 The one thing we love about Disneyland is that even though you may have visited the park a million times there is always something new, something fresh, what they call limited time magic. It might be special shows, exclusive meet and greets or even hunting for Easter Eggs in the park...(insert record scratch here)...wait what?!?! Hunting for Easter Eggs at Disneyland? You totally can and we think it's totally fun! For the last five years Disneyland has held their Egg-stavaganza, their version of an egg themed scavenger hunt. For $5.99 (plus tax) guests can participate by purchasing a packet at certain park locations, the packet contains a map and fun Disney themed egg stickers.  Once the map is purchased the hunt is on! Guests search for special hidden eggs scattered throughout the park, and the eggs are themed to Disney and Pixar characters. Once you discover an egg you match a sticker of the corresponding egg to its location on the map. Most of the eggs are easy to find, a few take some searching. Once you find every egg you can return your map to a redemption location in the park for an awesome prize.  Now we purposely waited to post this until after the Egg-stravaganza ended, only because we didn't want to give away any of the egg locations. We hate spoilers! This is the fifth year that Disneyland has offered the Egg-Stravaganza. It's typically held every year around Easter and lasts for only a few weeks. It's fun for the whole family or you can pair off into teams for a true "see who finishes first" challenge. What's great is you can now search in three areas with three different maps, Disneyland Resort, Disneyland California and the Downtown Disney area. It gives us a way to explore the Disney properties in a new and different way. Walt Disney World does it as well during the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival and the times run a little longer. We will totally be on the egg hunt again next year! For our merry band of adventurers it adds a different element of Disney fun and we always love limited time magic. In fact we think it's eggs-cellent!   Our curiosity for all things Disney is huge, and when a fairy godmother (in-training) reaches out to you for a special tour of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique at Harrods in London of all places, you take the London Underground to Knightsbridge Station and visit the 4th floor of the five acre luxury department store at your soonest opportunity. Honeymoon or not, we make room for Disney!
If you don't know the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique its a Disneyland Salon owned by the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella. Young guests form ages 3 to 12 can get magically transformed into little princesses and knights, their choice. The boutiques can be found at the Disney parks and Disney hotels around the world. Thats what makes the one at Harrods so special, you don't have to travel to a Disneyland to experience the magic.  There is nothing in this world that can make a man feel like a man more than a haircut and shave from a professional barber. For the last few years I only visit my barber Mason Case at Harrison's in Piedmont, California. It's that early 20th century haircut, like what the movies let you imagine it would be. Mason even has the look of a 1900's barber with a this century flair. You just feel cool walking through the doors and sitting in his chair.
Mason is a fellow Disney-geek of course, and one day whilst in his chair Mason told us of his recent visit to visit Disneyland Paris. In this mix of awesome stories he told us about Dapper Dans Hair Cuts on Main Street. Now I knew Disney World had a barber, but Disneyland Paris? This is awesome, what an adventure and I get a haircut out of it too! Unfortunately it was closed on his visit but I added it to the adventure list and vowed that if I visited DLP I would get a Dapper Dan hair cut and shave. So as fate would have it, we headed to Europe for three weeks on our Honeymoon and Disneyland Paris was on the agenda. I did my research online to find the hours and to see if it was walk in or if you had to make an appointment. I was not missing my chance for an epic haircut and shave. I finally called the Disneyland Hotel in Paris and found out it was by appointment only and it had to be done at the park, but luckily Dapper Dan's was open on the days we would be there.  We love animation, we always have. We grew up reading comic books and watching cartoons. As we got older and learned how our favorite cartoons were made we found out that it was so much more than just doodles on paper and then filmed. Especially when you jump into the animation history of Walt Disney. Mr. Disney was not satisfied with doing the same as everyone else, he wanted to push the envelope, leave a lasting impression. So when it came time to make his first animated motion picture, Snow White, he used something no one else was using...A Multiplane Camera. The first multiplane camera was created in 1933 by Walt Disney Studios director/animator Ub Iwerks, and he created it with parts of an old car.
The one used for Snow White was created in 1937 and could take up to seven layers of artwork, oils painted on glass. The camera uses those layers of flat artwork and with a camera shooting down it creates a three-dimensional image. And like magic you have a hit movie and Oscar for your shelf.  When I was little I grew up loving Disney's Peter Pan! I mean a boy who never grows up, teaches kids to fly, has his own island and gets to fight pirates...well sign me up! Then in middle school I had to write a short paragraph on an author and got assigned J.M. Barrie, the author of Peter Pan. As I researched for information on the author, via encyclopedia (pre-internet), I discovered that there was a statue in London of Peter Pan. So of course it went on the bucket list, and when we decided to visit London on our Honeymoon, guess where we were going.  The Peter Pan statue is located in in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park in the City of Westminster in London, Great Britain.
 It's not every day one gets to tour the Pixar Studios in Emeryville, CA, and when you are called upon to visit the famed location, you take it! We were lucky enough to get that call and we rounded up the Adventurers and headed to Emeryville, California, the home of Pixar Animation Studios.  Aloha! We love Aulani! It is truly heaven on earth. At Aulani you get the Hawaiian lifestyle mixed with the Disney magic. Total relationship goals! When we joined the Disney Vacation Club we had the option and points to use them anywhere. Since Aulani was our "home base" and the fact that we've wanted to visit it since it was dreamed up in 2007, there really was no need for discussion. The trip was booked and in 2015 we made the journey to paradise! OK, so a little Aulani history first. The resort is located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu in the Ko Olina Resort in Kapolei, so roughly about 20-30 minutes from the airport. |
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April 2017
AuthorNicole and Mark write things and hopefully y'all read them. Categories |
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