A Remarkable Experiance!!! Once in a Lifetime!

What a remarkable and Magical experience I had on a recent trip to California! I had the incredible opportunity to meet Dave Smith, original archivist for The Walt Disney Company! For an entire afternoon and evening Dave gave a wonderful private tour to us of "Everything Disney"! From The Walt Disney Studio's, Walt and Roy's homes, the cemetery where Walt is buried to Walt's favorite restaurant the evening was absolutely unbelievable!

I cannot begin to Thank Dave for such a remarkable time. I will be posting more about the trip at a later date but wanted to get this up for now.

Thanks Dave for creating the "Magic"!

Leaving for California Tomorrow...

Well tomorrow I leave for the big lights of California! It should be a fun trip and I am very much looking forward to meeting Dave Smith and touring the Disney Studios! Unfortunately I did not get a reservation at Club 33 but I guess there is still a slight chance that it could happen if anyone reads this blog and has a membership to the Club. Feel free to email me if you are able to make my dream come true! I will be sure to post about the trip later!
Have a Magical Day!
My Email address should anyone be able to make a reservation for me in Club 33 for any date between October 9th - October 16th.  pluto1979@yahoo.com
 Figures Crossed!

Time is running out but not my Wishing!!!

Well today is September 7th and my trip to California is getting closer! I am looking forward to it but my dream to visit Club 33 is beginning to dim a little. I am not sure what to do or whom to speak with but I will keep trying. All I would like is a reservation for 2 under the name Adam J Babbitt for any day between October 9th - October 16th. Whether it is a lunch or a dinner res. does not matter! Just remember you would be making a dream come true! As a CM I do not need park admission since I receive it already just to eat there and take many many pictures would be more than I can imagine!!

Of course you would need to notify me. You can email me at pluto1979@yahoo.com.

This Dream is a Wish my Heart is Making!!!

When you wish upon a star... Club 33 Dream

Well like Jiminy Cricket said, " When you wish upon a star, makes no difference who you are, ANYTHING your Heart desires will come to you"! So I am hoping and praying that during my trip in October to California, I may somehow get a once in a lifetime chance to dine at Club 33. I am willing to make a donation to a charity, pay for the Club 33 members meal and just about anything to experience this very privileged and honored Club!!! I cannot begin to explain how incredible this would be! It means more then just eating at a great place it means immersing myself in a special place that Walt experienced, built for a very special purpose and being in the presence of Walt himself! Being a Cast Member myself, the Club is just out of my reach as far as the highly cost to become a member. I do not even need the access to the park (which is part of the perks with having a reservation at the Club) since I get into all the Disney parks for free! I have heard, seen, spoken with and reminisced all there is with Club 33.

The most highly cherished moment when speaking about Disney is being given a private tour of Walt's apartment above the firehouse in Disneyland. I was even given a special pin featuring the lamp that always glows (the pin also turns on lighting the lamp) as a memento of my personal and private tour. I would even give this pin to the Club 33 member who makes the reservation for me! So in wrapping this post up, if anyone has a membership and wants to make a Dream come true for a person who makes dreams come true for others on a daily basis, PLEASE, PLEASE let me know. I hate asking for anything from anyone, however this is very different! Thanks and I hope everyone has a Magical Day!

PS. I would take any reservation for lunch or dinner on any day from Monday, October 10 through and including Sunday, October 16th.

You can email me at: pluto1979@yahoo.com with questions for me and with good news about making a dream come true! 

Making a Dream a Reality?

I know have mentioned before how dining in Club 33 is truly a dream of mine.  After realizing that dreams do come true I have become determined to eat at least 1 time inside of the famous Club 33! I understand this would mean me flying to claifornia just to eat there but I have saved my miles and am willing to use them just to do this one simple yet very important thing! After being inside Walts apartment I learned that dreams do come true if I set my mind to it. So now my new Dream that I will be working on is to eat inside Club 33! Anyone wishing to help with either making the reservation inviting me to eat with them or buying me a membership is more then Welcome to do so!

D23 Scavenger Hunt 2011

A few weeks ago my brother and myself completed the first D23 Scavenger Hunt at Walt Disney World. What an adventure it was. Each day for 2 days you entered into 2 parks for 3 hours in each park to complete a series of questions ranging from 1 point to 10 points. At the end of the 2 days the scores were calculated and a winner was announced. The hunt had over 550 teams with some having 4 people per team. My brother and I were on our own!

We arrived at our designated first park Disney's Animal Kingdom to begin our hunt. After standing in a line of many die-hard enthusiasts we learned that some teams (ok many) had done research, read books, created pages of trivia and answers, watched movies, studied internet sites, trolled the parks earlier in the week and had really prepared for this hunt. They brought colored flags to delineate where in the park the questions were, highlighters for the more difficult questions, pens, pencils, extra papers, food, and a host of other items to be fully prepared for this HUNT! Dan and I, we just showed up! No materials in hand, no pencils or pens, nothing but some gum, advil, money and our ID's.

After receiving our credentials Dan and I began by reading all the questions and figuring out where in the park to head to first. Our first stop was my old hunting ground DinoLand USA. I had this down pat! Heck I worked there for over 3 months so I should know, right? Not really! Soon we answered the questions and moved on through the park. At about 30 minuted remaining Dan and I noticed that there were questions with higher points. So after answering 75 questions valued at 1 point each we came to the 5 point questions (10 in all) and the 10 point questions (another 10) with only 30 minutes left. We did our best guessing and answered as many as we could with some really stupid answers! However we turned our booklet in with only a few minutes remaining and left the park, heads held somewhat high. After all it was 97 degrees out that day! Off to Epcot for round 2!

Epcot, we learned from our mistake, to read the questions first, keeping in mind the higher valued ones! We entered Epcot and had 4 hours to complete the booklet with the same number of questions as AK. Dan and I went to the Electric Umbrella, got something to eat and began our strategy. Dan's only strategy was eating while he let me eat and figure out all of the questions. This time we answered all of the 5 and10 pointers and while in certain areas we were able to answer the less valued ones. By 6pm we were DONE! Dan and I both were hot, burnt, tired (of each other) and ready to go to our resort.

Day 2

We began our day in the Magic Kingdom! Another one of my old stomping grounds. With questions in hand and our strategy figured out from the day before, we sat at the checker table near the Chapeau shoppe, figured everything out and began answering questions on Main Street USA. The day went much faster and by the end of the 3 hours in MK we had all of our booklet completed and moved on to Disney's Hollywood Studios. By this time Dan and I are slap-happy, cracking jokes left and right and not concentrating on what was at hand. Again we entered the park got something to eat and figured out were to begin. We finished on time and felt good about the day.

With all concluded Dan and I returned to our resort and waited until 8:30 PM for the announcement of the winners at the Contemporary Resort. We did not win. On top of that we had to wait to get our results for another week! Oh well the time spent with my brother was a lot of fun!

One last thing. Sorry Dan! Dan is not always on top of his game! While answering some of the more difficult questions that required thinking Dan would space-out. Leaving me trying to figure out the answers. As I would be writing them down Dan would yell out what I had written while many other teams were around us! On many different occasions Dan did this with me grinding my teeth and giving Dan the evil-eye! Yet on many other questions when we had to count out words on a plaque with corresponding numbers to get a certain letter, Dan would be there as I might have 4out of 15 of the letters done and he would say "lets go I got it" What! "Yup its Manifest Destiny"! Ok, I thought he was pulling this from you know where! He was right! Finally Dan caught on and instead of yelling out the actual answer he would yell out something different! Good Job Dan!
At the end Dan and I finished 206 out of over 550 teams! Next year Team Goof Troop will be prepared and will have a new name, Disney Intelligent Minds With Ingenious Talent, otherwise know as the DIMWIT's!! Thanks for the name Dad!

A Disney Dream!

So what can be said about a true Disney Dream, The Disney Dream! I had such a pleasure of being on the Maiden Voyage of the Dream, and a Dream it was! From the beginning to the end the short 4 day cruise was filled with fun, relaxation, entertainment and gifts!

The food in the main dinning rooms was terrific and dinning in Palos was outstanding! Dinning in Remy's was out of this world! The entire dinner took 3 1/2 hours to complete and you felt like a King! Following dinner you were surprised with truffles in your stateroom sitting comfortable on your bed awaiting for you to slowly slip into bed to enjoy.
The Gifts: Many people wondered what they would do that would be so special for the Maiden voyage of this ship. Well let me tell you I was prepared to buy and buy but spent not a penny! In each stateroom on the very first day were 2 Mickey hands to use during the deck party with the date of the cruise. In addition was your stateroom gift if you were a returning guest, part of the CastAway Club. That gift was a red and black bag filled with rice crispy treats, water bottles and key chain. On the second night when I returned to the stateroom there were gifts gallor on the bed. A very nice lithography by Don (Ducky) Williams of Mickey in bed dreaming of the new ship, chocolates from Remy's, a leather portfolio and luggage strap from the Castaway club and a nice letter. The third night each stateroom had a book detailing the construction of the new ship. In addition I had a mahogany Captains Box (jewelery box) with lanyards and a pin inside. On the last night each room had a replica Keel Coin made of bronze, the same coin that is placed in the keel during construction as a symbol of prosperity and good fortune. I was also given a blue Dream blanket, DVD of the ship and other smaller memento's.

This cruise was truly spectacular which included a special "Float By" of Castaway Cay to visit the Dream's sister ship the Magic while she was docked and those guests were enjoying the island. The captains had a horn-off playing and responding to each ships horns. Coming back to reality was difficult but makes returning to any of the Disney ships a Dream come true!!!

Walt's Lamp

So here is the story of Walt Disney's Lamp! If you have never heard of it, their is a lamp that sits on a small table in his private apartment above the Fire station in DisneyLand. The story goes...

Walt Disney liked to work and he worked a lot! So often that on many evenings he would work from his private apartment above the fire station in DisneyLand. This became his "Home away from Home". Whenever Walt would be in DisneyLand he would go and put the light on in his apartment to give a signal that he was in the park. This became well know to the Cast Members who worked during this time and would know to be on their best behavior! This light stayed on all the time during his time there.

All the Cast Members would look for this light when in the park as well as some guests who knew to look for this signal. Well when Walt died very expectantly, the Cast decided that this light would stay on all the time as a perpetual reminder of Walt and a symbol that Walt is in the park (in spirit) all the time!

Not too many people know this nor understand this but when we tell it to them they get a tear in there eye! One picture is of the actual lamp that I took and the other is of a special pin they give to those who have seen the apartment!