Here at Disney Dork Tom, we aim to be practical. “How can I prepare for a Disney trip” is by far one of the most frequent questions that I get via e-mail and social media. So, we gave that question some thought within the context of “what if visiting Disney was like the Olympics”. What would the events be and how would we train for them to get the gold? We put together this list of practical (albeit unconventional) ways that you can train like an Olympian before your visit to Disney.
Disney announced today, via their blog, that both Soarin’ and Toy Story Midway Mania would be expanded at Walt Disney World, to be complete by late 2016. Full details from the Disney Parks Blog, quoted below:
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Time is your most valuable asset while you’re at Walt Disney World. You’re paying a lot of money to be there so maximizing that time is crucial! Unfortunately, there are a lot of “time traps” at Walt Disney World that you could stumble into if you don’t know about them. Here are four major time wasters to mitigate before (and while) you’re there:
Continue reading “Four Major Time Wasters to Mitigate at Walt Disney World (infographic)”
Personally, I find the history of all-things-Disney completely fascinating. I’ve been reading David Koenig’s book “Realityland” and learning lots of fun tidbits. Since many people won’t take the time to read the entire book, but still love Disney facts, I thought I’d throw together my first ever infographic. Without further ado, please enjoy!
Continue reading “Fun Facts about the construction of Walt Disney World (infographic)”
I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again: EPCOT is one of my favorite places to dine when I visit Walt Disney World. I mean, the options are all so much fun and so delicious that it’s often hard to narrow it down to a few during a trip. Today I’ll talk about what is probably one of my top three restaurants in EPCOT: Biergarten! If you can’t make it to the Hobrauhaus in Munich any time soon, then Biergarten is gonna be a great alternative.
Note: if you’re looking for an overview of all the Disney reviews I’ve done (which can help provide context for scoring) give my review index a quick glimpse.
I’ve done a few restaurant reviews (Liberty Tree Tavern, Le Cellier Steakhouse) because dining is pretty much one of my favorite parts of a Disney stay. It may surprise people, but the resort itself is somewhat less important to me since typically it’s only a place to sleep or nap in between time at the parks. I am notoriously bad at not even scheduling a “pool day”. But, I can’t lie, I’m always mesmerized by the detail of each resort I’ve stayed at and how much fun it is to explore and so today I’d like to explore the Coronado Springs Resort.
Note: if you’re looking for an overview of all the Disney reviews I’ve done (which can help provide context for scoring) give my review index a quick glimpse.
Continue reading “Coronado Springs Resort at Walt Disney World: A Review”
Disney World is expensive and we all know it (not that it stops any of us from going). There are some obvious ways to cut costs during a Disney World trip like staying at a value resort or eating exclusively at quick service restaurants. But, I wanted to share some other cool ways to save money that may not have occurred to people.
#1 – Instead of renting a room, rent DVC points instead
For those of you not familiar with DVC, it stands for Disney Vacation Club and it’s their time share program. Many of the resorts at Disney World have a DVC component. Even better for you, it’s not that hard to rent points from existing DVC members using any number of services. I have never done this before personally, so instead of supporting any particular service, click here to see the best results from Google.
Continue reading “Five great tips to saving money at Disney World”
Nothing would make me happier than to stay at (literally) all the Walt Disney World resort hotels at least once. But, unless I end up taking like 20 trips, this may be kind of a challenge. I live in California, so when I do go to Disney World, it’s usually one 6+ day trip every year or two. Thus, it would take a lot of trips to knock out all the hotels I want to see. For those of us who like to be a little adventurous, though, you can actually stay at different resorts for different parts of your trip! It takes a little coordination but I thought it would be helpful to outline some of the details of resort hopping.
Disney Dork Tom 
See ya later, Sorcerer’s Hat!
Well, it’s official. The Sorcerer’s Hat at Hollywood Studios is officially leaving as of January, 2015. I have to be honest, the hat never bothered me. I know, I know, everyone seems to HATE that hat? I guess I just never understood why it bothered people so much. Is the view of the Chinese Theater replica cooler? Probably. Is it enough to get heated over? I don’t think so. But, to each their own. I neither loved nor hated the hat, so I am not feeling any emotion either way about its removal. But, here is a great pic of it for old time’s sake:
Continue reading “See ya later, Sorcerer’s Hat!” →