Day 19: Wednesday 16th July
Today Miss Hannaford and I went back to the Center for Puppetry Arts so we could make our own Fish puppets! These puppets are shadow puppets in that you hold them against a screen with a light shining on it and you see the shadow of the puppet on the other side!
The fish puppet works with 2 chopsticks for handles. One stick is on the head and the other stick is on the tail and there are paper fasteners holding the 3 parts of the fish together so that it looks like a fish swimming through the water!
We spent the rest of the day having one last look around the Center for Puppetry Arts and I met these famous Muppets- Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy!
Day 20: Thursday 17th July
Today was another travelling day where Miss Hannaford and I flew from Atlanta to New York City! Travelling took all day and Miss Hannaford was really excited to get her first look at some of the famous New York buildings as we drove from the airport into the city!
Day 17: Monday 14th July
Today Miss Hannaford and I went to explore one of Atlanta’s historic sites. You may have heard of a famous movie called Gone with the Wind and it also a very famous book written by Margaret Mitchell. The book was written in a very small 2 room apartment in Atlanta and the building where the book Gone with Wind was written, is now called Margaret Mitchell House.
Gone with the Wind was the only book Margaret Mitchell wrote but she did also work for the local newspaper as a reporter which was a very unusual occupation for a woman in the 1920’s. She did marry twice but had no children. In the exhibition inside the main building, there is a place where you can try using a typewriter identical to the one Margaret Mitchell used to write her newspaper articles and to write the manuscript for Gone with the Wind. You have to press the keys harder than you do on a computer and in order to go to the next line, you have to push the slide next to the paper every time the typewriter goes ding.
Gone with the Wind is so famous that is has been translated into many different languages.
Gone with the Wind is set during the American Civil War between the Yankee Northern States and the Confederate Southern States. Much of the fighting happened in Georgia and Atlanta suffered a great deal of damage. The story opens in a cotton plantation in rural Georgia called Tara. Tara was recreated for the movie and the actual front door of the set for Tara now stands in the Margaret Mitchell museum and in the photo below that of the door, you can see how it looked in the film as part of the set!
Another real movie prop at the Margaret Mitchell House is the original painting of Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O’Hara that hung on the wall during some of the scenes.
Day 18: Tuesday 15th July
This is a really special day when Miss Hannaford and I get to go behind the scenes at the Center for Puppetry Arts! Our day started with watching a puppet show based on the Dr Seuss book the Cat in the Hat! It was really funny and the staff at the Center gave me my very own glove puppet of an Otter to take home! Next Miss Hannaford was shown a very special room where puppets that are not on display are kept. These puppets are not on display because there is not enough room or the puppet needs some love and care from a museum conservator before they can go on display otherwise they will disintegrate as they are moved! Miss Hannaford saw Oscar the Grouch in his trash can on one shelf and at the back of the special room was a puppet from the film the Dark Crystal called a “Mystic”. This puppet is very special in the world but it is falling apart because of the material it is made from is rotting into tiny pieces. Fortunately, the museum has the moulds that the rotting pieces are made from, so the plan is to restore the puppet in the future.
The next stop on the tour was to meet the puppet builders who work at the Center. They really liked me and asked if they could pose for pictures with me and Miss Hannaford. Miss Hannaford was able to ask the builders lots of questions about puppet building and she even got to have lunch with the builders!
The last stop of the tour was with the education department about how they teach children, teenagers and adults about the world of puppetry using the classrooms in the Centre as well as over the internet using video conferencing. We had so much fun in the classrooms that they invited us back tomorrow so we could make our own puppets in the make a puppet workshop!
Miss Hannaford and I had the most amazing day and we can’t wait to go back tomorrow to make our puppets! – Lucy
Day 15: Saturday 12th July
Today was travelling day from Orlando Airport to Atlanta, the capital city of the state of Georgia in the United States. The flight was really short only an hour and 15 minutes.
Once we got to Atlanta, Miss Hannaford spent lots of time helping me update the blog with all the pictures and videos from our week in Orlando.
Day 16: Sunday 13th July
Today I visited a really important place in Atlanta- the Center for Puppetry Arts! This is the world’s largest museum and education centre dedicated to puppetry!
When you walk into the centre, the first thing you see is Pinnochio’s feet coming through the ceiling!
The Center for Puppetry Arts building used to be a Primary school called Spring Street School and they are about to add a new building to the front of the property so the Center can put all my Muppet friends on display as the current museum is now too small for all the puppets in the collection!
Miss Hannaford tells me that we are going on a special tour of the whole centre in 2 days time!
Day 13: Thursday 10th July 2014
Today was mostly a rest day after all the excitement of the last four days so Miss Hannaford and I decided to explore our hotel more. Our hotel room is in the Toy Story section of the hotel so right outside our hotel room door is R.C.!
Next to our building are huge building blocks that spell out Woody and Buzz’s name as well as a giant Woody and Buzz Lightyear next to the building!
In the middle of the space is Rex and Bo Peep and walking through the door to Andy’s room makes you feel the same size as all the toys!
In the afternoon, Miss Hannaford and I went to visit the area called Downtown Disney which has one the largest toy stores in the area! Miss Hannaford went in to make her own Star Wars droid where you can choose every part of the droid including a novelty hat! Miss Hannaford has decided to name her droid P714.
Nearby to the toystore is a HUGE Lego Store! We spent ages playing with the Lego and Miss Hannaford bought a few Lego things for school and she really liked the really big Lego display of the Maleficient Dragon fighting Prince Philip in Sleeping Beauty!
Day 14: Friday 11th July 2014
Today was Harry Potter Day! We travelled 1.5 hours away from Disney World to visit Universal Studios Florida. Universal studios is 2 theme parks- Universal Studios Florida which has the brand new Diagon Alley attraction and the other park is called Universal’s Islands of Adventure which has the Hogsmeade attraction. While we walked up to the Diagon Alley attraction, we walked through the Simpsons attraction. All the buildings look like Springfield!
Once we walked through Springfield, we could see the entrance to the new Harry Potter area across the water. It looks just like a London street!
When we got closer- Miss Hannaford and I were able to have our photo in front of number 12 Grimmauld Place and in front of the Purple Knight Bus! We then walked past a plain brick wall not realising it was the entrance to Diagon Alley, so we back tracked and discovered that we were walking into a perfect replica of Diagon Alley!
Here are some videos Miss Hannaford took of all the various things you can do in Diagon Alley!
Using a wand to create real Magic:
A View of Diagon Alley:
The Dragon on top of Gringotts Bank roaring:
Puking Pastilles at Weasley Wizard Wheezes:
Meeting the Goblins at Gringotts to exchange Muggle money for Wizard Money:
To get to the Hogsmeade area of Universal Studios- you have to catch the Hogwarts Express! To get to the train, you have to go to platform 9 and 10 at Kingscross Station and slide through the wall to Platform 9 3/4!
Hogwarts express arrives at the platform and you climb aboard for the trip to Hogsmeade!
Once you get off the train- you arrive in Hogsmeade Village complete with the 3 Broomsticks where Miss Hannaford and I had lunch followed by our walk up to Hogwarts Castle!
At the end of the day, it was time to get the Hogwarts Express back to Kingscross but the journey was very different this time!
Day 12: Wednesday 9th July
Today was our last day in the Disney Parks. Miss Hannaford wanted to go back to Hollywood studios one more time since this is her favourite theme park and we didn’t have a great deal of time to explore it completely 3 days ago. We started in the animation courtyard as you can still see Disney animators hand colouring animation cells in the traditional method using paint and a brush. In the same buildng, Miss Hannaford discovered that we could meet Mickey, Minnie, Ralph and Vanellope. So we had more pictures taken and Minnie Mouse thought I was really cute!
While we were in the animation courtyard, Miss Hannaford and I went into the One Man’s Dream attraction about the creation of Walt Disney World and the cast members who were supervising the attraction really liked me! While Miss Hannaford was looking at the objects on display, the cast members who met us at the front door, came up to Miss Hannaford and I and gave us a very special present! Honorary Citizenship of Walt Disney World! We were given special badges which got us a lot of attention for the rest of the day throughout the park!
Next stop of the day was an attraction called the back lot tour. Disney’s Hollywood Studios used to be a working tv and movie studio called a ‘lot’ but now all the sound stages where the movies were made have been turned into attractions so the Backlot Tour is not of a working backlot anymore. We did get to experience some big special effects that are used in movies and at the end of the tour was a special exhibition of costumes and props from movies like Batman, Indiana Jones and Miss Hannaford was really excited to see the some of the original puppets used in the movie the sound of music!
When we left the special exhibition- look who we met next door! Mike really liked my skin colour and Sully gave Miss Hannaford a really big hug!
We got to have lunch at Pizza Planet from Toy Story 2- and yes it looks just the same! After lunch we headed over to the Star Tours attraction were we got to watch some young students learn to use lightsabers from Star Wars and even fight Darth Vader!
After watching the students at the Jedi Training Academy, Miss Hannaford took me over to an area called Sunset Boulevard so we could go and see Beauty and the Beast on stage! It wasn’t the animation- it had real people singing all the songs as well as all the kitchen characters such as the clock, the candlestick and Chip the teacup!
After Beauty and the Beast, Miss Hannaford and I had to wait very patiently for 2.5 hours in line to see the amazing nighttime fireworks spectacular called Fantasmic! Since we waited patiently, we were allowed to choose where we wanted to sit so we sat in the perfect place to see all the amazing fireworks, the water that splashed towards the really big audience as well as all the amazing puppets that they used in some of the big sequences. Miss Hannaford was really impressed although I found the bits with the Disney Villians a bit scary!
http://youtu.be/6_gl4hN2GIk
Having so much fun- Lucy
Day 11: Tuesday 8th July
After visiting Epcot last night, Miss Hannaford and I wanted to come back and see some of it in the cool of the early morning. Since we were staying at a hotel within the boundary of Walt Disney World, we were allowed to go into Epcot at 8am- a full hour before the rest of the public!
I saw these really interesting masks outside the Canada Pavilion last night. They are inspired by the native tribal masks of the Pacific Northwest of Canada. The Canada pavilion also has a huge totem pole out the front of the buildings that also comes from the tribes of the Pacific Northwest.
We then walked back towards Spaceship Earth and found a really interesting building that looked similar to a pyramid. The attraction inside was called Journey into Imagination with Figment. Figment is a little puppet character and Miss Hannaford knows who puppeteered and provided the voice of figment so we went on the ride. The ride is really slow and you see little scenes on various sides of the little train but before we got to the halfway point- the train stopped! The people who supervise the ride had to come and guide the passengers back to the start of the ride because the ride was now broken. The good part was that because we waited quietly and patiently, the staff gave us special passes to jump the queue at any attraction in Epcot!
Miss Hannaford and I did get our picture taken in front of Spaceship Earth and we saw the special World Cup Soccer topiary display.
We then caught the monorail from Epcot to the Magic Kingdom! The first thing you see when you arrive at the Magic Kingdom is the steam train station. It is free to go for a ride so Miss Hannaford and I went up to the platform and had a train ride around the whole park. It was also very helpful for working out which part of the park we wanted to visit first!
This was our view of Main Street as we got off the train!
Miss Hannaford booked us in to meet Mickey Mouse at the Town Square Theatre! Mickey told us a story about a ghost who had followed him home one day and he showed us what the ghost was doing when Mickey met him. It looked like the ghost was trying to hitchike!
Since I had finally met Mickey Mouse, Miss Hannaford bought me my own set of Mickey Mouse Ears to wear and even had my name stitched on the back!
After we met Mickey, the street party parade was going past! http://youtu.be/DhSSW_LUNag
As we walked up Main Street USA towards Cinderella’s Castle, we stopped to have our photo taken in front of the castle and Tinkerbell landed on our hands wishing us a happy ever after!
Next, Miss Hannaford wanted to see the famous Hall of Presidents because of the audio animatronics used there to make each of America’s past and current presidents come to life.
It was then time for Miss Hannaford to go back on a ride she has always loved since she was last in Disney World 20 years ago! It is called the Haunted Mansion and it uses lots of movie making tricks to scare people. Miss Hannaford thinks they have changed the location of the building as she doesn’t recognise it, but they have added lots of fake tombstones some of which have silly names on them.
During July in Florida, it is very hot and humid as it is a tropical climate. There is a major electrical storm virtually every afternoon. So during the storm on this day, Miss Hannaford decided to go to Pinnochio Village Haus to eat dinner. Across from Pinochio’s Haus is an attraction called Mickey’s Philharmagic. I really enjoyed the presentation because it was in 4D. You have to wear the special 3D glasses but when Donald Duck gets caught in the wind- the wind blows on the audience too! When Donald can’t control the waves like Mickey, the audience gets splashed with a little bit of water too!
After Mickey’s Philharmagic, it was time for the next parade called Festival of Fantasy! Miss Hannaford really liked it because of the big, mechanical dragon puppet from Sleeping Beauty! http://youtu.be/nzNC_QrzI_U
Now one area of the Magic Kingdom Miss Hannaford never got to 20 years ago was Tomorrowland. So since she had time to spare before the night parade, Miss Hannaford went to Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor where Mike and some of the other monsters were telling jokes to collect everyone’s laughter to power Monstropolis. They even asked the audience to submit jokes or to participate live! Next door to the laugh floor was Walt Disney’s Carrousel of Progress. This was a demonstration of how humans have used progress in technology in the family home starting at the beginning of the 20th Century. On our way to our next activity, Miss Hannaford took me inside Cinderella’s castle so I could see all the amazing pictures on the wall made up of tiny tiles called Mosaics. http://youtu.be/33t5Ok1qSr4
Our next activity was to go on a ride on the Paddlewheel boat called Liberty Bell along the frontierland river.
The boat uses steam power to turn the paddle wheel- you can see the arm that turns the wheel in this video.
The last 3 activities of the day was the Main Street Electrical Parade followed by Celebrate the Magic where special projections were put up on Cinderella’s castle, followed by the big fireworks show called Wishes!
http://youtu.be/cRIzFNeEMqs
It has been a very long day- but boy it has been fun!
– Lucy
Day 10: Monday 7th July
Today Miss Hannaford took me on a very special access all areas tour of Walt Disney World called ‘Backstage Magic’. We started at Epcot and something I learned straight away about Epcot is that the word ‘Epcot’ stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. Walt Disney wanted to create a new way of designing a suburb where people live. Sadly Walt Disney died before he could create his new community, but his brother Roy Disney still created the theme park part of the plans and added in a space called World showcase.
Behind the scenes at Epcot we saw how the robotic people called ‘Audio Animatronics’ that you see in many rides and attractions work from behind the scenes at an attraction called “American Adventure”. Now to preserve some of the secrets and to protect the privacy of the people who work backstage at Disney World, the people on the tour, including Miss Hannaford and I were not allowed to take photographs or video. However, Disney has published some things on youtube so I can share them here.
After Epcot, we went to the Walt Disney World plant nursery and saw how they create all the topiary sculptures that can be seen in the parks! A topiary is a plant that has been grown and pruned to fit a wire frame. Some topiary’s take 20 years to fully fill their frames and some can be created very quickly using moss and fast growing plants. Miss Hannaford saw the actual Miss Piggy Topiary in the greenhouse as it is no longer on display at Epcot but you can see the sculpture in this video!
The next stop on the tour was behind the scenes at Disney Hollywood Studios in their costume workshop. All the costumes for every Disney character you meet in Walt Disney World as well as every Disney park around the world are created at the costume workshop. Miss Hannaford wished she could have taken home the special fabric cutting machine for her Puppet making! We were allowed to ask lots of questions and we saw how a costume for Minnie Mouse was designed, printed out on special pattern pieces and sewn together!
The next stop was behind the scenes at Disney Animal Kingdom where we saw where the animals sleep at night. We didn’t spend very long at this stop because everyone was very hungry so we got back on the bus and travelled over to Wilderness Lodge to the Whispering Canyon Cafe. Miss Hannaford tried American ribs for the first time as well as corn bread- both were very unusal tastes. Wilderness Lodge was the only place where Miss Hannaford was allowed to take a photo and she really liked the Native American totem pole in the huge atrium of the building!
After lunch we headed over to a space called Central Shops and saw how they built everything for the parks all over the world from rides through to props carried by the Disney characters. Objects enter as raw materials or attractions that need maintenance or repair at one end of the building and come out the other end fully finished from construction, painting and final assembly. The building is 9 football fields long and the height of a 10 storey building! We saw animatronic hippos and elephants from the Jungle ride being repaired. A ride called the Astro Orbiter laid out on the floor in hundreds of pieces being repaired and maintained so the the ride remains safe. Miss Hannaford really liked the room where they use moulds to create new parts for the animatronic puppets around the parks. I really liked seeing the printing room were all the signage in the park is created from menus in the restaurants to huge street signs!
This was then followed by a visit to the Magic Kingdom and we went into the Utilidors that run under the whole park. The Ultilidors are corridors/ tunnels so the people who work at the Magic Kingdom can quickly get to where they need to be without disturbing the visitors to the park. It is where dancers in the parade get changed into different costumes and where food supplies for the different restaurants and refreshment carts are kept. We went back upstairs to the outside and saw the new parade called Festival of Fantasy. Miss Hannaford really liked the Dragon from Sleeping Beauty! This was the only other time we were allowed to take pictures so Miss Hannaford recorded this video!
After the parade we finished our 7 hour tour back at Epcot! Miss Hannaford decided to stay at Epcot and see the fireworks show called Illuminations! But that was not for a few more hours so Miss Hannaford took me on the ride that goes around the big ball called Spaceship Earth right at the entrance to Epcot!
Epcot is designed in 2 halves. The main entrance where Spaceship Earth is is called Future World. The other half of the park is called World Showcase. There are 11 different countries represented in spaces called pavillions. Each pavillion looks like the architecture of that country so in one day you can walk around the world!
Japanese Pavilion
Moroccan Pavilion
Italian Pavilion
English Pavilion
While Miss Hannaford was at the American Pavilion, she saw the globe of the world that she saw during the tour in the morning when it was behind the scenes having the fireworks loaded into it. The globe of the world is a giant jumbotron- special screens that are shaped into the countries of the world!
Miss Hannaford found a really good spot to see the fireworks display and filmed it for you to see!
We have arrived at Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida! Miss Hannaford came here as a young girl 20 years ago, but it is my first visit so the staff at the hotel gave me a first visit badge and Miss Hannaford received a I’m Celebrating badge as she is celebrating following her dreams around the world. The badges get you special attention from the Disney World cast as you go around all the parks.
The first place Miss Hannaford wanted to go to was Disney Hollywood Studios because 2 things really important to her were there- Muppet Vision 3D and Jim Henson and Kermit the Frog had left their handprints in concrete in front of Mann’s Chinese Theatre replica known as ‘The Great Movie Ride’. I am a distant relation of Kermit the Frog and since he is famous, I wanted to see Kermit’s handprints too. One of the cast members helped take a picture of us putting our hands on top of Jim Henson’s hands.
Here is a recording Miss Hannaford made of the Great Movie Ride!
Miss Hannaford told me that when she visited Disney Hollywood Studios as a child, she saw an amazing show called Indiana Jones stunt spectacular- and to her surprise- it is still here!
We then walked around the corner and down the street from the Indiana Jones attraction to somewhere Miss Hannaford has always wanted to go- the Muppetvision 3D attraction! To her, it is like walking into the Muppet Show theatre and you wear special 3D glasses to see all the muppets come out of the screen! Next door to the theatre is the Muppet store so Miss Hannaford bought lots of Muppet things for her collection. For me, I got to see lots of my famous friends and family many of whom look very much like me! Unfortunately they were too busy for me to go up and talk to them but it was really nice to know that I know lots of famous people, dogs, frogs, pigs, chickens and whatevers!
Right outside Muppet Vision 3D is the muppet fountain!
Day 7: Friday July 4th.
Today is American Independence Day! It is a big public holiday in America very similar to Australia Day with BBQ’s and fireworks. Today is really special to Miss Hannaford because she is going behind the scenes of one of Cirque du Soleil’s most spectacular peformances called O at the Bellagio Hotel! Best of all Miss Hannaford took me to see behind the scenes too!
Now to preserve some of the special secrets of the show and to protect the privacy of the performers and technicians we met- we were not allowed to take pictures except when we reached the area that stored 2 of the floating Carrousel horses! Miss Hannaford was allowed to touch it- a very special privilege!
Here is a preview of what Miss Hannaford saw at O
Outside the theatre are big bronze sculptures of Cirque du Soleil performers sculpted by Richard MacDonald. Many of the sculptures are larger than life size and capture very complicated moves like they are frozen in time.
When we came out of Cirque Du Soleil- we watched the special fountains ‘play’ outside the Bellagio. These fountains are very big and they have their own lake! Once the fountains had finished their display, the 4th of July fireworks started over the Caesar’s Palace hotel next door!
Day 8: Saturday 5th of July:
Today was our next travelling day but since our flight was not until 6pm, Miss Hannaford and I decided to go and look at all the unusual buildings along Las Vegas Boulevard- the main road that runs through Las Vegas. It also has another name- The Strip- referring to how all the major hotels are along both sides of the road- originally with nothing behind them but desert.
Some of the buildings look like famous places around the world such as the New York New York hotel looks like the skyline of New York City with a replica of the Statue of Liberty out the front- slightly smaller than the real one. Another hotel called Paris has a real Eiffel Tower out the front except it is half the size of the real one in Paris.
Other interesting buildings included the Venetian Hotel with the replica of the grand canal, gondola’s and the Rialto Bridge, the Excalibur. Hotel that looks like a castle out of a fairytale and of course the hotel we stayed at- the Luxor!
Can’t wait for tomorrow! Disney World here we come!
Day 5 Wednesday July 2nd: Off to the museum! Since it was another really hot day of 45 degrees, Miss Hannaford decided that we would go and see a local museum that was on the bus route we have caught every day. The museum was called the Mob Museum. The mob were different families engaged in illegal activities all over America but they were very important in the creation of the city of Las Vegas. The museum building used to be a post office and a court house where the mobsters were put on trial. The museum was very interesting to visit and it was in a part of Las Vegas Miss Hannaford had never visited before.
I didn’t like the museum very much- it was full of information about serious crimes and how people were hurt by the crimes of the mobsters but the airconditioning was very nice as well as the Frank Sinatra music that was playing in the foyer and front steps of the building.
We then caught the bus back to the Treasure Island Hotel so Miss Hannaford could find the theatre for Cirque du Soleil Mystere. Mystere is the oldest Cirque show in Las Vegas- it opened in 1993! Miss Hannaford’s favourite part is the Taiko drumming at the beginning and the end of the show! Taiko drumming is a traditional Japanese art form that uses all sizes of drum from the small shime-daiko all the way up to the great drum!
Here is a rehearsal of the Taiko drumming from the end of the show! The drummers are coming up on a special stage that goes up and down and the great drum- Odaiko comes down on wires from the roof of the theatre and lands on the stage! It is very exciting to watch!
here is a trailer of the Mystere show itself!
Day 6: Thursday July 3rd
Miss Hannaford has really been looking forward to today. One of her favourite TV series is CSI which stands for Crime Scene Investigation. Watch she likes about the tv show is how science is used to solve crimes. Something that is new in Las Vegas is an attraction called CSI: The Experience. It is an interactive experience where you start looking for clues at a fake crime scene such as fingerprints and you write your observations down on your field notes. You then take the clues to the lab where you compare DNA, fingerprints, dental impressions to work out who committed the crime. It was really fun using the real microscopes to look at samples of hair and insects to solve the fake crimes.
The last stage is to submit your findings from the scientific tests to Supervisor Gil Grisom and see if your conclusions are correct. Miss Hannaford got all the questions right and solved all the cases!
That night Miss Hannaford took me to see Cirque du Soleil KA! At the entrance to the theatre is a huge Water Dragon Puppet. His name is Sheng Li and he is a friendly water dragon. His tail goes all the way down the corridor to the doors of the theatre!
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Miss Hannaford and I sat in the front row of the theatre and many times the performers walked, ran, crawled right in front of us! They even had a scene where they used real snow and it fell on me but it melted very quickly.
This is what the theatre looks like behind where we were sitting- the bright light on my face were from the balls of fire shooting out of the big pit in front of us. It was very hot every time the flames shot out of the pit.
Miss Hannaford was able to video some of the flames!
Here is the trailer for Ka
It has been such an exciting week so far- but Miss Hannaford says there is something even more exciting tomorrow!- Lucy
