Odds And Ends: Weekly Cap-Off (6/27 - 7/3)

Visits to the Park this week:  1

It's another single visit week this week.  We'll be out at The Resort this evening to see "Transformers 3" (Suckers! No, not you. Us!), and then we'll be closing out The Parks.  We haven't done that in a while so we're looking forward to it!

Last Week on Days In The Park:

On Monday, we were back to our usual shenanigans with our "Magical Mystery Mondays" game where we challenge you to guess where in The Parks we are with nothing but a picture as a clue

Tuesday, we were blog-hopping with the Magical Mouse Schoolhouse

It was time to visit one of our favorite napping spots inside The Parks for our "Almost" Wordless Wednesday

And lastly, on Thursday, we gave you a look at our Vinylmation (Domination) of the Week: Sorcerer Mickey

Video of the Week:

Well, all the big attractions of this summer have all officially opened now, with the last new attraction, Goofy's Sky School, having opened up this past Friday.  We think it's never too early to look into the future, though.  we're already getting excited about next summer and the debut of Cars Land at Disney California Adventure.  The Disney Parks Blog released a great video this week designed to give us an early view of the attraction and how it will love to Park-goers this time next year, and we thought we'd share it with you today.  Does it get you as excited for next summer as it does us?

Here At Days In The Park:

Probably the biggest thing coming in the near future to Days In The Park is a whole new look!  Chad and Stephanie are still hard at work (it doesn't help that we're both so picky!) with an entirely new redesign for the blog that we hope will be done this week!  We know we said the same thing last week, but again, we're just so darn picky!  We still think it's looking great so far and we can't wait to debut it!  Hopefully we'll wrap that all up this week.  Cross your fingers for us!  It's taking up a lot of time, and if we can ever get it done we'll be able to get back to more of what we really enjoy doing; writing!

Even though we're working on the cosmetic look of the site, we're also working on loads of new ideas for articles at the same time.  Lots of new "Favorite Things" coming, a new "Pathing" article is in the works, and we have some ideas for articles that we think are just plain fun and fit our goofy personalities to a tee.  You'll see what we mean and know them as soon as we post them.  They're not your average run-of-the-mill articles, or so we hope.  And we're hoping we'll have Amy back and writing soon.  She's been really busy lately and life's been all over her like white on rice, but we miss her and we're hoping she'll be back with some articles of her own soon.  Wish her well here and on Twitter.  We miss her loads! 

We'll also have our usual weekly articles like "Magical Mystery Mondays", "Almost Wordless Wednesday", and "Vinylmation Domination" all ready to go.

We hope that you'll keep coming by and spending an occasional Day with us.  We love having you around!

Magical Mystery Mondays! - Where Are We?

We took a brief hiatus last Monday from our weekly game of guessing where in The Parks we took a photo, but we're back this week with a whole new picture for our readers to take a crack at.

This week's picture was submitted to us by our friend Jen from Disney Day Trippers, and we thought it was a great "little detail" we could point out to you guys, and a fun one for you to take a guess at.

If you think you know where it is, let us know! Leave us a comment here (probably the best way to do it), send us a Direct Message on our Twitter account @DaysInThePark, or drop us an email at daysinthepark@daysinthepark.com; that way more people get a chance to guess! We'll keep tabs on who made correct guesses and come back tomorrow morning and post up all of the people who got it right along with the correct answer.

We do these just to share a little of The Park detail that we really enjoy, and nothing more. We've had a few people tell us they feel bad that they're Passholders and don't know where our pictures are, but don't! We just do it to share our enjoyment, so don't take it too seriously! Take a look at it, hazard a guess, and just have fun!

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It's the morning after so you know what time it is.  Time to reveal the answer to this week's pictorial trivia question!  We had several guesses yesterday, but only one was correct.

This week's picture was taken inside Frontierland at the Westward Ho Trading Co. This particular sign is located on the side entrance door.  The interesting thing about the sign is that even though it is on the inside of the door so technically would be inside the shop, the door is almost constantly open all the way so the sign is most easily seen on the side of the building. 

Our correct guesser yesterday by Twitter name was:

• Granuaille

And there you have it!  We'll be back next Monday with another picture for everyone to take a crack at.  Thanks to everyone who took a shot yesterday. We love doing these!  If you have any pictures you'd like to submit for us to use, or have any suggestions for us, drop us a line at daysinthepark@daysinthepark.com and we'll be happy to use them and give you credit.

See you next week!

Our Favorite Spots To Shop

Welcome to the first stop aboard Magical Blogorail Blue. Enjoy the ride as we share with you our favorite Disney shopping spots.

When we first began going to The Parks several years ago we definitely had yet to acclimate ourselves to the environment enough to completely enjoy it.  We were the ones who would go from line to line, from attraction to attraction, all day long and then leave at the end of the day absolutely wiped out, because that's how we figured it had to be done.  We've since become Annual Passholders and with that has come a certain amount of understanding in just how to play our time in The Parks to our advantage.  As time has gone one, we've begun to enjoy all of the other things that The Parks have to offer as well, including restaurants and shopping spots.

We honestly enjoy shopping now in The Parks, even though as men, this probably puts us in some kind of minority.  We even have our favorite places to shop, which we're going to share with you today!  One of the reasons we enjoy shopping in The Parks is because there is always something to see.  It's true, you can find the same merchandise in any number of shops around, but we enjoy the way that they gear each shop towards the land that it is in and much of the merchandise the same.  And it seems like there is always something we've not noticed before every time we go in a particular shop, such as window-dressings or displays.  We talk a lot around here about the "little details", and Park shopping is certainly no different, so come along with us for some of our favorite shopping haunts inside The Resort.

One of our favorite "window-dressings" in The Park

Westward Ho (Frontierland)

The Westward Ho Trading Co. - Pins and Vinyl galore!

One of our favorite places in The Park to hang out is Frontierland, so it's probably only natural that one of our favorite places to shop is there as well. We love the pioneer and western feel of the area, and Westward Ho is perfectly themed to fit in. Set on the end of a western boardwalk (picture a saloon with hitching rails outside, complete with a cigar store Indian), rarely a visit to The Park goes by where we don't stop in at least once. It's specialty? Disney Pins and Vinylmation! When we go shopping for Vinylmation (when we're in the heat of a collection), this is usually our first stop. In our experience, it offers the best selections of Pins in The Park, and there are trading tables outside if that tickles your fancy. Or, if you're like us and deal in plastic, there are also trading boxes inside you can use. We've always found the Cast Members in Westward Ho pleasant and fun to deal with as well. They've always been great to deal and interact with, and definitely go a long way towards making Westward Ho one of our favorite stops.

Pooh's Corner (Critter Country)

"Waiting for you, and me Winnie the Pooh..."

We've almost begun thinking of Pooh Corner as a hidden treasure! Set way back in The Park at the back end of Critter Country, the Corner (as we've taken to calling it) has become one of our weekly stops while we're roaming around late at night. We love the Critter area, and this shop fits in perfectly with all of the other decor and features around. Pooh Corner itself is an awesome shop for souvenirs for the kiddies! There are several rooms stretched out together here (the shop is really quite large) with all kinds of clothing, toys, and everything else your kids would typically be screaming for. Good stuff!

Being who we are, though, our reason for coming back here is totally different. We like the treats! We've talked to many people, many of whom don't even know, that there is in fact a candy shop in Pooh Corner. We kind of think of it as a miniature Main Street Candy Palace (from Main Street, USA). We love going into the shop and watching them hand-make all of our favorite treats. And what's better than watching them make them? Eating them, of course! Many an evening will find us at the counter ordering either a Peanut Butter Sandwich (or Heaven) and a carton of milk for dessert. Or, if you have peanut allergies, there are TONS of other options as well, such as toffees and candy apples. Plus, there is a wide assortment of other candies here such as the Disney brand of Jelly Belly candies (which take up an entire wall along the back) and pretty much any Goofy's Candy Co. candies you can think of (including our beloved Sour Balls). Not sold yet? We honestly don't know what else could say to convince you then. Moving on!

Need we go on?

D-Street (Downtown Disney)

The King of Vinylmation stores. See, told you we called it that...

Lastly, we need to visit what we've dubbed the King of Vinylmation stores at The Resort, D Street. Located in the hip and trendy Downtown Disney area, D Street is also a place we typically stop at at least once a trip out. If a new Vinylmation series is coming out, this is your place to get it! They get all of the new releases as soon as they come out, and many an hour we've spent in here just checking things out and wishing we had the money to buy every piece of Vinyl in sight. There is also always a trading box in here (and usually people outside willing to trade as well), so if you are looking for that special piece for your collection, this just might be your place to find it.

As strange as it is to say, since that's mostly what we are there for, D Street isn't only about the Vinylmation. It is in Downtown Disney after all, and there are tons of other cool and kitschy items here. Lots of Star Wars and other sci-fi items are in here, and there are tons of t-shirts, posters, toys and other things here to keep even in the most discerning geek happy. Definitely worth checking out!

It was hard narrowing down our favorite shopping spots to just three, there are so many of them!  But in the interest of time we had no choice.  But we have a little bonus for you!  We've taken the liberty of creating a Gowalla Trip of our favorite shopping spots, specially for The Magical Blogorail and its readers.  Here you'll find our Top 10 shopping spots (including the three you've just read about) with a little description as to why we enjoy them so much.  That way if you're ever at The Resort, you can easily pull up our spots and see just where we like to go yourselves.

We hope you've enjoyed coming around with us to our favorite shopping spots today, and like always, when you're out and about and doing the shopping yourself, keep your eyes open for your own little gems inside The Parks.  You never know what you might come across. 

Thank you for joining me today.  Your next stop on the Magical Blogorail is The CanaDisney Blog.

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Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail should you happen to have to make a stop along the way and want to reboard:

1st Stop ~ Days in the Park

2nd Stop ~ The CanaDisney Blog

3rd Stop ~ Disney Babies Blog

4th Stop ~ Cooking with Mickey

5th Stop ~ Meet the Magic

Final Stop ~ Pursuing the Magic

Pathing Around The Park: Frontierland To Fantasyland

We pride ourselves around here as knowing a lot about The Parks, and especially the geography and locations of everything. The awesome thing about hanging out though, is that the more frequently you do, and the more time you spend you doing it, you begin to do things a little bit differently than the average tourist would (no knock meant on them whatsoever). We've been doing it long enough now that we have our own favorite ways to "Path Around The Park", as we like to call it.

For example, in today's offering, we're going to show you how we enjoy traveling from the main thoroughfare of Frontierland (or at least what we like to think of as the main thoroughfare) out and into Tomorrowland. We eschew the norm, so whereas many people might simply leave Frontierland and walk into Tomorrowland through "The Hub" by the Partners Statue, not so with us! We have our own way we like to do it. Over the course of the next few weeks, we'll continue our way around The Park and show you all of the attractions we like to do and the way we like to get there, too. Ready to come along with us? Let's mosey!

One of our first stops in Frontierland is always into Westward Ho Trading Co., our favorite place in The Parks to buy Vinylmation. It's your one-stop place to shop for all manner of Vinyl or Pins if you're a pin collector (when we did collect pins, this is where we went for those, too). Other than candy, Vinylmation and pins are all that you will find here. While it might be true that there are other places in The Parks to buy these items, Westward Ho nonetheless rises to the top for us because of its Land, theming, particularity and focus. And if you catch it just right, there are plenty of pin stations outside where you can trade your own pins or Vinyl with others, but it's all a little too much for us.

Next up (moving towards the Rivers of America) is the Frontierland Shooting Exposition, which we recently talked about. We enjoy stopping off here for a little target practice. 50 cents will get you roughly ten shots with the old musket, and there are plenty of western themed targets (and even a Hidden Mickey) for you to take aim at. Word of warning: this attraction can be very busy, especially during the day time and there are lot of kids playing. It can be a lot of fun standing around and watching everyone else have their shots (we've done it many times), but for what it's worth, our favorite time to play is much later in the evening after the shows and The Park has cleared out some. You can pretty much have your pick of any spot that you want and there's just something different about playing it at night that can't be beat!

You may or may not be hungry at this point, but if you are, why not make a stop off at Rancho del Zocalo for a quick bite? It's right next door to the Shooting Exposition, and is one of our favorite restaurants (casual dining and quick service) in either Park. There are plenty of great options to choose from: our favorites include the Red Chile Enchilada & Carne Asada Platter and the Sonora Burrito, but they also have tacos, salads, and a kid's or toddler's meal. Vegetarian? Not a problem as there are options for you here as well! There is plenty of seating here, the atmosphere is pretty darn cool (themed Mexican of course), and it's one of our favorite places to sit down, have a meal and kick our feet up and people watch. If you're not in the mood for food, though, feel free to hang a right at the entrance to the restaurant and we'll move on to the next spot we see in our Path.

Yes, we frequent these restrooms and fairly often. You can never have too many options at your disposal when you're in desperate need of a place to relieve yourself or the little ones. The restrooms themselves are a little on the smallish side, but we've rarely seen them unkept and that counts for a lot in our books (of course, your mileage may vary). When it comes down to it though, they're just bathrooms! They're not perfect (we've yet to find the complete restroom in The Park that is that all of the time) but we like to keep our options open and pass them on to you should you need them. And like we said, you can never have too many options where those are concerned; especially later at night when the crowds are less so of course the lines into the restrooms are less, so we like to use these a lot later in the evening. Since they're in our Path we're passing them on should the information be useful to you.

Restrooms aside, though, we do love this area here. It has the air of a covered bridge to it, and there's just something about it that we like, simple as it is.

Walking through brings us to one of our favorite places in The Parks to just sit and hang out (heck, even watch the fireworks from time to time): The Carnation Plaza Gardens. It's a huge open area with tons of places to sit, relax, snack and just enjoy the atmosphere of things around you. It offers a beautiful (if not slightly obscured) view of Sleeping Beauty Castle and there always seems to be something to enjoy back here. The stage often has bands playing (and swing dancing on the weekends) so there's usually music of some kind to listen to, and there are plenty of tables around for you to sit at, relax and have a snack or a cold beverage on a hot afternoon.

There's also plenty to stand around and look at. We love standing on the bridges which lead back to The Hub and the Partners Statue and look at the stream, gardens and ducks which populate the area. It's peaceful, tranquil and wonderful in it simplicity. When you're ready to move on, let's back up a little bit (don't go into The Hub or in front of the Castle) and let's take a left here instead of a right across the bridge to where we'll stop for this week.

In addition to proffering a peaceful view of the Castle from here, it also leads us into Fantasyland on the west end of the Castle. Exciting, isn't it? Next week we'll continue into Fantasyland for a brief stop on our way into Tomorrowland and beyond.

Hope you'll keep taking this virtual Path with us. Are there particular Paths you like to take around The Parks? Let us know; we'd love to hear!

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We would just like to stress that this article (and those coming) is just for fun and nothing more. There are obviously scores of ways in which you can move around The Park, based on preference, and we are by no means implying that ours are the best in any way, shape or form, just as we're sure that others have their favorite attractions, etc. They're just meant to be an entertaining look at some of our favorite things with some information that might come in handy to you at some point in the future thrown in for good measure.

"Almost" Wordless Wednesday: Our Weekly Out And About

We're still enjoying our "Almost" Wordless posts featuring random cell shots around The Parks, so we're going to pick up from where we left off a couple of weeks ago.  These are just some of our favorites from this past Sunday evening's jaunt.

Enjoy!

Chad LIVES in Rancho-Choochoomonga!

Mark = Duff Man!

Where are you, Duffy? *sniff*

Who's going to win THIS contest of wills?

"Leggo!"

You can never find good corn when you need it

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