Chat With a Disney Guru ~ Days In The Park

Weekly series!
Welcome to a great new way to compare notes, pick up some helpful tips for your next Disney visit, and discover some fantastic Disney bloggers!  Each week I will be highlighting an interview with a certified, pixie dusted fan of The Mouse.  

WARNING:  Their enthusiasm for all things Disney is, in fact, quite contagious!  So come along for the ride with us … you may learn something new, and it’s sure to put a smile on your face as you read about the good, the really really good, and the “you absolutely can’t miss this….”!

This week:  Days In the Park’s Chad!

Tell us a little about you, and your website (blog).
My name is Chad Elliott – I’m the husband of my beautiful wife Stephanie (we’ve been married for almost 15 years) and I have 3 wonderful sons; and we’re all Disneyland fiends!  I suppose that’s where the entire blog began as well.  

As a stay-at-home dad, I was looking for something to do during some of the slower days, and along with my friend Mark (who had been my Disneyland-buddy up to that point) we just one day decided we’d like to share our “Days” at Disneyland with the entire world, and the rest is history.  

We started Days in the Park as a means to get our pictures and thoughts out there, and we’ve been doing it now for roughly a year and a half.  Unlike a lot of blogs, though, we don’t really consider ourselves informational, although there is some of that there, as well, by its very nature.  

But what we enjoy most is just letting our goofy natures shine through in whatever we write, and sharing it in the most honest and carefree, but fun, way that we can.

Which is your favorite Disney Park, and why?
Disneyland, of course!  LOL – but we come by it honest I suppose.  

I’ve only been to one other park, Walt Disney World back in the early 90s, so I don’t remember a whole lot about it, other than loving it.  But now that I live less than an hour away from Disneyland and spend so much time there, it’s just a natural fit for me as my favorite.

Top 3 characters you’d like to meet on an ideal day at Disney:
Great question!  If I was going with characters I know roam The Park it would probably be my friends from ‘Splash Mountain’ – Brer Rabbit, Brer Bear, and Brer Fox.  I’ve seen all of them (except Rabbit) at one time or another but separate, and I have friends who have seen them all together (jealous!), but so far I’ve not been so lucky.  

As far as the rare goes, I’d go completely off the map and want to see Megara (MY favorite Disney female character) too.  If I could just see her one, it’d be worth any three others to me, and that’s no exageration.
Megara is also known as Meg, one of the main characters from Disney’s 1997 film Hercules.  Such an exotic choice, Chad!  😉

Your 3 favorite Disney attractions, and why you love them.
I’d probably have to go with ‘Splash Mountain’, ‘Star Tours’, and ‘Soarin’ Over California’. 

Splash Mountain just has the coolest song and theme ever to me; for some reason it’s just always been a gorgeous ride to me and everything works very well together, and it doesn’t get any gnarlier than the drop into the briar patch.  

Star Tours definitely because I’m a huge Star Wars geek and it’s in my DNA; what’s not to love?  

And Soarin’ Over California is just an amazing attraction.  It being the state I live in now there’s just so much to see on the attraction and the music is epic.  It also doesn’t hurt that Patrick Warburton narrates it to us and even the queue is something I enjoy seeing and doing every time.  

All that said, my Top 3 does tend to shift every so often depending on the mood I’m in, but these 3 will usually be somewhere near the top almost all the time.

Favorite time of the year to visit?
Definitely January-February-March.  If there is a down-time in The Parks, this is it.  

We tend to get out on a lot of Sundays during these months, and at night there’s just no-one around.  You can just stroll around and enjoy The Parks (and attractions; little lines) at night and it’s quite magical.  Definitely a great time of year to experience it all before the summer crowds kick back in.

The Park snack your day is not complete without.
Just one?  LOL – Dole Whip Float; hands-down.  People can be a bit critical of the Disneyland Whips because they only come in one flavor, but to me, pineapple will always be the best and I see no reason to branch out and mess with a good thing, but that’s just me.

Favorite Character Meal?
I’m sure I’ll be flamed for this, but I’ve never done a character meal!  

It’s a bit different from my perspective, though, because I’m not vacationing at any of the Disney Parks.  As Annual Passholders we see loads of characters out and about all the time, so it’s just not necessary.  If we were vacationing at a different Park, though, I’m sure that thinking would change accordingly.

Top 3 Disney Property restaurants you like to eat at.
Wow, that’s a tough one!  They’re all so good!  I would have to go with Cafe Orleans, Plaza Inn, and The Hungry Bear Restaurant, though.   

Cafe Orleans is WELL known for their monte cristo (it’s so good) and I’m completely in love with their garlic parmesan pomme frites and gumbo.   

Plaza Inn has some of the best fried chicken (and chicken alfredo!) on their menu that I’ve ever had anywhere, and the chili burger at Hungry Bear is amazing, too.  But much like my favorite 3 attractions, these do tend to shift from time to time.  These are near the top, though!

How do you keep the Pixie Dust flying at home, in between trips?
Again, since we’re passholders and go weekly (on good weeks) it’s not as hard for us as some, because we know we’ll be back out in a few days, max.  

But even so, we pretty much have a non-stop litany of Park music, and Disney movies, playing in the house and we talk an awful lot about Disneyland.  It’s just become such a part of our family and just what we do that it’s kind of taken on a life of its own.  As such, the pixie dust just seems to fly on its own.

Any tips for people planning their 1st trip to Disney?
The biggest tip I can give people preparing for their own first trip to Disney is to prepare to enjoy yourself.  I think that far too often families (and dads!) get too stressed out about all the little details, that they’re too stressed out to enjoy all the little details, if that makes sense.  

Planning can only take you so far!  It’s important, don’t get me wrong, but when all is said and done, and you’re in the moment, let go and let the magic come to you.  

Even if you don’t do everything you have planned, let it be okay – the memories will make themselves if you let them.

How long have you been blogging about Disney?
Days in the Park has been live for roughly a year and a half now, and our podcast, the Days in the ParkCast, is just about a year old.  We’re still veritable noobs in the Disney community.

Do you take your own pictures, and if so – any tips for getting good shots?
We definitely take our own pictures, and in fact, we insist on it!  We enjoy the act of taking our brand of shots and making them the best that we can.  

That said, our equipment isn’t as great as some we know.  We do have a DSLR that we use, but primarily we just use a P&S or our DROIDs.  In fact, one of our favorite segments on the blog is our “Almost” Wordless Wednesday posts where we just take random shots around Disneyland, solely with our cells.  

So we’re probably the wrong people to be asking photography tips of, but if you just enjoy shooting photos of whatever, whenever, however, then we’re your guys!

I can testify that their “whatever, whenever” shots, even from their phones, turn out great and are always fun and interesting.

Where do you find inspiration for blog topics to feature?
We do our very best to let Disneyland be our inspiration and whenever we see something that suits our fancy, or have an idea, we just try to run with it.  

It probably works to our detriment in some ways that we do it like that, but sometimes an idea will pop and we’ll run with it some, and it doesn’t do very well, and that’s the last you’ll see of it.  Some seem to do better, so we try do adjust accordingly.  

We’ve been told, though, that even with the changes and shifts we do fairly often, that it keeps our blog feeling fresh and new and that they like it, so we just keep doing what we’re doing.  

We’re pretty free-spirited about things and just share whatever we feel, and we think that people appreciate that and can relate to it, so we try to make our topics reflect that as much as we can.

What is your motivation to keep blogging – or any final advice to share?
Our only motivation is to share the fun we have with whoever wants to read it.  It’s not easy blogging, and not easy doing it regularly, either.  

Sometimes it would just be easier to stop, but we always seem to return to it, and that’s why.  We love Disneyland, and it makes us want to share that love with others.  

Which is also our biggest tip for bloggers – love what you do, share what you love, and whoever wants to share that with you, whether in huge or small numbers, is what counts.  Do it to share the magic, and what it means to you, and you’ll be doing just what you’re supposed to.