I love watching the look on kids’ faces when they are at Disney… when they see the Castle for the first time, when they spy their favorite character across the Hub.  Thus far, I haven’t been blessed with children of my own, but I have been fortunate enough to share in the lives of my best friend’s kiddos.  And, this summer, I get to cross one off my Disney Bucket List because we’re all going to Disney World!

My friend has the best little girls in the world.  They are so precious and I can’t wait to see the looks on their faces when we step into the Magic Kingdom for the first time.  We’ll have a toddler who loves all things princesses and a second grader who’s totally into Toy Story.  I have big plans for fun things for them to do but I’ll be taking to this forum to ask all of you for your input as well.  I’ve been to Disney World quite a few times but I definitely know Disneyland better, so as we look into Character Dining, Dining Plans, attractions, and everything else in the world, I’m going to need lots of help.  Wednesday through Sunday will still be all about Walt’s original park, but Tuesdays will become the time for trip planning.  I’ll provide lots of updates about our planning process and ask lots of questions as well.

I’m so excited for this opportunity… I can’t wait for summer to come. 🙂  I’m also looking forward to sharing some insight about Disneyland’s bigger brother will all of you who call the Land your home park.  Thanks for sharing the adventure with me!

So, lets start Trip Planning Tuesdays off with your favorite attraction at Walt Disney World, and if you haven’t ever been, what is the one attraction that you can’t find at Disneyland that you would be most excited to experience at Disney World?

As I mentioned last week, Friday was antique treasure hunting day… one of my favorite days.  My mom and I pile in the car, drive across town, and embark on a journey through our favorite antique store that usually last for several hours… all in the name of finding that one hidden Disney gem that makes it all worth while.  Our Friday adventure lasted five hours!  But we found quite a few special items to bring home.  So, as promised, here are some pics of my Disney loot:

We happened upon one vendor that had literally hundreds of Disney pins!  While not priced quite right to use as traders, I did find a few special pins to add to my collection.

It’s a little hard to see in the pic, but this awesome, vintage California souvenir tray features classic landmarks, including a tiny Sleeping Beauty Castle labeled “Disneyland.”  The poppies are especially wonderful and remind me of the Grad Californian Hotel.

Okay, so this last item is really only “Disney” by association but it is still wonderful.  Sitting on a rather unsuspecting shelf, I found this little guy.  He’s a Marie Osmond Adora Beau Nautical and Nice doll from 2003.  He does have a small problem with his eyelashes, but that should be an easy fix, so I’m excited to add him to my Marie doll collection.

1. It’s the first week of my new promotion at work and so far, so good.  It’s a nice change of pace from what I had been doing for the company.
2. I’m going “treasure” hunting today at a huge antique store in Denver… I can’t wait to see what Disney treasures I will find. 🙂  Stay tuned for pics!
3. I’ve been in a Disney funk lately… any and all Disney mentions or memories are making me cry!  I definitely need a Disney vacation!
4. I did get to go to one of the two remaining Disney Stores in Colorado last weekend and I was so surprised to find Vinylmation there!  It’s a smaller, older store, so I never dreamed that they would carry Vinylmation… I might have gone a little overboard in stocking up. 🙂
5. I’m revising my February calendar for Rays of Disneyland, but I’ll still be trying to post as often as I can, and I look forward to continuing with the S.H.I.N.E online challenge.

I’ve started this post about World of Color, and my experience viewing it last year, at least three times, but each attempt seems to fall short of explaining just how much I love the show and just how special it was to me.  But, hopefully, I’ve finally come close to expressing my love for World of Color.

As many of you may know, last year was particuarly rough for me.  In fact, it is not a stretch to say that it was the worst year of my life.  The shining ray of hope for me was definitely my birthday trip to Disneyland in September.  The anticipation kept me going through the year, largely due to the opportunity to see World of Color for the first time.  I even counted down the days until the World Premier of the show and I watched in awe as the event unfolded on a live-stream on my computer.  Even this little, pixelated form made me more and more excited to see the real thing.

So, when the event calendar for the days I would be in Disneyland was posted on Disneyland.com, I was crushed to see that World of Color was conspicuously missing from the line-up.  I campagined on Twitter, Facebook, and even the official Disney Parks Blog for the shows to be extended into the Fall.  While I have no misconceptions that my small, but mighty, internet voice resonated with Disneyland executives, I couldn’t help but pat my self on the back when the show suddenly appeared on the Disneyland calendar just weeks before my vacation.  We rapidly booked our reserved seating dinner package at Ariel’s Grotto – which was no small task itself, as the Disney Dining computer system was perpetually unable to book our reservation – and spent the next few weeks mulling over maps, guides, and trip reports on Disboards.com to find just the right viewing spot for the show.  In hindsight my behavior might have been a bit comical, in fact.  I armed myself and my mom with printed copies of one forum member’s color-coded, copiously detailed map of Paradise Park and instructed her to get to the front rail of the reserved seating section even if it meant leaving me behind to find her later.  😀

The plan was to see World of Color on our first night in the parks, and a small snafu with our dining reservation at Ariel’s Grotto aside, the plans went off without a hitch.  And, as a side note, while Disney Dining lost our reservation, the management team at Ariel’s worked expediently to ensure that our experience was minimally affected by the problem.  Stomachs full, we lined up for the Great Cattle Herding, aka World of Color “queue,” a couple of hours before the show, and, thanks to my copious plans, we quickly took our spot at the front rail of the reserved seating section included with the dining package.  The wait even went quickly – we chatted with a fellow Disneyland-er standing next to us at the railing – and about 30 minutes before the show was scheduled to begin, the fun pre-show began.

I had heard mixed reviews of the pre-show and I didn’t know what to expect, but when the speakers started blasting the theme from the 1990 Party Gras Parade, I was in love.  My memories of the 35th Anniversary Party Gras are so special that they probably could have just played the song a few times without any entertainment and I would have been happy.  Thankfully, however, there was also an entertaining show with over-sized, glowing Disney characters dancing through the crowd.  Shortly after the end of the pre-show, the lights dimmed and it was time for the main event.

As soon as the show started, I was in awe.  It was so mesmerizingly beautiful.  I loved everything about it… how every movie clip was separate but still seamlessly flowed into the next and how each movement of the water matched every second of music or dialogue.  Beyond all of that, however, was what this show respresented in my life.  A year of struggle, a fight to get to that point, even the fulfillment of a wish that seemed so close to slipping out of my grasp.  It was the perfect Disney magical moment.  A pixie-dusted miracle of sorts, made just for me in that moment.

My mom and I stood there for a long while after the show ended, each enveloped in our own memories of the magic.  The warm glow of that moment seemed to linger with us for the rest of our trip.  In fact, one of my favorite memories of the whole trip was when we realized that we could hear, and partially see, the show from our balcony at the Grand Californian.  We sat there is darkness, drinking tea and reveling in the wonderment of World of Color and the blessing we had received to be able to live that experience.

Just around the corner from Fantasyland and Frontierland, you can often find this little guy sunbathing on the banks of the Big Thunder Trail.  Personally, I think he has the right idea… there isn’t any place on Earth that I would rather spend a lazy, relaxing afternoon.

Just after Christmas 2010, my grandma was diagnosed with breast cancer.  In a whirlwind of just two weeks, she had a biopsy, a consultation, and a lumpectomy.  It was a tumultuous journey but, at this point, the doctors feel that she is cancer-free.  As I’ve watched my grandma go through so much, especially at 94 (!), I’ve often stopped to reflect on the great memories I have of my mom and my grandma taking me on Disneyland vacations as a child.

My grandma is a hoot at Disneyland. 🙂  She was always very clear that she intended to stay mostly in the hotel room.  For Nana, reading at the Disneyland Hotel is far superior to reading at home.  Apart from that, we always had to hit her favorites… the Jungle Cruise, Small World, Storybook Land, and the Mark Twain.  Once those were accomplished, she was content to sit in the California sunshine on a bench in the park, or to zip back to the Disneyland Hotel on the Monorail.

Sometimes, I have a hard time comprehending the fact that my Nana won’t ever see a reinvented California Adventure, a new Disneyland parade, or another Carnation Cafe breakfast. We were particularly blessed, however, to have made one last trip with her about six years ago.  She got to watch the magical Parade of Dreams and see the festivities toward the end of Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary.  It was a fitting end to her Disney vacations as our first trip had occurred during the 35th Anniversary celebration.  She got to see an “older version” of California Adventure, and we made some great memories to keep with us for a long time.

That trip, however, also resulted in one of my greatest disappointments.  I absolutely adore the Remember… Dreams Come True fireworks display and I couldn’t wait for my grandma to see it and fall in love with it as well.  We visited the resort for a long weekend over Mother’s Day.  Unfortunately, our first two days were rainy and the fireworks were cancelled.  Our last night in Disneyland was chilly but clear, so we packed into Main Street, near the Hub, well before the 9:25 start of the fireworks to make sure we had prime viewing.  We bundled Nana up in her wheelchair with loads of coats and blankets and waited for the moment when Remember would begin.  About 20 minutes before the show that blasted announcement came over the speakers… you know the one… “Ladies and gentlemen, due to winds at higher elevations, tonight’s performance of Remember… Dreams Come True may be cancelled.”  My heart sank, but I held out hope that the show would go on – 20 minutes later the worst was confirmed, “…tonight’s performance is cancelled.”

I would imagine that if you asked my grandma about that night today she wouldn’t remember that she missed the show.  But, I remember standing there in the Hub – crowds passing me by, the frenzy of the park moving in slow motion – and I cried.  My family moved onto the sidewalk to avoid the trampling masses leaving the viewing area, but I stood there, right in the middle of the street, and sobbed.  How could Nana miss out on something that meant so much to me?  Would we ever have the opportunity to make that trip again?

Unfortunately, the answer was no.  Not long after that trip she was diagnosed with a lung disease and congestive heart failure, and while she is still spry for her age, the limitations caused by traveling with an oxygen tank, among other things, make it relatively impossible for her to travel very far.  I think somehow, in that moment, I knew that would be the answer and it was like accepting the fact all we had left were the memories.

Thankfully, not all of my memories of my grandma at Disneyland are so sobering.  Those are the ones I keep close to my heart and those are the ones that helped me through her bout with cancer.  I vividly remember how much she loved looking at the flowers in the parks and watching the Main Street Electrical Parade.  In fact, one of my much happier memories is of sitting on the curb, just in front of the Penny Arcade, when my grandma and I looked down and saw that one of the light covers had fallen off one of the floats and landed at our feet.  It is still a treasured keepsake.

1. I was browsing through Twitter the other day when I saw a blog challenge that really caught my eye… Julie Issac (@WritingSpirit) is hosting a 111-day challenge called S.H.I.N.E Online.  Simple and straight-forward, all it takes is a commitment to write as many blog posts per week as you feel is reasonable for the next 111-days.  Realizing my noticable lack in blogging the past few months, I was totally game for S.H.I.N.E Online, and I’m hoping to post 4-5 times per week for the next 16 weeks (and, hopefully, beyond).
2. With that in mind, here is what you can expect at Rays of Disneyland for the rest of January:
   • Mondays will be dedicated to sharing some of my favorite family memories from the past 20 years of Disney travels.
   • Tuesdays I’ll focus on my upcoming trip to, not Disneyland, but Disney World!  It’s been a few years since I’ve been to the parks in Orlando and I could use some advice in planning a great trip.
   • Wednesdays, as always, will remain – mostly – Wordless.
   • Thursdays in the month of January will highlight my favorite Disney moments from 2010.
   • Fridays are always Fantasmic at Rays of Disneyland! 🙂
   • Saturday/ Sunday will be a day for me to tap into some of my crafty creativity, and I’ll feature some of my favorite photos and creative writing inspired by the Land.
3. In other Fantasmic news, with the angst of 2010 behind me, I’m looking forward to making some more great Disney memories in 2011.  In fact, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that 2011 will bring a trip to both Disneyland AND Disney World, including the 2nd D23 Expo in August.
4. While the new year promises a fresh start, life has already thrown out its share of trials… we’re only 13 days into the year and I’m already stressed and shaking my head over the amount of stress my family can have to face.
5. I’m really looking forward to a strong year of blogging and interacting with you, the reader.  So, keep coming back for some great Disney memories and nostalgia throughout the year, and thanks so much for reading!

A rainy December night, a giant Christmas Tree on Paradise Pier, and a gleaming hidden Mickey… Christmas style.

As I’ve mentioned before, Captain EO at Disneyland, holds special memories for me about my grandma.  So, when the attraction returned to the park, and I found out we would be able to see it during our September vacation, the feeling were bittersweet.  Now 94, my grandma isn’t able to join my mom and me on our trips to Disneyland.  In fact, as I am writing this post, my grandma is preparing for a new set of health challenges and learning to deal with major challenges from a month or so ago… there’s that bittersweet feeling again.

Captain EO was fantastic this second time around.  It was campy and classic, and while I didn’t think the moving seats were necessary, they did add a fun new element to the show… a sort of immersive-ness that I expect from Disney.  The music and dancing were always some of my favorite from the King of Pop, and I felt a certain reverence toward this fitting tribute.

However, that little sadness inside of me still tugged at my heart… wouldn’t it have been amazing to see my grandma’s face when she got to see this special show again.  As I said in a previous post, my grandma was a big fan of the show – however uncharacteristic that may be – and she still talks about seeing it from time to time.  In fact, when we got home from Disneyland and told her we got to see Captain EO again, she was very happy for us and immediately began recalling highlights from when we first saw it years ago.

It’s sad watching our loved ones age and their health deteriorate, but I’m so glad to have these magical moments to hold closely to my heart… and I feel so blessed to have been able to enjoy this attraction again.