As you may know, in the last year I have been doing several radio shows, including one for my school. I still have a few weeks until that one starts, but I get to start the radio early! Mike from www.magicalmouseradio.com has generously allowed me to be part of a show with the amazing Chris Reid! (yes, I may be a bit biased, but he really is an amazing radio host!)
Starting last Friday and going every Friday at 7pm Eastern until the middle of September, Chris and I will be bringing you Summer Sunsation! This show will play upbeat Disney music to get you ready for your weekend as well as the weekend Theme and Water Park Schedule sponsored by Disdates.com. and at the end of every show, you will get to hear a full length Finale from one of the parks in Walt Disney World, including Spectromagic, IllumiNations or some other special! The Sunsation Finale is sponsored by Steve Barrett's Hidden Mickey's Guide.
Tonight on the show, Chris and I are going to talk about Disney Dining since Free Dining Plan season is coming soon, and the Sunsation Finale for tonight: Hallowishes!
Check out Cosmic Reid's site, cosmicreid.com to find out more about Summer Sunsation and to hear about his show on Mondays, Cosmic Reid's Starlight Cafe!
Friday, July 30, 2010
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Be a Hero!
As you may know, Chris Reid does a great show every Monday at 1pm Eastern on Magical Mouse Radio called Cosmic Reid's Starlight Cafe. This show has many great sponsors, including Steve Barrett's Hidden Mickeys, Disdates.com and themeparkinsider.com. Today, he got a brand new sponsor: DKMS Americas, whose mission is "to save lives by recruiting bone marrow donors for leukemia patients."
Chris heard about this while prepping for another radio show he does in his home town of Winnipeg. He was going through the news to read on his show and stumbled upon a story that immediately caught his eye. What caught his eye first was that the article was about someone in The Lion King musical in New York City, something we had gone to see almost a year ago. As he read through the article, he found out that it was unfortunately a sad story, an actor from the musical was diagnosed with leukemia and there had been a donor drive at the Minskoff theatre to try to find a bone marrow match. What makes the story that much sadder is that the actor, or actress in this case, is only 11 years old. Shannon Tavarez had performed on the Broadway stage for several months as Young Nala, but had to leave her dream role in April when she was diagnosed.
Chris immediately contacted who was in charge of the donations, offering any help he could give. After several emails back and forth, Cosmic Reid has now partnered with DKMS Americas to get the word out about Shannon and her plight, along with the plight of all who suffer from leukemia, in the hopes of finding her a donor and getting this amazing young actress back where she belongs, on the stage!
To find out how to see if you are a match for Shannon and if you are eligible to be a donor, visit Cosmic Reid's page, Destination: Donation and check out the DKMS Americas Site on becoming a donor. Let's help to get the word out, you never know, you may tell the person who could be Shannon's hero!
Chris heard about this while prepping for another radio show he does in his home town of Winnipeg. He was going through the news to read on his show and stumbled upon a story that immediately caught his eye. What caught his eye first was that the article was about someone in The Lion King musical in New York City, something we had gone to see almost a year ago. As he read through the article, he found out that it was unfortunately a sad story, an actor from the musical was diagnosed with leukemia and there had been a donor drive at the Minskoff theatre to try to find a bone marrow match. What makes the story that much sadder is that the actor, or actress in this case, is only 11 years old. Shannon Tavarez had performed on the Broadway stage for several months as Young Nala, but had to leave her dream role in April when she was diagnosed.
Chris immediately contacted who was in charge of the donations, offering any help he could give. After several emails back and forth, Cosmic Reid has now partnered with DKMS Americas to get the word out about Shannon and her plight, along with the plight of all who suffer from leukemia, in the hopes of finding her a donor and getting this amazing young actress back where she belongs, on the stage!
To find out how to see if you are a match for Shannon and if you are eligible to be a donor, visit Cosmic Reid's page, Destination: Donation and check out the DKMS Americas Site on becoming a donor. Let's help to get the word out, you never know, you may tell the person who could be Shannon's hero!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
DisMarks Blog Carnival Entry
While I was wandering around on twitter the other day and saw a tweet from Dismarks, asking for entries into their Blog Carnival. Now, I had absolutely no idea what a Blog Carnival was, so I decided to find out. They were looking for different Disney articles from blogs and it was just a way to advertise multiple blogs in one area and help to promote the community. I thought this was an awesome idea, I'm all for sharing things through the Disney community, and so I decided to enter a recent blog post and see what happens.
The post made the cut and can now be seen along many other posts from great writers in the Disney community! Check out all the great posts by going to the Blog Carnival Page and support other Disney sites!
The post made the cut and can now be seen along many other posts from great writers in the Disney community! Check out all the great posts by going to the Blog Carnival Page and support other Disney sites!
Monday, July 26, 2010
Weekly DDL Post
This week on the Disney Driven Life, I review a couple major announcements the Comic Con last week! Both are movie announcements and one could be quite spooky! Check out the article here!
Friday, July 23, 2010
unKNOWN Actors: Verna Felton
Have you ever been watching a Disney movie and you hear a voice that sounds familiar to you, but you are not sure why? Maybe you have ridden an attraction in a Disney park and heard a voice that you know you heard before, but you are not sure where you heard it or whose voice it is? Well, this blog series is here to change all that! I want to expose the unknown voice artists throughout Disney and show you how well you actually do know them!
Disney is known for reusing actors for different voice parts. When they hear a voice they like why should they change it? It’s because of this that you may hear one voice and people in the room can name multiple characters with that voice.
The first actress we are going to look at is Verna Felton. She was born in Salinas, California on July 20th of 1890 and died in Hollywood December 14, 1966. She was a very famous television and radio actress, but this is probably not why Disney fans would know her.
The first time Disney fans would see….or rather, hear Verna was in 1941 as the Elephant Matriarch, aka the mean elephant with the red headdress, in Dumbo. Fun fact: Mrs. Jumbo’s one line, “Jumbo Junior” was also said by Verna.
It would be 9 years until we hear Verna again, but in a much different part, playing the bubbly Fairy Godmother in Cinderella.
The next year, Verna reprised her role as a villain of sorts by playing the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, using her powerful voice to belt out such famous lines as “Off with her head!”
She had a very small part in Peter Pan, doing the voice for Squaw, the large native woman who tells Wendy to "get ‘em Firewood!"
In 1955, she is the voice for Aunt Sarah, the pushy bossy aunt who owns the Siamese Cats in Lady and the Tramp.
After a few years, she is heard as the self-appointed leader of the good fairies and lover of the color pink, Flora in Sleeping Beauty.
Right after Sleeping Beauty, she provided the voice for Eloise in Goliath II, a smaller Disney production.
Verna held so much talent and lent her voice to some memorable Disney characters. Even though she sadly died in 1966, she was able to share her talents with one more Disney character, and fittingly, it was with the same type of character with which she got her Disney start! The year after her death, she was heard as Winifred, the wife of Captain Haiti in The Jungle Book, an elephant.
When a typical Disney fan hears the name Verna Felton, they may not recognize the name, but all you have to do is play her voice and they immediately could name at least one of her characters. The villain roles seemed to fit her shrill, powerful voice, while for the Fairy Godmother and Flora, she had a bit softer voice.
There are quite a few people who have such a long Disney record, but no one knows of them! I hope to be able to share their names and talents with you! Let us know if there are any actors or actresses who should be featured in this article and if you have any questions, just send me an email!
Disney is known for reusing actors for different voice parts. When they hear a voice they like why should they change it? It’s because of this that you may hear one voice and people in the room can name multiple characters with that voice.
The first actress we are going to look at is Verna Felton. She was born in Salinas, California on July 20th of 1890 and died in Hollywood December 14, 1966. She was a very famous television and radio actress, but this is probably not why Disney fans would know her.
The first time Disney fans would see….or rather, hear Verna was in 1941 as the Elephant Matriarch, aka the mean elephant with the red headdress, in Dumbo. Fun fact: Mrs. Jumbo’s one line, “Jumbo Junior” was also said by Verna.
It would be 9 years until we hear Verna again, but in a much different part, playing the bubbly Fairy Godmother in Cinderella.
The next year, Verna reprised her role as a villain of sorts by playing the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland, using her powerful voice to belt out such famous lines as “Off with her head!”
She had a very small part in Peter Pan, doing the voice for Squaw, the large native woman who tells Wendy to "get ‘em Firewood!"
In 1955, she is the voice for Aunt Sarah, the pushy bossy aunt who owns the Siamese Cats in Lady and the Tramp.
After a few years, she is heard as the self-appointed leader of the good fairies and lover of the color pink, Flora in Sleeping Beauty.
Right after Sleeping Beauty, she provided the voice for Eloise in Goliath II, a smaller Disney production.
Verna held so much talent and lent her voice to some memorable Disney characters. Even though she sadly died in 1966, she was able to share her talents with one more Disney character, and fittingly, it was with the same type of character with which she got her Disney start! The year after her death, she was heard as Winifred, the wife of Captain Haiti in The Jungle Book, an elephant.
When a typical Disney fan hears the name Verna Felton, they may not recognize the name, but all you have to do is play her voice and they immediately could name at least one of her characters. The villain roles seemed to fit her shrill, powerful voice, while for the Fairy Godmother and Flora, she had a bit softer voice.
There are quite a few people who have such a long Disney record, but no one knows of them! I hope to be able to share their names and talents with you! Let us know if there are any actors or actresses who should be featured in this article and if you have any questions, just send me an email!
Sharing Lessons
Ok, so I know this is not a Mom blog, but I learned some things while taking care of my little cousins (age 5 and 2) and thought I would share it with you.
The last couple days, the boys have been having a big problem with sharing. They thing the toys we have are there's and the do not share with each other. When they play blocks, the older brother thinks the little one shouldn't be able to play with him. It got out of hand last night when the boys were playing at their own house and the little brother ended up biting the older one.
My mom and I have thought of some activities for the boys to do that will cause them to share and take turns and I thought I would share those activities with you. Even if your children are good at sharing and taking turns, these activities would be fun for them just to work together as a family!
1. Playing Board Games- We had the boys play Cootie, but any game that is age appropriate would work. It allows them to take turns and, in the case of my cousins, had the older brother help they little one put the pieces on.
2. Making Cookies- Thought of this and I'm going to try it out on Monday with the kids. We are going to make butter and/or sugar cookies from scratch and the kids are going to help me. They will be able to take turns stirring the ingredients, rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters to cut the shapes. I also have a cookie press and I think I will use that also, that will help with sharing because I only have 1 of those so they will have to pass it back and forth to each other. The end of this project is fun and tasty! :)
3. Putting together a puzzle- The kids can take turns putting pieces into the puzzle and the end result they would have to share, it would not be just one of theirs.
These are a couple of the ideas we came up with. Hopefully they will work at least some to get these boys to work together and play nice! If you have any suggestions to offer me, please don't hesitate to send them!
The last couple days, the boys have been having a big problem with sharing. They thing the toys we have are there's and the do not share with each other. When they play blocks, the older brother thinks the little one shouldn't be able to play with him. It got out of hand last night when the boys were playing at their own house and the little brother ended up biting the older one.
My mom and I have thought of some activities for the boys to do that will cause them to share and take turns and I thought I would share those activities with you. Even if your children are good at sharing and taking turns, these activities would be fun for them just to work together as a family!
1. Playing Board Games- We had the boys play Cootie, but any game that is age appropriate would work. It allows them to take turns and, in the case of my cousins, had the older brother help they little one put the pieces on.
2. Making Cookies- Thought of this and I'm going to try it out on Monday with the kids. We are going to make butter and/or sugar cookies from scratch and the kids are going to help me. They will be able to take turns stirring the ingredients, rolling out the dough and using cookie cutters to cut the shapes. I also have a cookie press and I think I will use that also, that will help with sharing because I only have 1 of those so they will have to pass it back and forth to each other. The end of this project is fun and tasty! :)
3. Putting together a puzzle- The kids can take turns putting pieces into the puzzle and the end result they would have to share, it would not be just one of theirs.
These are a couple of the ideas we came up with. Hopefully they will work at least some to get these boys to work together and play nice! If you have any suggestions to offer me, please don't hesitate to send them!
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Visiting the Magic...AGAIN!!
I never EVER thought I would be visiting the Happiest Place on Earth twice in one year, but its actually happened!!! While Chris and I were having the time of our lives in Walt Disney World, my parents were planning a surprise trip for our family, our first family trip in over 3 years!!
We are driving down to WDW, a 16 hour drive for us. We arrive in Florida on August 15th and are down for 6 days, leaving August 21st. Because it was planned on such short notice, it was hard to get accommodations and reservations that they wanted, but they did get some good places! We are staying at The All Star Sports Resort, a new experience for us!
Here's our schedule:
Sunday, August 15: Arrive, Possibly Hollywood Studios to catch TSM before it closes for refurb, Dinner at Can'n Jacks and walk around Downtown Disney
Monday, August 16: Breakfast at Boma, Animal Kingdom for the day, Downtown Disney at Night
Tuesday, August 17: Hollywood Studios, Mama Melrose's for Lunch, Fantasmic!
Wednesday, August 18: Blizzard Beach, Winter-Summerland Mini Golf, Dinner at The Wave, Magic Kingdom at Night
Thursday, August 19: Magic Kingdom, Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern
Friday, August 20: Breakfast at Cape May Cafe, Epcot all day
Saturday, August 21: Coming Home
Still in shock, cannot believe that I will be in Walt Disney World again! As we get closer, I will be finding out more details and post them, and you can assure that I will be tweeting the whole trip, including the drive for those of you who have never experienced a drive down to Walt Disney World!
We are driving down to WDW, a 16 hour drive for us. We arrive in Florida on August 15th and are down for 6 days, leaving August 21st. Because it was planned on such short notice, it was hard to get accommodations and reservations that they wanted, but they did get some good places! We are staying at The All Star Sports Resort, a new experience for us!
Here's our schedule:
Sunday, August 15: Arrive, Possibly Hollywood Studios to catch TSM before it closes for refurb, Dinner at Can'n Jacks and walk around Downtown Disney
Monday, August 16: Breakfast at Boma, Animal Kingdom for the day, Downtown Disney at Night
Tuesday, August 17: Hollywood Studios, Mama Melrose's for Lunch, Fantasmic!
Wednesday, August 18: Blizzard Beach, Winter-Summerland Mini Golf, Dinner at The Wave, Magic Kingdom at Night
Thursday, August 19: Magic Kingdom, Dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern
Friday, August 20: Breakfast at Cape May Cafe, Epcot all day
Saturday, August 21: Coming Home
Still in shock, cannot believe that I will be in Walt Disney World again! As we get closer, I will be finding out more details and post them, and you can assure that I will be tweeting the whole trip, including the drive for those of you who have never experienced a drive down to Walt Disney World!
Monday, July 19, 2010
Weekly DDL Post
This week on the Disney Driven Life, you can find out about some renovations to a DVC Resort! Which one? You will have to check out the article to find out! Click here!
Saturday, July 17, 2010
What's the Location?
The other day, my sister Emily and I were watching Dumbo and she was looking up trivia about it. One of the pieces of trivia she came across was that Dumbo was one of the few Disney Animated Features that actually take place in the USA. I found this interesting and began trying to make a list of Disney movies and where they took place in my head. I eventually realized that Disney had way to many movies for me to make a list like that in my head, so I decided to look them all up and write them down.
As I wrote them down, I realized that making a list like this is harder than I thought. While some movies were pretty obvious, others there seems to be more controversial than others or else just downright confusing. I compiled the list the best that I could though. Where there was confusion, I wrote down whatever I could find for the movie, even if there were several places to choose from and for movies with multiple sequences, such as Fantasia or Fun and Fancy Free, I wrote Various.
As I wrote them down, I realized that making a list like this is harder than I thought. While some movies were pretty obvious, others there seems to be more controversial than others or else just downright confusing. I compiled the list the best that I could though. Where there was confusion, I wrote down whatever I could find for the movie, even if there were several places to choose from and for movies with multiple sequences, such as Fantasia or Fun and Fancy Free, I wrote Various.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs..........Germany/Belgium
Pinocchio..........Italy
Fantasia..........Various
Dumbo..........USA
Bambi..........USA
Saludos Amigos..........Latin America
The Three Caballeros..........Latin America
Make Mine Music..........Various
Fun and Fancy Free..........Various
Melody Time..........Various
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad..........USA/England
Cinderella..........France
Alice in Wonderland..........England
Peter Pan..........England
Lady and the Tramp..........USA
Sleeping Beauty..........France
101 Dalmatians..........England
The Sword in the Stone..........England
The Jungle Book..........India
The Aristocats..........France
Robin Hood..........England
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh..........England
The Rescuers..........USA
the Fox and the Hound..........USA
The Black Cauldron..........England/France
The Great Mouse Detective..........England
Oliver and Company..........USA
The Little Mermaid..........Denmark/Holland/England
The Rescuers Down Under..........Australia
Beauty and the Beast..........France
Aladdin..........Arabia
The Lion King..........Africa
Pocahontas..........USA
The Hunchback of Notre Dame..........France
Hercules..........Greece
Mulan..........China
Tarzan..........Africa
Fantasia 2000..........Various
The Emperor's New Groove..........South America
Atlantis: The Lost Empire..........USA, Atlantis
Lilo and Stitch..........USA
Treasure Planet..........Outer Space
Brother Bear..........North America, Arctic
Home on the Range..........USA
The Princess and the Frog..........USA
Bolt..........USA
Chicken Little..........Imaginary Town
Dinosaur..........Past, Prehistoric
Meet the Robinsons..........USA
Pixar Movies
A Bug's Life..........Unknown/Could be Anywhere
Cars..........Imaginary Town, but meant to be USA
Finding Nemo..........Australia
The Incredibles..........USA
Monsters Inc..........Monster World, Worldwide
Ratatouille..........France
Pinocchio..........Italy
Fantasia..........Various
Dumbo..........USA
Bambi..........USA
Saludos Amigos..........Latin America
The Three Caballeros..........Latin America
Make Mine Music..........Various
Fun and Fancy Free..........Various
Melody Time..........Various
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad..........USA/England
Cinderella..........France
Alice in Wonderland..........England
Peter Pan..........England
Lady and the Tramp..........USA
Sleeping Beauty..........France
101 Dalmatians..........England
The Sword in the Stone..........England
The Jungle Book..........India
The Aristocats..........France
Robin Hood..........England
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh..........England
The Rescuers..........USA
the Fox and the Hound..........USA
The Black Cauldron..........England/France
The Great Mouse Detective..........England
Oliver and Company..........USA
The Little Mermaid..........Denmark/Holland/England
The Rescuers Down Under..........Australia
Beauty and the Beast..........France
Aladdin..........Arabia
The Lion King..........Africa
Pocahontas..........USA
The Hunchback of Notre Dame..........France
Hercules..........Greece
Mulan..........China
Tarzan..........Africa
Fantasia 2000..........Various
The Emperor's New Groove..........South America
Atlantis: The Lost Empire..........USA, Atlantis
Lilo and Stitch..........USA
Treasure Planet..........Outer Space
Brother Bear..........North America, Arctic
Home on the Range..........USA
The Princess and the Frog..........USA
Bolt..........USA
Chicken Little..........Imaginary Town
Dinosaur..........Past, Prehistoric
Meet the Robinsons..........USA
Pixar Movies
A Bug's Life..........Unknown/Could be Anywhere
Cars..........Imaginary Town, but meant to be USA
Finding Nemo..........Australia
The Incredibles..........USA
Monsters Inc..........Monster World, Worldwide
Ratatouille..........France
Toy Story..........USA
Up..........USA
Wall*E..........Worldwide, Space
That's the list that I compiled with the information I found online, I tallied it up and this is what I found:
USA: 16
Various/Unknown (Including movies with multiple possibilities: 9
Imaginary/Past/Future/Space: 8
England: 7
France: 6
South/Latin America: 3
Africa: 2
Australia: 2
Arabia: 1
India: 1
Germany/Belgium: 1
Italy: 1
Greece: 1
China: 1
Through my research, I found that USA actually had the most movies that took place there. Granted, I did include Pixar movies, but even if you take out the Pixar ones, USA still has the most with 12.
If you have questions about any of the locations I have written down or if you know of any missing movies or changes I need to make please let me know either by email (lady_aurora_yensid@hotmail.com) or by leaving a comment here!
Wall*E..........Worldwide, Space
That's the list that I compiled with the information I found online, I tallied it up and this is what I found:
USA: 16
Various/Unknown (Including movies with multiple possibilities: 9
Imaginary/Past/Future/Space: 8
England: 7
France: 6
South/Latin America: 3
Africa: 2
Australia: 2
Arabia: 1
India: 1
Germany/Belgium: 1
Italy: 1
Greece: 1
China: 1
Through my research, I found that USA actually had the most movies that took place there. Granted, I did include Pixar movies, but even if you take out the Pixar ones, USA still has the most with 12.
If you have questions about any of the locations I have written down or if you know of any missing movies or changes I need to make please let me know either by email (lady_aurora_yensid@hotmail.com) or by leaving a comment here!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Scrapbooking Magic
Coming back from a Disney vacation, there are so many memories that you don't want to forget! One way I relive the magic after a vacation is looking at all the pictures I took on the trip. I always take lots of pictures, on this last trip, between Chris and I, we took over 1700 pictures!! So many wonderful memories saved! I know what many people do with their pictures, besides post them on Facebook, is put their pictures in a photo album. Others, like myself, love to make scrapbooks!
I love scrapbooks because they can tell more than a regular photo album can! You can put more than just pictures in, you can put luggage tags, receipts, tickets, fastpasses and so much more! Plus, you get to decorate the pages with ribbons and stickers!
Last week I started planning and making the scrapbook from Chris and my trip, laying out some pages. When I get some more pages done, I will post some of them here on the blog!
I'd love to hear how you keep your Disney or any vacation memories alive! Do you scrapbook? What other ways are out there to recreate the memories? Feel free to leave me a comment or even send me an email!
I love scrapbooks because they can tell more than a regular photo album can! You can put more than just pictures in, you can put luggage tags, receipts, tickets, fastpasses and so much more! Plus, you get to decorate the pages with ribbons and stickers!
Last week I started planning and making the scrapbook from Chris and my trip, laying out some pages. When I get some more pages done, I will post some of them here on the blog!
I'd love to hear how you keep your Disney or any vacation memories alive! Do you scrapbook? What other ways are out there to recreate the memories? Feel free to leave me a comment or even send me an email!
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Vacation videos: Chris Drinking Beverly
Here is the first of a few videos that Chris and I took while we were in Florida! In this one, Chris drinks a cup of Beverly. Not sure what Beverly is? Just watch and you will soon learn....
Monday, July 12, 2010
Weekly DDL Post
This week on the Disney Driven Life, I talk about the new Italian Restaurant coming to the Italy Pavilion, with more details and the menu! Check it out here!!
Monday, July 5, 2010
Weekly DDL Post
Now that I am back from my vacationing, I am writing again for the Disney Driven Life! This week's post is all about the reactions so far to the return of Captain EO to Epcot! Check it out!
Sunday, July 4, 2010
Happy 4th of July!
The True Disney Fan wishes everyone a very happy 4th of July as we take the day to salute America and all of it's history!Wanna salute the US in the Disney way? Check out these videos of the American Adventure and The Hall of Presidents (and try not to fall asleep)
Saturday, July 3, 2010
One Amazing Vacation!
Wow, these past few weeks have been absolutely amazing!! Being in Disney World from June 11th to the 19th, in Winnipeg, Manitoba from the 21st to July 1st, and of course, being with my wonderful boyfriend Chris the entire time!
We have countless stories to tell from both trips, including some reviews of restaurants and attractions. For all of these stories and more, keep an eye on our vacation website, VacationNerds.com and if you have any questions about anywhere that we visited, don't hesitate to ask!
We have countless stories to tell from both trips, including some reviews of restaurants and attractions. For all of these stories and more, keep an eye on our vacation website, VacationNerds.com and if you have any questions about anywhere that we visited, don't hesitate to ask!
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