Twirlmania: A Magical Competition

As you may or may not already know through following my blogs and YouTube Channel, my daughter is a competitive twirler. She is on the travel team with The Sparklers. She is currently on their Intermediate Tiny Tots team and she performs solo competitions in marching (basic and military) and will start presentation soon. She is 6 years old (will be 7 next month) and absolutely LOVES twirling. She especially loves her team and being a part of such a spectacular organization.

So, what does this have to do with Disney?

Pumpkin & the Sparklers Titanium Team

Every year for the past 20 years, Disney has been host for Twirlmania, an international competition for twirlers of all ages. When Pumpkin first tried out to be on the travel team, we met a woman whose daughter had just been to Twirlmania. She showed Pumpkin all of the pictures of twirling at Disney. At the time, Pumpkin was just five years old. She asked me if we could go to Twirlmania, and I told her that we could go when she was six if she stuck with twirling and really enjoyed it. I honestly forgot all about it until the Sparkler Awards Dinner in September. At the Awards dinner, it was announced that the Titanium Team would be the first Sparklers team to ever compete in Twirlmania. My daughter, who has a memory like a freaking elephant, stood up and shouted, "I'M GOING TO TWIRLMANIA, TOO!!!!!"

Yeah, so, I'm on a plane right now, heading down to Orlando once again. We are staying at Disney's Pop Century for the first three nights, then transferring over to Disney's Old Key West for another five nights. We desperately need a vacation, especially after all of the health issues my husband faced since July 2014. I'm really looking forward to the break.  I'll be blogging a bit, of course, so keep checking back to this blog.

The hair ribbon from Team Titanium

I also wanted to give a huge THANK YOU to Pumpkin's coach, Trish, who worked so hard with her for this competition. Another THANK YOU to Linda Peters and the rest of the Sparklers staff for having such an awesome program. Finally, THANK YOU to the Titanium team for including Pumpkin in your excitement and for the hair ribbon. You all made her feel so wonderful and special. The photos at the airport and the greeting she got from you all is something that she will not soon forget.

The whole family is very excited to support Pumpkin at Twirlmania. We are looking forward to experience new things at Disney, such as the ESPN Zone for the first time and spending quite a lot of time at Downtown Disney! The twins each received a Disney gift card from Uncle Tony, Aunt Jean and their cousins for Christmas, so they are really looking forward to going shopping. Magoo is going to go fishing with his dad while Pumpkin is rehearsing. We got the meal plan and annual passes, and we are soooo ready to go. Once we get off the plane, we will meet up with Coach Trish and head over to the Pop Century. The plan tonight is to go to Epcot for a little while-- Maybe even see the fireworks!

WARNING: Fantasmic May Be Scary For Little Ones!

Pumpkin

I know that these entries are getting shorter and shorter, but I want to make sure that I get at least one blog entry a day while I'm at the Happiest Place on Earth. Today, the fam and I went to the Animal Kingdom. And, yes, Yak & Yeti was as fabulous as I expected it to be. We had a real blast there, but I will write more about it another time. (SOOOOO freakin' good, though.) 

After going on the Kali River Rapids (and getting thoroughly soaked), we headed back to the hotel to change and grab dinner. I also promised the kiddos that they would be able to play in the water playground for a bit. Things started happening with my business, so I had to work a little bit. Fortunately, I was able to work from a lounge chair, watching the kids play. 

My friend, KJ, and her family were at Hollywood Studios, so we decided to meet them over there. She was able to save us seats for Fantasmic. I was so excited, because the kids really wanted to see fireworks. I didn't realize that this was more of a stage production than a fireworks display.

WARNING: FANTASMIC MAY BE FRIGHTENING TO YOUNG CHILDREN.

My innocent kiddos

My kids are 6 years old. They are very innocent. I wouldn't necessarily call them sheltered, but they don't like scary things. They think that everything is real. They have wild imaginations. It's one of the many, many, many things that I adore about my kids.

That being said, Fantasmic is about Mickey Mouse having a dream which turns into a nightmare, featuring a majority of the Disney villains. And it does get a little scary... At one point, they set the water in the lagoon on fire. It's cool to an adult, but my son completely freaked out and started crying. My daughter had her face crushed into my side. By the way, we were sitting in the last row.  So, yeah, a little terrifying to my kids who think that villains are real. If your kids are as innocent as mine are (and they are 6 years old, remember), you might want to skip Fantasmic for another display elsewhere. We're checking out Illuminations tomorrow night. I'll be sure to let you know how it is.

Baby Steps

The twins and I have been working really hard to list all sorts of items we have around our house: clothes, jewelry, shoes, etc. So far, they have earned $230. That means they have $2770 remaining. Can we do it? I think we can. We sure as heck are going to try!! As a matter of fact, I've started to document our eBay progress on YouTube with HollywoodChick's 100 Day eBay Challenge.

Pumkin and Magoo are having a BLAST learning about selling on eBay, trying to reach their goal and filling out the map as to where all of our items have been sent. It's a math, geography and business lesson all in one. I can't wait to reach our goal to head back to Disney. Maybe we won't get there in February, but we will certainly get there this year. I'm so proud of them. Take a look at our sales map:

Cool, isn't it? Once a state is filled, I will write the name of the state on it. Daddy has already sold something to a different country, but the buyer has yet to pay. If we end up sending items to a different country, we will visit that country at Epcot. I'm really, really, really excited about this project. I don't know who is more excited-- me or the kids!

My sister, Aunt Julie, and my best friend, Aunt Kristen, have decided to participate, too. Aunt Julie has a lot of stuff in this house, and I'm going to list them for her. Aunt Kristen brought a bunch of stuff over, which I'm starting to list today. The kids get to keep a percentage of whatever they sell for someone else-- like a consignment. It's something else that I can teach them.

Watch out, Disney! Here we come!

Characters in the Magic Kingdom - Part II

Me & My Girl

Adventureland in the Magic Kingdom is a great place to meet and greet characters, including rare meet and greet characters like Peter Pan. Yep, you can actually take photos with Peter Pan, but you need to know where he is... Like Snow White, Peter Pan is a little "secret" of the Magic Kingdom. 

As you are walking down Main Street toward the roundabout that has the Walt Disney and Mickey statue, you will see Casey's restaurant to your left. Make a left right after Casey's  before you get to the roundabout (keeping the Crystal Palace restaurant to your left), and go over a small bridge. Have your cameras ready, because this is actually a fantastic photo spot as well as a great place to watch the performances in front of the castle throughout the day.

Anyway, cross that bridge and stay to your right, before you walk into the actual "Adventureland" section. There's a little wraparound area, and Peter Pan is hiding in there every so often! It's a little cramped, so definitely take advantage of the Photo Pass. They kind of speed people through this section, so be prepared for that.

Once you cross under the Adventureland arch, keep to the right and go into Pixie Hollow to meet Tinkerbell and one of her fairy friends. Once we went and met Tinkerbell and Rosetta. This last time we went, we met Tink and Vidia-- my new favorite Disney character because she is so stinkin' conceited and sarcastic!!! I love her. While you are waiting in line, there are Pixie Hollow vignettes playing for the kids. I really like this character meet and greet because you actually walk into a set rather than having a backdrop to have your photo taken. Everything is giant, so it feels as though you are pixie-size. To get into the room, you have to walk though what I call "magic grass" which is sculpted with lights. I tell my kids that they are shrunk down to pixie-size so that we can actually talk to Tinkerbell and the fairies and not scare them away. It's really neat.

Jasmin & Aladdin with my twins

After leaving Pixie Hollow, go to the left and you will enter the magical city of Agrabah. You can ride the Magic Carpets, and as soon as you get off go in to the Agrabah Bazaar. Throughout the day, Aladdin and Jasmin will appear in the Bazaar together. The two actors that portrayed Aladdin and Jasmin when we were there were absolutely wonderful. They walked over to each of the kids, talked with them, made them all feel special. Because of this, the line does move a bit slow. Plus, the area isn't air-conditioned, so the wait in hot weather can be a bit brutal. AND the line is right near Jasmin dolls and costumes, so if your daughter is a shopaholic like my Pumpkin is, you may face the endless whining while you're in line. There is plenty of space to take pictures, and the set is really cute. Photo Pass is also there to take professional pictures.

The Pirates of the Caribbean ride is also in Adventureland. Captain Jack Sparrow has his own show, and sometimes will take photos with people after the show. (We've never seen the show, nor have we encountered Jack.) Other characters that walk around include Captain Hook, Smee, Wendy, Baloo, King Louie, Timon, Ariel, Prince Eric, Rafiki, Lilo, Stitch and some others. The ones that aren't on the Disney schedule are rare, and it is a matter of luck. Just be sure to have your cameras handy, especially in Adventureland.

My family and I just got home from Disney World today, so I'm going to cut this short. I will address the rest of characters in the Magic Kingdom over the next few days.

Characters in the Magic Kingdom - Part I

My daughter is absolutely obsessed with Disney characters. It's kind of scary, really. She wants to meet EVERY SINGLE ONE as many times as she possibly can. Hubs and I have to limit her to one autograph book per vacation. She even wants to meet characters that she doesn't know. And then she even runs up to strangers and tells them all about her experience with the characters. For this reason alone, I bring the twins to character dining as much as possible during our vacation.

The twins and Vidia, the sarcastic fairy

Pumpkin has even gotten her brother interested in meeting characters. We had to purchase Magoo his own autograph book so that he could get in on the action. (We have SO many pictures of Pumpkin from the last vacation, poor Magoo wondered why there weren't so many pictures of him!) Aside from the character dining, there are many different places throughout all of the Disney parks where guests can meet characters. While waiting in line today to see Tinkerbell and one of her fairy friends, Pumpkin started chatting with the little girl in front of us and telling her about the different characters that she and her brother had met. The little girl's mom was listening, and when Pumpkin said she met Snow White, the woman almost convulsed. She had no idea that Snow White was available to take photos in the Magic Kingdom. 

It dawned on me that a lot of people don't know where to find some of their favorite characters that they can pose with. I thought that a few different blog entries about where you can meet and greet with characters would be really helpful to my readers. However, since there are so many different characters across four different parks, I need to break it up into at least four entries.

This blog post will address meeting characters in the Magic Kingdom.

The Twins in front of the castle

As soon as you enter the Magic Kingdom, you are on Main Street USA. To the right of you is the Main Street Theater, to the left is City Hall and in front of you is City Plaza. In the Plaza, you will find different characters-- Usually Pluto and Daisy. Once, it was Pluto and Marie (from Aristocats). Every so often, they will have "Forgotten Characters Week" and rare characters will appear in this location. This week, there were characters from Disney's Robinhood, but the lines were just waaaaay too long.

At the theater, you will always find Mickey Mouse as a magician. Sometimes, you will see Minnie with Mickey. It happened to us once, and my daughter was absolutely over the moon. In another part of the theater, you can meet and greet with three different princesses. These princesses are usually Cinderella, Aurora and Rapunzel or Belle. You can get a fast pass for both of these parts of the theater, which is really great. Be forewarned that you exit through a gift shop, so if your child is as much of a shopaholic as mine is, you may be in some trouble.

Directly across from the theatre on the other side of the Plaza is City Hall, which houses guest relations. To the left of City Hall is this little alcove that is seemingly just a place for guests to get out of the sun. WRONG!!! Snow White actually appears here throughout the day! Since it's one of those little Disney "secrets" (just something that not many people know about), the line is usually very small. 

Of course, this is the parade route for all of the Magic Kingdom parades, so guests can see pretty much all of their favorite characters throughout the day. At the end of Main Street USA is Cinderella's Castle, which is where each parade ends in a performance and where the fireworks take place.

Now, I fully intended on writing a lot more tonight, but we are leaving Disney tomorrow and heading home. It's after 11pm and I still need to take a shower. I wanted to at least share one "secret" in this entry-- Which I did. 

More coming soon!

Well, Hello There!

Hey, there! Hi, there! Ho, there! You're as welcome as can be...

...To read my blog, that is.

My name is Candice Cain. I'm a mom of 5 year old twins, wife of a police lieutenant and owner of a travel agency, Candy Cain Travel. I also work from home for a wellness company, which allows me to live life on my own schedule. It also allows me to travel with my family whenever I want. 

Pumpkin, Snow White & Magoo - 7/16/13

My husband and I used to travel quite a bit before the twins came along: cruises, The Bahamas, Jamaica, Florida.. The list goes on and on. We loved to travel. When I had Magoo and Pumpkin (their nicknames, for the purpose of this blog, as I expect it to be pretty popular), we tried cruising. Truth be told, we loved it-- But it seemed to be a tad too limited for what we like to do with the kids as they got older. Plus, the last cruise we took, we had a two bedroom villa on the Norwegian Gem with a butler and everything... We will never be able to cruise any other way. Cruising like that, of course, is a tad expensive.

With all of the destination weddings that I plan, I've accumulated a lot of free nights and such at all-inclusive resorts in the Caribbean and Mexico. On our last vacation, Hubs and I had a conversation about the future of our family vacations. We decided that we are going to Disney as our family vacations until the kids don't want to do Disney anymore. 

Another thing that I love to do is write. I have several blogs that I write, and I also write articles for different websites. I thought that I would write a blog about Disney in order to help people - especially families - plan their trips and make their own Disney dreams come true! Now, please keep in mind that this blog is not endorsed by Disney. I'm not being paid by Disney to write this. The only affiliation that I have with Disney is that I book clients there and I take vacations there with my own family.

So, welcome to my blog! I sincerely hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy writing it.