Oh, those, hot, uncomfortable but very chic rain ponchos!
People ask us for advice all the time about their Disney trips and the question that I dread having to answer is this: Should I do Disney in August? Continue reading
Category Archives: I’m Getting Sentimental
The Newsies Make Me Feel Like I’m Living a Teenage Dream
To many film critics or people with good movie taste, Disney’s 1992 musical about an 1899 New York City newsboy strike Newsies was a bust. But to anyone who was an 8-year-old girl the first time she saw it and had pretty much zero standards for film finesse, it became an obsession. My friends and I memorized all the songs, dreamed of doing the dances, and broke at least one Newsies VHS from over-use. Today, there are lots of girls in my generation who love this movie for the same reason of sentimentality that people in my generation love Goonies or The Sand Lot. These movies were awesome to us when we were younger, so even watching them now, we are under their spell.
Filed under I'm Getting Sentimental, Kick Ass Things, Movies
The Old Mickey Mouse Club
Curmudgeon Alert: The old Mickey Mouse Club is big nostalgia for me and watching the clip below is very bittersweet. I can’t help longing for the days before Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake made Disney look like grade school Vegas. When I was a little girl, Mickey was the star.
Filed under I'm Getting Sentimental
The Florida Orange Bird and Anita Bryant
My favorite purchase of this past Disney trip was a t-shirt and bag with a blast from my past, the Florida Orange Bird; I found in a kiosk outside the America pavilion. You used to be able to find him at in the Magic Kingdom in the 70s at the Sunshine Pavilion sponsored by the Florida Citrus Growers.
The Florida Orange bird was the spokesbird for the Florida Department of Citrus, designed by Disney and killed by Anita Bryant when she went on an anti-gay rampage and the bird got caught in the crossfire. Continue reading
Filed under I'm Getting Sentimental
Keep Disney With You All Through The Year
Every time I arrive at my Disney World hotel for the first time, suitcase in hand, I make a point of finding the sad bastards whose vacation is over and are on their way out of the hotel, and I laugh at them in my head. I think about how jealous they must be of me and it makes me feel better about myself.
But then it’s not so funny when I have to leave, which is what happened yesterday. My mom had to leave for the airport earlier than I did, so I was left to sit by the pool with my shitty internet connection that sucked and my suitcase, counting down the minutes to board the Disney Magical Express once again, this time headed for an airplane that would end up being late.
Everyone on the Disney Magical Express was depressed. Nobody was speaking or laughing at the bus driver’s jokes. This is a total different environment than when people are going from the airport to the hotel. Everyone is all giggles then. This time I was most sad because I had just said goodbye to my mom. I looked around with hatred to the people around me–they might have been sad to be leaving Disney but at least they were with their families. I was alone, getting Metallica’s Fade to Black stuck in my head and getting a red mark on my forehead from leaning it against the window too hard. Poor me.
Filed under I'm Getting Sentimental, Kick Ass Things
Polka With Your Mother
One thing that’s true about my mom is that she loves to polka though she technically doesn’t know how. When we go to weddings—or super bizarre funerals—and there is polka music at the reception, her eyes light up and she looks at me like a kid who wants an ice cream cone. (She also looks at me like this when she wants an ice cream cone.)
“Fine, fine,” I say. “I’ll polka with you.”
I dislike polka-ing but I figure it’s the least I can do for the woman who gave birth to me. So we get up and dance, trying not to step on each other’s toes, and gallop around the stage to the beat of Roll Out the Barrel.
Filed under I'm Getting Sentimental, Kick Ass Things, Tradition
Hey Hey It’s A Monkee
I was just telling Lauren how gross it was when women like me didn’t act their ages, and then Davy Jones made me eat my word. Last night at EPCOT’s America’s Garden Theater I was dancing, blowing kisses to him and singing like a drunken sailor to “Daydream Believer” and “I’m a Believer” along with a crowd of others like me reliving their long ago youth.
Davy was there as part of the Flower and Garden Festival’s Flower Power Concert Series and he reminded us that his TV show “The Monkees” was on 45 years ago! I was in grade school, just so you know, and Davy was my first crush. On the show he was the one that all the girls fell in love with (Mike was the smart one, Mickey the silly one, Peter the dumb one and Davy the cute one). I’ve read that only Mike actually knew how to play a musical instrument when the show started, and the others were just faking it but it was wildly popular.
He’ll be back tonight and tomorrow night ladies, so come out to EPCOT and “do the monkey” – the dance, not the Monkee.
Filed under I'm Getting Sentimental, Jealous?, music, Park Information
Grandma Takes Tumbleweed
Grandma Passell
When I heard that Grandma Passell was going to Disney World with her daughter and the grandkids I thought, “Good for her. She’s going to really hate it, but she’s being a good sport.” Continue reading
Filed under Attractions, I'm Getting Sentimental
Follow Me Boys
Follow Me Boys – And no, I don’t want you to follow me, I’m talking about an old Disney movie that probably nobody but me remembers. Continue reading
Filed under I'm Getting Sentimental, Movies
The Best Movie Disney Ever Made
In 1996 I was in sixth grade and new to the Walt Disney World scene, and my mom sent for the free promotional video before one of our trips. It quickly became the most watched thing in our video casette library. I begged to watch it over and over, every day. I didn’t know what promotion meant, I just thought this was an awesome video that was getting me even more exciting about going to Disney World. I was a marketer’s dream.
How exciting that I can watch this video once more, as a full blown adult. It’s split into three parts, below. Make sure to catch the ridiculously 80′s moment at 1:53 and the ridiculously adorable moment at 2:05 in the first video:
Filed under I'm Getting Sentimental, Park Information, Web
