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Shopportunity of the strange at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
© Copyright 2010 Tink *~*~*
http://MyMobileAdventures.com
Click the photos to see a larger version in Flickr
You might think this is odd, but when it comes to leaving a Disney park, I plan my exit route around how many shops I can hit as I make my way toward the gate. (Long-time readers are feigning shock. Tink *~*~* – a shopper? No! Really? ;p ) There are a couple of reasons you should consider doing this, too. One, you are addicted to Disney merchandise, and even if you’re not buying, you’re still looking. Two, if it is a really hot day, the shops are your air conditioned refuge. Some of them are quite long, actually a series of shops strung together; you can get from one to the next without having to exit to the sidewalk. For instance, at the Magic Kingdom you can enter Casey’s at the rear where the bleachers and cartoons are, and walk clear down to the Emporium without ever having to leave the comfort of climate control.
At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, there are major shops spaced out all around Discovery Island, so no matter which land you are coming from, you’re passing merchandise and cool air. The shopportunities are just too good to pass up, so you enter to see what you can see. Much of the merchandise will be similar to what you just saw in the last shop you were in, but once in a while you come across something unique, different…. ok, odd. Take this Pirate Tinkerbell pin as an example. Adorable, right? Well, yes – but only until you get close enough to realize that her eyes are these strange, glowing, neon blue blobs and it makes her look like a pod person ready to shed her humanoid form and take over the planet. I would have bought her, except that she gave me the willies!
Here’s another head-scratcher. We already knew that Ariel didn’t have legs until her dear Auntie Ursula gave her some in exchange for her lovely singing voice. What we didn’t know is that Ursula apparently reneged on the deal, for here we see that instead of legs, Ariel’s got a miniature theater under her skirt, complete with her own “mini-me” shown here in the boat with Prince Eric. The statue is very pretty but when you think about it, she’s actually floating legless above a rowboat and that’s just a tad bizarre. I passed on this one, too.
This t-shirt is a bit of a change of pace for Mickey. Normally, he’s friendly, charming, outgoing and always smiling. On this t-shirt, not so much. Mickey is depicted here running, with his hands flailing in the air, looking over his shoulder in abject terror. Clearly, someone – or someTHING – is chasing him. However, we cannot see that because the t-shirt ends just where a would-be pursuer would begin. We may never know what’s made poor Mickey take off like this, but judging from his face, it can’t be good! Still, this one is more edgy than strange, so there’s the possibility I’d buy it, just to be droll. 
So what about you?
Do you cut through the shops in the Disney parks to cool off?
And what’s the strangest Disney merchandise you’ve ever seen?
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Dinosaur Week: Is this Chester or Hester?
© Copyright 2010 Tink *~*~*
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This is the last of DINOSAUR WEEK here at My Mobile Adventures *~*~*, and I have a question for you – is this Chester or is it Hester?
In the DinoLand section of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, everything is named after these two dinosaurs, but I’ve never been able to work out who is who. While this one looks like a brontosaurus, the other one is more of a triceratops.
Does anyone know – which one is Chester and which one is Hester?
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Dinosaur Week: rock-o-saurus?
© Copyright 2008 Tink *~*~*
http://MyMobileAdventures.com
A few years back, I was treading the path up to Camp Minnie Mickey at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. I took a look to my right as I was passing over the stream and I saw this waterfall spewing forth from a pile of… hey wait just a minute! That’s no ordinary pile of rocks. That looks like a dinosaur – a stegosaurus, as a matter of fact! You know, the one that mildly resembles a rhinoceros, only with a bunch of armor all over, and a stand-up collar. Look at the water gushing through those TEETH! It can’t be a mistake; the Imagineers had to have built it that way on purpose. But why? Why build a stegosaurus waterfall on the path to Camp Minnie Mickey?
Well, some people say that it’s not a stegosaurus at all. Some people say that Camp Minnie Mickey was originally supposed to be the site of a “land” in the Animal Kingdom where mythological creatures dwell and that our stegosaurus waterfall was actually supposed to be a fire-breathing dragon. I totally believe that there was originally supposed to be a “Beastly Kingdom” where Camp Minnie Mickey now stands, but no way is that a dragon. It’s very obviously a stegosaurus!
OK, so what do YOU think – dinosaur or dragon?
Leave a comment, let me know!
You want me to be happy, don’t you?
DON’T YOU?
Tree of Life: the giraffe
© Copyright 2008 Tink *~*~*
http://MyMobileAdventures.com
My head was still swimming with the mysteries I’d learned about torri gates and goddesses as I browsed my photos yesterday in search of a Wednesday offering. My eyes came to rest on a photo of the giraffe by the waterfall. This is one of the scenes carved into the Tree of Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Each time I visit this theme park, I can spend an hour or more just wandering the paths that wind around the Tree. I find this area to be an oasis of sorts, far removed from the noisy crowds. The only sounds are the soothing rush of the waterfalls and occasional bird calls.
Curious, I fired up google and entered “giraffe symbolism” and found that some traditions believe that giraffes possess superior vision and perceptiveness. There seem to be two factors that influence this belief. One, the giraffe is very tall and can therefore see further into the distance than other animals can. It is said that if the giraffe is your totem (animal spirit guide), then your ability to see into the future is enhanced. Two, the giraffe has a third horn, but it is hidden beneath a flap of skin just above the eyes. This is said to represent inner perception.
Combined with the “flow” of the nearby waterfall, I’m finding that I rather like the idea of a giraffe spirit guide! Now if only Rafiki would come and tell me my future!
You want me to be happy, don’t you?
DON’T YOU?
Me and my girl-illa: escape from the paparazzi
© Copyright 2010 Tink *~*~*
http://MyMobileAdventures.com
This is a continuation of the story that began on March 19th 2010 with “Me and my girl-illa” Click the photos to see them larger in Flickr.
Hello again. Last time we met, I was busy sneaking around in the brush, trying to keep the prying lenses of the paparazzi away from my newborn baby girl-illa. There was a whole swarm of them, so I kept her pretty close to me (here you can only see the crown of her cute little head), creeping from one bush to the next, hoping to lose them. It’s not easy to elude the paparazzi; they’re a sly and resourceful bunch of stalkers, often working together to corner us, like dolphins herding schools of fish. I saw that on the BBC’s Planet Earth
Finally, I found a nice fallen tree behind some bushes; it looked like a good place to lean back and rest from all the running to and fro, hither and yon, trying to find someplace, ANYPLACE to hide from the hordes. It was sunny and peaceful out there for a bit, and we both got some shut-eye. Well, I have one eye shut -the other one has to remain open at all times, just in case we’re invaded again. While we were snoozing, my mobile rang – it was Britney and Billy Ray, conference-calling with some advice on dealing with the whole publicity spotlight thing. Britney says that sometimes it’s better to bring the kid out into the open for a few minutes, under carefully controlled circumstances, of course, to make it seem like you’re friendly and cooperating. Billy Ray concurred that this tactic had worked with his darling Miley many times.
Meet the baby daddy
You talkin’ to me? Are you talkin’ to ME?”
Happy Critturday!
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Me and my girl-illa
© Copyright 2008 Tink *~*~*
http://MyMobileAdventures.com
It’s not easy being the parent of a child star these days, especially when your child is a DISNEY star. We’ve been pretty much besieged every since my darling little girl-illa was born. So much activity, so many people to see, so much of our lives played out in the spotlight. I tell you, sometimes I feel like we live in a zoo! Well, if you were paying attention during the late 90s/early 00s, you know that Disney’s Animal Kingdom is “nahtazoo”, but it still feels like one at times. On this particular day, the baby and I were just hangin’ out in the clearing up on that little hill in the forest, trying to take a little nap – but there were a lot of those noisy humans congregating on the bridge, and sleep wasn’t coming.
I think one of them was aggravating one of the boys across the ravine; a Cast Member had to go and put a stop to whatever shennanigans were going on over there. I decided it was too much for us to tolerate, so I thought of another resting spot and relocated. Clutching my little princess tightly to my chest with one hand (which makes me sort of lope along sideways on my other three limbs), I scrambled over the hill to a nice little rocky enclave where I’d stashed the baby’s pink receiving blanket. There we settled in, hoping to get a little rest.
Well, we were both nearly asleep when those damned paparazzi figured out where we’d gotten to and descended en masse upon the glass enclosure! Ridiculous amounts of flash ensued – I mean, don’t these people read the manual when they buy these newfangled point-and-shoot cameras? If they did, they’d know we were too far away for the flash to help their pictures, but close enough for it to nearly blind us when we looked up. And I hate to be the one to tell them this, but you know all those pictures they thought they were getting of my child, the little girl-illa star? Well, I’ll just bet you that all those pictures turned out horrible – just blobs of light bouncing off the glass. Silly, silly humans!
By this time, I was just really grumpy – I mean, wouldn’t you be? All I wanted to do was catch a nap and see to it that my little princess was properly fed and rested. I am starting to rethink this Disney child star thing… maybe we should move far, far away and dye our hair and that sort of thing, live in disguise for a few years until all of this blows over. I honestly don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Children are born every day! There’s nothing extraordinary about that. I mean, if all those peoples with their cameras, ooo-ing and ahhh-ing all over the place think she is so special, they can just come on in and take a turn at changing her diaper! Then we’ll see what the definition of “special” is… anyway, I was done, I tell you – D-O-N-E, done! Carefully cradling my princess once more, I mustered all the dignity I could a stalked off into the brush to hide…
TO BE CONTINUED…
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A petulant poser in the Pangani Forest
© Copyright 2008 Tink *~*~*
http://MyMobileAdventures.com
A gorilla on the “bachelor” side of the Pangani Forest in Disney’s Animal Kingdom decides to sulk and turns his back to the camera. Guests are instructed not to establish eye contact or gesture towards the male gorillas, as this can upset them. Someone broke the rules, and after a short period of agitated pacing, the gorilla decided to chill out next to the waterfall.
You want me to be happy, don’t you?
DON’T YOU?
Things are looking up at the bat exhibit
© Copyright 2008 Tink *~*~*
http://MyMobileAdventures.com
Sometime while you are touring any Disney theme park, try looking UP for a different perspective. Chances are really excellent that you will start to notice bits of theming that range from clever to beautiful and add to the overall ambiance and mood that Disney is striving for in that particular space.
I did this recently at the fruit bat enclosure at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Orlando, Florida. One of the things I found hung from the ceiling in the corridor just outside the bat enclosure were several carved effigies of bats in flight. This one looks particularly ferocious. Even though the bats in the enclosure are fruit bats and therefore not interested in bothering humans, I’m not sure I want to encounter one with his mouth open like that! 
The bat enclosure is screened in, and it is accessed by two doors (in theory, one is “in” and the other is “out”). When I looked up, I saw this remarkable carving above one of the doors. I’m not sure what sort of legend it is supposed to portray. The larger yellow creatures don’t look much like bats, but they are the only ones with wings. The smaller green and red creatures seem to be shaped more like bats, but they have no wings. And I don’t know about you, but I don’t much like the looks of the little green guy in the center. What’s he doing to the neck of the big yellow dude? They’re supposed to be fruit bats, not vampire bats! Hmmmm…..
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