OurWorld

Well it has been a long time between posts… a very long time.

Life has been good… very very busy but really good. Since I last wrote in this block I have travelled more miles than I want to think about, had some great success at work, made some great friends and basically just enjoyed living… All in I’m pretty happy.

What should I write about in my first post back? The trips to Walt Disney World or Disneyland? The brilliant conference I went to that I think will help me take some of the things I am working on to “the next level”? How about those mighty All Blacks? Do you still think they picked the wrong coach?… well I could talk about all of those things… and I probably will over the next month or so, but this post is about my biggest test struggle this year… The one that I was not able over to overcome no matter how much effort I put in to it, no matter how many people’s advice I sort or how often I tried new approaches… What was the thing that bested the great Emerson? The one that can wrestle the most difficult IT project into shape? The person that will happily tackle on the greatest of challenges and consider it “sport”?……

Try as I might I just couldn’t get my contacts in! No matter what approach I tries it was always hit an miss and mostly miss. I have absolutely no issue touching my eyes and having things stuck in my eyes. Due to having a strong history of cataracts and all the operations I’ve had on my eyes I’ve kinda grown up with doctors placing things in my eyes including actually placing needles through my eyes while I was awake (That one takes a bit to get used to but doesn’t’ hurt with atheistic just strange mentally when you think what is going on). The issue seemed to be that my lushes long eyelashes got in the way (Before you start to worry It wasn’t me who dubbed them long and lushes…).

In the end it is a $8 piece of plastic that seems to have resolves the issue. Essentially it’s a narrow plastic stick that you place the contact on the end of and then insert into your eye. It makes it really easy and you can be a lot more accurate in placing them in the eye than using your finger. It just goes to show you… sometimes you can spend great deal of time, energy an money on trying to find a solution to a problem only to find that the solution is something extremely simple. In my professional life I’m really fortunate to work with a group of people that are always looking at unique ways of solving problems to meet our customers needs. Sometimes those solutions are extreme complex but more than often I find that its the simplest solutions that normally end up being the most appropriate.

Well that’s it… my first post for a long long time… over the next few months I plan on catching you up on what’s been happening in OurWorld. Until then….

It’s been abut 15 years since i last dyed my hair and I’m thinking that maybe it is time to do so again? Since then time has kinda caught up with me just a little… that and really bad genes. My hair… according to my grandmother… is now distinguished. In other words its a salt and pepper grey… actually more salt than pepper. I’m not actually worried about it being grey… I’m more just bored with it being the same for about the last 6 years.

The negative side of course is if I do dye my hair… what colour? Maybe a natural brown with some highlights? Or maybe embrace the blonde within? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments. The other issue is maybe dying my hair would be considered by others as just doing so because is grey… one sec… when did I… the one who used to have long hair and a earring (It was the 80s…) care what people think?

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You do of course realise that I will do what I want to do no matter what the outcome of the vote is? I.e the poll is not binding but may be taken into consideration (call it a referendum)

There is an old saying “Love makes the heart grow fonder?”… well I’m not too sure I believe them. You see I don’t think i could love Keryn more no matter if she is next to me, or, like now, half a world away.

I’ve always known how lucky I am to have met Keryn and how even luckier I was that Keryn agreed to marry me. Heck… even now I occasionally suggest that that she considers marrying someone better than myself however for some reason she seems happy with what she’s got (She might be the brightest person I know but I guess even she can get it wrong now and again).

Being apart for the 2 months is pretty hard but we are lucky enough to be able to catch up via Skype most days. It’s hard to imagine life without the Internet and the communication opportunities it offers. Being apart would be so much harder if we had to relay on expensive phone calls and snail mail.  The comforting thing is that even though Keryn is so far away it often feels like she is right here with me. I guess after 10 years I’ve got a sixth sense of what she’d be thinking, saying and doing it is sometimes like she is still here.

Miss you sweet and love you as much today as always.

Well… that’s it. We’ve had our last few days in Walt Disney World. Normally this would be something that would upset me… and it does… but this trip of course the worst part is tomorrow morning when I catch my plane Denver (on the way to LAX then New Zealand) I leave behind m beloved for 2 months. My lovely wife is off to Iowa State University as part of her sabbatical and I have to head home. We’ve never been apart more than 2 weeks… even thinking about it is getting me a little upset so I think I’ll write about something else…

We had a busy last few last in WDW with the highlight probably being the Concierge Wildlife Discovery Tour and the Behind the Seeds Tour. The Wildlife tour takes you behind the scenes of the Animal Kingdom with one of the keepers as your guide. Essentially you get to do the safari tour but this time are able to stop for pictures etc and have an expert to tell you about the different animals as well as the operation of the park.

The Behind the Seeds tour takes you behind the scenes of EPCOTs glass houses. We were accompanied on our tour by one of the scientists working in the facility who explained about the various growing techniques they are using and the various experiments they are working on etc. Most of their work evolves around using different forms of hydroponics to grow various crops both without the need of insecticides (using natural methods such as “good” bugs) and of course extremely quickly compared to conventional methods. They work closely with NASA and other groups to identify plants and growing methods that can be used in hash environments where water and fertile soil are not abundant. Very interesting tour and for $16 an absolute bargain considering it went for over an hour.

Tomorrow is going to be a very long day. I just worked out it’ll take about 32.5 hours door to door all going well. The trip looks something like this:

Orlando –> Devner (4:05)

Denver –> LA (2:30)

LA –> Auckland (12:55)

Auckland –> Dunedin (1:55)

By the time you add the various layovers you get a very long day. Luckily I’m flying Air New Zealand Premium Economy from LA to Auckland and have put in for an upgrade to business class so fingers crossed that comes through (If not no biggie because premium economy is brilliant but it’ be nice to have the lie flat bed considering the length of the day).

Well I better go and finish packing etc… (ok let’s be honest Keryn has finished most of the packing already). I’ll spend some time over the next few weeks finishing up my updates from Walt Disney World and the cruise etc (With Keryn gone my nights are going to be very lonely so it’ll keep my mind off things). Depending on how the day goes tomorrow I might have some time to blog in various airport lounges but we’ll have to see how trip goes.

It’s been a few days since I updated the blog… basically we’ve been relaxing, sleeping in, enjoying the parks and watching the Big Bang Theory.

In the last few days we have been to EPCOT, Disney Studios and of course the Magic Kingdom. We managed to see both the final show of the nights American Idol Experience and Fantasmic in the one night. Tonight we managed to catch Spectromagic and the Magic Kingdoms fireworks show “Wishes”. I’ll spend a bit of time talking about the American Idol Experience in a later post. It’s not often that a themepark attraction actually changes someone’s life (Not mine… one of the contestants). Anyway… more to follow at another time… when I’m not enjoying doing nothing so much

With no planning on our part whatsoever we managed to coincide our visit with the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival. I thought I would include some photos from the topiaries around EPCOT below.

We arrived back from the cruise yesterday and are now enjoying ourselves in the lap of luxury.

Getting off the boat and thru customs was an absolute breeze. We were probably through the whole process in less than 15 minute and on a Disney bus back to Walt Disney World.

We are staying at the Boardwalk Inn during this part of the trip and have shouted ourselves to concierge level.  This is the first time we have every stayed at a “deluxe” hotel at Disney and certainly the first time we have done concierge level. I must admit you do notice the difference. The picture to the right is the view from our veranda. The room is certainly bigger than the value and moderate resorts and the room and resort amenities are of a noticeable hirer standard. Concierge level gives us access to a dedicated area of the resort with a lounge where snacks and drinks are provided throughout the day. We also get access to a vacation planner who can assist us with  dinner and activity bookings etc. We also get things like a turndown service (Love those little chocolates on our pillows) and messages left on our phones with details of the next days weather and confirming our reservations for the day etc. I have a funny feeling after we have experienced concierge level it is going to be very hard to go back to a moderate (of course the price difference might help with that decision).

Since we have been here we have just spent time relaxing (The theme for this trip). Since we have been back we have been to Disney Studios, Magic Kingdom and EPCOT. We haven’t gone “ride crazy” but instead just enjoyed some favourites. Tomorrow we head on our Seqway tour of Ft Wilderness which Keryn is really really looking forward to. Let’s hope the weather keeps improving and tomorrow warms up a little.

Today was our “at sea” day. Basically it is what it sounds like… the ship spends the day at sea. Unfortunately we continued our run of bad weather. For most of the day the ship has been rolling pretty badly with high winds across deck. For me this isn’t too much of an issue as I don’t really mind rough seas but I think some found it a little unsettling some.

   We spent most of the day taking advantage of the wide variety of activities on the ship. After a late start we popped on deck for a little look around and a snack. It was pretty windy up there so we headed down to one of the lounges for a cocktail. Later in the day we popped along to a special presentation of “Disney Innovations” which essentially explored the top 10 innovation Disney as brought to theme parks… it was a pretty interesting show and covered tings such as the hub and spoke, “the show”, auto animatronics, using film techniques such as forced prospective etc etc etc. After that it was time for a bit of a walk around the ship, a little of window shopping and basically seeing what was going around.

The show tonight was called Disney Dreams. It followed the story of a girl, Annemaree, who needed to learn how to dream again. Peter Pan helps her along the journey through the Lion King, Cinderella, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. It was an absolutely exceptional show and easily Broadway quality. The stage was spectacular with a number costume and stage changes as well as special effect such as indoor snow and fireworks. The singing was also of a high quality with my highlight being the duet of ‘Part of your world” with Annemaree and Arial from The Little Mermaid.

Dinner tonight was a French affair at Tritons. Tritons itself is themed to the Little Mermaid with the lighting changing colours to various shades of blue and green during the night. I had an excellent meal of escargot, French Onion soup, Fillet Mignon and Chocolate Mousse… simply delicious.

We finished the night at the adults only Cadillac Lounge listening to a live pianist playing and singing some classic tunes and enjoying a quiet coffee.

As I’m writing this we are steaming (do you still use the word steaming when modern ships don’t use steam for propulsion?) towards Ft Carnival where we will disembark tomorrow morning. It’s pretty rough out there as the ship makes about 20 knouts. Personally I like the rocking motion as it gently rocks me to sleep… I’m not sure everyone feels the same way. In reality it’s not too bad. Its certainly not like being in rough weather on a yacht or small boat but it is noticeable that’s for sure.

Tomorrow we are back to Walt Disney World. It’s been a great cruise and certainly something we would do again… hopefully with better weather.

  Tonight was the night of the Pirates “in” the Caribbean deck party. The party itself actually started earlier at dinner with all the servers dressing in pirate costumes with the restaurants serving some pirate favourites (like rum cake for example).

The marketing genius part of the party is that they encouraged you to wear pirate attire for the party. Now there was no pressure to do so and in actual fact a lot of people didn’t but it was certainly encouraged a few times… oh and just in case you don’t happen to have any pirate gear on the ship with you… what do you know… the shops on board just happen to have a wide selection of clothes, bandana and accessories for you to buy (including the cute Pirate Mickey ears Keryn and I were wearing)… absolutely marketing genius. The original Disneyland ride opened in the 50s was turned into a very successful film franchise… which then saw changes to the original ride to incorporate parts of the movie into it… (which brought people to the parks)… and then they continued it on board the cruise ships by having the Pirates in the Caribbean deck party… absolutely perfect marketing synergy.

The party itself was pretty cool with all your favourite Disney characters in this pirate costumes. The part culminated in a fireworks show. Apparently Disney is the only cruise line that actually does fireworks a sea which is because I guess they leverage the technologies they have developed at their parks to do fireworks at sea etc. (They are also apparently the only cruise line to run first run movies on board the ship and to offer movies in 3D… as they made a joke of at one stage… “we can because we own the movies”, again… marketing synergy at its best).

For dinner tonight we went to Palo which is the premium restaurant on board the ship. The dress code is formal so Jackets for men and dresses and pant suits for women. The setting is absolutely fabulous overlooking the bow of the ship and the service is second to none I have ever experienced, and I’ve been to a number of Michelin star restaurants over the years. When we sat down the server noticed Keryn was wearing a black pant suit so immediately changed our napkins from white to black. Service however can only get you so far… a restaurant lives or dies by it’s food (though I personally feel that the easiest way to let down a good product I by giving the customer poor service). I’m happy to report the food was OUTSTANDING. For each course the server would not only bring us what we ordered but a extra dish to share of what he recommended which was a nice touch. In fact one of his recommendations was for a appetizer of mushroom polenta… now I’m not a polenta kinda guy but after tasting this particular dish I could eat polenta every night of the year. For my main I had a steak (I am a steak kinda guy) and it is probably amongst the top 5 steaks I have ever had… maybe even the best. The great things about being on the cruise ship is if you want an extra main or to try 2 desserts it’s not an issue they will happily bring them out for you. In this particular case I didn’t take advantage of this (of course the server did bring out some extra dishes) but I I did I could still eb there eating the Mushroom Polenta and the steak right now.

A day in paradise…. Castaway Cay Disney’s own private island. Pity the weather didn’t play nice.

Today was our day at Castaway Cay which is Disney’s own private island in the Bahamas. Disney brought the island when it put the cruise line together and created an island paradise for its guest. There are a number of beaches on the island for families, teens and adults only beaches along with bars, a couple of BBQ restaurants and of course some stores to buy those Disney essentials. I can imagine what the executives of the other cruise lines thought when they heard that not only was Disney entering the cruise line market but they were buying there own island!

Apparently 22 people live on the island full time and currently there is a lot of construction going on to extent the wharf and guest services (including what looks like a water park actually in the sea itself… very cool) to be ready for when the first of the new Disney cruise ships (which are about twice the size of the current ships) come on line next year.

Unfortunately for us the weather was pretty bad when we pulled into the island (They’ve built a jetty so the ships can pull right into the island without needing tenders etc). I heard that the night before the captain wasn’t sure if they were going to make it into Castaway Cay at all because the weather was so poor and the seas were rough. It actually wasn’t too bad, probably 21degC but with highish winds. We did end up going ashore and headed to the adult beach which lucky enough is a

On the sheltered side of the island and was actually pretty nice. Keryn and I both went for a swim and later on Keryn spent some time reading her Kindle as I enjoyed myself swimming around.

Because of the weather before we left the ship the captain did announce that we would be leaving at 3:30pm instead of the scheduled 5:00pm to try and miss the worst of the weather.

Castaway Cay is a masterstroke on Disney’s part and I know a lot of people would have been happy if the ship stayed there for the whole four nights of the cruise.

Day 2 of our Disney Cruise was a visit to Nassau which is the capital of the Bahamas. After reading reports on the web we decided not to do any of the organized excursions on Nassau and instead spent some time walking around the town and then just headed back to the ship for a relaxing day. One little gem we did find in Nassau was Del Sol. Del Sol sells clothing and accessories that change colour in the sun. Keryn brought some nail polish and we each brought a tee-shirt. I’m not too sure if these tee-shirts will actually be useful in Dunedin but they will at lest get some use over the next few days.

Nassau itself is like any tourist centric South American/Bahamas city. There were a lot of people outside the cruise terminal trying to sell us things or get us to take their taxi etc. It’s not an issue as long as you are willing to say no politely and move on. The city itself is made up of old style English colonel style building with a Bahamas flavour over top. You find buildings painted in all kinds of bright colours, for example the Parliament buildings themselves re painted a bright Pink (I wonder what the Beehive would look like painted pink?).

  Nassau is probably not a place I would want to go back to. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed our time waking around the city but when I think of Bahamas I think of sandy beaches and relaxing in the sea, not walking around a town and having people trying to sell you things.

We actually ended up back on the ship by about 12 noon and spent the rest of the day enjoying amenities on the ship like the cocktail lounge which were nice and quiet as most people were off exploring Nassau.

This was our last fall day at Port Orleans French Quarter before we head on the cruise tomorrow. It was pretty cold in Orlando today… like 7degC cold! So much for coming to sunning Florida.

Wrapping up warm we heading to EPCOT around 11:30am.. we’re on holiday… why get up early? The idea today was to finish off Future World before tea at Garden Grill at 5:50pm. The first stop was grabbing Fast Passes for Sorin. We’d already done Sorin a few days ago but it is probably “the” ride at EPCOT so is a must. The first ride we actually got to ride was Living with the Land which is a boat ride which fist shows you different econ systems and how man is having effects on them. The second part of the ride paints a more optimistic picture letting us know what we can do to protect nature. It then takes us through the Disney Biodom where they were with NASA and others to discover new ways to grow crops including using insects to control pests, different forms of hydroponics and discovering plants that grow in hash environments etc. It’s a simple enough ride but gives you a good look behind the scenes etc. Disney also grows many of the vegetable and farms the fish that it serves in its restaurants in these glasshouses. After living with the land we thought we’d continue the conservation theme by heading to the Circle of Life where Simba teaches all about how humans have polluted the planet but also have begun to clean it up and have the ability to protect it in to the suture. The next ride was a repeat of The Seas with Nemo and Friends followed by Turtle Talk with Crush. In Turtle Talk Crush interacts with the audience and spends time answer questions of the youngster while teaching us all how to talk turtle… Dude.

By this time our Fast Past time was upon us for Sorin. After Sorin we went to Inoventions where we sat through StormStruck which teaches you how to prepare your house to survive large storms. Next stop was Some of All Thrills which allows you to design your own roller coaster which you then get to ride. The ride itself essentially puts you on the end of a large robotic arm with a virtual reality screens in front of you. The robotic arm imitates the movements of rollercoaster you designed. The idea is ach you how maths and engineering is important. After the Sum of all Thrillswe managed to do the 1/2 punch of Test Track and Mission Space. By this stage tea was still about an hour away so we headed to World showcase to have a bit of a walk around and catch a showing of O’ Canada.

Dinner was at the Garden Grill which takes place in a revolving restaurant.The restaurant looks over “Living with The Land”. Unbeknown to me it was also a character meal (hence the photo below)so we got to meet Mickey and Chip n Dale.

After home we headed back to the resort and packed for the cruise which begins tomorrow. We are only taking the one suitcase instead of the 3 we came here with with the Boardwalk storing the rest of our bags until we return. I probably won’t have Internet access while we are on the cruise… looking at the price it looks like it would be cheaper for me to buy my own satellite that use the internet on the ship. I’ll continue to write this trip report on the cruise but the chances are it won’t get “posted” until we are back at Walt Disney World in 5 days.

After all these months of planning and anticipation we finally set sail on the Disney Wonder.

The embarkation process was as painless as it possibly could be. Before you could say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious we were whisk through security, our own “Foreign nationals check in (which had 1 group in front of us compared to about 30 in the US nationals line), had our security photo taken and we were on the boat…

Our cabin was pretty is surprisingly spacious certainly bigger than hotel rooms I’ve slept in New York or London. It’s interesting to see how every nock and granny is used for storage.  We’ve got our own private veranda which has a couple of chairs and a table on it, great for watching the sunset or the sea go by (or in my case watching them get the boat ready to get underway, absolutely fascinating). Awaiting us in our room was another towel animal creations which was kinda cute.

As we left port I noticed something a little odd from our veranda… somehow a boat managed to beach itself on some rocks just as you left the port area. It seemed like this was a bit of an issue as there were a number of police boats, fire engines and other assorted personal in uniform surrounding the scene. Apparently the land the boat had managed to beach itself on was owned by NASA, which probably explains the police interest, or maybe they were just trying to work out how the captain was stupid enough to get there in the first place… I bet someone had some explaining to do.

After settling in it was time to head to the Walt Disney Theatre to watch the Golden Mickey’s show. Basically it was an academy award type show where various Disney characters were award awards with the underlining story being to follow your dreams. All in all it was a very good show and I thought the singers were excellent.

Our dinner on the first night was at Animators Palette. As is normal with cruises we  were seated with a group of people, 2 people from Orlando, 2 from Korea and two from France… and no I didn’t make any of my French surrender jokes or discussed the blatant hypotrophy of calling the US “terrorists” when they went into Iraq and yet not mentioning that they sent secret agents into New Zealand to blow up a civilian boat… Whoops… sorry… got carried away there. The food itself was certainly very nice but in this restaurant it is probably the restaurant itself which is the star. During the night the restaurant slowly changes colors from being totally black and white to eventually fill color during dessert. Everything from the paintings on the walls to walls themselves changes colour. Even the servers change their uniforms during the night.

After the show we did a little shopping and actually decided to call it a night. For some strange reason I am actually finding it hard to stay awake at night and am often beating Keryn up in the morning… maybe my brain has always been set to US east coast time and I have just been living in the wrong place?

Another slow day today. The great thing about spending so long at WDW (14 days in total this trip) is that you don’t have to go “commando” and try and fill in every day from dawn to dust in the parks. How basic motto is that if we aren’t enjoy ourselves it’s time to head back to the resort or do something different. We are on holiday… surely the whole idea is to enjoy ourselves? It’s pointless either rushing around so much that we need a holiday after our holiday or do things that we aren’t enjoying because we feel we “have” to and end up hating the holiday.

During our first visit to Walt Disney World we stumbled upon a bit of a secret… Chef Mickey’s. Truth be told if you look at the number of people there it’s not too  much of a secret but it is the best way to get character interaction without having to waiting in lines for hours. During our breakfast at Chef Mickey’s we got to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and Goofy in less than an hour. During our breakfast at chef Mickey’s we were presented with a special cupcake with candles on the top in celebration of our Anniversary which was rather sweet. Most of the characters that came up to also made a big deal of the Anniversary giving us hugs and asking us how long we’d been married (in their own signing kinda way because hey can’t talk of course). Chef Mickey’s in one activity that will always be on our menu when we come to Walt Disney World.

After we finished breakfast we caught the monorail to the Magi Kingdom. As soon as we stepped in the gate we realised it was a lot busier than what the Touring Plans Crowd Calendar had indicated. My guess is that because today was the first fine day after a number of cold wet days people had spent time in their resorts instead of coming to the parks and the first day it was fine people flocked to the park. Every ride had 25+ minutes waits with the likes of Peter Pans Flight having 70 minutes. We managed to catch Mickey’s Philomagic which normally plays to half full theatres at a maximum only to find that it was playing to back to back completely full audiences (Probably 500 people every 20 minutes). Even the TTA which is a guarantee walk-on had a queue of about 50 people waiting to rind. In the end we saw Philomagic and Liberty Bell steamboat and decided to head back of the resort and then Downtown Disney to do a bit of shopping. The way we look at it we are here so long that if the crowds are a little high for our likening we’ll just leave and go and do something different and then come back to the park another day.

When we got back to the room on our way to Downtown Disney we found towel animals (photos above) in our room. Another one of those Disney touches.

After a bit of shopping and a rest back at the resort we headed out to Hoop de do Musical Review. It’s pretty hard to explain but is basically a lot of funny/silly country ho down fun. It’s a mix of comedy, music and dancing and an absolute blast. On our way to the show we had another taste of the Disney difference. We boarded a bus to the Magic Kingdom at our resort. We were the only people on the bus. The driver let us know the park was closing within the hour (which we knew) just in case we wanted to go to a different park. We told the bus driver that we were heading the Hoop De View Review at Ft Wilderness and were going to catch the boat over from the Magic Kingdom (Which would have taken us about 40 minutes). Instead of taking us to the Magic Kingdom the driver instead took us to Ft Wilderness itself. It was something he didn’t have to do and not something we expected but again demonstrated Disney’s commitment to customer service which includes empowering cast members to make decisions (like taking our bus to Ft Wilderness) that enhance the customers experience.

Tomorrow is our last day at WDW until we head on the Cruise. Again, nothing “planned” as such, we’ll just take the day as it comes.

Another slow relaxing day cumulating in a bit of razzel dazzle.

We headed to Animal Kingdom for the first half of the day getting in all the major rides before heading back to French Quarter to get some washing done and a bit of a nap. I think because it was pretty cold today (around 7degC) a lot of animals were out and about during our Kilimanjaro Safaris tour. We managed to see various giraffe, rhinos, hippos and lions as well as various gazelle etc. The next step was a walk on ride on Expedition Everest. Is it just me or is the Yeti never working? I’ve heard a rumour that there is some structural issue with the Yeti superstructure. Next stop was the bird show “Flights of Wonder”… just amazing. The show feature various birds showing how they act in the wild while telling a conversation story about protecting birds and their habitat etc. After being amazed by the birds it was off to Finding Nemo the Musical. This show uses puppetry in a simular manner to the Lion King musical and in my opinion is every bit as good. As must see every time I go to Animal Kingdom. Last stop on the way out the door was Dinosaur… I like the ride… but does it have to be so bumpy? (Think speed jeep ride through the Jurassic period hitting every pothole known to man.

After spending the last half of the afternoon back at the resort we caught a taxi over to ESPN’s Wide World of Sport to watch the Harlem Globetrotters. I’ve been a fan of the Globetrotters since i can remember and have always been amazed by there combination of showmanship and basketball skills. Tonight’s game was a lot of fn with a lot of big name American sports stars… half of which I didn’t know… turning up and taking part. Mickey, Goofy, Donald and the gang also came out during the half time break to entertain the crowd dressed in their sporting best. As can be expected with the Globetrotters there was a lot of trick shots, dunks and pure amazing basketballs skills on display. We were lucky enough to have seats in the second row so had a brilliant view of all the action.

Tomorrow is a pretty busy day. We start the morning at Chef Mickey’s for breakfast and end it at the late showing of the Hoop de Do Musical review dinner show.

On the way to the parks this morning Keryn and I were once again reminded of what we call the Disney Difference. We were just passing through the lobby wearing or “Anniversary” badges on the way to the buses when a cast member stopped us and wished us a Happy Anniversary. She then proceeded to give us some Marti Gras beads and then asked us if we wouldn’t mind waiting a few minutes as she something else she wanted to give us.. a few minutes later she returned with some “Princess and the Frog” (I think that makes Keryn the princess and me the frog?) and a fresh cookie each from the bakery… very yummy. She then proceeded to again wish us a happy anniversary and told us if we needed anything during our stay to just let her know. A few minutes alter we were on the bus to EPCOT and the bus driver headed to Port Orleans Riverside (We are at French Quarter). Apparently the family that were on the bus when we got on had got onto the wrong bus so he was dropping them off at the right pace. Truth be told it is only about a 10 minutes walk to Riverside so he could have let them off at French Quarter instead of going out of his way but no… he went beyond average service and went the extra 1/2 mile. (We also had this late one night when a bus driver saw us waiting at a top and took it upon himself to take us to our resort even though another bus would be along in 15 minutes or so). Walt Disney always said he wanted to “plus” things… make it better than you “have” to and go beyond he customers expectations. I like the philosophy and it is one I try to install that with my great team at home.

After getting the beads today got off to a bit of a shaky start… all my fault. We got on the bus to EPCOT… all going fine. Got to the park and  thru security, still all fine… and then I got out tickets out of my pocket… things not going so fine! I managed to leave the tickets back in the hotel room… whoops!! 40 minutes later after going back to get our tickets we were back at EPCOT thins time with tickets in hand… whoops.

Because it was pretty wet off and on today the park was very quiet… just the way we like it. We managed to do all the rides below literally as walk ups (Though did get Fast Passes for Test Track as it was a 20 minute wait). During the middle we took a break and headed to Wilderness Lodge for dinner at the Whispering Canyon Cafe. The staff were absolutely brilliant and the place had a nice related family friendly tone. At one stage someone asked for some more ketchup and the server brought out about 6 bottle and from then on whenever someone asked for ketchup the table that had the bottles had to take it over to the table that requested it . One thing they had that I had never seen before was bottomless Milkshakes. Being a bit of a milkshake fan I certainly took advantage of this.

Rides we did today:

- Mission Space (Keryn does the less intense version I do the intense version). I understand the phyics behind how this ride works but I am always impressed with the feeling of gravity and weightlessness this ride produces on the body.

- Ellen’s Energy Adventure (Disney sure bet on a winner when they hired Ellen to do take part in this ride 10 odd yeas ago).

- Test Track (I wonder how long General Motors can afford to sponsor this ride? Still considering how many peopl see their cars at the end of the ride each day I wonder if it isn’t worth every penny?

- Imagination (Love that purple dinosaur).

Off to the Wilderness lodge for dinner

- Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros

- Maelstrom (Missing the movie of course)..

We also spent a lot of time walking around World Showcase before getting a great spot in Canada to watch IllumiNations.

Tomorrow night we are off to the Harlem Globetrotters which I am really looking forward to. Until then… how are you going to “plus” what you do?

Well that’s all I need to write on that really… I think my library friends are probably split in 2 camps about now.. 1 camp wants my head and the other is considering canonising me.

Before we left I ordered Keryn a Kindle so that she would not need to carry the 10-20 books she normally travels with (Or at least has by the time she comes home). It finally arrived to the hotel today and let me just say the screen is so crisp that it truly does “feel” like paper and I could easily find myself reading it instead of a book (If Keryn ever lets me use it). “e” ink truly looks like “real” ink and the weigh and size of the Kindle is just perfect. It’ll be interesting to see how Keryn takes to it. It’s not unusual for Keryn to read 3 or 4 books in a day so if anyone can put it to a torture test it will be Keryn. The good thing about the upcoming cruise…

Ok… back to the holiday before the Librarians lynch me (Mark my words, the Kindle and iPad will do to books what the iPod did to CDs).

For some reason I simply can’t explain I was up before 7 am this morning. After a nice walk along the river, 3 or 4 cups of coffee and generally killing time I popped back to the room around 9 where Keryn was up and waiting for me (2 days in a row I was up before Keryn… I think the world has ended).

Today we headed to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Like yesterday we decided to take it pretty slow and just ride took our fancy and had the shortest wait (Or we had Fast Passe for). In order we managed to ride or see:

- Rock n Rollarcoaster which is one of out favourite rides at WDW. Essentially it is a dark rollercoaster with twists, rolls and loops all to the music of Aerosmith. Absolutely great fun.

- Star Tours in it’s current format (It’s getting a referb later this year). Disney and Star Wars… what more can I say. But wait it gets better… ok, just as good…

- Muppets 3D, Disney and Muppets! Perfect. Of course this movie would be a lot better if I could see 3D movies in 3D (I have a hospital appointment in May which will hopefully be the first step to solving his issue).

- Toy Story Midway Mania

- Great Movie Ride: I really like this ride which “makes you the star” of various Hollywood movies the only problem is… is it still relevant? I’m not too sure most people under 35 have seen more than 10% of the movies that are shown through the ride. Time to update it with some modern classics… if there is such a thing.

– American Idol Experience: Essentially park guest get to audition then perform in   this live version of American Idol with the winner for the day (numerous heats then a final show at the end fo the day) getting a “golden ticket” which gets them to the front of the line during an American Idol audition. I was actually surprised how good this show was. All the performers were pretty good and the staging spectacular. I’d certainly be interested in seeing the final how one night.

- Tower of Terror: This might just be my favourite ride at WDW?

- Beauty and The Beast: mmmm Belle…

After we finished tower it was back to the resort for a bit of a rest and as it turned out to pick up the Kindle before heading to Downtown Disney where we did a bit of window shopping before heading to Ohans’s for dinner.

So that was the day. All in all pretty good to tell the truth. The only negative is by the end of the day my broken foot was beginning to get pretty painful but it’ll live.

No idea what tomorrow will bring… who cares? I’m on holiday…

Our first full day at Walt Disney World. Home sweet home. We finally got up around 11am… may I just add now for the record that I was awake about 2 hours before Keryn… I just wanted to put that out there because it doesn’t happen too often.

After a quick lunch at the Port Orleans French Quarter (POFQ) quick service restaurant (Taco Beef and Chicken in a Taco Bowl which was kinda cool) we headed to the Magic Kingdom where we of course had to get the obligatory picture outside the train station before entering the park.

As far as attractions go we really had a pretty good day never having to wait more than 20 minutes for any ride. I started off doing the Magic Carpets of Aladdin by myself as Keryn really can’t do anything that goes around and around… which considering she’ll do any rollercoaster going… including ones with loops is kinda odd. We then headed over for our 7 week voyage on the Jungle Cruise. I am sure they have added a whole lot more animatronic animals to that ride… either that or Animal Kingdom is missing some of it’s animals and I know just where to find them. From there it was to the ride that inspired a movie which then inspired a redo of the ride itself, Pirates of the Caribbean. Big Thunder Mountain was our next port of call followed by the new Hall of Presidents. This is the first time I have seen the show since US President Obama was added. I think they did a good job with this version and I thought that Obama’s speech was very good (Is he the best orator since JFK?). Obviously it is very American centric… which you kinda expect from an attraction about the American Presidency, but I kidna enjoy it… if nothing else it is a great way to catch up on your American history in less than 22 minutes (Worst case… the chairs are really comfy and the lights are dim making it a great place for a nap).

After Hall of Presidents we were going to ride to Space Mountain but unfortunately it was having some technical difficulties. It seems since it went though its referb last year that it is spending more time out of action than ever before… not a good sign. With Space Mountain down we headed over to our old faith and what I consider the most under rated attraction at WDW… Tomorrowland Transportation Authority (TTA). Its a great 10 minute ride high above Tomorrowland and never has a queue to get on. For those geeks reading this it is also powered by magnets and is the forerunner to the high speed MAV trains that are popping up around the world… another Disney first). The TTA actually goes through Space Mountain which in most cases is not that exciting because Space Mountain is a dark ride. This time however because it was down we got to see Space Mountain with the lights on which was kinda cool. Unfortunately by the time we got the camera out and ready we had already missed the shot… never fear… we were able to stay on the TTA for a second trip and snapped a few good picks.

After the TTA it was over the the Carousal of Progress where I managed to grab a few minutes nap while Keryn enjoyed singing “It’s a great big wonderful tomorrow”. I normally rate Carousal of Progress but I guess the long day yesterday caught up with me.

After CoP it was off to “Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin”…. “to infinity and beyond” followed by no ones (surely?) favourite ride “Stitch’s great escape”.  I’ve never been in that ride when some kid hasn’t broken down in tear due to the dark scary nature of the ride… not sure Disney hit a home run with this one.

The next stop was EPCOT via the monorail… (monorail, monorail… love monorails). The bad news is by this time it was starting to rain… the good news is by this time it was starting to rain which meant that a lot of people were leaving the park. After a quick trip on Spaceship Earth we headed to our dinner reservations at Chef de France which oddly enough is in the French pavilion… go figure. The meal was pretty good. I had the sparerib and Keryn the salmon… ok… I also had the French onion soup (when in France…) and the chocolate moose cake. It’s fair to say we enjoyed or meal but would be surprised if it rated as our dining highlight by the end of the trip.

After dinner we managed to walk on to Finding Nemo and then amazingly walked on to Soarin… which hardly ever has less than a 30 minute weight. Sorin is the only attraction I know that consistently gets a ovation from those riding it…spectacular! After Soarin our day was done and again our good luck continued with our bus virtually waiting for us at the bus stop to take us back to our resort.

When we got back to the room there was a signed photo of Mickey and Minnie wishing us a happy anniversary as well as a discount to Photopass… again… the Disney difference.

All in all a pretty relaxing day but we managed to get a lot of things done with virtually no crowds. Brilliant… let’s hope our luck holds in the days ahead.

We are at Walt Disney World.

Our plane arrived on time and before you know it we were on the Magical Express bus and on the way to Port Orleans French Quarter. Checking in was typical Disney and we were on our way to our room in a matter of minutes with a nice envelope full of information about the parks et. Somehow the fact that it was our Anniversary had been included on our room information and the person checking us wished us a happy anniversary and gave us anniversary pins etc. When we got to our room there was a voice message waiting for us from none other than the big cheese himself… Mickey Mouse wishing us a happy anniversary with Minnie’s help. We’ve got a great room on the top floor (of 3) overlooking the river. No doubt I’ll post some pictures in the coming days.

The plan for tomorrow is to sleep in a bit since today ended up being a 42 hour day and just take it easy. We’ve got late dinner reservations at Chef de France but apart from that nothings planed

Ok… I’.m off to sleep… it’s been a LONG day… but, tomorrow I wake up in the Magic Kingdom.

It’s a sad sad day…… my iPhone met its maker at the hands of a tiled floor about an hour ago. It served me well, providing me with companionship, giving me answers to all my questions and being the best P.A anyone could ever ask for. The really sad thing… I won’t be able to get a new one until we get back in New Zealand because the US only sells locked iPhones!

One thing it did highlight is how brilliant Air NZ Koru club staff are. I let them know that I had broken the phone just really looking for some gladwrap to protect the screen from breaking completely. The Koru staff took it upon themselves to ring around the airport to see if anyone sold iPhones and if so if they could go and pick one up on my behalf (As I couldn’t leave International Departures as I’ve been through customs etc). Unfortunately Vodafone at the airport doesn’t sell iPhones (why?) so it came to nothing but I was amazed at how they tried everything in their power to get me one (even offering to walk and get it if someone had one). Well done Air NZ you have just ensured a customer for life.

The good news is I bought the mandatory All Blacks jersey a kiwi must purchase when leaving the country so at least have black to wear to mourn my loss.

Our flight leaves in just under an hour to San Francisco. We are in Premium Economy which is great because it gives my the extra leg room (It’s not an issue for Keryn… every seat is Business class for her but when you are 6ft 3in the extra space is appreciated). Prem Econ is a nice halfway house between the, “you want how much?” to fly Business Class and Economy class (which I didn’t mind last trip actually). Hopefully I’ll get some sleep on the plane as we have a 2 hour turn over in San Fran followed by another 6 hour flight.

Anyway… better go… free food to devour in Koru lounge before our flight…

I miss you my friend…

Well.. here I am in the Koru lounge in Dunedin waiting to board our plane to Auckland (via Wellington) on our way to San Francisco and then Orlando. Actually let’s be honest.. we’re going to WDW not Orlando… in fact that last 3 times I have been to Orlando all I have seen of it is from the airport to WDW.

It’s a long day ahead of us. It’s now 10:30am Sunday NZST and we should get in to Port Orleans French Quarter at about 10:30 EST which is about 28 hours.

This is our 10th Anniversary trip which will include both time at WDW and a Disney Cruise which is a first for us. We’ll be at WDW for 7 nights, then a 4 night cruise and then back to WDW for 7 nights

Anyway… better go. The plane is about to board to Auckland. We have a 5 hour layover in Auckland so I might get some time to blog there to fill out a bit more information.

I’ll hopefully be updating this blog during our trip so keep coming back.