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Category: Disney Vacations

Pandora - Land of Avatar

Why Should We Go To Walt Disney World This Summer?

May 3, 2017

There are many changes coming to Walt Disney World This Summer

We weren’t planning a vacation to Disney this summer; but with all the new updates coming to the parks, I didn’t want to miss out.  At Animal Kingdom the land, Pandora the World of Avatar is opening on May 27th.  Recently, the Rivers of Light show also opened to the public, so now Animal Kingdom offers lots of new things to do at night.  At Hollywood Studios, BB-8 is greeting guests at the Star Wars Launch Bay.  Typhoon Lagoon has a new family raft ride, Miss Adventure Falls.  Plus, the Magic Kingdom Wishes fireworks show is ending on May 11.  A new show, “Happily Ever After” Nighttime Spectacular is making its debut on May 12 .

I am attending the BlogHer conference at the end of June, so I couldn’t go to Orlando and not turn it into a family trip!  But of course, like always, it has to be a surprise!  So if you are a reader of my blog and know my children, DO NOT say anything about this to them!

Animal Kingdom

Pandora- The World of Avatar

To prepare for this new world, we watched Avatar with the kids recently.  My husband and I have never seen the movie so it was great to see it for the first time together.  I have heard that it isn’t necessary to watch the show prior to going to the new Pandora the World of Avatar; but I wanted to really understand the story behind the world to gain a better appreciation for it.  I also wanted the kids to have that insight.

Pandora - World of Avatar

Source – Wikipedia

Rivers of Light

We were hoping that last Spring when we had our family vacation that we would have the chance to see the Rivers of Light show on its opening day on Earth Day. The show didn’t open until February of this year so we will also be sure to make this a must-do on our list.

I have been avoiding any social media related to these changes because I want to get the first hand experience of seeing it all myself.  But I think any preview videos and live broadcasts won’t do it justice.  These new immersive experiences in Animal Kingdom are things that have to be seen in person.

Magic Kingdom

Fireworks

The Wishes Nighttime Spectacular is being replaced with a new fireworks and pyrotechnics show on May 12.  Happily Ever After Nighttime Spectacular includes an original music score and it will include more recent Disney movie moments projecting onto the castle.

Beauty and The Beast

With the new release of Beauty and the Beast I heard that the Beast in Magic Kingdom has taken on the appearance of the Beast in the live action movie.  Since we never went to the Enchanted Tales of Belle interactive story telling show, it is now a must do on our list of things to see!

Hollywood Studios

Star Wars

We love Star Wars and now BB-8 is at the Star Wars Launch Pad.  When we were in Disney for the Walt Disney World Marathon in January we got family photos with my parents, my husband and the kids with Chewbacca and Kylo Ren.  Well now I need to add to our collection with BB-8!  We also didn’t get a close view of the “Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular” fireworks and projection show, so I’d like to stay closer to the Chinese theater to see the entire show.

Star Wars Launch Bay - Wife Mother Runner

Typhoon Lagoon

Miss Adventure Falls

The kids love going to the water park.  We have only been to Blizzard Beach and last year we tried Aquatica at Sea World.  But that didn’t hold a candle up to the fun you can have at a Disney water park.  So this time I’d like to try Typhoon Lagoon.  Especially since the Miss Adventure Falls family raft ride includes a ride up the conveyor belt to the top of the slide!  That is a win-win in my book!  Less stairs to climb!

Miss Adventure Falls - Wife Mother Runner

Source – Disney Parks Blog

The Wedding Pavilion

Our 15th Wedding Anniversary

My husband and I are celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary on May 16th so I didn’t want to miss out on a trip to our place of marriage on this special anniversary year.  The Disney’s Wedding Pavilion was recently refurbished so I want to get over to our wedding location to take some photos.  I’d secretly love to hire a photographer to do some family pictures there.  Something to consider for a special gift to my husband!

Disney Wedding Pavilion - Wife Mother Runner

So as you can see we have a lot to do!  I hope we can fit it all in with this one trip.  Otherwise, some of it will have to wait until our next one.  And by the looks of it, we are going to need a vacation from our vacation!

Animal Kingdom Rivers of Light

April 4, 2016

Animal Kingdom, which used to be considered a “half day” park day at Walt Disney World is expanding its entertainment offerings with a new show.  The best part about this show is that it takes place AT NIGHT!  I am so excited that we will be there during it’s debut.  The show is scheduled to open for the first time to guests on April 22 – Earth Day.  That is our last night on vacation before we return home.  I am hoping that the rumors I have been hearing about a DVC member sneak preview is true so we can see it prior to that, since we have an early flight home the day after its public debut.

Photo by Disney

Concept Art by Disney

We have only visited the Animal Kingdom during the day and it was usually quite hot.  This past January, during marathon weekend, we had a great time in the park because it was a cooler temperature and we could enjoy more of the attractions in the park.  We also took advantage of the Wilderness Explorers program and began our journey to hunt for challenges and missions.

Having the Rivers of Light available and opening the park during the night will also expose us to animals at night as well.  I heard that the Tree of Life comes alive in a whole different way and that there is a special ambiance to the park at night.  I can’t wait to experience this event and report back with what I discover.

Here are some videos to give you the back story behind its creation and a sneak peek at what they will be offering!

Watch a video of a Live Chat Q&A with Michael Jung and , two of the creative team members behind Rivers of Light.

Are you going to attend this event?

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

March 25, 2016

When we go on our vacation this year we will be going during the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival.  I participated in a Twitter party recently that talked about all of the events that your kids can participate in at the Flower and Garden Festival  and I am looking forward to doing many of them with our kids.

We recently started to grow our own garden by planting seeds in a little greenhouse a few days ago.  We just planted them on Tuesday and the are already sprouting!  At the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival we always enjoy going to the Butterfly Garden.  I learned from the Disney web site that the Audubon Florida will have Purple Martins which migrated 3,000 miles from the Amazon.  At the Nature Conservancy, kids will learn how to create gardens to filter water, provide welcoming habitats and improves soil quality.

We have visited the Epcot during the Flower and Garden Festival in past years and also enjoyed the interactive play areas.  This year is a new Music Garden Melodies Playground along the walkway between Future World and World Showcase.  Children can play drums, chimes and xylophones.  There is also a climbing net for the children to play on.

The second interactive play area is called Cactus Road Rally along the Test Track Walkway.  Mater and Lightning McQueen are featured at a canopied jungle gym and mini park.  You can also play “I Spy” to search for various auto parts scattered among the flower beds.

Like Wine and Dine, the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival offers outdoor kitchens with great samplings of food and drinks from different countries.  The DIS Unplugged has a great listing of all of the food offerings and prices for the outdoor kitchens.  One of my favorites that they serve at Flower and Garden is the Watermelon salad from Urban Farm Eats and the Kale Salad from Florida Fresh.  I am looking forward to picking up some of my favorite eats during this event.

I also plan on participating in Kidcot Fun Spot activities with my kids and have cast members from each country write their names from their country in the kids’ special books.  I can’t wait to pick up my Flower & Garden passport and visiting the booths around Epcot and getting many great photographs of the topiaries around one of my favorite parks.

Planning Our Disney Vacation This Spring

March 15, 2016

I don’t usually create a schedule or put together a to do list when it comes to what we will do on our Disney vacations; but this year we are going during a time of year we never went before and I am a little nervous about it. We never go during school vacations because it’s school vacation time and the whole world seems like they are in Disney during that time of year (besides Christmas). But I did some research tonight and am printing out some information and getting my bearings to help make some decisions and plans.

We are also doing things a little different this time. My Star Wars Dark Side Challenge races conveniently fell during the same time we were taking this trip; so some of my park touring may be altered slightly to accommodate my early wake ups for the two races. But we also didn’t purchase an annual pass this year like we always due. Last October the price of the Annual Pass increased to an amount that just wasn’t going to work for us. When we went in January for marathon weekend we were able to purchase park passes with my Dad’s military discount. This time we are going to purchase multi-day park passes through an employee discount website so we can purchase as many days necessary and we will just factor in some non-park days to this trip. All in all we won’t lose much. We just won’t be able to hop on the monorail some nights to go for a spin around the park on the train and do some rides at night. But since we are staying in resorts on the monorail loop we will take advantage of watching the fireworks shows from the beaches.

There are things I would like to do on this trip that we have never done with the kids before. Surprisingly, we haven’t taken them to the following attractions. Don’t judge, there never seems to be enough time and they always want to do their favorites! So here are a few of the attractions that are a must do on the trip list this year:

Enchanted Tiki Room
The Country Bears
Enchanted Tales with Belle
Indiana Jones
Star Wars Launch Pad
Jedi Training Academy for Adrienne
The New Star Wars Symphony in the Stars: A Galactic Spectacular fireworks show at Hollywood Studios

And I would REALLY love to try to be at the Magic Kingdom for rope drop to see the welcome show. I also want to do a water park and this year I found some great discounted tickets for Aquatica. Since we have done Blizzard Beach twice in the past, I am not opposed to trying something different. Again, this trip is about being cost conscious. We will do our grocery shopping and stock up our room with the essentials, water and alcohol to save on the cost of drinks and food and pack our lunches for the parks and mainly eat our dinners in a park or resort.  We have a few reservations for some restaurants that we know we want to go to for sure.

The Epcot Flower and Garden Festival will be in full bloom during this trip so I will be doing my research and posting on my blog some great resources for what is happening for kids this time of year at Epcot.  I heard that there are a lot of great kid-centric activities going on this year.  I also want to have the children go around to each country and have their name written in the language of that country to put into their journals.

I am also planning on participating in Dapper Day and dressing up for the Magic Kingdom.  Diana and Mandy and I are going to get all dolled up in cute dresses after the 10K and take pictures in the Magic Kingdom.  Dapper Day celebrates “stepping out in style”.  There is no specific period of time that is recreated; but the looks are vintage-inspired.  Active and retired military are encouraged to wear their dress blues or service uniforms.  I have never been a part of this before so I am looking forward to seeing what everyone looks like!

One last thing that I am hoping we will get to see is the Rivers of Light Show at Animal Kiingdom.  This show is debuting in April and rumor has it, that it will be opening on Earth Day , which is April 22.  So I am keeping an eye out to hear more about it and how we can participate in this event when it starts showing.  It would be so neat to be one of the first people to see this new show!  I will also blog about this new feature separately, so stay tuned!  Despite all of the construction going on in Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom, there is still enough for us to do in Hollywood Studios to keep us busy for a few hours that day and also allow us time to rest for the afternoon and then head to another park for the evening.

So as you can see, this trip is going to take a little bit of planning.  I’m going to have to figure out which days will be park days, which days will be relax by the pool days and I also have to get to the Expo and fit my races into the vacation.  It’ll all work out, this is nothing compared to Marathon Weekend in January!  But I also do want the trip to be so busy with activity that it goes by in the blink of an eye either.

What else do you recommend we try on this trip?

Disney Released Tiered Pricing Structure Or “Seasonal Pricing”

February 28, 2016

I am a Disney lover, you should know that about me by now.  But I am not a lover of the higher prices it is now costing us to take a trip to my favorite place.  Unfortunately my husband is more angry about the pricing increases that have been going on at Disney World than I am.  Enough so that he is mentioning skipping our annual trip and considering going every two years instead.  We are still in discussions about this.  Mind you, we got married in Disney, we are DVC members and have taken our children since they have been born.  When it gets to this point, it must be serious.  The bottom line is, it’s becoming too expensive.

Effective Sunday, February 28 at 6 a.m., Disney will have special pricing for value season, regular season, and peak season.  As I watched the announcement on the news, the reason that was mentioned was to help control the crowds during the usual peak seasons, to better spread out visitation throughout the year.  Last Christmas the Magic Kingdom reached its capacity by 10:00 a.m. and had to close the park to additional guests.

It is important to note that this pricing is for one day passes only.  It does not affect annual passes and multi-day tickets.  However, multi-day pass prices will rise starting today.  Four-day tickets are increasing from $305 to $325.  Ten-day tickets are increasing from $365 to $400.  When does the price increase stop?  Are we at the point now where we will push back and not attend?  I’m kind of there.  I hate to say it.  But we are finding alternatives to purchasing our tickets.  Instead of purchasing an annual pass for all four of us; we are considering a multi-day pass and now we won’t go to the parks every single day on our vacation.  We are going to plan in some resort/pool days and do other activities such as mini golf, a water park. or perhaps Disney Springs (a movie or the balloon ride).

I always try to find the silver lining and find the best, most affordable way to make our Disney trips possible and I will still do the same to try to get the most bang for my buck.  We will shop at Target or Wal-Mart when we arrive to get our groceries to use in our room so we can eat breakfast and pack lunches to bring to the park.  We also save a lot of money on water, drinks and alcohol by purchasing it off property and having it in our room to bring to the pool and parks.

Here is a breakdown of the new rates:

Magic Kingdom one day ticket (no park hopper)

Value Season – the current rate of $105
Regular Season – $110
Peak Season – $125

Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios

Value Season – the current rate of $97
Regular Season  – $102
Peak Season – $114

The dates for each of these seasons can be found on Disney’s website.  Here is a breakdown below:

Photo by Attractionsmagazine.com

Photo by Attractionsmagazine.com

Has this new pricing structure affected your decision on planning your next vacation to Disney?  Will you change dates to a different time of year to avoid the higher price?

 

Operation runDisney WDW Marathon Weekend Surprise A Success!

January 6, 2016

At 3:30 a.m. my son came into my room. He couldn’t sleep. My alarm was set for 4:00 a.m. so I went to his room with him and laid there. No one went back to sleep at that point.  We got on the road a little after 5:00 and were at the airport around 6:00.  We had breakfast there and were on the flight at 8:00.

Operation Disney  Marathon Weekend Surprise was a Success!

Operation runDisney Marathon Weekend Surprise is Under Way

January 5, 2016

The flurry and scurrying around to pack and sneak my kids’ summer clothes, flip flops, swimming goggles and bathing suits took place last week while they were home from school.  Thankfully I was able to seclude myself in my room to do this while they were playing with their new Christmas toys. But the last two days to prepare for the actual departure was in full swing.

We are going to Disney for my WDW marathon weekend where I am running the Dopey Challenge and my mother is running her first Disney 5K and close friends of ours are running their first runDisney 10K!

On Sunday, as we were leaving the movie theater from seeing Star Wars the Force Awakens (AWESOME MOVIE), I saw a Facebook post that the Osborne Lights were being extended from January 3 to January 6th. Once I heard that I knew I HAD to do something to get the kids and my parents to Hollywood Studios that night to see the lights.  So we had to distract the kids so I could call Southwest and find out what options we had to move my husband and kids from their Thursday flight to my Wednesday flight.  Good news and bad news.  They could move to Wednesday for only $38 each; but I had to give up my 12:30 direct flight and we are all now flying down at 8:00 a.m. with a stop and change plans in BWI.  BLECH!  I HATE early flights!  Also since I will be getting up early 4 days in a row for the races, that was the last thing I wanted to do.  BUT it is for the sake of the JOY that I hope to see on my childrens’ and parents’ faces when they go through the Osborne Lights to see something like no other.

When I ran the Wine and Dine Half Half marathon one of the highlights of the race is that we can run through the Osborne Lights.  Diana and I spent and extra long time there because we knew it was going to be the last time we could see it.  But, she was on her trip with her family so she decided that the next night they were going to see the lights for sure.  When I flew home I was sad.  I wanted to find a way to fly our whole family down either for Thanksgiving or for a few days after Thanksgiving JUST so they could experience those lights.  Well, my wish is now going to come true!

The kids don’t know yet that we are going to Disney.  As usual, we like to pull it off as a surprise to them.  The notes have been sent to school and given to the bus driver.  Homework has been sent home and now we just have to get their butts into bed real soon because we will have to wake them up at 4:00 a.m. to begin the surprise vacation.  I know my daughter is on to me.  She reads my texts on my phone at times and saw some communication going on between my dad and I.  So I had to squash those questions and I think we may be able to pull this off.  It’s going to be different, waking them from their sleep to announce the news.  So stay tuned!

 

I Can’t Wait To See and Shop the Disneyland 60th Celebration

June 21, 2015

In just a few short months I will be in California for my third Dumbo Double Dare race through Disneyland. During this time Disneyland is celebrating its 60th Anniversary Celebration and I am so excited that I get to be there during such a big event. One thing I will be doing for sure will be visitng the parks this time. Usually when I travel to Disneyland for Dumbo Double Dare there are enough meet ups and friends to hook up with in Downtown Disney that I am busy enough to not need park tickets. But I want to go to the parks and see the parades, World of Color and the fireworks. This year I am traveling with Diana who hasn’t been to Disneyland at all, so it is her first time. In a sense it will be my first time as well!

While I was in the Disneyland Park for the Pasta In the Park Party at last year’s race, I did ride a few rides; but I feel like I didn’t really see the park. I was struggling with my flying migraine being one of the worst with that trip so I had a rough time. I couldn’t stay out late and by the time I felt better it was time for me to fly home.  This year I want to see the park and ride the rides, enjoy the Paint The Night Parade in Disneyland Park and then go to Disneyland Forever Fireworks show! 

photo by Disney Parks Blog

 

The second must-do on my list is to go Disney California Adventure and see the World of Color.  This is a fountain, fire and laser effects show with music and towering screens.  Celebrate is the name of the show and it reminds us never to give up on our dreams, that anything is possible!

photo by Disney Parks Blog

photo by Disney Parks Blog

Disneyland is also rolling out special merchandise for this celebration and I have a wish list of the must-have items I want to add to my collection.  The Alex and Ani bracelets are the first I want to add to my collection.

photo by Disney Parks Blog

 

photo by Disney Parks Blog

 
I would love a Dooney and Bourke Disneyland edition.   
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photo by Disney Parks Blog

Other merchandise announced by Disney included special picture frames, phone cases, special edition ears, steins shoes and much more!  Check out the video below to see what they have to offer.  
diamond-celebration-merchandise-00

photo by Disney Parks Blog

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What do you want to get from the Disneyland special merchandise? 

photo by Disney Parks Blog

 

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