From Walt Disney World, Magic Memories and You!
Showing posts with label Magic Kingdom. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Magic Kingdom. Show all posts
Monday, June 24, 2013
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
One Year with Disney World
When I took my trip to Disney World in December 2011 I decided to get an annual pass. The plan was to see if I could find some good deals on trips in 2012 and hop on a plane and go. The plan worked in some ways and not in others, but it was still a good year.
I never really found good deals, but I had some vacation time and took several shorter trips. Actually, one of my trips was not only not a "good deal" but included expensive hotels and plane tickets, but was a great experience.
My first trip was with my sister and her two kids. It was a fun trip, but the 4 of us in one Polynesian hotel room was a bit much for me at times. As usually happens with kids, the trip revolved around them, we went on lots of rides, and I loved the Polynesian.
The rest of the trips I took that year ended up being about experiences more then about rides.
On one trip I actually decided to ride the rides that no one talks about, the ones you can't ride with other people because they want to go on the good rides. It wasn't one of my better plans, but now I have a list of rides I never need to go on again.
Another trip was all about the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Fantasyland. While I did do some other things, having already been 3 times in less then a year, I didn't feel the need to do much more then that. There's no line for the new Little Mermaid ride, better ride it lots before the lines grow! I can ride Peter Pan, Space Mountain and shop another time!
Tour a resort, who has time for that? When you go 5 times in 12 months, you have time to tour an interesting resort (Art of Animation), you probably even have time to tour a boring one (as though they exist).
The biggest thing I got out of these 5 trips was that every one I had a slightly different goal, explore a resort, experience a new party or event, ride new rides. The goal was not to see as much as possible in as short a period of time as possible. With that, I got to spend time with the charming lesser known things, instead of on lines. I got to experience the whole of Walt Disney World.
After that year though, I did get a little bored. The average attractions that you might do because you don't get to do them often, they lost there thrill. You run out of new experiences to have, or at least the list gets shorter. So yes, the thrill wore off a bit, but the ability to relax on a Disney vacation started to exist, and I really never thought that was possible.
A lot of people asked when I was going back, or commented that I wouldn't be able to give it up. But I have no plans of going this year. While it would be easy to go back, the desire to explore something new is stronger. I'll be back there, but it might not be until 2015, GASP! But I wouldn't be opposed to doing it with an annual pass again.
I never really found good deals, but I had some vacation time and took several shorter trips. Actually, one of my trips was not only not a "good deal" but included expensive hotels and plane tickets, but was a great experience.
My first trip was with my sister and her two kids. It was a fun trip, but the 4 of us in one Polynesian hotel room was a bit much for me at times. As usually happens with kids, the trip revolved around them, we went on lots of rides, and I loved the Polynesian.
The rest of the trips I took that year ended up being about experiences more then about rides.
On one trip I actually decided to ride the rides that no one talks about, the ones you can't ride with other people because they want to go on the good rides. It wasn't one of my better plans, but now I have a list of rides I never need to go on again.
Another trip was all about the Animal Kingdom Lodge and Fantasyland. While I did do some other things, having already been 3 times in less then a year, I didn't feel the need to do much more then that. There's no line for the new Little Mermaid ride, better ride it lots before the lines grow! I can ride Peter Pan, Space Mountain and shop another time!
Tour a resort, who has time for that? When you go 5 times in 12 months, you have time to tour an interesting resort (Art of Animation), you probably even have time to tour a boring one (as though they exist).
The biggest thing I got out of these 5 trips was that every one I had a slightly different goal, explore a resort, experience a new party or event, ride new rides. The goal was not to see as much as possible in as short a period of time as possible. With that, I got to spend time with the charming lesser known things, instead of on lines. I got to experience the whole of Walt Disney World.
After that year though, I did get a little bored. The average attractions that you might do because you don't get to do them often, they lost there thrill. You run out of new experiences to have, or at least the list gets shorter. So yes, the thrill wore off a bit, but the ability to relax on a Disney vacation started to exist, and I really never thought that was possible.
A lot of people asked when I was going back, or commented that I wouldn't be able to give it up. But I have no plans of going this year. While it would be easy to go back, the desire to explore something new is stronger. I'll be back there, but it might not be until 2015, GASP! But I wouldn't be opposed to doing it with an annual pass again.
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
New To Me Disney Attractions
Sum of All Thrills design your own ride, a fighter jet, bobsled or roller coaster. You get to pick the types of twists and turns in your ride, making it as intense or tame as you choose. I did the bobsled the first time and it was a bit tame, the second time I did the roller coaster and that was more fun. This is a fun ride and being hidden in Innoventions it doesn't get as crowded as it could potentially be.
Impressions de France the prettiest boring film I ever did see! Seriously, France looked beautiful in this film, but it had no personality. This film could be great if they added a bit of narration to make it more interesting. Or, I could see a Soarin type of attraction here instead using similar video.
Reflections of China a circle-vision film with the highlights of China. It has a nice vibe, historical and proud and most importantly, it made me want to visit China. I think that makes the case that it was good.
Dinosaur This may be the worst ride in all of Disney World. It's dark, jerky and annoying. The ride vehicle for this is the same as the one for the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, and that is a good ride. But this ride, it was very dark, the ride jerked around, I guess to scare you, though I'm not sure because it was so dark you couldn't see a reason for it to jerk around. Then dinosaurs popped up and made noises. Ok, that made sense. The whole ride was actually irritating and the faces of the riders in the photos when you get off the ride tells the story, no one looks scared, but annoyed.
Voices of Liberty A pre-show of sorts for the American Adventure. It's a group of 9 men and woman singing patriotic songs. The performance lasts 10-15 minutes and is a nice chance to relax for a few minutes. If you can't get a seat on a bench, sit on the floor around the circle in the middle (the signers will face the entrance to the theatre on the right).
Vision House at Innoventions in Epcot. A 20 minute walk through of an energy efficient house. This was interesting if you're into energy efficiency and home design. I had two issues with it though. First, it was extremely cold in there, the thermostat was set for 65 degrees, not very efficient. Second, they rambled off the names of the stuff in the house, but then didn't even offer a place to get information about them if you were interested. But it did help get me to think of ways to conserve.
Main Street Electrical Parade An old school parade that was brought back to replace Spectromagic. I found the music a bit repetitive, and the look and feel a bit old. But, it was a fun, whimsical parade. I went to the second showing of the parade and it was much less crowded then the earlier one.
Stitches Great Escape I remember this ride from when I was a child, when it was Alien Encounter, and it's not a fond memory. Seriously, it's a scary ride and not in a good way. It's a ride themed after a childrens character that does bad things. I think silly bad things are fun, like the farting (Not my thing as an adult, but for little boys...), but escaping and attacking us. Yea, scary and not in a fun way. I've added this to my list of rides to never ride again.
Astro Orbiter This is one of those simple spinney rides, what could go wrong? Well, first, the elevator smelled, then the ride vehicle was uncomfortable. Ugh, not cool. And I thought we would at least get cool views of the park, but not really. Most of the view was of a roof. Another ride to skip in the future.
Liberty Square Riverboat If the boat had more seating this would be a nice ride around Tom Sawyer Island, but it doesn't. I did sit on my ride and I was a bit bored, which would be fine if it was a 17 minute break from a long hot day in the parks. But if you're not guaranteed a seat on one of those days, I would rather just sit through Hall of Presidents.
Impressions de France the prettiest boring film I ever did see! Seriously, France looked beautiful in this film, but it had no personality. This film could be great if they added a bit of narration to make it more interesting. Or, I could see a Soarin type of attraction here instead using similar video.
Reflections of China a circle-vision film with the highlights of China. It has a nice vibe, historical and proud and most importantly, it made me want to visit China. I think that makes the case that it was good.
Dinosaur This may be the worst ride in all of Disney World. It's dark, jerky and annoying. The ride vehicle for this is the same as the one for the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, and that is a good ride. But this ride, it was very dark, the ride jerked around, I guess to scare you, though I'm not sure because it was so dark you couldn't see a reason for it to jerk around. Then dinosaurs popped up and made noises. Ok, that made sense. The whole ride was actually irritating and the faces of the riders in the photos when you get off the ride tells the story, no one looks scared, but annoyed.
Voices of Liberty A pre-show of sorts for the American Adventure. It's a group of 9 men and woman singing patriotic songs. The performance lasts 10-15 minutes and is a nice chance to relax for a few minutes. If you can't get a seat on a bench, sit on the floor around the circle in the middle (the signers will face the entrance to the theatre on the right).
Vision House at Innoventions in Epcot. A 20 minute walk through of an energy efficient house. This was interesting if you're into energy efficiency and home design. I had two issues with it though. First, it was extremely cold in there, the thermostat was set for 65 degrees, not very efficient. Second, they rambled off the names of the stuff in the house, but then didn't even offer a place to get information about them if you were interested. But it did help get me to think of ways to conserve.
Main Street Electrical Parade An old school parade that was brought back to replace Spectromagic. I found the music a bit repetitive, and the look and feel a bit old. But, it was a fun, whimsical parade. I went to the second showing of the parade and it was much less crowded then the earlier one.
Stitches Great Escape I remember this ride from when I was a child, when it was Alien Encounter, and it's not a fond memory. Seriously, it's a scary ride and not in a good way. It's a ride themed after a childrens character that does bad things. I think silly bad things are fun, like the farting (Not my thing as an adult, but for little boys...), but escaping and attacking us. Yea, scary and not in a fun way. I've added this to my list of rides to never ride again.
Astro Orbiter This is one of those simple spinney rides, what could go wrong? Well, first, the elevator smelled, then the ride vehicle was uncomfortable. Ugh, not cool. And I thought we would at least get cool views of the park, but not really. Most of the view was of a roof. Another ride to skip in the future.
Monday, December 31, 2012
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
The New Fantasyland
In November I was the lucky getter of a ticket to the Fantasyland Annual Passholder review. I had tickets for Saturday night, November 10.
The admission started at 5:00 PM, but first you needed to get your wrist band at the Ticket and Transportation Center. I found this to be a complete pain in the butt! I was staying on property so took a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then had to take the Monorail to the T&TC to get a wrist band and then took the boat back to the Magic Kingdom. Of course all of the transportation was running slow adding to the frustration.
But once there everything went smoothly.
My first order of business was to get a reservation for Be Our Guest. While waiting for the bus I heard people talking and saying that had gotten same day reservations for the restaurant so once I saw the line at the entrance to the restaurant I jumped on it and got an 8:15 reservation. I also did the walk through of the quick service ordering area, which was really cool. You walk through a hallway with armor, and the "knights" talk to each other. The room where you order is a room from Beast's Castle, which is of course the whole theme of the restaurant.
After my walk through I went to Gastons Tavern and had the La Fou drink, very tasty, but it is sweet, more of a kids drink. The souvenier cups were kinda cheap though. In the front of Gaston's was Gaston himself. I did get my photo with him while he told me what I pleasure it was for me to get my picture with him. Very nice job! Inside the tavern there were animal heads and anything that Gaston could think of to promote himself, very fun. I did think the seating here was limited though, I'm sure it will be insanely crowded when this area opens for the public.
After Gastons I partook in some Little Mermaid; first I rode the Voyage of the Little Mermaid ride, twice. The queue was well themed but I thought there might be a little more interaciton in it. But its fine for adults with iPhones as long as you get a signal, which I didn't always have. The ride has the same set up as the Finding Nemo ride in Epcot, including the clam shell ride vehicles. On the ride you go "under the sea" and go through the story of the movie. They use a bit of video, music, and mostly animatronics or as I think of them, moving action figures. It's a nice ride, particularly for kids. Though I did get a bit sick of it after riding the 4th time. There was no line so I figured I had to take advantage of the opportunity to ride it as much as possible.
Next I waited 20 minutes to get my photo with Ariel, another nice queue but with nothing interactive. Ariel was quite nice and even hugged me.
Finally it was time to wait in line for Enchanted Tales with Belle. This is a very different attraction, it was fun and interactive and I think will have VERY long lines when this section opens to the public. After waiting 30 minutes you get to Belle's house, which is decorated in the typically well themed style that you would expect from Disney, including lots of Belle's books. The pre-show has 2 stages. The first stage you are you Maurice's work room and get an introduction to the experience. From there you go to another room with Wardrobe. Here a Cast Member assigns roles to members of the audience, I would estimate about 1/3 of guests are assigned a role, such as Mrs. Potts, Chip, a guard, or the beast. Mostly they use kids, but some adults were used too. The benefit was that anyone who participated got a picture with Belle after the show (and any little kids who were in the audience.)
The theme of the show was a surpise to Belle of telling a story, incidently the story of Bell and Beast and is narrated by Lumiere. The guest perforformers are prompted by cast members for their parts as Lumiere tells the story and Belle acts fascinated by the whole event. It was actually a lot of fun and well done. It's also a completely unique experience at the parks.
My last mission in Fantasyland was to eat at Be Our Guest. My waiter was Chris and other then the service being on the slow side for a single person dining alone, it was a great experience. I was seated in the ballroom section of the restaurant, which was themed after the, you guessed it, the ballroom! There is also a West Wing (the one Beast flips out in) and another room that I couldn't place the themeing of, but looked very nice. One of the waitresses there said that they weren't going to use that room for dinner, only for lunch. I had the grilled strip steak, which was delicious and the strawberry cream cheese cupcake which was good but had a weird wrapper.
Finally, I want to say that the overall themeing of Fantasyland was very Fantasyland like. I expected the area to be a bit bigger, but when you consider the mine ride and the enchanted forest are not yet completed, and if you add in Storybook Circus the area is actually HUGE. I think it will be a very crowded area when it opens for quite some time and for good reason. If you can get into Be Our Guest, I think you'll enjoy the experience, but again I think you'll need to get there early for lunch and you'll need to call first thing in the morning for a dinner reservation.
Enjoy!
The admission started at 5:00 PM, but first you needed to get your wrist band at the Ticket and Transportation Center. I found this to be a complete pain in the butt! I was staying on property so took a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then had to take the Monorail to the T&TC to get a wrist band and then took the boat back to the Magic Kingdom. Of course all of the transportation was running slow adding to the frustration.
But once there everything went smoothly.
My first order of business was to get a reservation for Be Our Guest. While waiting for the bus I heard people talking and saying that had gotten same day reservations for the restaurant so once I saw the line at the entrance to the restaurant I jumped on it and got an 8:15 reservation. I also did the walk through of the quick service ordering area, which was really cool. You walk through a hallway with armor, and the "knights" talk to each other. The room where you order is a room from Beast's Castle, which is of course the whole theme of the restaurant.
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| Hey, she's kinda cute! |
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| The room where you order during lunch |
Enjoy!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
It's Really Not So Scary
I had attended the Not So Scary Halloween party once before in 2002 when I think it was Minnie's party. I don't remember too much of it and I didn't know what I was doing back then, it my first trip as an adult then, I didn't know much. But after enjoying the Christmas party last December I thought I would try this, plus I wanted to get some candy and pictures of HalloWishes.
Here is what the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party offers: Candy and lots of it, HalloWishes, Boo To You Parade, a castle show and some villain dances.
Boo To You Parade was really good. The song, Boo To You is annoyingly infectious, it's really not so scary... The song could stand for another verse in it, but I couldn't get it out of my head after the parade. The general advice is to attend the second parade if you can since it's less crowded. But, it had started to rain before the first parade so I was able to snag a good spot and I wouldn't have waited long if it wasn't for the delay of the parade. Although the parade does have all the usual characters like Mickey and Minni, this parade has all the villains highlighted and some grave diggers too! What more could you want?
After the parade it was time for HalloWishes, I have to say I wasn't overly impressed with this fireworks display. The music wasn't exciting, I guess that's the issue with not so scary... And the fireworks were a little weak, not as exciting or as explosive as other fireworks displays at Disney World.
Candy, did I mention there was a lot of candy? There were one or two candy stations in each land, early in the party they are a bit stingy with candy, giving one or two pieces, buy the end the amount is limited by size of the hand giving you candy. My bag was overflowing by the end of the party. For this reason, I suggest attending the party early in your trip, then you'll be covered in the candy department for the remainder of your trip.
The Villains' Dance Mix &Mingle at the castle was fun, it featured, well, villains. A fun little show, definitely worth stopping to see while at the party. I did not attend the Character Dance parties.
I enjoyed the Halloween party, it was fun, candy filled and entertaining. Plus I was able to squeeze in a few rides due to the lack of lines. I'm not sure I would go every year, but I think it's fun for every few years or for first time visitors.
Boo To You Parade was really good. The song, Boo To You is annoyingly infectious, it's really not so scary... The song could stand for another verse in it, but I couldn't get it out of my head after the parade. The general advice is to attend the second parade if you can since it's less crowded. But, it had started to rain before the first parade so I was able to snag a good spot and I wouldn't have waited long if it wasn't for the delay of the parade. Although the parade does have all the usual characters like Mickey and Minni, this parade has all the villains highlighted and some grave diggers too! What more could you want?
After the parade it was time for HalloWishes, I have to say I wasn't overly impressed with this fireworks display. The music wasn't exciting, I guess that's the issue with not so scary... And the fireworks were a little weak, not as exciting or as explosive as other fireworks displays at Disney World.
Candy, did I mention there was a lot of candy? There were one or two candy stations in each land, early in the party they are a bit stingy with candy, giving one or two pieces, buy the end the amount is limited by size of the hand giving you candy. My bag was overflowing by the end of the party. For this reason, I suggest attending the party early in your trip, then you'll be covered in the candy department for the remainder of your trip.
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| CANDY! |
Monday, August 13, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party - Review
Last December I went to Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party for the first time. It's a special ticketed event celebrating Christmas at the Magic Kingdom. For 2012 the dates are November 9 to December 21, check the schedule for exact dates. Tickets to the event allow entry to the park at 4pm, but the party doesn't start until 7pm.
Terye and I started with an evening walk through of Swiss Family Tree House and then rode Jungle Cruise. Both were unique experiences at night and both were empty. At night there were a few interesting views of the Magic Kingdom from the Swiss Family Tree house. Jungle Cruise is just at cheesy at night, but the darkness gives a different atmosphere.
After those rides we went on line for the Seven Dwarfs, we got on the line a little before 7pm and there was an hour wait. But, it is one of the few opportunities to get photos with all of them so we waited. The dwarfs were really cute, and some of the kids there were really funny. Like the kid who realized he was standing next to Grumpy and ran away. While we waited we did each take an opportunity to take a quick walk around the park, I got us some free hot chocolate and cookies, one of the benefits of the event.
We got out of the seven dwarfs a few minutes before the parade and with the low crowds (one of the benefits of events like this) we got a decent spot. The parade had some nice touches, like Scrooge McDuck.
After that I planted myself in the circle in front of castle with my camera and tripod so I could photograph Holiday Wishes. While we waited we got to view The Magic, the Memories and You, where they play music and show pictures of people in the park throughout the day, they did use holiday colors on the castle for this show. Holiday Wishes were really nice, though Disney always has great fireworks, I particularly liked the colors they used.
Our last event of the night was the Christmas show in front of the castle. Another nice little show and a chance to see the characters in holiday garb. After that we decided to head back to the hotel.
One disapointment was a lack of Christmas Party merchandise, we only saw 2 T-Shirts and they weren't anything special. But the party is great if you would like to get photos with characters, there are some special characters and if you go early the lines aren't as bad. When I saw Captain Jack Sparrow he only had a few people in line waiting.
There are a couple benefits of ticketed events like this; low crowds, cookies, hot chocolate, special parade, special fireworks and some other shows. I'm not sure the $60 price tag is worth it. I enjoyed the event, as did Terye, and I'm glad I went. But, if I return to Disney during Christmas in the next few years I would probably skip it. But I do think it's fun for a first timer.
You can follow me on Twitter: Travelingiraffe
Terye and I started with an evening walk through of Swiss Family Tree House and then rode Jungle Cruise. Both were unique experiences at night and both were empty. At night there were a few interesting views of the Magic Kingdom from the Swiss Family Tree house. Jungle Cruise is just at cheesy at night, but the darkness gives a different atmosphere.
After those rides we went on line for the Seven Dwarfs, we got on the line a little before 7pm and there was an hour wait. But, it is one of the few opportunities to get photos with all of them so we waited. The dwarfs were really cute, and some of the kids there were really funny. Like the kid who realized he was standing next to Grumpy and ran away. While we waited we did each take an opportunity to take a quick walk around the park, I got us some free hot chocolate and cookies, one of the benefits of the event.
We got out of the seven dwarfs a few minutes before the parade and with the low crowds (one of the benefits of events like this) we got a decent spot. The parade had some nice touches, like Scrooge McDuck.
There are a couple benefits of ticketed events like this; low crowds, cookies, hot chocolate, special parade, special fireworks and some other shows. I'm not sure the $60 price tag is worth it. I enjoyed the event, as did Terye, and I'm glad I went. But, if I return to Disney during Christmas in the next few years I would probably skip it. But I do think it's fun for a first timer.
You can follow me on Twitter: Travelingiraffe
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