A little magic came in the mail today...

First things first, happy Thanksgiving to all and happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate it as well! I'm glad to announce that I will NOT be at work tonight for the first time in four years. I'm still working my fourth Black Friday but it's a normal day shift and not the middle of the night, crazy shift. I actually really like those crazy shifts but it just wasn't in the cards this year... and I'm glad for it!

Indeed it will be.

I did some minor traveling for Thanksgiving (30 minutes across town but whatever) and spent the night so I wasn't here yesterday to see this little package delivered at my door. From poking around on the Internet, I knew what would be inside so I pretty much tore through it until I got to the center. In the meantime, here's what the package consists of.

Ignore my funky nails in the next few photos. I usually don't let them get this chipped and ugly...

First things first, you unwrap your mystery box and are met with a holographic Mickey... ooooh... ahhh....

Last name blurred for privacy, clearly.

I just love this, it's so cute. I'm also a sucker for anything personalized. While I'm on the topic of personalizing and last names, everything we are getting in the mail says "The [MyLastName] Family/Party" and it always throws me off since obviously Tristan and I have different last names. It's a really weird thing to be picky about, but I wish somehow I could change it to his last name as I don't associate him with my last name AT ALL. There's a pretty good chance we'll be "the [HisLastName] family" some day anyway. Well, whatever. Not a big deal.

This trip we are staying value, at All-Star Sports.

The first thing in the box is the little booklet filled with information for you. It has your reservation confirmation number, resort, package type, arrival date and the booklet features all kinds of information about Magic Bands, MyMagic+, and your resort.

Most of the booklet I just skimmed through. It probably would only be really useful if we a) had never been to the park before and knew minimal information about what we were going to see and b) if we were actually using Fastpass+. Again, we are using Magic Bands but as a CM, we can't link our tickets to My Disney Experience... therefore, no Fastpass+. Bummer.

The thing I did love about the booklet was the information about the resort. Likely because I've never stayed at All-Star Sports before. Tristan has stayed at a variety of resorts from value to moderate and I've only ever stayed value (please, I'm not spending a buttload of money on a room where I'm only going to sleep and shower, nothing else) at Pop Century. We absolutely love Pop Century but since our trip was last minute, the only value open for our stay was the All-Stars. We chose Sports. I'm excited because I've never stayed there before, though I know it's not all that different from the others. Don't squash my excitement. :)

The magnet in the back of the book.

Another favorite part is this little magnet you can peel off the back of your booklet with your vacation date. Mine is happily stuck to my refrigerator as I type.

The most exciting part of the box by far.

At the bottom of the box lies your Mickey Mouse USB. Plug it into your computer for it to take you to My Disney Experience and show you two videos introducing you to MyMagic+. I was excited to watch but quickly lost that excitement when I realized it was the same video from the e-mail I received about using MyMagic+ in the first place. There's two videos but the other one is about Fastpass+ and so I didn't watch it as it was useless to me.

The Mickey USB is really cute anyway. It lights up green when you plug it in.

 

 

The other thing we ordered pretty much instantly after booking our trip was our customized maps. Tristan and I worked on them together and were pretty excited about receiving them a couple of weeks ago.

Customized maps highlight your party's favorite attractions at each park!

Making the map was fun because Tristan and I got to share and talk about all of our must-dos and favorite things to see. You can choose to print them at home or you can have them mailed to you. The website warned that our maps may not come in time for our vacation (we ordered late October for a January vacation) but I think that's just a way to trick you into printing at home instead. We got ours with plenty of time to spare (early November.)

There it is, our little All-Star Sports!

The maps also come with a small sticker sheet in case you want to add any other must-see attractions. The star that says "My Resort" is meant for the big map with all of Disney World on it (which you get along with individual maps for each park.) There's our little guy... I think Tristan tried to place it perfectly over the star but missed?

We are 39 days out from our trip today. We should have done our 40-day activity yesterday but were both too busy with the holiday so I'm postponing it a bit. I'm fully expecting the month to fly by with finals, Christmas and the busy retail season at the Disney Store. I'm not sure if I want it to slow down a bit or come by faster. Hopefully time slows down a little at least while we're there.

Happy thanksgiving from us!

-Mari

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A Day at the Magic Kingdom in the 90s.

My first trip to Walt Disney World was in 1994, if you don't count the time my mother was pregnant with me and she went with my sister and father in 1991 (I don't count it, although we speculate that this is the reason why I'm obsessed with Disney in the first place.)

Anyway, I used to watch this VHS tape called "A Day in the Magic Kingdom" as a child ALL. THE. TIME. I would watch the whole thing, rewind it, then play it and watch it again. You'd think it was an actual Disney movie, I watched it so much.

 

I still have the VHS somewhere in this house as I remember finding it last year and trying to convince Tristan to watch it with me (he wouldn't) but now I can't find it again. I had an itching to watch it again for the first time in several years so I found it on YouTube. Isn't the internet amazing?

I've linked the video here so you can watch if you want to feel nostalgic!

I think I'll force Tristan to watch it with me as a part of our Days till Disney countdown. : )

Good night!

-Mari

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Oh no!

After writing our lists yesterday, I was informed that there is no longer a parade at Hollywood Studios. I had never seen a parade there anyway, but it was on Tristan's "must-do" list. Neither of us have been back since 2012, so I guess a lot has changed in the year we were away!

Rest in peace, Pixar parade. Is this even the correct parade? I wouldn't know, I've never seen it.

Learning this made me go check out what else is going to be gone or closed when we get there in January.

A bit of research told me that Splash Mountain, the Studio Backlot Tour and the Festival of the Lion King show are going to be closed when we get there.

Sorry I'm not sorry, Splash Mountain.

Splash Mountain isn't a big deal to me because every time I ride it, I worry about getting wet anyway. This is just a good way to avoid it entirely (though Tristan may not think so.)

I actually do really like the Backlot tour because of the exhibit and behind-the-scenes look.
But it's a little long and we won't have a lot of time anyway - so a blessing in disguise!

The Backlot Tour is another "eh" for me just because I told Tristan I would like to ride it, but it's not a necessity.

NOOOOOOO!!!!

The Festival of the Lion King being closed is super sad for me, though! One of the first things I ever told Tristan while we were dating was that I hated, hated, HATED Finding Nemo: the Musical and much preferred Festival of the Lion King. I thought he was going to stop the car and order me to get out! Haha. Nemo is probably Tristan's favorite attraction in all of Disney, so we have debated the issue constantly ever since.

So since Festival of the Lion King is sort of my "thing" at this point, I'm feeling sad that it's going to be closed. Does anybody know what's happening there, by the way? I heard it's going to be closed for up to six months. I'm slightly concerned that they're just saying it's temporary and it's actually closing for good but I can't imagine why. Anyone have any info?

On a random note, Casey's will be closed too. There goes my tradition of getting a hot dog on every trip.

In the end, we're going to have a magical trip no matter what! I'm not going to get too torn up about some things closing, as it could be worse. I'm just excited to experience the whole thing together for the first time!

Have a magical day!

-Mari

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Our "must-do" list at 44 days until Disney...

Tristan and I had some free time today so we sat down to make our "must-do" list. My family does this every time we go and it kind of prioritizes our ride choices for us. So I decided to try it with Tristan since we both have different favorite things to do at each park.

The rule is, pick your top three rides/experiences at each park. The other person MUST abide to the top 3 list of the other person and we must ride/see everything on both lists- unless something crazy happens like it's closed or something of that sort. Though I've never had a problem completing a list before and I've done this in groups of five.

We also finalized our plans for each day that we will be there.

So now... to share the lists!

Things We Must Do at Disney

Park	Mari	Tristan
Magic Kingdom (3)	·  It’s a Small World ·  Haunted Mansion ·  Philharmagic	·  Electrical Street Parade ·  Haunted Mansion ·  Space Mountain
Animal Kingdom (3)	·  Expedition Everest ·  DINOSAUR ·  Conservation Station	·  Nemo ·  Expedition Everest ·  DINOSAUR
Hollywood Studios (3)	·                Tower of Terror ·                Beauty and the Beast ·                Great Movie Ride	·        Fantasmic ·        Parade ·      Toy Story Mania
Epcot (3)	·           Pick A Pearl ·           Soarin’ ·           Miyuki the Candy Lady	·           A significant amount of time eating at World Showcase ·          Test track ·          3 caballeros ride
Downtown Disney (2)	World of Disney Cute princess villain couture shop (I forget the name...)	Characters in Flight Vinylmation store

Day 1:

Fly in. Go to Downtown Disney.

Day 2:

Hollywood Studios in morning.

Epcot for the rest of the day.

Day 3:

Animal Kingdom in the morning.

Hollywood Studios in the evening.

Day 4:

Magic Kingdom all day.

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My obsession with Duffy the Disney bear.

Duffy is my most favorite Disney character interaction in the world. Every time I've met him has been a really cute experience! He's so soft and cuddly and with all the outfit options, what's not to love?

I think I recall my first time seeing Duffy merchandise in about, oh, late 2010 perhaps? I went to Disney on a trip with my parents and remember seeing Duffy's face plastered on advertisements inside the Disney buses. My mom pointed him out to me and told me he had a cute face, and I basically scoffed and said it was a dumb way to try for Disney to try and make even more money.

Well, I'm a complete sucker apparently because about a year later when my sister, brother-in-law and parents went back to Disney, I ordered Duffy on DisneyStore.com in preparation for the trip. He's $30 for the bear and at the time they had a promotion: if you purchased a Duffy bear, you got two outfits for half off. Add in my cast member discount and I had a Duffy in my mail mere weeks later.

My first Disney trip with Duffy, 2012. I purchased his standard sailor outfit to go with

I fell victim to Disney's marketing scheme! But I don't regret it for a minute even to this day. He is really soft and is a great companion for any Disney trip. Duffy is intended to be a travel teddy, so if I was five years old I'd probably take him on overnight stays and other non-Disney vacations. However, I'm not five years old and I don't really want to be judged so he only goes to Disney with me.

Prior to buying my Duffy, I did a lot of research on the Internet and found that Duffy was originally introduced to the parks much earlier than 2010 but he was not quite as successful. He really gained popularity in Japan, though, as the Japanese tend to love cute little fluffy things. Grown men, women and children alike carry Duffy at Tokyo DisneySea and some even create homemade outfits for their Duffys. Duffy even has a girlfriend in Japan and her name is Shellie May!

The other outfit I purchased for Duffy. It also fits my chihuahua, but that's a different story.

Duffy has an elaborate back story to him that I have now told to numerous small children who come into the Disney Store and spy this unfamiliar little bear sitting among their favorite Disney characters.

Basically, Mickey is a sea captain preparing to leave for a voyage. Minnie is gonna miss Mickey so she makes him a teddy bear and "sews her love into the teddy" so that Mickey doesn't feel homesick. Mickey and Duffy go on lots of fun adventures. Blah, blah, blah. That's the long story made short. Even shorter: Duffy is Mickey's teddy bear.

I loved my teddy and thought he was adorable, but the thing that really made me love Duffy was my first character interaction with him.

Big Duffy was amazed at little Duffy. He looked at little Duffy, then looked at himself, then at little Duffy again and gestured to himself in surprise. He seemed startled to find a mini version of himself in front of him. It was just adorable. I think big Duffy let me kiss his nose, too. I don't know, but it sealed the deal for me. I was smitten by how cute he was.

Meeting Duffy in Disneyland in 2012.

My Disneyland interaction with Duffy wasn't quite as adorable as my WDW one, but it was still good. I waited in line for, like, 30 minutes to meet him. The photographer could sense how excited I was and told Duffy I was his biggest fan. And since Duffy doesn't sign autograph books, I got a "I hugged Duffy" sticker that I still have to this day.

Basically, I'm a huge nerd when it comes to Disney and character interactions in general. I turn into a small child, starstruck and nervous to meet my favorite characters. It's really weird, but whatever- I guess that's the magic of Disney, turning into a kid again.

Carrying a Duffy around instantly makes you look younger than you are. I already look young but when I carried Duffy into the airport on the way back from one trip, the lady who checked my parent's IDs skipped over me. My dad asked, "Um, don't you need to check her ID?" The lady peered at me and I was there, clutching my Duffy bear. She says in that sweet little voice that you use to speak to little kids, "How old are you, sweetie?" I responded, "Twenty." I swear to God, her tone of voice changed instantly and became immediately deeper as she informed me that she did need to check my ID.

Maybe I'm getting too old for this.

Duffy in his 3rd and final outfit, decked out for Disneyland.
I refuse to buy any more clothes for this creature.

So in late 2012 after my Disneyland trip, my sister called me up and told me she and my brother-in-law would be in Japan on business. During their time there, they wanted to visit Tokyo DisneySea and she wanted to know if there was anything I wanted. I immediately told her I wanted a Shellie May, otherwise known as Duffy's girlfriend. I wanted something small, like a keychain, because I didn't want her to spend a lot of money on me.

I mean, I was thinking something more like this size.

But my sister, being the glorious human that she is, decided that I needed a Shellie May that would go perfectly with my Duffy bear. So she toured Tokyo DisneySea with a new companion...

...and returned to the United States with a surprise for me.

I was very excited, so I took lots of pictures of my new addition.

And that's how Shellie May joined the family!

It's been about a year and my latest addition to my collection is the Disney Store's large core Duffy, who was originally $40, but I snagged him on clearance for $20. I hope to collect the tiny $10 version of him eventually also, but that'll just have to wait. DisneyStore.com also sells a hand puppet version of Duffy which I have to fight myself on buying- I think he'd be really cute for the kindergarten or 1st grade classroom, which is my excuse for wanting him. : )

The collection currently... much too small.

I plan to take both Duffy and Shellie May with me to Disney World this January, but I doubt I'll be willing to carry them both to all four parks. I may switch a bear a day or not take them to certain parks at all- but I do definitely want to take both of them to Epcot to meet the real Duffy.

Have a magical night!

-Mari

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45 days until Disney!

One of my absolute favorite little tidbits about the new My Disney Experience web site is the glorious little countdown that appears whenever you log on to make changes to your itinerary.

 

It makes counting down fun and every time the number goes down, Tristan and I get a little more excited than before. 45 days will fly by like nothing, especially with how busy the holidays get, but it still seems like it can't come soon enough!

I saw on another blog recently a cute post about 100 Days of Disney Activities to do as a countdown activity. It had a ton of really sweet ideas for counting down each day with a child.

I really wanted to do something similar to this with Tristan, although he's not a pint-sized child. I still thought that he'd enjoy it as I know he's just as excited about this trip as I am.

But we didn't have 100 days to count and frankly we are both far too busy to do a Disney-related activity every single day- finals are looming, we both work crazy schedules and it's just gonna get busier as our trip comes closer.

So I wanted to do something every 10th day, and as it gets closer, every 5th day. We're at 45 today and my first little surprise for Tristan was five days ago, on the 50th day.

Tristan got up at 3:30 a.m.to go to work as usual on the 50th day, so when I woke up I was alone in the house. I knew he'd be home soon so I scrambled for some paper and wrote him a cute note letting him know it was the 50th day until the trip and to mark the occasion, I'd write 50 things I was excited to do at Disney together. When I finished the list, I put it somewhere I just knew he would find it - taped to the front of the television.

I don't have the whole list with me because after he read it, Tristan decided to keep it in his wallet (yes- I saw it there, babe, and you're adorable!) But it was filled with a couple of generic things:

• Kiss in front of Cinderella Castle.
• Eat Mickey Mouse ice cream bars.
• Share a giant turkey leg!

 A couple of the things are more personalized to our vacation.

• Be there for your first time on Soarin'.

 I almost fell out of my chair when I found out Tristan has never been on Soarin' before in all of his time at Disney. He said the line has always been too long. He's also never been on the monorail, as I found out after writing the list. So I'm excited to be with him as he experiences these two important Disney World must-dos for the first time.

• See the opening ceremony at Magic Kingdom together.

Tristan is borderline obsessed with the opening ceremony. I think he has emotional attachment to it as his mother cried when she saw it for the first time on their last trip. Plus, the opening ceremony is the best of all the parks IMO.

Credit to coastergallery.com.

• Be on the airplane together.

Tristan really adores airports. I'm more of a "let's hurry up and get there" person myself, but his excitement just to be at the airport together is rubbing off on me.

Credit to disneyfoodblog.com.

• Drink at Epcot. 

Well, this one is more for me though Tristan wants to as well. This will be my first time at Disney since I've turned 21. I don't want to drink around the world because I'm picky and frankly I'd pass out by the third land, but I'm still wanting to mark the occasion properly.

Ordered from DisneyStore.com.

Other things I'm excited for including wearing our matching shirts and seeing New Fantasyland of course! I'm pumped to see the new Beauty and the Beast-themed area because that is my favorite Disney movie. I'm dying to see the inside of Be Our Guest- we couldn't get reservations with our trip just around the corner, but we are going to try and go for lunch. I'm also pumped to meet Gaston.

My, what a guy, that Gaston!

Anyway, so as I said today is the 45th day out. Because we're both busy today, we didn't really get to see each other much less do an activity. So our next celebration will have to be in five days on the 30th day out. I'll let you know what I decide to do to celebrate. :)

Have a magical day!

-Mari

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Pick a Pearl at Epcot.

Thanks to allears.net for the photo!

My favorite pavilion at Epcot is the Japan pavilion. As a little girl, I was obsessed with Japanese culture and pop culture and it soon became a tradition that every time I visited Mitsukoshi, the large department store located in the pavilion, I had to buy something. I've purchased flowery hair accessories and a kitty bowl in the past. This visit, I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

While visiting in the past, I've always been mesmerized by those guests who have chosen their own oysters and had them opened to reveal pearls inside! I've always wanted to do this and now it seems I have a reason to!

Last Christmas, Tristan bought me this beautiful pearl ring from James Avery as a present. It is perfect for me because pearls are my favorite. I have pearl earrings, pearl necklaces, pearl bracelets, etc.

So it seems wonderfully fitting and romantic that when we visit Mitsukoshi in January, Tristan will pick out the oyster (and therefore the pearl) that I will have put into a new necklace. I have told him that he should pick whichever oyster he wants, though I did hint that plenty of people say to pick the ugliest and hairiest oyster there is for a bigger pearl! Who knows if there is any truth to that myth, but just about anything will make me happy. Several bloggers write about their fortune to find silver or black pearls but I'm really crossing my fingers for white, pinkish, whatever- anything but silver or black! Because then it won't match my ring much (but I'll be happy anyway.)

Lots of people purchase cage necklaces for their pearls before going to Disney to save a bit of money. Five dollars spent on eBay is much nicer than the price tag at Disney, I'm sure! Following suit, Tristan and I have decided on and will be ordering this Cinderella cage necklace to take on our trip so that I can use it immediately after choosing a pearl. I'm hoping it's small/discreet enough to wear in every day life once we get back as that is sort of the point, but nobody who knows me would be too surprised to see me wearing it anyway.

This is a part of the trip that I am extra excited about! I've been watching YouTube videos about the process just to keep me hyped up. This one is my favorite. :)

 

That's all for tonight. Have a magical day!

-Mari

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Walt Disney World 2014.

So as two people who worked for the company for several years, Tristan and I have both taken our fair share of Disney World trips...

Here's Tristan with his mom and brothers on his last Disney trip!

Me posing with Ariel on my last Disney (World) trip.

Though we both have been plenty of times, we have never actually gone together as a couple. In the middle of October, Southwest Airlines had some $99 flights out to Orlando and Tristan and I threw together a spur of the moment, four-day trip to our favorite place on Earth, Walt Disney World!

Currently we are 45 days out from our trip, scheduled January 7th through the 11th. We are sooo super excited! We will be testing out the new Magic Bands as apart of our visit, but sadly we don't get to participate in Fastpass+ because cast members are excluded from the testing process currently. Boo!

The customizing of my Magic Band. Pink, of course! Tristan's is blue. We're basically Aurora.

We have ordered customized maps, bought matching shirts and are budgeting accordingly. We plan to fly in on Tuesday and do Magic Kingdom or Downtown Disney the first night, Epcot the next day, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios the third day and end with Magic Kingdom on the last day.

-Mari

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A little about the princess.

I don't know who on Earth is interested enough in my pixie-dust-filled life to come read, but just in case... Welcome to the new blog.

The reason for this is that I've been blogging pretty much since I was twelve. No kidding, do you remember Xanga? I've been using Tumblr for the past five years and while I love it and will continue to use it, it's more of a shrine to Disney pictures, movies and songs than it is a real blog. And I really do love blogging, so I've moved to a more text-friendly web site for text posts.

 

So welcome! This is me and my name is Mari, a self-described "exceptionally average 21 year old girl who works as a Disney Store cast member for her weekly dose of pixie dust and gas money." It really doesn't get much more simple than that!

There are three major aspects to my life that anybody who knows me should be aware of: I care deeply about my education and am currently a college senior, embracing my role as a teacher-in-training. I have loved Disney since birth and am currently working as a cast member at my local Disney Store. And I am deeply in love (and planning our first couples trip to Disney World) with my real life Prince Charming.

 

(I didn't have a picture of me at school or as a teacher, so have a Disneyland picture instead!)

As I said, I am a college senior and am mere months away from graduating. I am majoring in Education and hope to have my certification to teach early childhood-6th grade very soon. I'll spend the spring semester student teaching and am eagerly awaiting to see what grade I'll be working with! Working with children is a dream come true every day!

I've spent the last three years working at the Disney Store and I honestly feel like I'm living the dream. I don't know anybody who loves their job quite as much as I do. I've been a Disney lover since birth (might as well have been born wearing Mickey ears) and it was always a lifelong dream to work for the company. As it wasn't efficient to go work at the parks while trying to quickly get through college, I ended up at the Disney Store instead. As a result, all of my college friends know me as "that girl who works at the Disney Store." I've had pure strangers come up to me to seek vacation advice. Long story short, my job is fun and beautiful and perfect in every way.

And finally, my prince! Tristan and I met opening a new Disney Store in our city in 2011. We ran into each other periodically and talked on the phone a bit until we reunited a year later in 2012. We've been dating ever since. He doesn't work for Disney anymore, while I still do. He works at Starbucks currently while attending school to become a math teacher- which means one day we'll get summers off at the same time and presently I get lots of free coffee. Yay!

And that's just about all there is.

I'm hoping this blog will chronicle those three things- my adventures working for Disney, my adventures planning my Walt Disney World trip with Tristan this upcoming January and my journey to becoming a full-fledged teacher.

Thanks for reading!

-Mari

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