tinaalsgirl

We spent at least an hour just in Dolly's museum on my first and so far only trip. I could've spent all DAY. Shoot, I told my mom that I wanna plan a trip to stay in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge for a whole two weeks so I could spend an entire day just sitting in front of the eagle habitat at Dollywood.

It's me with two important messages represented.

I like the feature that gives you a little "three months later" or whatever when there's a bunch of time between posts in a thread... Kinda gives you an interesting view into how COVID has affected the amount of posting in individual park threads.

I think the word/phrase censor might be messing up? Here's a message from my inbox showing that the l**ker censor is happening with the combo of l and s together (the image has been edited to take out the meat/content of the message). Test for outside the inbox: e-mails tinaalsgirl EDIT: Ok, the test shows it isn't happening. So maybe it was a glitch that was happening when I sent the message back in April 2017 (and I just realized it was on April 1, so maybe the censor was changed for April Fools? I honestly cannot remember)

From context, I believe no icon means no new posts, circle icon means new posts, and star means new posts in a thread you have posted in at some point.

Exclusively everywhere. I have a lot of pain I deal with from fibromyalgia, and the Crocs support my feet better than any other shoes I've worn. I couldn't even tell you the last time I wore a pair of sneakers.

I know people joke about wearing Crocs, but if you like to ride water rides at theme parks as well as like your feet to feel relatively painless after a 12hr day of walking around a park... I very, very highly recommend Crocs. I actually started wearing them after looking for suggestions for footwear to wear to SDC so I can ride the water rides but not have squishy feet afterward. Several different Disney boards came up with everyone raving about Crocs. I got myself a pair and now I've been wearing Crocs nearly exclusively for over a decade now. I did open-to-close, seven days in a row of Disney World in my Crocs, and I came home with only a single blister, and it wasn't the shoes' fault. I cannot recommend them enough.

That's definitely a good way to describe it. And you can tell that video will never do the ride full justice; it's definitely one of those rides that you need to *feel* as well as see.

Yeah, I hadn't mentioned it yet 'cause I saw a lot of people on Twitter talking about how video was allowed to be taken but was not supposed to be uploaded until official opening day on the 28th, so I wasn't sure I should mention it. But, yeah, I watched it and WOW. Can't wait for the professional and low-light POVs to come out later!

Oh, another new favorite show: Psych. As soon as Peacock debuted, I started bingeing the show. I've watched all 8 seasons and both movies, and I am SO glad the creators want to make more movies because I can't get enough of these characters!

It's so beautiful. Thanks for posting those pics! And just in general for keeping us updated on TDLR!

Omg, I am so excited to see the animatronics in full gear!!!

Meh. It's a black bear; they're, like, the least dangerous bear you could encounter here in the US. Make yourself big and make lots of noise and a black bear will nope out. I'd love to see a bear and its babies this close up in person! So cute!

No, sadly I've never seen it with any kind of water feature. I think it was planned, as the concept art showed, but I guess the idea got axed for some reason.

About the concrete on Powder Keg: you are correct. The ride previously on that land was Buzzsaw Falls, which was a prototype water-coaster hybrid thing. It started in the water then the back half was coaster. Next time you ride PK, take note of the two different types of track on the coaster. The track that has a "zig zag" pattern is the original track; the rest is what was put in when building Powder Keg. You can see one of the old Buzzsaw Falls boats as decoration on the roof of the PK queue building. Glad you found a good resort to stay at! If you come to Branson again, a resort I'd like to recommend at least looking into is Still Waters Resort. It's down on the lake off of the main road (Indian Point Rd) to the park, so it's a short drive to SDC from there. My family and I stayed there in December 2012, so we didn't get to enjoy all the extra stuff that the resort has that's open in summer, but the two-bedroom condo we got was reasonably priced; the resort often has package deals that include tickets to SDC (which is what we did). (EDIT: They also have free shuttles between the resort and the park) But all that stuff we didn't get to do because it wasn't summer? OMG. I've been itching to be able to go there in warmer weather, 'cause they have, like, 3 pools, mini-golf, various watercraft to take out on the lake (like paddleboats and stuff), and other stuff that I can't remember right now. But it all comes included with your room/suite, so if you come mostly for SDC but also want to do some fun stuff like mini-golf and what-not, you never have to go on the Strip if you don't want to (I haven't been on the Strip in several years; SDC has always been the priority of our visits). Not surprised by your report of lack of masks in the city.... The other day, Branson had a city meeting to discuss whether or not to have a mandatory mask requirement for the city. The participation/public comments portion was... ridiculous. Some local reporter live-tweeted it and... yeah, again I'm not surprised you saw few masks in-city.

Holy Cow! I never really thought about it before, but they must cast experienced horse riders for these type of events. Merida handled it well!

They've switched from search & rescue to recovery and have pronounced her to be presumed dead. Likely drowned. Her 4-year-old was found alone, sleeping in the boat. He was wearing a child-sized life-jacket, but there was an unused adult one sitting in the boat as well. Her son told rescuers that he and his mom had been swimming but she never got back on the boat. Lots of positive vibes being sent to her family.

I can't really take credit. One of the Orlando vloggers I watch took a few different types of masks along with a gaiter to test which ones work best on coasters. The gaiter on its own slipped down immediately, but after cutting holes in it for his ears, it's become his favorite to use. You can buy them on Amazon with ear-holes already built in.

Nick's battle with COVID has been heartbreaking to follow. I'm glad he's now no longer in pain. Major positive vibes being sent to his strong-as-heck wife; she's been so amazing in the face of pure tragedy.

If you're worried about losing a mask on a ride, maybe consider getting a neck gaiter with earholes for riding rides. Since it's a gaiter, it'll stay on your neck even if the forces of the ride make it slip off your face.

I told my mom I'm not doing long visits to Walmart anymore. The other day it was a quick in-and-out for a few items, and even that was too much for me. So many people not wearing masks, and I swear to god nobody in this area knows how to read or just doesn't care about the bright green and red "This Way Only" stickers on each aisle. Grocery curbside pickup only from now on (I am SO happy they take EBT/SNAP now!). Once a vaccine is available and I have gotten it, then maybe I'll feel okay going in. But not before then.

Oh. Bummer. I mean, a phone works, too... if you have one. I've got a smartphone now, finally, but I know there are a lot of people out there who don't.

Great post, Garet! I'm autistic, and I cannot *stand* "Autism Moms". That vocal minority makes it *very* difficult for autistic people to get their voices heard. I think this is an okay ruling. I understand that there needs to be a balance. The best thing I can think of for Disney to be able to help accommodate autistic people is to continue updating their queue lines; for example, I found it a lot easier to stand in line and not be bored at Space Mountain because they had all those games on the walls or whatever. And while I haven't been on Big Thunder since they redid the queue, I've seen pics of the stuff they added and that's great. Disney probably did those updated queues thinking mostly about little kids and keeping them distracted, but a bonus is that that can also help people like me. So I think they should keep doing that. Also, maybe they should consider implementing more virtual queues and make waiting areas like the new Dumbo. I've always thought that was such a great idea - give kids a place to run around and play while waiting "in line". I think virtual queues are probably the best option for helping autistic people avoid meltdowns from long waits.

Oh man, I am *so* excited! I absolutely LOVE Princess and the Frog, and I particularly love that they're subtly acknowledging the issues with the movie - our first black princess spends most of her movie as an animal - by setting this post-movie so she'll be herself throughout it.

Looking at his filmography, I've only ever seen his Batman movies.... oh, and Phantom of the Opera, which I personally LOVE.