October 23 – If you are looking to bling your MagicBands you can now do that right in the Magic Kingdom. The new MagicBand on Demand is located inside the Tomorrowland Light & Power Co. near Space Mountain. (Link)
Continue reading “News From the World of Disney – October 23 – November 5”
“Disney by Land, Disney by Sea” is a blog series where we discuss the pre-planning for a grand Disney Land/Sea adventure. Here are the previous issues:
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – When to Go to Disney
Part 3 – Advanced Dining Reservation
Part 4 – Cabin Switch, Paying for the trip & Online Check-in
Part 5 – Fish Extender Exchange & Port Cams
Part 6 – Another change & Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Part 7 – Counting Down and ADR Scalping
Written by Sue Nowicki
“Disney by Land, Disney by Sea” is a blog series where we discuss the pre-planning for a grand Disney Land/Sea adventure. Here are the previous issues:
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – When to Go to Disney
Part 3 – The 180th Day Massacre
Part 4 – Cabin Switch, Paying for the trip & Online Check-in
Part 5 – Fish Extender Exchange & Port Cams
Part 6 – Another change & Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party
Written by Sue Nowicki
“Disney by Land, Disney by Sea” is a blog series where we discuss the pre-planning for a grand Disney Land/Sea adventure. Here are the previous issues:
Part 1 – Introduction
Part 2 – When to Go To Disney
Part 3 – The 180th Day Massacre
Part 4 – Cabin Switch, Paying for the trip & Online Check-in
Part 5 – Fish Extender Exchange & Port Cams
Written by Sue Nowicki
WHY DO I NEED TO EXTEND A FISH?
On our upcoming Disney Cruise we have decided to join a Fish Extender Exchange. This fun gift exchange was created by guests in the early days of the cruise line. The Fish Extender Exchange name comes from the fun little holders on the side of each door which are typically used to hold your Personal Navigator, receipts and correspondences. Depending on which ship you are on and what side of the ship your stateroom is, you might have a fish, a seahorse or a starfish.
Written by Sue Nowicki
So much of the Disney news these two weeks was dominated by the happenings at D23. Make sure to check out our recap of all the amazing news that came out of D23. (Link)
Continue reading “News from the World of Disney: August 15 – August 28”
Written by Sue Nowicki
Just a short update on our planning this time. We did have a little excitement as we were able to complete our online check-in for the cruise. Woo hoo! It’s getting real.
Written by Sue Nowicki
As I mentioned in my last post, booking our Advanced Dining Reservation was less than magical.
I don’t think it’s hard to see that I am kind of an obsessive planner. Approximately 220 days prior to our vacation I know where we are staying, what parks we will be visiting each day, how we will be touring each park and where we are going to eat. Therefore, at exactly 5:55am on the 180th day I have every computer in the house and my cellphone logged into My Disney Experience to start making my Advanced Dining Reservations. If that method doesn’t work I start calling the Disney Dining phone line at 6:55am. I have ALWAYS been able to get every reservation I wanted… until now.
We have been to Walt Disney World many times. Therefore, we have been lucky enough to experience a great number of the dining options at Walt Disney World. This means the method for choosing our dining plans have changed slightly. Instead of booking two or more table service meals a day, we have old favorites we like return to and we add in 1-2 new locations each trip. Therefore, we are only planning on one table service meal each day.
This was my plan going into the 180th morning:
Monday – Rose & Crown, 8:00pm – This is an old favorite for us and holds a special place in our Disney memories. When our daughter was 5-years-old we were dining at R&C and she was picked to start Illuminations. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime magical moments. Besides the memories we come back vacation after vacation because of the great food and the amazing view of Illuminations. If you are lucky enough to get one of the coveted verandah seat you will have a front row seat for the show. And even if you aren’t selected to sit on the verandah, they have a super-secret location reserved for their guests only to watch the show. Results: Nothing available
Tuesday – Whispering Canyon Café, 6:00pm – We are planning on spending at least part of this day at Downtown Disney with lunch planned at Earl of Sandwich. (The Holiday sandwich is calling my name… can you hear it?) We thought this would be a great day to have an early evening meal in the resort. After the meal we can either hit the pool (Of course, after the required 30 minutes waiting period, Mom), maybe go to the Polynesian and watch Wishes from the beach or just simply call it a night. Results: Nothing available
Wednesday – Hollywood & Vine Fantasmic! Dinner Package – If you ask my daughter we picked the restaurant because of the pictures of the chocolate fountain on their website. We have seen Fantasmic! before but we always seem to be in the extreme stage right area even with a FastPass+. With the dinner package we will get guarantee seats in one of the center sections. RESULTS: Dinner packages not available yet.
Thursday – California Grill, 9:00pm – How can you beat the view of Wishes from that vantage point… not to mention the wine list. RESULTS: SUCCESS! We got a 9:05pm ADR.
Friday – Be Our Guest, Lunch – We will be attending Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party this day. My daughter and I have been to this restaurant while DH has not. He has to try the Grey Stuff… It’s delicious. RESULTS: NO LUCK!
I came out of the 180th day with ONE Advanced Dining Reservation. How can this be? Dejected, with my Ultimate Disney Planner title on the line, I headed to work with my head hanging low. Several of my Disney friends did their best to console me when I complained. “Don’t worry, just keep checking.” “It must be a glitch in the system.” “It’s the week BEFORE Thanksgiving, there’s no way everything can be gone?” “Try calling again?”
Here we are two month later and the bleak outcome of what I now call the ‘180th Day Massacre’ has turned into a not-so-bad plan.
Since Monday is the last day of the annual Epcot Food & Wine Festival we have decided to ‘eat our way around the world’. Recently the menus for F&W were released and there is no way I would be able to eat a sit-down dinner after eating all the tasty treats which caught my eye. As far as the view of Illuminations: We can always grab something from one of the outdoor kitchens and pull up a bench along the World Showcase Lagoon.
After checking multiple times for a Tuesday ADR at Whispering Canyon Cafe an 8:30pm reservation showed up. This wasn’t ideal but at least we would be able to eat there without a long wait. Using my friend Amy M’s advice I kept checking just in case something more suitable to our plans showed up. Lo and behold a week or so ago a 6:00pm reservation opened up. SCORE! As an added bonus the Garden Grill announced a special character breakfast featuring Chip & Dale. We were going to use Tuesday as a ‘catch up on some sleep day’ so we made a 10:00am ADR. I have been by the Garden Grill many times while making our way to Living With the Land and loved the idea of the rotating restaurant.
With the addition of this ADR and the fact that we are still planning on heading to Downtown Disney that day, we are considering cancelling our Whispering Canyon Café ADR. We have been there several times before so it’s not like we will be missing a new experience and we will probably still be full from the Holiday Sandwich from Earl of Sandwich.
Our Wednesday plans brightened as well. I guess I was always under the impression that the Fantasmic! Dinner Package reservations opened at 180 days like the rest of the reservations. Turns out that isn’t the case. In early July the Disney Parks Blog reported the dinner package was now open for booking. I immediately went over and booked the package at Hollywood & Vine for a late lunch.
There was a little twist to this when the brand new Minnie’s Holiday Dine at Hollywood & Vine opened up for reservations. Not only is this a character meal which features the characters in their holiday best including Santa Goofy, it also offers special seating for Fantasmic!. Again, I was on my computer bright and early… NOTHING. I started calling Disney Dining line at 6:55 a.m… NOTHING! Oh well, I guess we will keep our lunch reservation and keep checking to see if this opens up.
I am still hoping for some pixie-dust to get a lunch reservation at Be Our Guest on Friday but I did learned a few things from this misadventure: (1) Free dining really does have quite an impact of the availability of Advanced Dining Reservations, (2) Just keep swimming – by continuing to check we were able to get a couple of the ADRs we weren’t able to get on the 180th day, and (3) Disney really needs to get their act together BEFORE the 180th day on special dining experiences such as Candlelight Processional and Fantasmic! Dinner Package.
In the next post I will talk about a slight change we made to our Disney Cruise, how we got 8.9% off our Disney vacation and our first foray into the Fish Extender gift exchange.
Sue Nowicki splits her time between planning her next Walt Disney World vacation and being team mom to ten high-energy volleyball players where she fills the roles of secretary, navigator, treasurer, athletic trainer and team psychologist. You can follow her on Twitter @JazzinDisneyMom.
Other posts by this author:
Latest Disney News
”The Descendants” Movie Review
Disney by Land, Disney by Sea: Part 1 & Part 2
”Tomorrowland” Movie Review
Best Walt Disney World Smartphone Apps
Restaurant Review – Rose & Crown Pub & Dining Room
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa – The Way Life Should Be
A Day in the Life of Disney’s FastPass+ Service
Written by Corinne Leon
Our family loves sailing on Disney Cruise Line! We are Gold Castaway Club Members, which means we’ve sailed Disney Cruise Line more than 5 times (6 to be exact). So far, we have only experienced Caribbean and Bahamian itineraries, which is fine with us because this means that we were lucky enough to have visited Disney’s Castaway Cay each time! Once, we even did a “double dip” itinerary, which means we made TWO stops at Castaway Cay. I think that was my favourite of them all.
Castaway Cay is Disney’s private Bahamian Island and is reserved exclusively for Disney Cruise Line Guests. It’s basically an extension of the ship, as the ship is docked there all day and Guests can come and go as they please. Guests don’t even have to go back on the ship to eat, as there are 3 locations on the island to enjoy lunch. Scuttle’s Cove provides childcare on the island for the little ones, and Hideout is a cool place for teens to hang out. There are even character meet and greets and a Dance Party on Castaway Cay. The beaches are gorgeous and are furnished with plenty of chairs, loungers and umbrellas. Lifeguard towers provide life vests of all sizes. The first beach is the Castaway Family Beach, which is a short walk from the ship, or you can also get there by tram. Further down the island is Serenity Bay Beach, which is reserved for adults only.
As you may imagine, Disney Cruise Line offers dozens of activities and port adventures on Castaway Cay. As much as I’d love to describe every single one of them here, I’m only going to mention the activities and adventures that we have actually experienced.
Pretty much the very first thing we like to reserve is the Castaway Cay Getaway Package. This includes the rental of snorkel gear, an inflatable tube or raft and a bicycle. It’s a great deal and gives everyone the option of either relaxing on the beach or jumping into the lagoon to cool down a bit throughout the day.
We really enjoy the scenic bike trail that follows along an old airstrip out to a tower where you can climb to the top and see for miles! As we know, Disney is all about the details, so they have strategically placed cold water stations all along the trail. We especially enjoy the quiet road that goes behind some of the colourful cabanas all the way to the very end of the bike trail. The best time to snorkel is earlier in the day before the other swimmers and snorkelers have stirred up the sandy bottom. The water is amazingly clear then and there are plenty of colourful fish to see, as well as a few surprises and (not so) hidden Mickeys!
There is also a very cool waterslide called Pelican Plunge, which sits on a 2,400 square foot floating platform just a short swim from the shore. There are 2 separate, twisty slides, one is covered, the other is not, and both plunge you right into the lagoon! We prefer the open air one but they’re both a lot of fun!
Of course, I can’t talk about Castaway Cay without mentioning the food. Families can enjoy lunch at either Cookie’s BBQ or Cookie’s Too BBQ a little further down the beach. There is also a separate BBQ near Serenity Bay Beach. The food is very tasty with a nice selection of hamburgers, ribs, mahi mahi, fresh fruit and baked goods. Here is my husband digging right in!
Earlier that same day, my husband and I took part in the runDisney Castaway Cay 5K Race or the first time. He did very well but I think I held him back, as I had not trained very much beforehand. And, of course, the slower you are, the later (and hotter!) it gets. Nonetheless, we received our medals, purchased the requisite T-shirts, and checked that one off our Disney Bucket List!
On the more adventurous side, my daughter and I thoroughly enjoyed Parasailing! There is nothing like the feeling of “flying” high above the deep blue ocean waters with a view of our magnificent Disney Cruise ship off in the distance!
Not one for heights, my husband decided to embark on a fishing excursion, where he actually caught a small lemon shark! Catch and release is the Disney way, of course.
So, there you have a tiny glimpse into some of the wonderful experiences we have had on Disney’s Castaway Cay. Visiting this little piece of island paradise is, by far, one of the many highlights of our Disney Cruises. If all goes as planned, we are hoping to enjoy our 7th DCL cruise, a 7-night “Star Wars” themed itinerary on the Fantasy in 2016! And you just know we can’t wait to feel that nice white sand between our toes and swim in that calm clear lagoon once again! See ya later, mon!
Corinne is a busy commuter mom who works full-time in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Together with her husband and teenage daughter, they love planning their future Disney trips and cruises, always trying to add new experiences to each vacation! You can follow Corinne on Twitter @Jump4Joy8390.
Other posts by this author:
2015 Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival
New Food Trucks Park in Downtown Disney Westside
Planning a September Trip to Walt Disney World
Written by Sue Nowicki
It’s been a pretty slow time in planning my family’s Land/Sea adventure since I wrote my first post. This is typically the case when planning any type of Disney vacation. It can be easily summed up as: “Hurry up and wait.”
You hurry to book your vacation when/if the discounts come out, then you wait; you get up bright and early at 6:00am on the 180th day to make your Advanced Dining Reservation, then you wait; you are up early again to book your shore excursion, then you wait; you stay up late to make your FastPass+ selection on the 60th day, then you wait. See a pattern here?
Now that we are all booked and our ADRs are made (sort of, more on that in my next post) we are in one of those dreaded waiting period. So instead of playing Frozen Free Fall until our fingers bleed while we wait (oh, is that just me?), let’s go back in time a little. Let’s go back to our decision on when to make our trek south.
When it comes to booking any type of Disney vacation whether it be by land, by sea or both the very first decision that needs to be made is when to go. Any self-respecting Disney-obsessed vacation planner worth their salt scrutinizes the park hours, holiday & special events schedule, historical weather patterns, school calendar, horoscopes, celestial patterns, stock market trends and the Farmer’s Almanac to find the best times to visit.
We chose November because the weather is cooler, the crowds are low, the school calendar is clear and after the first weekend in November the parks and resorts are decked out in their holiday splendor. An added bonus this year is that we will be there for the last day of Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. Since we weren’t able to get the Advanced Dining Reservation we wanted for our first night in Epcot it looks like we will be taking advantage of some of the infamous outdoor kitchen. Can you say Dole Whip topped with Bacardi® Coconut Rum?
So where did we go to find all this information when deciding when to visit Walt Disney World? Well I can tell you it isn’t an easy task. Sure, we could have paid to go to a website which does the work for you but that’s too easy and takes all the fun out of it.
PARK HOURS
I am not sure why park hours are such a highly guarded secret. The official Walt Disney World website is typically the very last to post hours which is around 190-200 days before check-in. To get around this I check two different place. As is expected when you book your vacation one, two or even three years in advance no one will have hours posted yet. In that case I always check the hours for similar weeks from previous years. EasyWDW.com keeps calendars for a year so you can look back and see what the hours have been historically. The second place I look is the travel agent calendar. This is a raw listing of park hours, Extra Magic Hours and the times of major shows and parades such as Festival of Fantasy Parade, Wishes, Illuminations and Fantasmic!. These hours seem to be released about a month prior to the official hours. The best way to find these documents are to Google “Disney Travel Agent Operating Hours (Month)”. The thing to remember about the travel agent calendar is these times are definitely subject to change and often do. Currently, the travel agent calendar is posted through February 29, 2016 while the official WDW site is only available through the end of January, 2016.
It’s only when we are within a month or so if our vacation that we check the Walt Disney World website for the official hours. Last year, when checking these hours we found the several parks had actually increased their hours. Yippee for us!
HOLIDAYS & SPECIAL EVENTS
It goes without saying that if school is on vacation your area of the country Walt Disney World is busy. When are schools on vacation? Holidays and summertime. If you want to avoid crowds stay away from these times of year.
Special events such as the Magic Kingdom holiday parties, Star Wars Weekends and Epcot’s Food & Wine and Flower & Garden Festivals can also have a significant impact on not only your touring plans but when you should visit Walt Disney World.
The Magic Kingdom holiday parties are a great time to head to the Magic Kingdom. The crowds are low and wait times are minimal. We were at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party last year I never saw the wait time on Space Mountain go over 10 minutes. While the crowds at the parties are quite manageable, the daytime hours are slightly busier because regular guests and party guest are both at the park. My suggestion is if you do not have a ticket to one of the parties, stay away from the park that day.
Star Wars weekends at Hollywood Studios and the special events at Epcot are a different story, since you do not have to purchase a special ticket to attend it draws not only visitors from around the country, they draw in locals as well, especially those with annual passes.
Another thing to consider, while not a typical special event, is special offer times such as when free dining is offered. Disney is not dumb. They know that fall is typically a low time of year for crowds so what do they do in the fall… offer free dining! Ask anyone who went to Disney last fall how the crowds were when free dining was offered. They will tell you it was surprisingly busy.
WEATHER
Weather.com features a great wrap-up of precipitation and average temperature by month. While January is the coolest month of the year, November isn’t too bad at all with average highs in the upper 70’s, lows in the upper 60’s and low humidity. Being from Northern Indiana and originally Maine, I’ll take those temps over average highs in the 90’s and high humidity any day. When it comes to precipitation I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that June, July and August top the chart with average precipitation of 7.6”, 7.3” and 7.1”, respectively. November, on the other hand, has the lowest average precipitation of the year at 2.2”.
Another weather-related concern is hurricanes. Charley… Frances… Jeanne… Those names sound familiar? They would if you traveled to the Bahamas on Disney Cruise Line in 2004. These storms wreaked havoc Disney’s private island, Castaway Cay. While Disney Cruise Line is very good at having their ships circumnavigate hurricanes by switching ports and staying out of harm’s way, they can’t just pick up and move Castaway Cay. Nor can they stop the storm surge in the Caribbean which creates high waves and a rough seas.
Hurricane season is officially June 1 – November 30. The chart below, prepared by the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), shows that most tropical storms and hurricanes happen in August, September and October. While November is the 5th highest month I will take by chances.
When it comes to Walt Disney World, their hurricane policy state if a hurricane warning is issued within seven days of your arrival you can reschedule and cancel with no cancellation or change fee as long as you booked through Disney. However, if you book with a special offer such as free dining, you will not get the free dining benefit if you re-book at a different time when free dining is not offered. If your trip dates are flexible and you didn’t book using any special offers then booking during hurricane season won’t be a problem.
SCHOOL CALENDAR
Yes, I know, I am being a bad parent and taking my daughter out of school to go to Disney. However, the options to take her out during a break (Thanksgiving, Christmas & Spring Break – too busy; Summer – we were already there for a volleyball tournament) are not appealing at all. When looking at the school calendar, there are no major school functions and the week we picked is in the middle of a semester and over a month before finals. This will give her plenty of time to catch up on any missed work and prepare for finals.
Speaking of missed homework, a great advantage of my daughter’s high school is that it is in a 1:1 school district. This means each student gets an iPad. On these Ipads, the teachers can assign homework. During our vacation last year we scheduled an hour or so each day (if needed) for her to complete any homework assigned on the iPad. This worked out very well, so much so that we are even considering doing the same this year. If last year had been a disaster we would never have considered it this year.
Another thing we needed to consider was her sports schedule. She plays high school volleyball and softball as well as playing on travel teams with both of those sports and beach volleyball. High school volleyball runs June – the first weekend of November, travel volleyball starts after Thanksgiving and goes through the middle of June. High school softball starts in March and ends in May and travel softball is interspersed in there when she is available. The beach volleyball season starts in May and ends when school starts in August. That all leaves this magical week in the middle of November when she has absolutely NOTHING… except a trip to Disney.
CONCLUSION
Again, since most Walt Disney World and Disney Cruise Line vacations are scheduled years in advance you can never know what the exact weather, school calendar or park hours will be on your specific vacation. However, you can get a pretty good idea by doing a little research. Once you have all the data for the times you are considering, you and your traveling party can weigh all the factors above and make the decision that is right for you.
In my next post I will talk about booking our Advanced Dining Reservations. Let’s just say: it wasn’t very magical.
Sue Nowicki splits her time between planning her next Walt Disney World vacation and being team mom to ten high-energy volleyball players where she fills the roles of secretary, navigator, treasurer, athletic trainer and team psychologist. You can follow her on Twitter @JazzinDisneyMom.
Other posts by this author:
Latest News Post: July 17, 2015
”Tomorrowland” Movie Review
Disney by Land, Disney by Sea
Best Walt Disney World Smartphone Apps
Restaurant Review – Rose & Crown Pub & Dining Room
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa – The Way Life Should Be
A Day in the Life of Disney’s FastPass+ Service
