Tales From The Mouse House Ep...87

Welcome to Episode 87 of Tales From The Mouse House Disneyland Podcast!! As we promised you earlier in the year, we’ll be doing more ‘out of the norm’ episodes, you know, to spice things up a bit! So, on this go ‘round, we’ve got something SPECIAL for you.

DCA of yesteryear 

On February 8th, Disney California Adventure celebrated it’s 13th birthday! Wow, seems just like yesterday we saw the “OPENING SOON” commercials on TV! Well, over the last 13 years, California Adventure has gone through quite a few changes - some great, some...well, let’s just leave that one alone. Disney California Adventure has introduced us to some terrific things (like CORN DOGS), and has reinvented itself recently to include a trip through Walt Disney’s history, as well as incorporate an animated world into our own. All these things add up to one great adventure! So, in honor of their 13th birthday, we thought we’d share some of our favorite Disney California Adventure photos with you, set to music, in this latest VIDEO PODCAST EXTRAVAGANZA! (cue impressive music here)

Hey, if YOU'RE in need of a great travel agent, why not give our sponsor, Randy Crane from Mouse Ear Vacations a holler! I bet he can make YOUR vacation a MAGICAL one! Visit Randy at www.randyc-mouseearvacations.com. NOW is the time to book your 2014 Disney adventure! 

Disney California Adventure TODAY!

YEP! Cars Land has arrived in the REAL world!

As always, If you’d like to send in comments for the show, you can send us an email to talespodcast@cox.net, leave us voicemail on the Hotline at 304-TALES23, leave us feedback in iTunes or leave comments for us on our Twitter account @talespodcast. Heck, you can even find us on FaceBook, just search for Tales From The House House - Disneyland podcast! If you'd like to listen to the show, you can find it on iTunes, on our podcast site at talescast.com, the direct episode link: Episode 87, or on Stitcher Radio now! Just visit www.stitcher.com and search for Tales From The Mouse House - Disneyland Podcast!

Thanks for making US a part of your Disney Experience, and remember...
"Make It A Mickey Day!"

                                          ~~ Al, Joyce and Kate (the pup)

Happiest Blog on Earth - Post-Vacation Blues

Well, our vacation was, in a word…awesome! Joyce and I had such a great time on our two week vacation that it made coming back to work most difficult. Oh I know what you’re going to say: “If it weren’t for work, vacation wouldn’t mean as much”. Ah…yeah it would! I’d STILL love it! A LOT! But, without the dreaded dreary mind-numbing thankless work day, we wouldn’t be able to afford such an awesome vacation, so I’ll give you that.

As I mentioned, we took a two week vacation, and as you know, Joyce and I are, well, crazy about the Disneyland Resort. So, as any normal, fanatic would do, spent the first week of our vacation IN Disneyland. Ok, five days of it anyway. We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel, one of the Disneyland Resort Hotels, and it was a fantastic experience. Now, we’ve stayed there before, and always liked it. But this time was special. We celebrated our 15^th Wedding Anniversary at the Happiest Place On Earth. Of all the places in the world we had open to us (cruising, Hawaii, Europe, the Scotch Tape museum in Lompoc, California), we chose Disneyland because it is our most special place.  And between our podcast sponsor Randy Crane and the Paradise Pier Hotel, we were treated to a most memorable time indeed. First, when we checked in, we were upgraded to the 11^th Floor, with an amazing view of Disney California Adventure. NICE! Then, (skipping ahead a bit) on our actual anniversary (October 26^th), upon our return to our luxurious room (had to throw that in) what did Joyce discover waiting for us? A nice tray of chocolate covered strawberries and an ice bucket with champagne (ok, sparkling non-alcoholic wine) chilling in it and a nice card from Randy! Did I say it was AWESOME?!

So, I’ll get into the actual trip details in another blog posting, but for our anniversary dinner, we dined at our very favorite restaurant at the Resort – Café Orleans in the New Orleans Square area of Disneyland. We had a terrific table outside overlooking the Rivers Of America, right next to the lovely tree that shades a lot of that area. Now, it’s interesting to note that the very first time Joyce and I ate there it was at that very table! And we didn’t even have to ask, it was just an awesome coincidence they put us there. We had a wonderful meal, I even tried something out of my ordinary – the Four Cheese Monte Christo! Then after a decadent dessert, we headed over to Downtown Disney to meet up with our good friend Kenny. He had a few things for us (for my birthday and our anniversary). Kenny gave me some Harry Potter goodies from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (by the way, the Acid pops…ARE ACID!), and he purchased matching Yoda coffee mugs for me and Joyce from Disneyland! Thanks Kenny!

All in all, our vacation rocked. Disneyland rocked. It all rocked! Our second week was spent at home, just relaxing. Well, one day we took our puppy Kate to the mysterious Superstition Mountains for a day hike. Kate fell in love with it! It was beautiful and quite and a great way to get some much needed exercise. Then we just did some yard and house work, rearranged our recording studio/office to make it more Feng Shui – ok, that’s a joke. I just wanted more room in there!

But alas, as with all great and awesome things, this too had to come to an end. So now here I am, back at work sifting through 400+ emails, all marked with “urgent issue” wishing and dreaming about our recent trip to the Happiest Place on Earth, as I write the Happiest Blog on Earth! I miss vacation – I miss Disneyland and I miss spending 24/7 with my wife! So, what’s next on my daily planner? Why, planning our NEXT vacation of course! ~~~ Al


View From Our Room! What a way to wake up every morning!