Disney Blog at Magical Kingdoms

Disney have finally announced what we’ve all known about for many months – the new DVC property at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa.

Disney Vacation Club is developing an estimated 147 villas as part of the previously announced expansion of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

Estimated to open in late 2013 near Disney’s Wedding Pavilion, the resort’s slated to become the 12th Disney Vacation Club property.

“We continually look for ways to expand Disney Vacation Club by creating resort experiences that our Members will love,” said Claire Bilby, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Disney Vacation Club. “With the continued popularity of Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, we are thrilled to offer our Members and Guests a new resort option along the monorail beam with easy access to the Magic Kingdom Park, as well as a variety of shopping, dining and recreation experiences.”

We recently polled our forum members to ask their favorites at Walt Disney World and Disneyland Paris, for our inaugural “MK Best of Disney Awards.” And…drumroll please…here are the results!

WALT DISNEY WORLD

Best Epcot Restaurant -
Le Cellier Steakhouse

Best Downtown Disney Restaurant -
Raglan Road Irish Pub & Restaurant

Best Signature Restaurant -
(2 joint winners)
Citrico’s
Le Cellier Steakhouse (dinner)

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Miles of garland, ribbon, twinkling lights and glitter transform Walt Disney World Resort into a winter wonderland during the holiday season.  Here’s a sample of what guests will experience throughout the Vacation Kingdom:

• 1,300 decorated trees throughout property
• A wreath 25 feet in diameter adorning the Cirque du Soleil building at Downtown Disney West Side
• 10 miles of twinkling rope lights in the Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• 150 tractor-trailer truckloads of decorations for 24 resorts, 4 theme parks, Downtown Disney and other locations
• 15 miles of garland strung and 1,314 wreaths hung throughout the Vacation Kingdom
• 300,000 yards of ribbon and bows draping over Christmas trees across property
• 8.5 million lights strung throughout Walt Disney World Resort
• 100 percent of the lighting used for holiday décor is LED
• 11 countries dressed for Holidays Around the World at Epcot World Showcase
• More than 800 performers each night during Candlelight Processional at Epcot
• More than 200 guest choirs during the entire run of Candlelight Processional
• A Christmas tree in Magic Kingdom with a base 25 feet wide
• One 70-foot-tall tree takes center stage in Disney’s Contemporary Resort entrance lobby featuring nearly 35,800 white LED lights
• 6 life-sized creations cooked up by Walt Disney World pastry chefs, including:
  • One 16-foot-tall gingerbread house at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa baked with 1,050 pounds of honey and involving more than 160 hours of decorating
  • One life-size gingerbread carousel at Disney’s Beach Club Resort featuring ponies made of chocolate and fondant, giant candy cane poles, handcrafted poinsettias and hand-painted portraits of famous Disney characters
  • 100 percent chance of snow flurries during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, taking place on select holiday evenings in Magic Kingdom
  • 365 days of the year that guests can shop for holiday merchandise at the Disney’s Days of Christmas shop in Downtown Disney Marketplace

Christmas and New Year are some of the busiest times at Walt Disney World. If you’re planning to visit during this time here are some tips to help-

Arrive early and if staying on-site, take advantage of Extra Magic Hour, both morning and night.

Have patience if you want to do the rides. It’s crowded and the waits will be long. Fastpass is your friend but arrive early and get a Fastpass for the attraction that’s most important to you first, as they run out quickly.

Make your Advanced Dining Reservations (ADR) early. However, if you don’t have one, Guest Services can try to find you something somewhere.

If you have an ADR, allow extra time for getting there if using Disney transportation.

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The Wave is located on the 1st floor at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and is described as featuring American cooking with world flavors.

It’s a restaurant we’d been meaning to try but hadn’t gotten around to it on our previous trip. Whilst at Disney’s Hollywood Studios one day we decided to stop by the dining reservations counter to see if we could get an ADR for dinner that evening. As luck would have it, we managed to snag one at The Wave for 6:20pm, although the Cast Member said we could probably get seated earlier if we arrived before our time. As it was, by the time we’d finished at the park, got back to Bay Lake Tower and changed, it was 6:10pm when we arrived.

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By Guest Blogger Vikki W.

Taking a baby to Disney really is easier than you might think. We took Ava when she was six months old, so I thought I’d put some things together that would help anyone else who was thinking of taking a little person too.

First things first. The most important thing really is planning. Of course, if you’re taking a baby this would probably seem obvious, but the devil really is in the detail. I think I over planned to be perfectly honest, and considered things that I never really needed to. However I tend to think that over planning is always better than under planning.

Important things to note for us in particular was that I was breastfeeding Ava when we went, so even though I did try and take note of bottle feeding facilites, I didn’t look at those specifically. Also, we were doing baby led weaning with her, which pretty much means she ate whatever we did – no purees or anything like that to deal with. To be honest, although this is easier all round anyway, we chose this method particularly because we knew it would be easier to do with a baby around as we wouldn’t have to worry about jars or warming food up.

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If you’re planning a Disney trip, or just want to earn a bit of extra money for something else, you can earn some by taking part in online surveys, research and writing reviews. While you’re not going to become a millionnaire by doing this, every little bit helps!

Some of the sites below pay in gift vouchers rather than cash, but you can use these to buy things for your trip, or just to use for Christmas presents or such like.

Obviously, some sites are better than others, so I’ve reviewed the ones that I’ve used to save you wasting time. I can only review UK sites, being UK based.

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By Guest Blogger Anthony W.

So at ridiculous o’clock (6:00am) I got up and had a quick bit of breakfast, then in the car and off to the Magic Kingdom, yay! Now at this point I really didn’t have a clue as to where I was meant to be actually heading as I assumed that the car park would not be open, however the car park was the best place to head for. After a short drive I pulled up to a booth at the gate and explained to the lady where I was going….. guess what…. she had no idea what I was on about so she just directed me around to the main car park. I pulled into the car park and walked around to the TTC, slight problem when I got there because all the gates were shut, however I found a random cast member who let me through.

Next problem all the monorail entrances were closed, I started to panic at this point as the tour was supposed to start in 8 minutes. Fortunately another nice cast member came over and asked what I was doing. After I explained they took me up to the express monorail station and spoke to a cast member on the platform, he got on his radio and then 2 minutes later a private monorail arrived just for me, I even got my own greeting from the driver!
“Hello to my one and only passenger, sit back and relax we will be at the MK in a few minutes so you won’t be late”

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Having read the DFB Guide to WDW Dining and the DFB Mini-guide to the Epcot Food & Wine Festival, I was intrigued as to what I might find within the virtual pages of this latest guide. Having now read the 90 page e-book I have been pleasantly surprised as to what I’ve seen.

This e-book is a follow on from the DFB Guide to Walt Disney World Dining, and the first in a series of mini-guides, brought to us by AJ Wolfe of the Disney Food Blog website. AJ knows pretty much everything there is to know about dining at Disney World, and is sharing her knowledge through these books.

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Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Worldwide is joining forces with visionary filmmaker James Cameron and Fox Filmed Entertainment to bring the world of AVATAR to life at Disney parks. Through an exclusive agreement announced today by Disney, Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment and Fox, Disney will partner with Cameron and producing partner Jon Landau to create themed lands that will give theme park guests the opportunity to explore the mysterious universe of AVATAR first hand. Disney plans to build the first AVATAR themed land at Walt Disney World, within the Animal Kingdom park.  With its emphasis on living in harmony with nature, Animal Kingdom is a natural fit for the AVATAR stories, which share the same philosophy. Construction is expected to begin by 2013.

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