Day 1175: Pictures from Home

Spring Break is prime time for visiting Walt Disney World. Even I've visited this time of the year, and while this spring break meant staying home, it apparently hasn't meant the same for pretty much everyone else. It seems like everyone and their brother has spent at least part of their spring break chilling at Walt Disney World, and as we round out our break, pictures from people I haven't talked to in ages pop up on my Facebook feed, Spaceship Earth in the background.

As Megan pointed out, this is how the world probably feels when I'm at Disney, but thankfully I've got some great friends who send me pictures from home because they know I'm missing it. This year, it seems that most headed to Hollywood Studios, which, oddly enough, is where I've spent a ridiculous amount of time over my past few trips, but there have been pictures from all four parks constantly showing up on social media. To celebrate my pals heading to the most magical place on earth, I also shared some pictures from my last trip in January that I hadn't shared yet, which wasn't quite like being there myself, but reminded me of the great times I had there not long ago.

Ironically enough, I also happened to plan fastpasses for my next trip yesterday to, just as my friends were heading on Rockin' Roller Coaster. You can't beat timing like that! Plus, I suppose if we can't be at Disney World, there's nothing like our friends experiencing the magic...and sending a bit of it back to us to celebrate too.

Have a magical day!

Day 1174: One Little Mermaid

Once a year I head to a local high school to see their musical, despite the fact that I never went to the high school and I only know a handful of people who did. Either way, their shows are usually pretty amazing, and this year's showing of The Little Mermaid was no exception!

While I've now seen The Lion King, Mary Poppins, Beauty and the Beast, and Newsies all on broadway tour, I've never had a chance to see the stage production of The Little Mermaid, and I must admit that I was a bit skeptical at first going into it. I knew nothing about how the show was similar or different to the movie, and I'm certainly not the world's biggest Little Mermaid fan, but I was pleasantly surprised by the entire thing. Even as a high school production, the show has so much energy, color, special effects, and excitement. I will say that I feel relatively the same about the show as I do about the attractions that are in the Disney Parks - there wasn't much of a climax to the story.

Considering the changes from the original tale to the Disney version, I can see how the climax of the story might get sort of left out, but the energy the students brought to the stage production I had a chance to see made it all worthwhile. The added songs that aren't in the movie really round things out, and the puppets really reminded me of Finding Nemo the musical (as did the Flounder in this particular show...she did an amazing job)!

I'm not entirely sure I would spend a ton of money to see the Broadway Production, but let's be honest, I probably still would because it's Disney. If you've seen The Little Mermaid, let me know what you think of it in the comments below (I know there are a few of you out there currently involved in productions too! Let me know how those are going!) and if you haven't, would you want to see it?

Have a magical day!

Day 1173: Freedom

The spring and fall semesters of college are pretty drastically different. After all, in the fall you have breaks every couple of weeks thanks to holidays and such, but in the spring you pretty much have spring break and Easter break...unless you go to a Catholic private college that decides to combine those breaks so you end up with one slightly longer spring break. 

Long story short, by this point in the semester we're all pretty burnt out and ready for a few days off. Luckily, we've got that time now, and while I've contracted a cold and fully intend on spending my days warding that off rather than doing anything else, it is nice to have a few days where we don't have to worry about homework or tests...or at least not until later in the week. It gives us all more time to do fun things, although maybe not as fun for those of us stuck in Wisconsin rather than off in some much warmer state (ahem...Florida). 

That doesn't mean there aren't things to be excited about back home though. Fastpasses for my trip in May can be made this week, and my friends who are in Florida have been taking plenty of pictures that make the view outside my apartment window both more and less depressing. Warm beverages make the winter a little less cold, and above all, the fact that I don't need to leave my apartment for any reason all week helps too. Maybe I can just forget about the winter that still lingers? 

Have a magical day! 

Day 1172: The Salmon Run

Disney had all kinds of awesome computer games back in the day, and by far one of my all time favorites was Brother Bear. I don't know if being a bear is actually more fun than being a human, but based on the adventures in this game, I kind of want to be a bear! 

I don't remember it all perfectly, but I do remember that there were two parts of the game that were simply the best: the Salmon Run and the Sledding. Since I don't actually have the game anymore, at least not on a computer I can play, here's a couple of videos from YouTube to give you an idea of the ins and outs of this epic adventure: 

Pretty awesome, right? Gosh, I think I'm going to have to go find my old disc and try to install it on my computer because the want to play this is so real right now! 

After all, the salmon aren't going to catch themselves! 

Have a magical day!

Day 1171: Help Me Plan!

In an attempt to catch things up, my hope is to start with today's post and then work backwards over the next few days/week. That way, I can always do the current day's post while still adding in the month+ of posts I've missed, because let's be honest, it's been a while. School has, unfortunately, kept me plenty busy with midterms, meetings, performances, homework, traveling, conferences, and extreme twists and turns that have me and many of my friends thinking long and hard about what we're doing here at SNC. Because of all of that, I certainly don't get to writing as much as I'd always like, but as a wise old friend once reminded us, the past is in the past. After all, there are plenty of exciting adventures coming up in the next few months, including at least two Disney trips, which brings me to the actual point of this post: planning for May!

As you all know very well, I love to incorporate different elements and challenges into my Disney trips to more or less keep things interesting, but I also do it so I have a chance to explore as much of the parks as I can. Even in my 28 trips, there's still so many things I haven't experienced, and since both my trips this year are relatively different, I'm ready to try as many new things as possible, which is where YOU come into play!

Where I usually plan out everything myself, I thought that this May it might be fun to let all of you help me out with some of those decisions. I am, after all, a creature of habit and get into some serious ruts that probably prevent me from experiencing spectacular opportunities that I may not even know about! Basically, what I hope to do is sort of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" type of thing, only it'll be YOU choosing MY adventure instead.

To participate, just fill out THIS GOOGLE POLL, which asks questions about your favorite Disney World treats, attractions, and experiences, along with a few more specific questions here and there about what you think I should do on my trip. It's completely anonymous, and I'd love for as many people as possible to help me plan! I'll be sure to film all of it too so you can see how everything worked out in the end, although with everything there is to see at Walt Disney World, I'm sure it'll be quite the adventure.

Have a magical day!

Day 1170: Another Trip with Indy

I wasn't alive in 1989 when the final installment of the Indiana Jones series premiered in theaters, but I'm fairly certain that everyone believed it to be just that: a final installment. There wasn't this talk of a fourth, much less a fifth, film focused on the college professor and archaeologist that seemed to be almost old enough for a museum himself, and yet, here we are in 2016, almost 30 years later, talking about another film.  

If you've been living under a rock, it was recently announced that Harrison Ford will be again returning to reprise his role as Indiana Jones in a fifth installment of the series that will premiere in 2019. Now, that's a long time to wait, but we somehow managed to wait for Star Wars, so hopefully this won't be too bad. So here's the rest of what know so far: 

Indiana Jones, it seems, won't be facing the same fate as his alter ego, Han Solo. Thankfully, death doesn't seem to be in the cards for our favorite character. Meanwhile, George Lucas, a key element in the franchise, will also be returning along with Steven Spielberg and the rest of the creative team. 

There's plenty of debate out there on whether or not it will make sense for Ford to reprise his role, but that doesn't seem to be up for debate, especially not after he did a good portion of his own stunts for The Force Awakens. Meanwhile, others wonder if this next sequel will follow a similar storyline as the fourth movie, which disappointed many fans. Personally, I'm going to go for the positive side of things here. Indiana Jones really wouldn't be the same without Harrison Ford, and while I'm sure someday they'll do extra films that feature a younger actor, today is not that day. Plus, with what they learned from Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I'm sure they'll reign things back in and give us a good, old fashioned, adventure packed Indiana Jones movie. 

Have a magical day!

Day 1169: Photopass Extras

I was going through and downloading Photopass pictures the other day and did you know that they include a bunch of extra free professional pictures of the parks for your enjoyment? While it gets sort of annoying when downloading all your pictures from multiple trips, these are also some great pictures! 

And from time to time, especially during the Food and Wine Festival they even have recipe cards that you can get so you can try to make some of your favorite Disney dishes back home! 

Please remember that none of the above pictures are mine and belong entirely to the Walt Disney Company! 

Have a magical day!