There I was, thumbing through Facebook on my smart phone, and came across something quite peculiar: Heavy Metal Disney music.  I scoffed at first and ignored it.  I then saw it again pop-up on a reputable site for everything “nerd”.  I decided to give it a shot, I clicked on it and was able to listen to a heavy metal version of Beauty and the Beast.  I pressed play and was immediately taken aback.  This is actually quite good, almost great.  The article also stated that the album was released in 2016 and was only available in Japan (I was deflated).  Then I thought, “iTunes.”  And there it was.  I purchased the album and must say, it is very good.

The Album: Metal Disney

 

The Band: D- Metal All Stars

Vocals- Michael Vescera (Obsession)

Guitars-John Bruno (Obsession)

Bass- Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy, Quiet Riot, White Snake, Dio etc)

Drums- BJ Zampa (Dokken)

Now At first, I was a little skeptical of the song list.  I am not a huge fan of ballads and about half of the album is what I consider Disney ballads.  You know, the songs that get you right in the feels.  But I was pleasantly surprised of how the band arranged them.  They still get you right in the feels, but is kicking you in the tail end at the same time with gut busting drums and face melting solos.

Now the band members were prevalent in the 80’s during the reign of glam and hair metal (Poison, Motley Crue).  The influence can be heard, especially with the vocals.  However, they implemented a very thrashy (Metallica) sound which is my favorite genre.  If I were to describe the sound to a person with some metal knowledge, I would say they sound like an 80’s East Coast Thrash Metal band (Anthrax, Overkill).

My favorite song on the album is probably The Disney Medley.   It contains 5 classic songs that every Disney fan will know, and can sing along to it.  This is probably the most thrashy of the list which is probably why I like it so much.  I was actually very surprised by the band’s version of It’s a Small World. I though it was going to be 4 minutes of nothing but “it’s a Small World after all,” but it was not. They filled most of the song with some very entertaining guitar solos and breakdowns.

As the writing of this post, the physical album is not available in the United States, but it can be purchased from Japan for a pretty penny.  But you can download it from Apple iTunes for about $10.

So if you’re a fan of heavy metal, and a fan of Disney music, get this album.  It is very entertaining and you will not be disappointed.

And of course, as you are head banging away to Metal Disney, grab you a mug of Joffrey’s Coffee or Tea.  But wait between songs, wouldn’t want you to spill any during the banging of the head.

 

 

 

Free at last free at last, Thank Walt we are free at last.  Welcome to the exiting conclusion of surviving captivity in WDW.  In this episode, your favorite crime fighter and his sidekick venture out from their confines and explore what is left of the World.

Well, everything was left.  The guests had been given an all clear and informed that all the parks would be open at 0800 hours on Saturday.  The wife and I woke up, got ready, and headed to the monorail station of the Poly in hopes of getting to MK in time for the Welcome Show.  We were wrong. Of course the monorail was down and we had to take the bus.  We hopped a bus that arrived at 0740 hours.  “We can make it,” I thought happily to myself, but the detour into the Grand Floridian squashed those dreams.  Especially when the bus driver went out the wrong way and had to do some impressive acrobatics to free us. We arrived at MK a little after 8…along with 3/4 of Florida.  We did have a backpack and the wife sacrificed herself to stand in the bag line as I waited for her in limbo in the area between bag check and the main entrance for 27 minutes, and then made our way into MK.

Since I already snagged me a Joffrey’s from Captain Cooks, I was able to bypass that “other” coffee joint on Main Street and we booked it to Fantasyland.  Of course, no trip would be complete without a whirl on my favorite flying elephant and yours: Dumbo.  After that wonderful ride, we destroyed our fastpasses at Mine Train, Jungle Book and Splash Mountain.  Now what?  The park was packed and all the good fastpasses were gone by noon.

My better half and I grabbed some lunch at the best QS in the Kingdom: Columbia Harbour House.  I enjoyed some fish and fries and she got something that wasn’t as good, and we made a game plan.  We had about a 4 hour gap between our Haunted Mansion fastpass.  Nothing good came to mind so we just started walking around.  Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor had no wait, we tried it for the first time ever and enjoyed it.  Country Bears was free, haven’t done that ever.  Buzz was actually short and was a blast as usual (see what I did there?).  Somewhere during the wandering, I was able to grab a delicious turkey leg from the Frontierland Turkey Cart.

Let’s go do Carousel of Progress.  I was excited and the wife was not.  It was my first time riding it in about 20 years and the first time for my lovely bride.  It was my dad’s favorite and he was always excited to do it.  We sat down with about 4 other guests.  The cast members didn’t even bother to tell us to move all the way down.  The attraction started with the familiar music and I sang along.  We took a trip through history and asked Cindy how she liked it. “I never want to that again.”  I was taken aback, but then realized that it had lost its power to bring folks in like it did when I was a youngster.  I also realized that I was just fooling myself and that COP needs something else.  I understand the history of it, and it was one of Walt’s.  However,  that’s some prime real estate right there.

After the depression of COP wore off, we headed over to Liberty Square for our dinner at Liberty Tree Tavern.  On the way we passed the new Muppets Show: The Muppets Present…Great Moments in American History.  I was worried that it wouldn’t fit in.  I was wrong.  It was as funny as my rotund butt riding Dumbo.  Good jokes, clean fun and Miss Piggy.  We then sat down for our meal at Liberty Tree.  This is one of the very few restaurants on property that we have repeated.  The comfort food will put you into a coma if you don’t stop (I had to tell the waiter to take the food away) and the service is exquisite.

We finished dinner at around 5:30 PM.  There was only one thing left to do, wait 3 hours for the Main Street Electrical Parade.  We needed to claim a spot and we found an excellent spot near Casey’s Corner.  We laid out or recently purchased beach towels from the emporium, sat down and I was able to lean against the lamp-post.

 

We waited, and waited and waited some more.  The crowds grew and I had a Lance Bass celebrity sighting while waiting.  How did I know it was Lance Bass?  I told the wife “that guy looks like Lance Bass,” and one of his cronies yelled out, “Hey Lance.”  I digress.  I didn’t sit in that one spot the entire time.  I walked around, grabbed some popcorn and drinks, got some goodies from the confectionary and waited. Now,  I am not complaining, this is my wife’s favorite thing in all of WDW and I wanted her to have a good time.  And, it was the last weekend of the Main Street Electrical Parade.

After what seemed like an eternity (3 hours), the music blasted and the parade started.  As usual, it was awesome.  I will miss this show but I know that something even better will replace it (hopefully).

 

 

The parade ended, and so did our night.  There was no extra magic hours and we didn’t want to fight the Wishes crowds.  We exited the park and stared down a 2 hour monorail line or hour boat line.  I chose the lesser of two evils and we moseyed on back to the Poly just in time to catch Wishes.  Once the spectacular was finished the wife headed back to the room as I grabbed me several of my last Jai Alais for the trip.  The next day we awoke, left the bubble and took that magical 7 hour drive back home.

All in all, it was a decent trip considering the circumstances.  Looking back though, I believe that we should have canceled and rescheduled.  But how often does your anniversary fall on a hurricane landfall, and why not do it in Disney World.

When I was in the Magic Kingdom at the time of our trip, there was no Joffrey’s Coffee kiosk in the park and I had to grab my coffee at the hotel.  However, the great folks over at Joffrey’s now have a kiosk in Tomorrowland at Rockettower Plaza Stage near Space Mountain.

We last saw our Disney duo confined to their 1-bedroom theme park view Polynesian Villa in Rock You Like A Hurricane Part 1. The nice phone lady informed that imminent danger was upon us and that we should take shelter by at least 11pm on Oct 8th.  Well, until 2300 hours rolled up, we decided to take what little time was available and grab a bite.

The Grand Ceremonial House was the place to be that evening.  Those who opted to leave were being cared for, and those fools who decided to stay were also taken care of.  The restaurants were in full swing and several park characters were also there. I remember seeing Captain Hook and Smee for a dance party for the children, and I slightly remember at least Pluto and Goofy.  Also, for sale was boxed breakfasts and lunches and hot fresh pizza was up for sale to take back to our rooms. We stuck around the GCH long enough to grab our boxed meals, pizza, grab a couple of drinks and purchase some survival necessities (candy, beer, board games and so forth). We made our way back to our room to await the impending doom.   It was about 2000 hours (8pm) and the rain and wind were starting to pick up.  We “enjoyed” our pizza, beer and watched some movies.  Soon, we decided to turn in early for the night.

The next morning brought a devastating sight of… nothing.  No damage, no bungalows that came apart from their foundations and floating in the middle of Bay Lake.  Just a lot of wetness and some vegetation thrown about.  So, what to do?  We opened up our boxed breakfast and enjoyed a bagel and some fruit.  I had drunk my Joffrey’s coffee the day before and since I was at a DVC room, it did not get replenished.  So, no coffee, crappy boxed breakfasts and only 1 beer.  Instead of wallowing in self-pity and blaming the world for what was going on, we decided to relax and watch Disney movies on the tv and play a round of Disney Monopoly.  The only gripe I have of this is that about 1/3 of the way through The Little Mermaid (a classic) it shut off and we were treated to… Tron… Legacy (a classic piece of…).

At about 1100 hours (that’s 11 am for you non-military type) Cast Members were coming out of hiding and walking the grounds and driving their golf carts around.  At about noon-thirty the phone range and the nice lady said that we were free.  We put on our shoes and ran towards the GCH.  The wife and I stood in line at Trader Sam’s for an exclusive Haunted Mansion Tiki Mug that took about 2 hours.  It came with some kind of tiki drink that I can’t remember the name, but do remember that it was not that tasty.  So to get rid of the rum infused nightmare going on in my gullet, I grabbed a couple of beers and a good whiskey to get rid of the vileness.  As the wife and I were meandering through the GCH it was told that ‘Ohana was serving dinner to resort guests only.

 
 Now we have had ‘Ohana in the past and I was not as thoroughly impressed as my fellow brethren, but we were hungry and didn’t want Captain Cook’s.  I was also informed by telephone earlier that our Anniversary dinner at Jiko was not going to be honored (for it too was only opened to resort guests.)  I walked up to the hostess stand and asked for a wait time.  She stated that she couldn’t give us one but the average was about 20 minutes.  I was going to grab a libation from the Tambu Lounge for the wait, but the buzzer went off and we were seated right next to the window…just to the right of the Volcano Pool.  This would have been prime seating for a Wishes viewing.  Our server came out and informed that instead of doing the normal family style meal, a buffet with food from ‘Ohana and the Luau was being served, and yes, I could get beer!  The food was great: Chicken wings, salad, chicken, bread pudding and the lot.

As we finished our meal, the server came to us and informed that there is a Cast Member rumor going around that Disney Springs was going to be opened at 5:30 pm for WDW resort guests only.  We paid, headed back to the room, and received an email and call that Disney Springs would be opened at 5:30 and we wanted to take advantage of this special moment.  Now imagine this: (almost) everybody that is staying on Disney property has been cooped up for a day and a half and they only had one place to go.  Yea, it was busier than Trader Sam’s on exclusive tiki mug day!  This was the first time we had experienced the completed Disney Springs with the Town Center and it was…nice.  Like walking down an outdoor mall with whimsical themed bars thrown about (but that’s for another article).  Needless to say, it was nice to get out but it was in fact extremely busy and not all of the establishments were open.  We bought some things for the kids and of course enjoyed a few cocktails, then headed back to the room to get ready for an early rise to Magic Kingdom in the morning.

Stay tuned next time for the exciting conclusion of Disney during a hurricane.

Don’t be like me, make sure you stock up on your Joffrey’s Coffee BEFORE a natural disaster strikes.

Our ten-year anniversary trip to the World was a world of firsts for the wife and I: First solo trip, first Food and Wine, first stay at our DVC home, first trip without kids, and first time vacationing during a hurricane warning.  Hurricane Mathew was bearing down on Florida and the entire east coast.  My home state of SC was preparing for coastal evacuations and my place of work put us all on alert.  We could have stayed home (contemplated it actually…but no, we are stubborn and really needed a vacation.

The trip was planned for Wednesday, October 5th to Sunday, October 9th and already the week had thrown about 6,534 monkey wrenches into the spokes of our plans…the vacation was in jeopardy.  My kid’s schools were canceled and grandma couldn’t take off work to watch kids all day.  Enter other grandma and cousins.  They stepped up and took on the challenge that is an 8-year-old and hyper-active 4-year-old with special needs. On the day of departure, the good governor of South Carolina planned on reversing I-95 at 3:00pm, that’s ok, we would be out of the state by then.  The kicker: the wife and I have jobs that are considered essential during natural disasters.  Both us received emails from our respected work places telling us that every one is on alert and to not make any plans.  In a panic we called our supervisors and was informed that since we put in for vacation time that we would be ok.

Our departure time was adjusted due to the ‘no school thing’.  Instead of dropping the boys off at school at 7:30 and leaving after, we had to wait for the grandma to come over and we didn’t leave until about 9.  No biggie, we could adjust.  The commute down was uneventful, and thank Thor we didn’t run into any heavy traffic on the south bound side of 95! We arrived in the world around 3:30, and by the time we settled in at the Polynesian, we had missed 2 of our Hollywood Studios’ Fastpasses. The decision was made to ‘phone it in’ on park time and just went to the new and improved outdoor shopping mall, I mean, Disney Springs.

October 6th, 2016 is a day that will never be forgotten.  The wife and I awoke and prepared for a day at Epcot.  The weather was not bad: Cloudy, windy and a little rain.  Hurricane Matthew was about 40 miles off the coast of Florida and was predicted not to make land fall. We arrived in Epcot and headed over to purchase a stroller for the day.  Then we realized that we didn’t have the kids with us, smiled and continued on our way.  Now, I was happy to be in Epcot and was ready to hit the attractions; but I was excited for my first ever Food and Wine Festival and the time in Future World was just some filler until World Showcase opened up.  The rain had started to get a little heavier and high quality Disney umbrellas were purchased.  We rode Soarin’ a few times, enjoyed Living with the Land and Spaceship Earth. We then made our way over to Test Track…but who are we kidding, it was raining.

11:00 am hit, World Showcase had opened, and my first ever Food and Wine Festival had commenced.  The plan was to take it slow, hit all the places that I wanted to first, then wander around and say, “that looks good.”  We would eat until  we got full, take a break, then hit Le Cellier for dinner.  If timed just right, when we exited Le Cellier we would hopefully walk right into the beginning of Illuminations. 

Well, all was going to plan until I hit my first station.  I walked into the Craft Beer pavilion and ordered my flight of beers.  As I was trying to pick up 3 beers in a holder without spilling it, I noticed Cast Members huddled around.  I didn’t give it much attention, maybe it was a last-minute “Do it for Walt!” kinda pep talk.  The team leader or manager was not talking loud, but loud enough to where I could make out some mumbles.  Then I heard the words that will haunt me till the day I die, “be prepared to close early tonight, and come in late tomorrow.”  I panicked, and didn’t realize that I was staring at the team blatantly eavesdropping.  The team leader asked “anything else, sir?” I told her I was fine, but that was a cold-hearted lie.  I was not fine.  I was scared.

I exited the Craft Beer pavilion and found my bride and informed her of the impending doom.  She went to the powder room to prepare for what was to come.  As I was waiting, I downed my 3, 2 ounce pours of craft deliciousness and saw a Cast Member.  I asked, “is it true that y’all (I say y’all) are closing early?”  He replied with a smile, “yes sir. probably around 5.” I gave the gentleman my thanks with a smile.  The wife and reunited and made a game plan. She was bummed due to the early closing eliminating our Le Cellier ADR. Instead of strolling casually through Epcot, we would hit the place with purpose.  No unnecessary stopping, no time to savor and no time to take pictures.  We wanted to be done by 4 pm to beat the stampede at 5.  We headed towards the Mexico Pavilion and began to journey.

This is where it gets sad.  I cannot to this day recall in detail what I ate.  I know we stopped at the American Pavillion and had the seafood thing, and a waffle delight from the Belgium kiosk.  But all I can say was, it was good…we didn’t have a bad dish.  Unfortunately due to the speed and lack of note taking and ‘social mediaing’ our finds, I just don’t remember the fine details of my first ever Food and Wine Festival.  As mentioned before, we started out at Mexico and ended in Canada.  And when we were at about Norway, the loud speakers stopped playing music and an announcer confirmed: “Disney Parks will be closing at 5 pm today (Thursday) and will not be open until 8 am Saturday.” Once the World Showcase Lap was completed, we just decided to head back to the Poly.  We had plenty of time to make it back through and get go to the kiosks that we missed, but what was the point?  We just wanted to get out of there.  So we boarded our bus of sadness and headed to our room.

 

By the time we got back to the Poly, the winds had picked up and the rain became a little more heavier.  The lobby was a buzz with activity.  We sludged back to our room and changed out of our wet clothes.  The little red message button on our phone was blinking, mocking us.  The nice lady on the other line again mention that the parks will be closed on Friday and that there was a 11:00 pm curfew for all resort guests on Oct 6 and we would essentially be on lock down on Friday until further notice.  That is right, confined to our room until the Mouse decided it was safe for us to venture out.  What a great vacation.

Well, this ends Part 1 of our ten-year anniversary dream vacation.  On the next episode you will get a glimpse into the mind of a man trapped inside the Happiest Place on Earth.

The bubble?  No, I’m not talking about those harmless (yet annoying) bubble machines you buy for your children right before any night time spectacular.  I am speaking of the ‘Disney Bubble’.  The translucent phenomenon that encapsulates the entire Walt Disney World property.  You can’t see it, but you sure as heck can feel its presence any where on property.   Once you take exit 64, 65 or 67 off of I-4 and you have passed under the Magic Kingdom Sign, or drive through the Disney Springs gate, you have entered the bubble.

This anomaly serves two purposes.  The first is to shield you from all the evil and stress of everyday life.  You may have had a couple of days at work that have been gnawing at you before your trip, but the bubble helps you by blocking those stressors from entering the World with you.  It will also soothe, and let you know that everything is going to be alright.  Personally, I have a extremely high stress job with long hours and shift work.  No, it’s not a completely difficult job but it does take its toll on my mind and body.  When I make that drive to the World, I am excited that we are on the way, but still may be tired or stressed from the work week.  Once I enter that bubble, it all melts away and the feeling that nothing bad can happen washes over me.

The second purpose of this bubble is that all you need is inside.  Everything from food, lodging, transportation, entertainment, etc. is inside.  When I finally get to my resort, unload and park the car, the family and I go nowhere near it for the rest of the trip.  Disney transportation will get us anywhere we want.  Left a toothbrush at home?  No need to head to the closest drugstore off property; head to the gift shop and get a new one.  If you are not willing to pay Disney prices for items that you normally needed (eg. toothbrush), there are 3 Speedway Gas Stations in the Bubble that don’t match Disney Prices.

For me and the family, the bubble is a safe place that provides everything we need.  We don’t like leaving it because 99% of the time we are heading home and that gloominess that was blocked, grabs us as soon as we leave. So, try it one trip.  Stay on property, don’t leave, and take advantage of everything that Walt Disney World has to offer.

Well, it happened.  We successfully toured WDW and made it home alive and with our sanity still intact.  And thank you…yes you, for perusing this blog post to find out how the trip with a Ketogenic Diet child turned out.  Instead of giving you all the exciting review of the Ketogenic Diet and the process needed to prepare Jake’s meals, just head to this link and check it out:

https://themickeydudes.com/2016/07/14/touring-with-a-special-diet-child-part-1-the-planning/

We went into this trip actually a little worried.  We didn’t know how Jake would react to having the prepared meals and none of us eating with him.  Or if he would go nuts when he saw a popcorn stand and couldn’t enjoy a bucket of the buttery goodness.  Questions went through our heads like: “can he do it,”  “can we do it,” “will he eat,”  “what do we do if he doesn’t eat,”…and we hadn’t even left for the World yet!  In short, we had plans in place that actually worked and plans that failed miserably.

Plans that worked:  Pre-cooked items and frozen Keto pizzas used as much as possible.  Yes, Jake had pizza every night (who wouldn’t want that) and he loved it.  Pre-made “puffs” were great for breakfast and snacks and cut down on the amount of meals we had to prep, saving time.  Instead of leaving at the ‘crack of a rooster crow’ for the World the start of our vacation, we left in the late afternoon of the day before.  If we would have left on the morning of a big travel day, we would have stopped numerous times for meals and snacks.  By leaving the day prior, Jake would have already eaten most of his controlled meals and all we would have to stop for would be dinner. Yeah, we got in late that night, but we had a full DisneyWorld day the next day.

Plans that failed:  Rope dropping Epcot on the first day of the trip after a long drive the day prior.  We were all tired, having less than 5 hours of sleep and were kind of miserable.  No one was at each others throats, but we were moving at a snail’s pace.  Trying to go a full day at DHS was probably the biggest failure of them all.  We thought we could get there early in the morning, go with no breaks, and call it an early evening.  We also thought we could actually all eat together at the ABC Commissary…and it would be fine as long as no one got fun food like nuggets and or fries.  We were WRONG!!!  Lunch time is when the wheels fell off.  Jake didn’t want to eat and was throwing a Biblical size fit. My wife had to take Jake back to the room while Tyler and I toured a little while longer.  He did eat while we was back at the room, and commenced to take a 3 hour nap.  I was kind of jealous of the nap.

The Room:  We were lucky enough to score a 1 bedroom Villa at The Wilderness Lodge on a last-minute request so that we could take advantage of the kitchen.  It was amazing and a God send.  We were able to prepare all of Jake’s meals on the stove and microwave and were able to have something other than Pop-tarts for Tyler.

Lessons Learned:  We can’t go all day in the park.  Breaks are needed and will be taken.  We have to take time for ourselves (parents).  This was accomplished by a parent taking Tyler to a good meal while the other stayed with Jake.  And the biggest lesson of all: Yes, it can be done and Yes we can do it again.  Jake will be on this diet for a least 2 years and there is no way we are going to keep family fun-time out of WDW for that amount of time.

Thanks to our hundreds of thousands of fans who have read this.  It was brief, but I hope you have learned something that will be helpful to you or to a loved one.  If you have any questions about touring with the diet, or just diet, please feel free to contact me.

Twitter: @turkeyleg1

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