Disney Magic

One of our favorite activities is to play dress up. Ok, it’s one of my favorite activities because it’s low on mess and high on cuteness. All I need to do is dress them up and leave the rest to their imagination – which they have a lot of.

Recently, their theme of choice has been pirates. And not just any pirate, it’s got to be Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It’s easy enough for me because all I need are 2 bandanas and 2 rubber bands for Kirsten’s ponytails. I tried adding eye patches for a more dramatic effect but they duly informed me that “Jake does not wear a patch, momma. Only bad pirates wear patches.”

I told them that there’s no such thing as a good pirate because pirates by definition are supposed to pillage and plunder and then they got upset, like “NO! JAKE IS A GOOD PIRATE HE HELPS PEOPLE!!” so I gave it a rest. I obviously need to watch more tv to keep up.

Meet Jake and Izzy.

Tru’s hair could do with a little wax and I’ve been looking for a wooden pirate sword to complete the look but believe it or not, it’s surprisingly hard to find. So in the meantime, I’m going to attempt to make one out of paper.

Incidentally, I found out during a Disney lunch thing last week that there’s a Disney Junior minisite called For Grown Ups with lots of Disney themed resources for parents. For party ideas, there are ready-made patterns for Jake’s sword, treasure chest and gold doubloons so you can throw a pirate party without spending a fortune on decor. Even if you’re not having a party, there are coloring pages, activity books and other cool stuff that you can print out to keep your toddler occupied. I’m not crafty enough to design my own templates so these are great.

In other news, I’ve got more Hipstamatic Happiness. It’s a day late and a panel short but otherwise, still as good.

Lovely Monday morning to you. This is going to be an exciting week, with the final installment of the Harry Potter series blockbustering its way to our screens. I’ve just reread the book for the 4th time and the trailers are looking epic. Cannot wait.

But first, a quick recap of what turned out to be a fantastic weekend. Yesterday was the launch party of Disney Junior at Sentosa’s Sapphire Pavilion because today, Disney Junior debuts on Starhub’s Channel 311. Getting up before 9 on a Sunday morning is a rarity in our house but when the kids heard the 2 words “Disney” and “Party”, their eyes popped open and they jumped out of bed in double quick time.

It was a beautiful morning for a day at the beach. Balloons, check. Palm trees swaying gently in the wind, check. Soft sand, check. Loads of sunshine, double check.

Plus, there were pirates. Well, just one at first but he was a really cute one.

Before the morning was over, his jolly crew was joined by 2 spritely young buccaneers.

Who took to their new pirating duties with much aplomb. They got busy looking for treasure, digging them up and trying to bury others.

And this is the point where I should probably end with a piratey phrase but unlike them, I don’t actually have any real pirate training so you’ll have to make do with a Yo Ho Ho!

So good news. A spanking new Disney Junior channel will be hitting our shores very soon and it will replace the current Playhouse Disney with something bigger and better.

The folks at Disney are masters of taking something amazing and making it even more awesome. Sort of like me taking triple chocolate fudge ice-cream and adding caramel, chocolate sauce, golden Tinker Bell dust, rainbow sparkles and unicorn giggles. I said sort of.

Essentially, they’re taking the old Playhouse Disney favorites and adding some new superstars to the lineup in an effort to capture a larger audience. Which means that while it will continue to appeal to young toddlers, it will also feature content that’s cool enough for the 7-8 year olds. As well as 29-year-old moms (ahem!) who still rock out to the Hot Dog Song.

It was a lot of fun meeting up with Mai Tatoy and Nancy Kanter again during the bloggers lunch at Hatched last week. I first met Nancy, GM of Disney Jr, during the Disney Social Media Moms Conference in Florida and while they were all raving about the new Disney Junior, I was so bummed that we had to wait several months for Disney Junior to come to Singapore.

Speaking of Disney SM Moms, being surrounded by all the Disney peeps and characters felt like Florida all over again. Hang on, I need to take a moment to remember and soak in the awesomeness that was the Disney SM Moms 2011. I get happy goosebumps thinking about it and I still sometimes browse the pictures just to relive those incredible moments.

Like the legendary party we had with Jake, Oso, Handy Manny and friends.

Jake, looking good with his spiky hair.

Special Agent Oso, who is oh-so-huggable

Mr Smee and his evil boss, Captain Hook. Aaarrgghhhh!

And take it from me, the show you want to watch is Jake and the Neverland Pirates. The soundtrack for this show is going to rock your world.

It’s done by a real pirate rock band called the Neverland Pirate Band. *swoon* We saw Sharky and Bones (who form the 2-man band) perform in Florida and they are flat out sensational. I just want to squeeze them and put them in my pocket and make them play music for me everywhere like an ipod, except much cuter and more piratey.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkb-6ELO9Gs

If you must know, Kirsten gives the channel a nod of approval. During the sneak preview, she was all “AGAIN, MOMMY, AGAIN!”

It’s good to be back! Not so good to be dealing with messed up time zones but I’ll take it in exchange for an overdose of baby kisses. This time, the kids didn’t try to stop my advances; I think they missed us too.

I thought I’d wrap up the trip with a bunch of lessons I learnt from my 10 days away. Lessons may be a bit loosely worded, they’re mostly random thoughts scribbled down from various points of my trip so they may or may not make sense to you.

1. 10 days without my kids is 10 days too long. Every time we saw/did something fun, we’d stop and talk about how much the kids would love it, then go “awwww I miss my babies…”

2. We really do have the best food in the world. After a week, I could not bring myself to look at another fried chicken/fish/shrimp/potato combo.

3. It’s hard to dress suitably in Florida weather. It was either wearing a tank & shorts combo and freezing at night or going with something warmer and getting heatstroke in the day. There was the third choice of lugging extra layers around the parks all day.

4. If you stay at a Disney Resort, get the refillable mugs. It was good for all the fountain drinks and coffee all day for the entire stay.

5. Fastpasses, get them and use them.

6. Outlet shopping is a dream. We bought an entire year’s supply of clothes for the kids, and then some.

7. Floridians are so relaxed. There were a handful of irate, cranky parents towards the evenings but most of them were so friendly and they would give way all the time.

8. I love Target. The Munchkin kids stuff are going for less than half the price here and I got a large 16oz tub of Desitin for $12.

9. Speaking of shopping, pack light and bring extra luggages. We left with 2 and came back with 4.

10. This was what I call a total parent guilt trip. We came back with an entire luggage filled with toys for the kids, and they were all removed from the boxes for efficient packing. At first, we were thinking of rationing them but once we got back, it was all “KIDS, SEE ALL YOUR TOYS!!!”

11. Saw a guy playing a real harp and it sounded nothing like what I expected. David (from the Bible) must have been a pretty cool guy serenading the ladies with his harp. Wasn’t sure if this guy was also called David, would have been so badass if he was.

12. Getting to the parks early (15 mins before opening) cuts your waiting time by about 90%. Most parents with kids only start filtering in at about 11, so you can get a lot done by then.

13. Every kid needs to go to Disneyworld at least once in their lives. Adults too.

14. While watching the Wishes Nighttime Spectacular fireworks show in Magic Kingdom on our final night in Orlando, it was one of those epiphanic moments in life where I felt like anything is possible and dreams do come true. Writing it sounds terribly cheesy but being there watching it happen definitely made it to the top 5 most awesome moments in my life.

As for my autograph book mission, I got almost everything I wanted except for Donald, Daisy and Woody. I had a word with their topiaries though. Here are some of my favorites.

When you put a theme park in a safari, you get Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Or is it the other way around – putting a safari in a theme park?

While most Animal Kingdom fans are loath to label the park a zoo, that is perhaps the best description for it, especially for us Singaporean folks. A large portion of the park is made up of animal enclosures that look exactly like our zoo/night safari, which we decided to bypass almost entirely. We’re very efficient that way.

What I really liked was walking through the streets of Africa (a replica of course) feeling like I just stepped into the set of Blood Diamond. Now I’ve never been to Africa and everything I know about the place is derived from movies and pictures. But still, it looks pretty close to the photos I’ve seen. I even found a real African dude who could converse in mouth-clicking sounds. Ok, it could have been me who was making the clicking noises while he threw weird looks my way.

There are two super headliners at Animal Kingdom, the first one being the Kilimanjaro Safaris. We got on a safari open-air 4wd thing that took us around the African savannah. It’s kind of like the Night Safari tram ride, except better because it’s in the day and you get real close to the animals in a savannah setting.

For the roller coaster buffs, there’s a ride called Expedition Everest, which is supposed to be right up there next to Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster in terms of the scare factor. I say supposed to be because I never got on the ride. The husband went on and he was all “it’s not scary at all, you should try it” and but I was paying more attention to the screams of terror from all those unfortunate souls stuck on the ride.

I only have one rule in selecting my rides – I don’t do drops. Speed, upside-side down turns and twists, I can handle but drops are a no go. I still have not recovered from that one time I took the Maliboomer at Anaheim Disney’s California Adventure. I did however pose for a picture in front of Everest, which was good enough for me.

In between the conference sessions and dinner parties, I’ve been spending a lot of time in the parks. There are a total of 4 in Disney World and while they’re all magic, my order of favorites has got to be Magic Kingdom first, Hollywood Studios, Epcot, then Animal Kingdom. Well, maybe a tie between Hollywood Studios and Epcot; it’s really hard to choose.

Hollywood Studios is as its name suggests, a miniature Hollywood world. Plus a little bit of New York. But mostly, the theme is all about Hollywood’s movie magic.

And these are the HIMYM steps that I’ve always wanted to sit on  just so I can look nonchalant like a New Yorker. So we sat on the steps and had a New York moment.

Don’t ask me why I was holding Barbara’s head. It was just there asking to be held, you know, and I couldn’t say no to Barbara Walters.

So when you’re in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, there are a couple of things you absolutely have to do.

1. Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster

I’m not really big on those insane upside-down roller coasters but the husband said it was out of this world so I was all “ok, bite the bullet” then the moment I got on and strapped down, I immediately regretted it. The whole time, I had my eyes closed, screaming my head off from start to finish. I seriously thought I was going to die. As far as roller coasters go, this was awesome, but once was enough for me.

2. Toy Story Midway Mania

This ride was right up my alley – happy, colorful, tons of fun and most importantly, SAFE. It was a 4-D ride where you went around shooting stuff in Toy Story world. Loved it.

3. Lights, Motors, Action Extreme Stunt Show

Classic Hollywood stunt show. If you’ve never seen one before, you don’t want to miss this, and if you have seen one before, you’d want to see it again. Fast cars, deadly chases, backward drives, fire and explosions, all the ingredients needed for a good action sequence.

4. Voyage of the Little Mermaid

I have to say that the Disney folks really know their musical productions. Definitely would have been a hit with the kids.

5. Jedi show

It was a chance for kids to train as a Jedi padawan. They got to put on a jedi robe, hold a lightsaber and come face to face with a very real (and intimidating) Darth Vader. Some of the smaller kids were so nervous their hands were trembling so violently and the bigger kids were thrilled to bits being able to resist the dark side. Hilarious and so much fun.