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Thursday, October 25, 2018

50's Prime Time Cafe at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios

We finally got to eat at the 50's Prime Time Cafe and it was a real blast from the past! This 1950's themed restaurant serves "homestyle" favorites in a series of dining rooms that look like 1950's kitchens.

Awesome mid-century modern architecture of the waiting area, which is modeled on a 1950's living room. We collect starburst clocks and have the one over the bookcase.

It is all done in a terrific Mid-Century modern style with televisions playing vintage programming in the background. The waiter was a real hoot...he was our "cousin" and made sure we kept our elbows off the table, sat with us at one point, and introduced us to everyone around us. It was as if we were all friends and family eating in someone's house.

Our "cousin"...the waiter

As we were there to celebrate Toddler Son's birthday (well "birth week") our "cousin" led the room in singing Happy Birthday and delivered a cupcake. Most of the food was good, we had pot roast, the blue plate special of the day, and fried chicken. The fried chicken was fantastic, a real standout and the best dish we had.

Birthday cupcake

Mostly though the highlight of the meal for us was the ambiance...we just love 1950's-1960's design. And over the years we have collected many of the items we saw in the decor. The exterior architecture of the building is an impressive facsimile of a Los Angeles apartment building by the Austrian Modern Architect Rudolph Schindler. Mom and Dad are familiar with him from their Architecture studies in college. Hollywood Studios really captures the architectural spirit of Southern California and helps us with our homesickness.

Los Angeles Style Mid-Century Modern Architecture

The Prime-Time is often compared and contrasted with the Sci-Fi Dine In. We have also eaten at the Sci-Fi Dine In several times, another retro 50's-60's themed eatery at Hollywood Studios. At the Dine In you are seated in convertibles in a "Drive-In Theater". For us although we did enjoy our visit to the Prime-Time we prefer the Sci-Fi Dine In because we enjoyed the food there as much as the ambiance.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party 2018 at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom

"HalloWishes" Fireworks at Magic Kingdom

We attended Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party this year for Labor Day Week. It was our second time attending a Walt Disney World Halloween Party, having first gone in 2017 and now this year. September is pretty early to start celebrating Halloween but as it coincides with the trip we like to take to celebrate Toddler Son's birthday it has become a fun addition to our visits.

Poison Apple "Magic Shot" photograph

We arrived at Magic Kingdom the afternoon of the party in time for lots of rain, in 2017 the rain came solidly in the middle of the party eating up most of the event. It pretty much rains everyday in September. Luckily for us the afternoon storm this year (right around 3:30 PM) would be the only rain for us and for 2018 we enjoyed a full Halloween party! Our party tickets were part of a "Fall into Magic" package we were enjoying and Dad neglected to bring the hard tickets to the gate thinking the tickets would be pre-loaded on our magic bands through My Disney Experience. Unfortunately that was not the case and we were directed to will call and then guest services to rectify the situation. It looked for a second like we would have to go all the way back to our room to get the hard tickets but luckily a supervisor was able to help the window agent locate our tickets in the system and issue us new hard tickets. We were then finally through the gate and on our way. Teenage Son & Dad were dressed as Figment & Dreamfinder while Toddler Son was an "It's A Small World" doll from Mexico, accompanied by Mom in a retro Small World T-shirt and with her hair in a braid with a folkloric flower.

For the Halloween Parties you are allowed to enter the park as early as 4:00 PM and the party starts at 7:00 PM. Typically you are routed behind the east side of Main Street USA from entering Town Square where they issue you your treat bags, give out treats and take pictures. At the end of this gauntlet you are dumped into Central Plaza("The Hub") between Main Street USA & Tomorrowland.

"Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular"

"HalloWishes" Fireworks

"Boo Too You" Parade

The Halloween Party officially starts at 7PM but they start letting you meet the special characters at approximately 6:30 and distributing Candy shortly after that at several locations throughout the park. For other special event entertainment they have a musical show at the Castle Stage, fireworks, and a parade. For 2017 the rain was bad enough that it delayed/cancelled some entertainment and we only saw the fireworks and a few glimpses of the parade but for 2018 we were able to see all three.

There are several special characters that appear at the party and are not common throughout the rest of the year. For us the must see character was Stitch dressed as Elvis. Prior to this year you could only see him on Halloween Night at the Polynesian Resort so we were very excited at the chance to see him. We were in line by 5:45 PM and they brought in Stitch at 6:30 PM and we saw him right away. We then went off to have dinner and start Trick Or Treating. The lines for the characters can get pretty long so we ultimately did not see any more up close.

We caught Lotso Hugging Bear heading to his photo op

Several attractions were modified slightly for the party and we experienced 2 of them. We all rode Pirates of the Caribbean with live performers in the fort and on the ride. Mom & Teenage Son got to ride Space Mountain in the dark while Dad & Toddler Son rode the Peoplemover (also in the dark through the Space Mountain portion). We did not get a chance to ride the Teacups with special Halloween Party lighting.

We stumbled onto a spot on the bridge to Tomorrowland to see the Fireworks show. The fireworks show has basic projections on the Castle and does not yet incorporate the remarkable projection mapping of the regular show. But it more than makes up for that with a great soundtrack and the use of the perimeter fireworks bursts reserved for holidays that are really spectacular. The night becomes day as large fireworks bursts surround the entire Magic Kingdom.

As the crowd dispersed somewhat after the fireworks we moved to a spot at the base of the Partners statue in the center of The Hub to view the Castle stage show. The Castle stage show is the "Hocus Pocus Villian Spelltacular" a Disney Villain's greatest hits show linked together by the Sanderson Sisters from the film "Hocus Pocus". The show is high energy, has great music and the performers are terrific. Dad was not really a fan of the movie "Hocus Pocus" but this show made him a convert and we have been enjoying all of the related "Hocus Pocus" programming on the Freeform Cable Channel.

For the "Boo To You Halloween Parade" we made our way to Town Square and found a spot on the rope line between the Square and the Emporium across the street from City Hall. The parade was delightful, especially the gravediggers and the ballroom dancers from The Haunted Mansion.

Ride of the Headless Horseman

Haunted Mansion Gravediggers

Haunted Mansion Ballroom Dancers

2018 was a vast improvement for us over 2017 in terms of experiencing the special entertainment, and we managed to meet a character this year. In 2017 we did more trick or treating than this year, there is more things to do at these parties than can be done in one visit. To experience it all would probably take at least attending 2 parties a year, you could easily spend an entire night meeting the characters and trick or treating and not do anything else. The party felt crowded, the lines for the candy moved but they were very long and the waits for most characters looked very long. Overall we had a great time and hope we can go again and perhaps concentrate on the special characters.

Tuesday, October 2, 2018

Sketch: Sleeping Beauty Castle

The final sketch in the "Family Series" is Mom & Dad in front of Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle. This series began as an outgrowth of Toddler Son's requests for Dad to draw with him. It started with a sketch of Toddler Son and a balloon at Cinderella Castle and was followed by a sketch of Teenage Son/Agent P with Figment at Spaceship Earth. Since Mom & Dad went on their first date to Disneyland it seemed like drawing them in front of the original Disney Castle would be a great way to close out the series. Again all three drawings in the set are color pencil style crayons on Xerox paper. Please look back on the previous 2 posts to see the other drawings in the set!

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Sketch: Spaceship Earth

After Toddler Son asked for a drawing of him at Cinderella Castle then Agent P our Teenage Son (and Figment Fanatic) requested a drawing of Spaceship Earth. In this drawing Agent P has manged to take a joyride in Dreamfinder's flying machine to chase after Figment. Earlier this month we visited Epcot several times to enjoy the 2018 Food & Wine Festival. This drawing was done with pencil style crayons on Xerox paper. All it took was one little spark of imagination! This ended up being the second in a series, Sketch 1 in the series was showcased in the previous post "Sketch: Cinderella Castle".

Thursday, August 30, 2018

Sketch: Cinderella Castle

Toddler Son enjoys sitting at our kitchen bar drawing, while he does that he insists that Dad join him. While drawing Toddler Son will make requests of what he wants Dad to draw for him and most of the time the subjects are Disney attractions. Usually Dad will doodle very loosely but sometimes he will take the opportunity to spend a little more time on a drawing. This time Toddler Son asked for a drawing of Cinderella Castle, with a balloon. So Dad obliged and drew it using color pencils on xerox paper; Dad ended up drawing Toddler Son in the "It's A Small World" inspired balloon.

Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Review: Safari Donald Duck and friends at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom's Tusker House Restaurant

Tusker House Restaurant at Disney's Animal Kingdom is the location of a fantastic character meal. The food is a plentiful all you care to eat buffet of exotic (especially for a theme park) African & middle eastern dishes. And you have the opportunity to be visited by Safari Donald Duck and friends. On our visit we saw Donald & Daisy Duck, Mickey Mouse, & Goofy.

We had an advance dining reservation and there was a bit of a wait for this one, but we were still seated in a relatively timely manner. The detail at Disney's Animal Kingdom is pretty remarkable and the Tusker House is no exception. We were seated in a dining room that was adjacent to a large atrium where the food was. The decor was as if we were staying in a hotel in an African village.

Our server was super friendly and the character visits were very efficient. Each character had a nice little moment with us, they took pictures and signed our autograph book.

The food was excellent, a real standout among all of the menus we have sampled at Disney Character Meals. Typically the food at the character meals is pretty straight forward and not always memorable. But Tusker House had a lot of different dishes that were very flavorful. We were there for lunch and enjoyed dishes like basmati rice, tabouli & hummus, and curry chicken. It was the Thanksgiving holiday so the menu also included Turkey. All in all we really appreciated the variety at this buffet and had a great time, we would do this one again for sure.