It's time for another Destination Disney theme!
This week's theme is
*STARSTRUCK PHOTO*

Again, as with all photo-related topics, I am not going to define the word
"starstruck" for you.  Everyone will interpret it differently
and we should have a nice assortment of fun pictures to look at.

When I think of "starstruck", I think of stars (as in famous people/characters),
which brings Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM) to mind.
I've previously shared this pic of Ashley with Director Mickey:

Please share your STARSTRUCK PHOTOS with all of us!
Be sure to sign the Mr. Linky below with a direct link to your DD post.
Can't wait to visit you!

 NOTE: Due to some Mr. Linky overlap with the Homeschool Crew blog, I am taking Mr. Linky down today.  I'll try to figure this out tomorrow and put him back up here.  In the meantime, if you'd like to link to your Destination Disney posts, please do so in the comments section.  Thanks - and I apologize for the confusion.

*OK, I think I figured out the Mr. Linky problem.  I upgraded, so I should be able to post more than one linky at a time.  Hopefully this will work.......

4 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link

This week's Destination Disney theme is
 DISNEY HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
formerly known as
DISNEY MGM STUDIOS.

I thought it would  be fun to share BOTH logos.

On our last visit, it was MGM - so when we go in January, it will be our first time to see the park as Hollywood Studios.  Nothing has really changed, except the name.
You still see Mickey's sorcerer hat, and think of it as the park's icon
(much like Cinderellas Castle represents the Magic Kingdom and Spaceship Earth represents EPCOT).

One thing I like to do upon entering each park is to pick up a park map
(Guidemap) - actually I pick up several as these make great additions to my scrapbooks
and contain all the information you need about showtimes, etc.

MGM/Hollywood Studios is not my favorite park,
but I do enjoy it.
We spend a full day there on each of our visits to The World.

The park is small enough that you can easily see it all in one day
and often have time to go back and repeat some of your favorites.

It's also set up so that it's easy to get from Point A to Point B fairly quickly.
This makes it nice for those "quick rushes" to get to a show on time.

Decidedly, one of my favorite things is
Beauty & the Beast Live on Stage.
It's only a 20 minute adaptation of the full version, but it's very well done and fun to watch.
And, if you have a good zoom lens, you can get great pictures, even from the top tier!

There are always interesting characters to be met at the Studios.
The girls saw JoJo and Goliath on our last visit -
I love this picture because it's so colorful:

Ashley enjoyed comparing her hand prints to Minnie's:

I love this picture of Gracie - really seems to go well with my new "reflections" theme:

In all the parks, you've got to take some time to just "chill".

Ashley enjoyed watching this Disney animator coloring cells:

I love this picture of Tower of Terror (looks like a postcard):
We have yet to actually ride this, but we intend to on our January trip! 

This picture was taken on our last trip, as we were exiting the park in the evening.
From the parking lot, you see this view of the sky over Tower of Terror:

I know Ian is looking forward to meeting Lightning McQueen & Mater on our next trip!

Please share your Studios experiences with us-
include pictures and any advice you might have to make a visit to the Studios
more fun!
Don't forget to sign the Mr. Linky with a direct link to your post.
Make it a point to visit some new DD friends this week.

5 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link

Don't you just love our new Destination Disney graphic?  I do!  It was designed just for us by my friend Christi.  If you like it, you can stop by her blog and say "thanks!"  If you'd like to display it on your blog or website, please do!  I'm having problems with the scroll box on my sidebar, so please feel free to e-mail me for the code. 

Now, for this week's topic.......Please share your "COOL" photo(s) with us.  I'm not going to tell you what "cool" means - it is up to you to interpret it.  I'm hoping to get lots of entries this week and have lots of blogs to visit.  (I'll be at the hospital with Ian - as he's having dental surgery.  I will share my photo(s) when I return home).

EDITED 9/15 - Finally, I am getting around to sharing my COOL photos.  How horrible is that?  The host of the meme can't even participate because her album is in pieces!  Finally, I found a cool strap-hinge type product at Wal-mart (it was an "as seen of TV" thing, but since I don't have tv, I wasn't familiar with it).  Anyway, my Disney album is finally fixed and I'm ready to share:

From our family trip in 1999.....
What could be more wonderful, when you are chilly on a COOL evening at EPCOT, than cuddling up with a giant teddy bear - better known as Winnie the Pooh?

Ashley has always been such a COOL kid!  Here is just one sample of her always dramatic personality.  Isn't she so cute?!

From our family trip in 2005.....
Leaving our house and COOL weather behind (this picture is funny for me to look at because it's before we got our landscaping finished - our house looks SO drab!)

(I have no idea why our house looks like a zebra!
The original picture does NOT look like this!
Really, it's just a plain old red brick house - LOL)

A COOL day in the Magic Kingdom - so COOL that we had to buy Gracie a blanket!

Isn't it just the COOLEST thing when a princess-in-training gets to meet a real princess for the very first time?  That's why this place is called the MAGIC Kingdom, I guess.

The Mad Hatter is a very COOL character!  The girls had fun meeting him and Alice on our very last day in the parks.

And, just for fun, I just had to share my very COOL hair from 1990!  I know you're jealous, but can I help it I'm so cool?!  (I'm on the right)

Sorry my pictures are always so grainy and of poor quality.  That's what you get for having to scan them all in.  After January, though, I'll have new pics, all uploaded on my computer.  Hopefully they'll look a bit better.  But, these oldies are fun too, huh?

Don't forget to sign the Mr. Linky with a direct link to your Destination Disney post.  Be sure to stop in and visit the other participants - make a new friend today!

2 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link

Destination Disney

This week's theme is

ANIMAL KINGDOM

Please share with us your favorite photos,
your favorite things about Animal Kingdom,
tips to make your time there more fun, etc.
Just anything related to Animal Kingdom!

When I plan a Disney trip, I try to consider which parks are best visited on which days.  It has worked out, on our past two trips and on our upcoming trip, that we visit Animal Kingdom on our first day.  I like it this way, because I enjoy saving the best for last, and Animal Kingdom is not my favorite park.  That being said, though, it IS a Disney park, and I DO love it!

Here is a picture of all of us (our family of 4 at the time and my parents), taken on the first morning of park visiting during our last trip (2005):

One of my favorite things about Animal Kingdom is probably Camp Minnie-Mickey.  This has been one of the quickest, easiest places for the kids to meet characters.  We've never had to stand in long lines here.

(Ashley was 11 and Gracie 4 1/2 on this last trip ~ my how they've changed!)

Right across from the Meet & Greets is the theater for Festival of the Lion King - a 30-minute musical of Broadway proportions that is an absolute must-see at Animal Kingdom. We were amazed by the colors, acrobatics, and just plain fun!

No trip to Animal Kingdom is complete without Kilimanjaro Safaris - this ride, to me, is what Animal Kingdom is all about.  The Tree of Life is amazing in and of itself, though neither of my girls have been too fond of the It's Tough to be a Bug 3-D show (I think it's kinda cute!)  Kali River Rapids is great fun - but I'd only recommend this ride on a very warm day - you will get soaked! Expedition Everest was just being built on our last visit to the World, so we are very anxious to check it out in January.  Looks like fun. 

I knew that Family Fun had Kidcot stops at Animal Kingdom, but we have never really paid much attention to them (I'm not sure why, as we LOVE the passports for Future World at EPCOT).  Anyway, yesterday I found this site, and it's got me excited to try out either the Club Passport or Safari Journal.  Anyone have any experience with these?  If so, I'd love your thoughts, opinions, etc. 

Don't forget to sign the Mr. Linky so that everyone can come visit your blog!
(Remember, link us directly to your Destination Disney post, please.)

Also, be sure to check out the schedule in my right-hand side bar.
Our theme for September 5th will be COOL PHOTO.
I'm looking for ideas for next year's themes, so please e-mail me.

11 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link

Destination Disney

Welcome to the first Destination Disney week
here at Reviews by Heidi!

I don't have my button or banner ready to share with you yet
but I promise they'll be GREAT -
and you will SO want to display them on your blog!
We're sticking with the same graphic so as not to confuse anyone -
my friend Christi is working on the graphics
so I know they'll be TOP QUALITY!

Anyway, this week's already scheduled topic is
HOT PHOTOS.
So, share away!
And don't forget to sign the Mr. Linky so we can all see your fun photos!
(remember to link to your actual DD post)

I'm not sure why, but when I first saw this topic
this is the picture that came to mind:

It's Ashley on Brian's shoulders -
watching the Magical Moments Parade in 1998.

Tell all your friends about Destination Disney -
I'd love to see this meme really grow!
Thanks, Jennifer, for passing the torch!

6 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link

Just a few things I HAD to talk about.....

First, we are going to the Disney Store this afternoon to buy our tickets for our January vacation.  Rumor has it that Disney will be raising their ticket prices this weekend, so we went ahead and ordered our Disney Rewards Card (through our Visa) and, get this, we have enough to buy ALL of our tickets, except for $3 and some odd cents!  Hmmm.....I'm thinking we can afford that much!    Between now and January, we're hoping to accumulate enough points more, to be able to cover the cost of our character dinners and maybe a few other fun things!

In other Disney news - Jennifer at the Snapshot blog has decided to discontinue the Destination Disney meme.  So, GUESS WHAT?!  DESTINATION DISNEY WILL NOW BE HOSTED RIGHT HERE AT REVIEWS BY HEIDI!  I'm so excited to be able to host this very fun meme!  I hope that you will participate (even if you never have  before) and that you will help me spread the word about Destination Disney.  Hmmm.....maybe we'll even have a contest or something!  Wouldn't that be fun?

Jennifer has already created the schedule for the remainder of 2008, so we will just continue to stick to that.  Here are the topics for the upcoming weeks and months:

August 8: Photo-- Hot
August 22: Destination Disney -- Animal Kingdom
September 5: Photo -- Cool . . . .
September 19: Destination Disney -- Hollywood Studios (MGM)
October 3: Photo -- Star struck
October 17: Destination Disney -- Universal Studios
October 31: Photo -- Dressed Up
November 14: Destination Disney -- Epcot
November 28: Photo -- Thankful
December 12: Destination Disney -- A Disney Christmas
December 26: Photo -- Decked Out

Notice that once each month the topic is photo-related.  If you have photos to share, great - but please feel free to share more than just pictures.  And on the weeks that aren't photo-related, share those photos anyway, if you have them.  Basically, be creative with the themes!  I'm so anxious to see what everyone comes up with. 

If you have ideas for topic ideas and want to see this continue through 2009, please e-mail me.  I'll need your suggestions for more fun topics. 

Next week will be the first week that I'll be hosting.  Check back here for new buttons and banners that you can use to help promote Destination Disney.  I'll also  be using the "Destination Disney" category on my blog for general Disney posts - feel free to do the same on your blog!  I'll have Mr. Linky set up for our topic posts, but please feel free to leave comments anytime!

4 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link

This week, Jennifer wants to know about other activities in the Disney/Orlando area.  When we get down there, we are all about Disney, BUT we do occasionally venture out in search of other entertainment. 

It has become a bit of a tradition to stop by Old Town - it's right along the Irlo-Bronson Memorial Highway, which runs through Kissimmee.  We stayed in a hotel right across from it on one of our earliest trips. 

On our last trip, we spent our first night at the Days Inn right beside Old Town (while waiting to get into our timeshare for the remainder of our vacation).  We met up with some friends and had dinner together at Old Town and enjoyed walking around in the carnival-like atmosphere.

Another place that I had always wanted to visit was Sea World.  So, on our last trip to the area, we decided to add Sea World to our week's activities.  I must say that, compared to a Disney park, I wasn't impressed with the layout of Sea World.  Rather than being laid out in an organized manner as the Disney parks are, Sea World is much more like a maze.  I found it hard to navigate and to get from point A to point B in time to see various shows, etc.  I would definitely recommend a 2-day pass to this park if you're really wanting to see it all.

 The Shamu character is nothing like the characters at Disney either, but he certainly is cuddly and the girls enjoys snuggling up to him for a picture.

One of my favorite pictures from our last Florida trip is this one, to the left.  The  girls are watching some flamingos and other birds.  For once, they had both sat still enough to allow me to braid their hair.  That is very unual for Gracie, who never wants anything in her hair!  A rare day indeed!

Gracie is still a bit miffed at me because I actually got to touch a dolphin!  If you're interested, they feel very smooth and slippery.  One of these days, we'll have to save up enough money to go to Discovery Cove and swim with the dolphins because the girls and I are all very attracted to them!

Just a word of Sea World warning:  if you go to the Whale Show and you do not want to get wet, DO NOT SIT IN THE SOAK ZONE!  Even if your husband happens to say "oh, the water will never come up here to these top rows of the soak zone", don't believe him!  They wait 'til the  very end and bring out the biggest whale of all; and, trust me, the water will come up there and YOU WILL GET WET!  (I'm in the middle of this picture, holding Gracie who was screaming! Notice the lady a few rows in front of us in the black hat, turning around staring at us! LOL  Photo courtesy of my parents who were intelligent enough to take the signs seriously!)

We haven't tried any of the dinner theaters or other Orlando attractions, but I'm interested in reading what others have to say about them.  If you're interested to, be sure to stop by Jennifer's blog and read everyone's posts.

3 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link

Yes, I'm becoming quite adept at manuevering the DIS boards!  LOL  But after that cool stroller swap thing, I can't help myself.  Anyway, when we travel, I am always looking for things to keep the kids busy in the car.  My mom often does the gift thing - where they have a gift bag filled with little prizes to open at various intervals along the way.  That is so nice, but the gift wrap and little prizes tend to quickly clutter up the van and drive me crazy.  What I really like it to create a 3-ring binder filled with worksheets for the kids to do along the way - travel games, coloring pages, etc. 

Thanks to the DISboards, I found this.  It's a Disney Kids Travel Journal filled with so many various pages to print out for your kids to document your trip, day by day.  They also have an Adult Travel Journal, but I'd much rather leave this journaling job to Gracie!  There are Kids EPCOT Homework Pages - any homeschool mom's dream come true!  If you've got a preschooler, you'll want to check out the A,B,C Pages.  To get Ashley in on the act, I'm going to give her these Disney Trivia pages to work on.

I got a book-binding kit to review for TOS.  I think we'll put it to use in binding the Kids Travel Journal.  What a wonderful keepsake.  I was considering purchasing this, but creating our own personal journal will be so much more fun and make it totally our own.

Thinking of planning a WDW trip sometime soon?  If so, then you might want to check out this planning guide.  And, just to keep your kids safe, they've even provided Kids' ID Tags that you can download and print out (also luggage tags).

Sorry to unload all this Disney stuff on you, but this is a Disney lovers/ planner freak's dream!  LOL  Maybe you'll find something here that YOU can use too.

3 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link

My wonderful cousin, whom I dearly love, recommended that I check out the DISboards for up-to-date Disney information.  I did check them out at the time, but didn't really get involved.  However, this past Friday, something prompted me to check out the boards again, and I found something that I'm so excited about that I just had to share.....

First of all, they have a forum there called the "Budget Board" - that caught my eye, as I'm a cheapskate, always looking for a bargain.  On that board, I found a topic that had something to do with a "stroller swap".  Now, I had never heard of such a thing, but it caught my eye  because (1) our stroller is rather big and bulky and takes up a great deal of room in the back of our van (room that we could use to pack other necessities for our trip), (2) although Gracie is 8, she's not a strong walker at all and I've been worrying about her stamina in the parks, so (3) I've been considering renting a double stroller when we get to Disney, so that she can ride occasionally when she  gets worn out.  All that to say that I've discovered that double stroller rental is up to $31 per day!  (I'm ashamed to admit I thought it was like $7 a day! LOL)

Anyway, that's where these stroller swaps come in......someone puts together a group of families who will be making (almost) back-to-back visits to Disney World.  A brand new stroller is purchased, each family involved pays $10-15 dollars, and we've got a stroller to use for our vacation.  The only thing we have to do is make arrangements with the families both before and after us in line, as to where to pick up and drop off the stroller, etc.  I've been in touch with both families already and they both seem very accomodating.  So, I'm really looking forward to this, as it'll solve all of our stroller/vacation problems and it'll be a great price!

0 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link

This week's Destination Disney theme is "Wow!" photos.  We have so many Wow! moments when we are at Disney World, that it's so hard to narrow this one down.  Here are a few things that continually make us say "Wow!" at Disney World:

 SPACESHIP EARTH at EPCOT~
this thing just amazes me for it's size alone!
It's an 18-story geosphere and took some major planning!

The TREE OF LIFE at ANIMAL KINGDOM~
this thing is a major Wow!
You just have to stand and stare at it for awhile to take it all in!

The LEGO DRAGON at DOWNTOWN DISNEY~
if you have a Lego-lover in your family, this thing
(along with all the other cool Lego structures)
is a must see!

And a major Wow! for me is the Disney gardening!
These character topiaries amaze me every time!
I want some in my flower beds at home!

To see other Wow! moments from Disney,
check out Jennifer's Snapshot blog.

7 Thoughts Shared Share Your Thoughts Share Link