Book Reviews: The Imagineering Story *and* 100 Disney Adventures

I actually have two books for you today, but they are both related to each other..kind of... so I thought, why not review them together? I don't know about you, but where I live it's getting colder and we're currently getting snow. I'm not a winter fan, so I'm dreaming of sunshine and warmer days.... at Disney!

100 Disney Adventures of a Lifetime

Wake up to the sight of giraffes grazing outside of your window. Soar 400 feet into the sky on a hot-air balloon ride over Walt Disney World. Watch the Disneyland fireworks from The Tomorrowland Skyline Lounge, far away from the crowds. Taste your way through 11 countries of the world at Epcot’s Food and Wine Festival. Take a jet trip around the world.

All these experiences and more bring the magic of Disney alive--and you can find 100 not-to-be-missed adventures in this one-of-a-kind collection. From the most beloved signature experiences--Epcot’s International Flower Show, breakfast with beloved characters at Chef Mickey’s, and getting dolled up like a princess before your day at the park--to the hidden VIP wonders like a private dinner in the wine cellar the Grand Floridian or drinks at the exclusive, members-only Club 33, this illuminating guidebookcelebrates and reveals the best experiences in and around Disney resorts and parks all over the globe.

Discover the magic that awaits, including:

• A training session at the Jedi Academy at Disney Hollywood Studios, where you can make your own light saber and fight Darth Vader
• Magical meals at a rotating dinner club featuring Walt Disney World’s best chefs, each themed to Disney lore
• A 5.7 million-gallon salt water aquarium at Epcot Seas, where you can swim with angelfish, dolphins, eagle rays, and sharks
• A private after-hours tour of the Luxor Temple in Egypt, where Adventures by Disney gets you away from the crowds for an intimate experience
• Secret off-the-menu items around the park, including a cherry milkshake at Carnation Café and ice cream nachos at the Golden Horseshoe
• The ultimate viewing spots for nightly fireworks throughout all the Disney Parks
• Disney’s Halloween party, a one-of-a-kind theme night in the happiest place on Earth
• A 5K Challenge on Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay, where you can soothe sore muscles post-race with a beachfront massage
• A private jet tour around the world, led by expert National Geographic explorers
• And so much more!

Along with beautiful imagery that will help shape your bucket list, this fantastic guide includes pilgrimages to historic Disney sites, like Walt’s hometown haunts in Chicago and Tam O’Shanter’s in Los Angeles where there’s a table named in his honor. Plus, National Geographic provides the inside stories of some of Disney’s most beloved attractions.

Each of these 100 adventures--from Walt Disney World in Orlando to the Galapagos Islands to Disneyland Tokyo--will have you believing in magic and wonder all over again.

I was blown away by this book!! So many of these things I didn't even know were options to do, or had any clue about. I have tabbed off a few that I definitely want to check out when we go (hopefully next year.. crossing fingers!). The best part is that some of these are geared towards adults, so if you can get away from the kids, or you came with no kids but want a step above a dinner with Winnie the Pooh, there are so many really great options for any budget. Sometimes you just outgrow the parks or need something more, and this book has a LOT of options for you. 

Stunning photography, clear descriptions, lots of insider information that would be incredibly helpful (especially to first timers not familiar with the parks to begin with), and it was well organized. I want to be able to find what I need or want right away and I could do just that. 

The Imagineering Story

The highly acclaimed and rated Disney+ documentary series, The Imagineering Story, becomes a book that greatly expands the award-winning filmmaker Leslie Iwerks' narrative of the fascinating history of Walt Disney Imagineering.

The entire legacy of WDI is covered from day one through future projects with never-before-seen access and insights from people both on the inside and on the outside. So many stories and details were left on the cutting room floor—our book allows an expanded exploration of the magic of Imagineering.

So many insider stories are featured.

° Sculptor Blaine Gibson’s wife used to kick him under the table at restaurants for staring at interesting-looking people seated nearby, and he’d even find himself studying faces during Sunday morning worship. “You mean some of these characters might have features that are based on people you went to church with?” Marty Sklar once asked Gibson of the Imagineer's sculpts for Pirates of the Caribbean. “He finally admitted to me that that was true.”

° In the early days, Walt Disney Imagineering "was in one little building and everybody parked in the back and you came in through the model shop, and you could see everything that was going on,” recalled Marty Sklar. “When we started on the World’s Fair in 1960 and 1961, we had 100 people here. And so everybody knew everything about what was happening and the status of [each] project, so you really felt like you were part of the whole team whether you were working on that project or not. And, you know, there was so much talent here.”

Easily the largest book I've taken on this year, at just under 750 pages, this is not light reading. I would say this is one chapter per sitting kind of book because it is absolutely chock full of incredible stories you couldn't have even imagined about Disney. If you've ever seen documentaries on the Disney+ channel (I just finished Decorating Disney, but the Christmas one and to see the behind the scenes stuff is incredible), this book is just like that but amplified. 

Even if you aren't into the aesthetics and how they get things to visually be what they are, the invisible things, how things move/perform the way they do was fascinating. I absolutely loved the part about projection mapping on things like Cinderella's castle. 

Getting to see it transform in person was incredible, but we all wondered, how do they do that? You can't be off even a teeny tiny bit because then the whole thing is goofed up. There are light shows where animated clips are shown and you wouldn't even know it's on a building, it looks like a flat surface almost. All of that (and more!) is in this book. 

Both of these books would make terrific gifts for a Disney fan in your life, no matter the age. Thank you to TLC Book Tours and National Geographic for having me on these tours and sending me a copy for review. Safe travels!

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Magic Kingdom, super clean and still magical.

Our day at Disney was one that we were all excited about and I was so nervous about. I did a ton of research and I knew that things were pretty hardcore but let me tell you- I felt safer at Disney than I did at any place of business locally to me, that's for sure!

We left super early in morning so we could get there as the doors opens and I'm so glad that we did. 

I'll be honest and say right now, the reduced crowd size was AMAZING and I hope they continue with it. At no point did any of us feel overwhelmed by people around us, the lines weren't awful at all, and the park was incredibly clean. 

Right off the bat the kids were excited. Penelope and Lucy had never been there before so I was excited for them to see it all. We've been really talking it up for YEARS and I think them seeing the castle as we came in was pretty great. 

I won't lie, not having character meet and greets was kind of a bummer. We only really saw one character not on a parade and that was Buzz (a favorite of the girls) and this was their photo op. I'm just happy we got to have one, it was fun and Lucy really thought Buzz was 100% real. 

We rode all of the rides except Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain (Pep and Lu were too small for them) and the Snow White & The Seven Dwarves (that line was too long all day and it didn't feel like a must-do). We also didn't get to do the Haunted Mansion (we were SO bummed) because it wasn't open. 

One of my favorite rides from when I was a little girl, It's A Small World, is still open but getting a face lift on the outside. That was maybe the longest line we were in, surprisingly, but we did get to ride it. 

I love how much Lucy loved the ride, too. She sat there clapping the entire time and constantly pointing out a doll she wanted me to see. 

They are spacing people on rides, leaving quite a bit of space between riders, so we never felt crowded. Even in the line, they have spacing markers everywhere. Like I said, the lines weren't bad at all. Even if a ride said it was a 45 minute wait, we maybe only waited 20 minutes. We didn't use any fast passes at all. Those were still being used because we did see people getting into fast pass lines and being let in throughout the park but honestly, you didn't need them at all. 

OK, real talk, WHY IS CINDERELLA'S CASTLE PINK?! I even looked back in my older pictures, it wasn't pink. Why is it pink?! I hate it pink. 

I haven't ever been to Disney during Christmas so I had to take an obligatory photo of the Christmas tree. 

We did manage (by absolute fluke) to see the toy soldiers, the band, and the parade (all at different times). We saw all of the princesses during the parade, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and of course Mickey and friends. Penelope and Lucy were BLOWN AWAY and kept telling me they were REAL. It was pretty cute. 

Oh yes, they got their first pair of Mickey ears, we had to get sunglasses because I forgot theirs all together on our trip, and their "First Visit" buttons!

We stayed open until close and it was such a great day. I mean, this photo was around 3 p.m. and look how empty it was! It was really great to not be crammed with people, to be honest. 

Matt swears he was having a good time but he looks like the grumpiest person in the happiest place on Earth, right??

We spent a lot of time carrying Pep and Lu and my back STILL hurts. I couldn't do it very long but I thought this was a cute picture. 

Oh yes, I got one of Penelope in a mood. Of course. Oh! We also loved the way they do food now. You can't just go up and order something, you have to order on the app, pay, and pick your pick up time. At lunch we struggled a bit because we were learning as we go. By dinner, we were pros! We picked a place close to the Jungle Cruise ride, we figured it would be about 45 minutes before we were done with the line and ride, so we chose that as our pick up time. By the time we were ready, you literally go up, get your food, sit down, and that's that. It is so slick and you aren't stuck waiting in horrible lines with crying, hungry kids. 

The other bummer is there is no night-time fireworks, parade, party. I was bummed about this because there wasn't going to be Elsa doing her thing either. The castle DID look very cool though so I can't get too mad about it. 

Overall? Disney was incredibly safe, incredibly clean, the employees were so helpful. Multiple times during the day we'd say thank you to the workers we came across and they just looked so grateful. I think people working, in any capacity, during this pandemic are stressed out and us being just a little bit nicer is everything. 

Tomorrow I'll talk about the beach and coming home. I am so glad that we had this day, it made me so happy seeing my kids so happy, even if it is only one of a handful of days this year. 

Vacation, Part 1.

I have to break this down into two parts. Sure, it's because I have a lot of pictures but also because I'm kind of tired and I have some serious reading to do. (Like oh hey... I have 17 review due in the next month and I haven't started anything!)

But here is half of our trip. (OK, that's really a lie. It's the first two days. Apparently I can't upload any more pictures than this so Epcot/day 3 will happen tomorrow.)

 We flew out of the fancy new airport in Duluth. I don't know how they justify this expense when there were literally, only 30 people here. The entire two hours we were there. That must be a really boring job.

 Jackson was a little hesitant until Daddy told him that if our plane crashes, we might get to ride a giant jumpy slide. This made Jackson very excited. Even though I've never seen a plane with this deployed, usually everyone is just dead.

 And Olivia was all excited. Until I told her this was our short flight, we'd have a longer one later.

 Then we made it to Minneapolis where of course we got to run from one gate to the next and had 10 minutes to do it. Only one child (Olivia) slammed her face into the moving walkway. But, no time to cry because we had to run. Only to find out oh hey- the boards were incorrect and we really had an hour to kill. Fuck you, Delta. I ran in flip flops for NOTHING. So we ended up eating weird snacks on the floor and called it lunch.

Once we got to Orlando we found our way to the hotel. Which is a whole OTHER story and I'll include pictures of that fun stay on tomorrow's post. Suffice it to say it's $30/night quality lived up to expectations. At least there were no gunshots. I can't say that for hotel #2 though. (Aw.. you know that'll come on Monday. HA!)

The plan for the night was to go to Downtown Disney to eat and shop. Primarily to eat though at the new T-Rex restaurant which is basically exactly like the Rainforest Cafe except with dinosaurs. Same food, some ambiance, same over priced gift shop. Jackson was a little nervous, OK- he was kind of terrified, but he at least made it through dinner only grabbing my boob once.

 But Olivia totally loved it. And it was kind of different, and a fun way to kick off our vacation.

 No better way to kick off vacation than dropping almost $90 on over priced bar food. But we have to keep the robot dinosaurs employed.

So then we walked around. We went into pretty much every store, bought a few things, and the kids were kind of loving all of the photo op's.

 Olivia insisted on being with the Lego Friend in the store. (Side note: how touristy does my girl look? Love it.)

 Jackson was excited that he was almost as tall as Buzz Lightyear and then wondered why he isn't bigger.

 Jackson then thought these statues were things you could buy and asked if his $20 was enough. Olivia totally hamming it up.

 I was kind of losing Jackson at this point but Olivia would have shopped all night. We ended up going back to the hotel so we could all get up bright and fucking early to go to the happiest place on Earth.

 Oh yes. This mom thought FOR SURE if we got there 2 hours early we'd be ahead of the game and at the front of the line.

WRONG.

Try 2000th in line.

 Almost three hours later, and $400 lighter, we're IN.

Where almost immediately the kids want hats. Olivia picks hers out (you'll see that), Jackson picks this out. Do you think Jackson would wear it? No. Do you think my purse was large enough to hold it? No. Being the good dad that he is, Matt walked around wearing a youth Mickey ears hat looking like an asshole. But kind of adorable.

 We met Snow White almost immediately and Jackson was thrilled that she said he was cute enough to be a dwarf after he said his Grandma Cindi loves Snow White and Olivia said Snow White was her favorite.

 From there we started going on rides. We had big plans to do this park right and we were prepared to go the 9am-11pm park hours. I wore my most comfortable, and unattractive, outfit and thank god everyone wore their stupid sneakers like I insisted.

 Isn't Olivia's hat the fucking cutest? She wore it EVERY DAY on vacation.

 At this point? We are 4 hours into our day and my hair is flat. It was super tight curls. I don't know why I bothered doing anything at all.

Oh- lunch. Let me tell you about this. So, I have read on tons of message boards that character dining is THE thing to do if you want your kids to totally have a really special, memorable experience. I went online, saw ONE available spot at this buffet place on the day we'd be there right around lunch time and it says $15.99/person. Seems high, but I figure, it's Disney so it's marked up but this is still doable.

 This is us outside of the Crystal Palace, waiting for our table to be ready. While waiting, I see the menu so I kind of mosey over. Only to see the price? Is actually $28.99/person.

JIGGA SAY WHAT.

I go up and ask if that is the lunch price or dinner because it could be dinner. Nope, it's the lunch price.

FUCK.

I then say, "Oh wow- that's not what the website said. I guess we'll pass and find lunch elsewhere" because who the fuck is trying to pay that per person for LUNCH? Nobody with a brain.

She tells me, in her best southern belle accent, "Well- your credit card gets charged either way."

Oh yes, I had forgotten about having to reserve this lunch with a credit card. I suppose we'll eat here after all. Turns out, it's a terrible buffet. I literally ate some cucumbers, a bread stick, and 4 chicken nuggets. And a piece of pie.

But, characters came to our table.

 And here's the thing- my kids are so god damn adorable you can't help but love them. Do you see them totally love Winnie the Pooh?

Oh god- see the Asians behind them? OK- side story! There were two Asian guys, presumably partners, and they LOST THEIR SHIT over these characters. I'm talking, this guy you see back there? He CRIED when Pooh came. He talked to these characters as if they are real people who came just to see him. I didn't know whether to laugh or publicly mock the guy. Even Matt, who normally has no idea what is happening around him, was like, "Is this really happening? Did he just butt in line in front of children to give Pooh a bear hug??"

Yes.

Yes, he did.

 Jackson loved Tigger a lot.

 Until Piglet came and then you thought he was reunited with his long lost relative. I had no idea he even liked Piglet. Apparently, I am not a mom in the know.

 So after shelling out almost $150 on a LUNCH (I cannot emphasize this enough), we got back on rides. We noticed it got a little cooler (and by that I mean it was 105 and was now 100) and a little cloudier. No big deal. Florida gets weird rain storms for a few minutes and then it's hot as ever, so I wasn't worried.

 Jackson went on a for real merry-go-round and pretended to be a cowboy.

 And Olivia got on it and for the first time EVER, she did not cry on the merry go round. I have many pictures of hysterical children on merry go rounds. My kids are adorable, but they are also dramatic. To say the least.

 We also rode tea cups and Daddy almost made us all puke.

But you'll notice these clouds? This was a sign of DOOM.

 It was kind of sprinkling at this point, so most rides were shut down because someone saw lighting and that's the alert to shut things down  until it passes over. So to stay dry and kill time, we got in the 2 hour line to see Minnie and Daisy.

I have a Daisy picture but I included this one because it's one of the few I got Jackson to wear his expensive fucking Mickey ears in.

Here's the thing about character photos. Just a little bit of etiquette for you. If you come up to the line, you get one picture. One picture and move it the fuck along. Instead, people are doing individuals, couples, then certain siblings together, then the whole family shot, oh now just mom wants her picture. Oh let's get mom and just the baby. People are treating it like a god damn family photo shoot. It's not. It's one and done, whores.

End rant.

 So once we got, not surprisingly, it is down pour. Like, our shoes and clothing are soaked through. We decide it's time to buy ponchos. Mostly so our clothes could dry because at this point? We still had six hours until the park closed. No way in HELL was I spending $400 on tickets and not seeing the god damn Electric Parade. The kids missed it last time, didn't get to see Tinkerbell come down and light the castle, nothing.

Oh, we will buy ponchos.

$40 later... and we're kitted with basically clear Hefty bags with hoods.

 And then Jackson fell asleep. So Matt had to hold him for the next 4 hours.

 While Jackson power napped.

But it was worth it, even though we didn't get to get on half of the rides, because folks? We saw the parade.

 Which was just as amazing as it was when I was a little kid.

 But the best part? Was that both kids turned to Matt and said, "See Dad? You can put Christmas lights on everything!!!"

Matt, not surprisingly, was not impressed.

I was actually exhausted by now but one character we hadn't gotten to see? Mickey. So I found a ridiculously nice employee who told me if I was smart, we'd skip the fireworks and run to the front entrance and see Mickey on our way out before the lines start. And I thought, we can see fireworks anytime- we can't see Mickey all of the time.

So off we went. The kids were only slightly bummed until I told them we were seeing Mickey and we wouldn't be rushed because wouldn't you know it, there was no line.

 And Jackson LOVED Mickey. Jackson's shirt said "Oh Buoy" and had a picture of seagull on it, and Mickey was trying to tell Jackson that he says that all of the time. Jackson thought he was the coolest kid ever that Mickey loved his shirt. And his hat. Olivia thought it was cool that she was meeting (as she put it), "an actual movie star."

Oh and then we took a family picture because they had time to kill and my boob almost popped out of my shirt.

So that was our day at Magic Kingdom. By the time we got back to our hotel is was midnight. We had been on the go that day, nonstop walking, for 16 hours. Oh, and I spent almost $100 in bottled water because holy shit it was hot.