Tag Archives: MYWTM

Theo’s First Haircut

10 Comments Posted by on February 15, 2011

Yes Mouse Fans, it’s the post all of you have been waiting for (and by “all of you” I mean my mother): Theo’s First Haircut! Which was, as you may recall, our raison d’être for Disney World in the first place.

So let’s get on with the show. While the Harmony Barber Shop on Main Street does take walk-ins, there are only three chairs and I was advised to make an appointment. FYI: you make a haircut appointment through the WDW dining reservation number.

Theo’s hair was getting pretty shaggy, so we snapped a picture outside of the shop for posterity.

All dressed up and ready to go

Our barber was ready to get started. She set up the booster seat on the chair and we hefted him up. She pulled out a long strip of Mickey stickers and stuck them all over Theo’s tummy, shorts, and legs. He was immediately enchanted.

Will someone cut that kid's hair already? It's getting embarrassing.

So enchanted, in fact, that he didn’t even realize his hair was being cut.

First he moved all of the stickers to his right leg

He didn’t even notice when she wet his whole head down with the spray bottle. Those must have been some magical stickers because seriously, who doesn’t notice their head getting wet?

Moving beyond mere clothing, the stickers now belong directly on skin

She was nearly finished by the time he showed an inkling of interest.

Wait, is something happening? Like, to my head?

The haircut made him look like an entirely different kid.

Almost done! What a big boy!

And once it was all done, he received his First Haircut mouse ears and a Certificate of Bravery!

Ridiculously cute

Also ridiculously cute

It was worth the entire trip.

Mouse-In-Law , , ,

The Emporium

7 Comments Posted by on February 3, 2011

The Emporium is the largest store in Disneyland and is strategically located at the entrance of Main Street from Town Square. I say strategic because it’s the first big store when you walk into the park and the last big store walking out of the park. It’s also on a corner. I mean basically if you don’t see the Emporium it’s because you’re blind. And actually, I’m pretty sure blind people run into it as well.

There it is, hidden away where nobody can find it

Incidentally, the Emporium was the scene of my Awkward Social Situation. If you want to see what the Emporium looks like with a big green wall around it, check out this post.

But I digress.

The Emporium is sort of the Wal-Mart of Disneyland–you can find just about everything there.

Clothes

More clothes

Clearly clothes are a biggie. In general, Disneyland clothes fall into three categories:

1) Things You Wear On the Upper Half Of Your Body (roughly 98%)

2) Things You Wear On The Lower Half Of Your Body When You’re Laying Around The House Eating Ice Cream (roughly 0.5%)

3) Things You Sleep In (roughly 1.5%)

Disneyland really shoots for comfort. Also I didn’t include hats because they’re probably going to be their own post. Actually you could probably do an entire blog on Disneyland hats, but that would be even more boring than this post and nobody wants that.

The Emporium also features:

Things To Drink Out Of

and

Things Made Out Of Paper

If you want to go around collecting character autographs, here’s a good place to buy yourself a book.  OMG, I just realized that’s something I’ve never done–now I’m going to have to buy an autograph book and stalk the characters.

At the center of the store, the checkout counter has a jumbo-sized snow globe, sans snow.

Shiny!

And remember my Awkward Social Situation? It was all to get this picture of shot glasses (with extra cast members thrown in for added authenticity):

I'd like a shot of Mickey, straight up, yo

And here’s the most anticlimactic thing in the history of MYWTM (which isn’t very long, but still). Walt wasn’t a fan of alcohol, so rather than labeling these as shot glasses, they rang up as “toothpick holders.”

Yes, I got into a massively Awkward Social Situation just so I could tell you that shot glasses were known as toothpick holders.

I told you it was anticlimactic.

The Emporium also opens facing Main Street.

Oh, hello Main Street! I may look like any old store, but if you turn the corner, I'm a monstrosity

Also, there is a line of stores and such that span part of Main Street that are connected inside. The Emporium is the end of that line. It can be a good thing to keep in mind if you’re trying to navigate around 134,132,542,653 people waiting for the parade. I don’t always recommend cutting through stores, especially with a stroller, but if you’re on your own and you’ve got somewhere to be, well…

The last thing you need to know about the Emporium is that it seems like it would be a great place to pick up that gift on the way out of the store. That way you won’t have to carry it with you all day and risk getting it stolen, right? So you think you’ll just swing by on your way out.

Well, everybody else in the park has the same idea. So if you’re going to shop the Emporium, don’t wait until park closing to do it. And if you want to just do some casual browsing, REALLY don’t wait until park closing to do it.

Main Street , ,

Character Pictures

2 Comments Posted by on January 31, 2011

Character pictures can be tough. I am sure there is some kind of schedule involved in character appearances, but I have never really cared enough to figure it out and as such, I tend to just take a picture when the opportunity presents itself. I don’t know that I would recommend that for the time-pressed tourist.

But I’m not a time-pressed tourist, as we have well established.

Town Square is a great place to get pictures with the Mickey crowd. They also show up in Toon Town but again, I don’t know what the schedule is. This time I was in Town Square and thought I’d grab some pictures with Goofy, Pluto, and either Chip or Dale (whichever one has the black nose–I don’t know why they travel separately). I thought about Mickey, but the line was too long.

This isn't even the whole line to see Mickey

I hate waiting.

However, I did realize that while you usually see the characters on the right-hand side of Town Square (on the right if you’re looking up Main Street) by Mr. Lincoln, they also cross the square sometimes and do some more photo shoots on the other side by Town Hall. Interesting.

Right on the benches below the train station, there was no line for Chip (I checked, it’s Chip and not Dale). Well, there was one person, but that’s not a line. For the first time Theo actually went up to a character on his own for a picture. Big step there, buddy! It also enabled me to get a better picture on my own. That said, you might want to review my post on taking family pictures at Disneyland.

Chip tickled Theo on his tummy. Theo loved it.

This is a picture of Theo loving being tickled by Chip

We then headed over (and by “headed over” I mean took about 5 steps) to Pluto for our shot with him. He was a little more wary of Pluto.

You say he's a doggie but he doesn't look like our doggie at home

At this point Theo had been pretty much done for the day and we were on our way out anyway, but hey! Characters! Let’s take a picture! Sometimes this backfires. We did have to wait a few people to get to Goofy. I’d already nixed the Mickey shot because the line was too long but Goofy only had like 4 people in it. Unfortunately each person had like 36 cameras and wanted a dozen permutations of Goofy and the kids, Goofy and the one kid, Goofy and the other kid, Goofy and the kids and mom and dad, Goofy and the kids and mom, Goofy and the kids and dad, Goofy and just mom and dad, and so on and so forth.

It got old very quickly.

And while we were waiting, someone had parked their stroller right there. They had a sticker on its backing on the seat–one of the stickers they give out if you fill out their survey or listen to their Disney Vacation Club spiel. I turned away for a few seconds and when I looked back, Theo had taken the sticker from the stroller, peeled it off the paper, and stuck it to his tummy. He was extremely proud of himself. Heh. I had to admire his chutzpah, but did remove the sticker (now with t-shirt fuzz!) and attempt to put it back on the paper, which yeah, right. So, I did my best, and when the stroller’s owner came over I put on my “Sticker? What sticker?” face.

Anyway, so by the time we got to Goofy, Theo was done. He was totally being all Clingy McClingster and even though he’s seen Goofy before (and taken a picture with him) he wasn’t a fan this time around. But, I was there and I had waited, so I was determined to get my flippin’ picture. I handed the camera over to the cast member handler and she did her best, but we ended up with 4 or 5 of these:

I will look at you, but I don't trust you

I reject you, Goofy! Begone!

Oh well, better luck next time.

Characters, Main Street , , , ,

The Disneyland Band

7 Comments Posted by on January 28, 2011

When you walk in the front gate, you can get a map of the park as well as a daily entertainment schedule. I usually completely ignore the entertainment schedule, which is why this blog exists.

Last time I was at the park I did pick up an entertainment schedule and looked for some kind of event that was going to happen within about 15-20 minutes of my arrival time. What can I say–I’m impatient. The first event that fit the bill was a performance of the Disneyland Band.

The Disneyland Band is basically just like it sounds–a small group of musicians performing on Town Square on Main Street. The band marches in from the backlot dressed and playing instruments like a marching band, although their actual performance is seated.

The Disneyland Band has just marched in

Apparently Walt really liked music (Fantasia, go figure), and wanted to bring music to the people or something, so he created the Disneyland Band when the park first opened and they’ve been there ever since.

Talk about something I didn’t even know existed! Thank you, My Year With The Mouse!

As the conductor explained to us, the Disneyland Band plays a series of songs based on a theme which changes every day. The day I was there, the theme was Dixieland and the music was all Dixieland-like. There were also tambourines around the flagpole and at a certain point in the performance you were invited to grab a tambourine and play along.

I really wanted to do that, but Theo was getting grumpy and I also wanted to get some character pictures in, since the characters were also right there. So sorry, Disneyland Band–I ditched you in favor of Goofy and Chip.

And now, the Disneyland Band sits

Yeah, I know this wasn’t very exciting, but I am determined to do everything here, so there ya go.

Main Street ,

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