Let Them Eat Cake!

Two of my favorite things are All Things Disney, and desserts. So...who wants some cake?

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me!

Arrrrrrr! Avast ye matey!

Is there any better way to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day than with a ride on Pirates of the Caribbean? Really, I can't think of any better way to celebrate anything.

For me, there's nothing in the world that can create such a feeling of glee and anticipation as walking up to the entrance of Pirates of the Caribbean, whether it's at Disneyland:

Or Walt Disney World:

Disneyland will always be my favorite, though....to me, the extra scenes, the double drop, and the perfection that is the Blue Bayou set it head and shoulders above the Walt Disney World version.

The best food in any of the parks can be found at the Blue Bayou, and no restaurant anywhere else in the world can beat it for ambience.

Some images are indelibly etched in my mind, and one of my very favorites is the sight of the talking skull above the archway as the ride really begins. The sight of that grinning skull in his pirate hat always makes me smile.

Dead men tell no tales! Except this one, of course

I think that Pirates of the Caribbean is the perfect expression of everything Walt Disney wanted to accomplish with his park. The illusion is so perfect...for the twelve minutes you are on the ride, it is more real than reality. Every one of your senses is engaged...the sound effects, the music, the images, the smell of the water and the mist, the gentle rocking of your boat...nothing breaks the illusion.

Every trip I'm lucky enough to take to either of the parks, the very first thing I do is make a beeline for Pirates. I'll ride it several times a day, each day I'm there, and it will be the very last ride I go on before I have to leave.

It never gets old, there's always something new to experience. There's nowhere in the world I'd rather be. A pirate's life for me!

Anubis and Bastet Visit Disney World

My husband Jonathan and I are lucky enough to have been adopted by two avatars of the ancient Egyptian religion. Meet Miss Bastet and Mister Anubis, known in our household as the God Buddies.

God Buddies in Hipstervision

Last October, Jonathan and I went to Walt Disney World for our honeymoon. We couldn't find a God sitter, so the God Buddies came with us...quite possibly their first actual vacation in 6000 years.

 

 

All packed up in the Buddy Bag and ready to go

They had a wonderful time touring the Magic Kingdom. Anubis was a big fan of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad:

Roll out the barrels/ and we'll have a barrel of Gods!

Miss Bastet was very fond of Cinderella Castle:

All cats are princesses at heart

They enjoyed hanging out at the Pop Century resort. The maid put them in the window with a friend so they could people watch.

How much are those Buddies in the window?

We took the Buddies with us to the character breakfast at the Crystal Palace. They were very pleased to meet Tigger and Eeyore and Piglet. Miss Bastet and Tigger were instant best buddies.

Jonathan, the God Buddies, and I having a Tiggeriffic morning

We found Mickey and Minnie Mouse ear hats in the Buddies' sizes, so they have a great souvenir of a wonderful adventure.

Doing The Disney 12 Step

Hello. My name is Gwyndyn, and I'm addicted to all things Disney. I can't get enough. Give me Disneyland, Disney World, Disney movies, music,trading pins, paintings, t-shirts, rides, fireworks:  I'll snort it, smoke it, mainline it. I am a Disney junkie, and there is no cure. And man, am I glad.

My first happy memory is of Disneyland. I'm probably about 4 years old. My mouse ears are a little too big, and keep tipping to one side. I have in one hand an enormous pickle. I smell popcorn, hear the Dapper Dans singing, and watch the Main Street trolley go by. I want to pet the horse, but my hands are too full of pickle. It's that wonderful Disney dilemma...so much to do, to see, to eat, to listen to! Where to start? The beauty of Disney is that there are no bad options...there's magic everywhere you look, around every corner.

Disney dilemma: there is so much everything, and so little me...

I was very lucky growing up...my parents had a membership to Club 33. I remember my 7th birthday party, held in the private dining room of Club 33, with Tigger and Pooh in attendance. Every book I've read states categorically that the audioanimatronic buzzard in the the private room was never in operation, but I swear I remember it singing me happy birthday.
 

"Happy birthday to you! Are you going to eat all that, or can I have some?"

I remember riding the Skyway to Fantasyland, feeling the cool chill of the Matterhorn as we passed through, listening for the roar of the Abominable Snowman. 

It's not the Abominable Snowman that scares me, it's the yodelers

I remember riding the Submarine Voyage for the first time, worried that I wouldn't be able to hold my breath long enough, but ultimately not caring if I could or not. It was Disney, it was magic, and I was going to enjoy it to the hilt even if it killed me.

I remember that first plunge into the darkness of Pirates of the Caribbean, eating dinner in the Blue Bayou with the fireflies blinking and the clouds wheeling overhead. I remember my first fireworks over Sleeping Beauty's castle, the swans swimming in the moat, me perched on my father's shoulders and wishing with all my might that the magic in the sky would never end.

 I remember the paddle boats on the lagoon of the Disneyland Hotel, the ducks wandering through Frontierland, the deep whistle of the paddle wheeler on the Rivers of America. The electrical parade. Trying to eat an outrageously huge turkey leg. Riding the railroad into the Primeval World and demanding a pterodactyl of my very own.

Night on Pterodactyl Mountain

These are the things that defined my childhood, the memories that I go back to again and again. It was those trips to Disneyland that sustained me, that kept me going when times were bad. (And there were a lot of bad times. Outside of Disney, my childhood was far from idyllic, but Disney gave me hope.)

I've been to Disneyland hundreds of times, to Walt Disney World several times. It never gets old. It never gets stale. I'm 44 years old now, but whenever I walk through that entrance tunnel onto Main Street, I'm 4 years old again with all of the magic still in front of me.

When you wish upon a star, sometimes dreams really do come true.