During our vacation to Disney World, I was so stoked to see Monchhichis in our favorite Epcot Japanese store!  Both my husband and I started singing the commercial:

My daughter instantly fell in love and had to have one.  Lucky for her that Daddy is indulgent because I wouldn’t have paid $26 for a Monchhichi myself.   When did nostalgia cost so much?  

It is really cute though.

© 2009, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

BEAUTY

Sunday I had the pleasure of attending a fun event co-hosted by my friend Latoicha, creator of the fabulous beauty blog, Luxe Tips.  Johnson’s Body Care sponsored this gathering of girlfriends, champagne and food and also supplied lovely gift bags full of Johnson’s Radiant shower gel and body lotion.   But this event wasn’t just about us; we had the opportunity to make a contribution to CARE’S Women Empowerment Initiative as well.   It was fun spending the afternoon talking to women about hair, make-up and other things that make us beautiful inside and out.  

Latoicha in front of a lovely and delicious spread.

Latoicha, me and Renee, fellow blogger and owner of Cutie Booty Cakes.

FASHION

It’s spring and time to go shopping!  If you live in the Atlanta area, there’s a great fashion show happening at Lenox Mall April 24th and 25th; read the press release below and check it out!  

“Lenox Square will bring an exciting glimpse of the freshest fashions and trends to Atlanta with  runway fashion shows on Friday, April 24 at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturday, April 25 at 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.  The show on Friday will introduce looks exclusively from Neiman Marcus.  Public viewing of the Friday evening fashion show will be available from the upper and lower levels of the Neiman Marcus wing. 

On Saturday, local fashionistas will be able to view more of spring and summer’s chicest fashions and trends from Lenox Square’s hottest stores. Straight from the runway, each featured look will be available for purchase at participating retailers. Models will showcase looks from Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Ann Taylor Loft, Banana Republic, Betsey Johnson, Brooks Brothers, Caché, Club Monaco, GUESS, Karen Millen, The Limited, Marmi, Metropark, Miss Sixty, Mori Luggage & Gifts, Nicole Miller, Nine West, Steve Madden, Swim ‘N Sport and more.  Model make-up will be provided by Sephora, and 
model hair will be styled by DASS Salon/Spa.  Open seating surrounding the runway will be available to the public for the April 25 fashion shows. 

Also showcasing their fresh take on fashion will be three students from the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) graduate design program. Each student will be paired with a local media personality, and following an individual style consultation, will create an inspired version of the quintessential spring ensemble. The final reveal will take place during Simon Fashion Now™ on Saturday, April 25. Fashion enthusiasts are sure to enjoy this unique, real-world glimpse into the process of design.”

© 2009 – 2011, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

*As anyone who has traveled through the nation’s busiest airport knows, “T is For Tango” refers to the Concourse T stop on the airport train.

*If you missed our road trip entertainment on the way to Disney World, you can see it here.

After a fun-filled week at Walt Disney World we are back home and I’m very grumpy.  It was a hard re-entry for me both physically (the exhaustion finally settled in) and mentally (back to reality).  This morning my husband told me to go find my Mickey ears and put them on because I needed to get out of my funky mood.

I experienced my first Disney theme park (Disneyland) when I was five years old and have very vivid memories of having a great time.   But living in the Midwest for most of my childhood, I didn’t go back to Disneyland until I went to college on the West Coast and then I would go several times a year.  Often I went to Disneyland on a whim if I was having a bad day and it never failed to cheer me up.

But as much as I loved Disneyland and as many times as I had been, I had never been to Walt Disney World and I was just dying to go.  I figured, if I had so much fun in the “land”, well the “world” had to be even more fun!  When we moved to Atlanta in 2003 and I found out that Disney World was only a 7 hour drive away, I began plotting and planning.   My daughter’s 5^th birthday in October of 2006 was the perfect excuse.

So we went on a four day vacation for her birthday and had such a blast that we couldn’t wait to go again.  It took a few years, but finally we made it back to Disney World for the entire spring break vacation last week.  This time we were able to experience more and move around easier without a stroller and mandatory naptimes.

Disney World can be tons of fun or a nightmare vacation, depending on how well you plan both in the logical sense and mentally as well.   If you don’t like Disney as a brand or the Disney characters, really don’t even bother going.   It will be a very expensive waste of time for you; Disney World is not for cynics.  The people who enjoy Disney World the most are the ones who can suspend belief and get into the spirit of the place.  Even if you don’t ride a single ride at Disney World you can have a great time just being “in the magic”.

Trust me when I say that Disney World is not a place that you roll up to without a plan!  Your plan can be loose or it can be airtight, but you need some sort of plan because Disney World can be overwhelming.   Besides the books and websites that I will recommend, you have me, Funkidivagirl, to help you! (more…)

© 2009 – 2011, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

*As anyone who has traveled through the nation’s busiest airport knows, “T is For Tango” refers to the Concourse T stop on the airport train.

You’re back!  That means that I didn’t scare you off in my last blog post about Disney World and you are ready to learn even more!  This is all the fun stuff: what to ride, what to see and what to eat.

Before I begin telling you about our experiences at the different Disney World parks, a note about MEEETING CHARACTERS.

If you have a child between the ages of 3-6, meeting the Disney characters may be high on their list of priorities. Since our first trip to Disney World was for my daughter’s 5^th birthday, we tailored much of the trip around her wishes and hunting down characters was a good part of each day. I’m not going to lie; it’s a huge time-suck. The characters are very gracious and talk to, take photos with and sign each child’s autograph book. As charming as this is, as you can imagine, it takes forever.

To cut down on standing in line as much as possible, research where the characters congregate in each park and get there early (although many characters roam around, each park does have a specific character meet-and-greet place). Another good way to hit a bunch of characters at once is to attend a character meal. At any one meal there could be 4-6 characters. Allears.net has a list of all the character meals and it is recommended that reservations be made early. I’ll write more about the character meals that we attended in my next blog post.

Since we exhausted meeting many of the Disney characters on our first trip (and have the autographs and photos to prove it), my daughter didn’t express interest in talking to them again; she was happy to wave at them from afar. As for me, as long as I saw Mickey at least once, I was good–and he blew me a kiss during a parade. He knows I’m a fan!

DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM

This was our first trip to Animal Kingdom and our first day at Disney World, so we were anxious to explore. It’s not a terribly large park and is easily explored in one day, although we did return another day for a couple of hours. It was very crowded and like most of the Disney parks, the beauty is in the details—which is hard to see with so many people. Our second time there it was not as crowded and we were able to appreciate all the small details that made everything seem so authentic in “Africa” and “Asia.” (more…)

© 2009 – 2010, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.

*As anyone who has traveled through the nation’s busiest airport knows, “T is For Tango” refers to the Concourse T stop on the airport train.

I’m feeling a bit sad as I sit here sipping green tea and typing the last installment of How To Do Disney World Like Funkidivagirl because I have really enjoyed sharing Disney World with you through these few blog posts.

If you missed the previous 2 installments, go back to part 1 (how to prepare for Disney World) and part 2 (Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios and Downtown Disney) to catch up. To make it even easier for you, all the posts are in a special “T as in Tango: Disney World” category.

But before I break down Epcot and Magic Kingdom (this is a very long post, there’s much to say about these parks), here are reviews of some RESORT RESTAURANTS at Disney World:

Chef Mickey at Contemporary: We loved this breakfast buffet in 2006, but we couldn’t get a reservation for our last trip. The food is good (especially the pancakes), but we were there to see the characters. This is the best part of a character meal because the characters come around to each table and spend a good amount of time socializing (as much as they can non-verbally), signing autographs and taking photos. My daughter was excited to see Chip & Dale and Goofy while I loved seeing Mickey.

O’hana at Polynesian: This was by far our favorite dinner during our 2006 trip and I tried almost day to get a reservation for this last trip, but I couldn’t swing it. The décor is great, the atmosphere is fun and participatory, but most of all the food is really, really good. Grilled meal is served all-you-can-eat family style and I think that my son tried to eat it all. I kept the grilled shrimp coming to the table. We all loved the bread pudding with bananas and caramel sauce for dessert. Next time I am making my reservations early!

Whispering Canyon Café at Wilderness Lodge: This was our first experience at Whispering Canyon, but it won’t be our last. The boys had the All-You-Care-To-Eat Canyon Skillet and wow that was a lot of food. (more…)

© 2009 – 2011, Funkidivagirl.com. All rights reserved. Republished only with permission.