Friday, January 21, 2011

Magical Memories: A Treasure Trove in 5 to 25 Cent Increments

I am adding this post to the Magical Blogorail's blog hop on Disney Inspirations.  I was inspired to start a Disney blog to record my personal memories of my childhood Disney trips as well as report on my adult Disney trips.  Here is one of my favorite memories:

The first installment in our retro Magical Memories series!!!


When I was little, my parents used to take me and my little sister to WDW on a yearly basis.  We'd normally go sometime in September (yes we'd get pulled out of school for the second or third week), and we ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS stayed at the Polynesian.

Up until middle school, we stayed in the Hawaii longhouse which faces Seven Seas Lagoon, right on the beach.  [I'll discuss where we would stay for subsequent visits in a later post ;) ] 

When my little sister and I would wake up in the morning, while our parents were still sleeping or hanging out in their room, we would go down to the beach and play in the sand.  One year, we were playing under an empty rope hammock hung between two palm trees (which is no longer in the same place unfortunately - no, it's not the one by the ferry boat dock and it's not the one by Sunset point - it was in between those).

As we were blissfully digging in the sand, we discovered a cachet of change!  Someone must have had change in his pocket when he went to relax on the hammock the day before.  It wasn't much but, then, a handful of nickels and quarters hidden in the sand can truly entrance an 8 and 5 year old.

We told our parents who were highly amused by the discovery of our "buried treasure."  The next morning, naturally, we went back to see if more change had appeared.  IT HAD!  Our eyes grew as big as saucers and our little hearts started beating faster and faster as we dug up about $2.03 in change.  

After that, every morning, we checked under every hammock.  I forget how much we found in total (although this was also the trip that my mom found a $10 bill in the garden of the China pavilion so we came out pretty well financially over all).  But it was something we never forgot.  To this day we check in the sand under the rope hammocks for more buried treasure, with zero success.  Ah well.
Focused on the Magic

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

One less Worst Attraction?

As I'm sure you've all heard, the Tiki Room caught fire last week and remains close as of today.  I wonder if it will be up and running within the 5 or so weeks I have before my trip.  If not, there will be one less Worst Attraction for me to ride.....

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Hi again

Sooooo, I haven't posted for quite a while.  Sorry 'bout that.  It is mainly due to not having anything interesting to say these days.  The trip has been fully paid for.  I got a SWEET discount which is great because my little sister (who is supposed to come on the trip) can't commit to the whole thing - if any of it - just yet.  Now with the discount it would be affordable on my own (although I'd still rather have her come with me!).  I'm still planning on doing as many of the worst/boring rides during this trip as I can.

We have 6-day parkhoppers, so I feel we'll have plenty of time to do our favorite attractions in addition to our "unfavorites".  We also have 2 extra days where there will be no park tickets so we can enjoy the resorts and downtown disney etc.

We have ADRs at Sci Fi (not everyone loves it but it's a family favorite and we love the atmosphere and are willing to overlook the mediocre food), Boma (a new one for us, I'm excited for the Zebra Domes), and Via Napoli (ditto, excited for the Quattro Formaggi, Arancini, and Acqua Fresca).  We'll also be there towards the beginning of Flower and Garden which is a new experience for us, and I paid extra for the Wishes Dessert Party which is also new to us and should be super fun.  

I was thinking back to all the special memories we have at WDW, having been going there on the reg since I was 18 months old (over 25 years ago).  and in the meantime, while I wait for the trip to begin so I can blog about the worst attractions, I think I might use this space to write about my fabulous past experiences at WDW.  So look to future posts on some of the following subjects:

- staying in the King Kamehameha suite at the Poly
- getting a brief, personal backstage tour of part of the Poly
- remembering Image Works the way it used to (and still should) be
- our "special" Skyway experience
- finding a cache of change on property
- getting sick at WDW

See ya real soon!