According to Disney Parks Blog, there is another new restaurant coming to Disney Springs in 2016. It’s also owned by another famous TV chef, in this case Art Smith who has completed the tri-fecta of TV cooking: “Iron Chef America,” “Top Chef” and “Top Chef Masters.” In additon, he’s also been Oprah’s Chef so that’s cool. The restaurant will have a Southern flare and will include a Southern Shine bar for tasty spirits and cocktails.
As I am sure you all know, Disney’s D23 Expo wrapped up this weekend and we enjoyed lots of cool news. If you’re not up to date on everything that was announced, check out my roundup post here. For this post, however, I’d like to talk about the things that were not announced that I wish had been in relation to the parks, particularly Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Continue reading “The amazing D23 News I was hoping would be announced… but wasn’t”
If you didn’t follow D23 closely, I thought it may be helpful (now that it is over) to provide some updates to you. The very simple gist of it, at least as far as the US parks are concerned, would be as follows:
Continue reading “A roundup of all the best D23 announcements from this past weekend!”
Right off the bat let’s agree on one thing: Walt Disney World is NOT for everyone. I totally get that, and honestly, if it really isn’t your thing then I don’t want to convince you to go… because then you may just end up ruining my trip! But, there are complaints that I hear all the time from people who haven’t been there, or who have been there but had a bad experience and wrote Disney World off entirely. Today I’d like to debunk a few of the criticisms that I consider unfair…
Continue reading “Debunking some common criticisms from Disney World skeptics”
If you’ve got a trip coming up this fall this may be of interest to you, especially if you wanted the dining plan promotion but weren’t able to snag it. Disney has announced their Fall room-only promotions, which save you 20-30% on your room cost depending on what type of resort you’re staying at. Remember you can ONLY have one promotion applied to your stay so if you already have free dining, give Disney a call and ask them to compute which promotion yields the most savings. Get the full details here.
Continue reading “Fall 2015 – Walt Disney World Room-Only Discounts Announced”
I wrote this blog as a guest author for my friend at MouseOnTheMind.com but I enjoyed writing it so much that I decided to repost it here, too, for posterity…
I know that if people got to pick which land came to Walt Disney World first that most would far prefer Star Wars Land or Marvel Land. But, for my money, the franchise I’d most love to see get its own land is Indiana Jones! It was, by far, my favorite trilogy as a young lad and I love the mystique to this day. So I’d like to present my vision for Indy Land, coming to Walt Disney World someday soon (I hope). First, let’s talk everyone’s favorite, attractions, where I envision these staples…
Continue reading “Forget Star Wars and Marvel Lands – How about Indy Land?”
As I am sure you know by now, yesterday Disney announced their Free Disney Dining Plan Promotions for 2015. I won’t go into all the details, but some of my Disney colleagues covered it well: Disney Tourist Blog’s coverage / Orlando Weekly’s coverage
I have a feeling that Disney is perhaps trying to phase out the free dining promotion a few steps at a time. Right off the bat, I noticed a few things that was different this year than from previous years:
Continue reading “Free Disney Dining Announced for 2015 – Major Problems Ensue”
I was poking around on Quora and decided to answer a question on cool Walt Disney World hacks. I ended up with this list of 21 hacks that will definitely make your Disney World vacation go better!
Planning Hacks:
- One of my favorite hacks, is more of a planning ‘hack’, and that’s making sure you use crowd calendars to book your visit. Knowing what the projected crowd levels are a great way to avoid crushing crowds during your stay. Undercover Tourist has a great one, here: April 2015 Orlando Crowd Calendar
- Always, always, always arrive at the parks when they open (or earlier, if you have access to Extra Magic Hours). You will be shocked how empty Disney parks can be – even at peak time – when they first open. Get all the big-ticket rides out of the way in the morning and then enjoy a more relaxing afternoon.
Continue reading “21 Walt Disney World Hacks For Your Family’s Dream Vacation”
Disney Dork Tom 
Let’s Keep the Annual Pass Price Hikes in Perspective
There’s been a lot of commotion this week about Disney’s massive price hikes to their annual passes at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Some tiers of the new passes include PhotoPass downloads and free parking, which is actually an upgrade. Many have argued that it isn’t a big enough upgrade to justify the higher prices and that’s probably true. But, Disney maintains that their rationale is still rooted in crowd management and not greed. I suspect, in all honesty, it’s a little bit of both.
Continue reading “Let’s Keep the Annual Pass Price Hikes in Perspective” →