Day 569: Vlogs are Up!

You all know how I don't like to make a blog post about my Disney trips until all the vlogs from said trip are finished, right? Well I have some great news. All 5 vlogs from my March trip to Walt Disney World are finished and live on YouTube. With everything going on it always takes a bit of time to get around to actually editing them, and then because of my lack of internet at home, I have to make around a half hour drive to get to internet that I can use to upload the video (I go to my college, because I could use the internet at the local library but I don't want to make it slow for everyone else by sitting and uploading a video. That would be super rude).

The point is, they're all finally up and ready for you to watch now, if you so wish. They get kind of long, but when you have six hours of video from a five day trip, of course it's going to be hard to narrow that down. Plus, I always try to put a variety of stuff in for my friends.

Next up? The vlogs from the band trip, and then the giant project that is the Seymour High School 2014 Band Trip Video. It'll be interesting to say the least.

So there you have it, my adventures from five days at Walt Disney World this spring. I'm currently in the process of working on another YouTube series as well, which just went up on my channel, so be sure to check that out too! 

Other than that, work progresses slowly on the front of catching up on the blog. I don't even know how many days I have left to write before the end of the summer, but it's a ridiculous number. Hopefully I'll be able to get it all done! 

Have a magical day!

Day 425: IT'S HERE!

GUYS. IT. IS. FINALLY. MARCH!

Which means that it is almost time for Once Upon A Time and Disney and The Muppets and EVERYTHING ELSE IN THIS WORLD TO BE AWESOME.

Yeah, I'm still excited. Also, did I maybe quote Once in the title of this blog post? Hmmmm....

On a side note, because it is March and I finished the WDW February Photo Challenge, that means I get to share all the pictures on here now! I won't be doing one in March, since it's going to be a busy month for me, but don't worry. There will be PLENTY of Disney pictures all over my Instagram.

And so it has been another great month of Disney photos on Instagram. I'm pretty sure I'll end up doing one of these just about every other month, but I'm going to have to take lots of new pictures the next couple of times I go because otherwise I'm gonna run out! Which is terrible. Just terrible. 

Good thing I'll have a camera and plenty of time to take pictures! =)

Have a magical day!

Day 422: Flowers and Gardens

For some reason, this morning I found myself on the Walt Disney World website. Weird, I know, right? Either way, what popped up first? Of course, The Flower and Garden Festival! Since I'll be visiting for the first time in just a few weeks, I figured I'd take a look at what's all there so I kind of know what to expect. Truthfully though I have no clue, and have really had no wish to go to Flower and Garden before, but the closer we get to it the more excited I find myself getting. Maybe it's just because I'm going to Disney in general or what, but hey...I'll take it!

So, since I'm going through the website I figured why don't we do a list! Haven't done one of those before, and this will kind of be a My Favorite Things post, in two parts. First, here, we'll have the top 5 things I am most excited about when it comes to the Flower and Garden Festival, and when I get back after seeing it for the first time, I'll give you a list of my 5 favorite things I got to see, eat or experience! Seems like a good plan, right?!?

5. Just Being There

Now, like I said, I've never really wanted to go to the Flower and Garden Festival. I'm much more of a Food and Wine Festival kind of person. Like...so much food and I love it. But I'm never there at either time of year to go to either of the special events, so I just live my life happily with Christmas Decorations. But that doesn't mean I'm not excited about getting to experience the Flower and Garden Festival! Everyone else in my family, meaning my parents and my brother have all been there, and I haven't. It's probably because I haven't really ever been there in the spring, but that's beside the point.

4. Special Merch

It's not really a secret that I LOVE my Disney merchandise. I mean, in my dorm room alone I have tons of Disney Shirts, my vinlymation, Disney cups and Plates and Bowls and...wait...I should do a My Disney Collection post on my dorm room! Brilliance aside, I am very excited about the fact that for the first time in forever (lol) I will actually get a Flower and Garden Festival pin because I WENT TO THE FLOWER AND GARDEN FESTIVAL! There are occasions that I have like a Food and Wine Festival pin just because I was able to grab one right after the festival ended, but it will be awesome to actually go to the event and get a pin from it. Way more fun. I mean, really, who doesn't love Disney Merch?

3. The Topiaries

As I was saying, my parents have been to the Flower and Garden Festival before, which means I've seen countless pictures of the special topiaries they have there. And little do you guys know that they start growing those things WAY in advance (Actually that was probably pretty obvious), and I got to see basically all of them a few years ago in the horticulture department when I was on my Backstage Magic Tour. But that's the closet I've come to actually seeing the Topiaries.

In particular, there are a few I'm really excited about and can't wait to see. It will be really awesome to see the one in front of Spaceship Earth in real life, that's for sure. I've seen similar stuff at Christmas, but never the Flower and Garden Festival one (obviously). I also read that Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy will be around for the first time this year, and Lightning McQueen and Mater will be returning! But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about a certain Pirate with a waxed mustache and a perm (Are they bad?)

2. The Wonders of Life Pavilion

Being a life-long Disney fan and "resident" of Walt Disney World, I've seen my fair share of new and old buildings. I remember watching Horizons be replaced with Mission SPACE (I miss Horizons), and yes, I do remember the days of the old The Living Seas. Which means I also remember another pavilion that's gone completely: The Wonders of Life. Ahh the days of Cranium Command and Body Wars (never actually went on that one though...Haha), I remember them, and since it's closing I have been excited about the prospect of getting back in the building. It is not uncommon to find me standing outside just staring at the building because I'm so jealous other people get to go in it (the same runs true for the Millennium Celebration building). My mom and my brother, for instance, have both been in the building during the F&G festival, but I haven't.

Yes, I know it's absolutely nothing like it once was, or what it is in my "A Day at Epcot Center" video, but that doesn't mean I'm not excited about going in the building and having a mini freak out session about the fact that I'm standing there. It's just special.

1. FOOD

Did you really expect anything less from me? Like seriously.

Starting last year I believe, the F&G Festival added a bit more flavor to the event by including "Outdoor Kitchens," which have tons of different food options that are normally not around. The problem is, with so much awesome food around, how in the world am I going to choose what to eat!?! I mean, we're talking "Frushi" in Japan, which is basically fruit sushi, Gnocchi in France, Beijing-Style Candied Strawberries in China, Basically Italy in General, Freshly Baked Potato and Cheddar Cheese Biscuit with smoked salmon tartare in the UK and then there's, of course, Spice Road Table to check out now too. TOO MUCH FOOD FOR ONE LIZZIE.

And yet I will totally eat all of it.

Tune back in a few weeks from now for the second part of this post, which is also the next volume of "A Few of my Favorite Things!"

Have a magical day!

Day 419: The Packing List

I'm confused.

Throughout my entire life, I have generally traveled to Walt Disney World in the months of November, December or January, with the addition of one time I went in February, once in June and once in July. Other than that there are a lot of months of the year that I HAVEN'T been to Walt Disney World (or Disneyland if you include the August I traveled there), which means that when I go this next month, it's going to be a totally new experience.

I'm going down there for research mostly, to familiarize myself with the My Magic Plus system and Fastpass+ and everything just to make sure that I understand how to do everything before I am there with 60 other people all who have questions in June. I want to make sure the trip runs as smoothly as possible for all of them, so that means I need to know how it all works. Plus, I need a ton of video so I can make the trip video super awesome, and that's what I'll be spending 5 days doing: Filming, Filming and Filming. It's like full pre-production.

But there are lots of other new things I'll be experiencing. For instance, I've never been to the Flower and Garden Festival. I was to the Food and Wine Festival once, and I'm there at Christmas all the time, but other than that I never really get to see any of the special stuff when it comes to Epcot. Am I excited? Yeah, I guess I am (mostly about the food), but it does cause some problems video wise since I can't include anything in the video that the band won't see in June. And that means the beautiful displays of Epcot's Flower and Garden Festival.

My biggest problem of all though? Packing. I have no honest clue what to pack for this trip. Here in Wisconsin we're creeping up on the record for the most below-zero days in a single winter (yay...hear my sarcasm), but in Orlando, the current temp is 66, and it will be about this time of day that I land at the airport. Now, 66 isn't super warm. It's not warm enough to wear shorts all the time like I did in July down there, BUT, the high for the day is 75, and it's regularly getting up to the 80's, which is seriously around 70 degrees different from what it is here. But if during the day it's 80, shorts weather to us from Wisconsin right now, but 50-60 at night, WHAT DO I WEAR?

Sure, we could maybe get a locker each day to keep our sweatshirts in, since I doubt we're going to be park hopping a ton, not with so much to do, but that doesn't fix the problem of pants. Like I said, 80 is very much shorts weather right now for us, but by the time I get down there it might feel colder than what I think.

In other words, I feel like my packing list includes my entire closet. Despite the fact that I have a special surprise up my sleeve for March. What could it be? You'll find out very very soon.

So you have a magical day, I'll just be here working on homework and daydreaming about three weeks from now. =)

Day 418: Officially Going Crazy

It's been a long however many days since the last episode of Once. Don't worry though, this isn't just another post about how much I miss Once Upon A Time...or the fact that it will be back in (As I'm writing this) exactly 15 days, 5 hours 2 minutes and 10 seconds [and counting]. And it's also not about the fact that I haven't been home in over six months and I won't be leaving to go back for another 23 days, 14 hours, 59 minutes and 40 seconds [and counting]. No, this is about how I am going to make it through the next two weeks without totally going crazy...because I'm pretty sure I am. You can ask my roommate.

I mean, last night I ended up actually watching "The Rite," which for those of you who don't know is a movie from 2011 that stars Colin O'Donoghue and is basically a mild horror movie. I don't watch horror movies...ever. But I did. And then there's the fact that I get Once updates so fast I liked Ginnifer Goodwin's picture of the day 36 seconds after she posted it. And when it comes to Disney news, I know about things faster than my mom 95% of the time. I mean, I do spend a good amount of time looking at the various Disney blogs that I follow. Blogger makes it really easy to do that. I've been doing the Disney Picture of the Month on Instagram again, and listening to Disney Parks music more than ever and reading fairy tales and finding some serious references to Once Upon A Time in my sociology book (no joke...it happened) and IT NEEDS TO BE MARCH.

So, here's my plan of action. First off, I really need to get my work done. I mean, the more I force myself to work on stuff, the less time I have to think about Disney and Once, right? It worked for the past three weeks, so why wouldn't it work for the next two? Granted, I have been sick all of this week, so trying to force myself to do work doesn't always work out so well for me, but now that I'm getting better I can totally get back into the habit. I mean...Hook is there on my desk saying "Not Studying? Bad Form." Plus...I really want to keep watching the show, so that means I really need to get my fairy tales reading done.

Two, I really need to have someone take my phone away. Like seriously all I do is check it over and over again. The plan? Leave it on my bed while working at my desk. I already put it on silent, so then I at least can't hear it because it will never vibrate and therefore I will have less of an urge to look at it. Makes sense...I think.

Since our fairy tales competition is getting interesting, and by interesting I mean people are sooo starting to cheat and use Disney parodies or references as "sightings." I find all of mine all by myself, no Disney connected (ok, maybe a little bit. It's kind of hard to NOT have fairy tales find you when you're as big of a fan as I am). So I have decided that if they're not going to play fair I won't either (ok...that's bad form. I'll play fair). They can have all the parodies of stuff on YouTube, but when I go to Disney in March, it's on. I'm going to go through my Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World book for the second time and see if I can pull out some smaller, hidden fairy tale references...and then I will HUNT THEM DOWN and make a video, special for my class. Seriously, I'm like Regina in the new Once promo just going "Bring It."

And then there's band trip work to be done, and packing lists, and video lists and a challenge to make up, right? I mean, what would one of my Disney trips be without a Disney challenge? Unless I'm just making my challenge to get all the video I need. That poor camera is going to be on just about 24/7, and my laptop is going to be absolutely filled to the brim with video of Walt Disney World. We'll make it work, and boy will it be worth it.

Other than that, I'm pretty sure that at some point in the next two weeks my friends and I will have a Storybrooke hot cocoa party (yes, it is sooo happening), and then come March 9 it will be like the biggest group of people watching we've had yet (we keep gaining fellow Oncers). Pretty soon we'll have to move into like an actual lounge somewhere just because we're going to run out of room in our dorm rooms. But it will be awesome. And then I'll do a whole bunch of other stuff (midterms...crap...included) and then go to DISNEY WORLD and I shall be super happy, and there will be new vlogs (I'm really excited about that) and all will be right in the world again.

And then I'll fall into a helpless depression that will only stop for an hour every Sunday night until the season ends and then I'll curl up in a dark hole until Disney in June. Just kidding, I survived this Hiatus (or almost have), and if I can do that, survive a double hiatus (Disney and Once), then I'm pretty sure I can survive anything.

Have a magical day!

Day 405: ONE MONTH LEFT!

It's not really a secret to anyone that knows me that March is going to be just about the best month ever this year. SO MUCH IS HAPPENING, and it all starts exactly a month from today (ok...less than because really this is a countdown to March 9...you'll understand in a minute). BUT STILL!

So what's so exciting about March? Let's review, why don't we?

March 2: The Oscars

Who isn't excited for these? Especially since Idina Menzel is performing!!! You can bet I'll be watching, as long as I'm not totally downridden with Homework or completely freaking out over the fact that a week later...

March 9 : ONCE UPON A TIME RETURNS

There are not enough words on the planet to describe how excited I am for the return of my favorite TV show. I've been ready since December for it to come back, but I have to say that I'm pretty proud of how I've handled this hiatus. I mean, Once has played a very important role in my life since coming to college, so I'm excited for it to return. And I mean it. Without OUAT I wouldn't be taking my Fairy Tales class right now, and I am enjoying that to the ends of the earth. It also gives me something to get my mind off of just about any problem in the world...unless the problem is whether or not Hook will ever end up with Emma. Then it solves no problems. Either way: #WickedIsComing and I am more than ready.

On a side note, I guess you could say that I'm excited for March 6 too, since Wonderland returns then!

March 17 : St. Patrick's Day

I'm just excited. It's a thing that happens when one of your favorite actors is Irish...plus...

March 18 : WALT DISNEY WORLD

...to continue from my last one, yes, on the 18th I head out to WDW! I'M SO EXCITED! Even if I will be spending literally the entire trip with a video camera in my hand, rushing from attraction to attraction to get all the video that I need (there are a few things I can probably push off...meaning that I'll do it by a list of importance, but I have to get most of it or else I'll be doomed come summer when I try to make this video). Either way, any little bit of time spent at home is a great time...and I could not be more excited. And yes, don't worry...I AM WAY MORE EXCITED ABOUT THIS THAN I AM FOR ONCE!!!!

OH YEAH! Also on March 18...there's another AWESOME THING that happens: FROZEN IS RELEASED TO DVD!!!! I haven't been this excited about a DVD since Tangled (which, in case you were wondering...still beats out for my favorite Princess Movie. Frozen hits in at a strong #2).

Also in March let's remember that CATCHING FIRE comes out on DVD, and on March 21, Divergent is released to Theaters, as is MUPPETS MOST WANTED!

Gosh March is going to be awesome! I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff too...but MARCH!

Have a magical day!