trying to treat week-old stains at home. The only thing it doesn’t really work very well on is grease stains, for which you need blue Dawn once you get home. But other than that–LOVE.

Anywho, even chocolate pudding is no match for that stuff.

OMG HE'S EATING MICKEY'S HEAD

Was I talking about kid amenities? Can’t remember. Anyway, another nice thing is the Wave Phones in each room. They are basically onboard cell phones and there are two of them. You can send one off with the kids and keep one for yourself and stay in touch whenever you’re separated. It’s very cool and I would imagine extremely handy for families with older kids, though we did use it when we had Theo in Flounder’s Reef Nursery.

Another fun thing about the Disney cruise is that the cabin doors are metal. I know, doesn’t sound like fun, but…you can decorate your door with magnets!! There were a lot of really cute door decorations we saw. I also had some MYWTM magnets made up and stuck them all over the door with a sign inviting people to take a couple. I thought it would be a fun way to publicize the blog a bit as well as giving people a chance to dress up their doors a little. They seemed to be pretty popular, given that I went on the trip with 100 of them and returned with ~15. Very fun! And if you made your way here via a magnet–welcome! I hope you enjoyed the cruise as much as we did!

Share the MYWTM love!

One of the things I love about cruises is the turn-down services at night. Every night they come in and made your bed all nice and cozy and ready for sleeping, while also dropping off the next day’s schedule, a couple of chocolates, and an artful towel sculpture

Like this swan

The towels were really awesome–a new one every night and so much fun!

Theo had to immediately try out the chocolates.

Notice the lack of stains on his shirt!

He approved.

Yum!

I had also read that you can order milk and cookies from room service right before bed. That would have been a very fun thing to do, but Theo was a bit too young for that and we basically went right from dinner to bed so we wouldn’t have had time. But with some older kids, and especially with an early dinner seating, that would be a fabulous way to wrap up the night.

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Cruise Preview

13 Comments Posted by on September 25, 2011

We are back home, safe and sound, and had an amazing time. There’s so much to tell you but so much to do before I can even think about taking the time to blog (I know, you’ll be shocked to hear that on my priority list, blogging is not at the top). But I will show you a couple of teaser pictures and…

I love you guys, and you know what that means? Shhhhhhh–GIVEAWAYS! That’s right! I even paid for the stuff this time! So you’ll definitely want to stay tuned, especially if you like to *ahem* collect or trade small items with pokey things on the back ;).

Goofy gives this picture a big thumbs-up!

The dapper young man gets ready for formal night

Everyone in their finest!

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MYWTM Classic: Character Pictures At The Mouse-In-Law

Leave a comment Posted by on September 25, 2011

Another classic post while I’m cruisin’. I love this post because Theo is so little! It’s amazing how much he’s grown just since February.

Originally posted February 25

Character pictures are awesome. I have long loved them. They can be tough to get at times, like this time at Disneyland, but the characters are so great. And right off the bat, one big difference we noticed between Disneyland and the Mouse-In-Law is that at WDW, the characters are everywhere and are always out. At Disneyland, probably because it’s smaller, the characters generally appear and disappear on a schedule I am too lazy to figure out. At the Mouse-In-Law, you can’t swing a cat without hitting a character. Which was pretty cool.

Not that you should be swinging at cat at any theme park. Disney does have a kennel for that.

One thing I particularly love about the Disney characters is how good they are with scared children. I mean, I kinda get where the kids are coming from, meeting a mute giant anthropomorphic animal-type thing with an oversized head in an exaggerated expression of joy. When you’re like 2 feet tall, I get it. And there certainly are kids who burst out in tears at the approach of a character, which can be almost as frustrating as getting that ever-elusive Santa picture.

But the characters are great at approaching in a non-threatening way. I’ve got some wonderful pictures of Theo’s first meeting with Mickey last year along those lines. If the kids don’t want a hug or to get close, the character will offer a high-five, or sometimes just hold out their hand for the kid to touch or look at or sniff if the kid happens to be a dog. We had a fantastic experience with Donald Duck along those lines that I will show you in just a second.

First I want to say that pictures at Epcot were perfect because Mickey and friends were in a single room and there was an inside line with tv’s showing cartoons. Awesome. This was where we took our character pictures.

So for Donald, we sent Theo on his own and he was kind of freaked out. Upon approaching Donald, Theo decided that clearly the next logical move would be to give Donald a hug,  give Donald a high five, get near Donald in any way,   sit down on the ground somewhat near Donald. Rather than going over to Theo and looming over him like some kind of freakishly large oddly-attired duck, Donald simply sat down on the ground too.

Have a seat on the ground? Don't mind if I do!

Theo was a fan, and thus willing to entertain the idea of the giant-thing-on-tv-that-just-came-to-life-OMG-is-it-a-zombie? sitting near him.

The ground's pretty comfortable, isn't it?

And then we got a simply darling picture.

Donald is my friend! And he likes to sit on the ground just like me!

We then coaxed Theo into actually making contact with Donald and giving him a high-five. Actually, Theo learned from his swimming teacher that a “high-five” is a two-step procedure with an open-handed slap following by a fist bump accompanied by a “BOOYAH!” He is now very confused when he gives someone a high-five and then sticks out his fist and they don’t pound it. He’s not quite sure why most people aren’t familiar with proper high-five technique.

Theo is trying to give Donald a fist bump. Donald continues with the "slap me five" completely unawares

Following the positive Donald experience, Theo was ready for the Ultimate Cute with Minnie.

MINNIEEEEEEEE!!!!!

Prior to both Minnie and Donald, we attempted to take the family picture thing. The lighting was a little odd with Pluto here.

It's technicolor Pluto

And there’s also the unfortunate timing shots. Despite what it looks like, I can assure you that Kevin is not stoned in this picture.

Say Nope to Dope and Ugh to Drugs!

Once again, we didn’t have an autograph book, so I’ll have to do that here at home.

Characters, Everything Else

Disneyland in 1973, Part 2: Maps

8 Comments Posted by on September 21, 2011

Now that we’ve got our General Information in Part 1, it’s time to move to our park maps! Yes, maps plural. Since the booklet is so small, they broke down each land to give it its own page.

Ah, Main Street, U.S.A.

We start our tour at the turn of the century on sunny Main Street. Down in the bottom left, there’s the shape of the whole park with Main Street shaded in. And it’s all color coded for your convenience!

Interesting thing about Main Streets are the side street names. A little over halfway up you can see two diagonal streets. The one on the right is E. Center Street and on the left is, predictably, W. Center Street. The Main Street Cone Shop (doesn’t look like it existed in 1973) is actually on E. Center, as are the lockers and fruit cart. W. Center has the bathrooms at the end–that means that W. Center Street is now the outdoor seating for Carnation Cafe. It will be interesting to see how that turns out once the refurb is done next year, but I find it very doubtful that it will ever return back to being a street. Up at the top you see East and West Plaza Streets. Over on the corner of E. Plaza and Main you can find the information booth about other SoCal attractions.

Of note, the Market House (same location as now) was considered a “Free Show and Exhibit.” You might remember it as being the coffee store with the questionable Pinocchio chocolate candies. I do wonder what they were showing/exhibiting in there. All bunched up together south of W. Center Street are several interesting shops: Glassblower (a real glass blower), Hurricane Lamp Shop, Story Book Shop (oh, how I wish this still existed!!!), Candle Shop, Elgin New Century Clock Shop, and a Flower Market. None of these exist anymore except that I believe the clock shop is now the watch shop. I’d love to have seen the glass blower as well.

Adventureland

Holy mackeral, what is that giant winding river taking up almost all of Adventureland??? That’s the Jungle Cruise. I never pictured it as very big in my head, but of course it was the main attraction of Adventureland before Indiana Jones encroached on its space (and also took over part of the parking lot).

The little people waving on top of the treehouse are adorable, but I particularly love the “Big Game Shooting Gallery.” I can only assume you shot at now endangered big game targets. I bet that one was quietly shut down. You can also shop at the Guatemalan Weavers in here too. Go figure.

Also, there’s something called the Sunkist “I Presume” (just like that, quotes theirs) and I had to look at the back of the book to see that it served fresh orange juice (no suprise there), lemonade, donuts, coffee, and jungle juleps. I believe the “I Presume” part was a Sunkist marketing phrase. I just have to wonder what a jungle julep is, and I sure wish I could try one because it sounds good.

New Orleans Square

Of course New Orleans Square’s biggest attraction is the Pirates of the Caribbean ride with the Blue Bayou restaurant inside. I’ve only eaten there twice–once on my birthday and once when a friend came down and let me join her reservation, back in 2007 or so.

Missing from this map, as it’s also missing from today’s map, is Club 33. Haven’t gotten in there yet, but if you know a hookup, lemme know.

Also there is the Haunted Mansion. The best part of New Orleans Square is that it’s still almost exactly like this now. The stores have changed but it looks like nothing has really been added or subtracted.

Critter Country--I mean Bear Country

Bear Country got a name change when it added something more than bears–namely Splash Mountain. Although apparently the Davy Crockett’s Explorer Canoes are a part of Bear Country (I personally would have placed them more in New Orleans Square, but obviously nobody asked me). Also back there is the “Teddi Barra Swingin Arcade” which sounds very cute. And of course, the beloved Country Bear Jamboree. I have such good memories of this attraction and Theo in particular LOVED it at the Mouse-in-Law. Now it houses the weirdo Winnie the Pooh ride, although a couple of the singing head trophies from the Jamboree can still be seen in Winnie the Pooh.

The whole park

While nowadays you just have the giant foldout map, I think there’s something kind of cute about a color-coded guide to the park. I mean really, the park isn’t THAT big or hard to get around. Particularly because, most notably on this map, there are no guides to the actual walking paths between lands. So you can have several pages of maps and still just wander around from one land to another. I do love the instructions when you exit the parking lot onto West Street–go left then left for San Diego, go right then right for Los Angeles. And incidentally, anyone non-local know what that section of West Street is now called?

I’ll just give it away–it’s Disneyland Drive and Downtown Disney now goes right over it.

Frontierland

Continuing on our clockwise trip around the magic kingdom, we now hit Frontierland. Here you’ll find the regular shooting gallery–the one that still actually exists today, as well as the various boats on the Rivers of America. And also the one ride I wish I’d been on–the Pack Mules. E ticket indeed! I wanna ride a mule at Disneyland! Also of note over here is a print shop, now gone but I wish it weren’t. And if you’re hungry you can swing by the “Casa de Fritos” which of course involves “Mexican food specialties, combination plates, and Fritos.” I don’t know why that cracks me up, but I feel like I need to throw a Cinco de Mayo party and invite people over to my “Casa de Fritos.” What do you think?

Fantasyland

Coming to you in alarmingly neon pink, we have Fantasyland! If you’re looking for attractions, Fantasyland is the place to go, since it’s chock-full of them. The awesome thing about Fantasyland is that out of 16 attractions, 12 are just like they were then, and the Fantasyland Theater still exists except in the form of the Princess Fantasy Faire (which is moving, did I mention that?). The only two attractions that are well and truly gone are the Motor Boat Cruise and my beloved Skyway. The Fantasyland Autopia is now joined together with the Tomorrowland Autopia making it one giant Autoporiffic attraction.

There’s aso a glassblower shop here (two of them? Not fair!) as well as “Merlin’s Magic Shop” which would be insanely awesome, if it still existed. In its place is currently the Heraldry Shoppe. The scale and perspective here is particularly weird, as it looks like the Tea Cups are directly north of the Carrousel when in fact, it is off to the right and hidden a bit.

Also, that tinted pink picture on the bottom is supposed to be a family in the teacups looking happy, but the one guy totally looks like he’s going to hurl.

Tomorrowland

Finally we conclude our tour with Tomorrowland. I had originally expected to find Tomorrowland stuffed to the gills with E ticket rides, but in fact over half are D tickets and only two are E tickets. Go figure. This is the classic Tomorrowland, and I believe out of all the lands, the one where the most attractions have been either moved or removed. Tomorrowland attractions in 1973:

Adventures Thru Inner Space (removed)
PeopleMover (removed, standing sadly vacant)
Rocket Jets (moved and renamed Astro Orbitor)
Flight to the Moon (removed)
Skyway to Fantasyland (removed)
Santa Fe & Disneyland Railroad (unchanged)
Tomorrowland Autopia (combined with Fantasyland Autopia)
Submarine Voyage (changed to Finding Nemo)
Disneyland Alweg Monorail System (unchanged)

Interesting! Also, much like today, there was a very limited number of places to eat and shop. And Circlevision, the only ride that actually made me puke, was a  free show.

And those are your maps of Disneyland 1973!

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