We've Got The Disney Reservation Blues

Allison and I have noticed that Disney is a bit hypocritical.  Over the last few years Disney has done everything to make Disney World more technologically advanced.  They've made it so you can book restaurants, tours, special events, and even fast passes (basically rides) long before you even step foot in the park.  Don't get me wrong, I don't really have a problem with setting up things in advance.  After all you can still eat at the parks, and you can still go on rides, even if you don't have reservations in advance.  We on the other hand decided to embrace this system and have as much fun as possible with it.  Next week you'll learn about the fun we had making dinner reservations.

The problem we're having right now is fatigue.  On paper Disney gives you two dates that you have to worry about, 180 and 60 days till the start of your trip.  180 days before you're eligible to make dinning reservation (and popular ones disappear quickly) and tour reservations (sort of), and 60 days you can book your fast passes.  I like this idea because it gives you milestones before your trip to get you excited.  The problem is that these two dates aren't are only days we have to worry about. In fact a number of dates that we have to worry about have yet to be announced, and so we're checking daily because they could be at any moment.

The two big announcements that Disney seems to be dragging their heels is the times that Animal Kingdom will be open, and the day tickets go on sale for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween. There are times that Animal Kingdom is scheduled to be open available on the website, however they've been teasing later hours for some special night time events.  The Not So Scary Halloween party is an important part of our plan, and although the dates are out, tickets are still not on sale.

We're also interested in taking a fireworks cruise one night, and the dates that it's available are only slowly creeping up.  There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to when the dates open up either.  Sometimes I week opens up, then a whole month will open up.  We're stuck checking regularly.

I've also noticed that Disney has been in the habit of announcing the opening of attractions well within 60 days of the ride opening date.  This means if you book fast passes, and a ride you're interested in opens all of a sudden, you have to re-arrange everything to fit it in.

My problem here is simple, Disney has asked us to stick to a schedule that they're not willing to keep.  Book some things 180 days before the trip, and others 60, but other things will just be random. I understand there's logistics to these things, but Disney, you're starting to wear us out.  We're getting sick of visiting the site every day checking for tickets and open reservations for certain things.  We booked 2 tours and a boat rental already, why can't you get your act together and let us buy tickets for events at your park at the same time.  Why aren't the Halloween party and the cruise also available 180 days before, like all your other tours and dinner reservations?

Our hotel is booked.

The first thing you need to do when you visit Walt Disney World is book a hotel.  You have many categories to choose from and they can range in quality, and in proximity to the parks.  The first choice you have to make is if you want to stay on property or off of property.  The biggest difference you'll find between staying on or off property is the price.  Staying on property is always more expensive, and not just by a little bit.  Many of the cheapest hotels on property are more expensive than the pricier off property options, and keep in mind that there's a Ritz off property.  Almost all of the hotels on property are owned and operated by Disney, with a few exceptions, and all of the Disney hotels offer some extra perks such as transportation to and from the parks, Extra Magic Hours (extra time at the parks), and a general feeling that you haven't left the parks at all.

We decided that since this was to be an Epic "Disney" Vacation, staying on property was a must, so our next choice was what kind of hotel did we want to stay at.  Disney offers several different qualities of hotels on property, Value, Moderate, Deluxe, Deluxe Villas, and Camping.  We considered all of these options, however we cut out Value first.  We figured that Value resorts would be full of kids and families, and while Disney parks will be full of kids all the time, we thought living with them might be kind of crappy.  Both of us have stayed at Port Orleans before, a Moderate resort, and really enjoyed it.  So we played around with the idea of going back.  Deluxe was a thought, because as mentioned in the name of this blog, this trip is going to be "Epic".  We event thought about getting a cabin in the campground.  Then we came across the Deluxe Villas, or more to the point we discovered DVC.

DVC, or Disney Vacation Club is a timeshare thing.  I'm not too sure exactly how it works, but we learned that in some cases people who own "points" in the DVC sometimes have extra points.  You can buy these points on the open market and stay at a Deluxe Villa for about the same price as a Deluxe room.  Best of all for about the same price as this Deluxe room your villa will have one bedroom, and a kitchen.  This pretty much sold us as Allison is a breakfast monster (she loves breakfast) and we've read that breakfasts at the Magic Kingdom are regularly disappointing.

So when the time came, and we knew for sure that we were going on this trip (no more cancellations), we contacted a travel agent that could organize the purchase of points and allow us to stay at a DVC one bedroom villa.  We had several choices for places we wanted to stay.  Our first was the Yacht and Beach Club, however they had no availability for the time we were going.  Our second choice was right across the lake at the Boardwalk Inn, and it was good.  So we booked our room, bought our points, and we were set.

Once you get your room booked, this is when things start to happen.  Your Disney Experiences account can now be linked to something.  For those unfamiliar My Disney Experiences is basically an account you have on the Disney website that lets you build an itinerary, book restaurant (more on that later), book Fast Passes (more on that later too), and basically see what you may want to do on your trip.  With the hotel booked things started to get rolling.  We immediately got our accounts in order, made sure they were linked to our hotel reservation, and we even started getting mail to prep us for future planning options for our trip.

We're really happy with the Boardwalk Inn as it's in a prime location (walking distance to Epcot and Hollywood Studios), and it has stuff to do around it.  There's even a bakery just in front.  We looked online and thought that the rooms looked pretty spiffy as well.

This was the first step in officially planning our Epic Disney Vacation... Oh did we mention, we've decided to stay for 12 days... Epic.

It's Been A Little While, And A Lot Has Happened

As you may have remembered (or you can just look back on this blog) a few years ago our trip was postponed due to a moving situation.  Well, it's official, we're going to Disney World, and we're going in less than 180 days.  To the average person that doesn't mean very much, but to the Disney Parks nerd that means a lot.

We've been pretty busy the last few weeks and over the next few weeks I'm going to recap what we've been up to.  The thing about Disney is there's a lot to plan way in advance, particularly if you want to eat at certain restaurants, and take certain tours.  There's also been a few announcements and closures over the last few weeks that is going to affect us.  Most interestingly, we've discovered that we're going to be in the parks during two special events, and it looks like we'll be trying them on for size.

So here's what we have to cover:

Our hotel is booked.

Dinning reservations, how we managed to get two Be Our Guest Dinner reservations.

Special tours we've booked, some are simple, one is pretty epic.

What's closed down since we last posted a blog, and what might be open.

Epcot Food and Wine, yup, we're going.

Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween, we're likely going.

So the blog is back, and I'll be recapping you on some of the fun we've been up to.

Tiered Pricing At Theme Parks

I've recently heard that Universal Studios theme park in California is going to start up tiered pricing for tickets into the park.  For those unfamiliar with this concept, it's basically how hotels and airlines work right now all over the world.  Rather than have a fixed price for admission into the park, Universal will change the price depending on the number of people expected to visit that day.  Notionally you'll pay more for a park when it's busy, and less when it's not.

This idea makes a lot of people nervous, and it makes me nervous too, however I think it makes me nervous for different reasons than most.  Most reactions online seem to be nervous about this because they worry that the parks will be too expensive during the times when they can visit.  Many people don't have the luxury of choosing when they can travel.  Either because of school or work schedules, many people must travel during certain periods of the year.  This is often the times when these theme parks will likely be at their highest prices.  So people assume that they won't be able to afford to go because the prices will push them out.

This is an logical reaction to this, however if you investigate this program at Universal you'll see that they'll have a ticket price cap.  This cap will likely be close to the current ticket price, with discount prices for slower days.  The parks are not going to price themselves out of existence, the goal is to get more people to come, not less.  This is not why I'm nervous about the idea of tiered ticket prices.

The reason I'm nervous come from theme park bonuses.  In recent years Disney has made it their goal to keep their parks busy all year long.  Their solution has been to offer extras during the slow seasons.  In some cases it's discounts such as the "free dining", but more often they offer things like the Food and Wine Festival, Star Wars Weekend, and Flower and Garden Festival.  Rather than discounting prices, they offer incentives, and some pretty great ones at that.

My fear is that with the addition of tiered pricing, Disney will stop offering incentives, such as food festivals, to bring people into the parks.  Likely the cheaper tickets will do this for them.  Already Star Wars Weekends have been cut, and free dinning has been modified.  Running these incentives can be expensive and require a lot of planning, lowering ticket prices is simple and cheaper in some cases.

Theme parks around the world are working to one up each other in order to get people into their parks.  This competition is good for the theme park goer, because it forces theme parks to up their game.  Tiered pricing is simple for the management yet adds nothing to the park experience.  It's a slippery slope to focus on lower prices instead of quality, if this keeps up high end theme parks will quickly go the way of the carnival.

A Quicker Trip

During a recent discussion about our plan to visit Disney World, we discovered that our timing for getting there and getting back wasn’t going to work with the time we have.  We had to make a choice, do we cut back on the Disney experience, or do we cut back on the getting there experience.  It wasn’t an easy choice, and a middle ground didn’t seem logical at all.

Our original plan was to take 4 or more days to get to and from the parks from Canada.  This would allow us to visit friends, stop at historical places, and generally meander a little between our house and the parks.  This would have probably worked a few years ago when we originally made this plan; however now it seems like our timing is a little tighter.

We spent one evening discussing what we wanted out of this trip, what was the key to an “epic” Disney adventure.  We eventually settled on the idea that Disney was the heart of this adventure, and we shouldn’t rush that at all. So our journey down and back up will have to be much more rushed.  This decision also came from the fact that we are going to want to de-stress a little when we go on this trip (for various reasons) and jumping from hotel to hotel is not a way to do that.  While we’ll have to do a bit of hotel jumping getting to and from the parks, we want to be sure we have a good long break at Disney to calm our nerves.

We also don’t want to rush the parks.  There is a lot to see and do, and we want to relax and take in all of the details.  While a road trip through the US is a lot of fun, it’s not the focus of this particular trip.  As a side note, we’ve also started to plan our cross the US road trip in the years to come; it might involve a stop at Disneyland too.

So now we have to decide where we are going to stop on this adventure.  However, now are stops are going to be on the way, with no side trips.  We’ll still stop and smell the flowers when we can, but we’ll no longer go out hunting for a particular bud.

Star Wars Is Here To Stay!

A few weeks back I posted about some of the new experiences that would not have been at Disney World had we gone when we originally planned.  One of the experiences was that of the Star Wars additions to Hollywood Studios.  While the finished Star Wars land will not be ready when we go, Disney has added several new Star Wars additions to tide people over.  Originally they were scheduled to be taken out in the spring, but Disney just announced that they're extending theses special exhibits well into the time we plan on going.

These exhibits include the Star Wars Launch Bay, a special exhibit with props and interactive fun things to do all about the new movies.  Special character meet and greets, including new and old characters.  As well as a special fireworks show, that looks pretty awesome.  In general it seems like they've put a Star Wars overlay over a section of the park, and they're keeping it for a while longer (in some cases it's staying forever).

My guess is that they put the "limited time" label on these additions just in case the movie bombed.  This way if there wasn't any interest they could switch everything out without having to commit.  However the movie did far from poorly at the theater, and it seems like they're actually adding new things regularly to these interim Star Wars attractions.  I've been keeping up with what's going on and it seems that new character meet and greets are being added, and the cruise ships are also adding more and more Star Wars material.

The only thing that I'm not so keen on, is the change they made to Star Wars the adventure continues.  Originally the attraction would have a random story line that changed every time you rode it. Now they have a "guarantee" that you'll see the new addition every time.  This never really appealed to me, even though the new scene looks pretty cool.  I like the random idea more, and it seems like the only people that would enjoy the guarantee are regular visitors.

My hope is that even more is added before we go. Although Allison may get Star Wars'ed out, I can't get enough of it.

Planning With Friends

While writing this blog I've realized that my information has really only been coming from one source, the Internet.  Any scholar would tell you that sourcing only one source is a bad idea; if that source is the Internet it's an even worse idea.  While there are a few "peer reviewed" historical and technical accounts of Disney World, frankly many of those are a little dry for my liking.  So our only option for a secondary source is to find an expert(s), and talk to them ourselves.

There are a couple of problems when it comes to finding experts.  First of all we're on the other side of the world right now, I could safely say that most of the people around us have never even been to the parks once, let alone have any hands on knowledge.  Secondly, we don't want to find someone at random because they don't know us, and frankly this blog is about our adventures in Disney World.  Then one day, during an improv meet up (I'm full of surprises), we discovered that two of our improv buddies used to live in Florida.  Better still they go back regularly, and they love Disney World.

So a plan was made, brunch with Allison's famous pancakes, and discussions about Disney World.  In this afternoon we went over lots of information.  Allison, who's been making a matrix of our timing in the parks based on reservations and extra magic hours, gave out copies of this matrix to our guests.  They were very impressed.  We went through some of our expectations and ideas for the trip.  For the most part we seem to have a pretty solid plan, however our friends had some tweaks that seem to improve our plans a fair bit.  Here are a few things that they've suggested that we're going to work into our plan:

Allison and I love miniature golf (we hate regular sized golf), and we want to try out the options at Disney World.  We had decided to do the Winter Summer Land course when we visit Blizzard Beach, and that was considered to be a good plan.  We also wanted to try our Fantasia Gardens at some point as well, but for this we were warned to avoid it on hot days, as there's no shade at all.

Throughout this planning, we've been trying to figure out if we wanted to do the Hoop-Dee-Doo Musical Revue or the Spirit of Aloha show at the Polynesian.  Our friends suggested that the Hoop-Dee-Doo show is not to be missed.  While they admitted that they haven't been to the Spirit of Aloha show in a while, so they don't really remember if it was good or not.  They were very enthusiastic about the Hoop-Dee-Doo show.

Our plan at this point has us possibly ending up at Disney World during part of the Food and Wine show at Epcot.  I've heard great things about this event, but I've also heard that it can be insanely busy.  We've been wondering whether or not we should avoid Food and Wine, to keep away from the crowds, or indulge in Food and Wine because it's that awesome.  Apparently it's that awesome.

Finally, the one piece of advice that really inspired me was that we shouldn't avoid leaving the Disney bubble.  We were encouraged to explore a few things outside of Disney World while we're in the area.  We're still not sure about that yet, however we'll have a car, so we may just venture out a little.

Getting Healthy For Disney

On just about every single Disney for beginners blog, book, or article, one thing comes up over and over again, get healthy.  One of the biggest problems people come across while visiting any Disney park is exhaustion.  Disney World is one of the worst for this because the parks are just so big in area.  But no matter where you visit, Disney parks require a lot of walking and standing.  Exhaustion can turn a fun trip out into a nightmare of being tired, cranky and sore.  So Allison and I have decided that for this epic trip we're going to try and get into better shape.

I feel that we're far from dangerously out of shape, however this is going to be like running a marathon, and the better we can do that the more we don't have to worry about any problems that go with it.  So from this point forward, Allison and I are going into Disney training.  We're not going super crazy, spending hours in the gym everyday, but we are going to make sure we can handle this trip.

We're starting simple, walking.  We've started to go on a few kilometer walk every night.  This along with an occasional hike in the great outdoors where we live seems like a good start.  The plan is that within a few weeks we'll ad regular visits to the gym as well.  At the gym we'll probably start with cardio workouts, to get our endurance up and work on the muscles that keep us walking.  There might be some kind of yoga or stretching added to this workout in the future as well.

This all could lead to some sports as well, although I'm not sure what sport or how often.  The one area I'm not sure about is weights.  I don't think that this is really necessary for this trip, however if I feel the interest I'll give it a try.  I just can't imagine that I'll have to lift Goofy over my head, or bench press Donald Duck.

I think once I get to a certain point, I'm going to start posting my Fit Bit result online.  This will allow me to get a really clear idea on how/if I'm improving.  I still have to think about that, but maybe?

What's New At Disney

This is not going to be a list of what's new for 2015, what we're expecting for 2016, or what's been built since we last visited the parks.  This is going to be a list of the things at Disney World that wouldn't have been there had we visited 2 years earlier as we had originally planned. It's very well known that Walt Disney always wanted his parks, and all of his projects to be in a constant state of change. He wasn't building a museum after all. So this is a list of attractions and updates that had we visited the parks when we originally planned would not have been opened yet.

Disney Springs - The Downtown Disney area has been around for a long time. When I last visit Disney World this area was a great place to visit, particularly for any adult on a Disney trip. After a few years, interest in this adult theme park started to decline. It could have been lack of interest from the visitors or Disney itself, but the entertainment area started to fall apart. Restaurants and stores closed down, the area was a shell of what it once was.

In the last few years Disney suddenly took interest again in this area. I imagine that the new modern foodie trend is a big part of this. People look at Disney World as not just a theme park, but today they also look at Disney as a food destination, in great part because of the food and wine festival. So Disney has upgraded Downtown Disney, a party and club district, to Disney Springs, a food and shopping district. It makes sense and completely appeals to me.

The construction of this massive enhancement will likely still be going on when we visit, however it's already been rechristened Disney Springs, and I think most of the new sections should be ready to go when we get there.

Star Wars Minor Additions - The last year at Disney has been filled with announcements about Star Wars. Most notably is the new Star Wars land they're planning to open in a few years. It's certain that the new Star Wars Land won't be open when we get there, but Disney isn't leaving fans high dry right now. Presently Disney has several temporary exhibits and attractions to keep the Star Wars fan interested in both the upcoming parks and the new movies.

The simplest addition comes from the Star Wars ride in Hollywood Studios, Star Tours (an older ride already at the park). What's been added is an addition that lets you fly through one of the scenes from Force Awakens.  The problem with seeing this is that the ride is random, so we won't necessarily see that particular scene, but really that doesn't matter because I haven't seen many of the other scenes either.

Presently there are also several Star Wars themed restaurant overlays, and a few temporary exhibits where you can see props from the movies and meet characters from Star Wars.  Most of these temporary exhibits are scheduled to be taken down before we go, but I'm sure there's a chance that they'll be extended if they remain popular.  Either way I'll be happy as long as I get to meet Chewbacca.

Jungle Cruise Skipper's Canteen - This is a new restaurant that really interests me.  The food looks interesting, with lots of Asian food. But the thing that really piques my interest is the theming.  The theme is that a canteen has opened next to the Jungle Cruise for people to grab a bite before or after their jugle adventure. I'm a sucker for pseudo jungle/adventurers theming, and this restaurant seems like it's full of it.

It reminds me a little of the now defunct adventurers club in the old Pleasure Island, and that was one of my favorite places in the parks the last time I visited.  This looks like a real winner, and I'm sure we'll stop in.

Polynesian Resort Updates - I'm not sure how much resort hopping we're going to do, but I'm pretty sure if we do, a stop at the Polynesian will be on the cards.  They've just updated a bunch of this resort, and it looks fantastic.  Apparently this resort is also a great place to watch fireworks, so that might be just reason to go visit.  The main expansion that appeals to me is their new bar, Trader Sam's Grogs Grotto. This place looks fantastic, and even if I don't buy a drink, I think I'll stop by to check it out anyways.

Harambe Expansion - Animal Kingdom is a bit of a mystery for me as to what to expect.  The big expansion, Avatar Land, will likely not be open at all while we're there, however there are a few things that might.  There's a new night show that's supposed to open up that looks pretty good, and they're also planning on lighting up the giant tree (the Tree of Life) at the center of the park.  All of this is still vague to me as to when it'll open, but there's a chance we'll be able to see it.  The part that is already open is the Harambe expansion in the Africa section of the park.

I'm looking forward to this for several reasons.  First of all, Disney fans are saying nothing but great things about it.  Secondly, I don't really know what to expect from Animal Kingdom, so the surprise is pretty interesting.  Finally, I just visited Africa, and I'm looking forward to seeing how detailed they got the theming.

There's a lot of new additions to the park, as well as a few closures (which I might write about later).  I think since we're not regulars these details won't really affect our happiness on this trip, but I can say that reading about them is really getting me excited.

Epic Disney Vacation - Take 2

A few years ago Allison and I decided to go to Disney World. The idea for the trip came about when we both realized that we had some unfinished business at this park. I don't want to get into nature of this business, but needless to say we felt that going to this park together was important. At the time we were living abroad, in Greece for a predetermined amount of time. As luck would have it our time in Greece was to end just before our tenth wedding anniversary.

About two years before our trip we started to research. We had both been to Disney World separately in our lives, and we'd both been to Tokyo Disney Sea together. I love planning Disney trips, so I went online and went nuts. About a year before our planned trip we started making calls, and organizing an itinerary. Everything was going to plan, then life happened.

It wasn't a bad thing, it was actually pretty great. Allison was offered a new position in a new country. Everything would be perfect except one thing, it would mean postponing our Disney plans for a couple of years. If we really wanted to we could have flown from our new home to Florida, but that would have been expensive, and it would have eliminated part of our trip, the road trip to Florida from Canada. So we decided to wait.

A surprise happened upon us on our 10th anniversary though. Friends of ours were getting married in the UK around the time of our anniversary. We decided that we could not only enjoy our friends big day, but we could also visit Disneyland Paris for our 10th anniversary. It wouldn't be the same, or replace our Disney World trip, but it would be a great primer.

So several days in Disneyland Paris not only prepared us for our trip, but it also wet our pallet. While we had a great time in Paris we were more excited than ever about Disney World. That trip was last summer.

Now it looks like we might be going home this upcoming summer, and that means that the Disney World plans are back. We've been keeping up with all of the news from the parks, and also savings even more money for our trip. A few things have changed in the parks, but our basic plans are still the same.

So that takes us to today.

After an additional two years later we're ready to book stuff again.  We have even more knowledge, and a little bit of a rehearsal (at Disneyland Paris).  It also means that we're going to start back at this blog once again.  This post, a refresher starts us off, and over the next few weeks I'm going to write about our plans once again.  I'll write about how our plans have changed, or how they haven't.  Once we start actually making the reservations, we'll get into how well the Disney system works, or doesn't.

So look out Goofy!

Uniquely Paris Disney

Last week I wrote about some of the attractions that we were looking forward to seeing at Disney World in Florida, and then compared them to some of the attractions found in Disney Paris. Today I'm going to look at some of the attractions that are uniquely Disney Paris, and tell you why I'm really looking forward to them.

Ratatouille The Adventure - This is probably the most "popular" of all the new attractions in Disney Paris amongst the online community.  Some consider it an attempt to improve the faltering and very unpopular Disney Studios portion of the resort.  While I've only seen a few sneak peaks of the ride, I really don't know much about it.  I would say that the only reason Ratatouille is on this list is because of the hype.  It's not that I don't think I'm going to enjoy it, I just don't know that much about it, so I can't fairly say that I'm really looking forward to it.

Alice's Curious Labyrinth - Give me a hedge maze over a roller coaster any day of the week.  It's not just because roller coasters make me ill, it's also because I really love hedge mazes. I have many childhood memories of running around a hedge maze on the Toronto Islands when I was a kid. Alice’s Curious Labyrinth sounds like it may not be too challenging puzzle wise, but it also sounds like it will be aesthetically beautiful.

The Castle Dungeon - This is probably the attraction I wish I knew nothing about before going to the park.  It's considered by many Disney aficionados and the general online community as one of the best attractions to see at Disneyland Paris.  The reason I would have rather learned nothing about this attraction is that it would have been fantastic to just go down the stairs into the dungeon and be surprised by what looks like one of the best animatronic creatures ever built.  I hope Allison is surprised, she doesn't know what to expect.

Adventure Island - This is one of the attractions that not one person has adequately managed to describe on any website I've read so far.  I think that's part of the reason I'm really excited to check it out.  Allison is also related to a real pirate, so I think she'll have a fun time here as well.

Crushes Coaster - This also falls under an attraction that no one seems to have been able to describe very well. It often receives lackluster reviews, and because of that no one really explains it well. I'm not sure what's going to happen on this ride, but it looks like fun, and I like the movie Finding Nemo.

As the time ticks down to our trip, I'm starting to try and stuff all of this Disney knowledge into my head that I can.  I'm finding that instead of collecting this information, it's just jumbling up in my head.  I get the feeling that although I'm writing these lists of things I'm excited to see, and things I'm curious about, by the time I get there it'll just be a wave of euphoria coming over me, and I'll just run and play.

What Can I Do That I Wanted To Do In Disney World

Originally our plan was to take a road trip from Canada (where we sometimes live) down to Florida, for a fun filled week at Disney World for our 10th anniversary.  Our plans had to change when it was discovered that due to employment issues we were not going to be back in North America at this time.  As you have been reading, our plans have now adjusted and we're going to be going to Florida later, but we're going to Paris Disney for our anniversary instead.  The thing is, we had some ideas about things we wanted to do in Disney World, but not all of these things are available in Paris Disney.  This week I'm going to present you with a list of all the things we wanted to do in Disney World, and we'll see if we're still going to pull them off in Paris.

The Harmony Barber Shop - Yes - Disney World and Disney Paris are the only two Disney parks that offer you the opportunity to get your hair cut on site.  This seemed like it would be a really fun thing to try, and fortunately we just might have the chance.

Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich - Not Sure - I've been investigating the treats at Disney Paris and they seem to really focus on baked goods.  I have yet to see any place that offers the Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich that's so popular in both US parks.  I'm not that disappointed; however if I find one I'll probably get it.

Turkey Leg - No - It appears that the famous giant Disney Turkey Leg is also something we wont find at Paris Disney.  While Allison may be a little upset about this, I'm sure I can distract her with some BBQ from one of the many BBQ places on site.

Dole Whip - The Dole Whip is also something that we'll have to wait for Florida to try.  I'm sure, much like the Turkey Leg, we'll find other fun snacks to distract us.

Earl of Sandwich - Yes - This may not seem like a big deal to many Americans, but to Canadians, and those of us living abroad, it's something totally new.  I'm super excited about having at least one lunch at this place, since I love sandwiches.

Rockin' Roller Coaster - Yes - While the idea of ridding this makes me ill, Allison is super pumped.  She not only loves roller coasters, she's also into Aerosmith as well.  She promises me that I don't have to ride with her, and that's a good thing, I want to keep my Earl of Sandwich lunch down.

Haunted Mansion - Yes... Sort Of - There is a Haunted ride at Paris Disney, but it's called the Haunted Manor, and it's supposed to be excellent.

There are many other rides and shows that we were looking forward to at Disney World, some cross over to Disney Paris, and others don't. Others still are in both parks, but are a little bit unique from each other.  For all the attractions we don't find at Paris Disney, that's just something to look forward to when we finally make our trip to Florida.  If there's any cross over, that's OK too, we'll get to see how they're different (if they are), or at the very least we'll get to see them twice.

Two Parks To Choose From

The Paris Disney collection of theme parks is made up of 3 sections, Disneyland Paris, Walt Disney Studios Park, and Disney Village.  Disney Village isn't really a theme park as much as a shopping location with all kinds of themed restaurants and shops.  Disney Village is also the central point that all of the Disney hotels in the area surround.  While the Disney Village is an official Disney attraction, it is far from being a theme park, and doesn't even require any kind of ticket to go.  Today I'm going to focus on the two theme parks from Paris Disney, Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Park.

Both of these parks take their cues from other Disney parks in other parts of the world.  Disneyland Paris, much like it's name, is a French version of Disneyland in California.  Much like all of the Disneyland/Magic Kingdom parks around the world, the park is designed in a spoke system with the castle (Sleeping Beauties Castle) in the centre.  Around this castle there are 5 different themed lands, Main Street USA, Frontier Land, Adventure Land, Fantasy Land, and Discovery Land.  Each one of these "lands" also take their cue from other Disney parks, however many of these have twists, as well as attractions only available at this one location.

This park is said to be the crown jewel of this whole resort complex, many say that this is visually the most beautiful of all Disney parks.  I'm really looking forward to checking out all of this eye candy, but that's not all.  There are several attractions here that are only available at this one location, such as Alice's Curious Labyrinth and La Taniere Du Dragon. There are also many rides that are in Disneyland (that I've never visited), but not in Disney World, that I'm really excited to see.  Finally, there are many rides that are in Disneyland Paris that are in the other parks as well, however many have a slightly different twist that I'm excited to explore.

Walt Disney Studios Park is the black sheep of the Disney parks world.  I have yet to read a great review of this park on any Disney fan blog.  Most say that there's not much to do, and that the theming is really mixed up.  I've checked out photos and maps of this park, and while it doesn't seem to have the pizzazz that many other Disney parks has, it still looks like a lot of fun.  I have a feeling that many Disney bloggers dislike this park because they have something in mind when they think of a Disney studios theme park.  I however have only been to the Disney Hollywood Studios park once before, and that was well over 10 years ago.  I really have nothing in particular to reference it to, and I'm really looking forward to a few of the attractions.

While I'm not a big fan of most "shows" at Disney parks, I still plan on checking a few of them out at WDSP. In particular the Animagique and Cinemagique shows look pretty cool.  I'm also really looking forward to the Pixar related areas of the park.  There's a section of the park dedicated to Toy Story were you're shrunk down to the size of a toy in Andy's backyard.  There's also a section of the park dedicated to Ratatouille that looks pretty cool too.  This park also has one of my favourite Disney rides of all, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror; I'm certainly going to ride that a few times.

Our plan at this time is to spend at least one day in each park; with a third day to visit anything we've missed or want to do again.  Fortunately the parks are very close to each other, so on the third day we can park hop between the two.  I have different expectations from each park, but both look like they're going to be a lot of fun.

Is Star Wars Land A Reality?

One of the question marks I have about new attractions to Disney World is the possibility of Star Wars Land.  Since George Lucas sold the franchise to Disney, rumours have been flying around about the possibility of Star Wars Land.  Presently there are two Star Wars themed parts to the park, one is an attraction and one an event.

The attraction is fairly old-fashioned in concept in comparison with most modern theme park rides.  It is a motion simulator, called Star Tours, which takes you on an adventure through the Star Wars universe.  One interesting thing about this ride is that it was one of the first simulator rides of its kind, but there's a new feature to this ride.  Recently they've updated the ride to allow each experience on the ride to be different.  So each time you ride the Star Tours experience, you travel to different parts of the Star Wars universe.

The event, which takes place annually at Disney Hollywood studios, is the Star Wars Weekend.  Once a year Star Wars fans, as well as Star Wars celebrities, meet for a weekend dedicated to all things Star Wars.  There are special shows, exhibits, and meet and greets throughout the park.  It has become one of the staple events at Disney World and attracts many fans from all over the world.

At this point I've heard two different stories about what kind of expansion might be coming that involve Star Wars.  Some say that they're going to take out several attractions at Disney Hollywood Studios, and build a land from scratch dedicated to Star Wars.  Others have said that they may refurbish Tomorrow Land at the Magic Kingdom.  At this point I'm sure designs are in the works, and I can only hope that it'll be up and running by the time we go.  Allison has already made up an expression for what might happen if so, she calls herself a “Star Wars widow".

Disney Vacation Club Point Buying, is It a Sham?

As you would expect, there's been a change of plans with our hotel yet again. Since the price of the hotel is the biggest expense of a Disney trip, you can imagine that a lot of thought has to go into it.  This change however is less about which resort we want to stay at and more to do with how we want to stay at it.  I read an interesting article about buying points to use in Disney Vacation Club (DVC) properties.  In other words, for a lot less money, we can stay at a DVC room in the same resort.

I should mention that this isn't as simple as it sounds.  There are a few differences between a regular room at Disney and a DVC room.  The difficult part of this deal is setting up the room.  To do this we have to arrange the purchase of DVC points from a DVC member.  Fortunately there are travel agents who specialize in this and can arrange it for us, but it involves going through third parties.  The other disadvantage I can see is that you will get fewer visits from housekeeping (or as they call it “mousekeeping”).  Frankly we're not dirty people, and I think we'll be fine with just one or two visits throughout our stay.

The advantages of using the Disney villas are pretty good.  The rooms are a little bigger, and include a small kitchenette in the studio suits as well.  The rooms are located within the Disney resorts and seem to include all of the perks that come with staying in a regular room.  Finally, the price is much lower than the standard rooms, we stand to save about 100 bucks a night.

I imagine that most people don't go with this plan because of the inconvenience that comes with setting things up through a third party.  I'm just hoping that there isn't some detail that we've missed that's going to mess up our plans.  It's a bit of a risk, but if it works out we'll save a few bucks.

Travel Agents

I've been reading several websites that claim booking directly through the Disney website is the most expensive way to go.  It's a strange world we live in when buying something straight from the source is in fact the most expensive way to go.  The reasoning behind this, from what I can tell, is that Disney is setting the basic price and if they sold it at the cheapest price, no one else would want to sell their tickets.  So that means that Allison and I are going to have to search for a travel agent.

One of the options that seems to come up now and then is that of discount tickets for sale through third parties.  I've been warned by many websites that they are many of these third parities that sell tickets that are not legitimate.  In other words they either sell fake, or used tickets, instead of real discount tickets.  I'm having a really hard time figuring out which dealers are legitimate and which are not.  It would really help if Disney produced an official list somewhere that I could reference.

The other option is to find us a travel agent.  We actually already have a travel agent that we know and really like, the problem is that she's not really a Disney expert.  It's not to say that she doesn't know anything about Disney, it just seems like there are other agents that specialize almost exclusively on Disney.  I've decided that I'm going to send out a few e-mails this week and ask what kind of deals we can get.  Hopefully I'll soon be able to announce that we have a travel agent that can get us a great price, book all the restaurants we want, and make sure our tickets are all in order.

A Few Restaurants We Want To Try

Cape May Café - The one and only reason we're going to the cape may cafe is to experience a character breakfast.  I've read that this is the least busy character breakfast featuring Goofy.

Spirit of Aloha and Hoop-dee-doo Revue - Every single tour book says that the two shows you can't miss are the Hoop-dee-doo musical review and the Spirit of Aloha shows.  Both are said to have cheesy, yet fun, shows, and both are said to have some fine chow.

Biergarten - Over the last 10 years I've discovered that German food is one of my favourite cuisines.  Most people don't realize how tasty German food is, and I'm hoping that the Biergarten will give me some tasty nibbles.

House of Blues Gospel Brunch - Many of the big restaurants at Downtown Disney get a lot of slack for being disappointing.  The Earl of Sandwich and Raglan Road are two places that do fairly well, but I've been reading that a gospel brunch at the House of Blues is a must see event.

Flame Tree - I can't tell you how many times I've read that the best BBQ in Disney is found at the Flame Tree restaurant.  Since Allison is a BBQ fanatic, we pretty much can't avoid eating here.  I've also heard that Animal Kingdom doesn't have too many other tasty food options, so we may have to eat there more than once.

Boma - I can't say I've ever really experienced that much African food.  I've sampled a few things, but Boma looks like a great opportunity to sample even more.  I also think that they have a buffet, which will give me plenty of opportunity to sample new things that I may not have had the nerve to order.

Disney Blogs I'm Reading

Over the last few months I've started to regularly read a few Disney blogs.  These blogs are informative, detailed, and give some great tips on how to enjoy your Disney trip a little better.  Keep in mind that many of these blogs do offer spoilers, but for the most part they're just very helpful.

Disney Tourist Blog

The Disney tourist blog is your opportunity to follow Tom and Sarah, two Disney fanatics from Indiana. They've visited all of the parks all over the world, with Disney World being their favourite. This is a fairly unbiased blog, particularly in the early entries. The great thing about these two is they truly seem to have fun when they explore the parks. Tom will very often get into his photography on this blog, which can be good or bad depending on your interest on the subject. Frankly I find this blog to be one of the most entertaining blogs on the subject of Disney world, and Tom and Sarah are the two bloggers I'd most like to meet in person.

The World According To Jack

Jack is a details man. He examines every nook and cranny of Disney World with the greatest detail possible. Jack has written pages and pages about the various types of cement used in Disney World. Needless to say if you want to know everything about certain details of the parks, this is the blog for you. While Jack has every detail covered, he is a little dry to read. While he attempts to interject a little humour into his blogs, the amount of detail just makes it fairly dry anyways. Not that it's a bad blog; it's just very detailed and can often give you more information than you might need.

Disney Food Blog

As you might imagine the focus of this site is fairly specific. The thing is, on our trip we will have to eat, often I imagine, so this information can be useful. This blog covers food from all of the parks, and it covers them as if the food is as important as the attractions. The only fault I find in this blog is the inconsistency in the writing. Sometimes you read a post that is clear and full of detail, and then you'll read a post that just doesn't tell you anything. After following this blog for a little while I've started to edit what I read based on the subject and the authors.

Disney Parks Blog

Much like its accompanying YouTube channel, the Disney Parks Blog is a great source of accuracy, but doesn't give that much information. First of all you won't be reading anything speculative here at all, since anything released on this blog becomes official. You also don't tend to get any negative feedback from anything at the parks either. The blogs however are generally well written and any photos are high quality.

Disney Shawn

Shawn is a former Disney employee that worked as an Imagineer writing concepts for attractions. In many cases he has the inside scoop on the concepts proposed for attractions, and explains them in detail. He doesn't really focus on “news" as much as the stories depicted on the attractions. His writing is easy to read, and often doesn't give away secrets as much as enhances the story. The only fault I can really complain about this blog is that there isn't more.

Disney movies we plan to watch

The concepts that make up Disney world aren't pulled out of thin air. In fact almost every detail of the parks are inspired from Disney products, culture, or in some cases history. Disney world attaches a story to every aspect of the theme park, all inspired by various areas. To get the most of these references I thought it would be a good idea to catch up on some of our Disney content. To fully appreciate every single detail you probably have to watch every single thing Disney has ever produced, but that's just not realistic at all. Instead Allison and I decided to go through the list of Disney movies and cartoons and pick out which ones might be most relevant.

We're also going to ad a few episodes of the twilight zone to this list to better understand the tower of terror. Fortunately many of the websites I've been reading explain where many of the details of the park originated, so picking what to watch seems simple enough. We're also going to have to start keeping up with current Disney movies as well, since they often ad attractions based on current media.

Here's our list so far, many of these movies and shows we're fairly familiar with, but it doesn't hurt to update our memories. Some of this stuff is brand new to us and should be interesting to see.

Swiss Family Robinson
Lady and the Tramp
Cinderella
Snow White
Brave
Pinochio
Reluctant Dragon
Dumbo
The Three Caballeros
Song of the South
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Treasure Island
Alice in Wonderland
Peter Pan
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
Sleeping Beauty
One Hundred and One Dalmatians
The Absent-Minded Professor
The Sword in the Stone
The Jungle Book
The Aristocats
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
Robin Hood
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
The Rescuers
Pete's Dragon
The Fox and the Hound
The Black Cauldron
The Great Mouse Detective
Oliver & Company
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
The Little Mermaid
DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp
Beauty and the Beast
The Mighty Ducks
Aladdin
The Adventures of Huck Finn
The Lion King
A Goofy Movie
Pocahontas
Tom and Huck
James and the Giant Peach
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
A Bug's Life
Tarzan
Monsters, Inc.
The Country Bears
Finding Nemo
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
The Haunted Mansion
Home on the Range
The Incredibles
Chicken Little
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Meet the Robinsons
Ratatouille
Bolt
The Princess and the Frog
Toy Story 3
Tangled
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Cars 2
Wreck-It Ralph
Monsters University
The Lone Ranger
Planes

Sweet Treats I Want To Try

There are several specific treats I want to sample on this epic Disney trip.  As you might imagine, if you're familiar with my other website candycritic.org, many of the must have foods I want to try are sweet. There are a few savoury snacks I'd like to sample as well, but I'll talk about those later on.

The first treat I want to try is the legendary Dole Whip.  Having said that I'm not even really sure what a Dole Whip is.  All I know about the Dole Whip is it's some kind of pineapple based ice cream dessert/drink.  If you research the Dole Whip online, you'll quickly realise that many people are obsessed with them.  In fact you may have a hard time finding any negative reviews for them at all.

The next treat worth mentioning is something called Skool Bread.  Similar to the Dole Whip it's very popular amongst Disney fans, and also similarly I have no idea what it really is.  I know that it's a popular Danish dessert, but that's obvious because the only place it's available is at the Danish pavilion at EPCOT.  It seems to be some kind of cream filled pastry, and that can't be bad.

Mickey Mouse ice cream sandwiches are another treat I don't want to miss.  Other than the shape there doesn't seem to be anything special about these, but I give high marks for treat themes.

Other than these specific treats there are a few general treat categories I plan to explore.  I hear that Disney makes some pretty tasty cupcakes all over the parks, so I'm sure I'll sample at least one of those.  I'm also interested in trying a few of the many ice cream snacks available, in particular I'd be interested in the Kitchen Sink sundae.

I think I have little to worry about when it comes to finding sweet treats at Disney World; I do have to worry about how I'm going to manage to sample them all.