Mickey Mouse for Multiples

Here are my top picks for rides/attractions to take little ones on.  From my experience with my twins, I am happy to report that these were “Tiggeriffic” all the way around. (Head over to the WDW Resort web site for a full description of each attraction.)

Magic Kingdom

• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh*
• Peter Pan’s Flight*
• Mickey’s PhilharMagic* (At two years old, my kids loved this one!)
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin*
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• It’s a Small World
• Cinderella’s Golden Carousel
• Walt Disney World Railroad
• Country Bear Jamboree
• The Enchanted Tiki Room
• Cinderella’s Castle (Sometimes you may see Captain Hook and Peter Pan running around!)

Hollywood Studios

• Toy Story Mania*
• Voyage of the Little Mermaid*
• Playhouse Disney Live on Stage (a personal favorite)

EPCOT

• The Seas with Nemo and Friends
• Turtle Talk with Crush
• Spaceship Earth
• Circle of Life
• Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
• Journey into Imagination with Figment
• Image Works

A lot of the pavilions have kid-friendly activities even if your kids are too little to experience the rides/attractions.

Animal Kingdom

• Kilimanjaro Safaris*
• The Boneyard
• Affection Section
• Cretaceous Trail
• Discovery Island Trail
• TriceraTop Spin
• Wildlife Express Trail

* denotes FASTPASS available for these attractions

Next Post: Shows for little ones….

A Must for any Disney Family Celebration!

Today is August 1st!  43 days until applications open!!!

So, I haven’t been blogging over the past week or updated the Interactive Calendar.  Unfortunately, a nasty summer cold has been going around and we got it:( . Thank goodness, we are finally up and running again! I am so sorry to my faithful readers; thank you for your patience.

Now, a must for any Disney family:  a Mickey and Minnie birthday bash!!  We celebrated my twins’ third birthday with a Mickey and Minnie party and they loved it!!  Complete with giant balloons and the piece de resistance:  a Disney bounce house!!!  Even the adults bounced like Tigger!  Check out your local party inflatable dealer and ask if they have the Disney bounce house and Party City has TONS of Mickey and Minnie party decor items, matching balloons and favors.

I was very proud of my table centerpieces; Mickey and Minnie holding the balloons.  Here’s how to do this project:

1 can of soup (This is the weight to hold down the balloons.)

1 Mickey Mouse treat bag or any plain, colored treat bag

1 small plush Mickey Mousetoy

curling ribbon

bunch of balloons (I got a mylar “Happy Birthday” Mickey balloon and two “3” birthday, latex balloons)

• Put soup can in treat bag and tie closed with a rubberband.
• Use ribbon to tie Mickey to the treat bag (tie around the rubberband).
• Tie the bunch of balloons to the treat bag (again, around the rubberband).  Be sure to leave some of the ribbon hanging off the can.
• Wrap the ribbons that are hanging off the can around Mickey’s hand.

I also did this with Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck.  If you lots of plush Disney friends, you can create centerpieces for the whole gang!

Now what celebration is complete without cake?  None!!  Now here are cupcakes that even the Mad Hatter would like to eat at his “unbirthday” party.  The cupcakes were iced with blue and pink icing and crowned with a Mickey and a Minnie toothpick topper.  Super cute!

Mom’s Panel Journey

55 Days until applications open!

I have to admit that I am obsessed with all things Disney.  From the moment I first set foot on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom, all things Disney have become an inherent part of me.  I think I have passed this passion on to my children, who in their three short years have been to Walt Disney World three times and have been on one of the Disney Dream’s inaugural voyages.  I am proud to say that my son’s first word was “Mo-Mo” (Mickey Mouse).  To those people who think I am crazy, my reply is, “I am PROUD of my Disney passion!”  I am also proud that I have, what I refer to as a “Disney Family;” a family whose core values include believing in oneself and one’s dreams and never giving up on those dreams!  I am not ashamed to admit that I sing “A dream is a wish your heart makes” to myself and my children on a daily basis.

Now this obsession is being focused on the becoming a member of the WDW Mom’s Panel!  How I would LOVE to be able to help people plan their Disney vacations and experience that Pixie Dusted Disney magic.  I realized how far-reaching this passion has become in that I have become the go-to person in my school building (I am an English teacher) for any of my colleagues who are planning a trip to Disney. (By the way, my family just has to say “Disney” and they have an itinerary in their hands 🙂 )  I have lost count of the number of times I have heard, “You know a lot about Disney, right?” or “I am going to Disney, can we talk?” and “We’re planning a Disney trip, where should I stay?”  Immediately, my Mickey Ears go up and before they know it, these colleagues have their trip mapped out from the minute the plane touches ground at Orlando International Airport until lift off on the day they leave.   So to be able to do this for thousands of people would be a dream come true!  My husband recently asked me, after one of my daily soliloquies about  the Mom’s Panel, what do I get out of doing this job?  What do I get?!  I get the honor spreading that unique Disney joy and happiness to others!  I get the honor of being associated with DISNEY!! I get the honor of bringing that Disney magic to fruition to people both young and old (my favorite trip that I planned was a 50th anniversary surprise for my grandparents 🙂 )!  Right now I am counting the days until application day and wishing, hoping and dreaming of wearing one of those pink shirts!  So Tinkerbell, if you are reading this, please send me some Pixie Dust!!!  Oh, and Mom’s Panel judges, I PROMISE not to disappoint you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Share your magical memories…

I would love to hear about your magical Disney memories!!  Share them here!

Is Pixie Dust just fluff?

Unfortunately many people believe that Mickey Mouse and Pixie Dust are child’s play; that Disney just a place to take your kids once, waste a lot of money on overpriced food, souvenier Mickey Mouse ears and wait on endless lines for a 60 second ride.  Well, I feel very sorry for those people.  What they are missing is what Mickey Mouse and WDW symbolize: dreams.  How many people lose faith in their dreams and believe that dreams are only things of one’s imagination that can never come true?  How many young girls dream of their Prince Charming coming to take them away to a magical kingdom?  How many of these girls then say to themselves, “That is just a fairytale and could never happen”?  How may people grow up and grow out of dreaming?  Not me!

I was lucky enough to find a man who shares my love and passion for all things Disney, who believes in the magic behind the mouse.  In November of 2000, my Prince Charming proposed marriage to me in the Rose Garden in the Magic Kingdom.  I was on my annual visit to WDW with my family, and upon check-in at our hotel, I received an invitation to a party at the Rose Garden in the Magic Kingdom.  Thinking that I was going to be on a float in the parade (another one of my Disney dreams), I eagerly awaited my private tea party in front of Cinderella’s castle.  When I got to the Rose Garden, my then boyfriend surprised me with a marriage proposal complete with a diamond ring in a glass slipper.  Of course I said yes to my Prince Charming, and we did live happily ever after.  We continued our Disney fairytale with a magical honeymoon on the Disney Magic cruise ship in which we decided to “own” part of the magic by purchasing our timeshare with the Disney Vacation Club, with the hope of passing on our love for Disney to our children and to continue to make many more Disney memories, which we have.

However, there was a time in my life when everything seemed to being going wrong; it seemed as if fate were against my husband and I.  There were days when things were so bad that I didn’t know what to do or where to go.  It was often at this point that I would go to my sanctuary in my mind, Walt Disney World.  It was during this time that I continued to remind myself of the words that my mother sang to me since I was a little girl, “A dream is a wish your heart makes.”  I clung to these words and put my faith and trust into my dreams for a family and a happy future.  At one point, I was actually in the Magic Kingdom  and wished for a child, a child that I did not think I would ever be able to have.  When those fireworks went off behind Cinderella’s castle, I decided to “Wish upon a star,” and I put my faith and trust in my dream to be a mother and to one day return to the Magic Kingdom with a child in my arms.  Little did I know that I would return a year late with my twins!  I truly believe that wishing on that little bit of pixie dust and having “faith in my dreams” would make that rainbow “shine through.” 

So maybe it may seem childish or silly to some people that I love anything Disney so very much.  Maybe it seems obsessive or weird.  But is it wrong to have faith and dreams?  I don’t think so.  I think there is magic in th world and that Disney is just an example of that special kind of magic that if you hold it in your heart, will help you through the darkest of days and make celebrations even more special.