Day 1114: All Around the World

To say I've grown up with IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth would be an understatement. If you've seen my "When Did It Start For You" video, you know very well that the soundtrack to Epcot's Fireworks spectacular has been a constant part of my life and inspired much of my love of music. Needless to say, that means that I've seen IllumiNations more times than most people could probably imagine. In fact, the last time I saw it (just a few days ago) a couple happened to be standing behind me and walked up about three minutes into the show. All I heard was "Do they still have that stupid globe thing...oh they do" as the barge that carries the globe floated out from behind the other side of the American Adventure pavilion. Her husband so kindly suggested that "at least I think it moves faster now." Sorry buddy, but it probably moves about the same speed as it did when the show first premiered years ago.

Anyway, lately I've really been trying to see IllumiNations from as many angles as possible, and now I can definitely say that I've checked off a few new locations. First and foremost, we spend most of our viewings on a bridge by Italy, which we've termed the "artichoke bridge" thanks to the decorations that line the top. If you get there early enough and secure a spot, you're above the rest of the crowd, and it makes for a wonderful view.

The Fastpass+ viewing area for IllumiNations is held almost directly across the water from my usual spot in Italy though, and offers a much closer look at the fire barge that is used in the opening act of the show. If it's a particularly cool night I love standing up there, and for those of you that just can't seem to use that fastpass on IllumiNations (Test Track is waiting, right?) then you'll be happy to know that there is still some decent viewing back behind the fastpass area. We got there about 20 minutes ahead of time and had no problem grabbing a decent spot. (For those curious, the left picture is inside the fastpass viewing area, and the right is back behind it).

On the band trip in 2014, our band director (and tour guide) insisted that we see IllumiNations from the bridge next to Mexico. While not my least favorite spot, I'm also not a far of the crowds (probably tour groups now that I think about it) that tend to gather there. We stood there for over an hour and a half to make sure we had a good view (and I only got up front because I was the one with the camera). Either way, like I said, the bridge does offer a nice view, if you're willing to put up with groups and/or stake out your spot. 

And finally, the most recent of my viewing location discoveries - the balcony in Japan. If you're a photographer this is definitely one you'll want to check out sooner rather than later, although you will probably have to stake out a spot ahead of time. We happened to eat dinner at Tokyo Dining the night we watched from up there, which made it really easy to enjoy our dinner and then head right out onto the balcony to wait (we stood there for about 45 minutes, although other nights I know a friend of mine said it was completely empty). 

Where will I go to watch IllumiNations next? Well, I've always been curious about the view that the bridge area near the France Pavilion offers, which has always seemed a bit far away from the action for my tastes, but I'm looking forward to a viewing in that vicinity at some point. Other than that, I'm sure there's plenty of other unique locations to view IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth from...it's just a matter of finding them! 

Do you have a favorite location to watch IllumiNations? Let me know in the comments below! 

Have a magical day! 

(Note: This blog post was written on January 25 due to travel).

Day 849: When Did It Start For You?

One of my favorite portions of the #DisneySide campaign thus far has to be the When Did It Start For You? series. Over the past month or so, Disney has really had a focus on when Disney became a part of our lives, whether we be a cast member, an actress on OUAT like Ginnifer Goodwin or a regular Disney fan sitting at home, blogging on her couch. It takes something that connects all of us and lets us go back to our roots. It allows us to return to those initial moments when we really found we loved Disney, and that's something spectacular.

Now, originally I was going to do a video on my YouTube channel for #WDIS4U, but I haven't had a chance thanks to finals. So instead I figured I would share my story here, on my blog, because after a lot of debate, I think I really have finally narrowed it down to when it all really, truly started for me.

As many of you know well, I love music. I've always loved music. My family has always really encouraged my brother and I to play instruments and sing and be active in ensembles. I started playing the oboe during the summer before 5th grade, and during my freshman year of high school I picked up the saxophone, which is what I play now as a music performance major in college.

However, I think my love of Disney really took off when I was around 4 years old. Like music, Disney has, obviously, been a huge part of my life. My parents both went to Walt Disney World before they met, they went after they met, they went there on their Honeymoon, and when I was 15 months old, they took me for my first trip.

When I was 4 though, the Millennium Celebration started at Epcot. Many of my earliest Disney memories occurred that year. I remember taking pictures for Leave-A-Legacy and the giant celebration building that had a snowman with real snow and the Tapestry of Nations Parade with te puppets that were way taller than I was. One of them leaned down to shake my hand once and I hid behind my Dad, but the puppet-master waited a minute and after I reached out to shake the puppet's hand, I didn't stop talking about it for the rest of the night.

But what really had an impact on me was Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. We had this tape with the music from the show that my parents would put on every time we would drive somewhere, even if it was just the five minutes to town.We still have the original tape, but I'm pretty sure I listened to it so many times that it's long since worn out and we had to upgrade to a CD.

The music from throughout Disney Parks all across the world, Illuminations and the music of the Millennium Celebration included, has inspired me every single day, whether it be in the practice rooms, in a music theory class, in a parade block, or out on stage performing. I definitely still listen to Illuminations: Reflections of Earth on a regular basis, sometimes when I'm happy, sometimes when I'm sad, sometimes when I'm angry, and especially when I'm driving somewhere.

That's when it started for me.

When did it start for you? Let me know in the comments below or share your story with the world by using #WDIS4U!

Have a magical day!

Day 817: Stay Motivated

I don't stay at school most weekends, mostly because I generally have something going on at home or somewhere I need the car to get to, and on those rare weekends when I have nothing going on, I generally like to spend the little bit of freetime I have lounging around with miss Lillybelle or looking at slides with my family. My roommates, I know, probably wish I would stay more often, and if it were up to me I think I would. I adore my roommates and I love college...it's just that it doesn't always work out that way. However, because we just got off of spring break and this next week is shortened because of Easter, I figured staying on campus made sense, especially thanks to the huge amount of work I had to get done.

Midterms, thank goodness, are now officially over, or at least they are as I'm actually writing this (Monday, March 30). Midterms generally surround spring break and into the following weeks, so while it's nice to have them sort of split up, it just so happened that I ended up with two midterms on the same day. It's never nice when that happens (and it also happens to be the reason that the last week of the semester, finals week, is more terrifying than anything else in the world), and therefore I spent most of my weekend surrounded by an obnoxious amount of books and paper, trying to finish up a take-home essay-style midterm for Classic American Novels while also studying for a French exam.

Unfortunately, lots of work means a lot less Disney, and while it creeped it's way into a number of things over the weekend, there just wasn't a lot of time for the usual Disney beyond my daily Disneybounds and the continuation of the Everyday Disney Challenge. However, I needed to keep myself motivated to work somehow, and luckily it was Disney that provided exactly the thing I needed to keep me going: IllumiNations.

Over the weekend, as part of the Everyday Disney Challenge, the prompts both included pictures from IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth, mostly because there are so many different things that you could photograph, and since the second prompt was "We Go On," you could even include older pictures from the Millennium Celebration. Regardless, I posted two photos from the fireworks presentation, which you'll see in a few days as I round up the month of Instagram photos, and that got me thinking.

Luckily, with everything I've done over the past few years through my vlogs and with filming for the Band Trip Video, I have most of the attractions and performances at Disney on recording. It means that, at any given moment, I could probably sit down at my laptop and easily watch High Def recordings of just about anything from Walt Disney World. You name it, I have it: Spaceship Earth, Test Track, Pirates of the Caribbean, Expedition Everest, Festival of the Lion King, Fantasmic, The Great Movie Ride and, of course, IllumiNations.

So at the end of the night, after finishing most of my work for the day and getting a good chunk of studying done for my midterms, I sat down, plugged in my good headphones, turned down the lights and watched Illuminations on my laptop. Now, maybe it's not 100% like being there live, but if you get close enough to the screen and pretend, it works well enough for me.

My next piece of Disney Video Motivation? The American Adventure, which I was going to watch Sunday night, but didn't get a chance to because instead I just headed to bed early. Maybe tonight though, if I can manage to make my way through 7 chapters of a book, make new French Flash Cards, fill out a housing application, and get through three hours of rehearsal time this afternoon. 

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on March 30 due to Midterms).

Day 338: Candles

This is gonna be a short post tonight, mostly because I really need to finish one paper (It's almost finished!) and write an entire other paper (or most of one at least). Can I do it? I guess we'll find out, but for now, here's a little bit of Disney for your day!

A couple weeks ago my college caf hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for everyone on campus, but tonight we had something a little different: Christmas Dinner! Yes, that's right, we had two nights of super super amazing food, and honestly it's really fun getting together with your closest friends and just laughing through the entire meal while you stuff yourself with food. And when I say stuff yourself, I mean it. You can see some of the food in the picture below...well, all of the food I ate at least. That wasn't anywhere near all of it.

But the part of this dinner that makes this blog post was that candle you see on the picture in the middle right slot. I ate Christmas dinner with my friends Emily, Megan and Jessica, and at some point previous to this meal, Jessica had blown out a candle and Emily was like "Now don't blow out the candle this time." I have no clue why.

Anyway, so the candle is lit when we get there and Jessica is like "I want to blow it out!" but Emily was like "No!" so the candle stayed lit through the meal. Eventually, as we were almost done, the joke came up again, and Jessica was like "I'm gonna blow it out" and Emily was still going "No!" Meanwhile I look at Megan (As Emily and Jessica were talking) and go "I really want to blow it out." Here's what happened:

Emily & Jessica Talking, Megan watches me.

Me: I hope you enjoy our story tonight, Reflections of Earth. (And then I timed it and blew out the candle).

Well then Jessica was like "NOOO!" and Emily was like "NOO!" (at least I think that's how it went down) and Megan and I are just there laughing. Maybe I was the only one who understood what I was doing (well, Megan might understand), but I thought it was pretty hilarious. I mean, it's not every day you get to blow out a candle and be like "Reflections of earth." It's just fun!

Here's today's Disney History: 1960: Walt Disney Presents debuts the first Daniel Boone episode titled "The Warrior's Path." A four-part miniseries based on the life of frontiersman Daniel Boone, a fast-talking salesman convinces Boone (played by Dewey Martin) to pull up stakes and move from North Carolina to the "promised land" of Kentucky. Boone, his wife Rebecca, and their friends are assured that if they travel along "The Warriors Path," a secret Indian Trail, their journey will be a safe one. Unfortunately, the Indians they encounter along the way are dangerous.

Have a magical day!

Day 70: Dancing

This morning, as I have done for many of the past mornings that I've sat at school, I listened to some park music off of Youtube. I have some park music downloaded onto my phone, but not all of it, especially since I've been avoiding backing my phone up to my laptop because my laptop is being picky.

Anyway, my current favorite park song is from, guess where...EPCOT. Of course, it's from around World Showcase at one of my favorite times during any park day...the time of Illuminations.

Before the show there's always amazing music that plays around World Showcase as the announcements are made of "In just five minutes.." (Which I just happened to find myself saying this morning for no particular reason). When my brother and I were little, there's video of him dancing to the music, and it's quite amusing. I won't blackmail him though and put it up here, but take my word for it...it was hilariously cute. The song he danced to is none other than Busindre Reel, which I happened to find on Youtube a few weeks back. I've been listening to it almost nonstop...which probably isn't good...but it is a catchy tune for sure...certainly something my brother could dance to...and he still does as we stand and wait for the fireworks to begin.

Here's today's Disney History: 1977: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is released. It is a compilation consisting of Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.

Have a magical day!