EPCOT: Part 1 - Spaceship Earth

The first sight upon entering EPCOT - the ubiquitous giant golf ball aka Spaceship Earth.

Sky Watch Friday

Visit the Skywatch Blog for all the hundreds of great shots each week.

Disney's Hollywood Studios: Part 15 - The Osborne Family Spectacle of DAncing Lights

For the Christmas season Disney puts up a collection of lights originally owned by a family named Osborne (not those Osbornes!) from Arkansas who put up so many lights and attracted so many viewers that neighbors complained about the traffic and they were forced to stop.  Disney stepped in and took them to put up in Hollywood Studios.  There are over a million lights.  It is awesome.  If you love Christmas lights, book a trip now because you must see them in person!  And while you can't tell in the photos, they are hooked up to computers and "dance" in sequence to music.

ABC Wednesday: "J" is for Jaguars

These pretty ladies are named Salsa (the black one) and Onca (the spotted one, after the scientific name for the Jaguar - Pantera Onca):




These gals are two of the various jaguars that live at the Jacksonville Zoo's "Range of the Jaguars Exhibit". Salsa is the only one of them that will go into the water. Onca just hangs around the edge or up on the fallen log watching her sister and wondering what on earth she is doing.








She's hard to see, but here is one of Salsa actually swimming down at the bottom of the pool, where she tries to catch the fish and has already eaten many thousands of dollars worth of exotic, Amazonian fishes. As the keeper standing next to us watching said, "You're a bad girl, Salsa." :)


Visit the ABC Wednesday blog for all the swimmingly good fun!

Disney's Hollywood Studios: Part 14 - DHS at Night

Some night shots of various buildings or scenes around Hollywood Studios:

Disney's Hollywood Studios: Part 13 - Fantasmic!

Fantasmic! is our favorite Disney night time stage/fireworks/show spectacular.  Housed in a giant outdoor amphitheater that can fill up fast, it pays to arrive early to get seats near the bottom (especially if you want to take pictures - it is dark so the closer you are the faster you can set your shutter speed and the less you'll need to zoom in so you can maximize the widest aperture to get as much light as you can... but enough technical talk!)

The concept is that Mickey is having a dream but the evil witch Maleficent (from Sleeping Beauty) decides to turn his dreams into nightmares, and brings in all of the other Disney villains in to help.

Maleficent then turns herself into the giant dragon (you can see the glowing gold eyes and nostrils near the mountain below).

But have no fear!  Mickey realizes it is just a dream and he can control the outcome, finds a magic sword, dispatches the dragon, ends the nightmare and celebrates by becoming Sorcerer Mickey (from Fantasia) and climbs to the top of the mountain to direct fireworks for the finale.

And my favorite Fantasmic photo has to be this one - Mickey shooting sparks from his fingers.  Sweet. :)

Disney's Hollywood Studios: Part 12 - Toy Story Pizza Planet

One of the counter service restaurants at DHS is the Toy Story Pizza Planet - taken straight out of the Toy Story movie and featuring games and quite a few little green aliens - as well as Buzz Lightyear himself.