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.

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.

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!

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 2

Day two in the Disney Paris parks and we once again decided to take advantage of extra magic hours.  This time we didn't have a particular plan on which attraction we wanted to ride, unlike day one where we knew we wanted to ride Peter Pan's flight.  We had a few ideas about the rides that were extremely popular, but we figured we could just wing it.  Our lack of plan turned out to be a bad idea.

Our second day of extra magic hours started out great, in fact one of the highlights of the trip happened on in the first few minutes of our second day.  We started our day venturing up Main Street USA in Disneyland.  Our plan was to head towards Fantasy Land and figure out where we wanted to go from there.  On our way up Main Street we noticed something going on in a tucked away corner, there were a few people that appeared to be hanging out.  We stopped for a second to see what they were up to, and as it turns out they were there to see Goofy.  There was almost no line at all, and within minutes we were hanging out with our favorite character.

After hanging out with Goofy our morning slowed down considerably.  We had a reservation to have breakfast in Fantasy Land.  We were pretty excited about this since our hotel breakfasts were OK but nothing spectacular. We figured a breakfast in the park must be awesome, but we couldn't have been more wrong.  There was nothing additional to our breakfast in Fantasy Land, No characters to greet us, no fun new foods to try, nothing new at all.  In fact the breakfast selection was actually less than what the hotel provided.  The only thing this breakfast provided was incentive to get out of bed early, but after eating there that morning, the incentive was gone.

We had grand plans of checking out all of the lands and all of the hard to get on rides during our Extra Magic Hours, but unfortunately the only land that was open was Fantasy Land, and many of the rides in Fantasy Land were closed.  So other than a few dark rides everything stayed closed during the Extra Magic hours, a complete waste of time. We decided to take this time to just wander around around and explore what we could.  As soon as the gates to the closed areas opened we were off to enjoy our day of adventure.

We did all of the classic rides including Pirates of the Caribbean, It's a Small World, and Alice's Curious Labyrinth.  We also spent a great deal of time exploring Adventure Island where we found all kinds of fun bridges and caves to explore.  Allison rode on the Indiana Jones roller coaster, and was fairly disappointed.

Our lunch was both extremely disappointing and wonderful all at the same time.  We went to Casey's Corner where they sell giant hot dogs with insane toppings.  The quality of these hot dogs was kind of questionable, but the craziness and quantity of toppings was superb.  We went with a foot long hot dog covered in cheese and crunchy onions.  It was wonderfully insane.

We enjoyed a few more attractions during the afternoon, and then we headed to the Disney village for a meal at what would turn out to be the culinary highlight of our trip.  This time it was an all you can eat Tex-Mex buffet at La Grange at Billy Bob's.  I'm sure many people wouldn't be impressed by simple Tex-Mex, but since Allison and I haven't been living in a western country for a while, it was just what we needed.  The food was nice and fresh, the variety was insane, and best of all they have a section for adults.  It was a little crazy in the rest of the restaurant, but in the adult section it was a little nicer.  After filling our stomachs, we headed back to Disneyland to enjoy a bit of the nightlife.

The evening in the park was probably our favorite time.  We spent most of the evening exploring Frontierland.  When we first arrived it looked as though many of the attractions were closed due to lack of people around, but we couldn't be more wrong.  We started out with a ride on Thunder Mountain, which we had to wait for a little while, but it was great themeing all throughout the lineup.  After Thunder Mountain we wandered towards the Haunted Manor.

This was the part of Frontierland we thought was completely closed because no one was in sight at all.  There was no one in line for the Haunted Manor, so we were convinced it was closed.  We decided that we would check out the area around the Haunted Manor to check out the graveyards and creepy grounds surrounding the mansion. The grounds around the Haunted Manor were completely empty, and this added such a creepy feel.  It was dark and scary, and I had many a shiver down my spine.  As we walked back up towards the exit of the graveyard we noticed a few cast members hanging out around the entrance to the Haunted Manor.  We asked them if it was in fact open, and they said yes.  We made our way up the path to the attraction completely on our own.  Eventually a few other people showed up, but there was no more than 10 people on the ride the same time as us.  It was magical.

After our creepy adventure we decided that this would be the end of our day, and while watching the fireworks over the castle we headed back to the hotel.

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.

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.

Why Americans Hate Paris Disney

While researching our Disney Paris trip I've noticed one thing that keeps coming up, Americans really don't seem to like this theme park.  I've read many blogs, watched many videos, and gone through many tourist sites, and I've found that Americans really don't like this park at all.  The most obvious thing I've noticed is that there are very few Disney fan websites that have any mention of this place.  A few might put it on their list of places to go, but mostly only if they want to visit every single Disney park.  Most sites list Tokyo as the park they'd rather visit first.  Disney Paris seems to really have a cloud hanging over it, and it really seems to be scaring off the foreign tourists.

If we look at the people who have traveled to Disney Paris, many of them said that they consider Disneyland Paris (the Magic Kingdom part of the park) to be one of the most beautiful of the Disney park.  However, many of them seem to point out a few flaws that really turn them off.  The biggest complaint I hear is that the food is really bad.  I've often read comparisons to the food they could have eaten in Paris, and how disappointed they are about the fact that Disney Paris has nothing to offer for French foods. I also hear a lot of complaining about smoking, and general crowd politeness.  I've been told that people smoke everywhere, even though there are designated smoking areas.  I've also heard a lot about line cutting for attractions.

While I haven't been to the park yet, I did live in Europe for 4 years and I've traveled around a lot, and I have a theory.  Disney Paris is not for you (Americans).  Do you really think that Disney built a park halfway around the world so you can travel there?  If you think that this park is having financial troubles now, if they actually designed the park for American tourists only, they would have been out of business years ago.  France is one of the biggest tourist destinations for Europeans; this is why this park was built.  This is a park for Europeans to get a taste of the American park without having to fly overseas. And much like the France pavilion at Epcot, this American style theme park is designed to give Europeans a taste of the USA, changed to suit their pallet.

Why would a French person take the train from Paris for up to an hour, only to eat French food?  They want to come out to the park to experience American food.  Why are the guests "different" than the guests at Disney World?  Because they're European people, with different cultures and different lifestyles.  I guarantee that Europeans that travel to Disney World or Disneyland are equally shocked by some of the strange things you do.  Smoking in Europe is looked at very differently than it is in the USA (and Canada), crowd control is also very different.

I'm not saying that Americans should not visit Paris Disney, in fact I think it's a great addition to any European vacation. Just don't expect it to be an extended version of the France pavilion at Epcot mixed with all the American values and rules you have and Disneyland and Disney World.  Disney has built this park to bring in European travelers, to give them a taste of Disney suited to their pallet. This is a park that represents the American dream, but in a way that Europeans see it.

Disney Paris An Overview

A little over a year ago I announced that our trip to Disney World was going to be postponed for a few years.  Just to bring you up speed Allison and I at the time lived in Greece and thought that we would be returning home soon.  As it turns out Allison got another assignment and we weren't going to be near North America, so we decided to push back our epic Disney World adventure till we got back.  Then, a few months ago it came to light that Allison and I would actually be really close to Paris France at the time of our anniversary, and we then thought it would be really cool to head to Paris Disney instead.  We did a bit of research, but only recently can we officially say that the trip is on.  So for the next few weeks' I'm going to write a bit about planning our trip to the happiest place in Europe.

If you're not familiar with the Disney parks in Paris, then today I'm going to bring you up to speed... or at least up to the speed that I am at.  The Disney park in Paris opened as Euro Disney back in 1992, but has since changed its name to Disneyland Paris.  The park was an absolute flop when it opened, and has continued to garner the reputation as being an economic failure.  Since I'm not an economist I'm not really sure if that's true, but as a tourist I can tell you that it's still open, and still updating attractions regularly.  Most people assume that the park consists only of one Disneyland like park, but that is also not true.  There are in fact two parks Disneyland Paris and Disney Studios.  There are also several Disney hotels (themed around American style locations) and a Downtown Disney place for entertainment and restaurants.

While the park doesn't have the history of Disneyland in California, or the sheer size of Disney World, it still seems like a pretty fun place to check out.  It has a few attractions that are unique to the Paris parks, and there are a few classic attractions found at other parks as well.  I assume that many of the attractions will be in French, but I also assume that they're going to try and bring in outside guests, so there'll also be a few things in English as well.  It doesn't really matter to us as Allison and I both speak French fairly well.

Our plan is to visit the parks in the spring for two or three days, this works with our Anniversary, as well as other plans we have in the area.  Since we don't live in Europe or North America, our planning is all going to be done from a long distance.  This is going to be challenging I'm sure, particularly with long distance charges and time differences.  Research wise I've found a few interesting websites on the subject of Disneyland Paris:

There's the official Disneyland Paris website.  It's OK, but lacks a lot of detail.

The best site I've seen is the Disneyland Paris Guide.  Other than the regular updates (the food menus are a few years old) I would say that this is a much better site to research your trip.  It's even more professional than the actual Disneyland Paris site.

Character Central is a great site for all the parks.  While it doesn't just focus on Disneyland Paris, it at the very least looks at it.

When you search the internet for Disney parks other than Disney World or Disneyland California, you really don't get much.  Maybe I'll change that, but probably not much.

As for videos online, I've come across one video that interested me, it's a copy of the official tourist promotional DVD from 2005:



So we're off an running, for the next few weeks I'll be talking a bit more about organizing our trip, what we expect, and what I've learned about this off the beaten path Disney park.

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".

Where We Stand in The New Year

With our great life's change, the date of our Epic Disney Vacation has been delayed for a few years. Don't get me wrong, this trip is still going to happen, the change is not a financial problem, nor have Allison and I grown apart.  We've moved the date for great news, and we're not having kids either.  It's simply one of life's changes that make it geographically difficult to get to Florida for our anniversary.

The biggest change that comes with this rescheduling is the chance for a date (time of year) change as well.  The initial plan was to visit Disney World for our 10th wedding anniversary, so our date was fairly locked.  Now that we're not going to make that date for sure, we're more open to the idea of moving the time of year we're thinking of going.  September seems like a good month to go, and we could tie it into Allison's birthday.  We'll have to do a little more research on this topic now that the time of year is open.

Finally with this extension comes the realization that some of the new attractions that would not have been open yet, will be ready to visit.  The new Fantasy Land will be running at full steam, and in three years shouldn't be as busy.  Avatar Land should be finished by then as well, something I was a little disappointed that I thought I might miss.  Disney Springs should also be up and running by then, and that could influence our hotel choice, depending on what they open there.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with this blog.

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 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