Early Evenings at Downtown Disney

Beautiful warm evenings, when the setting sun creates a picture of orange, red and pink brush strokes across a summer sky, instantly transport me back to Downtown Disney. While DTD is always a great place for shopping and catching a bite to eat, heading there in the early evenings has always been a cherished pastime of mine.

As a College Program student and Professional Intern (here on called CP and PI), hanging out at DTD in the evenings was a great way for a fresh out of college kid to save some money and still have some fun. We would walk the whole length of DTD, Pleasure Island and West End and back just chatting, eating Wetzels Pretzels and enjoying the outdoors entertainment.

As a guest, I still love going there in the evenings after a busy day at the parks to treat myself to a delicious Ghirardelli ice cream sundae and watch the twinkling lights in the trees along the lake. Oh, can’t forget to mention how AWESOME it is that there is ALWAYS someone handing out free samples of Ghirardelli chocolate squares too! There’s just something kind of magical about that time of the day and being in DTD surrounded by such great ambiance is all I really need for a relaxing well spent evening.

OHMIGOSH Bread Pudding! from Ragland Road

Being a College Program participant in 2003, I spent many Thursday nights (Cast Member free-entry nights) at Pleasure Island dancing the night away during my internship. In 2006, when I returned to WDW for my Professional Internship, I was anxious to go back and also excited to learn there were several new additions to the Island, including a brand new Irish pub. Ragland Road was still very fresh and new and with all the other nostalgic dance clubs Pleasure Island had to offer, hanging out  at an Irish pub just sounded a bit too ordinary.

Oh how quickly that changed. Ragland Road soon became the happy hour location central for several Guest Relations Cast Members and several nights out of the week we’d meet in our favorite corner table near the entrance to enjoy pints, Irish music and share our hilarious and magical stories from the day.

In 2011, 3 years since I had been working for the Mouse, I took my boyfriend with me for his first trip to Disney and our first time together as guests. One evening one of my best friends, James, who still works for Disney with Disney Special Activities, invited us to join him at Ragland Road for a pint or two. It was just as I had remembered, but with SOOO many more people! I suppose with the sad closing of the Pleasure Island clubs, guests don’t really have many other choices of places to go. Nevertheless, it still had the same great ambiance. James brought us over to the bar and managed to find us three bar stools near the stage. Creel was playing an excellent rendition of Little Lion Man by Mumford and Sons while James told me the story again of the lead singer/fiddle player. “Guess what his name is, just guess! Colin Farrell! No joke!” I had forgotten that the talented musician had the same name as Irish hunk actor Colin Farrell. “And you see that dancer with the brown hair? Her name is Danielle and they just got married not too long ago.” After a few more chuckles about Colin, James signaled the bartender and requested something incredible. “We’ll have two bread puddings please.” OHMIGOSH! The BREAD PUDDING!

The most decadent dessert I have and probably will ever have. It’s ooy-gooy texture was just as I had remembered with two sauces on the side: one some kind of mapley syrup masterpiece and the other a probable 2,000 calorie per teaspoon butter sauce. On the menu, they call it “Ger’s Bread & Butter Pudding” and claim it’s “Like no other pudding you’ve ever had. Believe us.” Well, they certainly live up to their promise and then some! At just $8.50 a serving it’s a STEAL! How can anything taste that good? My boyfriend has already marked it as an asterisked-exclamation-point agenda item for our trip this Fall. Just one of the many little SWEET things that makes going to Disney just so great. Ahhh, I can almost smell that bread pudding after typing this! *drool*

The little Disney things...

I was lucky enough to be part of the amazing talent that works at the Walt Disney World resort both as a Walt Disney World College Program participant (or as we were called at WDW, "CPs") and as a Professional Intern ("PI") turned Full-Time Cast Member! Even though I no longer work for the most magical place on Earth, I will bleed pixie dust and have the Mickey Mouse Club song in my heart forever. I am asked so many times from friends, colleagues, and family members what made it so great and how could I possibly be this totally enamored with the place. After working for the Mouse for over 3 years and now visiting Walt Disney World as a guest, I can say for a certainty that it's really the little things that make it so magical. The details, the thought, the feelings...even though each individual thing may be small, there are SO many little things that they sure do add up! So these are some of my little Disney things that make Walt Disney World such a special place in my heart. Do these little Disney things make it all the more magical for you too?