Disney Inspiration

Disney will always be more to me than just theme parks, amazing rides and attractions, great food, and fun.  Disney stands for me as inspiration and continuing on no matter how bad things look or how much people will tell you that you are going to fail.

Case in point, in 1919, Walt Disney actually got fired from the Kansas City Star. According to his boss who was an editor for the paper, Walt “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”  Can you simply imagine that?  Walt Disney had no imagination?  Walt sat on a bench in a dirty park that had a merry-go-round in it that was about to break down, grabbed a napkin, and sketched out exactly how Disneyland was going to look years before it was ever built.  

Walt never had any good ideas?  Beyond entertainment, Walt had a vision for an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow which had “green” ideas in it before “green” was even even a thing.  Walt created shrewd business policies and procedures that fortune 500 business today still put into practice.

Walt never let a failure stop him for long.  Later Walt acquired Laugh-O-Gram Studios, an animation studio he later would lose to bankruptcy.  But even in the loss, Walt took the lessons he learned from that loss and then he set his sights on a more profitable area: animation.  He and his brother moved to California and started producing successful cartoon series and soon after Mickey Mouse was born.

It is easy to just look at Disney and see a major company whose only goal is to get as much of your money as they possibly can with no thought for the person behind the money, but I can attest that Disney is so much more than that.  Disney is the largest single contributor to more wonderful charities than any other American company.  Disney has helped to create technologies that we all use today to make our lives much easier.  Disney cares about people and if more companies did that, the world would be a better place!

I hope you too can find inspiration from Walt’s life and the way he handled himself through adversity.  Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.  Use their negativity to fuel your positivity.  Always learn from the past but look to the future for opportunities to make it better, not just for you, but for everyone.  Your simply one thought away from creating the amazing future for you that you have always longer to have.  Don’t let anyones negativity steal your future from you.  

Thanks for joining me here today as we look once again to Walt for inspiration.  Walt never took no for an answer and we shouldn’t either.  I’ll see ya back here again real soon and I hope you have a very magical weekend!

 

Disney Question Time

Hello Disney Friends!  Its Disney question time again!  I have received so many more emails that I am ashamed that I have not gotten more of them answered, so let’s get on with the show.

Question #1 – Andy asked “Brad, do you ever take any days while you are at Disney and go to any of the other theme parks like Universal, or Sea World?”

Well Andy, the truth is, I would kind of like to go to Universal and see the new Harry Potter land they have built there, and I love the Marvel characters and would love to see the Spiderman Ride and the Hulk rollercoaster, but my love for Disney is so strong, it just won’t let me leave the parks while I’m there.  So no, I have never visited these other parks yet.  Maybe someday though!

Question #2 – Sherry wrote, “Ok Brad, who is your favorite Princess?  Mine is Jasmine!

Well Sherry, I am proud to say that my all time favorite Disney Princess is and always will be Ariel, the Little Mermaid.  Ariel has held a special place in my heart since I first saw her movie many years ago.  Belle comes a close second for me, but Ariel just has so many cool characteristics that I like about her, and to me, even though she is a mermaid, she is the most human to me.

Question #3 – Dave wrote it and asked, “Hi Brad.   Great blog.  I can’t believe that you keep it as updated as you do.  I love that I can subscribe to your blog and get an email whenever you post new things.  So on to my question.  I am going to visit Florida for a business trip and can only spend one day in one park.  Which park should I choose?  I am more of geek and not huge on thrill rides.  Thanks for the great blog.”

Thank you very much Dave.  Yes I now have over 65 subscribers to my site and it is amazing to me the number of people who have read my blog so far.  The farthest country to be represented by readers so far is Australia!  On to your question.  If I were you, without a doubt, I would spend the day at Epcot.  Great food, great attractions that are not so much on the daredevil side, although Mission Space is one I have to avoid because it is just too hard on my body!  There is so much to see and do at Epcot that you will find yourself going nonstop the entire day!  I hope you enjoy yourself wherever you end up Dave!

Question #4 – Tobias asked, “Hi Brad.  I have a child who has to eat gluten free food.  It is incredibly hard for him to eat at theme parks and so few of them even have gluten free options.  Does Disney offer gluten free food choices?”

Yes! Yes! Yes!  They most certainly do offer gluten free food choices!  Not every place has gluten free choices, for example most of the food carts do not have gluten free choices, but most certainly every single sit down restaurant now offers gluten free food choices.  Just make sure you let your waitress/waiter know the minute you sit down that you need to see their gluten free menu.

And finally Question #5 – Emily wrote in to ask, “Hey there Brad.  Glad to see we are not the only family from Indiana who loves Disney!  My question for you is this, what are your suggestions for some great midday activities that I can take my kids to when we are taking a break from the parks?”

Well Emily, my favorite and my families favorite thing to do is shop, so we head over to Downtown Disney and shop till our hearts are content.  But if you are more budget minded, I would suggest Winter Summerland putt putt golf as a great way to spend an afternoon.  Kids love putt putt and Winter Summerland is well themed and is just the right difficulty for all ages.  There is also the resort swimming pools to take a dip in, as well as the bike and boat tours that are offered at all resorts.

Ok gang, that’s all for this busy Friday!  Thanks for spending some time with me here and look for more of your questions to get answered this weekend!  Have a truly magical day and I’ll see ya back here real soon!

Happy 50th Anniversary Tiki Room

I just realized that this week marks the 50th anniversary of the very first Disney attraction to use animatronics, The Enchanted Tiki Room.  Happy Anniversary Tiki Birds!

 

On one particular overseas trip, Walt was looking through a gift shop and he found a little mechanical bird that was able to move his mouth and head as he chirped.  Walt was enamored with the little trinket, so he bought it and took it back to his Imagineers at his studio.  He told one of them to take the thing apart and figure out how it worked because he just might want to use something like it one day.  Walt was such an incredible visionary, and none like him has every existed since.  Walt could see a thing and you and I could see the same thing, but we would never truly be able to see the things potential like Walt could.

Fast forward several years and Walt decided that he needed a new restaurant at Disneyland in California.  He envisioned a tropical place where real tropical birds will sit on perches and would sing while the guests below would dine on tropical fare.  Well as you can imagine, the Imagineers quickly talked Walt out of that idea because you simply cannot control the birds, much less the fact that the birds would be relieving themselves on the diners below!

Back to our little mechanical bird.  Walt never forgot about the little bird and he asked the Imagineers if they ever did anything with the bird.  Of course they did and they had even begun to bird a more lifesize bird using a small hydraulic system that would use water to move small motors inside the bird to make it have lifelike movements.  Walt was thrilled with what they created and ordered them to create hundreds more just like that one, but in all shapes, sizes, and colors.  Walt would then create a “cabaret” show for the birds to sing while the diners below enjoyed the show.  

 

Eventually, the Imagineers had to do away with the dinner totally because they needed so much of the floor space to hide the massive amount of machinery needed to make the birds move and sing, so instead, they put down huge benches to cover their equipment, and the guests could then sit on the benches and watch the show.  Hence, The Tiki Room was born.

An entire story was created around this tropical theme with Tiki Gods wearing Masks who guard the entrance to the show room as seen here:

 

The Tiki Room is not an attraction that you will have to go see every time you visit Disney World, but it definitely is a show that has to be seen.  It is a beautiful space filled with vibrant colors, and the show music is so catchy that it will stay with you all day, but not in a “It’s A Small World” kind of way.  You will want to keep singing, “In The Tiki, Tiki, Tiki, Tiki Room” all day long.

I also highly recommend getting yourself a Dole Whip pineapple ice cream treat as you exit the Tiki Room.  Dole Whips are an amazing treat and a great way to cool off in the hot Florida sun.

Happy Anniversay Tiki Birds!  Walt is still very proud of you after all these years!

Thanks for stopping by tonight as we talked about the creation of the first Disney attraction that had audio animatronic figures in them.  I’ll see ya back here real soon and I hope you have a magical day!

Disney Catch-Up

So lots are happening in the World of Disney these days so I thought I’d take tonights post to catch up on a lot of it.  So if everybody is neat and pretty, then lets get on with the show!

Monsters University – Remember those great days you spent in college?  All the partying and meeting new people, and bugging out on all the boring homework and lectures?  Yeah, me neither.  But for those of us who loved Monsters, Inc., this movie will take us to an earlier time in Mike and Sully’s life when they first meet each other in college.  Turns out Mike was a nerdy know-it-all and Sully was the loveable slacker who would always find better things to do than the work he needed to get done.  From all of the trailers that have been released, you get the impression that the film is really geared for a younger audience, but remember that this is college and not high school, so there is plenty here for the adults in the theater as well.  Oh and if you are interested in enrolling in Monsters University yourself, here is their website to help you get started – http://monstersuniversity.com/edu/ .  Best of luck learning all their is about scaring people for energy!

 

The Lone Ranger – I was never a big fan of anything to do with cowboys and Indians, or really Westerns in general.  But I was in the Lego store recently and saw that there were sets of Legos for the new Disney Lone Ranger movie and I got hooked immediately.  Of course when Johnny Depp is in a movie, you can just count on it being a real riot to watch.  He totally makes the Pirates of the Caribbean movies for me, and I expect he will do the same for The Lone Ranger.  As a Disney Tip for you, right now when you buy Oz: The Great and Powerful on BluRay, you get a FREE TICKET to go see The Lone Ranger.  I don’t know about you, but when I get anything for free, it seems to make it that much better!  Now if only the $20 small popcorn was free as well?  Any way I am looking forward to this action packed movie when it arrives in theaters shortly.

 

Disney Infinity – Have you or your kids been bitten by the Skylanders bug yet?  I know I was and I go so wrapped up in “I have to own them all” that it saw me making many trips to Target and Toys R Us in hopes of the new figures coming out.  Well Disney was not about to let that easy money go, so their answer to Skylanders comes out this August in the form of Disney Infinity.  With this game, you get a power base, and 3 starting figures: Mr. Incredible, Jack Sparrow, and Sully from Monsters Inc.  When you place a figure on the power base, you are whisked away to that characters world and are able to play many different games with them in that world.  For example, with Jack Sparrow, you will board his pirate ship and set sail to do battle with Davy Jones and his skeleton crew.  You will also look for buried treasure and do some sword fighting as well.  The same goes for Sully and Mr. Incredible, where you will play games themed to their worlds.  But the real fun comes in the included Toy Box Mode.  Here you can put any combination of figures on the power base and then you get to create the games you want to play!  For instance, you can buy a Mater figures from Cars, create a race track that looks like Test Track from Disney World, and you can have Mater race around with Sully from Monsters Inc.  It takes me back to my childhood where I would have Star Wars action figures battling it out with whatever other figures I had lying around at the time, such as my Six Million Dollar Man.  Now with all of the licenses that Disney owns, such as Marvel Super Heroes, Star Wars, and the Muppets as well, Disney can continue to make new figures and playsets for Infinite, well for infinity!  Look for it to hit stores this August and if your like me, kiss your wallet goodbye!

Whats New at the Parks? – At Epcot the “Eat To The Beat” concert series gets under way in July with groups such as The Go-Gos, Peter Frampton, Chicago, Huey Lewis and the News, and some older acts such a Chubby Checker and the Vandells taking the stage near the American Pavillion to play until you just can’t dance any longer.  These concerts are spread out over the summer and the cost is 100% free with your park admission.  So if your going to be in Epcot over the next 2 months, by all means go catch one of these great musical acts.

 

Over at the Magic Kingdom, the All New Fantasyland is mostly complete now.  There are only a couple of things that still need to be finished, such as the 7 Dwarves Mine Train ride and a few shops of such.  There are now 2 Dumbo rides operating at the same time, so no more huge lines to take the 2 minute flight with Dumbo in the hot Florida sun.  The Be Our Guest Restaurant, where you get to dine in the Beasts Castle is so popular that it is currently not taking any reservations until December of this year!  Crazy isn’t it.  Luckily they are also open for walk up for lunch, so it looks like we will be having lunch there for our trip this October.

 

Finally, here’s a big rumor for you that I can safely now confirm.  A Cast Member friend of mine who works at Disneys Hollywood Studios has confirmed for me that work will being in 2014 on 2 new lands within Hollywood Studos.  First, Florida will be getting the same Cars Land that was just completed in Disneyland in California.  Cars Land is incredibly popular and will be a welcome addition to the Hollywood Studios park in Florida.  I look forward to riding Radiator Springs Racers, which is based on the same technology that Test Track uses, making it a high speed thrill ride!

 

Finally, I couldn’t be happier to say that a brand new Star Wars land will be built in Hollywood Studios as well!  It will be a major addition to the area that already houses Star Tours and the Jedi Training Academy.  I am told that the first addition will be a Mos Eisley Cantina restaurant, soon to be followed by more simulator rides similar to Star Tours.  The new Star Wars additions are quite a ways off as they are not expected to begin work on them until 2015 when the new Star Wars movies hit theaters.  

Speaking of the new Star Wars movies, a casting sheet was leaked this week and it looks like these movies are going to have younger version of Luke, Leia, and Han in them as they are currently seeking younger actors for the youthful roles.  But don’t forget that the original actors have already said that they are in the films as well, so I can imagine some flashback scenes showing us how they all met, much like they did with the first new Star Trek movie that JJ Abrams wrote and directed as well.  I can’t wait for anything new Star Wars to start coming our way.

Ok that’s enough catch up for tonight.  I hope you enjoyed our trip to “The World” tonight and I hope you have a very magical weekend coming up!  I’ll see ya back here real soon, and May The Force Be With You Always!

 

Button, Button, Whos Got The Button?

Today I will share a big secret with you that not a lot of people think to do when they are visiting Walt Disney World during special events.  What is it you ask?  TELL EVERYONE WHO WORKS THERE!

To start, you need to go to the Guest Relations area located at the entrance to every park your going to and tell them your special occasion: birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, or family reunions.  The friendly and helpful Cast Member will then give you a button that looks a lot like this one:

 

Or even this one:

 

Wow Brad, I get to put a hole in my shirt to wear a dumb button around all day long!  Thanks for the tip!

Hold on there partner!  I wouldn’t steer you wrong!  That little button is much more magical than you are giving it credit for!  Let me tell you the “power of the button”.

The first time that we were at the Magic Kingdom during my sons birthday, we went to Guest Relations and told them it was my sons birthday.  They gave him a Birthday Button and wrote his name on it and how old he just turned.  We were happy that we had gotten him a free button and he wore it with a big smile on his face.  Then the magic started happening!

As we went to get in line for Splash Mountain, one of his favorite rides, we walked by the Cast Member at the start of the queue line who checks to make sure all riders meet the height requirement.  This Cast Member smiled, bent down to get eye level with my son, and said, “Happy 5th birthday Blake!”.  My son of course was baffled at how this stranger knew his name and knew it was his birthday!  But even better than that, the Cast Member then gave us all Front of the Line passes because it was Blakes birthday!!!!  Oh my!!!  We got to cut a line that would have seen us waiting well over an hour for.  

To our surprise, this continued to happen the entire day, no matter where we went.  When we went to lunch, they saw his button and a group came out and sang happy birthday to him and then he got a free dessert:

 

Still think it’s just a lousy free button?  There is just not a better way for you to feel very special than to have every Cast Member you see tell you Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary all day long, let you go to the front of lines on rides, or give you free dessert or stickers or balloons!

 

So the next time you are celebrating a special occasion at Walt Disney World, take my advice and let them know before your day even begins and I guarantee you it will be a very magical day indeed.

Oh yes, and sometime just for kicks, when you are at dinner, tell them that you will have “nothing” for dessert.  I wonder what happens when you do that?

 

Disney ALWAYS gives you what you ask for!

Have a very magical day and I’ll see ya back here real soon!

Disney Rapid Fire Question Day

Hey howdy hey partners!  It’s question roundup time again as my mailbox is full to the brim with your Disney related questions.  So I’m just going to jump in and get them answered.  Here we go:

Question #1 – Jennifer S from Indiana asked, “Brad what is the best time of year to visit Disney World for smaller crowds?”

The crowds are always the smallest the week before and after Thanksgiving, and the week before Christmas.  People are preparing for the holidays during these times and they tend to be at the parks much less then.  Also rooms are much easier to book during these times.  In contrast, the worst weeks to be there are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve as everyone and their third cousin wants to be at the parks, so stay far away during those times.

Question #2 – Paul L. from Texas asks, “How long should I plan to stay at Disney World to see and ride “all the great rides and shows”?

Well that depends on what you would consider to be great right?  I love riding It’s A Small World but the vast majority of people don’t, so this is kind of a tricky question to answer.  But I’ll try anyway.  I always tell people that a 7 day vacation to Disney World tends to be just the right length of stay to see and do everything you want to a least a couple of times.  Please don’t think that you will ever “see it all” in a single week long stay because that is impossible.  You have to be ok with leaving some thing that seen for your next vacation.

Question #3 – Todd W. from Vegas asks, “Brad do you think that joining Disney’s Vacation Club is worth it”?

Well since I am a member myself, my answer is a resounding yes, but let me explain why.  It is hard to find a better value proposition for any DIsney fan who visits Disney World more than once a year in one form or another, meaning either visiting the parks or taking a Disney Cruise. Disney’s Vacation Club is Disney’s version of a time share, except your resorts are all Disney Resorts, which are the best in the world.  But these resort room aren’t the same rooms that regular guests stay in.  They are 1, 2, and 3 bedroom apartment style rooms with full kitchens and other amenities.  You start by buying a set amount of “points” which you then use to stay are your “home” resort.  I’ll bottom line it for you.  You end up paying for the time share for about 10 years, so you should plan on taking at least 2 trips per year to Disney to make it pay for itself.  The magical part is, after 10 years, you stop paying all but the minimal maintenance fees, BUT YOU STILL KEEP STAYING IN THE RESORTS FOR LIFE!  So you see, this is an amazing deal for anyone who loves Disney and loves staying at the Disney owned resorts.  It is a lot of money, but after 10 years, you will thank yourself for being able to stay in a room that normally costs around $500 a night for less that $50!

Question #4 – Greg O. from Canada asks, “Brad, whats the best restaurant to take a teenager to at Disney World”?

I have two answers for you.  If you want them to really squirm the entire meal, go to The 50’s Prime Time Cafe.  The waitresses play the role of your “Mom” and therefore will take kids phones away if they try to text at the table.  They will enforce great manners all meal long, and will refuse to let them have dessert if they do not eat all their main meal!  If it awesome to watch the kids at first be aggitated bu it all, then start to play along with it when they realize it is all in fun.  Not to mention the food is just awesome and my teens love the choices they have at the 50’s Prime Time.  My second answer is, of course, The Sci-Fi Dine In Theater.  You can see my other posts on this blog to find out why the Sci-Fi is the best restaurant in Disney hands down.

Ok, that’s all I have time for today, but hang in there if you have an unanswered question sent to me because it is my goal to continue answering a few a day until they are all answered.

As always, thank you so much for coming here and sharing my love of all things DIsney with me. I’m always happy to answer your questions so feel free to leave them in the comments below or send me and email as so many other have!  Have a magical day and I’ll see ya back here again real soon!

A Potpourri Of Disney Images

Hi everyone!  I have been pouring through my massive library of Disney images recently and I decided that instead of describing each one and going into a long, drawn out explanation, I’d just post the pictures for a change and let you enjoy them yourselves.  If you have any questions about any of them, feel free to leave me an email or drop a comment on the blog and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.  Thanks for dropping by the blog and I hope you have a truly magical day!

Disney and Graduation – A Great Match!

As I was sitting in my son’s graduation earlier this morning, I was waiting for his name to be called (which wouldn’t be for quite some time) and my mind of course wandered to Disney World.  Disney recently stopped having their Grad Nights at the Magic Kingdom in Florida.  They still do it in Disneyland in California, but the party is over in Florida.  Why?  Well the grads in Florida seem to be much more rowdy their their California counterparts and they tend to be more destructful as well.  They tend to stand up on rides when they shouldn’t.  They make a huge mess of the parks on purpose because “it is funny” to them.  Disney took a step back and decided that instead of an overall Grad Night party, they would instead offer discounted tickets to grads instead.

 

I never got to go to a Grad Night party at Disney, but I have heard tell of many people who did get to go and there was not a single tale of people not having a total blast.  The Magic Kingdom clears out all regular ticket holders at around 6 PM and for the rest of the night until around 1am the park is totally owned by the Grads.  

 

I can easily imagine much shorter lines in the park with only the Grads being there.  Much easier to get into your favorite restaurants as well.  No long lines for shows as well.  Now I realize that Disney tells a different story with all of the “rowdies” playing foul with the park, but everyone I’ve talked to about Grad Nights tells a totally different story.  They say that sure there are always a few people who are not acting accordingly, but I have seen that plenty of times in the parks by people far older than grads.  In fact I have seen people trying to stand up on Space Mountain, and they didn’t even sell alcohol in the Magic Kingdom at that time!

 

I always hate to see “the few” ruin things for “the many” and I think that Grad Nights seem to fall squarely in this category.  I have seen the numbers and Disney is was making a small fortune off of these Grad Night parties, and of course they still run them in California, so of course they are making money on them.  So I am a little confused as to the real reason why they called off Grad Nights in Disney World.

Whatever the reason, Grad Nights are just another lost attraction that now joins Mr. Toads Wild Ride, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, and ExtraTerroristrial Alien Encounter as things that I would love to see come back to Disney World.  You never know with Disney, if enough people say they want Grad Nights back, you can bet there is a great chance of it returning.  

See ya back real soon as I answer more of your Disney related questions!  Have a magical day!

A Day At Disney’s Hollywood Studios

A absolutely love spending a few days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (formerly MGM Studios).  There is so much to do and see and eat at the Studios that the fun simply never ends!

A typical day for my family begins with sending my son ahead to Toy Story Midway Mania to get our first FastPasses of the day.  He is a much faster walker than the rest of us, so he gets the passes and we will soon join him so that we can get in the normal line and ride the ride.  The entire family loves Toy Story Mania and we get a huge kick out of seeing who can get the highest score.  If you know the insider tricks like we do, you can really put up some impressive scores!  The 3D really helps to bring the ride to life as well as the water and air that gets pumped into your face while you play.

Next up we make our way over to The Rockin Rollercoaster Featuring Aerosmith for a thrilling indoor coaster ride that never fails to excite!  You begin by entering G-Force records (get it!) where you will see the band getting ready for their next concert.  They love their fans so much that they are sending a limo to pick us all up and take us through the streets of California to their next concert.  There just is no feeling to match the exhilaration of starting the ride by going from zero to 65 in 3.2 seconds!  You get turned upside down a total of 4 times on the ride and the speed stays constant the entire ride.  Its a huge bonus if you love Aerosmith’s music because you will get it pumped directly into your ears via the speakers that are on the headrest of each ride vehicle.  The Rockin Rollercoaster is a must ride (several times) every trip for my family.

Just down the road from the Rockin Rollercoaster sits the omnious Hollywood Tower Hotel.  What an eye sore this old rundown building is.  You would think that Disney would spruce the place up a bit.  Then again with all of the screams that come from the building, maybe they are afraid to get anywhere near the place!  Twilight Zone Tower of Terror has been one of my top 5 favorite rides since it opened quite some time ago.  More recently the ride has seen some changes in that the Imagineers have now made it so that it will randomly drop you a different number of times and from different heights each time, so the ride will be different each time you ride it.  There is nothing quite as fun, or scary, as a freefall from 13 stories up.  When those elevator doors open up at the top of the Tower, you can look out and see across the entire Hollywood Studios Park and it is always a great site to see!  Tower of Terror is also a must ride (several times) each time we go to Disney World.

Next up is a trip to a galaxy far, far away and a ride on the newly improved Star Tours 2.0.  George Lucas and the Imagineers worked for over 3 years on an improved version of Star Tour that was turned into a 3D film that meshes different sections of the movie together so that again the ride can be different every time you ride it because you end up going to many different planets during your trip.  The new film is crisp and clear and the 3D elements really pop in the new films.  Of course, I absolutely hate it that the ride dumps you into the largets Star Wars merchandise shop that I know of.  I can never seem to walk away without at least 2 new t-shirts and few new action figures and pins!  I never have a bad feeling about riding Star Tours!  Now that Disney officially owns the Star Wars franchise, it would not surprise me to hear about Disney building an entire new theme park in Florida based solely on the world of Star Wars.  I can’t wait for that announcement!

Since we are so close, let’s stroll on over to the Sci-Fi Dine in Theater to catch an old favorite 60 B movie and some of the best food that Hollywood Studios has to offer.  The atmosphere at the Sci-Fi is second to none and every member of the family will fall in love with the Sci-Fi.  The kids will love the drive in theater aspect of it, plus there are many great dining options for the kids.  Parents will love it for the nostalgia of actually remembering going to a real drive in and of course the food, such as the BBQ ribs and burgers are top notch and a great value.  Don’t forget to order their famous milk shakes that still come in the huge silver cups!

Hold on Indy, we’ll be right there to save you!  Next we head over to the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular to watch from backstage and behind the scenes as to how they created all of the amazing movie stunts from all of the Indiana Jones movies.  This show will hold your kids attention from start to finish as there are massive fire effects and the sound system in the theater will shake your insides.  It is also very cool to learn how they did the stunts such as the massive rolling boulder and the fiery airplane stunts as well.  This is not a show that you must see each time you go, and to be truthful, this show is best seen on cooler days as their is no air conditioning as it is an outdoor theater.  Still a must see at least once for you and the family.  I love that catchy Indiana Jones theme music.

By now it is time to being heading out, so we head towards Hollywood Blvd and start going from shop to shop looking at all of the cool movie themed and Disney themed merchandise that the park has to offer.  Another perfect day at the Hollywood Studios comes to an end!

i hope you enjoyed our trip to Disneys Hollywood Studios this evening.   There are still many other wonderful things to see and do that I didn’t have time to cover here, such as The American Idol Experience, the Backstage Animation Tour where you get to learn how to draw your very own Disney character, the Lights, Camera, Motors action stunt show, and the Voyage of the Little Mermaid show.  Each of these shows and tours are more than worth your time, but you will probably find yourself riding Toy Story Mania, Rockin Rollercoaster, and Tower of Terror as many times as humanly possible within a single day like everyone else does.

Thanks for your time, and I hope you enjoyed tonights post and I hope you have an amazingly magic day!  I’ll see ya back here real soon!

Disney Question Time

Welcome back to another round of “Answer the Emails about Disney”.  Let’s get right to it since there are a few questions that needs answering tonight.

Question #1 – “Brad it always seems that I am the guy that always walks up to every Disney bus stop just as it is pulling away.  Any help for me?”

Disney World busses run on a schedule of arriving every 15 minutes on the hour.  Except when they don’t, and that is most of the time.  The first large crowd of the day will throw any Disney bus schedule off for the remainder of the day.  Therefore, your best best is still to try to be at your bus stop at the 15, 30, 45, and 60 minute timeframes.  I know that sounds crazy, but I can tell you from experience that it works.  By practicing this, I have found that the longest we typically wait for any bus is about 10 minutes and that is usually on very busy days.  So my advice to you is keep your watch handy and try to be there on the fifteens!  As a final hint, if you see any Disney Castmembers standing at the bus stations, this instantly means that things are going afoul for the busses that day so just resign yourself to being patient.  They realize that no one wants to wait in the Florida heat for a bus, and they are trying their best to get it fixed for you quickly.

 

Question #2 – “Brad my kids ask me for a Mickey balloon every time they see one and that is usually every twenty steps or so.  My fear is that they will either A) let it go and it will fly away, or B) when we tie it off to our stroller when we go inside a ride that someone will steal it.  Any thoughts?”

I’ve been down that same road many times before.  It is a very tough decision expecially since it seems that just about every kid in the park has one.  So here’s my advice to you based on what we did with our kids when they were younger.  We bought one balloon for each child.  We immediately took pictures of the kids with their balloons then tied them to the childs wrists.  This helped them to hang on to them a little longer than they normally would.  When we went inside of rides, I would tie the balloons off in the tightest knot that I could so no one could casually walk by and snag it,  They were going to have to cut the balloon ties if they wanted it that badly, and thankfully no one ever did steal our Mickey balloons.  But as we all know, there will come a time when the kids are just holding them and they will let go, usually at the most windy time of the day.  Crying will follow so make sure you are close to an ice cream stand so that you can replace the Mickey balloon with a Mickey Head ice cream bar and all will be right with the world again!

 

Questions #3 – “Brad every ride seems to dump you off at a place that shows you pictures they have taken of you riding the attractions.  There are always people in line buying them so I figure they must be popular, but they also seem extremely expensive.  Where do you fall on buying these photos?”

As I have mentioned on the blog before, my family makes a huge game out of these photos.  We will get in all kinds of crazy poses for the pictures just to see peoples reactions to what we were doing on the ride.  Will will do things like all face backwards, open park maps and act like we are reading, act like we are fighting with each other and fake choking each other, you name it, we have done it for these pictures.  But we absolutely never buy them.  I take my camera with me everywhere and as our pictures show up on the TV screens I will snap a picture of them with my own camera but I simply refuse to spend $25 dollars for a single photo.  But we do have great fun with them and watching people crack up laughing at us every time.  Besides who wants a picture of themselves looking absolutely terrified like the guy in the lower right in the picture below?

Ok, so that’s all the questions for tonight, but I am about to leave you with something icredibly super secret that hardly no one knows about and they just started doing this in the parks, so I will let the next picture speak for itself and the next time your at Disney, especially with your kids, you have to promise me you will try this!  It works and you will look like a genius!

Have an incredibly magical day and I would greatly appreciate it if you could pass on my blog to anyone you might know who shares our love of all things Disney!  See ya real soon!