Disney On Ice in Milwaukee Giveaway

Disney on Ice is coming to the US Cellular Arena in Milwaukee and I've got tickets to give away!

Join the celebration as 65 of Disney's unforgettable characters from 18 beloved stories come to life in a skating spectacular filled with magical Disney moments you'll remember forever as Disney On Ice celebrates 100 Years of Magic! Playing the US Cellular Arena Feb. 5th-8th. Celebrate the magic of Disney at family-friendly prices starting at $15. BUY TICKETS NOW at www.ticketmaster.com or by calling 414-276-4545. (Surcharges, handling and facility fees may apply.)

Or enter the Wisconsin Mommy ticket giveaway contest. Up for grabs are four (4) tickets to the Thursday, February 5th, 7:00 PM performance.

To enter, leave a comment naming your favorite Disney song. A winner will be chosen from all entries left by midnight, January 2nd.

Want extra entries? Blog about the contest with a link to this post and receive FIVE extra entrees! (Be sure to leave me a comment telling me you have blogged and linked.)

Please be sure that I have a way to contact you if you win - either through your blog or an e-mail address.

Good luck and I'll see you at the show!

Feeling any holiday stress???

I have to confess. I am usually an "over-planner". You know the type (they probably drive you nuts!)...they have the Christmas shopping done by December 1st, the holiday meals all planned and practically cooked weeks in advance, and sail through that week before Christmas with a blissful smile on their face. While I have not often achieved "blissful smile mode", I usually come pretty close.

Not this year.

Read more....

Disney Vacation - Days five and six

By day five, we were beginning to think that the vacation was going by waaaay too fast! We realized that we only had two real days left as we flew back home fairly early on day seven.

We decided to head back to the Magic Kingdom for day five since Little J seemed to enjoy it the most. We arrived as it opened and headed toward the back of the park. On the way, we came across a small, fairly tame roller coaster and decided to let Little J give it a try. He loved it and was hooked immediately.

We stepped it up a notch and tried Thunder Mountain next. I was a little concerned that he might be scared, but one look at his face cleared that mistake right up. He was in heaven! We rode it three more times before heading off to try Splash Mountain. If you've never been on Splash Mountain, let me paint a picture for you...you go up in a "log" and then drop down 5 stories into the water. Little J had trouble deciding which he liked better...Splash Mtn or Thunder Mtn.

Realizing that we had a roller coaster fan on our hands, we went off in search of Space Mountain. We rode that three times before I had to call it quits on account of my queasy stomach. Big and Little J snuck in a few more rides before lunch. The rest of the day was spent bouncing between roller coasters until we headed back to the resort to clean up and left for Downtown Disney for dinner.

That night, we chose a new restaurant for dinner. T-Rex is run by the same folks who bring you the Rainforest Cafe and is similar in design, except with dinosaurs. The food was excellent and Little J was fascinated by the lifelike dinosaurs and meteor showers!

Our last day in Orlando was spent at SeaWorld. We arrived as the park opened and quickly set out to find the attraction we were most anxious to see - The Polar Express. We grabbed a map and headed to the back of the park where it was located...at least we tried to. We kept running into gates and closed pathways. Eventually we were told that only the front portion of the park was open - the rest didn't open for another hour or so. This seemed rather strange to us, but we took the opportunity to see the dolphins up close before the crowds got too bad.

Eventually, we did make it to The Polar Express. It was completely worth the wait! Let me preface this with the fact that The Polar Express is Little J's absolute favorite movie of all time. He watches it twelve months a year and knows all of the dialogue by heart. This ride was a dream come true for him.

We entered a room where a few key parts from the beginning of the movie are played, just to set it up for those who haven't seen it. At the end, the "conductor" opens the doors and invites everyone onto the Polar Express. We boarded what looked like a train and buckled ourselves in for the ride. A few more scenes from the movie appeared on the screen and the train began to move and follow what was happening on screen. (It is actually a simulated ride. The pod tilts back and forth and up and down, but does not ever leave the ground.)

At the end of the train ride, doors on the other side opened and we found ourselves at the North Pole. The folks at SeaWorld did an AMAZING job of recreating the North Pole. There was real ice with dolphins swimming near glaciers while polar bears snoozed in the snow. At the center was the tree from the movie with Santa standing beneath it. It was truly magical!

Just when I thought Little J couldn't find anything to get him as excited as the Polar Express did, we discovered the Atlantis ride. Similar to Splash Mountain, but with a 70+ foot drop, it was quite a thrill. We rode it at least six times and were all quite soaked by the end of the day. Luckily, the temperature hit about 88 degrees, so we did not have to worry about getting chilled.

Disney Vacation - days three and four

The third day of our vacation we decided to head over to Hollywood Studios. Little J was anxious to check out the new Toy Story 4-D ride, so we looked for that first.

It did not disappoint.

We did have to wait in line for almost an hour as their was a lot of interest in the ride since it is new. The wait was not to bad as it snaked through a simulated playroom with over sized toys - everything from giant Tinkertoys to huge board games to a talking and singing Mr. Potato Head.

Once you get to the ride, you hop in and are whisked through a series of carnival-type games while wearing your 3-D glasses. Characters pop up and encourage you to shoot your old fashioned pop gun by pulling the string to try to hit the targets. The whole time you can actually feel the targets whizzing past your head. Little J was in love with this ride!

We spent the day there and did the back lot tour as well as many others. We caught the Playhouse Disney Live show which I thought was a little disappointing. Considering the popularity of Playhouse Disney with children, I thought it would play a more prominent role in the parks, but this was just about the only Playhouse thing we saw other than some of the Little Einstein characters walking around.

That night, we returned to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey's Magical Christmas party. I was not very excited to attend at all since we were all feeling pretty tired. However, the tickets were not cheap and had already been purchased, so off we went.

It was a blast! The whole place was decorated to the hilt including the castle which was covered in blue icicles. You just can't get the full effect in the picture - it was breathtaking. Walking down Main Street, snow was falling and Santa was taking visitors in the main square. We popped into the bakery for a snack and then took a spot outside for the Christmas Parade. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

The following day, we travelled to Animal Kingdom. This was probably the least favorite park for all of us. We have a lot of the featured animals at the Milwaukee Zoo and visit there often, so Little J didn't find that part of it very interesting. We did enjoy the safari ride and really liked the 4-D movie "It's tough being a bug". I won't spoil any of the surprises, but let's just say it was more interactive than we had realized.

At the end of the day, we went over to Downtown Disney for some dinner at Planet Hollywood (try the zucchini chips!) and then did a little shopping.

I will be better about posting the rest of the entries in a more timely manner...especially since it looks like we may be snowed in tomorrow :)