Festival of Fantasy Parade

When Buzz came to visit me a couple of weeks ago, we of course had to make a stop at our favorite place on earth! Now it turns out that we planned our trip to the Magic Kingdom and found out that the new Festival of Fantasy parade would start two days after we left. We were upset that we wouldn’t be able to see the parade but glad that we were avoiding the crowds that the parade would bring. So instead of being in the park for Festival of Fantasy we did the next best thing, we watched a live stream!

Unfortunately, Buzz’s vacation ended and she had to head back home. However, I was lucky enough to head back to the Magic Kingdom to see the new parade! I will be the first to admit that I was never the person who would wait on the sidewalk for a parade at Walt Disney World. Why wait when I could experience everything else the park has to offer?! This parade was a different story though. We saved a spot in Frontierland an hour before it started; my family and I were uninterested in waiting 2+ hours on Main Street so Frontierland was the best spot for us. It definitely got crowded and people kept trying to maneuver through the already tight space to see the parade or get out of the area, but once the parade started I was glad we waited for the parade.

The music accompanying the floats was fantastic, and the vibrant colors of each costume and prop gave a feeling of joy and whimsy to the overall production. The characters were expressive and fun; they had great interactions with guests and other characters as well. The order of the floats made sense and gave proper identification to each film that was utilized in the parade. Overall, this is a parade that the imagineers who have been working on it should be proud of for years to come.

Have you seen the Festival of Fantasy Parade? What did you think of it? Is there anything you wish was or wasn’t in the parade?

-Woody

And of course I can’t leave y’all without any photos!

Be Our Guest Restaurant: Lunch Review

This review may be late to the show, but I thought it be best to see how Be Our Guest is doing now that all the dust has settled and they have their groove going. I have been lucky enough to dine at Be Our Guest for both Dinner and Lunch multiple times, and was excited to be able to eat here for lunch again.

Be Our Guest is difficult to get into for Dinner if you don’t make reservations ahead of time. However, for lunch the restaurant operates as a Quick Service restaurant! Which means that anyone can eat there, the only catch is you’ll have to wait in line. My experience with waiting in line for the restaurant is it actually moves much quicker than I expect it to. When dining for Dinner you check-in with the Host or Hostess before you walk the bridge to the Beasts castle. Once you enter you will be led to your table in the Ballroom. Lunch works a bit differently. When you wait in line you slowly cross the bridge until you reach a Cast Member near the front doors to the castle. Once you reach that Cast Member they will ask how many are in your party—quick word of warning, make sure your entire party is with you or you will have to wait to the side until they are. Anyways, when your whole party is together you will be led into one of two lines by another Cast Member. These lines go through a hallway of knights with the menu displayed on screens between the two lines. Once through this hallway you reach a Cast Member who will ask how many are in your party, how you plan to pay (dining plan, cash, card), and do you have a Magicband? After these questions you’ll touch your Magicband to an RFID reader (it’s a circle with a Mickey on it), or the CM will touch a rose to it for you. You will then be told to order at a specific station.

I personally love the stations. They are electronic, with pictures of the meals they provide; while I appreciate the self-order station it seems that Disney sometimes have some issues with them. The couple in front of us were trying to order but they had some difficulties using the self-order and accidentally put that they wanted 46 quiches! Not quite what the two of them were wanting, the system wouldn’t let them delete it so a CM restarted the computer for the station and led them through the process.

Once it was our turn to order the computer asked how we were paying (Dining Plan or credit card) we had the Quick Service Dining Plan, so all four of us ordered a drink, entree, and dessert. Once we decided what we wanted we touched the Magicband to the reader and received our receipt. We were then led to dine in one of the three dining rooms. The West Wing, Rose Room, or Ballroom.

The West Wing is an extremely unique environment complete with a portrait of Prince Adam turning into the Beast and the Enchanted Rose slowly losing petals throughout your meal. This dining room is great for the environment; but is dark, loud and there are lighting effects. I prefer to walk through and take pictures instead of actually eating in there. The Rose Room is bright and relaxing with several portraits hanging around of the many characters from Beauty and The Beast. In the middle of the room is a gorgeous music box of Belle and Beast dancing in their iconic costumes. The Ballroom is the largest of the three dining rooms and probably my favorite. Exactly replicating the film with snow falling outside the windows and intricate paintings on the ceilings, accompanied by three show stopping chandeliers.

Now onto the food! Our meals were delivered to us by a CM and a fun cart displaying our dishes. They know where you sit through your Magicband or rose, so no need to worry if they’ll find where you are or not. Our four meals included the Braised Pork, Carved Turkey Sandwich, Prime Roast Beef Sandwich, and a Vegetable Quiche. My favorite meal at Be Our Guest for lunch was a Steak Sandwich they used to have, unfortunately for me they have changed the menu so I’ve been trying different menu items. I enjoyed the vegetable quiche, which was accompanied by a simple side salad of baby greens and a champagne vinaigrette on the side. The quiche was pretty plain with different vegetables throughout, it wasn’t my favorite meal but I did enjoy it. My Dad’s favorite meal here is the Braised Pork, and he was not disappointed; meanwhile my brother raves about the Carved Turkey Sandwich. He looks forward to it every trip and eats the whole thing. My mom said she liked the Prime Roast Beef Sandwich and it looked good from my viewpoint!  If you are eating here though you need to try one of the desserts! Whether it’s a cupcake or cream puff—my favorite is the Lemon-Raspberry Cream Puff—Be Our Guest definitely knows what they are doing with their desserts.

Overall, Be Our Guest is a dining experience that you do not want to miss out on. Whether you dine there for dinner or lunch you’ll have a memorable experience that you could never receive anywhere else.

 

Top 10 Disney Songs

Woody here! I will be the first to admit that if you click play on my iPhone the first song you will hear will be produced by Disney. Whether it be park music from WDW or DL or one of the many songs from a Disney movie; all of these songs have created a  spot in my heart. My goal today is to make a list of 10 of my favorite Disney songs. This will definitely be a difficult list for me to create, but here it is! My top 10 favorite Disney songs in no particular order:

1. The Second Star to the Right – Peter Pan

“The second star to the right
Shines in the night for you
To tell you that the dreams you plan
Really can come true”

This song depicts to every child and adult that whatever you dream can happen, it just takes some faith, trust, and a little bit of pixie dust. 

2. Splash Mountain Medley – Walt Disney World Resort

“Hee hee hoo ha hoo hoo
Everybody’s got a laughing place
A laughing place to go
Take a frown, turn it upside down
And you’ll find yours we know”

I have no shame in admitting that I listen to this medley on a regular basis. It brings me back to my favorite attraction in Walt Disney World, allowing me to imagine I’m traveling through the Laughing Place and Briar Patch with Brer Rabbit!

3. Transformation – Beauty and the Beast

This gorgeous piece of music by Alan Menken, is in my opinion one of the most emotionally stirring pieces of music in Disney history. Beginning with the Beast’s unfortunate demise and Belle’s final words to him. Continuing on to his transformation into a human Prince (a.k.a Prince Adam), and finally the finale of Belle and the Prince dancing in the gorgeous palace ballroom. Just listening to this song gives me goosebumps and a belief in love and magic.

4. Soarin’ – Walt Disney World and Disneyland

You know I love a song when it is my ringtone. This score illustrates the beauty of California and creates a bone chilling experience for the listener. While it’s obviously much better when combined with the actual ride, it doesn’t hurt to pretend you’re hang gliding while running around the house and jumping and turning in tune with this wonderful compilation.

5. The Entire Frozen Album – Frozen

This counts right??? How am I supposed to choose between Do you Wanna Build a Snowman?, Frozen Heart, Let it Go, Love is an Open Door, Vuelie, and so many others?! I believe Disney, Kristine Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, and Christophe Beck outdid themselves on this soundtrack. I am looking forward to seeing much more from these amazing artists!

6. I Won’t Say (I’m in Love) – Hercules

“Oh
At least out loud,
I won’t say I’m in love”

Meg illustrates her desire to want to admit to her feelings for Hercules, but is afraid that it will just end in heartbreak again. Such a fun and relatable song that viewers of any age can sing along to.

7. Chin Chim Cher-ee – Mary Poppins

“Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey 
Chim chim cher-ee!
A sweep is as lucky, as lucky can be
Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey 
Chim chim cher-oo!
Good luck will rub off when I shakes ‘ands with you”

Dancing Chimney sweeps, Bert singing and running around, and Mary Poppins joining in on the fun! What doesn’t this song have?

8. I See the Light – Tangled

“And it’s warm and real and bright
And the world has somehow shifted
All at once everything is different
Now that I see you”

A song depicting the moment that Rapunzel and Eugene Fitzherbert/Flynn Rider discover that they have fallen in love with each other. Dreamy, romantic, and tear-jerking all in one.

9. You’ve got a Friend in Me – Toy Story

“You’ve got a friend in me
You’ve got a friend in me
You got troubles and I got ’em too
There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for you
We stick together, we can see it through
‘Cause you’ve got a friend in me
You’ve got a friend in me”

One of legendary Randy Newman’s more memorable hits. A cheerful song that just makes Toy Story and Buzz and Woody’s friendship that much better!

10. Grim, Grinning Ghosts – Walt Disney World and Disneyland

“now don’t close your eyes and don’t try to hide 
or a silly spook may sit by your side
shrouded in a daft disguise, they pretend to terrorize,
grim grinnin’ ghosts come out to socialize”

One of my favorite rides — and same goes for Buzz — this song leads through the Haunted Mansions spooky interior, and introduces you to several of the 999 ghosts waiting for just one more…

 

Bonus!!!!

11. Wishes – Walt Disney World

“Star light, star bright, 
first star I see tonight. 
I wish I may, I wish I might,
have the wish, I wish tonight.
We’ll make a wish, and do as dreamers do,
and all our wishes,
will come true.”

A 12 minute compilation of Disney dreams and characters put together. This soundtrack will be sure to bring out your inner child and want you to join you favorite characters as they wish and chase their dreams. 

 

Broadway!

Hi guys! Sorry I haven’t been posting a lot lately I just returned from a lovely vacation with my family! Anyways, I hope you all are excited about our new contributors to the blog! Mickey, Mike, and Perry are going to be a wonderful addition to Disney to Infinity and Beyond and their love for Disney will definitely be evident within their future articles!

Onto the purpose of this article: Bob Iger, CEO of Disney, stated to Fortune that plans are in the works for their newest animated feature Frozen to be created into a Broadway production. Seeing as how Frozen has been a huge commercial success for the company this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. However, don’t expect to see Elsa and Anna singing live on stage anytime soon. According to Iger Disney is focusing on excellence over rushing the project to Broadway; which I’m sure many fans of the film and Disney itself are appreciative for.

This news also comes a few months before Aladdin will have its official debut on Broadway in March. Including Aladdin on Broadway, Frozen will be Disney’s 8th film turned broadway musical following in the footsteps of: The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Newsies, Mary Poppins, and Tarzan.

To read more about this upcoming production check out this article from Time.

-Woody

On the 8th Day of Christmas Walt Disney Gave to Me…

8 Live Stage Shows and 2 More for the Holiday Season

Voyage of the Little Mermaid (Hollywood Studios)

Festival of the Lion King (Animal Kingdom)

Beauty and the Beast- Live on Stage (Hollywood Studios)

Finding Nemo- The Musical (Animal Kingdom)

Dream Along with Mickey (Magic Kingdom)

Captain Jack Sparrow’s Pirate Tutorial (Magic Kingdom)

Indiana Jones- Epic Stunt Spectacular! (Hollywood Studios)

Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show (Hollywood Studios)

A Totally Tomorrowland Christmas Show (Magic Kingdom)

“Celebrate the Season” Show (Magic Kingdom)