DL: World of Color

This week Disneyland is rolling out the much anticipated World of Color. This morning Good Morning America featured a quick behind the scenes look at the show.


The Wall Street Journal also published an interesting piece on Disney's hope that the World of Color, along with other upcoming attractions, will help to revitalize California Adventure. Interesting read on the usage of the park and long term plans for the Disneyland Resort.

On a side note, the folks over at Touring Plans are running around Disneyland Paris right now. Give them a follow on Twitter to read the lastest of what they're finding.

Searching for Hidden Mickey Pins!

So one of our family pre-Disney World traditions happened tonight-- the arrival of our Disney Pin Trading inventory we ordered off of eBay.

For those of you that haven't heard of Disney pin trading, it's yet another activity to help make Disney Parks enjoyable. Basically you buy a few trading pins at a Disney merchandise location. Once you've got your starter pack, you then walk around the parks and resorts in search of Cast Members wearing similar pins and lanyards. Simply walk up to the Cast Member and ask them to trade one of your pins for a pin of their's you like. It's a simple, fun experience for all ages.

After sorting through all of the pins we pulled out a few of the Cast Lanyard pins we've been collecting over the past few years for the boys. Cast Lanyard pins are special pins you can't buy in the store, but have to trade with a Cast Member to receive. Many have small mickey ears (aka hidden mickey's) on the pin face to help indicate their special status.

Jon's Cast Lanyard Collection

Trey's Cast Lanyard Collection

We're hoping to complete a few of these collections during our trip in August and perhaps find a few new collections to start searching out.

Of course, in addition to the Cast Lanyard/Hidden Mickey collection the boys are stocked with other pins. Here is a sampling of other pins they've collected through the years.

Our Latest Disney DVD

So this weekend we went out and bought our latest DVD-- Disney Parks: The Secrets, Stories and Magic Behind the Scenes.

This box set is an interesting concept-- six DVD's telling stories of the Disney World and Disneyland Resorts on land and the Disney Cruise Line at sea. Mixed in are a few shows about the attractions at the resorts that do not take place inside the theme parks themselves and special VIP (re: more $$$) opportunities.

So far we've watched four of the six DVD's (only Animal Kingdom and Ultimate Walt Disney World remain) and have noticed that the spots are essentially the Disney shows you often see on the Travel Channel. That by no means doesn't mean that aren't good, it just means we no longer have to waste DVR space whenever the shows come on!

Despite having seen several of the spots in the past and being massive Disney fanatics, we still found lots of great information in each DVD. Disney history, tips to various attractions and special tours of VIP locations like Cinderella's suite all make this series a great buy for a relatively cheap price.

So, our family recommends that our fellow Disney Parks fanatics pick this up. At a minimum, you'll have several shows to turn to during thise disney withdrawl days.

Re-Boot: The Lighter Side of Life

After bouncing around between sports, politics, family and Disney post I've decided to give the blog a bit of a re-boot. Title has been changed to Disney Family Man and the vast majority of posts will relate to my two favortie topics-- Disney and family.

I've updated the blog/link roll on the right to point you towards some of my favorite Disney related sites. Will add more in the coming days.

For the few of you who care about my political work, I am pondering posting on a new multi-user blog on that topic. Will point you there when the time comes.