>“Gifts with Real Character"

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They refurbished the Mall around us about a year or so ago. When they did, they closed our Disney Store. It was a sad day. It was a pretty good sized one, and we shopped there from time to time, but I guess not enough to keep it open. Then today I got a twitter message that the Disney Store is reopening. That is a good thing, now I won’t have to pay shipping for Christmas presents. Thinking about Christmas presents and Disney Stores of course makes me think about shopping in Walt Disney World. There are some great places to shop, most people will say the World of Disney Store in Downtown Disney (being the biggest store in the world that sells only Disney Merchandise makes it pretty amazing) or the Emporium on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom, which is basically a row of stores that take up the whole side of Main Street is the best, but there is a somewhat Unknown Magic of a store in Epcot, that my family loves to go into and look around and shop in. So, I present to you the Unknown Magic of Mouse Gear.

Although Mouse Gear is the largest Disney Merchandise store in Epcot, I don’t think many people see it as a great Disney shopping experience. It is located behind SpaceShip Earth in the Innoventions Plaza of Future World. There are a few entrances into the store, one directly across from the Fountain of Nations, another in the causeway between the store and Innoventions East and the last on the Mission: Space Test Track side of the building. Also for your convenience, there are restrooms located out this door. (On this side of the building there is also a little butterfly garden which is a great place to take a break and sit and relax.)

The store is actually set up in a triangle shape. With different merchandise set out throughout the store. Through the door leading from the Fountain of Nations you come into men’s apparel. Coming in at the causeway door will put you into women’s clothing and the “backdoor” will have you enter in kitchen goods. In between all of these areas are all of the other types of Disney Merchandise you could want to have; everything from Pins and Vinylmations to play sets and candy. They do sell Epcot merchandise, and this past year when we were down, they had Retro Epcot Center shirts. They also sell Disney character stuffed toys and die cast cars and items like that, which may be one of the reasons that the sign under the main store sign says “Gifts with real character.” But I think this sign is

there because if you look closely throughout the store, you can find what are called Hidden Mickeys *. I wrote about Hidden Mickeys in my article “It’s not an Addiction…is it?” There are quite a few Hidden Mickeys in Mouse Gear and they are fun to try and find, which leads to Magical Experiences when you are shopping (which is always a great thing!)

One of the reasons I like Mouse Gear is the same reason I list it as an Unknown Magic, it rarely has a lot of people in it. Compared to say the Emporium on Main Street or the World of Disney Store in Downtown Disney or even the gift shop at the Grand Canyon Concourse in the Contemporary Resort, it never seems really busy. The Cast Members that work here are really great with helping you find things and are pleasant too. The other nice thing about Mouse Gear is that in summer, the air conditioning is always on high.

So, now you know, there is a great, although sometimes overlooked, place to shop in Walt Disney World that offers the fun of searching for Hidden Mickeys while you are shopping for that perfect souvenir. So, next time you’re in Epcot, check out Mouse Gear and have some fun!

*for those of you that do not know, a Hidden Mickey is: “a partial or complete impression of Mickey Mouse placed by the Imagineers and artists to blend into the designs of Disney attractions, hotels, restaurants, and other areas.” This definition comes from Steven Barrett author of Hidden Mickeys A Field Guide to Walt Disney World’s Best Kept Secrets and http://www.hiddenmickeysguide.com/

>Why Did I Take this Picture?

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Yesterday, I mentioned taking pictures in Disney and I also wrote about it in a Great Shot.   As I was looking through my pictures this morning, deciding what to write about today, I noticed something.  Not only do I take a lot of pictures, 509 from our trip last year alone, but some of them are things that make no sense or would make no sense if someone was looking at them without narration. Which got me to thinking, people do this all the time.  They take pictures of things that they find neat or interesting and then whenever they look back on the pictures, they are reminded of something that meant something to them.  But if your pictures are being viewed by others, they don’t make a whole lot of sense. So I decided today to post some pictures from Walt Disney World to see if you can figure out why I took them. At the end of the article, I will explain each picture. So enjoy the Unknown Magic of Pictures from Disney, (even if you can’t figure out why I took them).

A.

B.

C.

D.

E.

F.

G1

G2

H.

So, what did you think? Did you try to guess why I took them? Do you think you know why?

Well, here are the reasons why I took them:

A. This was our room at the Boardwalk on our first trip as a family; I wanted to remember the whole trip.

B. This plaque is on the ground in Epcot. At the time I took it, my wife was teaching 5th grade and she mentioned Copernicus in class one day along with the quote from Isaac Newton about “Standing on the shoulders of giants.” One of her kids was a shorter boy and he thought that was the coolest thing, “Standing on the shoulders of giants.” So, we had to take the picture for him.

C. and D. These are in the men’s room at Conservation Station. I took these so my wife could use them in her fourth grade class, because after we saw that you could adopt a turtle, she was using conservation and ecology as her classroom theme. I thought they were neat facts.

E. Of course as you look at this picture you think, oh a nice picture of Eeyore with your kid, but I don’t know who these people are. When my son got Eeyore’s autograph something happened with my camera, so I took this shot after he had already walked away.

F. These hands are on in the fitting room in the World of Disney store in Downtown Disney. I just thought this was a neat thing to have instead of hooks to hang your close on when you were trying things on.

G1. and G2. I know this is a banner that is seen all over Walt Disney World; so, now big deal right. Well look at the second picture I used this close-up to try and help explain why I took it. At the top right under the opening for the light, there is a bird. Actually there are two birds in this picture. There were three at one point I think the last one is still in the light itself. They caught my eye as we were walking by. I made my wife stop and watch them. I got a kick out of them dancing in and out of the light and all over the banner.

H. There is nothing in this booth, it serves no real purpose and I have no reason for taking this picture except that it was something I saw as we walked through Disney Hollywood Studios.

So, now you know, there are some pictures that people take in Walt Disney World that they take to create a memory. Some that are taken for something unrelated to their trip. And others are taken, because the subject of the picture is something that the taker found neat. And others are taken for no real reason at all; they are just part of a Magical Experience.