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Topic: It’s the time of year for vacations (Holiday for our UK friends). Share your favorite vacation, your dream vacation or anything in between.
Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed P.j. MacLayne‘s response to the topic of dream vacations, and maybe found a new interesting book to read from her library.
This is an easy one for me to dream about and discuss happy memories. I can’t think of a better vacation I’ve had than those going to Walt Disney World Orlando. Simply had the best time there, every time. I was lucky my family was able to afford these vacations every few years for me and my brother. My mom is an absolute Mickey addict. They share a birthday (November 18), so, of course.
My fondest memories are of the Haunted Mansion, The Peter Pan Flight, Snow White’s and Mr. Toad, but also EPCOT–Figment and the Spaceship Earth–tortured by the Land. I think about any of these and 
my mind gets all excited and tumbles forward all the memories of all the rides. Haunted Mansion is my absolute favorite, to the point that one year, when I went there with a friend of mine, I made him ride it like 6-7 times in a row. It was the Mickey’s Not Scary Halloween Party, and the Mansion was tricked out. Epic. If I could have my urn placed here, I would.
I would like to see the world, so to speak, as well. I want to go to China very badly. I’d love to see New Zealand. I am considering a post retirement extended stay in Germany, which I would need to save for starting now (15 years to make it a blow out). I’ve been to Ireland, and would love to return. On my list are my heritage places: Wales, Netherlands and Italy. It would be nice to see where the families came from that eventually produced me.
Disney’s EPCOT can give you a tiny glimpse into these places (not the Netherlands, unfortunately, and Wales is a side thought souvenir shop). I’ve eaten at the Italian restaurant and watched masked musicians play the cello int he courtyard. I’ve enjoyed the gardens in the China pavilion. Seeing the drum display for Japan was inspiring. Eaten fish and chips at the Rose and Crown. Watched Fireworks from Mexico. Eaten desert and shopped culinary tools in Paris. Was not the first to pass that way in Norway.
So, if you can’t afford a trip around the world, you can likely afford a trip around EPCOTs World Showcase. People come from around the world to present their culture there, and they’re so proud to do so (just wish Disney paid them better). In the lower range, you get treated to tech inventions and innovations, some amazing rides, and fun. The Living 
Seas is a pretty amazing small aquarium inside of a theme park, and totally worth a stop. The new Figment, Journey to Imagination, will forever be a disappointment to me. Myself and others had petitioned Disney not to destroy the original ride, which they did, and we continued efforts to have it restored, but what they did was ‘improve’ on the ride. The ‘improvements’ are terrible. The ride is slightly better than what they 
had in between the original and the current incarnation. Walt’s dream was not to destroy rides, but to add more. They shouldn’t have altered the old ride–the thing was totally awesome and adorable. If they wanted something else, they could have built near it. Don’t mess with the Figment, though. So many fans complained, they actually had to take action. That made me proud. Maybe someday we’ll get it back. Until then, Toad (another loss at the park) and Figment will have to sit in my imagination, lost to time.
Hop on over to PJ Fiala‘s Blog to check out her vacation thoughts.
PJ Fiala is originally from Missouri. She moved to Wisconsin with her family when she was 13 years old, city kids learning to farm. The farm started out with 28 rescue cows (they were adopted from the Humane Society who took them from abusive circumstances). With all the hard work and the deep winters, Wisconsin was a hard sell until PJ met her husband. They have four children and three grand children. The pair enjoy riding their motorcycles, on which they meet new places and visit places new and old.
PJ comes from a long line of veterans: “My grandfather, father, brother, two of my sons, and one daughter-in-law are all veterans. Needless to say, I am proud to be an American and proud of the service my amazing family has given.”
Born and raised among the rolling hills of western Pennsylvania, P.J. MacLayne still finds inspiration for her books in that landscapes. She is a computer geek by day and a writer by night who currently lives in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains. When she’s not in front of a computer screen, she might be found exploring the back roads of the nearby national forests and parks.