2019 - World Vacations

Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot 2017

One of the nice things about getting a bit older is that, over time, you can start to afford some of those amazing trips that you have always wanted to take. For me, I have been fortunate enough to go to Turkey and the Mediterranean.  I have been fortunate to go to Hawaii and have seen a great deal of the Caribbean. I been in places in Alaska where bald eagles are as plentiful as pigeons in  St Marks Square in Venice Italy and I've been lucky enough to have seen the Pigeons in Piazza San Marco. I have love traveling internationally.  I love cruising over the ocean. I would visit all these places again given half a chance. Yet, as I think about all the things I have seen, and think about the places I have been, I am still drawn back to the middle of Florida and back to the happiest place on earth. The time has come to return to Walt Disney World.

Me in Barcelona, Spain last May.

Last December, I went to California with coworkers to do some networking at a local office in Agoura Hills.  I was fortunate enough to have part of the weekend off and I was able to coerce my coworker and friend to go to Disneyland.  I really love Disneyland.  I am old enough to know a time when Disneyland was the only Disney park. I can still remember E-Ticket Rides and coupon books.  Still, at 10 years old I had no idea how much Disney parks would eventually mean to me.  Last December,  I was fortunate enough to see the "Nightmare before Christmas" Overlay at the haunted mansion and the Christmas themed overlay at Small World.  Many have seen the Osborne family Spectacle of Dancing lights. The Small World Christmas overlay reminded me a lot of the Streets of America at Christmas time.  I think I used most of my battery on my cell taking pictures in the attraction. Yet, my visit to Disneyland has barely controlled my desire to go to Disney.

This is the Amazing small world Christmas Overlay.

On a side note, personally, I hate flash photography in dark attractions.  I don't think that Disney cares if you take a few photos, but please turn the flash off.  Nothing is more distracting than a flash of light when the attractions is designed to be dark and your focus is directed by what is illuminated.

The outside of Mission Space is pretty amazing.

So, what do I do now.  My Disney fix is wearing thin now.  The Pod Casts and facebook groups to which I subscribe help me keep things barely under control. (Thanks Bob and Tim. Your resort loop podcast help keep me sane while the forces of Disney addiction cause me woe.  And thank you Bill Burke, and the Mousejunkie family, reading Bill's book and following the gang on Mousejunkies helps more than you will know.) But, the Podcasts and Facebook groups are losing their effectiveness.   I need to find a way back to Walt Disney World.  Even planning the trip will help.  I have decided that 2019 will have a trip to Disney World in it one way or another.  I am still working on my reluctant spouse to go with me to Disney World, but if that fails, I have her blessing for a Solo trip in 2019.  So let the planning begin!

Stay tuned to this blog for more posts about the process of planning and going to Disney World.

Pre-cruise Prep work.

More than a year ago, My wife, sister, and brother-in-law decided the time had come to take a European cruise. Going to the Mediterranean sea has always been a bucket list Item for me and in around 71 days my dreams of sailing across those blue Mediterranean waters will come true.  My wife has always been the planner when we go on vacation.  I think that might be why our trips to Disney World have been so magical.  She knows the fine line between enough planning and coordination and enough free time from the schedule to keep the trip fun.  We have been working diligently to get some plans for each port of call.  We will probably only do this one time so we are going to do our best to get it right.

For the most part,  Our family loves to sail on Princess Cruise lines.  They have a definite mixture of affordability and Luxury that you want in a cruise line.  However, when we started seeking a cruise for our Mediterranean adventure, We really couldn't find an itinerary with Princess that satisfied us.  I am absolutely certain that we would have been happy with our familiarity with the cruse line and the number of cruses we have taken with Princess has earned us a number of perks.  Since the likelihood of wandering to the Mediterranean again was remote at best,  We decided that itinerary was a priority. We chose to take an NCL cruise for the wonderful Itinerary it offered. Our ship is the Norwegian Star and we leave from Barcelona Spain  and we end in Venice Italy.  Our itinerary includes Monte Carlo, Florence/Pisa, Rome, Naples, Santorini, Athens and Zadar Croatia.  That's a lot of places packed into a 10 day period.  We wanted something that visited many ports to give us as wide a Mediterranean experience as possible.  I might say that our vacation is very heavy with Italian ports but I have a feeling, between the food and the sights, I'm going to love Italy.

After picking our cruise, our next decision was what to do about the terminus ports. How could we go to such amazing places and not take a day to see part of Barcelona and Venice?  We had to plan a couple extra days into the vacation to see those two amazing cities. My wife and my sister are both very good at seeking out hidden gems for places to stay.  My wife found a two bedroom apartment on Trip Adviser near the Sagrada Familia.  Looking out our apartment and seeing this beautiful Icon of Barcelona will be amazing.  My sister found a two bedroom apartment in Venice near the grand canal on Airbnb.  Both places look amazing. the apartment in Barcelona looks more modern while the place in Venice looks a bit more Classical in nature.  So we have a place to put our heads when we get there and a full day in each city when we arrive and before we leave. I relish the chance to see both cities.  Barcelona has intrigued me since I saw Jose Andre's "Made in Spain" Jose is a Spanish Chef and watching him has peeked my interest in Catalonia food also Who hasn't wanted to roam the streets and canals of beautiful Venice.

Now that we had our accommodations sorted out for our extended stays in both cities. We turned our eye to planning what we would do at each port.  This was much more difficult than we expected.  For starters, The tours offered by NCL were expensive enough that the 25 dollars per port credit we were giving as part of the incentive to go with NCL really didn't make that much of a dent in the cost of the excursions.  Naturally my wife, Being the true expedition planner that she is, found a number of private excursion that cost less and looked more interesting that the ones offered by NCL.  My only concern about booking private tours is that we need to get back to the ship before she sails to the next port.  The ship might wait for someone booked on an NCL tour but maybe not so much for people that book private adventures. The risk we run is minor, however, simply because the tour agencies wouldn't stay in business long if they didn't get people back to the ship on time.

One of the many differences between Princess and NCL is the way each cruise line handles their main dining rooms.  With Princess passengers can opt for the Freestyle dining or the more traditional seating. Freestyle allows passengers to eat where they want on the ship when they want to eat on the ship.  The only down side to that approach is you still need to make advance dining reservations even in the ships main dining halls.  With Princess' traditional dining you have the same seating time, the same table and the same wait staff every evening.  I enjoyed the chance to get to know the wait staff for our seating.  I still remember some of the staff from my first cruise.  We saw one of our waiters, Yorden, on a subsequent cruise managing the dining room.  Our Associate water, Edwin, was promoted to waiter soon after our trip.  With some effort, I could probably come up with the name of everyone who has taken care of us on each cruise that we have taken.  On NCL, I don't think we will get the luxury of the same wait staff and table each time we go down to dinner. But we have the freedom of eating in either of the main dining rooms or going to a signature restaurant on the ship.  We have book the Chrurrascria on board the Norwegian Star for one of our sea days. We hope to get reservations at the Teppenyaki restaurant as well but those reservations are not yet open.  We hear that there are not many tables in the Teppenyaki restaurant so it might be difficult for us to obtain a seat, but hope springs eternal.

Now, The time has come to contemplate checking into the cruise.  All cruise lines require passengers to check in some number of days before departure.  This include date of birth, email address, passport numbers, emergency contacts just to name a few of the things the Cruise line wants to know.  Our Check in date is in late May so we have quite a while to get that done, but I am not one to wait around for such things when I can get them done early.  It's fun to just get another step in the process completed.  I think it makes the Cruise feel closer.

So we are almost ready.  We have a few Dinners to plan and a few shore excursions to decide upon.  It really won't be much longer when we board the Delta Airlines Aircraft that will carry us across the Atlantic to Barcelona from where we set sail.  We are excited about seeing some of the oldest cities in the western world and touch stones that were laid down before Christ was born.  We have seen pictures of the Acropolis and the Colosseum.  We know what the Leaning Tower of Pisa looks like.  Now, We are going to see these things.  We are going to eat Italian food in Italy.  We are going to admire Goudi's great work of the Sagrada Familia.  We are going float down the canals of Venice and see the ruins of Pompeii.  I can't wait to go. 

Surprise Disneyland

Obligatory Christmas Tree Picture

Sometimes the stars align and fortune smiles on the lowly Disney fan and good things happen. Our company has a small office in the Los Angeles area just over the coastal mountains near Malibu.  The Networking Team was called upon to help the office move down a floor requiring  a rework of their networking infrastructure allowing me a chance to travel to L.A. Ordinarily,  The our plan is to go down mid week to prep, then execute the move on Friday evening and Saturday morning.  If all goes well we have Sunday off and return to the office on Monday to clean up the unknown, unknowns.  The move went very well so I had the Sunday off.  Of course, being overcome by the special kind of crazy that lies within many Disney fans,  I invited a friend and a Coworker to go with me to Disneyland.   What a magical place Disneyland is.

Main Street, Disneyland decked out for the holidays.

Many of the same attractions exist in both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, however, there are a few Attractions that you can only find in Disneyland now.  Some of these attractions opened when Disneyland first opened in 1955 and some of them remain among my favorites to this day.  Every time I go, which unfortunately is never as often as I would like,  I try to hit at least one of these Opening Day attractions.  Last time I visited Disneyland, I went with Mr. Toad on a wild ride through the English country side and the streets of London.

Tomorrow Land

A bit of Garland and lights.

My choice for this trip was Snow White's Scary adventure. The issue I have with both the 7 dwarfs Mine Train and Snow Whites Scary adventure is the abruptness of the story telling.  Both attractions seem to be buzzing along and suddenly stop mid story with a "and they all lived happily ever after" ending.  Snow White's Scary Adventure went from a scene with the evil queen to the end of the story with out any of the messy "waking Snow White by the Prince" business.  This kind of surprised me, simply because Disney Imagineers have always been the ultimate story tellers within attractions.  Honestly, I liked both attractions. I feel the 7 dwarfs Mine train's ride vehicle is a bit cramped but the ride is fun with the roller coaster aspect and the state of the art animatronics,  but the story seems to have let the attraction down a bit.  Snow White's Scary adventure doesn't have the state of the art animatronics. All the Snow White attraction in Disneyland has going for it is the story telling. It was good as far as it went but there wasn't enough, and I could see how some smaller children might be frightened by some of the scenes in the attraction.  Mr. Toad was a better attraction in my estimation.

Small World at Disneyland looks very different.

Awesome

We can all agree that Disneyland is a magical place.  In Disneyland, Walt and his Imagineers laid the foundation for all the Disney Theme Parks all over the world.  I would love to go do Disneyland anytime of year.  However,  the holidays in a Disney park are especially magical.  The holidays bring things to Disneyland has that I wish the Magic Kingdom would adopt. We all have experienced the ear-worm that is the Small World attraction.  You leave the attraction humming the Sherman brothers song so firmly stuck in your head that you might thing that surgery would be the only way to extricate it.  I love the attraction.  The animatronics are not as complex as other attractions but that hardly seems to matter when you have hundreds of them all operating at the same time.  Now imagine taking that all of that movement and music and overlaying a holiday theme on top of it.  My poor excuse for writing skills cannot really do justice to the spectacular show that visitors to this attraction get.  Think of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights on a smaller scale with.. well... actual animatronic dancers all through the attractions.  Maybe I am easily impressed, but I was in awe of the whole thing.  I wish that Disney could do a similar overlay at the Magic Kingdom.

All these internal Small World pictures were taken without flash.  

I took a lot of pictures.  I couldn't get over how neat it was.

Haunted Mansion. Frankie Enoch took these photos. My battery was gone.

In New Orleans Square sits the Disneyland version of the Haunted Mansion.  We fast passed this attraction because the standby wait was consistently 60 minutes or longer throughout the day. Those of you out there that are familiar with the Haunted Mansion Know that there are 999 happy haunts that are always looking for one more to join them.  During the Holiday season, Jack Skellington and the demons and ghosts from Halloween town take over the Mansion and make it their own.  Oogie Boogie, Lock, Shock and Barrel, along with Jack and Sally claim residence in the the Mansion bringing Danny Elfmans wonderful music to life.... Or death as the case may be.  Some of the old haunts are still there but with a new song to sing or a new twist to their performance. Even the ball room has a huge holiday tree... at least a huge holiday tree in spirit.  I love the original Haunted Mansion.  Transporting this attraction to Halloween town only makes the experience even more fun for the Holidays.  Disney needs to bring the Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion overlay to the Magic Kingdom.

The Whole Nightmarish Gang

Till Next Time Jack.

Some of the attractions are very much the same as their Walt Disney World Counterparts.  Star Tours was awesome.  Much of the new cannon has been incorporated in the attraction without any spoilers to The Last Jedi.  It is very much the same as Star Tours in Hollywood Studios. (As a quick side note, I was able to see the Hollywood sign as we drove to Disneyland from Malibu.  Cool, Huh?) The Pirates of the Caribbean attraction was, in most ways very similar to Pirates in the Magic Kingdom save for the fact that Disneyland Pirates adds more scenes to the tale.  I think the Disneyland Pirates is a better version, but there is no way that I will not visit the Pirates attraction at Walt Disney World.  This classic attraction will never go out of style for me. We rode the Matterhorn and Space Mountain. Both attractions were a blast.  Space Mountain may have been one of the first Roller Coaster attractions I ever road when we visited Disneyland when I was 10. The Matterhorn was unfinished business for me.  When I was young and visited Disney,  we didn't have enough E tickets to ride the Matterhorn.  I fixed that a couple years a go on the trip preceding this one by riding the Matterhorn attraction at last some 40 years after my first visit to Disneyland. Another big difference between the Disneyland and the Florida parks is the fact that most of the queues are outside.  The weather in Southern California permits a comfortable wait, for the most part, outside of the attractions.  A down side to the outdoor queue location is the fact that it tends to block the walkways if the main switchbacks fill.

At the end of the day, which park do I think is better?  Well, I would have to answer Walt Disney World.  Disney World has so many more attractions and so many other experiences that Walt's Florida Project's Gift of Space makes possible. I really loved Disneyland.  The original park will always hold a place in all our hearts.  But, Walt was about change and updates and while you get some of that in Disneyland, Walt Disney World has the room to make it happen.  Given the chance I will always go back to the original Disneyland park, and I would like to visit California Adventure again. But I dream of going back to the lands in Florida for the food, the attractions and everything that goes with them. °O°


As a postscript to this lengthy entry, I wanted to thank my friend Frankie Enoch for Haunted Mansion pictures. My phone battery was depleted by the time our fast pass rolled around and she took the photos for me.

Also, I wanted to mention that all the pictures taken in the dark rides were made with available light.  No flash was used to take them.  It is most irritating to me to see flashes from cameras in dark rides, so if it comes down to getting a photo and using a flash, I will always choose not to take a picture.

The Case for Santa Claus.

Once Upon a Time Santa

In 1897, 8 year old Virginia O’Hanlon wrote a short letter to the editor of the New York Sun.  In the letter Virginia posed one simple question.  "Please, tell the truth; is there a Santa Claus?"  At that time, veteran  news man Francis Pharcellus Church provided proof for the existence of Santa Claus in his response to Virginia.  His response  has become one of the most reprinted editorial the newspaper industry has ever seen.  Like Francis, I think Santa exists.

Santa exists in the millions of people that go out of their way to help.  Santa exists in the person that volunteers his time and at his own expense travels to places were disaster has torn neighbor hoods apart.  Santa lives in a parents smile when seeing their new born child for the first time. As truly as love exists, at truly as generosity exists, as truly as friendship exists, So Santa Claus truly exist.

We live in divided times.  Our politics have torn us apart.  We have lost the middle and we live in a country of extremes.  We may even be engaged in the destruction of ourselves.   With our world getting hotter and rouges nations threatening our sundered nation with nuclear confrontation, we are hard pressed to keep our belief in the ideas of compassion and love and giving and in our belief of Santa Claus.

But I still believe.  I believe there is goodness in all people.  I believe we can be a generous people again.  I think our vast capacity to love one another can and will overcome our current propensity for selfishness.  So yeah, I do believe in Santa Claus.  I believe in what he represents.  I believe in the twinkle in a child's eye when they talk with Santa.  The spirit of  the one Santa Claus exists in all the Santa Clauses you see at this time of year.

When my children were of the same questioning age as Virginia, I told them straight up. Yes, Santa exists. His Christmas presents are greater than the new toy or video game that you just unwrapped. Santa's Christmas present is the spirit of giving, the spirit of love and the spirit of joy that we feel at this time of year and all the year round.  So I will shout to all that will listen, echoing Francis' word.  Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.


You can read Francis' editorial by following this link.

http://www.newseum.org/exhibits/online/yes-virginia/

Thanksgiving Time

Every year, about this time I set my fingers to the keyboard to talk about the things for which I'm thankful.  In these dark times, one might think that there would be less for which to be grateful. I find myself among those people that think that the world has provided me with so many things for which to be thankful, I cannot count them all. To be honest, during dark times we should reflect on what we love and what we are given more than ever.  We all have things that were given us to which we have a deep emotional connection, and for these things I am truly grateful.

First item on my list is pretty simple and more complex that about anything I know.  I am grateful simply to be alive.  Just being alive is a miracle in many ways.  If you count the number of ways a human body can break down and stop functioning or the ways others around us can accidentally or on purpose take our lives, I am in wonder sometimes that I still exist on earth.  Many of you know that a couple of years ago I had a life threatening event.  Blood clots prevented the flow of blood to my lungs.  It could have killed me.  It did not die, however, thanks to the love and prayers of my friends and family and the skill of the doctors and nurses that cared for me.  If you are looking for proof that prayer works then just look at me.  I am still here today because my friends and family loved me and the doctors and nurses loved life enough to dedicate their time to knowing how to preserve it.  How can I not be grateful to these people. I would be completely remiss if i didn't include the emergency responders that stabilized my condition and got me to the hospital and for the dedicated people at Lifeline that flew me to Indy for treatment.  Without all of these fine people, I would not be here.

The people in my life are a constant reason for me to be grateful.  I start with many of my like-minded friends that I have contacted through my many interests.  I have many friends that I have never meet that belong to the same Facebook groups to which I belong.  I hope someday to meet the wonderful folks that populate the MouseJunkies group.  These guys keep my love for Walt and his theme parks fresh. Many deliver the news of changes to the parks. They allow me to live vicariously through their photos and experience. Some have allowed me the honor of seeing into their everyday lives by befriending me outside the group.   Thank you one and all for accepting me into this tight community of Walt Disney World Fans.

The next group I want to thank are the folks that I have met through the course of my everyday life that allow me glimpses into their world nearly every day.  I have reconnected with some old classmates and friends from when I was younger.  I see posts from the area I grew up.  I've learned much about Crawford Counties contribution to the Civil war through these generous folks. I keep touch with the people I grew up with and see how teachers and friends from university are doing.  I am grateful to all of you for allowing me into your lives.

Family is everything.  Am so grateful to have both my parents alive and my mother in law still alive.  We have ventured to Alaska together to celebrate my Dads 80th birthday.  The beautiful Caribbean has welcomed us to celebrate my mothers birthday last February.  My mother in law joined us for a Florida adventure last May. In addition to the constant love they show me, I am so grateful I can still take my parents and in-laws on adventures.  My wife and I visit them as much as we can and It makes me happy to see them all.

I am grateful for my sister and her husband.  We get along well and enjoy each others company.  We plan to spend time in Europe next year with them.  I am thankful for my wife's brother and sister along with their spouses.  My wife's bother and I are, in may ways, alike.  We enjoy many of the same things and have many shared opinions.  Her sister is a kind woman that I enjoy being around. They both chose very wisely when picking spouses.  Both my sister-in-law Vivian and  brother-in-law Joe are amazing people.

I think the importance of being grateful for employment isn't out of place.  I am very grateful I work for a company that pays me enough to feed, house and educate my family with enough spare money to take an adventure from time to time.  I am grateful that I have interesting work to do and what I do makes a difference to the people I work for.  That people appreciate what I do and that I make a difference in what I do provides me with a sense of satisfaction and some contentment. I very thankful for the benefits.  Without my health insurance I'm sure that I would be bankrupt form my recent heath issues.

Finally, I am so blessed with the my family.  My daughter travels the world helping refineries run more efficiently.  My son works locally in retail.  Both are better children than I deserve.  They are funny caring adults now pursuing their own dreams, yet they haven't forgotten where they come from.  All parents should be so lucky.  My wife, of whom I grow fonder and prouder every day, has helped our public library stay relevant in this age of technology. Her brains and drive have given her the ability to, in many ways, revolutionize the modern public library.  Beside all that, she is my best friend.  She gets my jokes, most of the time.  She is quick to laugh and to forgive.  God knows I mess up enough.  Her constant "half full" attitude to life is infectious and has made me a better parent and a better person.

In short, I have a good life.  I hope I never loose sight of how lucky I am and remain grateful for everything that I have been given through out the year, not just when I take the time to state the things for which I am grateful. During this time of thanksgiving, I hope all of you are blessed by God and find happiness through the year.  My wife always told me this and I choose to believe it.  Everything works out for the best.  The world may appear to be a dark place. But in the fullness of time I believe that through our efforts things will work out for the best.  And may what ever God you worship bless you and even if you don't worship any God, I hope you find blessing, peace and contentment where every you are and wherever you go.

Changes to the Magic.

I Miss my Colorful Friend.

Time has passed since most of the streets of America have been torn down to make way for Galaxy's Edge. I lamented the loss of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights when I learned that it would not return to Hollywood Studios.  I made peace with the loss of the Dancing Lights some time ago because of anticipation for the New Star Wars and Toy Story lands that were to occupy the land that this icon of the holiday season formally sat.  I wrote a post about it some time ago.  Change is inevitable and required for the most magical place on earth to remain the relevant and entertaining place it is today.  I miss the dancing lights and was lucky enough to see them one last time before they closed in 2015.  Two years have passed and work is proceeding on Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story. Both come closer to completion.  The plans for both these area's look exciting and appealing.

Now, our friends at Disney have released another round of closures and changes that span almost all the parks.  In the Magic Kingdom, Disney will build the Tron Coaster in time for the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World. The Tron Coaster is to be built where the Tomorrow Land Speedway currently sits.  In Epcot, Ellen's Universe of Energy will be replaced by a Guardians of the Galaxy attraction, and The Great Movie Ride will be replaced by a New Mickey Mouse attraction.  All of you are probably already aware of these changes and there are much better sources than my blog for changes at Walt Disney World.

* (I have since learned that Tron will be built behind the Tomorrow Land speedway next to Space Mountain.)

I welcome change for the most part. However, I have to admit to some sadness that the Great Movie Ride has ceased operations.  No more will we hear Robert Osborne praise some of the greatest movies of the 20th and 21st century.  We have had our last glimpse of Gene Kelly swinging form the lamp post in Singing in the Rain or Boggie sending Ingrid Bergman off to safety in Casablanca.  From Dorthy and the Munchkins to Sigourney Weaver and the USCSS Nostromo, I will think fondly of the Late Great Movie Ride. I will even miss the cheesy performance by the cast members in the middle of the attraction.

Replacing the Great Movie Ride particularly is saddening to me because of how Disney plans to replace it.  I would love to see an attraction dedicated to the Mickey.  After all, Walt said that it all started with a mouse.  But the current iteration of Mickey Mouse doesn't sit all that well with me.  I suppose the animators are trying to recapture some of the feel of Walt's old Cartoons.  But, well, for me it just doesn't work. I'm not fond of how these iconic Disney characters are portrayed.  Some may love the newer Mickey cartoons.  I am not among them.

I usually accept changes.  In all most all cases Disney has replaced attractions with more exciting or more entertaining attractions that the ones removed. I guess I will wait and see what happens with the attraction that replaces the great movie ride.

Pretty Happy Bunch of Folks.

One picture that is taken most at Disneyland.

After reading a few of my past blog posts,  a reader might get the impressions that I'm very unhappy every minute I'm away from the Disney Parks.  Actually, nothing could be further from the truth.  I will admit some ennui when I face some of the vast expanses of time between my visits, but for the most part and maybe more than average, I'm a pretty happy guy.  I have a great family and a good career that affords me the ability to support my family with enough extra to slip down to the happiest place on earth from time to time.  I was able to provide both my children a collage education and while my son may be off to a slower start, both are happy and terrific people. I have the love of my family and the friendship and respect of the people I work with. So, yeah, I'm a pretty happy fellow.

Imagine, if you will, how much more happy I am when I get the opportunity to go to Walt Disney World.  Sure, like many of you here and for lack of a better word, I am obsessed with the land of the mouse found in Florida.  I do enjoy, perhaps more than many, the fireworks at the end of the day or a great meal served after full day of magic and fun. I particularly enjoy combining the two with a Dinner show reservation.  Revisiting the lands at Walt Disney world gives my happiness that is layered on top of my already blessed life.

At Disney World I find magic above and beyond the happiness I have at home.  Who doesn't need more magic in their lives in these times?  Even when we have a good attitude our we know our world has many issues with which to contend. Today, we are faced with Global Warming, Strange Politics and a new found distrust of science that I find almost impossible to explain. We cannot ignore what is going on around us.  We have to face each issue and do our part to be part of the solution. I do my best to combat these hard issues and the problems of our world both big and small can threaten to overwhelm us.  Yet, I am very grateful for the opportunity to escape  time to time into  a immersive trip to Walt Disney World.  I know the issues will still be there when I get back but, well I can come back recharged to face them after a few days away.

This blog is a part my Disney escape.  Each time I talk with you in the blog, I know I'm speaking with like minded people.  No matter your politics, or your stance on Global warming, I know all of you love Disney.  From our Leader, Bill and his lieutenants, Randy and Carol, Mark, Arthur, through the countless others that contribute to this page, I can be back at Disney world in an instant.  I know my writing isn't perfect.  I know I'm pretty much a hack when it comes to putting words to electronic paper.  But I'm pretty sure that doesn't really matter.  You won't judge me too harshly and

you are kind enough not to be overly critical in your comments. I hope you enjoy some of what I write.  At least I hope it makes you smile or think a little from time to time.