Day 235: A Room in a Dorm

College is a wonderful thing, and honestly one of my favorite things was having the ability to design and create stuff for my dorm room. Yes, I know. It won't be as glorious later on as getting to set up your desk and everything, but I'm still excited about it, and there's so many Disney things in my room that I HAVE to make a blog post about it too!

Sadly I was silly and didn't take a picture of the entire room (I'll have to get on that), but here's some of the Disney inspired pieces of the room. Nothing really jumps out to you as Disney other than the Vinylmation and my Han Solo in Carbonate Bank, but you'll see those below.

So here's a full picture of my desk, which is basically where I spend most of my time, and it's where most of my Disney stuff is. You can see that most of my desk is taken up by my printer, but I don't really mind. I shouldn't be doing all my homework at my desk anyway. I actually plan to do it in the library. Still, I love my desk. In the back there (or middle of the picture) you can see the shelf my dad and brother custom made for me. Luckily everything JUST fits on my desk, so I'm pretty happy about that.

 Now, down below you'll see numerous things. On the left I have a letter L, which represents Lizzie, obviously, and it's covered with an Epcot Park map. It's something I saw, again, on Pinterest. It was pretty easy to make. I just spray painted the outside and then modge podged the map on. Next to that I have my vinylmation collection. The shelf was actually specifically designed to fit these five little characters. It might get complicated trying to choose which one I want next year when I have a new one though...

 Down below you can see one of my park map coasters. This one, specifically, is Epcot, and it's the one that sits on my desk. I think I have Hollywood Studios out up on my bunk shelf and Magic Kingdom on the counter, but I'm not positive on that one. And next to that is the picture frame I made that somewhat matches my best friends. Speaking of that, this blog reminds me I must send a picture of that frame to someone!

There you can see my Han Solo in Carbonate Bank, which does, indeed, have some change in it. I forgot to empty my wallet before I came so I just threw it in there. And then I have a whole bunch of Disney themed magnets...including the Attraction Poster ones I bought in Florida. I have the It's a Small World one as well, along with the A-E Ticket Magnets. 

And finally, moving away from my desk, you can see a view of my bunk, which has a bunch of bullatin boards alongside it with a ton of pictures. Those are the instagram photostrips I made. It honestly looks really awesome. And then our room is basically lined with lights. Finally there's the supercalifragilisticexpialidocious pillow I got in Florida, which fits in perfectly with our futon!

Like I said, I'll have to try and remember to take a picture of the whole dorm room sometime, but this is what the Disney stuff all looks like and how I tied it in with the room. Like I said, it doesn't scream Disney at all. It's just little hints of it here and there. I love it! 

Here's today's Disney History: 1989: In Florida, the Ewok Village opens at the entrance to the Star Tours attraction at the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park. 

Have a magical day!

Day 169: Napkins

I found this on Pinterest and just had to make it into a blog post because it's another one of those things where it's just so true that you can't handle it.

My dad has always been one to do this, where we'll be eating lunch somewhere at Disney and he'll just leave with like a pocketful of napkins. I'm pretty sure we have like an entire array of different napkins from all over the years. They do make great little souvenirs, until you find random folded up ones from like 10 years ago in some box and you just end up spending an hour and a half trying to figure out what year they actually were from. 

I don't know, but there are a lot of little things like that you can take home with you as like a free souvenir. Napkins are obviously one of them, as are park maps and times guides. Anything like that. Even those brochures you can pick up from at the resorts work. The stuff your resort gives you when you arrive, the stuff in the bathroom of your hotel room that's the little free samples. All that kind of stuff. I don't know, maybe when I go in a few weeks I'll have to go around looking for little free things that you can bring home to help remember your Disney trip. 

Here's today's Disney History: 2012: The second phase of Disney's Art of Animation Resort opens at Walt Disney World. The wing dedicated to the popular film Cars is themed after the Cozy Cone Motel. Taking on a notably different tone than the vibrant Finding Nemo wing (which opened May 31), the new Cars area embodies the feeling of the sleepy little town of Radiator Springs. Disney's Art of Animation Cars wing is WDW's 26th resort. 

Have a magical day!

Day 64: New Park Maps

I think it really depends on how long and how often you visit Walt Disney World, but if you have gone as many times as I have, there are two things about Park maps that are true.

1. You pick them up for show, but never...ever...use them.
2. They needed an update, aside from adding New Fantasyland.

Well, Disney responded, creating a whole fleet of brand new park maps, and I'd like to thank Disney by Mark for throwing them in a PDF, which you can find at his site here.

Now, it took me a few minutes to figure it out, but these maps have changed DRASTICALLY. Granted, I love the new design, but I can't help but wonder if turning the park illustrations so they all face north is a good idea. Like I said, I hardly ever use a map, and if I do it's to decide on where to eat or find the nearest restroom, but for first time visitors to the World, turning Epcot around might be a little bit confusing. Granted, two of the parks are still the correct way, but Disney's Hollywood Studios appears to be at an angle because, well, on the real maps of the world, it is. Just a little confusing to everyone but those who have visited more than once or twice. 

Don't get me wrong, I love these new designs, and I can't wait to pick some up during my trip in July. I'm sure I'll come home with a stack worthy of even my father's collection, but I do suggest you check out the maps now to see what's all new. The illustrations are wonderful, and I'm happy to see that Spaceship Earth continues to hold its #1 position on the listing. It just makes me happy. 

And speaking of Epcot, Here's today's Disney History: 1983: The Journey Into Imagination attraction (presented by Kodak) officially opens at EPCOT's Future World. Located in The Imagination! pavilion, Journey into Imagination features the Dreamfinder, who teaches Figment (a small, purple creature with orange steer horns) to use his imagination. The ride features the song "One Little Spark," composed by the Sherman Brothers. 

Have a magical day!

Day 21: Wait Time Game

Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day everyone!

Now, as many of us know, this past weekend is just about the one and only weekend in January (other than the new years weekend) that is busy much at all...and my family tends to avoid it by traveling (if we are traveling in January) the week after.

But a busy weekend does make for a fun and exciting new game my mom came up with this past week. She just taught it (not that there's much to teach) to me yesterday and I have to say, it was a pretty fun little game.

Basically what we do is she will pull up the Disney app on her iPad and read off the attractions, one by one. As we go through, my dad and I (and sometimes my brother) will have to guess what the wait time is for each attraction. Probably about 80% of the time we're way off, but sometimes we get close, and when one of us guesses it right on the dot, mom will just point to us. It's not anything with points, it's just fun to guess what the wait time is I suppose.

I don't know, maybe I'm the only one in the world who finds this exciting...but it's certainly a way that the Disney Parks have worked their way into my everyday life. Goodness, sometimes I just look up the wait times for fun. I may be hundreds of miles away, but I apparently still want to know that the wait time for Space Mountain is 35 minutes (and yes, right now, as I write this, that is the exact wait time...much less from what it was over the weekend).

So what little games or things work their way into your everyday life to bring the parks a little bit closer? I know for me personally, aside from the wait times, I have the MyDisneyExperience app...because who doesn't want to look at Park Maps? And of course, my Disney countdown...and I won't even go into the numerous games I have.

Have a magical day!