Have you heard about the My Disney Experience Mobile App?
Here is the scoop:
“Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online has released My Disney Experience, a free mobile application designed to help Guests make the most of their experience while visiting the Walt Disney World Resort.
• The app includes state-of-the-art maps with GPS and in-park navigation that provide a vivid, accurate representation of the theme parks, resorts and other on-property points of interest.
• My Disney Experience also includes park hours, wait times, dining and attraction information, a digital tip board and nearby attractions and services.
• Some of the features require Guests to create an account and sign in to activate functionality.
• Initially, the app is available for the iPhone and iPad (Apple App Store). My Disney Experience for Android smartphones (Google Play and Amazon Android Marketplace) as well as Android tablets, Blackberry, and Windows devices.
• Enhancements and updates will be made to this application as needed.
FAQs
1. What is My Disney Experience?
My Disney Experience is a mobile application created by Walt Disney
Parks and Resorts Online as the official app of the Walt Disney World Resort.
2. How much does My Disney Experience cost?
My Disney Experience is available at no cost. However, messaging and data
charges may apply; check with your mobile carrier.
3. Will My Disney Experience be updated with new information regularly?
Similar to other Walt Disney World Parks and Resorts online content, My
Disney Experience will have the most up-to-date official information from the
Here is a pretty good 5 1/2 minute video that Disney released to help guests understand the differences between the quick, basic, and deluxe dining plans. Prices are not included but it helps with understanding why some people choose which dining plan is best for them. Remember the Disney dining plan is exclusively available to guests staying in Disney resorts.
The Disney Dining Plan has become a Guest favorite to include as part of Magic Your Way Vacation Packages. The Disney Dining Plan (DDP) for 2013 mirrors the 2012 program, with a new option for table-service restaurants to offer menu add-ons and prix-fixe menus.
• Prix-fixe menu: Table-service restaurants may offer a separate prix-fixe menu that is available for a retail price. DDP Guests can choose this option with payment of a surcharge in addition to the table-service entitlement redemption. Separate surcharges for Disney Dining Plan Guests and Deluxe, Premium, and Platinum Dine Plan Guests will be noted on menus.
• For restaurants that offer only a prix-fixe menu (such as Cinderella’s Royal Table) or have a prix-fixe menu included on their regular a la carte menu (such as Captain’s Grille): the prix-fixe menu is fully covered by the required DDP meal entitlements.
• The new offering is a separate prix-fixe menu that is available in addition to the regular a la carte menu. DDP Guests who select the separate prix-fixe menu will be required to pay a surcharge in addition to the table-service entitlement redemption
• Menu add-ons: Table-service restaurants may offer menu add-ons, the ability to add another protein component to their entrée selection (e.g., option to add sea scallops to entrée). This option will be listed on the menu and requires payment of a surcharge by Guests who choose this option. DDP Guests can choose the menu add-on with payment of the surcharge in addition to the table-service entitlement redemption.
• Be Our Guest Restaurant: Be Our Guest Restaurant at the Magic Kingdom Park offers fast casual service for lunch (requires one quick-service entitlement); however, for dinner, it operates as a table-service restaurant (requires one table-service entitlement).
Key reminders about the Disney Dining Plan
• Participating locations: Most Walt Disney World Resort theme park, resort hotel, Disney water park, EPSN Wide World of Sports Complex, and the Downtown Disney Area restaurant locations accept the Disney Dining Plan, including Operating Participants.
• Eligible snack items: The list of eligible snack items includes a large variety of food and beverage items available at carts, kiosks, quick-service and select merchandise locations across property. A complete list of eligible snack items will soon be available on The Hub >> Food Tools
• Refillable Mug: All Disney Dining Plan packages include a Resort Refillable Drink Mug allowing Guest to refill at Quick Service locations and select Merchandise Shops at the Walt Disney World Resort Hotel at which they are staying and throughout the length of their current stay.
• Dining reservations for table-service restaurants can be made in advance or cancelled online at http://www.disneyworld.com/dining. Guests can also make or cancel a reservation by visiting any Walt Disney World Resort Hotel Front Desk, Concierge or Guest Relations, by calling 407-WDW-DINE, or by pressing 55 from any house phone.
What’s with the ubiquitous Disney snack – the turkey leg?
They are a really big deal! Just like a rock band – they even have T-Shirts! You can find the shirts right in the shops of Main Street at Disney World.
It’s one thing that probably won’t be in my wordrobe any time soon. I enjoyed this article in the Orlando Sentinel. It goes a little deeper into why a turkey appendage could possibly be a big deal at Disney, and what Andrew Zimmern from Bizarre Foods thinks about it all. It looks like the author and I share a lot of similar feelings on the matter.
You know how sometimes in life you are lucky enough to meet some REALLY great and interesting people? Well, that’s what happened to me the day I met Christine MacPhail. Christine is not only a wonderful person, she has (in my opinion) one of the coolest jobs EVER. No office grind for this lady! Christine owns her own business and has made her living as a harpist for the past 25 years. One of her favorite places to play is Disney World. Specifically she has played the harp for Victoria and Albert‘s in the Grand Floridian Resort, and for dozens of Disney weddings all over the property (not to mention the state of Florida). I asked Christine what she loves most about Disney weddings. She was happy to answer, and even threw in some advice for Disney brides.
“I really love what I do,” said Christine. “It is an honor to be part of the special moments in people’s lives. At Disney the weddings always have that extra magical touch. It seems the excitement and anticipation that children have about visiting Disney World comes alive again in the bride and groom! The Wedding Pavillion is lovely, and I really like the small intimate weddings at locations such as the Boardwalk or the Yacht Club. I really enjoy seeing the little Disney touches, such as glass slipper place card holders or Mickey and Minnie cake toppers! Most of the couples request Disney music which is always fun for me. “When You Wish Upon a Star” is a perfect recessional song! My only advice would be that after all the preparations have been made, just relax and enjoy your special day!”
Here is a great shot of Christine at Disney’s Boardwalk (click to enlarge).
You can see the bride and groom through the strings.
Photo credit: Misty Miotto
How does one get into the business of harping? When Christine MacPhail was 6 years old she was in a museum with her family and saw a harp there. Her father ran his fingers along the strings and she was hooked! She started taking lessons and has not stopped since. When she was in college a few friends asked her to play her harp for their wedding ceremonies, and that grew into a business. Fast forward 25 years and Christine is still doing what she loves…and talk about talent?! She can play all sorts of music genres that you might never have imagined coming from a harp. She will amaze you with some of her facebook posts on what she calls “Music Monday” You can like her fanpage on facebook here so you don’t miss a note!
***To learn more about Disney Weddings click here***
***To Download your own Disney Wedding Brochure click here***
UPDATE May 2014: Saratoga Springs is no longer offering this program.
This is my Mom. Isn’t she a cutie?
My Mom loves flowers. She has a green thumb that I did NOT inherit! I needed a great and original idea for my Mom this year – and I think I found just the right thing. Today I thought I’d share with you what I found out about the Floral Experience at Community Hall in Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort and spa.
This is so cool!
The floral experience helps us learn how to take ordinary fresh flowers and design a Disney-themed keepsake arrangement to take home. Disney says that in the process Mom will impress family and friends by “learning magical design tricks of the trade” and have the “experience of a lifetime” becoming a Walt Disney World florist for a day! So not only will we be giving her a gift of flowers, we will also be able to share that time and experience together at Disney…no park admission required! By the way, you don’t have to have a Mom or be a Mom to enjoy this experience. It’s all year round and really for anyone who enjoys this sort of thing.
(Hint!) There is no age limit on this class and almost anyone can learn how to design a Disney-themed floral keepsake…so if Dad isn’t into arranging flowers … this might be the perfect thing for a wife and daughter to enjoy together as a Mother’s Day gift. The class is one hour in duration and held every Wednesday from 2:30-3:30PM and costs $50 a person. You can book this up to 180 days in advance and in fact, reservations are required for this activity. Disney needs the advanced notice to determine supplies, therefore walk-ups are not accepted. Activity, take-home arrangement and items used to create it are subject to change without notice. There is a 2 Day cancellation policy so be sure and review that with the booking agent. The number to call and register is 407-WDW-PLAY.
My plan is to book the experience (if she can get a day off work!) and present my Mom with a card on Mother’s Day with all the details included. This way so she will know s what to expect and when. The bonus is she will have a beautiful arrangement when all the flowers from Mother’s Day are long gone. We all want to be the favorite kid so maybe this will get me some brownie points!
Please let me know if you decide to do the floral experience (or if you’ve already done it) and maybe we can post our experiences on Disneyways in the future!
Get all the most frequently asked questions about the New Fantasyland Expansion happening at Walt Disney World answered in about 2 minutes with this video posted by the Orlando Sentinel. Let’s hear it for short and sweet! YAY!
I have wanted to go to Hawaii for pretty much as long as I can remember. I’m a BIG Elvis fan and the movie Blue Hawaii probably influenced this in some way. A tan, handsome, young Elvis gyrating among the beautiful scenery of a Polynesian background? What’s not to like?!I guess since I love the thought of Hawaii, I love the thought of a luau, even if it’s just right here in my home town of Orlando Florida.
My mother first came up with the idea a few months before. She wanted to get the family all together for something really special and fun. I promise I did not suggest or influence her in any way to pick the Disney luau, she came up with it all on her own. It took about a month to get our entire group to agree on a date but it finally happened. We picked Friday April 27, 2012. This also happened to be my cousin’s birthday. Matt is a quiet guy who doesn’t like a lot of hoopla or attention on his birthday but he agreed this might be ok as long as we didn’t buy gifts or go to crazy.
I sent out the first email and everyone seemed excited about the big day! I made a list of all the names and counted it 4 times. Could we really be a group of 16??? Yes we could – and in fact — we ended up adding one more a couple weeks later for a grand total of 17. Wow! We lost my Dad about a year ago and I just couldn’t stop thinking about how much he would have loved this. I missed him through the whole process (and again on the big night) but I feel like he was watching the whole time. I think he would’ve loved to make it a party of 18.
My Mom decided on category 2 seating. When I called to make the reservation – all that was left was category 1. There was no changing the date now — so we went with it. I read and researched all I could about the luau just so I could make sure it was something everyone would like AND to try and help things to go as smoothly as I possibly could. The main thing that bugged me was why we had to be there an hour early. Disney policy states this for the luau and they even read you that policy again when you book the reservation. There was very little I could find on the internet about why this policy was in place.
My Mom and I headed to the Polynesian a couple of days early to pick up what I thought were going to be “tickets” to the luau, which are normally at the concierge desk. It was that magic time of around 7:30pm however. I knew there would be cast members at the luau podium this time of night so we made a beeline for the podium first with my list of questions in hand.
Sure enough, the crowds were filing in for the 8pm show and there were cast members waiting to greet us. I told them we were early for the Friday night show (this was Wednesday) and I had some questions. They were happy to assist. My first question was about parking. When my Mom and I pulled up that night we got one of the last spaces available. I was fearful with our big group that there might not be enough spaces for all of us! The cast member didn’t really know what to say. Just then I really lucked out and a manager approached us! The cast member repeated the question for him and just like that – that manager was MINE. The poor guy had no idea what he was getting in to. He politely calmed my fears by stating that parking has never been a problem for luau guests– and we could always pay to valet if we really needed to. He was surprised to hear the lot was so full on this particular evening. OK, so I was satisfied with that answer. I smiled sweetly and asked, “Do you have a few more minutes to answer my other questions?”
“Sure!” he replied in all his typical Disney helpfulness. So off we went…
“We have a group of 17. Do we really need to be here an hour early?” His response: “There is no reason for you to get here that early IF you have already picked up your ticket.”
“Ticket?” I asked, “I thought there would be 17 tickets.”
“Nope,” he replied, “ What you actually get is a slip of paper that has your confirmation number on it and says party of 17. That acts as your admission to the luau.”
WOW! One little slip?
I was shocked. This was a wonderful thing because I had no idea how I would see everyone beforehand to give them a ticket and what if they lost it? It’s just one little slip so I didn’t have to give anyone anything. Awesome.
Next I asked him about being tardy. My nephew Jason would be working that night and not able to get to the luau until probably 9pm or later. The manager said that wasn’t a problem and if my nephew was REALLY late we could ask for a refund on his ticket.
Finally, I asked him about seating. All he could promise me was that we’d be in Category 1 because that’s what was paid for. Oh well, I tried.
Friday night finally came and we all met at my Mom’s to carpool.
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We got through all the gates and parking without incident. Everyone was in a great mood when we arrived. I was SO glad I had talked to the manager because even though we weren’t super early, we still ended up standing around outside with no where to sit for 20 minutes or so, even after the formal pictures were taken.
When we finally got in however, things went great. The food was fantastic, the show and costumes were awesome. I couldn’t help but bob my head and wiggle a little in my chair to that music. It was a wonderful night. One of the highlights of the night was that they just happened to pick my nephew, pull him up on stage, and have his shake his booty like a rock-star. He was a great sport!
Here’s a few photos from our big night.
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This is not video that I took but it’s a great 4 minute clip of what the show is like.
All in all, we had a blast. Go see this thing if you get a chance! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Just in case you aren’t familiar, it is a spectacular show that takes place each night before the fireworks at the Magic Kingdom.
I’m a big fan of the fireworks but this…well I can’t even describe how awesome I think this is. The music is beautiful. I’m such a Disnerd – I like to listen to it in my car.
Video doesn’t really do it justice but here is a pretty good try (turn on your sound):
Disney updates the show seasonally with themed overlays and some festive elements. If you’ve had your photo taken that day by a Disney photopass photographer – make sure you look closely. You, and thousands of others watching the show, just might see that picture of you in your Goofy hat.
Disney announced yesterday they will have a new scene for the summer where Cinderella Castle will turn in to a giant sandcastle. Here’s a picture they released to kind of give us a sneak peek.
My husband is a big Starbucks fan – so I’m hoping this great news might get my Decaf Dude to come to the parks with me more often! The one and only Starbucks announced today that they will soon have a presence at all the Disney theme parks.
You’ve got to be a California girl (or boy) to be the first to see it. Starbucks says they will open the first of six Starbucks locations in June at Disney California Adventure and then Disneyland Park. Disneyland guests can enjoy their “ pick me up” at the brand new Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Café. The Fiddler location will be themed to the 1920’s vision of Buena Vista Street. Sounds pretty cool to me!
Not long after – Florida will be “perked-up” Seattle style in the Walt Disney World resort! More specifically, we will enjoy Starbucks in Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, AND Animal Kingdom. The new locations will serve coffee, espresso, frappuccino, signature Starbucks sandwiches, pastries, and desserts.
Please note the Swan and Dolphin Resorts on Walt Disney World property have served Starbucks for quite a while. These resorts aren’t Disney owned. Now we can make magical memories right inside the parks without sacrificing our morning cup of joe from Starbucks!
Navigating Disney crowds can be crazy some times. Here’s an idea that might help when you are in Epcot!
Take the Future World East & West Pathways to World Showcase!
These pathways are visible to several guests, but for some reason many guests choose to go back through to Future World Plaza and take the main path at the center of EPCOT connecting Future World to World Showcase. If you have a Fastpass for Soarin later in the day it’s great to get to there via these pathways. If you simply want to leave Future World East or West you can get to World Showcase bay taking these peaceful and tranquil pathways. Both provide great scenery of EPCOT, especially during EPCOT’s Flower and Garden Festival – going on right now! These pathways do get narrow at certain points and therefore can get congested. Still, I think this is a great tip! Anything to get us to the frozen Margaritas in Mexico a little faster – right?
Disneyways 