Thrill Shakespeare (Andy)

But wait...there's more! The enchanted rose in Be Our Guest's west wing. Such disrespect for fine art. Note that the boys have accidentally recreated the pose from the Be Our Guest mosaic. Taking the boys for a "family reunion". I love the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. There's a great picture at every turn. Am I the only person who wanted to rig one of these up on my own house?

Hello everyone! DramaMama just talked me out of working on my dissertation this evening to post some pictures from our trip. Truth be told, I didn't need much convincing. So here we go, for those who always prefered the pictures in their books to all of those words... A stop at the Florida welcome station on I-75 is a required part of any Disney trip! Our first close-up look at the Mine Train from the queue. More Mine Train goodness. And more. I have been waiting TOO long for a close look at this thing. Luke posing while the train comes by. Indeed, the key to the va

Sounds great! We'll be competing in the HP Field House.

DramaMama and I will be heading to Disney this weekend for a different type of trip. I am bringing my dance team to compete at Wide World of Sports on Saturday, March 22. I have gone to this competition for the last 3 years helping out with our school's hip hop team (I don't direct them -- just lend a hand on the trip, be an extra set of eyes for tightening up choreography, and generally serve as the walking Disney travel guide.) Last year I decided that as a choreographer I wanted to bring a team too. The result is PROPAGANDA, a prop dance team. The prop category requires dancers to use

As a marathoner, complete with 26.2 stickers (Sorry about that, Troll. And yes, I really can run the entire thing. And have. Many times. Rant on anyway, I like it) I'll finish this discussion up with more absurdity. Caveat Lector is largely correct - the marathon distance is based on the distance between Marathon and Athens that a messenger (said to be Phidippides) ran to report results of a battle. And, according to some legends, he promptly fell over and died. Which happens to be what I generally feel like doing after a marathon. But here's the real laugh: the distance he ran is ac

Okay, here I am finally to give you a little trip and race report. The journey for anyone who runs a race at Disney begins with the packet pick-up and expo at ESPN Wide World of Sports. If you have never been to WWoS, I highly recommend taking a trip over sometime. I never visited until I first ran the marathon many years ago. I was quite taken with the architecture of the buildings and the very cool layout of the fields behind. Disney does a great job of making the various games and sports tournaments that are played at WWoS seem like major events complete with ESPN-style coverage. Ver

I am having some trouble with my photo uploading tonight. Every picture wants to turn sideways for some reason. Here are a few fuzzy shots from the race itself. I'll start the report tomorrow with the Expo, but I wanted to deliver some Olaf photos tonight! Walking into the pre-race area... In Hollywood Studios, I believe... More to come. Thanks for your patience!

I don't mind the hijacking at all! I've enjoyed hearing about Ed's races too -- and enjoyed meeting him at the Fort. Olaf will post this evening, complete with pictures. I'll tell you this much for now: running as Olaf is like being a rock star!

A lot of people are into the GoPro cameras. Those are nice and have a decent picture quality, but they are a bit heavier (and much more expensive) than I would like. I am running with a Looxcie camera. It's about the size of a Bluetooth headset. The picture quality is fair, much improved if you keep the camera still. I find the video too jerky to be useable for much, but I am able to pull decent stills out of it. This is great for me since I never take time to snap pictures during a marathon. Darn. I thought I might have talked you into at least tolerating the silly thing. :laugh

Hello All! DramaMama and I, along with the two Shakespearelets, are heading off to Fort Wilderness today for a weekend of camping and lots of running! I will be running the Goofy Challenge (the half marathon on Saturday followed by the marathon on Sunday) while my sons will be running the Mickey Mile on Saturday. We are thrilled to be renting a camper this time. We're in the market for a new pop-up, so we're going to enjoy trying out a newer camper to decide what we want in our new toy. So, if you'd like to come along for the run, hop aboard! You may really get to SEE what it's like t

Wow, I have really left this trip report hanging. Apologies all around! I'm off to run the Disney Marathon but I WILL return and finish this one up. The race deserves it -- it was great!

Perhaps we should rename the "vote down" buttons on the forum to the "Not having the experience I expected from this post" buttons.

It really is a great move. Both of the shows are very well done. I find the music on Sophia endlessly catchy and Doc McStuffins just does so many things well. I wouldn't mind seeing either of these shows have an even larger presence in the parks. How about the one of the first aid stations being themed to Doc? I guess there would be the danger of people getting hurt intentionally to see it. :laugh:

A lot of us wish we could be "suckers" along with you all. :jumpforjoy

That is absolutely incredible. Unreal.

I used to always look for these as a kid. One of those "now I'm at Disney" things was seeing the elephant topiaries.

I certainly don't remember a walk-up ice cream window from my well-spent youth at the Fort. Then again, my parents might have gone to great lengths to make sure I didn't see the ice cream window too!

Sounds like fun. I actually have a lot of respect for Kenny Ortega -- he can do some really creative work.

Indeed! Space Mountain with the lights on as seen from the WEDway...ahem...the Tomorrowland Transit Authority Peoplemover. DramaMama and I had a fastpass for Space Mountain, found it under repair, and made a beeline for the TTA. I never get tired of seeing the tracks. It looks so deliciously ominous and industrial. There are so many details in the tiger section that I could do a whole series of this game just with pictures of the decorative elements there. The Trek is a true hidden gem of Animal Kingdom. Thanks to the new Wilderness Explorers activities, I think more people are sta

Okay, I know this one is WAY too easy but the picture had to be shared.

Ah, TCD to the rescue! It is in the Jungle Trek on a wall of the tiger viewing area. I love this section and the back story Disney created for it. (Basically a royal hunting lodge that has been deserted and now occupied by the animals themselves.)

I'm fine, just got caught up in a series of trips -- some with the school I teach at and a recent trip to WDW. I'll finish this up soon. Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten that I left everyone hanging. Oops.

Not there!

It is in Asia.

It actually does remind me of some of the decorations near EE -- especially in the outdoor part of the queue. However, this is not from near Everest.