Disney Bucket List

May 28, 2020

Disney World announced their proposed re-opening dates today. I don’t have plans to visit til the fall for my annual birthday trip but I’m excited nonetheless for their re-opening. It’s a glimmer of hope in these uncertain and scary times. There’s a lot of really sad, scary, violent things going on in the world right now separate from the covid problems and at a certain point, it’s overwhelming to process all the injustices. I just want to be numb from the world’s problems and go back to my happy place. I feel like I need a vacation. I want to turn off from the world, in the “ignorant is bliss” state. That’s what I love about vacation. It’s what I love about cruises, actually. There’s no signal and you’re cut off from the rest of the world so no news is good news. You have no choice but to completely relax and enjoy yourself.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t already planning my next Disney trip. And the next 2 years to come, because issues. I know it sounds insane, but there’s a reason why I have so many Disney trips already pre-meditated. Right now, I’m trying to set a timeline for my running goals and the Disney races are time sensitive for challenge medals. 2022 is going to be a very ambitious year, to say the least. I’m also excited to visit for their 50th anniversary. I was there for their 25th but don’t remember any of it so this time I want to do it up. I’m excited for the completion of Tron at Disney World since it’s my favorite coaster. I can’t wait to do these things in the coming years, especially more so because quarantine has us missing Disney like whoa. So if you’re sick of me posting about Disney all the time in my blogs, IG and life, well, please show yourself the door because I’m not going to be stopping for a while.

I’m setting out on this Disney Bucket List for the next decade.

WDW Marathon
Dopey Challenge - Castaway Challenge - Paris Run for the Castle to Chateau Challenge (hopefully in 2022)
Keys to the Kingdom Tour/Taste of Magic Kingdom Tour
Disneyland California for Chinese New Year & Valentine’s
Disneyland Hong Kong
Grand Floridian stay during Christmas season for the gingerbread house lobby
Animal Kingdom Lodge stay
Polynesian stay with Ohana
New Year’s at any Disney resort
Disneyland Shanghai again for POTC and Tron ride
4 park challenge (do all 4 parks in one day - 1 ride, 1 snack, possibly a different outfit each park if I’m being ambitious)
Mountain challenge (ride all the mountains in Disney in one day - Thunder, Splash, Space, Seven Dwarves Mine Ride, Everest)
Empty Main Street and close out MK & Disneyland
Try the other Disney cruises to see how they compare and all other restaurants unique to each boat
Complete my gallery by doing a photoshoot in each park. NOT phone pictures.

Motivation

June 2, 2019

I find that my motivation comes and goes quite drastically. For months I will be so dedicated and consistent. Then, with a minor bump in the road, I find myself going months with no desire to step foot in a gym. A month ago, I was in one of the “dedicated and consistent” stages, self-motivated to wake up and get going every morning. I was in the gym for 1-2 hours every day lifting and then on the road running for another hour to get my cardio in. Then I went on vacation for a week and gave myself a break. When I got back, I gave myself another week of rest before I hit the gym again. When I finally started again, I found myself not as motivated as I previously was. I was sleeping in longer which led to a shortened gym session since I have to finish earlier to get to work on time. Sometimes I would over-snooze and just skip altogether because I didn’t have enough time before work. Some days I just wasn’t feeling it. What happened?

This was actually what I was afraid of too when I was on a runner’s high last month. I kept going because I was afraid that if I fell off the wagon, it would be hard to find motivation to get back on. But at the same time, I knew I did want to eventually stop running for the summer season because it’s just too damn hot to run outside and I find it extremely hard to stay on the treadmill long enough before I get bored and want to jump off. I’m going to try and get a few more weeks in before the summer is in full swing and then put a hiatus on my outside running til the fall/winter season where I want to start training again to build stamina and endurance for next year’s Princess races.

Disney Photoshoot Tips

May 20, 2019

So. You’re headed to Disney. But instead of the same old photos with crowds photobombing your picture, harsh sun and shadows, you want to live out your Pinterest Disney photo dreams with dreamy colors and perfect backdrops. How do you achieve this? Easy. By planning ahead.

Last year, I wanted to up my vacation photo game a little. And not just for Disney. Everywhere. I actually hate bringing back kitschy souvenirs and knick knacks from my trips, but I find that I love looking back on photos a lot to reminisce. So I started investing in nicer photos to have as the ‘souvenirs’ of my trip. I started doing this in a few ways. If you’re here from my Instagram, you’re probably here for information on my Disney photoshoots since I posted my Disneyland photos last week and got a few questions about how I go about them. Before I go over that, I want to go over a few budget friendly tips on how I take my photos for trips. And all these things don’t just apply to Disney. You can do all these things on any trip to get beautiful photos. Or even to just up your regular everyday photo game.

Instagram Husband

Do your friends or boyfriends or family members take bad photos when you ask them to? Do they only take one shot and it comes out bad?
Fortunately for me, my baby sister and I both are each other’s IG husbands. We’re on the same page when it comes to what we want, how far we’re willing to go and make the effort to get the shot for each other. Our patience knows no bounds when it comes to IG hoeing. We will stand there all day waiting for the crowd to clear to get the shot.
But sometimes, she’s not always available to be with me. Sometimes it’s just me and the hubby on vacation or on a date. In the beginning, he would just snap a few shots when I asked him to and I would hate them all. But last year on our Paris trip, I was determined to make the most of our trip in case we never came back. So I trained my husband to take better photos for me. How did I do this? Two ways. Either I would show him examples of photos I already liked and asked him to try and replicate the angle, lighting and pose, or I would line up the shot I wanted with him in it, take the photo of him and show him how I want it to look, but with me in it. And slowly he learned what I liked, my best angles and poses, and the style of photos I preferred. Now when I ask him to take a photo, he’s amazing. He’s patient, takes several shots, tries a few different angles and makes me review them before moving on so I know I have at least one good shot I like.

Invest in a nice camera

Smart phones are getting better and better with their camera quality, it’s true, but sometimes you just need a little more. Like the night shot of the lantern in the Tangled area of Magic Kingdom. My phone takes pretty poor night shots even in night mode. This past Christmas, I asked my husband for a camera so I could slowly start to learn how to take better pictures. He gifted me a beautiful mirrorless Sony with 2 lenses to play around with. Honestly I still haven’t learned shit, but when I took it with me to Disney this spring, I noticed a big difference in that Tangled photo on my camera compared to the garbage shot I got on my phone last fall.
Unfortunately a nice camera is expensive (NOT point and shoot), but I would say it’s worth the investment for better quality photos once you learn it. It’ll pay for itself in the end and is more budget friendly than booking a shoot constantly wherever you go.