Islandshire Gazette

This is a post that I've been wanting to do for weeks now, so while we're having nice weather and light today, I thought I'd take some pictures. American Girl stated that the Tiana and Cinderella dolls each have their own unique skin-tones. They do! And so does Ariel . . . so, let's take a look at some comparison photos of all three dolls.

We were down in Florida at the Orlando store to see these dolls and ended up bringing Ariel and Tiana home (see the previous entry of the Gazette). We'll start this comparison with Cinderella, since I only have a couple of photos from the store to show for her skin tone.

Ariel was not listed anywhere as having a unique skin tone, so we did not compare her to anyone at the store. However, as soon as we'd brought her home and taken her out of the box -- it was obvious that she has a unique vinyl tone! There are three photos above showing her with a customized #115 (being a Marie-Grace mold with 05 vinyl tone), and the first one is definitely a very close representation of the differences in their coloring. Sometimes, if you're in natural light, it's very subtle -- but often it is so noticeable that it's like looking at the 10 tone (original light) next to 20 tone (original medium). Ariel is much rosier, almost on the orange side, though there's nothing actually orange about her. 

Her eyes are not quite the plain AG blue tone, but they are only just off. They have a little more aqua-grey cast than regular blue, sort of like the original Marie-Grace eyes. She was fairly easy to select from the stock in the store. More than half of the dolls there were "fine" as far as lip paint and eye issues.

Above are a couple photos showing Tiana with another custom #123. These photos are very faithful to both the look of the dolls' faces and skin tones. If they do not appeal to you in these photos, then you will probably not care for them in real life. Not often can I get two dolls to both look so like themselves in the same photo like this!

And just for good measure, here's a picture showing Tiana standing beside my Nanea, which gives an idea of the difference of Tiana's skin-tone beside a 20-tone medium. When you see her with the dark tones, you almost have the feeling that she is a "dark medium", but when she's with a medium tone really does look darker.

I hope these photos illustrate the differences of these dolls well for anyone trying to order online. Feel free to ask questions via a comment or the contact form.
Thanks for reading, and please check back soon!

We were down visiting our grandmother in Florida in February, which happened to coincide with the release of the American Girl Disney Princess dolls. Especially nice since our Columbus AGP store was closing about one week later.

It was great getting to see the dolls, and we ended up bringing two of them home . . . plus one of the new Truly Me dolls, #127. While #127 hasn't settled on a name yet (we're trying Carmen, after Lucy and Viera didn't suit), the two Princesses have left their castles and settled into the Islandshire crowd pretty quickly. Meet Zale (aka Ariel) and Cambridge (aka Tiana)!

Zale has been a bit of an elusive character on Islandshire. She's been a variety of dolls so far, ranging from a customized Jule, customized Marie-Grace and even a customized Nicki Hoffman. Originally, we purchased Ariel with the idea of customization. I wanted the wig, Nanea wanted the outfit, and we thought we might do something fun with the doll. But the minute that she came out of the box and shed the Mermaid costume, Sis was hooked. She was​ Zale. 

When we went over to the Orlando AGP, we didn't actually plan on buying a doll. If anything, we were thinking of Ariel. Certainly not Tiana. None of the three of us had cared for the Claudie face mold, and we've never been particularly keen on Tiana. That is . . . until we saw the display.

Mom fell in love with the costume, but she wasn't sold on the doll. I was totally sold. In the end, we picked out a Tiana doll for and with a friend and went back to Gramma's house. But it stuck with me. Two days later, we were back at the store picking out my Tiana doll -- already called "Cambridge". She's named for the fabulous Police Sergeant character in the 1990s mystery show, Pie in the Sky. 

After almost two years of blogging on a self-hosted site, Islandshire Gazette will be returning to this Weebly blog. Prices of hosting have just gone up too much to maintain the other site, which means things will be migrating back here over the Summer. We're also hoping to get back into the swing of posting more regularly, so please check back!

The Kona Island was an amazing little kiosk-sort-of-thing in the  main building’s upstairs hallway. I wish I could draw a picture of the way the counter was decorated. Coffee and Sushi again, so we kept moving on. They did have some cute desserts, though, and Grammy said we might get something to go and take it back to our room after dinner. I wish I could draw a picture of the Moana Cupcake. It looked almost too amazing to eat! ​

Trudy here. I didn’t realize how long it’d been since we published our last installment of Nanea’s “Florida Trip”. Things have been crazy around here, ever since Eliot decided that the wiring in the Gazette office was too old and needed to be updated. You know how it is, though; things have a way of snowballing. All the fresh plaster on the ceiling and walls meant a new coat of paint. Then Eliot thought the new paint made my desk look shabby, so he got Mina to refinish it. While she was working on that, Pete was sent over to put a fresh coat of varnish on the floor. I heard a rumour that the Merry Men had been asked to replace the sidewalk on Main Street, but nothing’s been “set in concrete yet”. That was a joke, a bit of newspaper humor. Ha ha.
Anyway, I’m going to try and sneak in another column of fun from Benny and Nanea’s Florida trip journal, illustrated with Sarah’s trip photos. So, let’s get on with the show and join Benny & Nanea on their “Dream Vacation”!

Our room at the Walt Disney Polynesian Resort is AMAZING! I can’t believe we’re actually here! Everything is so “magical”, like the people say! I wish I could draw, because the decorations in our room can’t really be described. The tiniest little detail is Moana-themed. Even the grillwork over the A/C vent! The lampshades, the walls, the rug, the headboards and sheets, everything feels like you’re living in Moana’s Polynesian village! It’s a good thing Sarah took a lot of pictures, because I want you all to see how beautiful it all is! I think Benny is getting ideas about redecorating our own house . . . fingers crossed . . .
[Editor’s note: DISASTER! The new wiring in the office just shorted out for a brief moment. Long enough to delete the resort-room photos on Sarah’s camera card. Guess I’d better call Eliot before going on. While I’m working this out, you’ll find a really fabulous walk-through of a WDW Polynesian Resort room here: Polynesian Resort Room Walk-Through. It’ll take you to another site, but don’t worry. Clicking on the link will open a new tab. When you’re done looking, just close the new tab and click back on this one. Sorry! Gotta run!]

Barefoot and hatless, we said good-by and headed to the beach. Benny kept saying, “Man, this concrete is hot! My feet are burning!” I told him to get off the sidewalk, but he wouldn’t walk through the grass with me. Not after he stepped in the duck poo. I didn’t want to burn my feet, though, so I just watched very carefully where I stepped. Anyway, when we rounded the corner, even Benny didn’t notice his hot feet anymore! “DANGER. ALLIGATORS AND SNAKES IN AREA. STAY AWAY FROM THE WATER. DO NOT FEED THE WILDLIFE.” It was a BIG sign, with drawings of a snake and an alligator on it. And I don’t like snakes and alligators.
Even Benny didn’t want to go in the water, and he’s not afraid of sharks! He said something about not feeding the wildlife with a Benny entree, Sarah said something funny about a “dream beach excursion”, and then they laughed so hard they couldn’t stop. I didn’t think it was funny, but I laughed anyway. I didn’t want to hurt Sarah’s feelings, and Benny would just say I was “being a girl”. I found some chairs for us to sit down in, while my brother found a spigot to wash his feet off. The warm sand felt nice between my toes. Benny turned my chair so I couldn’t watch for approaching people-eating wildlife, and Sarah talked me into posing for a few quick snapshots. Without my shoes on, I think you might be able to see my birthmark on the bottom of my right foot. Auntie always says not to worry about it, because it means I’m special. I always tell her that EVERYone is special, even if they don’t have a birthmark. Benny doesn’t have one, and HE’s special.

Benny & Nanea’s story will be continued in our next issue. They look so happy! I think we all agree that it couldn’t have happened to two nicer people . . .

Trudy here. As Nanea mentioned in the first installment of her “Florida Trip”, we’ll be publishing her diary entries with Sarah’s trip photos in the next several issues of The Islandshire Gazette. So, let’s get on with the show and join Benny & Nanea on their “Dream Vacation”! ​