Happy Valentine’s day everyone! In honor of this special occasion we are giving you our list of most romantic things that you can do at Walt Disney World. We go through each of the four parks at Walt Disney World and give you our most romantic attractions and reasons why we picked them. We of course go into our picks for most romantic Disney World Restaurants. There’s a lot to choose from but we pick the ones that offer the most romantic atmosphere, food, and experiences. Finally we give our picks for the most romantic experiences that you can have at Walt Disney World with your significant other. Let us know if you think we missed something on our list!

Today on the show we list the pros and cons of the Disney Moderate and Value Resorts! We hope that this episode (and last week’s episode) will be helpful if you are trying to decide which Disney resort is right for you. (Also, We realized that we left out Animal Kingdom Lodge from the last episode so we include it as well. As we found out with the deluxe resorts there are conveniences that come along with them but with a hefty price tag. The Moderate and Value resorts have a much more reasonable price tag but with that you are giving up some of those deluxe conveniences. We hope that this series of episodes will help you weigh the pros and cons of the Disney resorts to find the one that is just right for you!

In today’s episode we continue going through the 2019 unofficial guide to Walt Disney World and give some more insight into the resorts and theme parks. This guide is really helpful when selecting a resort and room location because of the extensive survey data that touring plans collects. We go through several of those survey results, I think you will find them quite interesting. We may continue with a part 3 soon as we really enjoy discuss this topic. Let us know what you think!

20190106_170339234_iosThere’s a lot of new things coming to Walt Disney World in 2019 and we are going to break down everything for you! Everyone knows that Star Wars Galaxy’s edge is opening this year but that isn’t the only major experience coming to the parks this year. There’s plenty of new things coming that have us excited and a few things that have us scratching our heads. We start with the new things coming in January some are interesting and some are…meh. We talk about the new Rivera resort and new addition to Coronado springs, we discuss the skyliner, and everything coming to the parks and Disney Springs in 2019. We finish by going over some closures and refurbishment updates that we currently know are taking place this year. 2019 could be the biggest year in theme park history!

 

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In this special Christmas episode of Traveling with The Mouse we are discussing our favorite Disney Christmas experiences (past and present). We look back on our first experiences with Christmas at  Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line and Disneyland in California. We also discuss the experiences that are no longer available as well as things that we want to do in the future. We cover all of the various Christmas activities that you can enjoy at Walt Disney World including the resorts! Lastly, we talk about what we would do if we spent Christmas Day at Walt Disney World. Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!

As the end of the year approaches, we thought we would go over a few smaller topics that we considered for an entire episode. For one reason or another we felt like these topics wouldn’t provide enough content for a full episode so we are going to have an open discussion on them in Today’s episode. The first topic is that of Disney lowering ride capacity for certain attractions on days with lower crowds. We get into why Disney would do this and how it is very subtle to most guests but to the keen observer it can be pretty obvious. The next topic (speaking of crowds) is about the busiest season at Walt Disney World and that is Christmas through the New Year. We talk about the crowds and how to best manage them when the park is at or near capacity. Our final topic is about driving to Walt Disney World. Jon and I both live close enough that we can get there in about 7 hours of driving. We talk about the different ways to get to there and a quicker way to pay tolls if you are a Georgia or North Carolina resident. It turns out that we could turn these topics into a full episode and we may do that in the future. Let us know what topics you would like for us to cover!

 

Today I go over the basics of the Walt Disney World annual Pass! I start by going over the different types of passes and the current rates for those passes. I then talk about the process of activating your pass and how to get your passholder magic bands and magnets. I also, discuss the benefits of being a passholder including, discounts on hotels, merchandise, and dinning. I talk about what I think is the best benefit…the inclusion of memory maker and some of the other smaller benefits that I think are worth mentioning. I hope that this helps you determine if an annual pass is right for you.

Link to the passholder site

IMG_6321To  day we are talking all about Disney Springs! We discuss the past present and future of this area. Originally opened as the Lake Buena Vista shopping village in 1975, This area  has seen a lot of changes over the years. Mostly during the late 80’s and of course the recent changes that transformed this area from Downtown Disney into Disney Springs. Jon and I talk about some of our earliest memories here which includes a character meal at the Empress Lilly restaurant (now Paddlefish). Below is the photo from 1983 where Pluto jumped into Jon’s Dad’s arms (can you imagine this happening today?)

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There is so much to see and do here that it is worth your time to come to Disney springs at least for a half-day.

Today Jon and I have another round of Disney Pros and Cons! This is the game where we randomly select something from Walt Disney World and one of us will list the pros and the other has to list the cons. This time we added restaurants and resorts to the list as well. The way it works is that we use a random number generator that we match to a number on our list of attractions, dining locations, and resorts. We go through several rounds and see who can make the best arguments for or against something.

Today on the show we decide to have a little fun and randomly select an attraction and one of us has to only speak positively about it and the other can only talk negatively about it. Since Jon is the host for this episode he decided that the host should be the one to list the pros or just give the positives of the attraction so that means that I must list the cons for each attraction. We used the same random number generator to select the attractions for us on the spot without us knowing ahead of time. Let us know who you think made the best argument for each attraction! Next time we will add in other things like shopping and dinning locations.

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In Today’s episode we give a general comparison of Disneyland to Walt Disney World! In previous episodes we compared attractions from Disneyland to the ones at Walt Disney World but today we compare and contrast the parks as a whole. We discuss the geographical location of each park and things like the weather at Disneyland vs Disney World. We also get into things like the queue lines and some of the more subtle differences between the two. While we agree that Disneyland and Magic Kingdom are similar…we also agree that there’s enough differences that it is definitely worth visiting them both!

 

Today we are giving our picks for the best 3 snacks, dinning locations, and attractions for Hollywood Studios! We found that at Hollywood studios it is tough to find snacks that stand out and are also unique to this park. I think we made some solid choices that we think you will enjoy if you give them a try. Also, we ended up picking some of the same things for our dinning and attraction choices but not in the same order. Let us know if you agree or disagree with our choices!

 

In this episode we talk about the largely unsuccessful Disney property known as Disney Quest. This started out in the late 90’s as the next big Disney indoor theme park that would be in major cities across the globe. However, only two were ever built…One in Chicago and one at Walt Disney World. The only one to last more than two years was the one located in Downtown Disney (now Disney Springs) at Walt Disney World. Jon and I talk about our experiences with the attractions here and talk about what could have been if some of the attractions were updated.

 

IMG_6294In today’s episode we discuss the many different types of weather that you will encounter during a Walt Disney World Vacation. We go through some of our weather related stories from our past experiences. We’ve dealt with fast developing thunderstorms, heavy rain, hot weather, cold weather, tropical storms, and even a tornado warning. We also give some of our tips one where to go or what do if you run into unexpected bad weather in each of the 4 theme parks…

Today we start a new short term series that we are calling 333. This is where we take a Disney park and we give you our top 3 snacks, top 3 restaurants, and top 3 attractions. That’s why we decided to name it 333. In this episode we give you our current top 3 snacks, restaurants, and rides at the Magic Kingdom. Next week we will give you our EPCOT 333.

What would you do on a Walt Disney World vacation if money was not a consideration? I’m sure that we’ve all pondered this question. Today Jon and I give our itineraries for our no limits Disney vacation. The only parameters that we placed on this scenario was that it could only be at Walt Disney World and an 8 day 7 night vacation. We go through each day of our no limits vacation and tell you exactly what we would splurge on. What would you do on your no limits vacation Disney vacation?

In Today’s episode we start off by talking about Animal Kingdom’s 20th Anniversary!   Jon and I then try our hand at “armchair Imagineering.” We decided to take a list of all rides, shows, and attractions and Walt Disney World and using a random number generator we would pick something from this list at random and decide what enhancements or outright changes we would make to that attraction. It turns out that imagineering is harder than it looks. Who would’ve thought?

Today we discuss the best dark rides at Walt Disney World. Jon compiled a list of dark rides (past and present) that we go through and determine which ones should be considered the top 5 of all time. We begin with a list of 23 attractions and whittle it down to 5. We both unanimously agree on which attraction is our number one dark ride of all time. Which one do you think it is? Let us know what you think of our lists by reaching out to us on our website or on social media…@twtmpodcast.

Today we begin our walk-through of Disney’s Hollywood Studios! We talk about the rides, attractions, shows, dinning and shopping in the Hollywood Boulevard and Echo Lake areas. We give a brief history of the park and talk about some of our favorite experiences. Be sure to join us every Friday as we continue to journey through all of the lands of the Disney parks. Be sure to check out some of our older episodes in this series as well.

Today we wrap up the Magic Kingdom by going through Main Street U.S.A. We go into all of the different place to eat and shop as well as the different entertainment options available. We give some interesting facts about the Main Street in Magic Kingdom and also talk about some of the things that are no longer there. What are your favorite things about Main Street?IMG_7618