The Celebration, FL Blog

The Good Ship Axiom

2012-01-23T09:25:00.001-08:00

Wall-E is one of my favorite Disney movies, but probably not for the traditional reasons. Yes, it's a cute unconventional love story, and yes, it's loaded with physical humor to make the kids (and plenty of adults) laugh, but I love its wry commentary on today's society. The only part I don't quite understand is the end.

If you're one of the dozen or so people who missed this movie, it's set in a future world where Earth is so badly contaminated that humanity loads up on luxury space ships to live in the cosmos while robots clean the planet. After 700 years the robots have pretty much all disintegrated into useless rubble piles, with the exception of Wall-E, and the planet is still a rotting monument to the dangers of excess and mass consumption.

Meanwhile, the humans on the Axiom, flagship of the starship fleet, live in happy oblivion. Through a combination of lessened gravity and doing pretty much nothing but eating and video conferencing, they're all immobile flesh lumps that get around on flying ECVs. They don't even have to chew anymore, since robots deliver slurpable delicacies like "cupcake in a cup."

Living in Celebration means visiting the theme parks a lot, and every day I see us move closer and closer to Wall-E society. The ECV percentage grows higher by leaps and bounds. Many are genuinely needed by people with obvious or hidden disabilities, but hang out at the parks long enough and you'll hear perfectly healthy people laughing about how they used to stupidly waste energy using their legs until they discovered they could simply drive around. I've literally seen entire groups driving around in massive ECV fleets. I figure that Brazilian tour groups on ECVs are not too far in the future.

Better yet, we're inching ever closer to Cupcake in a Cup. At Universal during the Christmas season, there was a food wagon serving delicacies like Taco in a Cone and Turkey and Mashed Potatoes in a Cone.

At the end of Wall-E, evidence of earthly sustainability, in the form of a lone plant, lures the Axiom back to the planet, where the human blobs suddenly gain the ability to not only walk but to farm, fish, and otherwise create a new society. Cue the Disney happy ending music.

The part I don't understand is, why the hell would they want to leave the Axiom? They're basically living in paradise, with robots attending to every need, and apparently with no need for work or money. Then suddenly they're opting for a hardscrabble existence on a hostile planet. It's not like they have any direct connection to Earth; they didn't even know it existed until the same day they go back. They've been in space for seven hundred years, which equals quite a few generations, so the Axiom and its lifestyle is what they know as home.

I've been on 80-something Disney cruises, and I like to joke that the ships are my version of the Axiom. There's food for the asking 24 hours a day and such a wide array of on-board activities that I rarely bother to get off at the ports, other than Castaway Cay. When you play Bingo, you don't even have to watch your card because an automated Bingo-bot does it for you. Let's see...I have the choice of staying on the ship for the rest of my life, free of charge, as compared to a rebuilding a post-apocalyptic Earth. Isn't it a no-brainer?

Disney loves making sequel after sequel to its movies, so I figure another Wall-E installment isn't too far around the bend. Forget the happy scenes on the closing credits of the original movie, where the humans miraculously turned into svelte, athletic types living in a world suddenly teaming with earthly and aquatic life and tasty crops. If they go with reality, the Axiom refugees will waddle out, take one look at their supposed home world, and mutiny for an immediate return to space. And I'd be right there with 'em.

I'm dabbling in the world of fiction now myself. Click here to read the first chapter of my romance novella series, Fantasy Land, featuring the Orlando theme parks as its backdrop. The town of Celebration will be making an appearance in the second book.

Every Show is Jerry

2012-01-18T07:32:00.000-08:00

If you've ever seen the Sylvester Stallone/Wesley Snipes action movie "Demolition Man," you'll probably remember that in the future, every restaurant is Taco Bell. Apparently there was some sort of franchise war and Taco Bell won out. Thus, in a thinly veiled product placement move, the movie depicts a world where every eatery, from the most humble to the priciest gourmet hotspot, is called Taco Bell.

I'm afraid that something similar is happening in real life. Somehow every television show is becoming Jerry Springer (or Maury or take your pick of any other "I don't know who my baby's daddy is and besides I used to be a man and before that I was an alien and I'm in a polygamous semi-gay marriage to my own brother and sister" daytime sleaze show).

I'm not a big fan of mainstream television, other than (inexplicably) "The Office." I'm more about animated shows, like Fox's Sunday night cartoons, "South Park," "Futurama," and the new "Beavis and Butthead." TV is more of a guilty pleasure for me than an integral part of my life, sort of like mental corn chips.

My biggest guilty pleasure has always been the court shows, starting out with "The Peoples Court" and Judge Wapner back in the 1980s. Now, of course, my options have expanded into a crazed conglomeration of Judge Judy, Judge Mathis, Judge Joe Brown, Judge Alex, and the like. But alas, over the past few years, I've noticed a distinct Jerry-ization of my beloved court shows. Once upon a time they were all about cases of car crashes, store rip-offs, broken business contracts and the like...things you might really see in a small claims court.

Today, you're more likely to see "I caught my baby momma in bed with my best friend, so now I'm suing her for some money I have her that was a gift but now I decided it was a loan" or "I caught my boyfriend boffing my sister so he's suing me for pouring bleach all over his clothes, but the bastard deserved it." Worse yet, the court shows resemble Jerry et. al. to the point of screaming, fist-shaking arguments between the participants. I can't wait to see which show takes the Emmy-grabbing leap of having one side attack the other with a chair before the bailiff steps in with a taser.

Okay, so it's bad enough with the court shows. The drama llama content has driven me away from Judge Mathis almost completely, and Judges Joe, Marilyn, and Judy are teetering on the slippery slope (although Judy's still the most "I don't take no shit...shut up and stick to the case" of the bunch). But now Jerry-ism has invaded my one other bastion of television enjoyment: "Hoarders."

Having grown up with a hoarder, although in a home not nearly as bad as those portrayed on TV, and being a counselor, "Hoaders" and some of the other A&E and Discovery reality shows like "My Strange Addiction" fascinate me. Once upon a time "Hoarders" followed a simple, predictable, but enjoyable timeline. You meet the hoarder, plus some family and friends. You get a little of the background story. Professionals descend on the hoarder and house. The hoarder may or may not cooperate. The house either ends up cleaned or it stays a hellacious mess. An epilogue flashes on the screen. The End. Simple, easy-to-eat-and-digest junk food for the brain.

Of course, there were notable horrors like the woman who pooped in diapers since her toilet didn't work, then simply tossed them in a pile inside the house or the people in multiple episodes with dead cats and kittens buried among their hoards ("Hmmm, I haven't seen Fluffy lately. On an unrelated note, I wonder why my household stench is getting even worse.") or the family who said they never cleaned their coffee makers and that they simply got a new one when the old ones got maggots (how the hell do you get maggots in a coffee maker?!). That was plenty of drama for me.

Now "Hoarders" has hopped on the Jerry bandwagon. Every episode features some sort of talk show-esque surprise, like a long-lost estranged family member appearing out of the blue or the hoarder collapsing in the filth and being hauled away in an ambulance. The old poop and maggot shows are nothing anymore as the producers search for ever more horrifying homes. Poop bags in one room are nothing now that homes have been featured with human feces and urine in literally every room. Every week it seems that house has even more animals corpses than the week before or a greater variety of bugs and vermin.

I enjoy sensationalism as much as the next person, but for God's sake, stick to the topic at hand. Give me hoarders, not dysfunctional family fighting or animal abuse. I can watch other shows to get plenty of that, like Jerry and his ilk and "Animal Cops." Go a little more slowly rather than trying to top the last show every week. First, it eventually desensitizes the audience to the horror. Second, eventually you run out of ways to top yourself unless you feature a roofless house with trash and human waste stacked 10 feet above the roof line and entire zoo of endangered animals crushed to death in its basement.

I'm still watching "Hoarders," but pretty soon it's probably going to join the list of other Season Passes deleted from the Tivo. Maybe I'll just give in and start watching Jerry, Maury, and the rest of the clones since every other TV show mimics them anyway. Might as well just go to the source.

Cult of the Keurig

2012-01-18T06:35:00.000-08:00

Normally my husband and I do an extravagant mutual Christmas present. For example, last year we did the Marine Mammal Keeper Experience at SeaWorld, an all-day affair that takes you behind the scenes and let you interact closely with sea lions, dolphins, manatees, and more. It's a fun but pricey proposition.

This year, however, tight finances dictated something smaller and more practical. We had no idea what to get. We thought we might even end up skipping the gift altogether. Duloc Manor is well equipped with everything we need, which is why past gifts were "we'd never do that otherwise" sorts of things. Then it happened: one pre-Christmas day as we strolled the aisles of Publix, we suddenly walked into the Cult of the Keurig.

Actually, it was only unknowing for me. My husband, who outpaces me in coffee drinking by a margin of 4 to 1, was already familiar with Keurig brewers, which use little pre-measured plastic containers to make fresh, hot, individual cups. Apparently his employer used to have a Keurig for the office. Back when I worked in an office, things were done the old-fashioned way. The cafeteria workers brewed coffee in regular pots, dumped it into air pots, and we pumped out cups for purchase. In Duloc Manor, I either used my little 4-cup machine or waited for hubby to brew some coffee in his aging and complicated Starbucks coffee maker.

I should probably mention that we're both flavored coffee fiends. I can't remember the last time a pot of plain coffee was brewed in our household. We were into flavors even before we moved to Celebration. Once we got here, the proximity of Barnies, with its wondrous array of tantalizing tastes like Sweetheart Blend (chocolate and cherries) and Cool Cafe Blues (don't know, but it comes directly from Heaven) kept us well stocked. The Celebration Barnies turned into a Starbucks, but we found two others within a reasonable striking distance where we could still stock up.

Anyway, on that fateful day I was off looking for something in another aisle while hubby headed for the dairy case. I found him stopped at a sample table, which is quite unusual. I'm usually game to try samples, while he almost always rejects them. Turns out a demo person was handing out fresh-brewed cups of coffee made with a Keurig, and his caffeine addicted brain couldn't resist.

I was mildly intrigued, since I'd seen many flavored Keurig packs in the coffee aisle every time we were down there (besides Barnies, we buy flavors from other brands). Turns out there was a sale on Keurig coffee makers...yes, a coffee maker sale at Publix. Not exactly the place I'd choose to come searching for one, but I've seen stranger things.

We'd been half-assed looking for a new coffee pot, mostly at my urging, since hubby's Starbucks brewer was looking decidedly aged. They don't sell that style anymore, and he's very precise about coffee makers, so even though we browsed the coffee maker aisle whenever we were in a big box store, prospects weren't good for actually buying one.

The demo person told us that the Keurigs were on sale, plus she had a coupon for additional money off. Out came the smart phone to compare prices. Sure enough, the Publix price was actually a very good deal. The Keurig was still a pricey proposition as far as coffee makers go. Could we justify it? We decided then and there that it would be 2011's mutual Christmas gift.

Of course, now that we had a fancy new coffee maker, we had to accessorize it. We headed out to Bed Bath & Beyond with a sheaf of coupons to get an attachment that lets you use regular beans in the Keurig (for hubby...I'm just fine with the special packets), a storage drawer that goes under the pot to keep a handy supply of Keurig packets available for fast caffeine fixes, and of course a smorgasbord of flavored coffees. Yes, it's a little weird to buy your coffee at Bed Bath & Beyond, but their regular price isn't bad and it becomes irresistible once you throw in the coupons.

Now that we've got our Keurig, I haven't brewed a regular cup of coffee since we brought it home. My 4-cup coffee maker is in a cabinet, and hubby's old machine went out in the trash. The Keurig sits faithfully waiting on the counter, ready to brew a fresh, hot cup within seconds. We don't have to fight over flavors anymore. We rummage around in the drawer and pick our individual selections. The only minor Keurig-related conflicts are, "You left your pack in the coffee maker" and "Am I the only one who ever puts water in this thing?"

The only downside to the Cult of the Keurig is that it's upped my coffee consumption. I used to drink a cup a day, and maybe I'd have a second one if hubby brewed up a flavor I liked later in the day. I wasn't tempted to have much more, since the Starbucks coffee maker had no warmer and the lid to the insulated pot got lost some time in the distant past. That meant drinking cold coffee unless I grabbed it as soon as it finished brewing. Granted, I could have used my own small pot, but the hot plate always scorches the bottom of the coffee and gives it that unmistakable "scorch taste."

Now the coffee is always fresh, hot, and exactly the flavor I want. I'm up to between two and three cups a day. I'm firmly in the Cult of the Keurig, and even though our Christmas gift this year was much more modest than those in years past, it's the gift that keeps on giving all year long.

I've got several books for Kindle out, including guides to SeaWorld and Disney World, as well as a guide to starting your own home-based travel agency. Click here for the list on Amazon,

The Worst Kept Secret

2012-01-13T21:04:00.001-08:00

Once upon a time, many, many years ago, the Water Tower Place shopping center on the edge of Celebration, poised at Celebration Avenue and 192, had a grocery store called Goodings. It opened, stumbled along for a couple of months, then closed its doors for good. Sadly, it wasn't alone, as a whole parade of stores followed as victims of the poorly-planned commercial center. There was Planet Smoothie, a video store, multiple coffee shops and restaurants, an electronics store, a vitamin shop, a clothing boutique, and too many more to list.

Water Tower Place had several things working against it from Day One. First, its signs are nearly invisible from 192. Celebration doesn't have the population density to support the center on its own, yet the tourists who might bring their precious dollars never know it's there. Second, its design is insanely bad. The entrances are awkward, the buildings are arranged illogically, and a hunk of land, loosely known as a "park," was plopped down in the parking lot for no reason other than to further doom any chance of success.

A few businesses have managed to cling to life, among them two bank branches, Joe's Crab Shack, Chik-Fil-A, Mobil, and a Goodyear that recently converted to a Pep Boys. But overall, by starting a business in Water Tower, you were essentially conceding instant defeat. Ironically, stores like CVS and Starbucks thrive just across the street. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the fact that they're highly visible from 192, have easy entrances and exits, and huge eye-grabbing signs.

The game changed recently when one of the worst-kept secrets in Celebration leaked out. I heard about it early on, since I'm involved with the library and it required closure/moving of our little Celebration branch, which is located in Water Tower Place. Word was that a grocery store with a name beginning with the letter P was going to grab a massive hunk of space, including the former Goodings and the wing that contained the library. P...Publix...not hard to deduce.

Of course, there's a Publix just a few blocks away on the other side of 192, but who's to say it wouldn't move if Water Tower offered a sweeter deal? They don't own their current building, so moving would be inconvenient but possible. Employees I spoke to at the store when the rumors first gained steam acted like the new store was common knowledge

Speculation was rampant on The Front Porch, our community intranet. Dare we hope for a place to shop that wouldn't force us to leave The Bubble? Then, in October, someone dug up some interesting plans that pretty much confirmed the unspoken but widely known fact.

Now the Orlando Business Journal has picked up on our poorly kept secret. No one from Publix or Water Tower will confirm the information, but that's not really necessary anyway. If I had some big bucks to bet, I'd wager them on a grocery store finally returning to the derelict little shopping center. It's a good think for Celebration and also for the few remaining merchants, who might get some foot traffic to help them stay afloat. Of course, I'm banking on the fact that the Power of Publix will mean razing the pathetic little park, making some real driveways, and maybe even placing a sign among the huge, gaudy neon billboards proclaiming every other store and restaurant in the area other than those in Water Tower.

Will Publix break the Water Tower Curse, or will the curse claim Publix? We'll know in a year or two.

Yes, That Car Costs More Than My House

2012-01-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

Duloc Manor is a modest place. It's a cute little triplex with plenty of space for me, my husband, our assorted cats, and bird. We luckily bought it before the real estate bubble had its nuclear bust and plunged people who were once awash in excess equity into the depths of Upside Down Mortgage Hell. It's worth about the same now as when we bought it, which is a big positive in these dark recession days.

Today, hubby had a chance to drive a sweet Lamborghini Superleggera (pictured below) at the media preview of the new Exotic Driving Experience at Disney World:

The experience kicks off officially on Jan. 16 at the Walt Disney World Speedway, which is also the longtime home of the Richard Petty Driving Experience. You can still drive a NASCAR vehicle if you want pure speed, but now you can book a few rounds in a Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche, or Audi and feel a combination of land-flight on the straightaway and superior handling on a new course addition.

Prices start at $199, although the car my husband tried costs $339 to drive. Out of curiosity, I looked up its MSRP online, and it starts at $260,000. Yes, that gorgeous hunk of sports car costs over a quarter of a million dollars. If I sold Duloc Manor right now for market price, I'd still have to rustle up some big bucks to put that baby in my garage. Oh wait, I wouldn't have a garage anymore! Still, I'd look pretty cool living in it over in the parking lot near Publix where all the truck cabs and campers hang out.

The Porsche, which is the $199 car, is a relative bargain-basement vehicle with a $100,500 purchase price. That's still pretty rich for the blood of someone who drives a four-year-old Saturn Vue and who makes the car dealers cringe when she whips out her paperwork and boldly declares, "I'll pay you a little over invoice, but I won't pay for the overpriced tint and pinstripes, so you're going to have to throw them it in since they're already on the car. That ridiculous rip-off 'dealer fee' had better be deducted somewhere in the paperwork, and don't whine that you're not making any money when I know you get a holdback."

Still, even though I'm an automotive miser when it comes to my personal vehicle, I can certainly admire the power and majesty of high-end exotic cars that would do a dozen rings around my sputtering Vue before I could even press the accelerator.

I let my husband drive the Lamborghini today because he didn't get to go to Mainstreet in Motion last year. Mainstreet in Motion is a massive test drive at Epcot, sponsored by GM but featuring cars from a wide variety of manufacturers. I got to drive a muscle car there, although the short course, set up in the parking lot, didn't give me space to really open it up. Hubby was able make the Lamborghini show its stuff, since the Exotic Driving Experience uses part of the existing speedway track to feel the raw speed, as well as a new addition where you can test the handling.

I posted a video of hubby's ride experience in my Examiner column. I'll admit to feeling just a bit jealous as I watched him whip around the course, but he's a die-hard NASCAR fan so I figured he'd have the most appreciation. I know there's a big difference between race cars and exotics, but with guys it usually still comes down to speed, and the exotic cars at Disney have plenty of that.

Now we're back at home, slumming it at Duloc Manor. Just down World Drive, there's well over a million dollars worth of automotive luxury waiting to welcome the first paying riders on Monday. The kids have Autopia at the Magic Kingdom and Test Track at Epcot, and now the "big kids" have a car ride, too.

The Dark Icon

2012-01-11T06:13:00.000-08:00

Since Downtown Celebration's earliest days, it had a bright neon icon: the Art Deco-style towers of the AMC Celebration movie theater. Like neighborhoods of the past, Celebration featured its own movie theater. Its sign became a symbol of Celebration, appearing in countless tourist photos and news stories about the town.

With only two screens, the AMC Celebration was downright tiny by today's MegaUltraPlex 100 Screen monstrosities. It reminded me of my childhood in Chicago, when it seemed that every city neighborhood and suburb had its own movie house.

I grew up going to movie theaters with names like the Roseland, State, Normal, and Lyric. They were small affairs, with only one screen each, but their artery-clogging butter-clotted popcorn was a taste treat unlike the sterile kernels served up today, and you got a double feature for your money.

If you went to a weekend matinee and liked the movies (or just wanted to hang out with your friends), you could stay to see them again and no one would kick you out. The seats were ragged, the floors were sticky, but those old-time movie theaters were neighborhood staples.

Alas, as the years progressed, they closed down one by one as the March of the Shopping Mall Cineplexes ground them down under its boot heels. For a while, you could still find one or two ancient theaters struggling for survival, but they'd be showing second-run dollar-admission fare that was already released on DVD.

The AMC Celebration was an anomaly, especially with the Downtown Disney AMC theaters just a hop, skip, and jump away. Even in its earliest days, it was never crowded, and the handful of people dwindled each time I went there. The last time I ever saw a movie there, I think there was only one other party in the whole theater.

Its fate was sealed just as surely as the fate of those other neighborhood venues. The AMC Celebration finally shut its doors for good. It was soon a blight on the face of downtown, with ripped, faded posters and a general look of abandonment and despair. Worse yet, someone threw the switch on the famous neon beacons. The unofficial town icon was dark, shabby, and desolate.

In a way, I supposed it was somewhat appropriate. The pre-real estate bubble Celebration I'd known many years ago had given way to a post-bubble wasteland. While it certainly doesn't look as bad as some Florida neighborhoods, it's not uncommon to see at least one unkempt, disheveled foreclosure on just about every block. You'll see a row of pristine homes, and smack dab in the center of them is a place (or two) with faded paint, a jungle lawn, mildew-encrusted stares, and blank, empty-eyed windows. Celebration might be just eight miles from the Magic Kingdom's gates, but it's certainly no Fantasyland immune to economic troubles.

There's been an ongoing local outcry about the theater. It remains empty and lonely because of a rumored legal battle between AMC and Lexin, the downtown's owner. Nothing else can locate there as long as it's tied up in strangulation-tight red tape. Meanwhile, the icon stayed dark, a victim of cruel circumstance and the economy.

Then one day, as Christmas was approaching, the people of Celebration looked up into the sky and saw a miracle. No, it wasn't the Christmas star, It was the Art Deco towers once again shining in all their neon glory. I don't know how or why, but somehow they got turned on again. Perhaps it would've just looked to shabby to have them darkened for the nightly holiday snowfalls. Tourists who come to Celebration want to embrace the fantasy of the “Disney town,” not be slapped in the eyeballs with the reality that we're just a hard-hit place like anywhere else in this recession.

I have no idea what the theater's ultimate fate will be. Since I've moved to town, Downtown Celebration has been a veritable revolving door of businesses, with shops closing their doors with roughly the same frequency as gators are spotted in the lake. Thus far, another shop usually springs up to replace the casualties, but you can see obvious vacancies now, in addition to the theater.

In the meantime, the icon still lights of the night, a memory of what once was...and, dare I hope, what might be again in the future.

The Cult of the Black Cat

2012-01-07T14:12:00.000-08:00

As I wrote yesterday, my husband and I went to Disney's Hollywood Studios for one last taste of Christmas in the form of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights. I don't like to go right around the holidays, since I'm not fond of feeling like I'm being smooshed like a pancake in the midst of a massive press of humanity akin to Times Square on New Years Eve. Granted, there were still a lot of people, since some of the marathon runners who were down for the event this weekend wandered over, but it was only a miniature mob scene.

There are so many wonderful additions to the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights this year. I'm sad that its originator, Jennings Osborne of Arkansas, passed away earlier this year and didn't see the latest incarnation. When he started decorating his home Clark Griswold style many, many years ago, and eventually sent his millions of lights to Disney World to avoid being chased out of the neighborhood by pitchfork and torch wielding neighbors, I'm sure he never imagined what the display would grow into. This year, in addition to solid sheets of LED lights covering the buildings and just about everything else possible, there's a canopy of dancing lights and screens inside some of the building's window playing animated scenes. Every now and then, a soft snowfall drifts down on the dazzled people below.

It's hard to walk steadily through the Osborne lights because people keep stopping abruptly in front of you. You'll see their heads cock like the RCA Victor dog as their attention goes first one way, then another. You can almost hear their brains chanting, "Shiny!" before they burst from sheer sensory overload.

My favorite part this year was the canopy, which kicks into high gear every few minutes when the lights perform their "dancing" to music by such luminaries as the Trans Siberian Orchestra. Some of the dances are subtle, but my favorites are vicious, flashing, strobing disco shows that make people drop like flies around me as they go into epileptic fits. I don't consider it a successful visit to the Osborne lights unless at least half a dozen people drop to the ground, frothing at the mouth from the light show's intensity as the bulbs pound off and on to the hellish beat.

Of course, not all of the songs have the same effect as a Pokemon cartoon. There are jaunty but tame ditties, like Jose Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad," that are done in a calm and clever way. Every time the words "I want to wish you a Merry Christmas" blared from the loundspeaks, the words on the banner stretched across the street, that says Merry Christmas, would light up its words in perfect timing. A red LED heart in a "peace, love, and Mickey" decoration pulsed with the "from the bottom of my heart" lyrics.

We had one last thing to do before we officially put Christmas 2011 out of its misery. We had to gawk at the famous black cat, hidden each year among the Osborne light display. As I explained in my previous blog entry, the cat was originally sent from the Osborne's household in error along with the original Christmas shipment. He was dutifully erected with the other lights, and now he's hidden in a new spot every year so hard-core fans can ferret him out. You can see his 2011 spot below:

I thought we might be the only ones gaping at him that night, but there were plenty of others. We stood on the curb, craning our heads back and forth to get the best possible view, since he's in a very tricky position. Then we noticed other people heading over to the same area, squinting up at the building tops until they had their "Aha, there he is!" moments. We even commiserated with some of them on the sneaky hiding spot, since you pretty much have to look on an angle and it's hard to see his whole body at one time. I realized that we were something of a spiritual fraternity: The Cult of the Black Cat, seeking out a bit of Disney trivia just for those in the know.

I wonder how many black cats there have been over the years. I doubt the original one could still be functional, and if that's the case, thank goodness Disney continued the tradition with a duplicate. I never realized that so many people were members of the Cult of the Black Cat until last night. Now I know there would be countless disappointed fans if he ever went away for good.

Christmas Redux

2012-01-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it's January 6. Yes, I know that Christmas 2011 is a mere memory for most of the country, and that memory is likely blurred by the more recent excesses of New Years Eve last weekend. But next door to Celebration, Christmas continues unabated for two more days in a little niche of the Walt Disney World Resort. There, the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights will continue to blaze in all its glory until the glow gets turned off for another year on January 7.

I haven't seen the Osborne lights yet this year, although my husband was there pretty much as soon as the display opened. I'm not big on mob scenes, so every year I bide my time until the holidays are over. Most of the mass of humanity leaves after New Years, and the people who remain aren't all that interested in Christmas anymore. Instead of wedging your body through a nearly solid wall of hostile strangers, you can take a leisurely stroll among the lights and enjoy the musical show and the host of little details, like LED scenes in the windows.

Another tradition that works better when the crowds die down is finding the black (well, purple) cat who gets hidden among the lights each year. Supposedly one of the Osborne family's Halloween decorations was accidentally mixed in among the original shipment to Disney World. He was put up with the original display, and now, every year, he gets hidden in a new spot for sharp-eyed Disneyphiles to find. I posted his location this year in one of my Examiner articles if you didn't get to see him for yourself.

If you're not lucky enough to live in Celebration, Florida, or somewhere else within driving distance of the parks, my husband took a video of this year's display if you want to join me vicariously. The weather will be a little more temperate tonight, with lows in the 50s, and if there's a chill, it will only make the experience more genuine. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to this year's holiday season, and thanks to Disney World, I can cling to it for that one extra week in January.

V 3: Attack of the Sentient, Oversexed Floridian Lizards

2012-01-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

If you're a science fiction buff, you might remember the corny 1980s science fiction series V, featuring humanoid aliens who were really lizards in disguise. They pretended to be benevolent, but they actually had an insatiable taste for human flesh, much as a boa likes to eat a mouse. The original V had two parts and then became a TV series. If you're not as oldy-moldy as me, then you know it as a 2009 reboot.

I used to doubt that there were sentient alien lizards among us until I moved to Florida. If you live here, or if you vacation at Walt Disney World, you know that the sunshine state is overrun with small, skittish lizards that love to hang out on sidewalks, walls, and wherever else they feel like it. They look innocent and not-too-bright. In fact, they have so little brain power that when you're biking, you might accidentally run one or two over because they're not good at getting out of the way.

Well, at least I thought they didn't have brain power, but now I'm starting to wonder. We have a ton of them in our yard, and a month or two ago I noticed that one of them was hanging out on the window of my family room, right where the cats sleep on their perch. At first I thought it was coincidence, but soon I realized that the lizard was purposely tormenting my cats! It would sit just above them, a smirk on its little lizard face as they went crazy trying to get at it. They'd smack against the glass, and that lizard wouldn't move. It knew full well that they couldn't get to it.

Okay, you're saying, that's pure coincidence. The lizard just happens to like hanging out in that spot. That's what I thought at first, although it seemed odd that its head was always pointed down as though it wanted to watch the poor cats' acrobatics. Then I noticed that if they ignored it, it would move around to attract their attention. Once it got them agitated, it would be still and watch the show. It hasn't been around in a while now, no doubt because of the cold temperatures. Alternately, perhaps it was called back to its home planet.

The alien lizards here in Florida apparently come from an oversexed society, and they've created an interesting mating structure here. My hot tub in the backyard apparently overlooks an official lizard hook-up site, which happens to be the corner of my house, which is next to the hedge. My husband and I will be soaking and relaxing, and suddenly a lizard will appear. The little horny creature will stare down at the hedge while doing an odd, bobbing dance. Then it puffs its throat out into an enormous bubble. Apparently, in lizard parlance, a giant throat puff is equivalent to what people say about guys with big noses, or big feet, or whatever bodily feature is rumored to be linked to a big...well, you know what.

The lizard mating ritual typically goes on for a few minutes before the creature gets lucky and launches itself down into the hedge. I don't know what happens then, but I assume the hedge is the reptile equivalent of a singles bar, or perhaps more like a brothel, and some female lizard has just agreed to a romp in the leaves.

Not all the lizards who use the corner-of-the-house pickup spot get lucky. Some dejectedly head back up the building after their elaborate ritual, but most seem to score. I'm waiting for the lizard vice squad to show up someday and slap a pair of tiny handcuffs onto one of the lizard Johns.

Maybe I'm reading way too much into the lizard antics here. After all, given their size, their brain can't be much larger that a fingernail. Still, I've witnessed some interesting things while out in the yard or looking out the window. If the lizards suddenly speak someday and claim to have a cure for cancer, which they'll give me in exchange for unfettered access to my hedge, I'm not taking them up on any offers of a free spaceship tour.

I'm busily adapting some of my most popular old blog entries into a Kindle book, but in the meantime I've got a few other titles out, including credit repair, becoming a travel agent, and tips and tricks for visiting Disney/Orlando. I've also started two new blogs to go with two of the books: Free Credit Repair at http://freebadcreditrepair.blogspot.com and Starting a Home-Based Travel Agency at http://ownatravelagency.blogspot.com

Am I a Bad Person for Not Missing Jaws at Universal?

2012-01-04T08:44:00.000-08:00

Jaws, a rare original attraction at Universal Studios in Orlando, closed down for good this week. The very last boat did its rounds on the night of January 2, and already construction walls are concealing the Amity area for construction on a top secret (cough...more Harry Potter...cough) project.

The closure announcement had people up in arms. "No! You can't do that! Jaws is a classic!" the angry masses shouted while lighting their torches and sharpening their pitchforks. I'm not sure where these rabid fans were when the ride was actually running these past few years. The only lines I ever saw on Jaws were when they were running a limited amount of boats and thus had very little capacity.

Still, it always sounds good to join in on the Cause of the Day, so the angered Protectors of Classic Universal started petitions and peppered the theme park's Facebook page with rants and threats to never darken its gates again (good, that means less wait time for me and the other saner minds). I wonder if they realized it was all wasted bandwidth. Parks plan their new attractions months, or even years, in advance. The Amity makeover was already a done deal long before they announced it, with a ton of money already invested in it. It's just a bit presumptuous to think a theme park's going to say, "Well, hell, no one rides that thing anymore, but we've got a couple dozen people bitching on Facebook. Let's eat the $1 million we already have invested in the new thing and keep Jaws open for the whining minority."

Sure enough, Jaws closed right on schedule on January 2. Personally I hate mob scenes, so I said my own personal goodbye a couple of weeks earlier. I actually like Jaws myself, but not with the passion of the "Oh my God, I'll die if you close it, you're spitting in the face of history," types. It was enjoyable for what it was: Universal's requisite cheesy ride. There must be an unwritten theme park rule that every park has to have a cheesy boat or Jeep ride. Witness Disney's Jungle Cruise and Rhino Rally at Busch Gardens. Those kinds of rides are fun, but they don't inspire deep passion within me.

Honestly, I was much more sad about the closure of the surrounding Amity area. I'm a carnival games addict, and I particularly love the goblet toss. Although luck plays a big role, you can increase your chance of winning with a little knowledge of bounce and backspin. Over the years I've won enough jumbo prizes to prove that; one day at Universal, I even one three big goblet prizes in one day.

Now, alas, the games were disappearing along with Jaws. Since I rode Jaws once every half-dozen visits or so vs. playing the goblets on every visit, it's easy to see what I would miss most.

I decided to make my last visit at night since Jaws has always been much better after dark. Also, visiting after 4 p.m. means that I can use the express line benefit of my Premier Pass. I figured (and was correct) that they'd only be running a few boats, meaning a long wait otherwise.

Of course, my goodbye trip was twofold. It was also a farewell to my beloved goblet game. I went there first to try my luck before taking my last-ever shark spotting cruise. I started off with one tray of balls, and alas I was stone cold. I didn't even manage to win a small prize, let alone a jumbo.

Normally I'd quit there, but since it was my last-ever fling, I decided to buy another tray. This time, I landed a ball in both a red (medium prize) and blue (small prize) cup. Better yet, the blue was only two spots past the lone yellow cup, which is the big winner. Now, if I could only bank a ball off the one in the blue spot, I could end my Universal goblet game run on a high note. I only had a few balls left; my aim was off with the first couple, although one came close. Then, I hit the sweet spot. The ball spun lazily on the rim of the yellow cup before neatly dropping in:

I was rewarded with a big Scooby Doo, and my husband and I headed off to the next order of business: say goodbye to Jaws.

Once thing I've always loved about Jaws isn't the ride itself, but rather the queue video. It's full of cheesy humor like the kids' show host with a shark puppet and a crazy TV appliance salesman who destroys all the (old-fashioned) TVs with a sledgehammer so the accountants will let him lower the prices. That video is the part I'll miss most. I only got to see a bit of it on my last trip, since the express line moves quickly.

Soon enough, Scooby and I were in our seat, and my husband snapped one last photo for posterity:

You can see that the woman on my left is standing up; it's not just because she's getting into the boat. She tried to stand up for the entire ride. I have no idea why, but she popped up and down like a jack in the box. She'd stand. She'd be told to sit down. She'd reluctantly lower herself, then pop right back up again. Honestly, she was more amusing than the shark battle.

Still, it was a night ride, so that made the fire effects all the more impressive. One thing I have to give to Universal Studios is that they love their fire. Probably the best proof of that fact is the flaming ceiling in Revenge of the Mummy, but Jaws still used up a respectable amount of propane.

All too soon the ride was over. We escaped Bruce the shark once again, and this was the last time I'd ever be that close to falling into his clutches. I'll admit, I did feel a bit melancholy walking away from Jaws and Amity in the darkness, knowing that I'd never experience this little bit of classic Universal Studios again.

On the flipside, I was cheered by the fact that I love most of their newer rides. Yes, I know it's a travesty to say it, but Revenge of the Mummy is a hundred times better than Kongfrontation, and look at Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey at Islands of Adventure next door. If the new ride is anything like Harry in terms of technology and awe factor, I'll help them level the Jaws/Amity area myself.

It'll be a long, long time until the new section opens and people can judge whether it's worthy of replacing the classic shark. For now, I'll get my "corn factor" on Jungle Cruise and Rhino Rally.

Ever wanted to be a travel agent? My new book (free for Amazon Prime members, $5.99 for others) tells you how to start your own business in five steps (I've been doing it myself since 2004).

No Sympathy

2012-01-03T09:16:00.000-08:00

When I woke up this morning, the outside temperature was in the 30s, and all four of our resident cats had sought refuge on the bed, creating a big, warm human-and-cat pile. Yes, our heat pump is on, but that little electric contraption is no match for sub-freezing temperatures. This sort of weather needs a big, bellowing gas furnace to keep the cold at bay.

The sad thing is, I get no sympathy when I complain to family and friends back home. Right now, as I type this, it's 19 degrees in Chicago. Instead of looking out at palm trees and green grass, they're starting at a barren waste land. Eventually (although it might take days) it will warm up into the 70s here. Their "warm up" there will probably be in the 40s. I'm sure they'd trade places with me in a heartbeat.

Of course, my concept of "cold" is very skewed now, since my once Heinz-ketchup-thick blood has thinned out to the consistency of cherry Kool-Aid. I handle the heat and humidity like a pro, but let the mercury drop below 70 and I'm shivering like I'm at the North Pole.

I guess I should be grateful that no matter how cold it gets, it's unlikely that I'll ever seen snow again, outside of the theme parks, the Gaylord Palms snow event, or the "snoap" that rained down from the light posts nightly in Downtown Celebration for the holiday season. I just hope things warm up here before January 21, or these brave souls doing the Polar Plunge at SeaWorld might just end up floating around encased in blocks of ice. Me? I'll be the one in the Eskimo parka cheering them on from the sides.

But Do You Actually Visit the Theme Parks?

2012-01-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

The local news channels love to cover any little happening at Disney and the other theme parks, even if it's as small as Mickey farting. If it's a slow news day, you'll get breathless promos and break-ins to shows: "Live coverage! A dozen children are under mental evaluation for trauma. Tune in at 10 for an indepth analysis of the length, smell, and decibel level." I guess with the Casey Anthony trial over, they have to grab their news where they can get it.

Unfortunately, this means blowing the tiniest incidents out of proportion and doing some very sloppy research. Last night, Universal had a breakdown on both Revenge of the Mummy, which is a combination dark ride and roller coaster, and the classic E.T. dark ride. Breakdowns are routine. Rides don't run on magic and pixie dust and sunbeams. They're mechanic behemoths that have glitches regularly. It's not at all uncommon for guests to have to be evacuated from those rides if it's more convenient to take them off than to force them to wait for a fix. The only thing odd about yesterday's incident is that two rides in the same park both broke down and needed evacs on the same day and within the same time frame. The malfunctions were so minor that both rides reopened shortly thereafter.

Being a slow news day, the TV stations went to town. You'd have thought that hundreds of people were in grave peril, danging by their fingertips and praying the fire department would rescue them in time before the sweat from their terror caused them to slip and plummet to their bloody deaths. My favorite was WESH 2 because it was painfully obvious that the reporter didn't know the first thing about Universal and was likely relying on a combination of rumor and Wikipedia for her report.

The first thing that made me bust a gut was when she claimed that the poor souls on the rides had waited multiple hours in line to get on them. Uh, on January 1? At Universal? Anybody with even an ounce of theme park savvy knows that January 2 is the start of the off season, and people are already bailing in droves on January 1st. Even at the busiest times, multi hour waits at Universal are rare because everyone's next door at Islands of Adventure clamoring to see Harry Potter.

But the thing that made me use Tivo to go back and make sure I heard it correctly was when she claimed that ironically, Revenge of the Mummy is located in the building that used to house E.T. Say what? Mummy took over Kongfrontation's old location, while E.T. has resided in its present spot in the kids' area since for ever. All I can figure is that she or her writer pulled up Wikipedia or some other online source, read that the Mummy replaced E.T., and missed the small but very relevant point that it happened at Universal in CALIFORNIA. Yes, dear, you're reporting the news in ORLANDO, and you just made yourself look like an idiot to anyone who knows even the most rudimentary facts about Universal.

When I became the Orlando Theme Parks Examiner for Examiner.com, I just assumed that I should have annual passes for all the Central Florida parks and, better yet, actually visit them so I'd know what I'm talking about. Apparently the TV news stations don't feel the same.

Speaking of theme park knowledge, I'm putting together some ebook theme park guides. My first guide is about Walt Disney World, but it's more of an insider's view than an actual "This ride is here, that show is here" tour of the park. I hit on things like common ticket scams and other Orlando con jobs, where to find coupons for location attractions, things to do for free, and the like. The next ebooks will be more in the traditional vein, and I promise that none will claim that the Mummy replaced E.T.

The Illogical Shortcut

2012-01-01T15:52:00.001-08:00

When I moved to Celebration, Florida, I knew that traffic would be a constant headache because I was moving into the heart of Tourist Land. It's manageable most of the time, but at peak times like the holidays it's best to stay home as much as possible or learn all the alternate routes, since main roads like 535, 192, and I-4 turn into veritable parking lots.

Ironically, one of the best shortcuts is driving through Disney property. You'd think that traffic would be worse right in the Belly of the Beast (or, better yet, Belly of the Mouse), but that's not really the case. I know it sounds illogical, but Disney World is actually the best shortcut during the peak season.

Most of the people who stay on site at the Disney World hotels seem to depend on the internal transportation system. Those who stay offsite clutter up the roads outside the resort much worse than they do around the theme parks. When I use Disney property as a shortcut, I mostly avoid the parks anyway. I tend to cut from Celebration to Crossroads (535) if I-4 is backed up and I'm heading to SeaWorld or Universal, or I bail off of West 192 at Black Lake or Sherbeth and take the back roads back home. The tourists are trying to get TO Disney World rather than wanting to drive THROUGH Disney world, which makes the illogical sounding shortcut a real time saver.

Of course, when you drive on Disney property, you're one of a tiny minority of locals in a sea of lost, confused tourists. The stress you save by not being in traffic is somewhat replaced by being surrounded by a predatory forest of cars that might "attack" by swerving into your lane, abruptly coming to a stop from 40 m.p.h., or some other type of dangerous behavior at any time. After a while, you actually develop a sixth sense on what a tourist is likely to do and the spots where they're most likely to do it.

I do pity the tourists a bit. Florida is famous for lanes that suddenly turn into "right turn only" or "left turn only" with literally no warning. I can just imagine some sadistic Sunshine State traffic planner saying, "If we have to deal with their tourist antics, we'll at least make them suffer a bit. The locals will learn where those lanes are, and they can laugh at the out-of-towners who get suckered into making turns they never wanted to make."

Fortunately, all of the mayhem is over for a while now. Peak season ended today, and the tourists are all heading back to real life after their holiday vacations. The streets are already blissfully deserted and I can take the main roads without relying on Mickey for my shortcuts. Still, I don't mind driving through Disney, even if it adds a bit of time to my trip. I've lived in Celebration for years now, yet I still get that little thrill at driving through the Walt Disney World gate. I guess a little part of me will be a tourist forever.

A Look Back on 2011 - Exciting Year at the Florida Theme Parks

2011-12-31T09:08:00.000-08:00

One of the main reasons I moved to Celebration, Florida, was because of my love of Disney World and the other Central Florida theme parks. When we made the big move, the only others we were familiar with were Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. Living in Celebration meant learning more about SeaWorld and Busch Gardens, too, since they were now easily accessible.

The theme parks are part of my leisure time, and they're also work. As the Orlando Theme Parks Examiner and a freelance writer doing articles and guides for Disney World and the other parks, visiting them is a necessity (albeit one I love). In reflecting back over 2011, I pinpointed my five favorite theme park events in 2011. Here there are in no particular order (and there's a related story in my Examiner column):

-Legoland Florida opens on the site of the old Cypress Gardens theme park. Yes, I know I said these were in no particular order, but I have to put this one first because opening a brand-new theme park is big news. Well, okay, it's not 100 percent brand new. It retains some elements of Cypress Gardens, like many of the roller coasters, the carousel, the very cool Island in the Sky, and the gardens themselves. But it's amazing how much has changed and how quickly it was put together. In March, I was taking a helicopter ride over the construction site. In October, I was watching the opening ceremony where the final gold brick was snapped into place to signify the park's completion.

Even though Legoland Florida is meant mainly for kids between the ages of 2 and 12, adults can find lots of enjoyment there. I love strolling through the gardens, getting a birds-eye view on Island in the Sky, and looking for new details in Miniland USA. Some of the rides are fun for "big kids," too, but I warn you: the roller coasters are real knee bangers.

-Star Tours reopens at Disney's Hollywood Studios. This was such a cool event in so many ways. I love what they did with the ride, which now features C3PO prominently and which has multiple versions. It will quickly become a vendetta to ride it multiple times so you can see as many as possible.

But perhaps most cool of all was being there for the opening and standing within spitting distance of George Lucas as a voice intoned, "Darth Vader, meet your maker." There were designers from Industrial Light & Magic on hand, too, and even Anthony Daniels himself. Meeting him was a major geek-out for me.

-Cheetah Hunt opens at Busch Gardens Tampa. Busch Gardens is Central Florida's roller coaster mecca, and Cheetah Hunt is a worthy addition. SheiKra is still my favorite, both for its airtime and its sheer size, but Cheetah Hunt nips at its heels. It seemed to run slower when it first opened, but once it broke in, it became an airtime machine. The launches give it a uniqueness that make it a nice counterpoint to the existing coasters. The lines get extremely long at peak times, but it's almost walk-on in the quiet season so you can get your fill of the speed.

-SeaWorld debuts its One Ocean show. I miss the "Believe" orca show, but "One Ocean" is a worthy successor, and I really love the first song. Having lived in Celebration for many years now, and being a SeaWorld passholder who visits the park regularly, I know the orcas' names and can usually tell them apart. I love how One Ocean gives them an opportunity to showcase their individual personalities. Of course, Shamu himself (i.e. Tili) still comes out at the end to soak the audience as only he can.

-Universal Orlando has its first Halloween Horror Nights tweet-up. The Central Florida theme parks are really embracing social media in general and Facebook and Twitter in particular. This year, Universal held several Halloween Horror Nights tweet-ups, starting before the event even began. Of course I was there to get a sneak preview, and better yet, I won a spot on a group tour through one of the houses with TJ Mannarino (you'll know who that is if you're an HHN fan). My even luckier husband nailed a spot at the team preview of the event. It was a great way for Universal to build even more excitement for Halloween Horror Nights (not that they really need to, since the rabid fans are usually already whipped up into a frenzy by September).

Below are some video highlights of the events. I have my fingers crossed for even better theme parking in 2012, although 2011 will be hard to beat:

Legoland Florida Grand Opening Ceremony:

Interview With Anthony Daniels and Designers from Industrial Light & Magic:

Flashback to Cheetah Hunt Construction at Busch Gardens Tampa:

One Ocean Orca Show Highlights at SeaWorld:

Halloween Horror Nights Tweet-Up Q & A Session at Universal Studios Orlando:

A Celebration of the New Year 2012

2011-12-30T18:07:00.000-08:00

It's hard to believe that it's nearly 2012 already, not just because 2011 went by so fast, but also because it's been nearly eight years since I started this blog. I remember wanting to move to Celebration so badly and wondering what it would be like to live in Florida. That seems like only yesterday, but in the blink of an eye I'm suddenly a (fairly) long-time Florida resident.

On the plus side, living in Florida is everything I ever hoped it would be. It's late December, yet the sun is shiny, the grass is green, and I don't even need a coat. I spent the entire season visiting the Christmas celebrations at Disney World, SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Universal/Islands of Adventure, and Legoland Florida, and before that it was another year of fun at Halloween Horror Nights and Howl-O-Scream. I'm still not tired of hearing the Illuminations fireworks while sitting in my family room every night.

But some things have changed for the negative here in Celebration. We were lucky enough to buy Duloc Manor before the real estate bubble peaked. After that peak, there was the big bust, with aftershocks that are still affecting Celebration and all the rest of Florida. If you drive around our once immaculate town, you'll quickly be able to pick out the foreclosures, with their ragged appearance and overgrown lawns.

Still, I've never once regretted my decision to move to Celebration, Florida. It's my home now; Publix has replaced "da Jewels" as my grocery store of choice, I no longer long for a basement, I ask for "unsweetened tea" because I barely remember that I used to live where that was the default, and my regret at no longer getting to eat at Lawry's anymore is dampened by places like Sweet Tomatoes, Sunny's BBQ. I even found a Mexican restaurant in Kissimmee, called El Tenampa, where the food rivals anything you can get in Chicago's Hispanic neighborhoods. They even have horchata and a wide array of aguas frescas.

I've been very busy with my writing career and other endeavors. I'm building up a list of ebooks on Amazon.com with topics ranging from Disney World and the other theme parks to personal finance and becoming a travel agent. I'm going to try to find the time to post to my Celebration, Florida, blog more regularly, too. I think it's an appropriate time because life in Florida has entered a new phase...well, actually, it's been in that phase for a while now. It's still a great place to live, and you can get some fantastic bargains if you move to Celebration now, but it's very different from the place I blogged about in 2004. Welcome to Phase Two!

Hooray for Halloween (in Orlando it Starts in September)

2010-09-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

People often complain about the Christmas season starting early. Once upon a time its kickoff was after Thanksgiving, but now it's here before the last jack o' lantern leaves the shelves. And speaking of jack o'lanterns, Halloween starts earlier now, too, especially since I live in Tourist Land. In Chicago the local haunted houses opened in mid-October. In Central Florida, they usually kick off in the last weekend of September.

Our two main Florida gigs are Halloween Horror Nights (Universal Orlando) and Howl-O-Scream (Busch Gardens Tampa). Both are big blow-out bashes full of haunted houses, scare zones and shows. I celebrated my first Halloween when I was literally only days old, so my blood runs orange at this time of year.

This year, I thought the fun would start today (Thursday, October 23) with Scream Cam at Busch Gardens. Each year us lucky media folk get a sneak peak at one of their houses, with a camera aimed directly at our faces to capture our screams. I figure that's a fair enough trade off. This year it started even earlier; I received an invitation to the Team Preview of Halloween Horror Nights at Universal on Wednesday. It's mainly for employees, but this year they invited some bloggers to come for a very special treat. We were issued flip cams and allowed to do something that is normally a HUGE no-no: film inside the houses. We only got an hour to do it, and then Universal collected the cameras to edit what we had captured. We all had to agree not to post any details of our sneak preview until Thursday night/Friday morning as midnight rolled into a new day.

My husband and I decided to park in the garage, even though we get free valet with our Premier passes. Uh oh, bad idea! The line stretched so far back that for a minute I thought I was flashing back to the opening days of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. We get free Preferred, which is in a much better location in the garage, but I had no idea whether they would honor it at night. They did, thank goodness! Just another reason why I'm a huge Premier pass fan; they make it up in Valeet and Preferred parking fees alone, not to mention that you get free non-peak Halloween Horror Nights tickets too.

CityWalk was jammed back with people, but we finally made it to the globe and entrance arch where we were to meet the P.R. person. I itched with anticipation as we watched the crowd swell. It looked like a peak night, not just a limited preview. My husband taped the video that plays over the entrance; since it's outside, we didn't have to worry about the same prohibitions as posting our inside footage. Soon enough we were escorted inside, along with bloggers from the major Halloween Horror Nights websites. It felt good to be among people who are just obsessed with Halloween events as I am. Each of us was assigned to an escort, handed a flip camera with brand new batteries and turned loose in the park. Thankfully I own the exact same type of flip camera so there was no learning curve.

My husband had been studying the event map on http://www.hhnrumors.com/ (one of the sites that was also there) and had made some sort of plan in his mind. I had mentally plotted out which houses I wanted to see, but I deferred to him because he seemed to have created his plan for efficiency and I wanted to tape in as many houses as possible. I knew it would be a bit different than my usual experience since I would be narrated and wielding the flip, but it will still give me (and hopefully my readers) a flavor of what they were in for.

Actually the worst part of using the flip was the fact that Security is so engrained with the "No video or photography" rule that a good part of my tape audio is, "You have to put that camera away," spoken by various Team Members in various houses. I tried wielding my yellow neck badge but it's not very readable in the dark so I usually had to convince them that yes, I really did have permission to do it. Oh well, I'd much rather have them be paranoid because I hate it when people try to do flaash pictures during the event (at least our cameras were not very intrusive). Hopefully they'll keep up the same level of enforcement.

We actually made it through five of the eight houses with the camera and got some scare zone footage too. We then hit the last three houses and the Bill & Ted show. I am still waiting for the edited footage, which I should get sometime on Friday, but in the meantime here are some quick impressions of the houses. I don't want to go into detail because this was technical rehearsal, so things may change, plus I don't want to spoil anything.

Horror Nights: The Hallowed Past - A must do for any Halloween Horror Nights fan, if only for the wonderful memorabilia and scenes from favorite housese of years past. I won't say which ones, but my most cringe-inducing scene of all time was there and it still made me cringe as much as ever. I will warn that the spinning tunnel of doom can be found in here; I don't consider that a spoiler, since you find it somewhere every year. I want to go through this one many more times just to catch the amazing detail. This is one of the two houses entered by the Barney theater.

Catacombs: Black Death Rising - I definitely felt like I was in the catacombs in this one, and there were a ton of good jump scares and plenty of disorientation. Overall I actually noticed quite a few strobes this year, which is one of my favorite haunted house elements because of that disorientation factor. It primes you for the attack. This is the other Barney theater house.

Havoc: Dogs of War - Another good house for jump scares, startles and disorientation. It's behind Simpsons/Men in Black.

The Orfanage: Ashes to Ashes - This is Cindy's house (in the Jaws queue); she's the"lost icon" who has finally come into her own. I didn't get a lot of quality scares in this one, although that could well improve as the event goes on. I was more intrigued by the use of fire...yes, you will see real fire. I was amazed that Universal was actually going to use it since safety is a huge concern for haunted houses. They do it in a way that looked plenty safe even to a fire paranoic person like me.

Psychoscareapy: Echoes of Shadybrook - I love the Psychoscareapy franchise, especially "Home for the Holidays," but this is a much darker version of the theme. Don't expect a comedy house with light-hearted lunatics. This soundstage house is a dark spin on things with some very interesting effects.

Hades: Gates of Ruin - This one (a soundstage house) will assail your nose as well as your eyes, and it's another great jump scare house.

Legendary Truth - I don't want to spoil the effects in this one (a soundstage house), but trust me, it's good...really, really good. They had one particular effect I've only seen once before, back in a haunted house in Indiana. It made me leap in the air because it was so totally unexpected. I love how Universal brings back some of the good old stuff but ups the ante with the new stuff too.

Zombiegeddon - This is the year's comedy house, over in the Disaster queue. Everybody loves zombies, although quite honestly I must say I liked the scare zone even better than the house. The zone mixed zombies and Mardi Gras. Dfinitely a winning combination.

I know my opinion will change...often quite drastically...over the course of the event so I just wanted to give some generalities. For example, last year I was really "meh" on Leave it to Cleaver, but it became my favorite house by the end of the season. Same thing with Doomsday in 2008, ironically located in the same spot.

I'm hoping to have that coveted in-house video before we leave for the official Halloween Horror Nights grand opening on Friday, but in the meantime here is the video that plays at Universal's front entrance archway. When you're done watching it, check out my Orlando Examiner articles, including Halloween Horror Nights tips, by clicking here.

Little Mailbox of Horrors

2010-09-21T16:11:00.000-07:00

It's fun being a travel writer who specializes in theme parks...well, most of the time. I get to ride roller coasters, review resorts and restaurants. and generally have a good time all in the name of work. However, things turn sinister when September rolls around. That means it's almost October...and almost time for Central Florida's annual terrorfests, Halloween Horror Nights at Universal and Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens.

My first clue that my favorite season was near was getting the finger from Busch Gardens. You can see it for yourself below:

The severed finger in a jar came courtesy of Sylvie, the 2010 icon and head of the rock band MyX. As you can see, she has a unique way of getting back at former boyfriends (and hapless guys who just happen to cross her path).

Then, along came an innocent looking letter from Universal, including a flash drive inviting me to the media opening event and purporting to contain a special sneak peek of the event:

Alas, poor Heather Summers (the narrator) is stopped in her tracks by Fear himself. He's the 2010 icon, and you can see what he does to her by clicking here for my Examiner article, which contains the video.

But that wasn't all. Soon enough, the following letter showed up in my mailbox. Apparently poor Heather was having more trouble with Fear:

And what could be in this special box?

It's all wrapped up in a bloody piece of burlap:

Aha, a special branding iron with the mark of Fear:

Here's the XX branding iron in all its glory:

I'll be covering both Halloween Horror Nights and Howl-O-Scream this weekend, so click here to join me on Twitter for live tweets.

Dining with Donald and Goofy at Disney's Vero Beach Resort, plus champagne brunch

2010-09-19T17:57:00.000-07:00

Note: This is a companion piece to my Examiner article, which can be read by clicking here.

What would a Disney resort be without a character breakfast? Disney's Vero Beach resort is no exception. It has a breakfast with Donald and Goofy on Saturday mornings, so of course my husband and I had to check it out. It's held in Shutters and runs till 11 a.m. We decided to make a late reservation so it could act as both breakfast and lunch. That also turned out to be perfect timing for the character appearances, since both Donald and Goofy showed up shortly after we were seated:

We got photos and autographs with the duo:

There were plenty of kids in the restaurant, but I noticed we weren't the only childless adults either. We watched the character interactions, and they spent a lot of time with the little ones. It was more relaxed than many of the crowded character meals at Disney World (I highly recommend the Garden Grill at Epcot if you want a relaxed experience; it's probably our favorite character meal on property, and Mickey and friends usually make it around to every twice there). We watched the wee ones having a blast playing with Donald and Goofy.

Mickey wasn't there in person, but he was represented by the tableware:

After our photo and autograph session, it was time for food. The breakfast is plated, but it's all you can eat. It starts off with a fruit plate and a nice variety of danishes (I saved a couple for a snack later):

Mickey was on the butter too:

And of course there were Mickey waffles! In addition, you get breakfast potatoes, sausage, bacon and scrambled eggs. There was more than enough for the two of us, although hubby did request another Mickey waffle:

I definitely recommend this meal because I never feel like a trip to a Disney property is complete without eating with the characters.

There is a champagne brunch at Shutters on Sundays that doesn't feature characters, but it does have bloody Marys and mimosas:

It is a buffet and is more upscale, with a large variety of seafood, plus sushi, cheeses and fruits. You can get a made to order omlette or choose from various hot items like fish, eggs benedict, carved to order meats, crepes, crab soup and plenty of other goodies. Some of the cold selections and the omlette station are shown below:

The buffet was a great send-off before we headed home on Sunday. We booked 11 a.m., which gave us time to pack the car and dine right before hitting the road. It is a special treat for seaood lovers like my husband, although I was quit content with the eggs benedict and omlettes.

I can't really compare the champagne brunch to anything at Disney World, but it did remind me of the Palo brunch on the Disney Magic and Wonder cruise ships. It wasn't quite as upscale as Palo, but it was a hearty meal with many tempting items.

Fine dining and fun dining at Disney's Vero Beach Resort (trip report, part two)

2010-09-19T16:50:00.000-07:00

(Note: the companion article to this blog entry, on Examiner, can be found by clicking here.) There are two sit-down restaurants on-site at Disney's Vero Beach resort, as well as a quick service outlet called Bleachers near the pool. The Green Cabin Room, which is the lounge, also serves food during certain hours. There are plenty of off-site restaurants, too, if you want to save money or explore other areas, but my husband and I set our sights on the resort options. Since we were only visiting for a weekend, we wanted to make sure we tried the two sit-down eateries. We've heard that the burgers are excellent, too, but alas, we didn't have time for a fast meal on our whirlwind trip.

Sonya's is the more upscale of the two sit-down restaurants, on a par with the signature dining places at Disney World. Shutters isn't too far behind it, although the atmosphere is more casual. You may get sticker shock if you're not used to Disney World restaurant prices, but DVC members do get a discount.

We wanted to experience both fine dining and fun dining. On the fun side, Shutters has a character breakfast and a Sunday champagne brunch. But first, let's start with the fine dining, which encompasses our arrival night dinner at Shutters and our Saturday dinner at Sonya's.

Both Shutters and Sonya's offer reservations, and they accept walk-ups too. We did a walk-up on Friday night at Shutters, but we made reservations for our other meals at the check-in desk when we arrived. Below is the sign that greets you at Shutters, which is located on the pool side of the resort (you walk through it to get to Sonya's):

The overall menu is seafood heavy, but there are other options for people who prefer turf to surf. We started off with the conch fritters on our server's recommendation, and they were amazing! My husband wanted the calamari because the dipping sauce sounded appealing, so we got some of that sauce as well as what regularly comes with the fritters. We most definitely didn't regret the choice:

What's a Disney restaurant without fresh bread? In this case, it was corn bread (yum) and salt-topped rolls:

For dinner, I chose the triple tail, which I had never had before. It was the fresh fish of the day, and it turned out to be very mild, like a mahi or tilapia. It was served with a mango sauce, field greens and delicious vanilla rum flavored mashed potatoes:

My husband opted for the Old Bay-seasoned steam pot. He loved mussels but wanted a bit of a variety, so it was perfect for him. He gave me the crab legs, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could actually taste the seasoning. I've gotten steamed crab legs at Joe's Crab Shack with Old Bay, and I've never been able to taste it there:

Initially we were sad we had missed the seafood buffet at Shutters, which is only offered on Thursdays, but soon enough got over it because we both loved our meals. The only regret was getting too full to try dessert.

The next night we went to Sonya's, which was dressier than we expected. I don't know if there is a specific dress code, but based on the other patrons we were glad we had brought golf shirts (some were even more dressed up than business casual). You get to Sonya's by walking through Shutters:

I love the artisan cheese plates at the Disney World signature restaurants and was very excited to see something similar offered at Sonya's. Alas, I forgot to take a picture of my cheese plate, which included four varieties with raisins on the vine, honeycomb, and home made compote, but it got a big thumbs up from me. Of course, I could probably live on Disney cheese plates. My husband liked his curried she crab soup, as did I, but we are both big curry fans.

Sonya's features bread with three butters. One is regular, one has roasted red peppers, and one has garlic and chives:

Sonya's had a triple tail, but I forced myself to try something different. I got the salmon because of its preparation style, which included heirloom tomatoes. It was indeed a tasty option, and I shared the huge portion with hubby:

Of course, he had his own big meal to deal with. He took our server's suggestion and opted for the scallops. They are as large as they look, and the sauce was a great addition:

Once again, we were much too full to have dessert.

In my next entry, I will report on our dining fun hanging out with Donald and Goofy for breakfast and enjoying mimosas and bloody Marys at the champagne brunch. Click here if you missed part one of this trip report.

Disney's Vero Beach, a comprehensive trip report (part one)

2010-09-17T19:01:00.000-07:00

Note: This is a companion article to my Examiner article. Click here if you haven't read it already.

My husband and I have discussed visiting Disney's Vero Beach ever since we moved to Florida. For those who are not familiar with it, it's a 211-room Disney Vacation Club resort on the Atlantic Ocean about two hours away from Disney World. It's not near theme parks, nor much of anything else, so it's the perfect place for some rest, relaxation, swimming and sand castle building. There are restaurants and activities for kids and families, like a pool with a water slide, bike rentals, and miniature golf, spa, and music in the Green Cabin Room lounge in the evenings. We thought it would be a neat place to spend a weekend, so we were very excited when Disney invited us to check it out.

There are several ways to get to Vero Beach from the Disney area (192, 528/95 and the Florida Turnpike). We chose the turnpike on a friend's advice, even though it takes you a bit out of yoour way and racks up tolls. It was worth it, as the two-hour drive was smooth sailing. We were greeted by a familiar Disney Vacation Club sign at the entrance:

Below is the check-in area. We arrived on Friday afternoon around 4 p.m. and there were a few people, but no line. Things did get busier at the desk on Saturday, although never unreasonble. Our room was ready (check-in time is actually 3) so we were able to park in the garage below the building and head right upstairs.

Our room was in the main building on the second floor, right by the elevators. The good part is that it was extremely convenient. We didn't need to use the elevator because there is a nearby staircase down to the main level from that floor, and the Green Cabin Room was on our level for easy access in the evenings. I was worried about hallway traffic because of the elevator, but I didn't really notice much. I always travel with a while noise machine, which helps a lot. The cute towel animal that was waiting to greet us is pictured below. The bad part was that we could hear our next door neighbors through the wall. Thankfully they were not wild late-night partiers. There was also a wedding on our second night, and I could hear the DJ and music in our room. I think they cleared out around 11 p.m. tho' so it didn't disrupt our rest.

Below is the cute towel animal that was waiting for us in our room:

There are DVC villas with separate bedrooms in other parts of the resort, including three bedroom freestanding cottages that reminded me of the treehouses at Saratoga Springs, but ours was a standard room with two beds. Size-wise it was equivalent to the deluxe resorts at Disney World It also had DVC amenities like a small refrigerator, microwave oven, paper plates, plastic cutlery, a toaster and coffee maker. You can see the beds below:

We also had a table and two chairs, which would be handy for eating in the room (although we stuck with the on-site restaurants):

There was a flat screen television with a DVD player. The radio by the beds has a docking station for iPods and MP3 players too, and the electrical outlet is well positioned for plugging in computers, cell phones, etc. DVC members get free wireless internet, or you can purchase it:

Below is the bathroom area, which has a toilet and tub that can be closed off from the sink. The hairdryer is hanging on the wall:

Below is the kitchenette area:

There are towels you can use at the pool or out at the beach:

All of the rooms have balconies. Ours overlooked the parking area and was tucked into the roof line so it had a solid wall, but most of the others have see-through railings. That's especially nice if you have an ocean view room:

Here is an example of the artwork in the lobby areas:

Here is the view just outside our room, looking at the staircase and Green Cabin Room, which faces the ocean:

There are many little sitting areas and alcoves around the hotel:

Here is our first view of the beach:

The pool has a neat little water slide and is kept warm and comfy. There is also a nearby hot tub, which we used in the evening. You can get food, rent bikes and play miniature golf in this area too. The pool is a very popular spot:

More beach shots. You can rent chairs and umbrellas:

The water was stirred up by Hurricane Igor during our visit:

Some made a sand castle earlier in the day:

More beach views:

Here are the various rental rates:

There is also a sign listing beach conditions and warnings:

We had a very full experience as we tried to do as much as possible in our brief weekend visit. The next parts of this trip report will cover the on-site restaurants, including Sunday brunch and a character meal; the spa; and fun activities, including miniature golf and the evening campfire (smores...mmmm!).

Let there be light

2010-09-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about living in Celebration is being on the Disney electrical grid. Everything is underground, and our power is very reliable. We didn't even lose it during the infamous Charlie/Frances/Jean hurricane trio. I remember bagging ice to send to people in Kissimmee, who were without power for days.

Alas, we may not go down in the big catastrophes, but yesterday we had an outage for no apparent reason. Of course, it had to happen when my cell phone battery was already low. At first I thought it would be a brief, nondescript outage. It happened early in the day, and right when I was in the middle of something important on my laptop, so I hustled off to the library to use their wireless. The electricity was back on by the time I got back home. The rest of the day went smoothly...then boom! We were out again just before 6 p.m. And this time I do mean OUT; I decided to go out and get something to eat, since sitting in a rapidly darkening house was pointless. All of the traffic lights on the way to 192 were out, which made for an interesting drive. Thankfully I'm a fearless, Chicago-trained driver so I made it through the mish-mash of “Whose turn is it anyway?”

I monitored the goings-on in town from my rapidly dying cell phone, which also has internet. Apparently the power was going off and on sporadically. I called home and the answering machine didn't pick up, so I knew East Village was still among the have-nots.

As I was driving home, I noticed people downtown wandering about in desperation. The Thai restaurant had its doors propped open, and I imagined the impact the outage would have on our stores and eateries. I was worried enough about the food in my fridge. I could just imagine worrying about a commercial quantity and all the lost customers.

It was still light enough for me to find candles when I got home. I had just cleared out a bunch of old candles, but fortunately I still had four or five stashed in various spots around the house. I placed them strategically on the kitchen counter so I could toss them in the sink if they caused any hazard. Then I booted up my PC to drain its last bits of power in whatever work I could do while not logged onto the internet.

The power suddenly returned a little under an hour later. Hooray! Or should I really celebrate? After all, people had reported offs and ons. I let myself get suckered in and blew out all the candles. Sure enough, as soon as that task was done, Progress Energy plunged us into the dark again. Ugh.

It reminded me of my childhood, when I was around 6 or 7. Our Chicago neighborhood once lost its power for two or three whole days. I don't know whether it was a tornado or just a terrible storm, but there were downed lines everywhere. We had to make due with unheated canned food, and most of the families on our block would gather together in the living room of the one family that camped because of course they had lanterns. We'd talk, sing, play games, and generally try to make the best of life without power. It felt like a miracle when the juice was finally restored.

I also lost power in my apartment once when I was single and living in the 'burbs. I had a studio apartment behind a house in a very tight-knit neighborhood. Lightning struck a power box; I actually saw it through my front door. So much for the power. Shortly thereafter one of my neighbors (the block busybody, but I mean that in a good way) came over to make sure I had some candles. Fortunately that mess only lasted for a few hours before we were back in business.

Alas, Florida in September is much hotter than Chicago. At least the temperature had moderated by nightfall, but I was still missing the air conditioning. In my apartment I was able to open the windows and front door. In Florida, we don't have screen doors, and our cat SkeiKra would probably burst right through a screen to eat a lizard.

I used up the last of my laptop's juice working on a magazine article, since I had the interview notes saved on my hard drive. Then I huddled by the candles to read a true crime book (in restrospect, probably not the best choice in the eerie darkness that had descended on our entire street).

It was after 9 p.m., and I was starting to believe we'd have no power before bedtime, when suddenly I was dazzled by the warming glow of light bulbs. My poor bird, Truman, who had gone to sleep in his happy hut, must have thought sunrise was here very early, as he promptly woke up and started going about his usual daytime routine.

Of course, my first action was to plug in my nearly dead cell phone and log onto the internet. My work day had been sorely interrupted, since all of my jobs are internet-dependent. I breathed a sigh of relief that at least I'd have some time to try to get caught up before bed.

I know it sounds rather whiny to complain about a few hours without power when people back through history functioned all day, every day without it. I'll readily admit that I'm spoiled by modern life, and this experience just confirmed the fact that I'd made a lousy pioneer.

Check out my coverage of the theme parks in Orlando and beyond by clicking here!

Trapped in Paradise

2010-09-15T20:22:00.000-07:00

Florida is an interesting state because it's so darned LONG. When we lived in Illinois, we could easily get to places like Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky and Iowa. We sometimes even ventured down to Tennessee. We loved to do weekend trips to places like Wisconsin Dells, Kings Island, Cedar Point, the Smoky Mountains, Indiana Beach, Mall of America and Lake Michigan (in Indiana or Michigan, not downtown Chicago).

In Florida, there is no such thing as a simple weekend trip in another state unless you want to drive and drive and drive. After all, as Homer Simpson would say, it's a America's wang, and a darned long one at that. Sure, we could go to Georgia, but that's a state I prefer to see again any time soon after driving through an ice storm there when we moved to Celebration. Other than that, we're pretty much surrounded by water.

Oh, well, I can't complain too much. After all, I live in the heart of Theme Park Country, and if I get tired of Orlando's offerings, I can easily drive to Busch Gardens in Tampa. There are beaches on both coasts, although I prefer the Gulf side because the other side always seems to have some nasty hazard like bird bacteria or rip tides of man-o-wars. We're definitely not at a deficit of leisure things to do. Sometimes I miss all our old road trips, but then I remind myself that people in those states all shiver their butts off while I stare at palm trees in the winter time. I miss Magnum at Cedar Point, but I'll trade it for SheiKra at Busch Gardens, as long as that's accompanied by warm temperatures year 'round, any day.

A fiesta of flavor at Epcot's new Hacienda de San Angel restaurant

2010-09-15T20:00:00.000-07:00

On September 15 I had the pleasure of attending the media event for the grand opening of La Hacienda de San Angel at Disney World's Epcot theme park. I wrote about it for Examiner, but they only allow me to post one photo now so below is my full photographic coverage, including plenty of "food porn" at the bottom. Click here to hop to the Examiner article if you didn't read it already. The food was delicious, and as an added bonus, the outdoor eating area is a perfect spot to see Illuminations. I enjoyed the view here even more than I do at the U.K. restaurant patio.

Here is the friendly team from Hacienda de San Angel:

Opening ceremonies:

Mickey and Donald were on hand to cut the ribbon. Note that it's up in this photo:

And now it's cut!

Grand opening sign inside the restaurant:

Aren't those lovely light fixtures?

What Mexican-themed celebration would be complete without a mariachi band?

And now the best part...food porn! Everything was delicious:

Mole on pork:

The item below was my favorite. It had a slightly sweet flavor:

Rose petal margarita that did indeed taste like rose water:

I didn't dare try the jalapenos:

This was filled with cheese. It reminded me of the quesadillas casera I get at El Tenampa, my favorite Kissimmee Mexican restaurant:

I can't remember if this was a mango or guava margarita, but it was good either way!

The shrimp taco will definitely please seafood lovers:

Yum! They use my favorite kind of Mexican cheese (the white, crumbly kind), as you can see below:

I think the photo below is another view of my favorite tasty treat:

Disney World Means Luxury for Pets as Well as People

2010-09-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

I haven't been blogging lately about life in Celebration because I've been busy with magaine work and covering the theme parks for the Examiner website. Examiner now only lets me upload one photo, which does not work for travel writing. Thus I will be putting the photo tours here and linking over from the articles. Click here to read the Examiner article.

What follows is my photographic tour of the brand new Best Friends pet resort, which just opened at Walt Disney World today.

Below is the sign that greats you in front of the building, which is located across the street from the Port Orleans resort, not far from Downtown Disney and the Epcot resort area:

Below, Pluto joins in on the opening day festivities:

Part of the outdoor doggie play area is shown below:

Below you can see the press turnout as media members watch the dogs frolick:

Check out the dog in the two photos below enjoying the fountain in the dog playground. Perfect for hot Florida days!

Cats are not neglected at Best Friends, as you can see by the kitty condo pictured below:

Cats get time out each day to enjoy this play area, complete with big windows that you can see below:

People bring bettas, hamsters, and bunnies to Disney World, and they're all welcome at Best Friends, as the photo below shows:

Pampered dogs can visit for the day and have special spa treats, as you can see below in the grooming area:

Check out the doggie dogs below. The kennels are very comfy and have doors to the outside:

Dogs get playtime each day, and you can even bring them for doggie daycare so they can romp in the room shown below:

There are luxury suites and VIP rooms with amenities such as the cushy bed below:

Pretty fancy kennel!

Pampered pooches even get doggie ice cream treats (and cats get tuna on crackers), as you can see below:

The VIP suites even have playgroup equipment outside:

Cute decoration on the Best Friends building:

The outside decor shown below makes dogs feel right at home:

Opening Ceremony:

Cute Dog Video:

All photos copyright by Barb Nefer, 2010.

Water, Water Everywhere and Not a Drop to Drink

2010-01-29T16:39:00.000-08:00

We're been under a water boiling order in Celebration since yesterday due to a water break in Kissimmee that has affected a pretty wide span. I didn't even know there was a problem till I read it on the Front Porch, our community intranet, which serves the same function as the backyard fence gossip chains and party lines of old. Tap water is supposed to be boiled before use, although thankfully we're pretty well supplied with Gatorade so it hasn't been a major inconvenience.

It did make for an interesting restaurant experience tonight though. We were kicking around where to go and were pretty much between B. J.'s Brewhouse and Abuleo's, both located in the Loop shopping area. They're pretty much our default selections when we can't decide where to go. Then I got to thinking...what about Bonefish? It's in the same area, although it's part of the strip mall rather than a standalone building like the other two. I always see a lot of people there so I figured it had to be good, or at least decent. I tossed the idea out to hubby, and after reviewing the online menu we decided to give it a try.

The Loop is within the water boiling boundary, so we wondered how that might be affecting things. We quickly discovered it meant no ice, no water and no fountain drinks. My husband ordered wine and we did manage to get a little water (they had some bottles on hand that were quickly running out). The food menu was not affected, so he ordered the mussel appetizer and a mahi dish which I ordered corn chowder with crab and a mahi sandwich.

It was quite interesting to hear the reactions of many of the people around us when they learned of the limitations. Even with the last of the bottled water there was no ice so you had to drink it warm. This was apparently a major life trauma for one party; they demanded to see the manager. I'm not sure what they thought she would do or if they thought they'd do any better at another restaurant since every Loop eatery was in the same boat. I squelched the temptation to ask them if they thought the people in Haiti, many of whom have no water or food, would have any sympathy for their plight. Life is very much a matter of perspective. Your life is pretty freakin' good if your major complaint is having to drink warm bottled water with your upscale seafood meal.

One of the restaurant employees had been sent out for more bottled water and ice, which showed up in time for our meal. Actually, I could have easily restricted myself to drinking the broth from hubby's mussel appetizer, was was truly the nectar of the gods. I have no idea what was in it, but it took all my willpower not to steal his bowl and chug it right down.

As we were finishing it up, I heard the distinct sound of a poot from the table behind us (we were in close quarters). Just as I was thinking, "Was that really a fart?" the unmistakable olifactory evidence proved that it was. "Ugh," I told my hubby, "the next table is providing us with after dinner aromatherapy."

Suddenly Mr. Poot slung his chair back and reclined as though he were at the dinette table in his trailer, putting him nearly in hubby's lap. Now I was doubly fearful of a repeat pooting. Hubby was like, "WTF?" and I said, "Maybe he's flirting with you." That didn't seem to sink into Mr. Poot's head even though he had to be close enough to hear. I tried again: "He has to be subtle about his attraction to you because I don't think he's out of the closet with his family yet." Still nothing. Finally I said, "God help us if his rear end lets out enother emission when he's this close." He immediately lurched forward and stayed out of our space while we ate dessert, thank goodness.

All in all it was a tasty meal despite the water situation and the pooter. I love both Abuelo's and B. J.'s, but it's nice to know we have another restaurant to add into the regular rotation.