By |

Episode 403: As the world recovers from the pandemic, Disney is making some updates to enhance your visit to the most magical place on earth. Here are the top five updates announced by Disney that will make your visit easier starting in January 2024. We discuss these and give our opinion on them. A few of these are pretty vague but we talk about what we hope these updates will mean.

Park Reservations Will Slowly Be Going Away in 2024
One of the biggest changes announced by Disney is the gradual phasing out of park reservations in 2024. Starting with dates based tickets on January 9th.

Annual Passholders and Cast members Will Have “Good to Go” Days
Annual passholders and cast members will have special days to visit the parks without making a reservation. This is a great perk for those who like to make spontaneous visits to the parks or for those who want to avoid the hassle of making reservations. However, no details are given as to how many “good to go” days will be available. It is a step in the right direction at least.

The Dining Plan Is Coming Back
After being suspended during the pandemic, the dining plan is finally making a comeback. This popular feature allows guests to prepay for meals and snacks at select restaurants throughout the parks and resorts. To start with there will only be 2 plans available to book.

Genie Plus Will Be Available for Advance Purchase
Genie Plus is a new feature that allows guests to skip the regular standby lines for select attractions by paying an additional fee. Disney has announced that Genie Plus will be available for advance purchase. No further details have been given about how far in advance and how many lightning lanes could be reserved in advance. Sounds a lot like they are going back to the way Fast Pass plus was but just with a price tag now.

Resort Guests Will Continue to Have Early Entry and evening hours for Deluxe resorts
If you’re staying at a Disney resort, you’ll continue to have the perk of early entry times. This means that you can enter the parks before the general public and enjoy shorter wait times for popular attractions. Deluxe resort guests will continue to have extra evening hours for select days. This isn’t anything new but at least they are extending this perk through 2024.

By |

Welcome to the 400th episode of Traveling with the Mouse podcast! Today, we have a double trip report for you. Jason and Adam share highlights from their recent trip to Walt Disney World. One of the main focuses of this trip was dining at signature restaurants, and they did not disappoint. Among the standout meals were Takumi-Tei, Le Cellier, California Grill, and Narcoossee’s. They also enjoyed drinks at the beloved La Cava del Tequila and tried out a new experience at Woody’s Roundup Rodeo BBQ. Jason got to experience the Deluxe after hours where he got to ride Tron by himself. We also toured some friends around the parks this week. Thank you for tuning in to this special episode of Traveling with the Mouse podcast. Be sure to follow us on social media and stay tuned for more episodes filled with Disney travel tips and reviews.

By |

Episode: 388 This week, we’re excited to bring you some of the biggest announcements that were made in the past week. First and foremost, the opening date for the highly-anticipated Tron light cycle Run roller coaster has finally been revealed – the attraction will officially open on April 4th! In addition to the opening date for Tron, Disney also announced that they will be eliminating the parking fee for hotel guests, which is a welcome change for those staying on-site. Another change that was announced is that Annual Passholders will no longer need to make reservations for afternoon entry to the parks. (with a few exceptions) Finally, Disney has announced that they will be adding free on-ride photos as part of their Genie Plus service. This means that guests will be able to capture memories of their favorite rides and attractions without having to pay extra for the photo. In other news, Disney has recently announced a new Chairman of the Board. Also this is the last week of operation for splash mountain.

By |

Episode 378: Prices are on the rise once again at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. We discuss our disgust with the particularly egregious price hikes. Like genie plus and some of the food and drink increases. We sadly predicted the increases at places like Baseline Taphouse. We know that prices will enviably go up over time but this increases are substantial at a time when Disney is well above inflation on most prices. undenounced to him, Jason got to visit on the last weekend before these prices were increased. He did a split DVC stay starting at Rivera and ending at Animal Kingdom Lodge. He tested out Magic Band Plus and met up with some friends who are non regular guests. We get to hear what they thought of all of the new things to experience at Walt Disney World.

By |

Episode 377: We discuss our experiences with Epcot throughout the years up to the current day and then we talk about what we think the future will be at our favorite park. We both have a lot of fond memories from the 80’s and early 90’s from the original Epcot center days. We also have a lot from the current Epcot configuration. We do believe that Epcot got the bad luck of having such a big renovation to happen just as the pandemic started. So much has been severely scaled back or outright put on hold during this time that we are getting a fraction of what was planned. We also discuss some news.

By |

Episode 369: We catch up on the Disney news of the week. Disney had a big earnings call this week and the profits are back up to pre-pandemic levels. We talk about how the parks are a big reason for that and what it could mean for future developments. Disney remains silent about magic key renewals as they try to increase guest yields. We discuss how that could impact things in a negative way in the long term. Meanwhile a new update to Genie plus creates a problem with park hopping and securing lightning lanes. Also, what’s up with Chapek’s Beard?

By |

Episode:360 Jon discusses his most recent trip to Walt Disney World with a stop at Peppa Pig Park. This trip certainly had it’s ups and down which included highlights such as riding Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind but there were also some lows like having a visit to the local urgent care and having the trip cut short. He praised the cast members at Coronado Springs resort but also the room location was a little questionable. He also discusses how he stacked some lightning lanes to get the most out of it but overall is still frustrated with the Genie Plus experience. We give our first reviews of Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind now that we have all done it. Look for more discussion on this new ride in next few episodes.

By |

Horizon’s opened back in 1983 and is one of the best attractions that Disney ever created! today on the show we go into the history of the attraction and walk through each part of the ride. This is one of our personal favorite attractions and we were sad to see it go. There is a whole community centered around the love for this attraction and the hope of one day Disney bringing it back in some form. We also mention a documentary about 2 friends who loved this attractions so much that they spent a lot of time documenting the attraction and found a way exit the ride vehicles and sneak through the attraction without being noticed. We highly recommend this documentary called Remain Seated Please

Other links mentioned in the episode

Martins Complete Ultimate Horizons tribute

Hoot and Chief’s blog

By |

Today’s episode centers around a largely abandoned pavilion at Epcot known as the Wonders of Life Pavilion. This Pavilion was part of the original plans for Epcot center but didn’t find a sponsor until the mid-1980’s. The Wonders of Life housed Epcot’s first thrill attraction with Body Wars. We detail this and other attractions that were part of this pavilion over the years. We also discuss the current state of the building and speculate as to what the future holds for the Wonders of Life.

By |

Today Jon and I conclude our deep dive into the menus for this year’s EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival! We released part one last Thursday so if you want to hear the complete list of all menus…go back and listen to that episode first. We have fun going through the menus and selecting one food item and one beverage that we are most interested in trying. Also, enjoy listening to us try to pronounce all of the food and drink items on the menu. I’m pretty sure we got most of them wrong.

 

By |

Today on the show we are putting out Part one of our deep dive into the menus for the 2018 Epcot international Food & Wine festival! This was originally going to be one big long episode but we haven’t been able to record the whole thing yet because Jon’s daughter Olivia decided to discover America a few weeks earlier than expected. Everyone is doing well but obviously Jon is a little preoccupied with more important things this week! We will finish up with part two soon and get back to our regular schedule. In this episode we start going through the menus in alphabetical order and decide which items we are most looking forward to trying. The Epcot food & wine festival runs from August 30th through November 12th!

By |

In Today’s episode Jon and I preview the 2018 Food and Wine festival! This year the festival is 75 days starting at the end of August and ending in mid-November. We give a  general overview of the festival and share some of our tips and experiences from our times visiting during Food and Wine. We share what we currently know about the new things coming to this year’s festival! Be on the lookout for future episodes on Food and Wine once we know more details.

By |

Today we give our top 3 snacks, restaurants, and attractions at EPCOT! Surprisingly, Jon and I agreed on most of these. When it comes to the restaurants and attractions at EPCOT (the current attractions) we definitely agree. It’s hard to narrow it down to 3 snacks at EPCOT because there’s so many unique and delicious snacks to choose from. What are your favorites at EPCOT? Let us know if you agree with our picks!

 

 

By |

Today on the show we wrap up the world showcase at EPCOT. We start with the American Adventure and walk all the way through Canada. We discuss all of the attractions, shows, entertainment, and dinning options available at each pavilion. This episode includes: The American Adventure, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, and Canada. For the rest of world showcase go back and listen to part 1 of the world showcase (Episode 84)

By |

Today we continue our series where we go through the different lands of the Disney parks and discuss the attractions and dinning options that are available. We begin our walk through world showcase at Epcot by starting with the Mexico side. We discuss the attractions, restaurants, and shops in the Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, and Italy pavilions. Let us know what your favorite things are about these pavilions.

 

 

By |

Today we continue our series of walking through each land of the Disney Parks. This episode we tackle future world west at Epcot. This includes the Seas, Land, and Imagination Pavilions. We also cover all of the dining and character meeting locations on this side of the park. Next week we will start our journey around world showcase but which side will we start on? Find out next week!

By |

We are continuing our series where we walk through the different lands of the Disney Parks. Today we are starting our journey through Epcot by going through each attraction in the east side of future world. The attractions on the east side include Test Track, Mission Space, and the other attractions that are closed in this area. We go through the history of each attraction and wrap up by giving our thoughts on the shopping and dinning options in this area of the park. Join us next week as we go through the west side of Future world.

By |

This episode is all about classic EPCOT attractions. These are the original attractions to the park as well as ones that opened within the park’s  first few years. Many of these attractions are no longer open or have been completely changed.  We go through each of them and give our picks for top 5 classic EPCOT attractions. Which ones do you think will be in our top 5?

By |

Today we talk about some of the rumors that have been floating around about possible new attractions coming to the world showcase. We talk about the rumored Coco makeover of the Mexico Pavilion and the rumors of a new attraction coming to the U.K. pavilion. We also talk about past attractions that never came to fruition and even make up our own rumors about what attractions should go into other world showcase pavilions.

By |

Changes are coming to Epcot. In this episode we talk about the updates that were announced at D23 for Epcot. We also give our thoughts on the new green mission at the recently re-opened Mission Space attraction.

Link to the Ratatouille Attraction at Disneyland Paris