Need a good icebreaker? Ask every person’s guilty pleasure for a topic. Songs, movies, fashion wear, foods and all other categories can really give you good insight into a new friend. Disney is no exception. It’s easy to say that you like Mickey Mouse or a popular attraction but it’s another thing to learn the deep-down and dirty unspoken likes that others may scoff at. Regardless, we all have them and now it’s time to get them out into the open.
Welcome to Believe Vacations Weekly Post where today, our team members will reveal some of our Disney “Guilty Pleasures.” Our agents are scattered throughout the United States so we keep up with each other via social media. One of the best ways to get to know them is to share common likes and interests. For today’s topic, I will share what our agents answered when I posed the question, “What is your Disney Guilty Pleasure?” As luck would have it, I have been able to categorize them with specifics. I hope you find some you enjoy or agree with so let’s get started with:
Entertainment
Movies, TV shows on multiple channels, music, books and research options take up the majority of our free time. But our agents use that free time to enjoy those arts with a little bit of a Disney twist. It’s one thing to own an extensive DVD collection of your favorite Disney movies, but what about owning those old-school plastic cased VHS cassettes of your favorite Disney Classics? No doubt, you may be able to pop in a CD or pull up a playlist of your favorite Disney tracks but have you ever played the soundtrack loop of your favorite attraction or section of a theme park? In fact, our agents enjoy going on YouTube, pulling up the loops for those areas and while we’re at it, we might watch our favorite attractions and pretend we are riding them. Of course, it’s always beneficial to research your favorite movies, shows, songs, books and attractions so we often find ourselves popping up a new window and looking at the Wikipedia pages for said interests. See how easy it is to go down the rabbit hole, Alice?
Travel
If you’re like most of us, we have little ones who need transportation to various activities at different lengths from your home. And again, it’s easy to pop in a Disney movie or a CD of your favorite Disney song. But we agents take it a step further. You’ve never lived until you assign parts from your favorite songs or movies and act them out on road trips. Seriously, try it next time. Re-enact the Uncle Albert scene from Mary Poppins with everyone telling a joke. Pick a multi-vocal song like Hakuna Matata and have everyone sing their part. Cast members will always tell you they are playing characters in the show known as your vacation. So go ahead – actually be a character in your car.
Clothing
Now we come to the portion of the Guilty Pleasures post that I had to rely on my teammates to provide. While I am proud to own a few Muppets and Disney Character shirts, I’m talking real fashion from my colleagues. My wonderful female colleagues swear up and down by their collection of Minnie Ears and I will admit, the ears are cute. But even our mothers had ears back in the day. 2 new items that are all the craze come in the form of popular shirts and Magic Bands. If you haven’t seen a Spirit Jersey these days, you just don’t have a clue! The Disney woman-on-the-go now enjoys hers but in splendid Rose Gold color. Completing the ensemble is little knickknacks and decorations for Magic Bands. What once was the space for WWJD? and LIVESTRONG bracelets now belongs to your personalized entry to Walt Disney World. But of course, you can still collect Ears if you want.
Collections
Speaking of collections, our agents have a wide variety of hoarding skills but each collection reflects our own individual interests. For instance, we have several agents (God love ’em!) who do those Disney Marathon running thingamajiggies. And while I think they are completely insane, there is a prize in the end for their efforts in the form of “Run Disney Medals.” These aren’t your typical “Participation Medals” you get from the local Y; these are true treasures that celebrate a huge accomplishment. Another popular set of collections these days come in the form of character figurines. Be it Disney Infinity, Pop! bobbleheads or other figurines, it’s fun to bring the characters home in playable form. When it comes to the parks, there are 2 specific collections we are huge fans of. First, we love us some maps and park times guides. We use them to share with families we book vacations for but also, we just love seeing the parks on paper and pretending we’re getting ready for the parade. But the second collection is, you may have guessed it, from pin trading. As long as we’ve been going to Disney, pin trading has taken place for our agents. Collections have swelled over the years and unlike the bygone times of baseball cards and Pogs, pin trading will be around for a long time.
Food
Now we come to the portion of the list that everyone enjoys – Food! We, the agents of Believe Vacations, love us some good grub. In fact, Disney food and certain dishes and beverages may be the reason we go back to Disney in the first place. Just a couple of our favorites, we enjoy the Grey Goose Slushes in France in Epcot, fancy cupcakes and any funnel cake but specifically at Sleepy Hollow in the Magic Kingdom. Yet behold, there are angels that live on this Earth and they have found the recipes for our favorite foods and have posted them online. If it isn’t a homemade Dole Whip, it may be the Grey Stuff from Be Our Guest in the Magic Kingdom. So hello guilty pleasure of making our favorite Disney dishes at home.
Challenges
Our final category of “Guilty Pleasures” comes in the form of a challenge. Or, more appropriately, challenges. We love competitions and with Disney, there is an unlimited supply of challenges, both made-up and tried-and-true classics. For some of our agents, we love to see how many times you can ride 1 attraction in a visit. We already mentioned that the ultimate challenge is to run some type of race, and if so led to do so, a marathon. But let’s give some love to the ultimate Disney challenge, Hidden Mickeys. Throughout all the Disney properties, Mickey silhouettes are placed in random places that once started as inside jokes between the Imagineers. Over time, more and more Hidden Mickey’s were discovered and now, there are books, websites and videos published dedicated to finding them. It would take a good number of vacations to Disney to find every single Hidden Mickey so you better call one of us today to plan your next one!
Did we miss anything? What are your favorite Disney “Guilty Pleasures?” Leave your comments in the section below and remember there’s a great, big, beautiful tomorrow!
