Disney geek celebrities

It has been about a year and a half since I started this blog. I was inspired to start blogging after seeing Amy’s blog, and since then I have had a lot of fun posting pictures, writing random things, and connecting with family. This has been a great creative resource for me, and it has the side benefit of allowing my to open up more.

I think it’s healthy to share things in your life with other people, though it doesn’t come naturally for me. Now I’m working on writing up our Disneyland vacation, but I’m afraid that now I will be officially “outed” as a Disney geek. They only reason it hasn’t come up before is that our last trip to Disneyland was before I started this blog. Now that my dark, dirty secret is out I hope you can all somehow find a way to still respect me.

I was really enamored with Disneyland as a kid and I always had fond memories of going there with my parents. I even visited twice with my family after I got home from my mission. But after I had kids for a few years, my long repressed obsession with Disneyland reemerged with a vengeance. I’ll skip the most of the sordid details, but I now have a Disneyland section on the bookcase, I know an obscene amount of Disneyland trivia, and I regularly check Disneyland news sites (yes, I know it sounds implausible, but they do exist).

The restaurants at Disneyland are very pricey, and since this was a budget trip for us, we just planned on eating sandwiches and canned soup at the hotel. But for years I have been talking about getting a famous Monte Cristo sandwich, so Melinda graciously got a reservation for us at Cafe Orleans for our last day at Disneyland.

Earlier that day they had a special re-opening of the “It’s a Small World” attraction for the press and for annual passholders (more on that later). I didn’t think they would let us on, but the initial throng of invitees had mostly gone, so they were letting other people on as well. At the end of the ride I recognized Brett Garret, who is a photographer for the Disneyland fan site Visions Fantastic, (how’s that for geeky?) and I talked to him for a minute. Melinda was of course embarrassed for me, but I enjoyed talking to him, and he seemed to be glad to hear from someone who enjoyed his photos. It was cool to meet him, but little did I know I would later meet some major Disney geek celebrities.

We enjoyed our Monte Cristo sandwiches at Cafe Orleans. Then just as we finished paying our check and were leaving the restaurant Tony Baxter and John Lasseter arrived with some other Disney executives for lunch. I thought about asking to have my picture taken with them, but I didn’t want them to feel like a Disney character, and Melinda would have been mortified. So I just went over and quickly introduced myself and told them I was a big fan, and how much I enjoyed their work. They were very gracious and both stood up and shook my hand and we talked for a minute. It was so cool to meet them; they were really nice, down to earth people. It was a major highlight of our vacation for this Disney geek.

Tony Baxter and John Lasseter at last years opening of the “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage” attraction. Photo by Brett Garrett.

However, tonight as Saffy was going to bed and I told her I had to go to work tomorrow, she said, “But I will miss you, Daddy!” She gave me a big hug and I thought about how the best thing on our vacation was being with my family all day for a whole week.