Tag Archives: The little things at Disney Springs

Something of Interest…to Us at Least-Part 5

8 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

This is the last segment of the pictures of the “oddities” that we found at Disney Springs.  These pictures have really interested us, and we hope you have enjoyed them, as well.

I’ve always thought that someone at Disney really does have all that “imagineering” mind on them.  There are so many of these little touches that just make up Disney.

And so, here we go:

All around the “new” part of Disney Springs, we found different motifs, such as this one:

Guest Services now has a building all its own, all the better to serve the customers/guests.  It even has a porch with rocking chairs where guests can sit and relax a bit.

Even the fence has an interesting design:

There is a mosaic on the side of one building:

Description: Florida mosaic

While this grouping isn’t “new” at the Springs, it is pure Disney.  And it stays there, year round.

Description: Disney's Days of Christmas - Happy Holiday

One of our very favorite stores – the Christmas Store.  Everything Christmas and Disney, all in one store. Amazing!  Notice above the “Days of Christmas” sign, in the black and white, is a sleigh and reindeer running across the sign.  See?  Little things…

Description: Disney's Days of Christmas

One of the most popular stores at Disney Springs is the Lego store.  Here are a few of the Lego examples – all made from Lego pieces:

Anna, Elsa and Olaf

Description: Lego store - Anna, Elsa, Olaf

The Hulk makes his fearsome presence known:

Description: Lego store - Hulk

Of course, BB-8 had to be there!

Description: Lego store - BB-8

Buzz Lightyear and Woody attached to a rocket

Description: Lego store - Toy Story - Copy

On a wall near the store – made up from Legos

Description: Lego store - wall art

Maleficent has been there a while.

Description: Lego store - Malificent

As long as we’ve been going to Disney Springs (originally Disney Village, then Marketplace when they added Pleasure Island, then Downtown Disney when they added West Side), Nessie has been in attendance – courtesy of Lego.

Description: Lego store - Nessie

Near the Earl of Sandwich (a really great place to eat!!) is the Tinker Toy.  Wow does that bring back childhood memories!  (Notice the wet pavement?  There are “pop-up” water spouts there.  The little kids LOVE to run through it!)

Description: Tinker Toy

And another popular eatery and a draw for children is the T-Rex restaurant.  Built by the same people who do the Rain Forest Café.

Description: T-Rex

That’s all of the pictures we’ve taken of Disney Springs.  This has been a fun jaunt through the “park” and we hope you have enjoyed it as much as we have.  When you are in Orlando, be sure and head to Disney Springs.  The parking is free; you don’t have to buy anything unless you want to, and you get a good amount of walking exercise at the same time.  It’s one of our favorites.  Come join us!

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

SOMETHING OF INTEREST…TO US, AT LEAST Part 4

1 Mar

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

While the door “handles” on many of the stores at Disney Springs are fun and interesting to us, we also found some things that I will call “oddities” that we thought you might find fun as well.

We’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you will, as well.

Have you ever seen an Archimedes Screw?  Or know what it is and what it is used for?  Here is a VERY small version, Disney style:

Here is Fred spinning the wheel and you can see the water flowing from the pool up onto the landing, made for it.  Of course then it goes right back into the pool, but it gives you a feel for what the Archimedes Screw does.

Remember back to the time that Holland  actually increased its land size by using Archimedes Screws to channel water away from the land and back into the ocean to make more land?   

Here’s a picture of actual Archimedes Screws at work in Kinderdijk, Holland, from our river cruise in 2015:

Back to Disney Springs:

Here’s the logo for the Coach store.   Cute…

In the middle of one of the major walkways, is a gigantic “directional” star:

Description: Directon star

At the appropriate points of the star, there are directional points, with a symbol, each different:

North has an airplane:

Description: Direction star - North - airplane

South has an old-fashioned horse and buggy:

Description: Direction Star - South - horse and buggy

East has a paddle-wheel boat:

Description: Direction Star - East - paddle boat

West has a train (“go West, young man” hmm?):

Description: Directon Star - West - train

The Irish Pub has a bronze man taking a rest on the bench, his hat sitting beside him:

Description: Irish Pub sign and bronze man

We caught the Rain Forest Café volcano in mid-eruption:

Description: Rain Forest volcano - 2

Have you ever seen a building with grass growing on top of it?  Starbucks has it here:

Description: Starbucks and grass top

The World of Disney Store (largest Disney store ever) has a figure of Stitch outside – and he spits!!  So watch out where you walk!

Description: World of Disney store - spitting Stitch

The World of Disney store also has a cute weathervane:

Description: World of Disney store - Tinker Bell weather vane - 1
Description: World of Disney store - Tinker Bell weather vane - 2

More next time….

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Something of Interest…To Us, At Least-Part 3

23 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

As I mentioned before, we were walking around Disney Springs recently and it occurred to me that lot of the door “handles” on the newer stores there have interesting and unique handles.

We’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you do, as well.

Here is the third “batch” of stores with unique door handles:

Vera Bradley is a fairly well-known brand

The door handles show her brand

Tumi is not a brand known to us

But the door handles are unique:

Lucky Brand is an unknown brand to us.

The door handles remind me of a “gripper snap” on blue jeans or western shirts – some might call them “rivets” or studs.

Marvel has its own store.

While the door handles aren’t unique, the symbols on the doors are:

Raglan Road is an eatery that looks interesting:

They do have some interesting door handles:

(opps…caught Fred in this one!)

Lilly Pulitzer has a store here, as well.

And the door handles show her “brand.”

(caught Fred in this one, as well)

Savannah Bee Company is an interesting store. Everything honey, as you might imagine.

While the door handles are not unique, the doors themselves are:

This last one is not really a “door handle” example, but we have been fascinated by this little shop every time we pass it by.  See what you think:

B. B. Wolf’s Sausage Company sells…you guessed it –  everything sausages!

Notice the fork in the sausage on the chimney:

And the weathervane is adorable!!  Notice he’s standing on a fork!

That’s all for this week – and the door handles.  Next time I’ll be presenting some unique “things” around Disney Springs that we enjoy, and that fascinate us.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

Something of Interest…To Us, at Least-Part 2

15 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

As I mentioned last time, we were walking around Disney Springs recently and it occurred to me that lot of the door “handles” on the newer stores there are quite interesting and unique.  And just for information purposes, most of the stores I have photographed for this posting, are NOT Disney – they are just on Disney property.  Some of the names are quite recognizable, but others are not – at least not to either Fred or me.

Therefore, we’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you do, as well.

This is a second “batch” of stores with unique door handles:

The Disney Candy Cauldron is a fun store.

There is a large front picture-window where the passer-by can stand and watch some of the candy being made.  Especially the candy apples.

All that metal frame work around the picture window is around the door as well:

Another unique door is at the George Wine Bar:

Can you say “shillelagh”

Columbia Sportswear Company has unique door handles – fish hooks perhaps?

And speaking of unique door handles, there is Kipling.

One of my favorites is the Levi store.

Description: Levi's sign

These handles really caught my eye:

Description: Levi's door

Here is the Keihl’s store – an unknown store brand to us:

Description: Kiehl's sign
Description: Kiehl's door

Okay, here come the cleats:

Description: Sperry sign

Imagine – having cleats as a door handle!

Description: Sperry - cleats - 2

Sugarboo is just a name that tickles my fancy.

Description: Sugarboo & Co

Their door handles are cute, as well.

Description: Sugarboo door

Frontera Cocina is unknown to us, but looks like a good Mexican food restaurant.

Description: Frontera Cocina sign
Description: Frontera Cocina door

Volcom is an unknown name to us, but has unique door handles.

Description: Volcom sign
Description: Volcom door

Uno de 50 is unique – as are the door handles.

Description: UNO de 50 sign
Description: UNO de 50 door

There are more to share with you, next time.

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

SOMETHING OF INTEREST…TO US, AT LEAST Part 1

9 Feb

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

Two things first of all:

1)        Fred and I really enjoy Disney – all things Disney.

2)        We like to notice little “touches” of things while at Disney.

Okay, that’s out of the way.  Now…on January 25, 2017, I wrote a blog titled “Tied in Knots” and the entire blog was written because I had seen the little boats at Disney Springs tie up to the cleat at the dock.  I still get a chuckle over that every time we are at Disney Springs and ride the boat from one dock (West Side/Marketplace/The Landing) to another.  (Just for your information, Downtown Disney is now known as Disney Springs.  I don’t know why they changed the name – perhaps “Disney Springs” rolls off the tongue easier than “Downtown Disney” does.  Whatever…) 

We were walking around Disney Springs recently and it occurred to me that lot of the door “handles” on the newer stores there have interesting and unique handles.  Now, we had noticed these before, but it didn’t occur to us until just that moment that my readers might also enjoy seeing those door handles.  And yes, one set of those door handles are cleats!  And just for information purposes, most of the stores I have photographed for this posting, are NOT Disney – they are just on Disney property.  Some of the names are quite recognizable, but others are not – at least not to either Fred or me.

Therefore, we’ve taken pictures of the ones that interest us the most, and present them to you now. These are some of the little “touches” at Disney that we enjoy.  We hope you do, as well.

The Disney Springs logo is interesting:

Ron Jon Surf Shop is self-explanatory, I think:

The Art of Shaving is a unique store dealing with everything “shaving.”

We were amused to see the door handles are “barber poles”, as well as the barber pole off to the side – even if it is not red/white/and blue.

Tommy Bahama is fairly well known.  All types of clothing.

                        The door handle is quite unique.

Sephora is a cosmetic store – and a large one.

The door handles make an “S”

Melissa is an unknown brand name to us, but love the “M” of the door handles.  But both doors must be closed to see the rounded “M”

Alex and Ani is an unknown store to us.

But the door handles are unique.

Most people are familiar with Kate Spade, for one reason or another…

While the door handles aren’t unique, the “spade” is everywhere!

One of our favorite store “handles” is for the Johnston & Murphy men’s shoes store:

If ice cream – and chocolate – is your thing…here is a store for you!

Love the door handles!

And then there’s the Disney Ticket Center…

With rather unique door handles…pure Disney!

Much more to share – so until next time…..

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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