joe randel's art dump

So as many of you know, last month I took a vacation to Disney World.  This was the second time I’d ever been there and I just couldn’t wait to go back.  I was so excited to eat the food a see the sights again, plus we extended our trip this time to ten days!  It really is a wonderful place to visit.  I know it’s usually described as the most magical place on earth, and while I’ve never been to every other magical place on the planet, I can say Disney World is the most magical place I’ve ever been to.  I already miss it and can’t wait to go again. Sigh… until then, I’ll have to settle with the 3000 pictures I took.  I picked a bunch of them to share with you all, so lets click the link and get going. ^_^

Last time we were at Disney we stayed at the Polynesian Resort.  This time we stayed at the Port Orleans Resort in the French quarter.  It’s done up to mimic New Orleans like in the Princess and the Frog.  The picture above is from the lobby of the main building.

Why yes… I think we’ll go to all of these parks while we’re here. ^_^

This was the building that had our room.  I just love the court yard!  In fact, we loved it so much we agreed that when we go back, we’ll probably stay here again.  Probably even request the same room.

One thing that’s great about Disney Parks is the detail they put in to… just about everything.  Like these magic lamp faucets!

If you get the dinning plan you get these free refillable mugs to use during your stay.  This time it was a beach theme with Minnie sporting this pink little number.

The picture was at the top of the post, but I’m putting it here too.  Two years ago there was a crane at the castle as they did maintenance work on it.  This visit felt like nothing had changed because sure enough, there was a crane doing more work around the castle.  Maybe next time I can snag a picture without it being there.

There were a bunch of these little statues right in front of the castle.  I just loved them!

My new, fancy Fathers Day camera got a great workout this trip.  I was able to get some nice picks of the castle and look!  No crane!

In front of the castle they did these great live shows during the day.  They were so much fun to watch. ^_^

I wonder if they hire some one to clean off Walt’s head at the end of the day.

I really loved to take pictures of Cinderella’s castle and did so when ever I got a chance.  I got some great sunset colours on this one.

One thing that I really like about Disney is they keep all their classic rides.  There is such a simple joy in riding the carousel behind the castle.

More of those little details if you just look around.  This Pinocchio is in one of the restaurants, but you have to look up to see him. ^_^

More of the castle and carousel… at night!

This time there was  a new Little Mermaid ride.  The line up for it was always crazy long, but if you stay at the resorts you can get to stay late at the parks.  I don’t think we ever waited more then 15 min for this ride, and we went on it several times.

They did a really great job with animatronic Ariel on the ride.  I was impressed.

This was a picture in our room and I posted it because I thought it looked horrible.  Ariel looks way off model!  Who approved this!  I’ve never drawn Ariel before, but I’m sure I can do better then this.

We never went to Epcot last time, so we made sure to go there on this trip.

Visiting the world pavilions was so fantastic!  I loved seeing them, but we didn’t have time check them all out.  More to see next time!  This shot was of the Mexico area.

Lots of day of the Dead things to buy in Mexico.

Off to Norway for breakfast!

Seeing as it was my birthday during our stay, I had to wear a birthday pin with my name on it for the whole trip.  Everyone… and I mean EVERYONE wished me a happy birthday for ten straight days.  I also got a cupcake when ever we had a sit down meal.  I would also get a card signed by which ever characters where there too.  This one was from all the princesses.  Jealous?

Of course during my whole trip I had Tinkerbell on the brain so I made sure to keep my eye out for anything regarding her.  Like these glass figures.

I don’t know what kind of bird this is, but they were everywhere.

Look!  It’s the Canadian pavilion!  We totally visited this one.  How could we not!  More on this one later.  Next place we saw was Japan.

There was lots of Nintendo things at the Japan store.  I really liked this one.

This one was fun too, but I didn’t pick them up.  Not my colours.

They had a museum area about the spiritual animals of Japanese culture and how they influence today’s anime.  This cute character represents the moon rabbit.

This guy was in the France pavilion and lots of fun to watch.  They always had some kind of street performer on somewhere for people to watch.

Ahhh… finally… the Canada area.  I feel so at home here. ^_^

We couldn’t leave with out picking up a Canadian Goofy!

Lots of hockey things to buy in the Canada area.

Seeing the Canadian snacks made me smile.  The price of the maple syrup didn’t.  $26 bucks for that jug up there.  I can get that for about $10 bucks at home.

Epcot at night was so pretty.

I just love the old timey signs they have up in the Magic Kingdom.

This time we checked out the family Robertson tree house.  I really like the things they have in there.  Some of it I can find at my Dad’s house. ^_^

I also ate the biggest ice cream sandwich ever on my vacation.  Even this picture doesn’t really show just how big is was.

I think I could just take pictures here all day long.  This one is of the little train station that takes your around the Magic Kingdom.

More Tinkerbell stuff.  They just don’t capture here properly in doll form.

Disney just isn’t Disney with out the fireworks.  We watched them every time we were at the Magic Kingdom.

These fire hydrants made my smile because they’re so strange looking.

This statue display was in a totally different place last time I was here.  Although, last time there was a very large Christmas tree in this very spot.

These are the Disney version of goldfish crackers.  They’re in the shape of mickey heads.  Like everything here is.

This was the craziest thing I ate here.  It’s a hot dog with mac n’ cheese, bacon bits and truffle oil.  It was pretty good, but not fantastic.

Someone need to to dust off this Tinkerbell.

Animal Kingdom was lots of fun to see and probably the most relaxing of the parks.

We went on safari lots of time which is okay with me because I was able to take lots of animal pictures.  Do you know what these are?

The bird area was so beautiful with all the colours.

As I took this, it felt like he was looking in to my soul.  It was amazing.

The tree of life is in the center(ish) of the park.  It’s so cool to look at because you can see all kinds of animals in the trunk.

See.  The tree was covered in these carvings.  I took lots of photos of this too.

One thing I did this time was pin trade.  How is this works is like this.  You can buy pins at the parks (or off ebay) and then trade them with people that work at the parks and resorts.  They all have pins too that are there for trade.  Sometimes you can find really cool ones!  They have to trade with you too.  They don’t own the pins and it’s a way in encourage interaction with the guests, plus it’s lots of fun trying to get the ones you like.  I tried to get Tinkerbell or fairy ones when I could.

During my trip I found that I really liked vintage Mickey and the gang more the then modern ones.  I really liked this one, but I didn’t care for his hat.

I think this was the most creative Mickey hat I saw during my trip.

More pictures of birds.  It was so damn easy to take pictures of them… they were everywhere.

Later we checked out the Lego store at Downtown Disney.  You can buy sets there or just single pieces for the sets you have at home.  I have sets that are missing pieces but do you think I remembered what I needed?  Noooo….

You can also make your own minifigs with misc pieces!

The container of heads made me smile. ^_^

One day we actually made it for the opening of the Magic Kingdom one day.  They had fireworks and everything!

I loved this sign… because they really try and make this happen.

I had so much fun checking out the signs they put up at Disney.  They always made me smile.

This was the new Beasts castle.  It’s a big sit down restaurant.  The food was pretty good here, but I found my praised pork really salty.

Once again, the details around the parks are just fantastic.  This was at the entrance of Beasts castle.

Believe it or not, this bird was just hanging around to get his picture taken by a bridge.  So I snapped off a shot and I think it’s one of my favorites from the trip.

There is a Christmas store at Disney too.  One could line his or her tree with all kinds of Disney decorations.

Tink in red?  That’s crazy!

Now anyone can say they stuffed Tink during the holidays.

Another awesome sign.  It’s not often you see Ariel’s sisters. Oh yeah, we even did the “It’s a Small World” ride.  It was very cute, but you do get the tune stuck in your head for a time.

One thing we missed last time was the electrical parade.  Not this time… no sir.

The parade was pretty long and had some very cool floats.

This was inside one of the buildings at Epcot.  You look up and all you see are these balloons and banners.  A very cool display.

We spent our final day at the Magic Kingdom.  The big white building in front there is the candy store.

These dolls where all over the parks.  You couldn’t get away from them!

One more time on the Ariel ride!  I was quite shocked to see this during the ride.  It probably the sexiest part of the film in my books.

They had Gaston’s tavern across the bridge from Beasts castle.  There you could get mutton chops and such.  You know… manly food.

Just think, this was the slow time of the year for Disney.

This Minnie mouse spinner made me smile when ever I saw it.

Hahahah!  I think Minnie is the original upskirt.

I didn’t get much while I was there.  But I did buy myself this Tinkerbell mug.  I just adore it!

Because we bought so much Lego at the Lego store, they gave us a free police helicopter!  Yay for free Lego!

This was taken on our last day.  It’s crazy that when we first arrived it seemed like we’d have for ever at Disney, but it had to come to an end at some point.  I miss it already and can’t wait to go back.  The people there are so friendly (workers and visitors) and they treat you so well there too.  So much fun can be had there and not just by families with kids.  I saw lots of people there with out kids, just enjoying the fun and magic that Disney has to offer.  Just thinking about the place makes me smile.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures I posted.  I tried to pick a good variety of what I saw and did.  I did set some aside to show later though.  It’s about all the art that I saw when I was there, but I’ll save that for another day.