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?

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.

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.

3 Days In Disney Paris - Day 3

Our last day at Disney Paris went somewhat like we'd expected.  The plan from the start was to have one day at the Disney Studios Park, one day at Disneyland Paris, and have a third day to ride anything we'd missed or anything we wanted to ride twice.  The real surprise to us on this day was the fact that we spent more time at the Studios Park than we did at Disneyland.  With all of the negative reviews we'd read about the Studios Park we expected that we might not even need a full day there, instead we found ourselves spending most of our extra time there.

The morning however was dedicated to Disneyland.  This is mostly because of the Extra Magic Hours. The highlight of this morning's Extra Magic Hours was actually moving around the park.  When we arrived at the foot of Main Street USA, I discovered a patty wagon parked at the side of the road.  I had read that some of the vehicles at Disneyland didn't really have a particular stopping point, but if you saw them parked you could just wave them down.  I asked the nice cast member hanging around the patty wagon if we could get a lift. He said "sure" and adventure began.  We sat at the back and watched all of the folks walking up Main Street.  It was so much fun.

We wandered around the park for a little while, rode Buzz Lightyear's Space Rangers Spin, and then at the gift shop we discovered something we really needed, flipflops. Our next stop on our trip was to Paris, and we had reservations at a Youth Hostel.  We forgot to pack our flipflops, and we had been keeping an eye out for them our whole stay at Disney.  Finally we found a pair and we were overjoyed.  Then things went bad.  The person checking us out forgot that we wanted the flipflops delivered to our room.  He went through the whole process and handed us our bag.

This was a problem for us since we had plenty more walking around to do that day.  We reminded him that we wanted them sent to our room.  He said he forgot, and he had to get a manager to see if they could fix it.  The manager eventually arrived and he said that since the sale went through, he couldn't do it.  He was really rude and we were very unhappy.  Our plan was to head over to the studios next, so we decided to visit the customer service office at the front of Disneyland.  We explained our story to the nice man there, and he said that this was unacceptable.  He then made arrangements for our purchase to be delivered, and then he made our sucky morning turn into a fantastic morning.  He told us as an apology for this problem, we could have a Fast Pass for any ride for any ride (excluding a few) in the either park.  Since Ratatouille was one of the exceptions, we chose Thunder Mountain.

So we knew we would get a daytime ride on Thunder Mountain later that day.  Our next step was to head over to the Disney Studios and get a normal fast pass for Ratatouille, the only other ride we really wanted to ride on a second time.  We got the fast pass after about a 45 minute lineup, and hung out at the studios for a while.  While hanging out waiting for our fast pass we rode the Slinky Dog ride, checked out the interactive Stitch show, took all kinds of fun picture, and were really reminded how much fun we've had at the Disney Studios Park.  Sure there are a bunch of Disney aficionado who really hate this park, but for our trip it was really great.

After our ride on Ratatouille and a great visit to the Disney Studios Parks, we headed back to Disneyland to ride Thunder Mountain. It was as great in the day as it was at night.  We then waited in line for the railroad, which had had really long lines every day we'd visited the park. We certainly didn't want to skip this classic Disney attraction, and we were really happy to ride around the park on our last day reminiscing about our fun time at Disney. After our railway adventure we had a bit of a conundrum.  We didn't really know what we wanted to do last.  There were a few rides we'd skipped, because we just weren't that interested.  One such ride was the Autopia.

We thought since we were heading on a road trip right after this Disney adventure that the Autopia would be a little silly.  Allison however thought that since she was doing all of the driving for the road trip, it was only right that I drive her around a little bit.  We got to our car and the fun began.  I don't think we stopped laughing once during the entire drive around the track.  It was the perfect last ride on our visit to two really fun Disney parks.

3 Days In Disney Paris - Day 1

Phase one of our Disney adventure is over, and it was a fantastic.  As you may or may not know, the aim of this blog was to write about our adventures planning, and executing a trip to Disney World in Florida.  Life got in the way, and we had to delay our trip by a couple of years.  Then, life presented us an opportunity to get a taste of the Disney adventure before we headed to Florida. As it turns out, we were going to be near Paris France, and we had a couple of days to do something fun.  We decided that we would test out the European Disney waters.  This was not going to be replacing our Disney World adventure, instead it would serve as an appetizer.

We arrived extremely late to our hotel, the Sequoia Lodge.  It was a bit of a walk in the cool French air to get to our hotel, but once we arrived we found our lodgings to be spectacular.  First of all they set up our bed with all kinds of chocolate coins, and letters wishing us a happy anniversary (it was our 10th). We also discovered that we had a balcony, and it was huge.  It was big enough for 3 rooms worth of balconies, but it was all ours.  We put away everything we could, and instantly fell asleep knowing we had a busy day the next morning.

The weather on the first day of this Paris adventure was not going be in our favour.  On this first day rain was in the forecast, and rain is what we got.  It wasn't so rainy that it stopped us from visiting the parks, but it was a little bit grey.  We had a plan for this first day however, since every day of this trip extra magic hours were taking place in the morning at Disneyland, we decided that even if we were going to the Disney Studios Park we'd spend the first few hours at Disneyland going on the hard to get on attractions.

After a bit of research, I learned that one of the longest, and slowest, line ups in the entire park was for Peter Pans Flight.  Apparently it has something to do with ride capacity problems.  So on our first day we figured it would be best to get this ride out of the way.  Even coming near the beginning of extra magic hours, the line for this ride was pretty long, about 30 minutes, but it was well worth it, a great way to start this trip.

After our quick stop in Disneyland we headed straight over to Disney Studios and went for our first fast pass, Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy.  This was the newest ride in all of Paris Disney, and is known to have legendary long lines (2 or 3 hours).  We managed to pick up a fast pass for a later that afternoon, and it was well worth it.  The rest of the studios was fairly quite, with only a few short lines here and there.  Allison even manged to get on the Rockin' Rollercoaster with only a 10 or 20 minute wait.  We managed to get into almost every attraction we wanted, and those that we didn't manage were shows that just didn't fit into our schedule later on.

The highlight of the day however was Ratatouille: L’Aventure Totalement Toquée de Rémy, the newest gem in this park, and one of the only rides we took on twice (the second ride being on our last day). It was technically fantastic, and so detailed any Disney fan could only love it.  One thing that really surprised me after this first day was how much people on the internet really dislike this park.  Most people call it a half day park, and say that other than a few shows, and this new Ratatouille ride, it's not really worth it.  Allison and I enjoyed ourselves a whole lot at the Studios Parks, and as you'll see in the 3rd installment of this blog series, it was the park we visited most.

Our first day was also when we came across a problem that many people have at both of these parks, bad food options.  While our lunch was fine, our dinner was a huge disappointment.  I'd read on the internet that Paris Disney had pretty lousy options for food, I was blown away at how lousy they were.  It's not that there are no restaurants, it's just that so many of them have really bad food.  Our first dinner was at the Steak House in the Disney Village, and it was pretty bad.  We came when it was very slow, yet our food took forever, our sever left and didn't come back the whole night (we had to ask another server if we could pay him instead) and the steaks were pretty horrible.

Fortunately this didn't damper our day at all, particularly since we were expecting bad food.  After riding the Tower of Terror one last time, we decided to call it a night.  We were completely drained, from the lack of sleep the night before and the huge amount of walking all day, but happy.  We went to bed ready for our day at Disneyland.

Stay tuned next week for part two of our Disney adventure.

Final Prep For Disney Paris

The days are counting down, and we're getting really close to our Paris Disney experience.  I'm starting to get hit with waves of excitement, but I'm also getting hit with waves of "what did I forget". Here's how we stand right now.

Plan first Fast Pass of each day - At this point we know which rides are going to be open, what events are happening, and what the Extra Magic Hours schedule is.  I've also read a lot about the popular, and less popular rides.  We have a general idea about which attractions we want to ride, but that's still very loose.  We're starting to think, which very popular rides do we really want to ride.  What's going to be our run immediately to it Fast Pass?  I have a few ideas, but I still think that once we walk into the parks, I'll lose myself in the magic and forget everything.

No more calls to the park - We are booked, we have a room, and we are not calling the park anymore.  We didn't really have a problem with this, but every once in a while I'm tempted to call and ask them a question.  I've officially decided that I'm not going to call the park for sure... %100... not going to happen...

No food reservations - This was something we had been thinking about for a while.  Did we want to pay extra for a fancy meal, or do we just want counter service places, and only try to book a restaurant if we feel in the mood at the time, and let fate decide.  Since Disney only the first part of a bigger trip, we figured that we might want to go fancy somewhere else on the trip, and not some place where fancy was twice the price of regular fancy.  We're also craving some of the simpler foods that are on offer at the counter service restaurants.  Where we live now doesn't really offer us this kind of thing, and I think that would make us much happier.

What to pack - What to pack on a trip is a huge problem for me.  In my head I lean towards too much, but when I actually pack I tend to slim down a lot.  At this point I'm building a pile of stuff for this trip, but I'm pretty sure that some of it will get left behind.

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.

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.

Making A Reservation Online VS Phone

After reading a few websites, and checking out a few travel reviews, Allison and I were prepared to get started on actually making reservations for our stay at Disneyland Paris.  One of the best sites that seemed to give a candid review of the hotels in the Disney Paris resort area is the Disney Tourist blog. Our first bit of research we focused on how important it was for us to stay on property VS staying off property.  Staying on property at Disney Paris has many of the same benefits that you get as staying on property at Disney World.  Proximity to the parks is the best advantage, since one of the hotels is actually part of the entrance to one of the parks.  There's also the extra magic hours, these allow you to come to the park early or stay late if you're staying on property.  The only real disadvantage is price, but since we're only staying at Disney for a few days, we figured it was worth the money.

We made a list of the hotels we wanted to stay at listing our preferred down to our least preferred.  Our first choice was the Sequoya Lodge, followed by the New York Hotel. We then went to the Disneyland Paris website ready to make our reservations.  The first thing we noticed about the site was that it doesn't really allow for any flexibility as far as staying at the hotel and getting tickets to go to the parks.  After a quick phone call we learned that if you're staying at one of the hotels the ticket is attached to the price of the room, and you can't separate it.  This is fine, most of the time, but if you're arriving late or have to leave early it might mean paying for a day at the park that you cannot use. So we adjusted our schedule, and proceeded. We managed to pick our first choice of hotel, the Sequoya Lodge, for the days we wanted, but every time Allison tried to pay, she got an error message.  The error messages were both nerve wracking and annoying, so Allison decided to call the reservation number to try and figure out what went wrong, this was the best decision of the night.

Allison called the reservation line and a lovely lady picked up the phone.  Allison explained the situation and instantly the lovely lady on the other end discovered that due to this error and our many attempts to fix it, we had booked the trip twice.  It took a bit of working through things over the phone, but it was fixed and our trip was locked down, but this wasn't the only part of the conversation.  While waiting for the mess to get cleaned up, the lovely operator went over some of the details of our trip with Allison on the phone.  She didn't really try to sell anything else, but instead gave us some valuable information. She informed Allison about all of the ride and park closures that would be happening while were there.  She also got into a conversation with Allison and managed to find out it was are anniversary trip.  She asked if there was anything else she could do to make our anniversary more special.  Allison told her that we liked extra pillows, which we do.

I'm not saying that we're going to get anything special when we get there, and there's no need really, but it was really nice of her to offer.  Allison actually stayed on the phone with the nice lady for a while, she was a fountain of information, and she really put us at ease about our trip plans.  We went from being fairly excited about this trip, to being really excited, all because of this lady on the phone.

Since the call we've received all of the notification that our problem has been fixed, and that our trip is ready to go.  After this experience my best advice to anybody planning a trip to Disney Paris is call to make your reservation.  The website is just not that great (either for reservations or for information), but the folks answering the phones are fantastic.  While the operators may answer the phone in French, many are multilingual, and so far all of them have spoken English.  Best of all, if Allison did try and communicate in French, they didn't stop her.  They would just slow down and let her practice her French.

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 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.

Anniversary

The main point of making this trip to Disney World is to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.  Normally for our anniversary we like to buy ourselves one shared gift that lines up with the appropriate material for that anniversary.  For example, for our eighth anniversary we bought copper pans, because the eighth anniversary is copper.  The 10th anniversary material is emerald, and frankly we can't think of anything either one of us would want containing an emerald.  So Disney was the perfect second option.

I've been doing some research on celebrating anniversaries at Disney World, and there are plenty of options.  The first and most important thing to do is make sure you tell someone at your hotel, or guest relations, that it's your anniversary.  Apparently they'll give you a pin that will tell the world you're celebrating an event.  While we're not really interested in cashing this in for freebies, we are curious about the kind of attention we might get.

If you're even more committed to celebrating you can order special room decorations for when you arrive.  I've checked them out online and most of the anniversary set ups are kind of tacky, and very over priced.  A few of the other event gifts look interesting, but they're still horribly over priced.

Disney also keeps suggesting that we do something grown up, like dinning with candlelight or visiting a spa.  I think we might consider one of these options since a little romance is always nice.  Our main goal however is to have a character breakfast on our anniversary morning with Goofy.

Youtube Channels of Note - Part 3 - WDW Radio

WDW Radio - WDW Radio is a YouTube channel where you follow Lou Mongello, an exceptional Disney World fan, on his fact finding missions about the Disney World.  Lou has two themes to his posts on YouTube.  One of themes we see Lou wandering around the parks checking out new attractions or pointing out some tips.  In the other theme he's sitting behind a microphone talking about the latest Disney World news.

WDW Radio is a pretty positive look at the Disney parks, Lou Mongello doesn't often have anything bad to say about the parks, and when he does, he often glides over it with little detail.  The segments where he walks around the parks are by far my favourites, however the news segments are very informative.  The only real fault to this YouTube channel is the constant reminding that he has other websites, books and merchandise available for sale.  Thought I can't fault him considering the amount of free information he provides.

Our First Day

Allison asked me on one of our "talk about Disney walks", what the first thing I want to do when we get into Disney World. She's not asking me to plan our first day out, she wants to know what I plan to do in the first hour right after we check in. This is a difficult question to answer for two reasons, first of all we're showing up before check-in, and secondly because there's so many options when it comes to things to do.

Our plan is to spend the night before our first day about an hour or two away from the park. This way we get an extra day at the parks and we don't have to pay for the more expensive Disney hotel. So our plan is to drive into the parks around 10 am and get the ball rolling, the problem is check in time for the hotel isn't until mid afternoon. This means that we might have to give our bags to the front desk and head out on our adventure before unpacking and settling in our room.

The second problem, of there being too much to do, doesn't seem like such a big deal now, but I imagine the minute we get through the Disney gates we're going to be like really excited puppies. We'll have no attention span, and we're going to have a hard time focusing on anything. So everything is going to look shiny and fun, and picking that first thing might be overwhelming. This might be a reason that thinking about our first thing before we get there is a good idea.

So here's my answer, Allison feel free to comment: If we get our room right off the bat, then I think we should take our bags to our room, get into our bathing suits, and jump into the hotel pool. Our hotel of choice (currently the Yacht and Beach Club) has an awesome pool, with an awesome slide. This will allow us to literally dip our toes in the waters of Disney fun a little slower. If the hotel room is not ready yet, and we have to lock our bags up until the room is ready, I think some kind of sweet treat is in order. Maybe a walk to the Boardwalk and a funnel cake would be tasty, or maybe just an ice cream cone. This will again get us going before visiting our first park.

We've decided that most likely our first park will be Disney Studios, but that'll happen more than an hour after we get there.

Disney's Latest Technologies

Since we stated to plan this epic vacation, I've decided to keep abreast of all of the latest news out of Disney about Disney World.  One of the key things that Disney seems to be focusing on is interaction.  Most notably they seem to be attempting to incorporate modern technology towards making planning your trip easier.  While a few of these new ideas sound great, many of them are making me a little worried.

Most notably are the restaurant reservations and fast pass reservations.  As I understand it Disney is looking to make it possible to make reservations online for both restaurants and fast pass rides.  This will allow people to plan out their trip to the minute, before even leaving home.  You might even be able to order your food and pick a table long before you leave for Florida.  How about knowing that at 3:30 pm on the third day of your trip, you'll be able to ride the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror?  While the technology of this is interesting to me, the actual idea of planning my trip that far in advance sounds terrible.

I'm very worried that the Disney technology is going to take all of the spontaneity out of our epic adventure.  It seems like they're designing the parks for those people that come again and again, and not for those of us that only want an occasional visit at most.  It seems like you'll have to be in the know if you want to see something cool.

Imagineering Dream

Ever since I started studying animation, I've always thought about the idea of working for Disney.  I never wanted to be a Disney animator, or any end of the television and film production. Strangely enough that's the one area I have had a little experience.  The area I've always wanted to work would be the Imagineers.  I've even stated to every employer that I've ever had, if the Imagineers wanted to hire me, I'd quite my current job in a second. I've never actually tried to get a job with the Imagineers, but I have thought about applying.

The Imagineers are the people at Disney that design the theme parks.  They're the people that hide all of the treasures, and work on every little detail.  They not only think about the grand scheme of the park, but also the parts that you don't realize you're looking at.  If I was to ever work for the Imagineers, I think I would enjoy working on the little details more than the big picture. These are the elements that I look at when I visit any Disney Park.  Sometimes I even look in the wrong place (like backwards) on a Disney ride just to see if they thought about every detail.  I have on a few occasions seen a dark square or fire exit, but I've also been surprised a few times too.

When I lose myself in the Disney parks, it's not always in the story; sometimes I lose myself in the magic and the magicians as well.

Do You Love A Parade?

I'm of mixed opinions when it comes to Disney parades.  I want to participate in the fun times, dance with characters, listen to music, and see cool floats.  However I know that the parades are also the best time to visit popular rides because so many people watch the parades.  When I've visited Disney in the past I've always gone for the idea of not seeing the parades and going on the rides when the crowds are thinned out, but maybe this trip I might want to try something a little different.

I want this visit to be more than just a re-hash of my past visits, and I think watching a parade and getting into the parade spirit might be a great way to mix it up a bit.  I do find the idea of lining up for the parade up to an hour before it starts a little daunting.  But we're planning 8 days at the park, and I think it might be worth the wait to see at least one parade.  The next question is which parades are worth seeing and which ones are worth a miss.

I'm thinking that the Magic Kingdom probably has the best line-up of parades.  Most of all I want to see the Spectral Magic parade at night if it's still running.  I might also be up for something filled with characters and street dancing during the day.  Animal Kingdom is probably the place I'm least likely to want to see the parade.  It's a jungle themed parade with the main Disney characters, and it just doesn't float my boat.

Visiting Every Attraction

When you first start planning an "epic" Disney vacation, the thought that goes through your mind is how to arrange visiting every single attraction in all of the parks.  Then you start to go through the list of attractions and find some that just aren't your cup of tea. In my case the Teacups because they make me barf.  At this point, with about 80% of the rides on your mind, you start to think about strategies, what routes to take, what fast passes to pick up when, and how busy it might be.  Then doubt starts to sink in, like what to do if it rains one day, or what happens if a particular ride is closed for repairs while you're there.  This spirals into panic, and all of a sudden your fun Disney World vacation is just nerve wracking.

I've consulted a few websites and guidebooks on this subject, and you really start to get mixed messages.  Most sites and guidebooks recommend highly against trying to do everything in every park.  They all recommend taking it easy, and taking breaks at some point every day.  They call running non-stop "going commando", a poor term considering its other meaning.  Then, these same books and websites will give you a list of attractions you "can't miss".  This list is long, and often the rides listed are the most popular.  So what I get from these guidebooks and websites is, take it easy, it's your vacation, but you'd be a fool to miss (insert the name of just about half of the attractions in all of the parks).

Allison and I are then left with a decision, do we go breakneck or go slow.  The leaning is to slow down, since it's our vacation, but use the time wisely.  In other words, check out as many cool attractions as possible, but know that we won't do everything.  Plan enough to know where everything can be found, but don't plan a route till the day comes.  Know that we're going to visit each and every park, but don't choose which days we're going until we get there.  Enjoy more than just the attractions; enjoy the environment, the people around us, and the whole Disney vibe.

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom, the newest park in Walt Disney World, is more than just a bunch of rides with cool themes.  Animal Kingdom is also a zoo.  Disney themselves have been trying to encourage people not to refer to it as a zoo, but I think it's because people somehow associate zoos with boredom.  Personally the idea of Disney building a zoo sounds fantastic.  Since it is Disney you can only assume that it's not just going to be a traditional zoo.  You know it's going to be something pretty awesome.

I think I'm most interested in seeing how they deal with the animals at Animal Kingdom.  I've been told that it has some of the best animal enclosures in the world, and I can't imagine that they don't theme everything perfectly.  After the animals I think I'm most looking forward to Expedition Everest.  This ride is getting a lot of hype right now, and everything I've seen about it looks great.  I'm a little worried about getting woozy on it, but Disney's pretty good about making smooth rides that even I can generally handle.

Of the research I've been doing, it doesn't really seem like Animal Kingdom has the greatest food.  The only exception seems to be the Flame Tree Barbecue that serves up some awesome sounding meals that I think will make a perfect choice for lunch.  The Yak and Yeti might be an OK choice for dinner, or we may take this opportunity to leave the park and head over to Jiko at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.

The only show that I think is a must see at this point is It's Tough to Be a Bug, located in a theatre below the giant Tree of Life.  I've read that it's the only Disney show ever to have been released the same time as the movie.  If time permits, I may also be interested in seeing the Finding Nemo show as well, since it's a puppet show and puppet shows can be really fun.

Of all the parks in Disney World, Animal Kingdom is the only one that I've never visited before.  My last visit happened about year before the doors opened, so there was lots of speculation, but I couldn't see much. I do however remember visiting Blizzard Beach on my last visit and climbing to the top of Summit Plummet.  From that vantage point you could see them working on the Tree of Life at Animal Kingdom.  It's been a few years since I've visited Disney World, so I'm looking forward to seeing this newest addition.