Mystical Mermaids

I've loved mermaids ever since I was a little girl, so it's no surprise that in The Shapeshifter's Secret Series there are several sirens, water nymphs, and mermaids. It's probably why I love taking underwater pictures.

It's also why I decided to post about some of my favorite mermaid appearances.  

In the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie there are a lot of mermaids. Most of them were malevolent, but the movie did focus on one who was kind and loving. I became so enthralled with the mermaid, Serena, and her story, that I stopped caring about Jack Sparrow and the other pirates. (P.s. are they are making another one? Because they really ended Serena's story with a cliffhanger). 

When the Submarine ride first opened at Disneyland in 1959, they hired women to dress up as mermaids and sit out on the rocks of the lagoon. My mom still remembers seeing those mermaids when she was little and how mesmerizing they were.



Also at Disneyland, the mermaids on the Peter Pan ride. Did you know the front one is Ariel?



How cool is that?



I have a lot of fun memories about dressing up like a mermaid when I was younger. Recently I found this necklace with a mermaid on the front and I couldn't help but get it. It reminded me of all my mermaid adventures when I as younger. Also it was sparkly, I can’t pass up things that are sparkly...

What are your mermaid memories? Do you have a favorite mermaid book or movie? 

Disneyland's Haunted Mansion

At LTUE I went to a presentation called "Disney's Haunted House." I am a DIE hard--no pun intended--Haunted Mansion fan, so naturally I had to go, and IT WAS AWESOME. I mean, anything to do with The Haunted Mansion always is.

I'm the kind of person who scours the internet looking for interesting facts about the Haunted Mansion so that I can tell my husband and he'll think I'm cool (yep, he's obsessed with it too).

This is the gift I gave him for Christmas. 

Seriously, I would love to move into the Haunted Mansion and be the 1,000th happy haunt. 

So I decided to compile a list of *some of the coolest, creepiest, and strangest things I've learned about The Haunted Mansion. Here you go! 

• The organ in the ballroom is from Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. 
• The knight in the hallway used to be an actual cast member. He was later replaced with an animatronic knight because too many problems arose from having a live cast member scare people. 
• The Haunted Mansion is the only place in Disneyland where the cast members do not smile. 
• Madame Leota's voice is also Maleficent's voice from Sleeping Beauty, and the wicked stepmother in Cinderella. 
• The air conditioner is so effective in the Haunted Mansion that every year employees go through and re-scatter dust.  
• Master Gracey (pictured below) was a character named after the imagineer Yale Gracey who worked on the ride for years. 
• Many of the ghosts share the same face as pirates in Pirates of The Carribean (example: the ghost woman blowing out the candles on the birthday cake has the same face as the whistling pirate in jail). 
• A mother once spread her son's ashes throughout the ride because he had loved The Haunted Mansion so much. 
• All of the gravestones are tributes to imagineers who worked on the ride.
• The Haunted Mansion is narrated by Paul Frees. He also voices most of the pirates in Pirates of the Carribean. 
• The Haunted Mansion was originally going to be a walk through attraction.
• The Hidden Mickey made of plates on the dining room table is not an "official" Hidden Mickey. It was made by cast members. 

*I have more fun facts to share, but I might have to save them for another blog post. I'll do a part II. MWAHAHA!

P.S. My obsession may have started when I was younger and my mom played this movie called Disneyland Fun. I watched the Haunted Mansion "Grim Grinning Ghosts" sing a long part over and over. Which is funny because my husband watched it when he was younger too! We are creepy soul mates. 

Anyone else watch this growing up?