Blog - Disney Castle Dreaming Travel

It’s All in the Attitude

One week to go!!

Next week, Mom and I head to Disney for a Mother/Daughter weekend, and I am BEYOND excited. We did these annually for a few years, until wedding planning and then financial strain put those weekend trips out of reach for a while. We’ve both really missed them, so this year, we decided to try again.

My work situation is different this year, which makes the trip a little bit easier. The last couple of trips we were only able to go for basically 2.5 days, which hardly made the trips worth it, financially. They’re ALWAYS worth it for the Mom/Daughter factor and of course, for the Disney factor, but with airfare and ticket prices, it’s hard to justify the expense for a trip that short. This time, we’re going down on a Wednesday morning and heading home on Monday night, so we have a few extra days to really enjoy ourselves.

And…get this…I’ve even planned a non-park/Rest day in the middle!!! Crazy, right? Seriously, I’m so used to planning quick or short trips, I never allow R&R time…as a result, we usually come home EXHAUSTED. Not this time! I still have a lot of fun planned for us, but I did plan some down time…both in afternoon “breaks” and with our rest day. This trip is all about having fun with Mom—but it’s also important to both of us that we NOT wear ourselves out!

A big focus for us this trip is the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. My mom is an EPIC gardener—her yards have always been the best in the neighborhood! And Epcot is just SO SO SO gorgeous during Flower and Garden. This trip, I’ve planned two visits to Epcot so that we can really take our time and “drink it all in”.

While we are (hopefully) missing the majority of the Spring Break peak crowd madness, I am expecting significant crowds. Let’s face, Disney just doesn’t seem to ever have slow periods any more…and attraction lines just keep getting longer, even when perceived crowd levels are low. When temperatures are higher, it can feel (at least to us Northerners from cooler climates) more crowded, and sometimes, the heat can raise tempers as it raises body temperatures.

Something that has always helped Mom and I on these trips is EXPECTING it to be crowded and adopting a very relaxed attitude about it. We went one year right in the peak period of Spring Break, that was just the way it worked out that year, and we had a WONDERFUL trip—MAINLY because we had the right attitude! We focused on what was REALLY important—spending time together, soaking up the Florida sunshine, enjoying great meals, and having fun. Did we ride every attraction? Nope. Did we cover every park, stem to stern? Nope. Was it super crowded? Heck yeah! But we just did our best to stay relaxed, and we took lots of breaks to sit down, drink some water (or a glass of wine 😉) and people watch.

I think back to a really crowded trip I did about, goodness almost 20 years ago now, at Christmas time, and I’ll be honest…I did not love that trip. I actually did not visit Disney again after that trip for 7 years. And for a long time, I blamed the crowds, the lines, and the attitudes of others before I realized that it was MY expectations that had led to my disappointment. I LOVE Disney, and I had set such high (and honestly, unreasonable) expectations for that trip, and as a result, I did not enjoy it as much as I could have. I focused on silly “little” aggravations instead of focusing on what was really important…the people I was there with, the magic of Disney, having FUN, and making the best of the VERY crowded conditions.

So that’s my message for today: Traveling to Disney during the holidays, or during Spring Break, or during a very busy and HOT summer season CAN still be a terrific time, you just need to manage your expectations and make choices that make sense for you and your family or traveling companions.

Don’t plan to do “EVERYTHING” on everybody’s wish lists…Pick a FEW priorities to focus on each day…if you’re able to do those things, you’ll all feel like you had a great day…and if you squeeze a few more things in…you’ll feel even better.

If you like attractions, accept that you will be waiting in lines. Lots of them! Even the Fast Pass return lines can get really long on crowded days. THINK about the lines before you go. What attractions are you willing to wait one hour plus for? Are there any? What if EVERYTHING has a one hour wait? What will you choose? What can you do in line to entertain yourselves? We tend to play a lot of Heads Up or Trivia games on our phones…together, not independently.

In our recent epic 2.5 hour wait for Flight of Passage at Pandora in Animal Kingdom (TOTALLY WORTH IT—ONCE….I won’t ever wait that long again, but we completely felt it was worth it the first time, since we did not have a Fast Pass for it that morning), we ended up playing with the two families traveling together that were in line with us. We had a great time getting to know them, they were a lot of fun, and it definitely made the time pass faster. If you’ve got little kids, (or adults with low blood sugar concerns) making sure you’ve got snacks or water bottles in your bag can also be really critical in a long line.

The big thing for us when the crowds are high and the lines are long: take in the “non-ride” based attractions….Disney has SO much more to offer than rides! See the shows…check out the live music. For example, have you ever taken the time to watch the Jamminators perform in Epcot? They are TERRIFIC, and lots of fun!

There are several live performances in the streets of Animal Kingdom you can check out if you pay attention. I LOVE the Streetmosphere players at Hollywood Studios, and could happily spend hours watching them do their thing (most of these are 10-25 minutes). My point is, there is a LOT of “free” entertainment at each Disney park that often gets missed in the rush from attraction to attraction. Watch a caricature artist at work (or get one done…they’re very fun!). LOOK for the little things that make Disney so special…I think you’ll find so much more joy when you do this, rather than focusing on moving from one attraction to the next.

Take pictures. Have fun. Be SILLY. Remember: One of the BEST things about a good vacation are the memories that make you smile–sometimes even YEARS later–when you’re back at your desk at work, or watching your 175th soccer game of the year, or thinking about someone that’s no longer with us. Make sure you are capturing those memories–in your heart and with your camera! (Or phone. Or photopass guy. You get the idea!)

On hot days, I try to make sure we spend some quality time every couple hours in either an air conditioned restaurant or an air conditioned shop. Spread out your souvenir shopping…A little here and there will help keep you cool and get you out of the crazy crowds for a little breather. Note: The shops tend to be VERY crowded at the end of the night—You’ll be happier if you do a little shop exploration throughout the day.

Tip: Did you know that you can have your items shipped directly to your resort if you’re staying on property? This is a great benefit—then you don’t have to carry your bags around with you all day—OR worry about losing them! This won’t work if you’re heading home within a day or so…usually the merchandise arrives within 2 days, but if you check out before it arrives, that would be a problem. Alternatively, you can request your merchandise to be taken to the front of the park to be held for pickup at the end of the day. There is no charge for these services!

Don’t be afraid to take breaks! There is nothing wrong with heading back to your hotel after lunch or after the parade for a couple of hours to rest, go swimming, take a nap or just to get out of the crowds for a while. Trust me, if you’re getting aggravated? You NEED a break! Sometimes people get wrapped up in how much they are spending on their tickets for that day, and they feel like they have to spend every minute at the park to justify the expense…but I’ve learned (the hard way, I have to admit!) that you’ll get more VALUE from your experience if you adopt a bit more relaxed and positive attitude. Take a break here or there, whether that means sitting down and drinking some water and having a Mickey bar, or taking the bus back to your resort for a couple hours–just get everyone off their feet and let them cool off and relax a bit. It will make a BIG difference in everybody’s moods, and their ability to enjoy the rest of the day.

Take a break! (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

SONY DSC

Finally: Spend some time at the end of every day talking about the highlights of your day. What were each traveler’s favorite activities of the day? What was the best meal? Did anything really funny happen? I make envelopes for each day and print forms with some basic questions on them to help us to jot down these memories—super helpful later when you are putting together photo albums, or even just trying to remember and talk about your wonderful trip.

And there’s a bonus–when you take a few minutes to really think about the best moments of the days, those great moments take up more space in your memory, and the little irritations or aggravations fade to the background. Focus on what matters, LOOK for the happy and trust me, you will find it! They don’t call Disney the Happiest Place on Earth for no reason….it really IS…but we each bring our attitudes with us into the parks, and it’s up to US to make sure we are READY to be Happy. Know what I mean?

Mom and I are SUPER excited for our trip next week and we are DEFINITELY Ready to be Happy!

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke

Fast Pass Plus Planning Spring 2018

Today (March 3) marks 60 days until my spring trip to Disney World with my mom for the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. I can’t believe it’s coming up so fast!! As you all might recall, I made Advance Dining Reservations for this trip back in December, at 180 days out. (You can read about that here). The next big activity in our trip planning is making our Fast Pass Plus reservations, and today was the day!!

A couple things to keep in mind: In order to book your Fast Pass Plus (FP+) reservations at 60 days out, you must have both a Disney resort reservation AND your ticket media for all guests in your party linked in My Disney Experience online. If you are not staying at a Disney resort, you will not be able to make FP+ reservations until 30 days before your trip. Also, if you do not purchase your park tickets in advance and have them linked in My Disney Experience for EACH guest in your party, you will not be able to book FP+.

I had purchased an annual pass last summer in preparation for my November anniversary trip with my husband. Mom and I had already decided to go to the Flower and Garden Festival this year, so I knew I had at least one more trip within a year—those extra days combined with the food and merchandise discounts available to annual passholders made it an easy decision for me to get an annual pass. Plus, at the time, DVC members were being offered a pretty good deal on annual passes. I did spend a lot of time evaluating the 5 day and 10 day passes first, especially for my husband’s pass…but ultimately decided on an annual pass for both of us. I still have hopes we might be able to do a short visit in the fall before our passes expire, but finances may prevent that this year…time will tell. Regardless, my annual pass was already in my account…but my mom had to get her pass in time so that we could enter the information into My Disney Experience.

As many of you are aware, Disney raised ticket prices in February. Fortunately, my mom purchased her 5-day pass a few days before that increase. She also purchased her pass through Undercover Tourist—which is a great site that does offer a slight discount on Orlando area theme park tickets. Mom purchased her ticket online from Undercover Tourist and received the actual card in the mail a few days later. She immediately took a picture of the back of the card with all the important numbers on it (this is a critical step, just in case you ever lose your ticket!) and sent it to me. I used those numbers and added the ticket to my account and assigned it to her. [To add ticket media to your My Disney Experience, log in and choose My Reservations and Tickets. Then click on the Link Tickets button.

Once you’ve selected “Link Tickets”, you’ll see the screen pictured below:

Disney offers several examples of different ticket media to help you figure out what information you need to enter. Once you’ve entered the ID number and hit enter, you’ll be directed to the list of Family and Friends you’ve tied to your account so you can assign the ticket to a particular person. Note: You MUST have the person whose ticket you are adding set up as a Family member or Friend in your My Disney Experience BEFORE you add their ticket media, or you won’t be able to assign the ticket to them. Also, tickets are non-transferable, so don’t plan to share a tickets between family members–it won’t work.

Once you’ve linked the ticket to your account and assigned it to the family member you are traveling with, you will be ready to book your FastPass Plus reservations. (Make sure that your friend or family member is ALSO linked in your resort reservation as a member of your Travel Party…without that, they won’t have the sixty day access that is for resort guests. If you made dining reservations at 180 days, you’ve most likely already done this!)

I had already linked mom in the hotel reservation we have for May 2-7 at Old Key West, and in all the Advance Dining Reservations (ADRs) I had made for us for that trip; all that was left was to reserve our FP+. Once her ticket media was linked, I knew I would be able to make FP+ reservations for the two of us at 6 am March 3 (the window opens at 7 am eastern time, 60 days before the first night of your resort reservation). An important note to remember: If you are doing a split resort stay, where you are staying at two (or more!) different resorts during your trip, you will have a sixty-day window for each “leg” of your trip. For example, if you are staying at Saratoga Springs for 2 nights and then at the Grand Floridian for 5 nights, your first sixty-day window will open up sixty days before your first Saratoga Springs night…but you will only be able to book FP+ for the two days of that reservation. You’ll have to log back in two days later for the Grand Floridian five days to open up. If you have any questions about this, please reach out. You can email me at brooke@disneycastledreaming.com if you need help.

To prepare for this morning’s FP+ booking session, I spent about 20 minutes yesterday reviewing the plans I’d already made for our trip. I took a look at which parks I’d planned for which days, and what dining reservations I’d made for each day. This trip, we are visiting parks on both our inbound travel day and our outbound travel day, so I took a look at what times I was anticipating we will have available on each of those days. I made a quick list of the days of our trip, which park or parks I have planned for each day, and which restaurants and the times for our ADRs.

It looks like we will be pretty lucky from a crowd perspective for this trip; estimated crowd levels are relatively low for the days we are there, especially the first few days of our trip. Hopefully, this means that standby lines will be shorter, reducing the need for FP+ reservations and/or increasing our ability to be flexible and reschedule FP+ while we are at the parks. Late March through most of April tend to be very busy at the parks due to spring break visitors, so we deliberately planned our trip for early May, and it looks like it will pay off for us, at least from a crowd perspective. I also like the look of Epcot a lot during May. The Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot runs from February 28 through May 28 this year, and while Epcot is stunning throughout the festival, I think it gets more beautiful later in the festival, as more flowers bloom and plants mature.

Because the Flower and Garden Festival is our PRIMARY motivation for this trip, I’ve planned two days at Epcot this time, and am hoping we’ll be able to take in some of the special presentations and tours offered only during Flower and Garden.

When planning your FP+ reservations, be sure to take into consideration the preferences of everyone in your traveling party. For example, my husband LOVES thrill rides, so when I plan our trips, I make sure I plan for those “exciting” attractions, like Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror or Expedition Everest. My mom does NOT enjoy thrill rides, so I focused more on attractions and shows that she’ll enjoy. If you’re planning for a larger group with diverse interests, you’ll want to either split up a little bit to allow everyone to do the things they want to do, or you’ll want to let each person pick ONE attraction that’s most important to them for FP+ planning and try and balance everyone’s priorities. It can be challenging, but involving the whole group in the planning process can help build excitement and enthusiasm for the trip.

Normally, Saturday is the one day per week that I sleep in a little bit…but NOT today! 😊 That FP+ window is too important! So I set my alarm for 5:45 a.m., and as soon as it went off, I was up and in vacation mode!

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but Disney is serious about this window…your access to Fast Pass Plus reservations for your trip will not open even 30 seconds early…If you try, you will see the dates after 30 days grayed out. I know it’s hard, but try to be patient. Your window opens at 7 am EASTERN time.

It’s important to start with the Fast Pass Plus reservations that will be most difficult to get. There’s an understandable tendency to want to book each day’s FP+ in order as you’ve planned your trip. BUT, keep in mind that there are thousands of other people visiting the parks the same days you are, and for some of them? Their 60-day window opened a couple days ago because they’re arriving before you. If your most desired attraction is Pandora Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, but you’re not visiting AK until the last day of your trip, waiting even 10-15 minutes to make that reservation will most likely result in either not being able to get a FP+ at all for that attraction, or one much later in the day than you might have wished. I can’t say it enough…the more planning and prep work you do up front, the more relaxed and laid back you’ll be able to be on your trip. So, when you’re planning your FP+ attack, focus on those hardest to get FP+, no matter which day of your trip that park might fall on. Some “HOT” attractions include:

Pandora Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom

Pandora Na’vi River Journey at Animal Kingdom (note: Disney only allows you to book a FP+ for ONE of the two Pandora attractions, so you’ll have to choose!)

Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom

Kilamanjaro Safari at Animal Kingdom

Frozen Ever After at Epcot (in Norway)

Soarin’ Around the World at Epcot

Test Track at Epcot (note: Disney places Frozen, Soarin’ and Test Track in one FP+ tier, so you’ll only be able to choose ONE of these, unless you’re visiting Epcot more than once during your trip)

Toy Story Mania at Hollywood Studios

Rock-n-Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios (note: Disney groups Toy Story Mania, Fantasmic, Beauty and the Beast and Rock-n-Roller Coaster all in one tier, so you’ll only be able to choose one of those!)

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom

Splash Mountain at Magic Kingdom

Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom

For us, I had three “high priority” FP+ reservations I wanted to make: Pandora Flight of Passage (Mom loves Soarin’, so I’m hopeful she will love Flight of Passage as much as I did), Frozen Ever After (it’s new since the last time we went, and I want Mom to experience it) and Toy Story Mania (it’s just FUN and we both love it!). Everything after that was pretty much gravy for us—I know we won’t be riding the thrill rides, and we are both big fans of getting to the park early in the morning so we can ride the things we want to ride before the lines get long. This works really well everywhere except for Animal Kingdom Pandora (as I learned the hard way!), so I’m relatively confident we’ll be able to do all the things we want to do, especially with the (relatively) lighter crowds projected for the first few days of our trip.

I was victorious with two of my three goals. I booked FP+ for Pandora Flight of Passage for early evening on arrival day; I booked Frozen Ever After for after lunch on our first Epcot day and I also grabbed FP+ for those attractions on our “return” days at those parks. I’d rather have them and decide to cancel then NOT have them and regret it!

Unfortunately, I was NOT successful with Toy Story Mania. All those FP+ were already gone for the afternoon we are planning to visit Hollywood Studios. And because we are doing two parks that day, we won’t be taking advantage of the early morning arrival to head to Toy Story—we’ll be at Magic Kingdom in the morning. So…odds are fairly high we will miss this attraction this trip. But that’s ok. Soon, Toy Story Land will be opening, and with it, more crowd absorbing attractions AND an extra Toy Story Mania track! So, next trip, it should be easier to book FP+ for this attraction.

Once I had my “hot” FP+ attractions booked, I filled in the days with other attractions, shows and character greetings that I think we’ll enjoy. When I visit with Mom, we tend to be pretty relaxed about our touring, so we may not use all the FP+ reservations that I’ve made, or we may end up tweaking these reservations based on what’s going on each day, but it’s good to have them booked in case there are unexpected crowds, or if we REALLY need a break from the heat.

Reminder: Disney only lets your reserve three FP+ reservations per day, and all three must be in the same park. Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom all use a “tier” system for their FP+ reservations, grouping the most popular and highly sought-after attractions together, and limiting guests to choosing just one of those, with the other two reservations coming from the rest of the attractions that use FP+. As a result, you may find yourself booking a FP+ reservation for an attraction you aren’t likely to need it for, unless you are visiting during busy times. For example, you will rarely need a FP+ to ride Living with the Land at Epcot or It’s a Small World at the Magic Kingdom…BUT if those rides are super important to you and you want to make sure you don’t miss them, go ahead and book the FP+. You can always cancel later if you get to the park and ride the attraction without a line ahead of your FP+ reservation.

Also: After you’ve used all three of your FP+ reservations for the day, you can book additional FP+ reservations, one at a time. Those can be in any park—but again, only one at a time. So, from a strategy perspective, you may NOT want to use a FP+ to book a reservation for something late in the day, like Fireworks viewing, because you won’t get the opportunity to book any other FP+ until AFTER that last one is used. Usually, I won’t book FP+ for the first couple of hours the park is open as USUALLY the lines are pretty short during that time, and I’d rather save FP+ for when lines are longer. But I also like to have used all our FP+ reservations by 3-4pm, so we can book additional FP+ reservations as needed later in the day. So my “ideal” FP+ window is usual from 11:30ish to around 3pm. The one exception to the early morning short lines scenario is Pandora at Animal Kingdom. That area seems to OPEN with already long lines, haha.

Character greetings: I rarely use FP+ for character greetings because I’m usually concerned about getting all those thrill rides in. BUT if character greetings are important to you, book the FP+ reservations…those lines can be maddening, and with FP+, your wait time will drop to minutes (in most cases). I booked us a couple this trip since we had the available FP+ space left, and I like character greetings…I just HATE waiting in line for them. So we’ll do a couple this trip.

Shows: Unless you are visiting at a busy time of year, you usually won’t need FP+ reservations for any of the shows; however, if you want to make sure you have great seats or you’re super concerned about seeing a particular show at a particular time, you may want to use a FP+ reservation to lock that down. This trip, I did use a couple FP+ for show reservations—mainly because both days we are visiting Animal Kingdom are travel days and we have a compressed window of time to visit the park—I wanted to be sure we’d have time to see Festival of the Lion King and Finding Nemo. In all likelihood, we won’t need them…but why not have them, just in case?

As we get a little closer to our trip, I’ll revisit all our meal and Fast Pass Plus reservations, and make decisions to make changes if necessary. I’m also trying to find out as much as I can about this year’s Flower and Garden Festival, since that’s the big draw for us this trip. Can’t wait to see Epcot in all it’s Spring glory!

Happy Dreaming everyone!

Brooke

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge

Excitement moved throughout the world of Disney and Star Wars fans yesterday as Disney released a “Flyover” video showing construction progress at the new Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge “land” currently being built at both Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida and at Disneyland in Anaheim, California.

Check out the video here.

I don’t know about you guys, but I think it looks pretty impressive. I’m especially excited about the descriptions Disney has posted so far about this “land”. It sounds like they are really going for something truly immersive, and I suspect it will be unlike anything we’ve seen from Disney so far. Scheduled to open in 2019, Disney hasn’t released a whole lot of details about this project yet, so this video is VERY exciting to see.

Technology keeps improving so quickly, and Disney certainly takes advantage of those gains as they design and create new attractions and experiences for Disney fans worldwide. I was so impressed by Pandora when we visited Animal Kingdom in November (read about that visit here), and I think what Disney has planned for Star Wars is light years beyond what they did with Pandora.

Even if you’re not a Star Wars fan, I suspect Galaxy’s Edge will still capture your imagination!

Check out this short video that Disney released last year featuring Disney Imagineers talking about the project.

My stepdad took us to see the original Star Wars movie way back a million years ago when it first came out and I can still remember what an impact it had on all of us! We’ve all been fans ever since (well…there were that unfortunate group of THREE movies 1999-2005 that I hated, but otherwise….), and it is so much fun watching the kids of today getting into Star Wars now just as much as we did when we were kids!

I’m really looking forward to seeing Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge when it opens, and I’m even MORE excited to visit with my step-dad and brothers because I know they will be AMAZED and thrilled. I just can’t wait!

Take a look at this concept art that Disney released last year:

Does that look out of this world amazing??

How about you? Are you loving the recent additions to the Star Wars franchise? Are you excited to plan a trip to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge??

Happy Dreaming,

Brooke

Our Anniversary Adventure Begins…

Traveling from Chicago, we arrived in Orlando on a GORGEOUS Thursday afternoon. We’d rented a car, and then headed straight towards Disney…taking a brief detour to pick up groceries, and then we were back on our way! I don’t know about the rest of you, but the moment we see the Walt Disney World entrance is ALWAYS a magic moment for me…Such a thrill to know we were FINALLY here!!

We stayed at Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort this trip. We are DVC Members, and had booked a studio with Magic Kingdom view. Normally, I wouldn’t spend the extra points to get the Magic Kingdom view, but given that we hadn’t been in so long, and I was SERIOUSLY in Castle Withdrawal (it’s a real thing, I promise!!!), I decided to splurge a little for this trip, and I am SO glad we did. It was worth every single point!!!

One of the downsides of not having been to Disney for a couple of years is that we weren’t aware of some of the significant changes to traffic patterns that had occurred. The last time we visited (and for many years before), you had to enter the Magic Kingdom gates on the far right side to access the Magic Kingdom resort area (Grand Floridian, Polynesian and Contemporary/Bay Lake Tower). That has changed. Disney currently has a lot of construction going on in this area, it looks like they are adding new exit and entrance ramps; they have already added a new exit for the Magic Kingdom resorts BEFORE you get to the Magic Kingdom gates. Traffic was very backed up in the far right lane; we lost about 40 minutes here, partly due to congestion and partly because we didn’t realize the route to the Magic Kingdom resorts had changed, and we ended up having to go through the Magic Kingdom gates and then basically exit the Magic Kingdom and loop back around to go catch the exit ramp that we’d overlooked the first time….with all the traffic. We were about the 20th car that we saw have to do this, so I’m happy to report we weren’t the only idiots that missed the signs…it will take some getting used to, but ultimately will be a good change, I think.

I loved seeing the inflatable Mickey and Minnie atop the Magic Kingdom gates…so festive!!!!

Getting settled into our studio at Bay Lake Tower….

Once we were settled into our room and I’d taken 27,000 pictures of the castle from our balcony, it was time to head to the Magic Kingdom for Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. One of the best things about staying at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and/or Bay Lake Tower is that you can walk to the Magic Kingdom. It takes less than 10 minutes. A new thing, at least for us, is the security station set up on the sidewalk that is the path from the resort to Magic Kingdom. We went through security before we even got to the park, which sped up our park entry. I think this is a terrific idea–and since there are not many people approaching the park from this path, every time we had to pass through security here, it went very quickly.

Once we arrived at the park, we had to make a quick stop at Guest Services to pick up our Annual Passes and make sure the ticket media was loaded on our magic bands. Once that was done, it was time to enter the park.

Now, I feel the need to remind all of you that I LOVE DISNEY. I love all of it…but ESPECIALLY the Magic Kingdom. When things were better financially, I visited Disney 2-3 times every year. However, the last few years have been rather challenging financially, so we hadn’t been back to Disney since our wedding trip in 2014. So I had been missing Disney SO much…three years had been a pretty long time for me between trips. I say all this because when we entered the park through the tunnel and I saw Main Street and the balloons and the Christmas tree, I immediately burst into tears!! It completely surprised me, but did not surprise my husband at all! He knows how emotional I get, especially about Disney, so he was pretty confident I’d cry. I was caught completely off guard, though. And it was a pretty funny, ugly cry. And I hadn’t even SEEN the castle yet, haha.

2017-11-16 Iair — Iair and Brooke, November 16, 2017

Almost immediately we were approached by the sweetest cast member, Iair from Paraquay, asking if I was ok. My husband was laughing and I was crying. I think Iair probably thought we were crazy! I told him I was just emotional because I was so happy to be back. He asked how long we’d been away, and I told him three years and explained that we’d gotten married at Disney during our last trip. He was just adorable with us, and wanted to be sure we had bride and groom ears–he even gave us a voucher where we could go and get bride and groom ears. He was just the sweetest thing, and it was the perfect start to our anniversary trip!

I love these little memorable moments with Disney Cast Members! Great cast members just add so much extra magic to your trip.

Coming up…Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party!!

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke

Toy Story Land Opens June 30!!

Big news from Walt Disney World today! They have officially announced opening day for the highly anticipated Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios! Toy Story Land will open June 30, 2018!!

Opening Toy Story Land will give a much needed boost to Hollywood Studios, which has felt a bit…well, decimated over the last couple of years as attraction after attraction was closed to make room for both Toy Story Land and the still under construction Star Wars themed land. When we visited in November, it definitely felt like there wasn’t a whole lot to do at Hollywood Studios. We took advantage of the extra time we had and watched the Streetmosphere Players a lot (they are TERRIFIC!)…but we missed the Great Movie Ride, the Animation Academy, the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, and even…dare I say…American Idol! Does anyone else remember Sounds Dangerous with Drew Carey? That’s been gone longer, but I still miss it. But I digress….[what else is new?] Read more about our November visit to Hollywood Studios here.

Toy Story Land capitalizes on one of the most popular attractions in Hollywood Studios, Toy Story Mania, as well as the very popular Pixar Toy Story movie series. The idea is that when you enter Toy Story Land (much like when you enter the queue area for Toy Story Mania), you have shrunk down to “toy” size, and you are all set to play with the other toys. Toy Story Land’s superstar new attraction is a roller coaster called “Slinky Dog Dash”. Disney released a video of a test run on this attraction, check it out :

Slinky Dog Dash

sli9340239482039-624x352 — Photo from the Disney Parks Blog

Another new attraction is called Alien Swirling Saucers, which sounds a little like that Mad Hatter’s Tea Party to me…the Disney Parks Blog describes it as aliens “swirling about in their flying saucers with guests in tow…”…So swirling? Sounds like spinning, but I could be wrong. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!

They’ve also added a third track to the VERY popular Toy Story Mania, along with a new game-themed entrance…this will hopefully help the ride move more guests through each hour, making it (fingers crossed) easier to get fast pass plus reservations for this attraction, as well as reducing the overall standby line. I love this attraction, and am always happy when I can ride it more than once over the course of the day.

Super Patient Kids Waiting in Line (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

Wedding Trip: Toy Story Mania (Photo: Brooke and Frank)

Finally, they’ve added a new quick service restaurant called “Woody’s Lunch Box”–which is, you guessed it, Andy’s lunch box turned on it’s side. It’s a walk up window type restaurant, so I’m assuming we’ll see outdoor seating, or perhaps a covered seating area?

The whole land sounds super cute…with lots of toys all around. I can’t wait to see it. I’m guessing our trip at the beginning of May will be too early to have any hope of a soft open or a passholder preview, but you never know! If I can catch any glimpses, I’ll be sure to take pictures and share when I get back.

Otherwise, it will most likely be next year before I’ll get to explore Toy Story Land. I can’t wait to see it, though. I bet it will be lots of fun to explore and will have a ton of great photo spots. All those bright colors and “life-size” toys? I think it will look spectacular. Dare I hope for more green Army men? I love those guys!!

Happy dreaming!!

Brooke

New Adventures in Animal Kingdom

I saved Animal Kingdom for Monday, the last full day of our vacation. Although I enjoy Animal Kingdom, it’s been my least favorite park of the four. Don’t get me wrong—it’s still AMAZING, and there’s a LOT to do and see…I just have a stronger affinity for the other three parks. BUT, I’m not sure I can say that anymore! With the addition of Pandora (a new “land” themed around James Cameron’s epic AVATAR movie), and the expansion of Animal Kingdom hours to include the evenings, and the staggering beauty of this park at night—Animal Kingdom moved into the “MUST NOT MISS” category from the “We’ll visit every other trip” category.

Animal Kingdom is an interesting theme park, and unlike any other Disney theme park. It’s part zoo, part theme park, part conservation education experience. Visually, it’s very beautiful, especially if you love the outdoors and plants and trees. There’s green pretty much everywhere.

Animal Kingdom is very large and spread out; you definitely want to wear very comfortable walking shoes for your day at Animal Kingdom. I tend to put Animal Kingdom near the end of my trips when I include it because I don’t want to get too worn out the first couple of days—BUT putting it at the end was a challenge this trip, because we were both pretty tired by the time we got to Animal Kingdom!

Next trip, I will probably plan Animal Kingdom for the middle of our trip, and I’ll try to plan a rest day or a light day for the day after AK. This trip, I had a pretty good plan, I thought, heading into our Animal Kingdom day. The park opened early that day, plus it had extra magic hours that started at 7 am, which is VERY early for most vacationers. In my experience, if you arrive at the park early, you can usually crank through a lot of attractions in that first couple of hours the park is open. We had a fast pass for the most popular new attraction at Animal Kingdom, Flight of Passage, located in Pandora, but it wasn’t until early afternoon. We’d been anticipating the opening of Pandora for years, and I had heard really good things about this attraction, so I planned for us to go to Pandora as soon as we entered the park, and get into line for Flight of Passage.

My theory was that we’d have a short line, ride the attraction, check out Pandora, perhaps ride the other Pandora attraction, Na’vi River Journey, which is a boat ride, and which we were unable to get a Fast Pass for. (Note: When booking FastPass Plus reservations, Disney often groups the most popular rides in a separate “tier” and allows you to only book a FP+ for ONE of those attractions. In the case of AK, Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Journey are in their own tier, and you can only choose one of the two when making your FP+ reservations. You can choose two more FP+ reservations from ALL the other AK attractions when you are booking your initial three, but only one of the three will be able to come from the “Pandora” tier. For more information on FastPass Plus reservations, read here and here) I had gotten up at 5 am on the first day I could book our FastPass reservations for our vacation, but unfortunately, the earliest reservation I could get for Flight of Passage was 1:45 pm. I wasn’t too worried though. Based on my experience, I usually use FastPass+ reservations to book attractions I know we’ll want to ride a second time, and plan to get to the park early and take advantage of lighter crowds in the early hours to ride everything we want to ride and then hit our FastPass attractions later in the day.

In this case, however, my plan did not work as well as I’d hoped. Perhaps it was the combination of Pandora being new and SO popular and the first day of Thanksgiving week, but there were a GAZILLION people there for extra magic hours and EVERYONE headed straight for Flight of Passage. Now, I have to say this: I do not regret our day AT ALL. It didn’t work out like I planned, but we had a great time and LOVED everything we did. Having said that, if I had it to do again, I would make some different decisions—and I will definitely take what I learned into account when planning my next Animal Kingdom visit.

Pandora is BEAUTIFUL. If you’ve seen Avatar, I think you will have a greater appreciation for what they’ve done here, but even if you haven’t, it really is gorgeous, and looks like something not-of-this-world. A lot of people weren’t happy when Disney chose to partner with James Cameron and theme a “land” and attractions around Avatar, even though it was one of the highest grossing movies in history—it wasn’t a Disney property, and while I personally really enjoyed the movie, it had its flaws. Many also questioned how it “fit” with Animal Kingdom. If you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know that it has a very strong emphasis on protecting the natural environment and the symbiotic relationship between the natural world and all the species that inhabit it. (Granted the “natural world” in the movie is on a planet VERY far away…but the basic theme is inherently, take care of the planet…or you’ll destroy everything that is good and beautiful.) Since Animal Kingdom has such a strong emphasis on appreciating nature as well as conservation, the decision to put “Avatar” in Animal Kingdom always made sense to me personally, but I know there are many differing opinions on the topic. That said, there are at least two more Avatar movies coming, and if they do well—which I suspect, they will, I think Disney’s decision here will be validated and embraced. Even without the new films, though, it’s hard to deny the popularity of these attractions. I’ve been watching, and the stand-by lines for both the Pandora attractions pretty routinely stay ABOVE 2 hours. Even if you’re not an Avatar fan, I think this area of the park is really something to see. AND, it looks and feels very different at night than it does during the day, so it’s worth a second look if you visit during the day.

To cut to the chase, we were in line at Flight of Passage by 7:10 a.m. We waiting in line for more than two and a half hours. I’m not kidding when I tell you I have NEVER waited that long for an attraction in my life, and I specifically plan our trips around the concept of short lines and avoiding waiting longer than 30 minutes for anything. I’m not a patient person, and I really don’t like to stand in line. That said, it had been three years since our last trip. This is a new, very popular attraction. Also, the first hour, we had NO IDEA how long we’d be waiting, since we were in a line that was WAY outside the attraction. It was about 1 hour before we even reached the attraction entrance. By that time, we’d already invested so much time, we decided to stick it out. We took a lot of pictures, we chatted with the people around us. We had a lot of fun playing with the kids from the family behind us. And once we were inside the “mountain”, Disney’s theming helped keep things interesting, and while it didn’t make the wait seem short, it certainly wasn’t terrible. I’m glad we waited, because if we hadn’t, we would have only ridden once…with our FastPass Plus reservations that afternoon…and I definitely would have regretted that. This is an attraction that AS SOON AS IT WAS OVER, I wanted to ride again. It is, quite honestly, the best attraction I have ever ridden.

The queue for Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom has some cool scenes (Photo: Brooke Hudson)

To provide some perspective, my favorite attraction is the Haunted Mansion. I am also a HUGE Pirates of the Caribbean fan….I love a good classic dark ride, and I am NOT a fan of motion simulators. I always ride Star Tours at least once with my husband. It’s a very cool attraction, and I love Star Wars, and I love seeing the new scenes every time we ride…BUT I don’t feel very good after that attraction. I tend to leave that ride a little queasy and it takes me a while to shake the feeling. I could NOT ride the old body wars attraction at Epcot—I tried once and it made me miserable. I am a girl who gets carsick if I ride in the back seat of a car. I have to take Dramamine to fly. I really struggle with motion sickness and it is no JOKE. Interestingly, Soarin’ doesn’t bother me at all—and I have heard that some people have issues with that one, but I do not have any issues with Soarin’.

I don’t know what it is about this ride, but it does NOT feel like a motion simulator. It feels more like Soarin’ to me than it does Star Tours. This attraction is trying to make you feel like you are riding your own banshee (a dragon-like flying animal from the Avatar movie), and it works on every level. The attraction “vehicle” looks a bit like a motorcycle to me, and it represents the banshee. Guests must be at least 44” tall to ride Flight of Passage, and I have heard that some guests have had issues fitting into the ride vehicle—I am plus size woman, and I did not have any issues fitting the vehicle. You get on the bike-like seat and scoot forward; then some padded surfaces come up behind you…as long as those can safely get into place, you can ride. I’ll admit to worrying about it while I was waiting in line; I didn’t want my husband to know I was concerned—and I knew if I couldn’t ride it, I was going to make sure he still did…BUT I did worry….Fortunately, in my case, there was nothing to worry about. I rode the ride quite comfortably. I will admit, I was much less stressed the second time, knowing that a) the ride would not make me feel sick and b) I had no issues “fitting” into the ride vehicle. This is really an amazing experience. Again, I compare it to Soarin’—you feel like you are riding a hang glider (well, I’ve never ridden a hang glider in real life, so I don’t know what that actually feels like, but on Soarin’ I feel like I’m flying, which I figure has got to be close, right?). On Flight of Passage, I had a similar feeling, like I was on a hang glider or something, flying, diving, climbing—it was beautiful, visually, and definitely evoked the look of Pandora in the Avatar movie. One word—EXHILARATING!!! I really, really, loved this attraction. And honestly felt it was worth EVERY MINUTE we waited for it. Of course, I was REALLY happy to have Fast Pass Plus reservations to ride it again later, without the wait 😉! Now that I’ve ridden it (twice), I really want to ride it again…but I don’t think I’ll ever wait that long for it again…but for the first ride? Totally worth it.

The only downside to spending the first 3 hours of our day in line for Flight of Passage is that it sort of jumbled our plan for the rest of the day. SO, we basically threw the original plan out the window, and focused on what was most important to us, and worked those things around our dining reservations, and the nighttime show we planned to attend. As a major planner, just “going with the flow” is sometimes difficult for me, but it worked pretty successfully on this day. It might have helped that I was pretty worn out by now, and really just wanted to SIT, haha.

So for this visit to Animal Kingdom, we spent a lot of time in Pandora (we visited again after dinner so we could see it in the dark…and it was GORGEOUS), visiting first thing in the morning, and again in the early afternoon for our FastPass Plus for Flight of Passage. We never were able to ride the other popular Pandora attraction, Na’vi River Journey. It’s a boat ride, and looks pretty great, but the lines stayed at 100+ minutes all day, and we just were NOT up for waiting in another extremely long ride. We also spent a lot of time just wandering around Pandora and LOOKING at it. They did a great job of making you feel like you are someplace ELSE. And of course, Flight of Passage empties into a giant gift shop with LOTS to look at. We also enjoyed the Na’vi Drum Ceremony.

We saw the Festival of the Lion King show (as always….amazing), we saw the Finding Nemo show (one of my favorite shows on Disney property), we had lunch with characters at Tusker House, dinner at Tiffins (new, I’ll be doing a review separately), we rode Everest and saw It’s Tough to be a Bug (one of Frank’s favorites).

Finally, we watched a couple iterations of the projections on the Tree of Life and watched the striking Rivers of Light nighttime water show.

Animal Kingdom Tree of Life Awakenings

SONY DSC

I’m going to do separate posts about Rivers of Light and Tiffins, as those are both relatively new. Look for those in the next couple of weeks.

In the meantime, Happy Dreaming!!

Brooke

Hollywood Studios During the Holidays!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

I’m so sorry I haven’t been able to update since our trip. I can’t believe how busy it has been since we got back! Between being sick and working LOTS of extra hours trying to earn a little Christmas money, it’s been NUTS!

Getting back on track though. With that said, here’s the first of several posts about our trip.

I have to tell you, I really feel like Disney has upped their game in the Holiday celebration arena in recent years. They’ve always done a good job decorating each resort and they always decorated Main Street at the Magic Kingdom. And they had the Osborne Spectacle of Lights at Hollywood Studios, but unfortunately that closed a couple of years ago. With that gone, other than Christmas Trees at Hollywood Studios, Epcot and Animal Kingdom, they didn’t do a LOT of decorating in the past at the parks.

I feel like that has changed. During our trip, I felt like the holiday spirit was EVERYWHERE. The Holidays were much more in evidence everywhere we went. If you needed help getting in the Holiday Spirit, Disney is definitely the RIGHT place to be, that is for sure! Going relatively early in the season gave us a nice kickoff to our 2017 holiday season.

Hollywood Studios was where I noticed the biggest change: It looks like Hollywood Studios is really trying to attract crowds this year with their Holiday decor and activities, perhaps partially to make up for all the attractions that have closed to make way for the upcoming Star Wars land and the expansion of Pixar Place? Whatever the motivation, it really scored with us!

I have to add that we LOVED the Osborne Spectacle of Lights that used to be on the Streets of America at Hollywood Studios, and were heartbroken when it closed due to all the refurbishments. We were lucky enough to visit it one last time on the last night of our wedding trip, and I’m so glad that we did! The display was festive and magical and very fun…and we DEFINITELY missed it this year!

The Studios is really trying to still be a destination for visitors wanting Holiday Magic, though…They have added a lot of Holiday decor throughout the park, and they’ve added a new Jingle Jam Jingle BAM show in the evenings that is outstanding. While we still missed the Osborne Spectacle of Lights, we really felt that Hollywood Studios held its own as a Holiday destination with the new additions.

Check out the recently refurbished Echo Lake area at Hollywood Studios! Even Gertie the Dinosaur got decked out for the holidays with the addition of some snow and a giant Santa Hat. There are floating Christmas ornaments all over the lake and a gorgeous holiday tree at one end. It was fun and festive and looked really great at night, too.

One of our favorite activities at Hollywood Studios is to watch the Streetmosphere Character Actors. They come out several times a day, mostly on Sunset Boulevard, in various groupings and do crowd-interactive, at least partially improvisational, performances. And they are TERRIFIC. If you don’t take time to check them out when you visit, you are really missing out!

The Streetmosphere players really embraced the Holiday spirit as well. In one scene we watched, they were a group of singers, trying to get on the Bing Crosby Holiday Radio Show. They did a hilarious version of the 12 days of Christmas, with a few members of the audience participating.

Another really funny one we watched was a riff on the Holiday Parade Celebrity Hosting idea. They basically pretended everyone walking by was part of the parade and they threw out jokes and interacted with various “participants” as they went by. Some people really played with them too, it was really funny. It happened to be Dapper Day, so they had a fashion parade at one point, really letting those folks shine!

The Hollywood Studios Streetmosphere players are so talented, and they think so fast on their feet! They really added to our enjoyment of the day, that’s for sure!

Sunset Boulevard has gotten a festive update, and at night…wow. Disney has really embraced their projection technology all over the World and boy is it everywhere at night at Hollywood Studios during the Holidays! The Tower of Terror is the canvas for several themed festive vignettes, set to themed music and coordinated with projections on nearby billboards as well. It’s overwhelming and a little disconcerting to be honest…you see all this festive happy Holiday magic on the Tower…and then people are screaming up at the top of the Tower. You don’t see them, but you hear them, at least a little bit. It was a little odd..but still really really cool. Disney even used the old snow machines that used to over at the Osborne Lights display to make it snow on Sunset Boulevard (I’m assuming they are the same ones…maybe they’re new 😊!). Unfortunately, none of my pictures turned out — the low lighting on the street combined with the quickly moving images on the Tower turned out a big blurry mess on my camera.

Here’s a picture of the Tower from Disney’s website:

And another:

Like I said, it was pretty astonishing. What really blew our minds, though, was the Jingle Jam Jingle BAM show at the parks original landmark, the replica of Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

Much like the shows over at the Magic Kingdom that use the Castle as a giant projection screen, Hollywood Studios uses the Chinese Theatre and surrounding buildings as giant screens for all kinds of holiday magic. Coordinated with music, lights and fireworks, the show is festive and fun.

The crowd around us really seemed to enjoy it, too. Lots of oooo’s and ahhh’s. It was super bright, colorful and to be honest…kinda dazzling!

We really enjoyed seeing Hollywood Studios decked out in her Holiday glory. This park is fairly limited at the moment, as so many areas and attractions have been closed to make way for upcoming attractions…I wasn’t sure we’d be able to make a full day of it. But we had a great day, and it was pretty action packed, too. I’ll give you a full day recap in my upcoming trip report, but I’m happy to say Hollywood Studios during the holidays is a definite MUST-DO if you’re at Disney. There’s still quite a few attractions and activities and the Holiday decor and nighttime entertainment is well worth a visit during your next holiday trip!

Happy Dreaming and Happy Holidays!

Brooke

It was AMAZING!

Hi everyone! I’m back from our wonderful anniversary trip and it was everything I’d hoped for and MORE. I can’t begin to tell you how great it was to FINALLY be back at Walt Disney World!!! We had a wonderful time and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!

We’ve been back for more than a week now, but it’s been crazy. First, back to work and then to Michigan for a family Thanksgiving and I brought home an ugly cold, BLECH. Sorry I haven’t updated you all yet! Still feeling dreadful and have to be at work extra early tomorrow, so my trip report and the restaurant and event reviews I have planned will sadly have to wait a bit longer, I’m sorry to say!

Here are a few quick pictures to tide you over until I can tell you all about it.

Thanks for your patience everybody! I promise to get lots of juicy updates for you in the next few days! In the meantime, if you have any specific questions, let me know!

Happy Dreaming,

Brooke

We are on our way!!

Well guys at long last we are on our way to Disney! Tonight we will be attending Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party and tomorrow we will be at Epcot. I will probably not be posting much here until after our trip, but if you want to follow me on Instagram, look for disneycastledreaming. I’ll be posting there when time permits!

Happy Dreaming!

Brooke

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party: Party Map and Schedule Released

Tonight is the first Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party of the season! Click here to read my detailed post about MVMCP. Disney has officially released the entertainment schedule and the map for this year’s party, so I thought I would share them here with you guys, in case you are planning a visit this year.

No real surprises this year, but here are the highlights:

Holiday Wishes Fireworks: 10:00 pm

Once Upon a Christmastime Parade: 8:30 pm and 11:00 pm

Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration: 7:40 pm, 9:25 pm, 10:30 pm, and 11:55 pm

A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas!: 7:45 pm, 8:35 pm, 9:25 pm, 10:45 pm and 11:35 pm

A Frozen Holiday Wish: 8:15 pm

Club Tinsel (Dance Party): 7:00 pm – 12:00 am at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe

VoicePlay (Rockettower Plaza Stage): 8:10 pm, 9:00 pm, 10:20 pm and 11:10 pm

The map highlights holiday treat locations, character meet and greet locations, attractions open during the party and the Once Upon a Christmastime Parade route.

In related news, Disney Parks hosted a live stream this evening, and broadcast tonight’s 6:15 pm showing of A Frozen Holiday Wish. Did you get a chance to watch it? Here’s a link to the rebroadcast if you’d like to see it: DisneyParksLive: A Frozen Holiday Wish (Replay)

The Disney Parks Blog also released information about the exclusive Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party merchandise this week. Here’s the post: MVMCP Merchandise.

Looks like some pretty cute stuff this year. Can’t wait to see it in person.

We’re attending the party next Thursday, so I’m planning to post updates and a detailed report about this year’s party after my trip. I am so excited, I can hardly contain myself. I think I’m driving my poor husband crazy! Lucky for him, he’s on the road a lot and can escape the madness, haha.

How about you? Are you planning to visit on of the twenty-one Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Parties held this season?

Happy Dreaming,

Brooke

It’s All in the Attitude

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