Bye Bye American Idol Experience.

This is our nephew John at the American Idol Experience in 2012. He did fantastic in his show and made us all proud. Sadly he can't do it again as the show closes for good today. No word yet on what will replace it. It leaves DHS a little light on entertainment for the next wee while. I would have gone to see the show a couple of times on our trip starting next Saturday. I guess I'll just have to go see British Revolution more often instead.

Dumbo

Well excitement is starting to mount, just a week to our next WDW trip. Which is good because I'm running out of good photos for this blog. I'm rather excited about seeing the new Fantasyland, the last time we were there two years ago, they had just started to open things and I did walk through but I don't remember too much about the changes. We also get to play with our new Magic Bands for the first time. So it's going to be a Grand Old Trip as they say in Yorkshire.

Tokyo Disney Monorail

Inside the cute Tokyo Disney Monorail, you can see the not so hidden Mickey windows. Also the efforts the Japanese people go to to Disney them selves up for there visits to the parks. I'm sure there's a Duffy or two in there.

Boo.

Watch out there's a villain-ous Queen about!!! My advice avoid any apples that are offered!

Hmm that Monorail looks different!

This is the Monorail in Tokyo Disneyland Resort. There are a couple of differences, the main one is you have to pay to ride it, something to do with the Railway laws in Japan. The cool difference, Mickey Mouse Windows!!! How cool is that?

Urban Park.

I think that sometimes I'm on a mission to get things done when I'm at WDW. I often rush from one place to the next, gotta ride this, must see this show, get a Fastpass for Soarin' etc. But sometimes it's probably a good idea to think of some places there such as Epcot's Future World as a nice relaxing urban park, and literally smell the roses.

More Everest.

The them-ing at WDW is so cool. Look at this photo, it actually looks like I might have taken it in a mountain range, not on a Roller Coaster!!

Everest.

This view of Everest is really cool. I wouldn't have noticed it, not being observant, if Robin hadn't pointed out to me that the shape of the monument mirrors the shape of the mountain range, next time you approach Everest from Harambe check it out.

Vote No.

Well with the Scottish Election for Independence about to hit us in a month I thought that I would assert my Britishness. The costs of separation strike me as a total waste of money and I really don't want my pension being paid in the Scottish Thistle. That's as political as this blog is going to get.

Terracotta Army.

China

One of the great things to do is to spend some time not being quite so Disney when you are there. I love to wander around the countries of Epcot. In most of them you can forget you are in "Disney" for a little while. Having said that, it's a glossy version of each country and there is no way anyone in Britain wears any of the clothes they make the CM's wear.

I've always thought that Sleeping Beauty's Castle at Disneyland Paris is perhaps the prettiest of them all. I've still got the one in Hong Kong to check out, but of the four I've seen I like it the best.

Now I may have mentioned that I wasn't a big fan of Stitch yesterday. However, I'm not space creature-phobic because I really like the little green aliens. The difference, Aliens - Cute, Stitch - Annoying!!!

Stitch Boy I Dunno!

I wondered if there are any characters that you are no so keen on. For me, I find Stitch a bit annoying, but I did like that there was a cool Social Worker in Lilo and Stitch. You don't get to see too many cool social workers in the media.

Dragons

It's a shame that they never built the Mythical Beasts section at Animal Kingdom. There are Dragons to be found in the Disney Empire. Here are two for you. One is at the Lego Store in Downtown Disney in Florida and the other is below the Castle in Disneyland Paris.

Pyramids.

Here are a couple of Pyramids of Epcot, one in World Showcase and the other from the Imagination section. Ever since I saw Apoclypto.?spelling! I always imagine blue heads tumbling down those steps which rather ruins things for me now.The good news is, that we are in full swing for our next trip, Magic Bands are here. We have fastpass+ booked as well as a couple of meals and a reservation for the "Be Our Guest" lunchtime counter service meal. It's very funny to me that we now have to get reservations for fast food servings but hey that's popularity for you.

Spooky old ToT.

I have mentioned before just how much I really love the Tower of Terror, it's themeing is really great. I like the spooky things at WDW like the Haunted Mansion and the Tower of Terror. I thought this photo was a little more spookier than most I have taken. On a personal note we got our first Magic Bands yesterday just over three weeks to our next trip. I think my wife is worried now that I have started this blog I'll just take photos the whole time, she need not worry too much I'll find time to ride the Tower of Terror for sure!

Very Sad Loss.

I was really sad today to hear that Robin Williams had died. I really loved Genie from Aladdin, I remember smiling when Aladdin spoke in the elevator at Disney Quest. He was a great actor too both comedic and dramatic, not forgetting that he won an Oscar too. He gave us lots of pleasure and I hope he can still smile down on us now.

My Old Stomping Ground.

I'm pretty conservative with a small c and I don't like too much change. I was very sad when these two places closed down a few years ago. I loved to spend an evening split between the Adventurer's Club and the Comedy Warehouse. I knew all the songs from the club and was a friend of one of the regulars at the CW who would introduce me to the cast members working on the stage there. I even got on the stage of both clubs a time or two. Good times indeed. Kongaloosh.

3 for the price of 1.

I'm probably giving away too much information here. I spent an hour or so last night playing around with a program called Lightroom made by Adobe. It's very good at painting with light. These photos look pretty similar apart from the colours. That's because they are the same photo. I think it shows that saying "the camera never lies" should have "but the photo processor does" added afterwards.

Disneyland from the Air?

The Walt Disney Family Museum has this really cool model of Disneyland from Walt's time. It's a cross between an accurate scale model of the buildings but with larger than life characters and ride vehicles. You can spend hours looking at it. Above is Space Mountain,The Jungle Cruise, The Haunted Mansion and ... well see what you can spot!

Mary Blair

Mary Blair was a Imagineer and a Designer for Walt Disney, she worked on many Disney films and created murals and attractions for the park, here we see her color schemes and tiles for the Contemporary and an original penguin for It's a Small World. There is a current exhibition at The Walt Disney Family Museum in San Antonio which we had the privilege to visit this past weekend.

OK You have to have a photo of the "Rock" as well.

Golden Gate Bridge

Oh and by the way, you can't go to San Francisco and not post a picture you took of the Golden Gate Bridge. Robin and I had go go back to it twice to get a half decent photo. It was covered in mist all day. I know this is Photographing Disney and this bridge is not strictly Disney, but I allowed it in on the grounds of the Golden Gate Bridge at the entrance to Disney's Californian Adventure and because it's artistic license!

Disney Family Museum

Hi Folks, Sorry I have not posted for a few days. However, Robin and I have been for a lightning weekend trip to San Francisco. The main item on the agenda was a trip to the Walt Disney Family Museum. This is separate from the Disney Corporation and was set up by his daughter Diane Disney Miller. It's a positive treasure trove of all things Walt. Over the next few days, I will post some of the photos I took there and tell you about what you can find if you decide to make the trip yourself. One of the main reasons for our visit at this time was a chance to see the Mary Blair Exhibition. More on that tomorrow. For now here is a photo of the outside of the building. It's located in the historic Presido section of the city. Very impressive part of town worth a visit just on it's own.