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Club Villain is offering discounts in March for WDW Passholders

club villain
club villain

club villain

Good news for those of us Annual Passholders who were slightly bummed to see that the Club Villain ticket prices had gone up. Ticket prices were recently raised from $99/ticket to $129/ticket when the dates of the event were extended.

If you are an Annual Passholder or a Disney Vacation Club member, you will now be able to get a discounted price, bringing it back to $99 for the Month of March only.

Available dates for the discounted rate are between March 8 and March 22 2016. Reservations can be made via 407-WDW-DINE for Annual Passholders or via DVC Member Services for Disney Vacation Club members.

Disney is honoring the discount for existing reservations, call 407-WDW-DINE or the DVC Member Services if you already have a reservation at the higher rate.

If you haven’t had the chance to experience Club Villain yet, let me help you make it happen. Contact me at [email protected] or on my facebook page here, and together we can customize the most magical vacation for your family!

Photo credit: Disney Parks Blog

Create Your Own Treat at Goofy’s Candy Co.

Goofy Candy Co
Goofy Candy Co

Goofy Candy Co

On a normal day of my life, my sweet is a force to be reckoned with. When I am at Disney, my sweet tooth has a mind of its own and there is absolutely no stopping it. Whether you are looking for a pre-made sweet treat, or something completely unique, consider checking out Goofy’s Candy Co. located in Disney Springs.

Goofy’s Candy Co. puts all the sugary power in your hands with the ability to create your very custom creation. Order forms are available to be personalized to fit each individual’s taste buds.

Select Your Treat: Caramel Apple, Marshmallow, Gingerbread Mickey Cookie, or Mickey Krispy Rice Treat

Select One Dipping Flavor: White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate

Select One Topping (Additional toppings available for $1.00 each): Sprinkles, Mini M&M’s, Peanut Butter Chips, Chopped Peanuts, Chopped Pecans, Chopped Walnuts, Sliced Almonds, Cinnamon and Sugar, Dark and White Chocolate Chips, Crushed Oreo Cookie Crumbs, Crushed Butterfingers, Coconut, Graham Cracker Crumbs

Select One Drizzle: White Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate

goofys-candy-company

Once you have filled out your form, hand it to one of Goofy’s helpers and they will get to work on creating your custom treat! Half of the fun here is watching them make your dessert right in front of you.

My favorite, go-to creation is a caramel apple, dipped in milk chocolate, topped with crushed Butterfingers, and drizzled with milk chocolate. I can never finish one of these by myself and always share with someone. These treats are truly decadent so come hungry or bring a friend!

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Have you ever created your own treat at Goofy’s Candy Co? Tell me about your favorite creations or combinations that you would like to try in the comments!

Monica is an Alumna of the Disney College Program. When she is not walking down the middle of Main Street USA you can find her wandering the World Showcase, or enjoying a Dole Whip while racing to her favorite attractions. When she is forced to endure life outside of Walt Disney World, you can find her in Ann Arbor, Michigan where she lives and works. You can visit her Disney lifestyle blog here.

Purple Magic Band Luggage Tag Revealed

Screen Shot 2016 03 08 at 1.40.45 PM
Screen Shot 2016 03 08 at 1.40.45 PM

Screen Shot 2016-03-08 at 1.40.45 PM

 

It’s here, the moment all you purple magic band fans have been waiting for! The design of the coordinating luggage tag to the long-awaited purple magic band has finally been released!

Many guests have been wondering what image on the tag would be when news broke this past weekend on social media about guests being able to choose purple for their magic band color in their My Disney Experience accounts.  Disney isn’t keeping us in suspense any longer. What do you think of the design?

 

Contact me to book a trip utilizing my free Disney Vacation planning services, and to get your own purple magic band and luggage tags! [email protected]

 

Photo credit: Disney

Disney Garden Find – Cheshire Cat Bird Bath

Cheshier Cat Bird Bath
Cheshier Cat Bird Bath

Cheshier Cat Bird Bath

With spring just around the bend, and the Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival in full swing, there have been so many wonderful Disney gardening inspirations lately! I’m loving the whimsy and vibrant colors of this Cheshire Cat Bird Bath to really add an animated Disney touch to my garden.


Cheshire Cat Bird Bath – Alice in Wonderland Garden Collection
Disney Garden Find - Cheshire Cat Bird Bath
Cheshire Cat Bird Bath - Alice in Wonderland Garden CollectionDisney Garden Find - Cheshire Cat Bird Bath

While you may not see a Pencil Bird, the winged creatures of your own garden Wonderland will flock to visit the Cheshire Cat and a Bread-and-Butterfly for a cool dip in the multi-color floral basin atop this most curious Bird Bath. The multi-color glass floral dish has delicate metallic paint accents and sits atop a four-point spade base with a dainty sculptured metal Bread-and-Butterfly and vine wrapping around. Truly perfect for the Disney lover’s garden.

Would you love an Alice in Wonderland themed garden?

Praise Wave Music Festival comes to SeaWorld.

Praise Wave
Praise Wave

Praise Wave

Gospel Artists are hitting the stage during Praise Wave at SeaWorld Orlando on Saturdays March 12 through the 26. Experience a day of fun, faith and fellowship during Praise Wave which is included with regular park admission. Guests can enjoy inspiring live performances by the hottest names in Christian music (including popular gospel and R&B singer BeBe Winans and mulit-Grammy award winners The Clark Sisters) and -of course- Enjoy SeaWorld’s thrilling rides, shows and attractions! Concerts begin at 3:30pm and 6:00pm inside the Nautilus Theater.

Special Seating: For a VIP Experience, reserved seating is available: Starting at just $10 guests can reserve a premium seat inside the Nautilus Theater.

Scheduled performances include:

Saturday March 12th- MercyMe

Saturday March 19th- BeBe Winans and The Clark Sisters

Saturday March 26th- To be announced

Stay tuned for the latest event information and artist announcements on SeaWorldOrlando.com as well as SeaWorld’s Facebook and Instagram account! Join in on the conversation using #SeaWorld #PraiseWave

The best way for guests to experience Praise Wave, and all of SeaWorld’s special events throughout the year, is with a SeaWorld Annual Pass. Plus, now through April 24, guests who purchase an Annual Pass get Aquatica which is SeaWorld’s Waterpark added for free with no blackout dates, free parking and exclusive discounts on dining and shopping!

Shamu, Shopping and good music.. I know where I’ll be this weekend, hope to see you there!

 

Wine & Dine Half Marathon Early Registration Rescheduled to March 22nd

Wine and Dine
Wine and Dine

Wine and Dine

Early registration for DVC members and Annual Passholders for the 2016 Wine & Dine Half Marathon weekend in November has been rescheduled to March 22nd at noon EST.  General registration has been changed to March 29th at noon. If you had planned to register today at 12pm then your afternoon just opened up.   Be sure to update your calendar as this race will fill up quickly!

Additionally, registration for Avengers Super Heroes Half Marathon weekend will now open to DVC members and AP holders beginning at noon EST on April 5th with general registration on April 12th at noon.

If you are interested in turning your RunDisney event into a Disney vacation then contact [email protected] for your planning needs.

 

Photo credit: RunDisney

Touring the Epcot Flower & Garden Food Booths

2016 03 07 12.33.46
2016 03 07 12.33.46

F&G

I had the pleasure to check out the 2016 Epcot Flower & Garden Festival this week. I was able to eat around the world and took photos of all the food booths that are open now. While not as abundant as the Epcot Food & Wine Festival there are plenty of good eats for everyone!

First stop was Urban Farm Eats near the Canadian Pavilion.

Next stop is the Cider House & the Joffrey Coffee booths. The spiked Chai Latte was the best drink we had all day!

We drop by the French Pavilion for a Macaroon! Delish!

You have to try the Shrimp & Grits from Florida Fresh. Amazing!

Next stop was the Morocco Pavilion. The baklava was ok, nothing special.

You have to try Frushi in the Japan Pavilion it was so good I wanted a 2nd one!

The smokehouse was so good I wanted to eat everything off the menu. Grab a bite and go see Voices of Liberty in the American Pavilion.

Next stop is the Italy Pavilion. We didn’t stop but the food smelled wonderful.

Can’t visit Germany without getting a beer. Just like everyone else we got the beer flight!

Lotus House in the China Pavilion

Near the Mexico Pavilion was the Jardin de Fiestas. The tacos de camaron had a wonderful flavor and heat!

Again the Joffrey Coffee food booth near the Daisy Duck Meet & Greet delivered with the Tiki Torch. So good!

By the time we reached La Isla Fresca we were tapped out. Here is the menu and they had a nice line so it seemed very popular.

The last stop near the entrance of the World Showcase was Pineapple Promanade. Everyone here was getting the spicy hot dog!

Overall we enjoyed walking around and looking at all the beautiful toparies, it is perfect time of year to visit Epcot.

Be sure to pick up a Epcot Flower & Garden Festival Passport to get your stamps as you make your way around the World Showcase. I am looking forward to going back again to get the few stamps I missed. Happy eating!

2016-03-07 12.10.11

Sneak Peek at the first image from the new DuckTales series

ducktails
ducktails

DUCKTALES - Disney's "DuckTales," an all-new animated comedy series based on the Emmy Award-winning series, will again star Disney's enduringly popular characters: Scrooge McDuck, his grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, and Donald Duck. Produced by Disney Television Animation, the series is set to debut in 2017 on Disney XD. (Disney XD)

There is nothing better than a little bit of your childhood nostalgia resurfacing in adulthood, in a way that’s a throwback and familiar, yet at the same time brand new! Fans will get to experience a reboot of the series “DuckTales” on Disney XD in 2017 (the original series ran from 1987-1990). All of us who enjoyed watching “DuckTales” in its original form in the ’80’s and ’90’s will get to experience new episodes featuring the DuckTales gang, as well as get to pass on the love of this show to new audiences as well.

Today, Disney released the first image from the new series, pictured above. I am very excited and pleased to see that the show will be in more of a 2D animation style as opposed to 3D, making it look more like the original series, (see below image for a comparison between the original and the reboot styles) yet with a bit of a contemporary twist, with an animation style quite similar to the new Mickey Mouse shorts. We hope to see more images (and possibly clips!) in the near future, stay tuned “DuckTales” fans!

Photo credit: Disney

Dad saves boy from being hit by baseball bat during Spring training game at ESPN Wide World of Sports

baseball bat
baseball bat

baseball bat

If you were at the pre-season game between the Atlanta Braves and Pittsburgh Pirates at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports, you might have witnessed a very close call, as a bat sent into the stands by a player almost struck a child in the head. Luckily, the boys dad sitting next to him deflected the bat with hias arm, saving the child from quite the impact!

In an instant that’s frozen in time, the barrel of the bat looms just inches away from the boy’s nose and eyes, with the man’s hand and forearm blocking its path.

It’s always dangerous when a batter loses his grip and sends a bat helicoptering into the stands. And from what we see of this incident, it might have done significant damage to the boy, who seemed to be caught completely off guard as he held a smartphone in his seat in the stands. We’ll remind you that in the majors, players use wooden bats that commonly weigh more than 2 pounds.

The moment came and went so fast that it wasn’t mentioned in write-ups about the game. (The Pirates beat the Braves, 9-6.)

But then a photo of the save emerged — and then the photographer who took it, Christopher Horner of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, released another image that hints at the bat’s violent force. Taken a split-second after the first photo, it shows that when the bat narrowly cleared the boy’s head, it had already spun around 180 degrees.

The incident occurred at the Braves’ spring training stadium in Florida, part of the Walt Disney World resort complex outside Orlando.

Have you ever thought about attending a Spring Training game at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports complex? I can help you plan the details! Contact me at [email protected] or on my facebook page, here.

Photo credit:Christopher Horner/ Twitter

Disney in Talks for Possibly 10 More “Star Wars” Films

Star Wars The Force Awakens Empire cover
Star Wars The Force Awakens Empire cover

Star-Wars-The-Force-Awakens-Empire-cover

If the announcement last year about Star Wars Land coming to Disneyland and Walt Disney World wasn’t enough of a gift to all of us Star Wars fans, there is now a lot of buzz from a multitude of sources that Disney is in talks of planning 10 Star Wars films after 2020! It is being said that the 10 additional films would include anthology movies as well as stand alone films, such as the upcoming “Rogue One” and Han Solo movies.

Seeing as how the Avengers movie franchise started out slowly to end up having a multitude of films within the franchise quickly after the success of “Avengers,” ‘ surprise that “Star Wars” would possibly be following suit with this pattern. Disney has not officially made an announcement confirming an additional 10 movies after 2020, but until then, they have Episodes VIII and IX set for 2017 and 2019, with a Han Solo movie and third stand alone film (rumored to be either a Boba Fett or young Obi Wan story) for 2018 and 2020. The next Star Wars film to be released is December this year, “Rogue One,” cast photo pictured below:

rogue-one-cast-photo-d23-1024x682

Episode VIII just began filming recently, and the very first footage has been released by Disney & Lucasfilm:

Pic & Video Credits: Disney/Lucasfilm

Invictus Games Orlando tickets on sale now!

invictus games png
invictus games png

invictus-games-png

Just announced the ticket for the Invictus Games 2016 which will be held in the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Walt Disney World are on sale now. The games are sponsored by Jaguar Land Rover and are scheduled for May 8-12.

The Invictus Games are the only international adaptive event for injured active and veteran service members. More than 500 competitors from 15 nations will participate.  The games give a deeper respect for those who serve our country.

The US team will be lead by retired Army Captain Will Reynolds. Captain Reynolds lost his leg in an improvised explosion detonated in Irag, he had 26 surgeries trying to save the leg but in the end it had to be amputated at the knee. He participated in the 2014 Invictus Games in London, and won four bronze medals in men’s classified 100-meter and 200-meter athletics sprints, the Road Race and the Time Trial in cycling. Captain Reynolds said (about the games);

“Myself and my teammates cannot wait to start competing at the 2016 Invictus Games and want to encourage folks to buy their tickets today and be there to cheer us on, it will be an unforgettable event,”

There is just over 2 months before the games so now is the time to purchase your tickets, the prices are as listed below:

Single Session Tickets – $18 for adults and $13 for children, seniors, and veteran and active duty military personnel. Children under the age of three are free of charge.

  • Single session tickets allow entry to a single designated sports session, which can be selected at time of purchase.
  • Spectators can purchase single session tickets for the following sporting events: archery, cycling, indoor rowing, power lifting, sitting volleyball, swimming, track and field, wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and wheelchair tennis.
Under 3 years old 3-18 years old Adult Military
(active 
duty and 
veteran)
Senior (60+)
Single Session Free $13 $18 $13 $13
Opening 
Ceremonies
Free $45 $65 $45 $45

Fans can sign up for ticket information by visiting http://invictusgames2016.org/tickets/ and filling out a brief form.

Facebook: /InvictusOrlando
Twitter: @InvictusOrlando
Instagram:/InvictusOrlando

Good luck to all active and retired servicemen and woman! 

Flower & Garden Festival Themed Gift Cards – Scented and Convenient

festival gift card
festival gift card

festival gift card

Ahh, the smell of Spring is in the air at Epcot’s 2016 International Flower and Garden Festival.  Take a moment to savor the smell of fresh food, floral gardens and scented…gift cards!  This year’s Flower & Garden Festival themed gift card is orange scented with the added convenience of the ability to wear it around your wrist.

This fun little gift card is reloadable and available for a limited time only. It can be found during the Festival throughout Epcot as well as surrounding hotels including Disney’s Beach & Yacht Club, Boardwalk Inn and the Swan and Dolphin Hotels.

If you would like to make a visit to Epcot’s International Flower & Garden Festival, then contact [email protected] to start your planning today.

 

Photo credit: Disney Parks Blog