Disney Fantasy Sailing Toward New York City

Reblogged from Disney Diva:

In a first for Disney Cruise Line, it’s newest ship – Fantasy – will be christened in New York City this week. The Fantasy is the sister ship to the Disney Dream which was launched last year. The Fantasy left the German shipyard Feb. 17th and is expected to arrive at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal today. All Disney Cruise Line’s other ships have been christened in Port Canaveral, but with the addition of Disney Cruises sailing from New York City beginning this year, the cruise line is promoting it’s new …

Disney Fantasy Sailing Toward New York City

In a first for Disney Cruise Line, it’s newest ship – Fantasy – will be christened in New York City this week. The Fantasy is the sister ship to the Disney Dream which was launched last year.
The Fantasy left the German shipyard Feb. 17th and is expected to arrive at the Manhattan Cruise Terminal today.
All Disney Cruise Line’s other ships have been christened in Port Canaveral, but with the addition of Disney Cruises sailing from New York City beginning this year, the cruise line is promoting it’s new itineraries from this port.
The 4,000-passenger ship will make it’s maiden voyage March 31 from Port Canaveral and will then sail alternating eastern and western Caribbean itineraries.
The Fantasy has the famed AquaDuck water coaster, like the Dream but will have a water play area called Aqua Lab, and will have the first onboard Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
I will be touring the Disney Fantasy Wednesday afternoon and will have live updates via Twitter. You can follow me @MyDisDiva.

 

Sharon Spohn is a Vacation Planning Expert with Liberty Travel in Exton. She can be reached at spohns@libertytravel.com or 610-524-2930

Port Orleans Riverside Resort Review

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Port Orleans Riverside Resort is the most charming of the moderate resorts.
It has the best moderate resort location with a short 10 minute bus ride to both Magic Kingdom and Epcot.
The resort itself is located in what they call the Downtown Disney “area.”
This can be confusing because it’s not located in Downtown Disney however, it offers a short boat ride on the Sassagoula River to Downtown Disney, something no other resort does.
It’s a larger resort with 2048 rooms. The resort has two areas, the Alligator Bayou and the Magnolia Bend. If you want to be closer to the pool and food court, request a room in Magnolia Bend.
We stayed in one of the recently refurbished rooms in Magnolia Bend. The beds have been upgraded to queen size beds and the rooms now have flat screen TV’s. The new rooms have a more deluxe feel to them.

In March, Disney will begin offering Royal Guest rooms as an option at Riverside. These rooms are part of the story room theme that Disney is beginning. The rooms will be themed after the movie  Princess and the Frog.

Port Orleans Riverside Resort is one of the few moderate resorts that allow 5 people to occupy a room. But make sure that one of those people is under age 10 as the bed is small and made for a child.

Another bonus at this resort is the horse-drawn carriage rides. They begin at Riverside but you have the choice to ride through Riverside or the French Quarter.

Bus service was good at this resort but you have to be patient for the stops that are made within the resort. If you don’t like waiting, the Port Orleans French Quarter resort only has one stop.

I enjoy this resort and also the French Quarter. Both are always at the top of my list for a moderate resort.

Happy Birthday Mickey Mouse

Today is Mickey Mouse’s birthday. And I’m happy to say I share the same birthday as Mickey. Every year on my (our) birthday, I think about my next trip to Walt Disney World and how cool it would be if those of us who have the same birthday as Mickey got something special! My first choice would be a stay in the Castle Suite in Cinderella’s Castle, or maybe a month long visit to the World so I can see everything in one trip.
Since those two things are about as likely as me hitting the lottery, I guess I will just look forward to my upcoming trip in a few weeks and begin planning my “big” trip next year.
You see, next year is one of those “milestone” birthdays. The kind that you want to plan to be somewhere very special for. I’ve been telling my husband for many months that I’m not spending THAT birthday at home. And being a travel agent, I’ve pondered the many exotic places I could go to ring in this special day. But I keep coming back to the place I consider my home away from home … Walt Disney World. What better place to turn that milestone number? And since I don’t want to feel old, I figured I better do something that makes me feel young!
So my plan is to spend 4 nights on the Disney Dream and then 5 more nights in Walt Disney World. My biggest decisions between now and then will be what resort to stay at (I’m leaning toward the Polynesian Resort, Club Level) and what restaurant to celebrate my birthday dinner!
And although they don’t seem like difficult decisions to make, I may just change my mind 50 time between now and then.

Putting Ginger Root To The Test

I am one of those people who have been plagued with motion sickness since childhood. And unfortunately it became worse as an adult! Now a ride in an elevator of a high-rise that makes
too many stops is a problem. But I am happy to say that over the last 18 months I’ve been taking ginger root capsules for my motion sickness with great success. I can now ride on a bus, don’t feel queasy on the plane, and took my first cruise this year, all with the help of my new friend ginger root!
But in a few weeks I will be heading to Disney and I’m thinking I may try the ginger root to go on rides that previously made me sick! I’ve never been able to ride the Tea Cups in Fantasyland because of the spinning motion. Heck, I even get motion sick from the merry-go-round!
One ride I loved but it made me very ill, is Expedition Everest. I’ve rode it twice trying to find the perfect seat on the train that would have the least amount of motion but still felt ill. But now I’m thinking of trying to go back on Expedition Everest while taking ginger root! If it works, there’s no limit to what I can ride! And if it doesn’t, I’ll stick to my favorites…Splash Mountain, Toy Story Mania and Soarin’.

Flying the Costly Skies

For most people, traveling to Walt Disney World means booking a flight to get there. And the price of that flight can really impact your total trip cost which is why everyone wants to find the best prices. And with the rising cost of baggage fees, those costs have to be factored in also.
While you can book most flights 345 days prior to departure, Southwest Airlines and Air Tran can only be booked about 6 – 8 months out. For my trips to Disney I usually wait till Southwest and Air Tran have their prices out before booking since Southwest has no baggage fees and Air Tran are lower than most. And admit it, we all look at the flight prices even after we book our flights to see if they went down.
I prefer Southwest Airlines since they have no baggage fees or change fees. I recently made a flight change to my Southwest flight itinerary and it was very easy. But I have no real airline loyalty. The best priced flights for my trip is where I book!
The downside to Southwest is you don’t have assigned seats. You either have to add the Early Bird Check In to your flight at $10 per person each way or go online exactly 24 hours before your flight and hope you get boarding section A. The Early Bird Check In guarantees you boarding section A. If you get boarding section B or C you may not get seats together.
And even flying other airlines, if you book your flights online and don’t (or can’t) book a seat, you may not be on that flight. Last month as I boarded a flight to Houston, 2 women were called at the gate and told the flight was full and they would have to take another flight. When the women questioned it, the airline representative asked if they booked the flight online, which they did. She then told them they didn’t book seats which meant they didn’t have a seat on that flight. The airlines will oversell flights, which is why I always recommend booking with a travel agent

Transforming Disney For The Christmas Season

Gone are the days you wake up in Disney the day after Thanksgiving to a completely holiday decorated resort and parks that magically happened while you slept. But many remember a time when it did.
My neighbor described the awesome experience she had staying at the Wilderness Lodge and waking up that Friday after Thanksgiving to a completely decorated resort complete with a Christmas tree in the lobby. But that was a long time ago.
Now decorating for Christmas in Disney happens earlier and takes several days. And that’s not surprising considering it takes 150 tractor trailers to bring the decorations from the warehouse to the parks and resorts.
More than 11 miles of garland, 300,000 yards of ribbon and over 7 million light adorn more than 1300 Christmas trees on Disney property!
And while we wind down our summer each year in August, Disney is beginning to string 10 miles of rope lights in Disney Studios in preparation for The Osborne Family Spectacle of Dancing Lights.
And don’t miss the life size gingerbread house at the Grand Floridian resort which is constructed completely by the Disney pastry team using 1,050 pounds of honey, 140 pints of egg whites, 600 lbs of powdered sugar, 700 lbs of chocolate, 800 lbs of flour and 35 lbs of spices! And if you just have to have one to take home, they sell smaller versions of the gingerbread house too!
So if you’ve always wanted to see Walt Disney World decorated for Christmas, plan a trip so that you arrive after November 10th. That way you can see all the decorations and experience the special events held during the holidays too.

My Hurricane Trip To Disney

With all eyes on approaching hurricane Irene, I thought I would share the story of my Disney vacation altered by a hurricane.
It was August 2004 and we were scheduled for an early flight out of Philadelphia one Sunday morning. We knew hurricane Charley had just hit Florida and was moving up the coast but when we got up early for our flight, it was only drizzling and we figured we had dodged the bullet.
When we arrived at the airport I was a little surprised at the length of the check in line but quickly brushed it off telling myself maybe some flights were rerouted due to weather. We weren’t in line long before an airline representative came along the line asking if anyone was traveling to Orlando. We told her we were and she said our flight had been cancelled. “So when can we expect to catch another flight?” I asked.
“Tuesday or Wednesday at the earliest,” she said. We later learned the hurricane damaged part of the US Airways terminal at the Orlando airport.
My husband Mike and I stood there staring at each other in disbelief as our daughters were on the verge of tears. When reality set in my first thought was that I didn’t buy trip insurance and we would lose our vacation if we didn’t get there. My second thought was that I hadn’t even had a cup of coffee yet and here we stood in the middle of the airport trying to figure out a solution.
One thing my husband and I have in common is that we think exactly alike. I looked at him and asked if he knew the directions to drive to Disney. He said it was 2 roads, I-95 and I-4.
We got in the car, made a quick stop at Wawa for coffee and on-the-go breakfast and we headed to Walt Disney World. We stopped in Virginia to buy a cooler, ice and drinks plus pillows for the girls. I called the Wilderness Lodge to let them know what happened and that we’d be arriving late that night. They assured me that they would hold our room.
Exactly 18 hours later we all cheered as we drove under the Walt Disney World arch at 11:30pm.
The Disney magic then set in and we were upgraded to a water view room that overlooked Seven Seas Lagoon. And from then on our vacation was perfect. And on our last day there we were waiting in a long line for Splash Mountain when a Disney cast member approached us and asked how our vacation was going. We told him it was our last day and that Splash Mountain was our favorite ride. He then removed the rope between us and him and said “follow me.”
We followed him to the front of the line where we were put right on the ride in front of everyone else. We never knew why we were chosen to have that front of the line treatment, but looking back we think they may have been testing Magical Moments for the Year of a Million Dreams promotion.

Does Disney Have An Off-season?

I get asked this question a lot by people looking to plan their Walt Disney World Vacation during a less crowded time of year. And yes, Disney does have a slow season. But there are events throughout the year that attract lots of people.
Free dining which has been offered in September for the last 6 years or so continues to draw crowds. After that comes the Epcot Food and Wine Festival and Halloween, both very popular times to visit Disney. Fall is a good time to visit Disney if you want to avoid summer crowds and heat. Try to avoid Thanksgiving week and Christmas week if at all possible because those will be the most crowded.
Early December can be a nice time to visit as the parks are all decorated and the Christmas week crowds have not yet arrived. January and February are probably the least crowded times to visit but you have to remember that Florida gets cold fronts too so it might not be shorts and T-shirt weather. The two best low crowd and good weather months I’ve visited Disney have been November and March.

Candlelight Processional Dinner Packages

If you visit Walt Disney World during the Christmas season, the Candlelight Processional in Epcot is one of those not-to-be-missed events.
Held in the American Gardens Theater, this combination of choirs from schools around the country, Disney’s own choir, a 50 piece orchestra and a different celebrity guest each night tell the story of Christmas.
This is a free event to park guests however, it’s popular and there is limited seating.
Four years ago, my daughter Kelly sang with her school choir in the Candlelight Processional.
We lined up about an hour and a half before the show start time and barely made it in to the last few seats in the back row of the theater.
This year, my daughter Kristen will be performing with the Exeter Township Senior High School, in the Candlelight Processional.
To avoid another close call of missing seats for the performance, I decided to book a Candlelight Processional Dinner Package. With the dinner package you get guaranteed seating for the Candlelight Processional. The packages went on sale July 26th. Unaware of how popular this option has become, I didn’t call until 2 days later. Well, I almost missed out on the dinner package. Not only was the restaurant we wanted not available, but there was only one restaurant and one time slot still available! I quickly made the reservation while the Disney Cast Member told me how busy they were with these package reservations the first day, July 26.
So if your planning to see one of the performances and want to book the dinner package, don’t wait to call Disney Dining at 407-WDW-DINE. The reservation needs to be held with a credit card but they will not charge your card unless you no-show without canceling. The dinner packages range in price and start from about $38.99 and up for lunch and $54.99 and up for dinner. Your dinner package includes one appetizer, one entree, one dessert and a non-alcoholic beverage. when you arrive at the restaurant you will receive your badge for priority seating at the Candlelight Processional and Illuminations Fireworks.