January Trip Recap (Part 3)

Third out of four installments of my trip recap! This one all about home AKA Disney World!

Immediately after being "kicked out" of the cruise ship at an ungodly hour before 10am on January 7, we got our car from the cruise's terminal and drove to Orlando to stay for the next 2.5 weeks, because that is home, and that's the place you go to recharge and decompress, which by this point with my mom sick and my misadventures on the island the day before we really needed.

We had lots of plans to be "tourists" this time, since we haven't really seen non-disney properties in the area for years, but as already mentioned we debarked under less than ideal circumstances, (if you missed it you can read all about them here) and to make matters worst, when we got to Orlando we were received by a freakish 30 degree weather, which was a great shock to my system and got me sick too🙁.
Half of our time in Orlando was spent recovering from the flu so we took it easy, only doing half days at the parks, visiting favorite restaurants and shops within Disney and between Lake Buenavista and Kissimmee and just sleeping the bug off to be honest.
All our plans went out the window and we used Disney for the most part as a breather from life as we usually do haha. At least there's no better place to stay inside than a Disney resort!

But now on to the main even during my time in Orlando. The absolute biggest highlight of those two weeks was meeting my first IGGPPC pen-pal and one of my very best friends now...in person! Ann from Carnival Hearts 😃
We've been friends for a couple of years now and one of our biggest bonds has been over Disney. We both grew up in the Orlando area and love going to the Disney parks as much as possible so getting to have our first in person meeting there was beyond perfect! You can read an interview we gave about a year ago for the IGGPPC blog about our friendship and daydreams to meet at a Disney park here!

It is sometimes weird and kinda surreal to hang out in person with someone you've only ever met through letters, but we had already shared so much and were now in the most magical of places that it all felt pretty natural within a few minutes, despite both of our social awkwardness.
My only regret if you can call it that, was that both me and my mom were sick and were not as energetic and enthusiastic as we wanted to be. Nevertheless I had a blast with both Ann and her boyfriend Steve and at least from my perspective, also hanging out with her boyfriend and my mom at the same time didn't feel awkward at all. We all got along pretty great and both Steve and my mom would give us "friend time" alone on rides or strolling around the parks so we could catch up which was amazing! <3 p="">
It was so fun to experience the parks with someone new and get to know each other better, picking up conversations from our last letters and doing our belated holiday gift swap in person! Ann and I got to play at all the parks together except for Epcot because that was the day I couldn't breathe and therefore didn't make it 😞 But we made the most of our time together and I even got to share some Animal Kingdom secrets she was unaware of. It was just so fun!
At animal kingdom, because we were wearing our "I'm Celebrating!" buttons, a cast member asked us about the story behind them and then got so excited about our friendship story, we got our picture taken, for a stories-thing the cast members share between themselves, and were given a free giant "friendship" Mickey cookie! It was such a magical experience and I can't wait for the next time we get to hang out together.

We had so many fun moments, at Hollywood Studios we got to ride Toy Story Mania 3 times in a row! Got to meet Moana and get our pictures taken using "the force" and shared a meal at my ultimate favorite restaurant in the entire world: The Sci-Fi Dinner 💜                                           Magic Kingdom was where we first met, but since my mom and I weren't feeling great after a quick trip to Tomorrowland we had to leave. On Ann's last day at the parks however, I caught up with her and Steve to enjoy our last few hours together as much as possible. My mom couldn't join us that night and the rain seemed to want to keep me and Ann apart since they were trapped going from ride to ride in Adventureland while I was stuck on Main Street. I eventually found them and we got to meet Aladdin and Jasmin, go on a few rides, have our own merry unbirthday party spinning the mad tea cups and have dinner together before saying goodbye at the main gate after getting our last friendship picture taken in front of the Mickey flowers.

"I've Decided We Should Be Pencils" Tank Top by Jordandene

I'm really grateful I got to meet Ann in person, and can't wait to see her again. Hanging out with her made my visit back home extra special. I started missing her the day after she left and not only do I wish we could live closer to each other but now I also want to meet other great friends I've only met through letters!
After Ann and Steve left the next biggest highlight was attending the first ever Epcot Festival of Arts which was a lot of fun. It's similar to the Flower and Garden Fest but with art, there's food shaped like art, different chalk paintings on the "streets" of the World showcase, a mural all guest can be a part of painting, concerts, and a figment art scavenger hunt which was the most fun for me! At the end if you completed it you got a magnet of figment as one famous painting.

Overall a very different experience from what we have planned but so good and so necessary. After all like they say you have to be full of expectancy but never of expectations. Planning is never that great, taking it one day at a time is the way to go, we got lots of rest so we could have our health back for the road trip back home, had the most amazing few days with one of my besties and we were there at the right time for my new favorite Epcot festival. It was perfect despite life being life😉

<3 p="">                                                                                                                                                                        ✵For more pictures and random trip details from my traveling bear's perspective you can follow their insta account. If you scroll down enough you'll see the trip day to day. If you scroll down to Xmas in Manhattan you've gone too far 😜

January Trip Recap (Part 2)

Second Installment on my adventures! This one is all about my Eatern-Caribbean cruise 😃

From Dec 31 to January 7 my mom and I were on board the Disney Fantasy. To be completely honest this is my least favorite Disney ship, but still a Disney ship and any of them is better than pretty much any other cruise ship out there hehe.

We had the best last day of 2016 chilling by the pool, riding the water coaster (the Aqua Duck) and overall just enjoying ourselves on deck. Minus the bits when we were also trying to get the last bits of cell phone reception to wish our loved ones a happy new year, which was a mess because of everyone's time zone differences and the afore motioned distractions 😜. At night we had dinner and as usual a massive deck party to ring in the new year topped with fire works at sea. It was so fun! Even if incredibly packed and we didn’t get as good a view of the stage or the fireworks as we did back in 2013 but no complains! If you’re not at the Magic Kingdom to receive the year covered in Pixie Dust, a Disney Cruise is definitely second best! 

January 1st and 2nd were days at sea (but at least we’re talking about 2017 now!) Which one would assume are nothing but relaxing, but in general cruises have so much happening on a daily basis, and Disney cruises much more so, that sea days are usually a mad dash to catch as many possible activities and shows and explore all the magical details of the giant ship in just those few "off" days.

As Gold Castaway Members we even got a special "mixer" with Captain Mickey to attend first thing Jan 1st!

The third day brought us to the British Virgin Islands and we visited Tortola. This was a new island for me which is awesome, I love that feeling of visiting a new place for the very first time! I am so blessed and do not ever take it for granted, but I was a bit disappointed on the island or rather on the services. As it is to be expected the landscape is the same as the US Virgin Islands, which is amazing!😍 No complains on that department but the service and friendliness of the people leaves a lot to be desired in comparison to other islands in the area. One lady even wanted me to go fetch her the ingredients she left away from the kitchen while preparing my smoothie! Also the cleanliness of the non-natural areas isn’t as spotless as one would want and expect in a paradise island 😕 

It was super fun though, especially going to Pusser’s landing to enjoy the Caribbean vibes and watch pelicans chill on yachts, then walking to the “souvenir market” and getting to watch lots of tiny, fluffy baby chicks trying to escape, climb on or burry themselves under their mom haha. 

That night after all the port fun we had the Pirates in the Caribbean party, which is super fun. Everyone dresses up in their best buccaneer getups and there are character’s dressed up in their pirate’s best all over the ship and there is a deck party/show before dinner, then themed dinner and later at night Pirate’s club, which is a different mini show before having it be an open air night club that includes more fireworks at sea, making Disney cruises extra special. No one else can have fireworks at sea, let alone two shows in one week😃

On January 4th we visited both St. John and St. Thomas. Since we had already visited these islands a few times before, I decided to put photography as my priority versus adventure. Big mistake! I mean yeah the views are amazing! But the way our tours were scheduled we had free time but not enough to go swim with seals or dolphins🙁 And as I realized way too late, on the way to all the fun animal encounters you also get some picture stops...So this was a live and learn situation. As it was, we ended up going on a super fun ferry boat to St. John where we got beyond soaked after 10 minutes, explored St. John’s ancient sugar mill and high island points as well as their newer areas and then we headed back to St. Thomas for lunch and to just enjoy the bits of island and shopping areas closer to the port.

Next time I’m going back to Ocean World or something similar so I can have more exciting stories to tell hehe 😜

January 5th was our last full day at sea which we finally took more for relaxing this time. We enjoyed ourselves by just going to a couple shows, playing mini golf on deck and having more pool time before the semi-formal dinner.

Next day our port adventure was Disney’s private Island, Castaway Cay! 

This is usually my utmost favorite island in the Caribbean, there are so many things to do and enjoy, there's never enough time to have all the adventures and enjoy every hidden scenic gem, but some changes seem to be happening that not everything I remember was operational, and to my iggle dismay the post office closed early, way before I could get my special stamps! 😢

There was still enough adventure to go around and we started the day on the island parasailing. This was my second time trying it and therefore the experience was less nerve- wracking than three years ago, sadly it was booked solid and they didn’t offer repeats or single rides this time, but it was super fun for me and totally relaxing for my mom lol. After returning to land we were supposed to go snorkeling but mom had gotten sick the day before and as the day’s temperatures increased she started feeling worst. We hadn’t noticed it before but apparently a bug was making the rounds in the ship and some stresses we had over this week depleted our immune systems. My mom waited for me to snorkel on my own, but without a grown up to make sure I didn’t drift off to open sea or drown I was to stressed to enjoy it. Also, the floaty bag I got my iPhone worked great outside of the water but not under, it wouldn’t recognize my finger on the screen so it didn’t focus on the fish, which were also much harder to see than in Hawaii. So I ended up out of the ocean after only about 30 mins just in time to find my mom ready to return to the ship😞

I stayed behind with the plan to just take some pictures around the island, shop for some island-exclusive goodies and head back on board early. This is when the real adventure began…

For some reason while asking a cast member at the shops where the best vistas around the main area were, he didn’t seem to know and a lady overheard us and decided to give me directions for the look-out tower. My mom and I had heard about it the night before but she told me it was inaccessible unless you took a bike, I do not know how to ride a bike so it was out of the question. I told this to the random lady and she said from where we were it was close by on foot and sent me around a not very traveled loop. I ended up getting lost in the 5K loop, where no cast members patrol, hardly any visitors ever go by and if they do is on bike! So because of bogus directions I ended up making the 5K loop and then some, carrying shopping bags and camera equipment, completely on my own, under the 90 degree sun with no water and wearing water-shoes not made for walking!! There was hardly any one I could ask for help and those I did see were unable or unwilling to help! By the time I made it back to the main areas I ended up in the grown up beach which is super boring and isolated and full of drunk people so I had to wait for a tram to come get me as the one that saw me approach left me anyway! I’m sure in the future this will be a very funny story of my misadventures but I still get annoyed. I was so exhausted and dehydrated when I made it back to the ship! For a while there I was even worried of not making it to the all aboard time, my phone had no reception and I had not brought the sea phone with me to let anyone know I was in a marshy area of the island! 

The day ended with me passing out for a while before dinner and then having to go to the last dinner alone with my bear since my mom was still not feeling well.

I know it happens, but don’t you kinda hate it when life happens while you're on vacation? LOL

Overall this was the least super-amazing Disney cruise in general. There were definitely lessons in tolerance and letting go at every moment. Lots of buttons got pushed with the staff not meeting Disney standards of service, not speaking English when visiting only English speaking Islands in an American ship! Lack of vegan options which we had never had a problem with before, super rude, loud and intrusive guests, Disney’s weird allowance of so much alcohol everywhere which is pretty new and leads to obnoxious and inappropriate drunk people…the couple of misadventures and of course my mom getting sick… But as I always say, if I don’t travel it I don’t learn it lol. My biggest lessons usually happen while traveling. And I don’t think I truly managed to learn these lessons, they still got me pretty peeved so at least I know where to focus on my growth so things like these don’t repeat and we get to enjoy our next cruise as much as we have every other Disney one!

*For more pictures and random trip details from my traveling bear's perspective you can follow their insta account. If you scroll down enough you'll see the trip day to day. If you scroll down to Xmas in Manhattan you've gone too far 😜

Disney Tag!

So I've been recently tagged by one of my best friends and pen-pal extraordinaire, Jennifer from The Unicorn's Delights, to play Disney tag. Of course instead of setting pen to paper and catch up in all the letters or write the promised posts on travel recap, I'm using this tag as a perfect excuse to keep procrastinating, so enjoy! 😇
*Some of these questions are SUPER hard! Lol 

Favorite Character: Donald Duck

Favorite Princess: Ariel

Favorite Heroine: Kim Possible

Favorite Prince: Eric

Favorite Hero: Probably Aladdin... things are starting to get complicated lol

Favorite Animal: See? SO hard! Can I say all of them? If not I guess at the moment I'll go with Figaro

such a cutie!

Favorite Sidekick: Pascal, Pegasus, all cute animals make excellent sidekicks... Lets go with Tink on this one just because I love her hehe.

Favorite Villain: Maleficent and Scar have always been tied

Found this perfect image online :D

Favorite Original Character: Aren't all of them original? I've already said Donald, Tink, Figaro, Kim P, so Marie, Moana, Pua, Simba...Just assume I love them all!

Favorite Love Song: If I Never Knew You from Pocahontas or Love Will Find a Way from Simba's Pride, I think...

Favorite Song: Could these be any harder?! Recently How Far I'll Go and the rest of the Moana soundtrack.

Favorite Villain Song: Scar's Be Prepared or Zira's That's My Lullaby

Least Favorite song: Hellfire from the Hunchback of Notre Dame

Favorite Kiss: Tied between Hercules & Meg, Ariel & Eric or Tiana Naveen

First Movie I Ever Saw: Either Dumbo or The Many Adventure's of Winnie the Pooh, it's all I watched for the first two-ish years of my life 😃

Favorite Classic: Alice in Wonderland, but really all of them. I love being able to see the pencil lines and hand painted backgrounds, all the art of true animation.

Song That Always Gets Stuck In Your Head: Shiny, It's a Small World, Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, Tiki Room, there's always something playing in my head, it's hard to identify them all 😜

Favorite Pixar Movie: Ratatouille

Least Favorite Movie: Valiant and/or Good Dinosaur 😞 They're just not up to par with Disney standards and it makes me sad.

Favorite Sequel: Lion King II: Simba's Pride

Overrated Movie: Right now, live action Beauty and the Beast ugh

Underrated Movie: So many! Oliver & Company, Brother Bear, Home on the Range, Treasure Planet, Atlantis, Meet the Robinsons, Tomorrowland...

Movie That Makes You Laugh: All of them, but I guess if I want to watch something and giggle the whole time it has to be the Adventures of Mr Toad!

Movie That Makes You Cry: Most of them, they're so full of emotions! I cry the most with Dumbo when Mrs. Jumbo is in jail though and I have to fast forward that bit before I become a complete mess.

Saddest Scene in Your Favorite Movie: If it's only in my fave movie then when Mufasa dies.

Saddest Death: Bambi’s Mom, Bing Bong and Ray!! 😭

Favorite Quote:

Favorite Theme Park: Tie between Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom in FL. That being said, I haven't been to the Asian ones yet, and I love ALL the Disney Parks.

Favorite Attraction: Expedition Everest and Splash Mountain

Favorite Show: Kim Possible, Lion Guard, Sophia the First, Tangled the Series, Liv and Maddie, Star Darlings and Phineas and Ferb

I Tag: Well since my two Disney friends have already been tagged and the most loyal of Disney fans I know don't have a blog or these kind of posts don't fit into what they write about, I guess I'll leave it open to anyone who wants to play with us. 😉 Maybe I'll find some distracted iggles to tag on twitter LOL. 

A Very Belated November's Inside the Theme

The end of the year is a very busy season and the ladies running the IGGPPC seem to have their hands full, so there haven't been any Inside the Theme "official" questions posted for November and December, usually I would just skip the theme, especially with everything I have on my plate, but November's Theme was all about Disney!! I was very excited for November and kept waiting and waiting to participate as much as possible, but not a lot happened and the few things they did have, I couldn't make them work with my schedule. However, I couldn't pass the chance to write about Disney!! Even if it's not part of the official thread and it's a month behind.

Each month, the community has the usual Inside the Theme blog posts where everyone answers the same questions and on twitter they ask other related questions every Wednesday and Friday. So I went on Hose Quinn's twitter feed to hunt for these "extra" questions so I'd have something to share with you, and here they are :D

Who is your favorite Disney character?

Well, most of these questions are very hard, as how can I choose just one?! But Donald Duck is my number 1! Tinkerbell and Ariel are tied for a very close second place but almost everyone else is very close after <3

Have you ever been to a Disney theme park,  or do you have plans to go to one?

I grew up pretty much in the Florida parks. As a matter of fact, the Disney parks are all that's left of my childhood home. The house and school I grew up in are gone and my family and friends have scattered, so Disneyworld is home to me. I also grew up going to Disneyland in California about every two years and I still do especially for the D23 events, and I've also been a couple time to Disneyland Paris. My plans to go to Disney Tokyo got thwarted by cancer a couple years ago but all Asian Disney parks are somewhere in my near future :D

What is your favorite Disney Movie?

The Lion King will always be number one. but Brother Bear, Lilo and Stitch, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland, Ratatouille, Princess and the Frog and now Moana are not far behind! Have you all seen Moana by now? It's SO good! It totally restored my faith in Disney. After all the commercialization they have given themselves to, the bad animation even with classics like Mickey and friends (heart break emoji here,) and all the invasion of Star Wars and Marvel that do not share the same values Walt created, I was getting really scared for the future, because who am I without Disney? But Moana made everything better and my identity crisis is over :P If you haven't seen it, what are you waiting for? It's so good you can almost forget it's CGI, it feels almost as magical as real hand-drawn animation <3 

What is your least favorite Disney Movie?

It's so hard to admit to not liking a Disney movie that much, and it has just happened twice ever! The first was Valiant because it didn't hold up to Disney standards and even they have been very good at hiding that icky bit of history, we all make mistakes after all right? And the second time was The Good Dinosaur, again the animation isn't up to parr, it looks more like a Dreamworks film which is not the quality I expect from Disney and the story is pretty much a rip-off from the Lion King with some twists like the annoying human kid. It was very disappointing :(

See how disappointed Donald is by this films? lol

Is there a Disney cosplay you've loved or would love to do?

I'm not great at full-on cosplays. I've done young animated Maleficent and Evil Queen though and both times was a lot of fun. I've also done the way more casual closet-cosplay version of Donald, Kim Possible, Minnie, Figment, Anna, Olaf and Ariel. I would love to do Tink and Aurora in the pink dress but I look terrible as a blond! :-/

Disneyworld and Disneyland respectively 

Which Disney Movie did you learn the most from?

All of them! I grew up only on Disney for a very long time, I keep discovering things that were clearly hidden in my subconscious mind, coloring the way I see and react to life. I apparently even learnt to dance from Disney characters. Voice inflections, drawing style, adventure sense and what that looks like, a need for animal sidekicks and looking for guidance from my ancestors, talking to the Ocean, believing in magic... As mentioned before, I am all Disney, my identity is completely intertwined with the world Walt created <3