Florida Trip Day One: A Cold at the Magic Kingdom (Part One)

My brother Jonathan and I had such a great time at Universal Studios last year during the Martin Luther King weekend, I suggested we go to Disney World this year over the Presidents' Day week-long break. I hadn't been there in almost 20 years (I recall making jokes about going down there to help to count hanging chads in the disputed 2000 presidential election) and there have been so many changes and new rides since then. Great idea, but I soon discovered the big difference between

With my brother and Tigger at the Magic Kingdom

Disney and Universal is with the former you need to do a lot more planning than the latter. With Universal, Jonathan got a special deal since we would be staying at one of their resorts. We could get an Express Pass on all of their rides. With Disney, you can only get a Fast Pass for three attractions per day. In addition, reservations are required for almost all of the nicer table-service restaurants. This required downloading the MyDisney app, buying a Magic Band for quicker access, and strategic planning worthy of a military campaign to avoid endless waiting in lines.

After months of conferring and scheduling, the big day of the trip finally arrived and, of course, I had caught a cold. I was sniffling and sneezing on the plane to Orlando, but determined not to let it interfere with my having childish fun. Loaded up on DayQuil and Cold-Eze, I managed to get my ass out of the hotel bed and in my rental car at a decent hour. I had checked undercover tourist.com which as a crowd calendar for the best days to visit each of the four WDW parks. We also bought park-hopper tickets so we could go from one location to another depending on the crowd size. Since it was a school holiday, the mobs were massive, but we picked days for each park that were the least jam-packed. Monday was designated Magic Kingdom Day with the possibility of transferring to Epcot since the two are connected by monorail.

'Lincoln' Leads Broadcast Film Critics Noms

Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln

Critics' movie awards continue to announce their winners and nominees and Lincoln finally trumped Zero Dark Thirty, taking the most nominations, a record 13 from the Broadcast Film Critics Association including Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actor and Actress and Director. This group is composed of scribes who air their views on TV, radio or the web. A few years ago they graduated from merely announcing their winners like the New York Film Critics and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association to rolling out announcements for nominations and then presenting the awards in a TV ceremony and calling the event the Critics Choice Awards. The show has been on VH-1 and this year it will go from basic cable to broadcast network on the CW with a ceremony telecast on Jan. 10, the day the Oscar nominations are announced.

Perhaps in an attempt to out Golden-Globe the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the Broadcast Critics have added even more categories than the GG, presenting award for Best Comedy and Action Picture and Actor and Actress in those respective genres. In addition, you can be nominated in those categories and also be in the running in the general film fields. Thus Judi Dench is nominated three times, for Supporting Actress and Best Actress in an Action Picture for her M in Skyfall and as part of the Best Ensemble for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Likewise, Bradley Cooper is nominated for Best Actor and Best Actor in a Comedy for Silver Linings Playbook. Even I'm not obsessive enough to list all those nominations in my compilation of the all the film awards so far (See below) Also I will skip the Detroit Film Critics nominations (maybe when the announce their winners, I'll include them.)

Picture: Argo (cc)
Amour (LAFCA)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (cc)
Django Unchained (cc)
Les Miserables (cc)
Life of Pi (cc)
Lincoln (cc)
The Master (cc)
Moonrise Kingdom (cc)
Silver Linings Playbook (cc)
Zero Dark Thirty (Bos, cc, NBR, NYFCC, NYO) 

Actor: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook (cc, NBR)
Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln (Bos, cc, NYFCC, NYO)
John Hawkes, The Sessions (cc)
Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables (cc)
Joaquin Phoenix, The Master (cc, LAFCA)
Denzel Washington, Flight (cc)

Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty (cc, NBR)
Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone (cc)
Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook (cc, LAFCA-tie)
Emmanuelle Riva, Amour (Bos, cc, LAFCA-tie, NYO)
Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild (cc)
Naomi Watts, The Impossible (cc)
Rachel Weisz, The Deep Blue Sea (NYFCC)

Supp. Actor: Alan Arkin, Argo (cc)
Javier Bardem, Skyfall (cc)
Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook (cc)
Leonardo DiCaprio, Django Unchained (NBR)
Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild (LAFCA)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master (cc)
Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln (cc, NYO)
Matthew Maconaughey, Bernie and Magic Mike (cc, NYFCC)
Ezra Miller, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Bos)

Supp. Actress: Amy Adams, The Master (cc, LAFCA)
Judi Dench, Skyfall (cc)
Ann Dowd, Compliance (cc, NBR)
Sally Field, Lincoln (Bos, cc, NYFCC)
Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables (cc, NY)
Helen Hunt, The Sessions (cc)

Director: Ben Affleck, Argo (cc)
Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master (LAFCA)
Katheryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty (Bos, cc, NBR, NYFCC)
Tom Hooper, Les Miserables (cc)
Ang Lee, Life of Pi (cc)
David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook (cc)
Steven Spielberg, Lincoln (cc)

Bos=Boston Society of Film Critics; cc=Critics Choice Award nomination; LAFCA=Los Angeles Film Critics Assoc.; NBR=National Board of Review; NYFCC=New York Film Critics Circle; NYO=New York Film Critics Online