ABC’s The Chew to return to the Epcot Food and Wine Festival

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June 24, 2016

Exciting news for all you foodies out there! The cast of ABC’s The Chew will once again be returning to Epcot to film 5 episodes during the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. The episodes will be taped October 5-7, 2016, and will air Oct 10-14, 2016 on ABC at 1pm EST. Not only will the show itself be taped directly in front of SpaceShip Earth, but the cast will be venturing around the parks and the Festival for extra footage for the show. The entire core cast will be available during the taping, including Mario Batali, Michael Symon, Carla Hall, Clinton Kelly and Daphne Oz.

“We had a fantastic time filming our show last year at the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival and sharing the magic with Park guests and our home viewers. It’s the perfect pairing!” said Mark Schneider, executive producer of “The Chew.” “We look forward to returning for even more fun and great food with our fans and celebrity guests. For us, it’s a terrific way to kick off our new season.”

The Chew-inspired Food Booths will also be returning with The Chew Collective in the Next Eats festival area of Future World. Guests will be able to sample dishes such as Grilled Beef Skewer with Romaine, Apricots and Feta Cheese; Ricotta and Zucchini Ravioli with Rustic Tomato Sauce and Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Mousse with a Caramel Drizzle. Guests will also have the chance to taste the Festival exclusive Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon.

At the Festival Center, guests can watch screenings of “The Chew” show highlights, cooking and entertaining tips, and same-day episodes of “The Chew” Monday through Friday at 1 p.m.

If you’d like to learn about how to obtain tickets to view a taping of the show, stay tuned, as we’ll let you know how to do that as soon as it is announced!

If you’d like to plan a trip this Fall to experience the Epcot International Food and Wine festival, contact me today for more information, and to take advantage of my FREE Disney Vacation planning services. I specialize in Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Aulani resort in Hawaii, as well as Adventures by Disney. Email me at [email protected] for a free quote, or you can find me on my Facebook page here.

Marriott Village offering some amazing deals for summer vacation!

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Chip and Co Past Writers and Friends

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June 24, 2016

Are you ready for a fun filled vacation in Orlando Florida at a great deal?! Well the Marriott Village has some amazing savings for you!

Courtyard Orlando Lake Buena Vista in the Marriott Village, SpringHill Suites Orlando Lake Buena Vista in the Marriott Village and Fairfield Inn & Suites Orlando Lake Buena Vista in the Marriott Village hope to make travelers’ stays extra magical with the Walt Disney World Ticket Package. The deal includes deluxe accommodations for three nights as well as three-day Disney Magic Your Way base tickets. All of the Walt Disney World Good Neighbor hotels offer complimentary in-room Wi-Fi plus complimentary transportation to any of the Walt Disney World® Resort Theme Parks.

Every year brings exciting changes to the theme parks, and 2016 is no exception. In the last few weeks:

Nighttime Awakenings has debuted at the Tree of Life. During evening hours, the centerpiece of Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park comes to life with stunning visuals in 3-minute spurts.
The Jungle Book: Alive with Magic show arrives to pay tribute to the popular film with special water and lighting effects, puppetry and musicians at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park.

Debuting in mid- and late-June are:

Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular, which will feature state-of-the-art projections, lasers, pyrotechnics, special effects and memorable moments from the famous films. It is now showing at Disney’s Hollywood Studios^®.
Frozen Ever After, a family-friendly attraction that will have guests setting sail in Arendelle aboard an ancient Norwegian vessel. The wondrous wintery world is planned to open June 21 at Epcot^®.

Comfortable rooms and suites with thoughtful amenities await weary park hoppers when they return to their accommodations in the Marriott Village. Guests will appreciate thick mattresses topped with cotton-rich linens and plenty of fluffy pillows for a sound night’s slumber. Free high-speed internet access will keep visitors well-connected to social channels so they can post pictures of their Disney vacation.

To take advantage of the special ticket package honoring all things Disney, available through Oct. 31, 2016, book reservations online or call 1-800-834-7015 and mention promo code THM.

Fourth of July Celebrations at Walt Disney World

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Chip and Co Past Writers and Friends

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June 24, 2016

Celebrate America this Independence Day at Walt Disney World with spectacular fireworks displays, patriotic Disney characters and live music.

Magic Kingdom Park

Ring in the occasion with a thrilling spectacular exploding with patriotic color and light. Disney’s Celebrate America! – A Fourth of July Concert in the Sky will take place at Magic Kingdom on both July 3rd and 4th at 9:00pm. High above Cinderella Castle, you’re invited to watch in wonder as blazing fireworks ignite and fantastic effects light up the sky—all while a magnificent musical score surrounds you with the reverberations of triumph and joy.

Don’t miss out on the majesty when this lively tribute to the Stars and Stripes takes flight in an evening performance you won’t soon forget!

Epcot

See a new side of IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth during a special Fourth of July showcase at 10:00pm on the 4th. Enjoy an enhanced take on this iconic Epcot experience featuring a stunning fireworks display that celebrates the planet’s past, present and future—along with something spectacular planned to highlight Independence Day!Be sure to stick around ‘til the very end of the show to catch a 5-minute patriotic fireworks finale called The Heartbeat of Freedom. It’s a one of-a-kind tribute to the Red, White and Blue!

Epcot will also feature a special “Voices of Liberty 4th of July Concert” that includes an expanded cast of a cappella singers on the American Gardens Theatre stage. The patriotic salute will include Disney characters and the Spirit of America Fife and Drum Corps. Performances will be held at 12:30pm, 1:45pm, 3:00pm, 4:15pm and 5:00pm. Spirit of America Fife and Drums Corp will perform at 1:00pm, 2:15, 3:30pm, 4:00pm and 4:45pm.

A Boston tribute band called Don’t Look Back will be performing as part of the Sounds Like Summer concert series at 5:15pm, 6:30pm, 7:45pm and 9:00pm.

Character dressed in patriotic costumes will appear on the promenade near the American Adventure throughout the day.

Hollywood Studios

The all new “Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular” fireworks display will blast off at a special time of 9:30pm on July 3rd and 4th. The nighttime spectacular includes state of the art projection effects, dynamic lighting, lasers and pyrotechnics.

Contact [email protected] or visit my Facebook page here to start planning your next Disney Destination vacation. All of my planning services are 100% FREE and can help save you both time and money!

Photo Credit: Disney

Adorably Sweet Disney Car Air Fresheners

By

Danielle

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June 23, 2016

Recently I discovered these adorable Disney Car Air Fresheners by Aromadite on Etsy. I don’t just love them because they are extremely cute though. I love that they also freshen up the car, so it’s a dual purpose item. What can I say, I like to be functional.

Aromadite makes scented plaster ornaments for your car, in an assortment of Disney character options. You get to choose from the beautiful variety of fragrances offered, and then they create the ornament for you. The Aroma should last about 3-4 weeks. When the aroma does wear off, you can add a few drops of refill or even your favorite perfume to an unpainted section on the back of the item. Each order comes with a free 1ml refill, so you don’t have to worry about running out right away. They have a lovely array of scents to choose from, so there is sure to be something for everyone.

You can check out the different characters available below:

Tsum Tsum (a large selection of different characters that you can choose 2 from!)
Minnie Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Chip & Dale
Darth Vader
Storm Trooper

Would you display one of these totally adorable Disney car air fresheners in your car?

Dress Up this Independence Day with a Patriotic Mickey Tank

By

Danielle

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June 23, 2016

With Independance Day just around the corner, it’s time to grab any fun Patriotic Disney stuff before it’s gone. This Patriotic Mickey Tank would be the perfect compliment to your Disney inspired 4th of July outfit.

This fun tank features Mickey Mouse with a distressed American Flag outfit on, so you can celebrate in Mickey stile. You can get this tank in a heather blue, or a white tank. I think these tanks have a really nice cool and casual look to them, not to flashy but not to dull either. So if you’ve been looking for the perfect way to show off your Disney style this July 4th, you’ll love this tank.

Best of all they have free 2 day shipping with Amazon Prime! So you’ll be sure to have it in time for the Holiday.

Would you wear this nifty Patriotic Mickey Tank top for your July 4th party?

Indy Reboot to Come After Indiana Jones 5

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Chip and Co Past Writers and Friends

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June 23, 2016

Earlier this year, “Indiana Jones 5” was announced by Disney, coming in 2019. Harrison Ford will of course be returning to play Indiana Jones, with Stephen Spielberg directing once again.

Recently Spielberg announced, “The one thing I will tell you is I’m not killing off Harrison at the end of it.” This caused a lot of buzz that this was a small hint towards more Indiana Jones movies, past the fifth.

This rumor received some more confirmation by Disney CEO Bob Iger, who in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter said that they are “focused on a reboot, or a continuum and then a reboot of some sort,” continuing on, “Well, we’ll bring him back, then we have to figure out what comes next.”

When asked in the interview straight out if he thought there would be more Indiana Jones films, Iger confirmed, “Yes, I do. I don’t think it reaches the scale of the universe of Star Wars, but I see making more. It won’t be just a one-off.”

This is very exciting news! It will be interesting to see if there could possibly be Indiana Jones stories, or anthology movies, as Star Wars is beginning to do with December’s release of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” as well as with the upcoming young Han Solo movie. “Indiana Jones 5” will be released July 19, 2019.

Hockey Player arrested at Disney Springs

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Disney News

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June 23, 2016

Darren Kramer who is with the Winnipeg Jets organization and plays for the American Hockey League’s Manitoba Moose, was arrested Tuesday at Walt Disney World. The 25-year-old was arrested and charged with battery of a law enforcement officer, grand theft and resisting arrest without violence.

According to an Orange County Police Report the situation took place at 1:16am on Tuesday where the police saw a man who identified himself by the name “Corbin” walking through Disney Springs holding a large display flag and bowling pins. They asked Corbin to return the flag to Splitsville, the bowling alley in Disney Springs. Corbin claims Splitsville gave him the pins as a gift for a high score, a representative from Splitsville states they were stolen.

There was a standoff with Corbin where officers were in fear of being struck with the pins, then Corbin took off on foot running past Raglan Road and the Lego Store. This is where Darren Kramer entered screaming for Corbin to run! Kramer then started running towards the officers interfering with their attempt to catch Corbin.

In an attempt to find out the true identity of Corbin they cuffed Kramer, who fought with the officers when they tried to cuff him. Kramer then head butted the police officer and they both fell to the ground, once up the officer threaten to fire at Kramer with his taser, that is when Kramer gave up resisting.

Police say Kramer has slurred speech and smelled of alcohol.

The official police report states Kramer was transported to the Orange County Jail without incident.

Kramer was the most penalized player of the year in the Alberta junior league, Western Canada Hockey League and the AHL.

For more of this interesting story click here.

Fences being added to the beaches at Walt Disney World

By

Chip

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June 23, 2016

The fence at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort is now complete. The netting was installed in the last day to block access to the water. Last week Disney added new signage around the beaches.

Guests are reporting that Sea Racers are available to rent starting today.

Beach access is also open but only during daylight hours.

According Tikiman’s Unofficial Polynesian Resort Page beach access will be from one hour after sunrise to one hour before sunset. No access to the beach outside of those times. This will be the rule for the foreseeable future.

Work has begun adding fences to many of the other Walt Disney World Resorts.

We do not have an official finish date.

New Epcot Guide Map is out now! New rides & attractions featured.

By

Chip and Co Past Writers and Friends

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June 23, 2016

WDW Magic has announced that Epcot has released a new park map that now includes some of it’s newest additions to the attractions at the park. In case you hadn’t realized, the new Frozen-themed ride that has replaced Maelstrom opened this week in the Norway pavilion. Frozen Ever After is now up and running, and has been included on the new Epcot park maps. Also included is the Anna and Elsa meet and greet in their new Royal Sommerhus.

If Frozen isn’t your thing, you might be excited to know that the new Soarin’ Around the World has opened as well, and is also on the new map.

Also re-appearing on the guide Map is Sum of All Thrills, which we speculated about possibly closing for good this summer a while back. It appears it is indeed still there and going strong, but we’ll let you know if that changes.

If you’d like to plan a Disney vacation but don’t where know to begin, contact me today for more information, and to take advantage of my FREE Disney Vacation planning services. I specialize in Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Disney Aulani resort in Hawaii, as well as Adventures by Disney. Email me at [email protected] for a free quote, or you can find me on my Facebook page here.

Top 4 Tips for Meeting your favorite Disney Characters at Walt Disney World

By

Catie

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June 23, 2016

One of the best things about traveling to Walt Disney World is that you can get the chance to rub elbows with some of the most famous characters ever – we’re talking Mickey & Minnie, Anna & Elsa, and so many more, too! Character meet and greets are a super important part of each day my family spends at the Disney Parks – and I’m betting they will be for you, too! It can be overwhelming, not knowing where the characters might be or how your little one can get to meet their all-time favorites, but you needn’t worry – help is here!

Here’s our Top 4 Tips for Meeting your favorite Disney Characters at Walt Disney World:

Technology Is Your Friend: Let’s be real – you use your smartphone all the time anyways, you’ll have it out a lot to take pictures while you’re in Disney, so you might as well use it to help you meet characters, right? You’ll want to download the My Disney Experience app well in advance of your trip, so you have time to get used to it and play around with its features – and one of the best features of the app is the Character locater – just click on the “Characters” tab from the main screen and up comes an alphabetical list of characters and the times/places that you can meet up with them. As if that isn’t amazing enough, you can even sort by location so you can view the Characters for the Parks you’re currently at, or plan ahead for the day too!

Character Meals Are A MUST: For those of you who are unfamiliar with Character Dining, let me school you real quick – it’s basically a meal where you get to meet anywhere from 3-5 characters all in one place – and the best part is – they come to YOU! That’s right, pretty much all character meals (with the exception of Mickey’s Backyard BBQ), follow the same pattern – where the characters circulate from table to table, and for most places it takes about and hour and a half to get to see all the characters. Word of warning if you’re new to character dining: these restaurants can be loud and crowded – but you shouldn’t let that deter you from planning to eat at these places – as they can be truly amazing experiences! Character meals allow you to be treated like royalty and meet all the Disney Princesses, or join the Fab Five (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, and Pluto) at Mickey’s place – Chef Mickey’s. So if nothing else, you’re getting a chance to meet multiple characters in one place, while enjoying a delicious meal – and that’s what we call vacation multitasking at its finest!

The Waiting Game: Even if you come armed with a strategy and have a list and plan out when and where you’re going to meet up with your “must see” characters, be warned – it may not go totally as planned. You might miss a character due to a delay at another ride, or you might end up still waiting an hour in line to see a character (even if you planned ahead!). So the best planning advice I can give you is to plan on doing some standing around and waiting – take that chance to practice patience, and make sure you bring along some snacks/drinks, and maybe a few new little toys or books to occupy your kids (or you!) while you inch forward towards the main attraction – whoever it may be! And remember – it will all be worth it when you see your little one’s face light up when they see Mickey for the first time (trust me!)

Be Prepared: I swear, the main reason the lines to meet characters move so slowly is because people are not ready when it finally is their turn – and there’s nothing more frustrating than watching someone fumble with their camera and waste everyone’s time even more when they should have already been ready to go. So – don’t be that guy. BE PREPARED – Have your camera ready with the right settings and the lens cap off (or have your smartphone’s camera open and ready to fire away), Have your autograph book open and your pen uncapped. Ask your kids what they want to say when it’s their turn and practice it with them if needed. All of this might sound a bit silly, or even like it should be common sense – but believe me it is NOT – so save everyone (and yourselves!) some time and practice good character etiquette to help keep the line moving and reduce the wait times for everyone else

Back in the day (and we are talking the early 90’s here), my family traveled to Disney World every spring – and my dad was our planning guru. He was truly a master of character meet and greets – he knew where they would be, and made sure I got to see every character I could. His method? Well, he always made sure to grab the most updated park maps/schedules as soon as we arrived, and he made sure to study up on them so he could have an idea of what to expect, and if all else failed, he asked a Cast Member, and that advice still rings true today – the staff at Walt Disney World can answer pretty much any question you might have, and they always do so with a smile!

Meeting up with your favorite characters doesn’t have to be hard, and if you follow my tips above, you’ll be sure to have some amazing character interactions on your next trip to Walt Disney World!

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story New Photos and Characters Revealed

By

Chip and Co Past Writers and Friends

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June 22, 2016

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is the first Star Wars anthology film, and up until this week just a teaser trailer has been released. In this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, newly revealed character pictures, descriptions, and plot details are featured. And in additional big news that has lots of fans talking, written right across the cover “Darth Vader is Back!”

The plot, as described by Entertainment Weekly, takes place right before the events of “Star Wars: A New Hope”:

“Before Luke fired the blast that detonated the Death Star, before Leia launched R2-D2 to a remote desert world with secret plans for that battle station, someone had to locate and steal those schematics.

Turns out, it was a team effort.

In this week’s issue of Entertainment Weekly, we bring you an inside look at Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which explores just how the Rebellion came to possess the information that revealed the fatal flaw in the Empire’s super weapon. It’s a battlefield heist that fans have been imagining for nearly 40 years, described in the opening crawl of 1977’s original Star Wars, with little details scattered throughout.”

Felicity Jones plays main character Jyn Erso, who has been living on her since she was 15. She has a rough past, but is desired by the Rebel Alliance due to her fighting skills and knowledge of the Galactic Empire.

Diego Luna portrays Captain Cassian Andor, who is working to help train Erso as a new, rough-around-the-edges Rebel Alliance recruit. Kiri Hart, chief of story development at Lucasfilm describes: “He conveys a fair amount of experience and the reality of what it’s like to do thisevery day, to try to figure out how to resist the Empire effectively and intelligently.”

Donnie Yen plays the devoted ally to the Rebel Alliance Cirrut Imwe. Although blind, he is still a great warrior. Lucasfilm president and “Rogue One” producer Kathleen Kennedy said about this unique character: “Chirrut falls into the category of being a warrior monk.He very much still believes in everything the Jedi were about.”

The character Baze Malbus, played by actor Jiang Wen, is a devoted friend of Chirrut who is very protective of him. Kennedy said, “He understands Chirrut’s spiritual centeredness, but he doesn’t necessarily support it.”

Riz Ahmed plays the Rebel Alliance’s hot-headed lead pilot Bodhi Rook. Although a bit short tempered, but has excellent technical skills when it comes to piloting.

Alan Tudyk has been in many Disney films as of late (Duke Weaselton in “Zootopia”, Duke of Weselton in “Frozen”, to name a few). Tudyk will make another return as character K-2SO, a droid in which director Gareth Edwards described as “the antithesis of C-3PO,” and “Kaytoo is a little bit like Chewbacca’s personality in a droid’s body.”

Actor Mads Mikkelsen plays Galen Erso, the estranged father of Jones’ character Jyn Erso. As of now, the appearance of the character as well as why he has been separated from Jyn remains under wraps by Lucasfilm. Hart described Galen: “He’s one of those people that has insight into you know specific aspects of just how the universe works.”

Ben Mendelson plays Director Orson Krennic, a villain who commands a squad of Deathtroopers set out to destroy the Rebel uprising. Krennic wants to be in Emperor Palpatine’s graces, even if it means needing to sabotage Darth Vader to move above him in the ranks.

Actor Forest Whitaker plays Saw Gerrera, a character fans have seen on “The Clone Wars”. He has a rich history with Vader, having fought alongside him when he was Jedi Anakin Skywalker.

We will be sure to be on the lookout for the latest “Rogue One” news. In case you missed it, you can check out the latest trailer below:

“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” comes to theaters December 16, 2016.

New First in First out Uber system at Walt Disney World

By

Chip and Co Past Writers and Friends

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June 22, 2016

Uber has become extremely popular in the Walt Disney World area and now they are trying a new way to make things more convenient for its customers.

Currently these changes are only at Magic Kingdom:

When you order a ride from the Magic Kingdom on the Uber app your request goes to the driver who has waited the longest inside a zone around the transportation and ticket center. You will then get picked up in the passenger drop-off and pickup area.

Whereas the process used to be once a ride was requested you would get the driver closest to you.

The new system is called “first in / first out,” and it began last month. The switch was made to reduce confusion and make sure drop offs and pickups are done in a safe environment. The change will also help optimize driver earnings.

If this works out at the Magic Kingdom they will start fanning out to the rest of the theme parks in Walt Disney World.

Have you used Uber at Walt Disney World? Comment below!