Wally World Tips and Tricks -- part two

We're talking Walt Disney World in Florida here, not Wal-Mart . . . though I do have some suggestions how to survive the trip to that particular Wally World and it usually involves copious amounts of adult beverages, or going there when the rest of the world is asleep.

So if you bought the Unofficial Guide to Walt Disney World and cracked open the pages, you should be totally overwhelmed right about now.

Break it down.

• If you already have your trip scheduled don't bother to look at the section that talks about planning your trip
• If you have a hotel, then don't bother looking at the hotels section right now.
• If you aren't going to visit Universal or SeaWorld, skip those sections
• Only read the sections that pertain to you and your family

There are a few things I can guarantee: it will be HOT, HUMID, CROWDED, and YOU WILL WALK MORE THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT YOU COULD EVER WALK. Get used to the concept before you read any more.

Again, I'll reiterate, if you stay on WDW property, you will have access to their transportation: Bus, boats, or monorails. Or a car if you rented or drove one.

If you are staying off site, you will have to drive to each park.

For the most part, there are advantages/disadvantages with each hotel in relation to the various parks.
Just to clarify, WDW has FOUR parks: Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and Epcot, while Universal has TWO: Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios.

Universal is simple in the fact that if you drive to the park, you must park in their parking garage and walk through City Walk to the entrances of both parks, roughly 1/2 mile or more, depending where you parked. IMO: Islands of Adventure is slightly closer to the car park than the Studios. BUT if you are staying onsite at one of their hotels, you must travel by boat, rickshaw, or foot to the parks. The boats run on a schedule, which means if you missed one, you might have a 10-15 minute wait for the next boat.

The two Universal parks are very close to each other, only a 5-10 minute walk. Yes, we've park hopped many, many times.

In WDW, the parks are quite a distance from the other parks--with the exception of Magic Kingdom and Epcot. You can go back and forth, provided you have a park hopper pass, simply by climbing on the Monorail.

This is where the location of your onsite hotel plays a big role. A few examples:

• If you stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, you can walk to the Animal Kingdom park.
• If you stay at Wilderness Lodge, you can take a boat across Bay Lake to the park . . . or ride a bus
• If you stay at the Yacht and Beach Club, you can walk to the back entrance of Epcot, AND you can take a boat to Hollywood Studios.

BUT there are some disadvantages to using WDW transportation system.

• If you miss the boat or bus, or whatever, you might have to wait 10-20 minutes for the next one.
• Depending on your hotel, the transportation might have to stop one or more times to pick up visitors from other hotels. The same is true when you return from a park.
• The boats are slow. Yes, it's fun, but be aware that these are not speed boats, and must go slowly to their destinations.
• If you decide to 'beat the rush' after the fireworks and hurry to catch the bus, realize that many times they STOP transporting visitors and will wait until AFTER the show to even board the buses. Yes, you can see them waiting across the parking lot, while you are hot, sweaty and cranky and would kill for a little AC.
• Bay Lake has a little electric light show almost nightly. If you happen to take your boat home at that time, be prepared to wait.

Which is why we tend to drive our rental car to the Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Sometimes we'll take the transportation, but you have to be mentally prepared for the waits. Parking at the Magic Kingdom is at the Ticket and Transportation center, and you will have the option of taking the Monorail, bus, or paddleboat to the Magic Kingdom entrance. Epcot is drivable, but you do have to walk through Future World to get to the countries in the back of Epcot.

It all depends on your particular vacation agenda.

There are a few things that you should prepare for, and I've already mentioned them at the beginning of this blog:

• It's hot and humid-- if you are in Florida in the summer, plan to be hot and sweaty. If you come from a cooler climate, then you need to start sitting in a sauna to get used to the heat.
• It's crowded -- it used to be less crowded during the offseason, or shoulder season, but too many visitors are taking advantage of Disney deals to fill up their hotels during the slow months. Anymore, there aren't any slow months. Just be aware that you will be up close and personal with people who aren't your immediate family. Wear your deodorant.
• Walking -- you will be walking miles and miles . . . and miles! One day we park hopped three parks and walked close to 20 miles! Do yourself and your family a favor and start walking at home. One--you need to get used to the exercise, two--you need to break your shoes in. I will never understand people who wear flip-flops to an amusement park, but some people have to after they wore brand new sneakers to a park and ended up with feet covered in blisters. Make the little ones walk, too. Strollers must be parked, and the kids need to learn to walk to get on the particular ride. Unless you enjoy carting a 30 pounds of a hot, sweaty and wiggly child, then make them walk!
• Keep hydrated -- again, it's hot and humid, drink plenty of water.  
• Bring lots of $$ -- drinks and snacks are expensive in the parks. It's a fact. Get used to the idea. If you decide to do their meal deals, it's up to you to calculate whether or not it is advantageous for your family's needs.
• Go early to the parks -- I know you're on vacation and want to sleep in, but going early will beat the heat and some of the crowds. After the first wave of crowds hit the turnstiles, it will calm down until late morning when the rest of the hotel guests will roll out of bed to join you.

That's it for today. The next few blogs will focus on the various parks.

And yes, I did make a spreadsheet of the various rides for when the kidlet was little. The spreadsheet had the height requirements, and whether or not it was a dark ride, or a rollercoaster, and if water was involved (for me. I don't like getting wet.).

Planning and an awareness of the rides helps you to decide if it is something you want to do or not.

Later, Peeps!

The Art of Makeup

My daughter is going into the seventh grade this year. She's twelve, soon to be turning sixteen . . . in her mind only. Trust me, she's already planning on the car she wants to drive. Yep, we periodically burst that little fantasy bubble of hers.

So, of course, she wants to wear makeup.

I rarely wear makeup.

Even those of you who remember me from high school realize I wore only a little makeup: mascara, blush, lipstick and maybe some loose powder.

Me 2012

My mom @ 1938/1939

Now the only time I put any on is if we're going to a fancy restaurant, church, or out for a special occasion. And I usually only use a little blush, mascara, and some lipstick/gloss.

Even this picture of me was taken without any makeup, with the exception of colored lip gloss.

My mom never wore makeup--actually, she never needed it--so I never really got into the habit of wearing it.

Dang! I never realized how similar our features are until I put these two pictures side-by-side!


So how do I teach my daughter to use makeup to enhance her natural beauty and not to cover it up?

Luckily, the kidlet goes to a private Catholic school and it has a makeup policy in the dress code for the school. This section is actually taken directly out of the dress code for the school.

Young women 6th grade through 12th grade may use make-up sparingly, keeping in mind that its use is to accentuate that which nature has intended, not to change it. The administration has the right to deem the appropriate use of make-up.

The kidlet had two requests this summer:

• she wanted her legs waxed
• she wanted her eyebrows plucked.

Well, a month ago, I bought some Sally Hanson wax strips and went to town on her legs . . . we ran out of strips before I finished the first leg.

She decided to wait on the waxing . . .  *bwahahahaha*  I can't imagine why??

And just last week, I became a professional eyebrow plucker.

I was going to take her into the mall where they 'thread' the hair from eyebrows, but decided I didn't want anyone to over thread her brows. I still have memories of when one of my sisters was a younger, she was,  shall I say, overzealous in her plucking. Over time, hair will not grow back when you keep ripping it out by the follicles! And as we age, it becomes lighter

So I got my really good Tweezerman tweezers and went to work on her brows. She had a few stragglers under her brow, but the problem was an odd, and out of place, patch above her brow line over each eye. I worked on it off and on for a couple of days until we perfected her brows.

But then there was a natural 'hole' in her finished brow.

No, I didn't over tweeze it. It's just a weird patch. I didn't want to over pluck it to get rid of the hole, so I introduced her to an eyebrow pencil.

She wanted to take it from me.

Sorry, sister, it's MINE!

We accomplished her two goals this summer, though neither one was quite the way she envisioned it.

Slowly, but surely, I'm teaching her that:

 The art of wearing makeup is to not look like you are wearing any at all.  

Later, Peeps!

Foodie Friday -- Monkey Bread

I've been wanting to make Monkey Bread for a long time, but I've always been missing the key ingredient--Biscuits.

I never buy biscuits, but when I do, I buy the expensive, overly large, flaky ones. You don't need those biscuits for this recipe. Any old cheap cans will work quite well.

And if you trust your kid with a knife, this is the perfect recipe for them to bake.

Monkey Bread

4 cans biscuits

1 cup sugar

1 Tbls cinnamon, or more

2 sticks butter (16 oz)

½ cup brown sugar 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 

Prepare tube pan by coating inside of pan with vegetable spray (Pam).

Place sugar and cinnamon into resealable plastic bag (Ziploc). Shake to mix. Set aside.

Place butter and brown sugar in heavy saucepan.  Turn on low to melt butter.

Open two cans of biscuits, separate biscuits and cut into quarters. Place cut pieces into bag, seal and shake bag to coat each piece of dough. Shake excess sugar off dough pieces and evenly place into prepared pan.

Repeat above with remaining biscuits. I added about another teaspoon of cinnamon to the mixture before tossing the biscuit pieces. 

Turn up heat on sugar/butter mixture on stove. Boil 2-3 minutes, until foamy. Immediately pour over dough.

Place pan in oven and bake for 30 minutes.  When brown, remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes. Place large plate over top of pan and flip over to remove monkey bread . . . allowing ooey-gooey goodness to roll down the sides of bread.

Rip apart and devour.

Hints & Suggestions:

·        Find the cheapest cans of biscuits you can. They don’t need to look pretty if you’re cutting them into quarters.

·        I used a pretty Bundt pan instead of a boring old tube pan.

·        I added more cinnamon to the sugar before tossing the second batch of cut biscuits because the previous biscuits had removed almost all the cinnamon.

·        If you need to bake longer, then do, but you risk the ‘sauce’ caramelizing and burning in the bottom of the pan.

·        I didn’t have a plate large enough to place over the Bundt pan, so I used a Christmas tray. J

Enjoy!

Later, Peeps!

 

 

 

Wally World Tips and Tricks--part one

I drafted this blog last summer as soon as we returned from Florida, but I never got around to posting it . . .  probably because I never wrote part two! I'll work on part two this weekend and post it next week some time. Hope this helps!

So you are planning to go to Walt Disney World (WDW)? Or Universal Florida (UF)?

Then you better be prepared with more than a wallet stuffed full of money!

I have so much information to share that this might take more than one blog to do it in. In the past, I've shared a few 'must do' secrets, but if you have to go to these parks smack dab in the busy season, then you really need to follow my tips and tricks.

If you have never been to these parks, the first thing you need to do is go out and buy the UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO WALT DISNEY WORLD. No, I am not associated with this book, nor I do not get any financial recompense for recommending this book. It's just a good book that CRAMS loads of information on every page. And I highly recommend you start reading this book 6-8 months PRIOR to your vacation. Yes, there is that much information to be had. The last version that I bought--2007--is about 2-inches thick with tiny font, plus it had added information about Universal Studios. I don't know if the newer books provide that information.

I'll tell you up front--the book is overwhelming--true, there's tons of information, but you have to sift through the words to find what's important for you and your family.

AND this will change as your family becomes older and your preferences change. For example: going to these parks with little kids is totally different than going to them with pre-teens.

Before you even contemplate going to either one of these parks, see if you can pull your kid from school to hit the parks during 'shoulder season'. Shoulder season is off season, usually when the kiddos are in school, but the windows of time are narrowing. The key thing to remember is that the crowds are lighter, the lines aren't as long, the temperature cooler, and it might be just a little bit cheaper.

Getting there--this last year, we drove. It was it's own adventure reminiscent of the road trip I took in my youth. Kids have it so easy now with electronic gadgets and gizmos, while I had to play I SPY or read while I was that age.

Driving was fun, but time-consuming and boring. I don't know if hubby crunched the numbers, but with the added gasoline/hotel/meals I don't know if we saved any money driving vs. flying, or not. Part of the reason we drove was so the kidlet could go to the beach. We went to two different beaches, so that part was worth it.

In the past when we flew, we would board a plane at 5-6 AM, arrive in Atlanta at 2.5 hours, board another flight to Orlando, rent a car and be eating Wendy's no later than 1 PM. Many times we would be in our hotel and on a ride three hours later. The added expense of a rental car is slightly offset by the convenience of having a car and not having to rely on the park transportation to get you to the individual parks.

Hotels--I'm spoiled here. We have always stayed at an on-site hotel. We stay at the Portofino when at Universal, and this last time at WDW we stayed at the Beach Club, which is walking distance from Epcot, instead of the Wilderness Lodge (still my favorite hotel!). I don't care where you stay because during the crowded season, you can expect most of your hotel costs to DOUBLE! BUT there are a few advantages to staying on-site.

• If you're simply comparing room sizes to outside hotels then you are doing yourself a disfavor because you need to factor in the experience and convenience of being onsite. For example: if you stay at the Wilderness Lodge, you will feel like you are visiting Yellowstone National Park. And when you travel to the Magic Kingdom, you go by boat, which is a fun experience! When at the Beach Club, you can walk to the back entrance of Epcot. Staying at the Polynesian, Grand Floridian, or Contemporary, then you can ride the Monorail to the Magic Kingdom. And WDW has a fleet of buses that travel from all hotels to the various parks.
• If stay on site and you do drive your car to the parks, you don't have to pay a parking fee at those parks, which can save you $16/day/park (2014).

Staying onsite at the Universal hotels will provide you with an Express Pass voucher for the days you are in the park. Of course, for those people who don't stay at one of their hotels, UF offers a variety of options for the Express pass--the cost depends on the estimated crowd levels and time of year. The more crowded it is, the more an Express pass will cost. Click on their site to find out what a daily pass is for X amount of people in your family--and then decide if it's more beneficial to stay at an on-site hotel or not!

• Again, trust me, the extra cost of an onsite hotel is totally worth the advantage of Express Passing the long lines, plus getting into the park an hour early to the Harry Potter experience and Transformers.
• You can walk to the parks (NOT recommended if you're at the Portofino as you will get plenty of walking at the parks!), or take a bike taxi, or wait for the boat.

That's it for today. I'll have a few more suggestions in a few more days!
. . . and will probably remember a few that I forgot about when I wrote this blog!

Later, Peeps!

Weighty Wednesday -- Good Intentions

Well, I gained a pound this week--137.4 pounds. Still over my goal weight by five pounds.

Since I'm going through some health issues, I must confess that I have good intentions when I'm around food, but I still struggle. . . and I'm obviously losing the battle!

But good intentions won't lose that extra padding that I have.

As it's been said before, "Good intentions pave the road to Hell."

Intending to do something, whether it's to eat better, save a kid from a bully, ask a girl or guy on a date, or whatever, is the lackluster excuse for doing nothing.

Or as Yoda would say, "Do. Or do not. There is no try."

The only way to succeed at something in your life is to take the risk.

You might fail. Heck, you might fail numerous times.
(Been there, done that, AND wrote the book!)

But then again, you might succeed.

Therein lies the quandary.

To take a risk opens yourself up to examination, by yourself  and others, but without taking the risk you go nowhere on life's journey.

Your choice, your journey.

Do you want to be known as the person who didn't take the risk?

To be known as a failure? Though, this is usually in your own mind and eyes, not how others perceive you.

Or do you want to overcome those obstacles? To push through and succeed?

Think about it. I'll leave you with this quote:

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall."
~ Confucius

 Later, Peeps!

Air Conditioning on the Fritz

So yesterday I received a steroid shot in my neck. If you read the blog, then you'll realize I was freaking out a little bit.

But then the doctor walked into the room. He wore a crazy Aloha cover-up instead of scrubs. And then we (doc, hubs and I) started chatting a bit. Somehow the conversation worked it's way around to our going to Disney World next month. AFTER he proceeded to give me the 'lecture' about not riding the rollercoasters, he also gave us the names of some restaurants, since he'd just returned from Orlando.

I really like this doc. He has a warm and easy way about him. He has to lecture me about the rides, BUT he also knew from my reaction that I was going to ride them anyway, so he offered some suggestions about how to keep my neck stable throughout the ride.

He's a good guy.

It helped that the doc had had a few of these shots himself, along with giving them. He described what was going to happen and some of the possible side effects.

I don't know about you, but this was what really put my mind at ease . . . that and the happy juice they injected me with prior to inserting the catheter to inject the steroid. Now the meds could take 7-10 days to kick in, which is pretty good timing . . . pre-vacation, yanno. 

I was out of there in less than a minute after the injection.

If you are told that you need a steroidal spinal injection, and you have access to modern technology, don't get your panties in a wad like I did. It's easy-peasy.

Anyway, we get home and I'm cold, so I move the thermostat up to 78 degrees from 74 degrees. A couple hours later, I turn it down to cool off the room because our fur-beast sleeps in there at night.

Even with a haircut, Maggie still gets very hot.

The temp doesn't change. The AC isn't blowing hot air, but it certainly isn't blowing cold air either!

All I can say is thank goodness this summer has been unusually cool and not the 110 degrees of the previous summers!

It dropped to 76 this AM, but I'll need to call the air conditioning guys to set up an appointment.

My only fear is that we'll need to replace the unit--it's almost 18 years old. Just what we need. That kind of expense along with all the medical ones I'm incurring this year.

*sigh*

My monthly horoscope did mention a huge expense at the end of this month.

Wouldn't you know, this would be the first time it was right!

Later, Peeps

Injection Day!

YAY! . . . not.

You got it. . . it's a truly terrifying day.

Though I'm putting on a happy face for my family, I'm finding the idea of some doctor injecting my spine in my neck kind of creepy-scary.

I wished I had taken a picture of my MRI to show you what it looked like, but I didn't.
After plodding around on the Google Images site, I found a few examples.

This is a normal MRI of the cervical (neck) spine area. Not my neck.

This next MRI is similar to my cervical spine picture. Also NOT my neck. The bony parts of the spine are jutting into the spinal cord area. Part of my problem is my previous ruptured disc, and continued concussion on the area, resulting in degenerative disc issues. There is also a spinal stenosis, which is a narrowing of the spinal column. This tends to squish everything, resulting in numbness, tingling and pain.

To my knowledge of the procedure, the spine doc is jamming a large, pointy object (big A$$ needle) into one of those spaces and injecting some sort of cortisone-type fluid to decrease the inflammation, which should take care of the problem for now.

Uh, from what I remember on my MRI . . . there wasn't much room to maneuver around in there.
Again, creepy-scary.

So, after this cup of coffee and a banana, I'm fasting for the next 7 hours. Fluid-free in another five hours. Luckily, they'll be giving me an IV that will sedate me for a bit, along with helping me forget what's going on.

My shot is scheduled for 2:30 and I plan to be out of it the rest of the day.

Maybe I'll read.

But then I won't remember what I read, will I?

Guess I could just watch TV when I get home . . . most of what's on right now is forgettable anyway.

Later, Peeps!