Walt Disney World Mobile Webcam

I'll be using my mobile webcam while we're in Disney World!  I hope you enjoy it!

If the webcam freezes on your computer, there's nothing I can do. And please don't text or call while the webcam is running. It interrupts the signal.Thank you!

Streaming live video by Ustream

Check-in day!

A trip to Fort Wilderness always starts and finishes with a trip to the beach by loop 300 to see the castle. We just got back from that; oh, coming around the corner and that castle with its lighting... it's so cliche and cheesey but it takes my breath away.

Today was checking-in (we had done it online, so it was quick) and putting Christmas decorations up. We got a lot of them done but have a few more that we plan to do tomorrow.

We had dinner at Trails End with a high school friend of John's and his wife. They had never been to the Fort and in fact had gone to Wilderness Lodge. Siri (?) on his iphone had told him it was the right way. LOL

So after dinner, we took them around on the golf cart to see some decorations. They were amazed at the place which always gives me a good feeling.

The Irish Coffee I had with dinner is wearing off, but wow, did that take away the toothache! I guess if I drink those 24/7, I'll be fine. :)

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is on TV right now. 24 years ago, it was John and I's first date. Wow, I can't believe it...

My Disney Experience

We got a Magic Band invitation, so we're using My Disney Experience even more. That's cool, because I love gadgets and I love using this site. Now we have more options.

 

This part is the same. I love the mouse ears with my initial with the countown calendar. The graphics are fun for each option.

 

Here's an example of showing a park for that day in our itinerary with a couple of our FastPass+ selections.

Another great option with FastPass+ is being able to make reservations for Be Our Guest; we even picked what we wanted to eat so we don't have to wait in line to order. If we wanted to, we could change our order at any time through the beourguestlunch.disney.com web site.  They're having a problem with these rezzies showing up on MDE, but they're working on it.

I haven't been able to figure out how to reserve a place at a parade or Fantasmic.

 

This shows our check-in tomorrow and our dinner reservation.

The site is a lot of fun and the app to go with it is free and gives us all this information. Of course, it gives wait times and all the other information.

Tomorrow, we check-in!

My dogs feel betrayed.

Because we gave them a bath. :)

Rico is actually very good in the tub. He quietly stands there until he's done and you take him out.  I washed dogs and John dried them, so Rico was quite happy when he was handed over to be tousled fluffy and dry.

Daytona looked like I betrayed him, but stood there as long as you kept a hand on him. Just like Morgan, if you didn't have a hand on him, and he figured bath time is over, Hallelujah!  When we dried him and he dried himself more, he became 5 times more shaggy!  His mane fluffed out to epic proportions and he became something from the Lion King on Broadway, except he didn't need a mask.

He looked and dried himself like this dog in the video, except he didn't yell at us.  Just looked like we had utterly failed his faith in us. They did need a bath though, just like this little guy.



Am I the only one who thinks the guy with the camera sounds like Jim from The Office?

Elphie, as always, treats a bath like she's being waterboarded at Gitmo. It's constant wrestling and cries of horror and near escapes. I always end up as wet as the dogs when it's time for Elphie's bath.

She avoided even me for quite awhile in case I thought she needed another rinse cycle. John, on the other hand, was the big hero since he was the one who got them OUT of the bath and dried them off. He played this up to, petting them and whispering soothing things like, "Your mom hates you. I told her not to give you a bath."

Seriously, imagine if we had kids.

"Frozen" is a must see! So is the Mickey Mouse short with it!

"Get A Horse" is amazing animation! This new Mickey Mouse short starts off with a classic 1930s look for Mickey and it brings back all his classic buddies with him. Then Disney literally blows out the screen to bring Mickey into the modern world. John and I saw this in 3D which gave this an even more fantastic level. Not only does Mickey interacting with his B&W world given great contrast to his color, 3D self, but the 3D is amazing! Several times it felt like the characters really were coming in over our heads or right in front of us. And big brother Oswald has a cameo! Director Lauren MacMullan and her team made a masterpiece!

But she went one more step to be truly amazing: she uses Walt Disney's recordings to once again play his famous alter ego. That's right, Walt Disney himself plays Mickey Mouse one more time!

I can't applaud this enough. It's true Disney all the way through and I hope this is just the beginning for much more like this. Maybe even a Mickey and Oswald movie? (Followed by a ride in the parks.) Please!

 This started the night off perfectly for Frozen. This film embraced Disney classic with modern movie; several times, I caught myself going "wow....." Animation is top notch and the best yet. I could go on for paragraphs about it, but it simply is mind blowing so many times. There's not a frame that's not beautifully done.

The characters and their music: a new Disney queen and princess! Idina Menzel as Elsa blows away the audience with her acting and singing. Kristen Bell has more of the comedy as well as the heart in the movie.

I really want to see this again in the theater to get the full effect on the big screen, but it's one of those films where I know immediately I'm buying the Blu-Ray as soon as it comes out.  And like Tangled, I will actually agree with John that we need at least a 72" HD TV. A 3D one, preferably.

I simply can't wait to see what they do in the parks for this film!

Walt, I believe, would be very proud.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

Best Thanksgiving graphic ever!  Made by the wonderful Jerrod Maruyama! He continues to amaze me with his art at WonderGround Gallery. Now I find this fantastic image representing a big part of my childhood as well.  Thank you, Jerrod!

I include this next one because it reminds me of people who say to me, "What do you eat on Thanksgiving if you don't eat turkey?"  Answer: everything else.

 

In fact, for all the people who insist to me that they are carnivores, you can eat the turkey and I'll eat the rest of your dinner since it's not made of meat.  :)

 

Diane Disney Miller dies.

I can't believe it. I had hoped to meet her.  I have the book she wrote about her father and I hoped I might get to see her someday & get her autograph.  I wanted to tell her how much her story meant to me as well as everything she fought for on her father's behalf in the Disney company.

Now she's gone. Who will fight for those things now?

Spell Block Tango by Todrick Hall

You've probably already seen this, but in case you haven't or you haven't seen it for a few weeks, you have to check this out. Disney Villains do a version of Chicago's Cell Block Tango.  Brilliant!


This is NOT an amateur video and it shows. This is someone who knows theater as well as a love for Disney. And let's hear it for Disney for gleefully letting this go viral.

Each one of these is brilliant, but I have a special liking for substituting the Hungarian with Disney character names spoken as a foreign language.That is ultimately clever.

Happy Veteran's Day

Thank you to all the men and women who have served this country. May we always treat that promise to serve with the deepest faith to only put our own in harm's way out of absolute necessity.

Faced another tough step

I ate in the same restaurant where I was with my mom on the day she died.  I've avoided it ever since because it was too painful, too many memories.  But I was with a friend and she pointed and said, "Let's have lunch here" and I nodded before I saw where she meant. At that point, I thought I can't say no.

I took the visor Angel that John gave me a couple days after the funeral; he said, "Your mom told me she wanted you to have this." Truth is, it is the kind of thing she would have given me.

Because I have been in my car with this right there when moments have hit me, it's become my little talisman. Something that says her to my heart.  So I grabbed it as I got out of the car and held it in my hand while I was there.

Sometimes I dug it so hard into my hand that it hurt; a lot of memories came back although thankfully not as much as there could have been, because we sat in a different section.

I got through it and I guess that's a good step. Don't know if I'll be doing it again any time soon. :) But I did it!

Time to prepare for another wedding!

I'm performing the ceremony for my friends Jo and Mirko and I have a couple surprises for them.  I hope everything goes well!

We arrived at the Fort!

John slept in a little bit this morning; he really needed it.  Poor guy was exhausted from not sleeping well the night before.  But we were on the road around 5am.

Traffic was fine for the most part; we had just reached the point where we wanted to be at Disney.  When we finally turned on to I-4, we were excited that traffic was going well, so we stuck with that route rather than turning on to Love Bug Road.  Unfortunately, a car accident happened up before the Disney exits and we got stuck in a traffic jam.  Luckily, no one seemed hurt and because this is a vacation trip report, I won't RANT about rubber neckers and their--- anyway.

 (I can't believe all the tents in that graphic; if you add up all the tents I've seen over the years, they wouldn't add up to half that many. ;) )

Such a relief to turn into Disney World; we had a brief rain as we pulled into Fort Wilderness, but it immediately stopped and stayed beautiful the whole rest of the day.  We got exactly the site we hoped to get!  We're right across from the dog park; just cut through the back of our site and voila! The entrance is right across the street!

Setting up is easy with the new camper; John got his ECV for the week (he has bad arthritis in his one knee), and we took the dogs to play in the park.  We had dinner at Trails End Restaurant; a great choice because not only is it a favorite and right here in our resort, but we were crying out for good food after a couple days of junk.  The buffet hit the spot, and right after I gave my body the good food it needed, I had red velvet cake and soft serve ice cream on the side. :)

The only hitch in a perfect check-in is our golf cart: for the first time, the guy we rent from has let us down.  He hasn't returned our phone calls for days, but his one associate swears everything is fine.  We're hoping it will all be cleared up in the morning.

Daytona seems to think we got the new RV so he could sprawl out on the big bed in the master bedroom.  

Tomorrow starts all the big plans!

We go into Magic Kingdom tomorrow!  In fact, tomorrow is one of the reasons why John wanted to be here at this time of year.  Gay Days started today and I said what a great positive experience it was the last time I saw it, he wanted to experience it too.

We're going to Be Our Guest Restaurant for lunch; we're hoping if we go early, we won't have longer than a half hour wait. I've read nothing but good reviews for the counter service, so this should be fun!

The park is open late, so even with crowds, we'll get to see things.  More importantly, we've already promised each other not to let it get to us, but if it's crazy with people, we'll find a nice spot and just soak up atmosphere and doing one of John's favorite things: people watch. :)  Plus, coming back to the Fort to take the pups out.

In fact, one last walk for tonight and then it's off to bed!

Enjoying the journey!

We have a new RV, much bigger and no more fold out beds or tent ends.  That alone adds new excitement to this trip.

But we also decided to do something we've talked about for some time.

We took the Cape May ferry instead of just shooting down 95.  We had a beautiful morning for it!  Clear, balmy, smooth water.  And the dogs got to do something only Casey has ever done before, when she used to travel on sales trips with John: sit on the upper deck in her own chair and have a PB&J Uncrustable.  In fact, John teased that they were "Livin' la Vida Casey". 

He also joked that he was going to take every life jacket out of the compartments and cover his entire body with them. He knew we'd be ok without them. :)

Another new thing: we went through the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. What gorgeous views!

It was really nice to have something different.  The ferry was a wonderful way to start the trip!

We got on 95 and stopped for gas & something to eat: our tradition of Waffle House.  The whole trip was very smooth, the new camper pulled like a dream.  We had one slight problem: Daytona somehow broke a toenail too low.  Poor thing; we have a pet first aid kit so I cleaned it up, he got the toenail off himself, and he felt better after a little while.  He's not showing any problems or pain with it, thank goodness.  In fact, he's been enjoying himself the rest of the day.

We are staying at Bass Lake Campground tonight (free wifi, baby!) and just relaxing. So nice having the camper all set up, just walk through the door like a hotel room except our clothes are already unpacked. We'll get an early start again tomorrow.

So what's that countdown to Disney?

My childhood

found here on tumblr

Happy Mother's Day, Mom

Thank you for everything you did for me.  I love you and  I can feel your hug right now.

And in your honor today, since I have to wear dark clothes for our matinee, I'm going to wear my Fighting Christmas Trees hat (plus one of your necklaces and a bracelet I have from you).  It makes me smile to remember the times we laughed together and wore these.

 
to all the Moms.  Please hug yours for all of us who can't hug our Moms today.

Songs in the Key of Rifftrax

This is so hilarious!!

The Cast Member "Thank You" card for our upcoming trip

To give to Disney World cast members who do a good job. I also give their names to Guest Services so it goes in their files for bonuses and reviews:

John's reaction: "it's really gay. Perfect!"

Time to get ready for another Disney trip!

I've been working on two community theater shows, so I've only paid attention to the trip countdown in an abstract way.  Today I blinked and realized we leave 3 weeks from tomorrow!

We have a new RV -- really nice, our own pet friendly hotel room. And John surprised me with this trip!  He's wanted to do Star Wars weekends and Gay Days for years, and realized we can't keep putting things off.

Besides this first time experience for him, we're going to the new Be Our Guest restaurant for lunch (quick service) and several other new things. We're also taking the Cape May ferry on the first part of the trip, something we've wanted to do for years: we're going to enjoy this journey.  And we'll get to see some of our good friends while we're done there.

The blog background photo is by Samantha Decker.  And I'll have to get the webcam ready to go, plus make up cast member cards.

Fort Wilderness, we're coming home!

Found my murder mystery script!

My external hard drive crashed and I've lost so, so much.  Seriously, it hurts thinking of the photos and other things that are gone.

Thankfully, I did find this one thing: one of my murder mysteries.

Someone is asking for this and at least I can get this one thing out.

Another great graphic!

The Top 8 Ways To Be 'Traditionally Married' According To The Bible

I like how the concubine is wearing a Princess Leia slave bikini.  ;)
 

And to my husband: no, you cannot have a concubine or female slave. LOL!

Believe it or not!

I was at a party and met this woman with young identical twin girls.  I said something to her about them being twins and she said they were actually part of triplets. I looked around for another girl and she pointed to a boy.

As you know, you can't have identical triplets/twins or anything if they're different genders, so I apologized for thinking the girls were identical.... even as I'm staring at them thinking, "These kids look EXACTLY alike!"

"They are identical," she said and as I tried to figure out the brother triplet, she explained:

She became pregnant with a set of fraternal twins: a girl and a boy.

The girl split into identical twins, giving her triplets with a pair of identical twins in the 'set'.


Nature is really amazing!

Customized Tardis Bookcase

I found blueprints posted on the web on how to build a Tardis bookcase.  I forwarded the link to some of my family who are also Doctor Who fans for the fun of it.  I never thought of actually having one, but my sister Terry and my brother-in-law Fred got my name in our family Pollyanna and said he would make me one for Christmas.  He's also making them for other people.

But he didn't stop there.  He customized it with original windows designs, a working light at the top, and sounds customized to your favorite Doctor(s) and companions, plus that Doctor's theme song and the Tardis landing!

I had to show people what he built because he did an incredible job!

This is how the basic bookcase looks: wonderful!

And this is Fred's upgraded design:

Right away, you can see differences: the Police Box sign is completely represented and a glass light at the top.

The side views show his original window design:

Instead of white squares, he came up with this to give it more color and it's striking against the blue. (You can tell I took this picture later, because I started putting my things in it.  The DW figures and screwdriver actually "live" on the top. The little sehlat was a gift and made by niece Jenna when she was kid!)

The other great thing about these is they pick up lamp light in the evening and give the windows a warm glow!  Fred played with a few different materials before he finalized with this combination.  He did the design in Photoshop, then printed on a special paper, then played with adhesives and laminates so they flat on the box, don't peel or bubble, and again don't pick up glare from lights. Shows his attention to detail!

The light isn't decorative: it works!  The Tardis also has a soundbox customized to a favorite Doctor or Doctors and favorite Companions!  Also that Doctor's theme song and the Tardis landing!  The light also isn't just a simple bulb, but a light circuit board to better represent the way the Tardis' flashes when she lands.

And again, he didn't stop there! Fred elevated the light and sound mechanism with these motion detectors! They also save on battery power because the Tardis doesn't just continually play.

The power controls in the back show just how much he thought it out again. First, he made these solid so there's no give when you press on them. That means it's not going to break after a little while. Like the bookcase itself, the controls are built to last! The panel also covers the wiring but leaves easy access for the battery packs. The batteries are regular 9-volt and AA, so it's inexpensive to replace them. Also, the controls mean you can completely turn off the power and save batteries.

I made a video so you can hear the sound clips as well as see the lights working.  Plus you can see the dogs representing K-9.  ;)

Of course, this wouldn't be complete if you didn't get to see me turn into a big kid with a great toy for Christmas!  Here's me getting this wonderful present and seeing the bookcase for the first time (you can also here one of the K-9 sound clips).  For more fun, remember that I didn't know he was upgrading the design, and for more fun, listed to my sister Gerry go on and on with the compliments. I found out she didn't know what a Tardis is, and yet, she was still amazed at what Fred had accomplished. (That's my sister Terry behind me in the thumbnail.)

I can't thank Fred enough!  The bookcase alone is an amazing gift and then for him to do so much more...  I am speechless!

Freebird Duck!

Got this for my Freebird loving husband -- who sang this to me at our wedding rehearsal.  ;)  His reaction can best be summed up with WTF? 

All our friends cracked up!

No, I don't know what it has to do with Christmas.  Nothing, really.  Just fun.