But are they good overlords?

Disney is, of course, a giant capitalist corporation that is attempting to bottle and sell all the goodness people can buy. But does that make them evil.

Good
-Their overall goal is to make people happy. Everyone wants to be happy. Is buying overpriced merchandise going to make people happy? The customers think so. Is it Disney's fault if they are wrong?
-When Bin met the princesses, they clearly made an effort to make sure every little girl had a personal and amazing experience. That effort was apparent throughout and was nice.
-personalization- lots of build your own stuff. Don't like the standard ears, you can pick to use the firework ears with a pink base and a princess patch or whatever you want. Don't like the red light saber, well, make yours in green.
- The latest princess wasn't as anti-feminist as the rest.

Evil
-Buying overpriced crap is short term happiness and debt.
-People are a bit obsessed with them.
-Little girls don't need hair extensions and makeup. Bibbidy bopity boutique does this whole little girl makeover thing and it seems too much for a 4 year old. Maybe I am just weird and maybe the fault lies in the parents, but 4 year olds shouldn't need makeup. It just feels like it feeds into the whole beauty obsessed culture.
-At heart, maybe I have my purple light saber and my personalized hat, but really, we all still have lightsabers and mouse ears. While the personalization was nice, it still ultimately feels hollow- personalized mass marketing.
-It is still fake. You look and they did a great job at details and stuff, but in the end, you know it is not real. That isn't actually Morocco or Paris or China. It is just an imitation. Does the fake dull our senses to the real?

Ultimately, I had an awesome time and will bo going back someday, even if they are evil.

Oh, another fun thing- I wore my princess shirt and received the most compliments ever!!
http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/womens/b3e7/
Even Cinderella liked my self rescueing princess shirt. Part of me wishes I had gotten a pic of me wearing it next to her, cause that cracked me up. But at the moment, it was all about Bin's amazing moment.

Disneyworld

Day 2- Disneyworld!

After the shuttle launch and three hour drive, Bin was ready to meet her princesses. We were exhausted, but also figured that if we slept, we would never wake up. So, we went to Disney- starting tired and hungry. Bin was a ball of energy though (having slept in the car the whole time). We immediately got food at Tony's- the restaurant themed after Lady and the Tramp. Bin loved all the doggy pics, I just liked food! We then stepped outside, and discovered that the parade would be coming in less than ten minutes and there was an empty space right there, along the parade route with no one in front. So, we took this perfect seat and enjoyed the parade. The chipmunks even came over and hugged Bin. At the end, bin was happy, but confused. Where was Sleeping Beauty? Cinderella and Belle were in the parade, were was her favorite princess?

We took the train (a ride in itself) to Toon Town, in search of Aurora. They had a lovely playground, which Bin decided was the whole point of being there. I went to the character spot and discovered that for a mere 30 minute wait, we could see Aurora. I rushed back and asked bin if she wanted to play or see Aurora. There was no question. She wanted Aurora. WE ran to character spot and managed to get bin to wait 30 minutes. As with Belle, she was eager up until we got there. More freezing, but afterwards, she talked about how that was her favorite part of the trip.

Aurora talked to her about how the fairies keep changing her dress from blue to pink and back again. Cinderella was next and commented on the cupcake on bin's shirt. The mice like cupcakes too but they just eat the frosting. Then we met Belle, who remembered Bin from yesterday. They discussed pens and how Bin had such a fancy pen yesterday, but today Belle had the fancy pen. And they changed dresses between days- they were playing tricks on each other. Peter and I found Belle the most impressive of the princesses.

We played some more at the playground and then decided we needed some nap time. Bin fell asleep on the bus back, while peter and I snoozed a bit. Back at the hotel, bin had a little meltdown, but we finally got a nap. We woke up at 7:30pm and ate at the hotel. After a nap and dinner, bin decided she wanted to go back (before she wanted to stay at the hotel). We had decided that if Bin didn't want to go back, I would go do the big kid rides, and peter would watch bin at the hotel. But Bin wanted more fireworks, so off we went.

By 9pm, the park was so much nicer. We arrived for the night time parade and after that, everyone left! At this point we had not gone on a single ride. Bin was happy at the playground and I could not believe over an hour for Dumbo was worth it. But now, with the park open for another 4 hours (1am), the lines were down to 15 minutes. We did tea cups and dumbo and peter pan and small world (she loved this one) and snow white's ride. It was so much more fun with no lines and no heat.

We also saw the 10pm fireworks, which was interesting. We watched from the other side of the castle, which meant some came from in front, some behind. It was a very different 360 kind of firework experience.

I never did get to go on good rides, but it was a lot of fun doing the rides with Bin. And I think the morning sickness is finally gone- I did teacup without feeling sick! Now when the kid behind us on the plane puked, that was still close, but, I survived. :)

Bin today asked if she can go back again. :) I said not for a few years.

Epcot Center

Day two- Epcot!

Peter loves Epcot. And at 8am, it is a beautiful place. Also, absorbs crowds very nicely. Despite being hugely busy, it did not feel busy at all. We also forgot just how much slower things are with a three year old. We pretty much just got stamps at half the kingdoms (done in half hour). They have little masks you can make and get new parts too at every kingdom and Bin really enjoyed that.

Easter egg hunt- Pretty lame, but Bin wanted Easter eggs and they did them at Epcot. Up until 10am (our ticket time), bin kept whining I want easter eggs. Then she whined, I'm done, time to go home. In the back, you can see the yellowest tree. Everything in bloom made Epcot so amazingly beautiful.

She did like dumplings in China and I thought the black beans in Mexico were really good. I loved the cheese in France. They redid the Mexico rides and took our the racist bits. :( In France, they had a playground, that she thought was lots of fun and we met Belle. Waiting in line, she kept trying to cut ahead. She was so excited. Then it was her turn and she froze up- stood there like a deer in headlights. Also in France, they had the personalized parasols. Bin wanted a princess umbrella, so we got her one there, in an attempt to keep her head covered. At this point, she was still refusing to wear a hat and her little scalp was getting burnt. :(

One nice thing about staying on sight was the option of going home and napping. Around 2pm, I was too tired to keep going (hey, I am sleeeping for two now). We went back to the hotel, had a refreshing nap and returned, the heat of the day over and nice cool evening beginning. It was getting mighty hot by that point and getting away was good. I think that Disney parks are best enjoyed before 11 and after 5. :) I suppose if we went over winter... but we didn't.

Fireworks were very nice, but we were downwind and got covered in smoke. Came home exhausted, with only a few hours before our 2:50am wakeup call for the shuttle!

Downtown Disney

Our first stop on our exciting vacation was Downtown Disney. Basically that is your shopping district outside the parks. Huge toystore, candy store, lego store, neat lego statues set up around the area, etc. Bin loved it. She wanted all the toys. :) I got my bucket of potato head parts :). We got Bin an only available at Disney Sleeping Beauty Polly Pocket and a cute ornament set with the princesses. They had a build your own light saber section, which Peter decided on Monday he wished he had done, but not enough to go back (when at Disneyworld with a 3 year old, hard to take her somewhere else).

The big problem on day one was that we had not planned ahead. The hotel picks up our luggage from the airport and delivers it to the room. Which meant we arrived and realized we didn't have our bathing suits, so the swimming plan was out. Peter was wearing shoes which made the beach difficult. I was wearing flip flops and did not consider how much walking Downtown Disney was. Next time, we need to decide what we are doing when we arrive and make sure we are dressed appropriately. My feet were killing after a few hours of walking. Also, Bin is way to young for a giant lollipop. They get disgusting really fast.

The hotel

Last time we went to Disneyworld (2003 I believe), we stayed at one of the Disney value priced hotels. My dad commented that it was so nice, he didn't realize he was at the cheapest one. After staying at a moderate hotel, all I can say is clearly he never went to the higher up hotel. Huge, huge difference. I consider the difference between say Motel6 and Holiday Inn to be worth the cost and this was a similar jump in quality (keep in mind, I have stayed at Motel6's that make the yough hostel in Europe seem like luxery). The Carribean Hotel was beautiful. We had a lake near us, with sandy beach, playground, and a small pool. A long walk (or short bus ride) away, was the big pool. Bin LOVED the big pool. Honestly, we could have stayed at the hotel the whole time and had a good vacation.

The hotel had several room options- standard non-preferred, standard preferred, pirate non-preferred and priate preferred. We stayed in the pirate non-preferred. From what I can tell, non preferred meant we were way out in the end of the propery (there were many many buildings). I actually liked being in the boonies. We were pretty private, our beach was unoccupied, and the pool mostly empty. We got to see wild life, including the cutest mommy duck with like ten babies. Bin talked about that for a lot of the trip (no camera at the time). The pirate theme was way cute and Bin would try to steer the bed and shout things like "All abord maties!"

Just walking around the hotel was nice- lots of green and flowers in bloom. We also took a 2 seater bike (with a basket for Bin) and drove around the hotel. And then we took a paddle boat out on the lake. They had a sailboat, but only for 2 (we said Bin was little, but they wouldn't go with that).

Bin would have never left the pool if we didn't force her. It easily equalled the kid section of Schlitterbahn, with little slides, dumping water, spray things and places to climb. They also had 2 spas, which bin liked. No pics, because I didn't bring my camera down to swim.

The food was acceptable, but overpriced. Sorry, $40 for a family of three to eat hamburgers, those better be dang good hamburgers. These were not- I liked Red Robins and Fuddruckers better, though these were better than McD. Of course, not having to go anywhere was nice. Also, the kids meal came with a little bucket and shovel. Bin carried that silly bucket around all of Disneyworld. She showed it to Belle too (when I post on Epcot, there will be that). The people were nice and helpful and when Bin knocked her cupcake onto the floor, they came cleaned it up and brought us a new one. Also gave Bin stickers all the time. Though Peter was sick of everyone calling Bin princess throughout the trip. At Disney, all girls are princesses, whether they want to be or not.

Shuttle launch!

We returned to Houston last night after a jam packed weekend of fun and lots of walking. :) Since the main purpose was of course to see the shuttle (despite how much disney filled the time), that is my first post.

We started the morning with a 2:50am wakeup call. We then drove out to KSC, arriving around 4:40-4:45. We had this brilliant plan of stopping at McD's for breakfast. Problem was, we never saw one and we didn't print out a map showing where the closest one is. So, no food for us. Peter showed his badge a few times and we eventually parked in a field by the water. The shuttle is launched on the other side of the water. They had NASA tv blasted over the speakers, so we could hear what was going on. As we drove in, there were several locations that were further out and played the nasa tv on big videos. But since we could actually see the shuttle (though dimly- it was very dark) a screen would have been a distraction. We then waited. Bin played with some toys we bought her at Downtown Disney (more on that in a later post) and I pretended to nap. Napping in a compact car, though, is basically impossible.

We had a few nervous moments as they called out potential problems. At one point, some communication thing was broken and they listed the flight as a no go. A few minutes later, they announced backup was working and the flight was a go again. Another fun flight, should anything go wrong, get in a sealed airconditioned building and listen for further announcements. For those on the causeway (where we were) there are no buildings, so jump in your cars and close the windows. With that many cars, evacuation would be so slow. :) But we were fine.

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/hd/ Video of the launch- mine isn't that good. :) Very fuzzy and camera had some trouble with complete dark to complete light- if requested I will post mine.

The launch was amazing. I am glad we saw a night launch too. It goes from being very dark to the whole sky lit up, almost like the sun rose in one brief second. Also, across the lake, we had a several second delay on the sound- which was pretty neat. Everyone cheered and was very excited once the countdown started. Then there was the wait to make sure nothing went wrong and then more cheers as they announced rescue services would not be needed. Jet planes flew over, which we assume were out prepared to help with security and back up.

Bin's response to all this- she hugged daddy and said I want to go home! She did look and later she told us all about daddy's space shuttle and how she saw it (but couldn't go in). Peter also enjoyed gloating over the disney people who were like, we saw the shuttle this morning from the hotel. So much more awesome to see it there vs 40 miles away. Afterwards, the clouds (which were more smoke were the neatest colors in the rising sun.

Then we had the sucky part- getting back to the hotel. The traffic basically didn't move at all. 40 miles back to the hotel, 2o of them at a crawl. Took over 3 hours, which was absolutely ridiculous and frustrating and boring. Bin slept. Peter was driving and only fell asleep a few times.

Last 2 pics- actually from the airport but this seemed like the best place to put them. Bin thought this statue was really neat and was being c ute, then I suggested daddy also hold her hand. The first one was her natural response.