Living the Disney Life: Peace on Earth + Mission: Space (12/7-11/06)
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Living the Disney Life
Peace on Earth + Mission: Space
December 7-11, 2006
Thursday, December 7th
One of my absolute favorite things about living in Central Florida is being
able to watch the Space Shuttle launch from right where I live. Today we decided
we would go one better by going to Epcot to record the holiday finale for Epcot's
Illuminations and position ourselves so the shuttle - which was scheduled to
take off about 5 minutes into the show - would be in the background. We found
what should've been a pretty good spot near Morocco, parked ourselves early and
prepared. A friend was kind enough to buy is crepes from the cart in France
which I love. I was dumb enough to drip the strawberries all over my camera
without even noticing (it was dark). Rebekah was smart enough to know how to
clean it the next day.
Back to the shuttle - we knew it was a long shot - the clouds were low and the forecast wasn't favorable. Still, we crossed our fingers, I kept myself glued to updates on my PDA and we waited. Sadly, launch time came and went - no launch - clouds too low. Not a bad consolation prize though, the Peace on Earth finale is fantastic and LOUD! (click here to see it). An on the way out I had to stop a second to take a picture of my single favorite holiday decoration at Walt Disney World...
Friday, December 8th
Today is MouseFest, a
huge gathering of Disney fans in a multi-day land and sea gathering. It's
actually been going on for quite a while, but today is the only day we're going
to be attending. Along with our sponsor MouseEarVacations.com we're hosting one
of the many meets at Finding Nemo - The Musical. As always, it was wonderful. I
think I saw a few performers I hadn't seen before but for the most part the show
looks the same to me. I've heard some minor changes are still in the works, but
I haven't seen them. But no need as far as I'm concerned, the show is nearly
perfect. Even the one song I didn't like in the beginning (We Swim Together
I'm guessing it's called) has really grown on me. At MouseFest it was fun to
meet some old friends including some from California (Hi SeanYoda and Smeeko)
and to reacquaint myself with colleagues like the great people at
MouseEarVacations.com, PassPorter, Ape Pen Publishing and all the rest. After
the meet we had lunch at Rainforest Cafe (Passport to Paradise Pizza, as always,
and it was good enough). When at WDW I prefer to eat at WDW restaurants, but you
take what you can get at Animal Kingdom. A very nice surprise was our server was
very friendly and outgoing. I've had less than stellar service there in the past
so this was a nice treat.
Saturday, December 9th
Just a quiet day at home ended with dinner at the Turf Club at Saratoga
Springs (Onion rings and pasta - same as always though I stole some of Rebekah's
scalloped potatoes and I'll make sure I order a side of those next time - YUM!).
Did see an interesting license plate on the way in. You have to look carefully,
but there's a "P" in there as well. I'm guessing this means they've been to four
of the parks ??? I love to play "spot the Disney license plate".
My apologies for the blur
After arriving home we finally did get to see the Shuttle launch. This was the first night launch we've witnessed and WOW! The countdown hits 5 and it lights up like daytime off in the distance. Just amazingly bright! Then a bright streak of light heads up through the middle of it. Many of our neighbors had come out as well and we all watched in amazement. That's just one of those moments that makes life better...
Sunday, December 10th
This was intended to be another full day of MouseFest stuff but Rebekah woke
feeling very ill. I went to David Koenig's tour of the Magic Kingdom circa 1971
by myself. Very interesting stuff. I'm really looking forward to his book on WDW
coming out next year. Then back home to do some work on the site which hopefully
some of you have noticed.
Monday, December 11th
After being forced to take a Disney break a couple of weeks ago today marks 5
straight days at the Resort. We're in the process of visiting all the resorts to
get Christmas pictures for the site and today I headed to three of the
moderates. Unlike the deluxes, the moderates don't have all that much decor. But
the Coronado Springs does have one of my favorite Christmas Trees at WDW as seen
below.
PS: Back in October Rebekah and I along with Rebekah's family and several friends took our first Disney Cruise, a 7 Day to the Western Caribbean. Rebekah put together a 20 minute DVD to send to our families. As we were planning this trip I loved watching other people's videos on YouTube and other places, so we decided to make this one public as well. This isn't an LP production, per se, just something personal we did that we've decided to share. It's in WMV format, is about 20 minutes long and it's a huge file - almost 50 megs, so you'll want a fast connection before clicking. You can view it at this link: /files/lotion/video/cruise.wmv.
PPS: While at Boardwalk early last week we spotted this picture of the Disneyland Hotel on the Disney Vacation Club booth. Brings back some great memories:
And Finally: Our little dog, Happy, celebrated one year with us on December 3rd. I got him a present - a new toy from WDW, a plush Monorail chew/pull toy. Here he is playing with it.
That's all for today. Tomorrow (barring rain) I'm in for something a little different. Not a great Disney Day, but it should be fun nonetheless...
Discuss It
-- Doobie Moseley
-- Posted December 11, 2006