Day 594: Inspire and Be Inspired

I do love to blog.

I love the whole process. Coming up with new ideas, writing the actual posts, getting any sort of feedback. I think the entire thing is wonderful. I mean, I generally don't get comments or anything, but there's a significant number of views, especially when this thing is updated, and that's awesome. Just to sit and think "Hey, there really are people out there that are reading what I write."

I try to keep a variety of stuff on the blog, and while I am often times quite long winded, I try to keep each post focused around one particular thing. Sometimes it directly relates to a Disney Park or to a Movie or to something going on in my life, but I do always connect it back. What's different and weird for me is the idea that maybe I could inspire someone else to write a blog too.

About a year ago, over a year ago actually, my friend Ashley took it upon herself to start her own blog, and while sadly I don't have a ton of time for reading blogs lately (or even a year ago), I tried to read as often as possible, and now she lets me know by text message when there's a new post up so I can go to read it if I have a couple of minutes. In reality, I really should spend more time reading up on Disney news and other blogs because that's something I really had the ability to do when I first started Everyday Disney and I miss it.

But that's not the point here. Recently she began a new blog, like so many of us do. I can't even count the number of blogs I had before I landed myself here, and just going back and reading my journals makes me realize how many times I really did start over. That's kind of what you have to do though. It's a trial and error process for sure. You get going and then relax and forget about it, and then you remember that you had one but it's been six months since your last blog post and now it just seems ridiculous to continue so you start all over. It's the scenario I'm honestly trying to prevent right now by working my way back through the summer of blog posts that I missed. It's gonna take a hell of a lot of time and works to write all of this, but I'll get it done somehow.

On some level though, there's a bit of me that knows "I started her on that path to blogging!" and she tells me all the time about how much she really does enjoy it, even just a few blog posts into the new website. And she's right in saying that her writing gets better with every post because seriously, that's how these things work. It takes a long time to fit into a blog and a format that works for you. I mean, I can't even count the number of nights I spent trying to figure out exactly how this daily Disney blogging thing would work or how I would end the post or so on and so forth, and I continuously start the process over on new projects now that I'm comfortable here.

In all honesty though, I think it was this blog itself that gave me the courage to start on those other projects. They don't always get done, but hey, not everything works out, right? It's a matter of constantly coming up with new ideas to work on, just so we can improve our own skills and make progress. Because that's what we're all about. We keep moving forward.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on August 18, and if you want to check out my friend's blog, you can do so HERE!)

Day 384: Fastpass+

Since my HS Band is going to Walt Disney World in June, I've taken it upon myself to spend a bunch of time learning about the system to make reservations and the My Magic Plus system in general, just so if there are any questions when we get closer to the trip, I can hopefully help answer them. It's one of the reasons I'm going to WDW In March, just so I can learn a little bit about this stuff and have some hands on experience.

Not long before my parents left on Vacation, I learned all about Advanced Dining Reservations: How to book them and so on and so forth, including the creation of instructions for the band if they want to make reservations for when we're down there. But there's the other aspect of My Magic Plus that I have yet to learn at all, and that's Fastpass+.

Our day to make Fastpass+ Reservations was before my parents came home, so after some instructions from mom I made the reservations myself. To say it simply, the system is like one of the most brilliant things I have ever seen. The entire site is super high tech, and it takes absolutely everything into account from your entire trip.

This is how it works: You pick the day you're getting Fastpasses for and then choose up to a certain amount of them depending on where you're staying. There may be more than one category, where you can only choose one in the one category but two in the other. It all makes sense, and then it gives you time selections, which you can change later if you want, and if you have a dining reservation stuck in there at a time that will conflict with a fastpass, it lets you know about that too!

And everything is just so beautiful! There are incredible graphics that totally do the parks justice and I honestly sat there and texted my friends like "This is the most amazing thing I have ever seen."

Now, do I think Fastpass+ in general is a good idea? Yeah, once everything is worked out I think the system is going to work great when combined with everything else. I guess I'll really miss the original Paper Fastpasses, just because that's what I've grown up with and now it's all changing, but ultimately change is good sometimes, and I'm going to hold my faith in this one. We'll see what happens in March when everything finally works out, and then let's cross our fingers that everything will work perfectly come June!

Have a magical day!

Day 18: A Learning Experience

How many times has anyone ever heard this? 

For those of us that are still in school, such as myself, I often find people around me, myself included, complaining about something we must do over break. Now, over this last Christmas break I had not one, but TWO English papers to write, one due at the end of break and the other due at the end of the semester. It worked out alright, but stuck in between all of my video editing, writing and the actual writing of the paper, I complained a lot. 

But you see, when I was younger and I would go on trips to Disney, I'd always come back and give a description of my trip to my current class. So imagine now, a little girl talking to her 4th grade class about her most recent trip to Walt Disney World, yes, that would be me. I'd hand out the pencils I brought back, or sometimes it was some sort of Candy (I remember once I brought back some Salt Water Taffy), and then I'd go into reading my daily journal I wrote or talking about the parks, showing maps and telling stories. At some point in each of these discussions I'd end up mentioning how much I learned from something or other, and, like always, a hand from a fellow classmate would pop up and ask, "You LEARNED on Vacation?" And then it would go into the conversation about why I would want to learn on Vacation, as it is, after all, a vacation. 

The picture above is one I pinned on Pinterest quite a while ago, and recently a friend of mine repinned it, causing it to show up on my feed once again. The captain, "Insert EPCOT CENTER lecture here."

Now, for those of us who HAVE been to EPCOT center, and I'm sure that although they haven't been there themselves, my friends can attest to the fact as well, EPCOT is basically a park filled with knowledge, both of the past, present and future. It explores the rich traditions and cultures of 11 very different countries all around world showcase, taking us from the legends of Norway to the upbeat society in Canada, with of course our favorite Comedian, Martin Short. And in future world we explore the newest technologies of today in Innoventions, where secretly we are learning techniques that we can use in our own homes and lives to become greener, healthier and more productive. In other parts of future world, such as my favorite, Spaceship Earth, we explore the rich past of communication, and then have the chance to dream up the future. The entire attraction is filled with history, and I often quote it during school, only to explain to my best friend what I'm talking about in the first place. 

You see, now that I'm older, I find that there are more times in school when I know something BECAUSE of Disney than I don't know something. When it comes to the history of communication, I will just randomly burst out in the middle of the lesson and say "The Library of Alexandria in Egypt was burned, but there were copies of the books in the middle East, being watched over by Arab and Jewish Scholars." Or how in English class, every time we talk about black and white vs. color TV, my teacher will stop and say my name in the middle of the lesson, to which is my cue to yell out, "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color!" 

It's a ridiculous thing, but because of everything I've learned at Disney, I have moments like that everyday, where the knowledge I gained there is applied to real life and suddenly everything connects together. It makes more sense to me. I just realized I really didn't talk a lot about how "hidden" these lessons are, but that's an idea for another blog post. For now, I think we can all agree that Disney has something special with their parks. They have the unique ability to educate their guests even when they don't know it's happening because they're having fun at the exact same time. 

So even if you don't WANT to learn on a Disney vacation, you're going to anyway, and you'll learn things that will only enrich your life forever. Who knows, maybe you'll learn something that will lead you on to a path you'll follow for the rest of your life. I know it happened for me!