Getting Healthy For Disney

On just about every single Disney for beginners blog, book, or article, one thing comes up over and over again, get healthy.  One of the biggest problems people come across while visiting any Disney park is exhaustion.  Disney World is one of the worst for this because the parks are just so big in area.  But no matter where you visit, Disney parks require a lot of walking and standing.  Exhaustion can turn a fun trip out into a nightmare of being tired, cranky and sore.  So Allison and I have decided that for this epic trip we're going to try and get into better shape.

I feel that we're far from dangerously out of shape, however this is going to be like running a marathon, and the better we can do that the more we don't have to worry about any problems that go with it.  So from this point forward, Allison and I are going into Disney training.  We're not going super crazy, spending hours in the gym everyday, but we are going to make sure we can handle this trip.

We're starting simple, walking.  We've started to go on a few kilometer walk every night.  This along with an occasional hike in the great outdoors where we live seems like a good start.  The plan is that within a few weeks we'll ad regular visits to the gym as well.  At the gym we'll probably start with cardio workouts, to get our endurance up and work on the muscles that keep us walking.  There might be some kind of yoga or stretching added to this workout in the future as well.

This all could lead to some sports as well, although I'm not sure what sport or how often.  The one area I'm not sure about is weights.  I don't think that this is really necessary for this trip, however if I feel the interest I'll give it a try.  I just can't imagine that I'll have to lift Goofy over my head, or bench press Donald Duck.

I think once I get to a certain point, I'm going to start posting my Fit Bit result online.  This will allow me to get a really clear idea on how/if I'm improving.  I still have to think about that, but maybe?

3 Days in Disney Paris - Day 2

Day two in the Disney Paris parks and we once again decided to take advantage of extra magic hours.  This time we didn't have a particular plan on which attraction we wanted to ride, unlike day one where we knew we wanted to ride Peter Pan's flight.  We had a few ideas about the rides that were extremely popular, but we figured we could just wing it.  Our lack of plan turned out to be a bad idea.

Our second day of extra magic hours started out great, in fact one of the highlights of the trip happened on in the first few minutes of our second day.  We started our day venturing up Main Street USA in Disneyland.  Our plan was to head towards Fantasy Land and figure out where we wanted to go from there.  On our way up Main Street we noticed something going on in a tucked away corner, there were a few people that appeared to be hanging out.  We stopped for a second to see what they were up to, and as it turns out they were there to see Goofy.  There was almost no line at all, and within minutes we were hanging out with our favorite character.

After hanging out with Goofy our morning slowed down considerably.  We had a reservation to have breakfast in Fantasy Land.  We were pretty excited about this since our hotel breakfasts were OK but nothing spectacular. We figured a breakfast in the park must be awesome, but we couldn't have been more wrong.  There was nothing additional to our breakfast in Fantasy Land, No characters to greet us, no fun new foods to try, nothing new at all.  In fact the breakfast selection was actually less than what the hotel provided.  The only thing this breakfast provided was incentive to get out of bed early, but after eating there that morning, the incentive was gone.

We had grand plans of checking out all of the lands and all of the hard to get on rides during our Extra Magic Hours, but unfortunately the only land that was open was Fantasy Land, and many of the rides in Fantasy Land were closed.  So other than a few dark rides everything stayed closed during the Extra Magic hours, a complete waste of time. We decided to take this time to just wander around around and explore what we could.  As soon as the gates to the closed areas opened we were off to enjoy our day of adventure.

We did all of the classic rides including Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, and Alice's Curious Labyrinth.  We also spent a great deal of time exploring Adventure Island where we found all kinds of fun bridges and caves to explore.  Allison rode on the Indiana Jones roller coaster, and was fairly disappointed.

Our lunch was both extremely disappointing and wonderful all at the same time.  We went to Casey's Corner where they sell giant hot dogs with insane toppings.  The quality of these hot dogs was kind of questionable, but the craziness and quantity of toppings was superb.  We went with a foot long hot dog covered in cheese and crunchy onions.  It was wonderfully insane.

We enjoyed a few more attractions during the afternoon, and then we headed to the Disney village for a meal at what would turn out to be the culinary highlight of our trip.  This time it was an all you can eat Tex-Mex buffet at La Grange at Billy Bob's.  I'm sure many people wouldn't be impressed by simple Tex-Mex, but since Allison and I haven't been living in a western country for a while, it was just what we needed.  The food was nice and fresh, the variety was insane, and best of all they have a section for adults.  It was a little crazy in the rest of the restaurant, but in the adult section it was a little nicer.  After filling our stomachs, we headed back to Disneyland to enjoy a bit of the nightlife.

The evening in the park was probably our favorite time.  We spent most of the evening exploring Frontierland.  When we first arrived it looked as though many of the attractions were closed due to lack of people around, but we couldn't be more wrong.  We started out with a ride on Thunder Mountain, which we had to wait for a little while, but it was great themeing all throughout the lineup.  After Thunder Mountain we wandered towards the Haunted Manor.

This was the part of Frontierland we thought was completely closed because no one was in sight at all.  There was no one in line for the Haunted Manor, so we were convinced it was closed.  We decided that we would check out the area around the Haunted Manor to check out the graveyards and creepy grounds surrounding the mansion. The grounds around the Haunted Manor were completely empty, and this added such a creepy feel.  It was dark and scary, and I had many a shiver down my spine.  As we walked back up towards the exit of the graveyard we noticed a few cast members hanging out around the entrance to the Haunted Manor.  We asked them if it was in fact open, and they said yes.  We made our way up the path to the attraction completely on our own.  Eventually a few other people showed up, but there was no more than 10 people on the ride the same time as us.  It was magical.

After our creepy adventure we decided that this would be the end of our day, and while watching the fireworks over the castle we headed back to the hotel.

A Few Restaurants We Want To Try

Cape May Café - The one and only reason we're going to the cape may cafe is to experience a character breakfast.  I've read that this is the least busy character breakfast featuring Goofy.

Spirit of Aloha and Hoop-dee-doo Revue - Every single tour book says that the two shows you can't miss are the Hoop-dee-doo musical review and the Spirit of Aloha shows.  Both are said to have cheesy, yet fun, shows, and both are said to have some fine chow.

Biergarten - Over the last 10 years I've discovered that German food is one of my favourite cuisines.  Most people don't realize how tasty German food is, and I'm hoping that the Biergarten will give me some tasty nibbles.

House of Blues Gospel Brunch - Many of the big restaurants at Downtown Disney get a lot of slack for being disappointing.  The Earl of Sandwich and Raglan Road are two places that do fairly well, but I've been reading that a gospel brunch at the House of Blues is a must see event.

Flame Tree - I can't tell you how many times I've read that the best BBQ in Disney is found at the Flame Tree restaurant.  Since Allison is a BBQ fanatic, we pretty much can't avoid eating here.  I've also heard that Animal Kingdom doesn't have too many other tasty food options, so we may have to eat there more than once.

Boma - I can't say I've ever really experienced that much African food.  I've sampled a few things, but Boma looks like a great opportunity to sample even more.  I also think that they have a buffet, which will give me plenty of opportunity to sample new things that I may not have had the nerve to order.

Disney movies we plan to watch

The concepts that make up Disney world aren't pulled out of thin air. In fact almost every detail of the parks are inspired from Disney products, culture, or in some cases history. Disney world attaches a story to every aspect of the theme park, all inspired by various areas. To get the most of these references I thought it would be a good idea to catch up on some of our Disney content. To fully appreciate every single detail you probably have to watch every single thing Disney has ever produced, but that's just not realistic at all. Instead Allison and I decided to go through the list of Disney movies and cartoons and pick out which ones might be most relevant.

We're also going to ad a few episodes of the twilight zone to this list to better understand the tower of terror. Fortunately many of the websites I've been reading explain where many of the details of the park originated, so picking what to watch seems simple enough. We're also going to have to start keeping up with current Disney movies as well, since they often ad attractions based on current media.

Here's our list so far, many of these movies and shows we're fairly familiar with, but it doesn't hurt to update our memories. Some of this stuff is brand new to us and should be interesting to see.

Swiss Family Robinson
Lady and the Tramp
Cinderella
Snow White
Brave
Pinochio
Reluctant Dragon
Dumbo
The Three Caballeros
Song of the South
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Treasure Island
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
Sleeping Beauty
One Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Absent-Minded Professor
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book
The Aristocats
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Robin Hood
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Rescuers
Pete's Dragon
The Fox and the Hound
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Oliver & Company
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
The Little Mermaid
DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp
Beauty and the Beast
The Mighty Ducks
Aladdin
The Adventures of Huck Finn
The Lion King
A Goofy Movie
Pocahontas
Tom and Huck
James and the Giant Peach
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
A Bug's Life
Tarzan
Monsters, Inc.
The Country Bears
Finding Nemo
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Haunted Mansion
Home on the Range
The Incredibles
Chicken Little
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Meet the Robinsons
Ratatouille
Bolt
The Princess and the Frog
Toy Story 3
Tangled
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Cars 2
Wreck-It Ralph
Monsters University
The Lone Ranger
Planes

I Want a Vinylmation

Both Allison and myself aren't really big souvenir people.  When we travel we take home memories, and a million photographs.  I also like to keep little stubs of paper and fliers that we get (for free) and put them into a scrapbook.  Yes I'm admitting it, I like to scrapbook.  My only defense against this is the fact that I don't really decorate my scrapbook, as much as I just stick the various pieces of paper to it rather randomly.

Back to the souvenirs.  When we travel we tend to only buy one or two things to commemorate any given trip. If the trip is only a day or two we've been known to come home with nothing (other than the photos and random bits of paper).  We also often buy souvenirs that are useful as well.  We would buy a spaghetti strainer with the London skyline on it way before we'd buy a miniature Big Ben.  We figure that this allows us to not only collect a few things, but we don't have to worry about it taking up space, since it's useful.

For this Disney trip, Allison has her heart set on a new pair of Disney pajamas.  She had a pair a while back, they lasted forever, and she thinks another pair would be great.  Me, I'm thinking of breaking our regular routine and buying something that doesn't really serve any function, I want a Disney Vinylmation.  For those of you unfamiliar with Vinylmations, they're little Mickey Mouse shaped toys that are painted in various ways.  The basic shape is always the same, but the painting is always a little different.  The concept comes from a series of Japanese toys that have been coming out for the last 10 years or so.

To be allowed to have this new toy, Allison has set one stipulation.  I must first get rid of one of the toys I already have.  Fortunately, one of my current toys seems to have gone bad.  It's looking pretty rough, and I think it's time that it goes.  I'm not going to say which toy it was, since it was a gift, but I'm not worried about opening up a new spot for my Vinylmation.

Kids and Bully Parents

I'm about to explain the one part of Disney World where I'm going to come off as a jerk.  I'm going to explain to you the part of this epic trip that I'm pretty sure I'm not going to like.  There's no guarantee that this is going to happen, but I'm pretty sure it will.  I'm talking about parents and their children.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that all kids and parents get on my nerves, I'm just saying that I'm expecting many kids and parents on this trip to get on my nerves.

Here's my problem, I know that you and your children have been planning your trip to Disney World for a long while, I know that it's not a cheap place to visit, and I know that you're trying to bond as a family.  The thing is, so are we, the only difference is, we don't feel that we have any entitlement over you.  Allison and I love having fun at theme parks, we like riding kiddie rides, and we love to get involved in the story.  We'll happily wait in line to ride It's a Small World, and you better believe we're going to be singing along.

I just don't think that because you have children that you deserve anything extra.  You don't deserve not to wait in line; your kids don't deserve to meet Mickey first because they're kids.  We're all here to have fun, and parents should know this.  This is our trip too; so don't go bullying your way around because your kid wants to shake Goofy's hand.

Basically I hate parents that have this sense that their kid deserves more than me because they're a kid.  Guess what?  We all paid to be in here, and we all want a good time, just because your kid has no patience doesn't mean my trip should suffer.  I don't really hate kids, I just hate parents that let their kids go crazy at places like Disney World and expect us to be OK with it.

I'll be honest, if the kids aren't related to me, or related to friends of mine, I'm not that interested in them.  To me they’re just little adults, and therefore deserve nothing extra.  There, I’ve said it, and I might be a jerk for saying it.

Character Breakfasts

I'm told that if you want to visit a particular character, and you don't want to have to wait in line at the character meet and greets, the best solution is a character meal.  While those who like to focus on food when they eat might find characters running around and interrupting your meal annoying, I love the idea of a meal and an interactive show.  While character meals are available for just about every meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner) breakfast is the most popular.

After reading some websites on the subject, I'm convinced that making a reservation is essential.  I've also read that some of the character breakfasts book up very quickly, particularly ones that feature popular characters.  Since the theme of this trip is celebrating our anniversary, our favourite meal at home is breakfast, and both of our favourite character is Goofy, we figured that our anniversary breakfast should be a character breakfast.

The good thing about the character meals is that it is well documented which characters will appear at which meals.  As I said above, there is also a great deal of information about how and when you should book these meals.  After a little searching, I've discovered that Goofy makes several appearances at several character breakfasts, that's one busy dog.  He does participate at the biggest and most popular of all of the breakfasts at Chef Mickey's, but I think we may try one of the alternatives instead.

The other discovery that we don't want to miss at these character breakfasts is the Mickey Mouse waffle.  It appears that this waffle has become very popular over the years.  It also looks like it's always available at all character breakfasts; at least I hope it is.

As an added note, if anyone knows if they serve Goofy waffles or any other Goofy themed foods, please let us know.

How do I Feel About Un-Costumed Characters - In Particular Princesses

Whenever I see characters in Disney Parks I love getting my picture taken with them, and I even been known to hug a character or two.  But I have a bit of an issue with certain characters.  It has nothing to do with what kind of character they are in their respective films.  My problem is how to act around those characters that aren't in a full costume, and in particular the princess characters.

As a young boy with a love of Goofy, I had focus on who I wanted to meet, and little interest in characters outside of Mickey, Donald, or Goofy.  But as I've grown up, my range of character appreciation has grown.  Now when I visit the parks I want to see all of the characters.  But my age has changed me a little.

This is the only thing that I feel self conscious about as a male adult in the Disney World.  While I want to feel free hugging and posing with all of the characters in the parks, I'm not sure how I feel about the impression I make if I run up to Tinker Bell with a great amount of glee in my eyes and ask for a photo, or maybe even asking Snow White for a hug.

I've thought about ways to try and deal with this, mostly by playing the role of Prince Charming when I’m around these characters. But that could get old quickly, and it may not work with all of the characters.

Our Love Of Goofy

Both Allison and I love Goofy, it's safe to say that goofy is both of our favourite Disney character. This love of Goofy, for both of us, came long before we ever met. In fact when we were dating, our mutual love of Goofy is one of the many reasons we fell in love.

I'm not sure how our love of Goofy will affect our visit. We do plan on going to the character breakfast where Goofy is present, and I'm sure we'll make efforts to go to at least one Goofy meet and greet. I'm also pretty sure we'll take pictures with anything goofy that we come across in the park.

The Barnstormer featuring the Great Goofini is going to be a must visit on our trip.  It's part of the new additions to Fantasyland in the Magic Kingdom, and it looks like it'll be full of all kinds of Goofy fun.

If anybody knows any other must visit Goofy attractions, let me know.