Uncategorized - 2/101 - TouringPlans.com Blog

One question I get asked a lot is – “What’s a good way to celebrate a special occasion at Disney?” In my opinion, there aren’t many better PLACES to celebrate a special occasion, so there have to be some good WAYS to celebrate there, right? Well there are! And here are 10 of them.

1. Birthday or Celebration Button – My first way to celebrate is absolutely free! Do I get bonus points for that? I cannot stress enough how important it is to get a button for your celebration. There are birthday buttons, anniversary buttons, just married buttons, family reunion buttons, even first visit buttons! If any of these apply to your reason for being at Disneyland – get one. You’ll be amazed at how much attention one little button can bring. Cast members and guests alike will wish you happy birthday when they see the button. Occasionally, you’ll even have a cast member go out of their way to bring some extra magic to your trip when they see these buttons. So unless the thought of being spoken (maybe sang?) to freaks you out, get a button.

2. My Disneyland Birthday Party – Disneyland has a party with characters just for birthday celebrations every day at the Plaza Inn! For $16.99 each guest will receive party hats, a souvenir cup, a mini birthday cake to decorate and icing and cake toppings to eat or decorate with. Mickey and Minnie themselves even pop in to join the celebration! The party lasts about an hour and reservations are recommended.

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The oft maligned Nescafe Coffee will soon be leaving Disney Parks.  Disney has entered into a long-term agreement with Joffrey’s Coffee and Tea Co to provide the standard coffee at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Disney Vacation Club properties.  In addition, Joffrey’s will develop special blends exclusive to Disney and resort hotel rooms will all have a catalog where guests can purchase Joffrey’s products to take home.  These changes will be complete within the next few months.

What do you think about these changes? Excited? Will you miss the Nescafe? Let us know!

This year, Disney World celebrated the 20th anniversary of the always exciting (and exhausting) Marathon Weekend. Many events were held over the course of four days that drew in people from all over the world. It was a great weekend for the motivated runners and supporters.

Back in August, I made the decision to not only attend Marathon Weekend for the first time, but actually participate in a race. For months, I had been seeing my friends train for and successfully complete races that they never thought that they would be doing. I wanted that accomplishment for myself! My husband, Matt, and I decided to train to run 3.1 miles in the Family Fun Run 5K event. We started the training with an 8 week Couch to 5K program. Never running more than a mile in my life (and never willingly), I was absolutely petrified at what I was going to be doing.

Before I knew it, my husband I arrived in Disney World just days before our big run. We chose to stay at Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort, which was also a big hit with other runners. Immediately, we were surround by “real runners” which only made me feel like more of an amateur. Here I was, nervous to run 3 miles, and others were preparing themselves for a race far more challenging. What was I so afraid of?

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“This is a French restaurant.” That is what my server felt necessary to point out when I asked what the vegan options are at Monsieur Paul. A French restaurant? Really? I had no idea! The fact that it’s a) called “Monsieur Paul b) located in the France Pavillion at Epcot and c) a mere few feet away from a giant replica of La Tour Eiffel did not tip me off.

I realize that traditional French fare is not typically plant-centric. Being in a theme park and not traipsing around the 5th arrondissement, however, I figured I would be met with the typical Disney restaurant procedure: ask if anything is vegan, explain what “vegan” means, then usually talk with a chef about things that can be created, or menu items that can be modified. Instead, at Monsieur Paul, I was told that there was nothing available to meet my requests, but the server guessed they could make me a salad (a French salad, I hoped!).

Unfortunately, there was no vegan option for an appetizer, or an amuse bouche so I settled on sparkling water, until my entree arrived. The entree was good, and may deserve an extra bunch of kale on top of the rating given, but the journey to said entree was disappointing.

So, what did I eat? I was served hash brown potatoes, over grilled potatoes, over asparagus and carrots, over leeks, with a side of potato beignets. Yes, lots of potato. The presentation was pretty, and I must say the triple potato whammy was the best part. Though everything was a bit overly greasy and salty, in the end, I appreciated the effort and managed to eat every bite. 

For dessert, I was served raspberry sorbet, strawberry sorbet with raspberries.  This is a fairly standard vegan dessert option at just about every Walt Disney World restaurant, and is always a delightful end to any meal.

Now, I get it. I understand menus are written to please the general public, and not always with special diets in mind. I also am well aware that the vegan diet is not always the easiest to accommodate on the fly. I would have like to feel that someone was trying to give me a good dining experience, though. I’ve had good meals and bad meals while dining in Walt Disney World, but I was extra surprised at the lack of feigned effort at this restaurant. Best part of my meal? The swanky fizzy water.

Unfortunately, I wouldn’t recommend this restaurant for vegans or vegetarians based upon this experience. Maybe we would have better luck in real France.

We’re doing hardware maintenance early Tuesday morning, between midnight and 2 AM Eastern. The site, blog, and mobile app (Lines) will be unavailable during this time.

All images copyright Disney

The first full week of the new year has come and gone at Disneyland, and with it went the record-setting holiday crowds. If you visit the Anaheim resort on weekdays between now and mid-February, you should find some of the mildest lines of the year, but be aware; a bevy of attractions boarded up for refurbishment may make up for the short waits.

Crowd Calendar

Quietest Day: Thursday 1/10 was a 2 out of 10 at the resort, with 2.5 at Disneyland, and 1.1 at DCA.

Busiest Day: Sunday 1/6 was an 8 out of 10 at the resort, with a 7.3 at Disneyland, and 5.5 at DCA.

Subscribe to the Touring Plans Disneyland Crowd Calendar for full details on predicted attendance for the next 30 days.

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It is a brand new year. Many folks all over the world are counting down the days until their 2013 vacation to Disney World. Some are even visiting for the very first time! Whether you’re a novice, or a veteran, the planning experience can be incredibly stressful at times. The number one thing that people tend to have anxiety about is what it is going to cost their family to make the pilgrimage to the Disney parks.

Last week, Erin Foster wrote an awesome article for the blog about how to determine if certain vacation options are worth the added cost or not. She touched on the fact that we all have different needs and different wants. It is important to consider that with a little pre-planning and compromise, everyone can save money at Disney World in some way. Why keep the blinders on and spend more money than necessary?

Most pieces of advice that I want to offer up to you all are as old as time, while some are suggestions you might not have ever considered before. I am the queen of penny pinching, so I feel that it is my duty to pass on my little words of wisdom. Hopefully, first time planners will be able to use at least one thing I mention.

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When I handed down my, now legendary, awards last year, I didn’t realize I would be issuing the inaugural awards  in what would quickly become a storied tradition surpassing even the Academy Awards and Soul Train Music Awards in terms of clout. The number of Imagineers and Disney executives who now proudly display a “Planie” on their mantel is staggering, and I swear I only broke into like 6 of their houses to put the award there. In actuality, I’m sure the three or four people who read these awards last year scrubbed the memory from their minds approximately 30 seconds after closing the browser window. But I dare to dream that someday, these awards will have their own red carpet gala!

Although anyone who disagrees with my picks here is obviously wrong, it’s worth noting that these aren’t official picks of the TouringPlans staff. So if anyone on the staff wants to disagree with me (and be wrong) as to the winner of any of these awards, more power to them.

Best New Attraction: Radiator Springs Racers, Disney California Adventure

There’s absolutely no competition for this award. Radiator Springs Racers is the best US attraction Disney has opened since at least Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Tower of Terror, or perhaps earlier. It’s an appropriate flagship attraction for Cars Land, and is a “destination attraction” in that it will be the reason kids convince their parents to plan trips to go to the “Cars Park” out in California for years to come.

Radiator Springs Racers sets a new bar for Disney E-Ticket attractions as it brilliantly combines a ride through Ornament Valley with dark ride sequences and next-generation Audio-Animatronics. The ride system is similar to Test Track’s, but comparing Test Track to Radiator Springs Racers is like comparing Dinosaur to Indiana Jones Adventure. Racing side-by-side with another car through the breathtaking Ornament Valley mountains is an amazing experience, but it’s the dark ride sequences, the queue detail, and the complete package of Radiator Springs Racers that make it one of the greatest Disney attractions ever.

Honorable mention here goes to Test Track at Walt Disney World. While not technically new, Test Track “2.0″ is so drastically different from its predecessor that it might as well be new. For the first time in years, Future World feels like it embodies the promise of EPCOT Center a bit more. With Test Track 2.0, Disney finally nailed what an EPCOT Center “2.0″ attraction should feel like. It’s a shame that it took until the 3.0 version of the World of Motion building attraction for this to happen, but hopefully things are finally on the upswing for EPCOT.

Biggest Disappointment: New Fantasyland, Magic Kingdom

Maintenance issues have plagued Walt Disney World for the last several years, with plenty of new and continuing issues, so awarding this honor to New Fantasyland over, say, the Tree of Life, Carousel of Progress, Splash Mountain, Maelstrom, Expedition Everest, and probably a few more attractions that I’m forgetting might seem disingenuous. And it might be. The thing is, I’d be handing out this award to attractions with maintenance issues for the next decade if I didn’t look outside that realm.

Instead, I’ll give it to New Fantasyland. Judged in a vacuum, New Fantasyland is a solid addition to the Magic Kingdom. It provides a nice contrast to the sea of concrete of Old Fantasyland with plenty of lush landscaping and interesting areas of explore. It’s heavy on rich details, which are otherwise light in the Magic Kingdom’s Old Fantasyland. Just as important, it gives the Magic Kingdom needed capacity to absorb crowds.

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Twas the night before Christmas, and at Touring Plans
Vacation has started for woman and man.
The optimizer’s running, the stats in great shape
As we wait for Santa to smite Stitch’s Great Escape.

Researchers sleep as they smile with glee
As they dream about dining at Club 33.
The bloggers check their stockings, looking for a sign
They’ll be told to write about Disney Cruise Line.

When outside our office arose such a clatter,
I jumped from my desk to see what was the matter.
In case it’s the boss, my laptop gets closed
To hide that I’ve been watching cat videos.

Magic snow must have fallen and covered the streets,
Or maybe I fell asleep at Blizzard Beach?
Well, what do I spy as I squint through the gleam?
A monorail, and the entire Touring Plans team!

The driver was excited, and set for fiesta.
I knew in a moment it must be Len Testa.
Running like it was rope drop, his team they all came
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

On Steve, David, Guy, Sarah, Justin, and Fred
On Laurel, Tom, Scarlett, Darcie, Gerelyn, and Brad!
Someone get in line, time your wait ‘til you’re through!
We need walk times and bus times, there’s still work to do!

They sprang into action predicting wait times,
Collecting menus & crowd stats that show up in Lines.
So all with a mission to attractions they flew,
And sat for three months outside of Star Tours 2.

And then, in a twinkling, I heard from the door
A resounding “WOOT” that vibrated the floor.
I craned my neck, and then turned to see,
A WEDWay Peoplemover ambling t’ward me.

Out stepped the man, myth, and legend…head geek
And he ran up to me and gave my nose a tweak.
Len said “Don’t just sit here napping and snoring,”
“We need actual times, go get in line for Soarin’!”

His eyes-how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks kind of rosy, his hair was…uh, hairy?
He spoke very quickly, his mind raced with options
I was as out of place as a family picnic in Compton.

He yelled t’ward the TV, then yelled once again,
“C’mon Steelers, we need this! Go Big Ben, get seven!”
As he turned back to me, a boom box near his belly,
Van Halen shook the room like a bowlful of jelly!

We spoke of his podcast and he stated that
He may not be the coolest…but he’s cooler than Matt.
And while all Touring Plans tasks may not be the best,
They’re better than always being at DHS.

He gave my hand a shake and went off to his work,
And I worried a bit when I saw his head jerk.
He gave one more “WOOT” as I realized the plot
He was tipping his head back for tequila shots.

He met up with the team, donning a Touring Plans sweater,
And they continued their mission to make vacations better.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!”

From myself and the entire TouringPlans.com team, we sincerely wish you and yours a happy holiday season. May all of your wishes come true.

It’s that time of year!  The time where, if you haven’t already – and you really should have by now – you start racking your brain for ideas for gift ideas!  And not just any gift idea, gift ideas for Disney fans.  Or people you want to make Disney fans so they understand what you are talking about when you refer to things like “the post Disney blues”, “what time is the 3 o’clock parade?” or “try to share my Dole Whip and there will be repercussions”.  Is that last one just me?

Here are some suggestions for you!  Some of these are Disneyland specific and others are just Disney wonderful.

1. A Trip to Disneyland – Well, duh.  This is of course the best present.  Surprise your loved ones with a trip to Disneyland.  The Happiest Place on Earth.  I’m sure you’ve seen the commercials where parents filmed their kid’s reactions to surprise trips to Disney.  Does anyone not get choked up, or at least smile, when they see the pure joy those children are experiencing?  It’s the best!  I need to do that!  Or be on the receiving end of it for that matter.  Not that I would argue with a trip to Walt Disney World, Disneyland Paris or a Disney Cruise either!

2. Annual Pass – Would you like an annual passport to Disneyland?  Okay then.  No discussion needed here.  Unless you already have one.  Then maybe you’d like an upgrade to the Premier Pass which will get you into Walt Disney World and Disneyland!  Double the fun!

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