Category Archives: Walt Disney World

Saturday Salute – Beers of Epcot

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IMG_3008Let’s talk beer for a minute.  I follow the blog of a great guy, Nicholas (and his wife, Barbie), over at Disney Musings.  Nick likes beer – possibly even more than Raymond and I do (I know, right?).  Nick recently posted an article I really enjoyed at Tips from the Disney Divas and Devos about this year’s Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.  He also reviewed an app recently at Disney Musings called Beers and Ears:  The Beers of Walt Disney World.  What?  We LOVE the beers at Disney World – there’s an app for that?  Who knew?!?!  Thanks, Nick!  You’ve provided us with our Saturday Salute for this evening.  Beers and Ears is also a terrific blog – check it out here.

Ladies and Gentlemen.  Today’s Saturday Salute.  I bring you two beers that can be found at Disney World (and in the wilds of Louisiana and maybe at a liquor store near you)…

Sierra Nevada Torpedo Ale – per my brand new FREE Beers and Ears app:  “Torpedo is currently on the standard Walt Disney World bar menu and can be found at most table service and lounge locations.  It’s definitely one of the best beers on that menu, which makes it a good choice when you’re at a location with the shared menu and not much else.”

Kirin Ichiban – Currently found in the Japan Pavilion of Epcot’s World Showcase – also available at many other locations throughout Disney World.

So we’re going to go enjoy our adult beverages now while watching our newly purchased Monsters University DVD.  Together.  In our empty nest.  Our Disney Life is good!

Oh, BTW – my fist article writing as Darlin’ Diva for Tips From the Disney Divas and Devos ran today.  It’s on the importance of planning for your Disney World vacation  Please go check it out if you haven’t yet had the chance and let me know what you think.  Thanks!

Disney Trip Planning – Granola Crumbs in My Suitcase

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2013 iphoneIf there’s one thing our family agrees on, it’s how we spend our time on a Disney vacation and it’s not sleeping!  We hit the parks early – I’m talking get there before they open and be ready to make the most of the day.  There’s a reason our vacation motto is “We’ll rest when we’re dead.”.  Honestly, once the kids stopped needing naps, it became common for us to leave our resort at dawn and drag back in 15+ hours later.

I’m not going to lie – getting everyone up and out the door super early is challenging – and gets harder over the course of a week-long trip.  I have discovered one simple trick that helps a bunch.  It’s this:  Have a portable breakfast ready to go every day!  For us, this means that we pack granola bars and Pop Tarts – but if you need honey buns and mini doughnuts, no problem, those’ll work the same for this purpose.  Just fyi….if you take the Pop Tarts out of the boxes, they’re easier to pack but you cannot tell what kind they are.  I have actually gotten to expert level in detecting Pop Tart flavors strictly by feeling them in their shiny silver packages – a necessity when one child eats only strawberry frosted and the other only chocolate fudge.  But I digress…

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Waiting for the Bus, Breakfast in Hand

Here’s how it goes:  Mickey wake-up call comes in, everyone’s up, washed and dressed.  Then we check to make sure we each have the necessities (keys-to-the-world, lanyard, breakfast foods, pins for trading, camera, etc.) and we are out the door, headed for the bus or monorail stop.  Seldom does our ride show up immediately when we get there, thus allowing time to consume our portable breakfasts, dispose of the wrappers, and get ready to board.  By no means am I suggesting that mere breakfast-bar-type items keep our tummies happy until lunch, but it gets us to the park in time (with no hungry whining) to catch a couple of our favorite attractions before they get too crowded and that’s the whole idea!

What’s your strategy for getting a jump on the day at your favorite Disney park?

Halloween Homage – Disney’s Haunted Mansion

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DWR2009 077We, being the normal, run-of-the-mill Disney fans that we are, have a love – a passion, for that most special, most Disney-ish of all Disney attractions – The Haunted Mansion.  So, like thousands of Disney fans everywhere, today, on Halloween, we salute our most favorite scary ride.

Ask us individually what our favorite rides are and we will each give you a different answer.  Ask us what ride we MUST ride together, multiple times on every visit to Disney World?  We will all agree it has to be The Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom.  In both it’s original form and it’s new post-2007-refurb-form – we have always loved every single thing about this 8-minute doom-buggy trip through one of the coolest attractions ever scared up by Disney Imagineers.

If you’ve been there, you know what I mean when I say that the “Ghost Host’ is a very important DWR2009 079part of the experience.  That voice!  Once he starts you off on your adventure, you can’t look around fast enough to take in all the carefully crafted details, thrills, oddities, surprises, not to mention ghosts the Haunted Mansion holds.  The stretching room with its crazy portraits and surprises, the dining room ghosts, the dancers, Madame Leota (“Goblins and ghoulies from last Halloween…Awaken the spirits with your tambourine!”), the bride, the cemetery, the busts singing “Grim Grinning Ghosts” , the hitch-hikers!  We love it ALL!  I guess that’s why we want to ride it again and again – we never feel like we’ve seen, heard, or experienced everything there is – and that’s just on the inside!  If you’re going, don’t miss any of the great tricks and treats that are in store for visitors in the Haunted Mansion’s queue.

DWR2009 078“Now I will raise the safety bar and a ghost will follow you home.”-Ghost Host, Haunted Mansion

“Hurry Baaaaaaack……Hurry BAAAaaaaaaaack….Be sure to bring your death certificate if you decide to join us.  Make final arrangements now.  We’ve been dying to have you…”-Little Leota

Happy Halloween Everyone!

Hidden Mickeys – Another Disney Addiction

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IMG_2918About 10 years ago, while planning for an upcoming Disney World vacation, I found and purchased, Hidden Mickeys a Field Guide to Walt Disney World’s Best Kept Secrets by Steven M. Barrett.  If you aren’t sure what Hidden Mickeys are, Mr. Barrett defines them as “a partial or complete image of Mickey Mouse that has been hidden by Disney Imagineers and artists….”

I thought the book would be a lot of fun to take along with us to Disney World where there are literally hundreds of Hiddey Mickeys to be found.  I explained to The Fam about Hidden Mickeys while we were driving to and waiting at the airport for our flight to Orlando.  Then I managed to locate and point out a couple of Hidden Mickeys right after we arrived at Disney World.  Joseph had always been a champion at finding things (money on the ground, Easter eggs, bugs, lizards, etc.), so he was quick to join the fun and soon everyone was caught up in the excitement of hunting the elusive Mickeys.  This was and still is a GREAT way to kill time while waiting in line for attractions!

DSCN2584Turns out, once you start looking for and discovering real, “official” Hidden Mickeys, it’s hard to turn off your Hidden Mickey “eyes”.  Ever since that first trip when we learned about those cleverly incorporated Mickeys and discovered our love for finding them, we all see Hidden Mickeys in our everyday lives.  It’s a very fun way to keep the Disney magic alive between vacations.

Soap bubbles in the sink forming a familiar image?  “Hidden Mickey!”  That shout-out, heard from time to time at our house, always answered with, “where? lemme see!” is a great reminder to me that not only have I done my job prepping the next generation of Disney fans, but also that our vacations to The Happiest Place on Earth make magical memories that last long after we’ve come home.

Yesterday when I was leaving for work, I passed a catch-all container in the garage and guess what I saw?  YUP!  You betcha!Med Cruise 2013 iphone 002