My, How Times Change

Remember the days when folks would come home from their travels and invite everyone over for those infamous slideshows of their vacation photos? Having to humor friends and relatives by watching their slides became a running joke. Back then I guess people didn't always value spending their precious time yawning through the poorly and/or unimaginatively composed sights and scenes from other people's travels. But times have changed, no?

~ It was her birthday! ~

This is a little boardwalk behind our rooms that led through the woods to the main area of the Caribbean Beach Resort.

Today we share our photos, slideshows, videos and... ah hem... sometimes rather long winded stories of our adventures, and we share them with people we don't even know. Complete strangers will now check out not only our vacation pictures, but heck, they'll check out pictures of the junk we just picked up out of a pile of trash on the side of the road. Interesting, isn't it?

Well, since I've been hard at work on a Christmas gift that lacks any sort of visual interest, I figured I'd share some photos from the trip Casey and I took to Disney World last month to celebrate her birthday.

The weather was perfection. Very cool (which we like) and sparklingly sunny. We were actually cold, but you could tell who the Florida folks were and who was visiting from the North just by the degree to which they were bundled up each morning.

 

They gave Casey a button to prove it was her day, which she wore the entire time we were there. It ended up scoring her a few small discounts and freebies, along with a zillion "Happy Birthday" greetings. Sweet!

So, do you suppose that these days the reason we don't mind looking at other people's photos is because the conveniences in our lives have afforded us more time, or are we just curious about how the other half lives, eager for some inspiration or an escape? It could have a bit more to do with distraction, our entertainment culture, and a lack of resolve to attempt nobler pursuits, but what do I know. 

We stayed at the Caribbean Beach Resort by EPCOT. Can you say, Florida Resident Discount? Yes!

And since many of us do love to click around, I am obliging by sharing some of our images with you. The good news is, unlike days of old, you can click off any time you like and pretend you weren't personally invited to the showing.  No offense will be taken. Decorum notwithstanding, you will be off the hook and do not have to feign interest in the least. 

So if you aren't busy with more important real life, enjoy a few scenes from our time at EPCOT and the "Magic" Kingdom.

Caribbean Beach by night

I'll spare you my full throttle thoughts on what's become of "The Kingdom" in the last nearly 20 years. I'd hate to ruin your Disney illusions. To me, it's lost so much of its character and it's sad to see that it's fallen victim to "green propaganda" and become a purveyor of it... and that was more than a little annoying. Many of my favorite little shops that used to sell quaint items specific to each particular area of Disney, items you could get no where else, are stocked now with the very same "made in China" Mickey Mouse items that were being sold in every other store we'd already trudged through from the resort to Downtown Disney to the park itself. Once you'd been in one store you really did not need to go in many others in the Magic Kingdom. 

I'm not going to say "oh well, so it goes." Nope, it was a shame; I have to admit I was pretty disappointed. I'm not gonna pretend the thrill was still alive in the way it once was. So much of what once made Disney spectacular seemed to have disappeared, from rides to entire areas that had changed and all the hands-on fun in EPCOT was replaced by computer games! Seriously?!

Of course, I'm not saying it's completely devoid of its magic of course, after all it is still Disney World, but from the moment I had to place my forefinger on the fingerprint scanner to gain entrance to the parks, I knew the pixie dust was going to be missing some of that luster that used to transform the moments of a day in Disney into something entirely magical.

Then of all things, Pirates of the Caribbean was closed the day we were there. Disappointing! The good news is, they do still sell Dole Whip in Adventureland...and it was every bit as fantastic as I remembered! Redeemed ~ (I am easily placated by treats.)

Despite "the case of the missing enchantment", we still had a very fun time together celebrating Casey's birthday with our two day escape. And the Caribbean Beach Resort is still a wonderful place to stay (even if they did put in a plastic playset where the über cool wood one used to be. I'm just sayin'.)

Casey got to pose with a few favorite characters and she also tried on (and we took pictures of her wearing) just about every set of specialty Mickey Mouse ears there were - and believe me, they have them topped with just about everything you can imagine.

I fought my way out of a shark's jaws.

One thing that was better than I remembered was Tom Sawyer's island. I don't recall it being so much fun before. I enjoyed it thoroughly!

While in "England", Casey bought one of these scarves with some birthday money, and it's really even prettier than this picture makes it out to be. The color is softer and feels a tad more pinkish. This shop had so many sweet displays.

I thought my junkin' friends might like this little cutie from the same shop. Don't you love the aqua on the feet and the dark wood showing through the chippy white paint? Gotta find a little table like this so I can recreate this look.

Everywhere we went, they had these trees, and I was in love, love, love with them. I wanted to take a picture of each one I saw. I believe it's called a Hong Kong Orchid, and I want one in my yard!

Here it is reflected in a rocky pond, like a watercolor.

"Morocco" was full of color and interesting architectural elements. Isn't the door behind us in these shots fabulous?

It looks huge (but do you see the smaller door within the doorway?) We decided this area made a great photo backdrop.

 EPCOT's "Canada" is as lovely as ever with it's flowers, waterfalls and the rustic buildings.

Still... there's no where like the good ole U.S. of A.

Casey steps back in time to give a double thumbs up to early America, the music, its founding principles, history, tradition and those ever-lovin' stars and stripes...not to mention the cool outfits. 

This concludes the show of our virtual vacation. Just so you know, you have been spared the full monty. This is but a fraction of the pictures we took, but since I'm running out of space to upload pictures, I have to take it easy. 

Sometimes that works to the viewers advantage, now doesn't it?

Well, I hope you are enjoying these days leading up to Christmas. I guess I should get back to my own preparations. So much to do, so little time. Now it's time to kick it into gear or I'll be sorry.

How are your Christmas preparations and plans going? Are you diligently working on projects or are you as easily distracted as I am? Well, sometimes we just need a break, don't we? 

Thanks for stopping by!