cupcakes!

I made cupcakes the other day to celebrate Disney Pixar's Brave!  You can click here to get to my other blog, easy there cupcake!  You'll see Brave cupcakes as well as Muppet cupcakes from a few months ago!  Woohoo!

Nostalgia

With the hot weather we've been having lately in NY, I've been thinking of great summer memories.  What made summer so great as a kid?  I have one specific memory of many: my mom picking my friend Teena and me up from our last day of 5th grade to see Pocahontas in theaters.  I remember getting chocolate bars with Pocahontas scenes on them. 

Then I found this ad on YouTube and got even MORE nostalgic.  Can't they make this for Brave?  ...Apparently not.  I just searched "Pixar Brave chocolate" all over Google & Yahoo and I got NOTHING.  I guess it wasn't meant to be.  If only Nestle would read this post and realize there are people out there who would totally buy it.  Maybe they're delivering baby carrots to Shop Rite with Brave scenes all over the plastic baggies.  America's children don't need chocolate.

(Yes, they do.)

Jiminy Cricket!

 

I believe it was April 29 when Disney released this Jiminy Cricket Vinylmation figure.  I just so happened to be going to a Death Cab for Cutie concert that night in the city and stopped at the Disney Store in Times Square to pick up this little fella.  Not only was this a great addition to my collection, but one dollar from each purchase went to the Make a Wish Foundation!  Jiminy!  When you wish upon a star...

Well if there's any other collectors out there, here's some more photos!  Enjoy!

Disney Jewelery

I love Disney merchandise, and I especially love the kind you can wear!  When I was 4, I got this beautiful "gold" charm bracelet, which sparked my love for charm bracelets to this day!

 There's Dumbo, Mickey and Donald...

and Minnie, Goofy (his body has since fallen off!), and Tinkerbell:

My friend Monica got me this beautiful necklace from Disney Couture inspired by The Little Mermaid:

 The bottle has a scroll inside that says "I could be part of your world," which gets me all teary!!  There's sand and little gems, and the cork really does come off!  Good thing it's attached by that chain because it's come uncorked a few times while I was at work!

 There are so many details, like this hook clasp and the tiny portrait of Ariel:

 The studded anchor and pearls:

 And here's the bag it came in:

 There were only two pieces of jewelery I bought while on my last trip.  I know, I hardly believe it either.  I got these Mickey head earrings:

 Simple, and only about $5.  I wear them when I want to feel all cheery and reminded of the magic :)

I also got this adorable and classy Mickey glove necklace:

I get compliments on this every time I wear it!  I like to joke that it's the Hamburger Helper glove, or the Michael Jackson glove.  I just love this one!

 There are plenty of gorgeous pieces you can get in Disney World or on their website!  Look for Disney Couture--those are on the newer side and real cool!  They have a Minnie charm bracelet, some more jewelery, accessories and clothing.  I just bought my friend a cute Snow White shirt for her birthday! 

There's also this great new collection of charms (here's one of Flounder) by Kidada, which you can wear at any age (I say this because I plan to start my own collection, wink wink), along with (sometimes) cute princesses that open up to reveal a necklace with a single charm related to that princess (I just saw the new Rapunzel that has a brush charm--how adorable!) for little girls, and some apparel (I just saw a baseball hat with Mickey [or Minnie]  gloves forming a heart and a chain with a bow charm on the arm like a bracelet--also very cute!)

It also happens to be the 25th anniversary of The Disney Store, so be sure to check their website for special merchandise and deals (right now you can get free shipping on orders over $75)!

Goofy & Dumbo

Working in a bookstore, I get to talk to a lot of people about their Disney plans when they come up to purchase Disney guides.  It's really one of the highlights of my day.  On Wednesday I was talking to a customer who said the Great Goofini Roller Coaster and the Dumbo Rides were up and running!  Hooray!

Under the Boardwalk, the Boardwalk

I hadn't known this part of Disney even existed until this past trip! Mike saw it listed on a map, or one of our books... I forget actually, but he was curious. So we asked a cast member at our hotel how to get there. We read that it was near one of the mini-golf courses, so we figured we'd hit 2 birds with 1 stone. The cast member's directions took us to Epcot, but we'd have had to use a ticket to get in, just to get through to the Boardwalk. Not having park-hopper tickets, we asked a security guard for another way to get there. She said to take the bus to Hollywood Studios. From there we could walk or take a ferry. We walked.

We saw this on the other side of the water:

Because I now have an awesome camera, I was able to zoom in and read what it says on the gravestone:

On the ferry ride we took back, Mike claims it wasn't there. We were both looking for it. Maybe it was only there for the pirate cruise? That's something they offer for kids:

We knew we'd made it when we found this sign:

How very welcoming! We read it was based on Coney Island, but I also read it's based on Atlantic City as well. I guess it's just a universal boardwalk feel.

There was pretty marsh grass under the water:

And cute hotel fronts:

You can see Epcot across the way:

Not many places were open because we were there in the morning--it's more of a night place. We did manage to get coffee (Mike) and food (me). I wasn't very hungry, but I took a picture of these cute Mickey-esque cupcakes:

Definitely inspiring! I'm getting ideas for the next project on my cupcake blog! We saw muffins where Mike got his espresso:

The blueberry ones are shaped like Mickey, too. Mike bought me the one on the lower right, chocolate-chip banana. Mmm.

How cute!! Of course Mike wasn't crazy about me having to stop and take a picture every 2 seconds, but I made him take one of me on the Boardwalk with my muffin.

If you look closely, you can see the hungry seagull to the left on the railing. In true Disney form, the seagulls referenced Finding Nemo by claiming the muffin "mine!" and flew at me until they knocked it out of my hands. I was pretty stunned and laughed very loudly in reaction (as I do in stressful situations) and everyone on the little tables & chairs lining the boardwalk saw what happened. Except Mike. He was walking ahead of me. He, of course, said I'd been taunting the birds by taking so many pictures of the muffin.

There they all are, proud of themselves. I bought a t-shirt later in the trip at Epcot that had the Nemo seagull on it going "Mine! Mine! Mine!"

We also read that the Boardwalk has the only microbrewery in Disney World, Big River Grille and Brewing Works. I was hoping they'd have beer with Disney themes, like "The Sorcerer's Apprentice Pale Ale" or something... Nope! I would totally go for something like that. "Rapunzel's Golden Wheat." You know? "Feelin' Goofy," "Grumpy's Stout." Disney missed a huge opportunity (in my opinion)!

Mike got a "beer flight" (we had more "flights" in Epcot!):

There's our bartender in the background, and the woman being nasty to him, saying stuff about how customer service is underrated.. Mike and I were shocked that anyone could be in a bad mood in the happiest place on Earth! Especially at a brewpub! But she was there for a work thing, so I guess she didn't even really want to be there. I'd love to be sent there for work!

We asked him to make us a fruity shot, and he gave us these:

They were delicious, cold and refreshing. I asked him, in a last-ditch effort to find something Disney-themed inside all this, what he calls it. Hoping for "Goofy's Hat," I only got "...Green."

There were a few stores open with all-Disney merchandise, of course. I loved the Boardwalk items--an old-fashioned hotel keychain with Goofy as a bellhop, a Minnie Mouse on the Boardwalk t-shirt, and magnets with Mickey. (That link is a Yahoo image search and only has a few merchandise items listed, but they're darn cute!!) I didn't get anything at the time, but I'd definitely go back for some more shopping in the future!

We found the Fantasyland Mini Golf Course amidst all this, but I'll save that for a future post. We took the Ferry (called "Friendship") back to Hollywood Studios, and then our hotel!

Someone saw a bald eagle on our trip back! How crazy! Oh, the wonders of Disney.

Haunted Mansion!

Bah! This ride was never my favorite, but I enjoyed it a lot more this time. Mostly because of the new additions!
First of all, I kept reading that it was based on mansions from the Hudson River Valley, which is where we live! Of course, I haven't seen many buildings like this.

Above are the headstones you first see as you enter. I just read in the updated Hidden Magic of Walt Disney World Planner by Susan & Simon Veness (a very excellent book!) that this was a new addition circa 2011! I knew it looked new! So now you have the option of getting on the ride, or walking through this interactive area in the graveyard and then getting on the ride.




Obviously I liked this one a lot since I took 3 pictures of it. Haha.

Then of course there are the old standards--the silly headstones! I took a picture of this one for my brother, David.



This one was cool--the headstone is a bathtub and bubbles overflow out of it!





Working at a bookstore, this one felt close to home. It's a stone bookcase with some books sticking out. When you push them in, others pop out! My coworker said it sounded just like re-sorting books at our store!


The ride was fun, and the songs were hauntingly jolly! My favorite part was the end, when they turn your "Doom-buggy" to face the mirror. This was a new addition for me--I'm used to a projection of a ghost sitting in the buggy with me. This time there was a ghost sitting on top of our buggy who reached down to our faces which became ghost-like. He then pulled them and it looked like our faces were stretching! Then they disappeared in a poof. It was thrilling :)

Here is the pet cemetery on the way out:


The dog on the left is holding keys, I wonder if it's the one from Pirates of the Caribbean? My favorite, though, is the one way in the back.


It's Mr. Toad! I'd never seen that before! I remember going on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride back when I was a kid (and it was kind of scary for me!) and a few years ago it was replaced by the Winnie the Pooh ride. I guess this is to remember him by!