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...TALES OF A TRAVELING TOY

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

A Disney Rabbit Round-Up! (aka Easter 2013)

Disney recently had a piece on their blog on the Disney Rabbits.  I'm glad to say I've now met them all!

We went to Disneyland on Easter, and we got to see the Dapper Dans and the Disney Rabbits and do the Bunny Hop!

The Dapper Dans
The Easter Bunny himself!

Here's me with all the Disney Rabbits:
Rabbit from Winnie the Pooh
The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland

Brer Rabbit
Roger Rabbit

Now, I know what you're thinking.  "Where's Thumper?" Well, I guess Disney doesn't have a Thumper costume, which is odd.  There's also no Oswald the Lucky Rabbit running around the parks either.  But I'm very excited to have met them all! My friend Jeff (@Disney366 on Twitter) helped.

We closed out the day by visiting the new Fantasy Faire:


It was a wonderful Disneyland Easter!



Monday, March 25, 2013

FablesCon

We went to Minnesota for a very special comic convention!

Fables, which is written by Bill Willingham and drawn by Mark Buckingham, is our most very favorite comic book.  So when it was announced last summer that it was getting its very own convention, we knew we would go.

The first thing you need to know is that Minnesota is very cold.
I'm a snow bunny!

This convention was not like other conventions we have attended.  It was very small with a lot of interaction with various comic writers and artists.

Opening Ceremonies


FablesCon badge

We even had our very own Elizabethan themed bar, which was just the ginchiest.  It was only open to those of us attending the convention and it was a great place to get a drink with the comics professionals, or new friends we made.



The bar was actually named after this man, who was executed for treason in 1601, so it was re-themed for the comic Kill Shakespeare during the convention.


We also named a drink on the Official Convention Cocktail Menu: the Grimmlet!
 


Me with the Grimmlet.

We went to lots of panels and got sketches from several artists, and after a while, I thought I might try my hand at interviewing.  So I found myself a microphone and a panel room and waited for a poor, unsuspecting comic writer to show up for my queries.  


Fortunately, one did.
Hello, Mr. Roberson
I interviewed Mr. Chris Roberson, a favorite comic writer of ours.  He wrote two Fables spin-offs featuring Cinderella.  That's me, grilling him about why there aren't more rabbits in his books.

Then Mr. Matt Sturges wanted to interview me about Donnie Darko and my position on rabbit slippers and we even spoke a little French.



But of course, one of the best parts of the convention was that our friends, the Koosas and Puppy Graham were there!

We even had drinks in the FablesCon bar:

The convention provided us with snacks at the bar, and it was great to have small panels that we could easily get into without waiting in crazy long lines or having to plan our panels hours in advance. It felt much more like a community, and we met the nicest people.  We all were afforded a level of interaction with the comics pros that is unprecedented at most conventions and we feel really fortunate to have had this experience.

FablesCon, we heart you!

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Disneyland with Mocha and George!

We went to Disneyland with our friends  and !


How do we spin this thing?

We had a wonderful VIP Tour Guide, Nataly!


We rode the Lilly Belle!



Having a quiet moment in the Court des Anges, New Orleans Square
That's French for "Court of Angels"

Then we had front row VIP seats for the Mickey's Soundsational Parade!
Mickey and Minnie


Ariel and the Matterhorn

Snow White and Sleeping Beauty

Cinderella and Belle

Tiana

Louis!

Mary Poppins on those cool carousel horse bikes!

Then we capped the day off at the exclusive 1901 Lounge:

That's our own Hidden Mickey on the right!
We had a wonderful day with some great friends! Wish we could take all our friends to Disneyland!

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

DISNEY COAST TO COAST!!

Upon our return from Walt Disney World in Florida to California, we decided to undertake a very special challenge: to go from Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Florida to Disneyland, California in one day!

This took some prep and planning, but it's a Disney Bucket List item that anyone can do.  All you really need is a direct flight from Orlando to LAX and Disneyland late hours (by "late" we mean not closing at 8pm).

We started our day at opening (8am) at Magic Kingdom:
The Park Plaque in Magic Kingdom
We took a photo in front of Cinderella's Castle in Magic Kingdom.
Minnie Mouse is giving me a boost in the photo below:
That crane is STILL there
And on our way out at about 11am, we took a photo in front of the Main Street Station:
Main Street Station in Walt Disney World

We also got "I'm Celebrating" buttons from City Hall in Magic Kingdom.
Then we had to catch our flight to Los Angeles!

We arrived at LAX at about 7:45pm.  We got our luggage, caught the shuttle to the parking lot and headed straight to Disneyland! 
We arrived at about 9:15pm, and we went straight to City Hall for our button and then took our photos:

The Park Plaque in Disneyland
Me and my Owl friend in front of Disneyland's Castle
Main Street Station in Disneyland
We also acquired Fast Passes for Space Mountain in both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland.  In addition to our buttons, those are our souvenirs of a wonderful adventure!




Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter!! oh, and John Lennon

While on vacation in Florida at Walt Disney World, we decided to visit the Wizarding World Of Harry Potter!  This would be an off-campus, undercover adventure, because Harry Potter Land is NOT at Walt Disney World.  It's at Universal Studios Islands of Adventure! We'd need a getaway shuttle, tickets and a plausible cover story for the Disney folks.

My Humans spent time acquiring those things, and it was totally worth it.  The Wizarding World of Harry Potter is amazing, and the hype around it is well-deserved.


Hogwarts

I need a small cauldron, please
Where's 9 3/4 Platform, please?
Oh, I found it.

It comes in pints?!?!
At the Three Broomsticks



inside Honeydukes

ANOTHER cool thing we got to do was tour the John Lennon VIP suite at the Hard Rock Orlando.
It's modeled after John Lennon's NYC apartment at the Dakota:

I'M ON JOHN LENNON'S COUCH, Y'ALL.

Another couch.  Not John Lennon's, but still nice.
Original John Lennon artwork
John Lennon with a Bunny Hat.

It was an amazing day. We can't wait for Universal Studios Hollywood to get their very own Wizarding World of Harry Potter!!