Vinylmations – The New Craze for Disney

The new craze for Disney guests are these plastic Mickey figurines that comes in many different designs…They are small, big, keychains, & trading pins…I am a little bit hooked on the trading pins but it depends on what the vinylmation pin looks like…They have plain white vinylmations that you can decorate yourself with stickers or use, I’m guessing, some sort of marker…A new store opened up on the West Side of Downtown Disney in April, 2010…Our walk to our truck from the boat dock took us past this store so we just had to walk in and see what it was all about…The first person we encounter is a Cast Member with a lanyard full of vinylmation pins…I went to trade for 2 of them (and Richard wanted to trade for 1 of the pins) and the Cast Member told us that we had to trade a vinylmation pin for a vinylmation pin…I did not have any of those pins with me cause the ones I have at home are the ones that I liked…I saw a 2010 Happy New Year’s pin that I liked and couldn’t get it…So sad…but we walked around the store and got some photos of what was there…

These are the little ones that you can hook on to your purse, zipper pull or put anywhere you want..These are only a few…

These are your normal sized vinylmations…This is The Muppet series vinylmations…These are about 2 1/2” high and cost about $10 each…

These are the Holiday series collection…

This is part of another type of series…There are several series to choose from…One of the series is the Urban Series and the Clear Series…There are Urban 1 Series, Urban 2 Series and so on…So much to choose from and many to like and want…Pictures help out a lot…LOL

These are the larger vinylmations…They are about 8 inches tall or so…They come in plain white or already decorated…The thing about the vinylmations is that they are in boxes and  you do not know what vinylmation you will be getting…You may like a certain vinylmation but that don’t mean that you will get the one that you like…It’s a big surprise…Not sure if I like that or not especially if I just want a certain one and the larger vinylmations are about $20 each…For that kind of money, I want what I want…

This was different…Not sure if you can actually put any condiments in these but I wouldn’t want to…

In the store there is this large glass case of vinylmations…This is just a “few” of them…Some of these vinylmations I have as a trading pin like the vinylmation, 3rd row from the bottom, 2nd one from the left between the white/purple vinylmation and the lime green vinylmation…

All of these are very interesting and could be an expensive hobby…but I will stick to pictures and trading pins…The one trading pin or vinylmation that Richard would like to have is the Monorail vinylmation..I hope to find it one day for him…

A Relaxing Walk Around Saratoga Springs Resort

Yesterday was a gorgeous day so we thought we would do a little bit of exploring and see what Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa  (SSR&S) was like…So we headed out to Downtown Disney to park the truck and take a small walk (hike) around the path from Downtown Disney to SSR&S…On the West Side of Downtown Disney is the House of Blues…Do you know that they want about $14 for a Cheesburger…We won’t be eating there…LOL

At first we thought we would take the boat from the West Side of Downtown Disney to the SSR&S boat dock and then get on the boat that would take us to SSR&S…However, after waiting about 10 minutes for the boat, we decided to walk the path…But while waiting, we saw an Anhinga just sitting in the sun…We thought he had a fish in his beak but when you look closer, what he actually has attached to his lower beak is a piece of netting…We figure that he went for a fish and caught a piece of the netting that is under the rocks/lake here at Downtown Disney…

After the walk (hike) to SSR&S, we found our way in via the gift shop/food shop…This wasn’t a very big shop..Only a few food vendors for the guests to grab a bite to eat and a very small shop…What I didn’t realize was the name of the Resort had to do with horse racing…I just never put 2 + 2 together until I saw this patch on a purse…

While walking around the shop, I came across this bottle of wine…Francis Coppola…Now is this the Francis Ford Coppola, the famous director of movies or another relation…I do know that this name is a relation to Nicholas Cage whose last name use to be Coppola…

Another bottle of wine that I found in the shop was a Fess Parker chardonnay…Anyone hear of Fess Parker…aka  Daniel Boone…

I told Richard about the Fess Parker wine and he just had to get his picture taken with the bottle of Chardonnay…

At the Carriage House Check-in is a beautiful carriage from way back when…Someday it would be nice to take a carriage ride…Just sit back and relax…Maybe on a “chilly” day, snuggled up to my sweetie, hearing the clip-clop of the horses hooves…but at SSR&S they do not have carriage rides…One has to go to Port Orleans – Riverside or Fort Wilderness Campground..

This is a beautiful Carousel horse..The inside of the Carriage House is beautiful…They have little chairs for little guests while they enjoy tv while the parents check-in…The pictures around the Carriage House are “old” and tells you about reminiscing times…

SSR&S is a beautiful place…The landscaped grounds is kept well groomed…There are several “lakes” where you can see some wildlife floating around trying to get some lunch…The pretty pink fluff in more pretty in person than what this picture looks…

SSR&S is a huge resort on Disney property…We hardly touched a portion of the resort by walking…There are buildings all over the place and treehouses which we didn’t even get on the path to those but one day we will…In this lake above, we saw turtles, fish & a cormorant who actually got some lunch while we were taking photos…The cormorant found some small minnowes to have for his lunch…The turtles, 4 in all, were swimming over towards the bridge where we were standing to see if we would drop some food down to them but we didn’t have anything…Not even some cracker crumbs…Maybe next time..

Richard and I were walking around the loop of this section of SSR&S and the landscaping was beautiful…The trellises here were awesome but it made me think how more beautiful they would be if pretty flowers were on them… 

Isn’t this gorgeous??? 

Anyone for a little “me” time?  Here is the place to come…

This is where the kids can go for some entertainment while the parents are resting at the pool…

Believe it or not, this is where the food court/gift shop is…This is where a guest can buy a refillable cup for about $14 for their whole stay at the resort and not pay another penny for a drink like soda, hot chocolate & coffee…If one is staying a whole week, it most definitely pays to have this cup..Going back out of this shop ended our day at this resort…On to our boat ride to Downtown Disney and heading towards our truck…What a great afternoon I had…Of course, it is always great to share these days with my sweetie…Love you, babe!

Being a Proud Grandparent

I remember when my kids were small and going to school…All the cool papers they would do, draw, create and want you to hang up at home…All the kids are grown and now have kids of their own…Right now the only child of mine who has a child in Elementary School is Brandi…Her daughter, Kay, is in 1st grade and for a while she was having some distracted interests in her classroom…With a new incentive program from home, Kay is doing wonderfully in school…Below is a very special award and her Poppy and I are very proud of her..

Another proud moment in our granddaughter’s life is when she looses a tooth….However, Kay lost 2 teeth within the same week…So what does she want for Christmas…Why, her 2 front teeth…When grandchildren start losing their baby teeth, you know they are growing up…I can’t believe that Kay is in 1st grade and doing so well…

Last night was a very special moment for Poppy and me…Kay read us a book over the phone…We felt so special…She did such a fantastic job…She read us the book about the monkeys jumping on the bed and one fell off and bumped his head…Poppy and I can’t wait until she can read us another book…Thank goodness for cell phones and ear pieces…