What is your favorite character?
Tammy: My favorite character is Dopey. He always has been since I was little. He is just so lovable and endearing. During our visit this past November, we went to Mickey’s Christmas Party, and I went to meet the Seven Dwarfs. I got to dance around with Dopey, and it was awesome. I own all sorts of Dopey memorabilia, but my favorites are “The Dancing Partners” sericel that my parents bought me and the various Lenox Dopey figurines my grandmother would buy me each Christmas.
Curt: I can’t decide between two characters. I am torn between Goofy and Roger Rabbit. I choose Goofy because we share a lot of the same qualities. Goofy’s cartoons show him to be a jack-of-all-trades just like me. He can hook up your TV or teach you to ski. But I may have a better success rate than him. Roger is just pure, absent-minded fun. (Tammy says that describes me to a “T.”)
How do you get your Disney Fix?
Curt: If we are stuck in Chicago, we will often watch a Disney movie at home or go out and see the latest release. If possible, we just try and visit a park. Lately, our trips have been frequent enough so that when one ends, the next is already planned. In the last two years, we have gone about four times a year. Tammy also makes photo books from our PhotoPass pictures and our own pictures to commemorate each trip. Lately, a few of our co-workers and friends have started planning trips. Tammy has been helping them plan for their trips and giving them tips and tricks to enjoy their stay even more.
Tammy: Each Disney trip we find something completely new and different. It’s part of why we love Disney. There is so much to see and do and it’s never the same, twice. We also have a bucket list of things we want to accomplish and experience. Eventually we would like to go to all the parks worldwide. Curt has promised we can go to Paris, soon. We also want to eat at all the restaurants on property in Florida. It has been a dream of mine to stay overnight in the Cinderella suite. It’s probably number one on my bucket list and the most unachievable!
Curt: One of the recent things we crossed off our bucket list was going to every resort at Walt Disney World to see their Christmas decorations. Tammy got a season’s-greetings mailbox pin from each resort to commemorate that we saw that resort’s decorations. Well, every resort except from the very last one. Coronado Springs ran out of pins the day before!
Do you have any other special Disney stories?
Tammy: Curt’s aunt absolutely loves “it’s a small world.” And when she came with us in October 2010, the ride was closed for refurbishment. Now, when we go to the parks, we always include a trip on “it’s a small world” where we call her voicemail and leave her messages of the song playing as we ride. This last trip we maxed out her voice mailbox. Oops! We try to meet every character at least once and get a picture with them. We recently met Merida, Rapunzel, and Scrooge McDuck. We still need pictures with Pocahontas and Silvermist.
Curt: In October 2010, Tammy’s parents came with us to Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. The park was all decked out with Halloween theming and characters. We were getting in line for the Haunted Mansion. Sitting in front of the mansion on a bench was a ghoul. Tammy: My mother thought she was just decoration, and being goofy, started speaking to her. She screamed so loud and went running when the character actually responded. Dad could only shake his head. Curt: Tammy still laughs about it today.
Tammy: The most recent favorite memory would be the success of our Haunted Mansion costumes for D23′s Sip & Scream. We were blown away at how well they went over. Curt doesn’t do matchy matchy, so I was surprised he even agreed to go as a duo. But once we decided what we were going as, my mother and I had to find fabric and create these costumes. For the dress, it’s actually a modified Snow White dress pattern. The shawl I had to make it up as I went. And Curt’s shorts are a pajama pant pattern we shortened. We probably finished it all in less than a month. And Curt already has next year’s costume idea ready!
