Disney and the Yearly Price Hikes

Mickey wants your money!

It's a new year so it's time for a price hike from Disney. Disney Parks, especially Disneyland and Walt Disney World are extremely popular vacation destinations for fans of all ages. If you've read this blog before, you'll know that I'm a huge Disney fan and love going to the parks.

The price hikes don't bother me. Yes, it may cause me longer to save for my next trip. It doesn't effect my trip in December since I'm already book at the old prices. But I'll pay more to have less crowds, and crowds are just going to go up.

I had planned on going to Disney World last month to experience the holidays, Disney-style. I wanted to go in 2018 because I knew the clusterf*** that is going to be Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge this year. But kidney stones made it that I had to reschedule for this year.

I am looking forward to going. If Galaxy's Edge is open, I look forward to trying to see that area. I told Emily today that if it is open, we are getting to the park before opening. She seemed indifferent. We'll see how it is when I wake her up at 5 am for our Hollywood Studios day!

But until Disney announces the open date for the Star Wars expansion at Hollywood Studios, it's just planning just in case. But, my point is, that Star Wars is coming and the rides look amazing.
This land is going to appeal to many a Star Wars fan who may come to see it without being a Disney fan.

I remember when Pandora: The World of Avatar opened at Disney's Animal Kingdom. For a movie that wasn't half as popular as Star Wars was, the crowds to see the new land were insane for a long time. With something as beloved as Star Wars, the crowds are going to be even worse.

So that goes back to the price hikes. While it's something that happens every year at this time, I think they have a few things in mind. Maybe this will price some people out and it might decrease the crowds. Though I don't have a whole lot of hope for that. But Disney could also probably use the money. They are putting in all kinds of new rides in the parks (in Disney World - and I'm sure in other parks, but Disney World is my park so I focus on their news). Disney World is gearing up for their 50th Anniversary in 2021, and it's going to be a big deal. And they want as many new attractions as they can by then.

And of course there is a big chunk of change they are spending on acquiring Fox. I'm only speculating, but that could have something to do with it as well.

Any of the Disney Parks are expensive, but people seem to think that Disney should be cheap because Disney should be a rite of childhood. And while it can be a rite of childhood - it certainly was for me - that doesn't mean that people are entitled to a Disney trip.

I know I'm lucky and Emily's lucky. I went to Disney World twice as a kid - once when I was 9 and once when I was 16. Emily will have three trips come December and she'll only be 11. I foresee at least a couple more while she is still a child. Todd also went a bunch when he was a kid - 3 trips, I think. He had a grandmother who lived in FL so his family would visit and go to Disney.

Disney isn't cheap though it's not too bad when it's just me and Emily going. But only having one kid is definitely a perk when it comes to travel. But if you really want it, there are a lot of ways to save. I'm a on Facebook group that's called Couponing to Disney that has lots of different ways to help you save for a Disney vacation.

Some people may never be able to afford a Disney vacation and that's sad. And says more about the state of our country, I think, than Disney. I feel very lucky that I can go to Disney every three years or so. It's my favorite place in the world. But I save, and I book my trip as soon as I can to lock in prices because lately the prices have been going up a couple times a year.

Yes, it probably will take your average American family a few years to save for a Disney vacation, but it's possible. Barring any apocalyptic / doomsday scenarios, Disney will still be there and if you can take your kids, I know it will be magical!

Disney Trip 2016 - Final Thoughts!

This is the final post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

The whole reason I started planning this trip was an incentive to recover after I got very sick and had a bunch of seizures. It was a scary time for me and having just the thought of Disney World helped me along. It also helped me get stronger. I spent a lot of this year at the gym, walking and doing weight training. It really paid off because even though I was walking many miles in a day, I wasn't really sore the whole week.

Of course, we also celebrated Emily's birthday since she happened to be born in my favorite month of the year. She got a lot of attention from her birthday button and she loved that!

This trip was a lot of firsts for Emily. First time at Epcot, first time on a roller coaster and first time going to the Halloween party. She enjoyed it all which made me happy!

My favorite part was finally getting to wear my Tightrope Girl costume to the Halloween party. I got a lot of compliments on it, especially from cast members.

Even the hurricane was interesting. It was a little scary but I hoped that Disney would do their best to keep us safe. And they really did and did their best to keep people entertained while the parks were closed.

I also want to give a shout out to my travel agent, Sara Varney at Mouse Fan Travel. This is the 2nd trip she's helped me plan and she's a really good travel agent. She got all of our dining reservations that we wanted and even called us the day before the hurricane was suppose to hit to make sure we were ok. Fabulous customer service right there!

All in all, Disney World still retains its place as my most favorite place in the world! I can't wait to go back hopefully in a few years!

Disney Trip 2016 - Magic Kingdom and Departure Day!

This is the 7th post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

Our day dawned very early because I wanted to get to Magic Kingdom as close to rope drop as possible. We got dressed, finished packing up the car and checked out of our hotel. We hopped on a bus and got into Magic Kingdom just as the morning rope drop show was finishing up.

We headed right to the Crystal Palace and got seated very quickly. The food was good and the characters were really great! Emily had especially wanted to meet Eeyore, but loved Tigger, Pooh and Piglet too!

From there, we to Fantasyland. Emily wanted to ride on the Carousel and there was no wait for it. Then we went to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Since this is the newest ride in the Magic Kingdom, it's a long wait for standby. I had had a fast pass for it on hurricane day, but sadly none to come by on the

day we actually got to the Magic Kingdom.

Thankfully the queue was pretty cool so Emily was amused. But it was the longest line of the whole trip since we waited over an hour. The ride was cool and Emily loved it. It was her first roller coaster! I'll definitely want to ride it again, but not with an hour wait!

We did a few Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom stops. Emily loves that game and had fun fighting the baddies. We headed to Adventureland because I had gotten a fastpass for Pirates of the Caribbean. This was Emily's first time riding pirates and she loved it.

While in Adventureland, we also rode the Magic Carpets and had our very first Dole Whip! It was getting close to noon and getting really hot out. It was honestly the hottest day of

our entire trip. So we headed back to the front of the park.

We did one more Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom stop and then rode our last ride, which was The Haunted Mansion. We left my favorite place in the world behind and got back to our car to begin the long journey home.

Because of the hurricane, we took the longer way home through Atlanta. I use my GPS on my phone to get directions and I was a little freaked because it took me on a toll road and I had no change. Thankfully the tolls had been suspended because of the hurricane.

I really wanted to get back home so we drove the whole way back to NC. I did manage to hit my head pretty hard. I went to the back of my car which has a hatch, and misjudged the distance when I was closing it and brought it down on my head. It hurt a lot and once we got home, I spent the next few days in bed. Afterwards, I'm pretty sure I managed to give myself a minor concussion.

Besides injuring myself, I managed to get us safely home. We got home right around midnight so at least I had been awake for 18+ hours. It was a long day!

Up Next - Final Thoughts About the Trip!

Disney Trip - Hurricane Part 2!

This is the 6th post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

Emily and I woke up a little before 8 am on Friday. The worst of it, as far as I could tell, happened overnight while we were sleeping.

The curfew was still in effect and it was still pretty rainy and windy outside so I gave Emily some Pop-tarts and I went back to sleep for a while. The hurricane had given me a pretty bad migraine. We still had power and internet, and they were still playing movies on the resort tv station so Emily watched that and played with her new toys.

In the afternoon, the curfew was lifted so we ventured out to go to the main building that has the food court and arcade. It was packed and there was a long line to talk to someone at the desk. I actually got in this line to make sure I had the

dining credits I did. Thankfully it wasn't that long of a wait.

When we got there, Rafiki and Dale were doing meet and greets in the lobby. But right as I was finishing up with the cast member, Jessie from Toy Story came out! Emily's favorite Toy Story character is Jessie and we missed her on her last day at the Magic Kingdom on the 1st.

Needless to say, we got right in line and it didn't take long for Emily to meet Jessie. From there, we went into the arcade where all the games were free! It was crowded and you had to wait for the games, but Emily had fun. Everyone was polite about waiting.

Plus two of the Green Army men from Toy Story were wandering around in the arcade and playing with the kids. Emily got her picture with one of them too! It was a great time and awesome of Disney to make that available for

everyone who was stuck at the resort.

Disney worked pretty fast on clean up. Disney Springs actually re-opened for resort guests in the evening. The Big Blue Pool at our resort was also opened back up in the evening after they cleaned up.

Emily and I went back to our room and ate some of our bag lunches. We also spent a good part of the afternoon packing up. I packed everything except what we would need in the morning and got it into the car. That way we wouldn't have to do much in the morning before checking out and then heading to the Magic Kingdom for our last bit of magic.

After night had fallen, we took a walk. Emily had wanted to see the Cars area of the resort at night time. It was pretty cool and it was a nice evening for a walk. Once we got back to the room, we headed to bed early. The next day was going to be the longest yet!

Up next - Magic Kingdom and Departure!

Disney Trip 2016 - Animal Kingdom & Hurricane Part 1!

This is the 5th post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

It was a bit rainy as we got up to head to Animal Kingdom early. On the bus ride over, we heard that all the parks would be closing at 5 pm and would be closed all day on Friday because of the impending Hurricane.

While we were still on the bus, I canceled our dining reservations for Friday and managed to get a Crystal Palace reservation for Saturday morning. We were leaving on Saturday and I had planned on just checking out and driving home in the morning. But I didn't want to miss out on the last park ticket we had, so came up with a plan to spend the morning in the Magic Kingdom on Saturday, provided that it was open.

Even with the Hurricane coming, I was determined to have a good time while we were in Animal Kingdom. Thankfully for us, Animal Kingdom has always been a half day park especially since neither Emily nor I wanted to ride the roller coasters and Dinosaur was down for rehab.

We went straight to Kilimanjaro Safari which was excellent even in the rain. We still got to see lots of animals! After that, we went to see Festival of the Lion King which is thankfully indoors. It's a great show and we had really good seats!

After the show was done, we booked it to Finding Nemo: The Musical. We had fastpasses for that and we made it into the also indoor theater just before the show started. Neither Emily nor I had ever seen it before and it was so cool! The songs were great and the puppets were very unique! I think it's now an Animal Kingdom must do for both of us.

Emily wanted to go on TriceraTop Spin (which is basically Dumbo with dinosaurs) and then play some of the carnival games at Chester & Hester's Dino-Rama. She actually won

two of them and got some stuffed animals as prizes! She was really excited about that!

She played in the Boneyard for a little bit and then started on her Wilderness Explorers trek! There are different stations around Animal Kingdom where kids can do activities and earn badges. Emily thought this was a lot of fun.

While we were in Dinoland, the rain had stopped. But it looked as if it was going to start again anytime. We had a reservation at Yak and Yeti for dinner but both of us were hungry so we went to see if we could get seated several hours early. It wasn't very crowded and they honored our reservation.

We had a great table on the 2nd floor. We were able to see all the people out in the rain since the rain had picked up at that time. The food was very good and once our tummies were full we went back out into the rain for one last ride.

I had to convince Emily to ride Kali River Rapids, which is one of my favorites. We were already

wearing our ponchos because of the rain so when we rode the first time, she hide her face in the hood of her poncho. But she decided she liked it!

We rode it again because it was getting to be in the afternoon and the park was getting empty. We had no line and we even got to stay in our raft after that to ride it one more time. Emily was especially geeked about that!

After we got very wet on Kali River Rapids we headed out. We stopped to get our picture by the Tree and Emily did one more Wilderness Explorer stop. We got back to our resort about 4:30-ish.

We went right to the food court because I wanted to get us dinner and something for the next day as well. The lines for all the stations were super crazy but there was also a spot that was selling box lunches. The line wasn't very long so we got four of them with some of our dining plan credits. We also

got four drinks as well to go with them.

The box lunches had a sandwich (we got 3 ham and cheese and one peanut butter and jelly), a piece of fruit (all apples I think), a cookie and a bag of chips. It was $8, if I remember correctly. The sandwiches all were good with a decent amount of meat and cheese and the fruit was fresh as well.

We only waited in line for maybe ten minutes. It took longer to get to a cashier to check out. From there, we headed back to the room. I went back to the food court and got our refillable mugs filled up and then we started to do what we could to get ready for the hurricane.

I filled up the bathtub and the sink with water just in case the power went out. I made sure the tablet and my phone had a full charge and also charged up my portable chargers. The cable went out that afternoon but we still had internet access so we watched some of Tangled on the tablet.

Someone from the resort came around and gave every room a flashlight, which was nice. Though it

scared me when he knocked on the door. I also put a bunch of towels in front of the door as well.

I stayed glued to the disboards.com because there was a huge thread about Disney and the hurricane. From there, I learned that the resort TV was showing Disney movies so we turned off the tablet and started watching that. Emily ate her pb&j bagged lunch but I was starting to get a pretty wicked migraine because of the incoming storm.

When we went to bed, we still had power. It was very windy and rainy out, and the whole area was under a curfew. We had been instructed, via a voice mail, to stay in our rooms until the curfew was lifted.

I had no idea what we were going to face the next day but there wasn't anything we could do but get some rest.

Up next - Hurricane Part 2!

Disney Trip 2016 - Rest Day!

This is the 4th post of my Disney trip report! To start from the beginning, click here!

Since we hadn't gotten back to our room until midnight, we slept in until about 8 am. I've been to Disney in October several times before and I've always scheduled our rest day for the day after the Halloween party in order to sleep in.

After we did wake up, we got moving because Emily wanted to go to Disney Springs (formally known as Downtown Disney). We took the bus there, and walked a bit to get over to the World of Disney store.

My husband, who we called several times a day while we were gone, decided to give Emily an extra $20 in spending money and it was burning a hole in her pocket. But the first thing we saw when we walked into the store was that there was a visiting princess doing meet and greets. 

I had read about this before our trip and knew it was a fairly new thing. Because we were curious who it was and because there was no wait, we went to see the princess who turned out to be Aurora. Emily got her picture taken with her and then went off to look for something very specific she

wanted.

She had seen a little bear stuffy from 'Brave' and she had to have it. I had to ask a cast member but we were directed in the right place, and Emily got her precious bear, that she named Bear. I got some pins, and was tempted by the Captain America ears, but decided not to get them.

From there, we went to the LEGO store. Emily played with some Legos and I got new lego keychains for my keys. We also had to get pictures with the different LEGO statues, which are all very cool!

We didn't really have much else we wanted to look at, so we headed back to the bus. Thankfully everything was well marked so we could find our way back. The whole area had pretty much changed a ton since our last trip.

Once we got back to our resort we had some lunch in the

food court. I had given Emily the choice of mini golf or swimming for after lunch and she picked swimming. Since we had quite a bit of time, we opted to go to the Big Blue Pool to swim. Emily also played some in the Nemo splash pad. 

The hurricane was coming closer but we only had a few sprinkles so far. The sky was a bit dark while we were swimming but thankfully no bad weather - yet. After swimming for a while, we headed back to our room to change for dinner.

We had reservations at the Whispering Canyon Cafe which is located at the Wilderness Lodge, We took a bus to the Magic Kingdom and then we rode a ferry boat to the resort. At this point, it was raining some so we had to ride on the inside of the boat. No-one could be on the outside.

It took us a bit to figure out what way to go but we got some help from some lifeguards that were standing around, waiting for the pool to be able to reopen because of the weather. The resort was beautiful! I would love to stay there someday.

We didn't have to wait very long to be seated. I had heard good things about this restaurant, not just for the food but for the fun games they play. Before we left for our vacation, I was told by several people to ask for ketchup. So I did that right away.

Our server yelled for ketchup and people brought us about 20 bottles of it! It didn't take too long before another table needed ketchup so Emily and I took our bottles over. Though Emily did keep one and hoarded it like it was her precious.

The food was really good and our server brought Emily a cupcake with a candle in it for her birthday. Then the entire restaurant sang 'Happy Birthday' to her. She was thrilled about that and still talks about it.

As we waited for our dessert, it was time for some fun and games. Emily took a horse on a stick and parades around the room with the other kids, as everyone else twirled our napkins in the air. It was a blast!

Once we were done, we decided to look around the resort a bit. It is beautiful! I'd love to stay there sometime. There was a bit of a break in the rain, so we headed back to the ferry to get back to the buses to get back to our resort.

It was really easy and not that long of a wait to use the other transportation options after we took the bus to the Magic Kingdom. Of course, all our meals that were at other resorts were at Magic Kingdom resorts. But it was nice not to have to use my car at all during the week.

Night was falling when we got back to our room, but the rain had stopped and it was clear and warm out. Since I knew the hurricane was coming, I asked Emily if she wanted to go swimming which she did. She really thought swimming after dark was a blast!

After swimming, we got to bed at a decent hour because we had to be up fairly early the next day since we were going to go to Animal Kingdom!

Up Next - Animal Kingdom & Hurricane Part 1!

Disney Trip 2016 - Epcot!

This is the 2nd post of my Disney World trip report. To start from the beginning, click here!

We got up bright and early the next day to head off to Epcot. Emily was especially excited because this was her first ever visit to Epcot. We actually got on the bus early enough that we made it through bag check and the entrance gate before the park actually opened.

After a brisk walk, we made it to the Norway pavilion which is home to the new Frozen ride. Even though we made it there right about the time the park was opened, we still had about a 20 minute wait. That was ok because the queue area was very cool and it went by quickly.

Right now, Frozen Ever After is the most popular ride at Disney World. It was a great ride and of course, Emily loved it. As I would check wait times throughout the day, I noticed that for this ride the wait times went up and up and up. It was close to an hour wait when we got off the ride. I honestly wouldn't want to wait more than a 1/2 hour to ride it.

After we looked in the gift shop, we headed over to the line for the Anna and Elsa meet and greet. The queue for that was really cool as well, we were in their Summerhaus and it looked like a real house! Emily was thrilled to meet both Anna and Elsa for the first time. They were both lovely and Anna loved that Emily was dressed in an Anna costume.

We did some more shopping after that. Emily still had money on her gift card and it was burning a hole in her pocket. She got herself, among other things, an Elsa doll. She had to go and get Anna later that day.

After a snack we headed off for our fastpass for the Seas with Nemo and Friends. Emily loved the ride and she really enjoyed looking at the tanks once we were in the aquarium itself. What she loved most was watching a dolphin swimming around and around. I think if I had let her, she would have stayed and watched that dolphin all day!

At this point it was nearing lunchtime, so we headed back to our resort. After having some food and taking a relaxing dip in the pool we headed back to Epcot a few hours later. Our first stop was to see Baymax, whose line was really short. The line for Joy and Sadness, on the other hand was very long, so we didn't get a chance to meet them.

We had a fastpass for the other side of the Epcot Character Spot, so we used that to meet Mickey, Goofy and Minnie. From there, we headed off to World Showcase.  We had a little time before our dining reservation in China, so we went to go shopping in Japan.

The store in the Japanese Pavilion is amazing! Emily loved it because the first thing we saw when we walked in was Pokemon stuff. She got a stuffed Pokemon and some Pokemon cards. Then we went to get Japanese candy! Some pocky, some gummies and a few other things.

By this time, we were cutting it a little close so we hurried to China which was on the other end of the World Showcase. Our dinner at Nine Dragons was ok, but I don't think we'll be going there again anytime soon.

After dinner, we had some time before our Test Track fastpass so we went  did some things in World Showcase. We went back to Norway to get her Anna doll and she also went to the Kidcot station to color a Duffy which was on a stick. She also got a stamp on it.

Next we went to Mexico where she did the Kidcot station there and then we went on the Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros ride. Emily loved this ride and I loved that it had no wait. Even though she wanted to ride it again and see Donald Duck's exploits through Mexico it was time for Test Track.

This was the ride Emily was most looking forward to. On the Disney planning DVD, it shows that you get to build your own car in the ride. We had fastpasses and we were quickly to the screens to build our custom car. It was basically Emily's car because she designed it without a lot of help from me.

The first part of the ride was doing tests and seeing whose car did the best. Emily and I's car did get number 1 for something. I don't remember what. I do know that our car was not environmentally friendly at all. Emily had a need for speed.

Once the tests were done, our car sped outside for the thrilling finale around the track. Emily wasn't scared at all and loved the thrill of it. Afterwards she declared that Test Track was her favorite ride ever!

Now we have gotten to the part of the day where I really screwed up. Emily really wanted to ride the Imagination Ride with Figment. I had checked the park

schedule earlier and didn't see that this ride closed at 7 pm. Which I didn't find out until we were walking to the ride.

I felt really bad for Emily because it was my fault. She has pretty much spent all of her money at this point, but had really wanted a Marie stuffed animal. So to make up for missing out on Figment, I bought her that toy. It cheered her up.

After that, we got in line to ride Spaceship Earth. I hadn't rode it since I was a kid because it was down for rehab when Todd and I went on our honeymoon. It was really awesome and Emily liked it so much that we went right back on. We had time to kill before our Soarin' fastpass and there was no line at that time for Spaceship Earth.

Our last ride of the night was Soarin'. Emily wasn't too sure about it but I really wanted to ride because it was the new Soarin' Around The World. Emily screamed a few times but said afterwards that she really enjoyed it.

Even though it was time for fireworks, Emily was tuckered out so we went back to our resort. Emily loved Epcot a lot!

Up Next - Hollywood Studios!

Disney Trip 2016 - Traveling and 45th Anniversary of the Magic Kingdom

 It's been nearly a week since Emily and I returned from our girl's only Disney World trip. It was very interesting, in part because of Hurricane Matthew. I'll take you through each day of our trip through this trip report!

Though this first post is going to to include two days. Because I have never made the drive down to Disney without Todd, I opted to take two days to make the trip. I'm not a great driver and being in the car makes me sleepy. Plus we left on Friday, September 30th, and I wanted to make sure Emily was in school for the majority of that day.

I packed up the car in the morning, and then worked for a few hours. I picked Emily up from school a half hour early, mostly so I wouldn't have to deal with the car rider line of doom.

I had made reservations at a Ramada Inn in GA that was about 6 hours into the trip for that night. By the time we got there, I was pooped. The guy at the front desk was nice, but he kept telling me that there were other

hotels close by that were better. It was odd because he kept putting down his place of work which is a huge no-no usually.

I opted to stay there because I was pooped. The room was a bit musty but it was fine. Emily passed out right away and I got a decent amount of sleep. We were only there about 8 hours, just to sleep, because I had wanted to get on the road early.

Emily woke up around 6 am and her waking up woke me up. We were on the road again before 7 am. The reminder of the drive was easy and I was happy that we didn't run into a ton of traffic once we got to Orlando.

Like last trip, we stayed at the new Art of Animation resort. Since it was just me and Emily this time, we stayed in the Little Mermaid section which is the only part of the resort that has regular rooms instead of suites. We checked in and even though it was before noon, our room was ready! I'm really glad it was - that way we unloaded

the car before we headed to the park.

We had a great room. It was on the top floor of the Ursula building and we had a pool view! The room was nice. Not huge, but plenty of room because it was just the two of us. It made for a nice home for the week.

Emily had requested that we ride the monorail this trip so I decided that we would spend a little time at the Magic Kingdom before we used the monorail to go to dinner. 

It was also the exact date of Magic Kingdom's 45th anniversary. It seemed fitting that we go there. We got a free button for the 45th anniversary which was a cool souvenir. Since we weren't there for the park opening we didn't see anything else that was specific for the anniversary.

We used a fastpass to do Enchanted Tales with Belle. This was one of Emily's favorite things from last trip. It's not really a ride or a character meet - it's an experience. You are transported to the day that Belle and Beast fell in love. We meet up with Belle before she has dinner with the Beast and people are picked to act out Belle's story (to that point). After that, the actors get their picture with Belle, but no autographs.

Emily got picked to be Belle's father, Maurice. She was thrilled to have a part more than a dish. I didn't have a part but I just sat in the back taking pictures. There was a family there who got really

upset with the cast member who was working the show when they were told that Belle doesn't sign autographs here. They actually stormed out in the middle of it with their small kid in tow.

After that, we found a spot to see the new Festival of Fantasy Parade which was amazing! We had to leave after that, though we got stuck on Main Street by the parade before we could exit the park and use the monorail to head to the Polynesian Resort.

We had dinner at Ohana, which is my favorite table service restaurant in Disney World. We had a castle view, and I'm pretty sure we were seated pretty close to where Todd and I were 9 years ago on our honeymoon.

The food was delicious as always, and the bread pudding for dessert was so excellent I may have stuffed myself too much. We waddled our way back to Magic Kingdom where we rode

"It's A Small World.".

Our original plan was to stay in the Magic Kingdom to see the Main Street Electrical Parade, but after we got done with Small World the sky opened up and it started pouring! I had forgotten to put my umbrella in my bag so we got soaked. We made our way up Main Street, to our Fastpass with Talking Mickey.

Meeting Mickey and talking with him was magical but it was still pouring when we got done so we opted to head back to the resort for the night. I have no idea if the parade went on that night but I was soaked and I just wanted to take a hot shower. Plus we had an early day the next day.

Up next - Epcot!

Disney Plans!

This October, Emily and I are heading to Disney World for our first girl's only trip. It will probably be the first of many because Todd is not as into Disney as I am. We are going to be doing several things that Todd thought Emily was too young for on our last trip.

Firsts for Emily is going to be going to Epcot for the first time plus going to the Halloween party. We are eating at some old favorites but some new restaurants as well. My wonderful travel agent was able to get us all the dining reservations we wanted!

Just for fun, here's our plans!

Saturday - October 1st - Arrival Day! Because I'm driving and can't drive straight through like Todd does, we are stopping the night before. I hope to be on the road nice and early to get to our resort, Art of Animation, in the morning.

We aren't going to do early check-in, mostly because Emily wants to be able to watch Disney cartoons in the lobby. I don't think that our room will be ready right away so we are going to head over to the Magic Kingdom.

In the late afternoon, we have a dinner reservation for Ohana at the Polynesian Resort. Emily really wants to ride the monorail and I really want to eat at Ohana. So we are going to take the monorail there and back. We probably won't stay too long at the Magic Kindgom after that, maybe ride a couple more rides. We'll have to get into our room after and I'm sure I'll be tired at least.

Sunday - October 2nd - Epcot Day! I'm hoping to get there at rope drop and then we'll take an early lunch because we have a reservation for the Nine Dragons a little before 5 pm.

Emily's never been to Epcot though she says it's her favorite park. I'm really excited to ride on Spaceship Earth, which I haven't rode since I was a kid. Emily is looking forward to playing the Agent P game and doing the Kidcot stations.

Monday - October 3rd - Hollywood Studios Day! My main goal is to see the nighttime show. It was raining too hard when we were at Disney for our honeymoon and last trip it was our last park day so Emily was a bit worn out. I will see Fantasmic! this time!

We will probably try to do rope drop, especially if Emily changes her mind and wants to do the Jedi Academy. Otherwise, we'll probably just try to get there early but not stress too much. Probably will head out for a nap after our character lunch at Hollywood and Vine.

Tuesday - October 4th - Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party day! So we are sleeping in, though we do have a character breakfast at 9 at Ohana because that's the only way Emily can meet Lilo.

We might go to Disney Springs after that, but mostly we'll be resting and napping until it's time to head to the Magic Kingdom for the party! We'll be there close to 4 pm so we can maximize our Magic Kingdom time!

Wednesday - October 5th - Rest Day! We are going to sleep in and do a whole lot of nothing this day. Probably will hang out by the pool and maybe go put-put golfing. We have a dinner reservation for the Whispering Canyon Cafe which is at Wilderness Lodge. This is a new restaurant for me and I'm looking forward to seeing Wilderness Lodge too!

Thursday - October 6th - Animal Kingdom Day! We'll probably do rope drop again this day if possible. I know we'll want to go on the Safari at least once plus I know that Emily wants to see both Festival of the Lion King and the Finding Nemo Musical.

We'll probably go back to the resort early for lunch and a nap because we have a Yak and Yeti reservation last afternoon. I really hope that the Animal Kingdom nighttime show will be up and running by then. Either way, we'll probably not stay at Animal Kingdom too late.

Friday - October 7th - Magic Kingdom Day! This will actually the 3rd time we we'll have been to the Magic Kingdom this trip but this is our main day in the best park (in my opinion) at Disney World.

We have a pre-rope drop reservation for breakfast at the Crystal Palace so Emily can meet Eeyore and Piglet. For rides, we'll probably mostly focus on what we haven't gotten to earlier in our trip. We have a counter service reservation for lunch at noon for Be Our Guest because Emily wanted to eat in Beast's Castle again. We'll probably just stay at the park until 7 because it's a party night and we'll have to leave once the party starts!

Saturday - October 8th - Departure Day! I'm hoping that we'll be on the road fairly early. I'm hoping that I can actually make the whole drive home without having to stop for the night. I'll play that by ear. I'm sure we'll make our normal trip to the food court to use up any extra snack credits so we can have snacks to go home with.

Both Emily and I are really looking forward to this trip!

Countdown to Disney

If you have read my blog before, you may have noticed that I'm a huge Disney geek. While I do love the movies and cartoons, my real love is for Walt Disney World. It is literally my happy place.

I have the Timehop app on my phone, and two years ago today, we got in the car and started driving to Disney World for Emily's first trip ever. We have less than a year until Emily and I go on our girl's only trip.

Countdowns are fun - according to the calendar in my office we have 357 days until we go to Disney World. For me, dreaming and planning and counting down is almost as fun as being at Disney itself.

Thoughts of Disney World have kept my spirits up during some really hard times. This year has been really awful with health issues for me, but the countdown to Disney World next year has kept me focused on something really fun to come.

Tonight Emily and I will be having Mickey pancakes for supper while watching Big Hero Six, and dreaming of that day next year when we are walking down Main Street once again.

Disney World and the Middle Class

A few weeks ago, Washington Post ran an article about how theme parks like Disney have left the middle class behind. I think that is completely untrue and I wanted to share some thoughts about that.

We are a middle class family. Both Todd and I have to work, but we own our house and we manage to be able to afford vacations and weekend conventions. This includes Disney World.

Now, we can't go to Disney World every year, that would be too expensive. But every two to three years, yes, that's completely doable for us.

Magic Kingdom - 1986

In the Washington Post article, it states that when Disney World opened in 1971, it cost $3.50 to enter the park. It neglects to mention that entering the park is all that $3.50 got you. You had to buy ticket books in order to actually ride any of the rides.

Prices for tickets do go up every year. It's something those of us in the Disney fandom expect, but it seems to outage people who don't know anything about Disney. If you really want to go to Disney, you can if you save.

There are tons of time shares all over Orlando and a lot of those time shares will give you free theme park tickets if you sit through their presentation. You can also save a ton of money by staying in a hotel off of Disney's property.

As kids, neither Todd nor I had ever stayed on Disney's property so we decided to stay on property for our honeymoon. We were hooked, especially since we had the dining plan as well. I'm a big fan of having just about everything paid for, and just having

Animal Kingdom - 2013

money for tips and souvenirs.

Disney does have a lot of high end resorts that cost tons a night. But they also have quite a few value resorts where the rooms are only about $100 a night. In fact, the newest resort is a value that mostly has family suites which make it more affordable for families with more than two kids.

If you go on an off time of the year, you can also get room discounts or even free dining. You may have to move to a different resort but it can save a big chuck of money.

Tickets are cheaper if you buy more than one day at a time, and the dining plan is great if you have a young kid who wants to do a lot of character meals.

If you are middle class, and you really want to go to Disney World or any other theme parks, you can. You may have to stay off site, you may have to stay at a value resort, you may have to sit through a time share presentation, but it's completely do-able.

Easter!

Easter came early this year. I'm not super fond of it being at the end of March because it tends to be cold. Even though it was cold, we were up very early to see if the Easter Bunny had hopped into our house. He had and Emily was thrilled with what he got her. Mostly toys because she can be hyper enough without a lot of sugar.

After checking out what the bunny brought, it was time to get ready for church. Emily looked like a princess in her lovely yellow dress. We left to get to church early with Emily's new monster dolls in tow.

We got our normal seats which was nice though the church started filling up around us. Even for 8:30 service, most of the pews were filled. The service was lovely. Emily got to see her friends, and they were all lovely and cute. Especially at the children's message as Vicar Gregg asked the kids what their favorite holiday was. Emily is always very vocal during the children's message and it's always super cute.

At the end of the service, the choir and whoever wants to join in sang The Hallelujah Chorus. I love singing this! It's one of my favorite parts of Easter.

After church, we all piled into the car and started driving to GA. We don't have a lot of relatives around here. Todd's aunt lives two hours away. My aunt, uncle and my cousins live about three hours away. We try and visit when we can. 

All of my four cousins are married with kids. And quite of few of those kids are Emily's age. She

loves going to GA to play with her cousins. My aunt really went all out with a great meal - ham, of course. She also came up with a really creative Easter Egg hunt.

Instead of just looking for eggs around the house. She put the name of each kid on a series of eggs. They got a clue to look to begin with from her and then had to follow the clues around the house. Emily had a great time - though I had to run around with her since her reading levels aren't super great yet so I had to read the clues.

At the end, they had to give my aunt a hug and they got a small bag full of goodies. Emily got candy and a small cat stuffed animal that she loved! 

It was a nice gathering of family. I got to talk about Disney World since once of my cousin's is going next month and had some questions. So that was an extra treat.

Even though the ride is very long - three hours there and back. It's really worth it to be able to spend time with family for Easter.

Memories of Epcot's Maelstrom

If you are a fan of Walt Disney World and follow any Disney accounts on social media you have probably seen that Frozen is getting it's own ride in Epcot. It will be taking the place of Norway's Maelstrom and should be opening in 2016.

There has been a lot of negativity about this move, and I have mixed feelings about it. I know that Emily will love to be able to go onto the Frozen ride when we got back to Disney World in 2016. But the Maelstrom was a magical experience on our honeymoon.

Todd and I went to Disney in the fall of 2007 for our honeymoon. We had decided to wait a year after our wedding to take our honeymoon because most of our vacation time in 2006 went to going back to Michigan for our wedding.

On our 1st wedding anniversary, we spent the whole day in Epcot. It was during the Year of A Million Dreams promotion and that day was the most dream-filled of our whole honeymoon. One of the special things that happened to us was that we got a boat all to ourselves on Maelstrom.

It was lovely and romantic, and super nice of the cast members to give us special treatment like that. The ride was fun, but no means my favorite. But I'll always have this special memory from my honeymoon.

The Haunted Mansion Tightrope Girl

I love the Haunted Mansion. I have since I was a kid. Our first trip to Disney World was when I was nine. I was fascinated by the ride and also a little scared. But once I was done, I wanted to go again. On Main Street there was a shop where I got a book and record of the Haunted Mansion - I loved it and listened to it a lot when we got home.

Even now as an adult the Haunted Mansion is my favorite ride. I also collect Haunted Mansion merchandise - mostly pins. One of the highlights of our last Disney trip was me going to the Halloween party by myself - and riding the Haunted Mansion in the dead of night is a trip.

We had planned on going to a horror con in March and I had been racking my brain for a horror-ish costume to wear when I thought of the Tightrope Girl. If you have never been in the Haunted Mansion, when you first walk in, you are in a large room with pictures. As the pre-show continues, the room stretches revealing horrifying situations that the people in the pictures are in. The Tightrope Girl is balancing over an alligator who wants to eat her.

Because of Todd being laid off in March, we didn't actually get to go to that convention. But I had already started working on the costume. I didn't work on it for a while, but started back up with gusto a while ago to get it finished for Dragon Con.

Yesterday I finished it and I'm pretty pleased with the finished product. I wish I could have made the sleeves poofier, but they are as good as I could get. My mother in law was kind enough to make the cowl for me as well!

If you are going to be at Dragon Con, look for me on Saturday as the Tightrope Girl! I'll be marching in the parade in the Disney section.

Why I Like Disney's Magic Bands

I saw a blog post this morning about all the Disney resorts going to be Magic Band only by the end of this month. There is a lot of information out there about Magic Bands, some of it not very true, so I thought I’d share my experiences with them for our trip this past October.

When my travel agent emailed me to let me know that we would be getting Magic Bands I was very excited. I had heard a lot about them and I had hoped that we would be able to take part in testing. We got our Magic Bands customized. I got a green one, Emily got pink and Todd got blue. Sadly, purple, which is Todd and Emily’s favorite color, is not one of the options for the Magic Bands.

They arrived really fast in a cool box that had Mrs. Incredible on it. Magic Bands are one size, but the outer part can be taken off to fit smaller wrists. We all tried them on when they arrived and then they went back in the box. They sat in my office until it was time to pack up for our trip.

Once we got to Disney World and were checking in, they activated our bands. We arrived in the morning and our room wasn’t ready yet, so we did other things. Once it was time to get our room, our Magic Bands did need to be readjusted. That took a couple of minutes but that was the only issue we had with them.

I had heard horror stories before the trip about the bands falling off. But when we checked in, we got a free Magic Band holder that said 2013 on it. It helped keep the bands securely on our wrists and none of us had problems.

The Magic Bands had our room key, our park tickets, our dining plan, Fastpass + and our Photopass. We did get a Key to The World too but we never used it once. It was so easy to use the Magic Band and it was especially nice to be able to open our hotel room with arms full of stuff or child just by taping the band.

Now there has been some concern about tracking information on the Band. We didn’t hook a credit card up to our Magic Bands because we knew it would be too easy to over spend. So the only information that the Magic Band got from us was what parks we went to and where we ate. That’s not any information that I care about anyone having but I’m not too fussed about anything tracking me while on vacation.

We were able to wear our Magic Bands everywhere, even in the pool. Emily did get sick of wearing it after a few days but I just put it in my fanny pack to be used for getting into the park and Fastpass +. We didn’t ever lose them and they never were even loose.

The only snafu we had with the Magic Bands took place after our vacation had ended. Most of our photopass pictures were linked to the Magic Band though we had used a card the first few days. Our pictures showed up on the photopass site right away but a few weeks after our trip, they disappeared. I emailed support and they did get them back. Plus they gave me extra time to view / purchase the pictures. So that turned out ok in the end.

All in all, I loved the Magic Bands. They made our vacation easier and now we have a cool souvenir!

Happy Birthday Walt Disney!

I’ve been in love with all things Disney since I was very young. My favorite stuffed animal was a Winnie the Pooh and all my favorite movies were from Disney. This love was cemented when I was seven years old and got to go to Walt Disney World for the very first time with my parents and younger sister.

I brought that love to the next generation by introducing Emily to Disney shows pretty early on. Our trip this past October was magical so I think she'll be a fan of Disney for years to come.

So I’d like to wish a happy birthday to the man who started the empire. Walt Disney would have been 112 years old today if he hadn’t passed away in 1966, which was 11 years before I was even born. I’m sure I’m not the only Disney fan out there who is thinking about Walt today.

Happy Birthday Walt Disney! I'll be celebrating by going to see Disney's newest movie Frozen with Emily and Todd.

Disney Trip 2013 - Departure Day and Final Thoughts

This is the final post of my Disney Trip report – click for  post #1, post #2, post #3, post #4, post #5, post #6, and post #7!

We got up early on our departure day. We had to be out of the room by 11 and needed to do most of the packing. Emily and I went to the car to load some things up and I got some pictures of her in the resort which was really beautiful.

We had some credits left on the dining plan so Emily and I got some breakfast. Todd wasn’t hungry because he was a bit sick – he thought he might have gotten food poisoning though Emily and I were fine.

Todd finished up loading the car while I amused Emily in the arcade since we had some credits left. We got checked out and then went to the food court to spend the rest of our dining plan credits so we could have snacks for the drive home.

The drive home was pretty uneventful and we got back late that night. I was sad to go but it was nice to be home.

Emily and I want to go back to Disney World as soon as we can, though Todd is less thrilled about going back. We are tentatively planning on going back in 2016, probably in September.

I thought the trip went really well. We didn’t see everything but we had a pretty relaxed time with taking afternoon breaks. It really helped Emily be able to keep going by taking a nap in the afternoon.

The new Magic Bands are great! They work for everything from opening the room, to the dining plan to Fast Pass +. I was really intrigued when I first heard about the Magic Bands and I’m really glad that we got to try them.

I also loved the new Fast Pass +. We never used Fast Pass that much before, and we still didn’t for a lot of things. But it fits our style of touring which is laid back. I didn’t mind scheduling our Fast Pass + selections in advance. The only thing I would have done differently would have been to print out all our Fast Pass + selections for each day so I wouldn’t have to try and fiddle with the My Disney Experience app.

All in all, it was a pretty magical first trip for Emily. I asked her last night what her favorite things to do at Disney were. She said that she loved meeting the characters and riding Dumbo and Star Tours. Hopefully she’ll still love it once we go back in a few years!

Disney Trip 2013 - Disney's Hollywood Studios

This is the 7th post of my Disney Trip report – click for  post #1, post #2, post #3, post #4, post #5, and post #6!

Even though I had had a long night before, we got up early for our last park today. We were heading to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We had to sit down reservations so Todd decided that we were going to rent a stroller in hopes Emily would nap there instead of going back to the room for nap time.

My in-laws met us in the lobby at 8:30 am and we took the bus to the park together. Emily was a little cranky today but was excited to have a stroller. The first thing we did was we went to see Pluto and Goofy. Emily decided that she didn’t really want pictures anymore just autographs. These two were the last we needed for because of the disappeared Chef Mickey’s pictures and we were able to convince her to take a picture.

From there, we went to Star Tours with my in laws. Emily hasn’t seen Star Wars yet because I’m paranoid

that she’s not going to like it. But she’s see the Lego Star Wars games and has a limited understanding of what Star Wars is.

I love Star Tours and was excited to ride it since I haven’t been since they upgraded it. Emily was a little unsure, especially since this was the wildest ride we had been on. She said she didn’t like it when we got out and we headed over to see the Muppets show.

The Muppets was good and Emily enjoyed herself, especially playing with the 3D glasses while we waited. Once we got out of the show, we went to meet Phineas and Ferb. They were really awesome and I got in the picture too because Emily was being shy. I also got a picture of myself with a Ducky MoMo statuesince I’m planning on making a Ducky MoMo costume for Dragon Con next year.

It was more characters after that. We went into the Animation Building to meet Wreck-It Ralph and Vanellope. Emily wanted both Todd and I to come up with her so we did. That’s how we got our only full family pictures the entire vacation!

It was nearing the time of our first reservation so we headed over to Hollywood and Vine. Our reservation was at 11 when they started serving lunch. It was also a character meal with some of the Disney Junior characters. We were a bit early and got checked in. The cast member checking us in had chalk that she was giving to the kids, so Emily had

fun drawing on the ground. The characters also kept coming up to the windows and waved at the kids
waiting

Finally we were seated and June from the Little Einsteins came over right away. Emily was happy to get her

to autograph her book but wanted no part in the pictures. So Todd got his picture with June. Same thing with Jake, so I got my picture taken with him.

Oso came around next and Todd took one picture with me and Oso standing behind Emily’s chair. I was sad that it didn’t turn out because it was really blurry. I got in the picture with Handy Manny too, I actually photobombed the picture because I had been coming back from the buffet.

The food was excellent and the chef came out and advised me which foods were dangerous to me with my shellfish and tree nut allergy. Todd agreed the meal was very good though surmised it was partly because the food was fresh.

After we ate, we headed over to get in line to meet Sofia the First. She is the newest character available for meet and greets so the line was long. Todd left us since he didn’t care about meeting Sofia to go ride Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. We waited probably a half hour for Sophia. A couple of times she had to take a break – the cast members with her always said that she needed to go back and check on her winged horse, Minimus.

Emily got a kick out of that and still talks about how Minimus was just backstage.

Again Emily didn’t want to be in the picture by herself so I got in it with her. Sofia was very sweet and well worth the wait. I got Emily in her stroller and we went over to Star Tours where we were going to meet up with Todd. Emily didn’t nap or even get sleepy as I rolled her over there so I got us a snack to eat while we were waiting.

Once Todd joined us, Emily decided that she wanted to brave Star Tours again. This time she loved it and wanted to ride it again. Since there was very little waiting we rode it again. She wanted to keep riding it but there were other things we wanted to do.

I had Fastpass + for the Disney Junior Show and the Toy Story Mania ride. But they were both a little later in the afternoon. Even though the Toy Story Mania standby wait time was listed at two hours, we decided to get in line.

The queue had all kinds of different toys large sized and a giant Mr. Potato Head who sang songs and told jokes. Once we got past Mr. Potato Head the line moved pretty fast. The ride itself was a lot of fun. You put on 3D glasses and then get spun around to different scenes were you get to shoot at targets and earn points. It was fun and Emily really enjoyed it.

After that, we met up with my in-laws and we all decided to go to the next showing of the Disney Junior show. It had all of Emily’s favorite characters from her favorite shows in puppet form. There was Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Sofia the First, Doc McStuffins and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. The show was really cute and things would fall from the sky like bubbles and tissue paper gold doubloons.

There was time left so we all decided to go ride on the Great Movie Ride. I was little afraid that some of the scenes, like the one from Alien, would scare Emily but she loved the ride. I’m a big movie nut and have a degree in Broadcasting, so it’s one of my favorites.

From there decided to go to where we had dinner reservations early since our reservations were pretty late. We ate at 50’s Prime Time Café. We were seated pretty quickly and had a nice meal. Emily was excited because I got her a special class with a light up Ariel and our server also gave her a light up Tinkerbelle.

Once we were done, it was after 7 pm and we had been in the park for about 10 hours. Emily was getting tired and we were driving home the next day so we opted to skip the fireworks show and head back to the resort.

Up next post - Departure Day and Final Thoughts