Mush's Blog

Hello...Is This Thing On??

2011-12-20T13:48:00.000-06:00

Wow...time flies when you're having fun...and it flies even faster when you're completely overwhelmed and have little hope of getting caught up!!

Yes, the blog is still alive...I've just had one of the most intense few months I've had in a long time. I took on quite a bit more than I could handle, and some things had to "go to the back burner" for a while. The blog was one of those items.

While I still am busy (we all are), there appears to be a little respite from all that has been going on: the training for the half-marathon (and the corresponding fundraising efforts) is wrapping up; the job search is over for now (I didn't get the tenure-track position, but I learned a lot in the process, and I know that there will be another position opening up in the next few years at the same institution); I am now so close to having the proposal of my dissertation taken care of that I can almost taste it; some of my A.D.D. projects have been finished; my Committee work for Cub Scouts is over for now (I'm still Aaron's den leader and the Tiger Cub partner for Eric, but the really time-consuming portion as Tiger Cub Coordinator is done until next September)...and the popcorn sales/distribution is DONE; my night class is done (I LOVED teaching that class...most were MBA students, but I left for work as soon as Sheri got home and didn't get home until after the boys were in bed); my role as academic advisor has slowed down for a bit (it will pick back up in February/March, but I'll take the break!); ...the list goes on and on! For the most part, I absolutely love what I do, and, as many friends and family members tell me, I'd probably be bored out of my mind if I weren't overwhelmed. This was one of those times, though, where, despite my best efforts, I just couldn't keep all the balls in the air at the same time without dropping one or two.

One casualty of all that has been going on is the set of posts for the Disney podcast updates. As you can probably guess, this, sadly, is something I just can't do any more. I feel bad, because I had a few readers who really looked forward to seeing those. There are a few others in the Disney Universe who are doing similar things with regards to keeping people in the loop on what's going on with the podcasts, and they are able to keep it more current than I would be able to. To those who do the shows (Lou, Ricky, Matt, Mike, Mike, Len, Rikki, Mike (lots of Mikes), Paul, Shawn, Katie, Scott, Tracey, Mortis, Matt, Nate...I could go on for hours listing y'all), keep up the great work! To the Betamouse crew...happy trails! While I will definitely miss hearing the shows, it sounds like many of the hosts are moving on to new and better things. Best of luck!

I'll work on getting some more posts up here in the coming weeks. I still have 1.5 trip reports to get up here, and there will be another trip coming in over the next couple of weeks (Marathon Weekend). If nothing else, I can post chapters of my dissertation for you to critique :) .

Hopefully everyone has a safe and happy Christmas and New Year!

Mush

We Interrupt This Trip Report to Bring You This Public Service Announcement

2011-08-11T07:16:00.001-05:00

Well, technically, this is somewhat of a continuation of the June 2010 report, but there's a more important theme.

The cast members at the Walt Disney World resort always seem to go above and beyond what you would expect at any other place…that’s one of the main reasons we love going there over and over again.

But then there is the rare diamond in the rough who is so amazing at what he or she does that you will remember them for a very long time, if not forever. This post is part trip report and part acknowledgement to one such cast member.

We were introduced to Aladdin by some good friends of ours. Mare and I hung out at an online community and first met in-person in December of 2005 at (where else) Epcot. You can read about that one here. We quickly became friends with Mare, her husband Mark, and their daughter, Renee (we affectionately call them the Badelves family...inside joke).

In October of 2007, Sheri and I were down at WDW for a great meet-up with nearly 70 friends, all from the same online community that Mare and I hung out at. During the main meet-up, we walked around with Mare’s crew as well as with another close mutual friend (Debbie, Dan, Lexie, and Austin). It was this trip that we first met Aladdin. He didn’t know me from Adam, but, taking a cue from Mare, he starts interacting with us like we’re close friends (i.e. talking with Genie about how the Moose Meet was going, repositioning the order for the pics so I could be next to Jasmine (THANKS, MARE!!!), etc). It was a very brief meeting, but it was the first of several memorable ones.

Fast forward 2 months. In a record number of trips to WDW that has since been unmatched, the entire Mushfam found themselves back down at WDW in mid-December. We met up with Mare’s crew and Debbie’s crew on our arrival night. After touring DHS that evening, we met up with the Badelves again the following morning along with Todd and Maureen’s family (another online friend) at MK. Our boys think it’s totally awesome being in the parks with friends, so we try to find a time to meet up with others again. The goal was to meet up with Mare and Renee at MK on our last night. While we were coordinating via text, I mentioned that we were going to do the AAA Storytime, and Mare replies that she thinks that “our Aladdin” (that’s what everyone started calling him) was doing that. Sure enough, he was…you can read it by clicking here. The funniest thing was that Mare talked to Aladdin prior to the Storytime, and he joked around with me about Jasmine not being there, called Sheri by name, etc. That is one of his special gifts…he makes every meeting a personal event with whoever he’s with. Check the top of the blog page, and you'll see the pic from that meetup. Oh, and the boys still have the bookmarks signed by him.

We met up again with Mark/Mare and Dan/Debbie in December of 2008, but we didn’t see our Aladdin during this trip, unfortunately. Well, technically, we did see him at Epcot, but we didn’t get in line as we were on a mission to do an attraction. Still, I paused for a quick minute to watch him interact with a family. Sheri saw me stop, and she also paused for a moment to see what he was doing. We both left the meeting area with smiles…the people who just met him were all smiles, and the children were wide-eyed with excitement – they had just met the real Aladdin, Jasmine, and Genie.

Now we come to June of 2010...this is where the trip report picks up. After returning from DHS (the previous installment of the trip report can be found at this link), we returned to Epcot, knowing (thanks to Mare), that Al was currently in Morocco. The boys protested vehemently as we told them that we were going to check out Morocco. Mare told us when he’d be there, and we made it to the meet-and-greet area in the Nick of time as Aladdin was coming out for his last set before heading back to Agrabah for the night. While we waited, I was in a text-fest with Mare. I mistakenly told her that I thought Jasmine was drop-dead gorgeous…she replied with “I’m going to have to find out who’s there today and let her know.”

In case you haven’t figured it out yet, the Badelves know a lot of the cast members at WDW.

His time to be off-shift was just about to be up before we even made it near the front, but he and Jasmine stayed out there to make sure every guest got their time with them. As we made it to the front of the line, I got to see the family in front of us talk to them. One of the girls in the party was wheelchair-bound. The attention that he and Jasmine gave her was unparalleled, and you could see tears welling up in her parents’ eyes. The best part was that they were having fun while they were talking with the family. For example: both girls had coloring books that they were hoping to have Jasmine and he autograph. Aladdin flips through to the page he was looking for and said that the girls colored in Jasmine really well. Then he opens up the book for everyone to see, and it’s turned to a page with Maleficent. Jasmine, of course, puts her hands on her hips and turns away (I think trying to stifle a laugh).

I was so awestruck at what he did for the family before us that I almost forgot that we were next. We let the boys go up by themselves, while we stood back to watch.

Aaron brings up Renee, and they get to talking about them a little.

(someone on Facebook thought Aaron was checking out Jasmine in that last pic…he truly is my son).

As we talked, the BeeGees tribute band started up nearby in the America Gardens Theater, and he paused momentarily to comment on a garbled refrain that got me, Sheri, and the Photopass guy laughing. We hopped in for a family Photopass pic and, as we say our goodbyes, I quietly said to him that it was absolutely amazing what he does and he truly is Aladdin to so many people. We talked a bit about Mark/Mare/Renee before thanking him, saying goodbye, and relinquishing them to the next excited family ready to meet them.

Sheri and I just turned to each other, smiled, and watched the interaction of the next family out of the corner of our eyes as we started towards the Japan pavilion.

I recall Mare posting an emotional entry where “their Jasmine” was leaving WDW to head to the Theme Park in Hong Kong. While the Badelves have come to know the alter egos of Aladdin and Jasmine outside of the parks for a while before that day, reading what Mare wrote and seeing the pictures with Renee inside Epcot shows that, while it can be just a job for some, the tears being shed by everyone shows that the cast member makes the character. It was the last time Jasmine was going to be Jasmine, and it was like a part of her was going to be gone forever. I then realized how much personality “our Aladdin” puts into Aladdin. He makes Aladdin who he is because he, in essence, becomes the character. I have seen it in others, too…not just face characters. Bus drivers, food service workers, attraction operators, janitorial staff…I have seen a remarkable job done by all sorts of cast members. They create and evolve the role that they do in ways that get what needs to be done actually done while still entertaining those around them.

All too often, I see guests in the parks take the cast members for granted. Some think that, simply because they paid money, they are entitled to 100% perfection in an imperfect world. There have been times where I have seen so many members in Guest Services having to patiently accept being screamed at because the weather forced the parks to cancel an event. I have read on discussion boards about how mad people are because they heard one family having “X” (where “X” is a ‘cool’ event) happen, but, when they tried it, they didn’t have “X” occur. The things that most would consider special about Disney are expected to be routine to them. They fail to see the magic. They also fail to realize that it’s the cast members who are responsible for the magic. Imagine trying to be a magic maker when only one or two out of every hundred guests are disinterested or upset, yet it’s the one or two who are upset that you hear about rather than the other 98 who are happy. Aladdin breaks the mold when it comes to creating memories for people. I hope that he, and all cast members, see the appreciation and gratitude in the guests’ eyes and expressions, if not in reviews.

If you see a cast member do something that meets that “wow” factor, please take the time to thank them and, if you have time, stop by Guest Services to give them some positive feedback (trust me…they’ll appreciate it as 98% of those in there will be giving not-so-positive feedback).

This post is also for those anonymous CMs who go on stage every day without fail and create the magic that is Walt Disney World. This post is a reminder for those guests in the parks who take what the CMs do for granted in the hopes that they’ll appreciate what it takes to provide you with the experience that makes us go back over and over again.

But mostly, this post is for you, Al…you rock!!!

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 5, Part 2: HOT! HOT! HOT

2011-07-30T02:00:00.001-05:00

Part 1 of this day can be found HERE.

Eric’s not big enough to do RNR, but Aaron is, so I run up and grab FPs for it since the wait is already over 60 minutes. We then stop at Starring Rolls for the first entry in the battle of the best snack at DHS: the Butterfinger cupcake! We walk in just as they were taking the newest batch out of the chiller. We grab some water and a cupcake and head outside. The verdict? Not bad…extremely rich, but not bad. It’s a mess to eat, too, especially when trying to split it four ways. I can’t wait to try the carrot cake cookie to see which is better.

Eric is a total mess, so we hose him down and make our way out. The crowds are really swelling now, and the sun is baking everything in sight, so we decide to look for a long, cool respite. That can only mean one thing in DHS…the Great Movie Nap!!! Wifey was thrilled because we were in the holding room while a lot of Mary Poppins was showing. Eric was so enthralled with the movie that, while trying to walk through the switchbacks in the queue while watching the screen, he missed the turn and face-planted the end of the queue line. The bruise formed immediately. DCFS was almost called.

This is another one of those rides that Sheri likes a lot more than I do. Still, we’re out of the heat, and it’s the first experience for both boys. I’m a little concerned about the Alien scene, but I go along with it. We start off with a female CM for the beginning, and we could barely hear much of what she was saying. We’ve done this attraction probably 3 times (2 times too many for my liking), and we get the Western scene for the first time. The CM swap gives us a guy who we can hear with no problem whatsoever (it was distorted…yeah, that loud)! At Indy, we get the girl again and continue on through. Sheri and the boys loved Oz sequence, and you can’t prove that I sang during this part. The alien scene was fine because we were near the back of the vehicles and weren’t near the scary part. One of my favorite parts of the attraction is the end…no, not because it’s over. I like watching the montage of movies in that last room. I’m still “meh” on the attraction, and, judging by the boys’ reactions, they’re with me on this (though I don’t think GMR is geared toward children anyway).

We head out into the convection oven that is the Florida heat and make our way down towards Muppets! This is Sheri’s penance for making me do GMR…I’ve always loved the Muppets and watched the show religiously in the 70s when it was on (those born after 1974 can keep quiet about this). This is our first experience with the film cleaned up and the new TVs in the preshow area.

WOW!!!

The boys again loved this attraction, and I even think Sheri was a bit impressed with the cleaned up film.

We head out and almost stop for the carrot cake cookie (thanks to Lou Mongello for introducing us to this), but we’re still in a sugar coma from the Butterfinger cupcake, and our pancreas would likely have shut down had we gotten the cookie. I make a mental note to make sure I try this next time I’m in DHS. It’s about 30 minutes before the Star Wars Weekend parade, so we decide to start making our way to our lunch location – the 50s Prime Time Café and watch the parade a few rows back so we can bolt over to the restaurant for our ADRs. A woman with a couple of boys around the boys’ ages notices us behind her and offers to let the boys grab some pavement next to her boys. We weren’t planning on getting up front, but we graciously take her up on the offer. About 15 minutes before the start, 3 families sign an alliance to guard the area around us as there was no more room for anyone, though many were trying (all adults, I might add, except for the family who walked up 2 minutes before the start of the parade and expected to sit up front on the road). They boys don’t know what the parade is about, so we surprised them again. One of my online friends from Lodgeboards was also in the Studios today and, after a few texts back and forth, was trying to get across the street before the parade started. We weren’t able to meet up before the parade, unfortunately.

Now, if you’re a Star Wars fan, you’ll love the series of videos below as well as the pics that Sheri took (it was hilarious…she was taking pics as fast as she could, even though she had no idea who most of the characters were). If you’re not a Star Wars fan, just scroll down about 10 feet to the end of the parade. The video is chronological…the pics, well, I have no guarantees on the order.

Pics:

STOP HERE IF YOU BLEW BY THE STAR WARS STUFF!!!

Sandra and I continue texting to find each other, and we eventually meet up near the entrance to Indy. We talk for a few minutes and introduce the families to each other.

There's never enough time to catch up, especially since this is our first in-person meeting (we've known each other for several years from talking online, so it wasn't like we didn't know each other). After a few minutes together, we say our goodbyes and head over to 50’s PTC before melting commences.

EVERYONE was trying to see if they could get in to dine because of the heat, but only the ADRs could get in (which is why I always tell the folks I help plan trip for to make those reservations EARLY!!). We head inside and wait for our kinfolk to call us to dinner. While waiting, I grab the video camera to zoom into the bar to see what they have on draft.

YES!!!! THEY HAVE BLUE MOON!!!!!

They call the Mushrush kids in, and we’re seated in the kitchen (for those who haven’t eaten there, every dining area is a kitchen/dining area setup from the 1950’s…thus the name).

As we look around, our server, Cousin Nicole, stops by to say “Hi.” As start to say “hi there”, the puts the silverware in front of me and orders me to set the table. Then she walks away.

That’s all the boys needed to see…they were in love with this place. They were even excited to meet a new relative (to this day, they think Nicole is our cousin).

After a couple of minutes, she stops back to ensure that I distributed the silverware properly and then takes our drink order. Both Sheri and I order a Blue Moon, which elicited a long and loud “BLUUUUUEEEEE MOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNN” (a la the Marcels…always loved that song, and it was my first acapella song that I did..yes, I had the “bompapabompabompabombom” part. I’m still waiting for the Dapper Dans to call me).

That’s all I needed to see/hear…I was in love with this place.

While we were waiting, Sandra texted me…just as Nicole walked by. Yes, I got in trouble for having the phone on at the table. The boys wanted Sheri’s phone so they could call me and get me in trouble. They also tried pulling my elbows up on the table every time she walked by.

Brats.

They rewarded the boys with extra straws…check out Eric’s drink:

I ordered the meatloaf, and it was good…not the greatest I’ve ever had, but it’s not bad at all for mass-produced food. Every few minutes, our cousin would walk by and give us another rousing medley of “BLUUUEEEEE MOOOOOOONNNNNNN”. It worked…I ordered another one. Sheri’s chicken was also good…again, not the best, but still pretty good.

Dessert was up next, and the boys got the make your own sundaes (duh). Sheri got the cobbler, and I had a brownie sundae with caramel.

We got a pic with our long-lost cousin:

It was fun…the food was a bit better than anticipated, and the server really did make the experience memorable.

We headed out and started to make our way over toward RNR for the fastpass return. Sheri and Eric bear off of the road and head into a store, more so for the cooler air than anything. Aaron’s already getting a little nervous about the coaster, after thinking back to the terror of Tower of Terror. Still, he’s doing okay as we make our way through the FP return line. We’re in the recording studio within a couple of minutes, and Aaron gets cold feet. When we get into the final queuing line he starts saying that he doesn’t want to ride it. I try talking him down (as do 5 others around us), but his mind is made up. I decide not to push him, and we take the chicken exit out just before our limo arrives.

Sigh…maybe he’ll ride California Screaming next summer. (Foreshadowing for the July 2011 Mushfam trip).

Continued...

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 5, Part 1: HOT! HOT! HOT!

2011-07-06T10:52:00.004-05:00

Link to the previous day...

Somehow, wifey and I got some sleep, probably because of exhaustion. I think the wake-up call actually woke us up! We’re up, lightly fed, dressed, on the balcony to wave to the animals, and out the door in pretty good time. Today is Hollywood Studios day, and another surprise is awaiting the boys – Star Wars Weekend! I would put Eric up against most adults when it comes to Star Wars trivia (yeah, the 5-year old is THAT obsessed with it). Sufficed to say, I’m looking forward to the boys’ reactions to all that’s going on. It’s going to be another sweltering day, but we have hopes of getting the boys on TOT for the first time as well as getting Aaron upside down on RNR for the first time.

Yeah, I’m stoked.

The bus takes a bit longer than we are accustomed to; granted, it was still only about 10 minutes, but we’ve been pretty much spoiled with the “walk-up-and-the-bus-arrives” wait we’ve had. There are a few on the bus with us, but not as many as I anticipated. I want to make sure we get there early so we can see the Stormtrooper spiel at the turnstiles.

The bus arrives, and the crowd doesn’t seem too bad where we are; the queuing line for the Fastpasses for actor meetups is huge, though.

Good…they’re over there and not over here.

Sheri eyes a turnstile that appears to be open with (relatively) few people in it, so we head to that line. We’re somewhat under the overhang, but we can still see the patrolling trooper.

We get through the turnstiles in record time, and I take a minute to look around (this is a park that I haven’t taken a ton of time to explore…sorry Matt). As I look towards Sid Cahuenga’s, immediately recognize a face and start walking towards the cast member. Sheri is wondering what the heck’s up. I just turn to her and say “Muchoney”.

I may as well have said “akxcbouarnxgfyeet” to her, because that word means nothing.

I walk up and simply say, “You’re Justin Muchoney!”

I think that, had he had pepper spray, he would have pulled it out at this moment.

I introduce myself and explain that I’ve heard him on several podcasts/vicasts as well as being a Twitter follower/FB friend. He puts the pepper spray away as the CM next to him (currently holding a large video camera that you’d typically see with a local news company use for a live feed) starts recording Aaron and Eric. I introduce him to Sheri, who’s still bewildered and wondering if she should know this guy. I explain Justin’s role as “Chief Magic Official” and his appearances on several of the podcasts that I listen to. The camera-toting CM explained that he was filming the boys for a promotion for the American Idol – The Experience attraction. We talk for a brief minute before saying good-bye and heading up to the rope for the opening. We’re actually fairly close to the rope, which means one thing:

We’re going to get trampled by the runners on our way to Toy Story.

We’ve got about a 15 minute wait near the hat…then the CMs run to the side for their lives as the crowd screams toward Toy Story. We maintain a walk and are in the queue line for the attraction in mere minutes. To ensure a calm and organized flow of traffic, they have the Green Army Men out there directing.

We get inside.

…say hi to Potato Head & get the 3D pic...

...and prepare for battle!

As we spin around in between games, we shout out our scores to each other…well, actually, I shouted my score to Sheri, who replied with some sort of raspberry/growl sound, which I assume meant that her score was lower…much lower than mine. We head out of the attraction and notice that line for the Fastpass machines is longer than our queue was to get in. I look at the watch and notice that it’s 9:20 – and THAT is why you get to the park before rope drop!! We’ve got the most-popular attraction in, and it’s only 9:20. Those coming in to the park now and going straight to TSMM will likely have around an hour wait.

Feeling pretty proud of myself for taking The Unofficial Guide’s advice 5 years ago, we stroll over towards Sunset Boulevard for our first attempt at the Tower of Terror (or the “Tower of Tara”, as Eric calls it). The boys are excited….I’m excited…Sheri’s already green, and we’re not even in the building yet.

Then we enter the building.

The boys are nervous…I’m still excited…Sheri’s different shades of green.

We go through the video spiel and start to make our way down to the boiler room.

The boys are scared…I’m still excited…Sheri’s singing Kermit’s theme song (It’s Not Easy Being Green)

Before the loading area, Eric decides he’s not riding. You should have seen the look of relief on Sheri’s face as she grabbed him and ran to the chicken exit. That leaves me and Aaron. Before Sheri is completely free from the grasps of this attraction, I ask Aaron if he wants to ride it. I get a (quiet) “yes”, so he stays with me as we load. We get put into the middle row on the right, and I quadruple check Aaron’s lap belt to make sure it’s on. I can tell he’s nervous, but I talk him through the build-up to the drop sequence as the elevator makes its stops and its movements around. Finally, we’re in the darkness just before the first drop. Aaron is silent.

The first drop begins.

I hear this blood-curdling scream coming from a girl that is seated where Aaron was at just a moment ago.

Then I realize it’s Aaron.

We pop back up to the top with the daylight allowing me to see Aaron, and the look of absolute terror on his face has me struggling not to bust out laughing. We finish the first drop and ascent, so he knows what the drops feel like…perhaps he’ll be better now.

Nope.

We drop back down, and almost wondering if I’ll have to catch Aaron when he falls over after passing out from the experience. I keep trying to let him know that it’s all right throughout the random drops, but he’s too freaked out about having his butt leave the seat. I keep reassuring him that he’s safe and that there are probably only a couple of more to go. We get to the top and pause there for a brief second…then do the jolt…jolt…jolt before heading down again. I’m absolutely loving it, but Aaron continues practicing for his eventual role in a slasher film where he gets chased through the house with a guy in a mask holding a chain saw (yes, that’s almost exactly what he looked like!). I think we’re done with the attraction and let Aaron know that he did i….UUUUUUUUPPPPP we go again. Now I’m feeling bad for him.

Finally we’re back down and heading toward the exit. As expected, Aaron is breathing heavy. I ask him how it was. “It was SCAAAAAAARRRYYY!!!!!”.

“Did you like it?”

“Kind of.”

Moment of truth…

“Wanna ride it again?”

“NO!!!!!!!!”

Guess that answers that question.

I wonder if perhaps I should have done RNR first, because I’m a bit worried that he’ll be too freaked now after riding TOT.

(Continued HERE)

Team AllEars 2012...How to Help!!!

2011-06-22T11:26:00.044-05:00

Okay, folks, here we are for year 2 of my fundraising efforts for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. For those who don't quite know what I'm doing, I'm part of a fantastic group of people who A) have signed up to take part in a race during Walt Disney World's Marathon Weekend; and B) have dedicated to raise a minimum of $500 for Breast Cancer Research/Awareness/Prevention. We are Team AllEars - Running with Purpose!

One of our members, Dave Aulen, made a great video of who we are and what we do:

While the 2012 team is now at capacity, that video catches our determination, our community, and our friendship. My story from last year's team can be viewed here. For 2012, I am again signed up for the half-marathon in the hopes of reducing my time by nearly 30 minutes.

Last year, I finished with around $870, and I am absolutely grateful for all of the support and generosity!!! For a recap of last 9ear's donations, please visit this page.

Please consider donating to our cause..even if it's a single dollar (imagine how much could be raised if all the online Disney freaks donated just $1). If you would like to donate online, go to the Avon Walk (yes, that's a link) donation page and fill it out. All of us on Team AllEars has agreed to raise a minimum of $500 to go towards Deb Wills' fundraising goals...my goal this year is to break the $1,000 level!!! To have your money count towards our goals, please add (after your name) the following in the "How would you like your name to appear" line: Team AllEars (name of runner). Example for those who want to have your donation go towards my goal...you'd enter: John Smith, Team AllEars Chris Mushrush. You can even make it an anonymous donation if you prefer - just leave out your name and put in "Team AllEars (runner's name)". If you do a donation online, please make sure the runner you're donating in the name of knows about what you've done.

If you would rather donate without doing it online (and want it to count for my goal), you can send me a check (payable to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer) to:

Chris Mushrush
P.O. Box 55
Downs, IL 61736

There is one other way you can help raise money for our cause if you live in Central Illinois: participating in a dining event that gives a percent of qualifying sales to us. While I'm still working on getting a couple more set up, here's what is currently on the calendar:

Wednesday, September 14th - Avanti's Bloomington and Normal Restaurants - Dine-in, Carry-out, and Delivery...$161.81 raised!!!
October 1-31 - Chili's Restaurant in Bloomington/Normal - 10% of all qualifying pre-tax sales that come with a specific Pepper Partners Voucher (which you can print out at http://tinyurl.com/TeamAllEars2011MushChilis) are donated...$30 raised!!!
Tuesday, October 25th, Pizza Palace in Gilman will be donating 15% of all dine-in and carry-out orders..$65 raised!!!
Monday, November 7th - Monical's Pizza in Bloomington/Normal (all Blo/No restaurants) - Guests dining in with a flyer had 20% of qualifying pre-tax purchases donated...$15.28 raised!!!

Thanks to all participating restaurants for offering to host these events - it truly is appreciated!!

DONATIONS AS OF 1/1/2012

Avanti's Dine to Donate Program......................$162
Jim and Karen Guglielmo....................................139
Anonymous......................................................100
Dan and Jen Metsch...........................................100
Pizza Palace Fundraiser, Gilman...........................65
The Melton Family...............................................50
Silicon Labs Matching Donation (Melton)...............50
Robert and Cindy Miller........................................50
Chili's Restaurant, Normal, IL...............................30
Bob and Barb Gilhaus...........................................25
Christa Ryan.......................................................25
"MNSusan".........................................................25
Thia Stevens-Wagner..........................................25
TonyNJ and Chris.................................................25
Vicki Killus..........................................................25
Cathy McConnell.................................................20
Patrick and Julie Miller.........................................20
Monical's Pizza...................................................15
Gloria Caruso.....................................................15
IWMS Staff.........................................................14
Rich Buchanan...................................................10
Sandra Perkins...................................................10

TOTAL: $1,000

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 4, Part 4: Let's Just Say It Wasn't a Good Day

2011-06-22T09:11:00.001-05:00

Part 3 can be viewed HERE

We leave POTC and make a beeline for the tiki birds.

Mis-take.

Remember…this was the summer of 2010…before Iago blew up. This baby was sorely in need of a refurb. Around 75% of the drummers up on top had some sort of malfunction, several lights were inoperable, one or more of the wooden tiki heads in the columns had their mouth stuck open, etc.

Of all the days…I really need some magic here, and the magic seems to have flown out the window.

I feel like we’re nearing rock bottom, so I’m willing to try anything right now. I haven’t done the Jungle Cruise since the very first time I was at WDW back in 2001 when I was clueless. The boys haven’t experienced it yet, so, what the heck…let’s try it! It was only a 5 minute wait, and we’re off:

Much better than I remember – I needed the low-level humor. This attraction helped a little, due entirely to the exuberance of the CM we had – if any Disney Execs are reading this, please watch the video and give our driver, Tammy, a raise or an “attagirl” in her performance file.

The Tree house is next – another one those that Sheri likes and I tolerate. We head up, look around, and head down.

Pic

Okay…it’s still pretty neat, and Aaron is at the age where he’s trying to figure out how everything works, so we’ll put this in the “win” column.

Okay…things are no longer at rock-bottom stage. Let’s head over to Tomorrowland and see what’s going on over there. We cut across Main Street, which is getting crowded because the Main Street Electrical Parade is slated to start in about 35 minutes. We decide to forego it to see it a little later on in the trip. Upon arriving in Tomorrowland, we head over towards Space Mountain to see what the wait time was (50 minutes) (crap!). Space is jammed, so we look at each other and come with another plan when I see MILF…I haven’t done MILF for a couple of years, so I start heading that way. Now, before I get a phone call and angry comments from my parents and members from our congregation, let me mention that MILF is what the Disney Freaks call the Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor. Get your minds out of the gutters! Sheri’s not looking forward to this one. We get seated in the nice air-conditioned room, and the show starts.

They boys nearly fell on the floor laughing at the jokes!!!

This was a huge help…though Sheri is now concerned that the boys have my sense of humor.

Both Sheri and I love Wishes, as does Aaron; Eric, however, is not a fan of fireworks, so we make the tough decision to forego Wishes. I was looking forward to seeing the Main Street Electrical Parade, but (I think) we put it to the boys, who said “nah”. Well, then, my vote is to head out before the throngs overwhelm the bus stops.

You know, it always seems like the other three are always teaming up against me. I got outvoted, and we stay in the park.

We head over to the TTA and hop aboard – it’s our first time doing the attraction with the new spiel. While I’m a traditionalist (is it possible to be a traditionalist when I’ve only been going to the parks since 2005?), the new spiel isn’t bad. As we loop around over Tomorrowland, I’m able to catch a glimpse of MSEP for a few seconds. We look over at the wait time for Space Mountain and see that it’s not going down at all, so we enjoy the rest of the Peoplemover (for you non-Disney freaks, the TTA was originally called the Peoplemover, and they’ve actually added that back to the name of the attraction after a significant length of time). As we hop off, we notice that the wait for Buzz is fairly low, so we hop in line. I get Aaron as my riding partner, and I’m feeling a little competitive, mostly because Sheri and I are fairly evenly-matched, and she rubs it in on the occasional event when she beats me. Too bad Aaron was interested in spinning around and around and around and….”WAIT THERE’S A 100,000 point target….STOP SPINNING!!!!!!”

Yeah…Sheri was gloating again after this one.

After Buzz, we decide it’s now or never with regard to beating the crowd out of the park. We’re on the correct side of the park so we can avoid the traffic jam of people on Main Street by sneaking through the shops and making it out of Town Square (if there’s a parade going on, you can’t get out on the Emporium side because of the parade start/end gate). The Tomorrowland Bridge and hub area is getting packed with people staking out viewing locations for Wishes, so we cut through the Terrace area and are past the hub. As we near the ice cream store, a CM with a wand asks us if we’re heading out. We say “Yep!”, and she directs us to a path to the left. I never knew there was a path here, but I’m going with it, mainly because the rest of the family has already taken it. I’m assuming that it takes us into the shops.

After about 20 feet, I realize that they took us off-stage…OFF-STAGE!!!!!

We’re in a roped-off area behind the shops on East Main Street…the music is gone…there are cars…backs of buildings...etc.

No.

No……no….nonononoNONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!

You have absolutely got to be kidding me! If any Disney-employed folks read this, I beg of you to quit doing this! The magic is completely gone, and I mean completely. It’s all too real-world, and I’m willing to bet a lot of people would agree with me that they would prefer a packed Main Street to going off-stage in order to exit the park. With everything else that has gone on today, I was honestly near tears. Those who know me know that I speak very highly of Walt Disney World at least 95% of the time. Pecos Bills today? It happens...no biggie. Pirates…things break down occasionally (and the park can’t control all the visitors who ignore the “no flash photography” recordings). Aloha Isle…after dealing with the people in front of me, most anyone would be flustered. Tiki Birds…more than just a single event…this one needed a refurb (yes, a lot of capital is going toward the Fantasyland expansion, so I’m a little lenient on this one). Crystal Palace…this one hurt as there was a significant change with multiple issues. This last item where we are directed by CMs backstage, however…this is a huge mistake.

If there are any readers who are thinking of going down to WDW for their first trips (as many questions as I have been fielding over the past few months, I’m guessing there are quite a few of you out there reading this), if you are near Main Street by the ice cream parlor at night and trying to leave, just go down Main Street unless there is an emergency that requires you to get out of the park as quickly as possible.

The rope barrier directs to the gate near Tony’s Town Square – the only possible saving point of this is that I get to see a bit of the half-marathon route. We go back on stage, under the train station, and out to the AKL/Kidani bus line (I look over at the Pop Century line – wow, that’s quite a bit farther away). The line doesn’t seem too terribly bad and, wouldn’t you know it, our adopted family ends up getting in line about 15 people behind us (meaning we can talk to them on the switchbacks). The bus arrives, and we’re at the sit/stand division point. Sheri and Eric sit (in the back of the bus), and Aaron and I stand next to them. As the bus continues to load, wifey nudges me and points to the person standing in front of me. I look and, not noticing anything, I ignore her. She then kicks me and mouths “his hat”. As I rub my calf from her kick, I look up and see this:

(image Copyright of the Normal Pro Baseball Organization)

WOW!!!! That’s the logo for the Normal Cornbelters, and they’ve only been in existence for about 2 months! This guy has to be from around us. I holler out “CORNBELTERS”, and the guy immediately turns around. We strike up a conversation with him (he also teaches at Heartland). The Belters just started playing their first year of baseball a few weeks earlier, and he was trying to get the first picture of Mickey with the Cornbelters hat. As we talk, we discover that the entire back of the bus was from the mid-west. The people sitting next to where we were standing were from Kankakee. The other side of the bus had Minnesota, Indiana, and southern Illinois. This made the trip back to Kidani much nicer…at least for Aaron and me. Sheri got to enjoy the experience of a balloon in her face the whole bus ride, thanks to a sleeping girl curled up next to her. When we get to Kidani, sleeping beauty also gets off the bus (cutting in front of Sheri and Eric in the process…obviously they were more important than us). Very quietly, Sheri says to me in a higher-pitched voice, “Daddy’s Little Princess is going to love it when they put her balloon in storage.”

I nearly fall on the floor laughing. That had to be the quote of the entire trip!!

For those who don’t get it, AKL and Kidani don’t allow balloons at the resort for the safety of the animals on the savanna.

Our legs are now getting accustomed to the distance, so the walk back to our room didn’t seem as bad (we talked with our adopted family for a brief moment during the walk). We throw the boys in the showers, toss them in bed (they crash in no time), grab showers ourselves, and crawl in bed to bring this day mercifully to an end.

Head on over to Day 5 HERE

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 4, Part 3: Let's Just Say It Wasn't a Good Day

2011-06-16T09:18:00.001-05:00

Here's part 2 from the day

We checked out the times for Splash Mountain and BTMRR. Big Thunder looked like a walk-on, so we grabbed FPs for Splash and hopped in the BTMRR queue. It was AFAYCW (as fast as you can walk), and, within minutes, I was yelling “GOAT GOAT GOAT”. Seeing the boys smile all throughout the ride was a welcome relief. After that, we started to backtrack and make our way back to Fantasyland for Lou Mongello’s scheduled meet of the month outside Pinocchio’s Village Haus. We arrived about 5 minutes after it was slated to start, and we found nobody there.

Hmmmm….

The boys are starting to wonder what’s going on (we had this as another surprise as they consider Lou an uncle with all the times they listen to him), so we divert and hit the bathroom. We stall in the stalls for a few minutes and then head back out to still find nobody there. I take a chance and peer into one of the windows and find out that they did indeed move the meet indoors – this was a very smart move as the temperature outside was approaching surface-of-the-sun hot (it blew past Animal-Kingdom hot an hour ago). We all go inside and get into our longest queue of the day thus far: meeting Lou. The boys are wondering just what the heck we are doing (they couldn’t see the front of the line yet).

I love Eric's whiplash to see him once he figured out who we were going to talk to.

As I looked around to see if I recognized anyone, I spotted someone who I thought might be from the online world – I was fairly confident that it was Stacy, a grad student who is well-known by many of us Disney Freaks on Twitter and Facebook . I didn’t know her well enough, though, to stop and ask; partially because the day was totally sucking and because either A) it wouldn’t be her and I'd make a fool of myself; B) it would be her and I’d have to spend the rest of the day explaining to my wife why I was talking to a beautiful woman 15 years younger than me; or C) it wouldn’t be her, I’d make a fool of myself, and I’d still have to deal with the issues in option B. If that was you, Stacy, sorry for not introducing myself and the rest of the Mushfam to you.

We meet Lou and talk for just a minute. As he was the last time I met him, he’s just as nice a guy as he sounds on the shows. He was great with the boys. We all got pins, and he offered to give us a free copy of his Adventureland audio guide (we’ve since bought most of the rest...if you haven’t bought them yet, they’re awesome pieces of audio that Disney Freaks would absolutely love)!

This little respite definitely helped…Thanks for planning and putting on the MOTM, Lou.

From Fantasyland, we headed out towards Liberty Square and on to Frontierland for our FP returns at Splash Mountain. The heat was becoming unbearable, and the people in the standby line were really shooting daggers at us in the FP return line (more so than normally). It was a really short wait before our log awaited us. I’ve only ridden this one a couple of times, so it’s still a fairly new attraction for me. It did not disappoint! All the Animatronics seemed to be working, there didn’t seem to be any backup at all, and we got just wet enough to get cooled off without worrying about crotch rot. It ended up being one of the best attractions of the day for us. We ended up buying the on-ride pic (no, I didn’t flash the camera down the hill). While we were ordering the pic, we talked with the CM at the register – she was on the Disney College program.

After Splash, we started to make our way over towards Adventureland to see what the wait time was for Pirates. Before we get there, though, I hear something I was hoping to hear that I had not heard before. Wow…that sounded a lot like something Captain Jack Sparrow would say in his typical convoluted way. Speaking of Jack, we came upon the Pirate Tutorial (groan…terrible segue). I’ve always wanted to see this but never seemed to time it right. It’s probably around ¼ of the way through it, but we decide to stop and watch it for a while. As it nears the end, Jack comes around and starts pulling up several children to become honorary pirates, and he selects both Aaron and Eric to take part:

Definitely a cute show!

The point of spontaneous combustion is rapidly approaching, so Sheri and I give nonverbal cues to each other that we need to start making our way to the only remedy for impending spontaneous combustion: DOLE WHIP!!! On our way to Aloha Isle, we stop by the tikis to let the boys have a bit of wet fun:

The boys stay with Sheri and find a place to sit while I hop in line to order. The line at Aloha Isle is tolerable, except for the fact that the person in front of me completely confused the people working there to the point where I think they ended up getting not paying for one of the ones they received (and I almost wonder if they planned it that way). I get up there and order two Dole Whip soft serves and to orange vanilla twist soft serves (Orange whip? Orange whip?...name the movie!) They work on the order and take away 4 well-used snack credits from the dining plan. Nothing like this awesome pineapple delight to take my mind off of what has happened toda….waaaaaaaaiiiiiittttttt a minute. This Dole whip is a pineapple vanilla twist!

So is Sheri’s.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…in their defense, they just got completely frazzled by the people in front of me, and there were 2 in my order that were supposed to be twists – (Orange whip?). Having worked in foodservice, I can understand that it was an easy mistake. The twist was good – just not what my heart was set on. I’ll chalk it up to the way the day is going. It’s starting to remind me of one of Gary Larson’s funniest Far Side comics, where a guy is looking out a window with a large bird perched upon it. The caption reads, “The Bluebird of Happiness long absent from his life, Ned is visited by the Chicken of Depression.”

I look at Sheri, who is staring down at her vanilla dole whip twist with a forlorn look – a look that is similar to how she looks at me most of the time. She looks up from her snack, and we both mouth to each other at the same time, “Ready to go?” After a couple of spills by Eric, we clean them up as best as we can and start to make our way towards the hub. Before we hit Main Street, though, I make an executive decision to stop by the first aid station to see if they might have any ideas for my still-throbbing thumb. They didn’t, though I think they were both fascinated and grossed out at what my thumb looked like.

Mercifully we head out the exit for the ride back to Kidani. At the bus stop, we met a woman with a daughter a little younger than the boys. We struck up a conversation with her while we waited for the bus and found out she was from Belleville, IL (near St. Louis). We talked the entire ride back to the resort (I think we were the only folks on the bus). Aaron gets a girlfriend on the bus because he kept her daughter entertained the entire ride. We get to Kidani and with the Mom/girl best wishes. We savor the air conditioning, look at the gift shop, and simultaneously decide that we are more than deserving of a drink. We run in and grab a beer and a bottled margarita. We also let the boys get a couple of vinylmation figures and something to drink (not beer or margarita). We gather our strength and trek back to the room, where Mr. Giraffe is waiting for us.

We catch mousekeeping and do a linen exchange – they noticed we used up all the towels/washcloths, so they give us some extras without even asking (THANK YOU!!!!). They boys don’t fight us for long when we tell them that they need some rest. 3.5 hours later, they arouse from their slumber and basically pull us out of the room towards the buses. We oblige and make our way back out for the return to MK. As we get to the bus queue, the Bellville Mom/daughter (now with another daughter closer to the boys’ ages) is also waiting for the bus. We talk with them while waiting. When the bus arrives, we get on and let the boys mingle with the girls for the trip. The bus then gets quieter as Miss June 2010 steps on the bus. As we get going, Sheri is able to distract me from the beauty long enough for me to hand over my phone so she can call her father to talk about what transpired today.

That was fun. Not.

We arrive at MK for the evening and head through the turnstiles. Since we didn’t get a floral pic this morning, we hop in the short line and grab a shot.

It’s then time for the next ritual that we usually do the first evening of MK…dinner at Pecos Bill’s! We make our way over towards Frontierland and hop in the shortest line we see. It’s one of the self-order kiosks, so we decide to give it a try. No prob at all…we get the order in and are paid in no time. About 3 minutes later, our order is up, but I notice that they were missing my fries and Sheri’s apples. They look over the ticket (they were on there) and tell us the fries will be up in a minute. Sheri takes the rest of the food and the boys and grabs a table. I stick around for the fries and apples.

7 minutes later, I catch someone’s attention (not the one who was helping me earlier) and explain what’s going on. Having worked in the food industry (I was a server at a higher class steakhouse in college), I understand how easy it is to have something like this happen, so I’m patient and don’t get mad at them. I get the stuff and find Sheri and the boys…yeah, my burger’s cold, but I’m expecting it. 0 for 3 on the food today, which is simply an anomaly. That has never happened before… I’m chalking it up to the karma of the day. This puts me in a funk that is going to take a lot to get me out of. I need something to really get me back on track. That can only mean one thing.

Pirates!

Before that, though, we grab another pic:

Ummmmmmm....

Okay...on to POTC. It’s about a 10 minute wait...

...and we’re on…and we’re off for our voyage!!

…and there’s no Davy Jones mist effect.

@#$#&I^%@!#$!$^&(^%!@#$#@%&)&*^$#****************!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH COME ON!!!!!

And, of course, the woman in the bench behind me is using flash photography.

Non-stop!

start message

Dear Karma,

Please find someone else for a while. Please. I hate you.

Hate,

Mush

end message

Post-Pirates Pic:

Continue on HERE for the conclusion of this really rough day.

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 4, Part 2: Let's Just Say It Wasn't a Good Day

2011-06-15T13:11:00.002-05:00

Part I of the day can be found HERE.

It’s still a bit early, so we take the opportunity to grab a few hub/castle pics with nobody around:

As expected, the rope is up by the entrance to Cinderella’s Royal Table. We are at the front and take a few minutes to look around at the empty Fantasyland. Several families exit CRT and start pushing their way up to the rope. I overlook this…the kids are excited…I’ll scoot over a bit and get behind the boys.

Then the Fairy Godmother comes out and starts talking to the people at the rope.

I could have sworn that it was Justin Bieber with the rush of girls that pushed us aside. It was a move I had not yet seen – a lateral movement of a stroller by the parent and almost perfectly timed jump by 2 girls to take the space formerly occupied by me. I utter a couple of choice words sort of under my breath, and wifey tells me to chill out.

The music starts up, which is the queue to let us in. The rope is being held by a CM, who is waiting for the precise/proper moment to walk it away for us to enter. He hears the audio he was waiting for, and people start ducking under the rope and making a dead sprint to Tinkerbell’s Treasure. The 4 of us spread out a bit to block the crowds for a moment while the CM does what needs to be done, and we start walking to our first attraction. For those of you who follow us, listen to WDW Today, and/or know TouringPlans, you know that Dumbo is the first stop. As I shoot condescending glances at a couple running past us with a stroller to make sure they were ahead of as many as possible, we enter the queue line. A few seconds later, I notice a father/daughter also in line, with the girl holding a clipboard. I wonder if touringplans was collecting data today. We’re all in the first ride of Dumbo.

We start our way up, and I have the video camera ready to see what’s going on behind the walls with the Fantasyland refurbishment.

For those who know this attraction, you probably noticed that all the elephants moved to the high point, which is what happens just before the ride ends. Sure enough, after only 2-3 revolutions, you can hear the hiss of the hydraulics lowering everyone. We’re back down, and we come to a stop.

Hmmmmmmmm….something’s up.

We wait for about 90 seconds as the ride resets, and then we’re off for the actual ride.

Well, that was interesting.

We head off and make a beeline to Peter Pan. I notice that the girl with the clipboard and her dad were about 5-6 ships ahead of us. It then dawned on me that they might be attempting to do the Ultimate Touring Plan. After this attraction, I’ll ask them to see if that’s what they’re doing. Pan is a walk-on, and we happily don’t have the attraction break down. We get off, and clipboard girl is nowhere to be found. After hopping off, I make the mistake of checking my phone, and the feeling of dread creeps back in.

Okay, let’s cut across the walkway and hit it’s a small world, which is also a walk-on.

Yeah…check out that last pic…the boats are backed up to the BEGINNING of the white room.

We run away from that attraction and look towards Philharmagic before heading over towards Toon Town for a last goodbye. We all let out a collective “aahhhhhhh” as we entered the air conditioning. As always, we get the requisite opera glasses pic:

We only have to wait a couple of minutes before Minnie starts giving us the directions for the show. We’re in, and I end up sitting next to an older couple (I mean ‘70s’ older and not ‘50s’ older) who have never seen it before. This bodes well because I love seeing people experience this show for the first time. Sure enough, the show does not disappoint, and the pure laughter and joy I hear next to me really helped me reclaim a little of the magic. I actually was smiling as I talked to them on the way out of the show.

The happiness was short-lived, however, because the tea cups were next, and Wifey and I always argue about this one. You see, I’m the kind, caring, compassionate parent who wants his kids to have as much fun as possible. Sheri, on the other hand, is the evil, mean, uncaring parent who wants to suck out as much fun from any experience as possible. As we approach the cups, Sheri looks at me and says that we’re not spinning (ignoring the melodious chorus of “Spin us spin us spin us” from our lovely children). I tell her that we have to spin some or it wouldn’t be the tea cups. The songbirds that usually were hovering around wifey pooped on her and flew over to me. We only wait for one rotation before we hop in a teacup. The boys increase their “SPIN US SPIN US SPIN US” chant before we start. Wifey takes one look at me, and the songbirds fly away.

A tumbleweed blows across the teacup.

A CM starts whistling the theme to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly.

The attraction starts.

SPIN US SPIN US SPIN US

Gulp

I start to spin.

Wifey hates me.

I stop.

The boys hate me.

I can’t win.

With the teacups done, we head over towards Toon Town when I see the father/daughter/clipboard again. As they run by, I yell out to them, “You trying the ultimate touring plan?”

Big smile from her

“Yep!!!”

“Good luck!!”

We tour around Toon Town a bit, but I’m just going through the motions now. Every couple of minutes, I’m checking the phone to make sure I haven’t missed a call. We see Mickey and Minnie and look around at the houses one last time before they get demolished. After this, we head back through Fantasyland and over to Liberty Square for a spin on Haunted Mansion. Both boys flock to Mommy to ride with her. I grab Eric by the scruff of the neck and force him to get in the doom buggy with me.

Holy cow…not sure what they did, but it was a TON darker in there – it really gave it the ambience that it needed. The séance scene was perfect with the darkness!

We kick out the hitchhiking ghosts and make our way out. As we approach the exit, I get a vibration, telling me that the phone’s ringing. It was Sheri’s Father, and I just missed the call. Not waiting for the voicemail, I immediately call back. As I look around, I cannot help but notice that we are right by the pet cemetery. The boys don’t know why we’ve stopped walking, but they wait patiently.

I’ll spare the details, but, as I put on my Facebook status, “I don't think that giving the order to put one of our cats to sleep over the phone while we're in the Magic Kingdom is quite what Walt Disney had in mind.” Thanks to all the words of sympathy over there...it was definitely appreciated by all of us. Again, we decided quickly not to tell the boys – we didn’t want the boys to associate this with WDW.

Okay….

Now what…

We need to get our minds away from the real world for a while now. We start to walk to Frontierland, and I make the mistake of looking over at Sheri, whose eyes, despite being behind sunglasses, are filled with tears. I let the boys go ahead a few feet, grab Sheri’s hand, and give it a squeeze before trying a failed attempt at a joke to make them laugh as though nothing is wrong. We make the right turn near the parade entry/exit and find Frontierland Donald.

That helped quite a bit.

Continued

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 4, Part 1: Let's Just Say It Wasn't a Good Day

2011-06-11T08:11:00.001-05:00

When we last left the Mushfam oh so long ago, it was only Day 3, which you can read here. It has been several months since I updated the report, and I apologize for that if you were following it. As you will find out when you read it, this was one that I really didn't want to recap as it was one of the rougher days we've had; not just in the parks, but as a family. Still, it was part of a memorable trip, so I buckled down and got this written. With that....on with the next installment of the trip report!

Day 4, Part 1 (link to the index of the entire report can be found HERE)

Yeah, you could imagine that we didn’t sleep too well at all that night. I was fully expecting the worst – to hear that our cat didn’t make it through the night…alone…without us there. I woke up every 25-30 minutes in a fit of restless sleep. I could tell Sheri wasn’t doing a whole lot better.

The alarm goes off, but I’m already out of bed and on the computer working on stuff for the online class I’m teaching. The boys are oblivious, which is a good thing…it helps seeing them jumping around and enjoying life. We get dressed (it’s MK day, so that means Sheri has matching outfits for us…our Chicago Disney shirts!), contemplate cutting across the savanna for the 8^th time (and chickening out yet again) and make our way to the bus stops – we know we’ll likely have to catch the bus at the right time as we have 8:05 ADRs for the Crystal Palace. If we miss the first one, we don’t know if there will be a second one that will get us there in time.

As luck would have it, a bus pulls up just as we arrive at the stop. A woman with an exasperated look on her face looked at us as though we had some sort of magic bus-conjuring ability as she complains that she had waited 45 minutes for an MK bus to get here (which meant she was out there around 6:20). It’s a quiet ride over to MK…normally I’m like a little kid, excited to pass the toll booths and trying to catch my first glimpse of the castle spires, going under the water bridge past the Contemporary, hearing that all-too-familiar fanfare that the buses play as it makes the turn into the MK bus stops.

Instead, I’m holding my phone, waiting for our neighbor to call. The boys are a little tired this morning…Sheri and I both strain some humor as we pass the toll plaza…

Despite being tired, they’ve been here enough to know when to start looking for the castle. They crane their necks to see who could find it first (I think it was Eric this time, which led to a well-timed elbow by Aaron). We pull in, and they drop us off. As we all pile out, the majority of those on the bus head up the monorail ramp for Chef Mickey’s. We head into the park along with a couple of other families. We’re a little early (it’s about 7:45), so we let the boys explore a bit…

I pull out the video camera for the train station shot:

The people behind us in line got a kick about the sarcastic enthusiasm.

Around 7:50-7:55, they let us in, and we finally get to see the castle. I try to get excited, but it’s just not working at the moment. Still, we put the smiles on our faces and showed the boys that we’re HERE at the most magical place on earth.

I get in line to check in at the Crystal Palace, while Sheri and the boys do their routine here (pics of the castle and greenery).

We didn’t have to wait too long at all as we’re one of the first names called. We head in and get seated. Our server gets our drink order and asks if we’ve been here before. We all shake our heads in the affirmative, and she then proceeds to drop a bombshell on me.

The menu has changed a little, and breakfast lasagna is no longer offered.

OH COME ON!!!!!!!!!

This was one of the main reasons I chose to eat here!!! Sheri loves the orange juice, and I love the breakfast lasagna. Well, at least Sheri gets her orange jui…wha? It doesn’t taste like it normally does, hun? I taste it and agree that it seems to have lost its “freshly-squeezed” taste that it always had in the past. As we go up to get in line for the food, our fears are confirmed as we actually saw the Minute Maid cartons through an open door to the kitchen.

Okay…eggs, biscuits and gravy, and bacon (to make Piglet all the more uncomfortable when he comes to visit our table). I check the phone for the 87^th time this morning, hoping I didn’t miss a call. We sit down and grab a sip of the coffee that was waiting for us.

My hair nearly curled at how strong it was.

I’m thinking that I’m just in a funk and am hoping that I’m just seeing things from a bad perspective. Sheri nearly falls out her chair at her first sip.

We settle in and start eating. Piglet comes in, followed by Tigger and Pooh. The boys get pics…

Hey...they turned out pretty well!!

Okay…things are calming down a bit. Maybe I’m just doing what I always do and assume the worst-case scenario. Maybe things are improving and that the vet can figure out what to do to get Mac back on the path of healin…

RING

So much for that momentary lapse of reason.

It’s our neighbor….as we get the update, I can hear his constant meowing in the background – I won’t soon forget that. I’ll leave out the specifics, but I tell our neighbor that he’s being picked up to be taken to the vet. They apologize again for all that’s going on, and I immediately apologize back for them being the ones to deal with it. It wasn’t supposed to be like this…he seemed to be doing better before we left. As I heard his calls in the background, I pretty much knew what the vet was going to tell us, but I still held out a little hope. I tried to sugar coat it a bit for Sheri, but my eyes were welling up just a bit, and she immediately knew it was bad.

Okay…don’t delve on this…we’re at the Magic Kingdom, and we need the diversion to keep our minds off of everything for the day.

It seems that something has changed at the Crystal Palace since the last time we dined here. I’m not sure if it’s a changeover in management or an attempt at cutting costs a little, but Sheri and I were both disappointed at how the place has changed. This is saying something because we have had nothing but great things to say about breakfast the other 3 or so times we have eaten here. I hate saying this, but the Crystal Palace has moved from a “definitely recommend” to a “use extreme caution when recommending” status. We pay and get out of there rather quickly.

Part 2 can be found HERE.

Hi there - I'm Mush, and it's nice to meet you!

2011-06-06T08:03:00.000-05:00

Wow...it has been over 3 months since I last posted. To the handful of you who actually read this (thanks, Mom and Dad), sorry! This thing they call real life has floored me. On a good note, I finished my first year serving the role as advisor, and I think I only ruined a couple of students' lives in the process. On an even better note, I've made a lot of progress on that albatross around my neck known as the dissertation. No, I'm not done yet, but I foresee the proposal hearing in the next 2 months, and I've even completed the tests needed for the 4th Chapter.

Another year of leading a Den for Cub Scouts has ended, with nearly all of the Den getting their Wolf badges. The Bear is up next for them. The time commitment for this seemed to be quite a bit more than last year, though I didn't hold as many meetings. I think the most taxing part of this was trying to coordinate everyone to try to get them set up for the badges - if they missed a meeting where we did several achievements, well, it put them back that much farther, and I had to find a way to catch them up in subsequent meetings. Aaron did really well - got the Wolf as well as 4 arrow point badges - they look pretty cool on his uniform. Eric is up next for scouts. While I'll continue on as Den Leader for Aaron, my assistant Den Leader will be taking on the Den Leader role for the incoming Tiger Cubs, and Eric will likely be with her.

As Cub Scouts has wrapped up, baseball has taken over. I'm head coach for Eric's instructional league and, while not officially one of the coaches for Aaron's team, I help them out where I can (keeping the books, helping at practice, etc). It's definitely time-consuming, but it's something I love doing with the boys.

As many of you know, I suffered a minor back injury in early April that had me laid up for a while. Luckily, nothing was found in an MRI, so our best guess is that it was muscular that ultimately pinched a set of nerves. I'm back to myself, though I still feel the slightest twinge every once in a while, just to remind me that it's there. The pain is gone, at least.

Unfortunately, the podcast updates have fallen dramatically in the priority list. I simply didn't have time and wasn't going to kill myself trying to do sub-par reviews. Shawn has continued to do admirably in keeping the community updated with his Dis_Pod_Review updates over on Twitter, so the Disney Freaks have still been able to read what's going on with the shows. I do plan on getting back into the reviewing in the coming weeks...hopefully once the dissertation proposal is defended and the last part is in on track to be completed, I'll start listening/writing up shows. It pains me that I haven't even listened to a show for nearly 2 months - I used to listen to over 40 a week. I want to get back on this with a vengeance!

Also in abysmal shape is my progress on the June 2011 WDW Trip Report. I was able to get the first several days out with no problem; the next day in the chronology was a really tough one to write, however...if you've been reading the TR, you probably know what happens that day. I've got it written and will start posting it again once I get the videos/pictures uploaded for inclusion. I know there were quite a few who were reading every updated post on that report - sorry for leaving you hanging!

On a good note, I've kept up my running after the WDW Half marathon last January and have signed up to run the 2012 half. Oh, and, yes, I have rejoined Team AllEars this year, so you can expect to see a number of posts on my fundraising efforts. I'm going to be a little more aggressive this year as I missed the $1,000 mark last year by a mere $130. You'll see a post about this in the coming days as I kick off my 2011 fundraising campaign for the Avon Walk.

Okay...so there's the update. You can expect to see some more regular updates really soon with the podcasts, baseball, trip reports, a new trip (yes, folks, we're heading out to California to visit Disneyland this July!), and training/fundraising updates.

See ya (reading this) real soon!

Disney Podcast Updates, February, 2011 - Part 3

2011-02-28T16:42:00.000-06:00

I'm just a bit later than planned for this round of updates. Most of the 21 updates included are from around Feb 13-20. Topics include a Marathon Weekend recap, a couple of shows/segments on flying (if you’re having a problem getting to sleep at night, feel free to read my update on Betamouse a few times…that’ll knock you out in no time), and lots of love!

If you are interested in listening to any of these episodes, I have links to subscribe for most of these shows in my post HERE. Also, if you’re willing, you can help these shows out by posting a review over on iTunes. The more they get, the higher up they appear on searches. If you do start listening to a podcast as a result of what you’ve seen on here, please let the podcasters know!

As always, please note that this again is not a comprehensive list of the Disney Podcasts that are out there. Mike Hamilton has created Disneypodcastdirectory.net, which he periodically updates with new podcasts and removes dead casts. He also has the automated RSS (historical) feeds of the podcasts. This is more of a cross-section of what is currently being talked about…perhaps something may sound interesting, and you'll subscribe to listen to that topic. Also, Shawn Rees does an absolutely amazing job posting more real-time updates on Twitter. Follow @dis_pod_review if you aren't already doing so.

Any and all comments are welcomed! Also, if you know of another podcast that fits here, let me know.

Be our Guest

02/13/11 – Episode 307, When I saw the show topic, I made sure to carve out a little time to make sure I could listen to this one. I lurk on the BOG forums and have only posted a couple of times; however, I did occasionally read a couple of topics over there about running and training for Marathon Weekend. This show is focused on that very topic! Former InnerMouse host Nicole Siscaretti, fellow Twitter freak and teacher Brett Young, and Chuck Hamrick (aka ‘ConstableMickey’ over on the forums) join the crew for a talk about what Marathon Weekend 2011 entailed. Everyone reflects on the training as well as the races on that weekend. Excellent show! I wish I could have met up with y’all down there, but there just wasn’t enough time to do what we wanted to do (we flew down Thursday and back Sunday for work). Congrats to all the runners out there – I’ll remember that weekend with the rest of Team AllEars forever! Time: 40:52
02/17/11 – Episode 307, this show gives exposure to one of the more overlooked moderate resorts at WDW…the Caribbean Beach resort. The hosts examine several facets of the resort, including some of the newer themed areas (i.e. the Pirates rooms). This is one we haven’t stayed at yet (the only moderate that we’ve stayed at was POFQ, though we looked at CBR when Magical Express dropped guests off). Time: 35:53

Betamouse

02/17/11 – Episode 53, Before talking about Betamouse gang signs in the Triad, we get to hear talk about the ever-present issue of flying vs. driving to get to the parks. The hosts are split to a certain extent, with the dividing line drawn at how far away they live from the parks (Henry is the exception…I’m with Katie on this one). Throughout the show, they talk about strategies for purchasing airline tickets, UI sites vs visiting the direct airline site, a short evaluation on mobile sites, and more. There’s some good stuff on here- like what point in the “countdown” to check for lower fares. As for what we do here – well, BMI is about 10 minutes away, and it’s pretty much hassle-free for us. The only problem is that, being a regional airport, we don’t have a huge selection. Luckily, we have both AirTran and Delta Connection fly in with non-stops to MCO. Flying out to Anaheim, however, is a different story. Being that we are 3 hours away from IND, STL, and ORD (MDW is a bit closer), those airports come into play. It usually involves a preliminary look at Travelocity at all the airports to get a general feel for the current fares/times. Then I usually hit the airline sites directly to watch for changes in the fares. Being an economist, we’re always evaluating the cost of time and convenience…yes, we are often willing to pay a somewhat higher fare to leave out of BMI instead of a larger airport…especially with kids, travel cost to the airport, lodging (we often are on the first flight out), parking (yes, we look at park-n-fly hotels), etc. As for the government rate. Well, let’s examine that (did I hear someone just snore?) For the sake of argument, assume a 1,000 mile drive each way (2,000 miles total). At $.50 / mile, that comes out to $1,000. Now, deduct the price of gas – assuming 20 MPG and $3.35/gallon price, that comes out to $335, leaving $665. Add in the “wear and tear”…you may as well be adding an oil change to the cost since it takes up the majority of the mileage between changes, so let’s make it $30. Tires – not much, but for grins, let’s say $20. Trade-in value? Also fairly negligible, but I’ll throw in $20 less for the hell of it. People often throw in the cost of dining, first off, that shouldn’t be coming from the Government rate (they also get a per diem for items like this), but I’ll include it – we shouldn’t include the total cost of dining…it should count only if the dining cost is different from what you would eat if you weren’t driving. This reduces the overall “cost” of food by quite a bit. The same goes for lodging – if you would be spending a night at a WDW/DL resort instead of a hotel on the road, then it’s a wash (likely, the hotel on the road will be cheaper). If you were just leaving a day earlier by driving instead of flying, then the hotel cost becomes pertinent. Oh, and there’s another item…do you end up taking an additional day or two of work off by driving? If you lose wages, then that becomes a significant cost. If you are taking vacation day, then no harm (unless that day could have been used elsewhere and you end up losing pay for that day off). Add in the difference in the cost of convenience – do I want to be on the road for 16 hours each way…with my wife (complaining about how I’m driving) and my kids (asking “Are we there yet” every 10 minutes)…how does that compare to the hassle of the airlines/security checks/annoying passengers next to you/etc? These last couple ones obviously are all “what-ifs”. Regardless, the only time you’ll be getting that $.50/mile is if you are on official government business…if a government job requires you drive to a Disney park, could you please send me an application? Here’s the bottom line: the explicit cost of driving is the gas, additional maintenance, and reduction in trade-in value. Conservatively, let’s say that’s about $400. That’s about the only thing you can compare to the government rate. Everything else falls into the “implicit” cost/savings (ie potential foregone wages, difference in cost of dining/lodging, potential savings (if you would be renting a car down there and not taking Magical Express if at WDW, for example), the cost of being in trapped in the car with family instead of at home or in the parks, the side trip to Arizona to drop off your crotchety old aunt who died in your car on the way down (you took care of her dog earlier), etc). There’s no steadfast number that determines whether you should drive or fly; each person assigns a different value to some of the intrinsic costs/savings. Okay…you can wake up now. During the outtakes, we find out the new motto for the show…“Betamouse: No Preparation Whatsoever!” Time: 39:42

Communicore Online

02/11/11 – Episode 42 (Hitchhiker’s Guide fans unite!), For some reason, this feed wasn’t updating for me, so I didn’t realize there were new shows out there until I unsubscribed and hopped back in. In this show, Lester starts off with the news in the way only he can (I missed hearing his reports). Afterwards, we get a ride-thru of Mike and Sully to the Rescue over in Disneyland. Marissa Gordon then joins in for a talk about picking the right Disney resort when you have kids (keeping strollers in mind). Steve Swanson from the Muppetcast then joins Shane for an intriguing discussion about the relationship between the Muppet franchise and the Disney corporation, which has had its ups and downs over time. I thought Steve’s views of Disney’s handling of the muppets is really interesting! Time: oops…deleted before I got it.
02/18/11 – Episode 43, Lester again starts off the show with the news (I seriously almost laughed out loud in the middle of the quad at a couple of his comments). Afterward, Shane gives us a recap of the refurbs that are currently going on at the Disney parks. Before Marissa has her segment on flying with children, we get to hear audio from the best pre-show in all of the parks (if you don’t know, then I may have to question your devotion to the parks – it’s Muppetvision!). After that, Shane does some listener feedback before a reflection about the Sherman Brothers and, to a certain extent, the parallels in the relationship between Walt and Roy. Time: 26:35

The Disney, Indiana Podcast

02/20/11 – Episode 68, Oooooooooohhhhhh yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh…we’re going back to the 80s for this show, a time when the hair was big, fishnets were in, the legs were warming, and the ponytails were on the side (God, I loved the 80s…Lita Ford, Sheena Easton, Debbie Gibson, Sheena Easton in the “U Got The Look” video, Linda Ronstadt (okay, technically she was from the ‘70s, but she was still hot), Samantha Fox, Debbie Harry, most of the Bangles…oops, started daydreaming there). They start off the show with a review of a really obscure 80s Disney-related movie (obscure for the 80s, which is saying something!). Buzzy then comes on, and I nearly comb my hair into a Flock of Seagulls ‘do as he spins the records from a lot of 80s Disney songs. I was just waiting for one of my students to pull up next to me on the same frequency that my iPod was on so I could bleed over “Hey Mickey” to their radio. Sticking with the 80s theme, they provide a history and a lot of the audio from the Mickey Mouse Revue. Listener feedback follow (including my report from their last show WOOHOO). Time: 1:15:21

The Disney Brit Podcast

02/15/11 – Vidcast 8, the Disney Brit team pays homage to Mickey’s ToonTown Fair, which recently closed forever. This short video is a montage of pictures from the land…nice tribute, guys! Time: 4:15

Micecast

02/13/11 – Episode 196, as the show rapidly approaches its finale of 200 shows (they still may release shows…just not on a schedule like before), Greg, Mike, and Shaft discuss Disney’s lack of success in the 38^th annual “Annie” awards, which highlight excellence in animation. The talk turns away from the Disney realm and goes to a good talk about the media and its coverage of world events (e.g. Egypt). The end of show delves into podcasting for pay (referring to a recent change to a show hosted by Kevin Pollack). Time: 1:47:23

Mousetalgia

02/13/11 – Episode 120, Love….exciting and new….being right before Valentine’s Day, the fab 4 hosts talk about romance at Disneyland. They bring up successes AND epic romantic fails at the parks. Some of the more memorable ones include: getting wet on Splash Mountain with your loved one, floating through Montro’s gaping mouth, and (more in-line with the topic) dining at the Blue Bayou and watching fireworks. An interesting note here: I’m willing to bet that this is the only podcast that can legally marry you in the parks (Kristen). Their new motto: Moustalgia…they’ll marry ya!! During the opening “bits and bytes” section, a recipe for valentine cupcakes is included – if done correctly, the middle of the cupcake will have a red valentine in it. Good show! Time: 50:57

Mouse Travel Tips

02/17/11 – Episode 52, Rachel starts out the show with ideas on how to budget for an upcoming trip, with talk about driving vs. flying, on-site vs. off-site, and more. They then take us over to Future World at Epcot to examine the Great Piggy Bank Adventure before ending with a review of the Sunshine Seasons counter service in The Land pavilion. Time: 21:20

MuppetCast

02/13/11 – Episode 193, This is one of those podcasts that I know has a big following, and, being a big fan of the muppets (I can do quite a few impersonations of the ones voiced by Frank Oz) I’ve downloaded it a couple of times but never got around to adding it to here. It has been suggested a couple of times, and I’m pleased to say that you’ll see Steve’s show start popping up on here on occasion. With it being Valentine’s Day, what better time to examine the age-old love story between a frog and a pig? This show focuses on Kermit and Ms. Piggy’s tumultuous relationship, both on- and off-screen. Lots of great audio here (it’s early in my listening of the show, but I’m already wondering how he finds this stuff!). Time: 1:10:03

The Pixar Podcast

02/17/11 – Episode 35, in the premiere on the updates, Derrick brings on viral video creator Ivan Guerrero to talk about his “pre-make” trailer of the movie “Up” (if you’re one of those living under a rock and haven’t seen it yet, click here). Ivan talks the “what”, “why”, and “how” with his collection of videos. Time:

Running to Disney/This Running Life

02/14/11 – Episode 16, This show is almost more of an extension of show 15 where he talks about mental games we play with it comes to distance running. The actual topic deals with tapering before a marathon (and, yes, he does talk about WDW Marathon weekend a few times in here). The discussion evolves from struggles with trying to stay slow during tapering to becoming complacent with . In true Gordon form, he keeps the recording running despite what’s going on with his surroundings or whatever tangents tend to occur (e.g. the near road rage incident thanks to a texting driver; offering love advice to teens that might be listening; or hearing Gordon nearly experience his own road rage at the expense of his garage door opener). He gets into a really thought-provoking talk about structured training plans vs. “off-the-cuff” plans and offers a hypothesis that bases the preferred type of training plan as the opposite of the type of job you have (i.e. if your job is really structured, you want a loose plan, or vice-versa). Good show! Time: 52:24
02/16/11 – Audio Extra, I’m including this show because there is a large number of Disney running fanatics who are trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon. The BAA (Boston Athletic Association) changed the registration procedure as well as the minimum times for a BQ. This episode gives his reaction/response to the news. Time: 16:24

WDW Radio Show

02/13/11 – Episode 209, Beci Mahnken’s on the show, which means that it must be time to work on the overflowing mail bag. Questions about where to find characters (especially in AK), pros and cons of a LONG WDW trip before or after a DCL cruise, scuba-diving in the Seas w/ Nemo, lodging for a crew of 6 (2 hotel rooms vs, villas), and more! Time: 1:14:25
02/16/11 – WDW Newscast rebroadcast – in this one, Lou and the Boxpeople talkabout D23’s upcoming Destination D. Time: 21:39

WDW Today

02/14/11 – Episode 838, Len is in the spotlight for this show as he discusses changes to the MK touring plans now that ~~Fantasyland~~ Toon Town is now closed. He provides updates on several MK plans. The visual of Henry standing at the entrance of Toon Town going “BLAH BLAH GO AWAY!!” to simulate its closure still has me laughing. It’s interesting that Len mentions using a short-cut to get from HM to Jungle Cruise – we found that for the first time over Marathon weekend when we were heading to the Tiki Birds to meet up with some friends. Time: 20:06
02/16/11 – Episode 839, Listener question day! Some of the questions/highlights include the bus service at Ft. Wilderness, strategies at the Food & Wine Festival, how to drive Emily at Babycakes crazy, Star Tours 2011 and Star Wars Weekend, those Dyson hand dryers that pull your skin off, and more. Time: 27:14
02/18/11 – Episode 840, Disneyfoodblog author AJ Wolfe is back on this show to talk about the changes to the dining plan menu. With the increase in prices without any changes to benefits, they again question the actual savings that could be obtained by using this. There are also other changes to the plan that they discuss – particularly the bump up to Signature status for Le Cellier. One of the interesting items brought up is the fact that, quite often, people will try to get an ADR but can’t; however, they are able to walk up the same day. At the risk of going on a rant here, I’ll just say that I think a lot of this is people making multiple ADRs so that they’re covered for whatever park they’re at…they show up for only 1 ADR, but this practice blocks out others from getting reservations. Time: 25:20

WEDWay Radio

02/19/11 – Episode 61, We’re rollin’ down the bayou today with Matt and Nate as they take a look at Disneyland’s New Orleans Square. We’ve come to expect a well-researched show with these guys, and they do not disappoint at all here! How many people here know about Fortune Red the fortune-telling pirate? How about the reason Club 33 is called that and why it’s located where it is? Lots of good discussion about the various shops currently and historically there on Royal Street. Time: 1:05:26

A Window to the Magic

02/16/11 – Episode 265, Paul and Tairy (smooch) start off their honeymoon in Disneyland and meet up with Enrique – this is a special trip for Tairy (no, not for the honeymoon, though I guess you could technically consider that too (groan))…it’s her first time there since (smooch) the unfortunate fall a while ago. Since Tairy no longer lives in Las Vegas, a discussion ensues on whether to ever (smooch) visit there again (seeing friends, celebrating birthdays/anniversaries, buying overpriced tickets (aka “losing money”). Tairy admits to (smooch) not being a gamber, to which Enrique responds what everyone was thinking (“Of course you’re a gambler…you’re with Paul”). His ego bruised, Paul then spends the (smooch) rest of the show talking with a limp! In this show, some breaking news about what has happened to the yeti over at Animal Kingdom – apparently they are now making boots out of him. Also in this show, we get to hear audio from the cruise that Paul promised Tairy on their honeymoon, though I don’t think that what she got was quite what she was expecting. I do have a question, though, for the host: what aisle in WalMart can you find the Astro Orbiters? I have always loved hearing Paul’s sense of humor, and he was in rare form in this show – a great one to listen to! Time: 41:33

Disney Podcast Updates, February 2011 - Part 2

2011-02-18T13:24:00.001-06:00

Another week, another round of podcast updates (I think Matt the Esquire may faint at my temporary consistency). Most of these shows were released February 7-12^th. I know that next week I’ll have a Communicore show from the 11^th, but, for now, here you go! This was an interesting week…lots of hoarse voices are heard here, a kidnapping occurs on one podcast, more Dream talk, law students screaming like little girls, a much-anticipated wedding recap by a cat and a dude, and instructions on how to thwart a zombie takeover at WDW (told you it was an interesting week!). Enjoy!

Any and all comments are welcomed! Also, if you know of another podcast that fits here, let me know.

Be our Guest – the best podcast for s’mores! (Go Jay…Go Jay!)

02/10/11 – Episode 306, When the show starts, you immediately feel sympathy for Mike, whose voice is pretty much gone from the get-go. Today, LOVE is in the air as the group talks about romantic things to do at WDW. As an expression of their love, they all want to burn Debbie at the stake for her take on the beautiful Florida weather (when the rest of the country is stuck in the deep freeze). Most of the romantic ideas, as expected, deal with things that are relaxing. Nothing says “romance” like taking in the luxuries at a spa; taking a horse and carriage ride at one of the hotels; hitting one of the beaches (like at the Poly); or kicking your significant other’s ass in checkers at Wilderness Lodge (?!). One of the things that interested me was that dining wasn’t really mentioned, other than Beaches and Cream. I could see places like Jiko, Victoria and Albert’s…places where there likely won’t be as many kids that are suited more for adults…as romantic spots too. Good show! Time: 34:32

Betamouse

02/10/11 – Episode 52 (that makes it a year, right? Well, close, so CONGRATS!!!). Mike Newell and Beci Mahnken join the Betamouse team for a first look at the technology behind the Disney Dream ship. Both had great things to say about the new items on the ship, including the television transmission (all IP now), the enchanted art, the Wave phones (the general agreement is that they hope it is a test for a newer model…interesting how they set it up so that the phones work both on the ship as well as on Castaway Cay), and more! Time: 44:36

Magic Never Ends

02/11/11 – Episode 81, WHOAH!!! Dust off the cobwebs, because Will and Shannon are back from a hiatus to bring you their review of Disney on Ice. They got to see the “Toy Story 3” version of the show and had a great time. The big hits included the Green Army men as well as the couples-skating of Ken and Barbie (I never thought I’d type that in my lifetime). This was an immediate feedback show as they recorded it on the way back from seeing it. Time: 29:24

Mouse Guest Weekly

02/12/11 – Episode 290, this episode is a news/feedback/listener question show. After updating what’s going on in the Disney theme parks (including some discussion on Magic, Memories, and You), they get into feedback, including a split decision on the Villains Tonight show on the DCL ships, questions on going solo vs going with friends, pros and cons of DCL, a listener-provided Blue-sky concept for a Tangled attraction, questions on fitness apps (Brian LaFrazia chimes in – knowing him in passing on Facebook leads me to trust whatever he says about fitness). The show ends just about the same time Eric’s voice ends…he was a trooper to make it all the way through the show. Time: 56:07

Northern Mouse

02/09/11 – Episode 60, Carlos has an amazing interview with former imagineer and Disney Legen…wha? He “falls asleep” as other hosts smuggle in Tim Devine from The Magic in Pixels website. Before they get into some great photography talk (I would SO love to head down there in October for their meetup), they get into a lively discussion about changes in DVC – specifically, they talk about changes to purchasing via resale over direct from Disney. Being that I’m a Wyndham owner, this is typical for a timeshare program – the only way they make money (other than overages on the annual maintenance fees) is to either continually build and sell new shares or buy back shares at a discount and resell at a premium. I’m still fully interested in eventually becoming a DVC member, and this news doesn’t really change my views. We’ll see what the impact is on resale prices and whether Disney ups the amount of ROFR usage. They leave just as Carlos “wakes up”. Really good show, guys…this one was a fun one to listen to! Time: 50:53

Those Darn Cats/Dudes

02/08/11 – Episode 139, Jennifer takes a respite as Lisa brings on new Hubby Trace to talk about the Disney Wedding. They provide a chronology of what happened and included their views on particular items. Some of the interesting things I gleamed from this episode include: what exactly is the proper etiquette the day of the Wedding – are you allowed to text?; is not realizing that there’s an open bar considered alcohol abuse?; does the Grand Floridian have flood insurance?; and everyone cheer if Trace stole a Brazilian tour group “little souvenir”? In all seriousness, congrats to the two of you on your marriage – may you have a lifetime of happiness together! Having the ceremony on Tuesday actually helped me be able to watch it as it streamed live. It was a beautiful ceremony! One thing I did have to comment on: I was really interested in hearing Lisa’s take on how Disney often “plusses” things (freebies) and how some people in the online community feel slighted if they don’t get free things that they heard about from others. This is one of the reasons I only lurk at Disboards and why I have a running joke about everything ruining my vacation while down there. You’ve got it the right perspective there – don’t go in expecting to get special things, and you’ll be surprised if/when things happen. Time: 1:34:06

WDW Radio Show

02/09/11 – Newscast repost – Lou entertains the Box People from the Boardwalk with friends. The discussion revolves mostly around the demise of ToonTown and what’s to come. Time: 21:03

WDW Today

02/07/11 – Episode 835, This show is dedicated to those forgotten restaurants in WDW. No, not those that have shut down…we’re talking about those places that we’ve eaten at and just didn’t see a reason to go back. As you could probably imagine, this topic led to some interesting discussion. For example, Scopa mentions that San Angel is on his list, while Len disagrees. Matt brings up Yak-n-Yeti, and the others disagree. I headed over to the comments section of the website, and, as expected, there was a lively discussion taking place there. I’ll throw my $.02 in here. Mama Melrose...if you read our experience from our trip report back in 2007, you’ll see that this place fits perfectly in here. San Angel? I have to side with Testa on this one. I think it gives a more authentic experience (no, I’m not talking about the themeing around it). You don’t see chalupas, nachos bell grande, etc there…the recipes seem simpler there, which is probably more realistic than most “authentic” Mexican restaurants in our cities. Granted, I love me some Tex-Mex (slop on tortillas, beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream, & then add a ton of refried beans, and I’m happy); however, I think this might be what a menu would look like if I were actually south of the border. Rose and Crown – I liked the place…probably because I can’t find a place around here to get good fish and chips (when you’re as far away from the ocean as you can be, it tends to happen). Tony’s Town Square…Len, if you haven’t read my Marathon weekend survey on TouringPlans, take a look to see my take on that place. Crystal Palace has fallen from grace a little (it will be in my next trip report update, once I finally get it posted), and the only reason we’d go there is to make it in the park ahead of everyone else. Garden Grill – eehhhhh. Good topic! Time: 24:11
02/09/11 – Episode 836, Wednesday show, which means it’s Listener question day! First off, Elgin is pronounced EL-jin (sorry, Matt). Second, zombies – can’t wait to hear where this one goes (hint to the readers: this is foreshadowing). Third: the $180 “Sweetheart Package”… I started laughing around the same time Len did, so that can only mean we were thinking the same thing there (Narcoossee’s anyone?). Third, my mind was really hitting the gutter with the Zelinski/Lewinski gaffe! I’m guessing Newell was glad he was out for this one (guessing it was recorded during his “Dream” time). Time: 29:27
02/11/11 – Episode 837, Oh boy. If you thought there were a lot of comments from # 835, wait ‘til you see the ones for THIS show! Taking the idea from the last show, the hosts determine the best places in WDW to survive the impending zombie apocalypse (friendship boats in Epcot with Twinkies!!)!!! Check your pulse if you don’t laugh at least a little at this show. I LOVED reading the suggestions on Twitter and Facebook, though I still stand firm that POTC is my place to be. You’ve got the fortresses, you’ve got the cannons (they’re real, right?), you’ve got seagulls, crabs, pigs, donkeys, cats, dogs, and prisoners to eat, and you’ve got water everywhere. Besides, once they see Johnny Depp, they’ll just stare and take flash pictures of him (everyone else does!). While they’re staring, you can hit ‘em with a broadside…Fire At Will!! (Who’s Will?). AWESOME Show!!! There are too many quotes from this episode, but I have to mention the Line of the year: “Word comes out that zombies are spotted in Kissimmee, and you don’t have time to get back to your hotel because Disney Transportation is essentially broken down” Time: 17:43

WEDWay Radio

02/09/11 – Episode 60, Matt and Nate take a stroll to the past to look at the idea/concept/design/need/reasoning behind Disney’s MGM Studios. There’s some exceptional information in this show about this park, and most people will probably pick up some new tidbits about the park (e.g. Streetmosphere, old park boundaries, the showdown with Universal, very similar ideas of attractions making its way into current attractions (backlot tour), Eisner’s approach/background, the reason MGM was brought in, and, yes, the “Star of the Day”. Really good show, guys! Time: 1:00:20

Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Pod

02/10/11 – Episode 58, Aaron brings us part 2 of the Spring Break 2010 trip report, only this time, Courtney is missing (not from the park audio…just the recap part). The first piece is an “interesting” eavesdrop of someone complaining about a DHS attraction always being down the same week that they’re on vacation (I wonder if she was wearing lime green). Other highlights include something about helping an elderly lady out in the bathroom (I can’t make that stuff up!), a Yak-n-Yeti review, an MK experience (including an accidental run-in with Tiana…which, in the process, ticked off dozens of patrons (probably wearing lime green), a wet ride-thru of Splash Mountain (protect the equipment at all costs!!!...it sounded like Aaron actually went underwater!), a ride-thru of BTMRR with a nice malfunction at the top of the second hill, a review of Paradiso 37 (I thought the 37 was the # of tequila brands…I stand corrected), and, finally, the audio we’ve all been waiting for – hearing Aaron screaming like a little girl as he rides the Tower of Terror for the first time if you listen to anything else, fast-forward to around 1:07:00 (“Are we about to drop? Are we about to drop? Oh no…oh no OHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHHHHHOOOOOOOAAAAAHHH SWEEEET LORD!!!….whoahwe’regoingBACKUP!!!!”). The show ends with a little pixie dust sprinkled down on the hosts (she wants him). Time: 1:25:01

2010 Archive of Podcast Updates

2011-02-14T12:55:00.000-06:00

This post chronicles the updates done here on the blog for Disney Podcasts in 2010. I was able to maintain a continuous set of updates to the end of August. After that, the decision was made to cut losses and not do the last 1/3 of the year (it was so far past when the episodes posted that nobody was reading them).

01/07/2010
01/15/2010
01/22/2010
01/31/2010

02/07/2010
02/14/2010
02/21/2010
02/28/2010

03/15/2010
03/31/2010

04/15/2010
04/30/2010

05/15/2010
05/31/2010

06/15/2010
06/30/2010

07/15/2010
07/31/2010

08/15/2010
08/31/2010

No further updates for 2010.

Disney Podcast Updates, February 2011 - Part 1

2011-02-11T12:07:00.001-06:00

Here we are, folks, with the first installment of the new setup on the shows. I’m shooting to put out more weekly updates to maintain currency. Most of these shows come from the February 1-6 timeframe. I don’t want to limit the shows in a specific post to a specific timeframe, so you may very well see shows from Feb 1-6 in a later round of updates (thus the change in the way I titled it). I’m back to actually writing my own updates, rather than simply posting the show descriptions – which I think will come as a welcome change to the podcasters; hopefully you’ll be able to tell that I had a little fun with some of the shows. As mentioned in this post, I’m not going to be covering as many shows in order to keep fairly up-to-date. Still, there are a number of shows for this 6-day period. If I add new shows to the master list, I’ll be sure to include the first couple of episodes in the time frame so people can get a feel for what the show is about.

Any and all comments are welcomed! Also, if you know of another podcast that fits here, let me know, and I’ll add it to the master list in the link above.

Enjoy!!!

Be our Guest

02/03/11 – Episode 304, a common theme in the recent shows is the Disney Dream (rightfully so…it sounds like an AWESOME ship). On this show, the hosts pick Pam’s brain on her recent ride on the Christening Cruise of the Dream. Between this show and Mongello’s newscast, I’m going to redouble my efforts to get my wife to agree to a cruise someday. Great material and narrative of the ship! A lot of detail was spent on the dining as well as the age-specific portions of the ship – tweens and teens are going to love those places. Time: 54:19
02/06/2011 – Episode 305, During Snowpocalypse 2011, Heather from Massachusetts dodges the panicked masses running to get French toast supplies (eggs, milk, and bread) to talk with Mike about her most recent trip report, along with two other reports. While this may not seem too exciting, the three trips were spread out over 21 years! The first trip was a honeymoon trip in 1989 at the Disney Inn (Now Shades of Green). Then real life set in, with careers, children, etc. Well, the kids are now teenagers, and teenagers have a tendency to move out and go to college, so they decided to do the “once in a lifetime” family trip. That was two trips ago. The 2010 trip included staying at Port Orleans and a GREAT experience with the teens and dining at Epcot (can you teach my kids to take a chance to eat different foods…PLEASE???). They made the mistake of trying to do everything (remember, this was the once-in-a-lifetime trip). Upon getting home, Heather and her husband turned into all of us and started planning for the next trip (with the lessons learned from the last trip…December instead of June, slowing down, etc). Time: 37:00

Betamouse

02/03/11 – Episode 51, I am SO glad they did this episode! I have heard of their guest before, but I never took the time to look up who Martin Smith was and what he did. Henry, Scott, Jeff, and Nate talk with Martin about what I have (until now) only heard to be an amazing site with tons of videos of past and present Disney attractions. Martinsvids.net is the site. He talks about his trials and tribulations about starting out (he vows never to release some of his first videos). As an example of his work (as he mentions in this show), he shows the evolution of the Land Pavilion. Video 1; Video 2; Video 3. These videos are done in a very professional way and provide a fantastic journey through time of the attractions. (and, yes, folks, he even has videos on Horizons!). If you haven’t listened lately, I love the banter/outtakes after the episode. Time: 58:42 #GoGoGoGo

The Disney, Indiana Podcast

02/06/11 – Episode 67, Scott and Tracey begin the show with a review of D23 – while the DFs out there may cringe when they hear the review, I applaud the hosts for how they handled it – it was a fair evaluation laid out very well. Hopefully they’ll get everything rectified (as and FYI, my wife got me a D23 membership for Christmas, and the delay from when she ordered it to when it arrived – after Christmas – drove her crazy). Well done on this segment! After D23, they give us a segment on Disney and the Academy Awards – and yet again, I learned a LOT about this subject (e.g. Walt Disney is often credited with giving the statue the nickname “Oscar”; and I never knew Randy Newman was part of a storied family when it came to movie music!). Buzzy then takes over and gives us songs to sing to in the car…well, that was my plan anyways when I heard the opening bars of “Beauty and the Beast”. It quickly became a melody of “La Belle et La Bete” as I harkened back to my high school and college French classes! Several songs in French are included (yes, folks, he includes Les Poisson...a must for this interlude). I had to look up “Are you In or Out” though…never heard that one before. The versions of Poor Unfortunate Souls, Cruella De Ville, and We Are Siamese were GREAT! Before ending the show with listener feedback, they provide some well thought-out possible suggestions for how to improve D23 for the casual Disney freak who doesn’t live in So-Cal or central Florida. Time: 1:00:38

Inside the Magic

02/06/11 – Episode 305, Ricky brings on Donald Hahn for a really good interview about the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty, which chronicles the goings-on of Disney in the 80s/90s resurgence of the studios, with such classics as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, etc. Included is a touching discussion about Howard Ashman, who was the songwriter for many of these movies (I tear up every time I hear “Proud of Your Boy”). I missed the viewing of Waking Sleeping Beauty in my hometown because, ironically, we left for vacation to WDW last June. After the interview, Ricky takes on a ride on the TTA with Skipper Ben, where they discuss the new Magic, Memories, and You castle show, the tepid reception to the audio update over at Space Mountain, and a review of Via Napoli. Listener feedback wraps the show. Time: 1:13:43

Magical Definition

02/06/10 – Nathan and Jim talk about the newest Disney release, Gnomeo and Juliet. Jim gives some really in-depth background on the development of the movie (is it just me, or does it seem like this movie was thrown together? Apparently, it wasn’t, and there were a lot of writers involved in it). He also gives a thought-provoking reason why this being released as a Touchstone picture instead of a Disney one. Nathan gives a “meh” review, with a telling critique of the lack of humor (most of the humor in the movie was shown in the trailers). The discussion then turns to planning and the financials, with emphasis on hotels, EuroDisney, Cirque du Soliel (with respect to licensing with Marvel, since DTD technically isn’t a theme park…FYI: Jim got skewered on his blog about this), and more. Time: 41:18

Mousetalgia

02/06/11 – Episode 119, Being a Donald Duck fan, I can honestly say that I LOVED this show as they discussed taking part in an interview at the Disney family museum with the voice of the duck himself, Tony Anselmo. One of the most amazing things that you can gleam from this talk is Anselmo’s actual becoming of the voice – he was always a huge fan of the original voice (Clarence Nash) and worked with him a lot, all the while not trying to “become” the voice (i.e. taking the job away from Nash). Also really interesting was Anselmo’s passion about making sure the writers know who Donald is – on several occasions he would contact the writers and ultimately get them to rewrite certain lines because “it’s not what Donald would say.” This right here is a telling feature of why many of the Disney cartoons are so much more well-received that other studios’ productions. I couldn’t help but laugh about the squirrel rehab center, though (towards the beginning of the show in the roundup). Time: 57:34

Those Darn Cats

02/01/11 – Episode 138, This show intrigued me because they were talking about Hayao Miyazaki’s Ponyo. We’ve watched it on Netflix, and I quit watching after about 20 minutes. My wife and 2 kids, however…they LOVE it. You don’t know how many times my 6 year old screams “HAM!!!!” to me every day (I wish I were making this up). I’m with Lisa a bit on this one as I couldn’t really follow what the heck was going on with all the little ponyos and the weird Liam Neeson, then Ponyo grows up and gets really big and is left at home with her 6 year old friend and a Mom and Dad who are constantly sarcastic at each other and the nursing home/Cocoon vibe. I almost waited to listen to this one with the boys to hear their take on it. Time: 35:14

WaltCast

02/01/11 – Episode 80, this is one of the shorter shows (we’re between interviews). Some of the interesting items talked about included the new lap bars on Splash Mountain (I fully expect Katie to kill Shawn for that pic he posted of her after the drop) and a discussion about the proposed 7 Dwarves mine train coaster and its similarities to BTMRR (I think there will be enough differences to keep the interest without being redundant –with the somewhat independently moving cars, that could possibly be more hair-raising than you think). Shawn also talks a bit about Animal Kingdom at park opening (we hit that at opening every time and do the same thing you did…go straight to Safaris!). Time: 29:56

WDW Radio Show

02/02/11 – WDW Newscast – I didn’t even realize Lou was putting these on the podcast feed! This is a rebroadcast from the same night where the box people (if you don’t know, just Google Mongello Box People) pepper Lou with questions about the Disney Dream as he recently sailed on it. There is some great first-hand information here, and I might have to have my wife listen to this to see if I can FINALLY get her on a ship. Time: 50:27
02/06/10 – Episode 208, Jim Korkis is on, which again means I’m going to enjoy this show! Jim, one of the ultimate Disney Historians, brings his expertise to Disney’s Wilderness Lodge, created by architect Peter Dominick (also of AKL fame). Jim lets us in on so many unknown secrets of the Lodge, which I always consider to be a fabulous treat. After hearing this, you can understand the story being told all the more in the resort. After listening to this segment, I dare you to look at the flooring and the lodge poles in the Atrium and NOT think about this episode. After Jim’s segment, Lou gives updates to Meets of the month and then provides listener feedback. Time: 58:52

WDW Today

02/02/11 – Episode 833, On top of Groundhog’s Day (Babe…..I’ve Got You Babe…), it’s Listener question day! They start off with “Smells from California!” Other questions include Universal’s ExpressPass vs Disney’s Fastpass (I hope Disney never implements something like that), drink(hic)…drink(hic)…drinking around the world (hic) strategies, the promotional DVDs that they send out for the parks (“Synergy…these are all the same faces…for the parks in both places…”), the hatred towards Animal Kingdom (I’m with Henry: with kids, the place takes on a different feel as they try to spot the animals hidden EVERYWHERE in the theming; Nemo means more for the parents…hard to leave with a dry eye sometimes; FOTLK is great regardless; it’s a slow park to savor, and if you can get there during PM EMH in the winter, it becomes an entirely different park in the night-time!) and more. FYI – I remember seeing no Kidcot stuff back in June of 2010. (Phil??? Phil Conners?) Time: 37:08
02/02/11 – Episode 833, On top of Groundhog’s Day (Babe…..I’ve Got You Babe…), it’s Listener question day! They start off with “Smells from California!” Other questions include Universal’s ExpressPass vs Disney’s Fastpass (I hope Disney never implements something like that), drink(hic)…drink(hic)…drinking around the world (hic) strategies, the promotional DVDs that they send out for the parks (“Synergy…these are all the same faces…for the parks in both places…”), the hatred towards Animal Kingdom (I’m with Henry: with kids, the place takes on a different feel as they try to spot the animals hidden EVERYWHERE in the theming; Nemo means more for the parents…hard to leave with a dry eye sometimes; FOTLK is great regardless; it’s a slow park to savor, and if you can get there during PM EMH in the winter, it becomes an entirely different park in the night-time!) and more. FYI – I remember seeing no Kidcot stuff back in June of 2010. (Ned???) Time: 37:08
02/02/11 – Episode 833, On top of Groundhog’s Day (Babe…..I’ve Got You Babe…), it’s Listener question day! They start off with “Smells from California!” Other questions include Universal’s ExpressPass vs Disney’s Fastpass (I hope Disney never implements something like that), drink(hic)…drink(hic)…drinking around the world (hic) strategies, the promotional DVDs that they send out for the parks (“Synergy…these are all the same faces…for the parks in both places…”), the hatred towards Animal Kingdom (I’m with Henry: with kids, the place takes on a different feel as they try to spot the animals hidden EVERYWHERE in the theming; Nemo means more for the parents…hard to leave with a dry eye sometimes; FOTLK is great regardless; it’s a slow park to savor, and if you can get there during PM EMH in the winter, it becomes an entirely different park in the night-time!) and more. FYI – I remember seeing no Kidcot stuff back in June of 2010. (Phil??? Phil Conners? Ned? SLUG!!!) Time: 37:08
02/04/11 – Episode 834, On this show, Matt, Scopa, and Len bring on Laura Spencer (any Disney fan on Twitter knows her name) to talk about her experiences from being on the first Disney World Mom’s Panel to becoming the director of Social Media. Good interview, though I’m a bit concerned about the “moving south or committing suicide” issue LOL!!! Time: 23:41

A Window to the Magic

02/01/11 – Episode 264, Paul is off on his honeymoon with Tairy, so he employs listener Jeremiah for another installment of “Where in the World”. Now, I’ve only been to DL/DCA once; as a result, this one has been bugging me for a while now. I mean, he gives us some material to chew (choo?) on, including a German accent speaking Spanish (on an English-speaking podcast), a gender-confused mobster, and some audio from a short flik that has us getting sprayed, stung, and scared. WTTM is one of the shows that I sorely missed listening to in the past – listening to park audio at 125% speed doesn’t quite work that well. Time: 56:46

Disney Podcast Updates, well...Eventually!!!

2011-02-09T14:22:00.000-06:00

Okay, as pretty much everyone knows, I’m WAAAAY behind on getting the podcasts updated; so much so, in fact, that, even when I do get a batch of shows chronicled, they’re so far outdated that it’s pretty much meaningless. What happened was two-fold:

1. I tried to accommodate everyone who asked me to look over their shows and start posting updates for them. Doing this made the amount of time needed to listen and to write the shows up increase tremendously. It also led to me not being able to remember who said what and when they said it, which further increased the time required to do it. Ultimately, I found myself listening to shows that were two months old and, more importantly, I wasn’t listening to shows because I wanted to – it became a task. I no longer got to actually enjoy the shows; rather, I sped through many of them at 125% speed and catching only portions of the shows. I ended up doing nothing that was my own – all I ended up doing was copying and pasting the show descriptions to the blog and occasionally adding a short blurb. It had very little of my own stuff there, and I didn’t like that. I was getting burnt out and almost dreading turning the iPod on.
2. The other main thing that happened is not uncommon for most of us – that thing we call the real world. On top of being a husband and father; I work full-time as an Economics instructor at Illinois State University. No biggie – everyone has a job. I’ve also taken on the role of Academic Advisor for all Econ majors and minors at the university, so that takes up quite a bit of time I used to have free. Throw in the fact that I also teach courses at the local community college (online and night classes), and that makes for long days. But wait…there’s more! I’m also a Ph.D. student trying to finish a dissertation which will likely be over 300 pages long. Not enough? Okay, I serve on a committee at church (doesn’t take too much time), but when you add it into the mix, along with being the Den Leader and a committee member of the Cub Scouts for my older son, coach of t-ball for the younger son (seasonal, when cub scouts aren’t going on), and assistant coach for the older son (again, seasonal), and there just aren’t many hours left to listen to shows. Throw in all the training I did for my first half-marathon last summer/fall (as well as hours upon hours of trying to fundraise for our team), and the occasional hour to eat/sleep/breathe, and you can hopefully understand why things don’t quite get done.

Something had to change – it was getting to the point where I was losing efficiency/productivity by trying to figure out what to do next.

So here’s what’s going to happen with the Disney Podcast updates…I’m not even going to try to catch up with the rest of 2010. The effort required to do this simply doesn’t justify the returns. What I’m going to do is this:

I’m going to make my “Disney Podcasts 101 for Idiots” blog post as comprehensive as possible, giving exposure to as many podcasts as I can. As always, a description of the podcast as well as a direct link to the iTunes Store page (and perhaps other ways to download). You should hopefully see this change starting in the next week.
I’m going to cut back on the number of shows…I’m going to be much more selective on what gets posted. There will be a core set of podcasts that I will provide updates on (the ones I tend to listen to more often). These updates will be me talking again for the most part…not simply the show descriptions. Of course, this means that a lot of shows that were receiving exposure via the regular updates will no longer be getting them. Don’t worry – on occasion, if I listen to a show that I think deserves special mention (special interview, breaking news, awesome/hilarious segment), there’s a good chance that I’ll include them too.

It’s not the greatest way of doing it, but at least the updates will have a shot at being current. I try to include a mention for @Dis_Pod_Review over on Twitter. Shawn does a fantastic job with currency of the shows and covers a plethora. Please follow him if you want to get a feel for what recent shows being released are talking about – you won’t be disappointed. If you are a podcast host and don’t see your shows being updated regularly, please don’t take it personally – time constraints simply are going to keep me from being fully comprehensive. If you think you have a particular episode that really “hits a home run”, feel free to let me know, and I’ll do what I can to get it in the updates, but I can’t promise that it will get in.

Remember, the goal of my updates is to provide exposure to podcasts…the hope is that people will find my updates when searching for particular topics and then subscribe/become new listeners. I hope to do more weekly updates instead of twice a month to maintain a little more consistency and currency (without those, the blog shrivels up and dies….kind of like what my blog has done). You’ll probably see changes starting in the next week. I deleted over 500 shows from 2010 that I had yet to listen to/report on, and I’ve actually found renewed interest in listening to them – it’s becoming fun again.

February 2010 Poll

2011-02-04T10:24:00.002-06:00

We've got a new poll up for all you Disney Freaks. Let's see what night-time spectacular is considered the best at the WDW/DL parks. Look for the choices on the right-hand part of the screen. Those receiving this via e-mail or RSS feed should head over to the actual blog.

Voting ends February 28th, so vote early and vote often! If your favorite is not included in the list, send me a message at cemushr@hotmail.com and let me know - I'll get it counted for you. If you can't decide between a couple of them, I've allowed multiple selections (just don't select ALL of them, okay?).

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation, June 2010 Trip Report Index

2011-02-04T10:18:00.003-06:00

Pre-Trip

Day 1, Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Day 2, Nautazu!!!
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Day 3, Every Silver Lining's Got a Touch of Grey
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Day 4, Let's Just Say It Wasn't a Good Day
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Day 5, HOT HOT HOT

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3 (sort of)

Day 6, Welcome to Summer

Day 7, Fin (Finally)

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation, June 2010; Day 3, Part 3: Every Silver Lining’s Got a Touch of Grey

2011-02-03T21:51:00.000-06:00

Part II of Day 3 is located HERE.

We all stop before we’re completely stuffed and, after settling the check, we bid Wisconsin adieu (so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight) and play the drums in the African outpost (talk about whiplash!!!).

From Africa we make our way up north to Norway (literally and figuratively). We decide that, so long as we don’t watch the movie, ~~I’ll be able to check out the cast members~~ we’ll be able to get the boys on Maelstrom without too much crying afterwards. It’s a walk-on (Maelstom’s still a Fastpass???), and we’re bewitched by trolls in no time flat. Aaron does get a bit concerned when the boat heads backwards, but quickly realizes that we’re not going to go over the falls (of course not…had we gone over the falls, the polar bear wouldn’t be able to get us!). The ride abruptly ends (though I still think the oil rig section is cool (literally and figuratively)), and, before I have a chance to get the cast member’s phone number, we’re through the theater and out of Norway.

Our journey then takes us southwest (figuratively…not literally) as we arrive at Mexico. We head in and briefly look around before queuing up for the Gran Fiesta Tour. Eric gets the red card of honor, and he holds it for approximately 45 seconds before handing it to the CM at the loading area.

This was a nice, leisurely ride around in air conditioning. I know this attraction doesn’t get a whole lot of love; however, I still kind of like it and try to ride it every other trip or so. After singing with the three caballeros, I peek my head into La Cava del Tequila to see what it’s like and pledge to try to visit this establishment during marathon weekend. We then head out and try to determine what to do.

We weren’t quite sure what we wanted to do, so we decided to head over to Morocco to see if the Aladdin we know and love was working there before getting a Slushie in France. We hopped on a friendship boat and took the last ride of the night over to Italy en-route to Morocco via America and Japan.

Yes, I’m pretty sure I lost all of my non-Disney-freak friends with that one.

Proof:

Italy

The American Adventure

Japan

(ROFL @ Eric)

He was supposed to be in the pic but didn’t want to be in it, so Sheri shoos him away. I had to include him – it was THAT good.

We arrive at Morocco just as Mo-Rockin starts playing. We all hit the bathroom and, while waiting, I relax a bit and listen to the band. After looking around a bit and grabbing some pics…

We are soooooo using this one against him when he's a teenager.

"Ohhhhhh....my life is sooooo miserable!"

… we make our way to France for the drink that will save us from the evening heat.

The only real problem is that it was A) so hot; and B) a fact that the Grey Goose Slushie was a VERY popular drink when it’s hot, the slushies were less slushie and more liquid. Still they were cold, and they cooled us off.

A few pictures around France, and we start to make our way around the rest of the World Showcase on our way back to Future World to see if we can get a ride on Living with the Land. On our way, I get a text from our neighbor. Mac has taken a turn for the worse – it’s not simply us not being there. We walk to the Land pavilion and sit down to quietly talk about what to do without letting the boys know what’s going on. We decide to try calling the vet’s office, knowing full well that the vet (a good friend of ours) was in Germany. We hoped we would catch the other one in the practice there, but, as expected, the office was closed, and Saturdays were by appointment only. We then try calling Steve’s wife, Wendy, for possible guidance on what to do, but we are unable to get a hold of her. We leave a message and then try to figure out who to ask to drive Mac and hour to the vet’s office. There was no good solution here, but we decide to ask Sheri’s father to drive an hour over to get Mac and then drive the hour to the vet’s office. We hated doing that, but we felt that he was the best option. I call our neighbor who’s watching over the cats to get an update and to gauge their diagnosis and to let them know what our plans are for Mac the following morning (in case they get there after Bob picked him up to take him to the vet). They apologize for all that is going on, and we feel that we are the ones to apologize for having them go through this. As I hang up, Sheri and I are both expecting the worst. The boys have done very well for the 15-20 minutes of us not doing anything but sitting and having one of us on the phone a little ways away, but, as you would expect, they’re getting antsy. We head into the Land, only to realize that we missed the chance to ride Living With the Land by about ten minutes.

That added salt to the wound…really.

We start to walk back to the exit, with Sheri and I both feeling like crap. The boys see the optics in the ground, and we let them frolic around for a while:

As we walk under Spaceship Earth, the boys ask to ride it. Needing something to occupy us with something other than what we can only imagine what Mac is going through (and without us being there), we readily agree and walk on. Aaron rides with Sheri this time, and Eric gives me the complete tour of everything as we go by it.

We exit the attraction and make our way to the park exit and towards the buses. As we arrive in the bus queue, Wendy calls, and Sheri and her talk for a while – she tells us to bring our cat up regardless of an appointment (she was going to call the other vet and let him know what was going on). We get back to Kidani with 2 tired kids and 2 depressed parents. Knowing that this vacation just took on a different tone, we choose not to tell the boys what is going on…at least for now. There is little argument from the boys to getting into bed. Sheri and I turn in, knowing full well that we’re in for a night of very little sleep.

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation, June 2010; Day 3, Part 2: Every Silver Lining’s Got a Touch of Grey

2011-02-01T09:29:00.001-06:00

Part 1 of this day is HERE

Okay…next up is another first for the Mushfam – we’re going to try doing the Kim Possible Experience for the first time. We head over to the bridge and wait for only one person to get our Kimmunicator…seriously, it’s not busy at all:

Secretly, I’m hoping that we get Norway for our country, for three reasons: 1) I’ve heard that the Norway one was pretty cool; 2) It’s fairly close to the front, so we won’t have to walk too much; and 3) it’s Norway, which means gorgeous female cast members. I think about the timing, with our Fastpasses for Soarin and lunch to shoehorn in, and they let me change the time to 1:00 for…you guessed it…NORWAY!!! Oh, and no, I didn’t specifically request that one – it was fate!

With Kim Possible Fastpasses in hand, we now have a dilemma: our Soarin FP return time is coming up soon, but we’re also hungry and need to grab a bite to eat, but we want to avoid the crowds. We weren’t quite hungry yet, and it was just around 11. After a knock-down, drag-out argument, we decide to head over to Canada to look around for a bit and check out O Canada.

I figured the boys wouldn’t like the movie, but they did fairly well.

After that, we had another argument on what to do next. Several minutes of arguing, coupled with a bathroom break, ensue. Finally we agree to go next door to the U.K. to grab some fish and chips (it was a bit early, but the crowds hadn’t made it to WS yet). I remember how amazing the fish was when we met up with a friend of ours during our anniversary trip back in 2007, so I was really looking forward to it. What I wasn’t looking forward to was the table of moronic teen-aged boys who were teasing the birds with food. Of course, they were seated right next to us, which meant that we were nearly under attack for much of the meal. A CM came over and, in the way only Disney CMs can do, chastised them with a smile in the nicest way possible. The boys said they would stop doing it, and they did…until the CM was out of eyeshot. Sure enough, the same CM saw them a few minutes later – how he controlled himself and maintained the Disney aura, I’ll never know, because I was about to throw the two boys into the lagoon. Of course, Aaron and Eric wanted to try it out; one well-timed set of looks from Sheri and me was enough to know that they would have to find their own way back to Illinois if they tried to feed the birds.

Drama aside, the food was really good, as expected. A surprise hit was the stack of shortbread cookies that came as the dessert. Everyone except Eric loved them, and Aaron successfully lobbied to have most of Eric’s. Unfortunately, that was a LOT of sugar, which, coupled with the heat and the grease from the 7.4 pieces of fish he ate, didn’t sit well in Aaron’s stomach.

He entered whining mode before we even got out of the U.K. We had to revisit the bathroom from the last argument again – Aaron felt much better afterward (no, he didn’t barf – I’ll just stop there). After that stop, we sneak through the gardens and make our way up back up to the Land. We intentionally didn’t tell Eric where we were going, because we knew he’d resist because he’s not a fan of that ride. As expected, he’s not thrilled when we pass the sign for the Land. We got there about 4 minutes after our FP return window closed, but, as expected, we were okay. We flew by the standby line and had daggers stared at us the entire way – I’m almost glad there’s that wall that separates the FP return from the standby line for much of the walk. We’re in the queuing area within 10 minutes, and we find ourselves in the EXACT same row and numbers (bottom row, center). Kronk clears us to fly, and all the worries are temporarily forgotten for that short duration.

We start to make our way back to the World Showcase and nearly combust spontaneously. As we make the turn left towards the land of porcelain goddesses (AKA Norway in case you haven’t figured it out yet), we make an executive decision to grab something to drink. The boys get Sprite and water while Sheri gets a strawberry margarita and I get a draft Dos Equis.

Yep…about time to head back after this.

We make it to the staging area, and I’m bummed to find that it’s not anywhere near Akershus or Kringola, where the porcelain goddesses tend to reside in the land of Beauty. We get the Verizon phone...

...which looks almost exactly like the ones we use, and I have a passing thought of terror as I fully expect to hand in the wrong phone. I won’t go into the full detail of the experience…I’ll just let the videos show a couple of items.

All in all, we all give it a thumbs-up for this episode of the game. Being in Norway, we had to have a little bit more fun...

All in all, we all give it a thumbs-up for this episode of the game. The heat is really starting to take its toll, however, and Sheri and I both look at each other at the same time and nod in agreement to start making our way back to Kidani. Before we make it out of WS, Eric decides that his legs no longer work and begs to be carried. Being the kind, caring, and compassionate father, I tell him to suck it up and march on! We detour into MouseGears for a brief respite from the sun. Somehow, Eric’s legs started working again (it’s a Christmas Miracle!). None of us wanted to leave the building, and we started plotting the next building to go to in order to stay cool…Hey…the Disney Visa Meet-n-greet is over in Innoventions West. Let’s head over there! Everyone else had the same idea, apparently, because the line was HUGE! Nope…the marginal benefit of remaining in the A/C in a long line was outweighed by the marginal cost of time and comfort (I drew a graph). We head out, and Eric’s legs nearly fall off near the gravestones. We wait only a few minutes before we’re on the bus (MORE A/C!!!). Back to Kidani, over the Himalayas, and into our studio.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz (all 4 of us).

About 2 hours later, we all simultaneously start stirring. We freshen up, wave to the zebras grazing outside our balcony, and are back on the bus to Epcot by around 4:15. After we get on, Miss June 2010 gets on after us, and Sheri makes sure to stare at me staring at her. We get to Epcot soon after and start to make our way over towards World Showcase. We’re a bit early when we get to Germany, so we relax a bit out in the promenade before our buzzer goes off.

It’s our first time at Biergarten, so we don’t quite know what to expect, though we’ve read and heard reports about it. A few minutes later, we get buzzed, and we’re seated with a family from Monroe, Wisconsin. They had a girl that was about Eric’s age, so we discuss the dowry with them as we order our drinks. Sheri and I both go with the German beer flight.

We then head up to get our plates full of German grub. I’m a bit worried as I’m not a big fan of sauerkraut. I start off with a plate of salad as I help Aaron load his plate up with mac-n-cheese and bratwurst.

I sit down and grab a drink before realizing I should have grabbed a pic for AJ (sorry!).

Beck's Regular, Franziskaner Weisse, Beck's Marzen Oktoberfest and Spaten Optimator Dark

The band starts up within a few minutes of our sitting down with our meals, and we get to enjoy the entertainment. The kids (including Eric’s future bride) head down to the floor to dance, and we move so Eric can head down and show the world his moves (he’s definitely the dancer of the two boys). He heads out and…

Well……..that didn’t go the way we expected it to go. This is the kid who would go out on the dance floor of a wedding reception not knowing anyone out there and just go slam dancing for an hour. He comes back, throws back a shot of milk for courage, and heads back out.

Sigh

Unwilling to wait any longer, Eric’s wife-to-be dumps him for another one…one who’s not afraid to strut on the dance floor. I demand my dowry back from her father, and he returns the piece of pocket lint I gave him earlier. Then, the most unexpected thing happened.

Aaron - the one that’s too cool to go out on the dance floor - heads out to do the chicken dance.

(GASP)

Eric follows him, and awaaaay theeeey go!

I think they were shooting for a world record for number of revolutions on the swinging part (poor Eric went flying the first time around!).

Seeing the carnage of the chicken dance, the band calls it a set and heads off-stage for their short break before the next time out. The boys run back up and, famished from that intense 4-minute workout, we all head up for dessert.

While we eat the most-important course, we gab with the Wisconsin family about all sorts of things. Our sever drops off the checks, and both families got pics:

Continued HERE

Disney Podcast Updates, August 16-31, 2010

2011-01-27T10:48:00.000-06:00

Hi there! If you arrived here from a search for something Disney-related, chances are that it's a topic in one of the podcast episodes listed below. Just search for the text you're looking for, subscribe to the podcast, and enjoy the show!

If you are interested in listening to any of these episodes or are looking for Disney podcasts, you've hit the jackpot! While I'm behind schedule, I've got nearly 15 months of Disney podcast shows chronicled here, with continual updates. I have links to subscribe for most of these shows in my post HERE. Also, if you’re willing, you can help these shows out by posting a review over on iTunes. The more they get, the higher up they appear on searches. If you do start listening to a podcast as a result of what you’ve seen on here, please let the podcasters know that you found them from my blog!

If you're a podcaster checking up on what I'm saying about you, then all I have to say is, "quick making shows for a week or two so I can get caught up!!!!!"

57 shows are included in this round of updates, with a whole slew of different topics. It was kind of nice having more variety this time - when major events happen, a lot of the shows cover the same thing. Enjoy!

As always, please note that this again is not a fully comprehensive list of the Disney Podcasts that are out there (it's close, but there are a few that aren't included). Mike Hamilton has created Disneypodcastdirectory.net, which he periodically updates with new podcasts and removes dead casts. He also has the automated RSS (historical) feeds of the podcasts. This is more of a cross-section of what is currently being talked about…perhaps something may sound interesting, and you'll subscribe to listen to that topic. Also, Shawn Rees does an absolutely amazing job posting more real-time updates on Twitter. Follow @dis_pod_review if you aren't already doing so.

Any and all comments are welcomed! Also, if you know of another podcast that fits here, let me know.

Be our Guest

08/17/10 – Repost of August Live Show, originally aired August 15^th. Time: 2:10:51
08/19/10 – Episode 256, Today we have a discussion on the many discounts that Disney offered this week for travel through most of 2011 to Walt Disney World. We discuss our ideas on what we think this might mean for the future, and we give our thoughts on unique ideas that Disney hasn't tried yet that might entice folks to book a new Walt Disney World vacation. We know today's show was kind of all-over-the-place, but thought we needed to discuss this important topic! Time: 43:01
08/22/10 – Episode 257, Today we take a virtual walk around Asia at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park. We discuss our thoughts on the attractions, shopping, and dining in this area. Time: 39:35
08/26/10 – Episode 258, Today we take some time to look at Disney's Port Orleans - Riverside Resort. We discuss the two distinctly different experiences within this one resort - The Mansions and Alligator Bayou. We also discuss the theme, recreation, dining, shopping, and more! Finally, we wrap-up by discussing when moving from a Value Resort to a Moderate might make sense for you! Time: 37:35
08/29/10 – Episode 259, Have a super week everyone! Thank you for starting your week with us! Today each of us gives our "Top 7 Experiences" that we want to see during our October trips. Hear the things that are going to mean the most to us when it comes to visiting WDW during this time of the year! Please let us know what you are really looking forward to in "Top 7" style! Time: 38:35

Betamouse

08/19/10 – Episode 27, This week we have a very special guest, Matt The Esquire from the Mouse Droppings Podcast, dfmylife.com (not for the kids in the room), and the new Table for One podcast (find it on iTunes!). He was lucky enough to test something VERY BETAMOUSE in the parks a couple of weeks ago, and joins us to discuss this very exciting new playtest from WDI. (Mush: big WOOT having Matt on there! It was interesting – I wonder how it ties in with the Gowalla partnership…FYI: that’s a future show on Betamouse…look for it in the December updates). Time: 34:53
08/26/10 – Episode 28, This week Team Betamouse discusses the new and innovative technology on the yet to launch Disney Cruise Line ship the Disney Dream! We’re sorry about the audio on this one folks! The Panel watches a video posted on the Disney Parks Blog that demonstrates some of the fantastic new technology on board the Disney Dream and then weighs in with their thoughts. Make sure to watch the video before listening to the show if you can! Special thanks to listener Damien Zoomers for sending this our way! Some of the new technology includes: The interactive magic play floor for kids; A Turtle Talk with Crush like experience; Virtual portholes; Interactive art; and The AquaDuck. The Panel discusses the positives and negatives to each addition such as: The technological advances of the play floor; How the Turtle Talk with Crush show will interact with guests on the ship; Are the virtual portholes cheesy; and how will guests interact with the art on the ship and will the technology be outdated too soon? Time: 29:08

The Disney Pincast

08/29/10 – Episode 125, Welcome to another edition of The Disney Pincast. Join John Rick for Disney Pin Trading news, upcoming pin trading opportunities around the world, profiles of I.P.L.S. member numbers #109 #38; 110 , the Random Selection Contest a review of the Trade City Silent Auction Catalog, pin releases from the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts, and much more!!! (Info on the IPLS is on the DiPLA group over on Facebook). Time: 1:26:24

Disney Tidbits

08/22/10 – Episode 82, Falling down the “rabbit hole” to the reality of Wonderland. Time: 15:46

The Disney, Indiana Podcast

08/22/10 – Episode 55, Scott and Tracey (I’LL BE THE NEW CO-HOST!!!) tackle Ratatouille…no, not the food, the Pixar movie. As is now the norm for this show, they provide tons of great info the film, including Easter Eggs (Toyota Pizza Planet truck, for example). ZombieHunterTony joins them for an interview – Tony is a Disney (and Zombie) fan as well as a restauranteur (professional trained) who loves the movie. Buzzy provides the music for the atmosphere (from Ratatouille as well as other French-based Disney music…then segues to other Disney music (I haven’t heard the one from Bolt for a long time!)). It’s a good segue as they then talk about “Disney Dogs”…it is the dog days of summer, you know. The Mortis crew temporarily suspends the domination of Scott’s ego to join Disney, Indiana for the dog days discussion. After a call from the clairvoyant projectionist at the Main Street Cinema, they wrap the show. Time: 2:07:23

The Disney Brit Podcast

08/18/10 – Episode 48, We finally reach our first big milestone as the Disneybrit Podcast celebrates its 2 year anniversary. This special show is packed with some very different segments along with the very familiar. Join us as we take another wander through the Magic Kingdom in our Around the World Segment. This week, we take a look at Tomorrowland's Shopping and Dining offerings. Next is the return of the Disneybrit Trivia Quiz as we bring you the questions and answers on this special edition. (Mush: Congrats on 2 years!!) Time: 1:40:14
08/31/10 – Episode 49, Join us for the first show of our third year as we take a look at the latest news and rumours found around the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris Resorts. Next up we welcome the return of Adam's Daily Diary in Walt Disney World and to finish off the show we take a look at the Disney Dining Plan and decided if it is worth the money or not. Follow us on an in-depth discussion of the financial implications and just how free, free dining is. Time: 1:50:38

Inside the Magic

08/22/10 – Episode 281, After the news, we visit the World of Cars Online premiere event including interviews with actor Cheech Marin and Pixar's Cars Franchise Manager Jay Ward to learn more about the new online community and more Pixar fun. Then Skipper Ben takes us to Neverland on Peter Pan's Flight and ITM listener Reid reviews the Toy Story 3 video game. Time: 57:04
08/29/10 – Episode 282, Halloween season is approaching in Central Florida so this week Ricky previews the three area's major spooky events: Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at the Magic Kingdom, Halloween Horror Nights 20 at Universal Studios, and Howl-O-Scream 11 at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Included is an interview with Halloween Horror Nights creators Mike Aiello, Patrick Braillard, and TJ Mannarino. Plus, we have plenty of Disney and theme park news and we share your questions and stories. Time: 1:08:04

Keys to the Kingdom

08/19/10 – Episode 138, Today we look at the new specials potpourri that Disney has released. We will try to help you decide which deal might be best for you while trying to figure out why Disney continues to drop so many specials at one time. Also on today's show: latest Disney news. Time: 1:13:59
08/26/10 – Episode 139, Have you been concerned about traveling to Disney and getting stuck in the rain? Today's show covers the rainy day theme. Find out what the podcast team does when it rains at Walt Disney World. Also on today's show latest Disney news. Time: 1:19:30

Magic City Mayhem

08/18/10 – DisFanMayhem, Part 1, Admiral Duke of the DisFanReview comes to Orlando for the first time! (Mush: they hit IOA and ride Spiderman, Jurassic Park, and WWOHP for a butterbeer test. Duke’s younger than I thought he’d be!) Time: 5:51
08/22/10 – DisFanMayhem, Part 2, Duke visits the Magic Kingdom for the first time!! (Including a classic “That’s what she said” moment…yeah, you can guess what was said before when he first saw the castle). Time: 5:35
08/25/10 – DisFanMayhem, Part 3, TEST TRACK!!!! We get stuck for a little bit, meet up with Lee Scott and a couple other tid bits. (Mush: nice job getting Duke’s reaction to the semi in TT!) Time: 6:18

Magical Definition

08/22/10 - On this week's show, Jim Hill and Nathan Rose explore the world of Disney's Gaming, including the upcoming Epic Mickey for the Nintendo Wii, and Tron Evolution. Time: 35:29
08/29/10 - Even though Halloween is two months away, the Magical Definition Disney Podcast is ready to scare you up some information about Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party and Universal Studios Halloween Horror Nights. Time: 40:07

Micecast

08/22/10 – Episode 171, Shaft makes his first trip to Walt Disney World since MiceCast went On-The-Air. Indeed, he calls into this show live from the shores of Crescent Lake. Time: 1:42:58

Mouse Droppings

08/28/10 – Season 2, Episode 2 (you threw me with the Mouse Lounge numbering). On this episode, we join Matt on a trip to Epcot, literally! (and he does mean literally…I screamed ‘NINE!!!’ and scared a student. Best line of the extra song: “You never say ‘hey’, just ‘GET OUT OF MY WAY!”) Time: 47:11

Mouse Guest Weekly

08/21/10 – Episode 265, Mouse Guest talks music this week! Specifically, about some of our favorite musical acts in and around Walt Disney World. First, we have a little feedback on the TTAPMBBQ, or whatever they're calling it now, previous shows and more. Then, the news of Toy Story 3's dominance and the latest deals from Disney Parks. Finally, it's on to the music, highlighting our favorite acts, and calling on you, the listener, to share yours! Time: 54:34
08/28/10 – Episode 265, Since it's a slow news week in the Disney universe and Eric hasn't seen his family in a week, we decided to put together a WMGW show for you. The theme this time is "Happiness," and we've picked out 20 of the happiest tunes from the Disney library. Enjoy! Time: 56:42

Mouse Lounge

08/29/10 – Season 5, Episode 1, Pixie Dusted Productions presents... Disneyland's, Billy Hill and the Hillbillies (Mush: AWESOME!!!!! We definitely have to see these guys next summer when we head out to DL. Thanks for sharing this one!) Time: 23:28

Mousetalgia

08/16/10 – Episode 94, Lines and Tiggers and bears, oh my! Team Mousetalgia looks at Critter Country and the defunct Bear Country Jamboree in the latest listener email show. Other topics include Disneyland candy, DCA can't-misses, park gumbo, favorite eats, Disneyland memories, the Haunted Mansion's brides in the attic (old and new), penning Calhouns, Pixar lands in Oakland, and more. Plus - Newsies! Time: 1:13:42
08/23/10 – Episode 95, Mousetalgia reports on the Pacific Northwest Mouse Meet, where the team met Bob Gurr, Margaret Kerry, Disney author Jeff Kurtti, and more fascinating Disney insiders at a fan gathering near Seattle, Washington. Kristen beats trivia master Lou Mongello at the Disney Pyramid game, Dave greets Mousetalgia listeners, and Becky talks education with Bob Gurr. Meanwhile, Jeff reports on a John Canemaker event at the Walt Disney Family Museum featuring John's new book about animation legends Joe Grant and Joe Ranft. Plus - help send Jeff to the Archives, Mousetalgia plans a meet-up, and more! Time: 1:24:48
08/30/10 – Episode 96, Tommy Kirk tells stories from his career with the Disney Studio at the Walt Disney Family Museum, and Team Mousetalgia reports on the event. Also - the team remembers Disneyland's Swiss Family Treehouse, listener feedback, and the return of Kingdom Comedy! Plus bonus features - Kristen pulls out the accordian, Becky explains the threat posed by ostriches, Dave glimpses Pete Docter, Jeff talks tall trees - and more! Time: 1:17:59

Passporter Moms

08/18/10 – Episode 30, Join Jennifer and Sara as they discuss this week's news and countdown their Top 10 Snacks at Walt Disney World! (Mush: fun one to listen to!). Time: 42:43
08/25/10 – Episode 31, Listen to two of the "Dads" from the Disney Moms Panel talk to Jennifer and Sara, plus hear our answers to listener questions. Time: 38:03

Remember the Magic

08/16/10 – Episode 42, Hello everyone and welcome to Remember the Magic, the show where the magic of Disney is brought back to you in the form of attraction discussion. In this week’s show we'll be giving you MarcRTM's Trip Report from Walt Disney World, and also have special guests on to share their Disney Parks Magical Moments. Time: 30:29
08/24/10 – Episode 43, In this week’s show we give you the last of our two parter of Disney Parks Magical Moments, some news, and a shocking announcement at the end of the show. Just relax as we bring you to the magic. Time: 21:46

Running to Disney

08/16/10 – Episode 76, Gordon completes his first Triathlon! Mountain Lakes Sprint Triathlon, August 14, 2010. Total time: 1:38:11 Swim 600 yds: 11:47; Bike 16.2 miles: 55:47; 3 mile run: 24:41. (The swim is still the thing that scares me from doing one of these…congrats!) Time: 1:06:18
08/30/10 – Episode 77, Ride along in his car, as Gordon reflects on a recent article in Triathlete magazine about the mental aspect of racing, training, and running. He shares examples from his life and what he has learned from his running and from others more seasoned than he. (Another awesome show, Gordon!) Time: 1:02:06

Those Darn Cats

08/17/10 – Episode 117, Can Disney movies help with midlife crisis? Maybe . . .Time: 29:39
08/24/10 – Episode 118, The Peoplemover is back! Or is it? (make sure to add an exclamation point at the end LMAO!!!) Time: 22:50

WaltCast

08/17/10 – Episode 56, A short show this week - Mainly excited about the return of "Wishes". Time: 12:08
08/24/10 – Episode 57, This week we discuss which attractions should have single rider lines that don't. Time: 42:49
08/31/10 – Episode 58, Bryan Ripper makes his first post-AATM appearance on a Disney Podcast this week! Katie and I also discuss how to avoid bad weather in the Parks. Time: 41:20

WDW News Today

08/18/10 – Episode 157, To kick off this week’s show, we have your Walt Disney World Resort News and Rumor Report. In this week’s report, we have a lot to discuss, including the extension of the Main Street Electrical Parade at the Magic Kingdom, the end of High School Musical at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a few updates on Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, and we’ll tell you why you may soon be able to spend a night inside the Haunted Mansion on your Walt Disney World vacation. Following the report, WDWNT Reporter Adam Roth joins me to recap the events of Star Wars Celebration V in Orlando, as well as the one-night-only mega-event that was “Last Tour to Endor” at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Time: 1:56:43
08/23/10 – Episode 158, On this week’s show, we have one of our signature segments focusing on one of Walt Disney World’s signature attractions. It’s “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” of Space Mountain at the Magic Kingdom. We’ll go step by step through what we like and don’t like about the original version of the world’s most famous roller coaster. Time: 1:13:16

WDW Radio Show

08/16/10 – Episode 183, There is so much more to experience in Walt Disney World beyond the attractions, shows, resorts and dining options. In fact, part of what I enjoy doing on this show is introducing you to things to do beyond the parks that might enhance your vacation, or even give you yet another reason to come and visit. So this week, we’re going to take a look at golfing at Walt Disney World for both the seasoned golfer who may not realize the world-class courses available to them, and those amateurs and ever first-timers who may be looking for yet another way to spend some time on their visit. In a new Disney contest this week, I’ll ask you to use your ears to see how well you know Walt Disney World. I’ll then have a few announcements about some upcoming Disney meets and events and then play more of your voicemails at the end of the show. Time: 1:16:01
08/20/10 – Video Extra, Join Lou Mongello and friends from WDW Radio as they explore and enjoy the exhibits, characters, and more from Disney's D23 Expo in Anaheim, CA. Time: 9:58
08/23/10 – Episode 184, This week, I’m pleased to be able to share with you an interview with another Disney Legend. And this one is special because I had the rare opportunity to speak with one of the original Imagineers, and a man who is credited with designing just about anything with wheels for the Disney parks. He is Bob Gurr, whose work on designing the Monorail, OmniMover, Audio-Animatronics, Main Street vehicles and countless others earned him the Disney Legend status in 2004. I had a chance to sit down with Bob and interview him on stage in front of a crowd of Disney enthusiasts at a recent meet, and recorded the audio to share with you. It’s a fascinating look at the life of a man whose work was instrumental in the development of attractions which continue to delight millions of guests to this day. (Mush: If you haven’t heard Bob Gurr interviewed yet, do yourself a favor and take the time to listen. This guy knows probably as much about Disney parks history as anyone, and he’s not afraid to shoot from the hip with what he thinks.) Time: 1:29:07
08/29/10 – Episode 185, This week, we’re going to visit with the first real wizard in to make his home in central Florida, as we step aboard the Walt Disney World Wayback Machine and talk with Merlin, from Disney’s Sword in the Stone. Merlin crowned the Temporary Ruler of the Realm for many years in Fantasyland, and we’ll talk one on one with a truly magical man who played Merlin - Jim Korkis. He’ll tell us about the show, what it was like to play Merlin, and we also get a chance to learn more about the man who is a real magician, Disney historian and true storyteller. (Mush: good show – never realized Jim was a character in the parks). Time: 1:09:24

WDW Today

08/16/10 – Episode 760, Today, we discuss recent increases in ticket options at WDW. Time: 23:55
08/18/10 – Episode 761, Listener questions. Topics include good seafood on property, what pavilion they would like to see added in WS, Safaris causing labor/pregnancy problems, strategies with the “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” promotion, and more. Time: 31:18
08/20/10 – Episode 762, Today, Matt, Mike, Mike, and Len discusses different ways to attack the parks during Extra Magic Hours (Mush: with kids, hit the am EMH and skip evening. Adults-only, depends on timing in the vacation…yes to am EMH early on…perhaps yes to pm EMH if we can make it to the last hour without crashing). Time: 22:22
08/22/10 – July 2010 Live show, originally aired on MWR 07/18. Time: 1:59:14
08/23/10 – Episode 763, Today, we discuss extra things we'd do if we had extra time at WDW. (Mush: The visual image of Len doing Tea at the Grand Floridian still has me snickering…such a lovely scene. Oh, and trying to commandeer the Irvine (AVAST!) LMAO!!!). Time: 20:49
08/25/10 – Episode 764, Listener questions. Topics include: Le Cellier increasing to 2 TS credits next year, seeing if the Cinderella suite can be used for special events (proposal), what kids can do at the Flower and Garden Festival, potential Poly issues, and more. Time: 32:21
08/27/10 – Episode 765, Today, Mike returns from WDW and discusses what worked and didn't work with his vacation. (Mush: Matt “Paul McCartney” Hochberg, actually sang!! Oh, and Kim Possible: New England sounds interesting). Time: 24:05
08/30/10 – Episode 766, Today, Matt, Mike*2, and Annette (she’s on a roll with consecutive shows!) talk with Len about a new developed Touring Plan for families that have older and younger kids. Time: 17:07
Unsure – August Live show, originally aired 08/29/10. Time: 2:07:49

WEDWay Radio

08/21/10 – Episode 48, Matt and Nate take a look at the progress made at Disney California Adventure. We originally looked at this topic in March of 2010, but much has changed since our original show covering the California Adventure expansion/refurbishment and Nate takes us on a tour through the changes after a recent trip. Time: 1:11:31

A Window to the Magic

08/18/10 – Episode 249, This week, Paul fulfills a request by "Yo Paulie" from the wttm forums for a show about the transitions that naturally occur in the ambient sounds at the Walt Disney World Resort. As usual, Paul takes this concept WAY too far, and presents a show that demonstrates the awe and wonder of a newbie (Tairy) exploring WDW for the very first time. This show is 86 minutes long if you are a casual listeners, and if you are a hardcore WTTM fan, enjoy part 2.If you have never been to WDW, blame Paulie for this show... Time: 2:58:10

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation, June 2010; Day 3, Part 1: Every Silver Lining’s Got a Touch of Grey

2011-01-21T10:31:00.001-06:00

Need to go back to Day 2? It's HERE.

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeppppp…the thumb finally calmed down a few hours after everyone fell asleep, allowing me to join the slumber party and get a little bit of shut-eye. Everyone got some good sleep. We dress, hop out onto the balcony to say hello to the giraffes, and dive head-first into the donuts. Sheri makes coffee, and we’re good to go for our long adventure…wait for it…all together now…to the lobby. On the way, I start counting the number of steps from the door to the lobby and find that it’s 600 steps. We make it to the bus stop, get a pic, and, within 1 minute, hop on an arriving Epcot bus. The boys choose to sit together…away from us. I’m not sure which I’m more worried about…when they always fight or when they get along and are plotting evil things together.

Within no time, we make it to Epcot. As we get in line at the turnstiles, I hand out the tickets (“Mickey! Pluto! Goofy!”). A minute or two later, I get a text from the neighbor saying that the cat was still lethargic but was at least at a different area and was eating a little bit of food. Since he was eating less food, I made the executive decision to cut back on the insulin a bit to avoid him going into diabetic coma. A couple more texts are exchanged between us before ending textfest, and I am grateful to put the phone away. A bit later, we switch lines as we realize another side of the turnstile is going to be open. They start letting us through, and we head through the gravestones and under the golf ball en masse to the rope near the fountain of nations. We still have about ten minutes to go before the rope is dropped, and, with the boys calm, I take the time to listen to some of the conversations and watch the actions of some of the folks around us. Now, if this describes any of you who read this, sorry! I got to see people constantly trying to push forward, with others commenting that they couldn’t understand why they had to hold us up (“why can’t we just go now?”). Some were complaining that there was no need to be there so early because there’s still a crowd, while others griped about the heat. I had one woman next to me make it her personal goal to explain to me and wifey all sorts of information about WDW that we know is rubbish but didn’t have the heart to tell her, until she mentions something way out there like buying special Fastpass tickets or taking the monorail to Studios. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore and corrected her. I could tell she didn’t believe me as she pushed forward past us to get nearer to the rope.

We do the countdown to the rope drop and start walking west towards the land as folks go running past us, some dragging their kids behind them. We team up with a couple other families also walking to Soarin and laugh at those sprinting. More than once we utter under our breaths something like “the attraction will still be there in ten minutes!” As we enter The Land pavilion, Sheri and I get into the classic argument of riding it versus getting a Fastpass. My view: grab a Fastpass for Soarin and head over to TT so we can get it knocked out before the FP return starts up, which slows the standby queue. Sheri’s view: ride Soarin now because it’s her favorite ride and her stats-geek husband doesn’t know what he’s talking about. We go back and forth for a couple of minutes while we head down to the lower level . Wifey ends up winning (like there was any doubt), and I hope that we get out quickly enough to make it to TT and in the loading area before 10. We fly through the Soarin queue and walk up until just before the right curve where the CM has us go left or right. We only wait a few minutes before we are directed right. We are queued in the bottom row of the center section and are listening to Kronk tell us about those little beauties. We’re in, we’re off, and we’re up over the clouds! Eric remembers the fireworks at the end and is already apprehensive about it. I see him putting his hands over his ears at the finale. We’re dark, we’re down, and we’re out of the erector set in fairly decent time. As we head out of Soarin, the boys and I peel off to the side and grab Fastpasses.

I look at the watch and see that it’s around 9:40. I want to get us over to Test Track as quickly as possible in the hopes that we can get on before 10. We head up the stairs and out of the Land, and I’m sprinting…dragging the kids behind me. Okay, we walked, but I knew that, if the TouringPlans folks saw what we were doing, they’d revoke my membership to their site. We make it to Test Track around 9:45, and the wait time is posted at 30 minutes.

Uh Oh.

Sure enough, around 10:00, in comes the FP returnees, and the standby line slows down dramatically. We finally get to our cars around 10:25.

Forgive me, oh Len, for I have sinned.

It’s a good ride, and the four of us love the outside speed test! The on-ride pic is great, so I put them on my Photopass card. We then head outside and let the boys mess around in the water area of TT for a minute

Up next is out of this world yet right next door. Yep, despite Sheri’s protests, there are three of us that want to do Mission: Space. I want to go with the Orange version, but I’m out-voted 3:1 on that. At least I was in the majority to get in the attraction in the first place. We go green and walk into the video room. Lt. Dan gives us the encouragement we need, and, before we know it, we’re not spinning (Did I mention I wanted to do the orange version?). The boys both love it, and Sheri tolerates it. I almost ask to see if they want to go again in orange but decide against it – mainly because we have the next surprise lined up for the boys. We first try to get a picture.

Grrrr

We head through the Innoventions East breezeway and head past the fountain…

Yes, folks, we’re going to forego the Parent of the Year Award and introduce them to Beverley…

…only it didn’t go exactly as planned.

Well, at least we got Eric.

Sheri likes the multicultural tables and has to get a pic of it.

Part 2 continues HERE

Team AllEars Donation Update

2010-12-27T15:14:00.008-06:00

Well, the goal was $500, and WE MADE IT!!!!!

As I posted over on Facebook, I have been absolutely floored by the generosity of the people here. From our daycare provider to a breast cancer survivor to a childhood friend battling her own disease, from my postmaster to a group of online freaks who used to hang out at the same place, from family members to a family I met but one time in passing in the Disney World parks, you all have humbled me.

A big THANK YOU needs to go out to those who helped out by donating to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. If you did donate on my behalf and your name is not listed below (especially if you made an online donation), please let me know at cemushr@hotmail.com so we can link up your donation. If you made an anonymous donation online, again please let me know, and while keeping your anonymity, I'll add your total to the list below.

The race is coming up...quicker than I was expecting! If you would like to follow my progress in the half-marathon, you can sign up to receive e-mails/texts/etc at certain distance locations at http://live.activeresult.com/msg/MSG-signup.tcl?event_id=3 .

DONATIONS AS OF 02/21/2011

Anonymous $100
Avanti's Dine to Donate Program    $67
Jim and Jean Beierlein                      $50
Jim and Karen Guglielmo                  $50
Ed and Judy Hines $50
Bob and Cindy Miller                         $50
Kelly Peck       $50
Annette Rutledge    $50
Jim and Carol Kunce                         $30
Anonymous $25
Anonymous $25

Eric Berger    $25
Double 'C' Boutique    $25
The Manning Family                        $25
Cathy and Jim McConnell    $25
Harold and Diane Melton $25
Dan and Jayne Mushrush                 $25
Anthony Ostrosky                              $25
Kathi Schaeffer    $25
Brian Swann $25
Thia Stevens-Wagner       $25
Chili's Normal Pepper Profits           $23
Francisco Arceo                                 $20
Mary Bargmann $20
Sandra Perkins $10

Total: $870!

From 0 to 13...

2010-12-13T13:39:00.002-06:00

IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR HOW TO DONATE, PLEASE READ BELOW - instructions on how to donate are included at the end of this post!

Ten months…it was ten months ago that my craziest journey began. After hearing about all the experiences about the 2010 Disney World half-marathon, mostly from the Running to Disney, WDW Today, and Mousetimes podcasts, the idea of actually contemplating doing my own half-marathon crept into my mind. I won't rehash what I've already written; this entry takes me from my very first run on March 25^th to today. I vividly recall thinking to myself as I was walking around the track that doing 13 miles at one time was going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible. Still, I remember the elation when I crossed the finish-line and noticed that I made that mile in under 16:00, which is the required pace to complete the half. April 6^th was the day I took the big step and registered for the half, not having completed another run – my next run wasn't until a week after I registered, and it was a 2-miler. I walked 80% of it and still maintained a 15:39 pace.

With each successive week, I'd make a new discovery in the sport of running – things like: understanding what pronation was and that having the right shoes were a very importing thing to have; figuring out stride/gait/foot-plant/etc; and understanding that not every run will be the best one yet. The 2.5 mile threshold was crossed in late April, and my pace was its best yet (14:07). May 10^th marked the first time I hit 3 miles, and the thought of doing that 4 times over in a mere 8 months was simply too much to ask. Just a few days later, I accidentally crossed the 4-mile mark. I skipped 5 miles and went directly to six in late June. Mid-July was meant for 7 miles, and early August for 8. The ninth month found me at nine miles – I liked it so much that I cleared 10 miles at the end of September. October 21^st was what I consider the major milestone – 11 miles in just under 2:30. It wasn't so much the distance as it was the time. This was the first time I felt confident that I would actually be able to make the complete run in January and not be swept off the course. November 4^th got me to 12 miles, and, finally, 13 miles was reached on November 23^rd. It took over 7 months, but I'm just about there. Not only is the distance there, the time is, too. Using a run/walk ratio (thanks to Jeff Galloway for his training plans!), this 5'8", 250 lb sprinter completed 13 miles in just over 3 hours at a 14:04 pace – well below the 16:00 pace.

As I write this, we are a mere 4 weeks away from Marathon Weekend. I fear that I have peaked already and will regress before the run. I already feel it to a certain extent – I lost over 20 lbs from the time that I started; however, I've put back on about 10. With my schedule and the weather, I'm not able to get out as much, and I fear that I'll lose the endurance I've built up to. I'm going to try to get at least one more 13-mile run in before the race.

Am I thrilled with this? Undoubtedly. Never in my life would I ever have guessed I'd be doing what I'm doing now. As I look at my training log, I have run 275.51 miles, burned off over 24 lbs (around 455 donuts). Over 68 hours have been devoted to running, which, when you think about it, really isn't a lot over the ten-month period. I can definitely tell that it has helped me physically and emotionally; Before I started running, I would feel my pulse race to over 120 on occasion – even when sitting down. That doesn't happen now – my resting heart-rate has dropped to a more acceptable level, and I no longer get tired walking up flights of stairs. My blood pressure has also happily moved downward. Though my weight has moved back up a bit, I'm still down 10 lbs, and I can tell by the way the clothes are fitting that there's a definite difference. Mentally, I seem to be better able to focus on things, and (though some may argue), I feel I don't "explode/connipt" as fast I as used to (a definite win-win situation). In fact, if I don't run for a few days, I get antsy to get out there.

But there's something else that I have gained in the training – another circle of colleagues and friends. One of the main reasons I'm doing this is because of Team AllEars.

Who is Team AllEars?

Who are the members of Team AllEars? Below is a list of the people officially on the team (links to websites/blogs are included for those that I know):

TEAM ALLEARS

Dominic Abram	Tacey Atkinson
Holly Aulen	Debra Belloli
Eric Bouchet	Jessica Brach
Barrie Brewer	Trey Bush
Steve Cantafio	Jamie Curci
Jessica Cutler	Helen Dunn
Melanie Camphouse	Michelle Cunningham
Evelyn DeLuccia	Dave Dunkowski
John Eiler	Suzanne Farnan
Dan Fulk	Brad Garfinkel
Cailin Gidlewski	Josh Gidlewski
Laura Gilbreath	Byron Hall
Stan Harris	Gordon Harvey
Erika Heller	Jeffrey Heller
MaryJean Kancel	Jeanette Krause
Scott Lebeau	Kerry Lenny
Tommy Lewis	Heather Little
Julie Loiselle	Sharla Manglass
Erwin Mascardo	Julia Mascardo
Chris Mushrush (ME!)	Stephanie Mathias
Amanda McKittrick Gonzales	Shawn Moffett
Helen Norland	Julie Olson
Kristen Ostrega	Mike Paxton
Heather Przystas	Dan Rajnik
Andy Reiser	April Reynolds
Jamison Reynolds	Sara Rhodes
Julie Rogers	Tracy Sabotin
David Schaefer	Marc Schreiber
Rhonda Speer	Tim Tosten
Molly Troost	Tom Troost
Ashley Turner	Robert Wilhelm
Andrea Williams

TEAM CAPTAINS

Mike Scopa

Michelle Scribner-Maclean

And…

The Reason We're a Team:

Deb Wills!!!

We are 66-strong...of all ages, locations, income levels, occupations, and levels of fitness. And we have been working on preparing for our task; for some, our 3rd, 4th, even 5th race...and for many, our very first one. Some are running 5k. Some are preparing for 13.1. Others are gearing up for 26.2...and then there are the Goofy ones who are running the 13.1 on Saturday and the 26.2 on Sunday (the really Dopey ones are adding a 5K on Friday on top of that). This group has shared triumphs and tribulations. Many have fought injury in their training - some, unfortunately, have had to end their training because of it. We have asked each other about training, about fundraising, about what to expect and what to avoid. We have celebrated births...and we have consoled those losing loved ones.

In a few weeks, I'll be fortunate enough to meet nearly every one of these people for the first time. I have a sense, though, that we'll already know each other, and, when we meet up, it will seem like we're more like friends that simply haven't seen each other in a long time. We're all Disney freaks - that goes without saying. There's another bond that we share, though...we're in this to raise money - money that goes to more than just trying to find a cure. Much of this money goes towards awareness and education; screening and diagnosis; access to treatment; and support services...all in addition to scientific research.

If you haven't donated yet, please consider doing so..even if it's a single dollar (imagine how much could be raised if all the online Disney freaks donated just $1). We broke the $25,000 level a couple of weeks ago, but we want to see that number keep on going up!!! If you want to donate online, go to the Avon Walk donation page and fill it out. All of us on Team AllEars has agreed to raise a minimum of $500 - to have your money count towards our goals, please add the following in the "Personalize your gift" line: (your name), Team AllEars (name of runner). Example for those who want to have your donation go towards my goal...you'd enter: John Smith, Team AllEars Chris Mushrush. You can make it anonymous - just leave out your name and put in "Team AllEars (runner's name)". If you do a donation online, please make sure the runner you're donating in the name of knows about what you've done.

If you would rather donate without doing it online (and want it to count for my goal), you can send me a check (payable to the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer) to:

Chris Mushrush
P.O. Box 55
Downs, IL 61736

Originally, I was shooting for a goal of $1,000, but I have since decided that, being new to fundraising, $500 should be the goal. I'm not quite there yet as I write this, but we're getting closer.

The excitement factor is starting to build. This won't be a typical Disney World trip for us - we fly down on a Thursday, going to bed early on Friday, running EARLY in the morning on Saturday, and will be back on Sunday. I hope to be able to provide pictures and updates of all that is going on in the short time we'll be down there. In the next couple of weeks, I'll post information on how you can follow me during the race (to see if I make it!). You'll be able to receive texts as I pass certain mile markers. Let's do this thing!!!

Boom

Boom

Pow

Disney Podcast Updates, August 1-15, 2010

2010-12-03T11:34:00.000-06:00

GOOOOODDDDDD AFTERNOON!!!!! (or whenever you read this) Those who follow me on Facebook know I've been dealing with laptop issues, and it finally came to the point where I had to put the old laptop down and get a new one. Luckily, I've got all the episodes saved on another computer, so I'll be able to provide an unbroken chain of updates. The only problem is that I'm so far behind that most won't take the time to look for a show that far back. I'm going to start getting more current updates (< 1-2 weeks old) again and will fill in the August-November time span as I can

58 Shows in this round of updates...several talk about the opening of Via Napoli in the Italy Pavilion at Epcot. Some "Not to be missed" include an R-rated Disney Dudes episode, some really good interviews on Inside the Magic and WaltCast, and some great videos all-around!

If you are interested in listening to any of these episodes, I have links to subscribe for most of these shows in my post HERE. Also, if you're willing, you can help these shows out by posting a review over on iTunes. The more they get, the higher up they appear on searches. If you do start listening to a podcast as a result of what you've seen on here, please let the podcasters know!

Any and all comments are welcomed! Also, if you know of another podcast that fits here, let me know.

Be our Guest
- 08/01/10 – Episode 251, Today we discuss the original Disney theme park with listeners Jillian and Susie. We talk about their feelings upon arrival at Disneyland, the differences between Disneyland and Walt Disney World, the dining options, as well as lodging at Disneyland. We also spend some time talking about World of Color! Time: 39:17
- 08/05/10 – Episode 252, Today we get together, around the iPod, like listeners for years and years before us, to share a podcast! We talk about our feelings on Illuminations! We discuss what comes to mind first when we think of the show, where best to see it, variations on the show, how we might improve it, and more! (Mush: cute description! I've never been a huge fan of the show – only seen it twice. Thanks for the information in the show!) Time: 37:39
- 08/08/10 – Episode 253, Today we are lucky to have Debbie share her amazing trip to Walt Disney World! Today's podcast shows that even Floridians can totally get away from it all and head to WDW! We hear about her amazing surprise in staying at a different resort than she expected, then a great upgrade upon arrival! We discuss Disney's Old Key West Resort, the Sum of All Thrills at Epcot, spending time with great friends of the show, and more! Debbie also gives her thoughts on a trip eating at only new restaurants for the entire trip! Time: 33:41
- 08/12/10 – Episode 254, Today we discuss the highlights of the recently-released 2011 Magic Your Way Package details. We discuss the changes to the Disney Dining Plan, Resort Room Category changes, as well as the little "extras" that are included in Magic Your Way packages. Thank you so much for supporting our podcast! Please let us know what you think about the 2011 MYW Packages at http://www.beourguestpodcast.com.Time: 41:52
- 08/15/10 – Episode 255, Happy Monday, everyone! Today we are looking at details all around Walt Disney World, literally! Keith and Jackie from our Be Our Guest Podcast Forums recently got together and authored a new book called, "Attention to Detail!" This is an amazing book for all Disney fans, and a great example of friends chasing down their dreams! Listen to Keith and Jackie talk about what the book is like, and why they decided to take on this adventure! The book is available at Amazon.com! Time: 24:09
Betamouse
- 08/12/10 – Episode 26, Four of the five members of TEAM BETAMOUSE recently visited the Disneyland Resort and this week we'll share with you a number of very Betamouse moments and other features from our visit. Time: 36:40
Beyond Main Street/In Your Ears Experience
- 08/15/10 – BMS 89, Day 1 footage from May/June 2010 WDW vacation. Enjoy. (Mush: wait for it……………almost there……..yes, it was pretty!) Time: 11:07
Character Breakfast
- 08/01/10 – Episode 96, The crew is back from a little break and gives you 2 hours of Disney fun. On this episode: The World In News - Disney World News; Monorail Station - Park Icons; Disney Dance Floor - Future World Re-do; Email Time - Listener Emails Time: 1:57:42
- 08/15/10 – Episode 97, The Disney vibe is going strong this week on CB. Another huge show, so strap on those earphones. On this episode: The World In News - Disney World News; Disney Dance Floor - World Showcase Bests; Monorail Station – Characters. Show Members: Sorcerer, Imagine, Pluto, Jeff. Time: 1:44:01
Disney Dudes
- 08/15/10 – Episode 47, Disney Dudes Podcast Show #47 is one for the big boys and girls! Thank you to a listener that email Wayne with a Disney sex issue. As you can tell The Disney Dudes handled the issue with the maturity of a teenager. Well, what do you expect? Next we listen to actual Walt Disney World 911 calls. (Mush: Oh….my….Gawd!!!!!! If only Lisa were on this show too to get her reactions to Trace's comments!!! I might have to sit my wife down to watch her reaction as she hears this. The musical interludes were AWESOME!!!). Time: 1:24:06
Disney Tidbits
- 08/15/10 – Episode 81, Today we sing a happy American tune, accompanied by Burl Ives (Mush: a tisket, a tasket…gonna have that song in me head for a while!) Time: 13:46
The Disney, Indiana Podcast
- 08/08/10 – Episode 54, In this episode, Scott heads to Flynn's Arcade to review the Toy Story 3 home video game, while Tracey sits down with two fellow Disney fans, Mel and Debbie King to talk about their travel adventure to Walt Disney World earlier this summer. Buzzy plays some music and park audio on WWED and Scott and Tracey wrap up the show with some feedback. Time: 1:24:48
The Disney Brit Podcast
- 08/04/10 – Episode 47, To begin with each of us brings you our own Disney Bucket List. Those things at Walt Disney World we haven't done yet but want to do before we pop our clogs. We have some serious but also weird and wacky suggestions from us and some of the members of the forum. Next up, we replay a segment we brought to you just over a year ago entitled "Beating the Heat in Walt Disney World". Although several of you may have heard this before we have a huge listeners' base who have joined us in the past year and felt it was a worthwhile segment to repeat. Last but certainly not least is the return of Disney Island Discs. On this edition, Juz brings us the 3 Disney songs (well, it was supposed to be 3) he would take with him if he was stranded on a desert Island. Time: 1:52:23
Inside the Magic
- 08/01/10- Episode 278, Beyond several exciting Disney announcements, Transformers and former Disney voice actor Peter Cullen joins us to discuss his roles including Autobot leader Optimus Prime. This week's extra brings a quick look at a unique Toy Story 3 magazine that paves the way for future Disney publications. Plus, we catch up on all listener feedback (finally). Time: 1:02:18
- 08/06/10 – Video Extra, On August 5, 2010, the Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria grand opened at Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park in Orlando, Florida. The partnership between Disney and the Patina Restaurant Group offers authentic Italian flavors with a focus on Neapolitan pizza. Time: 5:10
- 08/08/10 – Episode 279, Get ready to get hungry as Ricky reviews the new Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria at Epcot, including interviews with Epcot vice president Dan Cockerell, Patina Restaurant Group CEO Nick Valenti, and executive chef Charlie Restivo. We also take you to the latest Disney Store opening in Santa Monica where Amy Rocchio follows up with Disney Store president Jim Fielding to find out guest reactions to the new store designs. Plus, we have plenty of exciting Disney news and answers to your Disney questions. Time: 1:10:20
- 08/15/1 – Episode 280, Following news of big changes in the Fantasyland expansion and possible new theme park ticket options, we visit Star Wars Celebration V for Disney's panel discussion about the upcoming Star Tours reimagining as well as the ride's development along with the history of Indiana Jones in Disney's parks. The discussion features special guests Walt Disney Imagineer Jason Surrell and none other than C-3PO himself, Anthony Daniels. Time: 1:42:11
Keys to the Kingdom
- 08/03/10 – Episode 136, Favorite Rides at Hollywood Studios - latest Disney news and event. The podcast team discusses the best rides at Disney's Hollywood Studios. Time: 1:14:32
- 08/12/10 – Episode 137, Today's feature is favorite rides at Animal Kingdom. Also featured today is the latest Disney News. The podcast team talks about the new price increases from Disney. Time: 1:25:20
Magic Never Ends
- 08/08/10 – Episode 78, On this episode of the Magic Never Ends Podcast, we travel back to our 2009 shenanigan-filled Summer Walt Disney World vacation. A vacation that celebrated Will and Shannon's 9 Year Wedding Anniversary as well as our 2 year friendship anniversary with the Dysfunctional SuperFamily. This episode celebrates those two big events by riding Expedition Everest! Will and Keegs share special moments on the Animal Kingdom thrill ride and then Will and Shannon celebrate together. But first, we begin the episode saving the World with the Kim Possible Epcot World Showcase Game. Then we gather our big silly, crazy group to ride Rock'N Roller Coaster and Dinosaur! (Fun show!) Time: 1:06:20
Magical Definition
- 08/01/10 – On this week's show, Nathan Rose and Jim Hill discuss San Diego Comic Con 2010, what projects Disney showed off, and what to expect to from the Disney Company this upcoming year. Time: 1:09:18
- 08/08/10 – On this week's show, Nathan Rose and Jim Hill discuss the upcoming projects from the Disney Channel, as well as how they will integrate them in the park. Time: 23:04
Micecast
- 08/04/10 – Episode 170, Your hosts read various e-mails that cover a wide range of topics and have interesting and lively discussions because of them. This show was streamed live so you may hear references to chat window inputs. Time: 2:11:42
Mortis Matinee
- 08/01/10 – "Alice in Wonderland", We watch and review Walt Disney's animated classic from 1951, Alice in Wonderland and play an audio ride thru of the Disneyland attraction. (1 million billion google thumbs up here!) Time: 37:06
Mouse Comedy
- 08/10/10 – Episode 82, MCP #82-Jonathan rejoins the show with his "short" list of attractions and lame excuses. BUT at least he is back and is his usual self once again-This week we steal attractions from coast to coast. (Mush: $100 says that Tairy did the show info). Time: 51:24
Mouse Droppings
- 08/12/10 – Season 2, Episode 1, On this episode, Matt searches out the enigmatic, secret, members-only club for Disney vacationers. He needs to find it for the big Mouse Droppings Season Two release party!! (Mush: and, yes, I did move this to the front of the queue when I heard about its release…still waiting for my invitation!) Time: 27:46
Mouse Guest Weekly
- 08/07/10 – Episode 263, A shorter show this week, since there hasn't been a whole heck of a lot of news from Disney, and we don't have much feedback to cover. Seriously, folks - make Eric's day and send in some feedback! Meanwhile, ticket prices rise, the TTA changes its name (sorta) and the Candlelight Processional now has a pretty nifty dinner package for those who are interested. Plus we've got a little audio gem provided by Gary Chambers of the Mouse Lounge podcast! Time: 34:58
- 08/14/10 – Episode 264, It's time for yet another entry in our ride-along series! This week, we take a gander at SpectroMagic, share a little knowledge, and try to remember the names of the Three Little Pigs. Time: 25:50
Mouse Lounge
- 08/11010 – Season 4, Episode 12, In this episode, the Mouse Lounge presents a rootin' tootin' tooth shootin' good time in Frontierland! From the Walt Disney Archives: Walt introduces Frontierland to an eager America on Disneyland's opening day in 1955. Each week, in From the Vault we sample a clip from a classic Disney film, short, television or radio program, or Disneyland Record. This week, we travel back in time, to the late 1800's for Slue Foot Sue's Golden Horseshow Revue! Each week we present a high definition ride-through from a Disney Park East or a Disney Park West. This week, we hop on board the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We'll close this week's show with a couple of jumpin' Frontierland tracks from the Mark Twain Riverboat, enjoy Come Back, Sweet Papa, and Milenberg Joys! (Mush: AWESOME!) Time: 1:41:32
Mousetalgia
- 08/02/10 – Episode 92, It's a Mousetalgia Emporium! Jeff reports on the pros and cons of taking a toddler to the parks, the whole team reports on the "Disney Parks Around the Globe" panel discussion at the Walt Disney Family Museum, and we answer listener email. Plus, a special "Ears to the Ground" segment on the last flight of Star Tours. Also: High School Musical 3 saves a life, Dave looks at the "Disney Parks" DVD set, Kristen hosts a giveaway, and more! Time: 1:17:24
- 08/08/10 – Episode 93, Late summer reading and relaxing with Mousetalgia! This week, the team recommends their top twelve places to escape the summer heat at the Disneyland Resort, and four great books to while away the time. Also - the Haunted Mansion turns 41, the team prepares for the Pacific Northwest Mouse Meet, Zorro invades San Juan Capistrano, and a chance to win a character key sericel of Jedi Mickey! Time: 1:22:40
Northern Mouse
- 08/09/10 – Episode 58, Welcome to the Northern Mouse Podcast Episode 58 with your hosts Carlos, Kevin and Robb. Robb an I bring you the fourth episode of Running to the Magic we talk about some of the Disney Endurance events. Then Sean from Disneymagic.ca answers Robb and my Questions about DVC as they still attempt to convert me. Then we go to part five of around the world in a day. Today we'll be in Italy again this time to catch Romeo and Edna, then Mexico for the Three Caballeros and end with the Dragon Legend acrobats in China be sure to subscribe to our new video feed I have posted the video portion of the show there along with the other around the world in a day videos. (Mush: Loved the audio in the "Around the World" segment. Also, there was some really good info in the DVC discussion!) Time: 2:10:30
Passporter Moms
- 08/03/10 – Episode 28, Join Jennifer and Sara as they discuss this week's newsletter, compare their Top 10 Meals List and answer listener questions. Time: 35:08
- 08/10/10 – Episode 29, Join Jennifer and Sara as they discuss this week's news, chat with special guest Quicksilver Tours owner Gregory Nicolas, and answer listener questions. Time: 31:53
Remember the Magic
- 08/01/10 – Episode 41, In this week's show we'll be giving you attraction audio from both Kyra and Marc's favorite attractions. So sit back and relax as we broadcast the magic to you from high a top Tomorrowland. Time: 36:50
Running to Disney
- 08/05/10 – Episode 74, Gordon and Megan (Run Vegan Run Podcast) go for a run in Dayton, Ohio and reflect upon their experience as crew members for Mike (DirtDawg's Running Diatribe Podcast) and Kevin (www.justfinish.com) at the 2010 Burning River 100 Mile Endurance Race. Time: 1:07:05
- 08/10/10 – Episode 75, Gordon updates his training, his weight, his open water swim for the upcoming Triathlon, and ruminates on why we should be who we were made to be, and not who others think we should be or who we think others want us to be. (Mush: Another amazing show, Gordon!) Time: 57:38
Those Darn Cats
- 08/03/10 – Episode 115, This week, Lisa and Trace discuss the "Summerfest" events they attended at the Gaylord Texan last weekend. Time: 26:53
- 08/10/10 – Episode 116, This week's show features a discussion about the recent documentary, "Homeless: The Motel Kids of Orange County", showing currently on HBO. Charities featured in the documentary include: Project Hope School, School on Wheels , The Illumination Foundation. Jennifer's Broke Hoedown and Jentasmic Columns can be found here and here. Time: 24:37
Trapped on Vacation
- 08/08/10 – Episode 130, This episode marks the 5th Anniversary (more or less) of Trapped on Vacation, we're still the Longest Running Non-Commercial Disney Podcast on the Internet, and we'd like to thank you for listening and sticking with us for all of these years! Without our listeners like you, I'd just be a guy talking to myself with a wife staring at him wondering what the hell I was doing. So thanks for not making me look like an idiot. Well... like more of an idiot I guess... This week we head back in time with all new audio from the Opening Night Preview of the Main Street Electrical Parade at the Magic Kingdom. Yes, that's how long it's been... After that we head up north to Dearborn, MI and hear an original recording by Thomas Edison. Without Edison's invention of the phonograph, I doubt you'd be hearing my voice today! So thanks Mr. Edison! (Also thanks for the lightbulbs in MSEP!) Time: 37:56
WaltCast
- 08/03/10 – Episode 54, Zac Hanson joins us this week to talk about Hanson's concerts at EPCOT this fall. Time: 28:35
- 08/10 /10 – Episode 55, Sister Hazel's Ken Block joins us this week to discuss their EPCOT concerts in October. Time: 24:38
WDW News Today
- 08/03/10 – Episode 155, To kick off this week's show, we have the fifth edition of our newest segment called "The Top Ten". It's an interactive and fun segment where the WDWNT Podcast Team and our listeners come together to create top ten lists for Walt Disney World in many different categories. We continue this week with the top ten table service restaurants at the Walt Disney World Resort (Mush: another great TT segment!). Following that, we have another edition of Town Square Talk without Mayor Justin Heyman. On this trip down Main Street WDWNT, we'll be providing information on WDWNT: The Weekend (which, might I add, is just three weeks away), the season finale of "See Ya' Real Late", the return of the Super Obscure Show to WDWNTunes, WDWNT: The App, and we'll also be informing you of a very important change that will affect how you download this program every week. Time: 2:35:47
- 08/10/10 – Episode 156, On this week's show, we have another installment of our Walt Disney World history segment, Back to the Future. In this week's trip through time, we'll be looking at the history of singing food, rockin' parodies, and flying hang-gliders inside The Land pavilion at Epcot. We'll travel back to the Kitchen Kabaret, and take our time machine all the way up to the cloning of a California Adventure attraction, and beyond. Time: 2:29:03
WDW Radio Show
- 08/01/10 – Episode 181, I'll open up the inbox this week and answer more of your questions about everything from the rooms at Bay Lake Tower versus Kidani Village; visiting Pixie Hollow in the Magic Kingdom; Flight to the Moon and Mission to Mars; traveling the resort using the WDW bus system; annual passes for the family; signature restaurants and the best Italian food on property; resort-specific merchandise, going alone, and so much more! Time: 1:12:09
- 08/04/10 – Video Extra, Disney's Wedding Specialists have worked with couples from all over the world since 1991 and hosted over 40,000 unique weddings. Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings provides a one-stop shopping experience for couples' every wedding planning need. Join Lou Mongello in Walt Disney World as he tours Franck's and the Disney's Wedding Pavilion and discusses the variety of options with Korri McFann from Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons. (Mush: Great video!!! I'll forego the obvious Trace and Lisa comments). Time: 6:27
- 08/07/10 – Video Extra, Via Napoli, located next to Tutto Italia Ristorante, the restaurant in the Italy pavilion in Epcot World Showcase at Walt Disney World Resort, is the first authentic Italian pizzeria to ever open in the park. Join Lou Mongello from WDW Radio as he visits the restaurant on its opening day, talks with Patina Restaurant Group CEO Nick Valenti, and samples the flavors and culture of Italy in this new Walt Disney World dining experience. Via Napoli features a selection of classical Neapolitan pizzas, created water calibrated specifically to the pH found in Naples, Italy. A unique feature at Via Napoli is the wood-burning ovens, which are named after the three active volcanoes in Italy -- Mount Etna, Mount Vesuvius and Stromboli. Each oven is sculpted with the "face of the volcano" -- reflecting the gods whose mythology surrounds each volcano's history. (Mush: It's food, which means Lou was in Heaven in this video…I may have to rethink my marathon weekend dining after watching this one). Time: 9:19
- 08/08/10 – Episode 182, We'll start off this week's show with a visit to what has recently become one of my favorite areas of the Magic Kingdom, as we look at the Top Ten Things We Love About Liberty Square. Beyond the Haunted Mansion, it is a land filled with incredible details, historical importance, and wonderful opportunities. I'll then take you to the waters of the Seven Seas Lagoon and aboard the Grand One, the most luxurious watercraft at Walt Disney World, as we explore how this cruising experience is perfect for parties, a romantic evening and special occasions. I'll announce the winner of our last Walt Disney World Trivia Contest, have a few announcements and then play more of your voicemails at the end of the show. So sit back, relax, and enjoy this week's episode of the WDW Radio Show. Time: 1:14:00
WDW Today
- 08/02/10 – Episode 754, Today, we compare the old WDW Ticket system with today's attractions. (Mush: loved this one!!!) Time: 28:11
- 08/04/10 – Episode 755, Listener Questions Wednesday! Time: 34:15
- 08/06/10 – Episode 756, Today, we discuss what senses trigger our reactions and memories while touring the parks. Please feel free to add yours at wdwtoday.com. (This one made me long to be down there soooo badly!) Time: 23:36
- 08/08/10 – Episode 757, A recording of our live show aboard Royal Caribbean's Grandeur Of The Seas during MagicMeets 2010. Time: 47:20
- 08/08/10 – Episode 758, Today, we discuss recent rumors regarding some changes to the WDW resorts. Time: 16:41
- 08/11/10 – Episode 758 (again), Today, we answer your listener questions all about planning trips to Walt Disney World. Time: 35:40
- 08/13/10 – Episode 759, Today, author Tracie Cook joins us to discuss her new book "Kid Tips For Walt Disney World..Touring Advice By Kids For Kids." Time: 19:34
WEDWay Radio
- 08/04/10, Episode 47, Tour de Disneyland Paris! (le Mush: Aujourd'hui, Matt et Nate jeter un oeil à Disneyland Paris. C'est un joli parc et un grand spectacle à écouter. Temps: 1 :25 :54
A Window to the Magic
- 08/01/10, Episode 247, This week, we begin season 6 of the show with a look at Paul's day at Disneyland on July 17th, 2010... Disneyland's 55th Anniversary. Paul is joined on the actual day of WTTM's 5th Anniversary by Brian Sommer, Magic Joe, & Magic Teri... Thanks to MrDaps.com and MousePlanet.com for their unknowing contributions to this episode. Thanks to everyone who has made the first 5 years of WTTM truly amazing, and for helping to make WindowtotheMagic the ULTIMATE Disneyland Audio Adventure Experience
- 08/08/10 – Episode 248, This week, Magic Joe steps in to provide part two of his special celebratory show series. Time: 52:29

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation, June 2010; Day 2, Part 4: Nautazu!!!

2010-11-22T15:48:00.001-06:00

Part 3 of Day 2 is located HERE (sorry it took so long to post this one)

2 hours later, I awaken, with Sheri giving me this "grin" (you can imagine what it looked like). "I guess I was tired," I groggily say. "Did I snore?" Sheri turns to the boys and repeats the question. The boys then give me a symphony of snoring sounds.

Keep it up, guys…just see if y'all ever get to use the car when you're 16.

I hop online and work on my summer online class a bit. I then send a quick message to AJ Wolfe of the Disney Food Blog to see if she wanted any pics of dishes from places we were dining at. She immediately texts me back and lets me know what they're up to (so, yes, she would be very happy with pics). After that, wifey starts getting a little agitated and wants to get going for our ADR at Sanaa. We're still a good 20 minutes away from our time, but, being the good husband, I just look at her funny and go along with it - we get ready and head back to the lobby. It was then that I realized why she was so antsy…she thought it was over at Jambo House.

Well, now what?

We look around the lobby for a bit and take in its grandeur. A cultural rep CM talks with us for a bit and takes a family pic. Still early, we chance it and head downstairs to the desk at Sanaa to check in. We get a pager and look around the bottom floor for a moment.

The pager goes off in Eric's hand, and he doesn't even notice it. It's the Miller side of the family. We head in and start to look over the drink menu. As we do so, Aaron comments that it's the exact same kids' menu here as it was at the Coral Reef. EXACT! We let them order a special lemonade that came with a light-up Buzz, not even thinking that, since it was the EXACT same menu, it was likely the EXACT same not-so-tasty lemonade they tried at Coral Reef.

It was.

They swapped out drinks (smoothies) . Still, the boys got collector figures that apparently were somewhat special. They were supposed to glow blue, but an ordering snafu gave them green-glowing figures, which apparently are pretty rare.

Sheri and I both ordered the same drink…the flight of 3 white wines:

Right: Delheim Gewurtzraminer
Center: Gunderlach Diva Spatlese Riesling
Left: Cline Viognier

That done, we order. Sheri surprises me and gets a New York Strip along with me. I usually go either medium or medium-rare, but Sheri wants her steak somewhere between extra-well done and shoe-leather texture. Though there's a significant difference between the way we ordered our steaks, they both came out at the same time. This usually means mine will be overdone and hers underdone.

Both of us took one bite of our steaks, with the raisin-chutney topping and the potato-spinach mixture…

…and contemplating conceiving a girl just to name her "Sanaa" in honor of our new favorite restaurant at Walt Disney World. That steak was perfect, as was Sheri's. It blew away the mushroom filet at Le Cellier. It sank the strip I had at the Coral Reef the night before. It even blitzed and sacked the strip I had at Shula's a few years back in Boston during a conference. It was cooked to absolute perfection, and the chutney, with just a hint of sweetness, perfectly balanced the spinach and onions in the potatoes. Whatever the boys had, they liked it too (I was too busy enjoying my meal).

The manager took the time to spend a few minutes talking with us. We talked about the Indian influence on the food and how he would classify the type of restaurant. This was a really nice touch, having the manager do more than just "how's the food? Good? Great. Seeyabyebye!" The server also talked with us a bit about the décor and how people actually stole some of the artifacts bolted to the walls.

For dessert, Sheri copied me again, and we got the dessert sampler:

Top, Chai cream Right, African ice cream. Left, chocolate cake.

We got a quick pic before starting the dessert course.

Then we tried the dessert.

We nearly tried conceiving that daughter right then and there at the table.

Our server warned us that the Chai cream would be dangerously addicting. I'm not a fan of anything Chai-related, but one taste of that cream instantly changed my mind. The chocolate cake was ehhh, and the African ice cream was good, but the Chai cream was out of this world! I got every single drop of the stuff out of the ramekin and nearly ate that too.

If you are looking for a VERY good meal at Disney World without taking a major risk with the cultural flavors, I cannot recommend Sanna highly enough. Granted, I can't speak for the ethnic foods, but the Strip is hands-down amazing.

It wasn't busy yet, and our server still had rooms in what I assumed was her section, so we stayed and talked for a few minutes before paying and heading out. We head back upstairs and make our way to Johari Treasures for tomorrow's breakfast (donuts and milk). We then make our way back to the room and start changing into our swimwear to check out the pool area. 5.3 miles later, we pass through the lobby and resist the urge to go left to the bus stops (the only way we ever seem to go out of the lobby). We head right and, a couple of minutes later, we pass the fitness center and are in the swimming area. At first glance, it's BIG. After looking at the main pool area, we turn right and look at the "water playground" area. Most documents have this part of the pool area in the pictures, and it is impressive. The only real issue (and it's not an issue) is that it seems to be set up to cater to the 1-5 age group. Our boys both walked around for a bit and squirted each other once before heading out. Oh well.

We head back to the main pool and start searching for life preservers for them, as they immediately saw the water slide. While getting the floatation thingys, I see Eric (from yesterday…not SyracuseWolvrine nor the 5 year-old kid that follows me around) walking by. He stops and talks for a second…he mentioned that he looked over my blog the previous night and liked what he saw (the podcast updates). I was genuinely touched…I always expected family and friends to read the blog. This is the first time I've met someone in person who has seen the writing. We talked for an instant before he headed out. An instant later, the boys were equipped and ready to tackle the water slide. They thought they were big enough to find the way up themselves, and I grudgingly let them go. Of course, they didn't notice me lagging behind them by about 10 seconds…good thing, too, because they missed the stairs and were heading towards the exit. I holler at them and point them in the right direction. When they started running (despite my threats not to earlier), they found me heading up to the top with them. They were the only ones up there, so I give them the short safety briefing (one at a time, wait until the light turns green, no head-first, etc…) before sending Aaron down. As Eric hops in and waits (wow…he listened!), we see about 5 family's worth of kids head up. After Eric goes down, I start to make my way back down the stairs…until I see Aaron heading up the stairs for another trip. I sigh and tell him to wait for Eric before I head back up. The kids up there are now wondering what the heck I'm doing up there with no intentions of going down the slide. Aaron and Eric make it up, and rest of the kids now understand. The boys head down and make their way back up.

I was up there for a good 15 minutes.

Luckily another couple of adults made their way up…mostly so they could try the slide themselves.

Finally, only 1 kid comes up (Eric) and tells me that this is the last run for them. After he goes down, I decide to tempt fate (and the chance of getting stuck) and head down it myself. You should have seen the face of the mother who was expecting to catch her 4 year old daughter coming down the slide. I had my arms out for her to catch me and everything…

We mess around for a bit in the pool, and I start hearing the pool bar calling my name. I look to Sheri, who balks and doesn't want a drink. I decide to get a drink later on just before we head back to the room. I'm more than ready to get out (because of the pruniness, the forthcoming drink, and the movie that had started, etc.) Eventually, the boys release us from lifeguard duty, and we head back to the room. Anyone want to guess what I forgot to order and drink on the way back?

After the journey back to the room, we start getting the boys in the shower. I notice that I had a voice message. It was our neighbor who was feeding the cats. Apparently, Mac was acting a little different tonight. I call back and talk about it. He's acting a little lethargic. We know he sometimes mopes around a little when we aren't around. Couple this with the insulin, and we hope that that's the problem. I thank them, and they tell me that they'll text with an update in the morning.

The boys are a little tired, so we don't have to fight them too much to get in bed. We quickly find out that there's not a ton of variety on the tv selection. I'm still partial to the selection at ASMO (love the classic cartoons).

Day 2 is in the books, and things are going perfectly!

Day 3 starts HERE

Mush's Blog

Hello...Is This Thing On??

We Interrupt This Trip Report to Bring You This Public Service Announcement

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 5, Part 2: HOT! HOT! HOT

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 5, Part 1: HOT! HOT! HOT!

Team AllEars 2012...How to Help!!!

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 4, Part 4: Let's Just Say It Wasn't a Good Day

We leave POTC and make a beeline for the tiki birds.

Mis-take.

Remember…this was the summer of 2010…before Iago blew up. This baby was sorely in need of a refurb. Around 75% of the drummers up on top had some sort of malfunction, several lights were inoperable, one or more of the wooden tiki heads in the columns had their mouth stuck open, etc.

Of all the days…I really need some magic here, and the magic seems to have flown out the window.

Much better than I remember – I needed the low-level humor. This attraction helped a little, due entirely to the exuberance of the CM we had – if any Disney Execs are reading this, please watch the video and give our driver, Tammy, a raise or an “attagirl” in her performance file.

The Tree house is next – another one those that Sheri likes and I tolerate. We head up, look around, and head down.

Pic

Okay…it’s still pretty neat, and Aaron is at the age where he’s trying to figure out how everything works, so we’ll put this in the “win” column.

They boys nearly fell on the floor laughing at the jokes!!!

This was a huge help…though Sheri is now concerned that the boys have my sense of humor.

You know, it always seems like the other three are always teaming up against me. I got outvoted, and we stay in the park.

Yeah…Sheri was gloating again after this one.

After about 20 feet, I realize that they took us off-stage…OFF-STAGE!!!!!

We’re in a roped-off area behind the shops on East Main Street…the music is gone…there are cars…backs of buildings...etc.

No.

No……no….nonononoNONONONONONONONONONO!!!!!!

(image Copyright of the Normal Pro Baseball Organization)

I nearly fall on the floor laughing. That had to be the quote of the entire trip!!

For those who don’t get it, AKL and Kidani don’t allow balloons at the resort for the safety of the animals on the savanna.

Head on over to Day 5 HERE

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 4, Part 3: Let's Just Say It Wasn't a Good Day

Here's part 2 from the day

Hmmmm….

I love Eric's whiplash to see him once he figured out who we were going to talk to.

This little respite definitely helped…Thanks for planning and putting on the MOTM, Lou.

Definitely a cute show!

So is Sheri’s.

That was fun. Not.

We arrive at MK for the evening and head through the turnstiles. Since we didn’t get a floral pic this morning, we hop in the short line and grab a shot.

Pirates!

Before that, though, we grab another pic:

Ummmmmmm....

Okay...on to POTC. It’s about a 10 minute wait... ...and we’re on…and we’re off for our voyage!!

…and there’s no Davy Jones mist effect.

@#$#&I^%@!#$!$*^&(^%!@#$#@%*&)&*^$#****************!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH COME ON!!!!!

And, of course, the woman in the bench behind me is using flash photography.

Non-stop!

*****start message*****

Dear Karma,

Please find someone else for a while. Please. I hate you.

Hate,

Mush

*****end message*****

Continue on HERE for the conclusion of this really rough day.

Mushfam Disney Family Vacation Vacation, June 2010; Day 4, Part 2: Let's Just Say It Wasn't a Good Day

Okay….

Now what…

Okay...on to POTC. It’s about a 10 minute wait...

...and we’re on…and we’re off for our voyage!!

@#$#&I^%@!#$!$^&(^%!@#$#@%&)&*^$#****************!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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