Disney’s Festival of Fantasy – One Terrific Parade

Festival of Fantasy Parade DaleI like a good parade.  Shoot, nearly every parade I see is good to me.  Mardi Gras parades?  Love ’em!  “Throw me somethin’, Mister!”  Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade?  It’s a classic – what’s not to love about those giant bobbing floats?  The added drama of the whole potential wind-disaster factor makes it even more exciting!  Neighborhood kids’ parades?  Got a soft spot for those, too – the decorated wagons and adorable little costumes get me every time.  Don’t even get me started on how great pet parades are!

So, all that now fully disclosed, you can probably guess how I felt seeing the new Festival of Fantasy Parade in Magic Kingdom for the Festival of Fantasy Parade Birdfirst time!  So much awesomeness!  In one parade!!!  Hel-lo!  The wizards of Disney parade assembly are pure genius.  From the theme, to the music, to the floats, to the costumes.  Pictures and videos (yes, I watched it streaming live from the comfort of my own living room on the day the parade debuted) do not do it justice.  It must be experienced in person for the full effect.

Annnnd Cue the Flashback Sequence:

I don’t think there’s a bad place to watch the 3 o’clock parade in Magic Kingdom.  If you’re Festival of Fantasy Parade Belle and Beaston the parade route, you’ll see everything.  I know people have their favorite parade-viewing spots and opinions vary, but I think if you can get a “front row” spot anywhere along the route, you’ll be happy.  We were squeezing parade viewing in between fastpasses and needed to be in Fantasyland for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train as soon as the parade ended.  We found seats on the curb along the circle of the hub in front of Cinderella Castle – on the Tomorrowland side.  We were out in the blazing sun, conveniently situated beside a trashcan, and the concrete of the curb was hot enough to fry an egg on!  Luckily, for posterior protection, I opened my handy-dandy, multi-Festival of Fantasy Parade Friendspocketed backpack and retrieved our rain ponchos for us to use as seat cushions.  Worked out perfectly for our sitting comfort.  Nothing we could do about the sun.  It was strong and hot and felt incredibly close – we were wearing plenty of sunscreen, but, let’s not sugar coat it, we were sweating something fierce!

Raymond and I were alone at first (Megan and Joseph were planning to catch up with us before show time).  As usual (Raymond is completely used to this by now), I was making friends with the people around me; In this case, the young ladies sitting next to us.  They were an adorable group from all over the U.S. – a Festival of Fantasy Parade Frozencouple of girls were Disney College Program participants, the rest were friends.  They were so excited (like me!) to be seeing the Parade and we just chatted up a storm.

Now, speaking of storm, that’s when the most amazing thing happened – as if preparing for an afternoon shower, clouds moved in and a soft breeze came up – but no rain fell.  As the parade was about to start, we got relief from the oppressive heat!  Megan and Joseph found us just in time and took their places as we heard the first sounds of the parade coming in the distance, softly at first and then louder as the tops of the first floats came into view above the crowds across the Festival of Fantasy Parade Pinocchioplaza.

We’d chosen our viewing spot based on convenience, but it was beautiful to see the brightly colored floats and our favorite Disney characters pass by us with the castle in the background.  I was so amazed by the movement – the floats had many moving parts- and the clever and unique costumed walking characters, I didn’t really notice the music.  I think it was because, unlike the previous “Celebrate a Dream Come True” parade which had a repetitive Small-World-esque theme song (that stuck with you for a while), the music for Festival of Fantasy changes for each float.  That’s pretty cool, if you ask Festival of Fantasy Parade Dragonme!

As one would expect with anything produced by Disney, the magic of the Festival of Fantasy Parade is in the details – the clever, fun, and funny touches that Disney adds to surprise and delight us.  This new parade has no shortage of those things.  And if there’s a steam punk, fire-breathing Maleficent Dragon for the grand finale?  Well, that’s just as perfect a way to wrap up a spectacularly entertaining show as I could imagine.

If you have a trip to Walt Disney World in your future, put Festival of Fantasy Parade-watching on your touring plans.  Your family will love it!

Talk to me:  If you’ve seen Festival of Fantasy, what did you think?

Festival of Fantasy Parade Ostrich Festival of Fantasy Parade Costumes

 

Epcot’s Japan Pavilion – Mitsukoshi Department Store

Epcot's Japan PavilionI’m planning to write an article about my favorite stores in Walt Disney World – so I started thinking about them – where they’re located, what type of merchandise they carry, and why I love them.  I’m still going to write that post, but in the middle of all that thinking….I couldn’t get my mind off the ONE most fantastic store in the World.  It really deserves its very own place in the limelight – without being grouped in with other great, but, let’s face it, lesser…or maybe I should say, more mainstream or ordinary stores.

If you’ve visited Walt Disney World but passed up the opportunity to visit the Mitsukoshi Plush Toys in Matsukoshi / Epcot's JapanDepartment Store in Epcot’s Japan Pavilion – I can understand how that could happen, but I need to…well…point out the error of your ways.  The store isn’t out there, up front with attractive window displays designed to draw you in.  The understated entrance gives no hint of the riches to be found inside – a treasure trove of unimaginable variety.  Do NOT pass through the World Showcase without taking at least a few minutes to look around at this huge and fascinating collection of Japanese goods!  I’ve been in Mitsukoshi many times, but every time feels like the first – and I always discover some new section I didn’t know existed.

Believe me, I’m not exaggerating or building this up for a good story.  Unless you’ve had the Shopping for Socks in Epcot's Japanchance to visit Japan (the actual country), I cannot believe you wouldn’t be impressed and, dare I say, enthralled by the enormous selection of unique merchandise within this building!  All the things you would expect to find are there – and so much more!!!  Traditional Japanese shoes and clothing?  Yes.  Incense, teas and teapots, chopsticks, swords, and fans?  Check!  Hello Kitty, Pokémon, Sanrio, Domo tees and collectibles – they’ll fix you up!  Tabi socks, books and jewelry – it’s all there!  But there’s also so much more!

The Pick a Pearl counter allows you to choose a live oyster from a tank for a Cast Member tBonsai Trees in Epcot's Japan Paviliono open for you…and retrieve your pearl!  You can have it made into a piece of jewelry right then and there or take it with you as is.  Ever wanted a Bonsai Tree of your very own?  The have a tiny forest from which to make your selection.  Too hard to take it home?  Buy a Bonsai seed kit instead!  Curious about Japanese food, candy and soft drinks?  Go wild in an entire room full of every imaginable snack, sweet, cracker – if you’re having a hankering for some shredded dry fish?  Not to worry!  They have that too (and it tastes better than you’d think)!

Mitsukoshi Department Store SnacksOne of Joseph’s favorite things to do at Walt Disney World is to take his time at Mitsukoshi and pick out a variety of Japanese packaged foods to try.  So much there is unlike anything we’ve ever had before!  At this point, he’s been to the store enough to have some favorites he’ll buy each time we visit.  Last week while we were there, he enlisted Megan’s assistance in picking out some new and different snacks (I even got to pick out something!).  Some of the candy looked so strange but was surprisingly tasty!  The descriptions on most packaging are completely in Japanese – so you’re pretty much guessing what you may be getting based on pictures and/or what the candy or snack looks like.  The mystery of it is what makes choosing treats so much fun!   Our Loot!  Japanese Snacks from Mitsukoshi

There is literally something for everyone at Mitsukoshi and if it’s souvenirs you’re after – you’re guaranteed to find special and unique treasures for everyone on your list!

Have you been to Mitsukoshi?  What did you think?

Mitsukoshi Department Store in Epcot

Godzilla Tee at MitsukoshiAdorable Plush in Mitsukoshi

In Search Of…at Walt Disney World!

THE Disney EarHat for ME!I know I’ve got a big bunch of resort and restaurant reviews to talk about, not to mention parades, motorcades, rides, and attractions to dish on.  But first, some trip report disclosure:  Let’s face it – I’m just not the day-by-day trip report kind of person.  Sure, if I’ve been on a cruise I can replay it for you port by port, at-sea day, etc.  But for Walt Disney World – we did SO much of everything – park-hopping, FastPass-ing, snacking, exploring the amazing Disney details and even experiencing a tremendous variety of fun things – some  for the very first time!  It just doesn’t feel right to me to boil it all down into a daily replay this time.  But…in an attempt to get things started, I’m going to talk about what I was searching for on this Disney vacation…and it wasn’t the meaning of life.

I was, you may recall from previous posts here and on Facebook, searching for some very specific items this trip.  Namely a certain Disney pin, the perfect Earhat, and some specific Disney flavors.  I was also absolutely dying to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – seriously, I told Raymond that after waiting more than two years for the experience, I was nearly apoplectic (and I’m not even sure exactly what that entails).  The rest of this post details my successes (and two minor failures, in the grand scheme) – so if you’re not up for it…click away now and thanks for stopping by.

In Search Of….

Orange Bird Orange Bird Disney Pins

I’m no hard-core Disney pin trader.  I enjoy it as a recreational sport versus a battle to the death/concerned with each and every detail.  I’m extremely uninterested in any pin’s particular value or official “collectability” – I just wanna have FUN!  In 2012 (the last time I was at Walt Disney World before last week), I fell in love with the reintroduction of Orange Bird (I’m old enough to remember Orange Bird from his original debut as the Florida citrus mascot in the ’70’s – he and Anita Bryant were a great team!).  So, back to 2012 – we were in Walt Disney World in May and I’d read about (or heard about) a collection of Orange Bird Cast Member pins.  Because I like a challenge and find pin trading SO much fun, I decided to see if I could collect then entire group of Orange Bird pins.  Five in all – so not a huge investment for pins to trade away for the Birds and they are ever so CUTE!  Megan and Joseph had each brought a friend on that trip and all six of us were enthusiastically in pursuit of those Orange Birds.  By the end of our vacation, I’d managed to acquire 4 out of 5 with a bonus chaser pin of the missing flying Orange Bird – how could I not make completing this set a priority for last week’s trip?

It was Raymond who found my pin.  Raymond has been married to me for 24 years and 8 Disney Pin Trading - Cast Member Lanyardmonths and has always been my biggest fan – he has, with amazing steadfast resolve, supported all my endeavors through the years (even the hair-brained schemes) – Orange Bird collecting being no exception.  It was early in the week – Monday or Tuesday – we were at Animal Kingdom in the building where the small animal displays are housed – the one with the Naked (say nekkid, it’s okay) Mole Rats live.  On a Cast Member lanyard – her name was Denise and she was standing next to the turtle tanks.  Raymond, calmly and in the low voice he uses when speaking to me in crowded spaces, says, “Is that your Orange Bird?”  Oh, JOY!!!!  I reached into my much-used Disney-trip-only backpack and pulled out a pin to trade with Denise.  She wasn’t quite as ecstatic about the exchange as I was, but YAY!  My Orange Bird pin collection is now complete!  (Thanks, Honey and Denise, too!)

The Perfect Earhat

I have probably 6 or more Disney caps I love to wear – and numerous plain visors I make into Disney Earhat - SullyDisney accessories by adding pins and buttons when on a Disney vacation.  It was way past time for me to actually purchase my own Earhat.  I’ve probably tried on 50 over the years – and several even got carried around with me in a store for a while, almost making it to the check-out-counter, before being carefully placed back on their display shelves.  I wanted a hat that made me feel like a Mouseketeer, a super Disney fan, a QUEEN!  This trip, I was committed to finding and purchasing such headwear.

I tried on several models – Maleficent, Ariel, a black hat with pink skulls, even a Monster’s Inc. Sully hat – some were magically beautiful, but just not ME.  Then I spotted a unique chapeau unlike any of the others.  Special, not too “cute”, regal (yet NOT goodie-two-shoes) – the Evil Queen hat – THIS was the one for me!!!  No, I did not hear a choir of angels sing when I placed it on my head – but an evil chuckle off in the distance….    SOLD!

Dole Whip

Yes, yes – I confessed back on the New Year’s Resolution list (see #9) that I’d never eaten a Pineapple Dole Whip - Disney SnacksDole Whip – Don’t judge me.  Finally, last week, the time had come.  I waited in the ridiculously long, mostly devoid of shade line at Aloha Isle in Magic Kingdom – sweating, but thinking, hey – the famous Dole Whip will not only cool me off, but will be delicious and refreshing, too!  Let me mention one more time that I do NOT have a sweet tooth.  Not even a baby one.  I opted (against warnings from several Disney friends – especially Lindsay from the Geekin’ on WDW Podcast) for the classic pineapple Dole Whip-in-a-cup.  I did post a video of my experience over on the Facebook page – the conclusion?  Probably won’t need to eat another Dole Whip.  Ever.  I realize there are billions of Dole Whip fans world wide.  I’m okay with not being one of them – I hope you’re okay with that too.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

I took a dorky video on this ride – with my iPhone after the GoPro’s battery was shot for the day.  I’ll show it to you sometime.  I waited SO long – forever! – to ride this coaster.  I’ll say this (with a complete review coming up in the future) – I knew it was half as long as Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and perhaps a little more than twice as long as Barnstormer.  I knew from all the spoilers, videos, and media Sign for Seven Dwarfs Mine Trainreviews I’d seen what to expect.  There was a tremendous amount of hype over this “kiddie coaster” in the new Fantasyland.  And still….I loved it!  The smoothest roller coaster in the World, this mine train is just great!

Now – the two things I missed.  One, I can fix in October – I want to try the sweet and spicy chicken waffle from Sleepy Hollow in Magic Kingdom.  That one will be easy.  The one thing I missed that might be tricky to make up (at least for a while, maybe never) – I SO wanted to see the Symphony in the Sky fireworks spectacular at Disney’s Hollywood Studios – it was a special treat for Star Wars Weekends.  We just couldn’t pull it off.  Sunday when we arrived, we’d been up since 3:00 am to catch a plane out of Dallas and we were SO tired.  Friday, we were victims of both the slow bus system servicing Old Key West and end-of-vacation exhaustion.  I can’t be too sad, though, we did and saw (and ate) so much this trip!  There’s just no way to feel disappointed.

So that’s the rundown of the most important things I was searching for on our WDW vacation.  What will YOU be looking for on your next visit?

 

This Trip to Walt Disney World – Good, Bad, Ugly

Old Key West ResortSo – upon just returning from another visit to our beloved Walt Disney World, my mind is swirling with thoughts.  I have a lot to talk about!  I also have a bazillion (yes, that’s the official count) new pictures to share with you.  I took three cameras, my iPhone, and even a brand new GoPro video camera – which I used for ride videos and as soon as I can figure out how to post those to Living a Disney Life’s YouTube channel, I’ll let you know.

For those of you who are regular readers here – I did nearly everything I had planned and knocked off several items from my Disney New Year’s Resolution list – more about that later.  I love Walt Disney World as much as ever – I’m intentionally writing a balanced post of the highs and lows of this particular trip – I am in no way feeling negative about Walt Disney World in general.

If you have any questions about specific things, be sure to give me a holler!  I’ll be happy to help in any way that I can.  Now, without further ado, may I present…

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly:

The Good:

The grounds of the Old Key West resort are gorgeous.  Particularly the landscaping!  BecauseDisney's Old Key West Resort OKW is the original Disney vacation club property (early 1990’s) – the trees and plants are mature and lush – very pretty.  The studio we had was spacious and in good repair – plenty of room for the four of us.

The service at Old Key West – was excellent overall.  The lady that checked us in was the least magical of them all and I’ll give her a pass because I was pretty grumpy (got up at 3:00 am to catch a plane) and my opinion may have been skewed.  Because of OKW’s out-of-the-way location maybe, it seemed everyone from the bartenders to the restaurant wait staff to the bell hops worked extra hard to deliver excellent service – like they were genuinely glad to help.  Moe at Olivia’s was excellent.

TFestival of Fantasy Parade he Festival of Fantasy Parade – It’s really fantastic.  We roasted in the sun, sitting on our rain ponchos (so our, uhm, bottoms wouldn’t fry on the burning hot curb) and hoped like heck the parade would be worth all the sweating.  It was.  More on that another day.  Just going to leave you with this:  Don’t miss it.

Star Wars Weekend – I am NOT a huge Star Wars fan (about a 6 on a scale of 1 to 10), but the excitement is hard to resist!  We got to see the motorcade (but could not make the Symphony in the Sky fireworks, sadly) – John Ratzenberger was there the day we saw it and THAT was exciting in itself.  All the special Star Wars touches from the Storm Troopers to the Darth Vader and Yoda cupcakes – just great Disney fun!

Short wait times!  We arrived the day after the 24 hour event and were pleasantly surprised byIMG_4109 low-ish crowd levels.  Most attractions like Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, Maelstrom, etc. (all non-headliners) had 20-30 minute waits.  We left quite a few FastPass+ choices unused.  We knew we could have changed them to something else, but never felt it necessary.  We used morning Extra Magic Hours and a few FP+’s to ride Rock’n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Expedition Everest several times each.  Yes, we DID get to ride the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, too!

Disney's Flying Fish RestaurantFlying Fish and Raglan Road – these were our two best dining experiences of the trip.  Yes, the food was delicious, but in both restaurants, the service was outstanding!  Bob at Flying Fish (Boardwalk resort area) must be among the best servers on Disney Property – he could describe a cardboard box in a way that would make you really want to eat it!  Brett at Raglan Road (Downtown Disney) was fun and charming – very attentive, yet easy going – a real pleasure.  I highly recommend both of these restaurants!  More to come on them in other posts.

Primeval Whirl – I’m just going to give a little shout-out to this odd little ride in Animal Kingdom’sPrimeval Whirl Dinoland U.S.A.  I’d never ridden it before, but on this visit rode it three times!  I thought it looked too spinny (made that up) and, well, silly in the past, but gave it a go and had a blast!

Pin Trading – Just as much fun as ever!  We asked at every resort and every shop if there were pin boards or books we could look at – Much trading fun ensued!

The Bad:

Old Turtle Pond at Old Key WestOur location.  Let’s face it.  We are resort loop snobs.  We love the monorail resorts above all others.  We only stayed at Old Key West because, as Disney Vacation Club members, we had points enough left over after booking our October trip to stay at OKW for 6 nights.  We figured being anywhere on property was better than not going at all, but boy, oh boy, did we miss Bay Lake Tower!!!  Bus service was so slow, Raymond nicknamed the closest bus stop (Turtle Pond) to our building the “little stop of horrors”.  It often (we timed it) took us more than an hour to get to (or from) a park or Downtown Disney.  We walked to the Hospitality House from our building (38) twice and it was a LONG haul.  The resort is huge and very spread out.

Magic Bands – a mixed review, really.  Raymond’s band almost never worked on the first (orMagic Band at Park Entrance even second) try and sometimes not at all (like it was broken).  When you’re trying to enter a park and your Magic Band won’t work, it’s a bit embarrassing, holds up the line, takes up valuable time, a senior Cast Member with a tablet has to be called over to assist – just bad all around and, in Raymond’s case, happened more often than not.  We saw this happen to other people too, every day we were there.  When they worked, Magic Bands were really convenient.  Disney must find a way to add discounts automatically to the band – like DVC, Annual Pass, Tables in Wonderland, etc.  It’s a pain to have to carry around all the cards and ID’s for this.  Also, the app was VERY slow – Every time we tried to use it.

The Hollywood Brown Derby and Tutto Italia.  We will, most likely, never EVER darken the door of these two establishments again.  We have, on past visits, dined at Tutto Italia (Epcot’s Italy Pavilion) and loved it…which is why we booked it especially for Raymond’s birthday dinner.  Our meal there was a disaster – as was our first experience (and last) at the Brown Derby (Disney’s Hollywood Studios).  In both restaurants our table was in stealth mode – you Hollywood Brown Derby at Disney's Hollywood Studiosknow, it was like we were invisible!  The servers ignored us – to the point that we made jokes about it to keep our morale up.  In both places we felt the food was overpriced and overrated – lacking in flavor and presentation.  Even the “famous” Cobb Salad at the Derby was awful – Megan and I both ordered it and both of us felt the bleu cheese (which I really love) was completely overpowering.  It’s quite rare for us to not enjoy a dining experience at a Walt Disney World table service restaurant – I can’t believe we had TWO such horrible experiences in the same week.

The Ugly:

The Disney bus service seems to have declined in general.  Maybe part of it goes back to not having a premium location, but one incident (Raymond and I were not present) stands out as indicative of this decline.  Joseph and Megan stayed out late one night to spend more time on park rides.  After catching the bus back to Old Key West, they had a very disturbing experience.  It actually frightened them both and, let me tell you, having me for a mother has made them pretty tough – they don’t scare easily.  It seems there was an Hispanic family whose son was enamored of hanging onto the straps used by standing riders – the bus was not full, Disney Bus to the Grand Floridiannobody needed to stand.  This boy wanted to swing from the strap which made the bus driver super angry.

Long story short – the anger escalated, the bus driver yelled (in Spanish) at the family more than once and even stopped the bus in the middle of the road to try to kick them off.  The boy’s parents and the driver had an extremely angry, prolonged exchange.  At this point, the driver’s rage had him accusing the child of doing things he wasn’t doing.  The other passengers tried to tell the driver – no one was standing up or doing anything wrong.  Emotionally compromised, the driver then acted recklessly by speeding off and “driving like a maniac”, which prompted most people to exit at the next stop, even though it wasn’t the stop they needed (due to fear).  Megan and Joseph overheard many families’ comments about it.

The kids were both shaken up by the bus driver’s complete disregard for passenger safety – plus, being at Walt Disney World, nobody expects there to be altercations of this nature.  The drivers usually seem capable of handling anything passengers can dish out – with a smile and a kind word.  Aside from this, bus service seemed “off” from prior experiences – there was often a longer wait than 20-30 minutes between buses.  Heaven help you if you try to park-hop midday from the Studios – the bus stops for the other parks are out in the wide open with absolutely no shade whatsoever.  I’d be interested in hearing how your recent experiences with Disney transportation compare with ours.

Those are my general overall thoughts and impressions of this trip.  I will write reviews of Old Key West and each restaurant we visited (and much more)  in more detail over the next few weeks.  Again, if you have questions or feedback, please leave me a comment.